The film and television industry expressed their disdain for the "new product" of Makino Image. This kind of relieved mentality and then unscrupulously attacked the other party came from their fear of Makino Image.
No industry welcomed competitors, and the same was true for the film and television industry, especially for a competitor like Makino Image, which had huge resources and capital behind it. Therefore, when Li Mu established Makino Image, the industry was particularly wary of it.
But at this moment, the film and television industry's vigilance against Makino Image had basically disappeared.
They originally thought that Li Mu would come up with something new in this industry, but now it seemed that this worry was purely unnecessary.
Moreover, when these film and television companies calmed down and analyzed the problem, they found that the current scale of Makino Image was not big, and it did not sign artists and directors with great fanfare. If Li Mu did things in the Internet industry, then he must also spend a lot of money to make big moves in the film and television industry. But now it seemed that Makino Image did not make any big moves.
Although Makino Image released two cinema movies this year, for the first-tier film and television companies, this number was pitifully small. It was not enough to enter their eyes at all. Even for a third-tier film and television company, only producing two works a year was indeed a little underwhelming.
From this, it could be speculated that Li Mu might not be really interested in the film and television industry. He just came in to play. In this case, everyone could be at ease and not care too much about Li Mu and Makino Image.
In the contempt of the industry, the first wave of test screenings of "The Girl We Chased Together in Those Years" began.
At ten o'clock in the morning, the screening halls of the five cinemas were full. Most of them were the winners of YY and Taobao platforms. They paid a lot of attention to this movie. Some of them paid attention to the two lead actors, Du Wei and Zhang Kexuan. Some of them paid attention to the campus love story that seemed more attractive from the trailer and introduction. Some of them simply came for the theme song. They listened to some parts of the trailer, but did not have the chance to listen to the whole movie.
Because all the winning audiences had different expectations for this movie, almost every screening was full, and no one was absent.
Li Mu was not in Beijing, but Makino Image still arranged several staff members, including director Teng Huatao, to go to the scene to understand the audience's comments.
Although every scene of this movie was shot under the direction of Teng Huatao, Teng Huatao was still not confident about the commercial prospects of this movie. It was not that he did not like the story, but he felt that the audience of this story was a little too young.
Teng Huatao had not experienced the era of young men and youth dramas in the future. Therefore, he did not think that the commercial value of this movie was light. He felt that although the male and female protagonists in the movie had experienced high school, university, and entered society, the majority of the movie was still describing the love life of the male and female protagonists in high school. In other words, this movie was actually describing the love story of high school students.
Since it was a love story of high school students, would the young and middle-aged people between 20 and 35 years old, who were the main force of the box office, still be interested in such a movie?
Not only Teng Huatao, but the other people in the production team also did not have high hopes for the commercial value of this movie. Although they had not seen this movie before, they had a lot of doubts about the commercial effect of this movie. Although Makino Image had mobilized the promotion ability of Makino Technology to promote this movie to everyone, in the end, the real deciding factor was how many people were willing to buy tickets for this movie.
At present, the person who had the greatest hope for "The Girl We Chased Together In Those Years" was Li Mu. This was because Li Mu knew very well that the reason why this movie was able to achieve such a high box office was largely due to the deep exploration and in-depth exploration of the deep needs of the users.
Everyone felt that the audience liked to watch blockbusters, big stars, big productions, Feng's comedies, Zhang's movies, nonsensical comedies, and the artificial emotional stories of modern cities. Therefore, everyone was centering their movies around these key points, believing that this was the essence of commercial movies. No one was willing to use their brains to think about what other deeper needs the audience had.
The core audience of a movie like "The Girl We Chased Together In Those Years" would never be high school students, but all those who had high school experience but had already entered society. It could be young people who had just graduated from college, or middle-aged people who had worked for several years, or middle-aged people who were already in their thirties and had married and had children. As long as they had high school experience, as long as they had feelings of puppy love, and as long as they still had memories of their high school life, then they would be the core audience of this movie.
Because "The Girl We Chased Together In Those Years" accidentally tapped into the "nostalgia" of the users, there was a huge explosion in the box office. This explosion, including the production and distribution company, including the main creative team, was unexpected.
