Chapter 38
This young man is a young man, he is too courageous, he will abandon the guaranteed and fixed salary system, and pursue the box office boom that may not exist.
Fixed remuneration means that after the director completes a movie, he can get all the remuneration agreed in advance, and the box office of this movie has nothing to do with the director.
The box office share is floating and unpredictable. Who can guarantee that his movie will explode at the box office and the income will exceed the fixed salary?
In the 1990s, fixed pay was still the mainstream, and few people chose to share the box office.
"Well, if the global box office of "Two Smoking Barrels" is less than 50 million US dollars, I will only get 1%, and every 10 million, I will only get 10% more. I will take 51% of the box office share, and use this number as the cap. As for the movie peripherals, DVD copyright sales, etc., it is the same as the box office. If it does not exceed 50 million US dollars, I will take 1% and increase by tens of millions. How about it? Zhang Dongcheng looked at Auston, who was struggling a bit, with some amusement, and said.
"Okay, that's the decision! Tomorrow, we will sign the contract and finalize the details." Alston took a deep breath, he was full of haha, the feeling that he had found a treasure.
"Two Smoking Barrels" can make a lot of money, but the global box office has exceeded 50 million. God, how is this possible? It's just a small production of 3 million pounds.
Of course, the 51% box office share is not just 51% of the box office sold. It is the net profit after deducting all expenses and the share fees of the theaters. If it is really 100 million US dollars, this movie can bring in a net profit of at least 40 million yuan, and this has not included the biggest DVD sales around the movie and so on.
The channels for movies to make money are not limited to the movie box office. After the box office revenue is completely squeezed out, it is the sale of DVDs and OST (movie soundtrack) tapes. Now that DVD and VCD players are popular in 1995, this one accounts for about 40% to 50% of the total movie revenue, and even some movies that cannot make ends meet at the box office, instead earn a lot of money from DVD sales. Not in the minority.
According to Auston's thinking, this movie can earn millions of pounds, and then earn millions in DVD sales, which can be regarded as an investment of one dollar, and an output of more than 200% of two to three dollars. of income.
For businessmen, 200-300% of the income is enough to make them crazy.
And Zhang Dongcheng said that this movie will reach 100 million, hahaha, young people just love fantasy.
What he doesn't know is that Zhang Dongcheng is also laughing in his heart at this moment.
In the original time and space, with a global box office of 100 million US dollars, and the top three in the history of British local films, "Two Smoking Barrels" will dye the whole sky with black humor, and it will surprise countless people who ignore it!
My movie will not be worse than the original! Zhang Dongcheng has strong confidence in his heart, believing that he can definitely do it.
Holding their hands together, both Zhang Dongcheng and Auston secretly cheered.
OK, the distribution company has been settled, and the three million pounds of filming funds have come to Zhang Dongcheng's account. Of course, what follows is Mr. Archie, the producer appointed by Hammer Films, and Charles, the assistant director. He will act as Zhang Dongcheng's deputy, and has the qualifications to guarantee that Zhang Dongcheng will not run away with three million pounds.
The first thing to do is the top priority of a movie.
You mean actor? That's right, actors are indeed the soul of a movie, possessing omnipotent abilities and being able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of whether the whole movie makes money or not.
They stood gracefully under the spotlight, fully showing their perfect image to the world, shining with superstar temperament, making every movie fan crazy and overwhelmed by it.
But, not only them, are the protagonists of the movie.
What Zhang Dongcheng wants to choose now is to set up the key positions of the entire shooting crew, photographers and lighting engineers who can show the style of gangsters, and the language of the lens is slightly dark, set designers who are ready to shoot scenes, props designers, And the film arrangement that highlights the soul of the film.
Among these key positions, the most important and special one is the absolutely primary role of the photographer.
In "The Tuner", Zhang Dongcheng took the camera himself because he had no choice but to carry the camera because he was so shy. Although his level is not bad, the pictures he shot made fans excited , but to shoot a film that is really shown on the big screen and can be reviewed at the box office, Zhang Dongcheng's camera skills and experience are still slightly different.
For the sake of a perfect movie, Zhang Dongcheng naturally let go, sat back to his best director position, and handed over the important work of photography to more experienced and capable professionals.
