Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

Chapter 163 Panting

The review results were returned in late May. No modifications were needed; the project was approved. After receiving the notification, Luo Jinnian confirmed the status of the records within the feedback period, updated the project status to "pending filing," and then contacted the publicity team to inform them that they could proceed to the publicity phase.

Within a week of receiving confirmation, the marketing team compiled a promotional plan. The plan consisted of three phases:

The initial setup phase mainly consisted of concept posters and introductions of the production team.

During the mid-term pre-launch phase, trailers and posters of the main characters will be released.

During the later, intensive post-production phase, the final trailer, making-of featurette, and interviews with the main creators were released.

Luo Jinnian reviewed all the arrangements in the plan, confirmed the time nodes and material allocation methods for each stage, and added several suggestions on the order of material release in the remarks column of the plan, so as to maintain a progressive presentation of information and ensure that the audience's attention can continue to follow.

The first concept poster has been released.

The image depicts no human figures, only a curved beam of light traversing a dark background, edged with a faint blue halo, and the silhouette of a small spaceship on the horizon below. At the bottom of the poster is only one line of text: "Gravity, the only signal that can travel through time." There is no title, no release date, only that line. After the poster's release, numerous predictions and speculations appeared in the comment sections of various platforms, with online discussions branching out in multiple directions and gradually converging on a single point.

A week later, the official trailer was released. The trailer opens with a three-second audio clip of radio silence, followed by a visual...

The trailer sequentially transitions between shots of Earth, the interior of the spaceship, traversing a wormhole, the giant waves on Miller's planet, and the vicinity of a black hole. The final scene shows Cooper reaching out in fifth-dimensional space, approaching a book on a bookshelf, before the screen cuts to black, revealing the film's title and release date. Within 24 hours of its release, the trailer exceeded expectations in terms of views on several major platforms, and related topics on Weibo saw a rapid increase in readership, spreading in multiple directions and covering numerous related topics.

After the trailer was released, Director Qin sent a message: "The trailer's pacing was well-done, and the opening scene with the radio silence left enough room for interpretation." Luo Jinnian read the message but did not reply. However, he added a note to his project folder.

Character posters were released in batches over the next two weeks. Duan Yihong's poster for Cooper was released first; he wore a spacesuit, his face obscured by the reflective part of his helmet visor, which showed the blurry outline of a room. Tan Zhuo's character poster followed closely behind, showing Brand in profile, looking out at the starry sky. The character posters for Jiao Huang, Ren Suxi, and Gu Yanxi each showcased their roles in the film, with each poster maintaining a unified visual style. The comments section for the posters continued to heat up, with reactions and focuses varying across different age groups, but overall discussion remained active.

The publicity team also produced several behind-the-scenes features, covering Chen Yuanfan's work as a scientific advisor, the creation of physical models, and materials accumulated by the special effects team during pre-production testing. The first featurette focuses on his role as a scientific advisor, with Chen Yuanfan briefly explaining the gravitational effects and time dilation near a black hole in a calm and moderate tone. At the end of the featurette, he says, "The scientific rigor of this film surpasses that of most films and television shows dealing with black holes."

After the special feature was released, Chen Yuanfan's name appeared more frequently in related discussions. Some viewers began to pay attention to his past work experience, and some media contacted him hoping to conduct more in-depth interviews, but he declined, only replying that "the content has been explained in the special feature." When Luo Jinnian saw the message, he was checking the format of the subtitles and end credits in the submitted version, confirming that all content met the approval requirements. He read the message, did not make any additional changes, and continued to complete the current subtitle proofreading.

Correct.

The final trailer was released in late June, featuring more interior scenes and dialogue from the spaceship compared to the previous trailer. It included interactions between Cooper and Murphy, Brand's lines about love, and a brief monologue from Tars. The trailer ended the same way as the previous one, with the title and release date remaining unchanged after the screen went black.

There was still about a month until the release. The publicity team was preparing the premiere's schedule, and theater scheduling was being coordinated simultaneously. Luo Jinnian confirmed that all preparations were progressing according to plan and that his direct intervention was unnecessary. He marked the premiere date on the calendar and closed the project document.

After the marketing team implemented their first round of plans, Luo Jinnian reviewed them without giving a direct evaluation. Instead, he suggested a supplementary approach: aligning the promotional activities with the film's thematic direction, so that audiences could experience the core message the film wanted to convey on some level before even entering the theater.

His thinking was that audiences' understanding of a science fiction film is often based on their imagination of its visual style and scale. But Interstellar has something beyond visuals—a perceptual experience about "time" and "distance." If there's a way to guide audiences to observe a certain characteristic of time itself before the film's release, before they even know the plot, they'll enter the theater with an already activated attentional framework synchronized with the film's themes, rather than starting from scratch.

He had the marketing team design an interactive webpage. At its core was a timer displaying a countdown—not a conventional count of days or hours, but a number measured in Earth days, months, and years. The displayed value was consistent with the actual passage of time: every few seconds, a real-time estimate of the distance light had traveled in the universe appeared at the top of the page. While the user remained on the page, a counter displayed "You have waited X seconds in your current observation window," along with the message "In this time, light has traveled approximately X times the distance you are to the moon." This feature had no specific objective; it simply provided a switchable frame of reference synchronized with daily time.

The page went live the week after the trailer's release. There was no active promotion; the marketing team simply posted a link on their official account with the caption, "While you're waiting, light is on its way." Visitors spent more time on the page on average than expected. Some users repeatedly refreshed the page to observe the cumulative changes in the distance readings and shared screenshots of their observations on social media. These screenshots spread across different platforms, creating a trajectory that was repeatedly recorded at different points in time, ultimately leading to the same page entry point.

Meanwhile, Luo Jinnian and the publicity team contacted several planetariums and science museums to negotiate science sharing events before the film's release, focusing on topics such as gravity, time, and cosmic scales. The events were organized independently by each venue, with the publicity team providing Chen Yuanfan and another astrophysicist to participate in some sessions for live discussions. Attendance exceeded expectations, with some sessions experiencing waiting times. After the events, the venues posted brief recaps of the events on social media, which were reposted by some media outlets, further expanding the event's reach.

Another promotional effort was on a physical level. The marketing team contacted several cinemas across the country that have IMAX and Dolby theaters and set up a life-size bookshelf model in the cinema lobby—the same size as the bookshelves in the Cooper Farm loft, with the spacing and number of shelves adjusted appropriately according to the existing space proportions. The upper shelves were filled with old books made by the props team and some publications related to the space theme.

A small light was mounted on the side of the bookshelf, switched on by visitors themselves. Once switched on, a faint sliver of light would shine through the spine of a copy of *A Brief History of Time* on the shelf. The marketing team did not actively promote it; visitors took photos and posted them online. Within two weeks, the images and videos had gained some traction on social media.

After visiting the bookstore, a tech journalist wrote: "This bookshelf reminded me of the first time I opened a book about black holes in the library as a child, and I sat there for a long time before leaving. It doesn't tell you what the movie is about, but it brings back that feeling."

The on-site arrangements, guest list, and media contacts have all been confirmed, and there are no adjustments needed. With two weeks until the release, all preparations are progressing according to their respective timelines.

Only then did Luo Jinnian dare to take a breath.