Chapter 146: Film Wrap and the Rampage of Blockbusters

Without taking much of a rest, the day after the celebration banquet, Wei Jin brought a group of actors to the aerospace training base and accepted interviews from reporters; this was the first time since the project started.

After briefly announcing the project's progress and the upcoming filming plan, Wei Jin dismissed the reporters and began the new filming tasks.

In the tall green-screen studio, the actors' performances looked very comical, with emotions and expressions relying entirely on imagination; this required a strong sense of conviction and acting skills, but once filled in with Post-production Special Effects, it would present a different appearance to the audience.

Many behind-the-scenes staff members had gotten tanned at Hongya, and their skin had become much rougher; the place had strong winds and sand, and the sun was intense, so only Liu Tianwang, who wore a Spacesuit most of the time, was slightly better off.

During this period, Wei Jin mainly filmed the parts that required special effects rendering; after filming as quickly as possible, they could be sent nearby to Shanhe Ink for production, and those that couldn't be handled would be sent directly to Digital Domain, which could save a lot of time.

As for the dramatic parts, Wei Jin planned to save them for last. — "Tian Tian, one more take, is that okay?"

Wei Jin frowned as he looked at the image on the monitor; Jing Tian's performance had improved a lot, but Wei Jin hoped she could display her best level in the film.

"Director, I can do it."

Jing Tian returned to her previous position without the slightest hesitation; on set, she always addressed Wei Jin as Director, not wanting people to think she was receiving special treatment.

"The young girl still has a lot of perseverance, but isn't Director Wei's requirement too high? How many times has this been now?"

Wu Jing asked Zhang Ziyi, who was beside him.

"You don't understand; Director Wei is helping her. It's her debut film, and a perfect presentation means he's going to cultivate her vigorously."

"Cut, Tian Tian, great performance, this take is a wrap."

With the help of the crew, Jing Tian took off her spacesuit; her face was still covered in sweat and had a rosy flush.

"Tian Tian, go to the side and rest for a bit; there aren't many scenes left."

Thanks to the long-term training and familiarity, the filming progress at the aerospace training center was very fast; even the weightlessness scenes, which were originally thought to be key difficulties, were filmed incredibly smoothly, and the current progress exceeded Wei Jin's imagination.

Regarding the scenes in the command center, Wei Jin had communicated with the leaders of the China National Space Administration, and they could borrow the real monitoring hall for filming; at that time, staff from the China National Space Administration would be on-site to cooperate.

Some footage of grand scenes would also be provided by the China National Space Administration, which could be said to have provided every convenience; the only requirement from the leaders was: film the true aerospace power of a great nation.

To this, Wei Jin firmly expressed that he would complete the mission; at the very least, he had to do justice to those shots of real rockets and spacecraft, right?

Having received strong support from the China National Space Administration, with even some staff members appearing as themselves to act as extras, the scene in the monitoring center was filmed very quickly, and it was all completed in one day. — In the park, the final scene of The Martian was being filmed.

Liu Tianwang sat quietly on a bench, watching a group of young reserve astronauts pass by; several old friends walked over, their faces filled with emotion, as if lamenting that there were successors to carry on the torch.

"Cut."

Wei Jin did not continue speaking; he looked at the image on the monitor and compared it with what was in his mind. After a long while, he raised the megaphone in his hand: "I announce, The Martian is officially wrapped!"

"Yay!"

The many staff members present cheered; the filming of this movie was truly too fragmented, and the scene jumps were particularly frequent—not complex, but very grueling.

After the cheering, everyone fell silent again; after several months of being together, there was inevitably some reluctance to part.

From the end of March, when Wei Jin initiated the project, to confirming the five investors, then to the script passing review, starting the construction of the Mars base in April, selecting roles, intensive training, officially starting filming in early May, and now officially wrapping up, time had already entered mid-July.

Wei Jin's originally scheduled three months of filming time had been slightly shortened, which was also thanks to the early training and the reasonable arrangement of the filming plan.

"Everyone has worked hard during this time; get ready, Han Dong has prepared a wrap banquet for tonight, let's drink until we drop." — Han Sanping attached great importance to this wrap banquet; if it weren't for Wei Jin holding him back, he would have wanted to book the Great Hall.

