Hollywood Road

The bright sunlight fell on the palm trees near the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel. A black Bentley sedan sped past, made a circle from the left, arrived near the main entrance of the hotel, and stopped steadily.

A large number of reporters gathered in front of the hotel. When they saw the door of the Bentley being pushed open from the inside, they immediately surrounded them and pointed at Murphy who got out of the car and frantically pressed the shutter of the camera. When he got close to Murphy, even though he was stopped in time by the security personnel arranged by the organizing committee, he did not hinder him from handing over the microphone in his hand.

"Director Stanton, do you think you can get your first Oscar nomination?"

Questions were thrown at Murphy frantically, as if they didn't want money.

"Some critics think that "Gone Girl" was the best movie of last year, what do you think?"

"At a public event the day before yesterday, you said that both James Franco and Charlize Theron are worthy of Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Actress. Why?"

"How many Oscar nominations do you think "Gone Girl" can get, and how many statuettes can it win in the end?"

This is the luncheon for Oscar nominees. Unlike the previous academy that always held it at the Regency Hotel on Wilshire Street, this year it was specially held at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel.

After doing so much work some time ago, and throwing out millions of dollars in public relations expenses, Murphy certainly wanted to see for himself if he could get the desired results.

He did not answer any questions from the reporter, and it was not the right time. Under the guidance of a staff member, he entered the banquet hall where the nominees luncheon was held, then looked around, and soon found Bill Rossis and The table where James Franco and Charlize Theron were, walked over directly.

"You guys came early."

He pulled out a chair and sat next to James Franco, and Bill Rosses shook his head, "You came too late."

James Franco leaned back in his chair, "He always likes to be late when he needs to show off."

Murphy spread his hands, but said nothing.

"I think," laughed Charlize Theron, in a white gown, "that Murphy didn't want to upstage us."

She smiled brightly and seemed to be in a good mood.

In fact, this is not surprising at all. Regardless of the response, Charlize Theron has great hopes of being nominated for Best Actress, and even the one with the highest probability of being nominated among all the declared awards of "Gone Girl" .

Due to the relationship between the role setting, Amy, the heroine, is very brilliant. In contrast, it is much more difficult for James Franco to be nominated for the best actor.

In the public relations campaign, Stanton Studios and CAA's biggest efforts are the five nominations for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Editing and Best Original Screenplay.

In Murphy's mind, as long as he can get three nominations, it can be called a victory.

Throughout the awards season campaign, "Gone Girl" did not win any important awards such as the major film critics association awards and major trade union awards, but they all received a series of nominations. Very favorable.

As for Charlize Theron winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Drama with Amy last month, Murphy didn't take it seriously at all. It's just a bellwether for the Oscars.

The real barometer of the Oscars is the major trade union awards, because the judges of the trade union awards overlap with the Oscars in a large area.

If you want these people to choose "Gone Girl" in the nomination, public relations is extremely important.

In many cases, the quality of a movie is very subjective, and it is also very easy to be influenced by the opinions of others, because it has no criteria for judging, and the Oscar is different from those European film festivals. It is voted by thousands of judges. , so it is possible to influence the votes of these judges in public opinion.

Publishing relevant public relations manuscripts, especially articles by famous film critics, accepting TV interviews, participating in various TV programs, and participating in various Oscar outpost awards, all of which can actually affect the final choice of the judges.

Attended a breakfast date with "Brokeback Mountain" director Ang Lee, had lunch with "Capote" actor Philip Hoffman, and had a drink with "Good Night, Far Away" director George Clooney in the evening, It sounds like a dreamy schedule, but it's just a normal day for an Oscar judge during awards season.

Celebrity, good food, comfortable environment, pleasant conversation, these are just the "opening words" to win votes in the Oscar PR campaign. Ambitious guys like Murphy know that these investments make sense, because they get Academy and judges Their attention, nominations and even Oscar wins can bring great financial returns.

The re-screening of the film, the release and reprint of DVD, the sales of peripheral products, and even the investment in other films of the company will all become a matter of course. This is the "reputation" effect.

