Landing in New York, Lu Ping'an took a breath of air, and did not smell any sweetness, only the smell of various perfumes and body odors that permeated the surroundings.

For the first time, Lu Ping'an felt that good health was not a good thing.

Sensitive sense of smell, sin!

Out of the customs, Hu Qingquan picked up the airport.

The two hadn't seen each other for months, and now they don't have any raw material.

"How's the film?"

After meeting, Hu Qingquan asked.

"It's not bad, I think there is still some progress this time, mainly because commercial films are not like other films, it is not very difficult to train actors, and Guorong's acting skills are also very good, and it is easy to shoot, but there are still difficulties, and special effects shooting is actually a test of kung fu. . . ."

Lu Ping'an said a lot.

These words can probably only be said in front of Hu Qingquan and Jiang Wen.

Hu Qingquan was very happy after hearing this: "If you open your mouth and say what will happen to the box office of this film in the future, I will interrupt you on the spot, now it seems that you kid is good!" ”

"Who made me your protégé!"

"Hahaha, I'm ashamed, I can only teach you theoretically, and I haven't made a few movies in practice."

"Then you will shoot if you have the opportunity in the future, I will invest in you!"

"Forget it, if you don't have the energy, I'm about to break my leg to help you run the film festival."

"Someone else's run."

"This can't be done, how can I rest assured of others...

The master and apprentice chatted happily, and the connecting plane to Los Angeles also came.

Hu Qingquan talked about the interesting things he heard about the Oscars.

To put it simply, the nominees for each project are selected by the branch societies of the academy to select the nominees for the awards in that category, such as the nomination of animation and the selection of directors of animation.

Later, after the list of nominees came out, it was a one-person-one-vote democratic vote, and the preferred voting system was adopted in the same way as Lao-American politics.

To put it simply, according to the list of votes, the first must be over 50% to be recognized as voted, if less than 50%, then remove the film with the least number of votes, and then choose the remaining films, if it is less than 50%, it is still eliminated the last one, and then everyone continues to vote, which is particularly interesting.

This is also a system that is basically unique to American politics and the Oscars.

In contrast to other film festivals, where a few or a dozen judges select an award, the Oscars have 6,000 members voting, and no one can control the number of votes and the result, which is obviously more fair.

Of course, there will also be: Damn, my favorite movie was eliminated in the end, I had to choose other films, and wow, my second favorite was also eliminated!! This will happen.

Of course, all judges can vote for films that they haven't seen, which is moral, not mandatory.

Therefore, it will happen that professionals from other branches will vote for non-professional votes, such as the actors' union to vote for animations, and the recording professionals to vote for special effects, and there will be:

Ouch! I haven't seen this film, but I've heard about it, and I'm in a hurry, so I'll vote for it.

Ouch! I ate a Disney dinner, and I'm sorry, so I'm going to cast this Disney animated short, even though I haven't seen it.

Ouch! I'm so sleepy... Catch a flight, I'll choose a film that my son likes...

This is not a joke, and many people have complained about it later.

There is an extranet article that reads: [Shocked! How ignorant were the 87th Academy Awards jury about animation and special effects!! 】

Translation: Imagine such a world! The most remarkable animation awards: The Oscars are chosen by people who have no animation expertise at all and do not have any animation aesthetics!!

In this world! A jury chooses Best Animated Short Film based solely on whether or not there is a puppy in the film (referring to Disney's Feast, which won the 87th Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film)

In this world!! One of the judges considered the Irish animated film "Song of the Sea" and the RB animated film "Kaguya-hime Monogatari" to be "garbage", and they didn't even watch any of them, but they voted for this year's Academy Award for Best Animated Feature...

So it does make sense that Oscar is weak in Europe's three fronts.

Hu Qingquan laughed while talking, not happily.

Lu Ping'an doesn't know Oscar very well, but he has heard of it.

Now it sounds like the Oscars are really a bit of a cosmic pit daz.

However, the inside is the insider, and the gold content is the gold content.

What Lu Ping'an wants is not recognition of his artistic level, but just an award.

Very utilitarian idea, but also the most practical.

Hu Qingquan continued: "We don't have to think too much about these things, the task now is to get the qualifications first, tomorrow is the first day of commercial screening, I think the effect will be good, your signboard has been released, many people have noticed... ”

One of the ways for short films to compete for the Oscars is to get entries through theatrical screenings.

Films must be commercially screened for at designated theaters in the Los Angeles area for seven consecutive days, with at least one screening per day, within the specified time.

As long as you can get the screening certificate provided by the theater, you can go to the Oscar short film after that.

And this seven-day screening is also a good time for preliminary public relations.

Hu Qingquan said: "There will be many heavyweights coming over tomorrow night, last year's Oscar short film judge Sa Shang is one of them, when the time comes, let's have a good chat, if you want to win the Oscar and the three major European ones are different, you have to be able to shout, fortunately, our film is of excellent quality, and there is already a special public relations team to get in touch." ”

"Don't worry, Lao Hu, you just do it, the money is enough."

Lu Ping'an patted the pocket on his chest.

Oscar needs public relations, and he knows it.

Before coming this time, he deducted 5 million yuan from Burger King through the legal and compliance operations of Uncle Liao and Xiang Guoqiang, and only left about 3 million yuan at home, and most of the rest has now become US dollars, totaling about 2.4 million US dollars.

plus more than 700,000 US dollars in Hu Qingquan's hands, a total of more than 3.1 million US dollars.

However, only a small part of the money will be used for public relations, after all, it is just a short film, and it doesn't use so much money, but more for buying stocks and doing projects.

