Lu Yanhe was actually prepared to be "treated casually" by Jin Zhiyan, but on the way there, when he thought about it, he felt that something was wrong.
Jin Zhiyan would not ignore him - it was not him who took the initiative to see Jin Zhiyan, but Jin Zhiyan who wanted to see him.
In order to ensure that he would still have something to talk about later and not be silent while talking, Lu Yanhe still searched for some reports and interviews about Kim Ji-yeon on the Internet, as well as some of his works.
Lu Yanhe has watched several of Kim Ji-yeon’s movies. After all, he is a rare film director in this world who can combine artistry and commerciality.
Directors who can do this are rare in any country.
The same is true in Hollywood.
His audio-visual style is actually quite plain, without so many fancy show-off techniques. But because of this, I can shoot any subject. He has photographed monsters, disasters, suspense, crime, science fiction and other themes, and is a versatile person.
They met at a high-end club.
Just in case, after the address was sent, Lu Yanhe asked his friends in South Korea to check what kind of place this was. Don't accidentally enter that kind of "Room N" I can’t tell the nature of it—this kind of thing is not uncommon in South Korea, and I don’t know how many times it has been reported in the news.
Fortunately, there is nothing dirty.
Jin Zhiyan had a kind smile and a warm attitude. As soon as he walked in, he stood up and was ready to greet him. There was no arrogance that Lu Yanhe expected to see.
As soon as they met, Jin Jiyeon expressed his love and respect for him.
Lu Yanhe knows that Koreans have a strong sense of seniority. It was no surprise that Jin Zhiyan expressed her liking to him, but he was quite surprised to hear the word "respect" from his mouth suddenly.
"Thank you, director." The other party was so polite, so of course Lu Yanhe reciprocated the courtesy.
What Lu Yanhe didn’t expect was that when Jin Zhiyan asked him to meet, he didn’t actually say that he wanted to film a movie with him.
Jin Jiyan is co-founding a pan-Asian content film and television company, and wants to recruit Lu Yanhe to join the company.
"Pan Asia?" Lu Yanhe was quite surprised when he heard this word, because he had heard it before at Maxine and HP.
This is mainly because we want to expand the market scope.
It's like taking a drama that was originally broadcast only in Thailand and promoting it throughout Asia.
Kim Ji-yeon was the first director to come to Lu Yan-ha to collaborate with this so-called "Pan-Asian" content.
Lu Yanhe said: "Director, you want me to join, what do you want me to do?"
Jin Jiyan said: "You can do a lot, director, screenwriter, actor... I heard that you director "Love Letter" will have its world premiere at the Hollywood Film Festival this year?"
"Yes." Lu Yanhe nodded.
“It’s really enviable that your directorial debut can be shown at a top film festival like the Jose Film Festival.” Kim Ji-yeon smiled, “You have great popularity and influence in Asia. Li is a leading figure among the younger generation, so if If we can set up a pan-Asian production company together, we will definitely be able to produce something good."
Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "I have often heard the concept of pan-Asia recently, and it seems that everyone is talking about it. Do this.”
"Because of the rise of streaming media." Jin Jiyeon said, "Streaming media has completely broken the barriers and monopolies of traditional TV stations and brought all markets together. In the past, when we made a drama, the potential audience was these people in China, but it is different now Yes, it’s all of Asia.”
“But streaming is still more popular now, right? It seems that the influence of movies on streaming is still far less than that of theaters.”
Lu Yanhe. It's a fact.
Compared with the influence of streaming dramas, streaming movies can only be said to be slightly better than online ones, but they have not yet entered the mainstream track.
The vitality of theater chains is a bit more tenacious than that of TV stations.
Jin Jiyan nodded, "That's right."
"Director, does your pan-Asian production company provide content for streaming media, or?"
"Of course it's not just Streaming media, I just use streaming media as an example. In fact, I hope to pool our resources and strength to expand our power so that our works can obtain better production conditions in Asia.”
Hearing this, Lu Yanhe understood instantly.
In fact, it is to create a sign, make it brighter and flashier, and then let those who are interested invest and give money. Why did Jin Jiyeon want to invite him over? Because he can attract others to give him money.
Lu Yanhe: "..."
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"Is he... trying to make a fortune?" Chen Ziyan's first reaction was the same.
On the way back, Lu Yanhe said, "Maybe he also wants to get funds to make a movie."
