The Best Director

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It was a sunny afternoon in Los Angeles. Looking at the high-rise building in the Chicago architectural style in front of him, Wang Yang encouraged himself and strode in.

A few days ago, he completed all the post-editing of "Spiritual-Ghost Records". People will definitely break out in a cold sweat. Anyway, Jessica and Joshua, who went to his house to have a quick look at the day when the cut was finished, turned blue with fright after watching it, even though they already knew the plot of the movie.

And Wang Yang himself was miserable, because he lived in the apartment where the movie was filmed, which made him suspicious all day long, sleeping in the middle of the night, and waking up suddenly when he heard the wind in a daze. Perhaps this is the aftereffect of shooting horror movies.

After editing the movie, Wang Yang went on to the next task without stopping, which was the release of the movie. If a movie wants to be shown in a movie theater, it needs to negotiate with the distributor and the theater chain, and the theater chain will then arrange for its movie theaters to be released. This movie distributor is the target of Wang Yang's contact.

In the United States, in California, there are countless film companies, the most famous of which are the eight major companies in Hollywood history, including MGM, Paramount, Columbia, Warner Bros., Universal, United Artists, 20th Century Fox, and Disney; of course, after so many years of evolution, with the "Paramount case", the law ruled that film companies cannot own theaters and movie theaters. With the end of the era of big studios, the power of the eight major companies has long gone forever up.

They either become part of a media conglomerate, like Paramount being acquired by Viacom; or they continue to struggle and maintain their identity as an independent production company, but they will be in huge deficits at any time, like MGM. However, they are still the bosses of the Hollywood film industry and the makers of commercial blockbusters.

Among them, there are also several companies that have subsidiaries and will distribute independent films that are not invested and produced by themselves, such as Fox Searchlight, the distribution company of 20th Century Fox. This company has distributed more than ten independent films, and It has been rewarding.

But the movies represented by Fox Searchlight all cost several million to more than 10 million, and they are film movies. Now the world has not shown a portable home DV movie, after all, DV only came out a few months.

Although Wang Yang knew that it was unlikely that a big company like Fox would watch his movie, he still made a phone call to give it a try. This would at least give him another chance, wouldn't it?

It was just on the phone that when the manager of Fox Searchlight's film purchasing department heard that his film was shot on a home DV and did not arrange a meeting, he refused with a smile. He even thought Wang Yang's call was a prank, what kind of joke, portable home DV, filming? He knows DV, and he knows the quality of DV shooting even more. Can it be put on the big screen? Who's going to see it? Could it be that some kid bought a DV, took a random shot, and thought that what he shot was a movie?

Of course, the more important thing is that there is no need for Fox Searchlight to take risks, or to be a joke. Their current income is very good, and they just need to continue with this business policy.

This result was also expected by Wang Yang, he did not entangle, and entanglement was useless. These big companies are used to big productions. The cost of 10,000 US dollars is a joke in their eyes. How can a movie be made with 10,000 US dollars? It's not that they don't have vision. After all, DV movies have never happened before. This is a kind of pioneering work and a kind of subversion. Human beings are like this. The first person to eat crabs did not rely on vision, but courage.

So, after contacting all the big companies, Wang Yang, who got nothing, began to contact some small and medium-sized companies. Some of them will produce low-cost films by themselves, and some are distribution companies that mainly distribute agents.

Such as the new line, Dimension and so on.

They also felt unbelievable, and also thought that Wang Yang was playing a prank, but unlike big companies such as Fox Searchlight, they did not directly reject Wang Yang on the phone, as if with the idea of ​​"idle is idle, watch It’s good to watch”, and arranged a time for Wang Yang to meet.

In the past few days, Wang Yang took the DVD recording of "Spiritual-Ghost Records" and went to several companies such as New Line and Dimens, but the results were surprisingly consistent. When the movie started to be screened, When they saw the poor picture quality and the extremely shaky camera, they shook their heads and said, "There is no need to watch it anymore."

This time Wang Yang got entangled, but no matter how hard he tried to sell, saying that shaking the camera is the style of DV movies, pseudo-documentary theory, etc., they all smiled and said "NO". The reason for their rejection is actually the same as that of Fox Searchlight. They also don't like DV movies. They think that making movies with DV is a joke and cannot be accepted by the audience.

