Chapter 273 The big selling point of "Lust, Caution" and the complicated preparations

China Film Group, Han Shanping’s office.

Liu Zhou and Han Shanping were sitting casually on the sofa, smoking comfortably.

"Liu Zhou, have you rested well?"

"I've had a good rest and I'm back to full health."

"I haven't congratulated you on winning the Golden Lion Award yet. This is a great honor for our Chinese-language films."

"That's not necessary. Haven't there been many films that won the three major European awards before?"

"Yes, but many of them are banned, so it's hard for us to promote them. Since Zhang Yimou's Not One Less, your film is the first to win an award through formal channels."

"No wonder there was such a big fuss this time. I thought it was because I'm so popular."

"Haha, actually it's because you're so popular that the higher-ups didn't interfere much. After all, the Venice Film Festival is a big deal."

"I feel better when you say that."

Han Shanping also knew that Liu Zhou was joking, and then asked:

“When will your movie Room be released?”

"Originally, the National Day release would be the best time, as the popularity of movies is the highest at this time. However, Director Zhang's Curse of the Golden Flower is now being released, so we have to wait for a while. It should be released at the end of October."

"In that case, your film's release date will clash with Li An's Lust, Caution, which is also scheduled to be released in late October."

"Let it happen. Anyway, I don't have high expectations for the box office of this movie. If Curse of the Golden Flower wasn't so strong, I would have wanted to release it right now."

"Even if you don't care, people outside will definitely compare these two movies again."

"Let's compare. Anyway, I've already won one round, and it's the most important one."

If we really compare the box office, "Room" is definitely not as good as "Lust, Caution".

Damn, the first version of "Lust, Caution" that was released was the uncut version, but later due to the huge public opinion, it was released again with some scenes deleted.

However, the difficult postures of Liang Chaowei and Tang Wei in the film have already spread, attracting a large number of viewers to watch and learn.

Although everyone cursed at the end because some scenes were deleted, the scale of the film was still relatively large.

So an art film like "Lust, Caution" grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office.

It turns out that the magic potion for box office success still depends on that little thing.

And this is not the first time this has happened. Last year, "Miami Vice", filmed by Gong Li in Hollywood, also attracted the attention of quite a number of movie fans as soon as it was released in mainland China, and the media also reprinted it crazily.

Of course it’s not because the movie is so good, uh...it’s actually quite good.

In the movie, Gong Li performed a Jeolla exit. Her lower body could not be seen, but her upper body was definitely LD, and it happened more than once.

There are a few shots of LD from the front, with the entire right side three-quarters exposed, and the exposed bit is clearly visible.

There is also a shot where the entire mountain is exposed from the side, with a clear view, and it is certain that it is not a stand-in because the face is also shown.

As a result, "Miami Vice", which only had a box office of about 100 million on the first day, had a subsequent box office surge. After one month of release, the total box office has reached nearly 4000 million.

It can be said that it has a very good selling point.

"Lust, Caution" is much more awesome than "Miami Vice". It has all the popularity and selling points. What else can "Room" use to compete with it?

I can't stand it at all!
Even if "Room" had the support of Liu Zhou and Golden Lion, it couldn't compare.

Liu Zhou sat in Han Shanping's office for a while, and then went to the project team office of "The Martian".

Some time ago, Liu Zhou had discussed with the technical personnel who came from the space agency for support. Based on current understanding, the topography of Mars has many similarities with that of the Earth.

Mars is a cold and barren planet with a gravel-covered surface, desolate and silent, and full of craters formed by meteorite impacts.
This is a bit like the Yardang landform on Earth, also known as wind erosion landform.

The teams sent out to survey sites some time ago found some places with typical Yadan landforms, mainly near Qinghai, but also in Yinchuan, Gansu and other places.

At present, the project team has also found several associate professors from the University of Geology and their students, and are identifying several suitable places, and then taking photos and sending them back.

Taking photos is not an easy task. If you want to take panoramic photos, you need to ask a local helicopter for help.

During this period, the artist, with the assistance of technical staff from the space agency, has already prepared a sketch, which needs to be inspected by Liu Zhou.

In the office, Liu Zhou looked at the pile of sketches and couldn't help but frown.

This painting is not too fake, but too real.

There are classic landforms such as impact craters, basins, shield volcanoes, canyons, ice sheets, sedimentary layers, etc., but they are not appropriate if they are too realistic.

Because it lacks the beauty of the lens, it is also a bit inconsistent with the perception of ordinary audiences.

Truth is not the most important thing.

The most important thing is to conform to the audience's cognition, first make them believe it, and then on this basis make it as close to the truth as possible.

