novellhall Chapter 11 The Troublemaker: Li Zhixing
Chapter 11 The Troublemaker: Li Zhixing
"Hey! You brat, what nonsense are you spouting!"
Xue Jingqiu composed himself, his face darkening as he reprimanded him.
Although Park Joong-hoon, who was standing to the side, did not react, he also frowned slightly while holding his wine glass.
In South Korea, where seniority and hierarchy are highly valued, even the closest personal relationships would be far too presumptuous for a junior like Lee Ji-haeng to publicly shout out the word "fraud" while the director was pouring out his grievances.
Ha Ji-won was startled and quickly tugged at Lee Ji-haeng under the table: "What nonsense are you talking about? Apologize to the director right now!"
However, Yin Jijun, who was sitting in the main seat, did not get angry. Instead, he seemed to have sobered up a lot from the shock of those words.
Fortunately, he knew Li Zhixing quite well and knew that this kid was definitely not someone who didn't know his place.
He stared intently at Li Zhixing without saying a word, seemingly waiting for him to give an explanation.
Li Zhixing also realized that his words had been somewhat rash.
He immediately stood up and bowed respectfully to Yin Jijun.
"I'm sorry, Brother Jijun, I misspoke."
Li Zhixing was sincere, "I just heard what you said, and some thoughts suddenly came to my mind. I got so excited that I couldn't help myself."
"What are you thinking? Sit down and drink your wine!"
Xue Jingqiu frowned and interrupted him, waving his hand impatiently as he spoke, making a gesture as if to push him back into his chair.
Yin Jijun raised his hand to stop Xue Jingqiu.
"It's alright, sit down," he said, looking at Li Zhixing. "Tell me, what's on your mind?"
Seeing that the director had spoken, Xue Jingqiu stopped talking, but glared at Li Zhixing, his eyes clearly warning him not to show off.
Li Zhixing sat down again, gathered his thoughts, and said, "Brother Jijun, you just said that special effects only make up a small part of our movie, and the earlier parts are all heartwarming scenes about ordinary people, right?"
"Then why not change the direction of the publicity?"
Yin Jijun was taken aback: "What do you mean by that?"
Li Zhixing explained, "Since the feedback on our special effects is not good, if we continue to promote it as a special effects blockbuster, the audience will be full of expectations that they will see Hollywood-level scenes. But when they go to the theater and find that it is far below their expectations, they will definitely complain."
Why should we use our weaknesses as our core selling point?
Yin Jijun seemed to be deep in thought: "Go on, what's a good idea?"
"My suggestion is to abandon the gimmick of a special effects blockbuster and instead focus on promoting ourselves as a heartwarming comedy with disaster elements."
Li Zhixing looked at the main creators on the table: "Not only that, when the director and seniors are doing promotions, they can even take the initiative to show weakness and give everyone a heads-up, frankly admitting that our special effects are not as good as Hollywood's."
"If we keep the audience's expectations to a minimum, once they enter the theater and see the amazing acting of the veteran actors and the hilarious storyline, they'll actually think, 'Hey? Even though the special effects are so-so, the story is surprisingly good!'"
Li Zhixing looked at the people at the table and said seriously, "This is my idea: to lower expectations in order to create a surprise for the audience after they enter the venue."
Ha Ji-won hesitated, "Wouldn't that be too risky? Lowering expectations too much might discourage viewers from even buying tickets."
Li Zhixing shook his head: "If we keep raising expectations, even if the first batch of viewers are tricked into going to the theater, they will still give bad reviews when they come out, which is fatal to word-of-mouth."
Seeing the thoughtful expressions on everyone's faces, Li Zhixing pressed on, "Actually, there are successful precedents for this, such as the movie 'Speed Scandal' which was released last year."
"Before filming began, no one was optimistic about this drama, including the audience, because the male lead was Tae-hyun..."
Before he could finish speaking, Ha Ji-won kicked him in an annoyed tone: "Hey, aren't you afraid he'll teach you a lesson for talking about Tae-hyun like that?"
