Canada Toronto.
This year's Toronto International Film Festival starts on September 11th, is expected to last for 11 days, and ends on September 21st.
Unlike the three major European film festivals, the Toronto International Film Festival is a typical non-competitive film festival that only conducts screenings. However, perhaps this is also the case. Even though this year is already the 22nd edition, the influence of the Toronto International Film Festival is still limited, not even as good as the Sundance Film Festival, which has caught up in recent years.
Today is the third day of the Toronto Film Festival. News of "Titanic"'s rave reviews after its premiere yesterday has just exploded in major mainstream media around the world. Daenerys Entertainment's New World Pictures will usher in another The premiere of another major film.
"Records of Ghosts".
An important sign that Daenerys Entertainment Group no longer retains any remaining power is that the three subsidiaries of Daenerys Pictures, New World Pictures and Highgate Pictures no longer accommodate each other's schedules and can each arrange their own projects. , and even compete with each other.
An official film festival theater in downtown Toronto.
It's Saturday afternoon.
Compared with the huge lineup when "Titanic" premiered in Venice yesterday, even though it also had high hopes from the New World Pictures team, the premiere lineup of "The Ghost Story" was much smaller.
Fortunately, with the appeal of Daenerys Entertainment, many celebrities and media still came to support the event, so a red carpet was still set up.
It's just that it's also a lot simplified. The entry time is only half an hour, and there is no deliberate distinction between the media area and the fan area.
It wasn't until nearly six o'clock that several of the main creators of "The Ghost Story" appeared on the red carpet. In order to support the newcomers, Danny Morris, the president of New World Pictures, personally led the team. This caused a stir on both sides. Some enthusiasm from the media.
After some interaction, Danny Morris entered the theater with Lin Yibin, Amy Adams and others, and other media reporters and movie fans who had tickets outside the red carpet also began to enter.
Two beautiful and eye-catching Slavic girls were among them.
These are sisters Galina and Eva Banshikova.
Simon came here to stay one night at the opening of the film festival the day before yesterday. The Banshikova sisters and the mother of the two girls, Natalia, were picked up in advance. Simon left urgently yesterday because Galina was acting coquettishly and was raped by a man. Agree to play here for a week.
There are not many places to visit in Toronto, so since a film festival happened to be held, I came to join in the fun.
Natalia is not a person who likes to join in the fun and rarely even goes out, so there are only two sisters.
As for the tickets for the premiere of "The Ghost Story", although not everyone can get it if they want it, the women around Simon still have this little benefit.
Entering the theater, the two girls found their seats and sat down. The two Wei family maids, one on the left and one on the right, immediately took their seats, causing some members of the opposite sex who wanted to come over to strike up a conversation to have no choice but to walk away.
Seeing the deflated looks of some of the men around her, Galina couldn't help but smile proudly.
Next to her, Eva Banshikova, who was still petite and not very tall, curled her lips slightly when she saw her sister like this. Then she remembered another thing and asked: "Sister, the business card that the talent scout just gave you, do you know how to do it?" Do you still keep it?”
Galina looked around curiously, raised her chin slightly and shook her head when she heard this, "Throw it away."
Eva nodded with satisfaction.
Galina then said with a little regret: "It would be great if we could also be stars, but Simon seems to disagree."
Eva tilted her face slightly and glanced at her sister next to her. If she could become a star just by looking at her face, of course she would have no problem. But unfortunately, it would definitely not work based on her face alone. As for her sister, speaking of it, she had nothing to do with her mother. Pretty much, except for the face, there seems to be nothing else.
Of course, with their man's power in Hollywood, if they really want to be stars, even if they only have faces, there is no problem.
It was obvious that the man had no such intention.
Eva could even figure it out.
In this world, many rich and powerful people like to be celebrities, and even deliberately make the women around them celebrities to satisfy their sense of vanity. However, he is obviously not like this, or, to be more precise, the position of that man is too high. Gao, there is no need to use any stars to decorate themselves. As for those powerful people who gain a sense of accomplishment by dating celebrities, it is even more of a joke to him.
If the man wants, he can throw out a bunch of stars at his fingertips.
