Chen Qiang looked at the big screen with a smile, and there was an inexplicable sense of satisfaction in his heart.

MGM's president Louis Meyer was sitting next to Chen Qiang, he saw Chen Qiang's smile, thought that Chen Qiang was very satisfied with the movie, so he said: "Chen, the first water song and dance movie in history, what do you think?" ”

"It's very good, I was impressed by a lot of scenes, and the final water ballet performance, the scene is very grand." Chen Qiang replied.

Louis Meyer said with some pride: "We have been preparing for the last water ballet for a long time, using hundreds of actors, many of whom are professional swimmers and mobilizers, and Esther has been practicing for a month for this scene!" ”

Chen Qiang nodded, the last water ballet performance did consume a lot of manpower, and it was very difficult to shoot, if you want to shoot this scene well, it is inevitable for the actors to rehearse a month in advance.

In addition, the plot of the actor dancing ballet is also very difficult to perform, because it is a set of coherent dance moves with multiple people, and it is also the kind of long shot that goes to the end, and if anyone makes a mistake, then the whole scene has to be reshot, which tests the actor's ability. If you want to perform such a scene well, the male protagonist must carry out professional dance practice, and the actors must also rehearse for a long time, so as to reduce mistakes and ensure that one shot is in the end.

I have to say that the actors of this era are really dedicated, they are willing to work hard for a few weeks for a few minutes of play, compared with those popular little fresh meat and flowers in later generations, but they don't even bother to memorize the lines, pull a few sentences of "one, two, three" on the spot, and then hand over the dubbing words in post-production.

Just listen to Louis Meyer continue: "Mr. Chen, if you have any good suggestions for this film, please let it go. ”

"I'm not a professional filmmaker, so I think I'd better not talk too much." Chen Qiang replied with a smile.

"No, no, Mr. Chen, what we need is not the opinion of professional filmmakers, but the opinion of ordinary audiences. This is not a literary film, but a commercial film, we have paid so much investment, we have to count on this film to make money for us, so I hope you can give us some suggestions from the perspective of ordinary audiences. Louis Meyer said.

"Oh well. I'll just say a few words from the audience's point of view. Chen Qiang thought for a while, and then said: "The film is really exciting, the scenes are also very grand, and the actors' acting skills are also very good, but I don't think the name of the movie is very attractive." Chen Qiang said.

"The name 'Mr, Co-Ed' is a bit banal." Louis Meyer nodded.

From the perspective of commercial films, "Mr, Co-Ed" is indeed a very ordinary name, there are many names like this in American movies, and such a name will definitely not have much attraction in a commercial film.

The "Mrs. Minifer" that Chen Qiang invested in before also adopted a similar naming method. When "Mrs. Minifer" was filmed, MGM did not intend to package it as a commercial blockbuster, and the script for "Mrs. Minifer" was not suitable as a commercial blockbuster. However, "Mrs. Minifer" was an excellent film in its own right, and the timing and place made "Mrs. Minifer" the highest-grossing film of the year. It can be said that "Mrs. Minifer" was a good surprise at the box office, and if it were not for World War II, "Mrs. Minifer" would definitely not have such a good box office.

And this water song and dance movie, there is no cooperation with the right time, place and people, and every movie can't count on an "unexpected situation" to support the box office.

Historically, it was also because "Mr, Co-Ed" was too ordinary and not attractive enough, so MGM finally changed the name of the movie to "Bathing Beauty", which translates to "Out of the Water Hibiscus".

Louis Meyer had already realized that the name "Mr, Co-Ed" was really not suitable for a commercial film, so when Chen Qiang suggested that the name of the movie was not suitable, Louis Meyer immediately asked: "Mr. Chen, do you have any good suggestions for the name of the movie?" ”

"I think 'Bathing Beauty' is a good name." Chen Qiang replied.

