Chapter 172 Return Gift [VIP]

Chapter Summary: If you've been caught in the rain and now have an umbrella, share it with someone else.

At the press conference.

The promotional focus for the movie "Escape from the Game" was on its special effects, the novel's IP, and its cast.

Regarding special effects, director Xu Kuan shared stories about the film's post-production special effects, including how to communicate with international special effects teams to achieve the desired visual effects, control the cost of special effects within budget, and overcome special effects challenges.

A special effects video was prepared and played on-site to give everyone a better understanding of the film's special effects.

The novel's intellectual property. The production company is quite capable, managing to invite the author, who had never appeared in public except for attending personal novel signing events, to the event.

The author himself participated in the screenplay writing, visited the set, and now endorses the film, which undoubtedly shows his recognition and support for it.

For fans of the novel, the author's expression of support for the film adaptation shows his high regard for the movie. Many of them, naturally, also developed an interest in the film out of trust in the author. Fans at the event expressed their intention to support the film once it was released.

Lastly, the cast. Feng Zhongxian was the oldest veteran artist among the actors present, but the focus was mainly on Mu Zhi.

This is the Q&A session with the media.

The media reporters eagerly asked Mu Zhi their questions.

"Zhizhi, what's your opinion on your look in this movie? Everyone thinks it's quite a departure from your previous roles."

"Wu Xi is very strong in martial arts in the novel. I saw you had action scenes in the trailer. Could you share your experience of taking on action scenes for the first time?"

"This is your second collaboration with director Xu Kuan, teacher Feng Zhongxian, and teacher Pu Jiamu. What are your different feelings about it?"

"The movie 'Escape from the Game' is scheduled for release during the Spring Festival. What's your prediction for its box office?"

In contrast, after Bian Wu and Mu Zhi went on stage together and introduced their respective roles, they were only asked one question.

"As a newcomer, you played the male lead in 'Escape from the Game,' and you are also an artist from the same company as Mu Zhi. Could you share your experience of working with Mu Zhi on this film?"

Bian Wu: "I only found out that the female lead of 'Escape from the Game' was Teacher Mu Zhi after I successfully auditioned. She is also my senior in the company. I am very honored and happy to be able to work with her, but I also feel a lot of pressure."

Senior Sister Mu Zhi is a very capable actress in the industry with high popularity. As a newcomer, I worry that I won't do well enough.

After joining the crew, I found that Senior Sister Mu Zhi was very approachable and down-to-earth. She provided me with a lot of help during filming and is a wonderful senior colleague, someone I aspire to be like.

Bian Wu's words revealed his admiration for Mu Zhi.

Mu Zhi listened to Bian Wu's commercial praise, smiled slightly, and took the initiative to talk about her experience of filming with Bian Wu.

This will allow viewers who are interested in the film to learn more about Byun Go.

When asked questions by the media, she tried her best to steer the conversation toward director Xu Kuan and Bian Wu, giving them more opportunities to speak.

After the press conference.

Mu Zhi and Bian Wu came backstage for a joint interview.

Ji Binghe intended for Mu Zhi to mentor Bian Wu, hoping to generate more attention and buzz for him.

Mu Zhi did not refuse. She had been caught in the rain herself, and if she had an umbrella, it was just a small favor to help others avoid the rain.

Lanxing Media is one of the three major investors in the film "Escape from the Game," having increased its investment multiple times. The film's post-production was even deliberately sabotaged by He Junzhi, but it has now successfully overcome all obstacles and is just waiting for its release...

Mu Zhi hopes this movie will be a success.

After all, she was the lead actress, and Bian Wu was the male lead. The increased popularity and buzz surrounding the film is a good thing for it, and it certainly adds to the film's appeal.

The media interview has ended.

Bian Wu thanked Mu Zhi: "Teacher Mu, thank you for the interview at the press conference."

He knew it was the director of his agency who instructed and arranged it, and it wasn't just that. In the interview just now, as a newcomer, he was asked some rather impolite questions by the reporter, and he didn't have much interviewing experience. He was fortunate that Mu Zhi gave him some pointers and even helped him when he didn't know how to answer.

So I'm really grateful to Muzhi for her guidance and help.

Mu Zhi: "You're welcome. I believe you will become like me in the near future."

After Mu Zhi and her team left, Bian Wucai, who was standing still, vaguely understood the meaning behind Mu Zhi's words.

Mu Zhi was referring to her as a senior colleague, while he was a newcomer who hadn't yet made a name for himself, and she helped him out whenever she could.

Once he establishes himself in the industry and gains recognition, and becomes the one being exploited, hopefully he will also have the mindset of "if I've been through the rain myself, I'll lend a hand to anyone else who's been through it" when collaborating with newcomers.

Bian Wu's admiration for Mu Zhi deepened, and he felt that Mu Zhi truly possessed the vision and magnanimity to "share the cake, which is so big."

Bian Wu took a deep breath. "Escape from the Game" is his first starring role and is very important. He needs to be fully focused on the promotional tour.

"Come on!" Bian Wu cheered himself on in his heart.

The movie press conference schedule has come to an end.

Over the next three days, Mu Zhi participated in three brand events.

Next month's schedule is already full of roadshows and grand events.

Many brand events have to be postponed until after the new year.

The last week of December.

The creative team behind "Escape from the Game" has embarked on a nationwide roadshow.

This film, which falls under the infinite flow genre, targets a younger audience. Before the winter break started, the production team went to various universities to promote the film.

