Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 17 Li Qiutang swore that he must become famous!

The Shanghai Film Festival should be the largest film promotion platform in the country. It’s just that China Film took over "The Night the Comet Came" a little late and missed the application period for the film festival, otherwise Li Qiutang could have gone and boasted about it.

There are so many domestic and foreign reporters, so many big stars, and many audiences in Shanghai, so the publicity and promotion effect is very good.

Li Qiutang is certainly confident in the quality of his film, but quality is only one factor in whether a film is a hit; publicity and promotion are also important.

In today's film market, everyone from upstream production companies and theaters to ordinary audiences is keen on blockbusters.

This is the current situation of the Chinese film market, and everyone has to admit it.

Li Qiutang also knew that his movie was "against the market trend", but what could he do? Who has the ability to make a blockbuster movie as a debut film?
He couldn't say whether "The Night the Comet Came" would be a hit, so it was a pity that it missed the Shanghai Film Festival, an important promotional platform.

Coincidentally, "The Night the Comet Came" received the Dragon Mark on the 30th, the same day that "Crazy Stone" was released.

It's not like this movie has caused a viewing craze, otherwise it wouldn't have only earned 200 million in box office revenue in the first three days of the weekend.

But the reputation in the industry is really good, first-class.

In addition, with top idols like Brother Hua personally appearing on the stage, it attracted considerable attention.

There is a little gossip here, which is not sure whether it is true or not. It is said that Brother Hua initially agreed to invest 300 million yuan in Ning Hao, but regretted it and ran away halfway through. However, the film could not be stopped once it started, and Ning Hao and his wife struggled to raise more than one million yuan to maintain the crew. In the end, it was Han Dongxi who forced Brother Hua to take out the money, and this is how "Crazy Stone" came about.

Anyway, now that the movie is released, it seems to be a win-win situation.

The movie's reputation and box office took off, and Ning Hao fulfilled his vow to make a profitable movie.

Thanks to a good movie, Brother Hua gained the reputation of a talent scout and his investment also paid off.

As for why Ning Hao did not interact with his mentor after he became famous, the reason is unknown.

Li Qiutang also followed the crowd and watched "Crazy Stone". It is indeed a classic. He still laughs when he watches it now, and the multi-line narrative is very well integrated.

If there is any shortcoming, it is probably because of the limited budget. Ning Hao did not use a film camera, which resulted in the magnetic-to-film conversion of "Crazy Stone" being very poor and the picture quality being worrying. This may also be an important reason why "Stone" failed to make a breakthrough at the box office.

But even so, "Stone" is the biggest surprise of this summer season.

Since July, the reputation of "Stone" has become better and better, and the number of screenings has been steadily increasing.

Entering July means Li Qiutang has to prepare to go to Canada.

He asked the other main creators, and none of them would go to Canada with him. Li Qiutang understood the implication of their words. They had no money to go abroad. In fact, except for him and Qin Lan, no one else in the crew even had a passport.

Qin Lan is now filming in Provence, France. The remaining money of the "The Night the Comet Came" crew is not enough to pay for the travel expenses of other actors to go abroad. Even if they have passports, the crew can squeeze in two people and go with them. They don't have the money to cover their personal expenses in Montreal, and they don't speak the language, so it would be even more boring to go.

The visa application process was very interesting. The first thing the visa officer said when he saw Li Qiutang was: "Bonjour."

Li Qiutang only knows two French words, Bonjour and Merci, but shouldn’t Canada speak English?

Li Qiutang shamelessly replied with "bonjour". The visa officer may have mistakenly thought that he could speak French, and then he said a lot of gibberish that Li Qiutang could not understand.

Li Qiutang said awkwardly in English: "I don't speak French."

The visa officer looked as if he had eaten a fly shit, and then asked him in French-accented English: "What are you going to Canada for?"

Li Qiutang said, "Go to the Montreal Fantastic Film Festival."

Visa officer: "Are you an actor?" Li Qiutang: "I'm a director, and my movie was shortlisted for the film festival."

Visa officer: "Oh, you are so young. Montreal is my hometown and Fantastic Fest is a Montreal event. Have fun."

But Li Qiutang didn't understand what the visa officer said. His English level was really average.

The visa officer saw his embarrassment and said in Chinese with a heavy accent: "Welcome to the Paris of the North."

Bang! Stamp! Get out!
This time Li Qiutang understood: "Thank you."

Before Li Qiutang left, the visa officer stopped him and said in broken Chinese: "Montreal, speak French."

Li Qiutang said: "OK, OK, I know, I know, thank you."

It seems that this visa officer is very proud of French and his hometown.

Li Qiutang vowed to learn English well.

The Canadian Fantastic Film Festival lasted nearly 20 days. In order to save some money for the crew, Li Qiutang boarded the plane to Canada alone on the 13th day of the festival.

I brought two boxes, one containing personal belongings and the other containing a copy of the movie "The Night the Comet Came".

It was already evening when I landed in Montreal from Munich.

Li Qiutang got in a taxi, dragged two suitcases, and headed for the reserved hotel. Li Qiutang didn't know French, so it was difficult to get a taxi. She showed the driver the hotel name she had written down and said, "to the hotel."

Fortunately, we arrived at the hotel smoothly and checked in.

Looking at the streets of Montreal along the way, I saw many billboards for the Fantasy Film Festival. Just as the visa officer said, the Fantasy Film Festival is a grand event in Montreal.

Li Qiutang went to the main venue of the film festival early the next morning. The Canadian Fantastic Film Festival did not have an official trading market, but as the largest genre film festival in North America, many films in the past had found distributors here, which was why Li Qiutang brought a copy with him. He also wanted to try his luck at the film festival and sell the film.

According to the film festival schedule, the premiere of "The Night the Comet Came" is today, and Li Qiutang came at the right time.

In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Li Qiutang also hired a Chinese man who was fluent in both English and French to serve as his translator.

Under the guidance of the official staff, Li Qiutang completed the registration. The staff was surprised at Li Qiutang's youth and said in disbelief: "You are probably the youngest director in the history of the film festival."

The translator was about to speak when Li Qiutang said, "I understand that." He then turned to the staff and said, "It's just luck."

It sounds shabby, but the crew of "The Night the Comet Came" was too poor and had no money to hold a red carpet press conference at a luxurious film festival, but there was still a red carpet walk.

The official red carpet host introduced him like this: "Welcome Lee from China. He may be the youngest nominated director in the history of the film festival. He is only 22 years old this year. He brought us his first feature film "Coherence" today. He is really a genius."

Li Qiutang and his translator walked slowly on the red carpet. The foreign reporters on both sides seemed to have no interest in him, the youngest nominated director. They just took two photos as usual and put down their cameras.

Li Qiutang stood on the red carpet with a stiff smile, and secretly swore in her heart that she must become famous!

Fortunately, the premiere tickets sold well and the hall with a capacity of 100 people was full, but Li Qiutang didn't recognize any of them.

The movie screening started soon. The version without the dragon logo was played. The version with the dragon logo was now locked in a box in the hotel room.

The first overseas journey of "The Night the Comet Came" has begun.

(End of this chapter)