Rebirth of Siheyuan starts in the 1980s

Chapter 549: Going abroad, flowers blossom inside the wall and fragrance outside the wall

Author: Tang Juyi

Chapter 549: Going abroad, flowers blossom inside the wall and fragrance outside the wall

Just when He Yuzhu and Lou Xiao'e were eating and drinking together in the Heping Hotel, reminiscing about the past, and talking to each other, Cao Zhiqiang was also inviting people to dinner at the Jianguo Hotel, and they were also reminiscing about the past, but he was not inviting a girl, but a man.

Because the person Cao Zhiqiang invited was none other than director Xu Qingdong.

Unlike Zhu Lin, Xu Qingdong was not taken seriously in Beijing Film Academy at this time, so it was not difficult for him to change relationships. He only needed to report to the leader, and the leader quickly approved Xu Qingdong's transfer application.

After the original unit agreed to release him, Xu Qingdong immediately transferred to Hongguang Film Factory and became the deputy director and director of Hongguang Film Factory.

Although the Hongguang Film Factory is just a small temple now, as the saying goes, although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs and everything it really should have.

For example, film studio licenses, cameras, office space and other hardware are all available at Hongguang Film Factory.

As for personnel issues, internal staff such as accountants can be hired as part-time accountants from Hongguang Publishing House first, and actors and film crews can be recruited later.

As long as the brand is there and the money is in place, there is no need to worry about recruiting filmmakers.

Not to mention anything else, the large number of graduates from Beidian alone every year is enough.

Although universities in this era are all allocated, students do not have no autonomy at all.

As long as you can contact the relevant units to ask for you before graduating from university, and then ask the relevant units to say hello to the relevant personnel of the university responsible for allocating students, generally speaking, unless there are special circumstances, the cadres in charge of allocation will not stop you.

For units like Nortel, the last year of college is usually the internship period, and students have to find ways to complete their graduation projects.

Generally speaking, although Hongguang Film Factory is a newly established unit and is not well-known at present, this unit has an advantage, that is, it is a unit in the capital. If you come to work here, you can stay in the capital.

Therefore, just being able to stay and work in the capital is the biggest temptation for most college students.

At present, the film studios in Beijing are basically full, and usually they don't need people. Therefore, once Nortel students graduate, most of them will be assigned to work in other places.

For example, Zhang Yimou, because of his weak background, was assigned to the Guangxi Film Studio after graduation. In this era, the Guangxi Film Studio is almost like being assigned to the frontier, and is synonymous with poor places.

Of course, poor places also have their advantages.

As the saying goes, if you are poor, you want to change, so poor factories like Guangxi Film Factory are the first to change their thinking and are also keen to cooperate with Hong Kong and other places.

If it weren't for the Guangxi Film Factory's mentality of wanting to change even when it's poor, people like Zhang Yimou wouldn't be able to rise to prominence so easily.

In short, Hongguang Film Studio's status as a capital city is a very attractive business card at this time.

Because during this period, wherever the work unit is, it is basically where the residence is.

As for Zhu Lin, she is in a special situation.

When Zhu Lin was transferred to Emei Film Studio to work as an actress, she was already married. Her husband had a registered residence in Beijing, so as long as Zhu Lin didn't get divorced, he didn't need to settle in Chengdu.

At that time, the relationship between Zhu Lin and her husband was very weak, because they were together less and separated more.

However, Zhu Lin did not want to give up her Beijing household registration easily, and her family opposed her, so she continued to maintain her marriage to Mr. Wang.

Later, Zhu Lin once thought about easing the relationship, such as trying to find a way to work in the capital.

For example, when Zhu Lin came to the capital this time, he knew that Xu Qingdong was going to film a musical TV series in the capital through his friends, so he took the initiative to contact Xu Qingdong, hoping to take the opportunity to come to the capital to stay for a while and relax with her husband again.

relation.

As for Xu Qingdong, I was choosing an actor at the time. I thought Zhu Lin had a good temperament, and they were both from Beijing. When Zhu Lin acted in the movie "Little Courtyard" before, I also met Xu Qingdong through the relationship between Tianzhuangzhuang, and we all had dinner together several times.

rice, so Xu Qingdong agreed to Zhu Lin’s self-recommendation.

It can be said that although it is an accident that Zhu Lin can come to the capital this time, it is actually inevitable. After all, Zhu Lin has been planning to return to the capital.

It can be seen that, at least for now, Zhu Lin is a person with broad connections, strong purpose, and strong execution ability.

As for why Zhu Lin's personality changed drastically and he gradually disappeared from people, that is a story for another time and space.

According to Cao Zhiqiang's estimation, if she had not appeared, Zhu Lin would most likely continue to be married to her ex-husband just for the sake of a Beijing household registration.

