Lido is a long, narrow island with casinos, hotels and, of course, the most famous of all, the Cinema Palace. Compared with the deserted scene when Li Tang came to travel in his previous life, Lido Island at this time can be described as a crowded city, with a long beach full of tents, all of which are temporary shelters for backpackers and students.

The red carpet is also being laid out at the entrance of the Cinema Palace, and lights are being set up in preparation for tomorrow's opening ceremony.

Just over a hundred meters away from the Movie Palace is the most famous Westin Hotel on the island, which is the official hotel of the film festival, where the invited big-name stars are temporarily staying, probably already stars, and more than a dozen reporters armed with long guns and short guns gathered at the door of the hotel.

As for why Li Tang and them were arranged in a guesthouse similar to a guest house on the main island, it can only be said that as newcomers, their coffee seats are not enough.

When Dan heard Ney'an's explanation, Chubby said with a face full of dissatisfaction: "One day I will live here too." ”

It is of course a good thing to have a heart and a pursuit. But how easy it is to be invited to live here, at least you have to benchmark the domestic Gong Li...... Well, Gong Li is not counted, she is already from Li Jiapo now. Now the only one who can benchmark in the mainland film industry is probably Zhang Ziyi, at least it must have international popularity.

Among the group of people, only Li Tang believed that Xiaopang was not joking, and that she would definitely realize this dream one day in the future.

After going around and returning to the trading market, it was still deserted here, and Zeng Jia, who stayed here, only sent out a dozen promotional brochures in total.

"Shut up the stall and come back tomorrow."

Li Tang can only hope that tomorrow's popularity here will be a little stronger.

Back at the guest house, there were a lot of people gathered in the small lobby, all dragging luggage, obviously all filmmakers who came to the film festival and did not have a high coffee seat.

Li Tang and Cheng Er dragged on at the end, chatting about going to the trading market tomorrow morning.

Suddenly, I heard someone shouting in Chinese: "Cheng Er!" ”

As soon as Cheng Er turned around, he couldn't help but be surprised when he saw the person who came: "Senior Brother Wu." ”

It is naturally a gratifying thing to meet Chinese people in a foreign country, and Li Tang also turned his head when he heard it. I saw a chubby guy running over and hugging Cheng Er warmly, followed by a beautiful girl.

It's just that the guy's big nose and sunken eye sockets obviously have Western blood, and the beautiful girl's face is very familiar.

"Brother Li, this is my senior brother Wu Shixian from Nortel's directing department. His work was shortlisted for the short film section this time. ”

In addition to the four Chinese feature films shortlisted for the Venice Film Festival this time, there is also a short film called "Che Forty-Four".

"Director Wu, I'm glad to meet you!"

"Brother Li, hello!"

It always feels strange that a guy who looks like a foreigner can speak fluent Beijing films, and seeing this guy with a scumbag beard actually calling himself brother, Li Tang was inevitably stunned.

This thing seemed to see Li Tang's thoughts, held his hand and said with a smile: "Brother Li, that's right, I'm seventy-five years old, and I'm a little older." ”

said, and took the initiative to introduce the beautiful girl next to him and said, "This is my girlfriend Gong Beiyu." ”

"Teacher Gong, hello!"

Although the girl in front of her who is a little protruding looks young, she debuted very early, and has starred in many hit dramas such as "Beijing-Hong Kong Love Line" and "Carry Love to the End", and she can be regarded as Li Tang's predecessor. She was quite popular in the past few years, but she seems to have disappeared a little in the past two years, and she is busy falling in love.

"Yo, Brother Li, don't be a teacher, I don't dare to be a teacher, just call me baby."

Li Tang couldn't help but be stunned again, how could a serious person call Baby, so he called her very politely: "Xiao Gong." ”

Since I met him, I found a seat in the lobby and sat down to talk.

Compared with the taciturn Cheng Er, this Wu Dao is quite talkative. He is in a similar situation to Cheng Er, who once won the short film award at the International College Student Film Festival with his graduation work "East Twenty-two", and the shortlisted short film "Che Twenty-two" is his second work, and the heroine is his girlfriend Gong Beibi next to him.

This guy was surprised to see Li Tang with his fluent Beijing films, so he introduced himself as actually a Chinese-American mixture, his father is Chinese, his mother is American, born in Wanwan, grew up in the United States, studied film art at the University of Washington for two years, and transferred to Nortel's directing department in his junior year. Since 95, he has been living in the capital for six years.

