Text|Zhiyong
Yesterday, a national arrangement accounted for only 1.5%, only more than 5,000 screenings, and the film with a pre-sale box office of less than 100,000 on the first day quietly landed in theaters. Just looking at these data, this is a "niche movie" that can't be smaller.
However, its roadshow events are extremely well attended, and after each screening, the touched audience will collectively applaud to welcome the arrival of the main creator. The good reputation accumulated by the screenings made the film have already achieved a good evaluation of 7.4 points on Douban before it was released. The director's self-statement of frankly creating his heart, Weibo has exceeded 230,000 retweets, Li Xian, Bai Yu, Liu Haoran and other stars have forwarded and cheered, trying to help the film spread from niche to the public.
This movie is "Rattle". In the film, Gou Ren, a seller who wanders around looking for revenge for his son, does not fight or know edamame, a left-behind child. One is a child looking for hope, the other is a father who is deeply desperate, two lonely souls, for some reason have to embark on a journey to find edamame's father together, but unexpectedly redeem each other on the road, developing a difficult warmth like a father like a son.
The film is starring an all-amateur cast, the whole film has never gone out of the loess land of northern Shaanxi, and most of the characters are the low-level toiling masses who speak the northern Shaanxi dialect, such a simple and rough movie, it seems that it is indeed difficult to be favored by the market. Bai Zhiqiang, who laughs at himself as an "unknown director", also frankly admitted that he was ready for zero income for the film side.
But during the roadshow, countless audiences expressed their sincere love for the film, and even spontaneously Amway and Erchuang made him a little stunned. "Aren't we a small director that no one cares about, how can He De?"
The enthusiastic response from the audience is not only based on the content. Since the budget for the publicity of such films is often relatively limited, how to efficiently spread the good reputation and influence of the film is also the key to whether it can change from "niche" to "public". The distributor of "Rattle", Elephant Dian Ying, has contributed a lot to this, and has put a lot of thought into the roadshow, event material production, schedule and other aspects of the film, which effectively promotes the dissemination of the film before its release.
Just when the film officially met the general audience, Bone Duo chatted with Bai Zhiqiang and Lian Cheng Yi Crisp (hereinafter referred to as Crispy), the person in charge of the elephant screening roadshow, and the film's many explorations in low-cost realistic film creation and literary film distribution models. This "rattle", which has been tempered for nearly five years, is finally about to bang.
"Deadly Truth"
Bai Zhiqiang is a director who is known for documentaries, and "Rattle" is his first feature film, which originated from his experience of staying at a school while filming documentaries.
"The students at this school are all poor left-behind children, a third of whom are orphans and single parents. They were unkempt, ragged, black on their necks, and some children's shoes were worn backwards. When I asked about the children's family, they looked down and wept, and I will never forget it. ”
Deeply touched, Bai Zhiqiang pulled up his friends and began to help left-behind children, so he learned more unbearable stories. Always concerned about the problems arising from the urbanization transition, he decided to use movies to give a voice to children. Considering the impact documentary could have on children's lives, he decided to try creating a feature film. In 2018, Bai Zhiqiang moved to a mountain village and began a two-year writing retreat.
Director Bai Zhiqiang
During the two years, the script underwent 12 revisions. The original script was very typed, telling the story of a tomb robber who faced multiple pursuits and fled with a child. But Bai Zhiqiang believes that such a story obviously goes against the original intention of the film to reflect reality, and also goes against his aesthetic pursuit of "deadly truth". The revision of the 12th draft has become a process of gradual de-falsification.
As a result, some of the real stories that Bai Zhiqiang saw in the work of helping left-behind children became the prototype of the edamame experience of left-behind children in the film. "There was an orphan who wrote 'Daddy I miss you' on the ground and ran out to find Daddy, but he didn't know that his dad was pulling coal in a sports car out of town, but in fact, his dad had fallen off a cliff and died in the middle of the sports car. The naïve child still longs to be able to sit on his father's shoulder and set off fireworks. ”
The edamame in the film is also a child who longs to find his father, but does not know his father's whereabouts. At the end of the film, Gou Ren, a seller who loves edamame during his father's journey to find his father, ignites a firework for edamame, an incomparably moving scene that Bai Zhiqiang hopes to bring to the children.
Gou Ren's story is somewhat similar to the experience of Hui Yujun, who played this role. Hui Yujun is Bai Zhiqiang's younger hair, and his job is a taxi driver. Once his children fell seriously ill, which left him in debt and his wife left him. This pathos is also the background of Gou Ren, in the film, Gou Ren, who lost his child because he was cheated into saving money, embarked on a lonely road to seek revenge for his son.