Since it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter whether the woman around him is a celebrity or not. In fact, for some collection reasons, he will deliberately not let the women around him show up.
The three of them, mother and daughter, are probably like this.
Since she was sure that the man had this mentality, Eva would not do anything that might annoy him, and she also wanted to avoid doing this as much as possible from the stupid sister around her.
The lights in the hall dimmed, Eva put her thoughts away and looked at the big screen.
After the opening credits of New World Pictures, the picture goes directly to the main point, but compared to other films, the picture on the big screen is obviously a bit rough.
Before Eva realized anything, Galina beside her could not help complaining: "What is this?"
Eva didn't bother to explain.
If this sister was a little more attentive, she should know the general story of this movie.
The first iRec movie.
Since it is a movie shot with a non-professional handheld digital camera, it is strange that the picture is not like this.
In the screening room, even if they had learned about it in advance, some viewers could not help but complain similar to Galina when they first saw the picture that was not even as good as the TV series. This made several film creators in the front row feel the restlessness around them. Somewhat nervous.
If they don't get recognition from the audience, their work for more than half a year will be in vain.
As a director, Lin Yibin is better, because he has signed a three-film contract with Daenerys Entertainment, and he can feel that Daenerys Entertainment values him.
As newcomers, the hero and heroine of the film are not in such a relaxed mood. Even if they have signed a contract with the agency, if the movie fails to make a splash, they will still have to climb up from the bottom step by step.
Thinking of this, Amy Adams, as the heroine, even subconsciously held the hand of Jessica Chastain next to her.
The two girls of similar age have similar low-income backgrounds, similar bumpy life experiences, and even similar not-so-distinguished appearances. Therefore, during the filming process, they naturally became a pair of good sisters. Originally, the two women had quietly discussed in private whether Simon Westeros personally selected them because he was interested in them.
If the answer is yes, even if the two of them are together, they remember that it was exposed in the past two years. This is someone's preference, and they can't ask for it.
Unfortunately, until the latest meeting at the opening party the day before yesterday, the aloof young tycoon had said nothing.
This also means that they can only rely on their own abilities to climb up.
The film in front of them seems to be an experimental work. Compared with other Hollywood films, the cost is low and dispensable. However, they understand that this is a very important threshold.
Because Daenerys Entertainment attaches great importance to this project, it is even rumored that Simon Westeros personally provided the idea.
As long as they can succeed, they will become famous in one fell swoop.
Fortunately, the commotion in the screening room did not get too serious and quickly calmed down.
On the big screen, with the dialogue between the male and female protagonists, the general background of the story is revealed to the audience.
This is a young couple who just lived together. Because he discovered that there were supernatural events in the apartment, the boy purchased an iRec digital camera and made certain modifications so that it could record the supernatural events that occurred in the apartment for a long time. .
From the modification of the iRec digital camera, we can actually see the seriousness of the details in the film.
Of course, this is also to prevent someone from taking advantage of this detail in the future and accusing the crew of using iRec that is not the official iRec advertised.
As for the real situation, the boy asked his friends to help with modifications. The 'friend' here is actually a professional engineer from Tinco Bayer. However, if someone can pick out this 'thorn' in the future, then Daenerys Entertainment will also recognize it.
Simon specially explained these detailed arrangements mainly to avoid the mistakes of "Blair Witch".
"Blair Witch" in the original time and space was completely successful through fraudulent publicity. If the film's distribution company was not a fledgling small company, but a big seven company, it is difficult to say whether anyone would jump out and claim compensation. In the West, People often resort to the conduct of lawyers, and this kind of thing is completely possible.
Moreover, even if the original "Blair Witch" was not entangled in lawsuits, it still ruined the pseudo-documentary genre by itself after establishing it.
Because if you don't take into account the fraudulent publicity of the film, "Blair Witch" really sucks.
In comparison, "The Ghost Story" is a truly outstanding mockumentary movie. In order to directly establish the mockumentary genre through this project, Simon paid great attention to every detail.
In the screening room.
The film also lived up to Simon's expectations.
After the initial commotion, the audience quickly entered the plot following the interaction between the male and female protagonists.