The director is like the chief designer of the shipyard. He uses the storyboard script to determine the imagination and conception of the shots, and determine where should be the captain's cabin and where should be the boiler room.
The cameraman is the chief engineer of the shipyard. He creates and constructs with his own hands, turns the imagination in his mind and the words on paper into reality, and makes the whole movie from scratch step by step.
In Zhang Dongcheng's mind, there is the name of the real photographer of "Two Smoking Barrels", Tim Maurice Jones.
Tim Maurice Jones is basically Guy Ritchie's royal photographer in the original time and space. "Two Smoking Barrels" and "Stealing and Robbery" are two films that are full of Guy Ritchie's style and have a strong sense of black humor. hand, and he went to the United States in 2010 as the assistant director of Kick-off King.
It's just that this photographer, despite the hard work of Hammer Films, was unexpectedly unable to find it at all, as if there was no news of it disappearing from the world!
Maybe, three years ago today, this Tim Maurice Jones was still learning photography from others on the set, or he hadn't stepped into the film circle at all.
Zhang Dongcheng scratched his head and could only wait for Hammer Films to arrange other photographers for him.
"Haha, Mr. Smith, this is the photographer Jack. He has been in the industry for more than fifteen years. He has rich experience and has shot many classic movies. Come on, let's have a good chat!" Auston, the owner of Hammer Films, said. He paid great attention to Zhang Dongcheng, and walked in with a tall and thin middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties, and introduced Zhang Dongcheng who was waiting on the sofa.
"Oh, Mr. Jack, hello!" Zhang Dongcheng stood up and extended his hand politely.
Jack's face was calm, he couldn't see anything, he just stretched out his hand and shook Zhang Dongcheng lukewarmly, then sat down without saying a word.
"Mr. Jack is probably very famous in the British photography industry, and there are quite a few film appointments! I made a lot of effort to invite him here." Alston said with a smile, and then asked the secretary to tell the two guests Serve tea.
"Mr. Smith, I have seen your "Tuner", please forgive me, in terms of plot, it is a first-class good work, but in terms of shooting method, it is terrible, terrible." Jack sat down and drank After taking a sip of tea, he spoke slowly but bluntly.
"Uh.... At that time, I didn't have the funds for the filming, so I did it myself. The filming technique was not good, and I couldn't catch your eyes, haha!" Zhang Dongcheng smiled awkwardly, but his heart was a little angry.
This guy looks arrogant when he comes up, choose him as the photographer, don't give me a bully at the scene!
The director and the photographer share a relationship of honor and disgrace, and they are also comrades in the same trench. If they have opposite opinions and no tacit understanding when cooperating, it will greatly affect the progress of the entire film's shooting.
At the shooting scene, the photographer must fully understand the director's intention and effect, and focus on shooting. If you only work for the job, it will be impossible to make the shot perfect and fully convincing.
On the set, the director is God. Of course, Zhang Dongcheng can ask for reshoots, but if he shoots repeatedly, the cost will increase, and no one can make up for the time wasted.
So, in the film industry, directors and photographers generally cooperate for a long time, which is why there is a saying of royal photography and queen actors.
Jack, who came up to the top, obviously looks down on Zhang Dongcheng who is only 20 years old, and also looks down on his shooting technique in "The Tuner". He thinks that Zhang Dongcheng's second film may not be as violent as the first one. Red, after all, there are too many guys in the movie circle who became popular and then fell silent.
Seeing what Jack meant, Zhang Dongcheng just kept smiling and said nothing more.
"Hey, don't use your professional vision to set a director who just graduated. Jack, it doesn't make any sense." Auston quickly rescued Zhang Dongcheng, and at the same time looked at Jack with his chin up.
Jack has a great reputation, he has no shortage of jobs at all, and because of Auston's face, he just intends to come here, slap his **** and leave after saying anything, so he doesn't care at all now.
"I heard that Mr. Smith is going to make a gangster movie about the streets of London? Then, can you tell me, what is London? Gangsters, and what are they?" Jack turned to the guest, as if he was the director interviewing the photographer, aggressively Looking at Zhang Dongcheng, his eyes were filled with a slightly mocking light.