Capítulo 51: Chapter 51 The Trap of Literary Films
Jeanne has never been a tall person, she also knows her own pounds, although she always 'can't do enough' to challenge Cesare's dominance, but she knows in her heart that only an agent like Cesare can chart a path for her to the top, he has this ambition, this ability, it seems that he also has this IQ, and he values Jenny enough. If she hadn't met Cesare, it would have been possible that she would have been playing soy sauce in B-level productions last year, playing the heroine of a small production, and she would have had to go up and down for at least two or three years, and when all of these films were released, and one or two of them were lucky enough to get a good response, she could try to compete for the lead role in the A-level production or the supporting role in the heavy role - if she was unlucky, then she had to climb to the lead role of the B-level production step by step.
Now she is still very poor, but at least she has the right to star in a popular Broadway musical, which in Jenny's opinion will save her at least a year, and now with Cesare's ability, she can challenge for the lead role in a B-grade production. She didn't expect this first film to be on par with the A-list production of "Pirates of the Caribbean" - and as far as she can remember, the first part of "Pirates of the Caribbean" had no heavy young supporting actress at all, so Cesare wanted her to compete for the lead role.
It's not that she's not good at acting, but isn't that a little too bizarre? Jenny knows that the only blockbuster that will use a newcomer with no qualifications as the heroine is "Shapeshifter", and that's because in fact, the heroine of that film also plays the role of a vase, let's say that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" in her world, the heroine Keira Knightley, although this is also her first title acted in films, but before that, she not only starred in TV series, played soy sauce in several influential productions, but also played the second female lead in a youth inspirational film, compared with Jenny, her resume is obviously much richer, and she is a typical third- or fourth-tier actress.
But now the most important thing is not to ask Cesare why he is so whimsical, Jeanne asks, "He's Agata ——?"
"They are both descendants of Eastern European immigrants, and Al Gore was a music video director before, and Agata and he crossed paths at work, so they became very good friends. "But there's no work to be done, and Agata doesn't know what I'm going to do, so she probably wouldn't have invested that much in you like Rob." "
In this way, Agata can only serve as an introduction at best. Jenny muttered, "I'll try again." "
With a glass in hand, she approached Ann with a clear goal, but was inevitably delayed by many people who came to greet her, and when she reached Ann's side, Agata was still there, but Gore was nowhere to be seen.
Jenny didn't give up, and talked to Ann Pan for a few words, while constantly searching for Gore in the room, and by the way, she said something from Ann's side: Yes, Gore admires her singing and dancing, but she didn't mention any auditions, she just seemed to like her performance, and Ann didn't even know that he had a big project in his hands, only that he was a friend of Agata.
She had seen Gore twice, but when she got there, Gore disappeared again out of nowhere, and finally Jenny gave up and walked back to Cesare, "Either my bad luck or the ridiculous assumption that Gore was hiding from me." "
Cesare gave her a meaningful look, and Jenny shrugged, "Well, I'm a bit self-conscious, not everything in this world is about me. "
Indeed, not everyone in this world will be conquered by her charm, otherwise she could directly run for president of the United States with her acting skills. It's entirely possible that Gore just watched a show, and then felt flat about her, but admired Ann more, and then walked over to say hello to her and then flashed off to have fun, never thinking of including her or Ann as the main character.
"It's a good opportunity, but it's a little bit out of my reach. Jeanne and Cesare clinked glasses and comforted him, "Don't be bitter, you can't do what you want in your life." Besides, even if Gore liked me, the chances of Disney agreeing to me as the lead actress were slim to none. "
"Actually," Cesare said, changing a glass of wine, with a slight gloom in his tone, "Of the 16 blockbusters, 'Pirates of the Caribbean' is the one you have the best chance of winning the starring role, but Gore has no interest in you, which is really surprising." "
"Are you kidding?" Jenny asked rhetorically, "the best chance? This is starring Johnny Depp—"
Halfway through the words, she suddenly remembered that Cesare didn't know the amazing success of "Pirates of the Caribbean" at the box office, and it seems that the current Depp is not a super A-list actor in the future, although he starred in movies such as "Chocolate Love" and "Edward Scissorhands", but he does not have too strong box office appeal, and can only be regarded as a powerful actor.
