Movie Master

The casting of Sin City is progressing very smoothly. Unknowingly, the name Lancelot Strelow has become a little famous, coupled with the endorsement of the Coen Brothers, and the original work of Frank Miller The names of the comics, and even many second-tier and third-tier actors passed information through their agents, expressing their desire to appear in the show.

Even Bruce Willis, the most famous actor in the entire cast, agreed to act on the spot after watching the three-minute opening title made by Lance, and agreed to act at a friendly price. news.

What's even more gratifying is that Lance and Frank also reached a consensus on the adaptation of the script, and then Frank began to write the detailed biography of each character, while Lance began to polish the dialogue of the script-as for the story frame of the script , Lance decided to follow the structure of the original comics. Originally, the original comics were short and concise stories, and there was almost no need for too many changes when they were adapted into scripts.

After going through the ups and downs of copyright acquisition, the preparatory work of Sin City can be said to be going smoothly. Not surprisingly, it will be able to enter the studio and start shooting in October. In a blink of an eye, the crime trilogy is really about to come true, but it is precisely because of this that Lance can't take it lightly. Whether it is the script or the characters, it must be meticulous and careful.

What's more, Lance's top priority now is not Sin City, but the post-production of Murder with a Borrowing Knife. Before the end of the summer, Lance and Aaron worked day and night to finally complete all the editing work, and then the work was put into the production of soundtrack and subtitles, and the pre-promotion was also launched one after another.

Percy walked into the office of Chaos Films with the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly in his hand. After a few months, the office had a completely new look. The large windows faced the east, and the spacious and bright glass completely covered the Los Angeles area. The low-lying cityscape lay within sight, and the sunlight poured down uninterruptedly, illuminating the entire iron-gray office, dotted with sea-blue sofas and stone-gray desktops all around. The walls at both ends are painted with murals of nebula explosions. The dark blue walls complement each other with milky yellow starlight and silvery white star clusters. The grandeur and grandeur of the chaotic explosion moment is presented in a low-key but shocking way. .

The spacious office is divided into two parts. Twenty office cubicles are placed in the two-thirds of the left-hand side, and an open space is placed in the third-right side. A transparent whiteboard is placed in the center, surrounded by A group of smoky gray linen sofas, occasionally stacked with some black and white sofa blocks are scattered in the open space, and the corner of the tea room is next to the window.

There is some idleness in the formality, some casualness in the solemnity, and some relaxation in the tension. The whole office space makes people feel happy. At this time, more than half of the twenty office cubicles were full, and there were all kinds of messy documents on the desktop. In just a few months, the work of Chaos Films had gradually been on track.

Percy lowered his head and flipped through Entertainment Weekly. The oncoming staff greeted him with a little restraint, but he didn't raise his head, but politely closed his jaw, and kept his pace at a steady pace, heading straight towards the left hand. Walked in the direction of the side, walked to the end, raised his head and saw the dark blue wooden door in front of him, which blended perfectly with the wall, but the small chaotic nebula above it was particularly obvious, marking the position of the wooden door .

He raised his hand and knocked twice on the door panel, and then heard Lance's deep voice, Come in. Percy turned the doorknob, pushed the door and walked in, and Lance's figure was immediately reflected eye.

At this moment, Lance folded his hands in front of his chest, locked his eyes on the desk, and fell into deep thought. Percy walked over, and twenty-four poster templates were arranged neatly on the table, making people dazzled. It could be seen that Lance was picking out the movie posters for the first wave of publicity. Percy looked at the newspaper in his hand, Do you need me to come in later?

Lance shook his head, No need. Lance quickly picked up four samples from the table, put them aside, then raised his head, What's the matter?

Percy immediately handed over the newspaper, The first wave of media publicity has come out, I'll come over and check with you to see if this is the effect. If so, then Paramount will issue an official press release in this way gone.

Lance took over Entertainment Weekly, and Percy had turned to the inside page. The headline was very attractive, Tom Cruise has experienced the most difficult performance in the movie!

Looking down the title, Lance quickly scanned the content, then nodded, Yes, this is the effect. The next pre-publicity will revolve around this theme. Remember, don't talk about the performance, talk about the shooting process, etc. After a batch of reports are gradually fermented, after the second batch of posters are released, let Tom start to accept an exclusive interview. During the interview, you can start talking about performances one after another, but don’t talk too much. Everything is still carried out in the mode of commercial film promotion .”

