Chapter 217: Creating the Godfather of Youth Films

The Young Directors Support Program of Light and Shadow Times has supported a total of six directors.

Among these six directors, some of them have prepared the crew and the script has been perfected and perfected, just waiting for the rice to be cooked. Once the investment is in place, they will start shooting immediately.

Li Ruijun's "Summer Solstice", Li Yang's "Prosperity", and Han Yan's "Who Do I Give My First Kiss to" are like this.

The money arrived in April and May, and now at the end of August and the beginning of September, they have already filmed the movie.

These three movies are not strictly commercial films, but they are not completely literary and artistic.

So Li Xiaoping wanted to ask Wu Yuan's opinion.

After all, Light and Shadow Times is now the producer and producer of these three movies, and they have the right to decide whether the movie should be reported to film festivals and film exhibitions.

However, Wu Yuan did not intend to make arbitrary decisions. Instead, he asked, "What do the three young directors think?"

"Li Ruijun wants to try his hand at a foreign film festival."

"As for the other two directors, they don't have much idea about winning awards at film festivals. They both want their films to be released as soon as possible and meet the audience."

Wu Yuan nodded: "Then help Li Ruijun to apply for film festivals, and apply for all the film festivals that can be applied for."

"As for "Prosperity" and "Whom Do I Give My First Kiss To", does the company have copies of the finished films?"

"Let me take a look at the finished products first."

Although digital films are developing very rapidly now, most of the new films that have been approved in the past two years have begun to be shot with digital cameras, but the six directors supported by Wu Yuan this time have all chosen to shoot with film.

It can only be said that these filmmakers who have just graduated from school or are still teaching in school are more conservative than the first-line directors.

"Yes, the copies of the two films have been sent to the company." Li Xiaoping replied immediately, stood up and took Wu Yuan to the company's screening room.

In the screening room, Wu Yuan watched the two movies carefully from beginning to end.

Li Yang did not disappoint him. "Prosperity" was shot very well, and the taste of the literature of youth pain was captured.

At least it is better than Zhao Junqi's "To Youth" and Su Youpeng's "Left Ear".

Although the core still cannot escape the set of love, love triangle, betrayal in school, separation after graduation, study abroad, and reunion ten years later when things have changed.

But to put it bluntly, the director who graduated from a professional school can shoot much better pictures than the wild way under the same subject matter.

At least in addition to business, Li Yang also worked hard on the aesthetics of the film's pictures, and many shots were shot very beautifully and artistically.

For example, the male and female protagonists looked at each other in the rainy night.

The heroine is holding an umbrella, the hero is in the rain, the picture is divided in two from the middle, the heroine's side is brighter, but the hero is completely hidden in the night, which just corresponds to the two people, one is studying abroad with a promising future, and the other is fighting at school, and may not get a diploma, and the future is bleak.

The future of the two people has been told to the audience through this shot.

Wu Yuan likes this scene very much.

And Wu Yuan is also familiar with these two protagonists.

The hero is Luo Jin, and I don't know how Li Yang fooled him.

The heroine is Zhang Li, who is from the acting department of the Central Academy of Drama in 2003 and is about to graduate this year.

"Prosperity" is well made, Li Yang is a good guy." Wu Yuan said with satisfaction: "It can't be released in the summer. Go and coordinate with Mr. Han of China Film to see if it can be released during the National Day."

However, Li Xiaoping disagreed and said: "But this year's National Day has Cheng Long's Baby Project, and Li Yang's Prosperity is also scheduled for the National Day, so it can't compete, right?"

Now, in the mainland film market, the National Day is also a good popular schedule.

From Wu Yuan's "The Night the Comet Came" opening up the National Day for the first time, to Cheng Long's three consecutive years from "New Police Story" to "Myth" and "Baby Project" all scheduled at the end of September, the National Day is no longer a cold schedule.

And now the National Day is dominated by Cheng Long, just like Feng Xiaogang was the king of the Lunar New Year schedule, Cheng Long is now the king of the National Day schedule in the mainland.

Letting Li Yang compete with Cheng Long for food is indeed a bit overestimating his own abilities.

