This director needs to apologize

Chapter 21 Dragon Slaying Sword and Heavenly Sword

Screening is also called trial screening. As the name suggests, a movie is pre-screened in individual theaters before it is officially released.

This is not a new thing. In both time and space that Chen Yiming experienced, there were many cases with different names but the same meaning.

Past life screenings originated in Hollywood, mainly because of the rigid requirements of the Oscar organizers that all participating films must meet the prescribed number of screenings before the award deadline.

Since the Academy Awards are nominated in December every year, movies that are not scheduled for the right time will be screened. They will find a nook and cranny theater to screen them for a period of time in advance to fill up the number of shows. As for the official release, they will wait until after the Oscars.

After all, a gimmick for an Oscar-winning film will be a huge boon to the box office.

The first film to be screened in China was Zhang Guoshi's blockbuster "Hero", which was also required to participate in the Oscar foreign language film competition.

Spot screenings can also be called trial screenings, which are essentially the same but have completely different purposes.

Test screenings were first conducted by film studios for theaters to inspect products. Just like the just-concluded screening of "Holiday in Magic", due to the presence of two theater chain representatives, even though there were only 5 people in the theater, it could be called a test screening. It's a screening room.

The test screening also originated in Hollywood and was already well developed when it was introduced to China.

In addition to theater representatives, the film studio will also invite a sufficient number of film critics, media representatives, fan representatives and randomly selected ordinary audiences according to a certain proportion.

In addition, there are professional investigation companies and authoritative notary agencies.

After the preview screening, the questionnaires are compiled to form a survey report, which serves as an important reference for theaters to schedule films.

It provides an aboveboard display platform for PY trading, and everyone who understands it understands.

There are not many cases highlighted in China in this time and space.

Because Chinese films want to win awards, there is no need to keep an eye on the Oscars.

There are many film festivals throughout the year. The three major European film festivals favored by Chinese literary and artistic films are evenly distributed in February, May and August. There is always one suitable for you.

It can't compete with the top three in Europe, but it's still enough to win awards at second-tier film festivals and bring back the Chinese quality.

Since it can't reach the Oscar level, there is no need to take off its pants to screen.

In contrast, test screenings are more popular and have Chinese characteristics.

There is no anti-monopoly policy in the film industry in China, and film studios with fathers are guaranteed to schedule films. For example, "Holiday in the City" was able to capture 1% of the film schedule in two theaters in the city just because of its strong reputation.

The film studio without a father was forced to have no choice but to find a way to break the situation and expand the film schedule. One of the ways was to hold a test screening.

The first one to do this was Wang Xiaogang, the little king among the two kings in the imperial circle, the "King of New Year's Movies" who was just disgraced at the beginning of this year.

Xiaogang's experience is very inspiring. He was born as a treasury manager and taught himself directing. He had no foundation and started in the private sector.The first two movies didn't make the investors lose money. The third movie he made was a big one, which was "Lie Down and Talk" in 2002.

We hired two A-list actors from Hollywood and Hong Kong to shoot the film in real locations in the Forbidden City, with a budget of 3000 million.

Seven years ago in China, if an investment of this magnitude was to be recouped, the film could only be released in the Lunar New Year season, so Wang Xiaogang bumped into Kung Fu superstar Wu Lianjing.

On one side were unknown people from private companies (for the time), and on the other were record harvesters Wu [-] million (referring to Wu Lianjing's film global sales of over [-] million at the time).

In addition, Diying Moying, which has just become a group, has invested in Wu Lianjing's projects (although it is only a symbolic mosquito leg), which can be regarded as half of the family.

Therefore, "Lie and Tell Me Something" has not been released yet, and the film schedule is at least half lower than that of its competitors.

At this time, let alone drinking heavily with the theater manager, even drinking pesticides is useless!
Wang Xiaogang, who was on the edge of the cliff, came up with a micro-innovation and built an "all-round" test screening venue.