In order to raise money to make a movie, the director will do anything.
Although a great director like Kim Ji-yeon should have a stable source of funding if he makes his own movies, it will still be very difficult if he wants to shoot a movie with a slightly higher cost. Everyone is worried about return on investment and profitability.
No one invests purely to help the director realize his dream - you can realize your dream, but it must be a by-product of making money.
However, what Jin Jiyeon told him gave him a little inspiration.
What direction will my own Linghe Production Company take in the future?
Pan Asia.
Isn’t the copyright operation plan that Linghe is promoting now another form of Pan-Asia?
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The Sunday box office of "The Mist" in North America was 13.8 million. The total box office for the first weekend was almost 40 million. In addition to successfully winning the weekend box office championship, it also Let the promoters of "The Mist" have no qualms about saying "it was a box office success."
"The Mist" also performed well at the overseas box office in its first weekend. It opened in various European countries and grossed around US$12 million in its first weekend.
Horror movies are no better than other movies - if a Hollywood movie has a good domestic box office, it will generally have a high overseas box office, but horror movies are an exception because it is a niche genre. In other countries, horror movies are The audience is not as big as Hollywood.
Lu Yanhe finished his promotion in South Korea and moved to Japan together to attend the Japanese premiere of "The Mist".
After that comes Thailand.
Absent in Singapore.
Because he ran out of time on the weekend for two days, he had to rush back to participate in the filming of "Friends".
A total of promotional activities are held in these four places in Asia.
Because "The Mist" fell well on Monday, only down 37%.
This gives D19 Company greater hope for the box office of "The Mist".
As for the overseas box office, because South Korea, Japan and Thailand are all big box office producers of horror films, they also hope to gain something here.
Especially Lu Yanhe’s influence in Asia, as well as the theme of “Asian revenge” that this horror film has always focused on, has made this film very popular in Asian countries.
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"It is a pity that "The Mist" cannot be released in mainland China. Otherwise, with Lu Yanhe's appeal in mainland China, it would have earned at least tens of millions of dollars at the box office."
D19 Company, CEO Katherine Mu The smile on Lei's face has not faded in the past few days.
"The Mist" earned US$40 million at the North American box office in its first weekend. In terms of its production cost, if the publicity and distribution costs had not increased a lot later, it would have made back the money in the first weekend alone. Profitable.
But under the current circumstances, the cost of publicity and distribution will definitely continue to increase.
The trend of "The Mist" on weekdays allowed them to see room for the film to further create box office value.
You know, commercial horror films like "The Fog" generally have a bigger box office crash on weekdays than films with other themes.
After a few days of release, Lu Yanhe's performance was further discussed by many people on social media.
Lu Yanhe is not an unfamiliar name to European and American audiences. Many people already knew him before this movie was released, especially for European and American film critics.
Lu Yanhe has produced so many eye-catching works in recent years that it is difficult not to recognize him.
Lu Yanhe's performance in "The Mist" actually has no difficulty and rich layers to the role. The difficulty of performing this role actually lies in how to make it "personal" enough.
In Lu Yanhe's understanding, this type of characters are all "special" characters. They have many more "inhuman" qualities than traditional characters. Once you can find such a trait and amplify it to the extreme, it will form an impactful visual effect on the screen and leave a deep mark on the audience's mind - because it is rare.
The Asian ghost played by Lu Yanhe shocked everyone as soon as he came on stage. At the beginning, his indifference, as if he had no breath or emotion, was like a gentle ribbon floating around those people. In addition to the sensory stimulation presented by combining sound effects and editing, it also gave people a kind of terror on a deep level. The psychological feeling of panic.
His seemingly clean and clear eyes seemed to contain thick black mist.
In the interpretation of this role, Lu Yanhe has increased the expressiveness of "form". Compared with his previous roles, the character characteristics are more distinctive and do not require the audience to guess, feel or ponder.
But this kind of performance is exactly what "The Mist" needs.
His performance ability in shaping characters was unanimously praised by the media and the audience under such circumstances.
An organization conducted a survey on the audience of "The Mist", and Lu Yanhe topped the list of the movie's favorite actors.
Needless to say, the major media’s love for him can be seen just by looking at the amount of exposure and the number of comments about him.
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Originally, there were still some voices in China that were still resisting, attacking Lu Yanhe for playing the villain in the horror film and smearing the image of the Chinese people.
