The Best Director

Firefly promises so many things to look forward to that they’re almost too numerous to count. Clearly, the “trailer” has recently been one of the major focuses of Firefly’s promotion, while another topic, “IMAX,” has also been explosive, involving its 65mm IMAX film, the high-impact and stunning high-quality large-format climax scenes, the challenges of shooting with the MSN-9802 camera, the ingenious solutions of Pokémon’s brave and wise, and its impending release next year in 70mm IMAX theaters…

This is an exceptionally exciting film, an unprecedented film!! Fans who have read these reports are all feeling a rush of adrenaline. Tickets for IMAX theaters are expensive, but they just can’t wait to watch it and get a satisfying thrill!

“IMAX offers more than just visual pleasure, of course. Compared to ordinary cinemas, it provides an incomparable visual impact—the difference feels like watching the sky with your own eyes versus watching it on a television screen. This is precisely its greatness, the super large format breaks us out of traditional film composition constraints and allows us to realize some extravagant ideas, making the effects of every shot significantly better. After shooting Firefly, we’ve been spoiled by IMAX, falling in love with it! Many people won’t admit it to avoid losing interest in 35mm.”

In recent times, Wang Yang’s various interviews have soared linearly. On the more stable television screen, he has accepted exclusive interviews with media magazines such as “TV Series,” addressing questions like “Are you a bookworm?” and “Will Michael Scofield return to prison?” to satisfy news demands of fans from two highly popular series, as well as his own publicity—even “Desperate Housewives” is mentioned. As for the silver screen, Firefly is naturally a focus, and he also has to say a few good words for the promotion of “Crash.”

“Crash” is set to be released on a large scale in North America on December 17, participating in awards such as the Golden Globes and the Oscars. The commercial value of this film isn’t particularly persuasive, but with years of maintaining good relations and reputation that have never let theater owners take a loss, it has been scheduled to open in 1,855 theaters during the competitive Christmas season, which is quite remarkable for a completely independent film company.

Christopher Nolan’s “Mr. Hughes 2” will be released a week earlier on December 10, aiming for the awards season as well. Meanwhile, “Saw II” is set to land on the beaches on October 29, competing with “The Grudge” and other films for this year’s Halloween season’s audience. Of note, an exciting piece of news for fans has leaked—the first full trailer for Firefly will debut during the advertising slot before “Saw II” in 3,235 theaters!

It’s clear this move is to boost the box office of “Saw II.” For the chance to be the first to catch the Firefly trailer, surely many fans will choose “Saw II” during Halloween, seeing as “SAW” itself is a classic in horror. Not to mention, there will be fans who go to the theaters especially for the Firefly trailer, even though it will quickly be circulating through other channels.

Regardless, “Saw II,” “Mr. Hughes 2,” “Crash,” and “Firefly” are all progressing along their promotional tracks, speeding towards their release dates, with October 29 nearly upon us.

“There is something you must know, she’s a very dangerous person, she holds some secrets you are not supposed to know…”

The suspenseful soundtrack began to play softly as the completed trailer for “Firefly” started on the computer screen. The flame logo flashed by, revealing River in a white dress, curled up asleep in a large box. The deep voice of a man in blue gloves echoed, and the scene quickly shifted to show Mal and others looking at the box in surprise, River’s fierce gaze surrounded by Reavers, and just as she was about to move, the view switched to the emotionless blue gloves on the comm screen: “The secret that will bring Serenity to her end.” Mal’s tone was casual yet intrigued, “Are you talking about the Reavers?” The soundtrack boomed, Director: Wang Yang…

… “I aim to misbehave.” “I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar!” “If I die, please take me back to Serenity Valley.”…

On the computer screen, the vast azure sky was suddenly filled with small spacecraft penetrating the atmosphere, firing indiscriminately at the large warships of both the Alliance and the Reavers up ahead. The terrain on the ground was quite unique, with towering rock pillars standing on the vast loess plateau, the tops of which served as landing platforms for the spacecraft. Then the scene cut, showing a large warship being hit by numerous artillery fires, crashing down onto a mountain peak! This grand scene was the Battle of New Shanxi, first unveiled in the concept art at the Hugo Awards for “Firefly.”

In the editing room in front of the screen, Wang Yang, Margaret, and others watched the carefully crafted trailer in silence. As scenes of the warship falling and close combat flashed by, they couldn’t help but get excited, feeling the emotional atmosphere the film ignited! The 2.5-minute trailer came to an end quickly, and as the soundtrack climbed to a climax before calming down, it ended with a bang, revealing a new frame: “June 17, 2005, Global Release!”