"This is an A-grade production starring Johnny Depp - it's always an A-grade production anyway!" she changed her tone, "I believe that in a film like this, even if it is a supporting role, there will be a lot of people fighting for it, and you say as if as long as Gore wants me to play it, the heroine will be at your fingertips." "
Cesare shook his head, obviously not wanting to continue the topic, but now Jenny didn't let him go, she followed in his footsteps, "Don't worry about it discouraging me, I never thought I'd be able to climb to the top of this film, but can you explain your train of thought? I mean, I thought you'd pick some literary films for me—"
During her pestering Cesare, the two of them had circled the venue, but had not found Gore, who either had left or had gone for fun. The troupe's After Party, while not contraband, is sexually a lot of the time, because it's Broadway, full of artists who don't take 419 seriously, and Jenny doesn't go to the washroom or the locker room at times like this—these places are high-risk areas at such times.
Until Cesare walked out of the theater, Jeanne kept asking him to share his thoughts, "Of course I know, you're the designer of J.J.J, and I'm just the main product, but the reason I don't hire managers is to maintain a certain level of engagement, so you don't really have to worry about me being disappointed, or if you don't think it's necessary to share with me — Cesare, just tell me what you think, okay?"
Cesare did seem to be in a bad mood tonight, and although his mask was not cracked, Jeanne noticed that not only had he drunk a lot in the troupe just now, but also that small gestures such as human sighs had begun to appear frequently. If he was at his best, maybe her entanglement wouldn't have worked, but now Cesare, like all men in the world, can't stand the begging nagging of women.
"OK. When Jeanne went back and forth for the hundredth time to analyze her strength and right to know, Cesare finally raised his hand in surrender, and he twisted his eyebrows, "It seems that you won't give up until I explain it clearly." "
Jenny smiled triumphantly, in fact it wasn't useless for her to inquire about Cesare's ideas, but she couldn't draw conclusions until she affirmed his ideas. "Looking for a place to have another drink?"
"Judy shouldn't have gotten off work yet," Cesare looked at his watch, "and we'll go straight back to the apartment for a meeting, and I'll explain to you on the way — in fact, I still have a lot of questions about how Gore did tonight." "
"Please, why are you so sure that Gore will be obsessed with me?" Jenny couldn't stand Cesare's confidence in herself now, so she called Mary, found a landmark, and dragged Cesare to the side of the road to wait for the train.
"First of all," Cesare didn't immediately reply to Jenny, "in your mind, what should be the development route I have planned? Start with small productions and literary films, give full play to your advantages in acting skills, and then transform into commercial large-scale productions, and at the same time do not relax the small production of literary and artistic films, and make money while winning awards?"
"Yes, I think it's a pretty orthodox route. Before tonight, Jeanne did think so, she felt that Cesare took over "Chicago" for her, and put so much effort into letting her play the heroine, just to show her acting skills, and to convince investors, including directors, that she had the strength to play the leading role in a small literary production. Even so, she also felt that the protagonist of a small production should be a level that she needed to strive for, and she didn't even think about it when she starred in a production with such an investment scale as "Pirates of the Caribbean". "And you don't think so?"
"It's a very time-wasting route and one with a very high failure rate. Cesare folded his hands around his chest and leaned against the edge of the phone booth, a rare gaffe for him. He asserted, "It's a Loser's route. "
"But—" Jenny argued. "Most of the actresses—"
"Of course, the loser's route can also lead to the winner, and there will always be a winner in each lotto draw, but this does not hide the fact that most people's money is wasted. "Of course, for some people, this route may be a shortcut to their personal situation, but statistically speaking, the failure rate of this route is almost 100 percent." "
Jenny narrowed at him suspiciously.
