Chương 148: Chapter 148 - Gusta's Poisonous Vision
What the crew was filming today was the part where the dean was addressing the new students. Other than a few of the movie's main actors, all the other extras only had a general idea of the scene. The only thing Lin Ming Yang asked of them was to think of themselves as a new student, and then on stage was their dean.
Lin Mingyang's camera follows the dean, Virus, into the small square where the freshmen are gathered, and the dean holds up a bird's nest in his hand and asks the freshmen around him, "What's this?"
A student replies, "A bird's nest!"
But then the dean asked, "Whose is it?"
The bird's nest in his hand was clearly standing on a model of a cuckoo bird, which made the student who had just answered the question a little nervous, because the answer was right in front of him, and just because it was obvious, it made him a little hesitant instead.
"It's a cuckoo?"
"Wrong!" The dean pointed towards him and then carried this model bird's nest up to the podium and started his speech, "A cuckoo never builds its own nest, it only lays its eggs in other people's nests, and while incubating the eggs, it squeezes the other bird's eggs out of the nest." He took a real egg out of the model bird's nest and let go of it, and it fell to pieces on the ground with a loud snap.
The students on the stage all scrunched their heads, the dean seemed satisfied with the reaction of the students on the stage, he shook his palm a little, "The competition is over, their lives begin with murder, that's nature! Compete or die!"
After saying this, he walked over to a few large cardboard boxes that had been prepped on stage, "You guys are like cuckoos!"
He overturned the cardboard boxes and with a clatter a large pile of files applying for admission all tumbled to the ground, "These are the eggs you smashed when you entered this school!"
"STOP!"Lin Ming Yang lowered the camera, his lens had been pointed at the dean, and the other cameraman from the crew, had been filming the reactions of the students on stage. That cameraman nodded at him, and Lin Ming Yang then announced that the segment was over.
Eckles and Lionsgate's Director of Distribution, Moore, who were standing on the sidelines watching, were both a little surprised, could this set of shots have passed so easily? Others didn't know, but Eckles knew Moore's intention in his heart, he intended to go and remind Lin Ming Yang, but Moore pulled him back.
"The content of this dean's speech is very interesting, whether it's that dean on the stage or the students under the stage, the expressions on their faces are all very real, let's not bother them for now, I think this shoot shouldn't be over yet.
Not to his surprise, the shooting is not short cut, in the small square directly across the street, glass floor to ceiling windows inside the corridor there is another camera, that position of the cameraman waved his hand towards this side, signaling that it is ready, and his lens is aimed at a young janitor who is cleaning.
In the episode, the dean's "viral" speech may be new to the freshmen, but the janitor, who has served the school for many years, is well aware that the dean scares the freshmen every year with this cuckoo-egg trick, and that his speech at the new student orientation ceremony has remained the same for many years, and that what he is filming is him cleaning the windows while cleaning the windows, and that is the young janitor who is cleaning the windows. It's him cleaning the glass while mimicking the dean's tone of voice.
"Don't forget that over 40,000 people send us applications for admission every year, but only 200 are accepted - you!"
Not only dead what he says is word for word the same as the dean's speech in the distance, but he's even cleaning the glass with his back to the direction of the dean's speech, and he's able to easily mimic the dean's movements during his speech without even looking at him.
The performance was easy, but the two actors had actually memorized their lines beforehand, and practiced matching them together in the mirror, so the shooting was simultaneous, and with everything in the camera, the picture returned to Lin Ming Yang's side, and the dean followed that action that the janitor had mimicked by pointing to the application files scattered on the ground, "And these, these are the eggs that are broken! "
This filming was still continuing, Ecks was in a hurry so he didn't take this episode in, but Moore beside him watched the entire filming from start to finish. Leaving aside Calin Ming Yang's randomness when directing, but the plot was indeed fascinating, and just by watching an incomplete take, the movie managed to hook Moore's interest.
