At the 72nd Academy Awards, like most media predictions in advance, "American Beauty" became the big winner, it won five awards in one fell swoop: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, and almost all the eye-catching awards, Sam Menders became the sixth director to win the "Oscar for Best Director" award for his debut film, and his age of 34 is also the second youngest in Oscar history, second only to the 32-year-old for "Tao Geer" Award-winning Norman Taurrog.

Two years ago, no studio was willing to invest in "American Beauty", and in the end, it was Steven Spielberg who saw it, and it was able to get investment from DreamWorks to start filming. Now it has won a big victory and become another classic in film history, Sam Menders has also become a rapidly rising supernova, he can be seen in the headlines of almost all movie newspapers and magazines, and on the awards stage, Spielberg smiled and personally awarded the picture of the little gold man to Sam Mendes, which has become a lot of cover photos.

The media has shouted the title of "Steven Spielberg's successor", and Sam Menders's light has overshadowed the entire Hollywood for a while, and the future is immeasurable, the next film master...... But some media pointed out that for Sam Mendes, what to shoot in the second movie to prove that he is not the kind of "director of a piece" is an unavoidable serious test.

In 1999, the highest-grossing movie "Star Wars Prequel 1" failed to win an award, and lost to "The Matrix"; and another blockbuster movie "Youth Musical" also returned empty-handed, and the best original song award was won by "Tarzan", David Lawrence couldn't hide his disappointment, Wang Yang didn't care, he had already guessed how the serious and old-fashioned Oscar could hand over the little golden man to a youth school movie, even if it was only the best original song.

Before participating in the Oscars, Wang Yang still had some excitement and expectations, but when he participated in this time, he simply didn't want to come again, he spent the whole day outside the venue dealing with the media and participating in activities, and in the evening, he sat in the Kodak Theater all night, and everything would be fine after the award was over. But then there is the Oscar dinner held by "Vanity Fair", and when you receive an invitation, you almost can't go without going, all the winners, nominees, and invitees will go, which is already a "tradition", and if you don't go, you will not only offend "Vanity Fair", but also disrespect the winners, because you didn't show up to congratulate you.

Wang Yang knows that he has absolutely no idea of disrespecting anyone, but others don't know, there is no need to make his image "arrogant", he is a producer, a director, he needs to deal with and know all kinds of people in this industry, so despite shouting in his heart "I just want to go home!", he still attended the Oscar dinner with Jessica, who was also exhausted.

It's not over yet, obviously hungry and wants to swallow a few big hamburgers, but before the hearty food of the dinner, Wang Yang and Jessica, and all the other celebrities, Hillary Swank, who won Best Actress, and Kevin Spacey who won Best Actor...... No one moves, because there are media reporters everywhere, and they will always take pictures of the "ugly" of your eating, and then report it with headlines such as "hungry ghost" and "no grace", which is a big blow to your personal image.

Wang Yang doesn't want to be an idol star, but his personal image is a chain reaction, including the company's image and the promotion of the movie will be affected to a certain extent, and before he is hungry to the point that "if you don't eat food right away, you will die"!

Going to other celebration parties next?Have a sleepless night?This is the choice of a large number of celebrities, but Wang Yang's choice is to go home, then lie comfortably in bed, sleep well, and continue the post-production of "When Happiness Knocks" the next day.

Editing with Margaret, scoring with Jenn Kezmerik, and making some manual adjustments to the lighting and color of the picture with Valey Pfister, Wang Yang lived a busy life every day, and when the time came to mid-April, all the post-production work was finally completed as expected. The 120-minute release version of "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" was announced, and the production cost was finally fixed at $32 million.

This 120-minute video has poured the efforts and efforts of countless people, and compared with the original version, the overall structure of the story has not changed much, still revolving around Chris Gardner's progress from barely making ends meet, destitute, and finally succeeding, but there are many differences in rhythm and details, the proportion of time in Chris's homelessness phase has increased, and there are more real details and changes in mentality, making the overall story seem natural and full, without the feeling of a hasty ending. In terms of soundtrack, Jenn Kezmelik deserves to be the "best soundtrack", his grasp of the picture and emotion is at the master level, the lively strings, the soft and sad piano, and a few genius-like children's voices, all make the design of the picture and the performance of the actors have been sublimated to the greatest extent.

