Reborn Hong Kong Wild Age

Chapter 33 Midnight Field

Daydream of the Mysterious Songwriter Officially Revealed - "Cool! "Weekly boss, Gu Xiayang! "

"Hong Kong talent, well-deserved." "

The movie "If There Is Love in the Sky" written by Gu Xiayang is about to hold a midnight show. "

"Zhou Huimin's album of the same name "Zhou Huimin" was officially released a few days ago and has been well received. Music Weekly predicts that the sales volume will reach 2 platinum. "

It is reported that Gu Xiayang and Zhou Huimin were childhood sweethearts, and they grew up together. The reason why Zhou Huimin participated in the Rookie Singing Contest was all encouraged by him.

Moreover, the daydream praised by well-known musicians such as Huang Zhan and Lu Guojiang is not only the establishment of the first weekly magazine on campus "cool! "'s Gu Xiayang.

This talent who graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong single-handedly arranged all the repertoires of Zhou Huimin's competition. Among them, songs such as "Wind Like the Wind" and "Repayment" have always topped the song list of music radio stations.

At the same time, Gu Xiayang founded the "Tianxiayi" film company. The first film "If there is love in the sky", starring Liu Dehua, Zhou Huimin, and Wu Mengda, the film script and all the songs in it were independently completed by Gu Xiayang.

It was reported by the newspapers that Gu Xiayang spent a lot of money to promote his little girlfriend Zhou Huimin, a young prodigal son, well-deserved of his reputation.

With the upcoming midnight trial screening of "If There Is Love", Tianxia Yi Company spent huge sums of money on publicity, and then true and false news began to spread throughout Hong Kong.

A wireless tvb niche who just got rid of snow, a rookie who debuted in a singing contest, plus a gambler who is "not able to support the wall with mud", such a lineup, of course, the movie is not favored.

So more attention is actually on Gu Xiayang, his daydream identity is officially exposed, the copywriting bought by Tianxia Yi Company is of course a Hong Kong talent, but those lace weekly magazines don’t care, they just want to confirm his identity as a Hong Kong prodigal son .

Amidst such various reports, "If there is love in the sky" ushered in its midnight preview.

The midnight show is a "hard indicator" in the Hong Kong film industry. If a movie is released at the midnight show, few people watch it and the response is not good, then this movie is definitely good and limited, and it can be nailed to the stigma of box office poison.

At that time, Hong Kong movie theaters could accommodate more than 800 or even thousands of spectators. Hong Kong people, who were movie fans per capita, responded very directly to movies.

One of the things that every Hong Kong filmmaker must do after their works are released is to go to a midnight movie and feel the most direct feedback from the audience.

In fact, this kind of feedback is the test screening and research system.

Moreover, most audiences in Hong Kong are grassroots rather than middle-class, so Hong Kong movies have never been movies that please the very high-end audience.

Midnight shows in Hong Kong will sell snacks, and everyone can watch them in the cinema while smoking a cigarette with snacks.The cinema has two floors, with ordinary audiences on the bottom, and the creators, actors, or people in the circle upstairs watching.Some simply mingled with the audience and listened to the most intuitive opinions.

And the audience is very straightforward, applaud if they like it, and scold it if they don't like it. This is the current film research in Hong Kong.

After the midnight show, the main creator began to quickly adjust to the audience's response.

The creative team came back and said, wherever someone laughed, where someone scolded, where someone went to the bathroom, everyone came back to edit the film.It's a pity that at this time, the trimming is done directly from the film, and there is no time to re-mix the sound, so some places may be broken in the middle.

Since it is called a midnight trial screening, it means that it is not the premiere of the movie, but an experiment, watching the audience's reaction, and then making final changes. Generally, the public screening of a movie is held only one week after the trial screening.

Just like the later "Sweet Honey" after the midnight screening, Chen Kexin made revisions and replaced the film before the premiere.

