Chapter 19: Seeking Release (")

In the afternoon in Los Angeles, the sun was shining. Looking at the Chicago Architectural School-style tall building in front of you, Wang Yang encouraged himself and walked in.

A few days ago, he made all the post-production editing of "Artistic - Ghost Records", and the feature film was finally set at 98 minutes. In his opinion, this movie is definitely worthy of the word "exciting", and those who have watched it will definitely be scared to sweat. Anyway, Jessica and Joshua, who had just finished cutting it, went to his house to have a look, and their faces turned blue after watching it, even though they had already known the plot of the movie.

Wang Yang himself was also very miserable because he lived in the apartment where he was filming the movie, which made him suspicious all day long. When he sleeps in the middle of the night, he will be frightened and wake up suddenly when he hears the sound of the wind in a daze. Perhaps this is the sequelae of shooting horror movies.

After editing the movie, Wang Yang kept working hard to carry out the next work, the release of the movie. If a movie wants to be released in a cinema, it needs to negotiate with the publisher and the theater chain, and the theater chain arranges its cinema to be released. This movie publisher is the target of Wang Yang's contact.

In the United States, in California, there are countless film companies, and the most famous ones are naturally the eight major companies in Hollywood history, including MGM, Paramount, Columbia, Warner Bros., Universal, United American, 20th Century Fox, and Disney; of course, after so many years of evolution, with the "Paramount Case", the law has ruled that film companies cannot own theaters and cinemas. With the end of the era of large studios, the power of the eight major companies has long been gone.

They may become part of media groups, such as Paramount being acquired by Viacom; or they may continue to struggle to support themselves, insisting on their identity as an independent production company, but they will be trapped in huge deficits at any time, like MGM. However, they are still the boss of the Hollywood film industry and the maker of commercial blockbusters.

Among them, several companies have subsidiaries that will represent independent films that are not made by their own investments. For example, Fox Searchlight, the distribution company of 20th Century Fox, has already represented and released more than ten independent films and has gained a lot.

However, the movies represented by Fox Searchlight are costing millions, above 10 million, and are film movies. There has never been a portable home DVD movie in the world now. After all, DVD has only been released for a few months.

Although Wang Yang knew that big companies like Fox were unlikely to watch his movies, he still called and gave it a try. At least one more chance, right?

But on the phone, the film purchasing manager of Fox Searchlight heard that his movie was shot using a home DVD and there was no arrangement for a meeting, so he smiled and refused. He even thought that Wang Yang's phone was a prank, what a joke, portable home DVD, making movies? He knew the DVD, and even knew the quality of the DVD shooting. Can it be moved to the big screen? Who would watch it? Could it be that a child from a family bought a DVD and shot it randomly, and just pretended that the thing he shot was a movie?

Of course, more importantly, there is no need to take risks or make jokes in Fox Searchlights. They have good returns now, so just continue to carry out this business policy.

This result was also expected by Wang Yang. He was not entangled, and it was useless to entangle. These big companies are used to large-scale productions, and the cost of 10,000 US dollars is a joke in their eyes. How to make movies for 10,000 US dollars? They are not without vision. After all, DV movies are something that has never been done before. This is an innovation and a subversion. This is how humans are. The first person to take the lead depends not on vision, but courage.

So, after contacting all the large companies, Wang Yang, who had nothing to do, began to contact some small and medium-sized companies. Some of them would make their own low-cost movies, while others were distribution companies that were mainly distributed by agents, such as Xinshi, Dimen, etc.

They also felt incredible and thought that Wang Yang was playing pranks, but unlike big companies such as Fox Searchlight, they did not directly reject Wang Yang on the phone. It seemed that they arranged for Wang Yang to meet with the idea of ​​"it's too idle, it's good to see."

During these days, Wang Yang took the DVD disc of "Spiritual - Ghost Record" and went to several companies such as Xinshi, Dimen, etc., but the results were surprisingly consistent. When the movie was first screened, they saw the picture with poor quality and the scenes that were shaking extremely violently, so they shook their heads and said, "There is no need to continue watching."

