(Photo source: photo courtesy of the interviewee)
Economic Observation Network reporter Xie Chuchu On February 28, “The filming of “The Rattle Drum” appeared on Weibo’s hot search. The first popular Weibo with the topic “Movies shouldn’t be like this” wrote, “”The Rattle Drum” is full of praise, but unfortunately the box office has not exceeded 1 million so far”, which means that the film is too low. The screenwriter of “Annual Comedy Contest” Liu Beast also reposted the Weibo with the text “Movies shouldn’t be like this”.
“The Rattle Drum” tells the story of a truck driver who lost his beloved son and seeks revenge for his son and a left-behind child who is looking for his father, and a series of stories of laughter and tears happened. The film was shot in the countryside of northern Shaanxi, focusing on the group of left-behind children. Both the shooting style and acting skills are rough, simple and real. The leading actors Hui Wangjun and Bai Zeze are amateur actors, both locals from Qingjian County in northern Shaanxi. Director Bai Zhiqiang is a new director, and “Rattle Drum” is his debut film.
Generally speaking, a “three noes” movie with no commercial elements, no cast, and no well-known director is either overwhelmed and unreleased; or its fate is doomed before it officially meets the audience-the box office is not good. What’s more, the completion of this film is considered the best result, and the film studio can’t afford the extra publicity fee.
Announcement Fang Daxiang Dianying was willing to take a risk for it. They found that “The Rattle Drum” was different. “It is not a general niche literary film, and the genre elements are still obvious.” Daxiang Dianying is a publicity and distribution company focusing on documentary films and literary films. For this adventure, they decided to advance money for publicity.
Many stars, including Li Xian, Wang Baoqiang, Lin Yun, Zhou Xun, Song Jia, Xu Zheng, etc., spoke out for the film. Several industry insiders and business people booked the show, and media people also vigorously promoted it. But the result is: the premiere only got a box office of more than 800,000 in two days. The announcement party and the main creators had fully estimated the difficulty of the box office, but unexpectedly, the audience attendance rate was also very low. They wondered, “The Rattle Drum” has a good reputation, but why are the audience still waiting and watching?
“Strange” attendance
Before the movie was released, the director Bai Zhiqiang had already made psychological preparations: Don’t let the elephant pay for the publicity and distribution costs.
“The Rattle Drum” will be released on February 25. As of today, on the fifth day of its release, the box office has just exceeded 1 million yuan, 0.6% of the film schedule, and only 0.4% of the attendance rate, which the promoters did not expect.
The film studio started promoting the film one month before its release. So far, the director, producer, and publicist have traveled to 22 cities for roadshows and 60 events in 25 days. Generally speaking, small-budget films can only rely on their own efforts. But this time “outsiders” are also doing their best. “The Rattle Drum” has received the support of many stars, including Li Xian, Wang Baoqiang, Lin Yun, Zhou Xun, Song Jia, Xu Zheng, Miriam Yeung, Deng Chao and more than a dozen actors have reposted the film’s official website. Weibo, in order to make the movie more visible to more people.
Xiao Fuqiu, the deputy director of publicity for “Rattle Drums”, said that the star resources this time mainly rely on the help of FIRST Film Festival executive Li Ziwei. It is also in line with FIRST’s positioning, constantly introducing new films and new filmmakers to the market.”
In addition to self-fermentation in the circle, official media and vertical media also reported overwhelmingly. An industry insider mightn’t help sighing to Xiao Fuqiu, “You guys did a great job of announcing this time.” The person said that under the limited publicity and distribution costs, “Rattle Drum Dongdong” can be active on Weibo, and it has also become a trending search, and Douyin is also a trending search, and the WeChat account is helping to promote the movie. “It’s a phenomenon.” of”.
“It’s just because you are in the industry, you have seen it, but the public hasn’t seen it yet.” Xiao Fuqiu responded. “The Rattle Drum” only had a box office of 1 million in the five days it was released.
Xiao Fuqiu was puzzled. After more than 20 road shows and countless pre-screenings, “The Rattle Drum” gained a good reputation, but the final film schedule was low, and the attendance rate was unexpectedly low. ” We are also thinking regarding how to get more people to actually walk into the cinema to buy tickets to watch movies.”
Scarce Films, Divided Audiences
In 2020, “The Rattle Drum” was shortlisted for the Asian Newcomer Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival, and Daxiang Dianying contacted the film crew for the first time at that film festival. After watching the movie, Daxiang Dianying paid special attention to this project and wanted to reach a publicity cooperation with the film studio. In addition to focusing on the value fit of realistic themes, they judged that this film is different from ordinary literary films. “The Rattle Drum” is straight-forward with laughs and moving emotions, and should be able to gain response in the mass market.
