The Rise of Chinese Entertainment in 2008

"Click!"

After Gu Ning yelled "Cut!", she smiled, clapped, and shouted, "Let's congratulate the four teachers on wrapping up filming!"

Although her scenes in The Voice were only a dozen minutes long, the entire shoot took three days and is finally over.

"Director Gu is too kind."

Liu Huan laughed and said, "I didn't expect Director Gu to be able to write songs. The lyrics are very good. We can exchange ideas sometime in the future."

"Teacher Liu is too kind to me. I'm not a professional, I just wrote whatever came to mind," Gu Ning said with a smile.

He couldn't possibly remember the script perfectly; he just filled in the blanks using the general framework.

In his story, Meng Lijun always loved singing, but family matters prevented her from having the time and energy to pursue her dreams.

After becoming younger, she joined her grandson Xiang Qianjin's band to help him fulfill his dream.

During the band's rehearsal period, their pursuit of dreams was rekindled, and they wrote a song inspired by their feelings.

Therefore, an original song was needed, and he spent a lot of his brain cells on it.

"Director Gu is too modest. The song is very well written, and I personally like it very much," Yang Kun said with a smile.

During our casual conversation these past few days, Gu Ning also expressed her intention to truly turn The Voice of China into a variety talent show.

Upon hearing this news, all three except Liu Huan became extremely interested.

Their attitude towards Gu Ning also became increasingly polite.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Gu Ning said, "I've booked a hotel to celebrate the teachers wrapping up filming. Let's head over there first."

Although the four of them also received money, it was only 200,000 each.

This price is very low for their status.

Therefore, one must be thorough in terms of etiquette.

That evening, the four of them had a wrap party that lasted for nearly two hours. By the end of the party, Gu Ning was already drunk and didn't even know how she got back to the hotel.

The next morning, after seeing the four off, he returned to the film set to continue filming.

While filming, Gu Ning also kept track of news about Lu Chuan's movies.

Two days after the movie's release, the online criticism grew louder.

Not only were there people criticizing Lu Chuan, but there were also those criticizing the media.

Some media outlets couldn't sit still and began publishing news articles criticizing Lu Chuan and the film.

Upon seeing this, Lu Chuan immediately contacted the investors to handle public relations.

This movie had an investment of 70 million yuan. It's hard to say how much of that was inflated, but it was definitely a large investment.

Fortunately, the film performed very well at the box office after its release.

The film grossed over 20 million yuan in just three days.

Lu Chuan has big ambitions and has already contacted film companies in many countries, preparing to release her film in multiple countries abroad.

Several foreign companies were very interested after watching the film.

Based on the current box office trend in China, it's possible to break even from domestic box office alone, while overseas box office revenue is pure profit.

Although the bulk of the profits go to foreign companies, as long as the film is shown in many countries and the overall box office is high enough, they can still make a considerable amount of money.

As for the insults, they didn't care at all.

There are too many domestically produced films and television dramas on the theme of the War of Resistance against Japan, but how many of them can reach the international stage?

As a result, the companies that invested in the company all started doing public relations work, and for a time, whether on the internet or in print media, there was a stalemate between those who praised and those who criticized.

However, this stalemate also attracted a large number of people who had not paid attention to the film to go to the cinema.

On the fourth day of its release, which happened to be a Sunday, the box office surpassed 15 million.

After receiving the specific box office data from the previous day on the morning of April 27, not only Lu Chuan, but also the other investors were surprised by the unexpectedly good results.

Lu Chuan was in high spirits during the roadshow. Although he was still met with a barrage of criticism, he took it as praise and did not simply answer a few questions and leave as he had done before.

Currently, there are only three directors in China whose films have grossed over 100 million yuan. Ning Hao originally had the opportunity to become the fourth.

However, Gu Ning suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and based on the box office trend at the time, "Crazy Racer" could have broken 100 million.

Therefore, Ning Hao did not intend to use any underhanded tactics.

But by the time news of Gu Ning winning the award reached China and impacted the box office of "Crazy Racer," it was too late for Ning Hao to resort to underhanded tactics.

Since the film was scheduled to be taken off the screens in just two days, anyone who wasn't stupid would know that something was wrong if they were to tamper with the film at that point.

After hesitating, Ning Hao ultimately gave up.

Although the final box office was over 90 million, it rounds up to 100 million.

But if it's not broken, it's not broken, even if it's missing a piece.

Currently, among domestic directors, three have had a single film gross over 100 million yuan at the box office: Zhang Yimou, Chen Yimou, and Feng Xiaogang.

His films can gross over 100 million, but his actual status is still not as high as the three of them. However, the media will put them together in promotional materials.

People in the industry certainly won't take it seriously, but ordinary viewers will get this misconception.

The companies that invested in the project also put more money and resources into public relations.

Lu Chuan wanted fame, while they wanted profit.

The higher the box office, the more money these investors can make.

After looking at the news, Gu Ning first called Liu Sanxi, and then dialed the number of Wang, the vice president of Sohu.

"Hello Mr. Wang, am I disturbing you?"

"Director Gu, I'm more than happy that you called me," Mr. Wang said with a smile.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with President Wang, Gu Ning got down to business: "President Wang, my new short film is finished. I'm currently out of town and can't go back, so I'll have President Liu send the source material to Sohu."

This time it's still free. As agreed before, Mr. Wang will just provide some promotional resources.

"Don't worry, Director Gu. As long as there are no problems with the short film, Sohu will definitely do its best to promote it!" said President Wang.

While online video is currently very relaxed, there are still some sensitive issues, such as those involving politics, that need to be addressed.

Therefore, he didn't dare to make any definitive statements before seeing the finished product.

"That's natural," Gu Ning said with a smile.

After chatting for a few minutes and hanging up, Gu Ning called Liu Yang and asked him to send the source of the short film to Sohu.

Without delay, Liu Yang contacted General Manager Wang and then brought the short film to Sohu's headquarters in Zhongguancun.

Mr. Wang warmly received Liu Yang, and after exchanging pleasantries for a while, they began watching the film.

Two bright red characters appeared on the black screen—Chi Ling.

The short film begins in a theater with a full audience, where Li Lin is singing the classic Kunqu opera "The Peach Blossom Fan".

Less than a minute later, the scene shifts to outside Nanjing, where cannons roar and smoke billows, as a large number of soldiers are besieging the city.

Subtitles appeared on the left side, introducing the background at the time.

The scene then shifts back to the city, where a large number of people are fleeing. The female lead, played by Li Lin, along with her senior apprentice and the opera troupe, are also fleeing with the crowd.

But by this time, the enemy's army had already entered the city and opened fire on the fleeing civilians.

People in front died in droves, and those behind could only scream and turn back.

The female protagonist could only escape back to the theater with the opera troupe, sealing the doors and windows, living in constant fear.

Although gunfire could be heard frequently outside, no one came to the theater until night.

The entire opera troupe gathered together to discuss and prepare to try to escape the city that night.