Movie Master

Hayden Hunter's assistant, Ethan Wharton, lit a cigarette in his hand, and said to Newton Siegel, who was standing aside, "Have you heard? Diorama Films has become the winner of this year's awards." Biggest hit of the season."

However, Newton didn't change his expression, he just took a deep puff of cigarette, "Really?" Such a response is too perfunctory, obviously, as a lighting engineer, Newton has been tortured quite a lot in the crew recently , Even when chatting, I can't get excited, my tired face and thick dark circles look extremely haggard.

"It's only July, isn't it too early?" Albert walked over, holding a bottle of mineral water in his hand, and drank it in big gulps. At this time, the crew was preparing for the next scene, and they won a precious short rest time.

Ethan's eyes lit up immediately, he abandoned Newton, turned his head and nodded vigorously to Albert, "Yes, I think so too." Although it was about the personal grievances between Lance and Ryan, they knew It is not clear; but there is no doubt about the positive competitive relationship between Chaos Films and Diorama Films, especially the competition between "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Troy" in the past two months, which also made the crew members involuntarily More attention was paid to competitor news.

"Idiot." Percy was sitting next to him with his eyes closed, but when he heard Albert's voice, he couldn't help mocking him in a low voice.

Albert turned his head and saw Percy's figure, "There are at least four months before the awards season, it's already too early, why, what's your opinion?"

Percy opened his eyes and stretched slowly, "There is just over a month left before Venice and Toronto. Around this week, the Toronto Film Festival will announce the list of exhibitors, and the pre-publicity can already be launched It’s gone.” Different schedules will have different awards season promotional strategies, some works choose Cannes to come out early, some choose Venice or Toronto, and some will patiently wait until the end of the year to promote.

Diorama Films has accumulated at least six years of experience before and after. Naturally, they are not rookies. They chose to release the news at this time. It is obvious that they have made careful arrangements for this work and are full of confidence. Compared with Chaos Pictures, which is currently empty-handed, it is more than one position ahead-although "Murder with a Borrowing Knife" is likely to join the melee of the award season, but the film is still being filmed in full swing, and the competition is even more out of the question ——Maybe it will be released next year after missing the schedule.

Percy's words stunned Albert immediately, and he touched his nose helplessly, but he was still unwilling to give up, "Even if we are preparing for Toronto, it is still too early. By the time Toronto officially unveils, the momentum will have already weakened." Yes. If it’s Cannes, it’s about the same.”

In July, this is the craze of the summer season, and almost all eyes are on the box office in North America. Not to mention the works of the award season, even the new works that have started filming have not paid much attention-"Murder with a Borrowing Knife" is in a low-key Filmed among them. Albert's words are also very reasonable.

Percy stood up slowly, "This shows two things. First, they are very confident; second, they are learning Lance's strategy."

This statement stunned everyone, and even Newton, who had no interest at first, raised his head. In the end, Ethan was the first to respond, "Is it plagiarizing the publicity strategy of 'The Day After Tomorrow'?"

The promotion of "The Day After Tomorrow" can be said to have started almost eight months ago, with layers of preparation and pressing step by step, and finally completely detonated in the week of the premiere. It's almost a textbook publicity strategy -- and it's cheap.

Without waiting for Percy to nod, Albert retorted, "However, the awards season is different from the summer vacation, and the popularity of the topic cannot directly help the work." Although, the popularity of the topic and the box office performance are always one of the criteria for measuring the Oscars. First, it is almost impossible for those little-known works to win votes. "City of God" was able to perform miracles at the beginning, and the outstanding performance in these two aspects is indispensable; but this is not the decisive link after all, otherwise it will not appear It is a miracle that "Saving Private Ryan" was overturned by "Shakespeare in Love".

"This shows that they are full of confidence." Under Albert's attack, Percy did not panic, and sarcastically countered, "From now on, we will build word of mouth, and after the Toronto Film Festival is screened, we will rely on the reviews of film critics." Excellent word-of-mouth, further promotion, and then officially released in the awards season, following the steps of screening, expansion, and public screening, spreading word-of-mouth bit by bit, until it was completely detonated at the Golden Globe Awards, and finally..." is to hit the Oscars Yes, even if Percy didn't need to say it, everyone understood. "So, this shows that they have a strong confidence in the quality of the work."