In fact, midnight screenings are a very special viewing experience. These midnight screenings are especially concentrated in the downtown area of ​​Yau Tsim Mong. The audience includes off-duty white-collar workers, and the mahjong stalls after work accompany employees to beat them. Before or after midnight snacks A group of young and Dangerous youngsters, etc., of course, there are also nightlife star citizens.

"If the audience doesn't like something, they will boo you. They know that the main creative team is on it, so it's normal to curse."

As someone who has been there, Du Qifeng once saw the audience annoyed in the midnight show, stood up and shouted: "Who is the director? Stand up for me!"

Or: "Who wrote the script? Get that idiot out!"

"A certain actor eats shit, what is he playing..."

But when they saw a good show, they cheered and clapped their hands like a riot.Therefore, to be a filmmaker in Hong Kong, you have to go through this hurdle first.

In layman's terms, the audience of these midnight trial screenings is the Hong Kong Film Bureau. If you understand this, you will understand the current prosperous market for Hong Kong films.

Compared with the midnight trial screening of ordinary movies, Gu Xiayang has reached a cooperation with Hong Kong Commercial Channel, so only Commercial Channel members are eligible to come to watch the movie, and Commercial Channel will make live reports.

As time passed, around eleven o'clock in the evening, the entrance of the Grand Theater, one of Shaw Brothers' leading theaters, was already full of voices, and the midnight preview of "A Rumor of Love" was about to be held.

The itinerant hawkers at the gate of the theater were selling hot sugar cane, fried chestnuts, brine beef offal, roasted corn, popcorn and other snacks. There were many patrons and it was very lively.

In addition to the members of the commercial station, "cool! "magazine also ran a lottery in the last issue, giving away free tickets, which attracted countless young people to come together.

"Midnight Show" and "Lunar New Year File" are two major phenomena in the most prosperous period of the Hong Kong film market in history, and they are highly anticipated and welcomed by everyone.

One is that you can watch a new film first, and the other is that most of the New Year's films have big casts and are well-produced.

On the second floor of the theater, Du Qifeng, as the producer of "A Rumor of Love", he and Chen Musheng were quite nervous, after all, this was the first film they directed.

In fact, it's not just them, the same is true of Liu Dehua, Zhou Huimin and others who are the leading actors.

"Young Master Gu, do you know the audience in the midnight show, what do we call them?"

Gu Xiayang asked, "What's the name?"

Chen Musheng curled his lips and said: "After a while you will find that after they enter the stage, they will munch on sugar cane while applauding or cursing the characters on the screen. When they are dissatisfied, they will even throw the sugar cane on the screen. Midnight show Because of this, the audience got the nickname of 'Cane Bite Gang', and you will get used to it after seeing more."

Hearing this, Gu Xiayang laughed and said, "Is it so lively? Haha, then I'm looking forward to it."

"Don't expect this, hahaha, we'll succeed. If it's really a bad movie, we'll be drowned out by scolding. If you're angry, maybe you'll do it."

As long as a new film is released, each film company will conduct a public midnight screening in theaters in advance.

Directors and producers are either in the background or hidden among the audience, listening to everyone's reactions.The audience who come to watch the movie at midnight are generally more straightforward and have a higher level of film appreciation.

In fact, most of the audience at this time are young and Dangerous, so you have to have good eyesight.

When they saw the good parts, they applauded and applauded loudly. If they felt that the film was fooling, they would immediately boo and even curse.

"Don't think it's a joke. It happened to me once, because the film was so bad. The audience blocked the exit and asked the director to come out, apologizing to everyone. In the end, the director and the main creators had to escape through the back door in a hurry. ..."

"Then, we won't be beaten, will we?"

Zhou Huimin muttered in a low voice, obviously shocked by the scene Du Qifeng and the others described.

In fact, as an actor in a movie, he rarely participates in any midnight screenings.Because filming is work for them, and when the work is over, they don't have to participate in anything other than publicity.

