novellhall Chapter 54: The Final Guidance of Public Opinion
Chapter 54: The Final Guidance of Public Opinion
A week after the blog matrix took hold, the online sentiment began to shift.
On the homepage of the Tianya Film and Television section, there are five or six posts in a row related to "One Shot".
Li Hua's old post that "might be a flop" is still trending.
Next to it was a screenshot of Chow Yun-fat's blog post, titled "Chow Yun-fat as lighting technician, what's the background of this film crew?"
The two groups of people argue in the thread every day, and after they finish arguing, they go to other threads to continue arguing.
Wei Yi felt that enough groundwork had been laid.
It's not enough to just make people criticize, it's not enough to just make people curious, you have to actually get people to go to the movie theater.
He made a phone call to Han Sanping and immediately asked for screening rooms in various locations.
Han Sanping remained silent for a moment after listening. "How much do you want?"
"Let's start with ten cities."
"Ten cities?" Han Sanping's voice rose a half-octave. "You want them all?!"
"It's not that exaggerated. One or two shows per city, seventy or eighty yuan per show, and you can gather a thousand people."
"What do you want with these thousand people?"
"Mr. Han, have you ever heard of tap water?"
"What the heck?"
"Tap water".
Han Sanping laughed angrily, "We drink tap water at home!"
"Not that tap water..."
Wei Yi briefly explained the meaning of "tap water" in later generations.
Of course, not the kind you drink.
After listening, there was silence on the other end of the phone.
It was that kind of silence that Wei Yi had gradually gotten used to.
He wasn't angry; he was someone who had spent most of his life working in the film industry.
The instinctive pause when faced with an operation that one has never seen before.
"It's that same old internet marketing trick of yours again..."
After a long silence, Han Sanping spoke, "But you have to understand. If one thing goes wrong, all of these thousand people, or even just a few, will leave a bad review, which can affect many people."
"That's why we need to sign a confidentiality agreement," Wei Yi said. "We won't spoil anything before the film's release, but we can write our thoughts. Mr. Han, after letting the bullets fly for so many days, it's time to fire a shot."
Han Sanping finally approved it.
He found that his trust in Wei Yi had reached a strange level.
I always felt he was being ridiculous, but he always managed to make things work out.
The cities chosen for the screenings are all major cities.
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, plus the provincial capitals with five universities.
The recruitment method involves posting posters in the university town and the commercial street.
The title is "Watch movies for free and write your honest feelings".
They also added a small line of text next to the China Film Group logo: "Advanced screening event, limited spots available, please fill in your blog address to register."
The distribution department of China Film Group was in charge of the operation, while Li Hua was in charge of screening people.
Many people signed up because it was so popular online.
Li Hua stayed up all night, specifically targeting people who wrote blogs frequently, posted a lot on forums, and preferably had film reviews on Tianya Film and Television.
In the end, a thousand people were gathered, and the list was printed out in a thick stack.
"Junior brother," Li Hua knocked on the door of the editing room with the list in his hand, "if you can't even describe all 1,000 people properly, you're really hopeless."
"Then let's not let them ruin it all."
Wei Yi turned around from in front of the monitor. "I've already processed the copy that was being shown."
He didn't say how he handled it.
Li Hua didn't ask. His junior brother's work was always strange, so it was better not to ask.
The screening is scheduled for January 18th, and will be held simultaneously in ten cities.
The screening featured the first thirty minutes of "One Shot".
It's that part that was deliberately filmed in a rough, one-shot format.
Wei Yi expended a lot of spiritual energy on this batch of copies, specifically upgrading the "Mirror Flower Karma Method" to an enhanced version.
That's exactly the effect he wanted:
When I saw it, I was like, "What the hell is this?"
Even after I turned off the screen, those images kept replaying in my mind.
I can't quite put my finger on what's so appealing about it, but I just want to watch it again.
It's like being under a spell; the more I think about it, the more obsessed I become.
Li Hua went to Yanjing on his behalf.
When he came back, his expression was complicated. He slumped onto the old sofa in the editing room and didn't speak for a long time.
"This is too weird."
"What's so weird?"
Li Hua recalled carefully.
"While watching, some people laughed, some frowned, and some even started taking notes halfway through. But the strangest thing was," Li Hua rubbed his face, "that after it was over, no one left. Everyone sat in their seats for a while, and only started leaving when they realized there really was no more to watch."
"But when I got to the door, some people stopped and started talking about the plot. I squatted down and listened for a long time, and no one said it was bad. One person said something that I'm still thinking about now: 'I know the shots are rough, but strangely enough, I just can't take my eyes off it.'"
Li Hua looked at Wei Yi. "This is really weird. Did you put something unclean in the copy?"
"Senior brother, that's a movie, not talisman water."
"Damn it, this is bad. I've known you for so long, and now you're starting to distrust science. What do I do?"
That evening.
Posts started popping up in the Tianya Film and Television section.
The titles are varied: "I just finished watching the first 30 minutes of the one-shot film and I'm a bit conflicted", "I signed a confidentiality agreement so I can't spoil the plot, but I feel uncomfortable not saying some things", "Can someone tell me what kind of film this is?"
The content of the posts is somewhat fragmented.
On one hand, people say the visuals are indeed rough, the actors are indeed awkward, and there are indeed continuity errors in the shots.
On one hand, I said, "But I just want to see what happens next." There's an inexplicable sense of addiction; I actually want to watch it again.
The post that Wei Yi was most satisfied with was very short, just two sentences:
After watching it, I felt like something was stuck in my throat.
It's not discomfort, it's that feeling of knowing something is about to come out but it hasn't yet.
This person also wrote a follow-up, saying that this was the first time in their life they couldn't sleep because they wanted to watch the second half of a movie.
The post didn't mention the plot or reveal any characters; it just repeatedly described the user's ambiguous state after watching the show.
In the comments section below, a bunch of viewers who watched the same show wholeheartedly agreed.
Those who hadn't seen it were frantically asking what they thought, what they saw, and why they couldn't get spoilers.
This half-concealed, half-revealed attitude is more alluring than spoilers.
It's like someone telling you they just saw something really amazing.
But the fact that they don't tell you what it is makes you feel worse than if they just tell you directly, and it makes you want to get to the bottom of it even more.
About 300 out of 1,000 people posted film reviews or blog posts.
More than 300 film reviews flooded the Tianya Film and Television section's homepage on the same night.
It even overflowed into other sectors.
The resulting increase in forum traffic was even more than 20%.
These days, Tianya is undoubtedly the number one gathering place for Chinese netizens.
The largest forum/BBS in China.
The fact that it can increase its traffic by 20% in one night shows how popular "One Shot" is on the Internet.
The moderator was working overtime until his hands were sore. The next morning, he posted a complaint saying that he had added seventeen "highlights" overnight, all of which were his impressions of the one-shot videos.