"Hey, Xiao Li, aren't you back in the crew, why didn't you leave?"

Seeing Li Tang appear again at the Ningbo Hotel officially designated by the film festival, the biggest favorite for Best Actor at this year's Golden Rooster Awards, Mr. Ge couldn't help but be surprised.

"I'm back to the crew, but here I go again." Li Tang greeted the old man with a smile, looked at the room again, and asked, "What, you're alone, what about Director Qi?" ”

"Director Qi went to participate in the domestic film symposium."

"Then why don't you go?"

"It's nothing more than whining, it's not interesting." Old Man Ge shook his head and said.

The old man still has a lot of character, otherwise he needs a diploma and a diploma, acting skills, and qualifications, and he has been mixed in Shaanxi for a lifetime, and he has not been mixed with an official position.

Similar to this kind of domestic film symposium, Li Tang participated once at the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival in 99, which was nothing more than inviting some famous directors and actors to talk about their respective creative processes, but it often evolved into directors and actors complaining about each other, blaming this and that, and even criticizing the censorship, in short, it was very lively.

Old man Ge was bored alone, Li Tang was also bored, and the two bored people sat together and drank tea.

Originally, Jiang Qinqin received a call from his agent Li Jingping to attend tomorrow's closing ceremony, and he also thought that the two of them could go shopping for a while if they had time, and go to the nearby Tianyi Pavilion to take a look and have a drink in the evening, and then ......

didn't want Xiao Tang Fengchen to come from Peach Blossom Island, she was scolded by Li Jingping. And they have already booked a suite in Nanyuan Restaurant, the only five-star hotel in Ningbo.

Because during the film festival, many big stars such as Wang Zuxian, Wu Yanzu, Zhao Wentable, including the biggest names Gong Li and Zhou Xingxing are also said to stay here. When Li Tang drove Jiang Qinqin and Xiao Tang in an off-road vehicle, many reporters gathered at the door and in the lobby. Seeing this scene, Li Tang dared not get out of the car, so he could only lower the brim of his hat and pretend to be the driver, seeing that Jiang Qinqin was surrounded by reporters after getting out of the car, and slipped away on the accelerator.

So I could only return to the Ningbo Hotel, but fortunately, when I attended the opening ceremony yesterday, the organizer arranged three rooms for the crew of "The Story of Escort" here.

Not long after, Qi Xin came back, and when he saw Li Tang in the living room, he was also quite surprised: "Xiao Li, you didn't leave?" ”

"Gone, here again. I don't have many scenes, and it's not interesting to stay in the crew, so I'll come back and join in the fun, and I have to come over tomorrow for the closing ceremony. Li Tang hurriedly stood up and smiled.

"Aren't you idle?"

Qi Xin complained and beckoned Li Tang to sit down again.

"Director Qi, is today's symposium lively?"

Qi Xin, who was drinking tea, glanced at him: "What do you mean, kid?" ”

"No, I just want to hear what's going on." Li Tang said with a hippie smile.

"Lively?"

Qi Xin put down the teacup, snorted softly through his nose and said, "It's really lively, it almost became my criticism meeting." ”

Li Tang was taken aback, hurriedly restrained the smile on his face, and said with concern: "How can this be?" ”

Qi Xin sighed and said: "Someone mentioned today why domestic films have a market and no box office? Good guys, like stabbing a hornet's nest, the directors present began to criticize the current film distribution system, believing that the lack of box office of domestic films is largely due to the current backward distribution system. What else did you say to let the director do the distribution, it's really a wretch. ”

Qi Xin shook his head, as the person in charge of the General Administration in charge of film production, distribution, screening, printing, and economic operation, in fact, in the final analysis, he can only play a guiding role in business, and his real power is limited. At present, the initiative of film distribution is still in the hands of various local film companies.

And what makes Qi Xin even more depressed is that he is only a small leader at the division level of the General Administration, but many old directors from major studios who participated in today's symposium are not only highly respected, but also have levels, and even department and bureau levels abound. When people complained, and even pointed the finger at him, he could only listen.

"Why can't you let the director do the distribution?"

Li Tang helped Qi Xin to hug the grievances and said: "I think they are used to being high, and they say that the film distribution system needs to be reformed." That's right, the current film distribution system does need to be reformed, but as directors and producers, we also have to change our thinking. Let's see why the movie directed by Feng Xiaogang can be a big seller? In addition to the audience liking, more importantly, they do it themselves, running all over the country. Including this year's blockbuster "My Brothers and Sisters", I heard that the foreigner producer named Roy personally ran around with the copies. In my opinion, they just can't put it down, they lack subjective initiative, and they don't look for reasons in themselves......"

