Chapter 77: Become famous in one battle (two in one)
"To be precise, it's already very late to start public relations now." After confirming that Zou Yunhua was pulled back by Su Yun, Ovitz slowly began to analyze the current situation to the two.
An Oscar can inject so much vitality into a movie that major film studios and brokerage companies have already started to formulate strategies specifically for it. Many times, they have already started to spend a lot of money to hire public relations companies to do public relations before the movie is even released.
However, these two people are extremely lucky that this year's Oscars have been full of innovations, and have continuously given one historic innovative move after another.
With the help of this favorable trend, the little girl in front of me not only managed to get a nomination for Best Supporting Actress - perhaps with hard work, she can really make an Oscar record.
"Normally, Oscar's PR will choose those famous PR companies, but your opponents are Linda Blair, who is backed by Warner, and Tatum O'Neal, who has an excellent family background. Even if you spend more money, it will be difficult for any company to be willing to take over your business." Ovitz knew that the business was promising, so he tried his best and proposed a plan that was completely contrary to the normal PR method.
"Every year when the awards season comes, the judges receive reference videos sent to them from all over the world for free viewing. So with so many nominated films each year, the judges basically just pick some that interest them, and when they have enough votes, they vote based on their impressions - this is how the Oscars are selected."
"With so many judges, it seems that fairness is basically guaranteed...but money talks." Ovitz explained slowly, "Those PR companies will track each judge's personal preferences for movies, analyze and judge in advance, and then lobby those judges who are more moderate and may waver to get their votes."
"I can help you screen out the votes that have been won by the Warner and O'Neill families, and then put all my strength and resources on those judges who may waver."
"Then how can you guarantee that the judges you lobby for us are likely to waver?" Zou Yunhua couldn't help but raise his doubts.
"WMA has a famous 'mailroom' for training newcomers. It was there that my friends and I received our first lessons in our careers." Ovitz answered very seriously, "So we have a lot of 'information' that even the bigwigs and senior executives may not be able to fully grasp."
"I think I understand what you mean." Su Yun nodded suddenly realizing.
The opponents are rich and powerful, so they take the open and honest path; then they can only find another way to break through the mountains and cut through the rocks, and forge an unusual and unique path.
Those judges with higher reputations and positions will inevitably be coerced by their opponents. Therefore, those judges of the middle and lower levels who are not treated in this way may be able to use Ovitz's method to win big with a small investment.
As the saying goes, a single spark can start a prairie fire, isn't that the truth?
"Is this the way to canvass for votes?" On this side, after listening to the canvassing plans given by Ovitz, including running around to promote, sending videotapes with some "peripheral" gifts secretly attached, following the judges' schedules to release GG, hiring water soldiers to blow up themselves and demote their opponents, and even letting Su Yun personally go on stage to sell Mengbo's favor, Zou Yunhua felt a dizzy feeling as if his dream was shattered.
How come the way they canvass for votes for a world-famous award is so similar to what they do when they fight with other companies in Hong Kong?
"The Oscars have always required PR operations, and many awards have their origins - some people won their first award to make up for their last loss, and some people won awards to play the sympathy card..." Ovitz explained again, "For example, at the 33rd Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor used her illness as an excuse to get the team to play the sympathy card, so that her rival Shirley MacLaine said helplessly after the awards ceremony that she actually lost to a tracheitis operation."
Su Yun, who had learned so much old gossip from Ovitz, nodded her head in a way that made her more knowledgeable: I originally thought that Oscars were controlled by public relations in the later stages, but I didn’t know that the early stages didn’t rely solely on acting skills…
With this calculation, it seems that no matter what period, Oscar's public relations operations are always up and down, and the money is spent like water.
In other words, most of the candidates in the early period had impressive abilities and could use their achievements to shut up the doubters and make the public believe that they were the "best" who stood out from a group of "very good" candidates and defeated other opponents.
"Do you think they can really be trusted?" Zou Yunhua asked secretly.
"Don't you think they are a lot like you were before?" Su Yun asked back, "They were also fed up with the arrogance of their former company, so they wanted to innovate on their own - to do this, they would spare no expense and seize the tiny possibility of opportunity."
