The Best Director

Filming had ended, and the “High School Musical” crew announced disbandment, so Wang Yang and others returned to Los Angeles. Of course, people like the film’s lead actors, original music composer David Lawrence, cinematographer Valeri-Fister, and others needed to follow through with the film’s post-production work; whereas people such as the dance director Annie Fletcher, lighting technicians, makeup artists, and so on, had already excellently completed their duties and contracts, with no further work for them.

The official website of “High School Musical” released the news of the film’s wrap-up immediately, as well as a batch of new stills, including several cool on-set photos of Wang Yang, looking through the camera’s viewfinder, instructing Tom Willis on acting, and contemplating the script, among others. A few of his cool photos were taken on purpose; the makeup artist fussed over him for a while, then the lighting technician adjusted the lights, and Valeri- Fister took the shot from a beautiful angle.

This was also a reluctant move in movie promotion because compared to lead actors like Tom Willis, Jessica and the like, Wang Yang had higher popularity. Fans who had been following the film were not interested in the big stars but in “Miracle Yang’s” second film and first film on celluloid; they were curious whether the film would be good and if it could create another box office miracle?

The overseas release of “Paranormal Activity” had essentially ended, sweeping across cinemas worldwide like the craze in North America, with an overseas box office hitting 150 million US Dollars! Coupled with the 160 million taken in North America, “Paranormal Activity’s” total global box office reached 310 million US Dollars! How much was the production cost? The entire world knew —it was just 10,000 US Dollars.

Wang Yang and Lionsgate had become the true “money-coupling,” and even the media joked that at the 71st Academy Awards held in March this year, “Paranormal Activity” would sweep the awards like “Titanic” did the previous year, beating out films like “Saving Private Ryan” and “Life is Beautiful” to win Best Picture, and Miracle Yang would beat Stephen Spielberg, Peter Weir (director of “The Truman Show”), and others to win Best Director. What? “Paranormal Activity” didn’t get a single Oscar nomination?!

Although these were jokes, all major media and magazines summarizing the movies of 1998 would definitely mention “Paranormal Activity” and Wang Yang.

The Los Angeles Times said, “In 1998, James Cameron conquered the world with a ship, becoming the ‘King of the World’. The whole world wept for the love of Jack and Rose, and it’s said that the tissue industry’s profits skyrocketed because of it. That year also saw great films like ‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘Elizabeth’, ‘Shakespeare in Love’, and so on… but lastly, we must mention an 18-year-old young man, who scared the whole world with a DV camera, yes, that wondrous youth Wang Yang, and his debut work ‘Paranormal Acthrity’.” “1998 had two oddities. The first was everyone rushing to the cinemas to watch Titanic’ over and over again; the second was every youngster rushing to the cinemas to watch ‘Paranormal Activity’ over and over again.”

The total box office of 310 million US Dollars and the year-end summaries by various media and magazines skyrocketed Wang Yang’s popularity to an unprecedented peak. Everyone likes those who seem to defy gravity. Everyone admires heroes. America values teamwork, even more so the comic book style superheroes. An 18-year-old guy, all alone with 10,000 US Dollars, created a box office miracle of 310 million. Isn’t he a superhero? If Wang Yang were white, his popularity would only be higher, at least he hasn’t been on the cover of TIME Magazine yet, right?

Therefore, the anticipation of the fans of “High School Musical” was also at a high point. The news of the wrapping up of the film excited many fans and Wang Yang’s female followers who were eager to watch this school musical.

But the current question was, when would “High School Musical” be released? Its release schedule had not yet been determined.

In the conference room of Flame Film Company, a meeting was in session. CEO Mark Strong, Distribution Manager Simon Willis, Production Manager Sandy Parks, and other department managers were present; Wang Yang sat in the middle at the head of the conference table, looking at the documents in his hands-the filming phase of “High School Musical” had ended, and up to that point, the financial statement.

A detailed list, including all expenses—actor’s salaries, crew’s wages, rental fees for photographic equipment, costs of purchasing film stock, licensing fees for songs, hotel expenses… and so on. Wang Yang’s gaze swept over the items one by one, Jessica Alba’s 500,000, Tom Willis’s 300,000… Although all this was his money, Wang Yang still found it pretty boring and skimmed over it, looking to the end. The current total expenditure was about to reach 7 millinn It was expected that after the post-production work ended, the final cost would exceed 8 million. Luckily, this film didn’t require much in the way of special effects, just fireworks in one scene.

The estimated 8 million cost had significantly exceeded the initial budget, not only because of too much film burned, making the shooting period half a month longer; the main reason was the crew’s salaries. Take the dance director’s position, for example-the initial budget was only 100,000 to 200,000, but then Annie Fletcher was invited. She had initially declined Flame Film’s offer, but Wang Yang called her multiple times, with sincerity plus an offer of 500,000, Annie Fletcher finally took the job. Her salary of 500,000 was also the highest pay among the cast, equal to that of Jessica.

