Hong Kong Stubborn - Chapter 139

The filming of “Skyscraper” was very hard, not only the part of special effects production, but also a large number of scenes of explosions, fires, and collapses that required the cooperation of actors and stunt teams, and the use of helicopters and other large machinery.

Luo Junyan has made a substantial transformation of the traditional image of Matsutaka. This drama does not require a cute and tender little girl, but a white-collar beauty who coexists with intelligence and sensibility. Fortunately, Matsuko puts her attitude very correct, very diligent and low-key, otherwise she may become the first foreign female artist to be kicked by Luo Junyan in the ass.

After this time, Luo Junyan recognized the artists of Japan and South Korea more not only because of their extremely humble work attitude, but also because Luo Junyan felt that Xiangjiang artists lacked their persistent spirit. Perhaps this is due to the different stages of the development of the film industry in various regions. The early stage artists of Xiangjiang generally also possessed this kind of quality that was deeply obsessed with performing arts work.

Getting Matsuko to play the heroine also brought another benefit. Sponsors took the initiative to request placement of advertisements.

This girl doesn’t know why the relationship with Japanese Yamazaki Bread is so good, she is willing to sponsor her. Opening a bakery in a skyscraper could not be simpler. In addition, the old couple who loves sunset can also feed each other cakes to express their love. In short, they also received 800,000 Hong Kong dollars in implant advertising sponsorship.

In May, Jobs introduced the latest generation of iMacG3 at the Apple Computer New Product Launch Conference. Luo Junyan will definitely not receive the letter, but sister army will pay attention to Apple’s every move, and as a major shareholder, she can get Apple’s internal promotion plan. She knew that this iMacG3 would be global in total. Invest 100 million U.S. dollars for promotion.

So, the army sister immediately asked Luo Junyan to assign Will to sponsor Jobsra. Jobs is no stranger to the film and television circles, and he himself cooperated with Disney to do animation.

Will is the president of Gemini Digital Special Effects. In any case, Gemini Digital Special Effects is considered to be a major customer of Apple Computer in Asia. There may be hundreds of orders for a device update. Jobs always wants to show some face.

Sister Army will not come forward. No one knows that the Snow Wind Giant Asset Management Company was established by Luo Junyan and his wife, and no one knows that the Wind Snow Giant Trust Investment Fund under the company is equivalent to the private investment of Luo Junyan and his wife. fund. This secret will continue to be kept, so that the outside world will regard the Snow Wind Giant Trust Investment Fund as a private equity fund. The Luo Junyan and his wife have no roots. Only the deeper they hide, the safer they are.

President Will went to see Jobs with clips produced by special effects. He was not good at fooling around, but Jobs could see that Will was a technology madman and a typical Apple computer fan.

To promote iMacG3 in Asia through a big production with cool special effects, Jobs thought it was a good idea. This kind of publicity has always been relatively cost-effective, and it may be possible to get a big list of Gemini digital special effects in the next two years.

In the end, after repeatedly confirming how to implant iMacG3 in “Skyscraper” and guaranteeing the appearance time, Apple Computer sponsored an ad placement fee of 2.5 million US dollars.

After the 19.5 million Hong Kong dollar sponsorship fee was paid in, and compared with the 1 million that Mercedes-Benz Auto pulled out, Jobs’s ambition to dominate the world is clearly evident. Luo Junyan believes that Jobs will either waste the money and make Apple Computer go bankrupt, or he will make a huge profit with Apple Computer.

At this time, it must be too late to withdraw shares from Apple Computer, and Luo Junyan can only comfort herself to think about the positive side as much as possible. In short, this time, “Skyscraper” has recovered 26.6 million Hong Kong dollars only with the placement of advertising sponsorship fees. The probability of the film’s capital preservation has greatly increased, and Luo Junyan’s psychological pressure has been reduced a lot.

In the past few months, Sister Army has scattered people to various cities in South Korea to conduct field trips. At the same time, she completed the architectural planning and design template of the cinema. The development plan of the ASC cinema cinema line has the conditions for implementation.

According to the architectural planning and design standards of the studio, the area of ​​each piece of land purchased is between 800 and 1,000 square meters. The two underground floors are the parking lot and the fitness center. The center of the fitness center is designed with a skating rink.

On the ground, a 5-storey container composite appearance building is built on the ground, one of which has the function of rock climbing. The first floor introduces fast food chain stores and custom shops for popular fashion goods in movies. The second floor is a combined area for ticket sales, snacks and beverages, leisure waiting, and celebrity exchange. The leisure waiting area will be supplemented with parent-child, beauty, and coffee cafe projects. The third and fourth floors A total of 8 giant screen theaters are distributed, and the fifth floor is a comprehensive management office area.

The construction cost of such a movie theater would be 130 million Hong Kong dollars. Of course, the introduction of catering chain stores, customized merchandise stores and fitness and sports clubs can recover part of the cost in advance, but it is also difficult to reduce the cost to less than 120 million.

