While the audience was talking, the staff walked up to the stage with a microphone and told everyone that the questionnaire would be sent to everyone next, hoping that everyone would fill it out carefully, and that everyone would select 12 audience members to participate in the subsequent focus group discussion.

Immediately afterwards, several staff members each held a stack of pink questionnaires and distributed them to the audience.

Jamie Hagen took the questionnaire and flipped through it, there were two pages in total, and there were various quantified questions on them. He knew that the results of the survey might have an impact on the editing and future publicity and distribution strategies, so he filled it out carefully.

First question: Overall, how do you rate the film, from one star to five stars. Jamie Hagen didn't want to give five stars directly, doesn't such an awesome movie give five stars worthy of his conscience?

The second question: Would you recommend this film to your friends? Absolutely? Maybe? Not sure?Maybe? Maybe? Absolutely not? Jamie Hagen chose Absolutely, he would not only recommend it to his friends, but also on the Internet, such a good movie should be recommended to everyone.

The third question is, how would you recommend your friends to watch this movie? Go to the cinema on the first weekend of the release, go to the cinema when you have time, rent a DVD to watch it, watch it on pay TV, and watch it for free on TV. Jamie Hagen chose to go to the cinema on the first weekend of its release, and such a good movie should be seen first.

Fourth, is there anything you don't like about this movie?

Jamie Hagen is very happy with "Future Apocalypse", if I have to say that he is not satisfied, it is that the special effects are not completed, and it looks a little unpleasant. However, the staff has already said that it will definitely not be the case when the special effects are completed. He thought about it, and there was really nothing dissatisfied, so he wrote: "This is a perfect movie, I love this movie to death!"

After writing it, Jamie Hagen glanced at the answer of the person next to him, and the biggest dissatisfaction of the brother next to him with "Future Apocalypse" was that the movie was too bloody and cruel, which made people uncomfortable to watch. Jamie Hagen scoffs at this view, this is a war movie, it must truly reflect the cruelty of war, if it is like a Marvel movie, is it still a war movie? He shook his head and moved on to the next question, who is your favorite character......

Fill out the questionnaire, Jamie Hagen is about to leave after handing it to the staff. Unexpectedly, after taking the questionnaire and looking at it, the staff stopped him: "Mr. Hagen, we have a focus group discussion on "Future Apocalypse" in a moment, we would like to invite you to participate in the discussion, would you like to participate?"

Jamie Hagen has attended several test screenings and is the first time he has been invited to a focus group discussion. He knew that once the questionnaire was collected, the company would invite 10 to 15 audience members to stay for a focus group discussion to talk more about their views on the film, and the film company would revise the film based on the audience's feedback. Jamie Hagen liked Future Apocalypse so much that he was willing to help with the film, saying, "Of course, I'd love to participate!"

The staff said, "Mr. Hagen, please wait a moment, we will take you to the conference room soon!"

After the movie ended, Zhang Ran did not leave the scene in a hurry, and sat on the chair with Zhang Jingchu, listening carefully to the audience's discussions. It wasn't until most of the audience at the cinema dispersed that Zhang Ran and Zhang Jingchu got up and went to the cinema's office to participate in a focus group discussion.

Under normal circumstances, the director will not attend the focus group discussion, because some of the audience members present are reluctant to say their true thoughts, for fear that it will hurt the director's self-esteem, they often say "I love this film to death, it's perfect", this kind of flattery is actually not helpful to the research;

However, Zhang Ran is a director who particularly likes to communicate with the audience, and insists on participating in focus group discussions.

When Zhang Ran and Zhang Jing first arrived in the conference room of the focus group discussion, the host, the 12 audience members, and the director of Summit Entertainment in charge of "Future Apocalypse" were all inside. When several directors of Summit Entertainment saw Zhang Ran and Zhang Jingchu coming in, they quickly got up to say hello with a very respectful attitude.

The 12 audience members who participated in the discussion also recognized Zhang Ran at this time, and they all greeted him one after another. The 12 audience members were 3 men and women under the age of 25, 3 men and women over 25 years old, they were specially selected, and none of them were fans of Zhang Ran, so they saw that although Zhang Ran was more excited, he was still very calm and did not act out of the ordinary.

After the greetings, Zhang Ran looked at the 12 audience members and said with a smile: "Future Apocalypse" invested 350 million US dollars, surpassing "Pirates of the Caribbean 3", which is the highest investment movie in the world. With such a high cost, the pressure on us is considerable. When we discuss it for a while, what is the film like, and what you are not satisfied with, you must say it, so that we can adjust accordingly and make the movie more tense. So, we especially want to hear what you really feel in your heart, and you don't have to worry about hurting my self-esteem. ”

The audience present dispelled their inner worries when they heard Zhang Ran say this, and felt that they should really tell the truth.

Zhang Ran, who had organized hundreds of similar meetings when he was directing the Peking Olympics, knew that the most important thing in organizing such discussions was to let the audience speak effective information, and the audience must be guided. He decided to bring up the points that the audience might not be satisfied with first: "Our film is 213 minutes long, three and a half hours. Do you think the length of the film is appropriate? Raise your hand if you think the film is too long!"

