Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 410 Gu Bei's Little Thoughts

Amy Pascal had a vague idea of ​​Gu Bei's motives.
But she couldn't see through it all yet. As co-chair of the board of directors of Sony Pictures, she could only stay on the New York set for one day before having to return to Los Angeles to work.

A few days later, Amy opened the Hollywood Reporter's website, and the first thing she saw was a picture of Spider-Man.

Did I order the wrong thing?

Amy glanced at the website with some doubt; it was indeed the homepage of The Hollywood Reporter.

It's worth noting that The Hollywood Reporter is arguably one of the most successful entertainment media websites to have transitioned to online platforms. Millions of people browse its homepage news every day, places that money can't buy, while ads are relegated to small, inconspicuous sections on the side.

This position represents a lot of attention.

In North America, where the internet has developed to its current state, attention equals money.

Unless it's a major news story like a Spider-Man reboot, a change of director, or the confirmation of the male and female leads,
Otherwise, ordinary news about the film crew will only appear as a brief message in a lower, less prominent position or in other sections with even less attention.

But today, a still from Spider-Man actually appeared on the homepage in a very open way.
And it's the most crucial and largest position.

No wonder Amy almost thought she had clicked on a less popular section.

After examining it carefully for a while, she finally determined that this was the best spot on the homepage!

What did Bruce do?

Amy clicked on the news out of curiosity.

The news was very simple, just a brief introduction to the reboot of Spider-Man, stating that this new Spider-Man is currently filming in New York.

But while the news itself has basic journalistic principles, the accompanying images are anything but.
In the leaked Spider-Man photo below, Andrew is wearing the classic red and blue suit. The overall design is tight-fitting, perfectly conforming to the body's lines, with a touch of metallic texture, highlighting his agile and powerful physique.

He was standing on top of an abandoned vehicle, with his back to the camera.

Directly in front of us was a densely packed crowd.

Because the focus of the photo is Andrew, the crowd is deliberately blurred, but it is still possible to vaguely see that they are holding up their phones to take pictures of Andrew.

Combined with the cool-toned color filter used in the photos, the overall style evokes a sense of intertwining the humanity of an ordinary person with the divinity of a superhero.

The key is,

This Reuters photo is very realistic.
There's a sense of absurdity about a superhero stepping into the real world.

"Wait a moment!"

Amy then noticed a line of small text on the Reuters photo: "This photo is from Bruce Gou's Twitter."

No wonder she felt that the people in the foreground looked like crew members.

Moreover, she immediately noticed that the angle at which Andrew was standing on the abandoned vehicle looked off; it resembled a scene filmed inside a Spider-Man movie set.

Amy's doubts have now been resolved.
This photo was not only taken inside the film crew's studio, but it was also taken by director Gu Bei.

No wonder the photos have poor resolution, but the composition, color, and lighting are clearly top-notch in the industry. It's because these photos were taken by Gu Bei with a mobile phone.

"Da da da!"

Just then, there was a knock on the office door.

Amy closed the computer screen and straightened her appearance: "Please come in!"

The person who opened the door was James, another executive from Sony Pictures. He was the same executive who had questioned the increased costs of making Spider-Man into a live-action film during the meeting.

James, now all smiles, apologized to her, saying, "Amy, I didn't understand before why you and Bruce insisted on filming the actual movie."

Now it seems you were right. The live-action footage has generated an unprecedented amount of discussion, and more and more people know about our rebooted Spider-Man series. This will be extremely beneficial for our future marketing efforts!

"Yes, Bruce was previously a member of an independent studio, and he has always been very good at using internet marketing, which is why his movies have always been box office hits."

Amy thought for a moment and realized that this Reuters photo had even caught the attention of The Hollywood Reporter, and it must have generated even more discussion on Twitter, the platform where it was originally released.

The reason James was so opposed before but is so enthusiastic now is because publicity is his department's job, and this matter is very beneficial to him.

