Hollywood Road

Because of Ross's industry, drugs will definitely appear frequently in the film. Murphy has already shot a film involving a lot of drug scenes before. Some methods in "The Wolf of Wall Street" can be used now. For example, vitamin powder is used instead of cocaine, so that the scenes of drug abuse can be reproduced realistically without affecting the actor's body.

Ross was born in the 1970s. Murphy did not film his life, but intercepted key events from the 1980s to the turn of the century. - After some discussion with Raschel, Murphy decided to ditch digital technology in favor of film cameras.

As he said before, whether it is new technology or old technology, it serves the film itself.

Of course, for a film with such a small investment, Murphy will not use IMAX cameras, but the most common 35MM film.

However, the rapid development of digital technology has affected the production and sales of film. The number of film films produced by Kodak every year is decreasing sharply. There are still rumors in the industry that Kodak is likely to completely stop producing film films in recent years. Definitely not good news for the director.

Fortunately, although the price of the film has increased slightly due to the reduction in quantity, it is not unaffordable for the crew, and Murphy only set aside a month to one and a half months of shooting time for this film, and it will not be like filming a commercial masterpiece. , shooting thousands of minutes of footage.

After firming up the original production concept, the concept of this film in his mind became clearer and clearer.

Cameras, props, costumes, lighting equipment, 35MM film, cars, funds, sets, on-site inspections... One after another, preparations were completed one after another. By the end of August, Murphy had also confirmed the cast. Robert Jr. -Downie as Diego Ross, James Franco as the policeman in collusion with Diego Ross, Jonah Hill as Diego Ross' bookkeeper, Tyrese Gibson who passed the audition as the bald head black...

In addition, Margot Robbie also joined the cast, playing Rose's first love.

The crew's preparations have also entered the final stage. Murphy expects that the film will start shooting in Los Angeles no later than mid-September.

At the same time, "City of Chaos" was also quietly released from North America. After more than 20 weeks of screenings, the final North American box office of this film not only broke through the 250 million US dollars mark, but also broke through the $250 million mark. 260 million US dollars, a total of 261.27 million US dollars.

The outstanding performance in North America has also boosted the global box office. The film's screenings in overseas markets have basically ended, and the remaining small markets can get very limited box office figures. The current global box office has reached 588.5 million US dollars.

It's unlikely the film will break the $600 million mark, though.

Such box office figures are not enough to allow 20th Century Fox to recover the total investment of 300 million US dollars in production and publicity. Fortunately, the film has peripheral income. According to 20th Century Fox's estimates, it will wait until the film is released next month. After DVD, landing on TV stations and entering online channels, the cost will be recovered within one month to one and a half months.

In any case, although this film will not make 20th Century Fox a lot of money, it is not a problem to recover the cost and generate a certain amount of profit.

Compared with the successful performance of "City of Chaos", the performance of "Thor" released in the same period was much worse. This film disappeared from North American theaters as early as the end of July. Marvel Pictures finally announced The North American box office figure of "The Movie" is 138.9 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office is currently less than 300 million U.S. dollars, and it is impossible to exceed 300 million U.S. dollars.

Murphy heard from Robert Downey Jr. that there was a huge controversy within Marvel Studios about the character of Thor. A group of people headed by "Avengers" director Joss Whedon advocated cutting all references to Thor. shot so that this character drags down the entire film.

But Kevin Feige is a sensible person and firmly opposes this, and "The Avengers" has already been filmed, and a considerable part of the post-production has been carried out. If the character of Thor is removed, it means that a lot of work must be done. For reshoots, the post-production that has already been carried out must be overthrown and restarted.

Such a dispute ended after Kevin Feige received the full support of Walt Disney. According to Robert Downey Jr., Joss Whedon was removed from post-production by Kevin Feige, and he He took over the post-production of "The Avengers" in an all-round way.

Both Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. thought it was normal. There were not many directors in Hollywood who had the final editing rights. Most of the directors were on-site performance and shooting directors.

The start time is getting closer and closer. Kara Firth, who is in charge of this project, also specially came to the crew to communicate with Murphy about the promotion of the film. As a result, it is necessary to carry out sufficient promotion.