This time, Wang Yang was entangled, but no matter how hard he tried to promote it, saying that shaking the camera was the style of a DV movie, pseudo-documentary theory, etc., they all smiled and said "no". The reason for their rejection was actually not different from the Fox searchlight. They were also not optimistic about DV movies, and they felt that using DV movies was a joke and could not be accepted by the audience.

Think about it, when the audio film technology first came out, most companies were worried that audio films would not be accepted by the audience, and some even insisted on the idea of ​​long live silent films. Now they are disdainful of dv films, which is not surprising.

So Wang Yang's entanglement is ultimately useless. People say no, what else can you do?

But today this company is different. Wang Yang is full of confidence and hope, and is full of motivation, because this company is called "Artsman Film Company". In the future, it released the DVD movie "The Witch Blair", which set a record that shocked the world. If anyone who has the most courage to eat the crab in the DVD movie is the one they are.

Yijiang Film Company is a very small company that specializes in distributing independent films. It does not have its own office building and its headquarters is located on the twelfth floor of this commercial building.

Today, Wang Yang was wearing a decent black leather jacket, carrying a briefcase containing a movie script and copying the movie DVD disc, and came to the gate of Yijiang Film Company. He looked at the Yijiang logo hanging on it, took a deep breath, and walked in.

"Hello, welcome to Artist!" The front desk lady welcomed the crowd with a smile. She was a black woman in her twenties. Although she had a professional smile, she was very pleasing to the eyes.

Wang Yang looked at her work card and knew that her name was Nicole Vivore, and then smiled and said, "Hello Miss Vivore, I am Wang Yang. I made an appointment to meet with your company's film purchasing manager Mr. Thomas."

"Okay, please wait." Nicole nodded, held the mouse and checked it in the computer, then looked up and smiled, "Oh, I found it. Yes, the agreed meeting time is 15:00, and now it is 14:42, so please wait for a while."

Wang Yang nodded with a smile and said, "Okay." He walked to the row of chairs opposite the front desk and sat down, touched his briefcase, looked around, and felt a little nervous, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

At this time, the front desk lady Nicole Vivor looked at him, a little curious, and asked: "Mr. Wang, you made an appointment with Mr. Thomas to discuss the release of the movie. Are you the producer of the movie?" Wang Yang nodded and said: "Well, I can say that I am the producer and the director." Nicole smiled in disbelief and said: "Oh, you look very young, it's amazing."

Wang Yang shrugged and smiled, "So, my name is Yang (young)." Nicole also laughed, and Wang Yang took the opportunity to ask her, "By the way, do people like me often come to your company to promote their own movies?"

Nicole Vivoer shook his head without thinking and said, "No, there are not many independent movies, and there are too many film companies, so people will come occasionally." She didn't know that Wang Yang's movie was shot in DV, and she smiled and said, "In fact, we often take the initiative to find good movies in various film festivals. For example, at this year's Sundance International Film Festival, our company also bought a few movies."

Wang Yang nodded silently after hearing this. Sundance International Film Festival can be said to be the world's top independent film festival. The purpose is to encourage low-cost, independent film production and give new directors the opportunity to show their own opportunities. Every year in late January, the Sundance Film Festival will be held in Utah cities. At that time, a large number of independent filmmakers waiting for Bole would take their own films to Utah to participate; and film companies of all sizes will also go to the film festival to "scramble gold".

There are many other film festivals like this, such as the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the Screaming Horror Film Festival that is specially designed for horror films, etc.

These film festivals are also Wang Yang's last hope. If he cannot be released in theaters, videotapes, or even cable TV, he will participate in those film festivals at that time. However, influential film festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival and the Santa Barbara Film Festival are held in January, which means that if he wants to participate in these film festivals, he will have to wait until next year.

Just as he was thinking, it was three o'clock. The front desk lady Nicole Vivour picked up the phone, called, and asked, "Mr. Thomas, there is a Mr. Wang here to ask you. He made an appointment with you to discuss the release of the movie. Well, okay." She smiled at Wang Yang, stood up, and said, "Mr. Wang, please come with me."

"Okay." Wang Yang also stood up, followed her with a briefcase, and walked into Yijiang Film Company. There were not many people in the office, but they looked very busy. Everyone was working hard, or they were walking around with something, and some people were talking on the phone, and they vaguely heard saying, "Hey, we need the advertisement at the eight o'clock time. Yes, please, why is it so expensive..."