Think about it, when the sound film technology first came out, most companies were still worried that sound films would not be accepted by the audience, and some even insisted on the idea of ​​long live silent films. It's no surprise that they now dismiss DV movies.

So Wang Yang's entanglement is ultimately useless. If someone says no, what else can you do?

But today this company is different. Wang Yang is full of confidence and hope, and also full of enthusiasm, because this company is called "Artisan Films Company". Shocking results. If there is anyone who has the most courage to eat the crab of DV movies, it is them.

Artisan Films is a very small company that specializes in distributing independent films. It does not have its own office building, but its headquarters is located on the twelfth floor of this commercial building.

Wearing a decent black leather jacket today, Wang Yang came to the gate of Artisan Film Company with a briefcase containing a movie script and a DVD copy of the movie. He looked at the artisan logo hanging above, took a deep breath, and walked in.

"Hello, welcome to Artisan!" The front desk lady greeted people with a smile. She was a black woman in her twenties. Although she had a professional smile, she was very pleasing to the eye.

Wang Yang looked at her work card and knew her name was Nicole Vervor, so he said with a smile: "Hi, Miss Verver, I'm Wang Yang, I have an appointment with the film purchasing department of your company." Meeting with the manager, Mr. Thomas."

"Okay, please wait a moment." Nicole nodded, took the mouse to check on the computer, then raised her head and said with a smile: "Oh, I found it. Yes, the agreed meeting time is 15:00, now It's 14:42, so please wait a moment."

Wang Yang nodded with a smile, "Okay." He walked to the row of chairs opposite the front desk and sat down, touched the briefcase, looked around, felt a little nervous, and couldn't help exhaling softly.

At this time, the receptionist Nicole Vervor looked at him, a little curious, and asked, "Mr. Wang, you have made an appointment with Mr. Thomas to discuss the distribution of the film. Are you the producer of the film?" Yang nodded and said, "Well, so to speak, I'm a producer as well as a director." Nicole smiled incredulously: "Oh, you look so young, it's surprising."

Wang Yang shrugged and said with a smile, "So, my name is Young." Nicole also laughed, and Wang Yang took the opportunity to ask her, "By the way, there are often people like me who come to your company Are you promoting your own movie?"

Nicole Verwall shook her head without thinking, and said: "No, there are not many, there are not many independent films, and there are too many film companies, so people will come occasionally." She didn't know that Wang Yang's films were based on Filmed by DV, he said with a smile: "In fact, we are more often proactive, looking for good movies at various film festivals. For example, at this year's Sundance International Film Festival, our company also bought a few movies. .”

Wang Yang nodded silently upon hearing this. The Sundance International Film Festival, arguably the world's top independent film festival, aims to encourage low-cost, independently produced films and give emerging directors a chance to show themselves. Every year in late January, the Sundance Film Festival will be held in a city in Utah. At that time, a large number of independent filmmakers waiting for Bole will bring their films to Utah to participate; Will go to the film festival "gold rush".

There are many such film festivals, such as the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Scream Horror Film Festival, which is dedicated to horror films, and so on.

These film festivals are also Wang Yang's last hope. If he can't release them in theaters, on videotapes, or even on cable TV, then he will go to those film festivals. It's just that influential Sundance Film Festival and Santa Barbara Film Festival are held in January, which means that if he wants to participate in these film festivals, he will have to wait until next year.

Just thinking about it, the time came to three o'clock. The front desk lady Nicole Vervor picked up the phone, made a call, and asked, "Mr. Thomas, there is a Mr. Wang here looking for you. He has an appointment with you to discuss the distribution of the movie. Um, okay." She Xiang Wang Yang smiled, stood up, and said, "Mr. Wang, please follow me."

"Okay." Wang Yang also stood up, followed her with a briefcase, and walked into the Artisan Film Company. There were not many people in the office, but it seemed very busy. Everyone was working hard, or Just walking around with something, and someone talking on the phone, vaguely heard saying "hey, we need an ad at 8 o'clock, yes, please, why is it so expensive..."