After Amy watched the other person leave her office,

She frowned slightly and dialed Gu Bei's number.

at the same time,

Gu Bei is communicating with the crew members.
Hearing the phone ring,

He took out his phone, glanced at it, waved to the staff, and answered the call: "Amy, our filming here is going very smoothly!"

"Bruce, you still get a lot of media attention. Even LeBron James has switched sides and agreed with your decision to film the actual footage."

Amy briefly recounted what had just happened to Gu Bei, "But...aren't you worried that overexposure will cause the film to lose its mystique in the eyes of movie fans?"

If moviegoers don't experience any surprises when they go to the cinema, they won't spend ten dollars on a movie ticket, or even twenty dollars on an IMAX ticket!

So that's what you were worried about!

Upon hearing this, Gu Bei immediately understood what Amy was worried about.

Moviegoers are a very discerning group; they spend real money, so their needs should naturally be met.

Moviegoers want to know what kind of experience they can get in the cinema, but they don't like spoilers that make their cinema experience incomplete.

This contradictory mentality also led to the rise of IP movies and sequels in the 20th century.

Gu Bei's recent on-screen appearance with Spider-Man has led to a large amount of leaked information, increasing the film's popularity and generating discussion.

But Amy is worried that if there is too much exposure, the resulting buzz may not translate into box office revenue, and could even cause people who originally wanted to go to the movies to ultimately not go.

He smiled and said confidently, "Don't worry, Amy, the crew's secrecy measures are very thorough. Before the movie is released, probably only we will know the real plot of the movie!"

Don't be fooled by the fact that anyone can take a couple of leaked photos outside the film set.

But the entire production crew was outwardly relaxed but inwardly tense.

Everyone only knows the part of the story they're supposed to know.
The complete plot and script were all in Gu Bei's mind.

This is a tactic that Marvel has mastered in the future: revealing a great deal of information to the outside world through numerous leaked photos and Easter eggs in the early stages, allowing for much discussion.

In addition to the stories left behind by Marvel's decades-long history, and the infinitely expandable space of the Marvel Cinematic Universe,

The promotional period for a typical film is at most a few months; outside of that time, it's impossible to garner as much attention and discussion.

But Marvel movies run 365 days a year.
With news almost every day and big news every week, this model keeps viewers constantly engaged with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

result,

When the movie was actually released,
People noticed that, aside from some unimportant content,

No one can guess the truly important key plot points.

This perfectly aligns with the two conflicting psychological expectations of moviegoers, satisfying their expectations while simultaneously providing them with plenty of surprises.

The audience is God.

This technique is actually the art of managing upwards.

This is also something Gu Bei is quite good at!
"Bruce, you always manage to surprise me!"

After hearing Gu Bei's words, Amy felt much more at ease.

"I can't let you down!"

Gu Bei said lightly.

Although it was he who had a long and drawn-out negotiation with the producers of the Spider-Man trilogy.

Therefore, I persuaded Amy to take the initiative to control the Spider-Man series.
However, Amy went even further than he suggested.

The producers of the Spider-Man trilogy were directly dismissed due to a power struggle, which included Marvel's founder and former CEO.

Amy and Gu Bei became producers of the Spider-Man series, which gave them greater power and freedom, but also greater responsibility.

Gu Bei didn't want to end up like Zack Snyder.

The two chatted for a while longer.
Gu Bei hung up the phone.
Actually, he also had his own little schemes.
It's not movie merchandise,

After all, he acquired the Spider-Man merchandise rights with real money, which was a significant source of funding for the production cost of this Spider-Man film.
So Amy was well aware that he wanted to maintain Spider-Man's popularity in order to sell Spider-Man merchandise.

It came from his tweet featuring those Reuters photos.

Gu Bei opened his Twitter account.

The tweet was very simple, consisting of just the phrase "Awesome Spider-Man" along with a picture.
But below his tweet was an automatically added text: 'Photo taken from Instagram'.

After WhatsApp was launched and had already accumulated a considerable number of users,
Gu Bei then launched Instagram.

He attaches great importance to this application.
Because WhatsApp is too sensitive as an instant messaging service, it will definitely have to be sold in the future.

