I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

"It shouldn't be poop, right? What kind of thing puts its poop in its brain? Besides, even if it is lobster poop, it tastes delicious!"

"Oh."

Lu Ban was just asking casually.

This year, spicy crayfish are very cheap. Lu Ban remembers that this trend suddenly became popular when he was in college. When he was a child, you could buy a pound of crayfish for just a few yuan and eat as much as you wanted. Now, crayfish are ridiculously expensive and he can't afford them at all.

However, due to the high price of lobsters in the previous two years, large-scale farming has led to an oversupply this year, making them much cheaper.

He and Qin Tiantian bought several kilograms of it today and took it home, eating it while watching TV.

"You need to promote your movie more. If you don't promote it now, nobody will know about it. It's best to promote it on various websites and headlines, otherwise you might lose money."

Qin Tiantian gestured and then tossed another lobster onto the plate on the ground.

As soon as the lobster landed on the plate, Leica came over, sniffed it, and then swallowed it whole, making a crunching sound as she chewed.

"I did the promotion, but we have to wait for the simultaneous release date overseas."

Lu Ban replied.

"I plan to buy advertising space in Times Square directly, and I can also buy advertising space on buildings along the Lingjiang River in Jiangcheng."

"?"

Although Qin Tiantian didn't quite understand how much these advertisements cost, based on her previous impressions, getting on these platforms must be expensive.

Lyca climbed onto the table with its front legs, stared at the lobster in the bowl, and stretched out its tongue.

"Don't rush, don't sit on the table, I'll get it for you."

Qin Tiantian treated the lobsters like her own pets, placing them on a plate on the ground.

"But you can handle so much spicy food! Did you grow up eating spicy food like me?"

She's been really nice to Leica lately, almost to the point of sleeping with it at Lu Ban's house. Considering that Qin Tiantian's virtual avatar also wears a red scarf and has dog ears, perhaps she really does like dogs.

Sometimes, when Qin Tiantian was slacking off on the sofa with Leica in her arms, Lu Ban found the image of a young girl holding a mass of fleshy tentacles a bit horrifying.

"Where did you pick it up?"

Qin Tiantian couldn't help but ask.

"I just picked it up randomly on the road."

Lu Ban spoke the truth.

It was indeed found on the road, and it was indeed picked up randomly.

Whether it's a dog or not is another matter.

"I also hope to find a dog on the street."

Qin Tiantian said enviously.

After finishing the lobster and cleaning up, Lu Ban noticed an unread message on his phone, which he had received a few minutes earlier.

It's a message from Thomas Lee.

[Thomas Lee]: Director Lu, the theater distribution is all set, we can officially begin our promotional work there.

Chapter 308: If you get tired of reading, you can just go to sleep.

A few days ago, overseas, in Massachusetts.

Alfred Lake is one of the senior executives in AMC responsible for importing movies.

He was Thomas Lee's superior.

"The Christmas season? What is Li thinking?"

Looking at the report on his desk, Rick realized that his subordinates were becoming increasingly difficult to manage.

Here, the Christmas season is equivalent to the Spring Festival. The combined holiday of Christmas and New Year's Day is also a great time for major shopping malls to launch promotional activities. The streets are crowded with people, the malls are packed with people, and the box office of movies is soaring. It is second only to the summer season and the May Golden Week.

Generally speaking, just like the Spring Festival films in China, which are mostly family-friendly and festive movies, the films shown around Christmas are also mainly light comedies, romance dramas, and animated films.

But Thomas Lee handed him a war movie instead.

It's still a foreign language film.

In Chinese parlance, why watch fighting and killing during the Lunar New Year? It's bad luck.

Although there are no similar customs overseas, people still like to take their families to the movies at Christmas. War movies are rated so that children are not allowed to go out, so people will not choose these kinds of movies first, which will drag down the box office.

Moreover, it was filmed "overseas," which was emotionally difficult for Rick to accept.

Fortunately, the contract only guarantees 5% of the screenings, and the specifics will depend on the situation.

Next to the report was a box of DVDs containing the film "Tides of Magic," which Thomas Lee had sent for evaluation and local censorship rating.

Overseas, all movies, games, and other audiovisual entertainment products are required to be rated to distinguish some of the content that is not suitable for children, and to make the films that are not available to children more exciting.

"Li's judgments are usually very accurate. There might be a reason why he did this this time. Why don't we watch this movie first..."

Rick wanted to start the investigation immediately, but then he remembered the party that evening.

He graduated from Miscathock University in Massachusetts, home to the renowned Miscathock College Student Film Festival, which is also the largest youth film festival in the United States. Rick majored in cinematography and worked in the film and television industry for a period of time after graduation before joining AMC and working his way up to where he is today.

Tonight's gathering is his 20th anniversary reunion with several close classmates. It's being held at his own house, which is quite large, so the friends can go straight to bed when they're tired.

Some of these classmates are now famous directors, while others have stayed on at the university to teach and become professors; they are all successful people.

