The thing that can make the entire entertainment industry adrenaline rush in the first half of 2023 is none other than the 95th Academy Awards.
As far as the current shortlist is concerned, the most discussed in China is that "Determination to Break Up" was shortlisted for Best International Film.
Although unfortunately it was upset, Tang Wei lost the Oscar red carpet again ("Color Ring" was not shortlisted for the Oscar due to regional reasons).
I have to sigh again, Koreans really like Tang Wei sincerely.
Not to mention that "Determination to Break Up" made Tang Wei almost win the three gold slams (Bad Bell Award) of Han Ying after being sealed three times in South Korea.
It is this successful Olympic rush, behind the efforts of the South Korean chaebols to pay for it.
At the Oscar ceremony, Lee Mi-kyung, vice president of CJ Group, and the crew of "Parasite"
Why get involved with South Korea's chaebols?
Because all films have a set of "unspoken rules" for sending, public relations, and smuggling grounds before being shortlisted for the Oscar.
This set of process crew is not good at it, requiring chaebols to spend a lot of financial resources and means to operate; Simply put, the crew creates, and the chaebol is responsible for the expansion of fame and fortune.
If you want to rush the Olympics, both are indispensable.
Take last year's winning "Parasite".
The crew first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to play the "outpost", won the best director, and then returned to China with a high profile and slaughtered Korean film festivals.
After that, he was officially selected to participate in the Oscar and win the award.
Of course, the above is the process written on the surface, and behind it is actually Li Meijing, vice president of CJ Group, who has been operating for half a year (I will reveal the secret "unspoken rule operation" process later).
Even the South Koreans themselves know that without Lee Mi-kyung's long-sleeved good dance, "Parasite" would not have won four awards at the Oscars.
Therefore, when he went on stage to present the award, Li Meijing has always been firmly in the C position and cannot be shaken; Foreign media once thought she was starring.
According to conservative estimates by Korean media, the public relations expenditure alone during this period was not less than 1500W US dollars, and the cost of "Parasite" was only 1100W US dollars.
And this "Determination to Break Up" Chong Ao, the big guy behind it is still Li Meijing, and even the Chong Ao process has completely reproduced "Parasite".
Are you afraid that you will have to spend another $1500W to "buy fame"?
Although it does not deny that the two movies are really good, on the road to the Olympics, some are good movies that do not understand the rules and lose the prize.
How exactly does this set of unspoken rules work? And how have Chinese and Korean films been playing in the Oscars in recent years?
The sheep will take the sisters to pickpocket today, and the public relations war under the Oscar Vanity Fair is secretly poked.
Fair and just Oscar
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The American "Business Insider" has publicly stated that it is not difficult for a qualified film to rush to the Olympics, provided that you know the rules.
This set of rules of the game has two standardized steps on the surface:
Hire a professional Hollywood PR team + lobby the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscar organizer.
But everyone in the industry knows that to find a reliable public relations, the lobbying link does not actually need to worry about the crew, and the public relations will help you complete it.
As for the rest, you just follow the PR schedule, which can be said to be a one-stop payment for the Olympics.
This set of public relations services is quite doorway and the asking price is very expensive, which is also the unspoken rule of the Oscars that have been criticized.
CNN has calculated that the cost of public relations lobbying for each crew and investors in an Oscar season is as high as $500 million.
With $500 million, how can PR poke and cheat?
Of course, it is to divide the focus and fight guerrilla.
At the heart of this guerrilla war is a jury of more than 9,500 Academy cadets, whose votes determine who wins the grand prize.
The first step was to gild the drama party and stimulate the interest of the jury members.
This step is especially for non-Hollywood films, and can even be summarized as non-American films.
PR will arrange for the showwright to go to the three major European film festivals (Golden Lion, Golden Bear, Palme d'Or) and the Critics' Choice Awards, which is the so-called outpost battle.