With the release of this movie, the content and themes have also been spread. At this time, although people in China have not seen this movie, they know what it is about.
Lu Yanhe’s fans immediately became angry.
——He played the role of a ghost who takes revenge and kills white people, and for such a character, he was recognized by white people!
This is not easy.
——Don’t ever think that because Asians seem to have a lot more opportunities after the so-called “political correctness” storm swept across, Asians are not subject to discrimination and can sit on the table equally. This is not the case at all.
The more people understand this truth, the more they will know how difficult it is for Lu Yanhe to perform in "The Mist" so that European and American people praise him more than criticize him.
Lu Yanhe reviewed the story himself and told Chen Ziyan: "It's because I played a good role and caught up with a film promotion method that was very conducive to shaping my personal image."
Chen Ziyan Nodding: "Indeed, this movie seems like you are the villain, In fact, you are the victim in the end, especially the version edited by Director Mu Ken, as if you were the protagonist of the movie."
"From the script, it is not true. The main role lies with the three of them.”
"Yes, but the editing has changed." Chen Ziyan said, "Obviously, the disturbance caused during the filming and the attention you received at that time increased your weight a lot in the post-editing stage."
“I would also like to thank Director Mu Ken for his Madam, Hua Ruzhen." Chen Ziyan added, "She has been emphasizing to Director Mu Ken that since you are the best, why not save more of your role, so we have you in the second half. A lot of drama is reserved."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
“By the way, Sister Ziyan, actually that day Director Kim Ji-yeon asked me to talk about the Pan-Asia plan, and I thought that Hua Ruzhen told me that she might also go deeper into the investment field of film and television dramas in the future. "
Chen Ziyan nodded, "I know this. There is a fund in the United States. Yes, they are optimistic about the film and television market in Asia, so they want to find someone who understands film and television production here to invest. It just so happens that Hua Ruzhen has been responsible for the investment in the cultural industry of a group of wealthy people in her circle. , so she was listed as one of the candidates, with great hope.”
Lu Yanhe said: "If this is the case, we can really keep the copyrights for many of our dramas and form our own team to do them."
Chen Ziyan nodded and said: "Yes, I am very fortunate that we I had recruited Hu Siwei before. With him here, the company has now formed a team. With him here, we can save a lot of work."
Lu Yanhe: "Then should I write more scripts?"
“If you can write, write more The best ones, don't worry about when to shoot them, put them here first, we will have many more candidates," Chen Ziyan said, "Your script is our trump card, of course, if we really want to further expand the scale of Linghe. If so, we certainly can't just rely on you The scripts, like "Houseshare", can be developed more."
Before, when Lu Yanhe wanted to film a "Love Letter", he had to borrow people from various places to create a good script. The team immediately started filming.
Now, of course, Linghe still needs to cultivate its own fixed team. However, it takes time to cultivate. If you really wait until large-scale development in the future to cultivate, it will definitely be too late. A good production talent and a good production team cannot be created overnight.
"Householding Couple" is a low-cost life comedy that Hu Siwei wants to shoot himself and can also practice for the production team he formed.
Lu Yanhe said to Chen Ziyan: "Sister Ziyan, I think we may have to invite some more production talents to our Linghe. Our company's current funds may not dare to take risks on projects with investment of hundreds of millions, but For low-cost dramas like "Houseshare", if there are suitable stories, we can do more."
Chen Ziyan: "I am also considering this matter. However, our biggest shortcoming in Linghe now is not the lack of money, but the lack of people, but we do not have enough money to recruit troops by spending money."
When Chen Ziyan said this, she smiled and said, "Do you know what I am even thinking about?"
"Huh?" Lu Yanhe looked at Chen Ziyan with some confusion.
Chen Ziyan said: "Aren't we going to do "The Birth of an Actor"? Each episode has a live shooting session. I'm thinking, if possible, can we use this to test some new production teams? "
"This won't work, don't try it with this." Lu Yanhe immediately denied it." Every live-action short film in "The Birth of an Actor" must be shot with high quality and level so that the audience can see it. It is too unreliable to use a new director."
According to Lu Yanhe. According to the plan, Lu Yanhe even plans to invite mature directors such as Luo Yuzhong, Chen Lingling, Fu Kai, and Liu Bige to make this small real-life film.
"However, Sister Ziyan, when you say this, I do have an idea." Lu Yanhe said, "Didn't the 'Green Onion Plan' we did before fail? I reviewed it myself and felt that this The plan didn't work out, there was a big The reason is that really capable and talented directors are worried about wasting their time because of the low threshold of this event, so they stopped participating after initially watching and realizing that it really didn’t create any splash.”
"What if we can spend real money to help them make their scripts into movies?" Lu Yanhe said, "It's not the same as a competition, but like that kind of venture capital film festival. Do you think they can?" Are you willing to come?”
Chen Ziyan: “This style Isn’t it a bit risky to use real money to make a movie for them? It would cost at least several million, right?” Can this approach be fundamentally effective?" Lu Yanhe asked.
“Of course, cultivating new people, especially our own direct directors in Linghe, is something that any film and television company will definitely do, but this is too uncontrollable. Maybe we can find three I haven't been able to find such a director for years or five years," said Chen Ziyan.
Lu Yanhe was suddenly stunned.
etc.
"Sister Ziyan, I suddenly thought of someone."
"Huh?" Chen Ziyan looked at him doubtfully.
Lu Yanhe said: "Friends of Liu Bige, do you still remember the congratulatory letter? He also wanted to ask me to make a movie before, the script of "Miss Ning", but then the funds were cut off. "
"I remember him." Chen Ziyan was a little surprised and asked: "You want to recruit him to the company?"
Lu Yanhe said: "I have known him for a long time and talked to him many times. He is indeed very talented."
Chen Ziyan hesitated and said, "But now that I want you to act in "Miss Ning" again, it's already It’s not suitable anymore. Give it to a new person? Director's guest appearance? The script of "Miss Ning" is indeed pretty good. It talks about the awakening of female consciousness. However, there have been many movies with this theme in recent years. It is no longer suitable for you to play a guest role at this time. .”
Lu Yan He said: "It doesn't have to be "Miss Ning". He can find other people's novels to adapt the script like Liu Bige, or he can buy other people's scripts. I mean, if he is willing to sign with us, we can Support him in making the movies he wants to make."< br>
“Let me talk to him.” Chen Ziyan said, “I haven’t contacted him for a long time.”
“I haven’t contacted him for a long time.” Lu Yanhe said, “No. Know what he is doing now.”
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In fact, since the two of them had already made plans to further expand the scale of Linghe and increase the reserve of production talents, they immediately made relevant plans.
Whether it’s asking for congratulatory letters or using sincere money to attract talented young new directors to talk about projects with them, these are just attempts.
Like Lu Yanhe, he actually has a very powerful channel, which is to ask big directors in the industry such as Luo Yuzhong and Chen Lingling to recommend him.
In the entertainment industry, everyone will definitely know some people who are capable and talented but have not made it for various reasons.
Just like Li Fenglei who helped Zhao Yuan in the movie "Love Letter".
If you can get their approval, it means that this person must have something.
Lu Yanhe entrusted many friends to help him recommend relevant talents, and then handed it over to Linghe's current vice president Chen Yin and content producer Hu Siwei to talk about.
However, although they are casting a wide net when looking for people, they also need people very much. According to the company's financial situation this year, in "Householding", "Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Raise the Red Lantern" this year When the city starts operating, the budget that can be diverted to employment expenses is still tight, and we cannot make every move.
Everyone held a meeting and clarified a goal. In addition to the administrative strength that must be strengthened in each department of the company, in terms of film and television production talents, recruitment plans can only be made based on the minimum needs of the crew's job types. Once people are recruited, the subsequent shooting projects must be kept up with the schedule. Otherwise, there will be no work to do after the people are recruited, which will be a huge waste.
One pile after another, one after another.
After Lu Yanhe had to finish his work with the "Friends" crew every day, he held a meeting with people from Linghe in the evening. He took this opportunity to sort out the company's key issues and work plans for this year, and sort them out one by one. Then make relevant arrangements around these, and try to coordinate all time nodes to reduce losses.
The reason why we have come to this point is not that Xu Tianming and Chen Yin did not make a plan before, but that Lu Yanhe and Chen Ziyan have a lot more ideas. If they want to cram them in, they have to start all over again. .
This is what a company in a period of rapid development is like.
No one knows whether tomorrow will usher in another huge development opportunity, and we can only face these things like a war. (End of chapter)