Nicole Vervor led him to an independent office, she knocked on the door, and there was a voice of "come in", she opened the door and said with a smile: "Mr. Thomas, Mr. Wang is here." Then, she went back to the front desk.

Stephen Thomas, a middle-aged white man in his forties, with a slightly bald forehead, was wearing a gray suit and a black tie. He was sitting behind his desk writing something, when he saw them, he put down his pen, got up with a smile and walked over, stretched out his hand and said, "Mr. Wang, hello."

"Mr. Thomas, hello." Wang Yang smiled and shook hands with him, politely said: "I'm glad you gave me this opportunity."

"Hehe, it's nothing, this is my job. Please sit down." Thomas stretched out the chair in front of the desk with a smile, walked back and sat down behind the desk, looked at Wang Yang who was sitting, and asked, "Mr. You look very young. How old are you if I would venture to ask?"

Wang Yang smiled. He knew that Thomas asked him to introduce himself, or to give him a resume, but he deliberately did not bring his resume because a film company had read his resume before and learned that he had I studied at USC, and then learned the reason for his dismissal. The company let him go without even watching his movie.

Without a resume, you can hide as much as possible. Wang Yang replied with a smile: "Well, I was born in 1980, so I should be considered young now."

Thomas couldn't help frowning in astonishment, then smiled "wow", looked at Wang Yang, and said, "That's a very young, 18-year-old director? Wow! You should be on campus now."

campus? Here it comes... Wang Yang suddenly became vigilant, laughed haha, shrugged his shoulders, and said without talking: "You know, some people have different paths. And I want to watch a movie Whether it is good or bad depends on the film itself, not the age of the director."

"Yes, that's right." Thomas smiled. To Wang Yang's relief, he finally got to the point and said, "Then let me see your movie script. I hope it's not a farce." He rolled his eyes, spread his hands and said, "I don't mean anything else, it's just a DV movie, an 18-year-old director... I've never seen such a situation."

"It's nothing, I understand." Wang Yang took out a script from his briefcase. This script was rewritten, and it contained the complete and final movie content. He handed the script to Thomas on the opposite side, and said: " Please see."

Thomas took the script, leaned back in the chair, read the script for a while, nodded and said: "The story of the movie is very simple, but this is a regular script, not like a spoof." He stood up, He showed Wang Yang his eyes, walked outside the office, and said, "Well, let's go to the screening room to watch your movie." When he came to the big office outside, he shouted among the busy company employees: "Hi, Sam , come with me to watch a movie."

Then a white man in his thirties responded. He put down his work, walked over and shook hands with Wang Yang with a smile, and said, "I'm Sam Paul."

"Hello, Mr. Paul." Wang Yang also gave him a smile.

Thomas took them to the screening room and introduced with a smile on the way: "Sam is the best salesman here, he has a very vicious vision, and several of the company's profitable films are written by him, oh, This guy is about to take my place." Sam laughed and said, "Come on, Stephen!" Wang Yang smiled and said nothing.

When they came to the projection room, Wang Yang took out the DVD disc with the movie and handed it to Sam. Sam put the disc into the player, and the three of them sat down in the chairs and looked at the small screen in front of them together.

Thomas pressed the start button on the remote control, and saw a black screen light up on the small screen, and then a flash appeared, and a man took a selfie with the camera. It was Zachary. He smiled and winked at the camera, and said with a smile: "Hi everyone, I'm Kevin! This is our new home!" Then, he walked around the apartment with a DV player, taking photos of the kitchen, bedroom, etc. The place was introduced with a smile, while the camera turned around and shook very badly. Coupled with the rough image quality, the shaking caused many places on the screen to be blurred and blurred.

"Wow, this..." Thomas pressed the button to pause, looked at Wang Yang, and asked, "Mr. Wang, are you sure this is not a short film of life, but a movie?"

Newline Company, after reading the opening paragraph, also shouted to stop, and then said "NO". Wang Yang felt a little nervous immediately, and said the words he had thought up a long time ago, saying: "Of course, I call it a first-person movie, also called a pseudo-documentary, which is the concept of 'the whole movie is shot by the protagonist himself', simulating In the form of a documentary." He said seriously: "Mr. Thomas, believe me, this is a movie, please continue watching."

