Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 6 It’s time to work again!
There are many things to consider when submitting to a film festival. Film academies certainly have their own sources of information, so you won’t be deceived.

Some seniors are veterans of film festivals. They spend three to five years making a short film and submit it to dozens of film festivals, big and small, both at home and abroad. They make a living by receiving hundreds or thousands of prize money after winning an award. If they are lucky enough to have the copyright bought by a film producer, they can make a small fortune, and their hard work over the years will not be in vain.

If you are noticed by a boss and receive investment support, you have to go to the temple to fulfill your wish and see if smoke comes out of your ancestral grave.

Li Qiutang knows several such directors - it is not easy to independently direct a theatrical film, and one has to endure a lot in the early stages.

After the editing was completed, Li Qiutang felt much more relaxed. She no longer needed to do the work such as music composition, color grading, and subtitles herself, as she had the help of professional classmates.

The students who were doing this part of the work were very confused: "Isn't this a graduation project? Why are you giving me a feature film to work on?"

This problem spread among the student community, but fortunately it did not attract special attention.

Jiang Wei is looking for a distributor for Li Qiutang, but Li Qiutang will not sit idly by and is also actively trying to get it.

Whether it was large private studios such as Huayi, Bona, and Forbidden City, or some small film companies, Li Qiutang submitted his resume and brought CDs of his previous works, hoping to get a chance to meet them.

Some companies would meet with him, but most of the time, Li Qiutang didn't get the chance to meet them.

When they met his company and heard that he was there to promote his film for distribution, they all shook their heads and refused.

No one would dare to take such a big risk to release a student work, no matter what reasons he used to trick Qin Lan into starring in it.

To put it another way, Qin Lan's name is not very popular in the film industry.

After encountering this situation for several days, Li Qiutang did not become discouraged because he knew that this situation was normal.

If he were the owner of a film company, he would not release a student's film.

The progress on Teacher Jiang Wei's side was not going smoothly either. He knew a lot of good people, but he couldn't convince them to distribute a student film.

When Li Qiutang was not at the academy, Jiang Wei brought the distribution managers of Huayi and China Film Group to watch the sample film. Both of them had the same attitude: "The film is good, but I won't take it."

Jiang Wei even invited people from the movie channel to watch it.

"The movie channel is interested." Jiang Wei still brought good news to Li Qiutang.

Li Qiutang was very happy that the movie channel could also broadcast theater movies.

"But they said they would not release it in theaters, but would broadcast it directly on their channel." Jiang Wei was quite satisfied with this plan and held up two fingers. "They offered 200 million, which is not a low price."

Of course it’s not low. The movie channel charges 200 million for any movie it buys.

The graduation work was sold to a movie channel for broadcast, which put her ahead of 99% of the people. However, Jiang Wei knew that Li Qiutang’s first choice was to have it released in theaters.

Li Qiutang nodded and admitted that this was a good plan, but still said, "Wait a little longer, I'll apply to a few film festivals and see the response."

Li Qiutang gently put down the olive branch from the movie channel because he had some savings and no life problems. He had plenty of time and money. If he changed to another graduating director, he would definitely sell the product to the movie channel.

Li Qiutang pulled out a folder containing information on more than a hundred film festivals of all sizes around the world. This is essential information for many directing students.

Li Qiutang flipped through the catalog and combined it with the information on the official film festival website, and decided to submit the film to two recent ones first, the Canadian Fantastic Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

The registration for the former will close next month, while the registration period for the latter still has more than two months.

After downloading the registration form from their respective official websites, Li Qiutang filled it out quickly, then went out to the bank to exchange some US dollars for the registration fee. When he came back, he did not forget to watch the post-production of "The Night the Comet Came", and his progress was good.

But to apply for an international film festival, he had to find someone to make English subtitles. This was not a problem for Li Qiutang, as it was a matter of spending some money. After he had completed all the preparations for applying for the film festival and the post-production of "The Night the Comet Came", he submitted the film to the General Administration the next day and began the film festival approval procedures.

Just as Professor Jiang Wei said, this film did not touch on any taboos and was easily approved. The General Administration approved "The Night the Comet Came" to be screened at the Canadian Fantastic Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival within a week - it was just a student's homework, so there was nothing to be stressed about.

After finishing the application for the film festival, it was already the end of April. Li Qiutang suddenly had no work on hand and felt a lot more relaxed.

That day, Li Qiutang had just returned from outside when someone came to look for him.

"Qiutang, I have a job here, would you like to take it?"

"I opened this studio just to take on jobs." Li Qiutang said with a smile. Before he became successful and famous, he still had to take on jobs. "What kind of jobs? Advertising or promotional videos?"

"For an MV, they plan and shoot it, and they take care of the post-production, but you have to keep an eye on it. It costs 8 yuan."

"No problem." The planning and shooting of the MV can be completed in a week or two. The money is good. "Do you want to come to my place or do I go to your place?"

8 yuan for one or two weeks is a very generous reward.

"I'll give you an address, and we'll meet up with the person. It's up to him to decide whether to use it or not. I'm telling you, this is just you. I wouldn't give 8 to anyone else."

As the introducer, the agency fee is what he deserves, and Li Qiutang had no objection: "Okay, okay, thank you for bringing me work, I'll treat you to dinner later."

After hanging up the phone while chatting and laughing, Li Qiutang packed up, put on her bag and went out.

When Li Qiutang took on filming jobs in the past, the discussions would take place either in the client's office or in a restaurant, and they were rarely held in a coffee shop.

Even less conversation takes place in such a high-end cafe.

It’s not that Li Qiutang is a country bumpkin who has never seen the world, but her previous job didn’t require her to work in such a high-end place.

Li Qiutang knew that her teacher often met with actors to discuss plays in the noodle shop, and it didn't interfere with anything.

The middleman was a middle-aged man who had worked with Li Qiutang many times. When he saw him coming, he enthusiastically pulled Li Qiutang inside and said, "Let me tell you, this company has money and the work is easy, but I don't think the people are easy to serve."

"It's okay, it's just an MV. It's not like I haven't filmed one before. Let's talk about it slowly." Li Qiutang said.

Li Qiutang arrived first. He had just sat down and was thinking about whether to order a drink when Party A's people came.

There were two people coming, a man and a woman. The man was nearly middle-aged and the woman was very young.

Seeing this girl, Li Qiutang smiled meaningfully.

"Sorry for being late." The middle-aged man spoke first. It seemed that he was the main person in charge of this cooperation negotiation.

"It's okay, we just arrived."

The two sat down, and the middle-aged man said, "Would you like something to drink? The cakes and coffee here are good."

The four of them ordered something, put down the menus and started talking about the collaboration.

"Our company is newly established and is called Starry Sky. Currently, we only have one artist, Tiantian. This MV is shot for her new song." The middle-aged man went straight to the point.

(End of this chapter)