2001 Media Godfather

Chapter 101 Continue to cheat
Chu An firmly denied that he had tricked Su Manqing.

"Isn't Teacher Su being a bit petty? I only tell these things to close friends like us."

"Otherwise," Chu An said sincerely, "otherwise people won't think I'm crazy?"

Su Manqing thought about it and decided to trust him this once.
A few days later, Zou Qingsong made a cameo appearance.

During a break from filming, Chu An had a long talk with Actor Zou.

"Old Zou, I actually have a grand ideal."

Actor Zou was stunned by what he heard, and exclaimed, "It's so good to be young, you can do whatever you want!"

Chu An grinned, handing over the script, "Then it's settled!"

Su Manqing, “.”

It's finally confirmed that this guy has long since given up his conscience.

By March 2003, filming for "Glory" had been underway for four months and was nearing completion.

But the crew surprisingly gave everyone a day off.

The reason is simple: when the nomination list for the 2003 Golden Eagle Awards was announced, Lu Mingze was nominated for his previous Qing Dynasty drama, while Su Manqing, as a movie goddess who married into the television industry, naturally received a lot of attention and became an award presenter.

The awards ceremony is scheduled for September, and the two will attend the organizing committee's preliminary activities.

Chu An shamelessly followed along to crash the red carpet.

To be honest, neither Lu Mingze nor Su Manqing really wanted to take him along, because this guy was a bit of a embarrassment.

The three of them attended as a film crew and acted as a unit, but Lao Lu and Teacher Su were completely overshadowed by Chu An.

Whenever this guy meets someone with even a little bit of fame, whether they're a celebrity or a director, he goes up to them and starts talking about his grand ideals.

Originally, no one was familiar with him, and after the incident of getting rid of Ji Yang, he was a bit too outspoken, so everyone subconsciously wanted to avoid him.

But this person acted as if they didn't know anything and just kept sticking it on!
With Lu Mingze and Su Manqing standing nearby, it wouldn't be right for anyone not to give Teacher Chu face, would it?

I politely accepted the script, added Chu An's contact information, and the replies were basically the same: "I will consider it carefully and look forward to working with Teacher Chu."

In reality, it was a polite refusal.

After all, it's just a collection of short stories, and it's even in the science fiction category, so I don't have much confidence in it.

After the event ended, Su Manqing couldn't resist mocking Chu An, "Did you come for nothing?"

Chu An, however, didn't take it to heart. "How can you say it was a wasted trip? Who knows what will happen in the future?"

In short, this was just a side story. Back on set, under Lu Mingze's leadership, the entire crew moved to Xichang.

The original series filmed its space-themed scenes in Wenchang, Hainan. However, the Wenchang launch site wasn't completed and put into operation until 2014. In 2003, the main locations were Xichang and Jiuquan.

Filming in Xichang lasted just over a week before wrapping up for the entire series, and "Glory" officially entered the post-production editing stage.

During filming, CCTV's purchasing department visited the set and affirmed the production quality of the series. In addition...
CCTV is experiencing a drama drought this year!

The two big-budget productions that aired at the beginning of the year didn't receive particularly good responses, so CCTV was urging them to hurry up.

Sun Jianyi even gave Lao Lu and Chu An a strict order: the show must premiere in July during the summer vacation.

This means they were given less than four months for post-production.

Logically speaking, many game elements in "Honor of Kings" require special effects production, and this timeframe is not feasible.

Fortunately, the special effects weren't too difficult; they were mostly CG cutouts of game characters. There was no need to hire a special effects company; Green Field could handle the rest in advance.

Moreover, Xiang Lintao was very willing to share this part of the work; he was even more eager than CCTV.

It's worth noting that "Race Wars" is now called "Glory." The game was completed in early 02; they were just waiting for the TV series to generate buzz so they could release it.

Xiang Lintao was eager to have something to do, and the whole company worked overtime to cooperate on the special effects production.

This greatly relieved Lu Mingze's pressure; he only needed to do the editing and add the special effects.

Chu An didn't join Lao Lu in his work; he had other things to do.

As for Su Manqing, "Heart Fire" has completed post-production and was submitted to Cannes in January.

As Chu An previously stated, Su Manqing expressed in a public interview that she cares deeply about Cannes and hopes to accomplish the feat of unifying the three major European film festivals.

However, both directors Sofia Coppola and Nicolas Cage have made it clear that they would prefer to start from the Venice Film Festival.

