Nobody knows movies better than me

Chapter 16, "Little Sunshine Girl," has wrapped filming.

While Zhang Jun was filming "Little Miss Sunshine" with the crew, a group meeting was being held at the headquarters of Tianjin Chengxin Real Estate Group.

"The team spent a month conducting on-site inspections of more than a dozen key cities across the country and conducting in-depth research on more than twenty city square and commercial complex projects."

The senior operations director of Chengxin Real Estate Group pointed to the presentation chart and said, "A significant commonality is that there is a general supply gap or insufficient quality of cinema facilities in existing commercial projects, which fails to effectively meet market demand."

He further presented customer survey data: "Based on our joint special interviews with sales offices in various regions with potential homebuyers."

Approximately 70% of customers explicitly stated that including cinemas in community amenities was an important consideration for them.

This demand intensity even surpasses that of traditional supporting facilities such as bank branches and community medical centers in our statistics.

One executive raised a cautious question about the survey data: "Regarding the customer demand ratio mentioned in the report, are the sample selection and statistical methods sound?"

I'm not questioning the team's efforts, but rather we must consider a practical issue.

The overall box office revenue of the current film market remains limited. If we blindly build more cinemas in multiple projects but fail to attract enough moviegoers, resulting in idle equipment, this will undoubtedly constitute a significant investment risk and a waste of resources.

Ye Bingcheng listened to the questions and first expressed his understanding: "I fully understand everyone's concerns."

In business decision-making, it is absolutely necessary and correct to remain cautious when investing resources in any new, unproven area, especially when its profit model is not yet fully clear.

He then tapped the table lightly, drawing everyone's attention back, and shifted the conversation to a more forward-looking perspective.

"However, our strategic planning cannot be based solely on the current market situation. In addition to assessing the current state, we need to determine future consumption trends and customer behavior patterns."

"Mr. Ye, do you mean that cinema facilities will become a key competitive advantage for future real estate projects?" another executive asked.

Ye Bingcheng did not directly affirm this, but instead guided everyone to think in a scenario-based way: "Let's work together to build a specific consumption scenario."

Imagine a young couple coming to our Integrity Square for a weekend date.

With our existing business development and management capabilities, they can enjoy a quality dinner and then go shopping.

But usually, these two activities constitute the end of their trip.

He continued, "There may be a children's playground or video game arcade in the plaza, but these are not the must-haves for all couples."

At this point, they discovered that watching a movie was the perfect way to connect their time after dinner and extend their stay.

Unfortunately, our square is missing this element.

Therefore, to have a complete dating experience, they will likely choose to go to a competitor's shopping mall with a movie theater next time.

Ye Bingcheng summarized: "We have lost not only a single customer's purchase, but also their long-term habitual patronage."

When countless individuals with similar needs converge on their choices, we will lose a huge customer base with high willingness and frequency of consumption.

This is not just about the cinema itself, but about whether we can provide a complete and engaging consumer ecosystem.

It determines whether our business project is the final destination for consumers or just a transit point in their consumption chain.

These were the exact words Zhang Jun had said to Ye Bingcheng, which Ye Bingcheng then put into practice and shared with his own executives.

Seeing that the executives were deep in thought, Ye Bingcheng further elaborated on his point of view: "We must redefine the role of cinemas in commercial complexes."

It is far more than just an old-fashioned place for showing movies.

With the booming development of the domestic film industry, the new generation of multiplex cinemas is becoming a new standard for urban consumption.

They will serve as a key driver of foot traffic, injecting a stable and vibrant flow of people into the entire business district.

He looked around the conference room and said with certainty, "For urban commercial complexes, foot traffic is the lifeline. I believe everyone here understands the logic behind this."

The cinemas bring in this high-quality customer traffic, which significantly extends customer dwell time and stimulates related spending.

At this moment, his deputy, General Manager Zheng, chimed in, "General Manager Ye's analysis is indeed insightful and far-sighted, showing us the potential for growth beyond our traditional business planning perspective. It is truly inspiring."

"Alright, Lao Zheng."

Ye Bingcheng raised his hand to signal, then his expression turned decisive: "Let's leave the discussion on necessity here. Now let's move on to the implementation phase."

His gaze turned to the relevant department head: "The Strategic Development Office, in conjunction with the Planning Department, must submit a feasibility report and preliminary implementation plan for the construction of a self-operated cinema chain within two weeks."

Our goal is clear: the first flagship cinema of the Integrity Cinema Chain must officially open and begin operations within next year.

Ye Bingcheng was the undisputed leader of Chengxin Group, and his decisions were virtually impossible to oppose. Thus, Zhang Jun disrupted the strategic decisions of a real estate group.

