Hollywood Road

Ask for monthly and recommended tickets!

As soon as he left Los Angeles International Airport, Murphy saw Bill Rossis. He and Gal Gadot got into the business car driven by Bill Rossis’s driver. He ignored the questions of surrounding reporters and turned to Shiji. The Fox Tower in the city galloped away.

In the car, Bill Rossis used the fastest speed to explain to Murphy the specific troubles encountered in "The Wolf of Wall Street".

The matter is not too complicated. Previously, "The Wolf of Wall Street" had a trial screening, and the response was quite good. Twentieth Century Fox is also launching word-of-mouth publicity for the trial screening.

Everything is going well in this regard.

Before Murphy left Los Angeles and went to Shanghai to participate in the China-US Film Forum, he sent the edited version of "The Wolf of Wall Street" to the MPAA, also known as the Motion Picture Association of America, for review and rating. The scale of the film was larger. , Neither he nor Twentieth Century Fox thought about rating it as PG-13. It was obviously impossible. The original goal was R-level.

Only in this way can the film be released on a large scale in North America.

The trouble lies in the film’s rating. The American Motion Picture Association’s review committee issued a warning to Twentieth Century Fox and Stanton Studios at the same time that if the final film remains in the version submitted by Murphy for review, "The Wolf of Wall Street" 》Can only be rated as NC-17!

This means that the film cannot appear in the mainstream theaters, and the box office will completely hit the street.

Although the MPAA is not an official organization, it is only an industry association, and film ratings have never been written into specific laws, but almost all filmmakers and theaters are complying with such industry regulations, and Murphy and Stanton Studios are no exception.

Even Ross who sells drugs and illegal guns must follow certain rules, not to mention the legal industry such as the film industry.

Murphy met Carla Faith at the Fox Tower, and she also saw the official announcement of "The Wolf of Wall Street" issued by the American Film Institute.

The content of the announcement is very simple. The review committee of the American Film Association warned him that if he does not delete and modify the *** and naked body scenes in "The Wolf of Wall Street", the film will be rated as NC-17.

According to the American movie grading system, they will divide the movies shown in theaters into: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17. The G level represents movies that can be watched by people of any age, such as "Robot Story", but the NC-17 level is the most rigorous level of the classification system. Because this type of film involves *** and violent scenes, the age of 17 is prohibited The following (including 17 years old) people watch.

Limiting the age of the audience will naturally affect the scale and attendance of the film. Murphy originally planned that the R-level is only a restricted level. This level does not completely prohibit people under the age of 17 from watching, and the scale of the film will not be affected too much. influences.

The coverage of this type of film is very wide, but any film with more action and explosion scenes, or more realistic movies may be rated at this level.

"The best way is to cut." Carla Faith walked back and forth in the office for a few steps, and said to Murphy, "Cut off some shots appropriately, and the company will think of something else. The R grade is definitely no problem."

Murphy nodded, "I can only do this."

This is an industry regulation and cannot be confronted by personal power. He is not too stupid to disregard the warnings of the American Motion Picture Association. Appropriate cuts are necessary, but there is no need to delete all large-scale shots. Tenth Century Fox itself is a member of the American Film Institute and has a certain right to speak in the review and rating.

Strictly speaking, the American Motion Picture Association represents the interests of the six major Hollywood companies, and the main members are also composed of six companies including Warner Bros., Walt Disney, Sony Columbia, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox.

From this aspect, we can also see the strength of the six major companies in this industry. As long as the brain is normal, we can see the absurdity of the so-called new companies in this era that challenge the status of the six major companies and dominate Hollywood.

To a certain extent, many of the existing rules of Hollywood movies are formulated by the six major companies. Within the rules set by others, do you want to defeat them and dominate? Not to mention anything else, the MPAA level is enough.

Movies do not need to be classified. There is no law in the United States to enforce this, but if there is no classification, 99% of North American theaters will not be screened. Without box office numbers as a basis, subsequent peripheral income is empty talk.

Indeed, the MPAA graded audit is not like the big scissors on the other side of the Pacific. There is only one basic standard. The specific implementation will fluctuate and be criticized by countless people. However, the audit takes time. The MPAA audit can be performed in the shortest time specified. It can be completed within, and it can be put for the longest time, which can easily affect the release and schedule of a film.

The Big Six companies rarely use this low-level method, because they do not use it at all. They firmly control the distribution channels, and this alone can choke the throats of countless small film companies and new film companies.

