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Volume 3 Chapter 42 Influence

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    At No. 750 Nathan Road in Mong Kok, there is a Ritz Cinema. It opened in 19UU and has more than 14UU seats. In addition to showing ordinary 35mm films, it can also show 70mm wide-screen movies. It is the best theater in Hong Kong.  First, in the 1960s and 1970s, it only screened foreign-language films. However, in the early 1990s, with the decline of foreign-language films and the rise of Hong Kong-produced films, this theater joined the Golden Princess Cinema Line established by Lei Juekun and began to switch to Hong Kong films.  Produce movies.  Room UU1 on the sixth floor of the building attached to Lisheng Theater is an office of less than 100 square meters. The decoration is very simple. There are no high-end office equipment such as typewriters, copiers, and computers. There are only a few old tables and chairs and a telephone.  While Wei Ming and Qiu Liben were chatting in the spacious and bright cafe of Oriental Charm Building, three people were having a meeting here.  "In the film industry, there are three enduring genres: comedy, action, and romance" A young man wearing a short-sleeved shirt and black-rimmed glasses  He knocked on the newspaper on the table and said: "Shen Caishen has said that comedies are loved by both men and women. I see our entrepreneurial work and will make comedies." "Comedies are low-cost, can be shot quickly, and more people will watch them.  , I agree." The bald man sitting behind the desk said, "Boss Lei is interested in us and is willing to invest because the comedy is good and creative, which impressed him deeply." "Make another comedy?  The man who was as thin as a bamboo pole sitting on the sofa frowned and said, "I have been making comedies for ten years, and now I want to make something else." If Shen Chong saw it, he would definitely recognize the three people in it.  There are three entrepreneurial monsters in Xinyi City - the glasses boy Huang Baiming, the bald guy Mai Jia and the thin bamboo pole Shi Tian.  "What else should we film? We only have a few million dollars to make, why should we film "Die Hard"? If we lose the money, do you still need to provide a house to support your family? How will Boss Lei explain it? Don't forget, this office  It¡¯s all Boss Lei¡¯s.¡± Mai Jia¡¯s series of questions made Shi Tian unable to refute. He pursed his lips and stopped talking, acquiescing to the decision to make a comedy.  "If we want to make a comedy film, who should we hire?" Huang Baiming adjusted his glasses and said, "Sanmao is so red now. It's impossible for Jiahe to let him go and help us film. Even if we let him come, we won't be able to give him the money."  When filming "Die Hard", Shen Caishen gave him 1 million Hong Kong dollars, plus bonuses. "Ma Jiamo rubbed his shaved head and muttered: "His grandma is a badass Shen Caishen."  This guy was originally a man in science and engineering. He immigrated to the United States in his early years. After graduating from college, he worked as an engineer at the New York Telephone Company. His hobby was to go to Chinatown and watch Hong Kong movies. At that time, Hong Kong movies either showed men taking off their shirts and hitting each other, or  A woman took off her pants to show off her coquettishness, and while he was watching it, he was cursing the movie. After watching too much and cursing enough, he couldn't help but want to do it himself, so he quit his job and went to New York University to study film first and then art, 1973  When he was 15 years old, he ran back to Hong Kong with $1,500 in his pocket, preparing to make a big splash in the film industry.  It's a pity that as soon as Mai Jia returned to Hong Kong, her ideals were full and her reality was skinny. She was defrauded of her money and creative outline by a screenwriter. She wasted two years until the end of 1975, when she partnered with two friends and established a company called  In the "Pioneer" film company, these two friends were named Wu Yiu Han and Li Yingjiu. The former was a comedy star and the latter was a famous Wing Chun master. The three of them worked together to make a movie in 1976 called "A Single Man Walks Away".  "End of the World" was unfortunately not a hit but was well-received. Film critics considered it an "innovative film." However, it only took in 740,000 yuan at the box office and was canceled within a week of its release, resulting in a huge loss of nearly 300,000 yuan.  However, it was a blessing in disguise. Although the movie suffered a huge loss, Mai Jia made three friends, one was Sammo Hung, one was Shek Tian, ??and the other was Eric Tsang. In 1978, Wu Yaohan was poached by Golden Harvest, Pioneer Films  The company closed down, and Mai Jia and Sammo Hung formed the "Garbo" company. They acted as directors themselves, with Eric Tsang as the screenwriter, and Sammo Hung and Shi Tian as the starring roles. They filmed "Tiger Frog", which grossed more than 00,000 yuan at the box office and ranked among the annual box office rankings.ll  Famous, made a small fortune, and became famous in the Hong Kong film circle.  