Chapter 53: Film Selection

Before Wu Yuchen could speak, the Old Man He from just now said:

"This is indeed an opportunity, but I estimate there will be competition!"

Another older comrade also spoke:

"Young people should have a fierce and progressive momentum and not fear competition! Little Wu, I think you can consider it carefully."

Wu Yuchen nodded. He knew there would definitely be competition after hearing the news just now.

2 million to shoot 3-5 films. He estimated that at least 1 million of this would be reserved by the Beijing Film Studio. There was no way around it; they were the local snakes, and they had cooperation with the movie channel, and they had also helped during the establishment of the movie channel.

He could only fight for the remaining 1 million, and he didn't know how many parts this 1 million would be divided into.

At this time, the old lady also said with a smile:

"Little Wu, if you want to try, you might as well give me this videotape first, and I will take it for them to see first. However, I can at most help you ask. This matter may not necessarily succeed. If there is any news, I will notify you."

Wu Yuchen naturally understood that taking the videotape for people to see was to prove his directing ability. Otherwise, how would they believe in the ability of a nobody to direct a film?

Wu Yuchen put his hands together and said respectfully and sincerely to the old lady:

"Teacher Ruan, you told me this news and even helped me ask about it; I am already grateful. Whether it succeeds or not, I will keep your kindness in my heart! Thank you so much this time!"

Old Lady Ruan accepted this bow from him and then said with a smile:

"I am also curious about what kind of feature film you can shoot~"

Having spent over a month together, she had a pretty good impression of Wu Yuchen. Not only was he talented, but he was also very active in his work and could chat with old folks like them, unlike her grandchildren who would become impatient after saying a few words.

After watching *Bus 44* directed by Wu Yuchen just now, while being shocked, she also felt that such a talented young person should be cultivated more. It wouldn't hurt to build bridges for him to try. It would depend on whether he could fight for this opportunity himself.

On the way back from the Prince Gong Mansion, Wu Yuchen was still recalling what happened today. It was truly a series of surprises.

First, Tu Honggang sent him a big red envelope of 20,000 yuan, and then Old Lady Ruan passed him the opportunity for the movie channel to produce its own films.

Wu Yuchen looked at the soles of his shoes; he hadn't stepped on dog poop either.

Then he shook his head and began to ponder the opportunity of the movie channel this time.

To be honest, if the movie channel dared to give him all 2 million, he wouldn't mind giving the movie channel a surprise: one of the most popular films on the movie channel, *Raise Your Hands! *.

The subject matter of this film could absolutely pass the review; there was no problem at all, and it was deeply loved by the people.

Many people might think that this film didn't win any awards and didn't have any box office, but that didn't prevent the common people from really liking to watch it!

There were many laughs in the film, and that bow-legged little devil in it made people want to laugh when they saw him.

*Raise Your Hands! * won the highest annual ratings on the movie channel many times. Without publicity and the support of mainstream urban cinema chains, it became the number one film in rural cinema chains across China for 9 consecutive years, with a total of over 1 million screenings in rural cinema chains!

Its significance to the movie channel was similar to *My Fair Princess* to Mango TV.

Many people sprayed this film as a bad one, portraying the little devils as various mentally retarded people. But Wu Yuchen just wanted to say one thing: it's okay for *The Great Escape* to portray German soldiers as low-IQ wine bags and rice sacks and then be called a classic, but my *Raise Your Hands! * uses the same routine and becomes a bad film? Too double-standard!

However, it was impossible for the movie channel to give him 2 million, and it was impossible even if they saw the script of *Raise Your Hands! *, so he stopped thinking about this blindly.

As for films like *Blind Shaft*, *Blind Mountain*, *Xiao Wu*, etc., shot by the Sixth Generation directors, none of them could be considered. If the script was handed over, they would just kill it directly after reading it.

The movie channel invested in you to shoot a film that could be watched by the general public on TV, not to invest in shooting banned films.

The primary standard for Wu Yuchen's film selection this time was naturally to pass the review; otherwise, don't mention anything. Secondly, it was a small budget, the kind that could be shot for 1 million or even 500,000.

At the same time, one had to consider Wu Yuchen's personal pursuit. He didn't expect this film to be released in domestic cinemas first, because the investor, the movie channel, wanted to broadcast it on TV. Therefore, for Wu Yuchen, the channel that could bring benefits to this film was to take it to foreign film festivals to win awards and sell it for money.

Actually, when mentioning small-budget, high-return films, the first two sci-fi films that came to Wu Yuchen's mind were the ones blown up by marketing accounts: *The Man from Earth* and *Coherence*.

*The Man from Earth* cost over 10,000 US dollars, and the whole internet was talking about a box office of 300 million. 300 million my foot; this film wasn't released in cinemas at all!

There was also *Coherence*, with a cost of 50,000 US dollars, which was also blown up to a box office of over 100 million. In fact, the box office was only 140,000 dollars.

Of course, Wu Yuchen didn't deny the excellence of these two films, and they definitely made a lot of money through DVD distribution and online revenue. If they were taken to sci-fi film festivals, there should be discerning film merchants.

The small-budget films that truly achieved super-high returns at the box office were *The Blair Witch Project* and *Paranormal Activity*, with production costs of 60,000 and 15,000 respectively, and global box offices of over 200 million US dollars. However, the former relied on marketing, and the latter was a horror film; neither met the requirements of the Sixth Princess.

Don't even think about *The Man from Earth*; localizing the story was a bit laborious, and it might just touch the line.

*Coherence* could still be considered. Maybe the Sixth Princess at this time liked sci-fi? It could be used as a surprise move; it should be able to be shot for over 100,000.

After thinking about the surprise move, one must definitely think about the right move. The so-called right move was that the film content was very in line with positive energy and the main theme, such as red subject matter, or praising the true feelings of the world.

Wu Yuchen wouldn't consider red subject matter; it had no sales channel abroad. For praising the true feelings of the world, like *Postmen in the Mountains* starring Liu Ye, it told the story of mutual understanding between two generations of father and son.

*Postmen in the Mountains* was too popular in Japan, with a cumulative box office of 800 million yen. Unfortunately, the producer sold the foreign copyright for 60,000 US dollars at the beginning.

Wu Yuchen sighed when he thought of this; there wasn't enough money!

The original production cost of *Postmen in the Mountains* was over 2 million. The novel copyright was easy to talk about, but shooting had to run into the mountains, which would cost at least over 1 million no matter what.

Most truly small-budget films had very simple shooting scenes, but any complexity would increase the cost. ===== CHAPTER 54 =====