Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 422 Different Purposes of Hype

When Cao Yang and Gao Yuanyuan returned home after watching the movie, it was already past 10 p.m.

Cao Yang was a bit frustrated after watching "Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon". He really couldn't understand what those people in Hong Kong were thinking. Did the screenwriter not even have any historical common sense?
He even went online to check and found that there were two screenwriters for the movie: one was the director, Li Rengang, and the other was Liu Haoliang. Both of them were born in Hong Kong and can be considered native Hong Kongers.

Hong Kong people...

Since they lack historical knowledge, they should either find a reliable mainland screenwriter to participate, or at least be more professional and do their research.

If you're unwilling to follow historical facts, then don't use the Records of the Three Kingdoms as a pretext, or why not just change the background altogether?
If the background of this movie were changed and it were called a martial arts film, it wouldn't have been criticized so harshly by the audience.

The box office might be much better than it is now, and then there won't be any backlash.

It's worth noting that "Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon" grossed just over 1000 million yuan on its opening day and over 4000 million yuan in its opening weekend.

Well, at this point, it can no longer fool the audience who came to see the movie because of the Three Kingdoms theme. As of now, after ten days of release, it has not even broken the 5000 million yuan box office mark.

In other words, the total box office revenue for the following six days did not even reach 1000 million.

The box office trend has plummeted dramatically.

Cao Yang checked the news online again and found that the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony had ended at 10:10.

The various awards have also been assigned to their respective recipients.

As Cao Yang predicted, the biggest winner was not "Saint Lament".

The biggest winner tonight was Chen Kexin's "The Warlords," which won six awards, including Best Director, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, and Best Sound Effects.

At least the Hong Kong Film Awards at that time still had some dignity.

Not much though.

Pietà did not leave empty-handed; in fact, it won two major awards.

One is Best Picture.

Giving this award gives people something to talk about.

The Venice Golden Lion is also called the Best Film. Since "Pieta" won the Best Film award at Venice, the Hong Kong Film Awards also gave it the Best Film award. This way, everyone can save face and it also proves that the Hong Kong Film Awards are not unique.

In addition, they even gave Best Actress to Pietà!

The female lead in "Pieta" is Kara Hui from Hong Kong. It's not surprising that she got the lead role, and her performance in "Pieta" is quite worth watching.

In this way, Kara Hui not only defeated Siqin Gaowa, who was also a strong contender, but also managed to keep the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress in Hong Kong. It was a win-win situation.

Cao Yang guessed that Lao Tian wanted to participate in the Hong Kong Film Awards because he was aiming for the Best Director award, but unfortunately, he didn't win the Best Director award, which was his biggest wish.

He didn't even win the Best Actor award, which he thought was the most likely to win.

Actually, Cao Yang thinks it's not bad. Maybe he could try it a few more years later?
Even if you win the Venice Golden Lion, you might not get the Best Film award.

Of course, if a film directed by a Hong Kong director wins the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and then participates in the Hong Kong Film Awards, it will almost certainly sweep the awards.

To put it bluntly, the Hong Kong Film Awards are designed to protect Hong Kong cinema. This isn't some hidden agenda or unspoken rule; it's explicitly stated in their judging criteria. They probably never intended for it to become the most authoritative award for Chinese-language films; their mission was simply to save Hong Kong cinema.

Cao Yang stopped paying attention to online discussions about this year's Hong Kong Film Awards and instead searched for the short film about the earthquake, but couldn't find it.

That's true. If Little Cannon posted it online, he would definitely tell me beforehand. But I guess it'll be soon, in the next day or two. He'll definitely take action, I just don't know how.

Cao Yang turned off the computer and stopped worrying about these things.

I'm going to Los Angeles tomorrow, so let's interact with Yuanyuan first.

Then, during their conversation, Cao Yang had a sudden thought and stopped for a moment.

He looked at Yuanyuan's rosy cheeks and said softly:
"Did you know that when I was writing 'The Fault in Our Stars,' there was a line: 'Your appearance made me feel infinite eternity in my limited time!' Do you know how I wrote that line?"

Yuanyuan wrapped her arms around Cao Yang's neck and shook her head.

"I don't know what happened, but as I was writing, the image of you looking so pitiful during the filming of 'Secret Sunshine' suddenly popped into my mind, and that sentence just came out naturally..."

Cao Yang felt a sudden heat.

Yuanyuan wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Sure enough, women need sweet words to be moved.

For a long time, the lips are divided.

Yuanyuan stared at Cao Yang's face with her big, watery eyes, and suddenly started to giggle.

"why are you laughing?"

