Staring at the screen and listening to the low gunshots coming from the speakers, Xiao Ran gradually had a feeling that he knew he had mastered a little bit, a style that was completely his own. He closed his eyes slightly and thought for a while, then watched the video carefully.
Suddenly, he suddenly realized that he finally understood one of his advantages in directing techniques. Atmosphere is the atmosphere of the film. He found that he had gone further than the original version of "Dark Flower", and his rendering of the film's atmosphere was even better than the original version.
It's a bit colder, but it's a bit more thorough.
It felt as if just the pictures could make people feel the tone of the film and arouse people's emotions. Xiao Ran couldn't help but become ecstatic. This was what he wanted, and he directed several films.
, based on his own understanding, he finally got his first characteristic through training.
In fact, Xiao Ran's directing ability is very comprehensive. He not only understands the advantages of each famous director on the screen. For example, Chen Musheng is very good at controlling the rhythm, and Du Qifeng will rely on screen narrative techniques in the future, and Xu Ke
The strange changes and close learning made his directing ability appear comprehensive, but it also made him lose his own characteristics and style.
Now, he has finally achieved success after hard work, which makes him unhappy. A famous director is allowed to fail, but he is absolutely not allowed to lose his own style. He can have nothing, but he cannot be without characteristics.
In terms of popularity, Xiao Ran is indeed the most famous director in Hong Kong. After all, he is the best director in Cannes. Locally, he has also become one of the most famous directors in Hong Kong because of "Dark Flower", and people think of his directing ability.
It is outstanding, but Xiao Ran knows very well that he is actually just playing a copying role. So far, only "The Spy" is his personal work.
His ability is far from worthy of his popularity. Whether it is to realize his dream of being a director or for other reasons, Xiao Ran must develop his own abilities instead of plagiarism. To become a famous director, he must
He has to have style, so he, who has always been calm, is so excited because he knows that he has successfully taken the first step.
The movie was coming to an end, and Fa Ge and the others, who had not watched the entire movie, were breathing heavily because they were completely immersed in this bizarre killing spree and could not extricate themselves.
Xiao Ran's heart was lifted up. This was related to his dream, so it was inexplicable for him not to be nervous. Perhaps every director and filmmaker who participated in the test screening was always so nervous, not only because he was afraid of being scolded, but also because he was afraid of being scolded.
Because the suspense was right in front of him. Xiao Ran even wondered whether the test screening could easily give the director a heart attack, so it was canceled.
The scene where Feng Feier is killed is being screened now. It was not easy to shoot this scene, but the editing is even more troublesome. It took many separate shots to be edited together to create this coherent scene, and it is extremely cruel.
's play.
Some women even closed their eyes tightly while watching this scene. The cathartic gunfight that followed was actually not the point. Although this masculine and heroic gunfight scene was filmed very well, Xiao Ran has always been
I think this was a failure and indirectly damaged the atmosphere of the film.
However, when he decided not to shoot this scene, he quickly realized one thing, a very important point. As I said to Xu Ke before, it will not work if the film is too gloomy. There must be a means of catharsis.
From this standpoint, Xiao Ran finally understood how difficult it was for director You Zhi to produce the original version. Without this scene, the plot would not be able to reach its climax.
We can't even expect the ending to create a climax, because everyone knows that the ending is purely an anti-climax, an extremely unexpected anti-climax. Film critics may appreciate it, but the audience may not like it. So, Xiao Ran reluctantly added
This scene.
This cold but passionate gunfight scene obviously aroused the passion of the audience. Everyone was holding their heads high, looking like they wanted to rush to the screen and shoot a few shots. Xiao Ran snickered, because he knew that the gunfight would be fierce.
It ended in a way no one expected.
On the roof, the calm Fa Ge and the gloomy Su Renyao had another decisive battle. Su Renyao fell off the roof and was beheaded. This naked violent scene was not bloody at all, but it allowed everyone to clearly experience the bloody
And cruel. The audience screamed to vent the fear in their hearts, as if this could offset the violent atmosphere brought by the camera.
The character played by Fa Ge walked past Zhang Wenle. When everyone in the audience thought that Fa Ge was about to escape, Zhang Wenle raised his hand and shot him in the back of the head. Fa Ge fell down very neatly, and the whole panorama was handled well.