I have to say that Li Tang's words touched Qi Xin's heart, and he felt very ironed. Of course, there is also the problem of distribution, and the current domestic distribution model still follows the sale of copies during the planned economy period. Moreover, the situation of theaters in various places leaking and concealing the box office is very serious.

This time, the issue of distribution was mentioned by Mao Hui from the symposium, but in fact, it was not Qi Xin who said that someone at the meeting happened to mention that domestic films have a market but no box office, in the final analysis, it was because of "the wolf is coming".

As recently as last month, the negotiations on China's accession to the WTO were successful, and China will formally join the WTO in December this year. Among the 54 commitments on China's accession to the WTO, one is about movies. Starting next year, at least 20 imported films will be introduced in the form of account sharing.

There is no doubt that these 20 movies must be Hollywood blockbusters, which is undoubtedly worse for domestic films that are already in a worrying box office situation, and everyone is worried that no one will watch the movies made.

Therefore, this is a deep-seated problem, and it is not something that a department-level cadre like Qi Xin can solve. So although he was very nervous in his heart, he still shook his head and changed the topic and asked, "By the way, Xiao Li, how much is the box office of your "The Third Man" now?" ”

"Just over eight million."

"Yo, yes, it's more than our "Escort Story"." Old Man Ge was the first to be surprised when he heard this.

Qi Xin is also very excited, because he helped coordinate the release and schedule of "The Third Man", and from the perspective of work, "The Third Man" sold well, which can be regarded as a political achievement for him.

"Can it break through 10 million?"

Li Tang shook his head with a deep sigh and said, "It is estimated that there is not much hope, and now the high-definition pirated discs on the market have come out." ”

When Qi Xin heard this, he immediately showed disappointment. As soon as the high-definition version of the pirated disc came out, it was undoubtedly a death sentence for the movie that was being released.

In fact, the luck of "The Third Man" was quite good, at the beginning of its release, because the target of piracy was concentrated on a few blockbusters, after all, piracy also requires costs, and the number of pirated copies of some literary films that no one has watched is much. It wasn't until the box office of "The Third Man" came out in the first week that a small satellite was released, which attracted the attention of piracy, so the high-definition version came out in the past few days.

There is no way to do this, but the cost of piracy is too low and the profit is too great in these years, as long as people collude with the theater, it is easy to get the high-definition version of the resources.

At present, Li Tang estimates that the release of "The Third Man" can last for a week at most, and it is not bad to have a box office of 9 million in the end.

Of course, to have such box office results, on the one hand, is the quality of the movie, but more importantly, at the beginning of the film's release, they ran out of the roadshow together.

"Will it pay for itself?"

Qi Xin knew that this movie was personally invested by Li Tang, the little brother was good, righteous, and spoke well, so he naturally had to care about it.

Li Tang shook his head and said with a wry smile: "It's definitely not enough, not only the production cost, but also the cost of publicity and distribution, it is estimated that it is good to be able to recover two-thirds." ”

According to the current box office sharing ratio, the share between producers and distributors is 33%. Although Li Tang is running on his own whether it is publicity or distribution, the distributor is Shanghai Film Studio, including the cost of the factory standard, and it is estimated that only 30% can really fall into Li Tang's hands, that is to say, if the box office is 9 million, it can get 2.7 million, which is enough for the production cost, but the copying, publicity, including the cost of the roadshow, add up to a small 1 million.

"And what about your overseas earnings?" Qi Xin asked again.

"The agency contract we signed will not be known until the end of the year."

Here Li Tang is sloppy, in fact, according to the current news from MK2, it is almost worth 400,000 US dollars, which is enough to recover the cost, and there is already an objective profit.

Qi Xin glanced at him and muttered: "In this way, I'll help you contact the movie channel when I go back, and simply collect the TV copyright of your film." ”

Li Tang's eyes lit up suddenly, and he hurriedly asked, "Director Qi, how much can you sell?" ”

Qi Xin smiled and said, "500,000 shouldn't be a problem. ”

Li Tang has long had this idea, because he had heard that the box office of "The Story of Escort" of nearly 7 million plus the copyright income from selling to movie channels was enough to smooth out the production costs. This is also something that Qi Xin is very proud of for the first time directing in the context of general losses in filmmaking.

Although movie channels have indicators for acquiring film and television copyrights every year, they also depend on relationships. Qi Xin has a very good relationship with the movie channel, and it is basically a sure thing to be matched by him, otherwise he would not have given such a positive answer with his cautious character, and 500,000 is only more than less.

