"Not only that, but we also need to further promote the scope of influence of this incident in various local newspapers and on the Internet, pretending to be people who occasionally know and are very interested in this matter on various forums, BBS message boards, and horror hunting websites, and promote this 'supernatural murder' to everyone, and then spread it by word of mouth, so as to achieve the effect of spreading it to ten or ten hundreds. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info," Sid added, taking his words.

"Using an absolutely realistic 'supernatural murder' to attract and spread this matter, using a spark to set the prairie on fire, and finally achieving an unstoppable and sweeping publicity effect that swept the world, I call it 'viral marketing'!" said Sid.

His words immediately made Sean's eyes light up, "Viral Marketing!!That's a great idea, Boss." ”

"Then will this be known to fans and other media to say that we are false propaganda, and if it arouses the disgust of fans, then ......" Henry asked with some hesitation.

"It depends on our PR skills, and this deception can't always work, especially after the movie is released. At that point, we will have to turn the direction of the propaganda to the ...... of the film low-cost and high-grossing box office, and the world's first DV movie, pseudo-documentaries and other highlights. "Sean is worthy of being an old fritter who has been rolling for many years, and he knows the rules of Hollywood propaganda very well.

"Well, that Sean, now the release and promotion of the movie "Ghost Shadow" is the first job of the distribution department, contact the theater chain first, and set the time and number of screenings as soon as possible. Sid clapped his hands, attracting Sean and Henry's attention, and ordered them.

"In terms of specific steps, first of all, we have to go to the suburb of Pasadena, Los Angeles, where "Ghost Record" took place, and make up the story of this supernatural case, so that people can tell it there every day, and try to make the locals really think that there is such a case. Sid began to explain the details of the announcement.

"And then the second step is to hire people all over the country to go to all the video stores in the United States and put up missing person notices in front of them to find the missing girlfriend. And then we ran it in the local newspaper in Pasadena, and we were going to hype the whole thing up like it was real, like ...... It's like the Amber Alert (the code name for the emergency search after the abduction of children in the United States). ”

And then there's the third step. Sid held up three fingers, "Set up an official website for the 'Pasadena Disappearance' and put some videos of 'police interviews' and 'interviews with families of missing people.'" At the same time, we go to the websites and forums of those horror movie lovers to create topics on the Internet and speed up our publicity effect. ”

"Do you hire people nationwide for propaganda?" asked Sean, surprised, not expecting an American-wide propaganda war.

"Yes, it has to be face-to-face, word-of-mouth. Sid nodded solemnly.

"But in that case, the cost of publicity will skyrocket, Boss. Sean said with some hesitation.

"Well, then you should write out the publicity plan and list the budget estimate as soon as possible according to the three-step plan I said. How much do you expect it to cost?" Sid said quickly.

"Well, at least $10 million or more, no, it's close to $20 million. Sean said after some calculations.

"Yes. Sid nodded unchanged.

"Is that okay?" asked Sean repeatedly, "this ...... Movies, it looks very shabby, and, moreover, there are no stars. As he said this, he couldn't help but look at Jeremy and Amy Adams next to him.

"The film cost only $10,000 to shoot. Sid's expression was flat, and he said something earth-shattering.

"$10,000??" Although Sean and Henry felt that the film was very simple and the cost should be low, they didn't expect it to be so low.

"For a $10,000 movie, $20 million in publicity and distribution costs? Are you sure? Sean felt that Sid's move was no longer bold, but crazy.

That's $20 million, and any other company can make a medium-budget film. Even the most expensive commercial blockbuster of all time, "Titanic", has only $40 million in publicity.

Putting such a huge amount of money on a $10,000 miniature movie, are you really sure you're not crazy?

Sid smiled slightly, and later generations said that among the top ten high-profit movies with small and big profits, DV movies accounted for two, and the names of "Blair the Witch" and "Ghost Record" have almost become myths in independent film circles.

But a few people know how much money, manpower and wisdom the film company has invested in making these two not-so-amazing DV horror films successful.

