The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 347 "Network Mystery" joins the "Black Mirror" series

"This story is indeed a model of basic reasoning, but it feels... not enough for Black Mirror."

"I think it's Black Mirror in terms of conception, and the whole process is displayed on the desktop. This form is cool and avant-garde. There must be no precedent in China, and there should be no similar film and television dramas abroad, right?"

"I think this idea is a good idea for a movie script. Isn't it a bit of a waste to put it in "Black Mirror"?"

"Not necessarily, I think it is a bit similar to "Comet". The story is indeed a good one, but it may not be brilliant in theaters. The highlight of this idea is actually to use desktop lenses to express it. It is a new form of pseudo-documentary, but You can’t have your cake and eat it too, if you use this form of shooting, in fact it’s not a shooting, there is no lens language at all, no light and shadow changes, even if it’s shot, it’s not a cinema movie.”

"If the story is good, there will be a box office, and foreign countries are not pseudo-documentary films that don't have big box office sales."

"You can't say that. A good story is not necessarily proportional to the box office. Why do audiences spend tens of dollars to go to the cinema to watch a 10-minute video? Can't they watch it on TV or computer?

If it is a movie edited by desktop lens, the texture is not even as good as TV. Even if there is a box office, with our company's current status and brand image, it is better not to make a TV movie that earns tens of millions of dollars at the box office. shoot. "

"..."

Chen Jingxing leaned on the back of the chair, watched the chattering discussions of the screenwriters sitting around the table, and expressed his opinion when the topic was a bit off track: "Movies are not the only form of theater movies, right? And who said "Black Mirror" can't be a movie?

Overseas, especially in Hollywood, the debate on theater chains and streaming media has become more and more intense in recent years, and everyone has seen that there is no such exploration in China, but isn’t what DreamWorks is doing to open the way?There's no need to get stuck in a rut. "

Chen Jingxing, as the host of this script creativity discussion meeting, his opinion naturally has the power to be a final decision.

This is not due to the authority of chairman Chen Jingxing, even if there is, it is not the main reason.

Like script readings, DreamWorks also has a rule of script creativity seminar, which is to convene screenwriters to discuss a certain idea to discuss whether it is feasible and implementable. Of course, most of the time it is the idea proposed by Chen Jingxing. After all, creativity There is a big difference between an idea and an idea that can be put into practice.

This involves many aspects such as scripting, video, review, executable, and market evaluation. There is no shortage of imaginative people, but they can turn an idea into a script with a complete structure and can be filmed. To produce a film and television work with a high degree of completion and market potential, there is a big funnel and a big filter in the middle.

A reliable idea is not just a simple idea. It must be a whole set of story structure or story logic. It is the most difficult to integrate ideas into a story, a logical and reasonable story with commercial value.

Otherwise, the philosophical proposition of "brain in a vat" has existed decades ago, and the Omnic Crisis has already existed, but it is even more difficult to turn it into a highly completed film and television work with market potential.

There is a long distance between an interesting creative idea, a finished script, and a film and television work.

However, Chen Jingxing's "Gold Fingers" are all feasible ideas that have overcome the 81 difficulties. They are directly the scriptures of Lingshan. The story structure of cultural elements.

This made the creative seminar, which was aimed at democratic discussion, more and more turned into Chen Jingxing's personal show. The screenwriters of DreamWorks also admired Chen Jingxing's talent more and more. As long as Chen Jingxing expressed his opinion, everyone would be happy If he is convinced, even if he is temporarily dissatisfied, the facts will always prove that Chen Jingxing is correct.

However, Chen Jingxing didn't want to rely on everyone's conviction to bring this debate to an end. After all, he still wanted the screenwriters to fill in and perfect the story, and he had to explain it clearly.

This seminar discusses the script of the second season of "Black Mirror". The first season has achieved unprecedented success, whether it is domestic or foreign. The response has been considerable.

The launch of the second season is a matter of course, and the second season is still preliminarily determined to be five episodes. Chen Jingxing's idea is to prefer the lack of excess, because his expectation of "Black Mirror" is not just an ordinary TV series.

Chen Jingxing's positioning of "Black Mirror" is a streaming media movie, that is, a so-called non-cinema movie, and the domestic environment is the Internet.

The tug-of-war between foreign streaming media and theater chains began a few years ago, and it has intensified, and even developed to the point where each side takes a stand. I don’t know how many filmmakers have publicly expressed their resistance to streaming media movies.

On the contrary, there are very few such debates in China. Even if some Internet company executives speak out, the reaction of theaters and filmmakers is very flat.

Without him, domestic online movies are really not on the stage. Now that the style of online dramas has gradually improved, online movies are still synonymous with crude and vulgar. Chen Jingxing's "Comet" is already the pinnacle of domestic online movies.

The dispute between streaming media and theater chains is a dispute of interests. Domestic theater chains may be able to recognize the threat of online movies to them theoretically, but the reality of domestic online movies is here, and people really don’t feel threatened. Even if these online movies want to be released in theaters, the theaters don't want to accept them.

