Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 232: A movie that only a great country can make
“There are quite a lot of people coming.”

At the "Wolf Warrior 2" investment conference, Meng Bai glanced at the exhibition hall filled with forty or fifty people and couldn't help but sigh.

"Some time ago, Beijing North Culture and Juhe Films, as distributors, guaranteed a box office of 8 million yuan, and prepaid 2.1 million yuan in revenue and 6000 million yuan in publicity expenses."

Chen Zhixi on the side introduced to him that because of the guaranteed return, the risk on the producer's side was greatly reduced.

In addition, Wu Jing also wanted to add more production companies, so it finally attracted many participants.

"Wanda, Bona, Beijing North Culture, Jetsen Century, Chaofeng Pictures... There are 14 production companies in total, including big and small, and 7 distributors."

Meng Bai sighed. With such a huge production and distribution scale, it was like forming a joint fleet.

Not to mention, even if I didn’t get an investment share today, it’s still worth it to understand the operations and gameplay of the film industry.

I followed him around twice and got a bunch of business cards.

Arc Light is still a bit far away from the film business now, so he just got to know her and didn't have any awkward conversation with her.

After finding a seat to sit down, Meng Bai took the script and started reading.

He had watched "Wolf Warrior 1" before and had some understanding of the characters and settings.

In fact, it doesn’t matter if you haven’t understood it. This kind of military action film basically follows the orthodox plot line, and there is no difficulty in understanding it.

Compared to the first film, the sequel is obviously much bigger.

The story scene is set abroad, with the addition of mercenaries, group armed forces, and overseas evacuations, and weapons upgraded from pistols and rifles to helicopters and tanks.

If the first film still had some shadows of traditional Hong Kong police and gangster films, then this sequel can truly be called a military action blockbuster.

After reading the script, Meng Bai looked at the recruitment plan again.

Just as he watched, he couldn't help but frown.

"Why, do you feel something is wrong?"

A voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked up and saw Chen Zhixi looking at him in confusion.

"Why didn't I see you just now?"

Meng Bai moved aside and let the other person sit down.

"We went to talk about investment." Chen Zhixi said, "Wanda wants to transfer 3000% of the investment share for 10 million yuan. How about we each take half?"

"I'm just here to broaden my horizons. Don't worry about me. Just take them all down."

"I would like to take them all." Chen Zhixi smiled bitterly, "There are too many projects to be completed and not enough funds."

Although Ruyi Pictures had made good progress in film and television content before, it had always been weak in capital.

In the past few years, I tried many times to sell myself and find a big sponsor, but unfortunately I failed every time.

It was not until the end of last year that Chen Zhixi entered the market with resources and channels and connected with Guangxian and Wanda, and life became a little better.

"Okay, then Sister Xi, just think about how much you can eat. Just give us the remaining soup." Meng Bai said nonchalantly.

"Come on, everyone knows that the most profitable companies right now are your online drama companies." Chen Zhixi rolled his eyes coquettishly, "Don't divide it too much, just half for each of us."

After saying that, she recalled her previous doubts: "When I came back, I saw you staring at the script. Is there something wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong with the script. It has a neat rhythm of a genre film." Meng Bai flipped open the investment plan, "I saw this."

Chen Zhixi took it and took a look. It said “Estimated shooting time: 4 months”.

"what happened?"

"Based on my production experience, if we want to achieve the lens effect that Director Wu Jing just mentioned, unless there are no mistakes during the filming, 4 months is definitely not enough time."

It is not certain whether real-life shooting or post-production special effects will produce better results, but the former will definitely take longer to shoot.

Especially in this kind of action film with many large scenes, it is easy to miss a detail, resulting in the waste of several days of preparation.

The previous projects of Arc Light were basically all urban backgrounds, without any complicated shots, so they were easy to shoot.

Until the filming of "The Lost Tomb" started, I had gained a lot of experience.

As the shooting time increases, the cost will naturally increase.

For a big production like "Wolf Warrior 2", with a team of thousands of people, it would only take ten days or half a month to spend tens or twenty million.

Chen Zhixi frowned: "Do you think that the production cost may exceed the current profit point?"

"That shouldn't happen. It's just a matter of how much money you make." Meng Bai said with a smile, "Besides, I think if this movie can be made well, the box office will definitely be more than 8 million."

"Haha, brother, this is what everyone wants to hear now."

A firm voice came from the side, and Meng Bai and the others looked over.

It’s Wu Jing.

Chen Zhixi stood up and greeted her. Wu Jing greeted her and then looked at Meng Bai.

"Mr. Chen, who is this?"

"Hello, Director Wu. Nice to meet you. I'm Meng Bai from Arclight Films."

"Arc Light Films..."

Wu Jing shook hands and recalled that he had never heard of this company. Meng Bai obviously saw his thoughts and took the initiative to introduce: "We used to focus on online dramas, and have just started to get involved in film investment in the past two years."