His shortlisted short film will be released the day after the opening ceremony, and he also warmly invited Li Tang and Cheng Er to join in the applause.

Although Cheng Er didn't talk much, it could be seen that he still admired this senior brother of the "Sino-US joint venture".

Since this is the case, Li Tang took the initiative to invite the two of them to have dinner together in the evening. Originally, they had booked a table at an Italian restaurant not far from the dock tonight, planning to have a meal together.

……

The next morning, Chubby got up early and started doing hair and makeup, preparing to welcome her on the red carpet for the first time in her life in the evening.

Ney is going to visit Marco Muller and a number of other people in the European film industry, whether at home or abroad, maintaining relationships is always a very important thing. For example, this time, she helped Lou Ye get the investment of France TV 5 through her connections.

The French TV channel 5 is a privately invested television station that invests in movies in addition to its normal television business. The owner is the owner of the famous AC Milan, Silvio Berlusconi. This guy was re-elected as Prime Minister of Italy in the recent general election.

Li Tang and Zeng Jia went to the film market on Lido Island and then distributed pamphlets, and Cheng Er stayed in the hotel and had nothing to do, so he also came with him.

They didn't have the money to advertise in the house book, so they had to promote the film in a primitive way, hoping to attract as many studios as possible to watch the film during the screening.

Generally speaking, films that can be shortlisted will always attract the attention of some studios. In fact, during the film festival, it is also a process of mutual game between the filmmaker and the filmmaker.

Film companies generally select films based on their ratings and the quality of the films, and negotiate with the producers when they find the right ones, which may be to buy out the copyright of their country or even the entire region, or to share the agency model.

A lot of films are agreed before the list of winners comes out. Because once a movie wins an award, not only will there be more competitors, but the price of the movie will also rise.

In particular, one of the three major awards in Europe, such as the Venice Film Festival, is very important and recognized by the audience. It's like every time after the Oscars, the winning films will get a chance to be re-screened, and with the blessing of the awards, the box office is often amazing. The producer gets not only honor, but also real benefits.

And the transaction at the film festival is a bit like opening a blind box. Once the film is won by the studio, it will mean a lot of money. In the same way, as a producer, he generally does not dare to take risks before the award is announced, even in the midst of applause, he will try to recover the cost and basically fight again in the cost recovery. If you win a prize, you will naturally sell for a good price, but once you fail, not only will the price go down, but even no one will care.

Li Tang and Cheng Er's current idea is very simple, they don't want to divide it into anything, that is, sell copyrights, and catch cash in 369!

At ten o'clock in the morning, the film trading market opened, and the sellers had already entered, more than a dozen people, less than three or four people, carrying all kinds of strange props and furnishings, and began to arrange them in a mess. Compared with yesterday's deserted scene, today's booths have increased significantly, and it looks like they are about to fill up.

But there are very few serious filmmakers and buyers, and more tourists and journalists, hanging their cameras and wandering around to see if there is any good gossip.

Because of the advance reservation, Li Tang's booth is in a good location, not far from the door, and it is easy to focus on it. The booth was actually very simple, with a long table in front of it with movie brochures, a baffle on both sides covered with movie posters, and a TV hanging behind it playing a trailer.

After all, the cost is limited, and compared to the blonde who hired bikinis next door, scratching their heads and handing out flyers, soliciting customers, and even handing out ice cream, their booth here can be said to be low.

Originally, the three of them were sitting in the booth, but seeing that there were fewer and fewer people passing by their booth, Zeng Jia simply picked up a stack of pamphlets, ran outside the booth and distributed them everywhere in broken English, and sometimes took the initiative to communicate with others. It's similar to handing out flyers on the street, most of them just take the pamphlet and ignore it. Maybe when you're done, the pamphlets end up in the trash.

Li Tang and Cheng Er, the two big men, were embarrassed to run out and shout hello, and Cheng Er was obviously very uneasy when he saw the surrounding situation.

"Brother Li, do you think our film can be sold?"

"Don't worry, these are all gimmicks, what attracts tourists is just that, real filmmakers don't eat this set, we are shortlisted, and we have a lot of advantages than them. Besides, the film festival hasn't opened yet, so there's no hurry, it's mainly about publicity now. ”

Don't look at Li Tang's old talk on the surface, in fact, he has no bottom in his heart, after all, he has never experienced this kind of thing in his previous life. He only knows that the movie is fragrant, and he is afraid of deep alleys, and if he wants to sell the movie, he must first be seen.

