China Entertainment 1997.

Chapter 580 The group performance star-making plan and the release of "Sword Rain"

In the dimly lit hall, a high platform was welded with an iron frame, with a transparent pool on the top and a transparent pool on the bottom.

Da Mimi, dressed in cool clothes and tied with chains, stood on the high platform, eager to interact with the group performers in the audience, and then the mechanism on the soles of her feet was opened, and she fell into the pool below.

"OK!"

Wen Ziren yelled, indicating that there is no problem, a strong man ran out of the camera, jumped into the pool and lifted Da Mimi up.

"Pfft~"

After spitting a few mouthfuls of water, Da Mimi wrapped her soaked suspender skirt with a bath towel, and ran over to ask.

"Director, can I just now?"

Wen Ziren frowned: "Yang, I'm sorry, the water splash is too big, and your hair blocked your face when you got into the water, can you do it again."

"no problem."

Da Mimi glanced at Cao Xuan next to her, and went to change clothes and blow-dry her hair without saying a word.

Cao Xuan didn't say a word, as long as the details of the shooting were agreed upon, he would not intervene in the specific shooting, not to mention the big honey, even himself, he had to dance without saying a word.

This scene of Da Mi Mi is the appearance of the four knights of the apocalypse at the beginning of "You Now You See Me". You must catch the eyeballs and let the audience see the awesomeness of the protagonist group at a glance.

Simply put, this scene is an escape trick.

The upper water tank is a piranha. Da Mimi jumps into the lower pool, unchains her body within 1 minute of diving, then swims up and escapes successfully. If the time exceeds 1 minute, the piranha on the water tank will be killed. Falling into the pool, needless to say what will happen.

There is another routine set up in the movie, that is, Da Mimi pretended to make a mistake in the water, and did not unlock the lock for 1 minute, and then the piranha fell down, staining the entire pool red.

Just when everyone thought that the magic was wrong and there was a tragedy of human life, Da Mimi appeared in the corner of the hall and announced that it was all a performance just now.

Compared with the normal escape magic, this magic is undoubtedly more exciting, and it is absolutely eye-catching.

Of course, it is to attract the group actors in the movie, and even for the audience of the movie, it is also a good plot.

However, the movie looks very cool, but the actual shooting is very troublesome.

The plot was filmed in sections, and the first time Damimi went into the water was not satisfactory, but with the momentum, she first filmed underwater to unlock the panic scene.

As for this scene, Da Mimi soaked back and forth in the water all morning, and finally finished filming, and had to reshoot the scene of falling into the water.

After all, it is a movie, and the aesthetics must be considered, and the line of the face at the moment of falling into the water must be clearly photographed.

Da Mimi can only change clothes repeatedly, dry her hair, and then come up and dance again.

After tossing and tossing for most of the day, my physical strength was almost exhausted. I used to swim up directly by myself, but now I have to find a diver who is responsible for safety to go down.

After repeated shooting four times, Wen Ziren was finally satisfied. Da Mimi wet his body and went to shoot a segment that finally revealed the magic mystery.

Afterwards, Da Mimi went to change her clothes, and the crew began to toss about the later scenes. In fact, they dyed the pool red, and then kept pouring out, creating a crazy scene of piranhas.

It is worth mentioning that the piranha is a special effect. Before it was a big honey performance without real objects. Later, the picture of the piranha was synthesized into it, and it was done directly.

After all, it is impossible for Cao Xuan to actually release piranhas to bite Damimi. He thought about releasing other fish, but after experimenting, he couldn't swim as crazy as he wanted, and it caused trouble for the special effects team.

Cao Xuan, who ran over in the afternoon, finally came to film.

When the pool was filled with red water and the surrounding crowd screamed in horror, he took off his hood and stood silently in the crowd looking at the pool with the corners of his mouth raised.

"OK, the actors rest, others clear the scene, and prepare for the night show."

Wen Ziren yelled, the props, stage management and other staff began to get busy, and the group performers took their money and left.

A small group of 200 people took away tens of thousands of dollars in one day.

I have to say, actually, for the filming of "Now You See Me", a large part of the expenses are group performances.