"Lie Down and Tell Me Something" will be previewed one week in advance, with one show every day.

It's just that this show is special, the top seven theaters take turns, the time is not the same, and the city changes every day.

After a week of trial screenings, the attendance rate exceeded the average for the same period by more than [-]%.

In the end, the opening schedule of "Lie Down to Tell Me Something" was only 2 points lower than Wu Lianjing's film. Wang Xiaogang became famous from then on.

Of course, other films of the same period were all cannon fodder.

Later, there were many movies that imitated "Lie Down and Tell Me Something", but more of them were playful and trashy.

After all, it’s too risky to do so. Quality is generally subject to failure if exposed to light. Inadequate control means widespread piracy. You can’t just learn it if you want to.

……

Fat and Thin Toutuo are both insiders. When they heard Chen Yiming's suggestion, they immediately understood the meaning.

Young people, who have never experienced the beatings of society, always harbor naive illusions and never look back until they hit the wall.

But after all, this is your own child. If you don’t give it a try, where are you going to put Mr. Ma’s face?

Selling face for cheap and doing favors easily, Gong Yifan, the thin-headed monk, does his part!
"The test screening is legal, legal, and reasonable. There will definitely be no problem with the United Cinemas. Mr. Teng will send someone to the company, and I will arrange it for you."

Fat Toutuo nodded.

It's just a few test screenings, so it's not difficult to make temporary arrangements.

The trouble lies in anti-piracy, but for Mr. Ma’s sake, I endure it!

After the schedule was arranged, Chen Yiming took Ma Yunteng back to the screening room for a small meeting after bidding farewell to the second uncle and Fat and Thin Toutuo.

I thought I was sure of arranging the film, but before I left the city, my own theater chain smashed it into bricks. Da Zhuang felt very sorry.

Before Da Zhuang could speak with a guilty look on his face, Chen Yiming threw a hat over him.

"Da Zhuang, your task will be very heavy next. Whether "Holiday in the Magic City" can make money depends entirely on you."

"Ah? Oh! Don't worry, I'll take care of the preview screenings. I'll go to those two theaters myself." "Who said we'll go to two theaters, at least ten!"

"What are you talking about? I don't quite understand."

Chen Yiming stretched out his hand to signal Ma Yunteng to sit down, went to the corner and picked up two bottles of mineral water, and threw one to Da Zhuang. He opened one himself and drank most of the bottles in one go.

After wiping his mouth, he said.

"Don't go to the cinema tomorrow. Go to your dad to do something first."

"What's the matter?"

"Please ask the second uncle to pull the strings and let the Magic Film Distribution Department take over the distribution of "Magic City Holiday". In addition to the standard distribution fee, we will also pay an additional share of the box office. You can negotiate the specific amount."

Da Zhuang nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, this is indeed a way to arrange the film, but does it have anything to do with the test screening?"

Chen Yiming shook his head, "Who said it doesn't matter? If you don't give a confession to the demon shadow, who will help us go to test screenings in other theaters? Do you rely on you to go to every house and drink heavily?"

Da Zhuang looked confused, "Tie Zhu, you really want to set up trial screenings in ten theaters, right? Is that still called a trial screening? There is no precedent for this in the industry. How can this be reliable?"

Chen Yiming said with a smile, "It's reliable, it must be reliable. I call it a large-scale test screening. Innovation in this industry must be led by us at Platinum Jue!"

……

In previous lives, screening and ticket sales were known as the two most powerful weapons in the Chinese film industry, the Dragon Slaying Sword and the Heavenly Sword.

By the time Chen Yiming traveled through time, these two magical weapons were too powerful and had been captured and sealed up by the six gates one after another, and would not be passed down to the world.

The real power of Yitian Slaying Dragon lies in the secrets and tactics hidden in it. With them, children can unexpectedly defeat famous masters.

In the years since the two magic weapons appeared, the Chinese film industry was in turmoil, and the entire world was changed.

