The meeting on this cruise ship is the first preparatory meeting for the new movie, and the main purpose is to let the crew members get to know each other, after all, this drama is a big project.

Shen Chong had been keeping it a secret before, keeping John Woo and Sammo Hung in the dark, not pretending to be mysterious - he needed to get permission to shoot exterior locations in the Connaught Building first.

Connaught Building is a landmark building in Hong Kong, and has the title of "Asia's tallest building", to shoot a sensational film in Hong Kong, it is the target, and as Luo Weiming said, the tenants of Connaught Building, most of them are world-class enterprises and institutions, if you make a movie that blows it up without permission, it may cause commercial and legal trouble.

Connaught Building is the property of Hongkong Land, which is a subsidiary of Jardine Matheson, and Jardine Matheson is one of the four major British-funded foreign banks in Hong Kong, which has a decisive impact on Hong Kong's politics and economy.

Without permission, the film could not be made, so Shen Chong was tight-lipped before, and did not disclose anything, and after he returned from Taiwan, he finally received a reply from Jardine Matheson - the interior set in the movie must not be the same or similar to the internal structure of the building, and must pay 1oo0,000 Hong Kong dollars for the use of the architectural image.

Sure enough, people are afraid of being famous, pigs are afraid of being strong, and when they become famous, there are people everywhere who want to take a bite, but Shen Chong didn't hesitate much, and quickly paid the money - anyway, soon the Hongkong Land Group will be in big trouble, and when the time comes, it will be taken back doubly.

In fact, in his memory, there are many big-scene movies, but there is a reason why he chose "Die Hard", which is very troublesome to make in Hong Kong.

For Shen Chong, filming is not just about filming, not just for the box office, and maximizing the level of the entire Hong Kong film industry, or the Chinese film industry, is the current focus.

The idea of the movie "Die Hard" is very good, creating an action movie mode in which ordinary heroes fight against a group of thugs in a small and enclosed space, which is especially suitable for Hong Kong films.

Hong Kong's small area is too small to shoot big scenes, and it is the mainstream of Hong Kong films to move around in small spaces, and at the same time, the smaller the space, the more it can show the charm of kung fu films, the signature of Hong Kong films.

With the acceleration of modernization, these two types of films have fallen behind and become less and less popular.

"Die Hard" has all the elements of a modern urban action movie, including explosions, gunfights, and high technology, and the scenes of this movie seem spectacular, but the cost is not high, the total budget is only more than 10,000, and Bruce Willis's salary alone used up 5oo.

The scene is not small, and the cost is not much, which shows that the various explosion scenes in the movie have a mature implementation plan in Hollywood, because it is mature, so it is cheap, and this plan is what Shen Chong really wants, so he spent a lot of money and asked Ovitz to help, recruited so many behind-the-scenes staff, and he recruited more in Hong Kong, there were more than 200 people, and only a few of the directors attended the meeting on the ship.

Hong Kong movies have always been known for their love of following the trend, as long as his movie can be a big hit, follow-up works will definitely spring up like mushrooms after a rain, and a large number of filming opportunities will allow all kinds of behind-the-scenes staff to quickly improve their level and narrow the gap with Hollywood.

Shen Chong's "Die Hard" just borrowed the core idea, as for the film's character setting, plot content and specific environment, all need to be recreated according to the background of the times and the actual situation in Hong Kong.

Movies are something that is very closely integrated with pop culture, and a movie, in the Ru era, may be a box office hit, and in the 9o era, it may not be cared for.

For example, the box office success of "Die Hard" is related to the film environment at that time - tough guy action movies represented by Stallone and Schwarzenegger have been flooding the market for six or seven years, and in those movies, the protagonist is full of muscles, omnipotent, invincible, killing enemies like mowing grass, no damage in the rain of bullets, cookie-cutter, strict facial makeup, lack of realism, and the audience is tired of it.

It was at this time that Bruce Willis appeared, he was ordinary-looking, average-looking, had a wife and children, and suffered a mid-life crisis, fighting is also a trick of ordinary people, he will be injured, he will bleed, he will laugh at himself, so that the audience has a sense of substitution, and it meets their expectations of wanting to change their tastes, so it became an instant hit and a box office hit.

And in 1979, Stallone's "First Blood" has not yet appeared, Schwarzenegger is still playing tricks and has not yet become famous.

So Shen Chong changed the protagonist to a little policeman from the countryside of Lamma Island, and then arranged for him to have a dream lover who works in the Connaught Building.

When "Die Hard" was filmed, it was during the strongest period of Japan's economy, and it claimed to buy the entire United States, which made Americans very disgusted, so in the movie, terrorists robbed the Japanese, and the audience watched it very coolly.

And Shen Chong invested heavily in the filming of "Die Hard", one of the important points is because this drama is a cooperation with Golden Harvest - two years ago, Golden Harvest and Japan's Nippon Film Company jointly established the largest cinema chain in Japan, with thousands of cinemas.