Compared with China, Hollywood group performances are really expensive. Of course, they are not as exaggerated as many marketing accounts advocate.

What is $600~1000 a day? It’s not a long-term idea to make up this kind of news. Many ordinary middle-class individuals in the United States have an annual income of only $5. Hollywood group performers also make money like this, and half of the United States has to come to Hollywood.

In fact, it's not that there are group performers who can get this number, but this is a special trick.

There are lines and appearances, but it may only be one or two scenes. It is not as good as a formal actor, but it is better than ordinary group performances, and the salary must be more.

Some special-contracted scenes have many roles or are difficult, and the pay is even more than a few thousand dollars, and some have earned more than ten thousand dollars.

This is actually the case in China, but the overall asking price is definitely a big discount compared to Hollywood.

As for the Hollywood extras who say they don’t do anything after 8 hours, this is an exaggeration. To be precise, many extras can work overtime, but they have to be paid enough for the overtime.

And this overtime pay is often double, or even several times, the salary of ordinary group performers. If it is not necessary, the crew definitely does not want to waste this money.

Selfishly speaking, this policy is very good, and it should be introduced even in China to ensure the rights of group performances.

But back to reality, domestic labor costs are too low, if the market for group performances is to be raised, the crew would dare to use dummies to fool them.

Not even domestically, many production crews in Hollywood can't stand the high cost of group performances. Many big scenes will be replaced by puppets. Once the special effects are rendered, it is difficult for the audience to find something wrong.

"Now Now You See Me" has many big scenes and needs a lot of extras. It is estimated that the cost of the extras alone may reach several million dollars.

No way, the bottom-level Hollywood ensemble cost $35 to $55 a day, which is about 300 yuan, which is several times higher than in China.

A group performer with a slightly higher level can easily exceed US$100 a day, which is equivalent to RMB 650+.

Such a large-scale scene requires thousands of groups to perform, and some special actors who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars are required to lead them.

Considering that there are many people, various scheduling and shooting are required, and it takes at least several days to finish shooting a scene. In the true sense, it costs money like water.

So sometimes I don’t blame the domestic ensemble performers for taking care of things, tens of dollars a day, why should they work hard for you, if they are treated the same as Hollywood, they will immediately become "old actors".

Cao Xuan benefited a lot from this trip to Hollywood.

As I said before, Fanxing Film and Television City is also consciously cultivating professional group performers, and even opened the [Fanxing Performing Arts Training School] internally, which is specially open to group performances.

This school is almost run by Cao Xuan, who hires professional performance teachers, and the tuition is almost free, only some textbook fees + 500 yuan deposit.

The 500 yuan deposit is mainly to prevent some people from running over to make trouble and not to attend classes well. As long as they study normally for a period of time, the deposit will be fully refunded.

However, although the acting skills of the ensemble actors have improved, due to the cost, the crews of all parties have been tacitly suppressing the remuneration of the ensemble actors.

Even within Fanxing, there are quite a few people who support this approach. After all, the increase in remuneration for group performances also means that the annual budget of the film and television department will increase.

Cao Xuan's previous attitude was more acquiescing, mainly to affect the whole body by pulling a trigger.

Even if Cao Xuan is the leader in the industry, many things cannot be pushed by force, otherwise it will hurt the interests of others, and it will cause public anger, complaints, and bring harm to himself.

However, this trip to Hollywood showed Cao Xuan a way to break the situation.

China has always liked to imitate Hollywood, so we can promote the "advanced ideas" of Hollywood, and then get domestic comparisons, let the media create momentum, and Cao Xuan can justifiably come out to reform and improve the treatment of group actors.

Of course, there are still many details to be considered in the specific implementation.

In particular, how to ensure that after the promotion of group performers' remuneration, they will definitely optimize their business capabilities and form positive feedback.

Otherwise, the salary will be increased, the extras will continue to perform poorly, and the cost of all the crew will increase, but they will not be able to get good feedback. Then Cao Xuan will be hated to death...

.........

With half a corn in his mouth, Cao Xuan asked Zhang Chong to take a notebook and kept writing and drawing, all of which were ideas about the group performance plan.

He still takes it very seriously.

