Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

As the largest film and television entertainment newspaper in the United States, the front page photo of "Hollywood Report" on the second day of the Oscars is not the photo of Tom Cruise's first emperorship, nor the photo of the family portrait of "Schindler's List", but the lonely A comparison photo of the global vice president and the high-spirited chairman of Paramount. Of course, in addition to the two bosses, there are also Spielberg and Jed in this comparison photo.Not only movie fans in the United States, but movie fans all over the world know that Universal's "today" and "tomorrow" are gone.They formed their own companies and formed an alliance with Paramount in their own ways. For Paramount, the second child of Hollywood, it seems that a chance to rise is at hand.

Although the Hollywood giants in the United States are all prefixed with Hollywood, the only real company headquarters in Hollywood are MGM and Paramount, and the remaining big and small giants only have their own production departments. Or the studio is still in Hollywood.Although Los Angeles claims to be the entertainment capital of the United States, it still seems to be slightly inferior to New York, a cosmopolitan metropolis and a media city with global attention.However, since there are only two remaining companies that are willing to keep their headquarters in Hollywood, the Los Angeles government still treats these two companies quite favorably.Thinking about MGM's high debts in later generations, but being slightly pulled on the verge of bankruptcy and liquidation, there must be the local government.Although the current North American box office market is still led by MGM and Paramount, anyone with a heart can see the problems.

The reason why the two companies can occupy such a high share is not because the two companies are old companies with many years of history, and there are piles of old films in the copyright library. Whether it is going to some art theaters or renting video tapes, it is excellent .However, it is not a solution to rely on old movies alone. Without new movies that sell well, people will catch up one day.You can see that Universal, which has a huge library of old films, has climbed from the bottom of the Big Seven to the third place to compete with Columbia because of the presence of Spielberg and Jed in the past few years.

However, the content of "Hollywood Report" has not been lively for a few days, and a magazine called "Los Angeles Truth Weekly" suddenly kicked up a disappearance case.On the cover of that issue, the cover was all black, with the headline "Where are they now?" in white text on a black background.

According to an interview with a reporter from "Hollywood Truth Weekly", three students from the School of Cinematic Arts of the University of Southern California mysteriously disappeared a year ago when they went to a certain forest to shoot their graduation works.At the time, the case attracted the attention of California police and Maryland state police, but after a week of unsuccessful searches, the FBI's Missing Persons Unit also stepped in to investigate.

But after a furious three-month search, the entire investigation came to an abrupt halt.The police did not say whether they had any results, nor did they say when they would restart the investigation. They just put the three students on the "missing list" and announced the suspension of the search.The "Hollywood Truth Weekly" reporter did not understand that neither the police nor the FBI announced that the case was closed, nor did they announce whether the investigation was still ongoing.For such a report, the family members of the parties must come out for interviews, and they even took out photos of the students.

When Jed saw this report, he was stunned and immediately called Jia Fei, "Could it be true?"

Jia Fei could only smile wryly, "After letting them know about this incident through a very side channel, they actually found this case. I also asked someone to find out about it. There is indeed a case of missing students in Southern California, and it is counted as a case. The missing person is still a few years behind your juniors. I guess the phone at USC should be blown up, Mr. Sherman, we are playing too big!"

Jed didn't expect that the script he originally invented actually had a real background story in it, which surprised Jed very much.At the same time, all the people who were invited to participate in the filming were also shocked by this fact.Jed had to explain in the crew's memories, "I conceived this script in February. If you have any questions, you can check with the Screenwriters Association on the day when I submitted the script for filing. During my studies at Southern University, everyone knew that I was I am a playboy, so naturally I will not know about the situation of my younger siblings. Although I entered USC to study as a graduate student again, I spent most of my time in various film crews, so I assure you that this is definitely not me hiding Shoot the entire case. Today, I signed a contract and a non-disclosure agreement with everyone, so the complete script can be handed over to everyone, and everyone can compare the details of the script and the case itself. "

There is no law in the United States that prohibits the adaptation of real cases, but a relatively default rule is that if the case is still under investigation, it is best not to adapt it.Otherwise, even if there is no suspicion of "obstruction of justice", it will be considered immoral by others.Although the police did not show signs of another large-scale search in the case of the missing student in Southern California, they did not announce the termination of the search. Therefore, the adaptation of this case will make many Hollywood practitioners worry.However, after listening to Jed's narration and reading the script, they felt that the film was at most only somewhat involved in the disappearance case, rather than an adaptation of the disappearance case.

Compared with the shooting of the original movie, Jade's budget is relatively much larger, so he can not only find a virgin forest to shoot some exterior scenes, but also rent a studio for shooting.Jade knows very well that the reason for the success of "The Blair Witch" is not because of its roughness, but because of the real atmosphere created by its "pseudo-documentary".