"OK." Thomas nodded thoughtfully, and pressed to continue playing.

On the screen, Kevin walked around his home, pointed the camera at himself again, and said with a smile: "Haha, I bought a DV, it feels so good!" With a vibrating smile, he said, "Wow, my girlfriend Meier is back!" After saying that, he rushed out with the DV, and the camera shook violently again, and the rapid scene change made people dizzy.

Then the camera pans down and Kevin is heard saying, "Honey, welcome home. Look at this... what is it!?"

In a flash, Meier, played by Rachel, appeared. She was holding a bag, looking at the camera with a very surprised look, and said blankly: "What, you really bought a DV back? Oh, my God! How did you It’s beyond our budget to be able to do that!”

At this time, Sam, who held his chest with one hand and his chin with the other, turned his head and smiled at Wang Yang: "The heroine is pretty."

"I think so too." Wang Yang smiled, looking at Rachel on the screen, he couldn't help but miss her a little. After Rachel returned to Toronto, he only called her after editing the movie, told her that the DVD had been sent, and he also cared about her mother's situation. In order to save phone charges, he talked for a while He just hung up; and there is no network installed at home, and he hasn't been on MSN for a long time.

As the movie unfolds, Thomas and Sam have less and less digressions, and gradually look seriously, but seeing the middle part, Kevin and Mel track ghosts in the middle of the night, the camera shakes strongly again, and the tension created by psychological horror , Thomas became dizzy more and more, his chest felt tight, his scalp was numb, and a strong sense of vomiting surged up, he had to stop the movie.

"Oh, my God... oh..." Thomas couldn't help retching a few times, and Sam beside him didn't feel well, and he also suppressed the feeling of vomiting. It took a while for Thomas to recover. He shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Oh, sorry, I'm so rude."

Wang Yang didn't know how to respond, so he smiled and said, "It's nothing, it's just a normal human reaction."

"Mr. Wang, your movie...how should I put it?" Thomas frowned, thinking about it, which also made Wang Yang nervous, Thomas said: "It's surprising, it's eye-catching, and it's hard to adapt. He smiled self-deprecatingly, and continued: "I have never seen this style of movie." Sam nodded in agreement: "Yes, this is a crazy style."

Of course they haven't seen it, and the history of DV movies is still a blank slate only a few months after the portable DV camcorder was launched on the market.

Immediately bright, but difficult to adapt? Wang Yang couldn't figure out what they meant, and the movie was only halfway through, and the scary part was at the end, so he said, "Mr. Thomas, maybe we should continue watching? The movie will be more exciting later."

"No, no, no. If I continue to watch it, I'm afraid I can't help it." Thomas shook his head with a smile, and said, "It's enough. After watching these, I already know what kind of movie it is. He thought for a while and said, "Mr. Wang, your movie is indeed a movie, and many parts are scary, but..."

As soon as Wang Yang heard the "but", he knew something bad was going to happen. Sure enough, Thomas spread his hands and said, "This movie is too innovative. Although it is the pseudo-documentary concept you mentioned, but such blurry and rough picture quality, often strongly shaking shots, these Whether it is suitable for the big screen, to be honest, I have no idea." He looked at Sam beside him and said, "Sam, what do you think?"

Sam also smiled and shook his head, with an expression of "I have no idea", and said: "I don't know, and I can't judge the market prospect of this movie. I have never seen such a movie, so I can't analyze it. He paused, and then added: "Personally, I'm quite interested in this movie, but I can't represent the market. You know, many movies that I personally like, they can't pay back the cost, Personal preference is one thing, the market is another."

Wang Yang's heart sank. Although Artisan Company is currently the company with the best attitude towards him, he can't be happy at all, because Artisan Company will probably decline. He looked at Thomas and Sam, and suggested: "I know, the market is always elusive. Maybe we can do a limited release first, and try it out in dozens of theaters, no, a dozen or so, and see how the market responds? "

As long as it can be released, with the promotion method of "The Blair Witch", he is confident that the limited release will become a large-scale release, from a dozen theaters to thousands of theaters!