When he was young, he was born as a group performer, and he did not change his original intention. He wanted to make life easier for the group performers.

On a bigger scale, group performances are also one of the cornerstones of the entertainment industry. If they can really get some positive improvements, it will be of great benefit to the entire industry.

Not only the treatment of group performers, but also the ascending channel, giving them a chance to jump over the dragon's gate.

With an ascending channel, everyone is willing to work hard to change the status quo.

If the fate cannot be changed, even if the treatment is improved, it will make people feel slack and be content with the status quo.

Leaving aside those Xiangjiang actors, Cao Xuan and Wang Baoqiang are the most popular first-line stars who have really made their way from group performances in the Mainland for so many years.

Therefore, Cao Xuan felt that he should set a few more role models so that the group performers could see the hope of turning a carp into a dragon, and then they would work hard to hone their acting skills and look forward to the day when they will counterattack from the grassroots.

Man-made stars!

Cao Xuan intends to go back and pick a few good seedlings from the ensemble to try, and he doesn't necessarily have to be a top star, as long as he has a certain influence, it is enough to impress many people.

It's a pity that Zhao Xiaodao's fate was changed by Hu Jing. He played an important supporting role at the beginning. He also went to Chinese opera for further study and lost his experience in group acting. Otherwise, he would be an inspirational model in group acting.

Cao Xuan believes that there are leftover pearls among the people, as long as they look for them patiently, even if there is no Zhao Xiaodao, Zhang Xiaodao, or even Sima Xuan and Huang Baoqiang.

Times can create heroes!
Boss Cao has a platform and resources, so he doesn't believe that he can't support a few ensemble stars.

It's hard to say whether this is a big deal, after all, Cao Xuan's method is impossible to ensure that the group performers can counterattack as they wish for a long time.

The show business circle is just so big, with one radish and one pit, and there are many major students from various colleges and universities who can't make it to the top, let alone group performers with various conditions.

But compared to the stagnant pool before, at least there is a dawn, and if there are a large number of swarm performers, it may cause the major entertainment companies to actively explore.

If it can drive the entire industry to pay attention, it may not be impossible to form a stable upward channel.

For example, in Hollywood, many stars are non-professional ensemble performers or small actors. Although their number is far less than other channels, it is indeed a way to counterattack.

Cao Xuan wrote, wrote and drew, and wrote five or six pages before he stopped writing, took a few bites, and started filming tonight's night scene.

As mentioned earlier, the difference from the original movie is that because of Cao Xuan's role, he summoned the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

At the beginning of the movie, he appeared on the stage, performing a card trick with partial psychological hints, which also paved the way for the rest.

At the end of the performance, Cao Xuan, with his female fans, was planning to teach him the secrets of magic. He saw a letter at home and went to the street with the undercover policeman.

After that, it was the performance of several other members of the team. Cao Xuan stood in the crowd with a hood and observed silently. Then he left a token and invited the other party to discuss important matters.

The role played by Da Mimi was the last to appear.

Because she is the cousin of the magician (Cao Xuan), and she was also her former assistant, there is no need to play mystery, and Cao Xuan appeared directly after the magic to invite.

After clearing the scene, there was no one there, leaving garbage and high pools all over the floor.

Da Mimi, who has already changed in the movie, is about to finish her work, but when she passes by the pool, she finds a card floating in it, which depicts a cartoon of one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

She was looking at the glass seriously, when Cao Xuan's voice sounded from behind: "Xiaoya, you've lost weight (in Chinese)."

Da Mimi turned her head and saw the surprise on Cao Xuan's face, and then turned cold again: "Please call me Michelle, thank you, I'm going to get off work, if you have a performance invitation, please contact me by email."

"It's so ruthless, I'm your cousin after all."

Cao Xuan had no choice but to say, "You resigned the assistant yourself, it's not me who fired you. Because of this, I was often reprimanded by your aunt."

"That's what you deserve."

When Da Mimi heard this, she became very angry: "Why did I resign, why did you pretend that so many people said I was fat?"

"Who made you unable to get through that trap door? If I hadn't been smart, my reputation as the great magician Danny Lee would have been ruined."

"I repeat, it's not that I'm fat, it's that the trap door is too small, no one can get in, no one."