Cesaré further explained, "If you quantify the abilities of all people, then the odds of success can actually be calculated as a rough result, for example, if I were to measure the competitive situation in your current Hollywood, then I would collect data, and in the whole of Hollywood, there are about 10,000 beautiful actresses, and the number of actresses with beginner acting skills has been reduced to 5,000, and the number of actresses with decent acting skills has been reduced to 1,000, and the number of actresses with top-notch acting skills has been reduced to about 100 There are only about fifteen people who are blonde like you, and probably half of them haven't been unearthed for various reasons, so in fact you only have seven competitors now. What I'm going to do is find the best fit for you to play before I have six agents left, so that your chances of winning are actually over 70%. "
"And do you think the heroine of Pirates of the Caribbean is the best character for me?" Jeanne felt like she was thinking in Cesare's thoughts. "Or is 'Pirates of the Caribbean' the most influential of all the projects that I'm going to be in, so you're trying to market me to this project?"
"Every year, Hollywood prepares to make more than 2,000 films, and in the end, about 600 films can be invested in production, of which no more than 50 films are invested in more than 5 million. Cesare said, "And the investment of more than 100 million A-level productions will never exceed 15, even if only one of these 15 is successful, when you star in an A-level production, the probability of box office profit is also 1 in 15, that is, 0.06, this probability is still far higher than the profit probability of you starring in a literary film, you must know that when you star in a small-budget film, you are turning in the wheel of 550 films, and the possibility of box office profitability is almost close to 0." And according to the Matthew effect, you will find that the probability of box office profitability of A-grade productions is greater than that of non-A-grade productions, so in a mathematical sense, when you go to act in a literary film, you have almost given up the hope of box office profitability, and you are counting on insiders to provide you with the opportunity to perform in a big-budget film after watching your performance, and the possibility of using your performance in a literary film in exchange for winning an award. "
He rolled up his sleeves, "But, you have to know that performance awards are also a cost-intensive industry, and every year the Oscars are a carnival of PR companies, first of all, in order to make the film you perform in be nominated, the film company needs to invest in pre-publicity for enough people to see, and secondly, after being nominated, compared with large productions, small productions need to pay more costs to ensure that all judges have seen the film, The Oscar jury has as many as 5,000 people, "Lobbying Law" It is stipulated that a PR cannot lobby more than two people at a time, and PR lobbying costs five thousand dollars at a time – you can imagine how much money it would cost to make an Oscar-level PR. If the filmmaker doesn't invest, your small production won't even be eligible to be nominated. Aside from those companies that produce awards because of luck, there may be only 10 to 20 companies that have the strength to invest in awards, and they choose one or two films from the dozens of awards they produce every year to win the awards, and the rest of the films can only be abandoned. "
"Every film is produced with a clear purpose, big productions have to rush to the box office, small productions have to rush for awards, if you are an investor, you will evenly distribute the resources in your hands, choose one of the most small production outputs to win the award, almost every film will give the configuration of possible awards, so, when you choose a film, you are indeed choosing a film that has the possibility of winning awards, but you are not sure how much budget the film can get in the end to promote and win awards. Cesare's expression when talking about the data was the closest to fanaticism Jeanne had ever seen, and he even raised his hand to help explain with gestures, "Mathematically, when an actor is not famous in the early stages of her acting career, if she only aims to make a small literary film, then she has chosen a path with a success rate close to zero, and all she can count on is that her film is one of the better of the 550 films, and she is very lucky to be affirmed by the filmmaker and will spend money on it." If she's not lucky, then the film won't do anything other than add to the resume — and even if she's lucky enough to have a chance to win an award and even a nomination, there's another very cruel odd here: in the last 20 years, almost no actress has won an Oscar in the first five years of her career. If you expect to make an Olympic game from a young age, then you have to act in at least three films in five years that have a chance to win the Olympics, and how low is the chance of that? As low as 1,000 actresses who are beautiful and have passable acting skills, 990 will be eliminated in this chance, and you can only count on the chance to make you the remaining 10, and I call this kind of person who counts on the probability Loser. "
