This director needs to apologize

Chapter 390 Aren’t you afraid of dying of stuffiness?
Although Platinum Entertainment was absent from the Spring Festival this year, the entire company was busy and was even busier than in previous years.

Although Chen Yiming's new project is still in the early preparation stage, it has mobilized more than one-third of the company's strength and directly emptied the production team.

After years of operation, the existing system has formed a mature model. In addition, this time it is a "routine routine", so efficiency has been maximized from the very beginning.

There are a lot of contracts to be coordinated with Shen Ming, other potential partners need to be contacted one by one, and Shenzhen City needs to prepare in advance. The result of this three-pronged approach is that most of the staff in the middle and back-end departments have been drained.

The production department was also very busy. One group of people was involved in the audition for the male lead, another group was involved in the location scouting in Shenzhen, and another group of screenwriters was involved in polishing the script.

That's right, this time Chen Yiming chose to delegate even the script writing, which he had never delegated to others in the past. The "rough draft" he gave to the screenwriter team was exactly the same as the one he showed Shen Ming, which was almost equivalent to leaving all the character dialogues blank.

Moreover, he had said in advance that the ranking order of the screenwriters would be determined according to their contribution to the finalized script, and if they performed outstandingly, he would not mind having his name moved slightly to the back.

All the screenwriters who were named are working very hard. This time, Chen Yiming is not leading them for fun. If they do a good job, their names can be put ahead of Director Chen.

At the same time, Lee Jun is also preparing for "Her Memories" with a smaller team. The project has passed the company's preliminary review and completed the filing with the Film Bureau. It is expected to be officially launched after the Spring Festival holiday.

Although both are soft science fiction, "Memories of Her" has doubled the special effects shots compared to "The 13th Floor". It is not easy to transform the original space animation into a live-action movie. Just the few shots of the spaceship and ruins at the beginning of the movie require a huge amount of time and money.

Fortunately, with the support of the dog tycoon Qi Laoer, Li Jun does not have to worry about the cost pressure. The project itself is just a small investment, which is not enough to scare the movie emperor.

This project took the approach of special effects and set design first, and the studio was arranged at the Qindao Film and Television Base. The filming of "Five Hundred Days of Summer Solstice" there went smoothly, and subsequent cooperation was naturally decided.

Although the Magic Film Studio is close to home, the size of the old shed is still somewhat limited, and it is difficult to arrange anything that is a little louder.

Currently, Lee Jun is busy with casting, and Xiangrui is helping to supervise the crew.

This time, Chen Yiming will not even be named as the producer, and the responsibilities of producer will be transferred to Xiangrui who is currently unemployed. His only responsibility is to review and finalize the script, and at most he will take up a planning position.

Apart from these two projects in the preparation stage, the remaining staff in the backstage of Platinum are all immersed in the "Negotiation Expert" which has already started filming.

As for the publicity and promotion departments of Lao Niu and Lao Jia, they have not been idle during this period. Although Platinum will not release any films during the Spring Festival, it does not prevent them from taking external orders.

Ever since the news that Platinum King would miss the Spring Festival period was confirmed, Niu and Jia were approached, hoping that Platinum King could promote and market the film on their behalf.

The publicity and promotion team of Platinum has undergone rigorous market verification, and its brilliant past performance is the best advertisement. After Lao Niu and Lao Jia discussed it, they were quite restrained and only took on one project.

Actually, this was a big job that slipped through the Hong Kong entertainment industry's fingers. The director was a prominent figure in the Hong Kong entertainment industry in the early years, as famous as Chow Yun-fat and Wu Lianjing. He was a comedy star, and had starred in, directed and acted in dozens of comedies. His pirated discs alone supported most of China's video halls in that era.

After the new century, he followed the crowd and went north to seek his fortune. However, unlike other Hong Kong filmmakers, he had a falling out with the entertainment industry and went to court more than once.

This is his first new film in six years, and the first time he is only directing and not acting. The industry is quite skeptical about this, and his asking price is too high, so even though he has the box office appeal of the first-tier movie, the distribution contract has not been finalized.

Chen Yiming and Ma Dashao do not care about the so-called authority of the imperial circle. In fact, the two sides have always been in a state of discord. Chen Yiming never cares about people in the imperial circle and has never cooperated with them in the past. The other side has also repeatedly tripped him up in both open and covert ways, but they did not directly tear their faces apart and fight each other. They were just tacitly maintaining a "harmonious" situation for the boss to see.

So Lao Niu mentioned the situation to Da Zhuang, and the latter nodded in agreement almost at the speed of light.

Compared with the harsh conditions offered by those old companies in the imperial circle, Platinum is simply the conscience of the industry. The prices of its services are clearly marked and the repayments are crystal clear. It only takes a commission and does not engage in underwriting or gambling, and there are no messy additional terms.

In Da Zhuang's words, it means "making friends."

On the day of signing, Chen Yiming also went there to stand on the stage and met the legendary "comedy master" face to face for the first time.

Both families are the type who like to make money quietly, so the so-called ceremony is for insiders to get together for a meal, and the restaurant chosen is a secret private restaurant.

When they met and shook hands, Chen Yiming smiled and said, "Hello, Mr. Zhou. I grew up watching your pirated discs. By the way, I owe you a movie ticket."