Nicole Vivore took him to an independent office. She knocked on the door. The sound of "coming in" came from inside. She opened the door and smiled and said, "Mr. Thomas, Mr. Wang is here." As she said that, she went back to the front desk.

Stephen Thomas, a middle-aged white man in his forties, had a slightly bald forehead, wearing a gray suit and a black tie. He was sitting behind the desk writing something. When he saw them, he put down his pen, got up with a smile and walked over, stretched out his hand and said, "Hello, Mr. Wang."

"Hello, Mr. Thomas." Wang Yang smiled and shook hands with him, and said politely: "I'm glad you gave me this opportunity."

"Haha, it's nothing, this is my job. Please sit down." Thomas smiled and stretched out the chair in front of the desk, walked back to the table and sat down. He looked at Wang Yang who was sitting, and asked, "Mr. Wang, you look very young. Just ask, how old are you?"

Wang Yang smiled. He knew that Thomas asked this to ask him to introduce himself or give him a resume directly. However, he deliberately did not bring his resume because a film company had read his resume before and learned that he had studied at USC. Then he learned the reason why he was fired. The company did not even watch his movies, so he left.

Without a resume, you can hide the truth as much as possible. Wang Yang replied with a smile: "Well, I was born in 1980 and should be quite young now."

Thomas couldn't help but frown in surprise, then smiled "Wow", looked at Wang Yang, and said, "That's a very young, 18-year-old director? Wow! You should be on campus now."

Campus? Come here... Wang Yang suddenly became alert, laughed, shrugged, and said without saying anything: "You know, some people's path is unique. And the quality of a movie I want to watch depends on the movie itself, not the age of the director."

"Yes, it's right." Thomas smiled. What made Wang Yang breathe a sigh of relief was that he finally said the topic, saying, "Then let me see your movie script. I hope this is not a farce." He rolled his eyes and spread his hands and said, "I have no other meaning, it's just a dv movie, the 18-year-old director... I've never seen this situation before."

"Nothing, I understand." Wang Yang took out a script from his briefcase. The script was re-written and it was full of the final movie content. He handed the script to Thomas opposite and said, "Please see."

Thomas took the script, leaned on the back of the chair, flipped through the script for a while, nodded and said, "The story of the movie is simple, but it is a regular script, not like a spoof." He stood up, showed his eyes to Wang Yang, walked out of the office, and said, "Well, let's go to the screening room to see your movie." When he came to the big office outside, he lived in a busy company employee and shouted: "Hi, Sam, come with me and go watch a movie."

Then he saw a white man in his thirties responding. He put down his work, walked over and shook hands with Wang Yang with a smile, and said, "I am Sam Paul."

"Hello, Mr. Paul." Wang Yang also gave him a smile.

While taking them to the screening room, Thomas smiled and introduced with a smile: "Sam is the best marketer here. His eyes are very vicious. He made several money-making movies in the company. Oh, this guy is about to snatch my position." Sam smiled and said, "Come on, Stephen!" Wang Yang smiled and said nothing.

When he arrived at the screening room, Wang Yang took out the DVD disc that had recorded the movie and handed it to Sam. Sam put the disc into the player. The three of them sat down in the chair and looked at the small screen in front together.

Thomas pressed the remote control and saw a black picture on the small screen. Then, a man taking a selfie at the camera immediately flashed, and Zachary appeared. He smiled and winked at the camera, and said with a smile: "Hello everyone, I am Kevin! This is our new home!" Then, he walked around the apartment with a DVD player, filming the kitchen, bedroom, etc., and introduced with a smile. The camera turned around and shaking very hard. In addition, the roughness of the picture quality made many parts on the screen blurred into a ball and could not be seen clearly.

"Wow, this..." Thomas pressed the pause, looked at Wang Yang, and asked, "Mr. Wang, are you sure this is not a short film of life, but a movie?"

After watching the beginning of the new line company, he also called a stop and then said "no". Wang Yang suddenly felt a little nervous and said, "Of course, I call it a first-person movie or a pseudo-documentary, which is the concept of 'the whole movie is shot by the protagonist himself', and it simulates the documentary form." He said seriously: "Mr. Thomas, believe me, this is a movie, please continue watching it."

