A great director who grew up happily

Chapter 397: Movies with the same theme

Chen Jinnian did not refuse Guo Xing's invitation, but in order to avoid trouble, he did not bring Wang Yidi and chose to go to the banquet alone.

After getting off the car at the destination, he said to Wang Yiming, "Brother, you can't just leave me behind this time like you did when you went to the Central Academy of Drama."

"Don't worry, I know it."

In fact, even without Chen Jinnian's instructions, Wang Yiming would definitely help his sister keep an eye on his brother-in-law.

"Okay, I'll send you the specific location later." Chen Jinnian said and walked in.

After receiving his message, Guo Xun came down early. When he saw him in the hall, he warmly welcomed him into the box and told him in advance who would come today.

For Guo Meng, there were really no outsiders at the party tonight. They were mainly Ning Hao and several directors he signed with, Bad Monkey CEO Wang Yibing, the official male lead Huang Bo, and Guo Meng's two best friends.

Chen Jinnian listened silently. Most of the people inside were people he had only heard of but never seen before, so it felt a little bit fresh.

He was one of the early ones, and when he entered, there were only three people chatting enthusiastically, among whom he had recognized the recognizable Qingdao lady and the big forehead before.

"Brother Hao, my male lead is here, Chen Jinnian. What do you think? He's more handsome than your male lead, right?" Guo Xun hooked his arm around Chen Jinnian's shoulders and jokingly introduced them to each other.

"It's just so-so. It can't be compared with when I was young." After Huang Bo said that, he stood up from the sofa and shook hands with him enthusiastically.

"That's right. Brother Bo has played in a band after all, and he's the lead singer of Blue Wind and Sand."

"Oh, that's great! Don't be fooled by your young age, you really know what's good." Huang Bo said flatteredly, "I'll sing for you someday and show you my strength."

"Come on, stop bragging." Ning Hao, who knew Huang Bo, couldn't help but tease him. "Still talking about a band? You've almost starved yourself to death. Just try to fool outsiders."

After Ning Hao finished speaking, he looked at Chen Jinnian with great interest. He had heard Guo Xun talk about him before, but after seeing him with his own eyes, he realized that he was really young and really handsome.

"Guo Xing introduced you to me," Ning Hao began. "And you and I have a connection. When I launched the 72 Changes Film Project last year, a director wanted to make a film about cheating on the SAT and TOEFL exams. I promised him I'd find the actors and screenwriter for him and film it in the US. But you acted so quickly. My script hasn't even been finished yet, and yours is already coming out."

The script Ning Hao was referring to was "Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing". They didn't know about it when "Bad Genius" was being filed and filmed. If it were other listed film and television production companies, everyone in the circle would know what projects and plans they had.

But Chen Jinnian was working alone. No one knew the specific content of the filming except his own people. He suddenly took out the finished film without making any noise and notified others that it was going to be released. No one could stand this.

It takes about two years for a qualified movie to be produced from the project approval to the final release. The longer the time, the greater the risk, so film and television companies will tacitly avoid each other's projects to prevent both sides from suffering losses.

Only the young and inexperienced Chen Jinnian is unaware of the unspoken rules of the industry.

Ning Hao didn't pay attention to the trailer. He learned from Guo Xing that Chen Jinnian had a movie with the same theme coming out in June. He immediately stopped his work and studied the only promotional material released frame by frame. Finally, he came to a conclusion:

The "Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing" project can no longer be continued.

Although the facts were devastating, they were also extremely grateful that the project was stopped at the script stage. If it was at the shooting stage, no one knew what the consequences would be.

"But I filed the script outline a long time ago, didn't you know?" Chen Jinnian asked puzzledly.

"I know." Ning Hao nodded. "But with so many applications filed, we all thought 'Bad Genius' was a cliché spy film on the internet. Who knew it was actually cheating on an exam?"

Ning Hao made the mistake because he didn't pay attention to the filing, while Wang Zhongjun caused the controversy over the mobile phone sequel because he paid too much attention to the filed script.

If Bad Genius had the word "Exam" in its title and Revenge of the Ballet didn't have the word "Ballet" in its title, then it would probably be a different story now.

"The content of the filed script is very different from the final film, so when the film and television companies file it, they basically just randomly put in a name that fits the direction of the story and can also protect the real title of the film." After Ning Hao finished speaking, he raised his head and looked at Chen Jinnian depressedly.

His famous work Crazy Stone was not named this before it was officially released.

Chen Jinnian actually didn't know anything about what he knew back then.

"So that's how it is." Chen Jinnian nodded, looking as if he was being taught. He really didn't know this, and no one had ever told him about it.

"So I think it's better for everyone to be familiar with each other. You know our project plan, and we understand your plan to prevent such mistakes from happening." CEO Wang Yibing added

Ning Hao nodded immediately. He was almost 40 years old, and Chen Jinnian had given him two surprises. He really couldn't stand it.

"But I don't have any plans right now." Chen Jinnian spread his hands helplessly. "I just finished filming the movie I'm working on. Right now, apart from a game and a Cantonese opera movie, I don't have any other plans."

"Don't you have a movie that you are revising?" Guo Yun reminded.

"You mean that one? Who knows when the revision will be completed? That will be next year." Chen Jinnian said. He has never asked about it since the script was taken away by President La.

Chen Jinnian felt that the script revision was just a cover, because the content was complete and there was no intention to convey educational significance. The only two troublesome points were the slightly large-scale shots and the subject matter.

Therefore, whether the script can be revised depends on when his superiors allow him to shoot.

"Next year?" Guo Xing asked doubtfully, "So you mean that what you just said is that everything will be over this year."

"Of course, I had already promised Zhuying at the beginning of the year, otherwise I would have rented those equipment from there." Chen Jinnian asked back.

"But if you go it alone like this, you'll easily be eliminated by the market because you can't afford to lose money. If any of your movies don't perform well at the box office and don't meet expectations, it could be a devastating blow to your career."

"This is not alarmist talk, it's a matter of probability. If we want to grow and develop and establish a climate, we need groups of people to work together to develop the film market." Ning Hao expressed his thoughts.

The reason why he signed so many young directors at the same time was based on this idea.

At the beginning, he only wanted to raise three wolves, but later he found that only wolves were not enough, he also needed sheep, otherwise it would be easy to raise the wolves into dogs.

That's why he supports so many directors at once, in order to create competition while also forming a synergy. If this project loses money, there is always another project to make it back. Only in this way can the support plan continue.

"But I don't think the volume of the film industry will continue to grow indefinitely. Last year's total box office was around 460 billion yuan. It will grow in the future, but the growth will be very limited. And it will also form a winner-takes-all situation, with one movie accounting for one-tenth of the annual box office."

"There's no reason for audiences to pay for bad movies. Since most people only see a few movies a year, they'll just watch the one or two that have the best box office and critical acclaim. So the future will definitely be polarized: mega-budget movies and mid-to-low-budget movies. So I'm focusing on making mid-to-low-budget movies, and at the same time setting up a special effects company to serve big-budget movies."

Chen Jinnian’s ideas are different from Ning Hao’s.