When interviewed by Hollywood reporters, Cage bluntly stated, "Cannes will not allow a Chinese person to achieve the unification of the three Best Actress awards."

"On the contrary, I think a more enlightened Venice would welcome their consecutive Best Actress wins."

Cage isn't exactly a saint either; his acting skills were on full display when facing reporters. He exaggeratedly said, "Suzy isn't thinking straight. Two Venice Film Festival Best Actress awards are just as valuable as Cannes!"

These words made the Venice Film Festival extremely pleased, and this year's jury president even publicly called on Su Manqing, saying, "Su should listen to Cage's advice. Venice welcomes our Best Actress home!"

结果
In the end, what the outside world saw was that neither Cage nor Sofia could win over their leading lady, and "Firelight" was still submitted to the 2003 Cannes Film Festival despite the great attention it received.

This has caused great concern for the organizers of Cannes.

As Chu An wished, the most painful thing was Cannes. Should they give the award or not?

Chu An has finished filming "Glory," and his next task is to help Su Manqing win the Cannes Film Festival award.

At the end of March, Sofia and Cage visited China again.

Last time, I came to meet their screenwriter. This time, I came to meet their public relations and PR team.

Of course, the people I need to see are all the same.

Moreover, they had to come to China; it would be absurd if Chu An hadn't gone to the United States.

Chu An's visa application was rejected.
Upon meeting, Cage joked, "Chicago, you owe me a Cannes trophy!"

Nicolas Cage has suffered a huge loss this time, having sacrificed too much for his cousin and Su Manqing's award-winning endeavors.

They've really offended Cannes.

Chu An shrugged at his teasing, "I may never be able to pay off this debt in my lifetime."

Pulling Cage and Sofia aside, he said, "Let's not talk about business for now." He pulled out the script for "Love, Death & Robots," and said, "I have a really cool, really challenging idea to share with you guys."

Cage and Sophia immediately became interested upon hearing this.

Su Manqing rolled her eyes. This bastard is at it again.

Moreover, she just couldn't understand why Chu An was so good at judging people based on their status!
He only talks about lofty ideals with Chinese people.

But when faced with two Hollywood figures, especially Nicolas Cage, a film fanatic, he changed his story again, presenting a very cool and avant-garde idea.

Of course, this is on the premise that the script for Love, Death & Robots is excellent and each individual story is fantastic.

Cage flipped through the script, and without Chu An even needing to persuade him, he exclaimed, "Oh my God! I love this story about Chima so much!"

The episodic story Cage tells of a future great artist named Chima who loves a particular shade of blue, which is named Chima Blue by the world.

In Qima's works, one can always see that mysterious blue.

Moreover, as Qima's works become more grand and imaginative, the proportion of that blue color also increases.

Until the very end, blue filled the entire canvas.

At the same time, Chima also announced to the world that he would soon be presenting his final work.

Against this backdrop, Chima gave an exclusive interview to a reporter, recounting his life story.

It turns out that Qima is not human, but an intelligent mechanical entity. Many years ago, Qima was just an ordinary pool cleaning robot, repeating simple cleaning tasks every day.

And the blue he loves is the color of the swimming pool.

Later, Qima's owner upgraded it, giving Qima self-awareness. From then on, the world lost a swimming pool robot and gained an artist, Qima.

The stage for Qima's final work was the very place where he was born—a deep blue swimming pool.

On the day of the exhibition, Chima jumped into the pool under the world's watchful eyes, and then all the components of his body began to disintegrate.

Emerging from the mechanical shell of artist Chima, the swimming pool robot returns to its own world, where it performs simple cleaning tasks.

Cage has a great eye; this story is considered the most thought-provoking and philosophical passage in Love, Death & Robots.

Cage took a liking to it at first sight.

What was Chu An waiting for? "Then it's settled. You'll play Qi Ma!"

Upon hearing this, Cage was overjoyed and readily agreed, saying, "I will definitely study this role carefully and strive to give it my best!"

Cage doesn't care whether it's a short film or not; as long as he approves, this guy will take it extremely seriously.

However, afterwards, Cage realized, "Didn't I come here to discuss 'Firelight'? How did I end up taking on a Chinese short film?"
As for Sophia, Chu An didn't need to persuade her much; Sophia was naturally passionate about new things.

This experimental collection of short films uses science fiction as a guise to tell profound life philosophies, and then delves into love and death.

These elements were enough to attract her; she chose two story segments with a female focus and agreed to direct them.