Otherwise, if the reality is not in line with the audience's perception, people may even call the screenwriter and director stupid and ignorant. Of course, the worst case is that it is neither realistic nor in line with the audience's perception. This situation usually occurs in those urban idol dramas with various skins.

The heroine is an ordinary college student from an ordinary family, who comes to the big city to work hard alone.

As a result, I always take a taxi when I go out, rent a small duplex or a large flat in the city center, wear luxury brand clothes, and never worry about the price of food.
Then he complained that his salary was only 3000 yuan and he was still worried about becoming a regular employee.

This is outrageous!
Sometimes it really makes people wonder if the heroine has a part-time job and is supported by various godfathers.

In addition, the final image presented in the camera must also be aesthetically pleasing.

A shot requires careful design, and the space and composition are very particular.

Therefore, when designing these terrain features, we must also consider the art and camera perspectives.

There are few photos of Mars these days, and the public has little exposure to it, so we basically have to rely on our imagination.

Therefore, the exterior design still needs to create a sense of desolation and deathly loneliness.

After Liu Zhou explained his requirements to them, the artists immediately understood, and the technical staff of the space agency seemed to understand as well.

In the following days, Liu Zhou continued to discuss with the technical staff and artists of the space agency.

Then, based on the currently known features of the Martian landforms, we designed draft drawings of craters, canyons, volcanoes and panoramas of several hundred acres.

After explaining his requirements, Liu Zhou didn't have to worry about the rest of the work, as the artist would do it.

They are all first-class artists from China Film Group and several other film studios, and their professional abilities are top-notch.

When it comes to lens art and composition, any one of them is a master and can easily beat him.

As long as it doesn't involve the plot, the masters of this era are very reliable.

Afterwards, Liu Zhou once again found the technical staff of the Space Agency and discussed with them the design issues of various spacecraft and Mars bases.

"I hope to design the Mars rover to be more advanced and sci-fi, adding instruments such as zoom cameras, mineral spectrometers, magnetic field detectors, terrain cameras, surface composition detectors, meteorological meters, etc."

"Director Liu, even the Pathfinder of the United States doesn't carry so many instruments?"

When Liu Zhou heard this, he couldn't help but sigh and felt a little tired.

Liu Zhou found that they seemed to be unable to get the point and were always comparing things with what they had now.

"Don't worry about the rationality of this. Maybe it will be possible in the future. In addition to those instruments, I also hope that the Mars rover can carry a small drone."

"Drone?"

"That's right. In addition, the rover's sports performance must also be improved to be able to overcome various obstacles."

"Director Liu, the atmospheric density of Mars is only 1% of that of Earth, which is equivalent to to meters above the ground. It is unreasonable for a drone to fly there."

"In the movies, we humans can land on Mars, so why can't drones fly?"

In fact, there is no need to wait that long. In a few years, the United States' newly developed Mars rover Perseverance will carry a small unmanned helicopter for the first time.

At this time, Liu Zhou also discovered that it was impossible to communicate well with these technicians when talking about movies and science fiction, as they were not on the same channel at all.

So when discussing the design of various spacecraft including manned spacecraft and the Mars base, Liu Zhou directly put forward his requirements and asked them to follow his own requirements.

Otherwise, Liu Zhou didn't have the patience to argue with them one by one, and it would be a waste of time.

Time slowly came to mid-October. At this time, "Curse of the Golden Flower" had been released for half a month, and the box office had exceeded 2.5 million, just surpassing the box office performance of "Hero".

It is a foregone conclusion that this movie will gross over 300 million yuan at the box office.

At this time, the location scouting team also sent back some photos one after another.

But these photos all look similar and there is no essential difference. After looking at them for a long time, Liu Zhou became dizzy.

Liu Zhou also asked the location crew to communicate with local departments about cooperation, but the situation was not very good.

This requires an eight-digit investment. In this era, local authorities will be very cautious no matter where they are, let alone in the western region.

They didn't seem to believe the prospects described by the staff at all.

Regarding this situation, Liu Zhou has made up his mind that Jiahe will build this Mars theme park on its own.

In the end, Liu Zhou did not worry about choosing which location to shoot and directly decided on a suitable place in Dunhuang, Gansu Province.

Not only is there the Yadan landform, but there is also a number of western tourist attractions nearby, including the ancient city of Dunhuang, Mogao Grottoes, Yumen Pass, Yangguan, Western Thousand Buddha Caves, and so on.

Afterwards, this Mars-themed attraction and these classic tourist attractions will be able to complement each other.

Otherwise, there is nothing nearby and it is in the west, so it would be very difficult to develop independently.

Since we have decided to do it ourselves, and will expand the scale and do it carefully in the future, we must of course focus on the economic benefits of this theme park base.

(End of this chapter)