At the beginning, the picture was like the autumn morning sun, slightly yellowed, warm but a little lonely, and then slowly became gray, and then slowly became brighter, and finally Will Smith walked in the crowd with red eyes, and was so happy that when he couldn't extricate himself, it seemed to see the sun through the clouds, and there was only warmth and happiness in the sun.

There is also the sincere and moving interpretation of Will Smith and his sons, which strictly reproduce the street appearance and clothing of San Francisco in 1981...... and Wang Yang's own emotions, this movie not only has Chris Gardner's life and heart, but also his, when Chris asks Wayne for a debt, he adds Wayne and yells at Chris "You're a loser, we are all here, don't worry about the 18 yuan, man, find a job you should find, don't daydream." Like Harry George once shouted at him.

Wang Yang feels that the current "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" is the highest level he can currently produce, and the current story content is also the highest level he can tell and express at present, he gave himself an A+, gave Will Smith an A+, and everyone in the crew is A+.

After everything was completed, the Flame Film Company sent the finished version of the film to the MPAA for grading review as usual, and there was no foul language, violence, drug abuse, pornography and other things in these 120 minutes, but Wang Yang's desire to get a G grade was disappointed, and the MPAA gave a PG grade, a parental counseling level, because there were scenes that made children emotionally disturbed such as selling blood, being hit by cars, and crowding shelters, so parents need to help them understand.

In fact, the G and PG ratings have no impact on "When Happiness Knocks on the Door", because its market positioning is not children, but adults who know what happiness is and what dreams are. Wang Yang wants to get a G grade, but it's just a greedy mentality, "if the pursuit of G grade does not affect the quality of the movie, he will pursue it as much as possible"; now that he has obtained the PG grade, he is not disappointed, but inexplicably relieved, he will not start the matter of grading next time.

As early as the beginning of April, Flame Movies released the official trailer, which still focuses on Will Smith's son, of course, there are also pictures of their family appearing at the same time, and there are some ups and downs, such as Chris being detained, Chris being hit by a car and other scenes, which are more exciting than the teaser, which also makes fans' expectations more and more high. Another 30-second trailer hit the TV screen, and it was shown only twice during the NCAA National Championship finals, Michigan State University vs. University of Florida, but the Flame movie paid the broadcasters $2 million.

Wang Yang and Jessica watched the whole game excitedly on the sofa at home, supporting the University of Florida, which was not favored before, but broke into the finals. Only the University of Cincinnati was not on the list of his semi-final predictions, and the successful bet on Florida gave Jessica a thumbs up and convinced fans who read his blog online. But to the disappointment of the two, the University of Florida did not have a dark horse to the end, and finally lost the game 76-89, and the University of Michigan won the national championship for the second time.

However, in any case, the publicity effect of the movie has been achieved, and the national ratings are close to 20 o'clock, and the advertisements for the long pause in those two games have been watched by the audience at 10 o'clock, which is an extremely large group.

"When Happiness Knocks on the Door" is not the only hard advertisement, several such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago's "ticket warehouse" city buses, subway stations and other places in the advertising position, are pasted with Will Smith and son posters, although not to the extent of spreading, but also close to the point of "you can always see in one place", the cost is naturally not low, together with the trailer of 2 million, and some city LED advertising, the budget of the entire hard radio plan is 18 million.

The cost of promoting the entire movie is 25 million, and the other 7 million is spent on soft advertising, viral marketing on the Internet, Chris Gardner's autobiography, and talk shows on TV. The viral marketing of the Internet is still old-fashioned, not playing mysterious, purely to provoke topics in various forum communities, about Chris Gardner, about this movie; with the success of Chris Gardner's lecture tour, his autobiography has reached the top of the weekly best-seller list of the New York Times, and the snowball is getting bigger and bigger, but it is also out of control; The last wave of offensive before the release, Wang Yang, Will Smith and other main creators began to appear on talk shows, Interviews with newspapers and magazines, the distribution department of Flame Films is in contact every day, with only one goal, more interviews, more talk shows!