Thinking of his past and the fact that this round was originally intended to be a gamble, Zou Yunhua fell silent.
"If you really haven't made up your mind, I can also recommend some small and medium-sized public relations companies to you." Ovitz added patiently, "You can learn more about this and then decide."
Hearing this, Zou Yunhua raised his head and grinned: "No need."
At first, he knew that large PR companies would basically not take this business, and small and medium-sized PR companies did not have such network resources. In addition, he only had some knowledge of those large companies, so he was desperate and turned to WMA, a long-established agency.
"Your ideas and eloquence are perfect. I have decided to cooperate with you this time." After exchanging glances with Su Yun, Zou Yunhua finally made the decision.
After a round of exploratory exchanges, the two parties finally signed a cooperation contract.
The next step is to start carrying out work tasks in a targeted manner according to the plan.
So Su Yun quickly followed the plan and produced a number of short videos featuring Teddy Bears. Then, at her own expense, she asked Teddy Bear's partner manufacturers to make a batch of small Teddy Bears to be used as "peripheral gifts".
After the materials were basically prepared and the funds were gradually in place under Zou Yunhua's arrangement, Ovitz and his four friends immediately started working overtime.
From collecting information to lobbying everywhere, this group of young people, whose average age is in their early thirties, secretly used what they learned and gained from their work to start a series of sophistry operations that even the public relations companies that are involved in sophistry operations in this era could not have imagined.
"Come on, we can earn 20,000 US dollars from this business, and if we work hard and save more, we can quit the company and become our own bosses!" The five young people had already had opinions about the complacent WMA. This time, they secretly took the risk of taking on Su Yun and Zou Yunhua's private work in order to save up the starting capital for opening a new company.
As a result, during this month, many judges received new free packages in their mailboxes that were larger, thicker, and heavier than other free packages.
Because they are called movie peripherals, those small gifts are openly on the edge of gifts and gifts, stuck on the dividing line between gifts and bribes, which is really unreasonable: Can you say that my roast turkey plate with cute teddy bears printed on it and the furry cute teddy bear keychains and other small things are bribes? Which idiot would give these worthless little things to bribe those rich and powerful judges? These are peripherals! Peripherals!
This kind of cunning gift-giving, where there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom, doesn’t cost a lot of money, but when faced with an ordinary package with only a videotape and a bonus package filled with “small gifts from the heart”, most people will have a better impression of which one is better. The result is self-evident…
In addition to concentrated bombings to fill up the judges' mailboxes, those daily activity venues also became battlegrounds for Su Yun and his team.
Thanks to the eloquence of Ovitz and his friends, as well as Su Yun's hard work with the system's golden fingers, all kinds of stores were "helped" by Su Yun in exchange to make promotional posters and promotional gg, with the goal of using artificial intelligence teddy bears to cover all aspects and ranges.
As a result of this viral marketing, restaurants are covered with teddy bear serving posters, bookstores have put up teddy bear recommendation book stands, stationery stores have launched teddy bear series stationery, buses have teddy bear patterns painted on them... wherever the naked eye can see, the adorable teddy bears are everywhere.
It’s no wonder that thanks to the posters made by Su Yun at her own expense and with the help of the system’s cheat code, the (Photoshopped) dishes, after being printed, are much better than those they had previously found from specialized stores.
Of the two restaurants, one has a beautifully made colorful teddy bear serving dishes poster, while the other has a normal dish introduction poster that is not very well printed. Regardless of age, most people will subconsciously choose the one that looks better.
Moreover, Su Yun is very hardworking and not only does she produce a new poster every week but also provides it for free. All the store owners have to pay is to help post the posters in the store and occasionally show specially made short videos. This mutually beneficial approach has attracted more and more partners in a short period of time.
