Made in Hollywood

Every award season in North America, the entertainment media is far more noisy than other peers, creating an illusion that people all over the world seem to be paying attention to the Oscar statuette. The will is to change, not to mention that European directors with eyes on their foreheads will not look at the Oscars, but many fans in North America focus more on the movie itself.

"Gravity" has entered its second weekend of full release, and the attendance rate of North American theaters has declined slightly. However, driven by the good audience reputation, the box office of the film on the second weekend only fell by 30% compared with the first weekend. Received $57.37 million.

In ten days of release in North America, "Gravity" has already earned $203.27 million.

At the same time, this film also ended its first week of overseas theater tour in nearly 70 countries and regions including Latin America, Europe and Australia with a score of 142.66 million US dollars. The global box office of the film has reached 300 million. $45.94 million.

As the film enters more overseas markets, this number will continue to grow explosively.

Meanwhile, Penny Kelis and Warner Bros.' PR for Gravity is at a critical stage.

What Duke is worried about is the anti-Semitic forces and conservatives in Hollywood. After all, so far, no actress born in the 1980s has ever won an Oscar for Best Actress.

Under the influence of these people, it is not uncommon for Oscar to be upset suddenly, and Oscar has had a lot of upsets.

There are also anti-Semitic forces in Hollywood, but they are not mainstream, so there is no need to worry too much. For these conservatives, apart from Frank Pearson's influence on a group of people, Duke has also prepared other means.

The academy has more than 6,000 judges. According to normal reasoning, being a member of the Film Academy is definitely a symbol of identity and status, and generally leads to a prosperous life, and those gifts in private may not play too much role.

But don't forget, this is Hollywood. It is a vanity fair full of dreams and dreams. There are countless Hollywood celebrities who were brilliant in their youth and bankrupt in their old age. The most typical one is that Marlon Brando, an important member of the Academy, had a miserable life in his later years. It is not news.

These people are conservative in thinking, but they are not fools, and they are more likely to be influenced by public relations.

for example. Two actors who were brilliant decades ago are now having problems paying medical expenses. A charitable foundation has provided them with an interest-free loan, and they can use their monthly pension Funds are slowly repaid.

Duke team. For most of the important judges, a clear evaluation and detailed profile has been established, including these people's preferences and ways of thinking, as well as the types of movies they like. easily influenced by what and so on.

Public relations is also a very deep course, only the key is grasped. Only one blow can be fatal.

Oscar is like a brilliant big game. There are always rules in the game, but today's stocks are becoming less and less binding. If you still do public relations like in the 1980s and 1990s. He could only watch the awards fall to his side.

In addition to the public relations departments of Pani Kelly and Warner Bros., Duke also hired other public relations firms.

At present, the most prestigious awards season publicist in Hollywood is Lisa Tarbeck, and her previous position was the head of the public relations department of Miramax Films. She used a series of methods to help Miramax make "In Love" "Shakespeare" won the Oscar for Best Picture that year, which is one of Lisa Tarbeck's most typical achievements.

She used to be Harvey Weinstein's right-hand man and direct executor in public relations.

However, due to the needs of her own development and the intensified conflict between the Weinstein Brothers and Walt Disney, she left Miramax and founded a public relations company dedicated to the award season. Up to now, she has helped different film producers obtain There are more than 30 Oscar statuettes, which can be described as rich experience.

Lisa Tarbeck and her public relations company can be regarded as another insurance that Duke has added for this Oscar.

Under Duke's instruction, Warner Bros. prepared 100,000 luxury CDs, which were sent to the academy judges and everyone related to the Oscars early on. Along with the CDs, there was also a version of "Gravity" carefully produced by Warner Bros. All kinds of souvenirs, these seem to be worthless, but they are unique versions.

Of course, small gifts such as champagne, flowers, and souvenirs are endless.

Even so, there is no guarantee that those judges who like Duke like to vote with their feet will actually see "Gravity."

Here, Lisa Tarbeck and her public relations firm can play a role.

Lisa was the first person in Hollywood to use the "phone banking" method. Lisa and her team would call the Academy members almost every day, "Have you seen the Gravity DVD I sent you? You really have to see it quickly, it's really good."

