Strange Life of a Cat
Chapter 368 - Chapter 368 Chapter 360 Production Cost

Chapter 368: Chapter 360 Production Cost Chapter 368: Chapter 360 Production Cost Er Yuan watched her dad waste her milk and cried out “Ah” “Ah” twice, a bit anxiously, unable to express more complex thoughts.

Seeing Ermao still fixated on the television, Er Yuan grew displeased, patting the small chair and voicing her dissatisfaction.

“Dad—- Dad—-”

Hearing Er Yuan’s cries, Ermao finally turned around and handed the milk to Er Yuan.

“Daughter, that Black Coal actually went to Film a movie!”

“Black?” Er Yuan didn’t quite understand what filming a movie meant, but she knew that the “Black Coal” her dad referred to was Black. Like Zhuo Xiaomao, she and Little Wei also called Zheng Tan “Black.”

“Exactly, exactly, it must be that fellow, I knew it at a glance, no other cat could act like that, that look in its eyes is mischievously sly.”

Er Yuan, cradling the cup, drank her milk, pondering what her dad meant by “mischievously sly.” Not figuring it out after a while, she decided not to think about it anymore–drinking the milk was more important. When she would see Black later on, she’d just imitate her dad and say “mischievously sly” to Black.

Ermao had no clue about his daughter’s thoughts; he was still shocked by the movie trailer he had just seen. He had been busy taking care of his wife and child last year and hadn’t paid much attention to Black Coal, and now, to his surprise, it had already starred in a movie!

What a life!

After some thought, Ermao felt he couldn’t calm the curiosity and astonishment in his heart, but it wasn’t appropriate to barge upstairs and ask; that cat was probably out and about, who knows, maybe even chatting up a female cat.

If Zheng Tan knew what Ermao was thinking, he would definitely rush over to beat him up.

Looking at the cellphone on the table, Ermao picked it up, saw Er Yuan drinking her milk attentively, told her to put the cup aside after finishing, and to play quietly for a while on her own. If something came up, she should just call out, and he would go next door to make a phone call.

The nanny was airing out the laundry, and after informing her, Ermao walked to the next room, closed the door, scrolled through his contacts, and dialed Wei Leng directly.

Wei Leng was at the company, checking several transportation documents and stamping them. Feeling a bit tired from looking at documents, he stepped out for some fresh air. Hearing from Ermao over the phone, Wei Leng wondered why he was calling at this time. As soon as the call connected, Wei Leng heard Ermao’s excited chatter.

“Bro, do you know, Black Coal actually went to film a movie! Not a pet advertisement, a real movie, acting with a few little stars, the kind that goes on the big screen, a big movie!”

Wei Leng choked on the word “know,” and it took him a while to understand what was being said.

“Speak properly!” Wei Leng said.

Ever since his daughter Er Yuan started talking, Ermao had been conversing frequently with her. Although he taught Er Yuan many words, Ermao also picked up some unclear pronunciations and habits from speaking to toddlers, like saying “eat food” as “eat din-din” or “sleep” as “sleepy bye.” It would have been fine if he only spoke that way to his child–as many parents do–but Ermao talked like that even when they all gathered together, mixed with some baby talk, giving everyone the shivers. A group of grown men talking like that, Wei Leng thought he’d punch him directly.

But Black acting in a movie? He seemed to have heard similar news last year, thinking it was just like shooting advertisements with the Pet Center, and didn’t take it seriously, but now, could it be real?

“What’s it called?”

Wei Leng walked into his office, sat beside the computer, and searched for the movie “Black Cat” as Ermao had described. The cast list didn’t include the cat’s name, just a few actors and the director’s introductions. However, from what promotion materials he found, it seemed the director told the media that the featured Black Cat was borrowed from a friend, a trained Black Cat everyone called “Z,” of an unknown breed.

Seeing this, Wei Leng laughed, “Z” indeed, unknown breed indeed, clearly it was Black Coal. Now it even had a pseudonym, not just one stage name but concocting a second one.

While he was looking, Ermao called again.

“Did you see? It’s that Black Coal, right?” Although it was a question, there was a sureness to it; Ermao didn’t doubt his own eyes.

“Yeah.” Wei Leng kept browsing the web while on the phone, just having finished the online trailer. With nothing else urgent at the moment and this incident piquing his interest, he decided to take a closer look.

“Hey, bro, the release date isn’t far off, how about we go see the movie together when it’s out? Give Black Coal some more box office support?” Ermao suggested hopefully. He rarely went to the cinema; in fact, few films intrigued him enough. When he felt like watching a movie, a quick online search revealed that, heh, copyrights were just a word, after all.

“Sure, we’ll go together.” Wei Leng was quite looking forward to it as well. As one of the early acquaintances of that Black Cat, Wei Leng had a good idea of what the cat was really like.

“By the way, bro, can you bring kids into the cinema? It’s been so long since I’ve been to one, I’m not sure about the rules,” Ermao inquired.

“I think there aren’t any restrictions, but you want to take Er Yuan to the cinema? Isn’t she too young, just a year and a half old? Also, cinemas are loud, the air quality is poor, and the flickering screen could affect a child’s hearing and eyesight.” Wei Leng remembered what his wife had once said, and relayed it to Ermao.