Because this method means that Diorama Films established the work as a target early on, and let everyone attack it. They even did not hesitate to raise the expectations of the work, and did not worry about repeating the mistakes of "Troy". At present, it is only July, and the word of mouth is only spread in the circle, and the media show has not yet started to report, but many professionals in the circle have heard the rumors—although such rumors are almost endless, it can still be seen that the diorama The film industry has the chance to win this time and is full of confidence.

Albert knew that what Percy said was reasonable, but he still curled his lips in disdain, "It's not up to them to decide the awards season. If it were really that simple, the competition wouldn't be so fierce every year." This is a fact.

Percy shrugged, "If the information I inquired before is correct, the works they released this time should be works related to Rwanda." That is, "Hotel Rwanda", "So, it is estimated that they hope to copy 'Schindler's list' kind of miracle."

Although it has been ten years since the Rwandan genocide, after the 9/11 incident in 2001, a man named Paul-Rusesabagina (Paul-Rusesabagina) entered the public eye, where he In a massacre, nearly a thousand helpless refugees were rescued. After his deeds were reported by the media, people recalled that period of disaster history—it was the worst disaster since the end of World War II. ethnic cleansing events. Then with the outbreak of the Iraq war, the war in Rwanda and other parts of Africa also attracted people's attention again.

All this sounds very familiar - people can't help but recall the preparatory process of "Schindler's List", which can be said to be almost the same, and the deeds of Luce Sebergina are also similar to Schindler wonderful. After "Hotel Rwanda" was launched, some media reported on the deeds of Paul Luce Sebergina under the headline "African Schindler". The abacus of Diorama Films can be said to be Sima Zhao's heart, and everyone knows it.

The biggest advantage of choosing such a sensitive subject is that they will not fail. Even if the quality of the finished product is terrible, the film critics will not curse, because this is a sensitive topic, and no one is willing to speak freely. Accidentally stepped on a mine. Race themes, mental retardation themes, humanitarian aid themes, etc., works with moral correctness and political correctness/indicators have such characteristics, even if they fail miserably, they will not be too ugly, at most they will be overwhelmed by many works during the awards season. However, once the quality of the finished product reaches the average level, then the work takes the lead in seizing the moral high ground.

Similar situations are not uncommon, such as "Selma March" and "American Sniper" in 2014, "12 Years a Slave" in 2013, "Escape from Tehran" and "Hunting Osama Bin Laden" in 2012, and "Hunting Bin Laden" in 2010. "The Hurt Locker." It’s not that the quality of these works is not good, quite the contrary, but to emphasize that the quality of these works has reached the average level—or even higher than the average level. Absolutely vantage point.

"African Schindler", if such keywords are thrown out, Diorama Films is already invincible, which is the fundamental reason why they have such strong confidence in "Hotel Rwanda".

"'Schindler's List'?" Albert twitched his lips mockingly, "They think anyone can be Steven Spielberg's?"

Percy couldn't refute that statement.

Newton, who had been sitting beside him silently, suddenly raised his head, "Who is the director?"

Percy seriously recalled, "Terry-George." In his ten-year career as a screenwriter, Terry dedicated "In the Name of the Father", "In the Name of Love", "Children's Ambition" " and other works, among which the screenwriter's debut "In the Name of the Father" can be described as a blockbuster, winning seven Oscar nominations that year, involving all major departments except Best Actress.

Newton nodded. "Terry George is not Jim Sheridan." Jim is the director of "In the Name of the Father." After finishing speaking, he lowered his head in peace and continued to enjoy the cigarette in his hand. This sentence made both Albert and Ethan chuckle, and even Percy couldn't help but smile.

Albert thought for a while, then looked at Percy, "Does Lance know?"

Percy shrugged noncommittally. In fact, Lance didn't know that because of the recent filming of "Murder with a Borrowed Knife", Lance has been exhausted. He only has three to four hours of sleep almost every day, and has no energy to pay attention to these gossip news. However, Percy thought that even if Lance knew about it, he wouldn't care too much about it. Compared with the actions of Diorama Films, "borrowing a knife to kill" is the most important thing, otherwise there is no need for competitors to make moves. Chaos Films itself has fallen at the starting line-this is why Lance devoted himself to the filming of the work.

"Don't let him know for the time being." Albert explained.

Percy rolled his eyes, "You are the one who manages the crew, you'd better let everyone keep their mouths in check." After finishing speaking, Percy's eyes fell on Ethan, and Ethan looked puzzled, "How can I gone?"