Louis Meyer was slightly stunned, then smiled knowingly, nodded and said, "This name is indeed attractive enough." Chen, thank you for your suggestion, we will seriously consider it. ”

"Bathing Beauty" was eventually translated as "Out of the Water Hibiscus", but if translated literally, "Bathing Beauty" means "Out of the Bath Beauty", and the name is definitely more appealing to the audience than the previous "Mr, Co-Ed". Normal people would choose to go to see a beautiful woman out of the bath, rather than to see a big old man named "Co-Ed".

After sending Chen Qiang away, Louis Meyer called the film's director, George Sidney, and the two began to discuss.

"This Chinese's intention is too obvious, "Bathing Beauty", clearly wants to praise his wife!" George Sidney spoke.

Louis Meyer nodded: "You're right, he does mean that." But "Mr, Co-Ed" is really boring, and the name "Bathing Beauty" is indeed more appealing. ”

The name "Bathing Beauty" will certainly not be to describe the actor of the movie, Red Skelton, and no one will call a comedian who is 1.88 meters tall a "bathing beauty". So the title of the movie "Bathing Beauty" is obviously highlighting the heroine Esther.

In the whole movie, Esther's performance can only be regarded as decent, and she is even a little sorry for the identity of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, of course, mainly because Esther's scenes are all vase scenes, and even sometimes in the plot arrangement, she is a vexatious silly white sweet. Fortunately, there is a "technical" scene of water ballet at the end, and this dedicated attitude does not allow Esther to have a project that detracts from points.

In the movie, the actor Red Skelton has more scenes than Esther, and many of the scenes are even supported by Red Skelton's comedy talent, for example, there is a plot of fighting wits with a dog, Red Skelton relies on a one-man performance, wearing women's clothes and pretending to be a woman, and the comedy effect is brought into full play. It is no exaggeration to say that the actor Red Skelton is the core of the whole movie, and as for the silly white sweet vase role played by Esther, any beautiful woman can do it.

In this case, the name of the movie should highlight the male protagonist Red Skelton, but Chen Qiang proposed such a prominent female lead name as "Bathing Beauty", which actually has a bit of a noisy flavor. This is like filming a movie about Guan Yu Wenjiu and Huaxiong, and then calling it "The Death of Pan Feng", which is completely putting the cart before the horse. (PS: I don't know who Pan Feng is to watch the fifth episode of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms)

So when Chen Qiang proposed the name "Bathing Beauty", MGM immediately realized that Chen Qiang was deliberately enhancing Esther's status in the movie, and they naturally thought that Chen Qiang was clearly trying to support his wife.

In fact, Chen Qiang just hyped up a name according to history.

The director of the film, George Sidney, is very disdainful of Chen Qiang's behavior, many directors of this era are people who really pursue film art, they do not kneel and lick investors like later generations, and they also hate investors pointing fingers at their films. So when Chen Qiang said the name "Bathing Beauty", George Sidney instinctively felt disgusted.

Louis Meyer doesn't think so, and as the owner of MGM, he has to think about how to get a better box office for the film.

This kind of water movie is really expensive, with exquisite sets, grand scenes, and a large number of actors, all of which cost a lot of money, and more importantly, many "professional" scenes need to be rehearsed many times, which also increases the cost of shooting. So Louis Meyer needs to attract more people to the cinema.

I only heard Louis Meyer say: "I think the name proposed by Chen is very gimmicky, "Bathing Beauty" is very attractive, if it were me, I would also like to go to the cinema to find out." ”

"Louis, you don't really want to use that name, do you?" George Sidney asked.

"Why not? The name can give us a larger audience. Louis Meyer smiled and then continued: "We could even change our promotional strategy to focus on promoting Esther's water ballet, and while Red Skelton's role is a little more important, I think the audience would have preferred to see a beautiful woman in a swimsuit dancing in the water!" ”

In the history of "Out of the Water Hibiscus", it is Esther as the main publicity point, almost all the posters are Esther wearing swimsuits, as for the actor Red Skelton, he has become a dispensable existence in the publicity, just a name appears on the promotional poster of the movie.