Compared with the original rough cut version of 130 minutes, the final film, according to Simon's request, is exactly 100 minutes, and the prefix of the story is 20 minutes, which is 10 minutes shorter than the rough cut version. Speaking of which, it is exactly the same as yesterday's "Titanic" The prelude of "No." is quite good.
20 minutes is a very appropriate length of intro.
It can fully explain the background of the story and get to the point before the audience loses their patience.
On the big screen, the ghostly journey begins at the 21st minute.
Of course nothing too strange happened in the first night, but just the sense of urgency brought by the still picture from the special angle had already aroused the audience's mood.
Then, the story progresses one by one.
From the initial door opening and closing automatically, to the heroine starting to sleepwalk, to the appearance powder spread by the hero and heroine being messed up by unknown things, the audience's mood was constantly lifted.
till the end.
After the male protagonist discovered his girlfriend sleepwalking again, he chased her out, but did not reappear. Only the female protagonist with a strange expression appeared in the camera again as if she had floated into the bedroom, holding a sharp knife dripping with blood in her hand. The strange-looking heroine wanders around the bedroom briefly, finally looks at the camera, and then swoops over with her whole face.
Click—
With the sound of shattering, the movie stopped abruptly.
"ah!"
In the screening hall, the audience, which had been suppressed for more than an hour, finally screamed as the heroine made this last move.
Galina Banshikova, who was sitting in the center of the hall with the best view, held her sister tightly with one arm and patted her chest: "It's so scary, so scary, um, there are subtitles, um... Police No. Micah's body was found the next day, but Katie was missing and her whereabouts are still unknown. What does this mean? It can't be true, can it? "
Eva wanted to give her sister a look.
However, even if the subtitles at the end of the film are not the finishing touch, they do serve as the icing on the cake. They are a kind of relief after raising the audience's curiosity, and they are also a complement to the film. After all, the main feature of the film is in The most terrifying moment ends. Although it is scary for a while, it inevitably gives people a feeling of no beginning and no end.
And since it is a pseudo-documentary, the male protagonist is dead and the female protagonist is missing, so it is impossible to shoot some follow-up from a third perspective, so adding a subtitle is just right.
After the subtitles were added, the credits began to appear on the big screen.
not long.
So it ends quickly.
When the lights came on, there was a brief moment of silence in the auditorium, and then there was warm applause.
Those who can come to watch the movie today, whether they are media reporters, film critics or ordinary viewers, are basically veterans who often spend time in the film industry. Even though they initially thought the movie was a bit rough, after watching the whole movie, I can say that this movie is good. Bad, basically everyone can judge.
All in all, no one can deny that this is a very brilliant experimental film.
Danny Morris once again personally brought several main creators to the stage to start the media interaction session.
The first reporter who got the opportunity to ask a question asked a very worthy question: "Excuse me, Mr. Lin, how did you come up with the idea of using iRec to shoot such a movie?"
Although he had already made several films, Lin Yibin still had a newcomer mentality at this time, and he was already nervous. When he heard this question, he didn't know how to answer it.
It was an idea provided by a certain Hollywood mogul himself, including shooting with iRec.
However, after the film was completed, the other party did not have any signature on the project and personally told him not to mention himself. Lin Yibin really didn't know how to answer for a while.
In fact, if you want to deal with reporters, just do it casually.
However, since a certain tycoon was involved, Lin Yibin instinctively did not dare to be so casual.
Fortunately, there is also Danny Morris on the stage.
Of course, the president of New World Pictures understands his boss's thoughts. Simon is now pursuing the invisible state in all aspects and minimizing his public exposure. Not only this project, but also "Titanic" premiered in Venice yesterday. The amazing theme song of "No. 1" was even given up by my own boss, and he wouldn't let anyone mention it.
Seeing that Lin Yibin was stuck, Danny Morris naturally took the question and started to talk skillfully: "Since the birth of iRec, many filmmakers have been making similar attempts in the past two years. Daenerys Entertainment has always encouraged innovation. The idea of "The Ghost Story" is so brilliant that I certainly won't miss it."