It was originally a roadshow in which filmmakers communicated with the audience and conveyed emotions, but it evolved into a Rashomon...
Text | Lao Zhang
After the epidemic, offline roadshows, which were thought to be eliminated by "cloud online", have returned to the public's field of vision.
"The Wandering Earth 2" released during the Spring Festival, two months after its release, the campus roadshow is still continuing, and every move of "Lingbud Journey" director Makoto Shinkai to China has triggered the whole network to watch... The "May 1st file" war is imminent, and the main creator has already launched roadshow activities across the country, and roadshows have become the standard for all movies in recent times.
Recently, the incident of the new film "Shocking Rescue" Peking University Roadshow, which will be released on May 1st, has caused widespread discussion, and a student posted a bad review article after watching it on the spot, pointing out the logical and scientific errors of the film. Later, the student said that because he published a bad review of the film, the film party pressured the school to delete the post to apologize, and posted a handwritten review.
That night, the official blog of the movie "Shocking Rescue" issued a statement in response to "the director answered the questions raised by a classmate perfunctorily on the spot, with an arrogant attitude." For false rumors, and shared a live video of the day's event, but did not respond to whether to sue the students and request that the post be removed. Later, some netizens released a video, saying that at the roadshow scene, the main creator had an arrogant attitude in the face of doubts.
It was originally a roadshow in which filmmakers communicated with the audience and conveyed emotions, but it evolved into a Rashomon, and may eventually affect the reputation and box office of the film, which leaves us with a lot of questions worth thinking about.
1
The impact of roadshows on films
The concept of roadshows began to take shape around 2000. At that time, the films of well-known directors such as Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang began to hold premieres, and the main creators would also go to various cities to hold meetups and cooperate with well-known local media to expand their influence in the region.
But what exactly is the significance of the roadshow? Previously, Zhang Songwen wrote a similar emotion when he posted on Weibo about the road show.
In fact, the biggest significance of the roadshow is that it allows the audience to communicate with the main creator face-to-face, and the sense of participation and atmosphere on the scene is incomparable to ordinary screenings. For the main creator, they go to small cities to publicize, and they can also cause a sensation in the local area and become local hot news. During the roadshow, seeing the enthusiastic feedback from the audience can also play a role in boosting morale.
For example, director Dapeng said that he is a relatively inferior person, because he is not from a science class, and the works he shot before are relatively close to the form of the PC side. After the release of the work, it is through a large number of road shows to build confidence. Other directors sometimes blend into the audience in advance to observe the audience's reaction to the film. In the subsequent communication, the director will also deliberately communicate with the audience about the treatment of the play, and save the audience's feedback for the next creation to adjust.
In addition, roadshows are relatively easy to sink to second- and third-tier cities, which can continue to ferment word-of-mouth and gradually become familiar with the main creators of the film.
Dapeng's "Keep You Safe" began as early as February 25, before the release of the film, and the national roadshow is divided into three stages, more than 100 theaters, and more than 20 cities. "The Wandering Earth 2" was released in the Spring Festival, and the main creator ran 12 cities in 12 days during the first round of roadshows, and the second round of roadshows, 23 days, 20 stops. Both films eventually gained good word of mouth and box office.
From the above results, the roadshow will indeed bring a significant box office effect to a theater. After the theater holds a roadshow event, it will also increase the scheduling of the corresponding film, and fans will also come to this theater to support.
2
How the creator faces doubts
It affects the audience's willingness to watch movies
Of course, as long as you choose the publicity strategy of the roadshow before the screening, even if there is no public opinion controversy like "Shocking Rescue", the main creator must be prepared for possible negative comments.
First of all, the main group of the roadshow is mainly young people, who are energetic and passionate, and keen to share on social platforms, which is very expressive. In the face of film works, they are tolerant and picky, and will strongly support them because they encounter their favorite movies, but they will not be happy because they see stars, which also makes the roadshow full of uncertainty.
In addition, as an important means of publicity, the roadshow also has certain requirements for the adaptability and knowledge reserve of the main creator, and the main creator must learn to face various voices when facing the audience, if the mood is unstable and the ability to be present is poor, it will also affect the final communication effect of the film, and even cause a public opinion crisis.
This year's Spring Festival stall has a word called "desperate illiteracy", which was born when an artist could not answer the audience's questions during the roadshow. This roadshow video spread wildly on the Internet at that time, which not only made the public complain about the actor, but more seriously dragged down the movie. And creators with high emotional intelligence often turn embarrassment into invisibility when facing sharp problems.
At the exchange meeting after the movie "Dragon Horse Spirit" was screened in China, a classmate put forward his views on the movie, and Jackie Chan calmly accepted criticism on the spot, which was very favorable. At that time, the matter was once misreported as "Jackie Chan was asked by the audience to refund the ticket on the spot", but then the filmmaker of "Dragon Horse Spirit" clarified on Weibo that "as a cultural product, movies should accept all the love and criticism of the audience from the first day of release." Public opinion quickly subsided.
And the public opinion crisis of "Shocking Rescue" may continue for a while, but what he thinks about for people in the industry is: after a movie is released, the comments must be good and bad, and how they should deal with the main creator when facing the voice of doubt. In general, the high degree of cooperation of the main creator, sincere response to bad reviews, humble acceptance of inadequacy, or a little self-deprecation will still add points to the movie.
3
In the Internet era, what is the way forward?
In the past, film publicity was mainly promoted through traditional means such as roadshows and local broadcasts, but with the rapid development of the Internet, the characteristics of wider coverage of online publicity have been highlighted, so the combination of offline roadshow and online publicity has become a fixed match.
In addition, it is more typical that short videos have become the most timely way to output materials, and real-time reporting and follow-up of hot spots in the roadshow process is conducive to spreading fermentation.
For example, in movie roadshows, amateur emotional performances "tailored" for short video platforms. The audience's reaction to crying and laughing when watching a movie has become a wealth code for film marketing competition. Later, in the roadshow of many movies such as "Sunshine Sisters Tao" and "Your Wedding", the film party created a tear-jerking emotional atmosphere of the film with Huo Siyan's emotional and tearful videos, which raised the audience's expectations.
Recently, publicists are more considering using roadshow activities to produce better materials in different cities across the country, paving the way for the voice of the film, and using more diversified media to maximize the value of roadshows.
For example, the crew of "Punch, Mom" opened an RV roadshow, which triggered heated discussions in the industry, making the film's box office continue to climb during the roadshow, and there was a certain increase compared with before the roadshow. In the roadshow of "The Wandering Earth 2", director Guo Fan responded to the hot search words of the previous day every day, and then the response of the day will become a new hot search, which brought extremely high attention to the movie.
Although the above marketing may not necessarily bring box office conversion, it can at least make the audience curious and notice that "such a film has been released recently".
A front-line publicity officer said: "In fact, all other publicity behaviors, including road shows, can be said to have little effect on the box office, and it is difficult for us to summarize the overall box office conversion rate through some specific actions." However, when the box office of the film rose rapidly, it showed that the relevant publicity behavior formed a good interaction with the film itself, and eventually pushed up the high box office. The impact of propaganda itself on the box office cannot play a role alone. ”
In the end, whether it is online or offline, it is only a way of film marketing, and it only plays an auxiliary role in the box office. It is never the roadshow that affects the final box office of the film, it can only be an auxiliary and determines its ceiling. Whether a film can achieve good box office results, its lower limit, that is, the quality of the film itself, is the determining factor.