The real master was Lionsgate's president, Gustav, who decided that the movie had great potential based only on an unremarkable report in the Harvard school newspaper. Until he came back, Moore had thought it was a pointless endeavor, but now, Moore had to admire his boss's venomous vision.
----
The shooting set wasn't a good place to chat about business, so Moore went one step ahead, and he and Eckles made an appointment to meet at a nearby cafe after the shoot. As the crew wrapped up, Lin Ming Yang was pulled aside by Ecks.
Before filming began, Eckles knew of the existence of the "Three Stooges" movie, but he himself did not have much interest in the film, and Lin Mingyang did not have much to toss in the film's inputs, so Eckles did not pay more attention to the film. When Lionsgate first spoke to him on the phone, he thought the other party had made a mistake. It was only after Moore personally paid a visit and made a request to want to work with Lin Ming Yang that he began to pay attention to the movie.
"You said that Lionsgate is interested in this movie?" Lin Ming Yang's first reaction after hearing this news was surprise, followed by a shake of his head, "This movie is just my entry, there is no intention to release it at all."
Ecks thought that he had brought good news to Lin Ming Yang and he should be full of joy, but he didn't expect to be met with a pot of cold water right on the head.
"I'm wondering if you're going to put this film in a glass case and lock it up after attending the festival, placing it there as an honor, do you think that's interesting?" Ecks' intentional pause was to leave Lin Ming Yang time to think.
"Even if you don't work with Lionsgate, then if the film wins an award at the festival and some other company looks at the movie, are you prepared to pinch it? Whether it's an art film or a commercial film, the movie was originally made for the audience to see."
Lin Ming Yang had not given much thought to this issue before, Ecks had a point, movies were originally bulk products, although Lin Ming Yang did not want this film to be tainted with too heavy commercial colors, but someone willing to act as an agent for distribution, it should always be a good thing.
After doing Lin Mingyang's thinking, Eckles took him to the cafe where he had arranged to meet with Moore. Since he was talking about something important, Moore naturally wouldn't just find an open seat, he booked a quiet and cozy booth and sat inside to start organizing his thoughts on the negotiation.
In Moore's opinion, this negotiation should be very easy, he felt that Lin Ming Yang was now like a drowning man, his new movie had no takers, and just when he was in despair, someone suddenly offered to buy the rights to distribute it, which was like a life-saving straw that Lin Ming Yang had to grab. Moore had even made plans with confidence, he was ready to buy out the distribution rights of the movie at a very low price.
His moustache was twitching pleasantly, and his eyes shone brightly, revealing a smug demeanor. He was humming a little tune with glee as he tapped his foot on the leg of the table, making a rhythmic, crisp sound.
Upon hearing the footsteps outside the door, Moore's slightly closed eyes immediately opened and his face changed expression. When Ecks pushed the door in, Moore took the initiative to stand up and greeted him, and even shook hands with Lin Mingyang and Ecks.
After the hosts and guests took their seats, Moore first said a bunch of compliments to Lin Ming Yang before introducing the topic into a formal manner, bringing up the idea of Lionsgate wanting to buy the distribution rights for the movie The Three Stooges. Moore said while secretly observing Lin Mingyang's reaction, but to his disappointment, Lin Mingyang's face did not appear that kind of surprise expression, the situation is not quite the same as he imagined.
Only after Moore had finished all his words did Lin Ming Yang speak for the first time, "I'm curious, how come Lionsgate is suddenly so interested in this new movie of mine?"
"What attracted us was the creativity and ideas shown in this movie."
"But this movie has only just started filming, and I'm writing the script as I go along, so I'm curious to know where this movie has innovated?" Lin Mingyang had an expression of humble curiosity on his face, but the aura he displayed was somewhat aggressive.
Moore's reaction was also sharp enough to immediately think of the film's story archetype, "The novel Five O'Clock Man was very interesting, and after reading it we realized that a film based on it would definitely be fun to make."