But Gu Bei intends to keep Instagram, as a photo-sharing app, forever.

Instagram is a social media platform that is unfamiliar to most Chinese people, mainly because it is quite active in cracking down on pornographic content, and it doesn't have the disruptive nature of Twitter, so it has always been primarily a lifestyle sharing platform.

Actually, starting Instagram was quite simple.
It started as a photo-taking app, allowing users to add filters to photos and share them to platforms like Facebook and Twitter with a single click, somewhat like Meitu Xiu Xiu.

However, as a tool application, it lacked any future potential. Later, features such as following, private messages, and information feeds were added, making it essentially a picture version of Weibo or Twitter.

Xiaohongshu's image display mode was inspired by Instagram.

This type of image-based application is inherently more geared towards daily life, unlike Weibo and Twitter which are opinion-driven and constantly seek verification.

Later on, most entertainment stars who didn't want to be opinion leaders migrated to Instagram.

This is also why Gu Bei plans to keep Instagram, so that it can serve as a channel for him and Liu Yifei to speak out in North America in the future. Otherwise, what if other places block them?
In the comments section of that tweet, people have already started discussing Instagram.

"I absolutely love this photo. It's a bit like Peter Parker during the Civil War, caught between two close friends, with the world as bleak as the color palette of this picture!"

"I heard that the rebooted Spider-Man is set in a high school. Why did Bruce Wayne post this color-corrected photo? What is he trying to imply?"

"They probably weren't implying anything. I downloaded this app called Instagram, and this color adjustment is just a built-in filter."

Gu Bei greatly admired this kind of action-oriented person.
If Twitter had a feature that allowed authors to like posts...

He might even want to give the other person a thumbs up, but unfortunately, such a user-friendly feature doesn't exist now.

He opened WhatsApp and asked, "How many downloads does Instagram have now?"

Jason on the other end reacted quickly, replying directly, "It's only been ten days since it launched, and it already has over 50,000 registered users. That's much faster than WhatsApp!"

"Well done!"

Gu Bei praised Jason, "Next, we'll release more filters and more image editing features, and then we can start developing a Twitter-like news feed feature."

Instagram's user growth rate is even faster.
Gu Bei was not surprised.
After all, if no one is chatting on WhatsApp,

A piece of software alone has no value.

Even without social features, Instagram, as a simple image optimization app, already has a certain level of fun to play with.

Even if it's just adding a filter to a photo that's already been taken,
That's enough to motivate users to download it, and once downloaded, they'll play it for a while.

However, these tool-like applications start easy and gradually become more difficult. Without the binding of social attributes, they will soon become dead apps on the phone, and having a large number of registered users will be of no use.

After all, once this app starts charging, a hundred similar apps will immediately flood the market.

While Gu Bei was still chatting with Jason, his phone rang again. This time, the caller was Karen Rosensford, the president of production at Rose Pictures.

"Karen, is something the matter?"

Gu Bei answered the call and asked.

Karen asked tentatively, "Bruce, you haven't forgotten that The Walking Dead is premiering in April, have you?"

Gu Bei: “…”

He has clearly forgotten.

However, he still felt that his actions were understandable: "Karen, this project has been dragging on for far too long!"

He acquired the rights to The Walking Dead at the end of 2007, wrote the script, and began negotiating with various television stations. After much back and forth, it wasn't until Karen took over that an agreement was reached with HBO for the first season.

The concept trailer for the trip to Hangzhou was announced at San Diego Comic-Con last July, and it's only now that it's ready to air. In the meantime, Gu Bei has already finished filming several movies.

Karen said somewhat helplessly, "Bruce, this is the development process for TV series. The Walking Dead is already considered to be in relatively fast development progress because of you."

No wonder Netflix will crush them in the future!
Gu Bei couldn't help but shake his head.
This development process is just too slow.
However, he still has high expectations for the performance of The Walking Dead.

After all, the premiere of The Walking Dead signifies that Rose Pictures' television division is taking shape, and among the Big Six, the television division is often more profitable than the film division!
(End of this chapter)