The compliment from the international director who has won three awards was very generous and gave enough respect to the cooperation. The slightly unfamiliar atmosphere at the scene was immediately diluted. However, the comedy master's answer was somewhat surprising. He curled his lips and said, "Thank you Director Chen for the compliment. I like the saying of owing a movie ticket. I want to print it on the movie poster."

Lao Jia next to him couldn't hold back the smile on his face. The fans could say this, and even if the fans didn't say anything, the internet trolls could say it. Only the official couldn't say it. Isn't this tantamount to moral kidnapping?
He looked at the old cow on the other side, and sure enough, his fellow sufferer also had an embarrassed look on his face.

Only after they really dealt with each other did they discover that the person who could anger the entire imperial circle was indeed not a good person. He was stubborn and obstinate, and had a strong desire for control, which made the managers under Lao Niu miserable.

It is said that comedians laugh too much in front of the camera, so they rarely laugh behind the camera and are not interesting in their personal relationships. This person's performance perfectly fits this saying.

That smiling face that Chen Yiming was very familiar with always seemed a little forced, and even had a hint of melancholy.

He didn't say much during the meal, and every word he said gave people the feeling that he was thoughtful.

Knowing that the meal would not be a very good experience, Chen Yiming gave up the idea of ​​having a deep chat with him. As the saying goes, there is no need to force yourself to fit in if you are in a different circle.

Anyway, it's just a promotional job and has nothing to do with him as the creative director. He can just go through the formalities when they meet.

The busy days passed quickly. A week before the Spring Festival, Chen Yiming gave himself a holiday and set off for the capital to COS the "prospective son-in-law".

When he was traveling abroad, he discussed with An Xixi that they would go back to Chen Yiming's hometown together to celebrate the Spring Festival this year. Of course, they could not only meet one side of the parents, so this visit before the New Year took place.

Chen Yiming did some psychological work beforehand, but there was no other way. He had been an ordinary citizen for both of his lives and had never been exposed to the "upper class". Who knew whether An Xixi's two fathers would be easy to deal with?

His biological father is a high-ranking political official of an unknown rank, and his stepfather is a business tycoon with a net worth of hundreds of millions. If Chen Yiming were not now an "artist" with initial financial freedom, and if he had not had the inexplicable confidence of a time traveler in his heart, he would definitely not have had the courage to visit them.

As a result, after a few meals, the two "fathers-in-law" were more friendly and approachable than the other, and did not bring him much pressure at all. On the contrary, the "mother-in-law" never gave him a good face, and he was on guard against her like a thief during those days in the imperial capital.

Chen Yiming wanted to turn into the head of state and shout out "THAT'S WHY I am so angry!"

Auntie, you really shouldn't do that? Your daughter has traveled around the world with me. Isn't it too late to be on high alert now?
However, as New Year's Eve was approaching, Mother An still released him and brought New Year gifts to Chen's father and mother. No matter how bad her attitude towards Chen Yiming was, the courtesy of this wealthy family was impeccable.

There is nothing much to say about life in my hometown. When Chen's mother saw her daughter-in-law, a famous star, she immediately forgot about her son and dragged An Xixi around to wish everyone a happy new year. Chen's father was embarrassed to live under the same roof with his son's girlfriend, so he stayed in the chess and card room all day, actually enjoying the compliments from his neighborhood card friends.

Chen Yiming once again became a forgotten corner, and was not welcome by anyone.

In his hometown, people prefer to stay at home and not visit relatives and friends on the first day of the New Year. Chen Yiming took advantage of his free time to take his girlfriend to watch the comedy master's new film, practicing his slogan. Not only did he pay for the movie ticket he owed, he also got a buy one get one free deal.

After watching the movie, Chen Yiming just wanted to sigh. The former comedy master is old after all. Individual jokes are still wonderful, but the whole movie is lackluster. The intention and completion are somewhat disappointing.

Taken alone, it is a pretty festive comedy film, but when compared with his other works, it's obviously inferior.

In other words, the quality does not live up to the reputation.

With various promotions, Chen Yiming's line "I owe you a movie ticket" has undoubtedly become a popular phrase during this Spring Festival holiday. The comedy master's thirty years of popularity with the audience has become unstoppable.

On the first day of its release on the Lunar New Year, this movie broke a series of records and kicked "Transformers 4" into the dustbin of history.

By the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, when Chen Yiming sent An Xixi back to the capital, the cumulative box office of the movie had exceeded 10 billion, with an average of 2 million per day, which was a terrifying average.

Competitors in the same period cried out what a ghost had seen. They finally waited until Chen Yiming, the big killer, had a holiday, only to have someone even more ruthless take over.

Previous years' "Mulan" and "The 13th Floor" only met and shared half, but this year's one was like the lower lip touching the ground and the upper lip touching the sky, the whole dish was eaten up cleanly without any meat residue left.

This is the Spring Festival season. Aren’t you afraid of eating too much if the whole family buys everything?
What's even more difficult is that this unfortunate incident is related to Platinum. Although they are only responsible for publicity and promotion, it is difficult for competitors to calm down their excitement when they think that the "big spring pancake" that they can't eat right in front of them has a bite from Platinum.

(End of this chapter)