In the history of another time and space, Zhu Lin divorced her first husband, which was most likely the man's request. After all, Zhu Lin was focused on her career at this time and probably was not in the mood to care about it.

Maybe it was because Zhu Lin was too utilitarian during this period that she became discouraged later.

In other words, it was precisely because the issue of Zhu Lin's job transfer was still pending, and her working relationship was still in the Emei Factory, that Zhu Lin did not immediately file for divorce from her husband. As long as Cao Zhiqiang could solve Zhu Lin's job transfer, he could transfer Zhu Lin's job

After being transferred to Hongguang Film Studio, Zhu Lin would immediately divorce her husband and settle in the capital.

If this were not the case, it would probably be difficult for Zhu Lin to accept Cao Zhiqiang's philandering.

But for Xu Qingdong, this is not a problem.

Xu Qingdong's original work unit was Beijing Film Studio, and he originally had a Beijing registered residence. When he transferred to Hongguang Film Studio, he still had a Beijing registered residence. There was no difference.

However, Xu Qingdong was originally just an unpopular little director. Once he came to Hongguang Factory, he immediately became a powerful director and deputy director.

Although Hongguang Film Studio currently doesn’t have many people, it has everyone it should have.

Moreover, Hongguang Film Factory also has the best cameras in China, which are unmatched by other film studios.

Others, such as freedom of filming and financial freedom, are even more valuable.

Cao Zhiqiang had promised Xu Qingdong a long time ago. After Xu Qingdong came to Hongguang Film Factory, he not only gave him personnel rights, but also the freedom to recruit and manage personnel. He was also given at least one million personal filming funds every year. He could use these filming funds at will.

You have absolute freedom to shoot whatever you want.

But once Cao Zhiqiang is in need, Xu Qingdong will give priority to filming the movie Cao Zhiqiang wants to make, or recommend a reliable crew to Cao Zhiqiang.

In a word, Cao Zhiqiang gave Xu Qingdong sufficient power and freedom, allowing him to give full play to his abilities.

With such conditions, Xu Qingdong would be a fool to refuse.

But for now, Xu Qingdong has not thought about the specific personnel structure. What he wants to do most now is to complete the post-production of the movie "Love in Guting" that he just finished filming, and then release it as soon as possible.

However, after the filming of this movie, there was not much work that Xu Qingdong could really do. It can be summed up in two words - dubbing.

As for the soundtrack and post-production special effects, that is all Cao Zhiqiang’s job.

This meal was half public and half private. At least half of the content was that Xu Qingdong hoped that Cao Zhiqiang could complete the post-production of the film as soon as possible and then release it as soon as possible.

"What? Cao Zhiqiang, you want to take this movie to Japan for post-production special effects, and you want to release it in Japan first? Did I hear you correctly?"

Seeing Xu Qingdong being so surprised, Cao Zhiqiang laughed: "You heard me right, I went to Japan this time just to take the film we shot. I will first go to Japan to find a company to produce the soundtrack and special effects, and then release the film first in Japan."

movie.

I have thought about it, our movie should be very in line with the taste of Japanese people. Once it premieres in Japan and achieves good results, it can go abroad and have the effect of blooming inside and outside the wall.

At that time, not only can you earn a wave of foreign exchange first, but once it becomes famous, domestic censorship will be faster and it will be easier to release it."

Xu Qingdong frowned and said: "If it can be released in Japan first, that would be great. After all, it can be considered as going abroad. But the problem is, is it difficult to release a movie in Japan? Do you have the connections?"

"You don't have to worry about this." Cao Zhiqiang said with a smile, "Japan is a Western country, and their film censorship is much looser than ours.

Our movie is a romance movie with positive energy. Although it involves teacher-student love, which may be a bit problematic here, in Japan, this is not a problem at all.

In addition, I have also contacted some big people in Japan. If I go through them, it should be easy to pass the review of the Japan Film Ethics Management Committee.

As long as it passes Yinglun's review, we can negotiate copyright with Japanese film distribution companies.

Our movie is so good, and it’s also the honeymoon period between China and Japan. As long as we use the name of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges, it shouldn’t be difficult to find a distribution company to distribute it.

In addition, even if it doesn't work, Japan's film post-production capabilities are more advanced than ours, especially the film special effects are better.

I’ll go there and find someone to make some special effects, which will add a lot to our movie, don’t you think?”

"That's what you want to say, that's true." Xu Qingdong nodded.

Seeing that Xu Qingdong agreed, Cao Zhiqiang laughed.

In fact, when Cao Zhiqiang first started filming "Love in the Ancient Pavilion", he mainly aimed at the Japanese market. After all, the film content he copied, no, borrowed from, was the Japanese masterpiece "The Garden of Words".

It's just that "Garden of Words" is an animation movie, while "Love in the Ancient Pavilion" filmed by Cao Zhiqiang is a live-action movie. But if you put aside the superficial appearance and just look at the movie style, it is actually full of Japanese style everywhere.