偶爾有點空閑時間，她甚至也不閑着，抱了廠商給她特別定制的正常比例泰迪熊就去各處店鋪逛，到處賣萌——短片gg裏除了從電影劇情裏剪出來的精美MV，也有泰迪熊打工賺錢養小主人的可愛CG動畫，劇情內容就是十分簡單的小故事：沒有家沒有媽媽的泰迪熊和小主人可憐兮兮地到處打工賺錢，收工時就默默數錢貼貼，盼望着能找到媽媽和家。
她抱着的泰迪熊是準備在之後在聖地亞哥漫展做嘉賓的特制品，會發聲說謝謝和拱手致謝，這麽一路走下來，是真的挺像個賣藝的可憐孩子……
評委之中多數是有了一定年紀的，而且裏面還是白人男性居多；所以她就唯有是展示“人類幼崽”的超強加成buff，才能勉強來抵消人種和性別的劣勢。
說起來，這裏還有一個挺搞笑的小插曲：蘇韻宣傳到新澤西那邊時，順便又去探望了湯姆一家。
湯姆家最小的妹妹瑪莉安看到蘇韻，頓時就一臉自豪地說道：“湯姆欺負你，我幫你報了仇，現在學校裏好多人崇拜我！”
蘇韻不明所以地将目光投向另外兩位姐姐，這才從她們哭笑不得的解釋裏得到了這些話的真正內容：投放各處的MV裏，有一個是湯姆飾演的親兒子角色欺負蘇韻飾演的小機器人，所以那些和瑪莉安差不多年紀的孩子連同之前沒看過電影的孩子，就新仇舊恨一起上，讨厭極了湯姆的角色。
瑪莉安借此“優勢”，揮舞起小拳拳捶了親哥湯姆一頓，引來一片同學的崇拜，讓她在學校裏特別的有面子。
“她這樣，你也陪着她玩啊？”蘇韻聽完，立刻也是哭笑不得地看向了湯姆。
“反正也不痛。”湯姆搖搖頭。
“那你這一臉一身的淤青傷痕是從哪裏來的？”蘇韻疑惑地眯起了眼睛。
“有人喜歡你，自然也有人不喜歡你——所以我教訓了那些不長眼睛的人一頓。”湯姆老實地回答道。
蘇韻沉默了片刻，這才重重地拍了一下他的肩膀：“好兄弟！”
總覺得哪裏不對但又想不出哪裏不對的湯姆捂着肩膀，疑惑了一晚上，直到第二天蘇韻重新上路繼續工作，也還是沒能想出答案來。
就這麽一直忙碌到了月底，不少人都知道了《A.I.人工智能》這部影片的小主演居然會特別“無恥”地到處奔走刷眼緣刷好感的消息。
有人感嘆，有人驚豔，有人無語，亦有人對此嗤之以鼻。
感嘆的自然是想不到蘇韻這孩子能如此放下自尊到處賣萌讨好，驚豔的則是有人從中發現了病毒營銷的黑紅之妙處；至于鄙夷的那些，多數都是覺得蘇韻這種做法上不得臺面，比不得她的對手用上電視宣傳和專門舉辦觀影會、酒會等正常拉票方式。
聽到這些回饋的蘇韻呵呵一笑：人家拼爹拼媽拼公司，我什麽都沒有，只能拼熊了啊！
時間在忙碌之中悄然而去，轉眼之間就到了1974年的4月2日。
第46屆奧斯卡金像獎頒獎典禮，正是于這一日，在美國加州洛杉矶音樂中心舉行。
這一屆的頒獎典禮，在蘇韻看來，就是漫天遍地的黃橙色調，從舞臺到座位到牆壁都是一片的橙色夾雜些許金黃，比之前幾屆的配色都要辣眼睛。
不過考慮到年代因素，這樣辣眼睛的亮色，還要算是時髦……
大概是為了展示內容的創新性，連這會場配色都創新得那麽的另類。
蘇韻這一次進場走紅毯，穿的是改良款白色絲綢立領小旗袍，底下修改了原本的旗袍樣式為洋裝蓬蓬裙的模樣，乍一眼看去像是立領小禮服連衣裙，湊近又能發現其中的特色盤扣和小幅繡花圖案，再搭配全套特別尺寸的珍珠發夾、項鏈和叮當镯一路走來，清脆空靈的叮當镯碰撞聲不絕，仿佛自帶BGM。
這種既有傳統韻味又有現代風範的範兒，頓時就吸引了不少閃光。
這一個裝扮，顯然是她作為小機器人時穿白色連體服的超高配。既聯動了所屬的電影，又展現出了全新的模樣，使得本來就曾經對電影裏小機器人顏值有過驚豔感的人頓感耳目一新。
無獨有偶，琳達·布萊爾也是穿了類似《驅魔人》電影裏面的淺色連衣裙；而塔圖姆·奧尼爾則是一副小西服的偏中性打扮——《紙月亮》裏面，她所飾演的角色就是因為生活艱難所以活成假小子模樣的小女孩，在認識了男主角、有了“父親”的教導之後，方才逐漸覺醒了性別意識，獲得了成長。
這一副三個人不知道是有意還是無意，都聯動了所屬電影角色打扮的畫面，讓兩側的記者們拍下了不少素材。
