Chapter 182: Endless Prestige

*District 9* is a co-production. As one of the investors, even if the investment proportion is small, is it too much to stuff a few interns into the film?

Cao Yang waved his hand and made the decision for the school, wanting ten interns to serve as assistants for the crew and follow along to see the Hollywood filming process.

Those students who had interned in Cao Yang's film crew, after they went out, all claimed to be Cao Yang's students, and they would gather from time to time to help each other.

Maybe it can't be seen now, but in the future? Maybe there are countless possibilities; no one can say for sure.

Cheng Jianye is still the production manager, acting on Cao Yang's behalf, and has great power in the crew.

Cao Yang communicates with the staff in the US via phone and internet to confirm the selection of props and the production progress.

In this film, most of the real scenes can be chosen to be filmed in South Africa, but there are also many scenes that need to be set up indoors.

Columbia doesn't mind Cao Yang choosing the Youth Film Studio for the indoor set construction. In their view, it's much cheaper here domestically than in Hollywood, and choosing domestic set construction for a co-production is no problem.

The Youth Film Studio has taken on a big job this time.

Cao Yang's requirement for the Youth Film Studio is that it must be of high quality and quantity, and guaranteed to be completed on time.

Hou Keming was very happy about Cao Yang's choice. He originally thought Cao Yang was going to film in Columbia's studio, but he didn't expect Cao Yang to choose his own.

Is it a bit of favoritism?

Then he quickly shook off this thought. What favoritism? Cao Dao is saving money for the crew; it's completely for the public good.

Consequently, Hou Keming emphasized to the Youth Film Studio again: first, complete it on time; second, complete it on time with high quality and quantity; third, try to complete it ahead of schedule on the premise of high quality and quantity.

Privately, he once asked Cao Yang, "Cao Dao, since it's given to the Youth Film Studio this time, and Columbia also belongs to foreign guests, can we charge a little less?"

Cao Yang asked: "Is the film's budget not enough? Is our Youth Film Studio charging higher than Columbia?"

"That's not the case. For the same studio set construction, our cost only needs one-fourth of Columbia's; it's much cheaper than them..."

"One-fourth?"

Cao Yang frowned.

"How about charging a little less?" Hou Keming said quickly.

Cao Yang couldn't help but smile bitterly and corrected: "What 'them'? This is a co-production; it's 'us', not 'them'."

Although Columbia paid the bulk of the budget, it's a co-production, so even if the Youth Film Studio paid a little money, it's a "shareholder."

"Dean Hou, if you keep doing this, the budget won't be spent."

Cao Yang suggested: "The accounts must be clear and understandable, able to withstand inspection. You can hire more labor, and choose the best materials. After filming this time, you can modify it slightly for other crews to use next time."

Thinking about it, Cao Yang continued: "As for the budget, it's fine to make it one-half or one-third of Columbia's. The key is that the accounts must be clear, and Columbia's people must feel that the money was spent too worthily."

Consequently, Hou Keming supervised it himself, not only completing it ahead of schedule, but the materials for the set were also the best, and the set construction fully met the requirements, yet the money spent was only one-third of the budget given by Columbia.

Domestic labor is too much cheaper than the Americans.

Actually, if it weren't for the fact that domestic film and television supporting facilities are just starting and there is no experience in prop production for filming science fiction films, Cao Yang would have wanted to put prop production domestically as well.

In this regard, Hollywood has a huge advantage. Like the mechs, exquisite alien masks, spaceships, sci-fi weapons, etc., needed for the film, it is very convenient and fast to produce them there; they have related supporting industries.

While waiting for the production of props, Cao Yang summoned several main actors to Jingcheng to start lecturing them on the play.

Although this film follows the commercialized art-house film route, Cao Yang feels that if you want a high box office, the appeal of stars is one aspect.

The film's plot is one aspect. The actors' performance is also one aspect, at least it can play the role of adding flowers to the brocade.

In addition, Cao Yang feels what is the biggest impression he has left on people?

It is that he knows how to train actors.

He has decided that from now on, whether filming commercial films or art-house films, he must not lose points in the aspects he is good at.

Just like Old Mouzi, my plot can be very bad, but the visual style I am best at must have characteristics; this is a point that must not lose points.

Cao Yang feels he should be like this too. From now on, for the films he directs, you can complain about the plot, complain about the visuals, but when mentioning the training of actors and acting skills, you must give a thumbs up.

He has the confidence to make this decision.

Cao Yang summoned the trash system.

Host: Cao Yang

Current Prestige: 2,966,785

Available Prestige: 1,666,785

Immersion Experience: +0

Filming Film: *District 9*

Male Protagonist 1: Depp

!

Male Protagonist 2: Wu Qihua

Male Protagonist 3: Duan Yihong

Male Supporting Actor 1: Ian McKellen

Male Supporting Actor 2: Samuel L. Jackson

Actually, as early as when the Golden Globes and Oscars were awarded, he had already seen it.

At that time, the film hadn't been released yet. The Golden Globes won three awards, adding 150,000 prestige.

Later, the Oscars won five awards, adding another 500,000 prestige. The Oscar awards are the same as the secondary awards of the European three major festivals, and they don't give as much prestige as the top awards of the three major festivals.

After the film was taken off the screen, Cao Yang saw that this film actually had a box office reward of 500,000 prestige. I don't know how it was calculated, but the reward was still okay.

This immediately gave him 1.6 million available prestige, which can be exchanged for 16 immersion experiences. It can't be used up; it really can't be used up.

In addition, Cao Yang received another call from Fox Searchlight. They still hadn't given up on the adaptation rights of *Juno*.

*Milk* selling well in North America gave Fox Searchlight quite a bit of confidence. Maybe they were also waiting for the box office of this film at the time, wanting to see Cao Yang's influence.

20% of the global box office and subsequent shares, Cao Yang will write the script for them, and serve as producer and executive producer, publicly claiming to be the project initiator.

The latter item is newly added. Claiming to be the project initiator can leave people with the feeling that this is Cao Yang's film, and the audience will be more willing to buy it.

Cao Yang thought about it and asked: "Since you let me be the project initiator, and I am also the film's producer and executive producer, then the film's editing..."

"You have the right to decide the final cut."

"Then there's no problem."

Having the right to decide the final cut can also be considered as having the final editing rights of the film.

Uh, it seems that when being a director, the most annoying thing is others interfering with your film, and you can even fall out with people for the sake of editing rights.

Now that he is a producer and executive producer, he asked for the director's editing rights as soon as he opened his mouth, which is really a bit...

People, they are all double-standard; no one can be an exception.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 183 =====