I was just thinking about taking the arts exam and you said I've been playing supporting roles

Chapter 356 Is there anything he can't do?
Dida Movies is offering free movie screenings during the Spring Festival this year!

"Zhang Yimou's new film will officially premiere globally on Chinese New Year's Day!"

Instead of staying home during Chinese New Year, why not watch a movie with your parents!

……

The next day, advertisements for watching movies during the Spring Festival were plastered all over the country, including Weibo, the four major portal websites, Focus Media elevators, and other online and offline channels.

The cinema has also completed the coordination.

This time, the film scientifically relinquished 3% of its revenue to subsidize grassroots employees of the cinema chain.

Of course, the main purpose was to reward cinema staff for working overtime during the Spring Festival, and that was the bonus measure taken.

This is actually similar to the concept of ticket subsidies for production companies in later generations.

It will be extremely difficult for some movies to secure release dates during the upcoming Spring Festival.

It's not that we can't confirm the release date, but rather that there are simply too many movies wanting to be released during the Spring Festival.

Everyone knows that the Spring Festival film season can break box office records and make huge profits, so many film producers will do anything to squeeze into screenings on the first day of the Lunar New Year, making it more and more competitive each year; by 2025, there was even a practice of subsidizing 10% of the box office to guarantee screenings.

The goal was simply to gamble on box office revenue during the Spring Festival season. In fact, a lot of money had already been spent and extensive coordination had been carried out in order to confirm the release date.

As is well known, cinemas in China adjust their screening schedules the following day based on which films sell well.

No cinema doesn't want to make money, and films that sell well at the box office will definitely have their screenings increased. However, the producers have also come up with a solution: to use their own money to make up for the increased profits from the box office.

This way, theaters can turn a blind eye and continue to schedule your screenings as they have in the previous days.

For cinemas, since they've already made the money, the number of screenings doesn't really matter.

However, the current subsidies for film science are clearly not implemented in this way.

The unprecedented opening of the Spring Festival film season means that not every cinema is willing to open for business on such a day.

Even if a blockbuster movie is released.

Why did the box office performance of the Spring Festival film season not go well in previous years? Firstly, no films chose this time, and the cinema owners were too afraid to gamble. In previous years, Avatar made money, and some cinema owners even paid out of their own pockets to keep the cinemas open on the third and fourth days of the Lunar New Year.

This is what led to the phenomenal success of Avatar during the Spring Festival.

But now, who knows how well "The Flowers of War" did at the box office, and what about Zhang Yimou?
Making people come to work during the Chinese New Year is definitely unpleasant.

To appease these grassroots ticket sellers, giving them bonuses is the most practical solution. Since the cinema chains are definitely unwilling to do so, the film company will try to fund it themselves. All of this, of course, is Chen Jin's idea.

Next year, after witnessing the explosive viewership during the Spring Festival season, it is believed that cinema owners will proactively offer extra pay to their employees for overtime work.

By then, Chen Jin will be able to negotiate revenue sharing with theater chains.

This time, he's selling 3%. One day, he'll negotiate with Zhang Yimou and his film and theater chains to get them to make concessions.

The current revenue sharing still follows the agreement between Zhang Weiping's "Curse of the Golden Flower" and the theaters—43:57!

The production company gets 43% of the revenue!

It seems that Zhang Weiping is profiting for all filmmakers across the country.

But in reality, the cinemas didn't lose out either; the money ultimately came from the audience.

张伟平从2002年《英雄》开始，十年三提片方分成，比例提高了7%；但全国的电影票，却从3、5块钱涨到了35-40元。

This year it's going to rise to 50!

Who will be the first to rise?

Originally, it was "The Flowers of War"!
Even disregarding the improvement of China's economy, this increase in ticket prices is still outrageous.

It increased tenfold.

According to the previous timeline, the film company's share of the profits increased from 38% to 45%!

A 7% concession means viewers will have to pay 10 times more.

Cinema chains certainly know how to do business.

They never lose out, anyway.

Filmmakers should thank Zhang Weiping, because he did make them money; but after a few years, when audiences could no longer be exploited, theaters started to turn their attention to film distributors, which is the aforementioned strategy of securing screenings.

Zhang Weiping has prematurely blocked the path for future filmmakers.

When the original "The Flowers of War" was released, he also started negotiations, raising the revenue share from 43% to 45%, and finally... the lowest ticket price for "The Flowers of War" was as high as 50 yuan per ticket.

3D models even reach 100 yuan or more.

Although "Jinling" ultimately grossed 6 million yuan at the box office, the average price of a movie ticket nationwide was 80 yuan.

It's really expensive; in 2012, ordinary people's money was still easy to be swindled.

Moreover, Zhang Weiping believes that "The Flowers of War" is worth the money: "Our film is 148 minutes long, which is more than 50 minutes longer than the average film of 90 minutes. It is also a high-quality production. Is it too much to raise the minimum ticket price a little?"