Very tense.
Xiao Ran secretly laughed again. He finally completely fooled all the audience. The narration that sounded meaningful now sounded in the cinema: "An old guy who has not returned to Macau for more than ten years..."
Silence, extremely embarrassing silence, the only sound in the cinema was the sound on the screen. Xiao Ran's heart gradually sank. Unexpectedly, he really couldn't accept this film. It seemed that it was too ahead of its time.
Finally, the audience responded, but unfortunately, it was a curse: "Damn it, what kind of movie is this director making? I can't even understand it!"
Xiao Ran smiled bitterly, and finally came. He had always been thinking about whether he would be scolded at the screening, but he didn't expect that this day would come after all, and it would come so fast. Looking at Xiao Ran's expression, he was surprised
Brother patted his shoulder and whispered: "Aran, don't be discouraged. This film is great, but they don't know how to appreciate it."
Just when Xiao Ran thought he had lost, he didn't see that the faces of countless viewers below showed expressions of thinking. They were thinking about the entire film and the plot. Soon, they realized that this film
When the plot was unprecedentedly perfect in an action movie they had seen, they knew what to do.
The applause rang out, although it was not very intense, but it brought a ray of confidence to the frustrated Xiao Ran. He raised his head in surprise and looked at the audience below. Many people stood up and applauded, but most of them were still thinking.
Only a small number are leaving cinemas.
In fact, he underestimated the audience's ability to accept it, and apart from the weird style of this film, it is also very entertaining. On the contrary, the current acceptance ability of Hong Kong audiences was much higher than it was twenty years ago.
Otherwise, the original version of "Dark Flower" would not have become popular in the mainland until the 21st century.
Film critic Li Zhuotao, Lie Fu and Luo Ga came to Xiao Ran and looked at Xiao Ran with strange expressions. It was as if he had been thinking about it, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses and say: "Director Xiao, your movie... is very...
Weird, so weird!”
How weird! What a clever statement! Xiao Ran smiled helplessly, glanced at this damn theater, and finally left here with Fa Ge. Fa Ge did not leave immediately, but looked at Xiao Ran and said, "Let's go have some midnight snacks.
!”
Xiao Ran nodded. After what happened today, he really wanted to give up on guiding Hong Kong films in the right direction. He put on his sunglasses, found a seat at a food stall with few customers, and sat down. He ordered some food, and Fa Ge comforted him.
Said: "Actually, you did a good job, but they don't know how to appreciate it. Don't be sad!"
Xiao Ran shook his head slightly. He was not worried about this matter. Even if the film failed, it would not be a big problem. The key was that it seemed difficult for him to control the trend of Hong Kong films. To solve this problem, he must
You have to control the Film Association.
"By the way, when are you going to resolve the matter between you and Fang Ruohai?" Fa Ge suddenly realized that we should not talk about this issue now, and quickly changed the topic: "Even I can see now, if you
If you want to make it bigger, you must move this rock!"
"It's okay, he can't threaten me!" Xiao Ran smiled. Now his financial resources are only equal to Fang Ruohai's, so it's not easy to fight. However, this doesn't mean that he has nothing to do, it's just that he doesn't want to move for the time being.
As long as we can win this summer vacation war, we can almost move away from Haile Group. There are two ways, one is to force them away, and the other is to directly control. The first one requires a little time, and the second one requires financial resources.
Both are needed by Xiao Ran.
Thinking of this, the unhappiness just now gradually disappeared. Fang Ruohai thought he did a great job, but Xiao Ran knew that he was wrong, very wrong. Without the support of Jiahe and Debao, Fang Ruohai would not be qualified to stand in the Hong Kong film industry.
Stay in position.
Fang Ruohai thought that he could buy half a year by telling a big lie and use it as a basis to stand up. This is absolutely impossible. Jiahe is now gradually realizing that Fang Ruohai's promise cannot be fulfilled. By then, only Phantom plus Jiahe
By joining forces with Debao, we guarantee that no one in Hong Kong will dare to take on the role of Haile Group, no matter how high the remuneration is.
The next day, movie reviews about "Dark Flower" appeared in major newspapers. When An Yuxuan gave these newspapers to Xiao Ran, Xiao Ran glanced at her disapprovingly. He thought there must be nothing good to say in it, but when he turned over the
When he opened the newspaper and took a look, it was not as bad as he imagined.
