Nobody knows movies better than me

Chapter 19 23 Things About Opportunity

As a new director, it's common to receive low or even zero pay in today's film industry.

A 2003 survey showed that more than 80% of young directors had never actually received payment for their work, and they mainly made a living by directing movies or TV series.

The reason is simple: a fledgling director, if they have no family support, usually has to rely on themselves to seize opportunities.

Such opportunities are often very rare, so in order to make the project happen, many directors who are directing for the first time adopt the strategy of paying for their work instead of funding.

When Ning Hao was making "Crazy Stone", he received 3.5 million yuan in investment from Andy Lau and his director's fee was 100,000 yuan. However, due to financial difficulties, he later invested the 100,000 yuan back into the film production.

Later, "Crazy Stone" became a huge hit, and he earned far more than 100,000 yuan.

Of course, Ning Hao is still unaware that "Crazy Stone" will be a huge hit. He had already self-financed, written, directed, and photographed a film called "Incense" last year.

Although the film won many awards, they were all frivolous ones. In the end, it didn't gain much fame and even left the film with debt.

Ning Hao is currently forced to work as a director of short films, music videos, or as an executive director on TV series to pay back the debts incurred from his impulsive actions last year.

However, he was lucky, as he had at least experienced the training of making a feature film, albeit a very simple one.

Zhang Jun's situation is similar to Ning Hao's but also a little different. He first shot a short film with funding provided by Tsinghua University and Ye Xiaoyi, and then won an award at the Beijing College Student Film Festival.

Although he gained some fame through his short films, it was nothing short of a pipe dream to expect that little bit of fame to secure opportunities in the current film industry, where attracting investment is difficult.

Zhang Jun couldn't possibly finance the film himself. Although the original owner's family wasn't poor, his parents were high school teachers and had some savings.

But it's simply impossible for him to use that little bit of savings to support his filmmaking.

Moreover, although Zhang Jun was thick-skinned, he still felt somewhat embarrassed about having transmigrated back in time, taken over someone else's son, and then trying to swindle money from their parents.

Fortunately, he successfully persuaded Ye Xiaoyi, a young heiress, and then persuaded her wealthy father, a real estate tycoon.

With a wave of his hand, he gave Zhang Jun six million yuan to make a movie.

If this gets out, countless directors who desperately seek opportunities will be incredibly envious.

Zhang Jun was naturally very grateful, so he didn't even mention the salary. For a novice director like him, opportunity was more important than pay.

Take the lead first, then consider other things...

The idea that one can invest in a web novel based on the script, then reap box office benefits, win awards overseas, sell copyrights, and ultimately take the lion's share of the profits is pure nonsense.

Is it really possible for a screenwriter and director to take the lion's share of the film's profits without spending a single penny? Wouldn't that mean investors would suffer huge losses?

So, investors are just working for free? That's a bit of a reversal of the natural order.

In the film industry, the least valuable things are ideas and scripts; you can find plenty of them anytime you want.

The biggest shortage is the funding and resources needed to bring creative ideas and scripts to fruition. Only by securing funding can an idea be brought to fruition, and this is the reality of the film industry today.

As for Guanzhi Pictures, when the person in charge, He Xuan, saw that Zhang Jun hadn't mentioned the salary, she wisely didn't bring it up either.

If the boss wants to pay her, that's his business, and Zhang Jun might even be grateful. But if she brings it up herself, it shows a lack of workplace wisdom.

Although she had just transitioned from real estate to become a film company manager, He Xuan had her own set of skills in judging people.

Judging people is the same as judging customers. He Xuan has risen from a salesperson in the real estate office to her current position because of her keen eye for talent.

She could tell that Zhang Jun was different from most young people these days; he was no ordinary person.

In late October, China Film Group's film distribution company quickly reached an agreement with Guanzhi Pictures on distribution, adopting a revenue-sharing distribution strategy.

There are generally three distribution strategies in the current distribution market. The first is the revenue-sharing distribution agreement signed between Guanzhi Pictures and China Film Group.

This revenue-sharing strategy follows a high-risk, high-return approach, with the issuer typically only receiving a commission and a share of the profits.

After sharing the profits with the theaters and deducting the agency fee, the remaining revenue belongs to the production company.

Of course, if the distributor and the production company are the same entity, they might not even need to collect this agency fee.

The second option is to buy out the distribution rights. For example, if China Film Group is very optimistic about Zhang Jun's film, they can pay a lump sum to buy it out directly.

In this way, whether the films make a profit or a loss is irrelevant to Guanzhi Pictures, as they have already bought out their share of the profits.

The third type is guaranteed issuance, which is usually a high-stakes gamble for the issuer.

Before a film is released, the distributor will make a minimum estimate of its box office revenue.

For example, if a film is projected to gross at least 1 million, the production company would receive approximately 3300 million based on the usual revenue-sharing ratio. In that case, the minimum guarantee would likely be set at around 3000 million.

If the final box office exceeds the guaranteed minimum, the profits generated from the excess will be distributed between the distributor and the production company in a ratio that is more favorable to the distributor.

This is how issuers reap high returns after a successful high-stakes gamble.

The distributor pays a high minimum guarantee fee and assumes the risk of losses if the box office falls short of expectations. Therefore, they will invest the most resources and enthusiasm in promotion and distribution, striving to push up the box office and obtain excess profits.

For the production company, this is equivalent to hiring an extremely dedicated promotion team.

However, although the film "Little Miss Sunshine" is of good quality, China Film Group was unwilling to take the risk, so it adopted a revenue-sharing distribution strategy.

After joining the WTO, the scale of imported films also expanded.

