Bab 261: Capital Return
After both Adjani and Washington expressed their willingness to shoot Levi's film, the third person in Levi's film was finally selected at this time.
What surprised Levi was that after the selection process, Clark chose the actor Mark Ruffalo, who had just finished filming Levi's movie.
"The movie requires that this person should not be too handsome, and he must also have the temperament of a weak scientist. Ruffalo's image and temperament meet the requirements, and I think he is suitable."
Regarding this character, Clark also put forward some suggestions and opinions. And his opinion, Levi also thinks, is basically correct.
However, this casting can be said to be quite inferior compared to the other two famous protagonists. It goes without saying that Washington is the new Oscar Best Actor. Adjani is a French national treasure actor who has also been famous for many years. Compared with them, Ruffalo's reputation is much worse.
"I hope the audience won't think our move is just to save money."
Levi joked with Clark about this, and Clark just smiled and said, "Our movie is not short of money, so what kind of money can we save?"
This is true: Levi thought he would probably be short of money before the movie's filming started. He made special preparations for this. He would add his own money to shoot the film if the film's funds were insufficient.
Levi initially thought that shooting such a blockbuster would definitely cost a lot of money. However, during the preparation process, he discovered that the production of this movie cost less than he imagined. What he didn't expect was that, basically, no money was spent on the movie.
This is because the money for filming the movie depends on tax refunds. The pre-sale of distribution rights and advertising placement can already recover the cost, and not only the cost is recovered, but also a slight surplus.
"Our film follows the normal process. We found German investors and used British actors. In addition, the filming location was in Canada. So we can enjoy tax rebates in three countries at the same time. Half of our expenses can be recovered with these three countries' tax rebates."
When Alexander showed Levi his basic income situation, Levi was also slightly surprised. He knew before that tax rebates were one of the important sources of income for movies, but he never thought there would be such a big gap.
Many countries provide tax rebates when filming movies, and Levi is very clear about this.
For example, in Germany, their requirement is that local investment is sufficient, while in the UK, local actors are required. In countries such as Canada, filming can only be done in their own country.
These countries formulate these requirements to promote the development of their own films - for example, South Korea, whose tax rebates are as high as 30%. It is to promote the development of movies.
But in actual operation, these methods often allow the film industries in other countries to find opportunities to make money.
Compared with other countries, the tax refund policy in the United States is not very good. By 2002, only five states in the United States had tax rebate bills. Compared with the 44 states in Levi's memory that had enacted corresponding bills in the future, there were too few tax rebates now.
The film industry in the United States is too developed, which makes them lack the sense of competition. On the contrary, they are not as generous as the tax rebates provided by other countries. This has also prompted many American movies to be shot abroad.
The same goes for Levi's movies: he largely chose Vancouver as the main filming location to get a tax refund. Canada's own film subsidy is as high as 16%, and the province of British Columbia also has subsidies, making the tax rebate here as high as 55%, saving a lot of film costs.
Moreover, Vancouver also knows that its advantages can attract foreigners to shoot movies. They also have a pretty good movie shooting environment here, with various studios and facilities very complete. This is one of the reasons why Levi chose this place.
At the same time, of course, the movie also did some filming in the UK, found some actors, and at the same time found an investment company in Germany, actually a leather company, and went through legal procedures — after these means, it can be said that half of the investment in the movie has been returned.
"The tax rebate brought to us by Germany is about more than 10 million, and the tax rebate from the UK is more than 10 million. And here in Canada, we enjoy a 55% tax rebate, which means we spend 100 million here, they will refund us 55 million - with this money, we basically don't have to worry about our funds."
With a simple calculation, we can get the investment issues of the movie. This movie can already get more than 20 million in funds from Germany and the United Kingdom, and shooting in Canada can directly save half of the money. It can be said that the investment in this movie is not much.
And that's not all.
When a movie is being shot, if it is a literary film, it is always very troublesome to find someone to distribute it.
One of the businesses the Weinstein brothers do around the world is to buy other people's copyrights at low prices and then distribute them through their own channels, making a fortune.
Literary films are not very profitable, and distribution companies are not very willing to distribute these films. Although art is a good thing, the original intention of people setting up companies is to make money.
Because people have such needs, when a blockbuster is filmed, that's completely different.
"Now, our film's distribution rights have been pre-sold to companies in Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and other places. They have provided us with a total of 65 million in funding. Our film doesn't have to worry too much about the cost with this money."
As a commercial film with large investment and large production, there is no need to worry about distribution. In the United States, they can naturally contact publishers. Blockbusters don't have to worry about box office success, which also attracts distributors around the world. They all rushed to buy the distribution rights of the film.
Enigma Company has produced more than one blockbuster movie. They have enough experience and ability to make good movies. This is what people believe, and that is why people compete for the distribution rights of their movies. For a film company that has never produced any blockbusters, it would be impossible to obtain funds in this way.
It can be said the seeds that were planted before are now sprouting.
The movie has yet to be produced, yet all the money has already been received with these profit-making channels. From now on, whether it is box office, peripherals, or CDs, these are all additional income.
Some of these aspects can be seen now; for example, some people have already expressed their willingness to spend 7 million and bought the rights to show Levi's film on pay TV stations.
For a blockbuster movie, no matter how much the investment is, it will only cost about 100 million. Through these means, the movie has been able to recover its cost and even exceed it.
With the advent of the blockbuster era, in addition to well-made films that can earn more box office, these income methods are undoubtedly an important aspect.
In the 1990s, the box office accounted for 30% of commercial film revenue, but in the 21st century, this proportion has dropped to 10% or even 5%, relying on this kind of additional income.
Moreover, these are just the normal incomes of moral integrity. If you are willing to sell some moral integrity, the income may be better - for example, crazy placement of advertisements in movies, which is one of the methods many people use to make money.
During the filming of this movie, many people also sent in cooperation intentions, hoping to use some of their products in the movie. The income from these sponsorship contracts is also quite large; if they agree, it will also be a considerable amount.
Of course, it is impossible to agree to all of them: after all, these sponsorships themselves have great conflicts, but agreeing to some of them can bring some income to the film.
However, only Alexander was happy, while Levi expressed some opinions.
"Alex, don't just think about collecting money; we have to consider the quality of the movie. Some things can be added to the movie, and some cannot.
When making a movie, you always have to consider the identity of the characters, what kind of objects they should use, and the overall composition and color. Adding things randomly will not be suitable for the movie."
Levi is still disgusted with shoehorning advertisements into movies. He did not reject them all but was still very cautious when choosing.
What he wanted to shoot was, after all, a movie, not something dazzling. He can't add anything just to make money. Showing off fashionable clothes, luxury cars, and luxury watches in movies is something he thinks would ruin the plot too much. And he couldn't allow too many things to be added to the movie that didn't fit the character.
After all, his movie is not a 007 movie where you can add various advertisements, beautiful cars, beautiful women, and famous watches and suits, which are all 007 must-haves.
What Levi is filming is a scientist playing games, a policeman who solves crimes, and an old woman who recalls the past. What kind of help these people should have in their lives is something Levi needs to pay attention to.
He didn't want to film the character of Transformers and make the audience complain.
What he wants is a movie with a good reputation and box office.
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons
Marcelo Maia
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Danny York
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