Chapter 510: Kill Hollywood with Hollywood's Way
"All wrong?"
Everyone in the conference room was dumbfounded!
"How is this possible?"
"Yeah, that's impossible. How could there be so many random audience members in a movie theater?"
Yang Huan smiled and said, "Why not?"
After a pause, he continued, "According to the data I have, among the audiences in domestic cinemas, only a small number go in with a purpose, and more than 60% of the audience chooses movies randomly."
"This is still in first-tier cities. If it were in second- and third-tier cities, the proportion would even exceed 70 percent!"
As soon as Yang Huan finished speaking, everyone below was immediately shocked.
Seventy percent?
What is the ratio?
In other words, most viewers do not have a strong purpose to watch a certain movie, they all make random decisions after entering the cinema.
This data stunned everyone present.
"Why do I feel that movie fans go to the cinema just to watch a certain movie?"
"That's your feeling. In reality, it's probably hard to say."
"Yes, I think we may have been confused by the circles around us, but the actual situation may not be like this!"
"Well, there is such a possibility, especially now that second- and third-tier cities are rising, and the film market in fourth- and fifth-tier cities is also growing. Overall, random audiences may indeed account for the majority."
"Master Huan's words reminded me that if random audiences really make up the majority, it would explain why many films have ridiculously bad reputations but their box office keeps rising."
"Because of those movie reviews and word of mouth on the Internet and in newspapers, random audiences don't care at all. They go to the cinema purely to buy a two-hour entertainment!"
"Yes, in this case, the advantages of the matrix distribution model will be reflected. After all, the interaction between the matrix model and the theaters can better attract the desire of this group of random audiences to watch movies."
"No wonder Master Huan made such a decision in the first place!"
"Yeah, it's a pity that we still think we understand this market!"
"Shame on you, shame on you!"
Everyone was talking at once, but Yang Huan just smiled and said nothing.
He just wants to tell this group of filmmakers not to take their own self-righteous imaginations in their own small circle as facts!
Perhaps the proportion of random audiences in super first-tier cities such as Beijing and Longhai is relatively small, but it will not be less than half!
This is determined by the overall level of movie fans in the country at present!
"Master Huan, would you mind telling us where this data came from?" Master Xing seemed very calm.
Yang Huan nodded and said, "I commissioned Yang's Cinema to do this survey a year ago!"
When everyone heard this, they agreed that there was no problem and the data was very reliable.
After all, cinemas are directly facing movie fans, and Yang’s Cinemas currently has its own cinemas in more than 100 cities across the country. The data obtained from the survey by them must be correct!
"As I said before, film is a business. Since it is a business, we must understand the consumers we are facing, understand our market, and understand ourselves!"
Yang Huan's words made everyone present nod their heads continuously.
"In the past few years, the domestic film market has grown by leaps and bounds. We have the largest population base, and our movie screens are increasing rapidly every day. In the next few years, the box office of our movies will get higher and higher, even to a level that none of us dare to imagine!"
Everyone basically agreed with Master Huan's analysis.
With a population of more than one billion, it would be nonsense to say that China’s film market has little potential!
With the development of the economy and the improvement of domestic consumption levels, the younger generation's demand for watching movies is also increasing.
The big pie of the film market will definitely get bigger and bigger.
"More and more companies and more and more funds have begun to pour into the film and television industry. The competition will become more and more fierce in the future, so we must think carefully about what we can rely on to compete with others."
Yang's Cinemas?
Are you kidding? That belongs to Yang Group!
They also want to make money and profit.
If the movie you made is not a hit, but other people's movies are huge sellers, do you still expect Yang's Cinemas to stay with you and not make any money for the sake of their family?
Don't be silly!
Now it’s a market economy!
"So, from the beginning, I said that we should focus on distribution with one hand and production with the other. The initial results of our distribution system have come out, and everyone has seen it. This is the result of professional operation!"
“Professionalism and quality, I hope these two can become the brand labels of Miracle Pictures and also our core competitiveness!”
Everyone present felt the determination and courage of Young Master Huan.
The fact that he invested so much money in setting up a distribution system and acquiring the world's top and most professional special effects companies was enough to show Master Huan's determination.
But some people have expressed concerns about this.
"Master Huan, this may not be easy in the current domestic film environment!"
Yang Huan looked over and found that the person speaking was Huang Jianxin, who is also considered to be the most outstanding film producer in the country.
"Why?" Yang Huan asked with a smile.
Huang Jianxin is a professional and knows all of this very well.
"As the saying goes, every profession has its own specialization. Film is an industry that involves too many different professions. In a mature film industry system, 70% of a film project has been completed from the time it is approved to before it starts filming. The rest is filming, post-production and distribution, which only accounts for about 30%."
"That is to say, the filming and post-production of the crew do not account for a large proportion of the entire film project process. On the contrary, the early preparation and planning are the most time-consuming and resource-intensive."
Yang Huan nodded, "Go on."
