Chapter 601： autonomous progress

The development of things changed very quickly: the focus of planning changed from the choice of schedule and autonomy to the choice and autonomy of distribution.

Of course, the core point has not changed, they all require further uncontrollability, that is, "freedom".

Independent studios are interested in contacting each other. After all, everyone has the same purpose, and they are not satisfied with the monopoly of the Big Six for a long time, but their choice points are different.

Now, Firefly intends to form a joint distribution alliance, and everyone mobilizes resources to promote their films. In this way, the combined size of several companies will have greater momentum in the theater and publicity.

Liam is in the president's office of Blue Butterfly Pictures, constantly answering the phone. After receiving the news, identify them one by one, summarize and classify them, and then hand them over to Joseph.

Finally, through Joseph's hand, it came to Lyman's hand to summarize.

And with these two communicating for him, even if Lehman's personal energy is limited, he can know the whole contact plan like the back of his hand.

This made him even more convinced that the way of holding a group will definitely relieve the pressure on distribution. After all, Blue Butterfly Pictures now has a certain foundation in online public relations, and it has a lot of energy for publicity. Although this energy still does Not being able to choose the schedule freely, but it can give people enough sense of security.

It also allows Lehmann to continue to focus most of his energy on the construction of the crew of "No Country for Old Men" without any worries.

Under Ryan's very effective and experienced control, a mature behind-the-scenes production team was ready within less than a week of casting the lead actor.

And most of them are elderly people who often cooperate, with more synergy and tacit understanding.

As a result, Lyman held an internal crew meeting before filming.

At the meeting, there were Ryan, Thomas, costume, art and other crew management auditoriums, and Lehman personally presided over it.

Looking at the production team of the four or five people below, Thomas was still lazy and had a headache.

Lehman sighed secretly, and then said: "The affairs of the "No Country for Old Men" crew need to be carefully managed by everyone. My idea is to end the filming at the end of February and finish the post-production in May. The time is still a little tight, and the filming is even more sloppy delay. No. So today's discussion is about film production, you can discuss a charter and listen to it."

Everyone glanced at each other quickly. Ryan is the second-highest in the world. He is also a producer and the logistics manager of the crew. Of course, he should answer first.

Ryan got up slightly, coughed dryly, and turned his head: "The crew now has 47 staff members, and the props and costumes are almost ready, but the specific scene has not yet started?"

"Director, I would like to take people to Texas to set the scene first, to save time for transitions on the way." But it was the art director who shared his worries.

"My time is tight and my requirements are high. What are your plans?" Lehmann said calmly.

"The crew is divided into two teams, big and small, and both sides are preparing to build together."

After the meeting, the crew split into two groups.

In just three days, the shooting venue in Texas has taken shape.

And these days, Lyman has not been idle.

While leading several leading actors to read the script and familiarize themselves with the characters, he also began to have close contacts with several studios.

Paramount headquarters, inside the chairman's office.

Shirley Lansing completed the approval of the report in her hand, and asked her assistant, "How about Firefly?"

"Haven't heard of anyone taking over the publishing job?"

"Really? Lyman hasn't shown signs of softening yet?"

The assistant shook his head, "I haven't contacted us again for the time being, and the others don't know. But they should understand that a good movie with a box office of over 100 million may still have the risk of losing money if it doesn't meet a good schedule, for sure. We will continue to negotiate.”

Shirley Lansing smiled and nodded, she didn't actually want to crush the fireflies, she just wanted to keep them safe.

The film market has grown year by year, and no one can afford it. It doesn't mean that it cannot tolerate people, but it would be better if Lehman could see the reality clearly and spit out some shares.

As for which of the six majors takes over in this regard, it is not very important. The important thing is to maintain such rules and patterns.

The assistant suddenly remembered something strange, and said again: "I heard that Blue Butterfly Pictures is contacting several other studios to establish a common publicity channel. Does he still want to bypass us?"

