Started as an independent producer in 1988

Chapter 335 People are forced to do things!

Following the trend is the easiest thing to do.

Capitalists all over the world like to speculate, but only true revolutionaries choose to innovate.

Chen Shiping would not call himself a revolutionary; he was more of an opportunistic revolutionary.

Without rebirth, he would just be an ordinary person.

Chen Shiping likes others' praise for him, but he will not get lost.

Because those praises were given to God, not to him.

But there is an old Chinese saying that is particularly good.

It’s a mission from heaven!
He took the lead in receiving these praises.

In the Beijing Film Studio, Chen Shiping's script had been circulated among everyone, and after reading it, everyone felt that such a movie could not be made.

The script has some good ideas and the name is catchy enough, called The Day After Tomorrow.

Just all kinds of extreme weather, floods, storms, hail, ice and snow.
Most people in the factory know the level of the digital special effects studio, and it is still a bit difficult for them to make these special effects.

The final effect is likely to be distorted.

Chen Shiping watched them drinking tea and did not find this difficult to achieve.

Real shooting plus special effects just costs a little more money.

It would be nice to restore some famous buildings on a one-to-one basis and then make a scaled-down version of the city.

Chen Shiping planned to set the story in Hong Kong.

The film was also shot in Kuala Lumpur, Japan, Shanghai, Mumbai, New York and other places.

But the films were mainly shot in Asia, the Asian film and cultural circle.

Just like European and American movies only take place in Europe and America, they are only set in some cities in Asia when some negative material is needed.

Then Asian audiences will be very receptive to it.

In fact, if you study it carefully, you will find something very interesting: European and American films and the three major European film festivals are very similar.

These are all "bullying" and smearing of backward countries by developed countries.

The Asian films I saw at the Cannes Film Festival either reflected the darkness of human nature or the backwardness and corruption of the social system.

These films will then be played in art theaters in Europe and the United States for a long time.

This is the channel through which most Europeans and Americans learn about Asian countries.

This is also the reason why foreigners who come to China for tourism in 2024 will be scared.

Their impression of China is still stuck in the 1980s or 1990s.

The film public opinion front is actually more useful than many things, at least more useful than art exhibitions and Confucius Institutes.

That thing is purely a face-saving project and is of no use at all.

Unless you are a world-class art master and can showcase Eastern culture in your work, it will be useless.

The influence of artworks and some literary works is far less than that of some entertainment such as movies and television.
Between an interesting movie and a Confucian Analects that you can't understand, which one would you choose?

For 95 percent of people in this world, they will choose the former.

Of course, cultural symbols and some cultural elements are very necessary and will give the audience a stronger sense of immersion.

Hollywood movies do the same thing, adding a little bit of oriental elements to many Hollywood blockbusters.

Or if you add a Chinese face, many viewers will feel identified with it.

You may even feel proud of it, and you will immediately feel a sense of immersion.

If Chen Shiping's current film chooses to go to some small counties in China, the people there will also be very happy, and they will go to the cinema to support the film after it is released.

This is a psychological marketing trick, simple but effective.

Everyone needs a sense of identity to live.

Of course, Chen Shiping also had a selfish desire, which was to watch the Statue of Liberty fall down in the movie and sink to the bottom of the sea never to see the light of day again.

By the way, we also need to show how the free and beautiful country reacts when faced with such doomsday.

Why can European and American movies "bully" them, and why should Chen Shiping bully them back?

Hell, the Statue of Liberty is severely bullied in the movie. Judging from the emotions of the audience in Asia, it is probably very enjoyable to watch.

Building an Asian film culture circle! Start by knocking down the Statue of Liberty!
What is important is the gradual disenchantment of European and American culture.

At this time in the conference room, people from many departments including the production department, director's office, literature department, stunt team, etc. were discussing the script.

It took almost twenty minutes before they quieted down.

Everyone looked at Chen Shiping and expressed their opinions.

To sum up these problems in one sentence, filming a movie is too difficult and the Beijing Film Studio may not have the conditions for such production at present.

Chen Shiping nodded and asked, "Why do you say that? What are your main concerns?"

"The main reason is that the action scenes involved are too large and there are too many natural disasters. We don't have the ability to produce realistic special effects now."

Chen Shiping smiled and said, "I didn't say that all of them were digital effects. Is it possible to achieve real shooting?"

