Chapter 552: Lobbying for an Oscar Nomination?

After the screening, there was a media reception.

Lu Yan He and the others could hear everyone's feedback and discussions on this movie for the first time at this reception.

In such an occasion, face-to-face flattery and behind-the-scenes complaints are inevitable.

However, people who really don't like this movie won't come to this reception.

They will directly publish their comments on this movie for the first time on social media, and then publish formal review articles in their cooperative media and magazines.

Lu Yan He exchanged with everyone, and found that in such an occasion, you can't just listen to what everyone said, you also have to listen to what everyone didn't say.

In this kind of place, everyone will only say nice things to you.

But not everyone will tell lies.

So, you have to listen to what everyone didn't say.

For example, Lu Yan He found that almost everyone avoided talking about the theme of this movie when talking about it.

Either they were praising that some places really scared them, scared them to the point of standing up, or they were praising that the acting was very good, and it was a performance worthy of being concerned by the awards season.

Others said that the overall completion of this movie is very high, which is rare as a horror movie.

However, almost no one mentioned the theme of Asian revenge against white protagonists.

Clearly, it is the biggest selling point of this movie.

In fact, Twitter is also very lively.

The discrimination incident Lu Yan He encountered on the red carpet of the premiere of "The Mist" has attracted huge attention.

The speed of fermentation of this matter is as if there is an invisible hand behind it, pushing the fermentation of this matter on the internet at an incredible speed.

Racial topics themselves are one of the hottest and most attention-grabbing topics on the internet at present, and star artists getting involved is like a few drops of water dripping into a hot oil pan, crackling and exploding.

When Lu Yan He was communicating with everyone at the media reception, his domestic fan army also climbed over the wall to gather with overseas fans, severely condemning this matter and maintaining Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He's fan base has grown very fast in the past few years.

On one hand, he has many works, accumulating many actor fans. On the other hand, his past life as Lu Yan He, especially his life from a rural child whose parents died to being admitted to Zhenhua University, and from an idol who was out of date to the position of a super first-tier popular star, attracted a large number of fans who regard him as a life idol.

Not to mention, this time, Lu Yan He was discriminated against in the United States because he is Asian, which is something any Asian will feel angry about.

Those Europeans and Americans who like Lu Yan He and do not discriminate against Asians are even more annoyed—their mood is probably similar to a racist suddenly appearing among your friends, you subconsciously want to draw a line with him, so as not to let others think you are the same, they condemn this matter even more severely.

And the momentum of supporting Lu Yan He also made "The Mist," a horror movie with the theme of "Asian ghost revenge against white devil," mentioned by more people, and the data before release rose more fiercely and fiercely than the data given by forecasting agencies.

D19 company, promotion director Elena Green is very satisfied with directing her department to continue to promote the public opinion on the internet, and constantly solidify the promotion tone of "Asian ghost revenge against white devil," so that more people can see "The Mist."

Their original intention is of course not to "shape a golden body" for Lu Yan He, but the promotion strategy they adopted achieved the effect of "shaping a golden body" for Lu Yan He.

On this day, Lu Yan He's popularity and influence in Europe and the United States soared.

The next day, when Lu Yan He was shooting magazine covers with Arne and the other two, the magazine's shooting team also took the initiative to ask to take a group photo with him.

These two magazines are first-tier magazines in the United States.

Promotion resources obtained by D19 company.

If it weren't for "The Mist," Lu Yan He's popularity and influence would not be enough to be on the cover of these two magazines.

In fact, many magazine covers of star artists are like this—many magazine covers boasted by fans are actually lobbied by movie companies or brand parties for them. In other words, they are bought with money, but the word "lobbying" is more advanced and has less copper smell.

Of course, this itself is a very normal phenomenon.

The abnormal phenomenon is that many fans, and even the artist team themselves, take magazine covers as a standard for proving the status of an artist. Especially in China, this point is demonized very seriously. In fact, it is really not that objective.

After Lu Yan He finished shooting the magazine, he said goodbye to everyone in "The Mist."

"See you in Japan later."

"The Mist" will hold release promotion activities in Japan and South Korea, and these leads will go there.

It is a pity that because "The Mist" is not released in the Chinese mainland, there is no Chinese itinerary.

When Lu Yan He arrived at the airport, he never thought that more than a dozen fans would gather here, holding signs and posters waiting for him. As soon as he appeared, they immediately surrounded him, expressing their support and love for him.

Lu Yan He thanked them with some surprise.