This is because the construction is large, the structure is relatively simple, and the internal and external standard specifications are completely unified, which saves a lot of procurement costs.

The key point of the ASC Cinemas’ theater line construction plan is to purchase land by oneself. In this regard, the price difference that needs to be paid can be very large, and it is possible to spend as much money as possible. However, sister Army has registered branches of Snow Country Entertainment Investment Company in South Korea and Japan, and the arrow is on the line. Luo Junyan will just continue to make money. It is not easy to feed this gold swallowing behemoth.

Looking at it from the other side, Luo Junyan quite agrees with sister army’s theater construction plan. Because the movie market in Hong Kong is declining so fast, who can imagine that the box office of the Spring Festival stalls has not reached 40 million Hong Kong dollars? If you don’t develop new markets, you can only wait and die in Xiangjiang.

Obviously, South Korea is the first choice to replace Hong Kong. Unlike Japan, South Korea’s local movies cannot sell at the box office, but Koreans particularly like to watch movies, and the overall box office is also among the best in Asia.

Luo Junyan can completely regard South Korea as a dumping ground for new films. Even if the film hits the streets in the Xiangjiang Market, he can still make money back in South Korea, not to mention that he has long established a performing arts base and entertainment company in South Korea, and his personal reputation is also quite good.

In 1998, the Hong Kong film market in the first half of the year can only be described as bleak. The box office of blockbuster films has shrunk sharply, and the mid-tier box office films have fallen directly into the ranks of street movies, and street movies have become the mainstream of the market.

The box office produced in this city has thought about 10 million Hong Kong dollars. It is a very luxurious idea. You have to enter the top ten box office to be possible. This was absolutely unimaginable two years ago.

Hu Xin had already returned to Xiangjiang from the United States early, and she only had the authority to buy out three Hollywood films, and staying in the United States would only waste travel expenses.

This year, as Luo Junyan said, Hollywood film giants have matured in cultivating the global market and will soon enter the harvest period. Coupled with the rapid decline in Hong Kong’s local production, American film companies have significantly increased the cost of buying out the rights of Hollywood films to be shown in the Hong Kong market.

Even if it is a packaged purchase, the price has increased a lot. It used to be a buyer’s market, but now it has become a pure seller’s market.

Hu Xin finally bought out three Hollywood films based on the subject matter of the film, the popularity of the director and actors in Xiangjiang, and the splendor of the plot and pictures. The science fiction film “World Clash”, Disney’s cartoon “Mulan”, the 007 series “007 Empire of Tomorrow”, Michelle Yeoh participated in this “007 Empire of Tomorrow”.

As for war films, horror films, American hero films, and literary films, Hu Xin first rejected them all. This type of film is much more likely to hit the streets in the Hong Kong Municipal Market than science fiction and action films. The reason for buying out “Mulan” is because it can attract children to watch the movie, and parents must accompany their children to watch it.

These three Hollywood films cost a total of US$3 million in buyout fees, of which only “Mulan” is worth less than one million. The buyout fee plus the cost of the announcement requires a total of 26.5 million Hong Kong dollars, and finally there are taxes to be paid.

Nowadays, Hong Kong’s various theaters and theaters don’t suffer a loss by giving up 2 points of promotional sponsorship fees to external films. The risk of buying out external films is too high.

In the first half of 1998, Snow Knight Distribution Company did not distribute a local production as an agent, which is considered to be a record for the company. In contrast, Yingxue Royal Entertainment Agency has signed many local artists.

Under the bad market conditions, artists have to look for new outlets. Quasi-first-line stars like Zhu Yin have been signed by Huo Wenxi.

However, Zhu Yin’s situation is quite special. She was fooled into signing a contract to make a tertiary film “The Temptation of Strong Force 2 Uniform”, but after the filming was done, she immediately planned to find a reliable agency to sign the film director contract.

Huo Wenxi can completely promise her in this regard, Luo Junyan now has no idea of ​​making Fengyue films, and there is no need for his artists to come out to sell melee. As a result, after signing the contract, “Qiangan 2 Uniform Temptation” also sold 10.24 million Hong Kong dollars in the box office. Although Zhu Yin did not reveal at all, her popularity has also increased greatly, Huo Wenxi can be regarded as a bargain.

In the first half of 1998, don’t underestimate the 10.2 million Hong Kong dollar box office results. This film is temporarily ranked No. 5 in the box office, second only to “Who Am I”, “One-stop Transport”, “The Wind and Clouds of the River” and “King of Killers”, and of course the original “Young and Dangerous” series in history It didn’t appear at all, and the “98 Young and Dangerous Dragon Fighting”, which was once a big hit, naturally disappeared.