In order to enhance the atmosphere to the extreme, Jade himself specially recruited several staff from Japan who specialize in making sound effects for horror films to join the film.Not to mention, the joining of these Japanese has revolutionized the traditional concept of American horror films. American horror films have always been disgusting to scare people, and rarely involve psychological aspects.This is why watching American horror movies and forgetting them, but Japanese horror movies can scare you for months.

In Jed's script, Blair the Witch is just a symbol. She has no appearance, no voice, and no symbols that can represent her. The only information about her is her legend.When three Southern California college students accidentally learned of this legend, many unexpected things happened in their next lives.In order to make the expression realistic, Jed didn't even tell the three participating actors where the next scare point was, so the three actors were almost frightened into a nervous breakdown by Jed during the two weeks of filming. A lot of makeup money.

However, Jed is not an "evil" capitalist. After the filming was completed, Jed not only paid for the three actors' psychological counseling courses for half a year, but also arranged for two weeks in Marbury Beach and Las Vegas. It is expected that the three actors will soon forget this unhappy shooting experience.

A movie is shot in two weeks, and even a low-budget movie can be regarded as a "quick shooter".But what Jia Fei didn't know was that this movie doesn't actually need to shoot too many things, and there will even be a super long freeze-frame shot of a door facing a door for more than ten minutes.What is needed at this time is a variety of sound effects to enrich the picture and make the audience fear.It has to be said that the Japanese are indeed at the forefront of the world in this regard. No wonder Hollywood still enjoys producing a large number of cult movies and B-grade movies every year. In addition to the fixed fans in the United States, there is also a huge market in Japan. .

Under the tinkering of those Japanese, several soundtracks made Jed feel hairy, and even the editor who worked with Jed asked Jed to make up for a carnival trip to Las Vegas afterwards. .After two weeks of hard work, an edited version of "The Blair Witch" was completed.According to the rules, all the management of Galaxy Films should come to test the film.After watching it, the producer will put forward suggestions for revision, and then complete the final edited version and prepare to enter the distribution market.

In fact, there are not many people in the current management of Galaxy Films. Apart from the general manager Jia Fei, there is only Bob, the marketing director.In order to get more opinions, Jade also specially called the management of Dongfeng TV to test the film together. The first screening of "The Blair Witch" was in the ZERO theater inside the Galaxy Films. This is a small theater, but the first screenings of countless classic movies in the future will be held here.There are only about fifty works in the theater, but the projection equipment and audio equipment are all the most advanced.In addition to all the high-level executives, the leading actors, directors and main staff members also appeared on the stage.

As soon as the lights went down, the screening of The Blair Witch began.The newsreel at the beginning did not have many brilliant aspects, but the continuous montage overprint made people appreciate the editor's skills. After the 5-minute newsreel ended, the camera immediately switched to a forest.A ranger accidentally discovered the packages of the missing students, so he took these items to the police station to report the case. The investigators of the FBI found that several sections of film were wrapped, so they found a simple screening room and began to check the contents of the film.The content of the film is very unstable, and it looks like it was shot with a hand-held camera, and a few fixed shots also have the lens tilted.Since Lansing hadn't read the script, he was very puzzled that such a crude picture came from the genius of Jed.

At this time, the hero told his friend a legend about the witch Blair, and everyone laughed and went to bed after listening.It's a pity that the camera was not turned off. Under the dim light, something seemed to float by, and then screams and nervous music sounded at the same time, which woke Lansing who was drowsy immediately.In the next scene, although the lens is still so rough, the realistic sound effects and strong psychological hints made Lansing's heartstrings more and more tense. Fortunately, when Lansing felt that he was about to collapse, the scene of the camera ended.

At this moment, the FBI agent was full of thought. He just ordered someone to investigate the so-called "Blair Witch" rumors, and then continued to watch the next scene.Until this time, Lansing found that Jed seemed to have created another horror film route.This kind of horror movie is so clean that the MPAA can't say anything, but it can scare everyone.

If MPAA's grading rules are strictly enforced, this film will enter PG-13 due to a small amount of swear words. This is a grading second only to G and is also the basic grading of mainstream Hollywood movies.But Lansing doesn't think such a movie is suitable for the following children to come in and watch. In Lansing's view, it is not surprising that this movie is even rated R.It's a pity that this does not comply with the regulations. If the MPAA dares to do this, it will bring about the collapse of the entire Hollywood order.