In casting, I hope that the actor and the character will have a similar experience, so as to strive for the real Bai Zhiqiang, and naturally take Hui Yujun as the starring candidate. Since Hui Yujun has no experience in acting in movies, Bai Zhiqiang hopes to mold him into Gou Ren first from the appearance and psychology, "Three months before filming, I let him start growing a beard and hair, not bathing or washing his face, and talking to people as little as possible." I also 'hypnotized' him, immersed in all the family stories of Gou Ren, and he cried. ”
Bai Zeze, played by Edamame, was selected by Bai Zhiqiang from a local rural school. "His personality is very similar to edamame, and he is also very spiritual in acting, and he can remember most of the lines after reading the script. But he was not a left-behind child, so at the beginning of the shooting, I arranged for his parents to separate from him, saying that he was going to work. At first he was happy, and finally no one was staring at his homework, but slowly he felt uncomfortable because of the separation. After filming the crying scene of the fireworks, he cried for more than ten minutes, and no one in the crew could coax it. ”
Bai Zhiqiang believes that these two actors are the "chosen ones" he is looking for. With actors who fit reality, in the texture of the film, Bai Zhiqiang also takes truth as the first requirement. To this end, the film deliberately adopts a relatively simple image style, and strives to be realistic at the technical level such as art, service, and sound effects.
"The snot of edamame, the wig cover, the mud in Gou Ren's nails, and the scars on his arms must be meticulous. The sound effect should be mixed with noises such as broadcasting, shouting, and construction, and use sound to create a real environmental texture to complete the narrative of 'big people in the big time'. ”
The script, casting are complete, the texture direction has been determined, and "Rattle" is starting to get on track. But the challenges facing the film have only just begun.
Debt filming
Although "Rattle" is a low-cost production, pulling investment still makes it difficult for Bai Zhiqiang.
The film has neither famous directors and big stars, big IPs, nor gorgeous big scenes, and the story is a rural realism theme where the market performance is often worrying, which made the investors Bai Zhiqiang find eventually refuse to contribute. "Everyone says that what you do is admirable, but the film is not easy to sell. Not only did they not invest, but they also advised me not to do it, the gains outweighed the losses. I couldn't argue because I also felt they were right. ”
The only signature of the film is Reed, the producer and script consultant. Reed, who has written masterpieces such as "Farewell My Concubine" and "Alive", is known as the "first screenwriter" of Chinese films. As Bai Zhiqiang's mentor, Reed provided a lot of guidance for the film's play, and also made a lot of efforts in pulling investment to help the film stand on the platform.
Executive producer, script consultant Reed
Bai Zhiqiang recalled, "Once Mr. Reed was accompanying his mother in the intensive care unit, and at the same time an investor wanted to invest, seeing that we were not large, he said that as long as Mr. Reed was there, he would invest. After Mr. Reed heard about it, he asked me to go to the hospital to make an appointment with someone, and then he rushed over from the hospital and gave people Amway for a long time. But such an investment did not come into shape in the end. ”
Faced with such a dilemma, Bai Zhiqiang fell into hesitation. But in the end, he decided to make the film. "Life is made for, and not doing it will make me look down on myself. If you fail and start all over again, it's a big deal to spend a few years to earn money and pay off your debts. ”
In the end, the film still with the support of Bai Zhiqiang and his friends, gathered the starting capital, "The crew actually has half of the brothers, willing to give up their salaries to join." A friend sent the housing provident fund to my account, and the photographer helped me borrow money. Hui Yujun, who experienced the life of a merchant before filming, ended up doing it extremely skillfully, and he could even earn some money every day to hand it back, allowing me to supplement the shooting funds. ”
Although the film can finally start, it still often faces the dilemma of tight funds. When it was the poorest, the crew only had 7 yuan left in the account, the car could not refuel, and even the fireworks of the end fireworks show could not be put off, and could only "rub" the fireworks of nearby villagers. Filming a deep mountain night scene, against the cold winter of minus 20 degrees, the crew had no heating equipment, the actor's beard was frozen, and he could only turn on the headlights and wait for it to melt.