Thomas hesitated for a moment, whispered something to Sam next to him, exchanged opinions, finally nodded, looked at Wang Yang, and wanted to say something.

Wang Yang raised his heart immediately, clenched his hands secretly, and his palms were sweating.

"Mr. Wang." Thomas looked at him and said slowly: "The market is the first thing we consider. Although your film cost is low, and the publicity budget can be as low as possible, we cannot afford any loss; More importantly, we cannot let the reputation of the company be affected. We are a small-scale company, and more than half of the market is supported by die-hard fans. They absolutely don't want to see our company release a bad movie and anger They, they will abandon us."

Wang Yang nodded silently, although he felt uncomfortable, he couldn't say anything.

"I mean, it's not that your movie is bad, it's just that launching a DV movie is a big risk, and we can't just decide." Thomas stood up and said, "Well, Mr. Wang, we Discuss the feasibility internally. If there is any release plan, can I contact you again?" He said, holding out his hand.

Wang Yang could only stand up, shook hands with him, nodded and said, "Okay, I look forward to your good news."

After leaving Yijiang Film Company, Wang Yang walked down the street in frustration. The noise of cars on the street made him feel more and more irritable. He looked up at the blue sky, took a deep breath, and gritted his teeth. Now even the artisan company that released the first DV movie "The Blair Witch" has rejected him. Although he didn't reject him to the end, he also knew that there was little hope because Thomas didn't watch the movie. Their attitude was very clear and they didn't want to Let the fans down and don't want to take any chances.

How many film companies are left? Wang Yang sighed. Although he knew that it would be difficult to find distribution, but now he is facing it, and he still feels a little frustrated. However, he clenched his fist and shook it, so I won't give up! You can kill me, but you can't beat me!

If this company fails, there will be another one; even if all film companies reject him, there will still be a company specializing in DVD distribution; Have.

He swept away all the haze in his heart, but he also had an urge to tell his friends, so he took out his mobile phone, called Jessica, and smiled after connecting, "Hi, Jessica, I failed again. The artisan company asked me to go home and wait for news, but I see that they will not give me any news."

"Oh, God..." Jessica couldn't help sighing, her voice was full of disappointment and worry, but she immediately comforted Wang Yang in a gentle voice: "Yang, it's nothing. Believe me, this is just the beginning, you Just hit the road."

Wang Yang smiled and said: "Well, I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me, Jessica, thank you." He said in a teasing tone: "You don't know, just now the manager of Artisan Company watched my movie, I almost threw up, haha! Are my movies that bad?"

"Haha! No, it's not bad at all." Jessica also laughed, and the pleasant laughter made Wang Yang's mood clearer, and she laughed again, "Where are you now, can we go to dinner together? I'm going to watch a movie at the cinema tonight."

"Thank you, but no." Wang Yang rejected Jessica's invitation with a smile, continued to walk to the nearby bus stop, and explained: "Jessica, I found a part-time job at a McDonald's at night, so I now Hurry up, I'm sorry I can't accompany you."

Jessica on the phone was silent for a while, and said: "Okay, Jan, but don't tire yourself out." She said again: "By the way, uh...you know, my birthday will be in two days, I'm going to have a little party at my house that night, Jan, can you come?"

Oh, it seems so, Jessica's birthday is on the 28th, and it's coming soon... Wang Yang didn't even have to think about it, so he agreed: "Of course. Your birthday party, wow, I'm very happy that you invited me to Just ask for time off." After a pause, he said with a smile: "It's just that the gift might be shabby, haha!"

"Ha, don't worry about any gifts." Hearing that he promised to come, Jessica smiled happily, and she said again: "My agent, Ms. Miranda, will come too. Jan, she knows a very famous director And the senior management of the film company, when the time comes, I will introduce you to each other, I hope she can help you..."

"Thank you, Jessica." Wang Yang smiled and said, "Then I have one more reason to look forward to it." Although he didn't expect that Ms. Miranda very much, after all, this is another chance, isn't it? And Jessica's kindness warmed his heart.

The two talked a few more words, and when Wang Yang came to the bus stop, he hung up, took a breath, got on a bus, and headed to the McDonald's where he worked part-time.