His strength seemed to have passed, and Cesare straightened up and lowered his sleeves, "You know, we have a lot of actresses at CAA, and some of them have come all the way from literary films, and an agent who studies their resumes will find out, ah, they've all acted in literary films, so they came to the conclusion that if you don't act in literary films, you can't win an Oscar." But what they don't know is that along the way they came, how many actors who starred in literary films every year are forgotten, and they can no longer find the next opportunity to act. This is the trap of literary films, the failure of most A-level productions is always vigorous and alarming, but the failure of most literary films is silent and will not even be remembered, so when you take a cursory look at the past, you will get the illusion that literary films are more likely to succeed than commercial films. 90% of the agents in this industry are victims of this illusion, and when they get a beautiful girl with acting skills, they think: let her act in literary films, first rush to the fame of acting skills, it is better to get a few nominations, and then transfer to commercial films... And then we'll never hear the girl's name again, and that's what it's like in this line. "
"But when you give preference to commercial films, even if there are no awards, they are not profitable. Jenny said tentatively. "You've at least been exposed, too. "
"You've at least been exposed, and that's the most basic fame. Cesare nodded, he straightened up, as if he had come out of his loss, finding a hint of psychological comfort in the gushing data, "Ah, your car is here - so yes, in my case, in the early stages of my career, commercial films are better than literary films." If you can act in a big-budget commercial film, don't hesitate. Unlike literary films, commercial films pursue the audience to watch the film, so even if you are just a vase, the director will at least make you beautiful - and there will be enough people to appreciate your vase. When you're popular enough, the options are a lot wider. When you go back to act in literary films, good resources will also be tilted towards you, and you will have the capital to bargain with the filmmakers to ensure their tilt towards the film's PR resources and publicity resources. "
Jeanne must admit that although Cesare's thinking is very deviant, it is even difficult for her to accept it when she hears it - both she and Jeanne instinctively accept the idea of first acting in literary films to hone their acting skills and accumulate popularity, and after getting one or two award nominations, they will act in commercial films to make money, and then come back to play the feature films and literary films of big directors to win awards. But on closer thought, she couldn't find many logical errors, Cesare didn't go into detail in the numbers, but she had already grasped the basic spirit, and she only found one flaw. "I can't help but admit it, you're right, but I believe it's not that there is no second person who has the same idea as you, God knows how many people in Hollywood are waiting to become famous, as long as there is an opportunity, they won't care about business or literature, but the reason that hinders most people from starring in big productions is precisely that if you don't have the popularity and acting skills accumulated by starring in literary films, how can you convince the filmmakers that you have the ability to provoke the backbone of A-level production? We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, and if I were an investor, even if I had seen J.J.J. perform in its entirety and admit that she had acting skills and was beautiful, I wouldn't have been comfortable letting her star in my big investment until I had seen a movie starring her. You know that when investing to this extent, risk aversion is more important than anything else. "
"You're right. Cesare opened the car door for her, and they sat in the back seat together. "So a good commercial production is a low-probability event that can be met but not sought, and I only look at A-grade productions as a jackpot, and when I arrange for you to come to New York, I think of a vase heroine with a multi-million level investment, and even then, it's a tough battle, because B-grade productions usually tend to spend a lot of money on the actors, cutting the cost of special effects and sets, and they pay more attention to the fame of the actors. - But every aspect of Pirates of the Caribbean is perfect for you, firstly, it's a big production, and secondly, it's not favored by most people, you know Disney made it just to sell the project of the same name at Disneyland, and thirdly, it has a limited budget because of this original intention, especially since it's a special effects intensive movie, so the cast budget is not high, and they spent most of the actors in order to bring out Johnny Depp Budget, and fourth, I've seen the script of it, and the heroine, Elizabeth, is a vase character who doesn't need much acting skills, just needs to look beautiful enough, and I know they're getting a newcomer to play the role, and you happen to be very bleachy and your acting skills are good enough for the script. "
He glanced at Mary through the rearview mirror, and Mary jerked and looked ahead again, and Jenny noticed that Mary, like herself, had unconsciously listened attentively, and she even turned her head to look at Cesare at the red light.
