Chapter 3 "Dark Invasion"
In the next few days, Zhang's mother found that her son seemed to have suddenly changed.
Usually when I come back from vacation, I either play games on my computer or go out to run around with my former classmates. This time, I seem to have suddenly changed my mind. I lock myself in the house every day and don’t go out every day.
Mother Zhang went in several times to investigate in the name of delivering fruit, and found that her son had been writing and drawing.
In the beginning, I wrote words on the manuscript paper. Zhang Chen said that he was writing a script.
Well, even though she is just a railway worker, she also knows that the script is related to movies. Her son is studying directing, so it seems that writing scripts is quite normal.
But a few days later, Zhang Chen started painting again. Now Zhang’s mother was curious. Could this have something to do with being a director?
My son told her that this is called a script and storyboard.
She didn’t understand what split shots and storyboards were, but she also understood that they were describing the plot of the movie in the form of paintings.
Mother Zhang was shocked. After just a few glances at the storyboard, he already had a picture in his mind.
Her son is so awesome. Mother Zhang showed a motherly smile on her face and happily brought another fruit plate. What mother doesn’t want to see her child make progress.
"What are you enjoying so much?" Seeing the smile on his wife's face, Zhang's father couldn't help but be curious.
"Our son..."
"Huh? What's wrong with our son?"
"Our son is amazing."
Zhang's mother found it difficult to describe it in words, so she simply stopped talking. She left only one sentence without beginning or end and walked away, leaving Zhang's father completely confused.
Not long after, Zhang’s father pretended to bring the third fruit plate into Zhang Chen’s house, and left after a while. After coming out, he and Zhang’s mother got together, and the two began to whisper.
"Is Doll going to make a movie?"
"Yeah."
"Then how much money do we have now?"
"One hundred thousand, but this is for his senior graduation project."
"Give it to him first, and I will find someone to inquire later."
My son does not want to join the railway. He insisted on becoming a director at Nortel, so Zhang's father naturally asked about it.
The director needs money to make movies, and he heard that he must make a movie in his senior year, otherwise he will not be able to graduate.
For this, Father Zhang has made preparations and has been saving money in the past few years.
Although he is considered a small leader, his income is actually just that. Fortunately, the tertiary industry department where he works is related to railway wagons.
The economy of Coal Province relies heavily on coal mines, and coal mines heavily rely on railway transportation, so Zhang’s father’s position has many opportunities to contact people from all walks of life.
Father Zhang remembered that a friend he knew worked for a company that had invested in movies, and planned to ask him for details after the Spring Festival holiday.
......
In the room, Zhang Chen didn't know the little thoughts of his parents outside, and was immersed in his own creation. With the memory of later generations, he has a relatively good understanding of the film development process in the past ten years.
At this time, costume blockbusters are considered an exclusive type of Chinese movies. Throughout the 2000s, all major directors were making costume blockbusters.
Zhang Yimou made "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers", Chen Kaige made "The Promise", Feng Xiaogang made "The Banquet", Jackie Chan made "The Myth", and Tsui Hark followed up with "Seven Swords" .
This is a movie, and the TV series are: "Legend of Sword and Fairy", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "The Punisher of the Song Dynasty", "Seven Swords Down the Tianshan Mountain", "The Long Song of Zhenguan", "Tiger Generals of the Yang Family"...
After that, there are a lot of comedies: "Crazy Stone", "Stubborn Carrot", "People on the Road", "Nightclub"...
Feng Pants is famous for his comedy films. He became famous as a commercial film director with "Party A and Party B". Ning Hao also made a name for himself with "Crazy Stone" and his second film "Crazy Racing" directly entered the billion-dollar club. .
Of course Zhang Chen also thought about copying this path, but after thinking about it for a long time, he found that he couldn't follow this path.
In his previous life, he relied on the Internet University to succeed. He was most familiar with the Internet University. What are the characteristics of the Internet University?
Look at the major themes on the Internet, they are either about tomb robberies, or about folk legends, or low-end versions of monster movies, with giant snakes, giant spiders, giant scorpions, and water monkeys. It's novel and unique, focusing on creating a thrilling atmosphere and a little bit of eroticism.
These things have nothing to do with comedy. What will be the consequences if he is forced to film them?
Don't think that comedies are easy to make. To be successful, comedies must have the right actors. Ge You in Feng's comedy and Wang Baoqiang in "The Road to Misfortune" would not be able to play the same role if they were different people.
Think about Uncle Benshan’s sketch, would it still be as funny if it were Gong Hanlin?
He is an Internet director. The easiest way is of course to find a successful Internet film in later generations, but most Internet films rely heavily on special effects.
Those giant snakes, giant spiders, and giant scorpions, with the special effects production level of 2004, are absolutely expensive to produce.
Of course, the investment in special effects can also be appropriately reduced.
But special effects are something that you get what you pay for. The monsters made with special effects for 50 cents look fake at first glance, and are destined to hit the streets.
The insightful people of later generations once concluded that there are only three genres recognized globally as small and broad: comedy, erotic film and horror film.
Comedy films are not feasible, and erotic films are even less possible. There is no room for him to survive in China.
Then the only way left is horror films, and Zhang Chen followed this line of thinking.
Globally, there are many examples of low-cost and high-return horror films:
"Unfriended" cost US$1 million and ultimately grossed US$62 million at the box office;
"Open Water" cost US$1.05 million and ultimately grossed US$52 million at the box office;
"Get Out" 》The cost of "Dark Invasion" was US$4.5 million, and the final box office was US$255 million;
The cost of "Dark Invasion" was US$3.5 million, and the global box office was US$57 million;
"The Sixth Sense" has stars joining the cast. , with an investment of 40 million U.S. dollars, the global box office reached 673 million U.S. dollars, and the box office revenue was 290 million U.S. dollars in North America alone. Did you make a lot of money? You know, it was a 1999 movie.
With so many living examples in front of him, Zhang Chen decisively chose "Dark Invasion", which was the easiest to localize.
This movie was originally produced and distributed by a British film company, with a cost of only 2.5 million US dollars, and the other 1 million was movie advertising costs, but it has earned 57 million US dollars at the global box office. Now in China, Zhang Chen is confident that he can make it with 2 million yuan.
This film has few scenes, and the entire story basically takes place in a cave, which can save a lot of budget. Moreover, horror films are famous for not relying on the popularity of actors. As long as their acting skills are online, ordinary actors can do it. Perfect performance.
This can save a lot of budget.
The only troublesome thing is probably the monsters, but this can be solved with special effects makeup, and Zhang Chen knows how to do it.
As for the issue of passing the review, Zhang Chen also thought that if he filmed it like the original "Dark Invasion", it would definitely not pass the review because it would be too bloody and violent.
But there are ways to deal with it.
The reason for the success of this film is the creation of a tense atmosphere. He can completely avoid those bloody scenes and focus on creating an atmosphere. To put it bluntly, it is to change the horror film into a thriller. In this way It should pass the review.
(End of this chapter)