Hollywood legendary director

A meeting room in the Europa Films Building was joined by senior officials from various departments.

"Mr. Luc Besson."

"George! Schubert, hello everyone..."

The head of the marketing department, the head of the publicity department, and the head of the issuance department, as well as the two founders of the company and some shareholder representatives of the board of directors, all sat in their own positions.

"Let's get started." Luc Besson, who was sitting at the top, saw that everyone was there, so he didn't talk nonsense and directly arranged a trial screening of the movie.

Lehman handed the film to the projectionist, and the curtains around it were closed.

In the dark and quiet atmosphere, everyone is waiting for the beginning of the movie.

With the appearance of the screen on the screen, the background music sounded, and under the guidance of a narration, the scene appeared in a school-the Imperial University of Technology, the best engineering university in India.

On the first night of freshmen's entrance, the senior came to tell them the rules, saying that they wanted to put a stamp on their buttocks.

The freshmen were very well-behaved and had no objections, and all took off their pants with their heads down.

As soon as the camera turned, Amir-Khan appeared. He might be late, but seeing this, he hurried to a dormitory and locked the door behind him.

The senior felt that he had offended the long-standing tradition of the college and wanted to demonstrate.

result......

......

The movie screening was over, and as the curtains were pulled up, Lehmann glanced at the reactions of everyone present in the light.

To be precise, there should be no response.

They are all senior executives of Europa Pictures. They have not seen a thousand movies, but also 800, and they will be involved in any genre.

But today, let them see in their hearts.

It took more than ten minutes for them to go through the plot and feelings in their minds before the silent atmosphere on the scene began to loosen.

"not bad."

"It's wonderful."

"This is the cruelty of education..."

Luc Besson's frowning eyebrows from the middle of the movie also eased. For him, this movie really made him feel heartbroken.

"Lyman, you took a good shot."

As Luc Besson spoke, the others once again expressed their support:

"The subject matter is big, but the shot is very detailed."

"The back and forth laughter and tragedy set off a lot of tension."

"The last shot was also very good. In the cruelty, it gave another glimmer of light, which has a very good meaning."

Lehman’s shooting technique mixed with flashbacks in this direct narrative is very clever. From campus life, Fahan’s perspective is brought in, and then when the first senior student commits suicide, he uses the perspective of a remote control plane to see the whole situation, plus The two standpoints are clear, representing the collision of old and new educational thoughts, and the plot further enhances the viewing effect.

Even the change of every shot and even the existence of the soundtrack will indirectly guide the changes in the audience's psychological mood.

He wants to laugh, is to laugh, wants to be sad, is sad.He is the creator of this dream and the master of this movie world. He did it.

......

Being able to be the top of a production and distribution company, everyone present is naturally of a certain level of professionalism, and can roughly tell whether a movie can be recognized by the box office.

Sometimes, the audience thinks a movie is good, but they just can’t tell which movie is good.

This so-called "good-looking" can be composed of many aspects. The rhythm of the plot, the storytelling, the camera screen, and even the lighting, performance, and even the actors' lines and costumes can play a considerable role.

After exchanging some views, it came to the business link-the schedule issue.

"According to our tentative release date at the beginning of this year, it is February this year, and the post-production of the film is fairly fast, we can increase the pace, and it will be released on February 2 for full release, how about this report? You can see that it is the numbers that were initially communicated with the theaters. The distribution map is also on the top. It also marks the approximate schedule of the theaters. Of course, the specific screening work can still be discussed."

The director of the distribution department stood up and spoke.

This is their job, and when the film is being produced in post-production, it is arranged in advance.

Lehman also got a piece of information. He looked at the initially communicated theaters, frowned while watching, and asked with some doubts: "Why, the locations of these theaters are not very good, and the timing of the filming Mostly morning and evening."

After reading the report carefully, he found that most of the distribution of these theaters are in small towns, or large cities near the suburbs, only a small half are located near Paris, and the rest are actually one. nothing.And the release time is also very problematic. The morning and evening are not very prime segments, and it’s okay to arrive at night, but there are only two shows, which is far worse than the three shows from morning to noon.

Hearing Lehman's question, the director of the distribution department smiled and picked up the preliminary negotiated report.

This is a middle-aged man in his forties. He is close to 1.8 meters tall. He has a blessed figure and a kind smile on his face.

At this moment, he explained: "These theaters are all traditional art theaters. Although the geographical location is not good, the audience for the movie is roughly the same as the movie audience. The advantage of this is that the publicity resources will not cause most of the Waste, can be specifically effective for on-site advertising."