The fair comments from film critics in major newspapers are very interesting, and they basically did not attack this film. For example, the focus of Li Zhuotao's comments is that this film is very weird, and he very sensitively mentioned that this may be one of Xiao Ran's experiments.
It is a work with a very strange style and a very personal style.
Luo Jia's article said that Xiao Ran was very ambitious from the script to the director, trying to make up a trap for the audience to fall into. As for Li Fu, what he said was the most fair, he said that you may not like this film, but it doesn't
It definitely can’t be called a bad movie.
After that, Xiao Ran knew that the theme of the film had failed. He worked hard and re-edited it, and the emotion related to the national sentiment became much weaker. However, the smoother the film became, the more exciting it became.
It is a classic action movie.
Three days later, the film premiered in cinemas. At Xiao Ran's invitation, many celebrities came to support it, such as Wan Ziliang, who had just left the show for TVB, and so on. The box office of the premiere was unexpectedly good.
There were actually 2.1 million.
The previous week's box office (excluding test screenings) narrowly exceeded 10 million, and then it slowly rose. By the third week, it reached 20 million. Then it slowly rose, and in the fifth week, it suddenly exceeded 10 million.
30 million level. Then the number of theaters was gradually reduced, and the number gradually shrunk. The final box office made Xiao Ran himself feel incredible, it actually reached 37 million.
According to the investigation by the marketing department and the feedback from friends of Phantom, before the final box office results came out, they produced a survey report. Twenty percent of people entered the cinema for the name of Cannes, while those who went to the cinema for the name of Xiao Ran and Phantom
Twenty percent of the people entered the cinema for the first time. Forty percent of the people entered the cinema because of Fa Ge. The rest came simply because they were bored.
Another detailed survey report showed that 40% of the people surveyed went to the cinema because of the publicity, which shows the great effectiveness of publicity. The most interesting thing is that 10% of the audience had watched it twice.
At least 35%, one of them even watched it five times.
Of course, for Xiao Ran, he still has no idea whether the box office of this film will be good or bad. However, he knows very well that the mixed reviews will definitely attract many viewers to the cinema.
The performance reports of various departments in the first half of the year have also come out. The production department has produced a total of twelve films, three of which have not yet been released. Among these twelve films, eleven have exceeded RMB 10 million, which can be regarded as reaching Xiao Ran's level.
bottom line.
There are four films that have exceeded 20 million, which of course does not include Xiao Ran's "Dark Flower". There is only one film that has exceeded 30 million, which is a comedy directed by a new director. However, do not underestimate this number.
Four of these twelve films are the debut films of new directors, which is a very good result.
In terms of distribution, a total of 11 films from other companies were released in the first half of the year, with a profit of 80 million. Except for three of our company's films in the first half of the year, which were of poor quality and failed to be fully distributed, all the others were successful.
The comprehensive release in Southeast Asia only generated profits from screening and distribution, with a total profit of 340 million.
Compared with the other four major companies, Phantom has not really lost except for losing a battle in the Lunar New Year market. When it comes to box office, distribution numbers, and even profits, Phantom is in the same level as Golden Harvest.
Haile Group and Debao are on another level. Tianluo Company may be the third group because there is no one to support them.
In early July, Xiao Ran flew to Taiwan, accompanied by his secretary An Yuxuan, Sunshine and Monkey, and Lin Yongmai. During this period, Lin Yongmai was forced to go to night school to study management and other aspects by Xiao Ran.
Amai was helpless, but he believed that his life belonged to Xiao Ran, so he had no choice but to follow suit.
Just kidding, Xiao Ran didn't intend to use Amai as a gunman. With such filial piety and such a tough character, it would be a waste if he didn't cultivate it properly. Fortunately, Amai is not very stupid in this regard, and he will soon
He had learned a lot, so Xiao Ran took Ah Mai with him, hoping that he could learn something.
There are three major agents in Taiwan, one of which is Lin Guiyun. These are Xiao Ran's competitors. Xiao Ran is somewhat sorry for Lin Guiyun. Originally, they could have become friends, but if Phantom were to switch to distribution, it would inevitably happen with Lin Guiyun.