Chapter 232: Movies that can only be made by big countries
"There are quite a lot of people here."
At the "Wolf Warrior 2" investment promotion meeting, Meng Bai looked at the exhibition hall with 40 to 50 people and couldn't help but sigh.
"Some time ago, Jingbei Culture and Juhe Film Union, as distributors, opened a box office guarantee of 800 million yuan, and also prepaid 210 million yuan in revenue and 60 million yuan in publicity expenses."
Chen Zhixi on the side introduced to him that because of the guaranteed income, the risk on the producer's side was greatly reduced.
In addition, Wu Jing also hoped to add more production companies, so in the end it attracted many participants.
"Wanda, Bona, Jingbei Culture, Jetsen Century, Chaofeng Pictures... A total of 14 production companies, including big and small, and 7 distributors."
Meng Bai sighed. With such a huge scale of production and distribution, it's like forming a joint fleet.
Don't say it, even if I didn't get an investment share today, it's not a loss to understand the operation and gameplay of the film industry.
After two rounds, I got a bunch of business cards.
Arclight is still a little far from the film business, so he just got to know him and didn't chat with him.
After finding a seat and sitting down, Meng Bai took the script and read it.
He had seen "Wolf Warrior 1" before, and had some understanding of the characters and settings.
In fact, it doesn't matter if you don't know it. This kind of military action movie basically follows the kingly route in terms of plot, and there is no difficulty in understanding.
Compared with the first part, the scenes in the sequel are obviously much larger.
The story scene is set abroad, with the addition of mercenaries, group armed forces, and overseas evacuations. The weapons have also been upgraded from pistols and rifles to helicopters and tanks.
If the first part still has some shadows of traditional Hong Kong-style police and gangster movies, then this sequel can truly be called a military action blockbuster.
After reading the script, Meng Bai looked at the recruitment plan again.
Just looking at it, he couldn't help but frowning.
"What's wrong, do you feel something is wrong?"
A voice interrupted his thinking. He looked up and saw Chen Zhixi looking at him in confusion.
"Why didn't I see you just now?"
Meng Bai moved aside and asked the other party to sit down.
"We went to talk about investment." Chen Zhixi said, "Wanda wants to transfer 10% of the investment share for 30 million yuan. How about we each take half?"
"I'm just here to learn more. Don't consider me. Just take them all."
"I want to take them all." Chen Zhixi smiled bitterly, "There are too many projects under pressure and not enough funds."
Although Ruyi Pictures had developed well in film and television content before, it has always been short of capital.
In the past few years, it has repeatedly tried to sell itself to find a big sponsor, but unfortunately it failed in the end. It was not
until the end of last year that Chen Zhixi entered the market with resources and channels, and connected with Guangguang and Wanda, and life was better.
"Okay, then Sister Xi, how much can you take, and give us Arc Light as the remaining soup." Meng Bai said indifferently.
"Come on, everyone knows that the most profitable companies now are your web drama companies." Chen Zhixi rolled her eyes coquettishly, "Don't divide it too much, just half each."
After saying that, she remembered her previous doubts: "When I came back, I saw you staring at the script. Is there something wrong?"
"There's nothing wrong with the script. It's a neat genre film rhythm." Meng Bai opened the recruitment plan, "I saw it here."
Chen Zhixi took it and took a look. It said "The estimated shooting time is 4 months."
"What's wrong?"
"Based on my production experience, in order to achieve the lens effect that Director Wu Jing just mentioned, unless there are no mistakes during the shooting, 4 months is definitely not enough."
It is not certain which one is better, real-life shooting or post-production special effects, but the former definitely requires longer shooting time.
Especially for this kind of action film with many large scenes, it is easy to miss a detail, resulting in the waste of the shots that have been prepared for several days.
The previous projects of Arc Light were basically urban backgrounds, without any complicated shots, so they were easy to shoot.
Until the shooting of "The Lost Tomb" started this time, it can be said that I have gained a lot of experience.
As the shooting time becomes longer, the cost will naturally increase.
For a big production like "Wolf Warrior 2", with a team of thousands of people, it would cost 10 or 20 million yuan in just ten days or half a month.
Chen Zhixi frowned: "Do you think the production cost may exceed the current profit point?"
"That shouldn't happen. It's just a matter of how much profit we make." Meng Bai smiled and said, "Besides, I think as long as this movie can be made well, the box office will definitely be more than 800 million."
"Haha, brother, this is what everyone wants to hear now."
A tough voice came from the side, and Meng Bai and the others looked over.
It was Wu Jing.
Chen Zhixi stood up and greeted him. Wu Jing greeted her and then looked at Meng Bai.
"Mr. Chen, who is this?"
"Hello, Director Wu, nice to meet you. Arclight Films, Meng Bai."
"Arclight Films..."
Wu Jing recalled while shaking hands, as if he had never heard of this company.
