(This article was first published in "Movie Rising Potential", welcome WeChat to search filmmore for attention)
1905 movie network exclusive feature By the morning of July 20th, young director Bi Gan’s big-screen debut had been released for the sixth day, with a box office of over 4.7 million. Previously, Bi Dao announced that the film would only be released for 10 days. Although its film arrangement is less than 1%, compared with the box office results of literary films in the past two years, this figure is very optimistic, not to mention that the film has already recovered its production cost overseas before it was released in the mainland.
For this achievement, Li Xin, the marketing director of Beijing Herui Film Culture Co., Ltd., who is responsible for the marketing of the whole case of Roadside Picnic, and her team also expressed satisfaction. Of course, she still hopes that this film can be seen by more people — — In the process of our interview, Li Xin just finished her roadshow in Shenyang and went to Wuhan. Although her voice was a little tired in the interview, she answered the questions of Zi Shijun in detail. It is not difficult to see that she is full of confidence in the film.
From 14 years, 15 years to not long ago and recently, with the mainland film market becoming more and more prosperous in the past two years, the cliched survival dilemma of literary films has repeatedly become the focus of attention in the industry. Narrow audience, imperfect channels and limited funds are the most common "complaints", but the team of "Roadside Picnics" has always greeted the market test with a supercilious attitude, and even made interesting attempts and explorations for the promotion and marketing of literary films and even art films.
Next, let’s listen to Li Xin, the marketing director, and talk to us about how to sell this "magic film of the year" filmed for "Wild Ghosts and Breeze" to the vast number of human fans:
Bi Gan said that his films were made for wild ghosts and breezes.
[Talking about the marketing tone]
Zi Shijun: What is the whole marketing tone of "Roadside Picnic"?
Li Xin:Regarding the whole marketing tone, first of all, we fully respect what this film should look like. It’s actually not just a literary film, it’s actually an artistic film, so we respect it for what it looks like, without deliberate packaging. We will enlarge its advantages and differences from other films.
The core point of our marketing is that this film must be of good quality and have a good reputation, and we have great confidence in it. So we have been playing its word of mouth and its long shot.
To win its reputation, we must first hit the core fan base. It may actually have a very narrow audience in terms of film types and other aspects. Therefore, we initially wanted to promote it through the word-of-mouth of the core fans, and also had in-depth cooperation with some places where literary youth and fans gathered, such as Douban.
"Roadside Picnic" official micro-spoof "Beijing paralysis"
Zi Shijun: This film is deep and serious as a whole, but many marketing methods on Weibo WeChat are more funny than that … … Does it feel in conflict with the tone of the film?
Li Xin:Weibo WeChat is probably maintained by three or four colleagues.
Well, first of all, the words of new media must be conducive to communication. I think it is more conducive to communication if this kind of thing is grounded. If something like poetry is typed as soon as it comes up, the audience who have never seen the film will definitely feel it. If it is aimed at them, it must be suitable for the public. Let’s use grounded methods.
Bi Gan, who exposed the true nature of teasing, turned the "one seat" speech into a stand-up comedy.
Including the director himself, who is actually a particularly funny person. When our whole team is doing this, we still hope that it can make the public accept it more easily.
"Roadside Picnic" cooperated with Guevara’s brand "New Projection"
[Talking about film arrangement]
Zi Shijun: Is there any stage difference in the marketing of this film during the whole release period? The Return of Mount Tai has been released. Are there any adjustments to the film’s publicity and screening strategies?
Li Xin:In fact, we have been doing its reputation, and there are some special professional foreign media or some foreign film festival awards for its recognition, the honor the film won, and its 42-minute long shot. Because we were not too worried about its reputation, we also made a nationwide roadshow to let it communicate with fans at every stop.
If "The Return of Mount Tai" is released, it will have no influence on our publicity. The arrangement of films will definitely have some impact, but we are relatively stable these days, and some well-selling cinemas are also giving us more venues.
Zi Shijun: Does this film have the action of "online distribution"?
Li Xin:Our copyright was sold to iQiyi, and it will be launched on the 20th. We don’t have the so-called e-commerce intervention to arrange the film. The release of this film is our company’s own arrangement and communication with the cinema. Regarding the cooperation with e-commerce, one is Guevara’s "new screening" product ("film tester" activity), and there are some regular ticket supplements, others are not too deep.
A lot of effort has been devoted to the poster design of "roadside picnic"
[Talking about materials]
Zi Shijun: What do you think is the biggest difficulty in the promotion and marketing of this film? How to overcome it?
Li Xin:The biggest difficulty … … I really haven’t thought about it. After all, it is not a film for the mass market, but we have to sell it to the mass market, so it will definitely be more difficult to walk.
Perhaps my personal feeling is that it will be more difficult to do it in terms of materials. Because the colleagues in the early stage of the crew are relatively not so professional, and because they have no experience in making long films, the preparatory work in the early stage is not sufficient. When it reached us, there were no materials, including the posters you see now, which were all made by ourselves, and there were not any usable stills.