Especially buying stocks.

The penguin didn't have to vote, at first because it crossed late, and after the crossing, it didn't make millions of dollars to enter the market for the first time.

The World Cup is because I really don't remember, and there is no way to do it.

But NetEase shares definitely have to be bought.

This is the last remaining prophetic treasure.

If you can't remember something like this, if you remember it and have the ability to do it, you naturally have to participate, such as Moutai.

Now Xiang Guoqiang is already operating, and it is estimated that he will call after landing in Los Angeles.

Hu Qingquan laughed directly after hearing this: "Preparing a cannon to fight mosquitoes?" ”

The money in Hu Qingquan's hands adds up to about 700,000 US dollars, which is already quite extravagant for public relations short films, most of them don't need so much, maybe 100,000 is enough, short films are not feature films after all, if they are feature films, then they have to start with millions.

Lu Ping'an also smiled: "Anyway, it's enough, be prepared." ”

Lu Ping'an has nothing else in his mind, so there is only this one opportunity for a short film.

It can be achieved, but it cannot be pulled down.

"It's good to be prepared, but I don't think the money will be needed."

Hu Qingquan opened his notebook as he spoke, "Short films are not like feature films, they are not so xenophobic, and their importance is not that high, so we won't have too much effort in public relations." ”

As he spoke, he pointed to a series of film festival names in his notebook and said: "And the quality of our films is good, I have received many invitations to film festivals, after this screening, I will take it to the film festival, all of which have Oscar direct channels, I don't think it is a big problem to win the award, go around, I'm afraid I can make some money again, in addition, go around the film festival, in fact, it is also public relations, you can save a lot of money." ”

Speaking of this, Hu Qingquan was full of regrets: "The screening rights of several short films were sold early, if you hold it in your hands, you can participate in the Oscars of the second year, and "Hired Life" can also participate in next year's Oscars, and the chances of winning are also very great, after all, they have won awards, and many people say it's a pity, because they all know this film." ”

The entry requirements for the Oscars are not as strict as those of the three major European ones, but there is also a restriction, that is, those who have won awards at other international awards cannot be released in media outside the theater in the next 6 months, so that they can participate in the next year's Oscars.

The rest of Lu Ping'an's short films were sold for screening rights and broadcast on various national TV stations, so they were not eligible for the competition.

Hu Qingquan didn't particularly understand it at that time, or rather, the country's film practitioners did not know much about the Oscars as well as the three major in Europe, only after 01 "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won the award, they began to pay attention to it slowly.

In addition, before Hu Qingquan met Lu Ping'an, he was indeed only a domestic academic, and the people who exchanged a lot were only some people in Europe, and he had no way to the Oscars at all.

Lu Ping'an still has the same mentality in this regard: "If you miss it, you will miss it, it's no problem if you don't win the award this time, next time you will come back to a feature film, that is the big battle, we will understand everything by then, and it will be convenient to do it." ”

"That's right! This is also the meaning of the short film, a stepping stone. ”

Hu Qingquan nodded in approval.

A few hours later, the plane landed in Los Angeles.

The two got into a rented car, and the driver was a white guy, Hu Qingquan said that he wore many hats, was a driver, an actor, and a screenwriter, and studied photography in college.

"Los Angeles is full of people like that, and eight out of ten people who go to a bar at night are over-the-top stars."

The white guy laughed, but his smile was full of bitterness.

Lu Ping'an was thinking about what to say, but he heard him follow again: "Boss, do you need a star at night, I have a way." ”

Lu Ping'an: "... ”

At this time, it was already night, and along the way, Lu Ping'an looked out the car window with vigilant eyes.

Hu Qingquan said with a smile: "Relax, this is Lao Mei, not Afu Khan." ”

As soon as the words fell, there was a banging sound at the end of the night, and the accelerator under the driver's feet was a little deeper.

Lu Ping'an shrugged at Hu Qingquan: "Free America, shootout every day." ”

"What a slip of the tongue."

Hu Qingquan smiled, but his butt subconsciously moved in, away from the car window...

When he arrived at the place, Lu Ping'an looked at the small villa with a total area of more than 400 square meters, and he was quite satisfied, but Hu Qingquan felt extravagant, why is the ancestor so big.

Then the two ate some food cooked by Hu Qingquan, and at 9 o'clock, Xiang Guoqiang called.

"$1.6 for $2 million."

"Beautiful!"

At present, NetEase is $1.6 per share, and the price of cabbage!

If memory serves, NetEase will start to rise sharply in the next few months, and then it will rise to more than $70 by the end of next year, and then it will rise all the way.

By next year, you will be able to cash out part of it to prepare for the theater chain.

You don't have to think about the national cinema chain, but in 05, the mainland private capital has laid out the cinema line on a large scale, as a "famous guide", and has money, it is always feasible to invest a little bit and increase some right to speak.

No matter how bad it is, buy land, buy a house, buy other stocks, such as the Internet at home and abroad, as a layout, you can also buy some Netflix and so on, or simply leave it alone.

In short, if you have money, you can seize the opportunity when it comes, and if you don't have money, you have to stare dryly when you have the opportunity, such as the penguins at that time.

2.4 million went to 2 million, plus 700,000 in Hu Qingquan's hands, and 1.1 million.

It's perfectly fine to deal with short film PR money.

It's just that if you want to start a project that you might want to do in Laomei, it's a bit difficult.

Fortunately, he still has Uncle Liao from the bank, so he can borrow a little.

Hey, still lack of money...