Among many subsequent works that followed the trend, "Charlotte's Troubles" was also an absolute dark horse. Its brilliance was that not only did it tap into the level of nostalgia of the users, but it also stole the rebirth trope in the online literature circle, created a pseudo-rebirth, and led the audience to relive high school life as the entry point of "starting over".
Others led the audience to reminisce about high school, but "Charlotte's Troubles" led the audience to "return to high school." Obviously, the latter's exploration of the users' needs was more in-depth, and after adding some YY elements, it was the icing on the cake.
Because Li Mu understood the fundamental factors of the success of campus youth movies, he was full of confidence in "The Girl We Chased Together In Those Years", which was born nine years in advance.
However, Li Mu was also very clear in his heart that such a trick could not be used everywhere. Once he succeeded in "The Girl We Chased Together In Those Years", there would be a large number of campus youth love movies emerging.
After all, this was a commercial competition. Everyone came for money. The founders could never refuse the emergence of imitators and followers. Moreover, Li Mu was not so narrow-minded. What he pursued was a set of big framework, or big rules, that could override the entire film and television industry. His real pursuit was to control the entire industry from the offline cinema chain, the online ticket system, and the box office.
Therefore, he would not refuse the emergence of "To Youth", "You Who Sat Next To Me", "The Brother Who Slept On My Upper Bunk", and "Charlotte's Troubles" after "The Girl We Chased Together In Those Years". On the contrary, he hoped that there would be more such movies, because the future commercial lifelines of these movies would definitely be in the hands of Muye Cinemas and the Muying Online Ticket System.
More than a thousand audiences followed the character played by Zhang Kexuan into the story. Zhang Kexuan put on his suit and tie in front of the mirror. His good friend suddenly appeared and said a prelude, "Hurry up, don't let the bride wait for you!"
Zhang Kexuan left the camera with a handsome shot, and then the picture suddenly switched to 1992.
The opening gave the audience an illusion that the protagonist was preparing to go to the wedding, as if the film was recalling the successful love story of the male protagonist. However, the audience would only know that the male protagonist and the female protagonist did not really come together until the end.
From this moment on, the audience began to immerse themselves in the plot and pictures of the high school campus, and then they were gradually attracted by the plot in the film. It was like boiling a frog in warm water, using a seemingly ordinary method to tell an ordinary story, but the gentle plot made the audience immersed in it, unable to stop.
Li Mu did not make extensive adjustments to the characters and personalities in the film. He only made some changes to the characters' dialogues and related plots to make it more in line with the high school life in the memory of the mainland audience, so that it could also increase the sense of immersion.
In addition, the overall performance of the male and female protagonists was better than that of the original actors.
In terms of appearance, Zhang Kexuan was comparable to Ke Zhendong, but because he played in a band, Zhang Kexuan was a little more cynical and cool than Ke Zhendong.
In terms of appearance, Du Wei was several streets ahead of Chen Yanxi, and in terms of temperament, she was also far superior to her. Coupled with her excellent musical talent, she portrayed the female protagonist much better than that of the original, and further improved the overall level of the film.
Today, when commercial films were not mature enough, "The Girl We Chased Together in Those Years" could be said to be a very sincere commercial work. It did not have a too esoteric theme or too high a standard. It just presented a touching, sad, regretful, and unforgettable love story for everyone in the most realistic and down-to-earth way.
In addition to the simple and straightforward theme, the shooting of the entire film was very exquisite. Whether it was the actors, the setting, the use of light, or the color, they were extraordinarily meticulous, giving the audience a feeling of sincerity and care.
In addition, the two high-quality theme songs, "Those Years" and "The First Day", also added a lot of color to the film. In particular, the lyrics of "Those Years" completely fit the theme. Under Zhang Kexuan's interpretation, it became a tearjerker. Every line of the lyrics made the audience feel the same way and even shed silent tears.
The first screening was a great success. Although in the end, all the audience sadly found out that the male protagonist was not going to marry the female protagonist, but to attend the female protagonist's wedding. But the more imperfect the plot was, the more it touched the softness in the hearts of the audience.
After the film ended, all the audience could not help but applaud for this touching and nostalgic film. After the film was over, the staff conducted a survey of the audience who participated in the screening. A total of 100 people were interviewed, and under the rating standard of 10, the 100 audience members gave an average score of 9.3, which was very high.
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