After confirming that the members of the academy have seen the movie, Lisa will continue to bombard her with phone calls, "Everyone thinks this movie is very good, don't you think Scarlett Johansson deserves an Oscar?"

In addition, Duke also invited the former head of the White House's public relations affairs to coordinate his public relations affairs, and sent emails to media other than Warner for "Gravity", which were filled with all kinds of rumors about Scarlett Johansson's performance. How outstanding, how talented he is usually, etc., in order to 'brainwash' the members of the academy through the media.

According to the statistics obtained by Duke from a professional company, among the nearly 6,000 college judges, the average age is 65 years old, only 12% of the judges are younger than 50 years old, and nearly 95% of all judges are white. Seventy-seven percent of them are male.

This also means that in order to win an Oscar, more consideration needs to be given to the hobbies of the overwhelming majority of middle-aged and elderly white male judges.

It is very easy for a film to be eligible for selection. In addition to the routine declaration, it only needs to be shown in commercial theaters in Los Angeles County for a week, and then the relevant documents are sent to the academy.

In addition to the usual method of sending movie DVDs to the judges, gift giving, phone bombing, and internal screening receptions are all excellent means to win votes. Although gift giving and phone bombing have been explicitly prohibited by the academy, they cannot Put an end to it, including Duke, almost all filmmakers who want to make a difference are still using these methods.

Duke recognized the influence of the media on the public and members of the academy early on. From the very beginning, he paid attention to building the reputation of the film and Scarlett's performance. He not only actively countered some attacking views, but also persistently discredited the main competitor.

But doing this is far from enough. One after another, with the money that Duke poured out like water, they are constantly held in Los Angeles. These are very high-end and luxurious parties. The most important thing is to Membership of the Academy is completely free and open. Duke’s team invited the judges to attend all kinds of free high-end receptions, held private screenings attended by various stars and bought out multiple The entertainment media column intensively reports on its own films.

Lisa Tarbeck's company sent an "for your information" email to The Hollywood Reporter's subscribers, citing a senior member of the Academy: "Actors born after 1980 have been neglected for a long time, Scarlett. Lee Johnson deserves a win for her performance in Gravity!"

These are actually playing around the edges of the rules, but most people in Hollywood are doing this. If the academy wants to catch typical projects, it will not start with well-known projects. Otherwise, last year's "The Hurt Locker" would not have won the best picture.

John Erickson, a retired actor living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a senior member of the Academy, just woke up in the morning and received a call from Los Angeles before he had time to eat breakfast.

"Is that Mr. John Erickson?"

The female voice on the phone was clear and sweet, and easily dispelled some of John Eriksson's dissatisfaction. After he answered a sentence, the other party greeted him a few times, and got straight to the point.

"Did you receive the "Gravity" disc?"

Hearing this, John Eriksson immediately rang out the package he received some time ago. It seemed that there was such a CD in it, but at the beginning, he focused on the exquisite gift sent by mail and never paid attention to the CD.

"Yes, I got it," he replied.

The other person immediately asked, "Have you seen the CD?"

"Sorry, I haven't had time yet."

"Then can you take a look as soon as possible?"

Hearing this sweet and gentle urging voice, John Erickson immediately responded, "I'll go see it today."

John Eriksson had nothing important to do at first, so he hung up the phone, went to the storage room to find a beautifully made CD, stuffed it into the DVD player, and watched it patiently.

That afternoon, the caller from Los Angeles called again. After hearing that John Erickson had watched the CD and asked him a few words about his viewing experience, he immediately recommended Scarlett Johansson in this movie. excellence in performance.

"A strong woman, against all odds, for such a great role. Don't you think she's great, Mr. Eriksson? I hope that's worthy of an Oscar nomination."

Maybe it was accidental, or maybe it was inevitable. On the second day, Mr. John Erickson took out his Oscar ballot and began to fill it out like a routine. However, when it came to the nomination for Best Actress, he did not hesitate. He hesitated to choose the name Scarlett Johansson, and chose Duke Rosenberg for the best director nomination, even though he hadn't heard much about the movie "Gravity" before receiving the call, And he thought it was a Stallone movie. (to be continued ~^~)