Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 631 Supplementary Record of Marketing
"The Butterfly Lovers" embodies Li Qiutang's views on life and family, so unlike his commercial films, it can be entrusted to the editor with confidence. He only intervenes in the work during the fine-cutting stage. In the post-production of "The Butterfly Lovers", Li Qiutang started working with the editing assistant from the material organization stage.

The editor was in Yanjing, while Li Qiutang was at Oriental Movie Metropolis. They collaborated through cloud-based methods, as cloud-based editing technology is quite mature.

This is good, but because the crew of "The Wandering Earth" had so much work, Li Qiutang was unable to devote much time and energy to the post-production of "The Butterfly Lovers," which resulted in the editing work progressing very slowly.

The work of dividing the film into sections and organizing materials usually takes 1-2 weeks, but it has taken more than 40 days since the filming of "The Butterfly Lovers" was completed to finish this task.

Although Li Qiutang promised Elena that he would try to make it to Venice, he did not tell the editor of "The Butterfly Lovers" about it or pass on the time pressure to the editor. In fact, once he started post-production work, especially while preparing for "The Wandering Earth," he put the film festival out of his mind.

I will do whatever I need to do. It would be best if I could catch up, but it doesn't matter if I can't.

Li Qiutang has a good mindset.

However, the marketing and publicity department thought differently. They believed that the film "The Butterfly Lovers" had already gained favor from both the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals before filming was even finished. What great publicity material it was! It would be a waste not to take advantage of it!

If it were any other director, the publicity and distribution would have started immediately, but Li Qiutang is not another director, so the publicity and distribution team still needs to consult him beforehand.

When the publicity team presented the plan, Li Qiutang hesitated.

Li Qiutang had to admit that this was indeed a very good marketing plan.

But we must admit that the marketing is a bit premature, as the film has only been completed for a little over a month.

But if we don't play this card now, we won't have such a good opportunity again; once this opportunity is gone, it's gone forever.

In the end, Mr. Li neither agreed nor refused, only saying that he was currently working on the post-production of "The Butterfly Lovers" and the pre-production of "The Wandering Earth," and was so busy that he was dizzy.

Understood!
The next day, a media outlet from the Beijing Film Festival issued a press release stating that director Li Qiutang's new film "The Butterfly Lovers" had received an invitation from the Cannes Film Festival selectors during filming and was now in full swing for post-production.

"The Cannes Film Festival officially announced the list of films selected for all sections last week, but Cannes has a tradition of adding new entries, making it easier for films that it favors. 'The Butterfly Lovers' is very likely to be included in the new entry list."

"There are still no Chinese films in the current list of nominees for the main competition. This is the second consecutive year that Chinese-language films have been absent from the Cannes main competition. This year is the 70th anniversary of Cannes, and Li Qiutang's nomination may make up for this regret."

"Fan Bingbing serves as a judge for this year's main competition. As is well known, Fan Bingbing has a close relationship with the couple Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei, which may help 'The Butterfly Lovers' win an award."

It's as if they're certain that "The Butterfly Lovers" will be added to the main competition.

This is the uncontrollable nature of marketing; once marketing begins, the direction it takes is often beyond the control of the organizers.

However, this loss of control also facilitates the spread of public opinion to some extent.

Sure enough, some of Liu Yifei's fans started popping champagne in advance to celebrate her nomination for Cannes.

"Her first art film was nominated for Cannes, making her a powerful and talented actress."

“艺菲实在领先太多了。”其实也没领先什么，国内此前有8个80后女演员入围过9次三大主竞赛，范兵兵一人入围了两次，如果算85年龄段，张雨琪（86年）和辛祉蕾（86年）于2012年和2016年分别凭借《白鹿原》和《长江图》入围了柏林主竞赛。

After years of reflection, some rational fans have quickly issued a statement:

"The supplementary list has not been announced yet. Please refer to the official announcements from the production team and the film festival for the most accurate information."

"Don't spread rumors. Yifei doesn't compare herself to anyone. The fact that she can act in art films is already a breakthrough for her." No fan group in the Chinese entertainment industry understands the principle of "the bigger the tree, the more the wind blows" better than Yifei's fans. Many fans want to see her actively working, but at the same time, they hope she stays put and doesn't wander around.

Whenever this young lady makes headlines or trends on social media, her fans are terrified.

This time, they're saying that "The Butterfly Lovers" will be re-recorded at Cannes. If they open the champagne early but it doesn't get recorded, they'll be ridiculed to death by the fans of other artists.

However, the "supplementary marketing" strategy was very effective. "The Butterfly Lovers" was originally a low-budget art film, and even though Li Qiutang was the director, the publicity and distribution budget could not be poured in infinitely. Every penny of the publicity and distribution budget had to be used wisely.

Besides, what did I say wrong?
Is the production of "The Butterfly Lovers" in post-production, with everyone working day and night? Has it received an invitation from Cannes? Is it said that Li Qiutang will be given additional recording time?
With the May Day holiday approaching and Liu Yifei having a new film coming out, this marketing campaign for "The Butterfly Lovers" has indeed garnered a lot of attention for both herself and Liu Yifei.

Reporters couldn't find Li Qiutang; he was shuttling between two film crews and had no time for interviews. However, Liu Yifei had been busy promoting "Now I'll See You" these past few days, so reporters could easily find her. The key point was that the male and female leads of "Now I'll See You" were the same male and female leads of "The Butterfly Lovers," making it even easier to ask questions.

However, when asked about the reshoots for Cannes, both Qin Hao and Liu Yifei said they were not sure and that they would refer to the production team's announcement for the most accurate information.

They genuinely didn't know that the marketing team hadn't informed the actors about this reshoot.

Getting nominated for Cannes is definitely the director's job.

It's understandable that others might not know, but Liu Yifei's claim of not knowing clearly fails to convince reporters.

But Liu Yifei said, "I only know that Jon, the Cannes film selector, came to the film crew, but I don't know if it was to discuss an invitation."

“He’s busy right now. I texted him last night and he didn’t reply until after 3 a.m.

"He's been flying all over the country lately, I don't even know where he is now, haha."

However, the topic eventually has to return to "Now I'll See You".

Liu Yifei said that her return to romance films after such a long hiatus was not intentional: "I don't know why, but it seems that I've received very few offers for romance films in recent years, and even fewer that can move me."

The reporter joked, "Could it be because you got married?"

Liu Yifei laughed and said, "There are also many actors who continue to act in love stories after getting married."

He then talked about the impact of marriage on his acting in romance films.

Liu Yifei admitted that the feeling was different: "Before I got married, I also acted in romance films such as 'The Beauty Inside' and 'Architecture 101,' but the feeling at that time was completely different from now."

"When acting in love scenes after marriage, I tend to think more deeply and be more realistic." Liu Yifei also admitted that this "thinking more" helps her create more authentic and three-dimensional characters.

A reporter asked a netizen: "Which moves you more, the husband's actions in the movie or director Li Qiutang in real life?"

Liu Yifei covered her face with a media sign and smiled shyly: "Oh dear~"

"Yifei is shy." The reporter laughed.

Liu Yifei chose to answer the question: "That would definitely be my husband in real life."

(End of this chapter)