Chen Jin certainly thought it was excessive.

30-40 yuan per piece is fine; anything more expensive is really not worth it.

It's understandable that filmmakers want to make money, but theaters are really stingy.

It's always the ordinary people who suffer.

Therefore, Chen Jin's 3% subsidy wasn't exactly charity, but rather an effort to help as many cinemas across the country reopen on the first day of the Lunar New Year as possible.

Although Stephen Chow's "Journey to the West" earned 12 billion yuan in the end and the ticket price was around 80 yuan, only half of the usual number of cinemas were open during the Spring Festival. Even so, it still broke the box office record.

If Chen Jin wants to completely dominate the Spring Festival film season, she must create a huge buzz.

As for whether movie ticket prices will increase during the Spring Festival, that's something he can't prevent.

Cinemas are also a form of capital, and capital is ruthless when it comes to reaping profits, especially during holidays like the Spring Festival.

Therefore, there are reasons why the box office was able to reach such a high level during the Spring Festival.

The timing was perfect, the location was favorable, but the people were rotten!

Chen Jin did everything he could: better treatment of theatrical releases, a larger audience, and a bigger marketing campaign than his previous work, "Jinling," and even the possibility of ticket price increases.

At least, 1 million yuan has already been spent promoting the concept of watching movies during the Spring Festival.

Marketing extends to even rural towns and villages.

Local governments also support travel during the Spring Festival, giving the green light to cinemas, shopping malls, and other venues, and television media have begun to report on it extensively.

There was a sense of joy and excitement as people flocked to the cinemas to watch movies during the Lunar New Year.

This can be considered a preliminary achievement of Chen Jin's expectations: first, to hype up the concept of the Spring Festival film season, and then to "trick" the audience into going to the cinema.

……

A few days later, on the west coast of Manhattan, New York City.

The scene we're about to film is a solo car chase scene from "Killer: Dragon".

Killer Dragon lives in constant pain because of his wife's death. The only way he can relieve his depression is to occasionally come to this abandoned factory and let loose with high-speed car chases.

It was because of this behavior that Long's beloved car was targeted by the son of a gangster boss while he was refueling.

This sets off a revenge plot.

The exterior scenes at the hotel in mainland China were filmed in just one day.

The exterior scenes and the interior scenes are not even in the same place.

The exterior of the Mainland Hotel was filmed at the Beaver Building on Wall Street, a historic building located at 1 Wall Street Lane, also known as the Coco Exchange Building, and nicknamed the "ironing building" due to its unique triangular structure!
From above, it looks like an iron; and for the interior, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel was chosen.

Gong Ge personally went to negotiate the product placement with an American agent.

"Chad, how about we make a bet? Chan will definitely drive!"

David Leitch glanced at Chen Jin, who was discussing things with photographer Jonathan, but his eyes were drawn to a brand-new muscle car he had rented not far away.

Ford Mustang Boss 429.

This is one of the two cars Chen Jin uses in the drama.

After this car was stolen, he replaced it with a Dodge Viper, which is also a favorite among Americans.

"I already lost $500 last time!"

Chad shrugged at David: "Driving is something Chan definitely knows!" "No, no, you know what I mean, I mean... street racing!"

"The drifting kind!"

David's intuition told him that Chen Jin probably still had a trump card up her sleeve.

Sun Nuo had asked Chen Jin if he wanted to find a race car driver to train him for two days, but Chen Jin refused. David happened to overhear this.

So he wanted to make money by interrupting people, but unexpectedly... none of them fell for it.

As Chen Jin's compatriots, Guo Fan and Gong Ge, who occasionally came to the film crew, didn't gamble with him, which was fine. But even Chad seemed to have developed a strange confidence in Chen Jin.

This greatly frustrated David.

"My rational mind tells me that Chan seems to be almost omnipotent!"

Chad is like a fanboy. He already loves Chinese kung fu, and after watching Chen Jin film action scenes these past few days, he's completely captivated.

Moreover, the entire crew has gotten along exceptionally well over the past two weeks, with Chen Jin, Guo Fan, and David becoming one of the best of friends.

There is no distinction between white and yellow races.

"That's way too exaggerated!"

"No one can do everything, not even Rambo!"

Although David knew Chad might be telling the truth, he still wanted to say something in response.

However, it must be said that after so many days of contact, Chen Jin is completely different from the new director they had imagined.

This guy doesn't seem like a newcomer who's never directed a film before.

Needless to say, he has a lot of ideas about camera angles and storylines. He can teach many actors how to shoot a scene, and if they don't understand, he will even draw some storyboards on paper.

His drawing skills weren't great, but he did describe the actors' lines, actions, expressions, and so on.

He also has his own insights into many aspects of fighting, positioning, and lighting.