"That's right, I forgot about this movie." Wu Yuan slapped his forehead, feeling a little funny. He was busy hanging out with his girlfriend in the United States and didn't pay attention to the recent mainland film scene.

"The schedule for this year has been set. Let me see it." Wu Yuan said to Li Xiaoping.

As a close friend of Mr. Han, and the fact that Guangying Times is now one of the best private film companies in China, China Film has always provided Guangying Times with the latest schedule.

Soon, he had a thin list of mainland movie schedules for this year.

As a result, Wu Yuan also had a headache.

If "collective downturn, occasional flashes" is used to describe the performance of the mainland film market in the first half of 2006, then the performance of the mainland film market in the second half of the year can be described as "collective explosion".

"The Promise" was released in early August. Due to word of mouth and the release of "The Banquet", the box office performance of "The Promise" finally reached 120 million, which was much lower than the 170 million that should have been.

I heard that Director Kaigo broke several of his favorite teapots at home.

Although The Banquet, which was released at the end of August, also could not escape criticism, it should not be a problem for the box office to exceed 100 million yuan in the end.

The Baby Project, which was released at the end of September, can also cut 92 million yuan in the mainland box office if nothing unexpected happens.

There are no big movies in October, but The Baby Project will definitely dominate the box office market in October.

In November, The Warring States was released on November 23. Although it was a big bad movie, it was supported by the superstar Liu Dehua, and the publicity was compared with Hero, which still attracted many audiences and won 60 million yuan in the box office.

Don't even think about December. There will be a movie "Curse of the Golden Flower" to be released during the Lunar New Year. Zhang Yimou is now in the mainland, just like Cameron in Hollywood. No one wants to compete with him at the same time.

Li Yang is even less qualified to compete with him for the schedule and market.

Wu Yuan, who has a vision for the future, knows how fierce the box office market will be in the second half of this year.

Given that Li Yang himself is not famous, it is unrealistic to let him compete with "Baby Project" and "Curse of the Golden Flower".

Nail paused for a moment on the word "Warrior Warriors" on the schedule, and Wu Yuan remembered a sentence in his heart, pick the soft persimmon to squeeze.

"Talk to China Film and see if "Prosperity" can be scheduled for release in early November, giving us a half-month window period."

Released half a month in advance, relying on word of mouth to build popularity and fame, quickly harvest a wave of box office, and by the time "Warrior Warriors" is released at the end of the month, the box office that "Prosperity" should have eaten up almost.

Such a low-cost youth film, with a box office of 20 million, is a big dark horse.

"Crazy Stone", which was released in the first half of this year, cost only 3 million and earned 23 million at the box office. It was blown up by this "low cost and high box office".

"Also, contact Li Yang. I have something to discuss with him."

Speaking of this, Wu Yuan curled his lips and said with some dissatisfaction: "Why give a youth love movie an artistic movie name?"

"If he doesn't say it, how can the audience guess what the theme and type of the movie are just by looking at the two words "Prosperity"?"

Li Xiaoping also agreed with this. She didn't understand why Li Yang gave the movie such an irrelevant name.

So, the next day, Li Xiaoping invited Li Yang to the company.

And today, Wu Yuan no longer came to the company empty-handed, but brought a freshly printed script.

"Sit down."

In the office, Wu Yuan kindly gestured to Li Yang to sit with him in the sofa area, not to make it so formal.

And Li Yang, who was called by a phone call, was also very nervous at the moment.

The finished film of "Prosperity" has been handed over to Guangying Times for half a month, but there has been no further movement from the company. Now Wu Yuan suddenly asked him to meet again, which made Li Yang very worried. Is Wu Yuan not satisfied with the movie he made?

It is normal for him to have this idea. Who is Wu Yuan?

Winner of the Cannes Presidium Award, Berlin Best Director, and Oscar Best Foreign Language Film Award, and the box office record holder for Chinese directors.

It is normal for such a big boss to look down on his poor work.

Even if he was sitting on the sofa, he only dared to sit on half of his buttocks, and nervously straightened his back, for fear of hearing words like "Don't continue this movie" from Wu Yuan.

Fortunately, he was indeed worried.

As soon as he sat down, Wu Yuan smiled and praised: "Director Li Yang, your "Prosperity" is very well shot, and it lives up to the efforts of our young director support program."

