The eighth point of Midas's formula is that the movie should have a lot of special effects, and the movie looks extremely cool. The reason why Hollywood movies can sell well around the world and how good the story is, is that they have the best and coolest special effects in the world, and most of the audiences watch Hollywood movies for special effects.

As for the ninth point of the Midas formula, it is the rejection of big-name stars. Because the movie is an adaptation of a comic, or such a popular work, it has a large number of fans, and the movie can sell well without the need for big-name actors, and more importantly, more money can be spent on production, making the movie more sophisticated.

After talking about the nine elements of the Midas formula, Zhang Ran began to analyze it with specific examples, analyzing the movie "Harry Potter" that conforms to the Midas formula, Disney, the company that takes the Midas formula to the extreme, and the director George Lucas, who is particularly good at this formula; Finally, he also analyzed "Dragons", hoping to make "Dragons" into a series of movies that conform to the Midas formula in the future.

More than two hours passed quickly, and everything that should have been said was almost the same, Zhang Ran began to summarize: "That's all for the Midas formula, some people may say, I just want to make genre films, I don't want to make top blockbusters, this formula is of no use to me." In fact, today's talk about this is not to let everyone rigidly set the formula, but this formula conveys several very important concepts, that is, you have to know who the target audience is, you need to know what the target audience likes, whether as a director or as a screenwriter, everything you do must revolve around the target audience. ”

Zhang Ran looked at the time, there was still half an hour before the end of school, and said: "I'm done with what I'm going to talk about, there is still some time, let's discuss it now, everyone can ask any questions, do you have any questions?"

I saw a hula, and all the students at the scene raised their hands.

After wearing a boy with long hair and an artist style in the front row, he got up and asked, "Mr. Zhang, I like art films, and I want to make art films in the future, I want to ask if I need to consider the audience when making art films?"

Zhang Ran nodded very affirmatively: "Aaron Resnais, everyone here must know that he is the director of "Hiroshima and the Like", he established the film narrative structure of unskilled flashbacks in "Hiroshima Love", and broke the three time and space of the past, present and future in editing, which is a very important film in the history of film. Aaron Resnay once said that it is better for me not to invest more than $750,000 in films, because I only have so many audiences. My film is extremely niche, and if it exceeds $750,000, I can't guarantee that I will be able to recoup my capital, and my boss will suffer losses.

How can you not think about the audience when a master like Aaron Resnais has to think about it? Thinking about the audience and considering the market is not to make you give up your artistic ideas and pursuits, but to make your artistic life longer. You are newcomers, and if you want to make an art film after graduation, then you must understand that the cost of your first film cannot exceed 3 million, and it is best to control it within 1 million, so that you can go to the film festival and sell it to movie channels and video websites, so that you can successfully return to the capital, so that you can direct the next movie. If it exceeds 3 million, it will be very difficult to recover the cost. A rookie director, if the first film loses, it is likely that there will be no follow-up, so this issue must be considered!"

The boy who asked the question nodded, and the other Nortel students who wanted to make art films also nodded slightly.

Nortel graduates a lot every year, but many people smashed on the first work, Zhang Ran felt the need to talk more: "Some time ago, there was a movie "Panting", I don't know if you have seen it, how do you feel?"

"The audiovisual language is a mess, and the director's level is very poor!"

"I don't know what to do! An inexplicable movie! The editing is so detailed that I don't even see a complete story!"

"The director wants to learn from Charlie Kaufman, but painting a tiger is not an anti-dog!"

"Panting" is a box office fiasco, and the failure of the film is completely the director's death, in Zhang Ran's view, the failure of this film is very typical: ""Panting" is invested by Dongyang Zhengyu Chen Zhenghong, he is my friend, and he cooperates with our company a lot, but this film is independently invested by their company and distributed by us. "Panting" is about two down-and-out bosses who empty each other's gloves and white wolves, the script has a strong story, clear clues, very prominent characters, and a lot of comedy.

The film is operating according to market-oriented standards from script polishing, cost budgeting to team combination, shooting and production, marketing and distribution, and it operates very well from beginning to end, and uses well-known actors such as Ge You and Lin Xilei. Gao Jun's estimate of the movie is that the box office will definitely exceed 80 million, and it is not difficult to break 100 million.

The director of the movie, Zheng Zheng, used to be a screenwriter, "Daming Palace Ci" and "Baby in Love" are all his handwritings, this is his first time as a director, if the movie is completed honestly according to the original script, there is a great possibility of success, and Zheng Zheng can also gain a foothold in the film industry with this movie. Why was it finally filmed as a piece of garbage that I don't know? Because I fell into self-congratulatory mode!"

Many students who have watched "Panting" nodded slightly, this movie is really self-exalted, and they have not considered the audience's feelings.

