Chapter 87 Selling Scripts
In the next few days, Zhang Chen spent time in China Film's film and television drama production center.
The special effects are produced in an orderly manner and the effect is quite explosive.
The shark scenes that Zhang Chen deliberately added to the original version have a good effect, and the plot is more complete. At least Zhang Chen feels that it is much more exciting than the original version.
Seeing that the later stages of "Shark Beach" are progressing in an orderly manner, Zhang Chen doesn't have many things to do now, so he has started thinking about a new film.
"Shark Beach" is scheduled to be released on Valentine's Day on 2.14, which is still 4 months away. This is a great time not to be wasted.
He has many films in his mind, but he has not yet decided which one to choose.
However, the choice of photographer needs to be decided as soon as possible.
Ning Hao was arranged by him to work on "Dark Invasion 2", and the original position of photographer was vacant.
In a movie, the photographer is a relatively important position in the creative team. Its importance is second only to the director and higher than other creative departments.
Ning Hao recommended Song Xiaofei before leaving.
Song Xiaofei also graduated from the Department of Photography at Nortel. He is not well-known now, but later he shot "Bullfighting" and "The Grandmaster", and his level is not good.
Zhang Chen had a careful chat with the other party and felt that the communication was smoother, so he decided to use him.
In later generations, the relationship between the director and the photographer was often compared to a marriage.
Because many times, the director only has a vague idea, but doesn’t know how to express it. At this time, the photographer needs to make full use of his professional expertise and mobilize his own expression techniques to reflect and improve the director’s ideas. Creative intent.
If there is a tacit cooperation between the two, then the filmed work will be full of aura. On the contrary, the quality of the film cannot be guaranteed.
So, in the film industry, directors and photographers generally work together for a long time. This is what people often call the royal photographer.
Zhang Chen is shooting a commercial film, and the lens language is not that complicated, but the more tacit understanding the better.
He and Ning Hao had a tacit understanding before. They were good friends, had no communication problems, and had similar personalities, so they could work well together.
But it won’t necessarily change after changing people.
That's why Zhang Chen chatted with the other party for a long time, and whether they had a tacit understanding or not, if they weren't even on the same communication channel, then cooperation would be a nightmare.
But fortunately, the two communicated fairly frequently.
Zhang Chen’s first two works were both female-led dramas with female protagonists, and he plans to continue with his third work.
It is best to make it your own label.
When talking about leading female protagonists, the first thing that comes to mind is Zhang Chen’s works.
But what to choose?
Searching through my memory, I found two alternatives: "Super Body" and "Terror Cruise".
They are all starring female protagonists, and the budgets are not high.
The former is a female action science fiction film directed by Luc Besson in 2014, with a cost of US$40 million and a global box office of US$459 million.
The latter is a high-scoring drama on Douban. Its circular narrative structure has a large number of die-hard fans. It is also a work that often appears in Huayu novels.
"Superbody" is undoubtedly a good film and has been successful all over the world.
The success of this movie can actually be summed up in two points.
One is the concept of CPH4.
The movie says that CPH4 is a synthetic human hormone that is produced in very small amounts in the body of pregnant women to stimulate the development of the fetus.
Drug cartels synthesize it in batches and use it as a stimulant.
The second is Scarlett Johansson’s contrasting cuteness.
There are still relatively few female action movies. A woman uses force to kill everyone. The key is that the woman is a beauty, which is very exciting.
In fact, at its core, "Super Body" is an action movie dressed in science fiction. It was just packaged in science fiction concepts, but it unexpectedly earned a global box office of close to 460 million.
But making this film now, Zhang Chen felt it was a bit of a waste.
The global box office is 460 million, the cost is only 40 million, 10 times the profit.
If it were shot now, it would definitely not be able to achieve this kind of revenue ratio, so Zhang Chen was a little confused.
As for "Terror Cruise", Zhang Chen was even more confused.
This film has been praised to the sky by netizens in the 21st century. Not only has it been interpreted in various ways, but its ring structure has also been regarded as a classic. However, this film is actually a huge pit in the real world.
The production cost was US$12 million, but the box office was only US$1.35 million. Who would dare to believe this?
The plot of the movie is good, the actors' performances are spot-on, and it is really brain-burning. It makes people want to stop watching it. It doesn't look like a bad movie no matter how you look at it, but the box office is indeed so high.
Zhang Chen was also puzzled and couldn't figure out why.
But it is a fact that the box office is low.
Zhang Chen doesn’t think that if he shoots it himself, there will be miracles at the box office.
That’s why he didn’t dare to shoot “Terror Cruise”. He might as well have made “Source Code”, which was historically profitable.
But it’s still not safe. There has never been a movie with this kind of circular narrative structure in China. If the audience can’t understand it, it will be rejected.
Moreover, Zhang Chen is naturally indifferent to the circular narrative structure. If others praise him as a god, he thinks it is just like that.
The first time I watched it I found it interesting, but after watching it too many times I felt like I was just complaining.
On the contrary, he admires multi-line narratives quite a lot.