In order to support domestic films, the government has introduced a policy stipulating that the revenue sharing ratio for domestic films should, in principle, be no less than 43% for the production company, which also includes the agency fees or share of the distribution company.

For Guanzhi Pictures, although this carries certain market risks, if the film performs well at the box office, the revenue will exceed that of the other two distribution methods.

Once the distribution contract is signed, the promotion and distribution of "Little Miss Sunshine" can begin.

In this era when commercial films were still in their infancy, the film promotion and distribution strategies could be described as simple and crude, or to put it bluntly, burning money.

Slightly earlier than "Little Miss Sunshine", Feng Xiaogang's film "A World Without Thieves" has already announced its release date of December 9th.

Compared to the small-scale production of "Little Miss Sunshine," this big-budget film with a budget of 3000 million and featuring Hong Kong and Taiwanese stars is a truly massive production.

As November arrived, the film's promotional activities intensified.

Huayi Brothers has begun to ramp up its marketing efforts, starting with a large-scale deployment of offline promotional campaigns in major first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

In addition, according to the publicity plan, Huayi Brothers also plans to charter the T97 train from Beijing West Railway Station along the Beijing-Kowloon Railway to Hong Kong and name it "No Thieves Under Heaven".

Director Feng Xiaogang will lead a large cast including Andy Lau, Liu Yifei, Ge You, Li Shuangbing, Wang Baoqiang, Fu Biao, Xu Fan, You Yong, and Zhang Hanyu onto the train.

The cast and crew traveled together on the "A World Without Thieves" train to Hong Kong Island to attend the premiere celebration of the film on December 8th.

The scale and intensity of the promotional campaign for "A World Without Thieves" is unprecedented among Feng Xiaogang's Lunar New Year films.

Compared to the "chartered plane" move that emphasized the "luxury blockbuster promotion strategy" of "Hero" back then, Feng Xiaogang's "chartered train" move is more in line with the characteristics of Feng's New Year films that are meant to be enjoyed by the people.

According to relevant sources, during the train journey, the actors from "A World Without Thieves" not only had to perform for the passengers.

Radio reporters from various regions traveling with them will also connect with local radio stations by phone to broadcast the show live, allowing listeners across the country to enjoy the talk show of "Thief Grandpa" and "Thief Grandma" simultaneously.

As for celebrities meeting with fans and media in major box office cities across the country, and advertising on television and in newspapers, these are all standard methods of film promotion.

This is how blockbusters promote their films, but Little Miss Sunshine can't do that. It doesn't have any big-name stars, and its marketing budget is only one-fifth of the other's.

Therefore, Little Miss Sunshine has to use some tricks when it comes to publicity and distribution.

First, as Ye Xiaoyi said, they would use Sister Furong's hype tactics to first make Zhang Jun an internet celebrity, and then shift the focus to the movie.

Without hesitation, Ye Xiaoyi first took Zhang Jun back to Tsinghua University to seek help from the students in the Film Association.

"Senior, your first movie is about to be released?"

"That's right, it'll be released in December, everyone must go and support it!"

"Definitely, definitely..."

Upon seeing Zhang Jun return, the students from the Film Association immediately surrounded him.

Zhang Jun is now a legendary figure in the Film Association. He led Tsinghua University to win an award by directing a short film and was praised by the school leaders. He is quite remarkable.

During the club recruitment in September, the Film Association simply put up a sign with Zhang Jun's legendary experience, and that was it—GG.

Therefore, Zhang Jun already has the foundation to become an internet celebrity.

The new members who had just joined the club couldn't help but look at Zhang Jun, who was surrounded by his seniors, with curious eyes. Several freshmen were even more captivated by Zhang Jun's handsome face, reminiscent of Vic Chou.

It's only because they were shy and timid when they first entered university, plus Zhang Jun had a strong presence, that the female students would have definitely taken the initiative to ask for his QQ number.

Ye Xiaoyi clapped her hands, coming to Zhang Jun's rescue: "Alright, alright everyone, this isn't a zoo, and Senior Zhang Jun isn't a giant panda."

Everyone chuckled and dispersed, feeling embarrassed, but most of their attention remained focused on Zhang Jun.

Zhang Jun glanced around and asked, "Where is Zhao Liangchen?"

A junior student raised his hand and answered, "Senior, Zhao Liangchen became famous after filming your short film, and he even signed with a talent agency."

He's not here today; he must have gone to film GG.

This was something Zhang Jun hadn't expected. He had only chosen Zhao Liangchen as the male lead because of his gloomy boyish charm, but he never imagined that Zhao would actually enter the entertainment industry.

Shui Mu Nian Hua has successors, not only director Zhang Jun, but also actor Zhao Liangchen.

"Ignore him!"

Ye Xiaoyi skipped over this topic and said to everyone in the Film Association, "Senior Zhang Jun is back today to ask for your help."

"Our new movie is about to be released, and we need to help Zhang Jun become famous online and make him a hit."

"Like Sister Furong?" a female student asked.

"That's right."

Ye Xiaoyi nodded and continued, "However, the method is different from Sister Furong. We want to create the image of a school heartthrob and then spread the story of Senior Zhang Jun online."

Finally, it's crucial to steer the conversation towards the new movie, *Little Miss Sunshine*. This is the key point.

"Um, let me just mention something."

Zhang Jun interjected, "The term 'school hunk' isn't very catchy; it's too common. Let's use a different term: 'campus male god.'"

"Campus heartthrob?"

Everyone's eyes lit up: "That's a good term, it's like a campus heartthrob."

After Zhang Jun and Ye Xiaoyi briefly discussed the plan and finalized the online promotion strategy, the "Campus Male God" project was launched with great fanfare.

In 2004, this promotional method was quite ingenious.

As for the results, we'll have to wait and see.