This director needs to apologize

Chapter 179 Epic Small Body

Chen Yiming took the folder handed over by Mr. Ma Er and opened it. Inside was a stack of project planning documents. When spread out, there were 4 copies in total.

At the top is a new project by kung fu superstar Wu Lianjing, which tells an imaginary story about the war between the Han Dynasty and ancient Rome in the Western Regions.

This is something new. Wu Lianjing has always followed the route of fashion and kung fu comedies. Although he has acted in costumes, they are all in the nature of a joke.

Although the first impression of this current project is that it is a fantasy, but a closer look at the theme and content reveals that it is in the style of a historical drama.

Chen Yiming thought about Brother Wu's funny big nose and not straight figure, but he couldn't imagine how he would look like wearing a helmet and armor.

Putting it aside, Chen Yiming continued to read the next one. This time it was a story about the Tang Dynasty, in which Wang Xuance destroyed a country by one man.

Wang Xuance was a diplomatic envoy during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. When he was on a mission to the Kingdom of Central Tianzhu, the ruler of the country died violently and the powerful ministers rebelled. The Tang envoy was hunted down. After Wang Xuance escaped alone, he borrowed troops from Tubo to quell the rebellion in Central Tianzhu. Finally, Chang'an was captured.

It sounds like a very uplifting story, but unfortunately it’s not easy to tell it well.

Shaking his head, Chen Yiming continued to read the third one. This time the background of the story was set in the late Spring and Autumn Period. The story of Mo Jiazi helping a small country defend its city against the invasion of a big country.

Chen Yiming glanced at it and put it aside. It was too old and he couldn't think of how to present this story in images.

The last one’s name is very straightforward, “Mulan”.

This one is a bit interesting, because it meets Chen Yiming’s basic requirements for historical themes in ancient costumes, and it is true but not detailed.

The former meets the requirements of authenticity and anchors the entire film in the social and cultural knowledge system, preventing it from floating in the sky.

The latter meets the requirements of artistry and gives the main creator enough room to play.

Hua Mulan is a literary character in the Yuefu poem "Mulan Ci" of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, which naturally reduces the seriousness of its origin from real history.

A woman disguises herself as a man and joins the army for her father, then returns home after becoming famous. The experience of Hua Mulan in the poem is legendary and positive enough, but at the same time simple and general enough. In short, it is convenient to write a story.

However, after reading the synopsis of the script, Chen Yiming still sighed.

He is obviously a very malleable archetypal character, but as a result, the creator of the project adopted the simplest approach, which somewhat ruined the subject matter.

However, Chen Yiming was only called to make decision-making suggestions, not to be a script doctor, so he did not make any comments on the details.

Closing the folder, Chen Yiming raised his head and asked, "Uncle Ma, does the Demon Shadow project committee have any opinions on these four books?"

"Please tell me your own opinion first."

“From a professional perspective alone, Wu Lianjing’s project is the most secure and has the least risk.

Of course, this is measured based on the current average investment of 1.5 million in costume blockbusters. This investment scale can basically guarantee 2-3 major war scenes as long as it is not a star-studded money-making project.

As long as the story is told well, the current market capacity is enough to accommodate A-level productions with a volume of 5 million. If the schedule is selected to avoid Hollywood blockbusters, the pressure to recoup the investment will not be great.

However, if the budget continues to be increased to 2 million or 3 million, then among these four projects, only the last one, "Mulan," has hope of making a return on investment. "

Mr. Ma, who was opposite him, looked surprised, "Yi Ming, your ideas are really unique. The project committee has put the priority of "Mulan" last in several discussions. Please elaborate on your reasons."

Chen Yiming still took the pen and paper and said while writing, "Uncle Ma, I still use numbers to speak.

These four titles are all period films. This category is inherently blockbusters, so they have to be measured by the standards of blockbusters.

According to the industry rule of 3 times return on capital, a 1.5 million investment and a box office of 5 million are considered capital guarantees, and more than 6 million is considered a big profit.

Just look at last year's "The Founding of the People's Republic of China" and you will know that it is not an easy task to achieve a box office of 6 million for a single film.

Some people may say that these projects will not be released until next year, when the domestic film market will see another round of growth.

But don’t forget that film production costs are also rising.

The current 1.5 million is already the minimum investment for a blockbuster movie. When the preliminary preparations are completed and officially launched in the second half of the year, 1.5 million will most likely not be enough. It is not unusual for it to increase to 2 million or 3 million.

If the investment increases by 5000 million, the box office will also increase by 1 million. Uncle Ma knows how difficult it is to sell tickets at the end of the show.

Therefore, I dare to assert that as long as the investment soars to 2 million, without overseas copyright operations, it is wishful thinking to recover the original capital.

This is the problem. It was originally difficult for Chinese-language films to go overseas, but now they are still costumed Chinese-language films. Isn’t it even more difficult?
Why did Director Wu film the Three Kingdoms? Isn't it because he could sell copyrights in Xiaoli, Bangguo, and Southeast Asia?