進場之後，琳達主動過來湊到了蘇韻旁邊：“塔圖姆這次的勝算很大。”
“你怎麽知道的？”蘇韻看向她。
“她父母之前做了不少動作，比起你那些，她的那些拉票手段不在明面上，但是卻特別有效。”琳達語氣裏帶着幾分不服氣和無奈：倘若肉眼可見的吊打，她也許就心服口服了，偏偏大家都差不多甚至蘇韻公認更勝一籌……
但人和人，就是很難公平地相比。
而且比起蘇韻和她都是靠自己努力拼來的角色和成績，塔圖姆多少是依靠了父母的因素：盡管塔圖姆在《紙月亮》裏面的表演也是十分出色，但是這部電影的劇情，就是男主角和塔圖姆這兩個角色從一開始互相嫌棄，到在旅途中培養出了親情的故事。
劇情裏，男主角并不是塔圖姆的親生父親，但兩人之間的“親情”十分感人。
現實中，男主角的演員瑞恩·奧尼爾，卻正是塔圖姆的親生父親——所以很難讓人不相信，她在裏面的出色演繹或多或少是因為這個現實關系的原因。
“所以我寧願是你拿，都不想她拿。”琳達本來已經有了一個金球女配，而且華納這一輪的全力是推《驅魔人》和《騙中騙》争奪最佳影片，自知自己這個女配提名得不了多少資源，因此她是早就做好了陪跑心理。
“盡力而為吧。”蘇韻笑了笑。
看到蘇韻旁邊座位的人過來了，琳達便趕緊往自己的座位走去。
蘇韻和琳達揮了揮手，轉頭一看，卻是被來人那真誠還帶着點害羞的笑容閃了一下。
挪了挪讓他坐進來之後，看他那時不時偷瞄這邊的模樣，蘇韻只得主動開口：“帕西諾先生，你是有什麽話要和我說嗎？”
“你們剛才是不是在說着什麽？”被小孩子看了出來，于是這一屆最佳男主角的參選者阿爾·帕西諾也幹脆開了口，“有什麽問題……不能私下解決嗎？你們這樣很容易被人記下來的。”
那一副專業和稀泥到恨不得全世界都是一團和氣團結友愛的模樣，看得蘇韻有點哭笑不得：“沒有，我們就是随便說說，不是吵架，應該也不會有人注意到。”
“那就好。”帕西諾舒了一口氣。
“你剛才的樣子，好像一個心理醫生。”趁着現在有的是時間，兩人有一搭沒一搭地聊着，于是蘇韻說笑了一句。
“是嗎？”帕西諾也笑了一下，“他們都說我性格有點怪，要是別人批評我，我會記住那個人好幾年，特別記仇——其實我只是不喜歡批評別人，也不喜歡別人批評我而已。”
想不到這麽個在好萊塢名利場裏打滾多年的巨星居然有着這麽中二的和稀泥想法，蘇韻也是有點無語。
轉頭和坐在另一邊的鄒運華說了幾句，很快，第一個獎項“最佳男配角”即将頒發。
頒發完這一個表演類競賽獎之後，緊接着，一個又一個的技術類獎項也陸陸續續開始了頒發。
來到最佳音效的時候，場外的示威者突然高舉起了一個牌子，上面那“請将最佳音效獎授予尼克松”的大字标語，看得不止是現場觀衆，就連守在電視機旁邊的觀衆也是忍俊不禁。
果然不愧是傳說中的自由美利堅，調侃自家總統的事也就他們自己幹得出來……
這一個插曲過去，又頒發了最佳外語片獎給予法國影片《日以繼夜》。
接下來，就是蘇韻的目标——俗語裏相對于最佳女主角影後稱號的“影妃”獎，最佳女配角。
“塔圖姆·奧尼爾——《紙月亮》！”聽到男主持人念出這個名字，場內頓時靜默了一瞬。
最年輕的最佳女配角，果然還是一直大熱門姿态的塔圖姆……
就在記者們開始思考起如何撰寫破紀錄的最年輕女配得獎者的文章時，女主持人接過了男主持人手裏的信封，再一次湊到了話筒前，“瑪麗·蘇——《A.I.人工智能》！”
聽得第二個名字出來，場內頓時引發了一片細微的驚嘆聲：居然是雙黃蛋？！
As we all know, with the Oscar selection mechanism, it is difficult for two films to have exactly the same number of votes, so it is rare to see double yolk eggs or multiple yolk eggs as is sometimes seen in other awards.
