March 12. At 6 a.m., the ground was covered with a layer of morning light, and pedestrians of all colors were hurrying through the streets of Chai Wan. Because of the press conference of Baolong Film Company's "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty", Chai Wan was pushed to the forefront of entertainment news.

Hundreds of media reporters kept coming to Chai Wan.

The posture of the media crews, large and small, made passers-by stunned - what big news happened in Chai Wan? Why did so many reporters come early in the morning?

TVB, Lidi, Ming Pao, Oriental Newspaper, Sing Tao Newspaper, dozens of media, like rushing to the market, kept pouring in, stopping in front of a building in Chai Wan.

That building is the Hong Kong headquarters of Powerlong Film Company!

By 8 o'clock in the morning, the open-air parking lot outside the door near Baolong Film Company was already full of dozens of cars.

In fact, there are more reporters than expected. Originally, there were only 20 media outlets for Yaoqin's invitation from Baolong Film Company, but there were more than 50 media outlets who actually arrived at the scene, and the total number of media journalists reached more than 120.

Although some media reporters are not invited, since the reporters are here, they are not driven away, right? The reporter is the uncrowned king, writing news with a pen, and is best at Spring and Autumn penmanship, taking words out of context. If a journalist wants an entire company, he or she can always cause countless problems to a single company.

More than 120 media reporters packed the hall of Baolong Film Company. Cameras, long guns and short guns, paper, pen and ink, voice recorders, cameras, and various news tools have targeted the crew of "Datang".

The crew members of "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty", except for old rivers and lakes like Yuan Heping, Gu Long, and Wan Ziliang, have unchanged complexions. The rest of the crowd was a little weak.

Not only Wu Dairong and Zhang Shuping were a little weak, but even Tsui Hark, Cheng Xiaodong, and Lin Qingxia also looked abnormal.

Zhang Shaojie obviously saw that the newcomer Wu Dairong even had trembling legs, and it seemed difficult to cope with this scene.

"Everyone calm me down, the media is not a tiger, and journalists don't eat people!" Zhang Shaojie shouted, "Especially Tsui Hark, you are the director of this movie, and it is about the first impression of media reporters on the movie!" If you don't perform well, you will inevitably make reporters underestimate our films, and in the future, they will definitely write some scripts to belittle our films! ”

Tsui Hark took a deep breath and said, "I don't have a problem anymore, I'm just too nervous!" Directed a blockbuster film of more than 40 million for the first time! I was nervous just now, because I was thinking about how to deal with the reporter's doubts - how can a rising person like me be qualified to direct Hong Kong's first-ever production of up to 40 million Hong Kong dollars? ”

As he spoke, Tsui Hark looked at Yuan Heping.

Yuan Heping's qualifications are far beyond that of Tsui Hark, as Jackie Chan's brother, Yuan Heping not only directed "Drunken Fist" to make Jackie Chan Asia's first-class kung fu superstar. Moreover, many of the films directed by Yuan Heping have gone international, and have won amazing box office in Yueben, Southeast Asia and other places. But the films directed by Yuan Heping often cost around 3 million Hong Kong dollars.

Tsui Hark, as a director who only directed small-budget films with a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past, has never achieved amazing results. But he was favored by Zhang Shaojie and promoted to the director of "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty", facing the reporters, he said in his heart that he was not nervous, it was impossible!

However, it is obvious that the spotlights on the scene are flashing non-stop, but most of the spotlights are aimed at Zhang Shaojie. There are also some aimed at Yuan Heping, Gu Long, and Lin Qingxia. As for Tsui Hark, it is true that he is not the main target of the media reporters.

Zhang Shaojie comforted Tsui Hark and said: "Actually, you don't have to be too nervous, I think the focus of reporters is mostly on me."

Tsui Hark smiled.

With Zhang Shaojie at the scene, could the focus of public opinion at the scene be someone else? Zhang Shaojie is in Hong Kong, but he is the popular king of the media. A little first-hand information about Zhang Shaojie can become an important news revelation.

Soon after, reporters from all walks of life arrived.

The host of Baolong Film announced that the film conference of "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" officially began.

Gu Long, the producer of the crew, and Tsui Hark, the director of the film, appeared on the stage one after another, Gu Long and Tsui Hark, and the two explained the creative process of the film from different angles.

In the speeches of the two, Gu Long broke the news for the first time and explained that after the box office hit the street of Baolong Film Company's entrepreneurial work "The Legend of Chu Liuxiang", he intended to shoot Zhang Shaojie's "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty", and Zhang Shaojie not only agreed to Gu Long's invitation, but also invested in Baolong and became the company's second shareholder. Gu Long talked about how to select the director and crew members, and went to North America to invite ILM Studio to participate in the production of special effects for the film.