Ignoring the frequent glances handed over by Ecks, Lin Mingyang said very directly. "In this movie of mine, only the framework of the story was applied, and following the original storyline, what was made would only be a successful Indian movie, not an American one. My script has made a lot of changes based on the original story, so if you value the content of the original novel, then my movie probably won't be able to satisfy you!"
"In any case, I've come here on behalf of Lionsgate this time with full sincerity, wanting to facilitate this cooperation."
Moore smiled awkwardly, feeling that he was losing his advantage, and some fine beads of sweat had begun to seep out of his head. Moore himself in fact Lin Mingyang's new film does not know much, in this way will soon be "exposed", his previous judgment on the form of negotiation is completely wrong, Lin Mingyang seems to this cooperation is not interested at all.
Moore excused himself to go to the restroom, and then Eckles began to chatter and complain about Lin Ming Yang.
Lin Ming Yang yawned lazily, "I'm just being honest, if he can't even accept this, then what's the point of talking about cooperation?"
"But if you say that, nine out of ten of the distributors are going to be scared off by you!" Ecks glared at him without a good reason.
"This Moore won't run away, he must have run to the restroom to make a phone call!" Lin Ming Yang leaned back on the sofa with certainty, "People are not in a hurry at Lionsgate, why would I be in a hurry to sell myself out?"
----
Lin Ming Yang's guess was exactly right, Moore did run to the phone, he dialed the phone of Gusto, the president of Lionsgate, and then spoke to him in detail about his conversation with Lin Ming Yang, in the end, Moore came to two conclusions about Lin Ming Yang, it was either a stunt, or he was extremely confident.
Gusta still had the newspaper from that time on his desk, and when he answered the phone, his fingers had been constantly tapping on the desktop, his eyes dead set on Ginny's report, as if he wanted to get the answer he wanted from it.
After listening to Moore's report, Gusto didn't hurry to jump to conclusions, but asked about some of the circumstances on the movie set.
"His shooting seems to be unstructured and casual, but I always have a strange feeling that he seems to have already designed every shot in his head, and now he's just shooting it again according to the ideas in his head!"
Although this was just a feeling that Moore had, Gusto was more inclined to believe that this was the truth, he had carefully studied the three movies that Lin Ming Yang had made earlier, and the post editing of these movies basically took very little time. Other directors always had a headache when considering deleting footage, but Lin Ming Yang seemed to know exactly what he wanted, when the final editing of a movie was completed, there weren't a few extra shots, such an efficiency appearing once could still be explained with an extra-intentional explanation, appearing one after the other, the situation was a bit intriguing.
"His shots basically follow the development of the plot, it seems that we do not see any jumping shots, this point also makes me feel a little strange." Moore thought of another point, which more and more proved Gusto's previous judgment.
"What about that movie, how did you feel after watching it on the set?"
"I didn't see the script, it's said that the script was written while filming, the shooting plot I saw was smooth and the content was fascinating."
"Did Felix have any reaction to your offer to buy the distribution rights?"
Moore hesitated for a moment, "I feel that he has a cold attitude towards this matter, and doesn't seem to want to cooperate with us."
"If both you and I are correct in our judgment, it means that Felix has a lot of confidence in this movie. After this movie is shown at the festival, it's expected that we'll add a lot of competitors, and if Warner, Sony or Disney or Paramount, the movie giants, appear among the bidders, we won't have any chances to speak of!" Gusto was well aware of Lionsgate's current situation, although the company had always been an industry leader in the field of independent movies and television, it would be very difficult to compete directly with those giants with consortiums backing them.
"Felix's side is probably recognizing this as well, that's why he's lacking interest in us, you try to fight for it again."
Gusta thought that it was unlikely to convince Lin Ming Yang right away, so he decisively discarded his original strategy, "Your focus now is to get in touch with his agent more often and make a good relationship, I've also received an invitation from the Boston International Student Film Festival side, so I'll go and talk to him in person at that time!"
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