This director needs to apologize

Chapter 220 Greatest Common Divisor

At this point in the discussion, the general framework of "Love Letter" has almost come out. The ring structure alone is quite amazing. Compared with the cliché of past youth films that only focus on flashbacks and memories, the experience is much better.

Moreover, under this structure, the ups and downs of the plot have been paved through narrative techniques, so that there is no need to forcibly create conflicts in order to stimulate the audience, and add some nonsense such as love triangles, first tastes of forbidden fruits, and parental opposition.

Chen Yiming's original intention was to bring youth movies back to youth, otherwise he wouldn't have chosen "Love Letter" to revamp it.

It's just that the original version of "Love Letter" mainly focuses on "missing out", and after reading it, I always feel an uneasy feeling of suffocation.

In fact, most youth movies are about "missing out" and "regret", which can be regarded as a cliché that is not cliché.

Chen Yiming also hopes that the revised version of "Love Letter" will be less cliché and use youth themes to tell a smiling and warm story.

Now let's look at the director Xiangrui. He made the right choice. The big story frame she created is very interesting. As long as the classic campus plots are carefully selected to fill in, the final film will definitely be good.

Thinking of this, Chen Yiming asked, "Xiangrui, how did you collect materials in the past month? As far as I know, you didn't go to school for a few years in China. It seems you went abroad before graduating from junior high school?"

Xiangrui nodded and replied, "Yeah, I only went to preparatory classes, and only went to school for six years in China. I don't know what high school is like here.

As for collecting materials, I mainly chatted with my classmates. I got to know a lot of Chinese classmates in Nuts, many of whom went there only in college. Their high school memories happened to be from the same period as "Love Letter". "

Chen Yiming thought for a moment and then shook his head, "I heard from hearsay that it might still taste a bit different. Have you never thought of finding a high school in the Magic City to experience it for yourself?"

Xiangrui was stunned, "Is this necessary? It's not that I want to be lazy, but "Love Letter" is obviously high school ten years ago. There is a three-year generation gap. There are three gaps. I'm worried that the more I experience it, the more I will go astray. "

Chen Yiming was speechless, "The outline is for you as a reference, not to set rules for you.

As a director, isn’t the first factor in establishing a project to consider the target audience of the film? "

Xiangrui immediately started to cry out, "Of course I know this, and it was precisely because I knew that I didn't rush to the school to collect news.

The main audience for youth films is definitely school students, middle school students, college students and graduate students, as well as office workers who have just graduated under the age of 25.

Among this group of people, those who can drive the reputation of the movie are obviously college students and people in society over the age of 20. Only they have the leisure to serve as voluntary trolls online.

Therefore, whether it is based on the outline setting or the target audience, the reminiscence part of the movie should be set in the years at the junction of the 90s and 00s. "

Chen Yiming couldn't help but look at Xiangrui with admiration. After all, she had managed a theatrical feature film. She was obviously more pragmatic now than when she first worked for Chen Yiming as an assistant director.

It's just that her experience mainly comes from the mature market of Hollywood, and she is somewhat acclimated to the new and half-baked environment in China.

Chen Yiming reminded, "Xiangrui, there is nothing wrong with your logic. If "Love Letter" is filmed in Hollywood, I will have the same attitude as you.

But you have forgotten one thing. The domestic film market is not the same as Hollywood. There is no mature genre film track here yet. There are only two types of films in the market, blockbusters that dominate the schedule and bad films that fill the schedule.

You might say that there are also good films besides blockbusters. That's wrong. If a good film really fills the schedule, it will automatically be upgraded to a blockbuster, and then it will dominate the entire schedule, and one family will take it all.

For example, "Holiday in Magic City". "

Xiangrui seemed to understand, and Megan was even more confused. After all, this didn't seem to be the same thing as the Hollywood market they were familiar with?

Chen Yiming continued to explain, "In China, even the schedule is not fixed. If a blockbuster drives the market, it is a strong schedule. A high-profile blockbuster that fails to meet expectations can also bring down a strong schedule.