"Did you say that to Li Ernai as well?"

Gao Yuanyuan raised her head and whispered in Cao Yang's ear.

The "Li Ernai" she mentioned refers to Li Xiaoran. It originated from the two of them disliking each other during the filming of "Nine-Tailed Fox," and thus, they gave each other a nickname.

Li Ernai, as the name suggests, can be understood simply by looking at the last character of the nickname.

Li Xiaoran also gave Gao Yuanyuan a nickname. She always called Gao Yuanyuan "vixen" because of the vixen role Gao Yuanyuan played at the time, and also to satirize Gao Yuanyuan as a vixen who seduces people.

Cao Yang was startled.

"Hehe, I felt it, you're so naughty... oh..."

Cao Yang silenced Gao Yuanyuan with his actions.

As a long-established Hollywood film company and one of the largest in Hollywood, Warner Bros. has been known in the industry for its questionable practices in recent years.

Which film is Warner Bros. focusing on most this year?
Without a doubt, it is "The Dark Knight," which has been publicly announced to have an investment budget of up to $2.2 million.

Their expectations for this Batman sequel are incredibly high.

Therefore, Warner Bros. certainly wouldn't let Heath Ledger's death, the most important supporting role and villain in the movie, be "in vain."

After Cao Yang arrived in Los Angeles, he saw that Heath Ledger was featured in numerous media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Hollywood Reporter.

"Nolan: We miss him. His Joker moved me. I think it's the best and most classic Joker I've ever seen..."

"Bale: When you act opposite him, you have to give it your all. He is one of the best actors I have ever met. If it weren't for the accident, I believe he would have won an Oscar sooner or later."

Michelle Williams: We all miss him. He was a good man and a good father. He was so dedicated to every role he played that it caused him a lot of bad side effects... We all loved him.

Michelle Williams was Heath Ledger's girlfriend, or rather, ex-girlfriend. They broke up in late 2007, and Heath Ledger passed away in January 2008.

They also had a daughter.

Since The Dark Knight hasn't been released yet, there's no way to "praise" Heath Ledger's Joker. Only Nolan, as the director, has commented on the acting.

Most media outlets and online platforms are reviewing Heath Ledger's filmography, especially featuring edited clips that appear to be particularly impressive, praising his professionalism and acting skills.

They're slowly building up Heath Ledger's reputation, and once "The Dark Knight" is released, Cao Yang estimates that the entire internet will be buzzing with Heath Ledger-related topics.

They will praise his final "posthumous work," the Joker, to an unprecedented new level.

Jim Carrey is about to be put under pressure.

When Jim Carrey took on the role of Joker, he probably considered the impact of Heath Ledger's Joker, but he probably didn't expect that Ledger would take the Joker to a new level.

Jim Carrey hasn't seen *The Dark Knight* yet. Once he does, and witnesses Heath Ledger's Joker, the pressure on him will only increase. From the audience's perspective, in any country, "death" always carries a certain weight.

Besides, Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker was quite good.

Not only Warner Bros. started taking action, but Little Cannon also began his operation.

To Cao Yang's surprise, Xiao Gangpao did not immediately put the short video online.

He went a step further and re-edited the short film.

They cut out all the parts where everyone "seriously" explained the benefits of doing it, turning it into a shorter video of less than a minute.

Then, using his connections, he got the video of Gao Yuanyuan and the others either running away or hiding in safe places when the earthquake struck to be broadcast on television.

It also includes a star-rated TV station.

This includes Beihai TV, Sichuan TV, and Tangshan TV.

Tangshan TV station is definitely fine.

After all, with such strong support from the local government, it's definitely not a problem to "warm up" the show on TV, and there's not even a need to spend money on advertising.

Beihe TV was also contacted by people from Tangshan.

This is actually quite simple.

In 1984, the State Council approved Tangshan as one of the first major cities in the country to enjoy special policies. Due to its proximity to the capital and its important status, the Party Secretary was usually concurrently held by a member of the Provincial Standing Committee, as is customary.

So, it's not difficult for a short film to be broadcast on Beihe TV.

As for Sichuan TV, the one who contributed was Zhang Guoli, Xiao Gangpao's good friend and longtime partner.

Zhang Guoli and General Manager Han are both from Sichuan Province, and they have extensive connections there.

After the short film was re-edited, the narration at the end was removed, leaving only the characters played by celebrities taking shelter when the earthquake struck.

Furthermore, to create a buzz, Little Cannon added a few large words at the end of the short film: the screen went black, and then four words appeared with a "bang": Earthquake is here!
After being broadcast on two satellite TV channels and one television station, everyone's first reaction was that it should be a movie trailer.