Zou Dong and the others had to guard Lu Yan He's side, paying attention to and guarding everyone at any time, so as not to have one or two people who really wanted to hurt Lu Yan He.

Fortunately, there was none.

These people all paid attention to him because they watched Lu Yan He's film and television dramas.

Someone said that she didn't think about coming to the airport to send him off, but when she saw everything he encountered on the scene yesterday, she made up her mind that she must come over today.

She said decisively: "I must let you know that in Los Angeles, there are also people who like you and support you, and very welcome you to Los Angeles."

Lu Yan He was still quite moved to hear someone he had never met say this to him.

"Thank you, thank you."

Lu Yan He satisfied every one of their requests for signatures and group photos before entering the airport.

Wang Biao filmed a small segment of this video. After going back, he will edit a VLOG for these videos, which can be sent to social media at that time.

Wang Biao has actually been doing this recently.

Chen Ziyan told him that all the news about Lu Yan He appearing in front of everyone in the past year is related to his works and his work. She hopes that Lu Yan He can still have a real, private side for everyone to see from time to time, not to set up a persona, just to avoid Lu Yan He becoming more and more "high-end" in everyone's heart.

A star must of course be "high-end," but too "high-end" will also make the public feel distant. Especially in the domestic environment, a star who is too "high-end" will always attract some people's dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

After getting on the plane, Lu Yan He could finally rest well.

No need to talk to people, no need to perform the "very perfect" side of him as a star and actor.

He changed into slippers, opened the electronic reader, prepared to read for a while, let himself calm down, and fell asleep when he was sleepy.

Anyway, this flight will fly for a long time, enough for him to have a good sleep.

"Is 'The Mist' not released in the mainland? Do we need to continue to promote it?"

When the film and television department held a meeting, someone asked.

Linyu shook her head and said: "We don't need to do it. If you get resources back, are interested in this movie, and want to write a review, you can write it yourself, but we don't need to make a promotion plan."

"This movie mainly needs to do promotion overseas. This has nothing to do with our department. Linghe has special people to do this. Of course, if they contact us back and need our help, we will participate."

"Okay," a girl who joined the job half a year ago—actually the same age as Linyu, both graduated half a year ago, she said, "Actually, if 'The Mist' could be released in China, it would be great. The evaluation of this movie on the foreign internet is quite high, especially the performance of Editor-in-Chief Lu, which has been highly praised. Some people even said that if 'The Mist' was released a month earlier, maybe it would have won many nominations in the awards season."

Linyu's eyes turned, and she said: "Like this, Xiao Lu, you go and organize the horror movies that have won acting awards in Oscar history and make a highlight review."

Xiao Lu was stunned for a moment, then immediately showed a look of surprise.

"Okay!"

"At the same time, pay attention, just use your sentence just now as the beginning of this article," Linyu said, "Don't let everyone have unnecessary expectations. 'The Mist' basically cannot win an Oscar nomination."

Commercial horror movies are not favored by the Oscars, which is a well-known thing.

Unless your box office explodes and your social influence reaches the level of "Get Out," OK, the Oscars will not turn a blind eye to you.

The reason why the Oscars have such great influence has a key factor: it will never turn a blind eye to those movies that have exploded at the box office and had a huge impact. It will not use the standards of art films to measure all entry standards.

Awards also have to rely on works to lift the sedan chair.

Xiao Lu said: "Okay, understood."

"Actually, 'The Mist' is not necessarily unable to win an Oscar nomination... released in January, theoretically it meets the Oscar registration conditions," at this time, another person said, "It's just that movies released in January generally don't run the awards season in the early stage, and there is no public relations hype, so it is difficult to break through at this time."

"We cannot pin our hopes on a miracle without guarantee," Linyu shook her head. "In addition, is the lens analysis draft of 'Friends' out?"

"The first draft is out, and we are asking Brother Li Bi to look at it for us."

"Okay," Linyu said, "This draft must be sent out today or tomorrow."

"Okay."

Linyu: "The fairy tale drama Chen Ziliang participated in aired today, remember to pay attention to it, I plan to comment on it on the program tomorrow."

Xiao Lu was a bit surprised and asked: "Do we also need to report Chen Ziliang's drama? Isn't this doing promotion for him for free?"

"What we do is a film and television review program. If we turn a blind eye to newly aired dramas, then the most basic objectivity is gone," Linyu said. "Yan He won't mind us mentioning Chen Ziliang, and our comments should be based on facts."