Because it's a commercial horror film, Jed cut the film to a standard nine-and-a-half minutes.In this way, it will not be too long to make the audience feel boring. Originally, this kind of horror film is scary, and when the audience recovers, they will know that there is no plot at all.So Jed knows what it means to stop as soon as it is good, so the movie ends when the FBI decides to restart the disappearance investigation. As for how the FBI investigates and the whereabouts of the missing students, just wait for the sequel.As for the suitable shooting of the sequel, it depends on the box office results.

Jed does not intend to make "The Blair Witch" into a series, and it must be completely finished with a maximum of three.Because this movie always has a complete and closed storyline, unlike "Ghost Story", which is an open story, and it can be filmed from another angle every year.

In addition, Jed suddenly wondered whether the Japanese "The Grudge" and "Midnight Ring" have started filming. If not, he would not mind investing in these two classic psychological horror blockbusters.So Jed entrusted Rainbow Pictures, which he invested in, to investigate. Unfortunately, Suzuki Koji has already published the first part of "Midnight Ring" and is working on the second part.After thinking about it for a while, Jed asked Muse Culture to go to Japan to negotiate, preparing to buy Suzuki Koji's publishing contract. Jed not only wanted to shoot "Midnight Ring", but also "Ghost Talk".Moreover, the sales of these two books in Asia are quite good, why doesn't Jed make a fortune?

The other two important "Ghost Call" and "The Grudge" have not yet been born, and Jed feels that he should immediately complete the outline and settings, and then leave it to Muse Culture to create.Today, Jed seldom writes novels, but the writers under Muse Culture still continue to publish novels of "Tomb Raider", "Halo" and "Resident Evil". Both Crisis and Halo already have their own set of spin-offs, and the Tomb Raider prequel about Lara Croft's father has also been well-received.

This time Muse Culture will not only poach Koji Suzuki in Japan, but also Yasushi Akimoto, the author of "Ghost Call" (this guy is the fat autumn of AKB48) and Takashi Shimizu, the screenwriter of "The Grudge".Jade's current positioning of Muse Culture is not only his own copyright agency, but also competing for the future publishing industry.On the basis of science fiction, horror fiction will become the second step of muse culture.Of course, Jed also plans to poach the author of "Harry Potter" and "Twilight", not only to reserve copyright for his film company, but also to prepare for entering the youth market.

The preview of "The Blair Witch" made Dongfeng and Yinhe very satisfied, and Jia Fei also had a very clear understanding of Jed.Originally, Jia Fei was very worried that Jed and Spielberg had been together for a long time, so he was only interested in various art films that focused on human nature.Unexpectedly, this horror film is not only full of commercial gimmicks, but also created a new way of shooting horror movies, so the trial screening decided to submit the final edited version to the MPAA for filing.Lansing's expectations were not exceeded. Although the MPAA knew that the PG-13 rating for this movie was very inappropriate, the whole movie didn't even contain a few swear words. Could it be that it should be rated R?Seeing this rating, Lansing knew it would be a controversial movie.

And in the end, Jed, under Jia Fei's persuasion, changed the background of the story again.Because the disappearance of a student in Southern California has become the number one missing case in the United States that the president has paid attention to and that Congress has named. If Jed insists on following the original plan, he will definitely be criticized for his lack of morality.Therefore, the final version of "The Blair Witch" is still set to be students of Maryland State University, and the purpose of the three students has changed from shooting graduation works to graduation trips.It's just that one of them happened to be a movie buff, so he brought a handheld video camera.

Seeing this work, which is almost the same as the setting of the previous life, Jed has a very special feeling.However, the degree of completion of Jed's work is incomparable to that of the previous work. Jed retained the advantages of the original version, while covering up some shortcomings.

After the passage of the MPAA, Galaxy and Paramount began working together to distribute the film.However, because of too little investment in films, many theater companies are reluctant to arrange more screening halls and screenings.Just because of Paramount's face and Jade's reputation, some relatively unpopular shows were arranged.That's the case, with the arrival of May 5, Jade's directorial debut "The Blair Witch" will be released nationwide.

However, there is no premiere for this release, and Jed is completely focused on his next work "The Shawshank Redemption".In order to find a suitable prison shooting base, Jed had to turn to his mentor for help.Fortunately, Jed's mentor is also quite well connected, and soon helped Jed find an abandoned medium-sized prison in Texas.

After contacting the property owner, it was rented at a very cheap price.The rest is the problem of setting up the scene. Fortunately, this is not really rebuilding, it just needs to be repaired in key places.The only headache for Jed is, where to find so many prisoners?After thinking about it for a long time, Jed decided that it would be good for all the crew to guest-star the prisoners.

The question now is, where are the leading actors and photographers?Jade began sending out invitations to the Screen Actors Guild and the Society of Photographers of America.