Meng Bai obviously saw what he was thinking, and took the initiative to introduce: "We used to focus on online dramas, and have just started to invest in movies in the past two years."
The three of them exchanged a few polite words and sat down. Wu Jing's personality was no different from that on the screen, and he was straightforward.
He didn't beat around the bush and directly brought up the topic they had just discussed.
"In fact, what Mr. Meng said just now is right. The current script is much more complicated than the initial plan."
Wu Jing explained that the first version of the script for "Wolf Warrior 2" was directly rejected during the review. The current version should actually be the idea of "Wolf Warrior 3".
At the beginning, the budget for this project was only 80 million. Later, there were more producers, and Wu Jing added other elements he wanted to shoot, which increased to 120 million.
Later, Jingbei Culture opened a minimum of 800 million, which attracted more investment, and he wanted to add more things. Now the total budget has increased to 150 million.
With the increase in budget and content, the shooting time will definitely be extended.
"The planning time of these four months has doubled compared to the initial time." Wu Jing put one arm on the back of the chair, "Looking at it this way, it seems that the estimate is still too low."
"I just roughly estimated it, Director Wu, don't worry too much."
Wu Jing smiled and continued, "I saw that Mr. Meng had been reading the script carefully just now. How did you feel?"
He noticed this just now. Although investors would definitely read the script, most of them only paid attention to the settings, framework and characters.
Meng Bai was probably the only one in the audience who read it from beginning to end.
"How should I put it..."
Meng Bai said, "It's the kind of film that can only be made by a big country at first glance."
"Oh." Wu Jing became interested, "How should I put it?"
"I've seen "Wolf Warrior 1" before, it's very exciting, but it never got rid of the model of Hong Kong-style police and gangster films." Meng Bai said, "But "Wolf Warrior 2" is different. Whether it's the pattern or the intention, it's much higher."
The golden age of Hong Kong movies gave birth to many genre films. Police and gangster films are one of the classics, and the "Police Story" series by Big Brother Cheng is a representative example.
However, no matter how the fighting and scenes are upgraded, it is still the same as "super police fighting gangster drug lords".
Including a group of Hong Kong film directors who have moved north in recent years, they still cannot do without these elements.
This is actually the limitation of literary and artistic creators, and they will be affected by the environment.
Hong Kong Island used to be the financial bridgehead of East Asia, where Eastern and Western cultures collided and blended, so there was a prosperous era of Hong Kong films.
However, with the development of the times, the audience's horizons are gradually improving. At this time, showing them "police catching drug lords" is somewhat insufficient.
But it is also difficult for Hong Kong films to upgrade.
One is that the directors inherited from the previous golden age have path dependence, and the other is because the content of the film is affected by the environment.
It's like the old Americans filming a war against aliens, and the global audience thinks it's normal.
But when Indians also filmed a war against aliens, there was an inexplicable sense of humor.
In the final analysis, such a big-budget movie must be supported by national strength to convince the audience.
Like the story of "Wolf Warrior 2", the overall basis is the multiple overseas evacuations in the past few years.
If it was filmed ten years ago, not to mention the market size and production level, the biggest problem is that the audience would not believe it.
Even when watching it, I couldn't help but ask myself, can we really be so awesome?
It's like 20 years ago, someone said in a military forum that he dreamed that by 2020, we would have our own aircraft carrier.
The following reply is very standard, the original poster should stop daydreaming.
But now, the Shandong ship is about to be launched.
At this time, if we film the offshore cruise and the missile suppression, no one will not believe it.
"I just said that I feel that the box office of "Wolf Warrior 2" is more than 800 million, and it is also based on this point of view - we have developed very well, but we lack a channel that can make everyone proud."
Wu Jing thought for a while: "You mean, we can use patriotism as the main idea of the whole film?"
Meng Bai smiled and said: "It's just a personal idea, Director Wu, you don't have to care too much."
"No, I think Mr. Meng's idea is very good. Just like you said just now, we lack a movie that can make the audience proud."
Meng Bai's words obviously touched Wu Jing's heart, and his attitude immediately became closer.
"By the way, there is a role in the movie, and I plan to find a traffic actor. Mr. Meng, you have a lot of contact with film and television dramas, do you have any suitable recommendations?"
"Is it the role of 'Naughty Child'?"
Meng Bai spread his hands: "Director Wu, you really asked a blind spot. Nine out of ten people in film and television use traffic, and our Arc Light happens to be the remaining one. There is really nothing to recommend."
Action actors are almost extinct by Wu Jing, let alone those with traffic.
"But if you need it, Director Wu, I can recommend a few."
Among the actors in Arc Light, Zhang Ruoyun is not good, but Bai Yu is okay.
And after the broadcast of "Forensic Qin Ming", his popularity is not bad.
Although it is a little worse than the so-called "four big and three small", it is also in the second echelon, so you can give it a try.
Anyway, the core of this movie is Wu Jing himself, and other characters are not important.
(End of this chapter)
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