In the last scene at the end of the film, Bai Zhiqiang hoped to shoot on a sunny day, but the weather was sunny, because if you wait one more day, the crew's travel fee home would not be enough, and you could only leave regrets to shoot on schedule. The story of the film takes place in 2008, but because there is no money to set the scene, it is inevitable that there will be smartphones and other gangs in the picture. However, Bai Zhiqiang believes that it doesn't matter, "In a sense, every movie is shooting in the present. ”
Despite the twists and turns, the film was finally filmed smoothly. "The most energetic crew I have seen since I have been in the industry" and "poor and happy" are Bai Zhiqiang's high evaluation of this shooting. In the film, he also added his name to a line to laugh at himself, "Bai Zhiqiang still owes me money!" ”
After the filming, Bai Zhiqiang was still trying to raise funds for the film so that he could pay back the salaries of his friends. In the film, a truck with "film advertising investment" written on the body appeared, which was exactly what Bai Zhiqiang hoped to leave for the film advertising investment, but in the end, he ran more than 200 advertisers and failed to make the trip. Bai Zhiqiang had to use the money earned from other work to pay off debts first, but so far, he has not paid off all the debts of the film.
After the completion of the film, the film was unveiled at a number of domestic and foreign film festivals in 2020 and achieved a lot of success. However, bad luck, and the epidemic raged, theaters stopped working, and the film was difficult to publicize because of its size, and it was forced into a desperate situation. "Although our film is small, if the theater is not open and there is no audience to watch it, won't we be worse?"
In this case, "Rattle" had to remain dormant. This wait, wait until 2022.
Four or two pounds
In 2022, the elephant screening team saw the behind-the-scenes documentary of "Rattle" and decided that it was a good movie worth entering the market. In the end, Elephant decided to undertake the publicity of the film and promote the film to national release.
For a long time, Elephant Point Screening has focused on the publicity track of literary films and documentaries. At the beginning of its establishment, Elephant created a set of audience-initiated film screenings, thus subverting the distribution model from the B2C model of "theater screening, audience ticketing" to the C2B model of "audience initiated, theater screening". This kind of distribution exploration has allowed elephant to find more screenings and audiences who love literary films and documentaries, and also discovered more theaters willing to screen these films, thus promoting the market expansion of such films.
The so-called "point" character of the point of the screening naturally pays attention to accuracy. The person in charge of the Elephant Screening Roadshow said, "Elephant wants to let good movies meet the right audience, so the publicity strategy must be based on the precise audience of the film. Literary and artistic films and documentaries often lack publicity budgets and cannot be flooded publicity, so money must be spent on the blade of the knife. ”
Therefore, in the past, when elephants promoted movies, they would point out the recommended audience of the film. However, in the announcement of "Rattle", the elephant believes that the warmth of the film can be felt by the majority of the audience, so accurately conveying the good reputation of the film to the audience has become the focus of the elephant's efforts.
Movies released by elephants often have a long publicity cycle, and "Rattle" began screening activities more than a month before the screening, and also organized 20 days to run through 20 cities and travel all over the country. Crunchy told Bone Duo, "Small movies rely heavily on word-of-mouth fermentation. If you want to have enough time for word-of-mouth to spread, you must do enough screenings in advance, in sufficient quantity, and in enough coverage areas. Even after the release, be prepared to fight a protracted war. ”
In the choice of roadshow cities, it is also quite particular. In addition to the two major film cities of Beijing and Shanghai, elephants will look for benchmarks according to the positioning of the film itself, and then find out the twenty or thirty cities with the highest national box sales of benchmark films. The success of benchmarks in these cities means that it is easier for new films to find local audiences.
In addition, the elephant will also expand the roadshow city according to the theme of the film, for example, "Rattle" is a northern Shaanxi movie, and Xi'an is naturally a key stop for the film roadshow.
The roadshow of the elephant is also inseparable from the help of the local point screening promoter, and with the influence of the promoter in the local area, the film can often achieve unexpected publicity effects. "With one influencer, you can spread out a large audience at once. We take the good content of the movie itself as an advantage to pry those who are influential. ”
In the roadshow of "Rattle", the reason why the film came to Quzhou, a city that is rarely included in the regular roadshow list, is related to the local promoter. A local reporter running the education line invited a principal when organizing the screening, and the principal felt that the film was very educational after watching it, so he directly chartered the entire theater and organized the whole school to watch it together.
