Millennium director

The Young Director Support Program of the Light and Shadow Era has supported a total of six directors.

For some of these six directors, the crew has already prepared the film, and the script has been completed and perfected. They are just waiting for the rice to fall into the pot, and start filming as soon as the investment is in place.

Li Ruijun's "Summer Solstice", Li Yang's "Prosperity", Han Yan's "To Whom I Dedicated My First Kiss", these three movies are like this.

The money arrived in April or May, and by the end of August or early September, they had already shot the movie.

These three films are not commercial films in the strict sense, but they are not entirely 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 films. They have the right to decide whether this film should be submitted to film festivals and film exhibitions.

However, Wu Yuan did not mean that Qian Kun was arbitrary, and instead asked: "What do the three young directors think?"

"Li Ruijun wants to give it a try at a foreign film festival."

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

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

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

"I'll take a look at the finished product first."

Although digital films are developing very rapidly now, and most of the new films approved in the past two years have been shot with digital cameras, the six directors Wu Yuan supported this time all chose 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 first-line directors.

"Yes, the copies of the two movies 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 carefully watched the two movies from beginning to end.

Li Yang did not disappoint him. "Prosperity" was very well shot, capturing the flavor of youth pain literature.

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

Although the core still cannot escape the plot of love, triangle, and betrayal in school. After graduation, Lao Yan and Yan split up, went to study abroad, and met again ten years later.

But to put it bluntly, a director with a professional background can produce much better pictures than Ye Luzi on the same subject matter.

At least outside of business, Li Yang has also worked hard on the aesthetics of the film's images, and many of the shots are very beautiful and artistic.

For example, the male and female protagonists look at each other on a rainy night.

The heroine is holding an umbrella, and the hero is soaked in the rain. The picture is split in two in the middle. The heroine's side is brighter, but the hero's whole person has disappeared into the darkness, which just corresponds to the two of them going abroad. Studying abroad has a bright future, but if you get into a fight at school, you may not get a diploma, and your future is bleak.

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

Wu Yuan liked this scene very much.

Moreover, Wu Yuan is also very familiar with these two protagonists.

The male protagonist is Luo Jin, and I don’t know how Li Yang deceived him.

The heroine is Zhang Li, a grade 03 acting major at China National Theater Academy, who is about to graduate this year.

"The filming of "Prosperity" was good, Li Yang has something good." Wu Yuan said with satisfaction: "The summer schedule can't be made, so I'm going to coordinate with Director Han of China Film and Television to see if it can be released on the National Day schedule."

However, Li Xiaoping said with some disapproval: "But this year, Cheng Long's "Baby Project" is scheduled for the National Day holiday, and Li Yang's "Prosperity" is also scheduled to be released during the National Day holiday, so it can't compete, right?"

Now, in the mainland film market, the National Day schedule can be considered a pretty popular period.

From Wu Yuan's "The Night the Comet Came" opened a National Day release for the first time, to Cheng Long's "New Police Story" to "Myth" and then to "Baby Project" for three consecutive years, all of which were scheduled to be released at the end of September. It is no longer an unpopular period.

Moreover, the National Day stalls are now dominated by Cheng Long. Just like Feng Xiaogang was the king of the Lunar New Year stalls back then, Cheng Long is now the king of the National Day stalls in the mainland.

Asking Li Yang to compete with Cheng Long for food was indeed overestimating his capabilities.

"Yeah, I forgot about this movie." Wu Yuan slapped his forehead and felt a little funny. He was tired of spending time with his little girlfriend in the United States and didn't pay attention to the recent mainland film scene at all.

"The film schedule has been set for this year. Let me take a look." Wu Yuan said to Li Xiaoping.

As a close friend of Director Han, and as Light and Shadow Times is now one of the top private film companies in the country, China Film Group has always provided Light and Shadow Times with the latest film schedules.

Soon, he had a thin list of this year's mainland movies in his hand.

As a result, Wu Yuan also had a headache after seeing this.