Yoon Jae-jun sighed and continued, "Ji-haeng is right. Cha Tae-hyun's situation was indeed very bad at the time."
"Since 'My Sassy Girl', the movies he starred in have been box office failures one after another. Not only do audiences have no expectations for him, but even investors are less willing to work with him."
Yoon Jae-kyun looked at Ha Ji-won: "Ji-won, you should know about this. The movie you starred in with Cha Tae-hyun, 'Fool,' was filmed back in 06, right? Because it wasn't well-received by the industry and couldn't secure any marketing funding, it was shelved for two years before being released! In the end, although it received good reviews, it still lost a lot of money."
At this point, Yoon Jae-jun turned to Lee Ji-hyun: "Even with 'Speed Scandal,' which made him famous, I remember the initial male lead wasn't Cha Tae-hyun, right?"
Li Zhixing nodded: "Yes, we initially approached Senior Ren Changding, but he declined, so we approached Brother Taixian instead."
Li Zhixing continued the previous topic, saying, "Tae-hyun couldn't carry the box office at the time, and the female lead, Park Bo-young, had only played a few supporting roles and didn't make much of a splash, so that low-budget comedy was generally not well-received."
"Before the film was released, some media in the industry said that a film that was shot in just over fifty days was a disgrace to Chungmuro, and few reporters were even willing to go to the test screenings."
"But what was the result? This industry-wide low expectation actually made it successful."
"After the first batch of viewers entered the theater, they were surprised to find that the film was very funny and interesting, and word of mouth spread instantly, eventually attracting more than 800 million viewers."
After saying this, Li Zhixing paused and looked at Yin Jijun: "The situation of 'Speed Scandal' back then and 'Haeundae' now is actually very similar in some ways when facing a pessimistic outlook from the entire industry."
The private room fell silent.
Yin Jijun silently stroked his wine glass, lost in thought.
He was well aware of the value of Li Zhixing's words, but with only ten days left before the release, it was an extremely difficult decision to completely overturn the original publicity plan and abandon the heavily invested special effects.
Li Zhixing keenly sensed Yin Jijun's hesitation and offered him a way out.
"Brother Jijun, actually, 'Speed Scandal' is a very classic marketing case. I don't believe our publicity company hasn't studied it. They're just temporarily limited by the fixed mindset of disaster blockbusters."
"You might as well take this idea back and discuss it with those professional marketing teams. After all, this was just a fleeting thought that came to me at the dinner table. When it comes to actual implementation, I'm definitely not as good as the professionals."
The atmosphere at the subsequent drinking session became somewhat subtle.
Yin Jijun remained silently drinking and deep in thought, clearly weighing something.
The people present pondered these words in secret, and the more they thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed.
But with a billion-dollar investment at stake, completely changing the publicity direction at the crucial moment before the film's release was such a risky proposal that no one dared to easily agree.
Xue Jingqiu, on the other hand, looked displeased and glared at Li Zhixing every now and then.
Not long after, Yin Jijun stood up, picked up the wine on the table, and drank it all in one gulp.
"Alright, that's enough for today," he took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping over everyone present. "No matter what the final decision is, I'll have to ask everyone to do their best to promote the event during this period of time."
He specifically looked at Xue Jingqiu: "Brother Jingqiu, I'll need to trouble you to coordinate the filming schedule for 'Unforgiven'. No matter how bad the situation gets, we can't give up."
After saying that, he left the barbecue restaurant with a heavy heart.
Once the person who organized the gathering left, the remaining people lost interest in moving on and, after saying goodbye, prepared to go home.
As soon as they stepped out of the barbecue restaurant, Ha Ji-won looked at Lee Ji-haeng and gestured with her chin for him to get into her car.
Just as Li Zhixing was about to follow, Xue Jingqiu's cold, hard voice came from behind him.
"Kid, come with me."
......