The Cannes journey of Parasite
It is best to win an award, and if you don't win an award, go to major film festivals to brush your face and mix recognition.
After the crew walked the red carpet and visited the film festival, public relations began to operate wildly:
Arrange press releases from authoritative film media and magazines; Spend a lot of money on hard advertising space; If the crew is willing to spend money, PR will also arrange well-known TV programs.
This set of outpost battles is divided into links, Tang Wei has just experienced
The purpose of this wave of large-scale propaganda bombing is clear.
That is to try to get the jury members to know and interest in the film before lobbying.
Take last year's "Parasite" as an example, in order to lay a good foundation for its appearance, PR arranged more than 600 interviews, more than 100 audience Q&As, and countless social media advertising spaces for the entire crew.
If the battle on the outpost is well fought, the lobbying link in the second step will save a lot of effort.
The lobbying session is the most distinctive and irreplaceable step of the Hollywood PR team.
Because these PR clearly know who the 9,500 jury members are? What type of movie do you like? And how to approach them.
This is a "difficult problem" that no drama party can solve by itself.
The Guardian once jokingly said that every year during the Oscar season from mid-to-late October to December 31, the jury members will appear in high-end Western restaurants and eat free lunch.
The business experience on the wine table, Hollywood public relations are simply hand-held, they will explain to the judges in detail every detail and sublimation point in the movie.
After a meal, it may not be able to "cheat the vote" smoothly, but it can effectively interfere with the final choice of the judges.
Does this somewhat cheating PR process really work?
It turns out to be an effective drop, take Harvey, who was recently sent to jail by Hollywood actresses. Weinstein said.
His Weinstein Film is recognized as "Hollywood's No. 1 PR firm."
In the years when he was in the limelight, Harvey successfully helped many films win hundreds of Oscar nominations, and dozens of actors, actresses, and best directors.
The logo of Weinstein Pictures, the sisters should have seen in many Hollywood blockbusters
Even her eldest cousin, Jennifer Lawrence, publicly quipped, "Thank you Harvey for helping me take out all my opponents."
Harvey's methods are the above-mentioned overseas gilding, manipulating the media, lobbying the judges, and more inferior - smearing opponents.
In 1999, Harvey even relied on this set of "unspoken rules" to let "Saving Private Ryan" beat "Saving Private Ryan" and won the best picture.
The main creative team of "The History of Shawen's Love", the third from the left is Harvey. Weinstein himself
This has also become the largest "unjust case" and black history in the entire history of the Oscars.
Even Gwyneth Paltrow, who relied on Harvey PR to defeat Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett and won the queen laurels, was also scolded as the first water queen of the Oscar.
But this did not affect Harvey's use of public relations to run amok for the Oscars, and he was even named "The Man Behind the Oscar".
Before being imprisoned, his films that won an Oscar included but were not limited to, "The Imitation Game", "The Artist", "The King's Speech", "The Happy Line Behind the Clouds", "Lincoln", "A Beautiful Mind", "The Social Network"...
After Harvey's arrest, this unspoken rule did not go out of the stage.
Instead, it was done by his former colleague Tom. Quinn took over and became an independent film distribution company, NEON, which continued to operate.
Last year, Li Meijing took "Parasite" to find NEON, a good film with good public relations, and the result was naturally a big victory.
It is no wonder that the former chairman of the New York University School of Television and Film will publicly bombard the current Oscar:
"In fact, the Oscars have become a way to market movies, and the publicity in the process is no different from political propaganda, and film companies hire Oscar PR in the same way that political campaigns hire political consultants."
Even with such a lot of effort and a large investment, South Korean chaebols are still happy to go to the Oscars.
Picture what? At the end of the day, it's much more than fame and fortune.
Never buy or sell at a loss
Han Chaebol's Olympian business experience
Willing to spend $1500W to rush to the Olympics, what the Korean chaebol wants is not just a good reputation, but a closed-loop interest chain that can realize the rolling profit.