"The most important thing is the fifth," Cesare showed a slightly irritated expression, "all the girlfriends Gore had before he got married were blonde, his wife was blonde, and several of his regular friends were blonde, you completely fit his aesthetic, and even in my opinion, you are the condensation and synthesis of his aesthetic." "
For the first time, Jeanne discovered that Cesare also had a childish side, like a child in trouble, his eyebrows furrowed, and even some innocent doubts, "And I don't know why he turned a blind eye to you, it's completely illogical." "
"Now that the situation has happened, there is no need to dwell on it. Jenny couldn't help but admit that Cesare's analysis had given her a sense of loss, and that she had never thought she would be so close to the heroine of Pirates of the Caribbean – at least the actress audition, theoretically, "Now that we've lost Gore's favor, can you consider recommending me to the producer, or an investor? at least let me audition, and even though it's a British role, I can also speak London—"
She suddenly thought of the classes she had taken last year: accent classes, horseback riding classes, sword fighting classes. "Ah, you've been aiming for this film since last year, right?"
"Yes, and I was measured and ended up going Gore's route. Cesare's brow furrowed again, but soon, the knot loosened, "So you should know that there's nothing to expect from the producer's route, but even then, we'll have to give it a try, but we can't get our hopes up." "
Reluctantly, Mary parked the car downstairs at Cesare's house, apparently not enough of his words, and Jeanne followed Cesare into the foyer, "What is the meeting with Judy now?"
"Of these 16 films, there are only three that you really have a chance to fight for the heroine, and after "Pirates of the Caribbean" is gone, the remaining two B-grade productions are the best opportunities you can get this year. Cesare rubbed the bridge of his nose, "But in order to win those two films, we need to change our PR strategy." "
"What are those two films?" said Jenny, trotting to keep up with Cesare.
"Girl Squad". Cesare glanced at Jenny, "Spicy Baby." "
Seeing Jenny's expression change, he smiled slightly, "Yes, it still sounds more appealing to Pirates of the Caribbean, right? But there's no way, in this line of work, you have to learn to deal with failure." If you can't accept it and can't wake up and forget about everything, then don't get to the bottom of it later. "
Jenny still has a vague impression of these two films, both of which seem to be popcorn films starring blonde and blue-eyed girls, and the box office may be good, but it is definitely not to the point of phenomenal, and the female lead of those two films is not a famous person, waiting for the elevator, she searched in the performing space, and affirmed her opinion: of course, this is definitely not as good as "Pirates of the Caribbean".
In this case, there is nothing to hesitate about, after listening to Cesare's explanation, Jeanne is sure that there is no big problem with her thinking - Cesare's opinion cannot be said to be wrong, in fact it may be quite advanced, but that is because he cannot prejudge the box office, and it is impossible to find the ones that are bound to succeed in the vast number of literary films every year, so from his standpoint, the probability of failure in choosing literary films is very high.
But Jenny is different, although her gold finger is not omnipotent, but the identity of the traverser gives her a great initiative in the selection of films, for example, only she knows, in the small production of literary films released in 2003, there are "Love You the Most", "Lost in Translation" and "The Girl with a Pearl Earring", for her, the success rate of literary films is much higher than that of her peers, and it can even be said that she has taken the lead. With Cesare's ability and her current status as the female lead of a Broadway musical, as long as Cesareken is agent, not to mention that all three films will be won (and it is impossible to win all of them), but at least one can be the leading actress, right?
With a ding, the elevator door opened, and Cesare pressed the door button, motioning for her to go out first, but Jenny looked at his handsome face and was a little distracted.
- If you think about it, the biggest difficulty in this whole thing must be to convince Cesare...
How do you convince Cesare to approve of her film selection without revealing her golden finger?
Jenny couldn't find the answer at all.
The author has something to say: Note: 1 There is nothing wrong with the fact that the Oscars are a PR, and the lobbying paragraph is also true.
2 It is true that the annual output in 2002 was about 600, but other data have not been examined in great detail.
3 Cesare's statements are his personal views and do not necessarily reflect those of the author
Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder