Huayu: Starting from joining the mainstream entertainment industry in 96

Chapter 38: Roll it up, roll it up, just roll it up!

the following few days.

September 9st, September 10th.

Wang Sheng gradually built up the advertising shooting team, which will later travel to Lucheng to complete its first 'customized' business.

The entire filming team consisted of 13 people.

The production team consists of 3 directors, 4 cinematographers, 2 lighting technicians, 2 sound engineers, 1 costume and makeup artist, and 1 producer.

The entire team is centered around the producer, with Wang Sheng serving as the chief producer.

This was a well-thought-out decision. Wang Sheng considers himself to have only average talent as a director. If he were truly exceptionally talented, he wouldn't have stopped at directing web series.

In addition, directing takes too much time. Filming a movie can take anywhere from one or two months to an unlimited amount of time. Wang Sheng won't have time for that in the future.

What he needs is a capable, engineer-type director to take over the directing duties.

Looking within the industry, the most suitable candidate is undoubtedly Feng Xiaogang, who rose to fame by flattering the children of high-ranking officials. His career path is remarkably stable.

Wang Shuo mentored Feng Xiaogang in film production, intending to use Feng Xiaogang as a support director, but unexpectedly, this backfired.

However, we can't blame Feng Xiaogang alone for this.

This is not an attempt to whitewash the pants.

It was Wang Shuo who was provoked by those people and started hurling insults at them, which ultimately led to his film failing to pass censorship in China. Even going underground as a film producer didn't work, and he was eventually slapped down by them, forcing him to flee to the United States for refuge, where he was blacklisted for several years.

You can't blame Wang Shuo; the struggle for interests has always been ruthless.

As for the backlash from Feng Xiaogang, both sides have their own reasons for their arguments.

In his autobiography, "I Dedicated My Youth to You," Feng Xiaogang mentioned that Wang Shuo explicitly stated, "It's troublesome if you put my name on the list, but it's fine if you don't."

Wang Shuo later confirmed this statement in an interview, saying that "not being credited was to ensure the film's smooth release."

After the film grossed 3600 million yuan at the box office, Feng Xiaogang gave Wang Shuo 5 yuan as compensation, but Wang Shuo refused to accept it and "kicked him out with the money." It is said that Wang Shuo felt that this was an insult and exposed Feng Xiaogang's utilitarian mentality.

Later, Wang Shuo publicly criticized Feng Xiaogang on many occasions for his "inflated desires."

When Wang Sheng first saw these gossip stories, he suspected that Wang Shuo did it on purpose, not wanting to implicate Feng Xiaogang, since the two later became very close again.

As for the rights and wrongs, only God knows.

Wang Sheng can't afford Feng Xiaogang now.

Then we'll have to cultivate this kind of engineer-type director ourselves.

If you copy the original work exactly without changing anything, why would you be afraid of the director making a mistake?

Directors from the Beijing Film Academy would absolutely not pay any attention to Wang Sheng; their goal is, at the very least, to make a name for themselves in film history.

For example, Lu Chuan, Wu Ersan, Section Chief Jia...

Just then, a rather experienced assistant cinematographer jumped ship from the photography workshop. He was only a step away from becoming a proper cinematographer and had already served as a co-shooter on many film sets. His name was quite unique: Wu Yiyi.

During the reform of the film industry, there was a lot of upheaval and chaos, which buried too many talents. Wu Yiyi may be one of them.

Wang Sheng glanced at the other person's resume and thought it was acceptable. He was not from an undergraduate program, meaning he had no background. However, he had experience as a co-camera photographer multiple times, which meant he knew how to cooperate with the crew and understood how the crew operated.

Wang Sheng talked to Wu Yiyi about his idea of ​​transitioning to a director, aiming for a position comparable to a master cinematographer, specializing in big projects.

With elderly parents to care for and young children to raise, Wu Yiyi, who is in her early thirties, genuinely switched jobs to earn more money, so she readily agreed.