The beginning of this year is an obvious example. "Pandora" remained in theaters until early March, directly leading to an extremely popular Spring Festival season.

Before this, did Chinese people have the habit of watching movies during the Spring Festival? "

The two girls were completely stunned by Chen Yiming. Xiangrui said in a self-deprecating voice, "Yiming, just come to your conclusion."

Chen Yiming sighed, "Okay, I'll make the story short. "Love Letter" is definitely not a blockbuster, so I classify it as a schedule filler. Can you agree?"

The two people opposite nodded in unison.

“Since it is a filling period, the first group of audiences is relatively fixed, that is, the group of active movie fans who have already formed the habit of watching movies.

The user profile is slightly different from the target audience previously defined by Xiangrui. It is not college students and social workers aged 20-25, but urban young people aged 22-30.

Among this group of people, college students only account for a small part, and most of them are urban white-collar workers and petty bourgeoisie.

So Xiangrui wants to play tricks on the structure of the film, and I totally agree with it.

Because there are many literary and artistic young people among the white-collar petty bourgeoisie, they can well accept and digest the film's mystique, and can even brainstorm deeper elements for secondary dissemination. "

Xiangrui raised his hand when he heard this and asked, "Yiming, since the initial audience is older, doesn't it further verify my previous judgment that current high schools are not suitable for the high schools in the movie?"

Chen Yiming shook his head, "You only know one thing but not the other. You can't make enough at the box office just by relying on the first batch of active fans.

Think about it, there are many movies filling the schedule at the same time, and you are facing an audience with relatively high movie-watching tastes. How can you ensure that the audience will choose "Love Letter" instead of other movies?

You know, the higher the movie-watching taste, the more differentiated the crowd will be. Out of 100 viewers, there may only be a dozen or twenty people who like youth movies.

Therefore, if you are not willing to fill the schedule, but have the ideal of dominating the schedule from the beginning, you cannot be satisfied with the first batch of audiences.

The reputation of the movie must spread, break through the circle of regular audiences, and attract audiences with relatively low movie-watching frequency into the cinema. "

Megan interjected, "I understand. The student group Xiangxiang mentioned is the second target audience of "Love Letter". This is a downward compatibility process."

Chen Yiming clapped his hands continuously to express his appreciation, "What Aili said is exactly what I want. This is the process when announcing.

During the pre-screening warm-up period, we try to reach as many people as possible who are sensitive to film and television, and rely on quality to establish the film's initial reputation.

In the early stages of its release, word-of-mouth should be spread as quickly as possible to help the film get out of the industry and attract students from universities and middle schools and people who are new to the workplace.

At this stage of the market, breaking through the conventional audience is the only criterion. As long as it successfully breaks through the circle, bad movies will immediately become good films and blockbusters. On the other hand, if it cannot break through the circle, the Hollywood blockbusters that sell well in North America will still end miserably in China. "

Xiangrui understood Chen Yiming's logic, but his face became even more bitter, "Yiming, I know that the details in the movie need to fit in with the memory of the target audience in order to resonate.

But according to you, the target audience spans more than ten years from 16 to 30 years old. The oldest group of people had never even used a computer in high school, so it was completely impossible to balance it all. "

Chen Yiming immediately retorted, "Who says you can't have both? You can just take the greatest common denominator.

Social changes have indeed been great in the past two decades, but Chinese schools have been the ones that have changed more slowly, especially high schools with intense academic pressure.

I suggest you find a high school to intern for a period of time for this reason.

This is China, not nuts. There is no colorful campus life, clubs, dances, football quarterbacks, none of these.

What we have here is only evening self-study, blackboard newspapers, small exams, monthly exams, midterm and final exams, extracurricular activities and a sports meeting, which is already a favor from the teacher.

Xiangrui, these are the school memories of Chinese people under the age of 30. You have to sink in to discover the vivid details in the boring process and truly impress the audience. "

(End of this chapter)