"Furthermore, "Three Fools in Bollywood" is a non-English film, and those mainstream cinema markets will not give us better scheduling or theater screenings.

"We all know that the market for non-English films is not highly valued throughout Europe. Like the Taiwanese director's "Ohu, Hidden Dragon" before it was nominated for an Oscar, no theaters were willing to make great efforts. investment."

"Pick up all the non-English films that have achieved great success. We can see that the reason why their market recognition is so high and that they can be selected from hundreds of works each year is not just because of the quality of the film."

"The bonuses of various international awards are particularly outstanding, like a huge publicity platform, which expands the effect of the movie to the maximum and attracts more potential viewers of this type."

"Oscar for best foreign language film, Cannes Palme d'Or, Venice Golden Lion...they are not trivial."

The director of the distribution department recalled what he had learned and continued: “So, my plan is that our movie will be released in line with the award-winning route, slowly being released to expand its reputation, and qualitative changes will cause quantitative changes, so that those theaters will spontaneously Putting resources into the screening is what we should do the most."

"The preliminary plan is to test 300 theaters, and adjustments are being made depending on the situation, which can also reduce our difficulty in controlling the reputation of the film."

Lehmann didn't expect that in the eyes of Europa Pictures, his work needs these, rather than simply pushing it into the theater for release.

"I think it's feasible." Luc Besson said. Obviously he also thinks it would be better to let this movie go to the award-winning route. He looked at Lehmann and asked: "What do you think, what can I suggest? come out?"

"Very good idea, I have no objection." He said.

Now that Europa Pictures has a complete push plan, Lehman itself has no problem.Theater owners pay attention to their interests. Even if it is a market that supports niche-themed movies like France, will the resources they get are as large as blockbuster movies?Of course it is impossible. Before a movie is actually released, it is unknown. They will initially decide the screening market plan based on the film’s cast or investment scale. These two points are also the most important basis for judgment by the theater.

Regrettably, no matter what point, "Three Fools Raise Bollywood" has not reached it, let alone non-English films.As the director of the publishing department said, too few successes, and no one takes risks.In terms of this, the method of redemption proposed by him is indeed the most effective.

Actually, it's pretty good, Lehman thought.

He still clearly remembers the miserable situation when "Buried Alive" was first released. There are less than dozens of theaters and the location is even worse. Now, there are 300 initial screenings, and there are special operating plans. Obviously A huge improvement.

Just when Luc Besson thought that Lehmann had made a decision, he said: "Can it be done simultaneously?"

The eyes of the people in the conference room gathered on him, Lehman sorted out his thoughts, and slowly said, “Only by maintaining the reputation of the trial screening, can you be more competitive in terms of awards. Yes, if the situation is good, you will be shortlisted in Cannes. The main competition unit, I also think it will not be a difficult task, but it takes too long to operate, and it may take a year to complete the operation."

"It will be previewed in February, and the prizes will be opened in Cannes in May. When the word of mouth is done, it may be July."

Having said that, he shook his head, "Let me first say a hypothesis. If the film is released in this way, it can attract the audience, and the word of mouth is really good, but based on this situation, I think it can maintain 20%. Attendance rates are amazing. After a long time, potential users may meet their own needs, and they may compress the number of releases and schedule films. Waiting for the awards, gather a wave of popularity for publicity, but if, We don’t do this."

"I mean, direct global simultaneous releases and leave the reputation of the film to the market for testing, rather than relying on compressed release space to maintain. If the attendance rate is high, the theater will definitely make additional screenings, and then cooperate with the impact. Award, how about it?"

After listening to Lehman’s words, the director of the distribution department laughed bitterly, "We also understand what you mean, but this has to be based on the fact that the film has such a strong appeal. Just relying on word-of-mouth and the audience’s choice is not necessarily I would choose to watch our movies, but because of the lack of award evaluation, I would havetily downgrade in advance."

Lehman smiled and didn't refute. What the supervisor said made sense. These were two different directions of operation.

And what he said was mainly for Luc Besson, the real decision-making power was always in his hands.

Others also understood, so everyone's eyes focused, waiting for the company's boss to express their views.

Luc Besson thought, but didn't answer for a moment.

He also hesitated in his heart about the feasibility of the two operating ideas. After all, this company owns shares. If the investment in the film fails, it will definitely affect him. Although the consequences may not be so terrible, it is necessary after all. He is cautious.

On the one hand, it is steadily waiting for award recognition to feed back the market, on the other hand, it is adventurous to wait for the audience’s recognition to influence the market and not rely on the bonus of awards.

His gaze swept across in front of everyone in the conference room, and finally stayed on Lyman.

"Do as Lehman said."