The lighting and sound crew members were all poached from the Beijing Film Studio.

Xu Ling was in charge of the costume and makeup team.

...May 11, morning.

The advertisement for 'Baihua Leather Shoes' has officially begun filming.

June 5, afternoon.

The advertisement for 'Baihua Leather Shoes' has been filmed and is now in post-production.

……

In the past two days, besides working on set, Wang Sheng took advantage of his free time to copy two popular wedding songs—"Let's Get Married" and "For You"—and registered their copyrights.

Compared to television program copyrights, individuals can still fight for song copyrights.

……

the following few days.

While keeping an eye on the post-production progress of the commercial, Wang Sheng also took the time to write the script and planning proposal for a 'customized' wedding movie.

The company's business is proceeding smoothly.

Monkey, who was in charge of the "Golden Jubilee Collection" and "Platinum Impression" projects, completed several orders, received the final payment, and received positive reviews.

……

The time came to the morning of May 21st.

The day we were about to depart for Lucheng.

Preparations for the first 'personalized' package have been completed.

Shengying Media Office.

Wang Sheng had just finished a mobilization meeting and told everyone to go home, pack their things, and take the afternoon train.

"Mr. Wang, please take a look at this."

At this moment, assistant Li Tingting came over and handed her a copy of today's "Beijing Daily".

Wang Sheng took the newspaper, and a striking headline in the social news section caught his eye: "Exorbitant Wedding Prices Trigger a Bandwagon Effect, Wedding Videography Studios Sprout Up Like Mushrooms Across the Country."

The article states: "Following the news on the 5th of this month that a film studio team produced an exorbitantly priced wedding video, an investigation by reporters revealed that within just two weeks, a number of individuals or studios offering 'high-end wedding video' services have rapidly emerged across the country, especially in major cities. Many of the participants are children of laid-off or reassigned employees from film studios and television stations, unemployed youth, and even employees of state-owned cultural institutions taking on private projects..."

The report cited several examples: several children of employees from Changchun Film Studio pooled their money to buy a second-hand VHS camcorder and hung up a sign that read "Professional Wedding Photography for Changchun Film Studio Employees"; an advertising company employee in Guangzhou worked part-time on weekends, claiming to provide "Hong Kong-style wedding photography"; and an employee of a cultural center in a Shanghai district directly imitated the package model of "Shengying Media" and launched slightly cheaper services such as "Classic Collection" and "Magnolia Image"...

The article concludes by commenting: "In the tide of the market economy, the barriers to imitation for emerging service models are extremely low. Can the 'Beijing Film Studio model' maintain its leading position among imitators due to its professional barriers? How long can the craze it has generated last? Will the ubiquitous 'wedding video recording' services fall into vicious price competition? All of this still needs to be tested by the market."

The actual situation is more serious than reported.

Basically, film studios all over the country have set up 'wedding film companies'.

Film studios are struggling to survive. They have equipment and manpower, and if they don't seize the opportunity to make money, they're really foolish.

More importantly, the nationwide public opinion generated by the 'wedding movie' gimmick helped them save a lot of publicity resources. Some shameless ones even filmed the same 'veil kiss' advertisement as Shengying Media. Although many of them did not imitate the essence, they still caused quite a stir locally.

There's no way around it; this is an era that is both conservative and open. Despite the population growing by leaps and bounds, seeing images of kissing still unconsciously arouses desire.

Go ahead and roll it up, just roll it up!
In any case, Shengying Media doesn't have the resources to expand into the national market right now, so their entry is perfect for cultivating the market.

Wang Sheng handed the newspaper back to Li Tingting: "It's not a big problem, you can go back and pack up too."

"okay."

……

　Wedding videography prices have been changed: entry-level package 1999, mid-range package 3999, mid-to-high-end package 6999, Golden Jubilee Collection 9999, Platinum Image 19999, and private customization with no upper limit.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)