In the past two years, Lionsgate has become popular with some fan works. Just like DreamWorks in its heyday, it seems that it will become the seventh largest company in Hollywood at any time, but it is a person at the top of the industry pyramid. It's all clear that when these fan series are over, Lionsgate will be beaten back to its original state, and it will be no better than DreamWorks.

Murphy remembers clearly that the former Lionsgate film industry soon fell into a dilemma, and even prepared to sell shares to some companies on the other side of the Pacific in order to obtain the necessary financing.

"How long can you finish the modification?" Carla Faith looked at Murphy and asked, "Do you need to modify the schedule?"

It will be October soon. The film was originally scheduled to be released in early November. If the modification takes too long, the schedule must be modified in advance. You can’t wait for it to be released soon. The modification and review of the rating have not yet been completed. Then the schedule will be temporarily changed. It’s ten times more troublesome than it is now, and it will really affect the film’s box office revenue.

Modifying the schedule is a major event for any film. Murphy seriously considered it for a while before saying, "Well, let's communicate with the MPAA and ask what specific scenes need to be modified."

Carla Faith nodded, "Leave this to me."

"You can ask about the situation so I can decide how to change it."

Like the deletion of a movie lens, it is not just a simple and rude deletion of a sensitive lens. Murphy went through the three procedures of preliminary cut, fine cut, and review and editing from nearly a thousand minutes of footage. It can be concluded that for the final film sent to the MPAA for review, there is not only a connection between the lens and the lens, but also echoes in many places, even if it is a large-scale lens, some will affect the whole body.

If one of the key shots of the protagonist and heroine is cut, maybe the whole scene and the entire paragraph will have to be edited again.

Editing has always been time-consuming.

Murphy said to Carla Fiss again, "After deciding how to change, I can determine how long it will take."

"That's good." Carla Faith also knows that it is unrealistic to ask Murphy to give an answer now, "Murphy, I will contact the company's representative in MPAA now. Later, you must give me a specific time as soon as possible."

"Yeah." Murphy nodded seriously.

If you need to change the schedule, the earlier the time, the smaller the negative impact.

Not as a last resort, neither Murphy nor Twentieth Century Fox don't want to change the schedule of "The Wolf of Wall Street."

In Hollywood, there has already been a very mature system for film scheduling. Since Spielberg’s "Jaws" in 1975 tore through the summer disputes, the layout of movies at various times of the year has become a nirvana for Hollywood high-levels. A compulsory course to occupy a seat in a highly competitive market.

Most of the distribution companies will determine the specific schedule of the major blockbuster half a year or even a year ago, so that they have the opportunity to spend more time planning the entire marketing operation strategy, just like the publicity impact of each Murphy’s film. At any point in time, different methods and channels can be carefully planned to create momentum for the promotion of the film in order to achieve box office success.

"Unless it is absolutely necessary," Murphy said to Gal Gadot in the car back to Wave Manor. "Film companies rarely change movie schedules."

Gal Gadot nodded and asked, "There is always a reason, right?"

She is on the way to becoming a producer, and wants to know enough about every part of the industry.

"In short, there are two reasons."

Murphy mentioned this from Gal Gadot’s actual needs. He raised a finger and said, “First of all, if the previous schedule has been known to many viewers, changing the schedule will cause them a lot of trouble. The audience was looking forward to the weekend but found that the film was postponed. The spread of such disappointment through social networking sites would become a disaster for film public relations."

After raising his second finger, Murphy added, “Secondly, changing the schedule will make the film’s marketing plan mess up. Generally, the trailer will be announced a few months before the release, and the TV commercial will be bought out three or four weeks before the release. One week before the release, the firepower will be increased on multi-platform publicity. The change of schedule will make the marketing department of the film company have to redo the plan, which is time-consuming and expensive."

No matter from which way, Murphy did not want to change the schedule of "The Wolf of Wall Street", but many things will not be transferred by personal will. After receiving a fax from Carla-Face, he discovered the sensitivity involved. Many of the shots are critical. If you delete them directly, it will inevitably affect the fluency of the whole scene. It is inevitable to re-edit the scenes involved in these shots.

Fortunately, there is no need to make particularly big adjustments to the entire film, which means that Murphy no longer needs to spend months editing as in post-production.

Called Jody Griffith, Murphy talked to him all morning, and determined that the adjustment of the film would take about 25 days, plus the MPAA review and rating, "Wolf of Wall Street" wants to be in November It will be very unrealistic to be released at the beginning of the month.