Hearing this, the big stone in Li Yang's heart finally fell to the ground, and his face showed some excitement and excitement. He nodded repeatedly: "Thank you Director Wu for your praise, thank you Director Wu for your trust and support, I will continue to work hard."

Li Yang is now one of the contracted directors of Light and Shadow Times, and he really needs to "work harder".

Among the six directors supported in the first phase of the Young Director Support Program, Li Yang, Liu Meichuan and Xue Xiaolu have all signed contracts with Light and Shadow Times.

Although Li Ruijun, Cheng Er and Han Yan did not agree to sign the contract, they also agreed that if Light and Shadow Times wants to invite them to shoot a film in the future, they will give priority to agreeing.

After all, Light and Shadow Times is also their Bole. If they become rich in the future, they must repay this favor.

It was also because Li Yang was already a contracted director of the company, so seeing that he did a good job in "Prosperity", Wu Yuan immediately approached him and prepared to give him more responsibilities.

But before adding responsibilities, they had to solve another problem first.

"Director Li, your movie is quite good, but the name of this movie is not very related to the story itself."

"I understand that you want to use the word "prosperity" to imply that the heroine chose bread between love and bread, embraced the prosperity of foreign countries, and abandoned the love in China."

"But this is a bit too obscure. Before the audience has seen the movie, just relying on a movie name and poster will confuse the audience and make them wonder what story this movie is going to tell."

"This is a disadvantage for movie promotion."

Wu Yuan expressed his thoughts slowly and Li Yang listened very seriously.

After Wu Yuan finished speaking, he immediately replied: "Director Wu, you are right. This movie name was something I thought of temporarily when I was writing the script. I didn't think too much about it."

"From a business perspective, it is indeed a bit too obscure and not straightforward enough to express the theme clearly."

"Director Wu, do you have any good suggestions?"

Hey, the young man was very wise and put the question back to Wu Yuan.

And Wu Yuan happened to be very thoughtful. In my dream, during the period from 2012 to 2017, the domestic youth film market was extremely hot. He could make youth films about cats and dogs, and easily sell one or two. 100 million, 300 to 400 million box office.

Wu Yuan has watched at least a dozen or twenty domestic youth romance films, and he knows the titles of this type of films by heart.

Without much thinking, he just blurted out: "Whose Youth Is Not Confused? How about this name?"

"Youth and confusion are the core themes you want to express in this movie."

This was originally the title of a domestic youth film released in 2017. Wu Yuan thought it would be suitable to use for Li Yang's film, and it was easy to remember.

"Whose youth is not confused?" Li Yang murmured to himself in a low voice and nodded: "The core selling point of this movie was pointed out simply and directly. Director Wu did a good job!"

It doesn't matter whether he is sincere or deliberately flattering, as long as Li Yang has no objection.

"Then it's settled. The company will submit the film for review as soon as possible. If everything goes well, it will be released nationwide in early November."

"This schedule is not very good, but there is nothing we can do about it. In the second half of this year, a domestic blockbuster with an investment of over 100 million will be released every month. You, a small person, cannot compete with them. Early November is already the most suitable schedule. "

How can Li Yang care about the issue of good schedule? This is not what he cares about as a young director at all. If his debut film can be released nationwide, it is already a big success for him!

"Thank you, thank you, Director Wu." Li Yang suddenly stood up from the sofa, and kept thanking Wu Yuan incoherently.

"Hey, don't get excited yet." Wu Yuan repeatedly asked him to sit down and handed him the script that had been in front of him.

"Take a look at this script. I think it's very suitable for you. The company plans to make this movie next. You will be the director and I will provide you with the role of producer."

Li Yang was stunned on the spot.

Is there such a good thing?

His debut film has just been scheduled to be released, and the company has arranged for him to work on a new film?

Although I didn't write the script myself, having a movie made is already something worth celebrating for a new director!

Is this the benefit of signing with a big company?

simply.

So cool!

The salary for "Good Guys, Bad Guys, Weird Guys" was revised earlier. I was too hasty when I wrote it and didn't think about it carefully. It is indeed unreasonable and has been completely lowered.