If the performance of the mainland film market in the first half of 2006 is described as "a collective slump with occasional flashes", then the performance of the mainland film market in the second half of the year can be described as a "collective explosion".

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

I heard that Director Kego broke several of his beloved teapots at home.

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

"Baby Project", released at the end of September, is expected to earn 92 million at the mainland box office.

There are not many blockbusters in October, but "Baby Project" will definitely dominate the box office market in October.

In November, "Ink Attack" was released on November 23. Although it was a bad movie, it still attracted the attention of Andy Lau, a superstar, and the publicity used "Hero" as a comparison. It attracted a lot of viewers and won a box office of 60 million yuan.

Don't even think about it in December. There is a movie called "The Golden Jacket" to be released during the Lunar New Year. Now Zhang Yimou in Mainland China is similar to 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 time slots and market share.

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

When Li Yang himself is not well-known, it is unrealistic for him to compete with "Baby Project" and "Golden Armor".

His fingernails rested on the word "Mo Gong" on the film schedule for a moment, and Wu Yuan thought of a sentence in his mind, persimmons should be picked softly.

"Let's talk to China Film Group and see if we can schedule "Prosperity" to be released in early November, as long as we can give us a half-month window."

It was released half a month ahead of schedule, relying on word-of-mouth to gain popularity and fame, and quickly harvested a wave of box office. By the time "Ink Attack" was released at the end of the month, "Prosperity" had almost eaten up the box office it deserved.

For such a low-budget youth film to have a box office of 20 million, it is considered a dark horse.

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

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

Speaking of this, Wu Yuan curled his lips and said with some dissatisfaction: "Why should a youth romance movie have a literary and artistic title?"

"If he didn't say it, how could the audience guess the subject matter and type of film just by looking at the two words "Prosperity"?"

Li Xiaoping agreed with this, and she didn't understand why Li Yang gave the movie such an irrelevant name.

So, Li Xiaoping made an appointment with Li Yang to the company the next day.

Today, Wu Yuan no longer came to the company empty-handed, but brought a newly printed script.

"sit."

In the office, Wu Yuan asked Li Yang to sit down with him in the sofa area with a kind expression, and not to be so formal.

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

The completed film of "Prosperity" has been handed over to Lighting Times for half a month, but there has been no further news from the company. Now Wu Yuan suddenly asked him to meet, which made Li Yang very worried whether he would film it himself. Wu Yuan was not satisfied with the movie that came out.

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

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

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

Even when 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's mouth.

Fortunately, he was indeed worried.

As soon as he sat down, Wu Yuan smiled and praised: "Director Li Yang, right? Your "Prosperity" was very good. It lived up to the efforts of our young director support program."

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

Li Yang is now one of the contracted directors of the Light and Shadow Era, 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 all signed up to join the Light and Shadow Era.

Although Li Ruijun, Cheng Er, and Han Yan did not agree to sign the contract, they also agreed that if there is a film that they want to make in the future, they will give priority to it.

After all, the Light and Shadow Era is considered their Bole. If they become prosperous in the future, they must repay this love.

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

But before adding more burdens, they had to solve another matter.

"Director Li, your movie is pretty good, but the title of the movie doesn't have much to do with the story itself."

"I understand that you want to use the word "prosperity" to metaphorize that the heroine chooses bread between love and bread, embracing the prosperity abroad and abandoning domestic love."

"But it's a bit too obscure. Before the audience has seen the movie, just a movie title and a poster will make the audience confused as to what story the movie is going to tell."

"This is quite disadvantageous for the promotion of the movie."

Wu Yuan spoke his thoughts in a leisurely manner, and Li Yang also listened attentively.

After Wu Yuan finished speaking, he immediately replied: "Director Wu, you are right. I came up with this movie title 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 something that he, a young director, cares about 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 placed in front of him.

"Take a look at this script. I think it's very suitable for you. The company plans to invest in 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, and 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.