“I see, I’ll ask around some more then.” Ermao actually was keen on taking his daughter to the movie. If his wife hadn’t returned by then, should he go alone? Even though he’d be with his brothers, Ermao still hoped to bring his daughter, especially since it was Black Coal’s movie, his daughter’s Black. Wouldn’t it be proper to support it at the cinema? But indeed, the cinema environment wasn’t very good for a child.

Thus, for the rest of the time, Ermao pondered how to reduce the impact of the cinema on his child.

The Jiao family also found out about the upcoming movie release and downloaded the trailer to watch several times, though regretfully, it was too short. They just hoped the premiere date would arrive soon.

Before the premiere, everyone was busy with promotions. The actors were not very famous, with many newcomers. Assuming only the handful of idol stars caused a moderate stir, there were no other selling points.

The director? Also someone without much fame, compared to those household-name big directors, everyone is still pretty unfamiliar with Kong Han. However, this time, with new elements involved, the attraction to many has increased significantly.

The plot isn’t innovative, but you can watch cats!

Ever since the trailer aired, there’s been quite a bit of speculation about what the box office for this film will be.

Some are mocking certain scenes in the trailer, saying who knows how much money was thrown in to achieve such effects.

It’s common knowledge that domestic movie special effects are often unbearable to witness. Why are foreign blockbusters consistently budgeted in the tens and hundreds of millions of US dollars while domestic productions are much cheaper? The former’s CGI starts at $10,000 per second, whereas those laughable domestic effects might cost only a few hundred to a few thousand RMB per second. The gap in these costs is thus made evident.

There’s a reason people say you get what you pay for.

In film-related forums, many “professionals” are analyzing how the effects in this film must have cost tens of millions, right?

“Back then, ‘Cat and Dog War,’ ‘Babe,’ and other animal-themed films had production costs in the tens of millions of US dollars. How can you shoot an animal-themed movie in our country with that kind of money? Isn’t that asking for trouble? Just throwing away money, isn’t it?”

“Although animal-themed movies are popular, the production costs are so high that nobody in China really wants to touch them. I didn’t expect Kong Han to actually take on such a task this time. Gotta say, the director is too young.”

“Tens of millions of US dollars in production costs, and I’ll definitely check it out to see just how real that cat looks, especially in the trailer where it stands up and walks–it’s so natural. Just for the computer graphics alone, how much money must’ve been spent!” These are the people who love big-budget films. They find the small productions too rough around the edges. They belong to the sort who only buy the expensive, not the appropriate.

Some are going for the production costs and CG effects, others for the “cat” element.

“I don’t know who Wei Wen is, never heard of Shi Xiaotian, I just want to see the cat inside.”

“There aren’t many other films to watch anyway, it’s rare for a domestic cat movie to come out, might as well support our own, it’s not that expensive.”

“Hey, that cat looks pretty much like my Meiqiu!” Following is a large picture, proof in the pudding.

Turns out, the cat in the photo does resemble Zheng Tan quite a bit, but then there are lots of similar-looking domestic cats in China.

Aside from this netizen, other black cat owners have been posting their photos in succession.

Before the release, all kinds of CGI professionals were bickering online, just waiting to see the overall effects after the premiere and then carry out further analysis to settle their debates on who was right and who was wrong. Zheng Tan didn’t believe there were no behind-the-scenes manipulators in this, but hey, that’s movies for you–a bit of pre-release promotion and manipulation is to be expected.

What made Zheng Tan chuckle the most was how some people brought up Yang Yi as a joke.

“Heard Yixing Culture invested tens of millions of US dollars in a movie this time, anyone got the scoop?”

“Tens of millions of US dollars? Bullshit, how many movies can you shoot in China with that kind of money! Only you would believe those rumors, it’s definitely just hype!”

“It’s possible, you know, the CGI looks pretty good. Maybe it’s true, after all, Yang Yi has the money to splurge.”

“Who’s Yang Yi?”

“You don’t know Yang Yi above? The big boss of Yixing Culture, Mr. Yang!”

“I kneel before Mr. Yang!”

…

23rd floor: “But, I heard that the production cost of this movie was only a few million, and it’s RMB.”

24th floor: “The idiot upstairs is beyond explanation; don’t tell me you’re on the same technical forum as me.”

25th floor: “Idiot on the 23rd floor.”

26th floor: “Idiot on the 23rd floor +1.”

…

Zheng Tan watched those posts with amusement, not knowing much about production costs himself, but he’d heard from Kong Han that the budget for this movie wasn’t high–relatively speaking, it was a low-budget production. If what Kong Han said was true, then everyone in those so-called technical forums were complete monkeys.

Nobody believed that the scenes were performed by Zheng Tan himself, especially those stunts, eye expressions, and subtle facial movements without the aid of CGI or so-called stunt robots; the few stand-in cats Kong Han had recruited were actually not used, and ended up just getting fatter.

However, regardless, “Black Cat” had indeed caused a stir before its release due to the controversy over its production costs, bringing attention to everyone from Yang Yi and Kong Han to all the actors and the post-production team. Yixing Culture also became known to many.

As for the promotional effect, it has been achieved. (To be continued. If you enjoyed this book, you’re welcome to vote for it with recommendation votes or monthly tickets at Qidian (NovelFire.net). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.NovelFire.net to read.)