"Ok." Thomas nodded thoughtfully and pressed to continue playing.

On the screen, Kevin walked around his home, then pointed the camera at him and said with a smile: "Haha, I bought a DVD, it feels so good!" At this time, a faint sound of the door opening sounded, and he laughed with a cheerful smile: "Wow, my girlfriend Meir is back!" As he said that, he rushed out with the DVD, and the camera shaking again, and the scene changed rapidly, making people dizzy.

Then the camera went down and Kevin said, "Dear, welcome home. Look at this...what is it!"

The scene flashed, and Merle, played by Rachel, appeared. She was holding a bag and looked at the camera in surprise, and said blankly: "What, you really bought a DVD and came back? Oh my God! How could you do this? It's beyond our budget!"

At this time, Sam, who held his chest with one hand and held his chin with the other, turned his head and smiled at Wang Yang, "The heroine is quite beautiful."

"I think so too." Wang Yang smiled, looking at Rachel on the screen, and couldn't help but miss her a little. After Rachel returned to Toronto, he called her after editing the movie, told her that she had sent the DVD CD and was also concerned about her mother's situation. In order to save phone bills, she hung up after talking for a while. And the home did not install the Internet, so he hadn't been on the msn for a long time.

As the movie unfolded, Thomas and Sam talked less and less off topic, and gradually looked serious. However, when he saw Kevin and Meir tracking the ghost in the middle of the night, the camera shook violently again. Coupled with the tension created by psychological horror, Thomas became dizzy the more he watched, his chest became stuffy, his scalp became numb, and a strong sense of vomiting surged up, and he had to stop the movie.

"Oh, my god...oh..." Thomas couldn't help but retching a few times, and Sam next to him was not feeling well, and he also suppressed the vomiting. After a while, Thomas recovered. He shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Oh, sorry, it's so rude."

Wang Yang didn't know how to answer the conversation, so he had to smile and said, "Nothing, nothing, this is just a normal human reaction."

"Mr. Wang, how do you say your movie?" Thomas frowned and brewed, which made Wang Yang nervous. Thomas said: "It's amazing, it's eye-catching, and it's hard to adapt." He smiled self-deprecatingly and continued: "I've never seen this kind of movie style." Sam nodded in agreement and said: "Yes, this is a crazy style."

Of course they have not seen it. The portable DV camera has only been launched for a few months, and the history page of the DV movie is still blank.

My eyes lit up, and it was difficult to adapt. Wang Yang couldn't figure out what they meant, and the movie was only halfway through, and the scary ones were behind him, and he said, "Mr. Thomas, maybe we will continue to watch it? The movie is even more exciting."

"No, no, no. If you continue watching it, I'm afraid I can't help it." Thomas smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's enough. After watching these, I already know what kind of movie it is." He thought for a while and said, "Mr. Wang, your movie is indeed a movie, and many places are scary, but..."

Wang Yang knew that it was going to be a bad thing when he heard "but". Sure enough, Thomas spread his hands and said, "This movie is too innovative. Although it is the concept of a pseudo-documentary you mentioned, such blurry and rough picture quality and often shaking shots. These are suitable for being placed on the big screen. To be honest, I have no idea." He looked at Sam next to him and said, "Sam, what do you think?"

Sam also smiled and shook his head, with a look of "I have no idea," and said, "I don't know, and I can't judge the market prospects of this movie. I have never watched such a movie and cannot analyze it." He paused and added, "For me personally, I am quite interested in this movie, but I can't represent the market. You know, many movies I personally like can't recover the cost. Personally, I like it, and the market is another."

Wang Yang's heart sank. Although Yijiang Company is the company with the best attitude towards him at present, he could not be happy at all because Yijiang Company would most likely decline. He looked at Thomas and Sam and suggested: "I know that the market is always elusive. Maybe we can release it in limited edition first and try it out in dozens of theaters. No, just a dozen. Let's see how the market reacts?"

As long as it can be released, with the promotional method of "Blair the Witch", he is confident that he will turn limited release into large-scale releases, from more than a dozen theaters to thousands of theaters!