Even so, the wrap banquet still occupied an entire floor of a five-star hotel; with the main creative team, investors, a large number of media, and industry stars coming to show their support, the wrap banquet almost turned into a press conference.

The main creators were on stage accepting interviews, recounting interesting stories from the filming, especially Liu Tianwang, who talked about his experience of surviving alone, which made everyone laugh heartily.

"May I ask Liu Tianwang, how do you feel about working with Director Wei Jin?"

"Very good, this is an unprecedented experience; it's as if Director Wei has the finished film in his head. The filming efficiency is very high, and I look forward to having the opportunity to work together again."

Liu Tianwang really wanted to work with Wei Jin again; he had already understood the importance of reputation and also began to reflect on whether his many "favor-based" films, which came at the cost of overdrawing his reputation, were worth it.

"Ms. Zhang, I heard you didn't pass the audition but got the role directly; is that true?"

"Yes, I have known Director Wei for a long time. This time, I took the initiative to call and seek cooperation. I didn't expect Director Wei to also appreciate my acting, so I successfully secured the role."

Zhang Ziyi was also very happy; although this was a male-led film, the film and television industry had always been like this, and besides, being the female lead in the first domestic space sci-fi film also allowed her to steal the spotlight.

During this period, as some media behind-the-scenes clips and training photos circulated, Zhang Ziyi's reputation had improved significantly, and many netizens felt that at least she was very serious when it came to movies.

Facing the reporters' questions, everyone performed very appropriately without any slips, which also made the reporters a bit frantic; how could they produce news without any explosive points? Jing Tian was the most inexperienced among the many actors, so she became the target of many reporters.

"Ms. Jing Tian, may I ask what your relationship is with Director Wei? According to our understanding, all the resources you have had since your debut were provided to you by Director Wei's company or personally. Why is that?"

"Director Wei and my family have some connections; we are family friends, and he has always taken care of me. I am very grateful." "Then are you two dating?"

"I refuse to answer this question, thank you."

Jing Tian had been in the industry for quite a while and had faced many interviews, so she was well-versed in answering.

In the subsequent interviews, the other main actors also took good care of Jing Tian and said many good things for her; they really had a good impression of this polite and persevering young girl.

Wei Jin was the director of The Martian; at today's wrap banquet, the media's attention on him was beyond imagination.

Questions were constantly thrown at Wei Jin; he answered what he could, and for what he couldn't, he pushed it off by saying it needed to be kept confidential. However, he did provide the media with a lot of first-hand information; perhaps this was the treatment a 400-million-investment blockbuster deserved. — After the interview, Wei Jin sat down with several investors and began to chat.

"President Wei, how long is the post-production expected to take?"

The one asking was Old Wang from Fiber; with an investment of over 70 million, he also wanted to see the capital return as soon as possible.

"At least about a year. I have already arranged for two special effects companies to work overtime; this speed is already the limit."

Regarding post-production, Wei Jin had considered it very clearly; going to start a new film in the second half of this year would basically determine most of the progress, and arranging for two batches of people to go over and learn later could also help keep an eye on things.

"Don't be anxious, let's just wait. Since we want to make a blockbuster, we must ensure quality; for this, everything else can be set aside."

Ever since Han Dong took office, his prestige had become increasingly heavy, and everyone present could feel it.

"I have already accepted the product placement ads, but the big revenue earner, the pre-roll ads, still needs to be negotiated further. We must strive to get a good price to reduce risks. Fiber is strong in this area; President Wang, you will have to put in more effort."

A movie usually incorporates ads within a reasonable range, but the value of this part is generally not very high because it is impossible to give too many shots, and the audience's attention is not on this, so the promotional effect is average.

But pre-roll ads are different; these are professional ads added during the opening and closing credits of the film. Especially the opening ads, where the audience's attention is highly concentrated, the promotional effect is very good, the conversion rate is very considerable, and they possess extremely strong commercial value.

