Millennium director

After the warm birthday celebration on the first day of filming, the atmosphere among the cast members became much more harmonious.

The filming of "The Night the Comet Came" was also on the fast track.

Although there are a lot of contradictions in this book and the intersection of time and space, it is actually not difficult to shoot if the shooting goes smoothly.

In the original work, a new director, three staff members, and eight almost unknown actors were able to shoot the film in five nights.

There is no reason why the high-end version of Wu Yuan couldn't finish filming this movie in seven days.

In fact, the shooting period he set was too loose.

Except for some bumps in the first two days of shooting, the shooting in the next few nights went beyond imagination.

Wu Yuan repeats every day starting shooting, NGing, telling scenes, shooting again, sending films for development, watching films...

It only took Wu Yuan 6 days and 30 working hours to complete all the filming of this movie.

Mr. Han made a mistake in his judgment. Wu Yuan actually spent nearly 300,000 yuan to complete the film.

The cast and crew didn't spend much on remuneration, and it didn't cost much to rent the small western-style building for a week. The total cost was just over 60,000 yuan.

Most of the real money was spent on film.

Although the feature length of "The Night the Comet Came" is expected to be only 80-90 minutes, Wu Yuan used a full 200 boxes of film during filming!

Although Wu Yuan did not waste film randomly like a pure new director.

However, because of the repetitive plot of "The Night the Comet Came" itself requires a large number of repeated shots, the film's supporting-film ratio is still around 1:9.

By the way, the film-to-film ratio of Hollywood, which has a relatively mature film and television industry system, can reach about 1:20. You can imagine how much film you need to buy.

And there is even worse news. In just half a year, because of the announcement of the film marketization policy, the film market has also risen in response.

Nowadays, a box of 400-foot film costs more than 800, and this is the internal price of the film factory!

Just 200 boxes of film cost 180,000. Including processing fees, the total spent on film was less than 200,000.

In addition to renting filming equipment, purchasing some props, and setting up scenes, the entire movie cost a little more than 280,000 yuan to shoot!

Fortunately, this budget is still within Wu Yuan's psychological expectations.

He didn't deliberately waste money just because Mr. Han approved a budget of 500,000 yuan, and he didn't line his own pockets by getting a straw hat worth 8,000 yuan a piece.

Producer Chen Yuan, who was with the whole process, saw Wu Yuan's sophisticated shooting techniques and frugal spending, and was satisfied with having a closing banquet with everyone, so he returned to China Film to return to Director Han. .

Of course, because Wu Yuan was going to save money to the end and did not plan to hire an editor to do the editing, but planned to go back to school and use the school's editing room to edit the film himself, there was no need for Chen Yuan to continue to keep an eye on Wu Yuan.

After having a break-up meal with the actors and giving out a few finalization red envelopes, Wu Yuan returned to school and went into the editing room with several boxes of finished film materials.

Although the school's editing equipment models are relatively old, this is not a special effects blockbuster, so the equipment is sufficient.

The most important thing is that these devices are free!

Seeing that half of the starring actors in "The Night the Comet Came" were Beijing Film Academy students, and the director was a current student, Director Xie tried his best to give Wu Yuan the green light, and even found a junior from the school's photography department. Play second fiddle to Wu Yuan and call it social practice!

In this way, the two of them spend all their time in the editing room editing films every day except for eating and sleeping.

Fortunately, it's summer vacation now, so I have plenty of time.

It took more than half a month, and with the two people's full efforts, Wu Yuan finally edited the film.

The total film is 92 minutes, three minutes longer than the original version, but it reduces about fifteen minutes of casual chatting and adds nearly 20 minutes of dramatic conflicts and contradictions!

Compared with the original version, Wu Yuan's edited version of "The Night the Comet Came" has greatly improved its commercial potential.

I don’t dare to say that there are no tears in the whole process, but the suspense and exciting atmosphere almost runs through the entire film, and Zhang Chi’s control is also very good. It can be regarded as a qualified commercial suspense movie!

With this newly cut copy in hand, Wu Yuan couldn't wait to find Mr. Han and ask him to watch the final film.

In a screening room in the China Film Building, Mr. Han and Chen Yuan watched the finished film with Wu Yuan.

Mr. Han did not say a word from the beginning to the end of the 92-minute film. It was not until the end of the film that he breathed a sigh of relief: "Well done!"

"This will be a movie that brings a new experience to domestic audiences!"

"There has never been a Chinese-language film with this theme before. This is an epoch-making film!"

Does "The Night the Comet Came" really deserve this praise?

To be honest, even Wu Yuan has adapted it, reducing the experimental nature of the original film and strengthening the commercial nature.

But this movie is really not that much of a novel movie.

Hollywood has been playing with the theme of parallel time and space and parallel worlds since the 1980s and 1990s, and has also made many excellent time and space suspense blockbusters.

This is not a very new subject.

This movie is excellent in terms of setting and plot. It uses as little space as possible and uses themes that would only be used in science fiction blockbusters.

But this is viewed from the perspective of the world film industry.

If we narrow the scope to the mainland film industry.

What themes are being shot in mainland movies now?