This time when filming “Skyscrapers”, Huo Wenxi originally planned to recommend Zhu Yin to play the heroine. But it happened that Yongsheng invited Zhu Yin to star in “The Gambler 1999”, and she also has another “Strong Go” series about to be completed, and the filming cycle of “Skyscraper” is very long, and Luo Junyan is not allowed to roll the drama string this time. So Huo Wenxi suggested that Zhu Yin choose “The Gambler 1999”.

Artists such as Xue Jingqiu and Song Longzi were awarded the contract with “Skyscrapers” after they had to put off their work throughout the year. Films that can play Luo Junyan are still quite attractive to Japanese and Korean actors, especially for newcomers who have not been in for a long time. This is a shortcut to fame.

The Xiangjiang Film Market swayed into the summer vacation of 1998. When people in the circle were confused, there were finally two blockbuster movies that boosted morale. In fact, it can be said that there is only one, after all, the box office gap between the two films is too obvious.

Both “Wind and Cloud Dominates the World” and “Dragon in the Rivers and Lakes”, both released in early July, had an eye-catching start.

However, “Dragon in the Rivers and Lakes” sank again after only a bubble. This film, produced by Yongsheng, starring Andy Lau, Gigi Leung, Guan Xiumei, and Wu Yi will still not break away from the stereotypes of Hong Kong movies. In the vernacular, it is a consistent routine without any new tricks.

“The Wind and Cloud Dominates the World” is different. Although the visual effects of special effects are tens of thousands of miles away from Hollywood films, they are still a lot better than when they filmed “Green Snake” and “The Sixth Sense of Life and Death.”

Especially combined with the oriental fantasy theme in the comics, this kind of innovation is still very recognized by the audience. In the words of Brother Cheng, it is dazzling and cool, plus handsome men and beautiful women, this gimmick is not new.

Back then, “Three Kingdoms Warriors” only applied special effects to the weapon waving effect and one or two big scenes, which can fascinate the audience, not to mention this colorful, landslide fighting scene.

Luo Junyan didn’t spare time to watch “The Wind and Cloud Dominates the World”. Based on the audience’s viewing experience feedback from Brother Cong, it is estimated that Jiahe has put a lot of pressure on Centro Digital after seeing the effects of Gemini digital special effects. The special effects of this film should be done very carefully.

In short, the popularity of “Fight and Cloud Dominates the World” is a good thing, which proves that Hong Kong audiences have no prejudice against the special effects production of this port, but they do not accept the special effects of jumping scenes.

Luo Junyan dared not rush to work even more, striving for more realistic visual effects of special effects, and more detailed requirements for the layout of the scene.

The filming of “Skyscrapers” rented an abandoned factory building. Many of the scene spaces were temporarily constructed and had to be fully compatible with the CG model. If Luo Junyan is dissatisfied with the shooting effect of a scene, he may need to rebuild it. After all, it either collapses or bursts or burns. After shooting it once, it can’t be used again.

Luo Junyan worked hard, Bian Sicong was not easy, including Brother Cheng had to come over often to replace the on-site supervisor. Du Qifeng’s life as director of the top tank is not too few. This time he has completely clear his own path forward, and will never go to special effects production in the future.

If you don’t have a lot of spare money, enough time and your own special effects company, don’t touch this kind of CG production. Compared with the United States, Xiangjiang naturally does not have this kind of soil. The film market capacity is too small is also an unavoidable problem.

“Skyscraper” overspend is certain, and many repetitive costs are unexpected. However, Bian Sicong calculated that an additional 5 million Hong Kong dollars should be enough to support the production. Luo Junyan didn’t ask him to pay directly, Bian Sicong was already satisfied, and the proportion of investment decreased, because he didn’t expect to make any money anyway.

Before the production of “Skyscrapers” was completed, the total investment amount became 80 million Hong Kong dollars. Snowman Century Entertainment has increased its investment of 5 million Hong Kong dollars, which is to invest in the sponsorship. Luo Junyan is quite generous, and the investment ratio of the company and Congge remains unchanged at 8:2.

Entering August, “Dragon in the Rivers and Lakes” was the first to be drawn, and the final box office was 16.92 million Hong Kong dollars. Finally, I saw another film that exceeded 15 million.

It took two months for Jiahe’s “Wind and Cloud Dominates the World” to be released. The final box office was 41.53 million Hong Kong dollars, and it temporarily took the position of the annual box office champion.

The two films sold well at the box office, which at least shows that the Hong Kong film market is stabilizing and the impact of the financial turmoil is slowly diminishing. Perhaps there will be ups and downs in the market in the short term, but the foundation for the rescue is already in place, and the Hong Kong film circle is indeed planning to rescue the market.

After Luo Junyan learned of the news that the box office of “Fighting and Clouds Dominating the World” exceeded 40 million Hong Kong dollars, his confidence in the CG production of “Skyscrapers” has also greatly increased. Who has the opportunity to make money, who is still thinking about capital preservation? He made up his mind, this time he will work **** the hype.