Xiao Lu hesitated for a moment and asked: "If one day, Editor-in-Chief Lu's drama is not liked by everyone, but Chen Ziliang's drama has dog shit luck and becomes popular, will we still comment truthfully?"

"Before such things happen, we don't need to discuss it," Linyu looked at the time, "Okay, I have another meeting, let's end the meeting here."

After Linyu left the meeting room, Xiao Lu curled her lips.

"I really don't understand, why do you want to help Chen Ziliang's drama do heat for no reason?"

"If you want to establish an authoritative evaluation, you must at least be fair on the surface, especially with people you have had festivals with," another person who was a few years older than them smiled and said: "There is a saying called being famous, doing programs is the same. What we do is not other things, it is commenting on other people's things, and there can be no handles that can be directly caught by others, you know?"

Xiao Lu said "oh."

"Okay."

"Did you feel that doing this was quite hypocritical at first? After all, Yan He didn't hide his conflict with Chen Ziliang in front of the camera."

"A little bit," Xiao Lu nodded and admitted.

"But sometimes, even if the whole world knows you are acting, you must perform this play."

The confusion on Xiao Lu's face decreased more or less.

"Team leader, why did you join 'Jump Up'?" Xu Xiaolu suddenly thought of this question she had always wanted to ask, "Although 'Jump Up' has always said it wants to make a movie version, it hasn't been made yet, and you already have your own column in 'Home of Movies'."

"Having a column in a movie magazine is nothing, especially in this era when print media is declining."

"But isn't 'Jump Up' also a print media?" Xu Xiaolu asked suspiciously.

"Then you are wrong," Jiang Meihui looked at the little girl who joined three months ago and still had a clear and stupid face, and smiled, "'Jump Up' is a media company that started with print media but is developing towards a media group. It has layouts in print media, self-media, video, website, program production, and film and television investment. A pure print media can only go downhill in this era, but a print media backed by a large media group, its influence will only become larger and larger under the huge network dissemination of this media group."

Xu Xiaolu realized.

"Although the current heat about Yan He on the foreign internet comes from his Asian identity, we must not play this card."

Lu Qingzhen gathered her company's promotion department, and Chen Qin and Xu Fanxing who were already working at Linghe, together with Wan Qingqing in the United States and Song Jiang in the UK, to hold this meeting on how to further promote Lu Yan He overseas.

Wan Qingqing nodded and said: "When Sister Ziyan and Little Brother Lu were in Los Angeles, they also explained it to me like this. Although Little Brother Lu's discussion degree on the foreign internet is very high, the keywords are too single. Playing this card all the time will make everyone form a fixed impression label on him. I think we can use the drama 'Friends' to mainly promote Little Brother Lu's growth history in the entertainment industry from his two identities as an actor and screenwriter, to shape his success halo in this regard, as well as his personal image."

"But 'The Mist' is about to be released, is it okay not to mainly promote 'The Mist' at this time, but instead promote 'Friends'?" Xu Fanxing raised a question, "Should our focus at this stage be to ensure that 'The Mist' achieves good box office results first? This is the most basic."

"Sister Fanxing is right, the box office of 'The Mist' is the most basic, but according to the current situation, if 'The Mist' is still used as the focus of promotion and marketing, it will inevitably make everyone think of Little Brother Lu's Asian identity, after all, this movie is about this," Wan Qingqing said.

Lu Qingzhen asked: "You suggest mainly promoting the success halo of Yan He in the entertainment industry, won't this cause public resentment against success studies?"

"Oh, in the United States, in Europe and the United States, success studies have always been a sharp weapon for gaining public favor," Wan Qingqing said very firmly, "People here, not only in their hearts, they are very superstitious about success in the entire public opinion orientation. If Little Brother Lu's struggle story is spread on a large scale, he will become an idol for many people."

Lu Qingzhen looked at the face on the right side of Wan Qingqing.

"Song Jiang, is it the same in Europe?"

"Wan Qingqing is right. Compared to the situation on the foreign internet now that Little Brother Lu is discriminated against because of his Asian identity and needs everyone's support and solidarity, Little Brother Lu's struggle and inspirational story is definitely more helpful to his long-term public image," Song Jiang said, "And Little Brother Lu has a very big advantage in Europe. His image in the upper class here is very good, especially in the media circle and the commentary circle, his evaluation is very high. But on the other hand, Europeans are actually very arrogant. If Little Brother Lu's impression of 'Asian star who needs solidarity' is fixed, I am worried that over time, it will be resented and disgusted by some people."