When Sid had nothing to do in his previous life, he also read some online novels in the YY entertainment industry, but many of the whimsical plots made him laugh. For example, many people believe that the myth of DV movies being small and big is true.

To this, Sid just wanted to say, Kiddo, you still have a too young, too simple Tucson broken.

Not to mention anything else, the tattered Internet environment before 2000 alone made those children who tried to rely on $10,000 to make movies, $100,000 for publicity, and $100 million at the box office to go home.

Taking a step back, even if the network environment improves, would anyone really upload a specious DV video just because you are at the oil depot, and then a group of people will go to the Tianya Forum to hype up a few haunted house rumors, which can make hundreds of millions of people across the country believe that they are haunted?

The virus propaganda methods that Sid just proposed are all based on actual offline manual propaganda, and even if there are network factors, they only play an auxiliary role. And this is also the publicity method actually used by Yijiang Pictures, the distribution company of "Blair the Witch".

At that time, they worked for a whole year to promote the virus of "Blair the Witch", and the investment was not $20 million, but more than $30 million, and this was only the preliminary publicity.

Later, when the movie was released, the guise of the supernatural haunting was exposed, in order to control the direction of the media, so that the audience would not think that it was a sensational, worthless and deceptive bad movie. Artisan Pictures has spent more than $10 million to carry out fierce media public relations, which has made the media praise the innovative form of the film and the so-called myth of "ultra-low cost and super high income".

This made "Blair the Witch" like a tightrope and achieved a box office frenzy around the world.

$100,000 in publicity?

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As for the release of the film, on the one hand, as Sean said just now, it is the top priority to control the public relations of the media and public opinion, and to control the reputation of the media and the public for the film. "But beyond that, we can do some new propaganda tools." ”

"Novel means?" Sean asked curiously.

"Yes, if we send someone to the cinema and use an infrared video camera to film the audience watching "Ghost Record", I think most people will be scared to the core. Sid quipped. "So we put these videos as trailers on TV and in online commercials, with these subtitles -- they were scared out of Ghost Record, do you dare to watch it!?"

"Hah, that's a great idea. Sean understood as soon as he heard it, "Those young people who like to challenge and try things out the most, especially those who haven't seen "Ghost Record" yet, will definitely be attracted to the cinema." ”

"Yes, that's what it is. Sid smiled and nodded, "In the end, the time for the early announcement is almost half a year from now to the middle of next year, which is not a lot of time." So Sean, I need my colleagues in the distribution department to do their best to deal with this, and we'll have a meeting every six months to review the progress of the announcement, no problem. ”

"No problem at all. Sean said excitedly, and before leaving, he suddenly remembered something crucial, "That's right, Boss." I almost forgot, did we buy out this film, do we need to sign some new agreements with the director and producer of this film?"

Although film companies generally buy out independent productions and small-budget films directly at one time, there are also some directors who are confident in their films and are unwilling to accept the buyout, preferring not to charge money first but to share the box office afterwards. Sean is obviously worried about whether "Ghost Record" really belongs to the new film company completely in law.

"Oh, didn't I mention it to you?" Sid asked with a mysterious smile, Jeremy and Amy looked at him helplessly, and Sean and Henry were a little confused.

"The director of "Ghost Shadow" is standing right in front of you. Sid laughed.

Sean and Henry couldn't help but be taken aback, "Bo...... Boss!?" "Boss, it's you!?"

"Hehe, yes, it seems that everyone is quite happy watching my "Ghost Record". Sid nodded slightly, rather smug.

"Oh wow, I can't believe it!" Sean and Henry were almost speechless in surprise.

"Hehe, all right, gentlemen, let's stop the sycophants. It's time for us to work. Sid clapped his hands.

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Beginning in December 1997, a bizarre rumor began to circulate across the United States. Beginning in Los Angeles, a number of people began congregating in front of video stores everywhere, posting missing notices looking for a young woman who was said to have gone missing in a suburban community in Pasadena.

Then local newspapers everywhere began to report that, according to the reporter's investigation, it was a bizarre and bizarre murder that occurred in a suburban community of Pasadena.