“Wow, this is amazing!” A round of applause erupted, with Margaret, Lee Smith, Joss Whedon, and others clapping their hands, laughing, and praising each other. Just watching the trailer felt like watching a blockbuster! Margaret exclaimed, “This trailer is a classic.” Joss Whedon laughed, “So is the movie!” What more could be said? Recalling the initial worries now seemed completely unnecessary. The brilliant Yang had adapted his script, making such perfect use of it that it was no longer just his screenplay; during this film production, he had learned so much.

“Yes! Of course, it will be.” Wang Yang also self-praised and clapped his hands encouragingly, feeling that at least for now, everything seemed OK, both commercial and artistic! He picked up the mouse and clicked to play the trailer again, thinking of the viral marketing plan for the trailer, and a sly smile appeared on his lips, “Just wait till the day ‘Firefly’ trailers are everywhere! Everywhere! Let’s watch it again, then we start today’s editing work.”

“There’s one thing you have to know, she’s a very dangerous person, holding secrets you’re not supposed to know…”

The flame logo flashed by, and the youthful and sweet Jessica with her backpack walked along the school corridor. While editing “Firefly,” Wang Yang couldn’t wait to see the effect, so he whipped up a “High School Musical” version of the Firefly trailer. With Heath Ledger’s deep voice, the scene swiftly moved to a classroom with Tom Welling and others watching the new student arrive, to Jessica looking puzzled surrounded by singing and dancing classmates in the cafeteria… French fries and ketchup packets flew like a crashing warship, hitting Rachel’s chest!…

The flame logo flashed again, and the impish Natalie, with a pipe in her mouth, sat in a luxurious chair. Wang Yang then tried a “Juno” version of the Firefly trailer, and with Heath Ledger’s words, the scene moved to Natalie walking down the corridor with her belly sticking out, watched intently by other students, to Natalie without the belly, making a serious phone call from her bedroom bed…

However, creating several versions was easy, but how to get netizens to spontaneously produce “The Big Bang Theory” version, “Titanic” version? How to unleash the full power of this viral marketing campaign for the trailer!?

Changing the landscape of internet video sharing was vitally important and decisive. Only by making video upload and editing simple and convenient, and by ensuring videos streamed quickly and smoothly, would netizens be more passionate. If it were a “Firefly” trailer that promoted this change, it would undoubtedly reap immense benefits.

Humans have a strong instinct to share, especially in the era of the internet. People are eager to learn about others and, in turn, eager to share their own stories, just like with Blogger. Wang Yang had this understanding and many ideas for a while. In the past, both “Paranormal Activity” and “High School Musical” had promotional activities involving the upload of video clips. However, due to format technologies and internet speeds, the process was cumbersome and complex. Looking back, the fervor of those times seems almost insignificant compared to the current spread of Blogger and concurrent picture and text promotions.

Wang Yang had a cellphone capable of taking photos and recording video very early on, but he believed that in a few years, everyone’s cellphone would have these features. Plus, with the widespread availability of camcorders and digital cameras capable of recording video, shooting video clips would no longer be something only professionals understood. It would become as common as text and images, a regular way of sharing life online, and the concept of online cinema sales would also be realized.

From the birth of the first network camera in 1991 and the first web browser capable of displaying images in 1993, to the official website of “High School Musical”‘s “Show Yourself” campaign at that time, which has now evolved into the insipid “Video-Blogging” site , we saw the earliest shape of video sharing websites. Shortly thereafter, in the year 2000, Adam Kontras, Adrian Miles, and others introduced the concept of video blogging and created websites. This year, Steve Garfield launched a new video blogging site, saying “this is the year of the video blog,” and won the support of Yahoo. Wang Yang knew that a mature Video-Blogging site was timely and would definitely appear—it was the trend of the era and could be from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, or perhaps, Firefly.

Anyway, he was about to venture into the IT world alone again, financing the establishment of such a site—a hub that would facilitate video sharing. Not only did “Firefly” require it for its viral marketing this time, but it was also an important part of transforming Firefly into a new type of independent media group.

“Mr. Wang, it’s a pleasure to meet you… You want to partner with me to create a new Video-Blogging site?”

Close to Halloween, in the spacious study at his home, Wang Yang was meeting with the invited Chen Shijun. Born in Taiwan on August 1978, Chen moved to Illinois, America, with his parents at the age of eight. In 1999, a few months shy of graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he headed to San Francisco’s Silicon Valley to join a schoolmate’s startup, the third-party payment company PayPal. In 2002, after PayPal went public and was acquired by eBay, he received 2 million US dollars, but almost all of it was spent on a mansion. He had already left PayPal and had just resigned from his engineering job at The-Facebook.