Lu Qingzhen pondered for a moment, "OK, then you guys come up with a promotion plan today, with the story you said as the theme, how to prepare, how much budget is needed, I will communicate with President Chen."

"You ask me how high the possibility of 'The Mist' helping Yan He compete for an Oscar nomination is?"

Tang Mu Wayne was surprised and hesitated for a while before saying: "Lin, to be honest, the possibility is very low."

Linyu asked: "Then if I don't aim at finally winning an Oscar nomination, just through this competition and public relations process, I want to let more people in Hollywood recognize Lu Yan He as an actor and pay attention to his performance?"

"That depends on how much attention 'The Mist' can attract in the commentary circle," Tang Mu Wayne said, "In this regard, be cautious. You know, if your performance is not that good, but you make a big fanfare for public relations promotion, it will actually be counterproductive. 'The Mist' is just Lu Yan He's first Hollywood movie. Based on everyone's evaluation of him at the premiere, steady and steady will gain the attention of many people."

Tang Mu Wayne's meaning is actually very clear.

Linyu pondered for a moment, "But as long as we don't do it too much, with the help of the commentary circle's praise for Yan He, we can still let Yan He get more attention, right?"

"That's for sure."

"Tang Mu, tell me the truth, is 'The Mist' really good? Is Yan He's performance in it really as some media evaluated, a performance worthy of an Oscar nomination?" Linyu asked.

"I won't comment on the movie 'The Mist,' I went to the premiere entirely for Lu Yan He," Tang Mu Wayne said directly, "But Lu Yan He's performance is indeed wonderful, and the whole movie was snatched by him to take most of the brilliance."

Hearing Tang Mu Wayne say this, Linyu breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, thank you."

"Help Lu Yan He operate for an Oscar nomination?"

D19's promotion director Elena Green looked at Scott Harris in disbelief, a bit surprised, and asked: "Scott, are you serious? At this time? Operating for an Oscar nomination? Now the Oscar nomination list is basically a foregone conclusion."

After a long awards season, who can be shortlisted and who cannot, everyone has a list in their hearts long ago.

This is even a public list.

"This will at least add several million in public relations expenses," Elena Green said.

Scott Harris shook his head, "I'm not really going to operate a nomination back for him, but to promote this movie by announcing this matter. Now Lu Yan He is the most eye-catching star of the movie 'The Mist,' and the attention and discussion he has triggered in the minority group far exceed our imagination. We announce that we will apply for the Oscar performance award for Lu Yan He, which can further gain their favor for the movie 'The Mist' and pull them into the cinema."

Elena Green instantly understood.

"Oh, so you are playing this idea."

"Of course, 'The Mist' itself is just a horror movie. Nominated for an Oscar? Just thinking about it is enough," Scott Harris smiled and shook his head.

"Others, of course, we also have to announce that we will apply for awards in various departments for others, but the promotion focus of this matter must be that Lu Yan He's performance in 'The Mist' has been praised by the commentary circle, put all the praise of those film critics for Lu Yan He together, and emphasize that our D19 is willing to add seven-figure public relations expenses for an outstanding actor to sprint for this year's Oscar."

"Okay, I already understand what you mean," Elena Green curled her lips, "Scott, I have a premonition now, maybe 'The Mist' will create a box office miracle."

Scott Harris said: "After the first batch of comments came out after the premiere, you should have such a premonition."

Elena Green: "But let's not forget, Simon is still waiting for us to clarify the truth after the movie is released."

Scott Harris: "Clarify the truth? What truth?"

He looked at Elena Green and shrugged, "Elena, don't worry about those unimportant people at this time, 'The Mist' is about to be released, and we are facing a crucial promotion battle now."

Elena Green was stunned, seemingly not expecting Scott Harris to say this.

But she quickly came back to her senses, nodded, and said: "Okay, I know, then I'll go to work."

She nodded to Scott Harris and turned to walk out of the office.

Scott Harris looked at her back and dialed the phone to director Mukan.

At this time, this great horror movie director must be well maintained—it is conceivable that after this movie is released, other film companies will come to compete for his next movie.

Scott Harris cannot allow this situation to happen.

Besides director Mukan, there is also that Chinese actor.

Does the company have any scripts that need Asian roles?

Scott Harris wrote this matter into his memo, must hurry to find another script and hand it to Lu Yan He, cannot let other film companies grab it first.

Hollywood film companies are all wolves with dog noses.

Where there is meat, they bite there. ===== CHAPTER 553 =====