Chapter 14 Power On
The total investment of "The Blade of the Assassin" is 30 million yuan. China Film invested 15 million yuan and took the lead in distribution, accounting for 55% of the total share.
Gu Wei invested 15 million in the name of his studio, accounting for 45% of the total share.
There's nothing we can do about it, since Gu Wei only has money.
China Film has both money and manpower, and we have to rely on it for the later promotion and marketing.
This is because Gu Wei is from the academy and has a good relationship with the director. If someone from outside the circle comes to invest, it will just depend on whether you are being cheated or not.
In those years, coal bosses invested in the entertainment industry and spent huge sums of money on filming movies. You could see which one made money. Those who could make a profit were considered to have a conscience.
Anyway, once a movie is filmed, everyone from the director to the actors and crew makes money. Who cares whether the investors make money or not? It's all for art.
Fortunately, those coal bosses knew in their hearts that they invested money either to let their mistresses appear in the movies or to sleep with female stars.
The reasons are simple, the purpose is clear, and there is no interference with creation, so everyone is satisfied.
Soon, the crew of "The Sword of Assassin" officially started filming, and actors joined the crew one after another.
Not surprisingly, except for Chen Lian played by Gu Wei and the heroine Zhou Miaotong played by Liu Yifei, the other main roles are still the actors from the original version.
In fact, it is not surprising. Mr. Jin Shijie, who played Wei Zhongxian, had worked with Lu Yang in the previous "Blind Cinema".
Zhou Yiwei, who plays Ding Xiu, is the protagonist of "Blind Cinema".
Li Dongxue, who plays the third brother Jin Yichuan, is a student of the acting department of the college in 2007. He is Gu Weizheng's senior.
Lu Yang also happened to be a graduate of the Directing Department in 2007, so they were old acquaintances.
As for Wang Qianyuan, who plays the eldest brother Lu Jianxing, he not only has excellent acting skills, but also won the Best Actor at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival and the Best Actor at the 7th China-US Film Festival in 2010 for his starring role in the comedy film "The Piano in a Factory". He is also a graduate student of the directing department of the academy and is a 2012 graduate student of the directing department.
So the entertainment industry is a circle, and what matters is personal connections.
We are all family after all, so it doesn’t matter who will come to you to make a movie.
There are many excellent actors. You and he can play the same role. It is entirely up to the director or producer to decide who to use or not.
What's more, if they are not familiar with you, they will not choose you. They will directly choose actors you have worked with before, and you will not even have a chance to compete.
Of course, in addition to connections, you either have to be famous and a hot new star, or the producers will look for you for ratings and box office. Just like Liu Yifei now, if she takes on this role with her current fame and works hard on publicity later, it will definitely attract some of her fans to watch the movie, which will boost the box office to a certain extent.
The original version played Shishi, who was also quite popular at the time. She had just become a big hit because of "Scarlet Heart", and attracted a large number of fans.
Unfortunately, she has only been filming TV series and has not proven herself in the film industry. Moviegoers are not buying it and will not enter the cinema because of her.
There is a phenomenon in the entertainment industry. It is generally recognized that movie actors are more famous than TV actors. Many actors actively seek opportunities to make movies after becoming famous on the small screen, hoping to make their way to the big screen.
However, many actors have become extremely popular in TV dramas, but their movies do not make a splash.
The most obvious example is Tangren's Hu Ge, who became famous across Taiwan, Mainland China and Hong Kong for his role as Li Xiaoyao in "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and became the "Brother Xiaoyao" in the hearts of a generation of girls.
However, after filming the movie, the box office basically failed again and again. This was partly because the company behind him, Tangren, lacked film resources.
But there are also many actors who are not as famous as Brother Hu and do not have the backing of big companies, but they can also make box office hits or high-rated movies.
Although Liu Yifei has not made any box office hits in recent years, her popularity among the people is higher than that of Shishi. In addition, after several years of hard work in the film industry, she still has a wave of movie fans of her own.
Either you have a background and a big company as your backing, or you can thrive in the circle.
For example, if you sign a contract with a large company like Huayi, not to mention the internal resources of the company, if the company has the ability to support you, it will also look for some film and television companies that have cooperated with the company to exchange resources.
Just like Yang Zi, when she was not famous yet, she had already signed a contract and joined the crew, but her role was snatched away before filming. There was nothing she could do because someone with connections could directly communicate with the producer and snatch her role away, so she could only leave in disgrace.
As for suing the production crew for breach of contract, that's naive. They have connections, and since they replaced you, it means they're taking advantage of your lack of popularity and connections. Suing them would at most result in some compensation. But if you want to take on similar roles in the future, the producers will give it a serious consideration.
The last type is the gold-dollar players.
The most obvious example is the true love goddess Da Tiantian. She doesn't need to care about any connections or whether she is popular or not. I just spend money and that's it.
For this kind of people who smashed Hollywood in China and created a sweet Hollywood universe.
There are basically no rivals, because no matter their connections or relationships or background, no one can resist money.
People enter the entertainment industry not to make connections, but to make money. As long as you help others make money, they will do whatever you say.
Just like the handsome actor Sun Honglei, who made a terrible movie "Warring States", which contributed many famous scenes and was criticized by netizens.
Why would he star in such a bad movie? Didn't they give him the script before they offered him the role? He knew in his heart that the movie probably wouldn't be very good, but there was nothing he could do because they offered him too much money.
"The Blade of the Assassin" is not Lu Yang's first film, but it is the first commercial blockbuster he directed.
Before, he had only filmed low-budget films with a small crew, low communication and command costs, and relatively smooth filming.
The entire crew of [The Blade Stitch] consists of more than 300 actors and staff members. It is a big challenge for Lu Yang to make these people completely obey his instructions and then shoot satisfactory shots.
Fortunately, the actors that China Film Group found for Lu Yang were all experienced veterans with impeccable professional skills. In addition, with the support of China Film Group's own producers, no one on the set dared to challenge the director's authority.
"Let me introduce to you all my junior brother Gu Wei, the actor who plays the leading actor in our film, Shen Lian, and he is also one of the producers and investors of our film."
The main members of the crew are all here, let’s introduce ourselves to each other.
Lu Yang was quite considerate of Gu Wei. He was afraid that he would not be able to adapt to the environment on the crew since it was his first time acting in a movie, so he did not ask him to introduce himself, but took the initiative to introduce him to everyone.
When we accepted the role, we only heard that the actor who played the male lead was called Gu Wei, and we didn't know anything else.
Now everyone understood after hearing the director's introduction, and the conversation suddenly became more enthusiastic.
"Hello everyone, I'm Gu Wei, a new actor currently studying at the Film Academy. All of you here are my seniors, and some are even my senior brothers.
It is my honor to work with so many outstanding actors in the industry. I hope that the seniors will give me guidance during the filming. I will definitely study hard and hope to grow as quickly as possible."
Gu Wei was very humble and spoke politely with a smile on his face.
Seeing Gu Wei's humble attitude, the others also felt relieved.
After hearing what Gu Wei said, they didn't dare to really regard him as a newcomer. After all, he was not only an actor but also an investor.
They all expressed that they learned from each other and made progress together.
Liu Yifei didn't say anything, just looked at Gu Wei curiously.
In short, for Gu Wei, everyone in the crew is a good person.
(End of this chapter)
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