"It's almost September, and the busiest time of the year is about to begin. "However, our distribution department has only just been established this year, and the cost of going to Venice is too great, and the return will not be too high, so I think we should go to Toronto and look for more opportunities there."www.biquge.info ”

"We", James has taken on the role and sees himself as part of Chaos Pictures, which is a good start. Lance and Theo exchanged glances, a smile flashing in their eyes, and then continued to look at James, listening intently - they also needed to take a real look at James's professional business skills.

"Before we go to Toronto, I think we need to talk and get to an agreement." James didn't miss the eye exchange between Lance and Theo, but he didn't panic either, and spoke methodically. In fact, James also knew that this sudden lunch was obviously the biggest test for him.

On the surface, he is calm and decent, but in fact, he still feels a huge pressure in front of Lance, maybe there are too many rumors in the circle, whether it is demonization or deification of Lance, this has created an assumption that he is omnipotent, especially Chaos Pictures' undefeated record so far, which adds to the aura of confusion. James won't believe in winning a hundred battles, but he knows that Lance's sense of picking and reviewing is absolutely second to none, and he naturally can't take it lightly.

The distribution department is not only responsible for distribution, but also publicity and public relations, which means that the academy public relations for awards season is the purview of the distribution department, so a corresponding plan needs to be developed every year, and awards season is especially important for an independent company like Chaos Pictures.

This year, Chaos Pictures' distribution department has just been established, and it must concentrate on one or two works, and being too greedy will only lead to a bamboo basket in vain. That's why James said this.

"So far this year we have two titles, 'Sin City' and 'Hard Fruit Candy.'" James cheered up and gushed out the thoughts in his head, "Sin City, if we have the heart to push it, the nominations for the impact technology department should be promising, best cinematography, best art direction, best visual effects, best makeup, etc., but I think we are not very competitive, it is too difficult to win the award, and the academy prefers works like 'King Kong'." So, to avoid distracting our PR forces, I think we should drop on pushing Sin City during awards season. ”

After saying this, James seemed to be confident, but he was still a little apprehensive in his heart, after all, he had not dealt directly with Lance, and now he was in front of the film's creators, directly refuting the prospects of the awards season of the work, especially under the premise that "Sin City" has already achieved excellent results, which is really not an easy task.

But Lance didn't have much expression, still listening attentively.

James unconsciously straightened his back, and he couldn't taste the food in his mouth at all, but he had to maintain his normal eating movements to hide his nervousness, "Of course, I haven't seen the finished film of 'Fruit Hard Candy' yet, so I don't know the focus of this work, I speculate that 'Fruit Hard Candy' should be an independent artwork with a small pattern, and the focus should be locked on the script, performance and other links, so I made the above judgment." ”

The subtext is that the specific situation needs to be re-reviewed and judged after watching "Fruit Hard Candy".

The work "Hard Candy" was completely created by Lance based on his own creative inspiration, and at the beginning of creation, Lance did not consider the issue of award season at all, this kind of film noir has always had little market among the academy judges, so Lance did not have much expectation for the awards season.

However, Lance still had no intention of speaking, but nodded his chin slightly, did not agree or object, but signaled that James should continue.

James felt his palms a little slippery, but he didn't move on the surface, and continued with a smile, "I read the list of films that Ian handed me, and I must say that the work in it is exceptional. Quietly, James pursued Lance, but only to the point, "However, 'Streaming' sold at Sundance for a high price of 9 million, which is the highest amount of Sundance this year, and we have missed the opportunity; Not to mention the quality of the work, it is obviously going to be very difficult to promote this work, and our competitiveness is not very attractive. ”

The implication is that giving up is the wise choice.

James carefully looked at Lance's expression, but still didn't get any answer, he had already spoken dryly, and the other party was still sitting firmly on the Diaoyu Tai, not even a trace of movement. James took a breath to calm his mind and then continued, "There's no news about Capote' at the moment, and we won't see it until the first week of September, so I don't have an accurate judgment about it. ”

"Bent-Miller." Lance knew that this was the time for him to speak, "Capote" was not out for the time being, but he was on the list, so he had to give a reasonable explanation - why he thought it was a good work, "At a party, Joel and Ethan introduced me to him, and if you are interested, you can check out his debut film, 'A Guide to Manhattan'." In fact, Edward Norton recommended this work to me as well. ”

James suddenly realized, "I will." For now, though, I think 'Squid and Whale' is our best bet, and it won the grand prize at Sundance, but no one was interested, the format was too small, the theme was too small, and it was a bit of middle-class talk. This is Hollywood, Woody Allen's chatter is followed by countless people, but no one cares about other people's chatter. ”

"Noah-Baumbach was an interesting guy, he was also a New Yorker, a middle-class intellectual, and he was very close to Wes-Anderson." Lance met Wes through Edward when he went to New York to promote "Murder with a Knife", and then met Noah.

James couldn't help but show a look of understanding, no wonder the Hollywood industry has always thought that Lance is an artist of the New York School, and you can feel between the lines that the inseparable bond between Lance and New York. Even Lance's penchant for work is distinctly New York.

"I think we can operate 'Squid and Whale' according to the standard of 'A Glass of Wine', mainly impacting the nominations for screenplay and acting awards, which is very much in line with the company's current situation." James gave his final conclusion, "Of course, we still need to test 'Fruit Hard Candy' internally before we make a decision. ”

James's judgment is very accurate, if in terms of work results, "Brokeback Mountain" is undoubtedly the crown jewel, this work has even become one of the biggest regrets of the Oscars in the next decade, and has really changed the status of gay and lesbian works in Hollywood, but if you want to compete for this work, Chaos Pictures' strength is still not enough. More importantly, if "Brokeback Mountain" wants to fight its way out of the awards season, it needs to rely on strong public relations support, Focus Pictures will be a better choice, and Chaos Pictures will only bury the light of this work.

"Squid and Whale" is like this year's "Wine Life", but the latter is more West Coast and the former is more East Coast. Without Woody Allen's name, "Squid and Whale" doesn't have a stellar awards season prospects, but that still doesn't hide the fact that it's an incredible piece of work.

Historically, "Crash" took away the golden man of the 78th Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, but in Lance's opinion, "Squid and Whale" should be the winner of this department. This semi-autobiographical work created by Noah truly shows the impact of a broken middle-class family on the children and the parents themselves, and the pain is an indelible shadow of growing up, not only real and spicy, but also profound and sharp, and it is indeed a rare excellent script, from the lines to the characters.

"Squid and Whale" won this year's Sundance Grand Prize, which speaks volumes; But no one buys the rights to distribute it, and you can feel the difference in style between the east and west coasts. With Chaos Pictures taking over the distribution and promotion, it was a match made in heaven.

"Very well, so let's decide." Lance nodded, and gave the answer neatly.

The tight strings in James's heart were slightly loosened, not only because his opinions and ideas were recognized by Lance, but more importantly, because he and Lance's picky eyes echoed each other, which is undoubtedly crucial for future work. It's definitely a great start to today.

Suddenly, James began to look forward to "Hard Fruit Candy", not because Lance's past four works have been successful - this is of course one of the important reasons, but more because he became curious about Lance's eye for films, what kind of work could make Lance decide to return to work after half a year of "Sin City" without moving, and the investment was only 900,000 - after adjusting the cost, the budget for "Hard Candy" was raised to 900,000 dollars, This makes people even more curious!

"However, I asked Ian before, it seems that the company plans to skip a grade in the future? Is this true? "James again asks a central question. (To be continued.) )