It's a local film like "My Father and Mother", a romantic comedy like "See You or Separate", a martial arts film like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and a satirical film like "The Devil Is Coming".

Or realistic-themed movies like "Platform", "Get in the Bus and Let's Go" and "Silent River".

Sci-fi? Suspense? Parallel time and space?

No director has ever made a film of this type.

And precisely in Hollywood, movies with this theme are part of the mainstream blockbusters among commercial films!

As the main helmsman in promoting the development of the mainland film market, Mr. Han hopes to see mainland movies flourish like Hollywood, with various themes, big movies and small movies competing for success!

After China Film Group was established, the first thing he did was to push director Zhang Yimou to make a real mainland blockbuster, a movie that could catch up with international blockbusters!

The project is now in its early stages of preparation.

At this time, Wu Yuan's "The Night When the Comet Came" appeared.

Although this movie is not a blockbuster, it is definitely a movie that is more "commercial" than other current mainland movies!

Although the film cost only 300,000 yuan, it has a classic three-act structure of commercial movies.

From the opening to the character foreshadowing to the comet crossing to establish the theme, important changing events occur, dramatic scenes appear, confrontations and quarrels occur one after another. In the end, the heroine falls into a soul decision, the climax of the story occurs, and the theme sublimates, leaving a thought-provoking ending.

It sounds simple, but it is true that no one in the mainland had made such a commercial movie before Wu Yuan.

For sixth- and fifth-generation directors, such movies are too "simple" and have no artistic value at all, and cannot be called good movies.

But the Chinese film industry needs movies like this to enrich the spiritual life of the public!

Yangchun Baixue's art is too high-end, and the realistic themes are too heavy. Ordinary people who have just escaped from poverty can't really appreciate it.

After watching "The Night the Comet Came", Mr. Han slapped his thigh excitedly, thinking that he could use this movie to test the waters of the Chinese commercial film market!

Although he wanted to make a commercial blockbuster with an investment of several hundred million, he was unsure because he was afraid that the market would not be able to accept this kind of commercial movie!

Now there is "The Night the Comet Came" to test the waters first, to see the market response, to see the public's acceptance and box office response to this kind of commercial film. It will also be very helpful for Mr. Han's blockbuster plan!

"Classmate Xiaoyuan, I think this movie has gone very well. When do you plan to release it?" Mr. Han asked impatiently.

There are not many movie release schedules these days, and the only one that can be called a popular schedule is the Lunar New Year slot that was just opened two years ago.

Even during the Lunar New Year period, there are usually only two or three movies released, and the market is pitifully small.

Naturally, Wu Yuan didn't plan to go to the Lunar New Year stall.

This year's Lunar New Year movies include "Happy Days" directed by Zhang Yimou, "Counterattack" starring Zeng Neiwei, "Examination Family" starring Song Dandan, "Fuss" starring Yuan Li, and a cannon fodder movie "Beautiful Home" .

I remember that the box office of this year's Lunar New Year market was very poor. Zhang Yimou's "Happy Days" only had a box office of 5.5 million, and he was scolded for being a gangster.

During the Lunar New Year period, the movie with the highest box office gross was 5.5 million, which shows how miserable the film market is this year.

September is not suitable either. There is a movie to be released in September this year, Feng Xiaogang's "A Sigh"!

This is the great director who created the Lunar New Year movie in Mainland China. His film has a very high public base. If Wu Yuan chooses to release it in September, he really won't be able to attract audiences to watch it.

Today's audiences do not have the luxury to watch two movies in a row in a month. Between Feng Xiaogang and the unknown Wu Yuan, the audience will only choose Feng Xiaogang!

"Let's release it in October. After all, there is also the National Day holiday." Wu Yuan said with a smile.

"October?" Mr. Han frowned.

Nowadays, there is no such thing as a National Day holiday. During the National Day holiday, most people who have money in their pockets choose to travel instead of going to the cinema to watch movies.

"Just choose October. It will be released on October 1st." Wu Yuan shrugged and said: "Since we want to cultivate the audience's habit of going to the cinema to watch movies, we must choose a holiday. At least there is a seven-day National Day holiday. It is impossible for everyone Are you going to play outside for seven days?"

“If we can spare one day to go to the cinema and watch a movie, that’s our victory.”

"Mainland movies can't always focus on one Lunar New Year slot. Hollywood still has five major slots!"

"By the way, Director Han." Wu Yuan thought for a moment and then said, "I want to take this film to the Sitges International Fantasy Film Festival at the end of September."

"I think this movie still has a market abroad and can be sold!"

The original version of "The Night the Comet Came" is not a commercial film, only an experimental film. However, the protagonist used his 20 years of rich experience in watching movies to add some commercial elements to the film.

"Hero" is a commercial movie with a classic three-act structure. The whole story can be summarized in one sentence: an assassin assassinates the king, and finally gives up when the assassination is about to succeed. It is very dramatic.

What makes this movie awesome is not that the plot of the movie is awesome, but that this movie ushered in the era of commercial blockbusters in the Mainland. There are people in the Mainland who dare to be the first in the world to make commercial blockbusters!