The preparations for “The Sound of the Rattle Drum” started five years ago, when Bai Zhiqiang discovered the problem of left-behind children when he was filming a documentary in his hometown. He decided to make a movie regarding them. During the process of understanding, he met a left-behind child whose biggest dream was to sit on his father’s shoulders and watch the fireworks. This scene is presented at the end of the film.
One of the biggest highlights of this movie is the realism of the picture. “I myself studied photography. It is easy to shoot a movie beautifully and with a tense rhythm, but this movie is not necessary. The shooting is carried on the shoulder. The light source uses natural light or simulates natural light. We have also seen I have made many films in northern Shaanxi, emphasizing the visual shock and the impact of the picture, but we want to be more eye-catching.” Bai Zhiqiang believes that although the commercial appearance is sacrificed, a movie is authentic and credible, and it is a sincere dialogue between the director and the audience, so the truth will be pursued in movie aesthetics.
“”The Rattle Drum” is scarce in a sense,” Xiao Fuqiu said. Although it is a small cost, it is well typified. “When I talked regarding realistic themes before, it made people think it might be miserable Xi’s”, and this film has a different tone. In addition to a lot of natural laughter, the emotion is also sincere, which can resonate with the audience. “When it premiered, we saw many people laughing in the cinema. I was very happy, and when I walked out of the theater, I burst into tears once more.”
However, such a scarce movie may not be a good marketing point from the perspective of movie announcement. Xiao Fuqiu said that there are so few such films that it has not yet formed a mature genre. “The audience has not yet formed a perception that low-budget films can still be like this.”
During the announcement and release process, Xiao Fuqiu realized that such a small-cost film is not without audiences, but rather scattered, and without the blessing of stars and famous directors, it is difficult to attract audiences into the theater in the first place, “our The strategy is to find the first wave of core audiences through accurate screenings, and then gradually break the circle through word-of-mouth fermentation. But it is really very difficult to break the circle.”
continue to explore
When announcing and releasing movies like “The Rattle Drum”, there is no previous experience to learn from. The success of “Into the Dust and Smoke” with a similar style is an exception.
Last year, “Into the Dust” directed by Li Ruijun finally broke through 100 million yuan at the box office, and was called a “miracle” of niche films. The film has obvious characteristics of the Northwest region, and it is also a realistic theme, and the shooting technique pays attention to realism. The box office of the film was only 560,000 on the first day of its release, and there was not much turmoil in the normal release cycle of the subsequent month. Until the key extension period, the film gradually fermented on the Douyin platform and finally broke the circle.
Xiao Fuqiu said that the two films are very different. “Into the Dust” has at least an actor of Hai Qing’s level, and it was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Berlin Film Festival. In the earlier “Kang Rinpoche” and “Hundred Birds Facing the Phoenix”, the former has a well-known director and has a strong spectacle, while the latter’s producer knelt down and begged to arrange the film, which aroused heated discussions.
The only cast member of “The Rattle Drum” is Lu Wei, known as “China’s No. 1 screenwriter”. He is the executive producer of this film. But Bai Zhiqiang said that Reed is well recognized in the industry, but its popularity in the eyes of ordinary people is still uncertain.
Even so, “The Rattle Drum” still explored the essentials in the process of publicity and distribution, and that is the important publicity position of Douyin. Xiao Fuqiu said that the success of “Into the Dust” has made everyone pay attention to Douyin to a certain extent, “but if not, we will go in this direction.” It is very clear, and it can reach an emotional resonance with the public. If you want to break the circle, no matter how limited the publicity expenses are, you cannot voluntarily give up the public platform of Douyin.
Elephant made an advance payment for the announcement, and finally got a share from the unguaranteed box office. This is a big risk for promoting a company. Xiao Fuqiu mentioned that if the publicity and release model of general commercial films is followed, the entire publicity budget of “Rattle Drum” may only be used for a few channels, and the current publicity that can be fermented is largely due to the media. Impressed by the content of the film itself, I am willing to turn into tap water for publicity.
For a movie that lacks commercial elements, the ability to announce will be more tested. In addition to complaining that the nearby theaters did not have films scheduled, many viewers were also confused regarding the name and positioning of the movie, “Is this a literary film?” And the promotional image says ‘High Score Comedy'”.
Daxiang Dianying noticed such feedback, so they also designed such a poster, which said, “Don’t be discouraged by the title, the movie is really good.” “We are neither children’s films nor Gulangyu Island. The posthumous film is not a tourism promotion film for Gulangyu Island, but a tear-jerking comedy with high reputation and realism.”
“Although the film schedule and attendance rate are not ideal, it has only been released for 4 days, and we are planning more marketing and publicity actions,” Xiao Fuqiu said, and they look forward to a counterattack.
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