Shirley Lansing smiled indifferently, "What if they unite? A summer slot can account for one-fifth of the year's box office revenue. Do they have the heart to not touch it at all?"

In the theater chain, in addition to the schedule, the location of the theater is also very important. A large multi-screen theater in a prosperous area has a stronger ability to attract money than 6 or 7 theaters in remote areas.

Those small theater operators are already at a disadvantage in this kind of competition, and it is okay to make a little money, but it is even more difficult to make a big box office hit, and studios such as Lionsgate and Mubao can do nothing but do it. The key is to attract these small theater operators to provide schedules and screens.

Even if you enter in a hurry, once the box office is not ideal, the fragile alliance will be dissolved instantly - there is no benefit, who is playing with you.

This is something that anyone with a discerning eye can see clearly. Comparatively speaking, the Big Six is ​​obviously much more guaranteed, but it’s just blood drawn and the treatment is unfair. Compared to the total box office, it seems that these are not enough. What, they do it anyway.

Of course, the truth is that.

However, there is another condition that is most easily overlooked in the film, that is, the production charm of the audience, fans and directors.

The latter two are obviously uncontrollable factors, otherwise there will be no niche dark horses or big hits every year.

Compared to this, Shirley Lansing still has a little bit of self-confidence, because she really can't fathom Lehmann.

In terms of market vision, this guy has been able to build a huge career site in three or four years, and it is the film projects that this guy likes has repeatedly made profits.

This is a terrible thing.

Think about it, the projects that Warner operates in a year only make a profit, not a loss. According to its size, if it does not make 6 billion a year, it is a small amount, but there are losses and profits. Warner’s annual income is only based on production. In terms of business, it is very remarkable to be able to generate income of 1 billion yuan, and the bulk of it is still in the supporting copyright promotion and image authorization.

And Paramount's production business can break even is already a kind of progress.

After thinking about it, Shirley Lansing said to herself: Lyman is a natural rebel, and he is never willing to be subservient to others, so he must not be so easy to suppress.

However, the moves have already been played, let's see if the opponent takes the move.

......

Liam strode into Ryman's office, and said with some joy: "Prada is in post-production. According to Director David's intention, it will definitely catch up with the Valentine's Day schedule."

"Well." Lyman asked, "What did those people say?"

"Lionsgate is very much in favor of cooperating with us. As for Mubao and Summit Entertainment, we still have some concerns. Apart from these, we can mobilize at least 3,000 screens, but the theaters are a bit inferior, not the core area."

"It's okay, it's not bad to be able to do this. As long as you show your momentum, do you think that those big theater chain chambers of commerce will sit and watch the box office be eaten up by several other small fish?"

"Haha, those vampires have always been unprofitable. As long as they make money, they will take the initiative to contact the film copy without us reminding them."

In fact, this is also Lehman's confidence. He is unwilling to provide schedules and most resources, so he will first become famous and then wait for people to welcome him to cooperate.

In the future, the "Twilight" series, which will make Lionsgate's position in one fell swoop, is played like this. The first and second parts are all released in November near the Christmas season, but the third part is aggressive in the core of the summer season. What does the time period release depend on?

It's not that movies are so lucrative that people have to cooperate.

As one of Hollywood's top-grossing studios, the resources of second-tier studios such as Firefly and Lionsgate are enough to make those theaters tempted and let go.

Of course, the premise of all this is that the marketability of the movie itself is enough to explode, otherwise it is equivalent to not saying anything.

Informed that the plan is still going smoothly, Liam left the company.

at the same time.

On January 14th, the long-prepared "No Country for Old Men" officially started filming.

Lehman spent two days arranging the scenes, establishing costumes and props.

Then in the first scene, a very simple scene was shot, which is the origin of all events, the human ambition evoked by that piece of gold.

An overhead view, the sun is shining, refracting on the dog head gold to emit a dazzling light...