These four projects are all directed by Hong Kong directors, so I can already predict that for the sake of overseas markets, they will inevitably require more so-called Asian superstars.Therefore, big stars lead to high pay, and high pay further pushes up production costs. Higher costs bring greater pressure to repay the capital. If you add more water, add more noodles, add more water. I can't imagine what the final result will be. "

Second Master Ma asked, "Then why are you only optimistic about Hua Mulan? Because this project has the lowest estimated investment amount?"

Chen Yiming shook his head, "As long as they are produced according to blockbuster standards, the cost of these four projects will not differ much, unless it is a blockbuster that sells genre films, such as making Mulan into a love story.

Think about it, the same martial arts theme was filmed by TVB in Hong Kong and how Luo Xiaoxian was filmed in Taiwan. Can they be the same thing?
The reason why I am optimistic about Mulan is that it has the greatest room for development among the four projects. It has neither historical baggage nor cultural barriers.

From a screenwriter's point of view, costume themes are like dancing in shackles, with many restrictions in all aspects.

The first thing to bear the brunt of is that the story should have an epic feel.

It is also a war. "1951" can downgrade the perspective and only focus on the experience of one or a few soldiers. Not only will the audience not shout for a refund, but they will also feel grounded and lively.

But in the ancient context, if I only talk about small characters and don’t mention the big era, can the audience tolerate it?Most of the time it's intolerable.

As long as a movie touches on ancient times, it will be burdened with an epic sense. This is the market's preset expectation for this subject, and the creators can only cater to it but not disobey it.

As the name suggests, the so-called epic sense is half history and half literature.

History is responsible for supporting the general framework of the times, and literature is responsible for giving characters a sense of drama, humanity, and modernity.

Now let's go back and look at these four projects. The first three projects obviously have their own problems.

Wu Lianjing's project has never been investigated in history, and the whole process is the literary performance of the screenwriter.

If the movie cannot be grounded in the dimension of time and space, authenticity cannot be discussed. So where does the epic feeling come from?

Wang Xuance's story does indeed have an epic feel, and the story itself is legendary enough. Its problem is that the psychological distance between it and the audience is too far.

Not only overseas audiences have no idea about the country of Zhongtianzhu, but Chinese audiences also know very little about it. The cost of education is too high, which will definitely affect the film narrative.

In addition to the similar shortcomings of Wang Xuance, the story of Mohist Juzi also has the problem that it is difficult to present the image. It was too long ago and there are very few surviving materials.

How to do art design?How to match the scenery?How can I, as a director, make demands on Fuhua Road?Just looking at the outline of the story, it feels like an epic story based on the weak enemy and the strong one, but when it comes to the execution, I am blind and unable to start.

I always believe that the film creator must have a basic cognitive consensus with the target audience at the beginning of planning.

The main creator needs to roughly know what the audience wants to see and what they can accept, what emotional value can be gained from the story, what information can be told but not included, and what background introduction can be completely omitted.

The first three stories do not meet this requirement. If it is made into a trilogy, it is estimated that the first part will have to be used to provide the audience with scientific background knowledge and pave the way for the relationship between the characters, so that the explosions in the last two parts can be logical.

Now condensed into a 2-hour movie, the narrative quality must be very poor. Putting aside the necessary war scenes, there is very little time left for character development, and the quality of the movie is definitely not optimistic.

Looking at the story of Hua Mulan again, it is completely different.

Mulan's poem is very famous, and it is basically a household name among Chinese people, so there is no cost of education.

At the same time, this poem is very short. The description focuses on before joining the army and after returning home. The military experience in the middle is blank, so the screenwriter can play as much as he wants.

She is also a member of the Disney princess camp and has produced a global best-selling animated film. With this foundation, overseas markets will easily accept Mulan's live-action film.

In other words, domestic and foreign audiences have a basic understanding of the character Hua Mulan, and this understanding is very flat. For costume movies, this is undoubtedly the most ideal protagonist. "

Second Master Ma smiled and said, "Yi Ming, it seems that you like Hua Mulan very much. You get so excited when talking about her. Otherwise, why don't you come and make a movie?"

Chen Yiming quickly waved his hand, "No, no, I know how much I weigh. It's a bit too early for me to do a costume movie."

Mr. Ma looked disapproving, "Those Hong Kong directors can shoot it, why can't you?

I didn't see much of Wu Kesen's "Three Kingdoms". The characters in it had many scenes and lines. The impression left on me was not as good as the nameless soldiers who played a few minutes of scenes in "1951". "

Chen Yiming replied with a grimace, "Hong Kong directors have no historical baggage. They made all kinds of magical changes in shoddy historical dramas. Has public opinion ever criticized them?

Looking at the Mainland, Sun Wangquan and Chen Huaikai are considered to be highly respected and honorable. What did the two Qin Shihuang movies they produced get sprayed with?
Those were Kung Fu movies and dramas. One featured group gymnastics shows, while the other focused on human nature and performance. Even so, a lot of flaws and flaws were picked out.

This is the Internet age, and the impact of public opinion has more than doubled. My small body cannot withstand it. "

(End of this chapter)