Although it hasn't become a huge hit yet, it's still quite attractive with so many celebrities, including Gao Yuanyuan and Xu Fan in their pajamas.

Of course, simply attracting people is not enough to achieve the purpose of the Little Steel Cannon.

What he wants is known to the entire internet, even the whole nation. After all, it's a budget of 1000 million. In this day and age, there are many things that can be accomplished with that money. Money is still very valuable now.

After the video garnered attention by airing on three television stations, Xiao Gangpao had the unedited version uploaded to the internet.

Simply deploying it online is definitely not enough.

He pulled another crazy stunt.

The little cannon had people spread the word online that, according to the prophecy in the Tui Bei Tu (a Chinese prophecy book), there would be a major earthquake this year.

As everyone knows, the Tui Bei Tu is said to have been calculated by two great Tang Dynasty astrologers, Li Chunfeng and Yuan Tiangang, and is known as the first extraordinary book of prophecy in China.

Well, anyway, they spoke with great seriousness, explaining the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, which hexagram corresponds to which hexagram, and how to calculate it, which led them to predict that there would be a major earthquake in the year of Wu Zi, which was 08.

Then, combined with this short film about taking shelter from the earthquake, and with the guidance of many people with good intentions, the short film suddenly went viral.

There's a lot of discussion online about whether there will be an earthquake this year, and whether the methods in the short video by Little Cannon are actually applicable.

With the continuous injection of money, the short film has attracted a great deal of attention and discussion, and its popularity is even approaching that of the Olympics, which are just a few months away.

It was during this era that the degree of freedom on the internet was still quite high. Even topics like earthquakes, such hype, could potentially cause panic.

Of course, as the planner, Xiao Gangpao was still summoned by the higher-ups.

Normally it's fine, but with the Olympics coming up soon, we shouldn't cause panic.

If it's just Xiaogangpao and Huayi, it's easy to handle.

However, when the Film Bureau learned that Cao Yang was the producer and screenwriter of the movie that Xiao Gangpao had hyped up, things became a bit difficult.

Therefore, Director Tong personally called Cao Yang.

Cao Yang was, of course, unaware of this, and should not have been aware of it.

After considering it, he gave his advice.

Let Little Cannon record an apology video himself to clarify that this is just a movie promotional video.

Cao Yang's resolute attitude made Director Tong hesitate.

Xiao Gangpao is no ordinary director; he is one of the most famous directors in China with a great influence. If he refuses to apologize and clarify, and continues to make irresponsible remarks, then we will be in a passive position.

Cao Yang said, "I'll handle it."

After that, he called Little Cannon.

When Little Cannon first heard that he had to issue an apology statement, he was definitely unwilling.

Cao Yang said, "What is your purpose in hyping this up? Isn't it just to let the whole world know that you are going to make a film called 'Aftershock'?"

We're almost there.

Taking advantage of the current buzz, we should hold a press conference, and media reporters from all over the world will come, including CCTV.

You should apologize first, saying you didn't expect it to cause such a big stir.

All you need to do is say that you didn't expect a teaser trailer to lead to other interpretations, and that this was something you didn't anticipate. You then reiterate that this is just a trailer for the movie and there's nothing else to interpret.

Of course, to be serious, although this is a promotional video, as a serious earthquake-themed film, everything mentioned in the promotional video is the most realistic and effective way to avoid earthquakes.

"Yes, this is a science popularization video. You don't want this serious science popularization video to become a short film that others interpret haphazardly; that would be disrespectful to the compatriots who died in the Tangshan earthquake."

Little Cannon thought about it and realized, "Hey, this seems like an apology, but it's actually a 'disclaimer' statement."

It's still a final, big move after all the hype, a press conference that will get all the domestic media reporting on it again.

Wonderful!

So he agreed to hold the press conference with the theme of "apology".

Cao Yang hung up the phone. He hadn't expected that Xiao Gangpao would be so awesome, daring to hype up the topic of an impending earthquake.

After thinking it over, I realized that I hadn't missed anything and had done everything I could. I even "used" the small cannon to push the short film to the attention of almost all netizens and many people.

As for whether the Little Cannon will be in trouble if there's a real earthquake next month...

There might be some at first, but after further investigation, it's highly likely that there aren't.

The hype and tactics used by Xiaogangpao can be traced back to the source; it's purely a "coincidence."

Of course, many people should be grateful to Xiao Gangpao for his "coincidental" behavior.

Sigh, Cao Yang has done his best. Under the "legitimate" pretext, this is all he can do.

So be it.

(End of this chapter)