Fly to one city a day, visit 23 schools, hold local media meetings, and promote in large shopping malls or cinemas; visit 56 places a day.

The time spent at each school is short, about an hour. The main venue for the promotion is the school playground, where several hundred students often gather.

On this day, director Xu Kuan and the main creative team, including Mu Zhi and Bian Wu, visited a university to promote their film.

The invited host was very lively and asked a question: "Students, how many of you have read the novel 'Escape from the Game'? Raise your hand."

Surprisingly, a quarter of the people in the audience raised their hands.

It seems that this novel IP has a significant influence among young people.

The host then asked, "If you're going to see a movie during the Spring Festival holiday, will you buy a ticket to support 'Escape from the Game'?"

"Yes!" the students replied with unusual enthusiasm.

Almost all the students who were randomly invited to interact were fans of Mu Zhi.

The host asked, "Which work of yours made you aware of Zhizhi?"

"Back to 17 is a great watch and very inspiring."

A female student pushed up her glasses and said in a serious tone, "After watching this movie, I read the book all night and improved my grades from 10th from the bottom to the top 10 in the class."

Mu Zhi, who was present, was slightly taken aback. In the past few days, when she was doing promotional performances at school, many fans who were invited to the stage mentioned "Back to 17" when asked which of her works they had seen.

This was Mu Zhi's first film, and compared to her later films "Countdown" and "Model of the Times," the 1 billion yuan box office was not particularly impressive.

She had seen an analysis report on the age distribution of her fans provided by her agent, and learned that a significant proportion of her fans were students. However, she had always assumed that these student fans were drawn in by the web series "The Bell Ringer" or "The Edge of the Blade".

After all, "Back to 17" was released during Valentine's Day in February, when students were in school and could only go to see it on weekends, so it didn't contribute much to the box office.

Now it seems that he probably watched it on a video website after the movie was released?

The campus roadshow has ended.

The next roadshow venue is a local movie theater.

The creative team spent several days on a roadshow, visiting about ten universities.

Director Xu Kuan couldn't help but recall the scene two years ago when he and Mu Zhi were doing promotional tours together. At that time, Mu Zhi had only appeared in one web drama, "The Bell Ringer," and her popularity was not particularly outstanding among a group of popular celebrities.

This time, when they went on another roadshow together, a large number of fans showed up at every promotional location. Mu Zhi's offline popularity was real and much higher than he had expected.

Another discovery, Xu Kuan said with a happy expression, was that "I didn't expect that quite a few students had seen 'Back to 17'."

Although moviegoers may not have a strong impression of him as a director, the fact that they have seen and remember his films is enough to make Xu Kuan proud and gratified.

Mu Zhi: "I believe that young movie fans who like 'Back to 17' will also like the movie 'Escape from the Game'."

I'm not saying these nice things because I think the director is under a lot of pressure.

She genuinely felt that this new movie was very appealing to high school and college students.

Bian Wu also joined the conversation: "Many of my classmates have read this novel, and after watching the trailer, they all said they are looking forward to its release."

My relatives' children, who are in middle school, always go to the movies as a group during the Lunar New Year. This movie doesn't have those kinds of scenes; it has cyberpunk, gaming elements, and a novel theme of infinite flow (a genre of Chinese fantasy novels). Middle-aged and older people might not like it, but it will definitely be popular with college students, middle school students, and high school students—these young people and teenagers.

Director Xu, a middle-aged man: "......"

Mu Zhi couldn't help but chuckle. Bian Wu was, after all, a newcomer, and he wasn't quite able to speak with perfect tact.

Early January.

Mu Zhi asked Director Xu Kuan for a day off and returned to Beicheng to participate in the 10th anniversary celebration event hosted by the Owl Platform.

According to Ji Binghe, many popular celebrities, directors, and actors will be present.

In order to get Mu Zhi to attend, the organizers not only provided her with excellent treatment on the red carpet, in terms of seating and awards, but also readily agreed to give her commercial breaks to promote her new movie.

Director Xu Kuan knew that Mu Zhi was attending the popular event with the mission of promoting her work, which was a great promotional platform for the film, so he gladly "approved her leave".

Mu Zhi and her team took the earliest flight and returned to Beicheng at 10 a.m.

The grand event is in the evening, so there's plenty of time.

Mu Zhi returned to Donghua Mansion, had lunch, and then drove to Lanxing Media.

Before starting the car, she sent He Zhiyue a message: [I'm leaving now.]

Last night, Mu Zhi contacted He Zhiyue to ask if he was free to come to Donghua Mansion tonight or to give him an address to send something directly. He Zhiyue initially thought that Mu Zhi wanted to return the safety buckle to him, but said that he had to fly to another city at 3 pm to discuss business and would not be there.

Mu Zhi told me that there were other things for him.

"Well, I did book a flight to another city. I won't be in Beicheng tonight, but I have half an hour between 1:30 and 1:00. Professor Mu, shall we meet at...the company?"

They were worried about being photographed if they met in other places.

The two met at the company, which was both perfectly legitimate and because he hadn't been to the company for half a year and had originally planned to take some time to visit in the next few days.

And so it was agreed.

Ground-level parking lot.

Mu Zhi parked the car, got out, closed and locked the car. As she tossed the car keys into her bag, she noticed the small gift box she was carrying in her other hand. To avoid attracting attention by bringing the gift into the company, she decided to put the small gift box into the bag she was carrying.

Luckily, I brought a larger bag with me today, so it fit.

Just as Mu Zhi put the small gift box into her large bag, she noticed someone walking up to her.

She looked up and saw Liu Rui.