With the capacity of the traditional film markets in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, it is difficult to recover the cost, so we must open up the Japanese and American markets......

Therefore, the object of the terrorist robbery in the film was changed to British by Shen Chong without hesitation, anyway, there are many British people in Hong Kong, which is very reasonable, and the British film market is too far away from him to be considered.

In addition to the historical background, the actual conditions in Hong Kong must also be taken into account.

For example, the emergency response mechanism of the Hong Kong police in the event of a sudden crisis must be completely different from that of the United States, and the satire bureaucratic police and mercenary reporters in the original work also have to be revised according to the reality of Hong Kong.

For example, if a helicopter cannot be parked on the roof of the Connaught Building, but it faces the sea, the terrorists' escape plan must be changed.

Shen Chong was too busy to ponder the details and write the script, so he only wrote a plot framework, defining the identity of the protagonist, the origin of the terrorist, and the basic context of the story, and the overall situation was not mature enough, so when he was in a meeting, he did not talk about the script straight to the point, but first threw out a gimmick of "blowing up the Recreation Building", which scared people and created an atmosphere of "I want to invest in a big production" to deepen everyone's impression.

As for the details of the script, after the meeting, Shen Chong handed over this task to Wu Yusen and Chen Xinjian.

John Woo was playing Rn independent production in the 60s, and later joined Shaw Brothers, became Zhang Che's favorite and most trusted disciple, and worked as an assistant director for several years, and then went to Golden Harvest to film, filming for seven or eight years, it can be said that the director's skills and shooting experience have been almost honed, and what he lacks is just an opportunity to get on top.

John Woo is a rare director in Hong Kong with a sense of big scenes, he has always been praised for his rhythm grasp and scene control of urban action movies, and the first time he made an urban action movie, he made "The True Color of Heroes", which can be described as talented, and he has also tinkered with the scripts of many movies in the future, such as "Hot Hand Detective", which has a similar theme to "Die Hard", is one of the screenwriters.

I know that he is a great talent, so why bother watching him stumble? Anyway, if "The True Color of Heroes" is fanned by butterfly wings, it can be remedied, but John Woo has been wasted for six or seven years in his golden age, and the loss to Hong Kong films is too great......

So Shen Chong deliberately fished him out of Golden Harvest this time and served as the director of the movie.

Chen Xinjian has been a police officer for 9 years, serving as an instructor of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, the Police Training School, and the Detective Training School.

It was fitting that he would be responsible for writing the story of the police's response and internal conflict after the accident at Connaught House.

And the martial arts movements, of course, Sammo Hung is personally responsible - Shen Chong chose him as the starring role, not because he is loyal and righteous, but because he is one of the most innovative martial arts instructors in Hong Kong.

In 1977, Sammo Hung filmed "Sande Monk and Chung Mi Liu", which created a precedent for kung fu comedies......

In 19Ru, Sammo Hung filmed "Ghost Fight", creating a precedent for psychedelic comedies......

In 19, Sammo Hung filmed "Beware of Little Hands", creating a precedent for Hong Kong fashion kung fu films......

In addition to creating a new genre of Hong Kong action movies, he also made great achievements as a martial arts instructor, such as "Mr. Zan and Looking for Qian Hua" in 1978, which is considered to be the textbook of Wing Chun, and the future "A1+ Stroke", "Five Lucky Stars" series, "Ip Man" and so on, are all extremely innovative and contemporary.

Shen Chong has the intention to use this "Die Hard" to innovate Hong Kong's current one-trick and lengthy fighting methods, so he chose Sammo Hung, who can fight and design, to star - Jackie Chan is tinkering with "Pei Brother Out", and Yuan Biao is too young.

Sammo Hung has a simple face, a blessed figure, and a grassroots atmosphere, and because he is from an acting family, his acting skills are also among the best among a bunch of kung fu stars, and he has won the Academy Award and the Best Actor at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, which also adds a lot of points to him.

Of course, whether it is John Woo or Sammo Hung, they are still too immature at this time, and there are too many employees from Hollywood, they must not be able to control it, so Shen Chong specially hired Gary Kurtz to join.

Gary Kurtz was one of George Lucas's royal producers, working on American Painting, Star Wars, and actor in The Godfather.

After Shen Chong got the news from Ovitz, he immediately gave him an offer to serve as the executive producer of the new film, many scenes of "Star Wars" were shot in the studio, but they were grander and more complex than "Die Hard", Shen Chong hoped to use his rich experience to create the atmosphere of the big scene - most of the shots of "Die Hard" were shot on the set with indoor scenes, if it was not handled well, it was easy to show off its feet, or it was too childish.

In addition to the film, Gary Kurtz will also be the manager of the production department of Oriental Charm. Shen Chong was ready to use him as a teacher to establish a mature film producer system in Hong Kong.