And Tsui Hark, who gave a speech on stage, did not talk about much of the plot and recalled the experience of filming, but focused on the innovative and technical content of the film - Tsui Hark proposed various advanced concepts such as "New Wave Martial Arts" and "Computer CG Special Effects", and in order to implement these new concepts, the production cost of the whole film was as high as 43 million Hong Kong dollars!

In order to explain the concept of "New Wave Martial Arts", the staff of Baolong Company screened a 50-second clip of Lin Qingxia's light chase, which is completely different from the martial arts movies of the past.

In order to show the "computer CG special effects", a 30-second movie clip of Donnie Yen's "Xuan Bingjin" was screened on the spot. With the Yu Wenhua played by Donnie Yen in the picture, the domineering blow, a radius of dozens of meters, the scene of surging vigor and flying snow in June is really amazing!

"How did this come about?"

"It's amazing!"

"Is this a CG special effect?"

The few ten-second film clips shown by Tsui Hark are obviously more convincing than any verbal description!

All the media reporters present were shocked! The spotlight flickered wildly, and more reporters were slaying their heads to record the main points of the news.

Finally, it was the turn of the question time, and more than 100 reporters raised their hands one after another, ready to rush to ask questions.

"The reporter of "Ming Pao" should ask first!" Zhang Shaojie, who was in the rostrum, saw a reporter from Mingbao and looked at him shyly. That reporter, Zhang Shaojie knows, she is Song Chuhe, a beautiful reporter under the former "Martial Arts and History" magazine, but now the work nameplate hanging on her clothes is an entertainment reporter for a reporter from "Ming Pao Weekly", and she has obviously undergone a career transfer.

"Mr. Zhang Shaojie, your "Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" can be regarded as a household name in Hong Kong and Taiwan! According to last month's data, the total sales of the "Datang" edition have reached 17 million copies. The total sales of the comic version of "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" have reached 4 million copies. I don't know, this time, what kind of expectations do you have for the total box office of the movie version of "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty"? Song Chuhe first asked a question that everyone was very interested in.

"What is the box office of "Datang"? Naturally, the more the merrier, as the screenwriter and investor of this movie. I'm definitely hoping for a big sale! Although I verbally, often say, be prepared to lose money! However, you don't really want this movie to lose money! With a total investment of HK$43 million, it is impossible to expect to fully recover the cost from Hong Kong. I'm very satisfied that I can recover a third of the cost locally in Hong Kong. The ideal box office in my mind - the total box office in Hong Kong is 25 million Hong Kong dollars, and the total global box office is more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars! Zhang Shaojie's answer is quite domineering!

Next, a TVB reporter asked: "Zhang Shaojie, did you really invest 43 million in "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty"?" I doubt this, you know, our TVB TV, as the largest TV media in Hong Kong, only has an annual film and television investment of 50 or 60 million Hong Kong dollars, can the cost of your movie be comparable to the total budget of more than 20 TV dramas in a year? ”

TVB TV, among the three founding shareholders, the two families of Li Xiaohe and Qi Dezun are not very in charge. Only Run Run Shaw is very interested in managing TVB himself, so TVB has always been chaired by Run Run Shaw.

With the many successful models of Shaw Brothers Film Company, TV B, a rookie in the field of Hong Kong television media, has surpassed many traditional media along the way and become the hegemon of Hong Kong television media.

Of course, Shaw is used to being calculating. In the 60s, when he ran the Shaw Brothers Film Company and had a net worth of tens of millions, a screenwriter and assistant director proposed a salary of 1,000 yuan, and Run Run Shaw asked people to negotiate - is it okay to have a salary of 800 yuan?

As a result, the person sent by Run Run Shaw said arrogantly that Boss Shao asked you to go to the crew to let you learn how to make movies, not to let you be an assistant director, and the salary of 800 yuan was not negotiable! Not happy? Let's go back and be your screenwriter!

As a result, the assistant director was so angry that he resigned directly and wrote a letter saying, I can't be poor if I lose 1,000 yuan in salary, and Boss Shao, you won't be rich if you save a few hundred yuan.

The business philosophy of such a slamming door, although in management, defeated the competition. However, within the company, it is unpopular.

"Run Run Shaw's slamming of the door does not mean that everyone is as slamming the door as he is!" Zhang Shaojie said humorously, "In the whole of Hong Kong, there are only the actors of Shaw Brothers movies and TVB left, and they can't even afford to eat box lunches, and the crew only distributes steamed buns and pickles every day!" ”

Throughout the press conference, reporters from major news media burst into laughter.

TVB's reporter suddenly felt that he couldn't get off the stage!

Originally, TVB's salary is indeed the least among its peers, even if it is Li's TV, which loses money every year, the salary of employees and actors is 30% higher than that of TVB.

Li's TV was originally a veteran competitor of TVB, and I saw Zhang Shaojie squeezing TVB's reporter with words.

The reporter of Li's TV was secretly refreshed, and stepped forward to ask: "Mr. Zhang Shaojie, how did your "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" spend a budget of 43 million? ”

(To be continued)