"No problem, I'm not good at making movies, but Fiber is definitely capable when it comes to advertising." — With the serious business mostly discussed, the few began to chat idly; Old Wang from Fiber and Wei Jin talked about the changing winds and clouds in the film market over the past two months.

The most lively thing during this period was the various production companies going to the General Administration to complain, bitterly criticizing China Film Group for holding the right to approve imported films while failing to protect domestic films, resulting in the entire months of June and July being Hollywood's world.

Ghost Rider in early June was fine; the audience was mostly students, and even so, the opening weekend box office was 10 million, eventually grossing over 30 million.

Pirates of the Caribbean in mid-June came on fiercely; it was completely aiming for the results of Spider-Man 3, and the result was as expected, grossing 140 million.

Originally thinking this was the end, who would have expected that a more ferocious one would come in July; Transformers was scheduled for July 11, and after three days of release, it raked in 58 million. One must know that these were weekdays; the various production companies in the industry were simply tortured to death.

"What do you think China Film Group is thinking? Are they just giving up on the Domestic Film Protection Month like that?"

Domestic Film Protection Month was a notice issued verbally by the Film Bureau in 2004, from the perspective of supporting domestic films, hoping that all cinema chains nationwide would support domestic productions. Every year, between June 10th and July 10th, or July 10th and August 10th, the import of major overseas revenue-sharing blockbusters is discouraged.

"I'm not sure either; in fact, I'm a victim too, haha."

Speaking of this, Wei Jin also felt a bit between laughter and tears.

Search was scheduled for June 29th; although it was an award-winning art film, it was at least Wei Jin's script, the story was told very clearly, and the audience could understand it.

The box office for the first three days of the opening weekend reached 32 million, the data was very impressive, and the word-of-mouth was also quite good.

Under the pressure of Pirates of the Caribbean and the situation of a crowd of domestic films bunched together, as of July 11th, the box office of Search had reached 74 million.

Just as it looked like it had a chance to break 100 million, the box office trend was brutally broken by Transformers; for the past two days, the box office has been less than one million.

Putting himself in their shoes, Wei Jin naturally understood the feelings of those production companies very well.

After working hard to film a movie, they thought that under the protection of the Domestic Film Protection Month, they could reap some box office, but then they encountered the ravages of Hollywood blockbusters and were directly reduced to cannon fodder; anyone would feel heartache and resentment.

However, the film industry is just like this, and Hollywood is no exception; apart from large companies that have the ability to resist risks, if small and medium-sized companies are not careful, a single film can directly knock them back to their original state.

"Do you think this is a new tactic of Han Dong? Specifically concentrating Hollywood blockbusters in the Summer Slot to make room for other films?"

"Do you believe what you're saying yourself? I can't be bothered to care anymore; anyway, Brotherhood of Blades is scheduled for August 3rd, and I'll fight whoever comes."

Originally, China Film Group's intention was to schedule it for the National Day Slot, but Wei Jin has to go to North America later, and the scheduling of his films doesn't have that much of an impact now anyway.

Plus, in the past few years, Wei Jin Company has had films released in the Summer Slot every year, which can be considered to have enlivened this slot, so he simply set the date directly.

"Your films naturally have that confidence, but most production companies are still struggling to survive. However, there was a low-budget film last month whose box office almost broke 20 million. It seems ordinary production companies really can only make small-budget productions, otherwise the risks are too great."

Wei Jin actually knew about this; it was Republic Mystery Case, which Tangren cooked up. It followed the suspense-horror route, with a cost of no more than three million, yet it managed to get a box office of over 18 million. When Liu Shishi came to make a cameo, she didn't say few good words to thank Miss Cai.

It is reported that Tangren is already continuing to develop similar scripts and wants to deeply cultivate this field. Thinking about it, it makes sense; a film earning several million in two or three months is still very tempting.

For a moment, Wei Jin pondered, what kind of benefits should he get from Miss Cai? Just the investment share of Chinese Paladin 3 is not enough. I wonder if Liu Shishi would be okay with it. Today's first update, I earnestly request all book friends to reward with subscriptions, follow-up readings, and collections. You must flip to the last page for the follow-up reading, thank you everyone! (End of this chapter)