In other words, it is to advertise in an appropriate way.

"We have scientifically summarized the situation of the previous award seasons," Kara Firth doesn't need to talk nonsense with Murphy, just talk directly if there is something good to say, the friendship between them will not become an obstacle to cooperation, but can improve work efficiency "Especially after analyzing the laws of media communication and public attention, combined with the film sales cycle, we decided to adopt the 'five-level communication' plan. When you complete the production, you can use various publicity platforms to increase the awareness of the film and extend the social life." Pay attention to the period and keep the movie hot."

"Okay." Murphy had no objection in this regard.

Although 20th Century Fox did not invest much in itself, it also raised as much as 25 million US dollars. Now that it has invested, of course it wants to see the output, so publicity and promotion are essential.

Kara Firth pushed a plan in front of Murphy, and Murphy also opened it and looked at it. It was just a general promotion framework, without detailed specific content.

"Wave 1: 2 weeks before the release of the film, release the news through print media."

"Wave 2: 2 weeks after the film's release, the topic of traditional media hype."

"Wave 3: Concentrated high-intensity broadcasting on TV and radio from 2.5 weeks before the film's release to 2 days after the release."

"Wave 4: From 2.5 weeks before the film's release to 2 months after its release, the network continues to follow and report."

"Wave 5: 8-week post-release magazine intensification and extended buzz deadline in preparation for the Oscars."

Although the specific content will be formulated according to the situation at that time, such a framework is also a guarantee that the film can get enough attention during the awards season.

Such promotion is necessary, as is the case with any film with any serious ambitions.

Advertising has the functions of informing, persuading, reminding, strengthening, etc. Most of the advertising in the early stage is for informing and persuading, and when the brand is relatively large, it needs to be strengthened.

These are also applicable to the film industry. Murphy will not feel that the brand of Murphy-Stanton's works is so big that there is no need to promote it. How is his popularity compared to Coca-Cola? How is it better than McDonald's? How is it better than Louis Vuitton?

But they never gave up on advertising.

Therefore, Murphy has never been pretentious, thinking that his appeal is enough, and there is no need for promotion at all.

On the contrary, in his cognition, publicity and promotion are necessary.

First of all, the competition in the Hollywood film market is so fierce, and consumers are so easily abducted. If others advertise but they don’t, then consumers will pay more and more attention to your competitors and choose to ignore him. tragedy.

Secondly, most of the time, the behavior of consumers choosing a movie is very random and accidental. If he doesn’t remind him from time to time, and if he doesn’t strengthen his image in consumers’ heads, they may gradually forget it. He, don't think how loyal users are to him as a director, it's better to be pessimistic.

In addition, the market for Hollywood movies is constantly expanding and changing. If he does not advertise, the new consumers will be taken away by his rivals, and he will just stick to those old users for the New Year.

In addition, as the market changes, the relevant advertising strategies will also change accordingly. You must know that advertising is often not just for sales, but also for brands and ideas. The bigger a film brand is, the more attention it needs to pay attention to.

Of course, film advertising is not the pursuit of blind innovation, just like Kara Firth's rough plan, the first thing is to see if it matches Murphy and the potential consumer groups of this film.

After all, "Diego Ross" is not a popular film. Even among independent films, it belongs to a relatively small genre. It must find its own positioning.

Originally, Murphy considered whether to change the name of the film, just like the film that Julia Roberts won the Oscar. "Never Compromise" title, but after business with Gal Gadot, Robert Downey Jr. and Kara Firth, abandoned such an idea, and instead, like "Irene - Brockovich", directly as The name of the person to name the title of the film.

This is also a common method used by some biographical films in Hollywood. To a certain extent, it is also convenient for promotion with production and distribution companies.

"How to maximize the effect of advertising is the dream of Hollywood companies."

After finishing work, Kara Firth chatted with Murphy, "Especially in this era when online and offline advertising costs are skyrocketing."

"Fortunately, I don't have to pay for advertising." Murphy joked casually, and then asked, "What have you been up to for more than half a month? I haven't seen you much."

Kara Firth stood up and went to pick up a glass of water, and when he came back, he said, "The box office of "City of Chaos" is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and there are some accidents."