The three of them exchanged a few polite words and sat down. Wu Jing's personality was no different from what he appears on the screen, he was straightforward.

He didn't beat around the bush and directly brought up the topic they had just discussed.

"In fact, what Mr. Meng said just now is correct. The current script is much more complicated than the initial plan."

Wu Jing explained that the first version of the script for Wolf Warrior 2 was rejected during the review process. The current version should actually be the idea for Wolf Warrior 3.

At the beginning, the budget of this project was only 8000 million. Later, as more producers came in, Wu Jing added other elements he wanted to shoot, and the budget increased to 1.2 million.

Later, Beijing North Culture offered a guaranteed budget of 8 million yuan, which attracted more investment, and he wanted to add more things. Now the total budget has increased to 1.5 million yuan.

As the budget increases and the content increases, the shooting time will definitely be extended.

"The planning time of these four months has doubled compared to the initial time." Wu Jing put one arm on the back of the chair, "Looking at it this way, it seems that the estimate is still too short."

"I'm just making a rough estimate, Director Wu, don't worry too much."

Wu Jing smiled and continued, "I saw that Mr. Meng had been reading the script carefully just now. How did you feel about it?"

He just noticed this. Although investors will definitely read the script, most of them only focus on the setting, framework and characters.

Meng Bai was probably the only one in the audience who watched the whole show from beginning to end.

"how to say……"

Meng Bai said: "It's the kind of film that you can tell at first glance that only a big country can make."

"Oh." Wu Jing became interested. "How do you say that?"

"I've watched Wolf Warrior 1 before, it was great, but it still couldn't get rid of the Hong Kong-style police and gangster movie format." Meng Bai said: "But Wolf Warrior 2 is different, both in terms of structure and purpose, it is much higher."

The golden age of Hong Kong movies gave birth to many types of films. Police and gangster films are considered to be one of the classics, and the "Police Stories" series directed by Big Brother Cheng is a representative example.

But no matter how the fights and scenes escalate, it’s still a “super cop versus gangster drug lord” game.

Including a group of Hong Kong film directors who have moved north in recent years, they still cannot do without these elements.

This is actually the limitation of literary and artistic creators, who are subject to the influence of the environment they are in.

Hong Kong Island used to be the financial bridgehead of East Asia, where Eastern and Western cultures collided and blended, thus giving rise to the prosperous Hong Kong film era.

However, as the times change, the audience's horizons are gradually improving. At this time, showing them "police catching drug lords" is somewhat insufficient.

But it is also difficult for Hong Kong films to upgrade.

One is that the directors inherited from the previous golden age have path dependence, and the other is that the content of the film is affected by the environment in which it is located.

It’s like when the Americans filmed a war against aliens, audiences around the world thought it was normal.

But when Ah San also filmed a battle against aliens, there was an inexplicable sense of humor.

Ultimately, such big-budget movies need to be backed by national strength to convince the audience.

The story of "Wolf Warrior 2" is based on the multiple overseas evacuations in previous years.

If it had been filmed ten years ago, not to mention factors like market size and production standards, the biggest problem would have been that the audience wouldn't believe it.

Even when watching it, I couldn't help but ask myself, can we really be so awesome?
Just like twenty years ago, someone at a military forum said that they dreamed that by 2020, we would have our own aircraft carrier.

The reply below is very standard. Stop daydreaming.

But now, the Shandong ship is about to be launched.

At this time, if we film our offshore cruises and missile suppression operations, no one will disbelieve it.

"I just said that I felt the box office of Wolf Warrior 2 would be more than 8 million yuan, which was also based on this point of view - we have developed very well, but we lack a channel that can make everyone proud."

Wu Jing thought for a moment and said, "You mean, we can use patriotism as the main theme of the whole film?"

Meng Bai smiled and said, "It's just my personal opinion. Director Wu, you don't have to take it too seriously."

"No, I think Mr. Meng's idea is very good. Just like you said just now, we lack a movie that can make the audience proud."

Meng Bai's words obviously touched Wu Jing's heart, and his attitude immediately became more friendly.

"By the way, there's a role in the movie, and I'm planning to find a popular actor. Mr. Meng, you've been involved in a lot of film and television dramas, do you have any suitable recommendations?"

"Is it the character of 'Naughty Child'?"

Meng Bai spread his hands: "Director Wu, you really hit the nail on the head. Nine out of ten people who make movies and TV use traffic, and our Arclight happens to be one of the remaining ones. There's really nothing good to recommend."

The generation of action actors has almost been extinct since Wu Jing, let alone those with traffic.

"But if you need it, Director Wu, I can recommend a few to you."

Among the actors in Arc Light, Zhang Ruoyun is not good, but Bai Yu is okay.

Moreover, after the broadcast of "Forensic Qin Ming", its popularity was still quite good.

Although it is somewhat inferior to the so-called "four big and three small", it is also considered to be in the second tier and you can give it a try.

Anyway, the core of this movie is Wu Jing himself, and the other characters are not important.

(End of this chapter)