"Two Smoking Barrels"
"Crazy Stone"
The cleverness of "Crazy Racing" makes people feel high-end, but the former has already come out, and the latter two are masterpieces of good brothers.
Having been reborn, he has a lot of foreign classics in his head. There is no need for him to collect domestic wool, let alone being a good brother.
Zhang Chen decided to think about it again and keep it up for the third film.
What he needs now is success, one success after another, to build his supreme godhood.
No one can fail.
As for "Terror Cruise", it can be made as an experimental film after he succeeds, but it cannot be done now.
While I was thinking about it, the phone rang, it was Diane calling.
As soon as the connection was connected, Diana's capable voice came from inside.
"Boss, I called here because of the time difference. How about it? You haven't had any rest yet?"
Zhang Chen looked at the sky that had just darkened outside: "Dian, thank you, it happens to be evening here."
"Oh, it's nothing, this is what I should do, I'm calling this time I want to tell you that our first negotiation with New Line did not come to an agreement.”
What Diane brought is obviously not good news.
“What’s going on?”
“I contacted Pete and they liked the script. Since you just won the Saturn Award for Best Director, they agreed that you would direct the film. But they are not satisfied with the investment. ”
After a pause, Diane continued: "I tried to fight for it several times, but their attitude was very determined. Maybe I should wait and talk to them after "Dark Invasion" is released in North America. If the box office is good, their The attitude will definitely loosen. "
"No need, just forget it if they don't want to, find other buyers, they are not the only ones making horror films in Hollywood."
Zhang Chen doesn't care. New Line was chosen previously simply because they had worked with Cheng Long and were relatively friendly to Chinese filmmakers.
"Well, that's what I'm thinking too. I've been contacting people from Lions Gate these past two days."
"By the way, if we don't reach an agreement with New Line, New Line will not Stealing our script? ”
Zhang Chen suddenly remembered something. It seemed that this kind of thing happened in the United States, which was known to respect intellectual property rights the most in his previous life.
The big company fell in love with the small screenwriter's script, but in the end they couldn't reach an agreement, so they simply found a few people to rewrite it based on the small screenwriter's script.
A small screenwriter sues a large company, and the legal department of a large company is not a vegetarian.
Just keeping going like this can wear out a small screenwriter to death.
Don’t think that there are no such things in the United States. There are still many of them, but they are all covered up.
After hearing this, Diane replied firmly: "Don't worry, this will never happen, oh no, at least it will never happen to you.
You may not have a good idea of your position. Clearly, although you are not a big shot, you are not a nobody either. The newly-minted Saturn Award for Best Director is your talisman. Some companies in Hollywood do do what you said, but only for little-known screenwriters. You don't belong to that category."
"Okay. "Zhang Chen didn't expect that the Saturn Award for Best Director could also ward off evil spirits.
"Then let's move on, how are your talks with Lionsgate going?"
"They are still talking, but they are not interested in "Eden Lake"; Another script.”
"Which one?"
""Orphan"."
"Eden Lake" and "Orphan" were both written by Zhang Chen in preparation for Hollywood's wool, not only these two, There are also the heavy-hitting "Saw the Devil" and "Law-Abiding Citizen".
Zhang Chen thought for a while: "If Lionsgate is interested in "Orphan", you can sell it to them directly."
"You don't want to direct it yourself?"
"Forget it about this film. I don't like the story of "Orphans" very much, and it involves children, so it will be a bit troublesome to shoot."
"Okay, I understand, if that's the case, it should be It’s easy to close the deal. So what’s your final psychological price?”
“The price is up to you. Anyway, your bonus is based on proportion. You only get the bonus if you sell it. I only get a basic salary when I go out."
"Haha, Boss, I will definitely sell it at a good price."
After the two of them finished talking, they hung up the phone and Zhang Chen agreed to sell. The script of "Orphan" also had its own considerations.
First of all, this movie is really hard to shoot.
Actresses are so hard to find.
It is very difficult for a nine-year-old child to achieve better acting skills than an adult.
Not to mention the concept of ‘adoption’ involved.
Original Time and Space, after this film was aired, it received a large number of complaints from adoptive families, and even Warner Bros. was troubled.
So it's better to sell it directly.
Actually, Zhang Chen had another reason. He didn't have enough money.
"Dark Invasion" earned 12 million, "Shark Beach" invested 700, and "Dark Invasion 2", considering it is Ning Hao's first time directing this type of genre, the budget is generous, counting 3 million, He had negotiated with Mr. Li to give them a maximum of 20% share this time, which meant that Zhang Chen invested 2.4 million yuan, which added up to nearly 10 million yuan.
The little money left is just enough for him to eat and drink, but not enough to prepare for the third movie, and he also wants to make a TV series.
At this stage, movies are actually not that profitable. Those who can make tens of millions of dollars for a movie like Zhang Chen are already Fengmaojiao, and most of them are losing money.
The real money is in TV series.
For a hit drama, there is no problem in earning 20 million.
But the investment in TV series is also huge, starting at least 10 million, and you have to have connections. Otherwise, do you think Zhang Chen doesn’t want to do it? He has no money.
……
Can anyone guess what the next movie will be
(End of this chapter)