MAIR – Chapter 181.1 – “Sheng”

After Ye Cang’s feature film by Beijing TV Station was broadcast, it attracted many fans to watch it.

The editing of this feature film was very careful, allowing fans to see the other side of Ye Cang. In the last part of the film, Ye Cang was discussing work, even if the sound was not played, you could see the attentive earnestness on the faces of Ye Chang and Pei Ran.

The director said in the voiceover: “At the end of our interview, we went to visit Yihang studio with Ye Cang. He wanted to present several soundtracks he prepared to his friends for discussion. This young musician and his even younger director friend both have a persistent pursuit of art, so that all those who can see it, will be moved. They also make people start believing that the future of Chinese art will become better and better.”

With the consent of Ye Chang and Pei Ran, a short piece of film music was inserted at the end of the film, which was just right, but at the same time not enough.

What was equally impressive was Pei Ran’s face, which made people want to know more. Although there have been discussions about Pei Ran on Weibo and forums before, at that time, it was only a blurry picture taken by a paparazzi, which was not comparable to the high-definition video broadcast on TV today.

So for a while, both Pei Ran and his new movie became a hot topic.

Shen Huai also took advantage of this opportunity to release the promotion of the new movie “Sheng” at this time. The trailer and the constantly released movie materials also triggered discussion among netizens.

[I thought my little brother was an actor, but he turned out to be a director?]

[The music of this movie is good. Even if just for music by Ye Cang, I’m going to watch it.]

[Trailer looked good. It is just like Hong Kong style from the early years. It’s a little interesting.]

[What’s the use of a good Trailer? The director is so young, did he even know how to make a good movie? Anyway, I’m not optimistic about it.

[What’s the use of a handsome director? That is just to attract some ignorant girls. I won’t be fooled by such rubbish.

[Making a point. Brother Pei Ran is still signed under Boss Shen, so face slapping is guaranteed.

[Correct! Though, officially only Cang Cang is under Mr. Shen, this can’t be refuted either.]

The discussion on the Internet was good and bad, but this super high degree of discussion has aroused many people’s interest in the movie. Shen Huai looked at the feedback information with satisfaction. At present, it seems that this wave of publicity has met their expectations. As for the quality of the movie that netizens were most worried about, Shen Huai believes that it will certainly give them a surprise.

As time approached the National Day, the whole movie market seemed to be quite lively. But this bustle was also in expectation of every company. On the surface, it seems that competition was quite fierce, but in fact, each company was quite leisurely.

But who would have thought that in the middle of September, there would be a sudden news that “Twilight Killing Machine” starring Fu Cheng would also join the competition for this year’s Golden Week.

Fu Cheng refused to act in “Red Actress” before but instead threw himself into the arms of dusk killer, which made him be laughed at by many people in the industry for his lack of vision.

But for the ordinary audience, they remembered “Twilight killing Machine”. Fu Cheng has been famous for his good vision and ability to select roles since he started his career. Although the production cost was not high, each film was very classic. Therefore, they could only imagine how good this film will be if it could make Fu Chen give up movies such as the “Red Actress” and choose another unknown movie.

The higher the fame of an actor, the higher was the box office of a movie and so was the expectation of the ordinary audience.

Almost as soon as the news came out, it immediately rushed to the hot search and many viewers expressed their expectations.

The movie “Twilight killing Machine” seized this opportunity to send out the promotional materials. Compared with the actors, the discussion was heated for a while, completely covering other films.

As soon as the news came out, many companies immediately panicked. There were also many complaints from the cinema. Everyone was caught off guard and many people in the industry were privately complaining that Guanrui played ugly.

The originally peaceful National Day holiday suddenly became unpredictable.

When Shen Huai returned to the company, the marketing worker of Yihang studio cried, “Mr. Shen, Guanrui is menacing. We can’t compete with them at all. I’m afraid that all the investment from the early stage will be wasted.”

Shen Huai pursed his lips and did not speak. All he could do now was increase investment for promotion and rely on funding to fight against Guanrui. However, the previous layout that Shen Huai made for investment in movie production and development, together with Tomato Network led to some financial constraints at presentm. From the beginning, all publicity funds given to “Sheng” were saved.

Moreover, even if they increase investment, the winning rate was not high. Guanrui, after all, was a famous company in the industry. The films made by them have quality assurance. In addition, a popular movie just exploded a few days ago. It was the time when audiences expected the most from them. No matter who went against Guanrui, it was like an egg hitting a stone.

The atmosphere of the whole conference room became anxious. Shen Huai pondered for a moment, and was about to say something when he saw Pei Ran, who until now, had kept his head lowered and didn’t speak, raise his head, and slowly said, “Expand the scale of screening.”

Shen Huai said nothing.

Pei Ran chuckled, “After the previous media conference, didn’t you mention this way?”

After the media viewing meeting, everyone’s response was very good, and Shen Huai was really moved, but almost no film had done this before. Most movies used mainly the traditional way of publicity, and only a few would use screening, but most of this movie’s reactions were mediocre, so even if Shen Huai had confidence in “Sheng” quality, he did not dare to make such an attempt easily.

When Pei Ran said it, he stopped talking. After all, he was a director and Shen Huai was the producer.  He was the one who made the decision, and he was under the greatest pressure. After all, every choice he made was related to the future of this movie.

So everyone was silent and the whole conference room was quiet, waiting for Shen Huai’s decision.

After a long time, Shen Huai took a long breath and said, “OK, expand the screening scale. Junior Zhao, contact the managers of major cinemas, and arrange at least three rounds of screenings before the release.”

Junior Zhao nodded quickly.

“As for the next publicity model, we need to change the main market from the first tier cities, mainly the third tier and fourth tier cities. The style of ”Sheng” is similar to early Hong Kong movies and there is more market for it in the third tier and fourth tier cities. Our previous publicity feedback also reflected on this. Compared with the market that has gradually saturated in the first tier and second tier cities, the third tier and fourth tier cities and even the counties and cities below are the future film market.”

He arranged it in an orderly way, and some of the panicked marketing department people immediately settled down and took over their own tasks.

 

Edited by: LuLu

Proofread by: Rubhyl

 

Support translation:

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This Post Has One Comment

  1. Aeli

    Many thanks for the update!

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