Approaching Chen Shijun seemed natural. Regardless of what the Silicon Valley crowd thought, Wang Yang was still an important figure in the IT world. He had connections and knew that what was most needed now was talent with excellent technical skills. And in this respect, Chen Shijun, who had just resigned, was an expert, so Wang Yang naturally contacted him. But why had Chen left the college social networking site The-Facebook? According to earlier phone conversations, Chen wanted to start a business with his old friend Chad Hurley.

“Yes!” Wang Yang nodded, gestured towards the coffee table with an inviting hand, and smilingly said as he lifted a cup of tea, “Steve, let’s not be so formal.” Chen Shijun, who was sitting next to him on the sofa, nodded in response. He wore black-rimmed glasses, sported a wild hairstyle, and, though he didn’t look handsome, he had a friendly and affable appearance. Wang Yang began from the beginning, “It’s also because of a promotional plan for ‘Firefly.’ For its trailer, I’m going to do something crazy, heh heh, you’ll definitely find out later.”

Looking at the smile of this amazing peer, Chen Shijun didn’t know what to say. Initially, the first Video-Blogging site Showyourself was also meant for movie promotion. With this in mind, he asked, “Showyourself can’t do it?”

“Haha, that piece of junk of mine, the technology and management are both way behind,” Wang Yang immediately shook his head and laughed. Without seeking IT talents to collaborate, he indeed didn’t have the technology to bring a new phase to Showyourself. Wang Yang took a sip of tea and said earnestly, “Sometimes Showyourself even drives me crazy, think about it, uploading a video requires downloading and installing some special software, the tutorials are troublesome and complex; other video websites? COME ON! I don’t even know how many employees they have hired for checking, they even make you wait for more than 5 days! The Iraq War is over, Britney got married and divorced, and married and divorced again, Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction has been adjusted back in place…”

While listening to his earnest yet humorous talk, Chen Shijun felt a surge of astonishment—so the marvelous Yang did know! He was fully aware of the fatal flaws of Showyourself and other video blogging websites: inconvenient uploading and long reviewing times. He and Chad Hurley had discussed this a few times. Originally, they were interested in creating a new video blogging website, which in their eyes wouldn’t be very difficult to do from a technological standpoint; and if they managed it, creating a user-friendly website, they didn’t know how many videography enthusiasts would thank them, nor how many people would be inspired to capture and upload interesting, spontaneous events from all across America.

“Maybe others are too busy to care about these issues,” that was what Chen Shijun had replied to Chad Hurley when asked, “Why doesn’t Wang Yang solve these problems?” But now, Wang Yang’s words clearly indicated, “I am well aware.” It made sense after all—as the founder of DV filmmaking and video blogging websites, how could he not know?

“I know, I know that everyone has a lot of complaints about Showyourself,” Wang Yang could see the hint of surprise in Chen Shijun’s eyes and naturally guessed the thoughts of this IT elite. Not wanting to be taken for a 34-year-old at 24, leading to the perception that “Wang Yang is outdated, I can do it on my own,” even though he could easily find other technical talents to partner with. Still, he would have to persuade that person. Wang Yang organized his words and continued with a laugh, “So, I plan to create a new website, free from everyone’s disdain and complaints towards Showyourself, to make them all like the convenience and speed… I don’t know its name yet, but I know you’re a tech wizard.”

Chen Shijun pondered while taking a sip of his tea, suddenly feeling that his previous underestimation of the marvelous Yang was laughable. The guy was even 2 years younger than him! He was still in the golden age of IT entrepreneurship, having become a Google shareholder not long ago. How could he be behind the times? And it wasn’t his first startup; he knew all too well that running an IT website isn’t just about having the technology, but also the funds, creativity, networking… What’s more frightening is that there are many people capable of solving Showyourself’s problems.

“Steve, to be honest, I’m not in a hurry to solve Showyourself’s problems, nor am I in a hurry to build a new website, simply because the time hasn’t come,” Wang Yang said, tapping his wrist where a watch would be, and smiled earnestly, “Now the time has come, broadband technology is starting to be widely used, providing high-speed uploads and browsing; Flash technology is also becoming widespread, making everything more convenient; most importantly, video equipment and technology are beginning to be massively popular, and soon everyone can be a director anytime, anywhere. What are we waiting for? You know, it’s time.”

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