After looking through it again and finding no issues, Wang Yang closed the financial statement and placed it on the conference table, smiling as he said, “Alright, let’s discuss the next item!”

The next item on the meeting agenda was to determine the release schedule of High School Musical”. A movie could only undertake and coordinate its promotional work after setting a release date; this included the progress of post-production and whatnot. Everything could proceed orderly only once the schedule was set. Of course, independent films were not included in this—after completing post-production, they would seek distribution.

“How’s our campus screening system coming along?” Wang Yang asked, looking towards the distribution manager Simon Willis.

Simon Willis glanced at Fiona Hassan, the secretary responsible for the meeting, gesturing for her to hand over the documents to Wang Yang. He began, “We’ve established relationships with various school cinema chains. If we’re planning to release a movie, we can cover most cinemas in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as universities across America. However, a lot of school cinemas operate independently, and it’s difficult to get in touch with them one by one; some schools don’t even have cinemas.”

Wang Yang took the document handed over by the secretary and had a look There were thousands of schools listed, scattered all over America. He nodded with a smile and said, “That’s good! It’s enough. With these schools, we have enough.”

Simon Willis continued, “However, they usually screen older movies or movies that are about to end their cinema run. Almost all tickets there are sold at half price.” He shrugged and added, “It’s rare for movies to schedule their first- week screenings in campus cinemas, as the profits are very low.”

Wang Yang shrugged, unconcerned, “What we want is popularity and influence. The profits from premiere screenings are trivial, the important thing is the large-scale screenings that follow, that’s where the real money is.”

Paranormal Activity” had fewer than 30 cinemas in its first week, more than 700 in the second, and over 2,000 in the third; the focus is on impact and sparking market interest, otherwise if more than a thousand cinemas release in the first week and in the second week that number is halved, it would only lead to an even more disastrous failure.

“My boss, you are absolutely right,” Mark Slant said with a smile, picking up the conversation. “My idea is that we select some high-income campus cinemas, roughly around five hundred, for the first week of trial screenings; we then take it offline after a week and move to another 500 schools in the same city. This way we won’t lose much in market profits. If we achieve good results, those cinema chains will automatically get in touch with us.”

Yes, that’s a good plan,” Wang Yang nodded, considering the trial screening for two weeks, getting a good report card and influence, and then going for a mass release.

In fact, two factors mainly influenced this decision. First, the movie promotion focused on campuses; and second, cinema chains in cities were lukewarm about

High School Musical”, perhaps due to a sluggish market for musicals that gave them little confidence, or maybe because the movie had all the elements of a “flop”. Either way, they were only willing to offer gold time slots in shabby, out-of-the-way cinemas, or suboptimal time slots in good cinemas.

Wang Yang and Mark Slant disliked both options. The former could easily result in the movie being opened in a thousand cinemas but only managing to gross a few million dollars, firmly crowning it a “flop”. With the latter, who would go see a campus musical at midnight? This isn’t a horror film that can stimulate the audience’s nerves; they’d probably fall asleep halfway through, smoothly obtaining the title of a “flop”.

So, they decided to use results to convince them. Cinema chains and theaters are like reeds swaying in the wind; once they know screening which movie can make money, they will scramble to show it, and if they’re a step slow, the box office will be gone.

“Yang, you know the next good slot is the summer slot,” Mark Slant said, looking at Wang Yang who nodded with a smile, “The summer slot is perfect.”

The summer slot begins in June, which was still over five months away. Wang Yang and Mark Slant both understood that “High School Musical” couldn’t launch too late. The world changed too quickly with new things emerging each day. Wang Yang’s popularity and name would fade rapidly with time, and if he failed to seize the opportunity, he would eventually be forgotten. Hence, they needed to ride the wave of his current peak in popularity to get the best effect; if they waited until his popularity and attention had dwindled, the likelihood of the movie’s failure would greatly increase.

Mark Slant continued, “Our screening plan establishes the first two weeks of showings need to occur before schools break up for the summer, so we have to start at least two weeks before the summer slot.” He spread his hands helplessly and said, “But ‘Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace’ is releasing on May 19th, and we can’t collide head-on with it, so we’ll have to start another two weeks earlier.”

“Mhm, that means a month earlier,” Wang Yang mused and suddenly thought of a date, blurting out, “April 28th!” He turned to Simon Willis and asked, “Would that date work for a release?” Simon Willis nodded, “No problem.” Wang Yang smiled happily, glanced at Mark Slant, and declared, “Then it’s settled, we’ll hold the premiere on April 28th.”