"Take special effects for example. Many people think that special effects are added after the filming is finished. In fact, it is not. The special effects team should be involved in the planning before the filming, and even accompany the crew to complete the entire filming process, from the big things like the film cost estimation to the small things like the scene layout when the crew is filming. The special effects team needs to be involved."
"Many movie fans say that our domestic special effects are lousy. That's because they don't know that our current process is that the crew shoots quickly and then throws it to post-production. They don't realize that insufficient preparation in the early stages or problems left over from the crew's filming cannot be made up for by post-production."
"Let me give you a simple example. When a crew was shooting some shots that needed to be added with special effects in post-production, the green cloth on the set became dirty. This was something the post-production special effects team could not solve, but this was not a serious problem. What was even more ridiculous was that when some directors were arranging the scene in front of the green cloth, green ornaments appeared. What would you ask the post-production special effects team to do?"
"Such low-level, even amateurish mistakes are simply too numerous to count in domestic film productions!"
Yang Huan had not expected that it would be like this, and could not help but ask: "Isn't it the formal process that the special effects team should be involved in the operation of the entire crew early on?"
"Yes!" Huang Jianxin nodded, "That's how Lao Xu's Dragon Gate Flying Armor works, and the special effects are reflected!"
Xu Ke couldn't help but smile when he heard this. "In fact, not only the special effects team, but also the trailer team, editing team, publicity team, screenwriter team, etc. should all be involved in the crew operation early on."
"What do you mean?" Yang Huan asked again.
"As Mr. Huang said just now, every profession has its own specialties. Editing alone is divided into full-film editing and trailer editing. These two are different fields and require different materials. In addition, art directors and poster designers are also different. The photos taken by the crew may not be suitable for posters."
"There is also the screenwriter. Different screenwriters are good at different aspects of creation, and in a mature film industry, there should also be a role like script doctor."
"Script Doctor?"
"Yes, as the name suggests, a script doctor is someone who picks out the mistakes in a script and gives solutions, from the theme of the script, the setting of the characters, the twists and turns of the plot, and even the appearance and dialogue of each character, etc. The script writer may be confused, but a script doctor must be able to see things clearly from the sidelines!"
"But at present, most crews even try to save as much as possible on screenwriters, let alone script doctors!"
Yang Huan really didn't expect that there were so many different sub-jobs in a mature film industry system. No wonder it was called the film industry!
In this way, domestic movies are really low-level.
Perhaps seeing that Huang Jianxin and Xu Ke had already said it, Chen Guofu also smiled and said, "Let me say a few words as well."
"I think the biggest difference between the domestic film industry and Hollywood is still the issue of money!"
"Oh? What do you mean?" Yang Huan became interested as soon as he heard the word money.
He lacks everything except money.
Chen Guofu smiled and said, "Just now, Lao Huang and Lao Xu both mentioned the issue of subdividing the types of work, so I will mention another aspect, which is the issue of filming costs."
"In Hollywood, directing is just one of the jobs in a crew. There is a school term for the filming method commonly used in Hollywood, which is called the master's technique. This can be said to be Hollywood's most important advantage."
Yang Huan looked at Chen Guofu with interest and listened to what he continued to say.
"More than a decade ago, the famous director Wu Yusen went to Hollywood to shoot Broken Arrow, working with the big star Travolta. Wu Yusen was new to the film and adopted the shooting techniques of Hong Kong films, shooting a scene only three times at most. This was a feature of Hong Kong films at the time, pursuing one-shot perfection and never wasting film. The film ratio was quite high."
"But Travolta refused to accept it and went straight to Wu Yusen, asking why you only shoot three times? This is Hollywood, not Hong Kong, and the ratio is not a problem. The salary the crew gave me is enough for me to shoot each scene a hundred times. You only shot it three times. This is disrespectful to the movie and to me!"
"Because in Hollywood, as early as the film era, a 20:1 ratio was considered normal. Now in the digital age, the ratio has reached an unbelievable level."
The so-called film ratio means that it takes one minute of film to shoot one minute of picture, which is a one-to-one film ratio.
Hong Kong and Taiwan films are well-known for their pursuit of film-to-film ratios. In Taiwan, there is even an unspoken rule that if the film-to-film ratio exceeds four to one, no film company will dare to use you because it is too wasteful.
"In Hollywood, even a simple conversation between two people would be shot with multiple lenses from different angles. In many shots, the actors would be asked to perform in different ways over and over again. Even expensive post-production special effects would be done to provide more material for the full film editing later!"
"So, in Hollywood, editing can only be handed over to the most professional teams, because there is so much material that it can even be edited into two movies with different styles. It naturally cannot be handed over to the director!"
Having said that, Chen Guofu felt that he could make a summary of his speech.
"Whether it's the film ratio, the job classification, or any other variety, I think it all comes down to one word: money!"
"As long as the budget is sufficient and the company doesn't mind losses, we can do it the way Hollywood does. It's hard to say whether it's a good movie or whether it can be successful, but it will definitely be well-made and full of sincerity!"
"Even in the future, who dares to say that it is impossible to kill Hollywood in Hollywood's way?"