In Chen Jingxing's previous life, it was also because of a huge black swan incident that a genuine theater movie was suddenly sold to streaming media and premiered on the Internet.

In foreign countries, to be precise, streaming media giants such as Netflix are different. They rely on the mature film industry, which is different from the Huaguo film and television industry, which has mixed talent, fills the number, and operates in a workshop. The Hollywood film industry has cultivated There is a surplus of mature talent, an overflow—thanks to the oligarchy of Hollywood.

Netflix is ​​not short of money. The production team he can hire is the production team of the Hollywood industry, and even filmmakers who have won Oscars.

There is no difference between Netflix’s film and television series and Hollywood’s film and television series, because the production team may be a group of people, a screenwriter, a director, and the same special effects studio.

As long as it is on the same industrial assembly line, Netflix can naturally produce products above the standard.

North American theaters obviously know this, so they reacted fiercely, and even used moral kidnapping or selling misery to persuade outstanding Hollywood filmmakers not to work for Netflix.

But regardless of China and the United States, no matter how high or low the level is, the trend of streaming movies is unstoppable, and it is even full of vitality.

The theater chain’s fear of streaming media is not that streaming media will destroy movie theaters. Movie theaters cannot be eliminated. The audio-visual experience or audio-visual spectacle cannot be given by the current small screen.

But maybe one day, there will be only movies that can bring audiences "audio-visual wonders" in movie theaters, and those movies without special effects that don't focus on audio-visual experience, no matter whether you watch them in theaters or on computers, will disappear from theaters , directly on the streaming media.

Since there is no difference between watching it in the theater and watching it at home, why spend tens of dollars to go to the theater?You are not "Avatar", and you are not "Gravity".

In this way, the movie theater market will be greatly reduced and compressed. It may not be possible to eliminate the movie theater industry, but it will definitely eliminate many individuals.

Of course, this process may be lengthy.

But Chen Jingxing believed that online movies had great potential, at least he had heard that some online movies made a lot of money in the plane before he traveled, and it could be said that he made a lot of money silently.

An online box office of a large network - the pay-on-demand sub-account is more than 5000 million, and the top ones can even exceed [-] million. If other income is added, it earns more than most so-called theater movies.

The theater chain has a high upper limit, and the average return may not be comparable to that of online movies.

How could Chen Jingxing not be greedy and not plan for a rainy day?
Movies with an investment of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions will naturally not take this path, but DreamWorks happens to have a project that is very suitable, and that is "Black Mirror".

Although it is a TV series, each episode is independent, and all of them are full of ideas and well-produced. Isn't this the basis of ready-made online movies?
In fact, Chen Jingxing has already contacted the major online platforms. Although the streaming media still has doubts about this, Chen Jingxing's position is firm, that is, the second season of "Black Mirror" must follow the online movie model of on-demand and split bills.

Regardless of whether the audience is a member of the platform, each episode of the second season of "Black Mirror" is a separate online movie that must be paid for on demand.

But this requires the production of the second season of "Black Mirror" to be raised to a higher level. The first season of "Black Mirror" is called a "divine drama", but it is viewed by the standards of TV dramas. If Positioned as an online movie, Chen Jingxing naturally thinks that the standard is not enough.

Not only is it not long enough, a movie, even an online movie, must be at least 90 minutes long, and the story must be more complicated, and the budget must be even more explosive.

And this seminar is discussing the first idea provided by Chen Jingxing - "Mystery of the Internet".

"Mystery on the Internet" tells the story of a high school girl who suddenly lost contact with her single father. The father couldn't find her anywhere, so she started to log in to all her daughter's social media accounts to try to find clues, and finally rescued her daughter who had escaped death.

Regardless of the setting of the story, the layout of the suspense, and the continuity of the reversal, "Mystery of the Internet" is a textbook suspense film.

In terms of conception, this movie is very "Black Mirror". In terms of form, it uses computer lenses and desktop images to form the whole movie. There is no camera, no light and shadow, and no lens language. The whole story can happen in a small On the computer screen, it is an alternative pseudo-documentary style.

Moreover, it shows the alienation of all interpersonal relationships, emotional models, and various possibilities faced by life reflected by social networks in the Internet era. There are even black satires on the Internet, irony on the Internet's deconstruction and even dispelling of real life, from a certain point of view. In a sense, it is similar to the "Fucking Pig" in the first episode of the first season of "Black Mirror".

But judging from the ending, it really doesn't feel like "Black Mirror". First of all, the happy ending is a happy ending, which is very different from "Black Mirror", and it does lack some black and cruel things.

However, these can be changed. Chen Jingxing also asked the screenwriters to come up with ideas on how to make this story more "Black Mirror".

Just as Chen Jingxing and the screenwriters were discussing the story idea of ​​"Mystery of the Internet", the secretary knocked on the door and came in, looked at Chen Jingxing and said, "Chen Dong, Director Chen Sicheng is here and is waiting in the reception room." .”

(End of this chapter)