But fortunately, I don’t want to say how difficult and bitter it is. Since we have done it, we must be responsible for it and do every step well. We also spend a lot of time and energy on materials.
Zi Shijun: There was a trailer with disco as the background music. At that time, I saw some netizens commenting that it misled the audience and made people think it was a fast-paced film. How do you respond to this kind of spit?
Li Xin:As for the trailer, the first one is particularly difficult to cut. Our editor cut it for about a month and tried various methods, trying to tell the story or try something, which was more troublesome. If you watch the film, you will know that this film is something that can’t be clearly explained in one or two sentences, so you have to watch it yourself, just by feeling.
It is normal for netizens to vomit, and it is only when something comes out controversial that it is discussed. In fact, I have collected a lot of feedback here, and I still think this trailer is bold and innovative. At that time, we thought music was very important, at least this feeling would look more emotional, and it was a new attempt. My friends and people in the industry around me still recognize these two versions of the trailer.
The two trailers you saw, one is the forerunner, the other is the ultimate, and the last is the background music. The editor is cutting and revising every day, probably for more than a month, and different versions are produced every day, and finally these two versions are presented.
At this year’s Strawberry Music Festival, the booth of "Roadside Picnic" attracted many rock youths.
[Talking about cross-border]
Zi Shijun: How was the cooperation with Modern Sky established? What kind of movies do you think will be more related to the fans at the music festival?
Li Xin:That activity was relatively early. Because we have been watching what this film has. I was particularly impressed by the songs in the movie, including the music made by teacher Lin Qiang, which was particularly psychedelic and set off the atmosphere. Then it happened that there was going to be a music festival at that time, and then we wanted not to cooperate with the music festival, and then we found Modern Sky.
In fact, we didn’t do the kind of cooperation in a particularly special depth, and the exposed effect was certainly not particularly great, but at that time, we thought that this film could be done more, so we did it. We only have a two-square-meter booth, and we have worked hard to arrange it. The effect is not bad, and it was quite unexpected at that time. In the whole modern sky life museum, our people flow is the largest. Then Douban also cooperated with us to do some convening work in Douban.
There is another reason to cooperate with them. Young artists’ associations prefer to go to their music festivals. Young artists and core fans are our audiences, so we may think that some audiences will overlap with our audience, so we will go. One more exposure is one, and they do have a large flow of people.
My judgment may not be accurate either, but I think literary films may be more suitable to cooperate with music festivals. Young artists like music festivals and may also like literary films. I think so.
The ingenious "poison tongue commentary audio track" blessed the roadshow.
[Talking about roadshows]
Zi Shijun: This roadshow is going well. How did you choose the route?
Li Xin:Regarding roadshows, we went to many cities, one place every day, including roadshows today. At that time, I also hoped that more people could see the film and then let the director communicate with them.
The choice of roadshow cities has referred to the route at that time, as well as the cities with good box office of Heart Labyrinth. "Heart maze" was also made by our side before, so we will know more about it. There are also places with a strong literary atmosphere, such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, where there are many young artists.
Zi Shijun: How did you come up with the idea of "audio track of poison tongue comments"?
Li Xin:The commentary track is the "value-added service" we talked about this film before.
Because first of all, the audience of this film must be core fans, and the audience is relatively narrow. We also want to give them a better viewing experience and a value-added service, and then we think about the commentary track.
Then, we made a commentary track in Shanghai during "Heart Labyrinth", which was not very large at that time, and its equipment and technology were more troublesome, so this time it was also in the roadshow that Xiang made a better service for the core fans, so he did it.
The film derivatives of roadside picnic include notebooks and 6000mAh charging treasures.
[Talking about derivatives]
Zi Shijun: The derivative design of this film is very compelling. How are they completed?
Li Xin:Regarding derivatives, we made notebooks and charging treasures.
First of all, we think there are poems in this film, which is very literary. In fact, it is quite suitable to be a notebook. Then I think our poster is not bad, so I will use it to make the front and back of the notebook.
If you have seen the film, you will know that there is a tape in it that is a key thing. We want to make a derivative of the same size, so we made a charging treasure, which is also more practical.
Just leave it to the production company. It’s not that complicated to make, and the time will not be particularly slow. I also forget how much time it took.
I wonder if the fans who have seen this film have been brainwashed by this magical "Little Jasmine"
Zi Shijun: The music of this movie is very distinctive. Have you considered releasing the movie’s OST?
Li Xin:The first time I saw the film, I was particularly impressed by the music. Every song was quite interesting, including Little Jasmine and Farewell. However, the distribution of music OST is more troublesome, involving many aspects and various copyright issues, so it has not been considered for the time being.
Moreover, music will be particularly effective if it is accompanied by a movie. If you listen to it alone, you don’t know if you feel like watching a movie.
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