Li Tang suddenly said gratefully: "Director Qi, thank you for your great kindness!" Let's have a seafood feast! ”

Before Qi Xin could speak, Lao Ge on the side immediately answered: "This feeling is good, it is said that Ningbo seafood is enough, I am thinking about this mouthful!" ”

Li Tang knew that Lao Ge was knocking on the edge for himself, and glanced at the old man gratefully.

Sure enough, Qi Xin smiled happily: "Teacher Ge has spoken, then let's go!" ”

……

"What are you doing, your phone is always turned off."

Li Tang drank a little dizzy tonight, there was no way for Lao Ge to drink it, a bottle of Wuliangye was like playing, and his face was not red and his heart was not beating when he drank it. Fortunately, the old man was temperate, otherwise Li Tang would have to sacrifice his life to accompany the gentleman.

When I went back to the room and took out my mobile phone, I found that it was turned off when there was no power, I just plugged it in, turned on the phone, and the little fat call came.

"The phone is dead."

"Where are you?"

"I just went back to the hotel, and I went to drink with Director Qi and Old Man Ge in the evening."

"Hey, didn't you say that you would return to the crew after attending the opening ceremony?"

Due to the relationship between the growth environment in his previous life, Li Tang was most annoyed by Xiaopang's behavior of tracking his whereabouts, which was personal privacy. In addition, he drank some more wine, so he said impatiently: "The plan can't catch up with the changes, do you understand?" Do you still have to ask for instructions early and report late? ”

Xiaopang was very smart, and when he heard his tone was not good, he immediately changed his tone and smiled: "Hehe, as long as you are willing, of course I will be fine!" ”

Hearing her tone soften, Li Tang naturally didn't have a seizure, snorted twice, sat on the sofa, and said softly: "How is the filming?" ”

"That's it, it's still in the run-in stage just after starting."

Li Tang heard that Xiaopang was obviously not interested, so he asked, "What's wrong, is there something wrong?" ”

"It's not that there's anything wrong, it's just that it's a little out of tune with He Rundong." Chubby said.

"Why is it out of tune? Let's hear it. ”

"Oh, it's him, how to say it, it's not distracted at all, when filming the opponent's scene, I didn't make eye contact with him, this is really too uncomfortable......"

Chubby complained a lot on the phone.

It should be said that she put a lot of effort into the role of peace of mind, not only did she lose more than a dozen pounds, but she also ate the script thoroughly, and she didn't even need to bring the script to the scene, and the lines came as soon as she opened her mouth.

The inner drama of the character Anxin is very full, especially in the relationship with the three men, because He Rundong's schedule is tight, the rivalry between the two must be filmed first. But the other party is obviously not well prepared, or the performance is routine. When you are happy, you laugh, when you are angry, you yell, you have a false appearance, and you don't care.

This is similar to the state of Xiaopang himself when he first debuted, to put it bluntly, he has no acting skills, and his performance depends on imagination. And now, under the teaching and cultivation of Teacher Li, she has gradually embarked on the path of experiential school.

The experiential school needs to be immersed in the characters and need to communicate with the opponent, and without communication, it is not only uncomfortable, but also very painful. At this time, she probably understood why Zhou Jie was out of place with their gang at that time, maybe the situation was exactly the same as what she was facing at this time, chickens and ducks talked, and the performance was not at the same level at all.

After listening to Xiaopang's complaints, Li Tang thought about it and asked, "What did the director say?" ”

"The director didn't say anything, just come over and over again if it doesn't work."

Ding Xiaohei, the director of "Jade Guanyin", is the contracted director of Hai Run, not from a professional class, and he has filmed a "Fatal Encounter" before, and the response is good, so he was able to take charge of the guide tube of "Jade Guanyin".

To put it bluntly, the director's authority is not enough, and he can't suppress a big star like He Rundong.

Li Tang thought for a while and said, "Since you haven't communicated with him, don't communicate." You just play at your own pace, and it's someone else's business whether the other party can keep up with your rhythm. ”

Xiaopang didn't expect that Mr. Li, who has always been wise and martial, would give such a suggestion, and couldn't help but say, "Uh...... Didn't you always say that acting requires cooperation, right? ”

"It's okay, you just play at your own pace. The director can understand, as long as he doesn't say anything, it's OK together! ”

There's no way, there are a lot of things in the past two days, and you can only code words at night, and it's too late today, so you can change it first.

(End of chapter)