According to current records, there was once a double yolk egg for Best Actor at the 5th Academy Awards in 1933: Wallace Beery of "The Young Wizards" and Frederick March of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" both won the Best Actor award because they met the rule that "if the difference in votes between the two is less than 3, it will be considered a tie."
But if you count carefully, the Best Actor Oscar this year actually went to Frederick March, who received a higher number of votes.
Since then, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has gradually revised more mature regulations, stipulating that double yolk eggs can only appear if the tickets are the same, so the probability is so small that it can almost be ignored.
However, the probability is small, but it is not impossible.
Five years ago in 1969, at the 41st Academy Awards ceremony, Barbra Streisand for "Funny Girl" and Katharine Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter" had a rare tie and won the Best Actress award together, becoming true double yolks.
And tonight's 46th Academy Awards ceremony saw another extremely rare double yolk for Best Supporting Actress, following the double yolk for Best Actress five years ago!
Moreover, both winners can even be called legendary in age - originally thought that Tatum O'Neal had already broken the record of the youngest competition award winner in Oscar history; but within a few minutes, Mary Sue broke the former's record directly, once again breaking the record of the youngest competition award winner!
In other words, this year's Oscars produced the two youngest Best Supporting Actress winners!
Because of this almost miraculous same vote and the legendary status of the two people, after the award ceremony, many newspapers and magazines compared the two young girls.
Among the many reviews and analyses, there are some quite insightful comments and assessments: Mary Sue's win for Best Supporting Actress was not only due to her unexpectedly strong public relations, but also partly due to the support of the "backer" behind her.
Although art should be apolitical, nothing in the world can be as ideal as it is and be free from all real connections.
Therefore, after Nixon's visit to China and the gradual normalization of Sino-US relations, Mary Sue was fortunate enough to encounter the rare "honeymoon period" in the relationship between the two countries. Therefore, many judges, taking this into consideration, gave face to the red flag represented by Mary Sue.
Of course, in addition to backing, one's own strength is also crucial: the special effects technology mastered by this young genius Mary Sue may also make many judges related to the film industry give her future collaborator some advance goodwill and preferential treatment.
Finally, the most well-known evaluation of this year's double-star queen is this report that combines the two's movies and reality:
“Paper Moon is a nostalgic black-and-white comedy that once again shows us the former glory of Hollywood black-and-white movies with its interesting plot and natural and smooth performances; while AI Artificial Intelligence is a futuristic science fiction film that perfectly combines commerciality and art, using gorgeous and fantastic special effects technology and meaningful core ideas to explore the future of humanity and the prospects of color movies…”
"From 'Glorious Past' to 'Future Prospects', Hollywood will never disappoint those who have dreams!"
Many years later, when this report, which was widely recognized at the time, was once again dug out from the dust of history, combined with the two completely different lives of Tatum's "peak at debut" and Marilyn Sue's "this is just the beginning", one can't help but sigh that it was really as expected.
The glory of the past will eventually fade away with the past.
As for the future, she will forge ahead like the red flag she represents and bring glory again.