The real estate market is booming these days, and real estate developers are very wealthy. Even those without money can obtain substantial sums from banks through real estate projects.

As it turns out, real estate deals often end up being a mess. But that's none of Zhang Jun's business; to secure investment, he naturally has to say things that Ye Bingcheng wants to hear.

Moreover, his assessment of the cinema industry was not a lie; the cinema market does indeed have great potential for the next decade or so.

As September arrived, Ye Xiaoyi returned to Tsinghua University for her studies. She was a senior this year and had one more year until graduation.

Zhang Jun felt very jealous when he thought about how Ye Xiaoyi would have a film production company to play with right after graduation.

But there's no way around it; perhaps the challenging directorial career is the main focus of the game. However, since the game is uninstalled, there's no data panel to provide feedback on everything Zhang Jun has done.

Ultimately, it depends on the market and the audience's reaction to determine whether Zhang Jun's work at each stage was successful.

The filming of "Little Miss Sunshine" was not complicated, taking place from Heilongjiang Province down the mountain, shooting along the way. By mid-September, the film had completed the shooting of the last scene in Beijing.

As is customary, there is usually a wrap party after filming wraps.

This was Zhang Jun's first wrap party since his transmigration, but there was nothing special about it. Everyone ate some food, offered toasts, and that was it.

Li Baotian, Fan Wei, and others were not the type to have fun, so the atmosphere at the wrap party was quite formal.

"Teacher Li, let me toast you!" Zhang Jun raised his small wine glass and clinked it against Li Baotian's.

Li Baotian didn't drink first, but instead asked, "Director Zhang, when will our movie be released?"

"It depends on the situation. We need to complete post-production first, and then find a distributor to handle the distribution."

Zhang Jun replied, "But I believe that seeing this movie released within the year should not be a problem."

"That's good, that's good!"

Li Baotian finished his drink: "If you need any help, give me a call. Although I can't help with the distribution, I do have some connections."

"If you need it, I won't hesitate to ask."

After talking with Li Baotian, Zhang Jun chatted with Fan Wei for a while.

"Mr. Fan Wei, thank you so much for your help. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get into the filming so easily."

Zhang Jun was referring to Fan Wei's introduction of Song Dandan to act in the play, and Song Dandan proved with her outstanding performance that she was indeed the most suitable candidate.

Fan Wei replied, "Your story is really good. As long as the story is good, good actors will be happy to join."

Even the best script needs to be seen in the final cut.

Zhang Jun assured him, "Don't worry, the final product of our film will definitely be of excellent quality, and the audience will love it."

After the wrap party, Zhang Jun immediately threw himself into post-production.

Although there is the original film as a reference, his heavily modified version could easily be called a new movie.

Therefore, Zhang Jun had to put a lot of effort into post-production, using editing to construct the complete version of the film in his mind.

In addition, the film also needs to address some technical issues, such as the audio mixing process.

Film is an audiovisual art experience, where hearing and sight are equally important. A good film can be appreciated simply by listening to it.

Therefore, Zhang Jun attaches great importance to sound processing. There are not many people in the Chinese entertainment film industry who pay attention to this aspect, and there are not many professionals in it either.

So Zhang Jun had to do it all himself, from editing to mixing and sound effects.

Another important task was the soundtrack. With a limited budget, "Little Miss Sunshine" couldn't afford a big-name composer.

Even top-tier composers probably wouldn't work with Zhang Jun; the low pay is one factor, but the main issue is Zhang Jun himself.

What can a student do? It's not even a student work from a Beijing Film Academy graduate.

Of course, if the money is right, it's not difficult to find an average composer.

In fact, these days, top-tier directors in China especially love to collaborate with Japanese composers. Although they charge higher fees, their work is indeed excellent.

However, this also reflects a problem: the shortage of talent in Chinese-language film and television scoring.

On a broader scale, the problem lies in the shortage of behind-the-scenes talent.

It is precisely because of the lack of outstanding talent that these great directors prefer to use people from other places.

For example, in the field of special effects production, there is currently not a single reliable special effects production company in the Chinese film and television industry.

If you want to create some special effects, you either have to figure it out yourself or spend a lot of money to hire special effects studios in South Korea or Japan to do it.

For those working behind the scenes in the Chinese film and television industry, this amount of money is astronomical.

Of course, the reason for this phenomenon is that the film market is not large enough to support so many behind-the-scenes talents.

In the decades that followed, the training of behind-the-scenes talent caught up, making up for the shortcomings in the Chinese-language film and television industry.

However, what happened decades later had little to do with Zhang Jun. In order to complete the music composition, Zhang Jun found two students from a music academy.

Because they hummed the tune themselves, the two students composed music based on the melody and worked together to create the accompaniment.