Everyone turned to look at Chen Shiping and subconsciously asked, "Director, you are not really planning to film it for real, are you? Then we need to build a very large real set."

Chen Shiping nodded and said, "Yes, I plan to use real shots."

In fact, it is not as difficult as imagined. The shooting the day after tomorrow also involves a lot of real shots plus special effects.

Floods, hail, blizzards, etc. are all real-life effects.

With the help of digital special effects in the later stage, a very perfect effect can be achieved.

The effect of real shooting is the most explosive!
For example, for the scene where the Hong Kong River was flooded by the tsunami, we could build a super-large proportional scene in Studio 1 of the factory, and then add a super-large water tank to simulate the tsunami.

This is not impossible to achieve, and it does not require any explosive special effects technology.

Digital effects labs are now able to do just that.

Isn’t this how the special effects of Uncharted were created?

The script also includes a scene in which the capital city is extremely rapidly frozen by a snowstorm, and this effect was also achieved through the construction of real scenes, snowmaking machines, refrigerators, and delayed shooting.

Everyone in the conference room was shocked by Chen Shiping's idea.

Shooting in this way is a very huge workload!

And a lot of thought needs to be put into some of the designs for real-life shooting.

How to simulate the movement of a real tsunami and what to do with an extremely fast-freezing snowstorm.

All of this takes a lot of time and research.

The key point is that all of this is something the Beijing Film Studio has never encountered before, and they have no similar experience, so it is difficult for them to have confidence that they can do it well.

Everyone in the conference room was numb, and the old director's requirements for the movie became higher and higher.

This is going to tire these silly guys to death!
"Mr. Chen, why can't you start with something simple? You can even go to the sea and shoot some real scenes of the storm in the mysterious sea. Yours is too difficult."

Chen Shiping smiled and said: "Mysterious Sea is not easy, now it's time to make it more difficult for you."

In fact, Chen Shiping originally thought about making a movie like Snowpiercer.

The special effects scenes are simple, easy to shoot, and creative and gimmicky enough. But Chen Shiping thought about it and decided to shoot a movie like The Day After Tomorrow first.

Only the big problems brought about by large-scale productions can enable people in the factory to grow rapidly and accumulate experience.

What Chinese-language films need most is time to catch up with Hollywood.

If you start simple, it would take a year to shoot Snowpiercer.

If you want a more difficult one, you will have to wait another year.

By the time the Beijing Film Studio was able to make a movie like The Day After Tomorrow, Hollywood had already made Avatar!

Even later
Anyway, in the original time and space, China Film Corporation has been tinkering with it for so many years but has not produced a movie like the Day After Tomorrow.

What the country lacks now is not just technology but experience in making this kind of film.

Digital special effects studios have made great progress now, but they lack specific practical experience.

Doesn’t the Beijing Film Studio have the ability to build real scenes and shoot real scenes?
It's just that I have no experience and don't know where to start.

So, what we need to do now is to accumulate experience and we must push ourselves to a higher level.

If you don’t push yourself, how can you know the limit of your potential?

After Chen Shiping chatted with them for a while, he decided on the project for the day after tomorrow.

Complaining is useless!
After Chen Shiping made the decision, he let them prepare the rest.

Chen Shiping also had to find directors and actors for them, provide funding, and solve equipment problems.

Everyone has paid a lot.

At this time, the benefits of the producer system become apparent.

You can act on multiple fronts without having to first decide on a director and then have the director solve these issues one by one.

Many Chinese directors may spend one or two years shooting a movie, even if it is just a feature film.

The efficiency is extremely low, so just make art films or commercial films as soon as possible.

As for the choice of director the next day, the first person Chen Shiping thought of was actually Cheng Kaige.

But I was worried that he would not be able to make a good movie because he had never done such a movie before.

However, no matter what Chen Shiping thought, he could not find a director with similar experience in China.

Rather than handing it over to others, it is better to hand it over to Cheng Kaige.

At least he has made great progress now. The key is that if Cheng Kaige is filming in Beijing, Chen Shiping can keep an eye on him at any time!
Chen Shiping felt more at ease sitting here personally to keep an eye on Cheng Kaige.

But there is no rush. I will wait until Mulan is released after the new year and then go talk to Cheng Kaige.

Otherwise this old guy will get cocky again.