In a blink of an eye, it was noon, and Li Tang went out to buy a few pizzas for lunch. While he was eating, he saw Nell running in a hurry.

"Quick, hurry up and go back and pick up some of the interviews I have made an appointment with you. Li Tang, you are still good at French, right? ”

"Okay."

Li Tang nodded hurriedly, during the filming of "The Little Tailor", his French level improved a lot, and basic communication was not a problem.

At the same time, he was pleasantly surprised: "Sister An, what interview?" ”

"A French house book, I asked a friend from France to help contact it, and it was about three o'clock."

I have to say that Ne is still very powerful, for example, the Venice Film Festival has four major venues, two from France, one from the United States, and one from Italy. Many deep-pocketed producers will advertise in the house magazine, for example, the cover of an issue can be as high as 50,000 or 60,000 US dollars, and then the middle insert, back cover, etc. are clearly marked. And the interview with the house magazine is equivalent to giving you a free advertisement.

Back at the hotel, Chubby had already done the basic styling. It is said that three points of appearance and seven points of dress, after such a pick-up, I took a look at it suddenly, and it was really amazing, of course, it was still a big distance from the domineering and leaky royal sister Fan in Li Tang's memory in his previous life, after all, he still looked immature, and his temperament still needed to be precipitated.

Directors and actors, festival house books generally focus more on the director, unless the actor is more famous. Cheng Er, who has a tendency towards social terrorism, is very nervous in the face of the upcoming interview, and even a little restless.

Li Tang was helpless, so he had to comfort: "Think about our movie, besides, I will help you translate, what are you afraid of!" ”

That's right, think about movies.

Coming to the film festival is not only for Cheng Er to strive for a good price, but more importantly, he hopes that his works can be seen by more people.

Cheng Er gritted his teeth and secretly did psychological construction for himself.

Fortunately, the French reporter who came to interview him was very professional, and after watching the trailer, the questions asked were all related to the movie. As long as he talked about the movie, Cheng Er's social phobia tendency disappeared in an instant, and he talked eloquently, and the already stumbling translation almost couldn't keep up.

As for Li Tang, the French buddy actually knew him, and accurately called the name of the character he played in "Suzhou River" - Motor.

Li Tang was somewhat flattered, but he didn't expect that he would become famous in Europe.

At seven o'clock in the evening, which should be counted as afternoon in Italian time, the red carpet ceremony of the 58th Venice International Film Festival will begin.

At around six o'clock, Li Tang and his entourage followed the large army to Lido Island on a speedboat specially arranged by the organizer.

Xiaopang wore a small white dress with a shawl-style neckline today, with low-cut hair and big red lips, and the overall appearance was slightly mature and extravagant. Especially her skin is white, and wearing pure white not only does not look black, but has a feeling of white to glow.

According to the process issued in advance, this year's opening ceremony was generally relaxed and held in the form of a gala dinner. In fact, as early as half a month ago, the opening ceremony of this year had already begun to warm up. The most eye-catching are naturally those big stars in Hollywood, and this year's main focus is the "Queen of Topics" Nicole. Kidman, character actor Kim. Hackman and Elizabeth. Taylor.

They came relatively early, and they had no choice but to sit and wait in the makeshift lounge in a huge tent next to the movie palace. And the big stars who live in the Westin Hotel next door can be unhurried, pinch the time, and walk over in a few steps.

Before the red carpet of the opening ceremony began, many fans and photojournalists had already gathered at the scene. What's even more interesting is that the fans at the scene were not only enthusiastic, but also openly unfurled a huge banner with a line of English letters on it.

"Poof!"

Li Tang couldn't help but cover his mouth and laugh when he saw it.

"What's on it?" Chubby doesn't know anything about English now, so he can't help but ask curiously.

"Down with Hollywood imperialism!" Li Tang translated it for her.

In fact, in the morning at the film market, he listened to the people around him talking, saying that the slogan of this year's film festival is "Down with Hollywood imperialism", but I didn't expect that some fans really played this slogan on the spot, I don't know how the so-called Hollywood big name felt when he saw this slogan when he appeared for a while.

(End of chapter)