However, Sofia also made a request: "Can I assemble my own filming team?"

She still lacks confidence in the production quality of Chinese films.

Chu An originally didn't want to agree to her request. The purpose of making the short film was to train the troops, but Sophia used a Hollywood team, so what kind of training was that?!
There's no need for that!

But on second thought, it's not impossible.

"If you can guarantee that the production will be completed in China, I have no objection."

Sofia had no objection to this, and it even saved her money!
Chu An won them over so easily.

Next, we'll move on to the public relations and distribution of "Heartfire".

The PR campaign wasn't for the sake of the film's release, but for the sake of winning awards.

In fact, compared to more mature film markets abroad, winning an award is essentially a form of distribution and promotion.

The industry has matured to the point that the actual impact of each award on box office revenue can be precisely calculated.

Although Chu An didn't know the exact figures, he was aware that winning awards in Hollywood could significantly boost box office revenue, and that international A-list film festivals like the Golden Globes, Cannes, and Berlin all had "clearly defined prices."

Chu An's strategy for winning Cannes is actually quite simple.

"Too much of a good thing is bad. Mr. Cage's earlier remarks were enough. It's not appropriate to do too much exposure now, lest it provoke the Cannes authorities."

Sofia listened attentively. After spending more than a year with Su Manqing, the two had become best friends across the border. She was extremely keen to help Su Manqing win the Cannes trophy.

"Does Chu mean to do nothing?"

Chu An laughed, "Of course not."

"What I mean is that it's not advisable to do anything that gets too much exposure, but private public relations are still essential."

Cage was still preoccupied with how to play the curious horse and didn't pay much attention to the discussion. "Chu, you just need to tell us what we should do, and Sophia and I will try our best to cooperate."

Chu An: "That would be perfect! In fact, the public relations that follows are exactly what Hollywood excels at."

"Just do some public relations with the Cannes organizers and jury."

Both Cage and Sophia were taken aback by these words.

Cage finally stopped thinking about Chima and frowned, saying, "Chu, you probably don't know much about those old-fashioned Europeans, do you? They don't buy into our ways!"

Hollywood awards PR is more like Hollywood itself.

Before the awards ceremony, distribution companies and production companies hold various screenings and receptions to promote their films.

Of course, this is just the surface; it is still a form of bribery in disguise.

Journalists and judges alike are often subjected to bribery and favoritism. When it comes to using connections, it's the same all over the world.

As for those powerful figures who cannot be swayed by petty gains, there are ways to make them compromise. For example, through exchanges of benefits, power-for-sex deals, and so on.

The famous Stan was extremely skilled at this.

Epstein's downfall was due to the fact that he was targeted and vilified by countless people.

It's not because of how many people he slept with. In Hollywood, if you don't accept the "red sofa," you have no connection with Mr. Stan.

No matter how stunningly beautiful you are, if you don't sleep with someone, there are plenty of people who are willing to.

What's infuriating is that Mr. Stan not only sleeps with actresses himself, but he also sends them to other people to sleep with in order to achieve his public relations goals, which is a bit too much.

Far away.

In short, the Hollywood approach doesn't work in Europe; those old fogies are arrogant and prefer to do things secretly.

They avoid overt public relations tactics like the plague. And they especially despise the nouveau riche mentality of the United States.

Cage's meaning is clear: your approach won't work in Europe!

Chu An said disdainfully, "Why are you so honest?"

"Do you really have to throw a PR party?"

"Can't you put it another way?"

Cage, "???"

Chu An shoved the script of "Love, Death & Robots" into his hands, "Can't you hold a script appreciation event?"

"Let's say you've got a brilliant script, but Hollywood is ultimately superficial when it comes to such profound subjects, and you need the help and appreciation of your European colleagues."

"They both flattered him and arranged the event."

Cage, “.”

Sofia, “.”

Su Manqing, “.”

Chu An hadn't finished speaking yet, "Find a famous castle, somewhere remote."

"We invite everyone over, discuss the script, have some food and drinks, and even have some minor, low-tier actors willing to sacrifice themselves to accompany us."

"You think those people are really noble?! They're just pretending to be virtuous!"

"Maybe when the atmosphere is right, they'll do even more elaborate things than you Americans!"

Cage, Sophia, "."

Teacher Chu is quite shrewd!
Su Manqing narrowed her eyes slightly, sensing that Chu An's motives were still impure.

His terrible script was even discussed in Europe?

How many layers of gold plating would that take?

.

(End of this chapter)