Cao Xuan complained expressionlessly: "The assistant after me, Chris Liu, can do it, and can always do it."

Big Honey: "..."

Then in a panic, he straightened his chest: "I'm not fat, I'm big."

"Whatever you want to say, but as an assistant, you are indeed inferior to Liu."

Cao Xuan curled his lips and made another cut, gnashing his teeth in hatred.

Because of the different actors, the role setting of "Now You See Me" movie has also undergone some changes compared to the original version.

The biggest change is Juan Fu, who has changed from a bald, wretched and poisonous tongue man to a gentlemanly uncle with a British temperament, but he still retains the poisonous tongue attribute and is good at killing with one word.

Cao Xuan, the captain, is a bit talkative, likes to complain, and usually teases the team members, especially likes to bicker with the cousin, Da Mimi, who is satisfied only when the other party is blown out of anger.

Juan Fu is his half-nemesis, and he often kills him with one word, making laughing fruit.

As for the role played by Mr. Tao, he is a younger brother and a student in the team. He has an honest and sincere personality, and is often ridiculed by Cao Xuan. After being protected by Da Mimi, he has a crush on Da Mimi.

As soon as the passage just came up, it reflected the a bit cheap temperament of Cao Xuan, the hero, and buried a little easter egg by the way.

Foreigners probably don’t know this easter egg, but if domestic audiences see it, they will understand who Chris Liu is referring to, and it can be regarded as an official teaser.

Compared with the previous scenes, the scenes between Cao Xuan and Da Mimi went very smoothly.

Cao Xuan lifted the weight lightly, and Da Mimi also played well.

Unlike Hu Ge in "Let the Bullets Fly" before, she and Cao Xuan have collaborated in several films, they are familiar with each other, and there is a certain tacit understanding.

Although the two characters quarreled when they met, they actually had a very good relationship. Da Mimi happily accepted her cousin's invitation, and the two turned around to leave.
"Why is it called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Why can't it be a Chinese group name."

"Do as the Romans do, and we are not the only ones on the team."

"Compared with the Four Horsemen, I still like the Four Heavenly Kings."

"The four heavenly kings of Xiangjiang? Or are they guarding the Nantian Gate?"

"Xiangjiang's, I love Liming..."

Asia is an important ticket warehouse, and there are two Chinese actors, so it is inevitable that there will be some domestic stalks.

Maybe North American and European audiences don't understand it very well, but it's normal. There will be some North American references in later movies, and domestic audiences may not understand it either.

Fortunately, this is just a certain small paragraph. If you know how to smile, what you don't understand will not affect the plot.

.........

The filming of "Now You See Me" went very smoothly, especially after the initial run-in of the protagonist group, they quickly got on the right track.

If the shooting goes well, the whole movie can be finished in mid-to-late June, or at most the end of June.

This does not include the time when Cao Xuan asked for leave to return home.

On April 4th, Cao Xuan returned to China by plane to participate in the performance of the opening ceremony of Shanghai World Expo.

In fact, Cao Xuan had already postponed the show, and didn't even prepare the show at all.

As a result, when Cao Xuan was filming in the United States, Teng Junjie, the chief director of the World Expo in Shanghai, called to invite him again. It was even just an appetizer, and there were invitations from higher-ups behind.

It's not easy for Cao Xuan to refuse, so he can only agree.

At that time, the opening ceremony of the World Expo was less than two weeks away, and he had no time to prepare new programs.

Okay, fortunately, arrangements have been made for him to sing an official promotional song with Sun Nan, Tan Jing, Zhang Shaohan and other singers.

To put it bluntly, they wanted Cao Xuan's face to add internationality and influence to the opening ceremony.

So in the past two weeks, Cao Xuan had to practice singing at night, and asked for a few days off to go to Shanghai to participate in the final rehearsal and song recording.

The rehearsal is mainly to practice positioning and coordination. Recording songs is easy. The scene is considered fake singing, and the audio must be recorded in advance.

Cao Xuan is also an old man on stage, and the chorus is not too difficult, just look at each other a few times and remember the order.

