Young director Zhang Yuefan hasn't been having a very good time recently.

Previously, his film "College Entrance Examination! College Entrance Examination! College Entrance Examination!" won the Best Special Effects Award at the Yannan College Student Film Festival. Although I don't know why the jury gave him this award, it's better to have it than not.

However, Lu Ban's "The Wailing" was also selected at the film festival, and it won the Best Special Effects Award before "The Wailing". Many people who didn't know the truth thought that the special effects of "College Entrance Examination! College Entrance Examination! College Entrance Examination!" were super awesome and beat the eye-opening "The Wailing".

When the video website was actually launched, the viewers who had been deceived cried out that they had been cheated. They cursed the crappy special effects and gave low scores to "College Entrance Examination! College Entrance Examination! College Entrance Examination!", and even speculated whether Zhang Yuefan was a relative of the judges.

For a time, Zhang Yuefan's reputation became very bad, and all the producers who had previously intended to cooperate with him gave up the idea.

If it were an ordinary director, he would have started to blame others, harbor hostility towards Lu Ban, and prepare for revenge against him.

Later on, maybe his revenge failed, so he looked for support from his predecessors and started to use all kinds of crooked ways to discredit Lu Ban, and then challenged Lu Ban head-on, but was counterattacked and slapped in the face, and never recovered.

But Zhang Yuefan is different.

He is just a salted fish.

The reason he made movies was because he only knew how to make movies and it could make money, so he just did it.

There have been no film offers recently and no one has given him scripts to revise. With no source of income, Zhang Yuefan simply started delivering takeout.

While delivering takeout, I accumulate inspiration. Who knows one day I might come up with an idea to shoot a movie called "Crazy Takeout".

If I can't take pictures, I can deliver food. The income here in Yannan is pretty good.

If it doesn't work out, I can only go back and inherit the family factory.

Today, after finishing a day's work, Zhang Yuefan lay down on the bed, took out his mobile phone, and prepared to watch a video before going to sleep.

Before he finished watching the cool video of two naughty kids trying to commit suicide and getting into trouble, he saw the new trailer for The Silent Project.

"The Demonic Tide, the name sounds like a blockbuster movie."

Although Zhang Yuefan left Lu Ban's contact information, Lu Ban is a social black hole. He doesn't usually post normal Moments. His status updates on video sites and Weibo are usually just about food and animals. Recently, he even posted a photo of his own corgi, which is really cute.

Therefore, Zhang Yuefan didn’t know when Lu Ban came up with the movie.

Many of his peers in his circle of friends are completely different.

When I was preparing to shoot, I posted a message on WeChat Moments saying “New script, it’s going to be a hit this time!”. When I started looking for actors, I posted another message on WeChat Moments saying “I talked to XXX today, hope we can work together”. When I officially started shooting, I posted another message on WeChat Moments saying “Good luck with the start of filming, all goes well”. Then I posted photos while shooting every day, as if I wanted to tell everyone in the world how hard I worked.

But in reality, he may just be a handyman.

For some people, showing that they are working hard is more important than working hard itself.

Lu Ban is different. He makes a fortune quietly.

You can tell at first glance that he is very calm.

Zhang Yuefan clicked on the video and turned off the barrage.

The trailer begins with a dense forest, with trees so lush that they cover the sky.

The narration sounded at this time.

"What you see is only the surface of the Black Forest. The real danger lurks in the shadows. When the blood moon rises, the demonic tide will descend."

This is a slightly weathered male voice, and combined with the light and shadow of the picture, it feels like a story being told.

Then, snow, fortresses, armed soldiers, etc. appeared on the screen, and the atmosphere was solemn and ready to explode.

Then, the camera switched to the first person perspective.

This seems to be a person lying in the snow, holding a crossbow in his hand, staring nervously at the front. With his breathing, the fog on the lens appears and dissipates, with slight ups and downs, giving a full sense of presence.

“It’s coming.”

The vicissitudes of life male voice sounded.

"What's coming?"

Another slightly younger male voice asked back.

"Demon Tide."

The man replied.

As soon as the words fell, a giant silver-gray wolf suddenly jumped out from the darkness in front of the camera.

At the same time, accompanied by the rhythm of the music, the picture jumps in time, showing in sequence scenes such as a pack of wolves charging down from afar, a man holding a crossbow having his body twisted by something in the shadow, a man holding a dagger slitting his throat in despair, and a storm sweeping through the forest.

Finally, a young and a slightly older soldier looked at the beam of light swaying under the dark sky. It was a despairing scene.

“Are we going to die?”

the young soldier asked.

"Yes, of course he will die."

The older soldier replied, then turned around and looked at the vast tide of monsters.

"But not today."

Then, the camera moved towards the surging demonic tide, like a crow overlooking the earth. Finally, the camera passed over the monsters, pulled upwards, and stopped on the blood-red moon.

The film's title is "The Demonic Tide", as well as some production staff, supporting units, etc., but there is no release date.

After watching the trailer, Zhang Yuefan slowly put down his phone.

He was originally a lazy fish, just lying down and doing nothing.

But now, after seeing Lu Ban's trailer, his determination to just sit back and relax was challenged.

Judging from the content of this trailer, it is not the horror genre that Lu Ban is best at, but a serious fantasy action blockbuster.

This kind of movie, like the 3A movies in games, requires huge amounts of financial, human and material resources to make.

You say that a horror movie can be made by finding an abandoned hospital and adding some special effects, but the grand scenes shown in the trailer of "The Unholy Alliance" cannot be shot without extremely strong coordination capabilities.

Directors who can make this type of film are definitely big names.

What Zhang Yuefan finds unbelievable is that last year Lu Ban was similar to him and could only shoot low-budget movies like "The Wailing" where the plot was more important than the special effects and scenes, but now, he has become a big director who makes commercial blockbusters.

It is impossible to say that I was not touched at all.

No matter how much Zhang Yuefan lies down, he still likes movies after all, and it is hard not to be moved when he sees a trailer of this level.

The texture, storyboards, and the profoundness of the story in this trailer far exceed those superhero movies we usually watch. This is not just a commercial blockbuster, it is an epic!

The industry used to like making epic blockbusters, most of which were based on history, mythology, biography, etc., and some were completely fictional. But gradually, this type of movie almost disappeared. One reason is that the cost of this type of movie is extremely high, requiring a lot of manpower and material resources, and the profit margin is not high. The other reason is that there are fewer themes that can be filmed, and many classic contents have already been filmed, so the cost-effectiveness of remakes is very low.

But now, Lu Ban seems to really be going to make an epic movie! ? ?