The film companies are very realistic, and although Red Skelton's acting skills are very outstanding and his performance in the movie is also very exciting, it is not enough to attract the audience into the cinema. Esther is different, beauty has always been the selling point of movies, let alone beautiful women in swimsuits. Even in the future, many movie posters will put a picture of a sexy beauty on it, in order to attract the audience into the cinema, and this sexy beauty is likely to be a soy sauce player who may not even have a line.

……

MGM eventually adopted the name Bathing Beauty and decided to make Esther's water ballet performance the focus of the film's promotion. The movie will be released in June next year, which means that there is still half a year to go.

Chen Qiang also spent another Christmas in Los Angeles, and after Christmas, he returned to New York.

When Chen Qiang arrived in New York, the year had come to 1944.

The assistant delivered a financial statement to Chen Qiang's desk, which was Chen Qiang's income and expenditure in the past year.

Chen Qiang's two biggest expenses are the $5 million to support the domestic war of resistance, and the money to purchase cultural relics.

Chen Qiang has many sources of income, and the overseas box office of "Mrs. Minifer" has several receipts; Hula hoops still have good sales in the United States, and they are also sold to South America, and are quite popular in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and other countries; Bowling alleys in the United States have almost all been replaced with Chen Qiang's new bowling balls, and this part of the income has also stabilized; The revenue of the new tennis racket is growing in an explosive manner, after all, this is a new product that has just been launched, and it will take some time before the market is saturated.

Chen Qiang's chain of gyms has also been expanding, but the expansion speed is not fast, after all, it is a time of war, and the entire sports-related industry has suffered a serious blow, and there are few new gyms to open. After World War II, the fitness industry will usher in explosive growth, and gyms will bloom all over the United States.

With Chen Qiang's current assets, the franchise fees of those dozens of gyms are not a very important source of income for Chen Qiang, and Chen Qiang does not expect the gym to make him a lot of money. Now Chen Qiang is mainly in the layout, preparing for the explosion of the gym after World War II.

Next, Chen Qiang's focus will be on the first basketball all-star game.

After three months of publicity, many fans already know about the basketball All-Star Game. Especially not long ago, two fans had a fight over the issue of voting, and with Chen Qiang's promotion, it became a hot topic in the news at that time, which also let more people know about the upcoming All-Star Game in New York.

In the 40s, there was much more entertainment than in later generations, and because of the war, the entertainment and cultural industries in the United States suffered a heavy blow.

As a result, the upcoming All-Star Game has become a rare sports entertainment event for Americans, and has attracted the attention of many Americans.

And because of the reduction in sports competitions, the number of projects covered by sports journalists in the United States is also decreasing, and it is now winter, and many sports competitions have stopped, and sports reporters do not have much to cover.

But sports reporters always have to eat, and without sports news, sports reporters have nothing to eat, and it just so happens that the basketball All-Star Game is getting hotter and hotter, so sports reporters are rushing to report the news of the All-Star Game. Today is a certain star's votes are overtaken, tomorrow is a certain two stars in order to grab tickets to spray, in short, even if there is nothing to do in the world, these reporters have to deliberately write something.

The All-Star voting has entered the final white-hot stage, and many crazy fans are getting more and more crazy. And with the announcement of the voting results every month, the controversy between fans is getting bigger and bigger, and all kinds of quarrels are also emerging among fans, but fortunately, the situation of fans fighting for All-Star voting has not happened again.

Chen Qiang was planning something else.

"It's the first time to hold an All-Star Game, and for such an important occasion, it would be nice to have a live TV broadcast! Many homes in the United States have televisions, but they don't know if the current technology can support live TV broadcasts of sports games......"

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Seeing that it's late again, ask for a guaranteed monthly pass, thank you!