In "Late Night Talk Show", Wang Yang and Will Smith, who were dressed in casual clothes, sat on the red sofa, and the host Conan O'Brien behind the wooden table next to them looked at them, and suddenly asked with a smile: "Will, how do you feel about getting the worst actor in Jin Sour Plum?" The audience below suddenly let out an "oh", Wang Yang and Will Smith both smiled, this talk show is the pursuit of entertaining effects, and a small opening is naturally one of the means.

"I feel good, it's a big bonus in my acting career, I put the trophy in the window cabinet in my bedroom, hey man, it's beautiful!" Will Smith said with a serious face, just as the golden sour plum is a great honor, and his reverse answer made the audience laugh. Conan O'Brien wrinkled his nose and shook his head, "If I just throw it away, at least not in the bedroom, that smell will affect my sleep state, I want to eat berries, is anyone like me?"

The audience laughed and shouted, Will Smith also smiled, Conan O'Brien pressed his hand, looked at Wang Yang and asked with a smile: "Young, when you heard that Will got the worst actor, what was your first reaction?" He immediately looked shocked and scared, changed his voice and said: "Oh my God! Oh no, it's over, the actor of my movie just got the golden sour plum, wow, what should I do?"

"No, no......" In the laughter of the audience, Wang Yang laughed and denied again and again, spread his hands and smiled: "I don't want to talk about Jin Sumei anymore! OK, in fact, I didn't have any reaction at that time, only one idea." He looked at Will Smith next to him and remembered the 120-minute video, whatever, what can't be said? He looked at the audience and smiled: "Is there a leading actor who won the Golden Sour Plum this year and the Oscar next year?" I want to have it. The audience immediately laughed and exclaimed, Will Smith also pretended to be shocked, Wang Yang said loudly: "I know how good Will's acting skills are, and you will know soon!"

"Oh, wait, wait!" Conan O'Brien raised his hand to stop the applause audience, looked at Wang Yang, and said with great interest: "What did I hear just now? Young, you said Will can win the Oscar, right? Is this your vision for When Happiness Knocks on the Door?"

If "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" fails, he and Will will become laughing stocks, but will it fail? Wang Yang nodded confidently: "Yes, this is my vision! I can say more, but leave more to the cinema." Conan O'Brien sighed a few times, pointed at Wang Yang, and smiled at the audience: "This guy is crazy enough, I like it, my ratings are not worried!"

Wang Yang shrugged his shoulders with a nonchalant smile, Will Smith grabbed him, and laughed with a boo: "Director, let's take it easy!" After the movie was completed, he watched it as soon as possible, and he was also very satisfied and confident with his performance, he smiled: "There will be no surprise when you say it, right?"

The audience below immediately laughed and applauded, many of them whistled, and Conan O'Brion said with a serious face: "Oh, what two confident people! I can't wait to see the movie." As he spoke, he stretched out his head again, half-covered his mouth and asked quietly, "Tell me, is what you just said the truth? Is the movie really that exciting?" The audience laughed even louder, Wang Yang and Will also laughed, and after a few seconds, Conan said again: "Okay, it's time to talk about my private life, my favorite part! So, Young, how about you and Jessica?"

"Late Night Talk Show", "Tonight Talk Show", "Oprah Talk Show" ...... In order to record these talk shows, as well as interviews with newspapers around the world, Wang Yang, Smith and Sons, Chris Gardner and other crew members ran around, in New York these days, and in Chicago the next day, and then went to Canada...... "It's Wang Yang, that wonder boy!" Looking at Wang Yang, Will Smith and others on the small TV screen, Aaron Johnson looked full of interest, as a black man, he has always liked Will Smith, and he also liked the little girl Briana, Wang Yang, who also made black biographies, was very impressed, he watched the talk show, laughed from time to time, he looked at his wife on the other side of the sofa, and asked: "Hey, that guy is really good! When will his "When Happiness Knocks on the Door" be released?" She replied without thinking: "No. 20." ”

"Oh, it's the 20th in a few days, let's go see it!" Aaron Johnson hugged his five-year-old son next to him, held him up with both hands, and smiled: "Hey, little boy, we're going to see the movie, "When Happiness Knocks on the Door." Little Aaron suddenly happily "yes", waved his fist and said, "Great, you can go to the movies!

(To be continued)