Since Harvey Weinstein joined the fame and fortune game called Oscars in the 1990s, the bottom line of the rules of the game has undoubtedly been lowered a lot.

Behind the scenes of the Oscars, many people are saying "no award is real", "everything has a price and compensation", "anything can be given to win", "Harvey Weinstein completely changed changed the rules of the movie awards game"... an escalating PR campaign that has completely changed the way films are promoted during awards season, becoming more "aggressive" and "effective" and looking more like a political campaign.

Every Oscar winner has one thing in common. They use their advantages and rights to the fullest, and play to the extreme within the rules!

Therefore, as long as you are willing to work hard in publicity and public relations, you can always get votes from some judges. If you don't get it, other people's conditions are better than yours.

Of course, the premise of all this is that the film must have the most basic competitive strength.

Murphy's publicity and public relations work is not the best among all competitors, but it is quite in place. There are some problems with the theme of "Gone Girl", but it is not particularly big. In addition, the quality of the film is guaranteed enough. When the nomination list was announced, it shouldn't be unpopular to get a few heavyweight nominations.

"Gone Girl" received a total of four nominations for the 78th Academy Awards, namely Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.

Although the number of nominations received is not large, each of them is nominated for a heavyweight award, especially the nominations for Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress at the same time, which have greatly surpassed Murphy and Bill Rossi S expected.

The biggest winners at the nominees luncheon were "Crash" and "Brokeback Mountain."

The former won six Oscar nominations including Best Director and Best Picture, while the latter won eight Oscar nominations in one fell swoop by virtue of its huge topicality and support from comrades.

It's clear that this year's Oscars is where "Crash" and "Brokeback Mountain" battle it out.

Murphy vaguely remembered that "Crash" took the best picture, and "Brokeback Mountain" made Ang Lee the best director.

Many people used to think that it was a big scandal for "Brokeback Mountain" to lose the best picture, and he also thought so at the time, but it has changed now, not to mention that the theme of "Crash" is more Americanized and voted by white judges. Well, judging from the public relations situation that Murphy has learned so far, the probability of "Crash" becoming a winner is greater than that of "Brokeback Mountain".

Some time ago, quite a few well-known film critics were unanimously criticizing "Brokeback Mountain", thinking that if such a film won the best picture, it must be an Oscar scandal. Although comrades are supporting this film, North Hollywood has exploded The rainbow flag parade supporting "Brokeback Mountain", but the Oscar judges have always existed apart from the public.

No one can tell whether someone is operating behind the criticism of film critics, but it can actually affect the choices of some judges.

In addition, during the public relations period of "Crash", it created a new record in the awards season. The producer and distributor mailed out more than 160,000 copies of the film DVD, and the DVD package also included the film information. In the name of , with a small gift,

This is absolutely unprecedented in the history of Oscar public relations. According to Murphy's estimate, the cost of "Crash" on this item alone will exceed two million dollars.

It is no exaggeration to say that from the judges and staff of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, to well-known film critics in North America, to some influential media and reporters, the production and distribution of "Crash" has taken care of everything, at least Make sure they have DVDs and gifts of the film.

Don't underestimate these things. People's hearts are often the most unpredictable. A seemingly insignificant petty gain may prompt them to make biased choices.

The public relations investment of "Crash" far exceeds that of "Gone Girl" and "Brokeback Mountain". High investment may not guarantee a certain award, but it is the basic condition for today's Oscar games.

"Thank you, Murphy."

In the lobby of the Hilton Hotel, Charlize Theron looked at Murphy gratefully, "I really don't know what to say."

"Then don't talk about it." Murphy joked casually, "As long as I invite you next time, I can give you a 50% discount on the salary."

Charlize Theron laughed, seemingly very happy, but didn't mean to answer Murphy's words.

Murphy was just joking, nodded to Charlize Theron, and was about to leave with Bill Rossis, but a woman suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Hi, Director Stanton."

This is a very fashionable and delicately dressed young woman, who obviously came here specially to find Murphy.