The most direct benefit, first of all, is the box office revenue from the European and American markets.
The publicity of public relations + the success of the Olympic Games will stimulate more Europeans and Americans to take the initiative to spend money into the cinema, and the theater will also cooperate with the expansion of the scale of screening.
For example, the global box office of "Parasite" before winning the award was only 10 million, and after winning 4 Oscars, the North American box office alone had 4500W US dollars.
It almost surpassed the $5371W box office of "Heroes" as the best foreign Chinese movie in North America.
In terms of box office sharing, Han Chaebol has already recovered the cost of production + public relations.
After returning the book, the Korean chaebol will sell the copyright of peripheral goods and movies around the world.
This revenue share is much higher than simple box office revenue.
Not to mention that "Parasite" sold a total of 205 copyright deals around the world, and even "Determination to Break Up", which has not yet won an award, sold 192 copyrights worldwide through public relations marketing.
The well-known animation IP "The Simpsons" adapted "Parasite"
Of course, these are just economic gains, and the bigger goal of the Korean chaebols is cultural ambition.
We can actually understand that they want to let the "Korean Wave" go further.
Because of the foreshadowing of Korean movies such as "Old Boy", "Burning" and "Parasite", "Squid Game" ushered in a big explosion when it debuted, and Laomei even set up a "Squid Game Festival".
Lee Jung-jae's directorial debut "Hunting" directly entered the Cannes midnight screening unit...
For the European and American markets, South Korea's cultural export is more like a popular trend.
This has been repeatedly confirmed by the global spread of K-POP (Korean pop music).
Even the Grammys, who have always been disgusted with awarding awards to foreigners, have nominated BTS and Black pink several times and given them away.
Although South Korea loves to "steal culture", we are angry and have to affirm that Kimchi Country has a very good set of cultural marketing.
In recent years, whether it is film and television or music, the Korean government + Korean chaebol + literary and art circles have joined hands to create excellent works and strive to push Hallyu culture to the top.
And the crazy spread of culture will continue to send the world's funds back to the hands of kimchi countries.
According to the report "Economic Effects of BTS Activities: Seoul Performance 2019" released by the School of Business Administration of Korea University in South Korea in 2019.
BTS' three Seoul concerts in October 2019 had an economic benefit of about 922.9 billion won, which is equivalent to the total annual sales of six medium-sized companies.
In this way, a win-win closed-loop of fame and fortune - cultural export - fame and fortune is formed.
In addition, some Koreans have an almost absurd sense of cultural superiority, and even call themselves "high-class yellow people".
Therefore, they are more eager to share a bowl of porridge in the grand world of awards at the palace level, which is used to affirm themselves and to despise others.
This psychology can also explain why they love to "steal culture", and the thickness of history cannot bear the cultural intensity, and can only "steal" some from the civilization of powerful countries to maintain face.
Mockery is ridicule, but it is undeniable that South Korea's soft export has formed a "new cultural form".
Take Korean films, which have frequently competed internationally in recent years, they have long been out of the era of borrowing from Hong Kong films and Hollywood movies.
Bong Joon-ho, Lee Cang-dong, Kim Ki-duk and Park Chan-wook are creating a new East Asian cinema spectacle.
Although Guoying is a little tired now, we also have a lot of treasures and filmmakers continue to make efforts:
Gu Changwei, Zhang Ziyi, Wong Kar-wai, Jet Li, Gong Li, Andy Lau, Jin Chengwu, Zhang Aijia, Lou Ye...
As members of the jury, they shine at the Oscars.
At present, the highest-grossing foreign Chinese films in North America are still "Heroes" in 2002 and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in third place.
"Nezha: The Devil Child Descends" rushes the Olympic poster
Maybe we can wait for the spring of a national film and look forward to an outbreak of film and television culture that breaks through the shackles.
When it comes to good actors such as Tang Wei, we will not be pessimistic to say the argument that "internal entertainment is not worthy of it".