Quzhou roadshow scene
Recalling his experience in Quzhou, Bai Zhiqiang said with a smile, "The local theater manager gave us a luxurious reception, I said we are a small film, we should not invite you to eat and ask for your help, why is it the other way around?" People say thank you so much, it is about to enter the off-season, but this film is particularly popular in the local area. ”
At the screening event, elephants will also distribute ticket stubs, derivatives and other peripherals of the film. "Rattle" designed a ticket stub with the theme of the ending fireworks scene, which can be received by every audience, and the important props in the film are band-aids, and the elephant also made a hand-painted model, and the audience also has a copy. In the foyer of the Dian Ying Theater, the elephant also placed a huge rattle for the audience to take photos and take souvenirs. After each roadshow, the main creator will be present or connect with the audience to communicate directly with the audience.
Talking about the intentions of these actions, Crisp believes that "the composition of the audience's viewing experience is actually multi-dimensional, in addition to the good content itself, the quality of the theater's screening, the movie peripherals obtained by the audience, and the content of post-screening communication are all part of the experience." By enhancing the movie-watching experience in many ways, Elephant hopes to give viewers more sense of achievement than just watching a movie. ”
A hand-painted version of "Rattle" made by Elephant Screening
In terms of official release time, "Rattle", like most elephant movies, chose to start on Saturday instead of the regular Friday. Crispy said that this can avoid the film from competing with a large number of films from Friday, and try to strive for a higher first-day ranking rate. And Friday as a working day, even if it is necessary to arrange the film, it may be scheduled for daytime working hours, but even if the Saturday arrangement is placed during the day, it is easy for the audience to enter.
Roadshows, peripherals, and schedules have all been done carefully, and the elephant has put a lot of effort into the publicity of "Rattle". After nearly five years, the film finally came to the moment of meeting the audience.
The aftersound of a rattle
The ending of "Rattle" is open-ended, and this setting is derived from Bai Zhiqiang's real experience. While helping left-behind children, he met a lame father who asked him, "I see you are a good person, can you take my child away?" The shocked Bai Zhiqiang was overwhelmed for a while, and finally did not choose to adopt the child.
At the end of "Rattle", Gou Ren faces the same moral dilemma, while Bai Zhiqiang wants to leave the choice of story to the audience. "This dream journey is over, when we return to reality, what should each of us choose? Stories should come from life and return to life, the long river of time will not stop, and the real destiny is in people's own hands. ”
This ending may be a little depressing, but Bai Zhiqiang hopes that the audience can be moved when they walk out of the theater, but don't be sad. The original version of the film did not have a soundtrack, which was more in line with the requirements of the film to use neorealism as an aesthetic reference, but in the end, Bai Zhiqiang decided to use very little, restrained music to channel the audience's emotions, so that the audience could be released as much as possible, and the film could be accepted by more audiences.
The popularity of the film was also recognized by the audience during the roadshow. The high-intensity roadshow made Bai Zhiqiang a little tired, but he confessed that spiritual joy trumped everything. "When I ask questions after the screening, I often encounter audiences who don't want to ask me questions, but express their feelings. Sometimes the whole roadshow was waiting for questions to be answered, but everyone was done with their own questions and answers. I was very touched and felt that the movie met the right audience. ”
A "tap water" fan who ran 8 cities with the roadshow team made a "rattle"-themed cake one day and gave it to Bai Zhiqiang at the event site, coincidentally, this day was Bai Zhiqiang's birthday. Except for Bai Zhiqiang himself, including the propaganda team, no one at the scene knew about this in advance.
Bai Zhiqiang sighed, "As soon as I finished saying that today happened to be my birthday, there was warm applause at the scene, and then hundreds of people sang me happy birthday songs. I really never felt this kind of emotion, and I was in a trance at that moment. How can I, let everyone give such encouragement, am I not a small director that no one cares about? But I was still grateful, even if it was only a temporary dream, and at that moment, my kindness was echoed by the audience, and I was really happy. ”
Now, "Rattle" is finally going to the public, and although Bai Zhiqiang has felt the enthusiasm of the audience in the roadshow, he still dare not have too high expectations for the box office. "I am ready to earn zero as a filmmaker, and it is enough for the film to convey my original intention and fulfill its social mission. But I especially hope that the elephant screening can earn back the publicity fee, so that they can help more films like "Harb" pass on the torch. ”
As the publicity party, Elephant Point Screening has more expectations for the film's achievements, and Brittle said, "I hope that its box office can live up to the efforts of the main creative team, enrich the market ecology of Chinese films, and explore a better way for such films in the market." Bai Zhiqiang also said frankly, "If "Rattle" is good at the box office, the next one, I have the possibility to continue this close to life filming." ”
No matter what the outcome is, this "rattle", which has been tempered for five years, finally bangs. I hope that its remnants can float farther away.