12 spectators, you look at me, I look at you, and finally 3 spectators raised their hands.

Zhang Ran stretched out his hand and tapped a girl with a raised hand, and asked with a smile: "You think the movie is too long, right?

The girl looked at Zhang Ran, then at the others, pursed her lips and said, "Yes, I think the movie is a little too long, and I am a little tired after watching it, if only it could be a little shorter." ”

After the girl finished speaking, the other two viewers who felt that the film was too long also talked about their feelings, and then Zhang Ran called the audience who didn't think the film was long and asked them to talk about their opinions. These 9 audience members watched it more devotedly, and they were all immersed in the movie, and they didn't feel the length of the film at all. They said, "I don't think it's long at all." "When the subtitles came out, my first reaction was how it was over so quickly!", "yes, it's not enough to watch at all, if only it were five hours!"......

The focus group discussion was supposed to be organized by the moderator, but Zhang Ran wanted to communicate directly with the audience, so the moderator could only play soy sauce next to him. However, the host always observed the discussion between Zhang Ran and the audience, and he found that Zhang Ran was very experienced in this kind of discussion, and was always able to express his views on certain aspects of the film by guiding the audience, and after an audience member expressed his opinion, Zhang Ran would always ask everyone: "Is there anyone else who agrees with this?"

Two days later, in the office building of St. Monique Summit Entertainment, a large number of executives gathered in a conference room to discuss the findings of "Future Apocalypse" with Zhang Ran.

Presiding over the meeting was Rob Freman, CEO of Summit Entertainment, who picked up a research report and said calmly: "Recently, we held two test screenings for "Future Apocalypse", and now NRG's research report has come out!" He waved to the secretary of the meeting, motioning for her to distribute the documents to everyone.

The secretary of the meeting immediately held a stack of documents and distributed them to everyone present, and soon everyone got a copy of the NRG research report in their hands.

Before Zhang Ran could open the research report, he heard Rob Freman say to himself: "According to the research report, a total of 1,000 viewers participated in the survey, and they gave the movie a rating of 75 points! Among them, 257 were five-star audiences, 371 were four-star audiences, 267 were three-star audiences, 78 were two-star audiences, and 28 were one-star audiences. Among them, the male audience under the age of 25 ......"

It's only 75 points! This is a bit low! The audience responded very well during the test screening, but I didn't expect it to be 75 points!

Zhang Ran frowned, thinking that "Future Apocalypse" would have more than 90 points, he flipped through the report in his hand and asked, "What is the main problem?"

Rob Freman explained: "There are three main places: first, the style of the film is too different, the first half is a particularly tragic war film, but the second half has become a prison film, this difference in style makes some audiences uncomfortable, second, some viewers feel that the second half of the film is a bit dragged, and third, some viewers feel that the movie is too bloody and cruel, and it is uncomfortable to watch. These are the three main questions. ”

Zhang Ran looked at the data of these three questions on the research report, and when he saw that nearly 110 viewers mentioned the problem of a particularly large difference in style before and after the movie, his brows furrowed even tighter.

In fact, when writing the script, Zhang Ran knew that something might go wrong, but he still wanted to make this attempt, mixing and matching two completely different styles to create a refreshing new style. Of course, he also knows that if there are two different styles of a movie, if they can't be kneaded together, it will make the audience feel abrupt and give people a weird feeling.

Zhang Yimou's "Three Guns" is a mash-up of two different styles, the first half of the film is a comedy, and the second half becomes a thriller. However, comedy and thriller are not genres that Zhang Yimou is particularly good at, the kneading of "Three Guns" is very unsuccessful, and the two parts of the movie have a particularly strong sense of fracture, giving people a sense of nondescriptry.

Judging from the data of the research report, the vast majority of the audience is acceptable and even satisfied with the mix and match style of "Future Apocalypse", unlike "Three Guns". However, more than 110 viewers are dissatisfied, and the proportion of dissatisfaction is still larger, which shows that Zhang Ran has not done a good enough job in mixing and matching. He began to think about what he could do to make the film better blend the two styles.

Rob Freman saw Zhang Ran's brows furrowed, was silent, and comforted: "In fact, the score of this survey can only represent the audience participating in the test screening and their thoughts, and sometimes the audience participating in the questionnaire is different, and the answers given are completely different. Last year, "Black Swan" was test-screened, and the result was only 55 points, and we all thought that the movie might be smashed. But in the end, the North American box office exceeded $100 million, and it also helped Natalie Portman win the Oscar. Future Apocalypse is a good movie, one of the best sci-fi films in the world, and we have a lot of faith in the movie!"

Zhang Ran smiled at Rob Freman, and said with a relaxed face: "I'm not a rookie director, so I don't need comfort." The problems mentioned by the audience do exist, and I need to think about what should be insisted on, and what should be changed, and I really need to think about it!"