This is indeed quite impressive for David and his group.

But if they knew he had the whole movie in his mind and could even take time every day to go in and see how it was filmed, they probably wouldn't be able to say a word.

Actors are naturally good at acting, so teaching them how to act according to the movie is practically a piece of cake.

Then, Chen Jin, who had studied directing and cinematography for several months, was able to explain some of the film's technical aspects.

He can't take pictures, but the photographer can.

Action scenes are actually the same; they are simply a breakdown of shots.

Therefore, Chen Jin, this "new director," does not seem like a new director at all, because he has the biggest flaw in the finished film as a reference and for improvement.

He can even edit the later parts himself.

"here we go!"

David watched as Chen Jin walked toward the Ford Mustang on set.

The car chase scene has officially begun.

In fact, Chen Jin wrote the script as a way to vent, so she didn't require the assassin to have skills like drifting or racing.

Even if you accelerate wildly and then brake suddenly, it's still possible.

But Chen Jin's requirements for the role of Long are as high as his own.

What makes someone the number one assassin? A super assassin is someone who excels in shooting, car racing, martial arts, and both close and long-range combat with both cold and hot weapons. Chen Jin aims to create such a near-perfect character.

After all, it's a commercial film, so it's bound to be as exciting and invincible as possible.

Moreover, in the original "John Wick," although Keanu Reeves' car chase scene was amateurishly filmed, it at least included shots showcasing his driving skills, such as skidding and 180-degree turns.

This sets the stage for the car chase scene to come.

This means the main character can drive.

Moreover, the plot of the movie shows that he filmed these scenes himself and did not hire any stunt doubles.

If they used a stunt double, the scene wouldn't be so realistic; it would definitely be like "Initial D," full of cool and flashy moments.

Chen Jin certainly has to do a better job than Levi's.

Because he had experienced a real Vick, his driving skills were enhanced.

whoosh-

The black Ford Mustang Boss 429, like a ghost, cast a magnificent shadow against the backdrop of the beautiful American sunset.

In the afterglow of the setting sun, three Peterbilt 389 trucks, the prototypes of Optimus Prime, were parked in the distance, providing a good reference for this high-speed impact!
A telephoto lens captures a close-up of a Ford that's going faster and faster.

The camera mounted on the car captured the entire scene of Chen Jin speeding.

There were a total of 12 cameras pointed at this scene.

Long shots, close-ups, motion... Chen Jin only needs to demonstrate his driving skills. Of course, he also needs to portray the scene of missing his deceased wife in the car, along with expressions of venting and pain.

80 mph, 90 mph, 100 mph... Chen Jin's car speed increased.

Everyone watched as the car sped off into the setting sun.

Just as the car and the setting sun seemed to merge into one, the monitor showed Chen Jin turning the steering wheel with exceptional clarity.

drift!

The Ford Mustang barely grazed the bodies of the three "Optimus Prime" cars before making a 180-degree U-turn.

The tire traced an exceptionally perfect arc with the ground, which was captured by a drone in the sky.

This display of skill was just the beginning.

Chen Jin used venting to demonstrate the driving skills he learned from watching the movie.

"..."

David Leitch, watching the monitor, had his mouth agape.

Chad was also dumbfounded, but he was more accepting than David, so he shrugged at the mouthless David: "Dude, I knew this guy would pull something like this!"

Gum!

David clenched his lips tightly, his face showing some bitterness.

Even though he knew Chen Jin could drive, watching this guy "go crazy" again and again on the monitor, he still felt... this actor was really too abnormal.

Is there anything he can't do?
Isn't it said that Chinese actors are just entertaining themselves within their own circles?
You can't find a versatile person like this, who excels in all aspects!

"Fuck!"

"What a monster..."

"You saved me... $100!"

David chuckled to himself, a different emotion stirring within him as he looked at the young Chinese actor—or rather, the Chinese director making his first film—on the monitor. He had initially taken the young actor and director by then not so much.

It seems... he was also somewhat impressed by Chen Jin.

"Chad, our new director is great, isn't he?"

"..."

Chad glanced at his companion beside him and gave a fake smile: "David, the way you are makes me sick!"

"Hahaha!"

The two of them burst into laughter at the same time.

Chen Jin clearly hadn't expected that her high-speed driving would once again deeply impress the "three giants" of the crew.

However, in the United States, especially in the wealthy circles of Hollywood, driving skills, fighting, and shooting—these are men's sports—will make white people look at you with extraordinary respect; they will genuinely admire you.

This is because it's a sport they enjoy and are passionate about, which is why many muscular men are popular in Europe and America.

Three monster rooms in East Asia, still the kind that appreciate young, handsome men.

The market for muscular men in China is quite limited, mainly influenced by women's aesthetic preferences; however, white foreign women genuinely prefer men who are fit and good at fighting...

(End of this chapter)