Tokyo Literary Godfather

"Yes, it's that fast. Good movies are not made by foreigners. A movie that took three years is probably a piece of pulpy shit." Ruan Minxiong said with a smile,

Kevin Beach was noncommittal and thought to himself: It’s better to have a drink before you die. Let’s buy an expensive whiskey as the last gift of this life journey.

"By the way, Kevin, DreamWorks, the production company of this movie, plans to sign you. What do you think?"

Kevin was stunned and seemed unable to react for a moment, "Sign me...what do you mean?"

Ruan Minxiong was amused: "What do you mean? Isn't this easy to understand? I just sign a long-term actor contract with you. From now on, you will be a member of the artist management studio of DreamWorks, and you don't have to work hard to find movies. , but at the same time, you don’t have that much freedom to accept filming, you have to be restricted by the agency, and it’s up to you how you choose.”

Kevin murmured: "Why do you suddenly have to... Is this a good thing?"

Ruan Minxiong told him: "The reason why they want to sign a long-term contract with you is probably because they plan to continue filming the "Saw" series, so they want you to be the long-term protagonist. So if you sign with them, other I dare not say, but if things go well, the protagonist of the "Saw" series will always be you, and you will always have scenes to shoot. And I have talked with Ms. Suwon, who is temporarily handling the business of DreamWorks, and they will spend the next five years We will produce more than ten movies, an average of two movies per year, and of course we will give priority to our contracted actors, please think about it.”

Ruan Minxiong was not here to be a lobbyist. After analyzing the pros and cons with Kevin, he left. As for whether to sign a contract, he let Kevin Beach make his own decision.

Kevin left silently. He had always been a freelance actor. He once had an independent agent to take care of him, but the artist himself was so poor, and the agent was not much better. I suffered from cancer last year and had no money for treatment. I also couldn't afford expensive commercial insurance. So out of desperation, I started injecting some illegal drugs to escape reality. Later, after taking the medicine, I had a conflict with a group of gangsters wandering around in the middle of the night. I was arrested. Beaten to death.

He does not object to signing a contract with DreamWorks, and even thinks that having a management company is a good thing for him. After signing the contract, there will be restrictions and restrictions on other roles. This is not something he needs to consider at all. Because when he was a freelance actor, he rarely got roles.

But the only problem now is...if I sign the contract, my possible suicide plan will be temporarily shelved.

He had a good impression of DreamWorks as a company, and he didn't want to commit suicide as soon as he signed the contract and have any negative impact on this new company. Especially Kei Fujiwara, the boss of this company in Tokyo, he is also looking forward to this person being able to flourish in Hollywood.

At this time, he thought of something again, so he walked out of the shooting location. After some searching, he saw Ruan Minxiong talking to producer Daniel. After they spoke, Kevin walked over and asked, "Ruan, what's this?" When is the movie going to be released?”

"The movie will be distributed by Century Fox." Ruan Minxiong touched his chin and said, "It won't take too long, about a month or two. During this period, the film will have to be rated. Then it will be piloted in some theaters. What's wrong?"

"Well, it's okay, I'll just wait until then."

Kevin muttered and walked away.

The short 18-day shooting period was not only surprising to the actors, but also Daniel couldn't believe it for a moment when he heard the news of completion.

He even suspected that Ruan Minxiong was deliberately rushing the schedule and perfunctory the project. Although Daniel does not have particularly high expectations for this movie, he will take it seriously if he agrees to be the producer of this movie.

But after seeing the overall production budget of this movie, I couldn't help but remain silent.

The original budget of 2 million was spent less than 1.3 million US dollars. This also includes the loss of some scrap films and future costs for post-production and publicity, which can be said to be a huge saving.

According to Daniel's experience, the more perfunctory a director is with his work, the less likely he is to save costs. Spending money and shoddy production often go hand in hand.

You must know that money is easy to spend, but it takes a lot of thinking to save it. If you are not careful, someone may hand you a purchase order with a ridiculously high price. A prop street lamp can cost 3,000 US dollars. The high price is even more ridiculous than the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Qing Dynasty.

For such a saving in production costs, Ruan Minxiong did not take credit, but simply said: The film itself does not need to waste so many man-hours and budgets. The 18-day production cycle and 1.3 million production funds are within a reasonable range.

This is because this is the second film he has directed, and his lack of experience has led to losses. Otherwise, it might have taken less time and cost less to produce.

Post-editing was completed by Daniel and Ruan Minxiong together. This time Daniel did not play the role of a strong producer, driving the director out of the editing room and not allowing him to participate in post-editing work.

The powerful director competed with him for editing rights and kicked one of his producers out of the editing room, which left a psychological shadow on him and made him secrete oxytocin, making him more empathetic. Reflecting on my past behavior, I feel that it seems unreasonable for the director not to participate in post-editing at all.

Of course, at the same time, I also have the idea of ​​​​saving myself some trouble. Let the director participate in the editing work, which will make it easier for you.

The preliminary shooting only took 18 days, and the post-production process did not take too long. The film was completed very quickly.

Daniel has watched both the finished and unfinished versions of this film so many times that he has almost lost his ability to judge this film. But he did not organize a large number of people to do pre-screening viewing groups as usual to get the audience's true evaluation of the film.

Because for such a low-budget film, there is no need to arrange such complicated links...otherwise it might be a waste of cost.

"By the way, Ruan." Daniel suddenly said at this time, "DreamWorks plans to sign you, how have you considered it?"

Ruan Minxiong said: "What does Mr. Ellison think of this company?"

Daniel smiled and said: "The new company has never had any works released before. It also purchased a poorly managed production company that was on the verge of bankruptcy and started over. I can't comment on it."

I said it was hard to comment, but I secretly gave it a negative comment. It wasn't that Daniel had any objections to DreamWorks, but that he also took a fancy to Ruan Minxiong's talent and efficiency, and had the idea to cut him off. But it’s not too obvious and it won’t save your face. So I thought about asking Ruan Minxiong to reject DreamWorks and then extend an olive branch myself.

Ruan Minxiong said: "But the boss of this company is Mr. Fujiwara... I know something about this man, and I think he is a very talented and ambitious person... More importantly, he is Asian. Eli Mr. Sen, you have to admit that in Hollywood, it is difficult for Asians to be accepted by the mainstream circles here, so I thought it would be better to join a company where the top leader is an Asian, which may be more beneficial to my career development."

As soon as these words came out, Daniel knew that Ruan Minxiong had already made a plan in his heart. He said nothing more, sighed silently in his heart, and said with a smile: "Okay, Ruan, I wish you in advance that like this company, you can shine your own light in Hollywood."