Sammo Hung was a contracted artist of Golden Harvest. He couldn't help himself and it was inconvenient to start a company independently. Garbo hurriedly closed out after filming two movies. Mai Jia then formed his own Endeavor Film Company and made three movies in a row, "New Post"  "The Wrong Doorman", "Crazy Old Man" and "Salted Fish Turn", all have good box office. The martial arts action in these three movies were designed by Sammo Hung and his Hong family team, among which "Salted Fish Turn" personally participated in the design.  Acted in, and it was the success of this movie that made real estate tycoon Lei Juekun take a fancy to Fendou, a small independent film production company, and was willing to provide financial support.  Because in order to ensure the quality of the film, Shen Chong did not allow crew members to take part-time jobs outside. After Sammo Hung participated in "Die Hard", this cooperative relationship was interrupted. "Die Hard" swept the world and was a box office hit.  , Sammo Hung became famous and had the potential to become an international superstar. Golden Harvest regarded it as a guarantee of success and prepared several films for him. The schedules have been scheduled until next year. He was so busy that he had no time to come out to help.  "If Sanmao can't come, no one will fight us."??Stop making kung fu comedies.  "Shi Tian interjected and said: "Shen Caishen said that Hong Kong has become urbanized now, and no one likes to watch movies about poor country boys. It is better for us to make an urban-themed comedy.  " Shi Tian is thin and tall, with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks. He looks cunning and ridiculous, but he is actually a person who has great ideas and pursuit of movies. He joined the Shaw Brothers actor training class in 1999 and graduated in 1973. Because of his appearance  Unfortunately, Shaw Brothers didn't pay much attention to it, so he hung out in various large and small film companies such as Golden Harvest, Xu's, and Longbow, and played small supporting roles for six or seven years. During this period, those who had better congenital conditions than him and those who  Many actors who were once highly praised by big companies have become silent, but he has persisted. Not only has he not been eliminated, but he has gradually changed from a supporting role to a starring role, becoming a well-known comedy star in Hong Kong, and established a new comedy in Xinyi City  By that time, he had become the third largest shareholder after Lei Juekun and Mai Jia, owning 19 shares. ¡°Okay, Bai Ming, you can write a book first and take a look.  ¡± Mai Jia and Lei Juekun jointly own shares in New Art City. Lei Juekun is a real estate tycoon with many industries and billions of assets. Of course, he will not personally manage a small film company. Therefore, Mai Jia is the owner of New Art City.  Boss, let him make the decision. Huang Baiming started out as a screenwriter, and writing scripts is his job. He hummed and asked: "I will be the screenwriter, you will be the director, and Shi Tian will star, who else should I look for?"  " After getting Lei Juekun's investment, Mai Jia went back to New York to take care of family matters. He just came back yesterday. He asked: "Is Chen Xunqi free?  Call him over to help.  " Chen Xunqi became a disciple of music master Wang Fuling at the age of 15 and studied film scoring. At the age of 1971, he became Shaw Brothers' official soundtrack engineer. He worked on as few as three to five movies a year and as many as a dozen movies - in 1975, he was even the director of the department.  He has done the soundtrack for the movie - he can be called the king of Hong Kong movie soundtracks. He is young, good-looking, and has a good temperament. Although he works behind the scenes, he has the popularity and exposure of a star on stage. He has been doing soundtracks for a long time and has seen a lot.  After the movie, Chen Xunqi had the same idea as Mai Jia. He planned to start filming himself and transition into directing and starring. However, the internal system of Shaw Brothers was rigid and the director had to work hard to gain qualifications. It was not that easy to become a director, so he went to find Mai Jia.  , said that he was willing to work as an assistant director for him, learn how to film, and the salary was negotiable. Mai Jia had not yet become famous at that time, and he was not confident enough, so he did not dare to agree immediately. He refused and said that he had to think about it first. As a result, he thought about this and that.  Chen Xunqi was lured to Jiahe as an actor by Jackie Chan's words: "If you want to be a director, you can actually be an actor first" However, due to benevolence and righteousness, Mai Jia and Chen Xunqi missed the relationship between master and apprentice, but they still maintained a good relationship as friends.  , the soundtracks for the three films shot after the establishment of Endeavor Film Company were all done by Chen Xunqi. So now that the movie is about to start, besides Sammo Hung, the first person who comes to mind is him. " Chen Xunqi has gone to Oriental Charm and is directing and starring in one.  In the drama, Oriental Charm has never allowed the crew to make extra money.  " "Where is Wu Yaohan?  ¡± Wu Yaohan went to the UK to study drama in 1955. After graduation, he joined HHC TV station. He returned to Hong Kong in 1970 and hosted a comedy show on H. In 1975, he and Mai Jia formed Pioneer Film Company. Although Pioneer Film Company had a bad start, it made a lot of losses in the business.  , but Wu Yiu-han's British academic comedy style is very popular. "Half a Category" in which he participated was the box office champion of Hong Kong movies in 1976, and "Fa Qian Han" and "Mian Mian Xin Jing" starring in it ranked among the box office of Hong Kong movies in 1977.  The top two on the list have become well-known comedy stars in Hong Kong, and Hui Guanwen is filming for Oriental Charm.  " "Zeng Zhiwei?  " Zeng Zhiwei joined Chang Cheh's Longbow Film Company in 1974 as a dragon and tiger martial artist. In 1976, when he was filming "A Single Solo" for Mai Jia, he not only often added plots during filming, but also often went to chat with Mai Jia to tell stories.  The script attracted Mai Jia's attention. When Garbo was established in 1978, he wrote the screenplay for the first film "Tiger Frog" and also starred in "The Story of a Salted Fish".  " "Grandma, you're a bear." Mai Jia was a little irritated. He touched his bald head and said, "We'll find another actor. Let's find a photographer first. Does Tang Baosheng have a schedule?  Tang Baosheng is the photographer of "Salted Fish Stand". This movie has a good box office and an auspicious name. It also brought investment from Lei Juekun, so Mai Jia wanted to keep the original crew and "film for Yu Yungang in Oriental Charm." "Oriental Charm."  Charm, Oriental Charm, Oriental Charm." Mai Jia punched the desk hard and said angrily: "Is there anyone who hasn't gone to Oriental Charm?  " Huang Baiming pushed up his glasses again and said with a wry smile: "Among the people we know, only He Ming has a schedule now, but he wants 50,000 yuan. " He Ming is the photographer of "Tiger Frog" and an old acquaintance of Mai Jia.   "50,000?" "50,000." "Why is it so expensive?" Mai Jia was surprised and said: "When he filmed "Tiger Frog" two years ago, he only received 10,000 yuan.of.  " " Now the market has gone up.  Shi Tian, ??who had been silent, explained: "After the release of "Die Hard", all the famous photographers in Hong Kong have increased their prices. He Ming's increase is relatively small. Tang Baosheng shoots for Oriental Charm, and his salary is  It was 80,000 yuan, and Huang Yuetai was even more expensive. He was filming a new movie for Jiahe and asked for 150,000 yuan.  " "Not only the photographer, in fact, everything has increased after the Hong Kong Film Awards. After Liu Jialiang won the Best Martial Arts Director Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, his salary doubled.  "Huang Baiming pointed to the newspaper in front of him and said: "The God of Wealth said that in the past, the box office was measured in millions, so there was nothing we could do about the low salary. Now, the box office is measured in tens of millions. If our salary does not increase, it would be unreasonable. "Movie Times"  According to statistics, the average cost of each drama in Hong Kong last year was 0,000, and in the first half of this year it has risen to 1.8 million.  " "Does his grandma's Shen Caishen still live?  "Mai Jia grabbed the newspaper, drew a cross on Shen Chong's profile picture with a pen to express his anger, and then angrily shouted: "Just because you are rich, it doesn't mean that everyone in Hong Kong is rich. Just because your movie has a box office of over 10 million, it doesn't mean that  ¡°Everyone¡¯s play can earn over ten million.¡± ¡°What are you talking about with the newspaper?  Shi Tian was amused by him and laughed and said mockingly: "If you have the ability, you can say this in front of Shen Caishen."  " Maijia's eyebrows and eyes moved wildly for a while, venting her anger, and sat on the chair without saying anything. "We have all come from this circle. In fact, we also know in our hearts that Shen Caishen is right. The income is high.  Well, it doesn¡¯t make sense that the film remuneration doesn¡¯t increase. If it doesn¡¯t increase, no one will be willing to film.  "Shi Tian lit up a cigarette, took a puff, and then said slowly: "Before you came back, Bai Ming and I found someone to do the calculation. Even if the cost increased by 50, we would still make money.  It has gone up. Last year the ticket price was 9 yuan, now it is 3 yuan. In the past, a movie worth 00,000 yuan was considered a hit, but now it needs 5 million yuan to be considered a hit. Secondly, there are more places to sell it. After "Die Hard",  Many European film dealers go to Hong Kong to buy films, and the prices are good. Thirdly, we can sell the copyright of the video tape to Galaxy Image. This area did not exist before, but now it is made out of thin air. If the box office is good, we can sell it for 30 to 50%.  One hundred thousand is no problem.  " "There's one more thing" Huang Baiming probably deliberately teased Mai Jia by putting the good news at the end. He broke the news: "Wu Yusen called last night and said that he promised to film for us last year, and now that agreement is  It's still valid, but he is now tight on time and has a contract with Jiahe, so he can only use a pseudonym and can only shoot for a week.  "Mai Jia was overjoyed. He jumped up, clapped his hands, and urged: "Then why are you just sitting there stupidly? Find someone quickly and start filming tomorrow." "Just kidding, John Woo is now the most popular director in Hong Kong.  With him at the controls, even if it¡¯s under a pseudonym, there will be no worries about the box office
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