But the core keyword is still 'the most difficult'. Percy pointed out the most important content, and received an affirmative answer from Lance.

When Paramount was planning the promotion of Murder with a Borrowing Knife, the first plan was Tom Cruise gave the most exciting performance of his career! The focus of implication and implication is quite different.

In fact, this is the propaganda strategy of Paramount in the previous life. In short, it is to focus all the focus on Tom, and then make people deeply aware of what sacrifices Tom has made for this role and how much effort he has put in. And what an incredible breakthrough has been made, everything is paving the way for Tom to hit the Oscars.

However, in Lance's view, this strategy violated two big taboos: first, the film's positioning has fluctuated, between art films and commercial films, but it does not touch both times. It cannot please the box office and arouses the disgust of film critics. ; the second is the same as Troy, raising the expectations prematurely. Raising expectations to an unbelievable height ahead of time can only lead to disappointing the audience. What's more, the awards season has not yet started, and there are still nearly five months before the Oscar nominations are announced. Let's start the academy now. PR, not only arrogant, but ineffective.

When conceiving the Borrowing Knife publicity strategy, the first thing Lance thought of was the Batman Prequel: The Dark Knight plan. As a commercial blockbuster, the first goal of The Dark Knight is undoubtedly the box office. All the publicity was bombarded with the box office as the target. Ledger's portrayal of the Joker sparked a frenzy of praise.

At that time, Warner Bros. did not expect such a situation. After entering the awards season, Heath became a favorable candidate for Best Supporting Actor. The fact is that Heath's performance is indeed extraordinary and amazing, but The Dark Knight is a commercial film. It is not unprecedented in the history of film to win the Oscar statuette for the performance of a commercial film. The most famous one is Rocky, but the difficulty is beyond imagination. Later, Warner Bros. simply followed suit and began to focus on canvassing for Heath.

After the Oscar nomination list was announced, Heath's untimely death of a drug overdose pushed his popularity to the extreme. Warner Bros. hit the iron while the iron was hot, and brought the academy's public relations to the extreme. Before the Oscars, there was almost no suspense about the best supporting actor.

Lance hopes that Murder with a Borrowing Knife can be like this, setting the goal accurately in the early stage, closely following the commercial film as the core, and everything is aimed at the box office. After the movie is released, Lance believes that Tom's performance will definitely amaze countless people, especially the audience who walk into the cinema with the intention of watching commercial movies. It will definitely get twice the result with half the effort when they start to stir up public opinion.

What's more, in the early publicity, the core vocabulary of the most difficult performance since filming itself has a dual purpose. On the one hand, it is to create explosive points. Tom has filmed Mission: Impossible, which is extremely challenging and difficult, and Borrowing a Knife is even more difficult than Mission: Impossible, which is definitely attractive for commercial films. The point of view of the eyeballs; on the one hand, it is to lay the groundwork. The so-called hardships are not only physical, but also spiritual—that is, the so-called breakthrough in acting skills. After the movie is released, Paramount can gradually guide public opinion to the spiritual aspect, and then unfold Academy PR, everything will fall into place.

The same is true for the posters that Lance was selecting just now. He avoided posters that could show Tom's full appearance. He didn't want Tom's white hair to become the focus now, so he chose two very special posters. One is Tom's A close-up of the face, two-thirds of the face takes up three-quarters of the poster, and the hairstyle is invisible, but it can clearly show that this is the core of the starring role of Tom Cruise. The rest of the poster is The quarter of the movie is very interesting. It is a dimly lit neighborhood, but there are many details, including dead bodies, guns and legal documents. This is a poster that needs to be savored.

The other one is the back view of Tom, holding a gun in both hands, in the midst of a fierce gun battle, the colorful night around him is all blurred, blurring the surroundings of Tom's image in a very stylized image. However, the shadow part of this poster needs to be adjusted to make the hair part blend into the night as much as possible.

These two posters, plus a close-up photo of a taxi, show Lance sitting tense in the driver's seat, while Tom leans on the back of the seat on the other side of the back seat, looking at Lance defiantly and defiantly. There is also a poster of Lance running for his life with a handbag, these are enough poster materials for the premiere promotion.

The information revealed by these posters is tight and strong, fully complying with the needs of commercial films to create explosive points.

The early publicity is completely based on commercial films, with the box office as the goal. Percy concluded, The guys at Paramount are probably going to be very happy. Box office is their primary goal, how could they not be happy? By the way, today's headline... Percy hesitated to speak.