Chen Shiping is now going to Huairou to see the progress of the digital film and television base.

Being a leader means you have to inspect everywhere.

The main reason is that it’s the end of the year, and I have to visit all the branches to show my care!
After spending a few days visiting all the companies in the group, big and small, the end of the year has arrived.

At the end of January, the Lunar New Year holiday ended.

It also means that the data for the film market for the whole year is about to be released.

At a meeting of China Film Group, people from the distribution department were reporting on the market conditions for the whole of last year.

"The mainland's market data hit a new high last year, reaching 4.37 billion. Compared with the beginning of market reform in 1992, it has increased by nearly 100%!"

"The box office in Hong Kong has declined this year, mainly due to the impact of the Asian financial crisis. This is the case in almost all of Southeast Asia. The only market that has maintained a super high growth rate is the mainland market."

Chen Shiping listened to the reports of a series of data with a relaxed look on his face. As long as there was rapid growth, everything would be fine.

"The Lunar New Year holiday season has ended, and the market data has been compiled. This year's Lunar New Year holiday season has exceeded 350 million, a 12% increase compared to last year."

"The box office champion of the Chinese New Year box office is Feng Ku Zi's "Personal Tailor", followed by Cheng Long's "Who Am I?". "Who Am I" has received good box office response in Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other places, and is generally much higher than "Personal Tailor."

"Jet Li's King of Assassins in the Mainland"

The meeting ended half an hour later and Chen Shiping returned to his office to look through the detailed data.

This year's Lunar New Year box office did not cause much stir, with no blockbusters released.

Feng's Private Customization of Pants eventually grossed 67 million yuan at the domestic box office.

This result is already very good.

After all, it is a remake of the movie. There was already a "Party A" and "Party B" before it, and it hasn't been a few years.

Moreover, Private Customization relies on jokes and lines to make people laugh, and Feng Pants itself has no box office appeal.

This kind of language film itself has great limitations
It is not very popular in the entire Asian market, and it is only slightly better in places where there are more Chinese people.

But the overall performance was very poor.

Just like the Northeastern Errenzhuan, it is difficult for him to leave the Northeast.

However, Cheng Long's Who Am I also performed well at the box office, taking in nearly 26 million US dollars in the entire Asian market.

Movies still make money!
Jackie Chan’s appeal is still very good. If the movie was not so exciting, the final data would be better.

In comparison, Jet Li performed a little worse. The box office data of the movie "King of Killers" starring him was not good in Southeast Asia.

It was a typical old Hong Kong film, and ultimately only grossed over 58 million RMB at the box office.

Of course, it was also affected by the financial crisis, otherwise the box office would not be so low.

Audiences have seen too many Hong Kong films, and now with the bombardment of Hollywood blockbusters and some blockbusters from China Film, this old Hong Kong film style has gradually become unpopular.

It's not even as high as Feng's Private Customization at the box office. At least during the Chinese New Year, everyone prefers to watch comedies.

The box office of several films released during the Lunar New Year period were not high, but the combined data was very good and was able to support the entire market.

Such data is actually healthy. Compared with the box office in previous years which was supported by a blockbuster movie, this year's data is actually better.

Feng Kuzi was extremely excited; the fact that Private Customization had grossed over 60 million in China made him a very impressive commercial director!
There are not many directors in China who have exceeded this number, but he also knows that if he wants to maintain his reputation, his next movie must be successful.

Feng Kuzi also held a celebration banquet and specially invited Chen Shiping, who did not refuse.

Chen Shiping also met Liu Bei at the privately-tailored celebration banquet.

He and Liu Bei haven't seen each other for quite a long time.

The relationship between the two people is just that of senior friends.

Liu Bei, the BJ fan, was neither shy nor embarrassed when he saw Chen Shiping.

Instead, she greeted him warmly, and seemed very intimate in her words and actions.

When they sat down to eat together, Liu Bei took the initiative to sit next to him and talk to him in a low voice.

"Are you free tonight? We haven't seen each other for a long time. Let's have a drink together tonight?"

Chen Shiping was quite tempted, but he had promised to go home and tell the girl the story tonight.

"I guess drinking isn't an option, but we can still have time to chat after we're done."

Liu Bei whispered, "Do you really like being bitten while driving?"

Chen Shiping: “.” Who is driving?
(End of this chapter)