In other words, "Love in the Ancient Pavilion" looks like a typical Chinese-style modern urban movie on the surface, but at its core it is Japanese style.

In addition to the teacher-student love, the real core is loneliness, sadness, restraint, implicitness, courtyard, rain, feet, and forbidden love.

These elements are precisely Japan’s favorite elements at this time.

In addition, Cao Zhiqiang has prepared a lot of soundtracks for this movie that are absolutely the best in this world. Coupled with the special effects production capabilities of the audio-visual production dream space, once the work is completely completed, it is hard to say in China, but at least in Japan at present

, it can definitely produce the same effect as a nuclear explosion.

Of course, Cao Zhiqiang is also confident that this movie will be popular in China. After all, truly excellent works can be appreciated by both refined and popular people.

But the problem is that the current film distribution in China is based on a monopoly plus buyout system. No matter how good or bad your film is or how much investment you make, it will be sold to China Film. And China Film will give you a relatively high buyout price at most, which will only cost you 90

Ten thousand.

In other words, even if "Love in the Ancient Pavilion" receives rave reviews in China and has a very high attendance rate, comparable to "Shaolin Temple" back then, as a film production company, its income is only that small and it is stuck.

No matter how good the movie is, no matter how high the income is, it has nothing to do with your production company, it's all China Film's business.

Comparatively speaking, Hong Kong is just a small place, and its market is far inferior to that of mainland China. However, Hong Kong's film system and resources are worse than those in mainland China.

Once a Hong Kong movie is completed, it can easily earn tens of millions in box office in the local market, supporting countless filmmakers, not to mention the Asian market.

If nothing else, at least in South Korea at present, the film market is basically dominated by Hong Kong films.

It is precisely the high income of Hong Kong movies that supports a large number of outstanding filmmakers, which makes Hong Kong movies shine in Asia now.

However, currently, in terms of the real film market in Asia, the best and most profitable place is Japan.

Japan's economy at this time was the best in Asia and ranked second in the world. It was a real economic powerhouse.

Relying on Japan's strong economy and population, Japan's film industry is also quite powerful at this time. At least in terms of box office revenue, it is currently the number one in Asia.

In addition, Japanese movies are also relatively open at this time, and there are relatively few restrictions on imported movies.

Not to mention Hong Kong movies, even mainland movies, because of the honeymoon relationship between China and Japan, there are actually special discounts for mainland movies.

It's just that the inland movies at this time were really not very good, at least the movies produced were not very in line with Japanese tastes.

The only inland film that can be considered suitable for Japanese tastes and is a co-production with a Hong Kong flavor is "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace".

When "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" was released in Japan, it was titled "The Queen Mother of the West".

The total box office revenue of this movie in Japan, also known as Xingxing's revenue, reached 1.1 billion yen.

You know, when this movie was released in Japan, in 1984, the RMB had not depreciated significantly at that time, and the Japanese yen was still very valuable relative to the RMB.

In 1984, the ratio of RMB to Japanese yen was generally 1:102, so 1.1 billion yen was approximately equivalent to 10 million yuan, which was an incredible number.

If you don’t have an idea yet, you can exchange it for the Hong Kong box office market at that time.

In 1984, the RMB to Hong Kong dollar ratio was 1 to 3.4. In other words, 10 million RMB was roughly equivalent to 34 million Hong Kong dollars. This box office was definitely No. 1 in Hong Kong.

Because in 1984, the box office champion of the Hong Kong movie "On Her Majesty's Order" was only HK$29.29 million.

Even if you divide it up, not many will actually get into Cao Zhiqiang's hands, but Cao Zhiqiang's shooting costs are also low.

When filming "Love in Guting", the most expensive equipment and film were rewarded by the system, which was equivalent to free of charge.

Other hard expenses, that is, the travel expenses of the film crew, food expenses, filming allowances, etc., even including Cao Zhiqiang’s personal hotel stay, the total of these expenses does not actually exceed 200,000.

That is to say, as long as the sales share of this movie can give Cao Zhiqiang 500,000 yuan, he will make a lot of money.

However, the domestic buyout price is most likely the maximum buyout fee of 900,000.

As for Japan, if there are no accidents, Cao Zhiqiang estimates that the box office of this movie after its release will be at least one billion yen. If it is divided into the hands of Cao Zhiqiang, he personally will get 1.8 million yen.

If it does well after being released in Japan, you can also use Japan's platform to show it in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, South Korea and other places, or even show it in Europe and the United States, and reap another wave of success.

The combined income of all miscellaneous items is likely to exceed tens of millions of RMB!

If this is the case, then this movie will really make a lot of money, not to mention the benefits of expanding its popularity.

(End of chapter)