In addition, many artists in Hong Kong are very busy. For example, Liu Dehua, who is only obsessed now, will be filming nine sets of plays at the same time in the future. How can he have the time to watch his midnight preview.

Seeing Zhou Huimin's frowning appearance, Gu Xiayang laughed and said, "Don't worry. If you really get beaten, I will be the first to run, and you will be the last one."

Zhou Huimin, who thought she was comforting herself, immediately raised her voice: "Gu Xiayang!!!"

Gu Xiayang spread his hands: "They don't know how to beat girls, and they are good-looking girls."

"Hahaha... I can't keep up with Young Master Gu's train of thought."

"It's not unreasonable!"

Everyone laughed out loud when they heard Gu Xiayang's words.

"Humph!"

Zhou Huimin was blushed by Gu Xiayang and snorted.

While everyone was chatting and laughing, the audience began to enter the arena one after another. Those who smoked, gnawed on sugarcane, hugged their girlfriends, and dragged their buddies, all kinds of audiences began to sit.

"Have you all watched "Mr. Zombie" a few days ago? Oh, it's really good."

"How could I not have watched it? Uncle Nine is powerful and funny, and Jiahe's movie is good!"

The audience was waiting for the movie to start broadcasting, but what they were talking about was "Mr. Zombie", which was just released not long ago.

The reason why this movie is so topical is that it shines brilliantly as a movie that is not favored at the end of the summer vacation.

As a branch of ghost films, zombie films have a long history in the West. Similar domestic films were released during the Republic of China, but they have not become popular since then.

Until this year, Liu Guanwei, a photographer who dreamed of being a director, won the support of Hong Jinbao and started filming the famous "Mr. Zombie" in Hong Kong film history.

Among them are many innovative settings with Chinese characteristics, such as holding your breath to avoid zombies, glutinous rice can detoxify corpses, and traditional folk customs such as yellow paper, red pen, black ink, real swords and wooden swords have been borrowed in large quantities.

"People are most afraid of three longs and two shorts, and incense is most afraid of two shorts and one long." Terms such as these create an extremely realistic context.The reasons for the formation of zombies are also explained in detail, which makes sense.

The original budget of the film was 450 million, but Liu Guanwei was inexperienced, so it took four months to complete the filming, and the total cost was 850 million.Hong Jinbao estimated that he would lose 200 million in the end, and Liu Guanwei was disheartened, and he was ready to return to his old job and continue to be a photographer.

The result was beyond everyone's expectations. The film was very popular after it was released in Taiwan, and even earned 2000 million yuan in Hong Kong. Gu Xiayang knew that the film would eventually rank among the top five at the box office of the year.

Although the theme of the story was first created by Liu Guanwei, the overwhelming response is largely due to the lead actor Lin Zhenying.

The character design of Uncle Nine seems to be tailor-made for Lin Zhenying, and his kung fu is second to none. His unique image and temperament make him the most classic representative of Maoshan Taoist priests.

He has a solemn expression with a one-word eyebrow, holds a mahogany sword, wears a Taoist uniform, and draws amulets and chants with a serious face. He is upright, but occasionally cold humor suddenly strikes him. rely on.

Lin Zhenying even devoted herself to research, and even created a set of hand gestures and footwork, integrating martial arts movements into it, making the picture very ceremonial.

This is what an excellent actor does to a movie. It complements each other with a good script and a suitable role.

"I don't know how this drama is? Liu Dehua's films, apart from TVB dramas, I know that this year's "Extrajudicial Affairs" is so-so..."

A young man heard the words from the side, and chatted naturally: "He doesn't seem to have made any movies, right? I came here for Zhou Huimin anyway. I watched the Rookie Singing Contest. The songs are beautiful and the people are even more beautiful."

His girlfriend was sitting on the side, pinched her hand and said, "I told you to watch it at first, but you didn't watch it. Then you insisted on watching it. Hehe, did you go there just to listen to the song? I'm even ashamed Break you."

(End of this chapter)