Besides the classic barbecue party, their gatherings consisted mainly of watching movies together. Since they were all industry professionals, they had a lot to talk about while watching a movie, and thus spent a relaxing and enjoyable evening.

"It might be better to let them taste it together."

Rick realized that while his own opinion might be somewhat biased, the combined opinions of so many classmates would be enough to produce a comprehensive evaluation.

After all, according to Thomas Lee, this is an epic blockbuster.

When Rick heard this, he almost wanted to ask his Chinese-American subordinate to translate what "epic blockbuster" meant.

As we all know, such high-budget films have disappeared in recent years. Even Hollywood, the world's strongest film industry, has stopped trying such high-budget productions. In recent years, the most popular films are superhero movies that are connected by a worldview. No one is making classic epic blockbusters anymore.

Reck doesn't believe other countries can produce epic blockbusters. First, their industrial equipment is inadequate; second, there's the quality of the actors; and finally, there are factors like the script and the director. And then there's the financial investment.

At the beginning of the century, there were some epic fantasy films. At that time, computer special effects technology was not very mature, so many of them were filmed on location. For example, hundreds of riders were hired to charge on horseback, or realistic props were made to replace special effects.

This is done to save costs, which may sound absurd, but sometimes special effects are really expensive.

Even today, Hollywood is still proud of its mature film industry system, and the various superhero movies are a testament to its advanced special effects.

In Hollywood, these special effects can be completed at a relatively low price, but abroad, you either have to spend a lot of money to have Hollywood do it for you, or you have to figure it out yourself.

For example, when it comes to a burning flame, a foreign team might have to study the particle effects for several months, but in Hollywood, there are hundreds of similar flame effects to choose from. This is all about accumulation and reserves; it's not so easy to overtake others by taking a shortcut.

Many special effects can only be completed by specific studios, and most of these studios are concentrated here. Some people say that Hollywood has a monopoly on special effects movies, and that is absolutely true.

If you want to shoot a movie with big scenes and lots of special effects, you will almost always have to hire a special effects team from Hollywood.

Keleke had not heard of any Hollywood studios undertaking special effects production projects.

In other words, the special effects for "Magic Tide" were most likely done by a studio elsewhere, or by the studio itself.

Those cheap special effects aren't worth expecting at all.

Rick glanced at the director's previous filmography, which consisted entirely of horror and thriller films. These low-budget movies, which would be classified as B-movies here, made Rick think that the so-called "epic blockbuster" might just be a joke.

As for why those movies could achieve such high box office returns, Rick believes it's probably due to outdated aesthetic tastes.

There have been big-budget films co-produced by the two countries in the past, featuring famous foreign movie stars, but the quality was only so-so, and the special effects were not up to par, leaving the audience very disappointed.

Therefore, with the mindset of watching a joke and criticizing a bad movie, Rick picked up the DVD of "Magic Tide" and drove home.

At night, after enjoying a perfect barbecue, Rick and his friends went to the screening room in his house, which was converted from part of the garage and has perfect audio-visual effects, making it Rick's happy room.

"What did you bring?"

Justin, a friend of Rick's, asked him about his current status as a somewhat well-known director who has made two decent films and is considered one of the better ones in the industry.

"A movie, scheduled for release at Christmas, is being imported from overseas."

Rex took out the CD.

"The name 'Magic Tide' reminds me of a game I played when I was a kid."

Another friend, Professor Armitage, joked that he is a professor at the School of Media Studies at Miscatok University.

"They say this is an epic blockbuster, huh."

Rick put the disc into the player.

"An epic blockbuster? I haven't heard of any director making such a big-budget film recently."

The last friend, Rice, was a film company producer. He didn't quite understand what Rick meant, so he asked...

"Just watch it. I've prepared some beer, so we can chat while we watch."

Rick brought over a few bottles of beer, pressed play, turned off the lights, and sat down on the soft sofa.

The entire room dimmed, and before the production list appeared, a pitch-black forest came into view.

Translate Chapter 309 for me

The forest looked ordinary, but its deep and mysterious atmosphere instantly captivated Rick's attention.

He was surprised to discover that he couldn't tell whether it was special effects or real footage.

If this is a real film, then the shapes of these trees are too strange. The cost of making such realistic props must be high, especially for such a large forest.

If this is special effects, then it's even more impossible, because in Rick's knowledge, no special effects studio can handle such a large amount of special effects production, and they might not even be able to achieve the effect shown.

Accompanied by the melodious sound of bagpipes, the camera moves through the forest and stops on several patrolling men. They are dressed in leather armor mixed with cloaks, carrying bows, crossbows, spears, short swords, and other weapons, and they are in a hurry.

"These props and costumes are of a very high standard."

Director Justin commented.

The quality of a film can be judged by its costumes, props, and sets.

Even the best scripts become awkward when watching dramas where actors wear ancient costumes but tie their belts wrong and wear sneakers.

But now these people's clothes, makeup, and weapons make them look like soldiers who have just come off the battlefield.