Zhang Ran said unhurriedly: "Zheng Zheng first looked for Chen Zhenghong and Ge You to talk with a storyboard, but when shooting, he didn't shoot according to the storyboard, but played freely, so he and the photographer often had disputes. If in Hollywood, the director dares to play like this, the producer will definitely be ruthless and fire the director. Many well-known directors have been fired at one time or another, Akira Kurosawa, Scorsese, James Cameron, and many more. Hollywood commercial films, especially commercial blockbusters, whether a shot can pass or not, the director has no right to decide, and the producer must nod. Every night, the producer checks the footage shot by the director, and if the producer is not satisfied, he has to reshoot it the next day, which is the producer-centric system.

The movie "District 9" has been particularly popular in the United States recently, and is regarded as a sci-fi film with the hope of hitting the Oscars, the director Neil is my friend, and I am the producer of his first movie "Time and Space Warrior 2", I was busy with the Olympics at the time, and I couldn't go to the crew, he would send the footage shot that day to Peking every day for me to review, if I think there is a problem with any shot, then it must be reshot! There are a lot of production students here today, when you become producers in the future, you must not let the director act arbitrarily, this is responsible for the film!"

The students present at the film have been enrolled for more than a month, and through this period of study, they have a certain understanding of the Hollywood industrial system and know about the producer's review of the camera;

Zhang Ran continued: "Chen Zhenghong and the others made a big mistake, they didn't stop Zheng Zheng, and let Zheng Zheng finish the movie according to his own ideas. After the movie was filmed, he solemnly cut a director's version according to his own wishes. Chen Zhenghong and Gao Jun were completely stupid after watching the movie, the movie clues and characters are very complex and messy, there is no complete plot at all, the movie breaks up the linear narrative, it is a collage of various elements, and it is far from the Ge You summer comedy blockbuster they imagined.

In the face of Chen Zhenghong's questioning, he solemnly explained, this is my view of the world around me, it is comic-style, I deliberately want to pull the audience out of the plot, you just want to cry, I don't let you cry, you just want to laugh, I don't let you laugh. As we said just now, commercial films pursue a sense of substitution, and the solemn approach is to erase the sense of substitution, which is completely anti-commercial. Chen Zhenghong and the others realized at this time that Zheng Zheng didn't want to make a comedy film in a down-to-earth manner, but wanted to make an experimental work.

At Gao Jun's suggestion, Chen Zhenghong found Ning Hao and asked Ning Hao to help re-cut it, but the material of the movie was fragmented, and the material was limited.

In the end, this movie, which was full of a lot of English dialogues and looked very laborious, was scolded by the audience, and sold 42 million with Ge You's golden signboard, but because the cost of the movie was too high, Chen Zhenghong still lost nearly 10 million!"

Hearing that this movie lost nearly 10 million, the students present knew that it was solemnly finished, and a rookie director lost so much money in his first movie, and no one would invest in it in the future.

Zhang Ran also has the same opinion: "To be honest, as a rookie director, Zheng Zheng enjoys extremely high treatment, Hollywood photographer, senior producer, 20 million yuan investment, plus Ge You is in charge, it can be said that he is very lucky;

Zheng Zheng is not the first director like this, and he will not be the last. Many directors in China have a problem, they always feel that they are geniuses, they are very good, and they feel that their ideas will be liked by the audience! Take Zheng Zheng as an example, in "Panting", he designed a row of English letters babyphat on the coat of Ge You's wife, which is the abbreviation of the English little elephant, and he thinks this is an allusion to a fat woman, which is very humorous. But the question is whether the Chinese audience is so good at English? Can they understand it? Obviously, it's impossible! So, this design is not awesome, but very stupid, and it doesn't take into account the audience's acceptance at all! When you make movies in the future, you must understand the audience's real thoughts, you can't sit in the room and pat your head, ouch, my idea is very good, the audience will definitely like it!"

The students fell into deep thought when they heard this passage, the example of "Panting" is too typical, with an investment of 20 million, the joining of various stars including Ge You, and the peak of the century is responsible for publicity and distribution, such an opportunity is a dream for any new director, but Zheng Zheng messed up because of his self-esteem, and he also buried his future.

Almost all of the students are asking themselves, do I really know what the audience likes, am I as proud as I am, what would I do if this opportunity was mine?

Zhang Ran's lectures are different from many teachers at Nortel, although he also talks about theory, he has rich practical experience, and when he talks about theory, he can often combine the real cases he sees and hears, and the whole class is vivid and interesting, and the students are fascinated by it.

At twelve o'clock at noon, Zhang Ran announced the end of class, but the students refused to leave, pestering him to continue to ask questions, everyone knew that Zhang Ran was too busy and had very little time to come to class, and if he missed it this time, he didn't know when he would wait next time. At the strong request of the students, Zhang Ran could only continue. Eventually, the class dragged on until half past twelve, when the cafeteria was about to close, and it had to end.