For Cao Xuan, the live broadcast of the opening ceremony of the World Expo is not difficult, but because it is a rush to put on the shelves, the performance experience is definitely the worst few times he has participated in major events in many years.

The Olympics, the National Games, the 60th anniversary, the Spring Festival Gala, Cao Xuan has never been absent from all major events and evenings in the past few years, which made him somewhat tired.

He is annoying, but the outside world is not. The South African World Cup Organizing Committee intends to invite him to be a guest performer in the finals. The Guangzhou Asian Games at the end of the year is also looking forward to Cao Xuan's joining.

People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong. Cao Xuan's wonderful performance in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games and the National Games made Cao Xuan the first choice for related activities, and he couldn't push it away.

This time the World Expo was like this, Cao Xuan had already postponed it, but later the leader felt that it was inappropriate and invited him to the finale.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the higher-ups specially instructed that a national treasure-level singer like Cao Xuan may not perform well on the show, but he absolutely must not be on stage, otherwise, the job is not done properly...

Cao Xuan felt that before he formally bid farewell to the music scene, it would be difficult for him to avoid invitations to these events.

After the opening ceremony of the World Expo, Cao Xuan did not go directly back to the United States to film, but stayed for a few days to accept some interviews, waiting to attend the premiere ceremony of "Sword Rain".

"Sword Rain" is scheduled to be released on May 5, and it didn't choose to enter the summer file to go head-to-head with those movies.

It's not that I'm afraid, Cao Xuan's name has never been afraid of anyone in the domestic film market, but "Sword Rain" is originally a literary film, without the overwhelming commercial advantages of the past, it all depends on Cao Xuan to attract the box office.

One-on-one is not afraid of anyone. If you fall into a chaotic battle, it will be hard to say. Even if you can break out of the encirclement, you will hurt a thousand enemies and hundreds of self-damage.

It's better to choose a relatively simple and quiet schedule, with Cao Xuan's name, and not afraid to compete with anyone head-on.

And because of the addition of "Sword Rain", this year's May file is much more intense than previous years.

But what is really worth mentioning is that there are only two movies in the May file, "Ip Man 5" and "Iron Man 2".

As for other films, such as "Like a Dream" by Wu Yanzu and Yuan Quan, "Three Smiles: A Talented Man and a Beautiful Woman" by Xiao Hei Fatty, and the Hollywood animation film "How to Train Your Dragon", it is difficult to pose a threat to the above three films.

Even the media called the May file a tripartite confrontation, directly ignoring the presence of other movies.

This is also normal. "Iron Man 2" and "Ip Man 2" are both series of films. The previous films performed well, and the box office of the new film is guaranteed.

"Sword Rain" has Cao Xuan carrying the flag, and it is even more favored by everyone. After all, Cao Xuan has not rushed to a movie since his debut.

Even "Save Mr. Me", which had a lot of unpopular themes + literary and artistic attributes, finally won 1.65 million box office.

"Sword Rain" is Cao Xuan's original martial arts theme. Even if there are many materials that reveal that the film is literary, many people are optimistic that the box office of this film will exceed 2 million.

Don't ask, just trust Cao Xuan!

Of course, "Sword Rain" is not without disadvantages, that is, Cao Xuan can't form strong support in terms of publicity.

In the early publicity, Cao Xuan only recorded a few VCRs, and the later roadshow probably couldn't point to him.

Even Cao Xuan was able to participate in the premiere this time because of the opening ceremony of the World Expo, otherwise he might not be able to come back.

Although Fan Xiaopang can also provide some support, but she is filming "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and cannot show up often.

Zeng Li has always been low-key, and her personality is introverted. It is unrealistic to point out her to lead a team to run a publicity campaign. Most of them participate in interviews or interviews.

Other actors either don't know much about publicity, or have too few roles to support them.

The publicity team of "Sword Rain" is almost depressed. If it weren't for the rumors about Cao Xuan and Zeng Li, they probably would have quit.

Fortunately, the publicity team quickly changed their minds and shifted the focus away from the artists, focusing on Penguin Weibo, Mtime.com and several other platforms.

These platforms have a large number of potential audiences, as long as they can penetrate these platforms, even without the support of many leading actors, the publicity effect will not be bad...

(End of this chapter)