In the Hong Kong film industry, there has long been a profession of producer, but it is very chaotic and informal, except for Golden Harvest, the producers of other companies are all pseudo-producers who sell dog meat on the head of a sheep.

In Hollywood, the producer is the master of a film, and has the right to decide what kind of script to shoot, hire directors, photographers, actors, manage filming funds, review shooting funds and control the whole process of filming, after the filming is completed, the producer is also responsible for the film's printing, marketing and promotion, in short, the producer's job starts before the film script and ends after the film is released.

Because of the outsourcing satellite system, Golden Harvest's producers have similar functions as Hollywood, and are fully responsible for the shooting of films, but there are very few people with this qualification.

At Shaw Brothers, the producer's job is only to arrange the schedule and location of the film, as well as control the expenditure, and the content of the film, the budget, and the choice of directors and actors are all determined by the company.

According to the survey of "Film Times", more than seventy percent of independent film companies in Hong Kong are the bosses themselves as producers, the boss's wife as accountants, and relatives and friends as drama and scene reporters. (Note)

Generally speaking, in Hong Kong, producers are dispensable, not valued, and the salary is very low, usually only a few thousand yuan.

And many people can't understand that the producer can do all the work, so why do you have to hire a producer and waste money and salary?

You must know that film is a very professional industry, and most of the bosses who invest in filming are from other industries, and they need to have professional producers to coordinate between the boss and the director, so as to ensure that the film can be shot smoothly and achieve the expected profits.

For example, a layman who invests in a movie, what does he know besides knowing how to save money...... Whether the theme of the movie is good or not, what is the director's level, how well-known the actors are, what is the market for the film in Southeast Asia, etc., it is difficult for professionals to figure it out.

Investing in making movies is all for money, and I can't figure out anything, how can I make money?

If investors invest in one and lose one, a large amount of social funds will be withdrawn, and the film industry will languish, while if investors are too strong and do everything possible to save money and cannot guarantee the quality of films, the film market will be sluggish.

Therefore, a mature film industry should be divided into five modules - investors, producers, directors, actors, and behind-the-scenes personnel.

A high-level professional producer is the lubricant in the process of film business, which can ensure that the investment is returned, and the quality of the film is not affected, which is very important.

However, after the rise of New Arts City, a freak was created in the Hong Kong film industry - producer.

The executive producer is a hybrid of investor and producer, with a monopoly on power, and is the real and only core of a crew.

As everyone knows, in any organization, the power should not be too concentrated in one person, there were prime ministers in the Han and Tang dynasties in China, and there was a cabinet in the Ming and Qing dynasties, all of which were bridges between the emperor and hundreds of officials.

In this regard, Tsui Hark is a living example, first falling out with John Woo, "True Colors of Heroes 3" failed at the box office, and then fighting with Hu Jinquan, "Smiling Proud Jianghu" also lost money.

Of course, the birth and exhibition of producers are also related to the special environment of Hong Kong films.

The Hong Kong market is narrow and the talent is limited, so the scale of the film company is relatively small, as the saying goes, the ship is small and it is good to turn around, and the producer integrates the boss and the producer, which can quickly respond to the market, chase the wind and catch up with the film, and the efficiency is very high.

However, it is precisely because of this that the producer has high requirements for professionalism, one is not careful, has no return, and lacks flexibility, such as Huang Ying, the "ghost king" who wrote the series of "Silkworm Transformation" and "Shen Shengyi", as a producer and investment in making zombie films, the market trend has passed, and he is still obsessed, and he was finally beaten to death at home by loan sharks.

And the producer is only suitable for small companies, not large groups.

Shen Chong's business is getting more and more, and it is impossible to take care of every drama like it is now in the future, and it is imperative to cultivate professional producers who can package all the work of the crew in one stop.

Not only that, Shen Chong has greater ambitions, he hopes that these professional producers, after they mature, can go out and set up their own doors and start companies, he doesn't need to dominate the rivers and lakes, what he needs is a large number of competitors who can conquer cities in the whole world, anyway, with the breadth and profundity of Chinese culture and the huge capacity of the Chinese film market, no matter how many film companies can afford it, the bigger the cake, the more he will share.

So he reorganized the production department, demoted Zeng Lizhen to an ordinary producer, and let her study with Gary Kurtz, because in the previous plays, she was nominally a producer, but in fact she was a senior drama manager - the script was selected by Shen Chong, the budget was set by Shen Chong, and the line was planned by Shen Chong, she was just an executor, and there was no completely independent production of a movie.

However, Gary Kurtz is new to the city and doesn't know the Asian market, so Shen Chong is the producer of this "Die Hard", he is the executive producer, responsible for managing the staff recruited from Hollywood, and communicating with John Woo and others.

In the future, Shen Chong will gradually let go and only focus on the most noteworthy movies, as for ordinary investments, they will be handed over to professional producers.

Note: Figures from "A Century of Hong Kong Lights"

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