Even leaving aside the "Nine Yin Manual" and "Wu Mu's Sutra", Yitian Slaying Dragon is also a top-notch magical weapon when taken out alone, and it directly adds three successes when swung.

The mobile Internet has not yet come, and the conditions for the Secret Art of War to exert its power are not yet met, so Chen Yiming takes out the dragon-slaying knife and plays with it for the time being.

In the next few days, Chen Yiming handed over a small amount of finishing work to Xiangrui, while he and Ma Yunteng worked hard to organize the "test screening" of "Holiday in the Magic City".

The two soldiers divided into two groups, and the strong man transformed into a flying trapeze. In more than half a month, he had to cover all the major ticket warehouses in China.

Fortunately, the strength of the Moying Distribution Department is barely ranked among the top two in the country. With this strong ladder, Ma Yunteng's climbing journey is relatively smooth.

Chen Yiming on the other side is also very busy with multi-line operations.

The first line is to visit Lao Cai from Tang and Song Film and Television.

Since it is to promote Gu Yuehe, the first brother of the Tang and Song Dynasties, it would be inappropriate for his old club not to contribute both emotion and reason.

Boss Cai, you don’t want handsome guy Gu to get involved when his contract expires, right?
The cooperation went smoothly. Tang and Song's public relations team was hired for free and a summons was sent to the "ho fun" support groups across the country.

Guyuehe's first theatrical film nationwide preview.Tickets are limited, first come first served!

Platinum Jue provided cash, and Tang and Song provided peripherals. A two-pronged approach was used to inject blood into the support team leaders.

The second line is Internet marketing.

In 2009, online marketing companies had not yet become popular. There were many part-time companies and few full-time companies. There were many wild ways and few regular ones.

Through Qian Chuanzi's relationship, Chen Yiming found a local "Jule Studio" in Shanghai.

The owner of the studio is Li Dong. His previous main business was as a game reporter. After he went out to work alone, he gradually extended his business scope to the entire Internet.

He mainly does the work of publishing public relations releases. In fact, he is not professional in water army operations and can only be regarded as a setter.

However, "Holiday in the Magic City" will not use the navy for the time being. Chen Yiming mainly borrowed Li Dong's connections on the Internet platform.

After meeting each other, Chen Yiming directly handed out a 20 yuan bill, which made Li Dong dizzy and obeyed his words.

Chen Yiming asked him to first secure the top advertising spaces in those city forums.

Portals and blogs cannot be afforded, as they are all very expensive. Chen Yiming can only choose local vertical forums that have not yet been targeted by Internet giants.

Of course, it is not a hard-and-fast way to advertise, but to cooperate with the forum management to carry out activities.

The forum will come up with plans, and Platinum Jue will come up with prizes. Anyway, no matter what the prize is, there will be movie tickets for the preview screening of "Holiday in the City."

Chen Yiming praised Haikou. If it works well, there will still be orders worth 100 million yuan for the movie to be released, and there will be no need to worry about the poor and crazy forum management who can't do their best.

The third line is to contact fadou.com.

At this time, fadou.com was still the preserve of young literary and artistic people, and fadou ratings did not have as much influence as they did later.

Correspondingly, the so-called broad bean marketing is also unregulated. Whether it is controlling reviews or points, it is still in its infancy.

Chen Yiming only came to Broad Bean for one thing. As soon as the preview stage began, he turned on the rating system of "Holiday in the Magic City".

This is the first time for broad beans to meet this demand. There are delays in opening points. What is the point of opening points in advance?

During the test screening, the number of moviegoers was sparse, and a few 1-pointers would be a disaster. Are the film studios so confident in the quality of the movie?

This kind of money can be earned without embarrassment or loss of conscience, and the old and young people in Broad Bean are embarrassed.

That is to say, there are still relatively few idiots on the Internet now. If it takes a few years, Broad Bean will definitely think about cheating on the opponent.

(End of this chapter)