Chapter 3: the descent
Over the next few days, Zhang's Mother noticed her son seemed to have changed suddenly.
Normally, when he came home for holidays, he would either be glued to his computer playing games or out running wild with old classmates. This time, he seemed to have turned over a new leaf, shutting himself in his room all day, not stepping out.
Zhang's Mother went in to check on him a few times under the guise of bringing fruit, and found her son constantly writing and drawing.
At first, he was writing text on draft paper; Zhang Chen said he was writing a script.
Well, even though she was just a railway worker, she knew scripts were related to movies, and her son was studying to be a director, so writing a script seemed quite normal.
But after a few days, Zhang Chen started drawing again, which made Zhang's Mother curious. Could this also be related to being a director?
Her son told her it was called a segmented shot script and a storyboard.
She didn't understand what segmented shots and storyboards were, but she could clearly see that it was a way of describing movie plots through drawing.
Zhang's Mother was shocked; just by looking at the storyboards a few times, she already had vivid images in her mind.
Her son was truly amazing. Zhang's Mother's face showed a doting mother's smile, and she happily brought another fruit plate. What mother wouldn't want to see her child making progress?
"What are you so happy about?" Seeing the smile on his wife's face, Zhang's Father couldn't help but be curious.
"Our son..."
"Hmm? What about our son?"
"Our son is really amazing."
Zhang's Mother found it difficult to describe in words, so she simply stopped talking, leaving a cryptic remark before walking away, leaving Zhang's Father completely puzzled.
Not long after, Zhang's Father, pretending to be casual, brought a third fruit plate into Zhang Chen's room. He left a moment later, then huddled with Zhang's Mother, and the two began to whisper.
"Is our boy going to make a movie?"
"Yes."
"Then how much money do we have right now?"
"One hundred thousand, but that's reserved for his senior year graduation project."
"Give it to him first. I'll ask around later."
His son didn't want to join the railway and stubbornly insisted on going to Beijing Film Academy to be a director, so Zhang's Father had naturally inquired about it.
Directors need money to make movies, and he heard that they had to make a movie in their senior year, otherwise they couldn't graduate.
For this, Zhang's Father had prepared, saving money for several years.
Although he was a minor leader, his income was only so-so. Fortunately, his tertiary industry department was related to railway freight cars.
Coal Province's economy heavily relied on coal mines, and coal mines heavily relied on railway transportation. Therefore, Zhang's Father's position provided many opportunities to interact with people from all walks of life.
Zhang's Father remembered that a friend he knew worked for a company that had invested in movies. He planned to ask him for more details after the Spring Festival holiday.
...
Inside the room, Zhang Chen was unaware of his parents' little schemes outside, completely engrossed in his own creation.
With memories from later generations, he had a relatively good understanding of the movie development process over the past decade.
During this period, historical epics were considered the exclusive genre of Chinese movies; throughout the 2000s, all major directors were making historical epics.
Zhang Yimou made Hero and house of flying daggers, Chen Kaige made The Promise, Feng Xiaogang churned out the banquet, Jackie Chan made The Myth, and Tsui Hark followed with seven swords.
These were movies; in terms of TV series, there were: Chinese Paladin, the return of the condor heroes, Judge of Song Dynasty, Seven Swordsmen of Mount Heaven, The Reign of Zhenguan, and The Yang's Saga...
After that came a cluster of comedies: crazy stone, The Stubborn Radish, lost on journey, one night in supermarket...
Feng Kuzi became famous for comedies; one A Dream Factory established his reputation as a commercial movie director. Ning Hao was similar; crazy stone brought him to prominence, and his second movie, crazy racer, directly entered the hundred-million-yuan club.
Zhang Chen had, of course, considered replicating this path, but after much deliberation, he realized this path was not for him.
In his previous life, his success came from online movies, and he was most familiar with online movies. And what were the characteristics of online movies?
Look at the themes of online movies: they were either about tomb raiding, folk legends and strange tales, or low-budget monster movies—giant snakes, giant spiders, giant scorpions, water monkeys. They played on novelty and strangeness, focusing on creating a thrilling atmosphere and a touch of eroticism.
These things had nothing to do with comedies. What would be the consequence if he forced himself to make them?
Don't think comedies are easy to make. For a comedy to succeed, it must have suitable actors. Feng's comedies had Ge You, lost on journey had Wang Baoqiang. If you replaced them, it just wouldn't work.
Think about Uncle Benshan's skits; would they still be as funny if Gong Hanlin replaced him?
He was an online movie director, so the simplest method would naturally be to find a successful online movie from later generations, but online movies were highly dependent on special effects.
Those giant snakes, giant spiders, and giant scorpions, with the special effects production level of 2004, would definitely cost a sky-high price to create.
Of course, special effects investment could be appropriately reduced.
But special effects are a matter of getting what you pay for. Monster made with 'five-mao' special effects would look fake at a glance, destined to fail.
Visionaries from later generations once summarized that there are only three globally recognized genres that achieve great success with small investments: comedies, erotic movies, and horror movies.
The comedy path was unfeasible, and erotic movies were even less possible; there was no room for them to exist in China.
So, only the horror movie path remained. Zhang Chen expanded on this idea.
Globally, there were many examples of low-cost, high-return horror movies:
Unfriended cost $1 million and earned $62 million at the box office;
Open Water cost $1.05 million and earned $52 million at the box office;
Get Out cost $4.5 million and earned $255 million at the box office;
the descent cost $3.5 million and earned $57 million globally;
The Sixth Sense, with a star cast, invested $40 million and grossed an astonishing $673 million worldwide, with $290 million from North America alone. Wasn't that a huge profit? And that was a 1999 movie!
With so many vivid examples before him, Zhang Chen decisively chose the descent, which was the easiest to localize.
This movie was originally produced and distributed by a British movie company, costing only $2.5 million, with an additional $1 million for advertising. Yet, it grossed $57 million worldwide. In the current domestic market, Zhang Chen was confident he could produce it for $2 million.
The movie has few scenes; the entire story basically takes place inside a cave, which can save a lot of budget. Moreover, horror movies are notoriously not dependent on actor fame; as long as the acting is good, ordinary actors can perform perfectly.
This could save another large chunk of the budget.
The only real trouble would probably be the monsters, but that could be handled with special effects makeup, and Zhang Chen knew how to do that.
As for the censorship issue, Zhang Chen had also considered it. Filming it exactly like the original the descent would definitely not pass censorship; it was too bloody and violent.
But there was a way to deal with it.
The movie's success lay in creating a tense atmosphere. He could completely avoid the bloody scenes and focus on atmosphere creation. To put it simply, he would change the horror movie into a thriller, which should pass censorship.