Thomas hesitated for a moment, whispered some words to Sam beside him, exchanged opinions, and finally nodded, looking at Wang Yang, and then wanted to say something.

Wang Yang suddenly raised his heart, clenched his hands secretly, and sweat broke out in his palms.

"Mr. Wang." Thomas looked at him and said slowly: "The market is the first thing we consider. Although your movie is low and your promotional budget can be as low as possible, we cannot withstand any losses; more importantly, we cannot let the company's reputation be affected. We are a small-scale company, and most of the market is supported by hardcore fans. They absolutely do not want to see our company launch a bad movie. If it angers them, they will abandon us."

Wang Yang nodded silently, although he felt uncomfortable, he could not say anything.

"I mean, it's not that your movie is a bad movie, it's just a DV movie. It's a big adventure, we can't make a decision at will." Thomas stood up and said, "Let's do it, Mr. Wang, let's discuss the feasibility internally. If there is any distribution plan, please contact you again?" As he said that, he stretched out his hand.

Wang Yang could only stand up, shook hands with him, and nodded, "Okay, I look forward to your good news."

After leaving Yijiang Film Company, Wang Yang walked on the street in disappointment. The car ringing of vehicles on the street made him feel more annoyed. He looked up at the blue sky, took a deep breath, and gritted his teeth. Now even Yijiang Company, which released the first DVD movie "Blair of the Witch", rejected him. Although he did not refuse to the end, he also knew that there was little hope because Thomas did not watch the movie. Their attitude was very clear, and they did not want to disappoint fans or take risks.

How many film companies are left? Wang Yang sighed. Although he had known that it would be difficult to seek distribution, he still felt a little frustrated when facing it now. However, he clenched his fist and shook it, so I would not give up! You can kill me, but you can't defeat me!

If this company fails, there is another one; even if all film companies reject him, there are companies that specialize in publishing DVDs; even if even the DVD market cannot enter, there are cable TV on demand... As long as you continue, there will always be opportunities.

He swept out all the haze in his heart, but there was also an urge to tell his friends, so he took out his cell phone, called Jessica, and smiled after answering it, "Hey, Jessica, I failed again. Artisan Company asked me to go home and wait for news, but I see their appearance, so I won't give me any messages."

"Oh, God..." Jessica couldn't help but sigh, her voice full of disappointment and worry, but she immediately comforted Wang Yang with a gentle voice: "Yang, it's nothing. Believe me, this is just the beginning, you've just set off."

Wang Yang smiled and said, "Well, I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me, Jessica, thank you." He teased and teased again, "You don't know, the manager of the Artisan Company just now, I almost vomited when I watched my movie, haha! Is my movie that bad?"

"Haha! No, it's not bad at all." Jessica also laughed. The nice laughter made Wang Yang's mood clearer. She smiled again, "Where are you now? Can you go to dinner together? I'm going to see a movie in the cinema tonight."

"Thank you, but I can't." Wang Yang smiled and refused Jessica's invitation, continued to walk to the nearby bus stop, and explained: "Jessica, I found a part-time job at a McDonald's, so I'm rushing over now, sorry to be unable to accompany you."

Jessica on the other side of the phone was silent for a moment and said, "Okay, Yang, but don't be tired of yourself." She said, "By the way, um...you know, two days will be my birthday, and my family will hold a small party to celebrate that night. Yang, can you come then?"

Oh, it seems that this is the case. Jessica's birthday is on the 28th, and it is coming soon... Wang Yang agreed without thinking, "Of course. Your birthday party, wow, I'm very happy to invite me, I'll just take a leave at that time." After a pause, he smiled and said, "It's just that the gift may be very cold, haha!"

"Ha, don't pay attention to any gifts." When Jessica heard him agree to come, she smiled happily, and said, "My agent, Ms. Miranda, she will come. Young, she knows a very famous director and senior executive of the film company. I will introduce you to you at that time. I hope she can help you..."

"Thank you, Jessica." Wang Yang smiled and said, "Then I have another reason to expect." Although he was not very much looking forward to that lady Miranda, there was another chance after all, right? And Jessica's kindness made him feel very warm.
Chapter completed!