China Entertainment special effects started in 1997

While the filming of "Zhu Xian" was in full swing, Wu Yusen's "Red Cliff" was finished in November 2005 after more than half a year of filming.

The crew held the world's first press conference in Beijing, where director Wu Yusen and other main actors such as Liang Chaowei, Jin Chengwu, Zhang Fengyi, Zhang Zhen, Lin Zhiling, and Hu Jun made a collective appearance.

Producer Zhang Jiazhen talked about the difficulties of filming the film, which included changing roles at the last minute before the start of filming, continuous heavy rain that collapsed some outdoor sets, and filming overruns and timeouts. Fortunately, director Wu Yusen was outstanding in ability and determination, and led a crew of more than a thousand people to complete the filming task.

At the same time, he said that the film "Red Cliff" will be released in two episodes, the first episode will be released in early July 2006, and the second episode will be released in December 2006.

At present, director Wu Yusen is working non-stop on post-production. The entire film will have more than a thousand special effects shots to create a shocking visual effect, which will become the pinnacle of Chinese costume films.

A reporter asked a question at the scene, saying that Jiang Heng will have a new film "Zhu Xian" released in the summer of 2006.

According to his usual speed of filming, he will also release a blockbuster in the 2006 Lunar New Year.

The two episodes of "Red Cliff" will compete with Jiang Heng in the summer of 2006 and the Lunar New Year respectively. Aren't you worried about the box office?

Producer Zhang Jiazhen said that Jiang Heng's special effects blockbusters were able to achieve super high box office in the mainland and internationally before, mainly due to the lack of films of the same quality and type.

In addition, Jiang Heng is very good at marketing, organizing midnight shows, premieres, advance screenings, and roadshows. It can be said that the publicity and promotion team and strategy of mainland commercial films are all learned from Jiang Heng.

As for the international market, it is because European and American audiences have a special preference for special effects blockbusters with Hollywood blockbuster standards and "mysterious oriental elements".

Jiang Heng's films are good, but the reason why he has been successful before is that he lacks opponents.

To use a classical Chinese phrase, "When there are no heroes, the young men become famous"!

But from 2006, this situation will change, because the Three Kingdoms-themed movie "Red Cliff", which has a total investment of 80 million US dollars, gathers superstars from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, and is based on the four famous classics. It will be released worldwide for the first time.

Zhang Jiazhen said to the reporters in a domineering manner: "Red Cliff has never regarded other movies as opponents, nor is it afraid of any opponents."

As soon as this was said, all the entertainment reporters at the scene were stunned.

Although we don’t know how the movie version of "Zhu Xian" will perform next summer, judging from the performance of director Jiang Heng’s previous works, it must have a box office of at least 500 million or 600 million.

Are you really not afraid to compete with "Red Cliff" Part 1 in the same period?

After the event, a group of media reporters hurried back to write a press release without mentioning it.

Zhang Jiazhen, Wu Yusen and a group of main creative staff, as well as representatives of several major investors, had dinner together.

This time, although China Film did not participate in the production of the film, Beijing Film Studio was one of the 20 production companies of the film.

Of course, the amount invested is not much, it can only be considered as a token of appreciation.

For this film, the investment cost of up to 600 million yuan was only 150 million yuan from several mainland companies, and the rest mainly came from Japan's Avex Company, South Korea's Showbox Films, Taiwan's Central International and Hong Kong Standard Chartered Bank.

This time, Wu Yusen brought over the Hollywood financing model of producers, distributors, banks and insurance companies to guarantee film shooting. His own American company first obtained the finished film insurance from the film guarantee company, and Hong Kong Standard Chartered Bank then provided part of the loan for the film shooting.

Therefore, in terms of publicity and distribution, Wu Yusen or Zhang Jiazhen would not speak nonsense at the moment.

Because these publicity and promotion strategies and methods were negotiated with representatives of the two Japanese and Korean companies and Standard Chartered Bank, after all, the main investment of the film came from them.

The publicity and promotion strategy of the "Red Cliff" publicity and promotion team is to touch Jiang Heng.

It is not clear that they will compete with Jiang Heng, but as long as they mention it at the press conference, reporters will fill in their minds and write it.

With the overwhelming publicity, the audience knew that Red Cliff would be released next summer, in the same schedule and at the same level as Jiang Heng's Zhu Xian.

During the dinner, the representative of the Korean company suddenly asked: "Can we publicize that the visual effects of Red Cliff far exceed the new film Jiang Heng is shooting, and will be the pinnacle of Chinese-language films?"

Wu Yusen smiled awkwardly, "It will be hard for the audience to believe it, and I'm afraid it will be counterproductive!"

Zhang Jiazhen also said: "We can't publicize it like that. Jiang Heng has a lot of fans, and overly exaggerated publicity can easily lead to smears."

The Korean representative said with regret: "I thought this movie could surpass Jiang Heng's previous works!"

The Japanese representative said: "We are just using Jiang Heng's fame for publicity, not really trying to compete with him, there is no need Do those things. "

Zhang Jiazhen said: "Yes, Jiang Heng's "Zhu Xian" should be released in mid-July. We only need to release it in early August to avoid its peak viewing. "

The Japanese representative squinted and smiled: "This is a really good idea. Not only can it save a lot of publicity costs, but the effect is also very good!"

Zhang Jiazhen smiled and said: "Who made Jiang Heng the current number one in China? Number one, naturally, there are all kinds of "challenges". When our "Red Cliff" tops the mainland box office champion, someone will come to challenge us!"

"Hahaha!"

Everyone at the table laughed, and they agreed with Zhang Jiazhen's words.

It was mainly because Jiang Heng's mainland movie box office raised the box office expectations of some filmmakers.

They will think that Jiang Heng's film can make 700-800 million yuan in the mainland box office. I'll give him a 20% discount, so it should be 500-600 million yuan!

Zhang Jiazhen and others calculated that "Red Cliff" was released in two parts, and even if one part only made 400-500 million yuan, the two parts together should have made 100-800 million yuan.

When the two parts are counted as one movie for external publicity, it will be said that the total box office of "Red Cliff" has broken the mainland box office record. There will definitely be people who will be happy to see it happen. The media likes to report such record-breaking and exciting things.

As long as the frequency of publicity is enough and the scope is wide enough, the audience will gradually recognize it.

And if Wu Yusen can get the "crown" of the first place in the mainland commercial film box office, the following things will be easier to handle.

That is to shoot the Chinese people's own "Titanic" - "The Taiping".

Like "Titanic", the "Taiping Incident" also happened in reality. It belonged to the China United Shipping Company at that time, and the boss Cai Tianduo was the father of the Taiwan host Cai Kangyong.

Wu Yusen was naturally inspired by "Titanic" and came up with the idea of ​​filming "The Taiping".

Old friend Zhang Jiazhen is also very optimistic about this project, and thinks it would be better for Wu Yusen to raise funds to film "The Taiping" after returning to the mainland with "Red Cliff" and gaining both fame and fortune.

Because according to their expectations, the film requires huge investment to produce a shocking effect and achieve the same impressive results as "Titanic".

At this moment, the box office and reputation of "Red Cliff" are very important, and there is no way to "bump" Jiang Heng!