Chapter 13: The Rise of the Internet (Please collect!)
Zuo Jun called Tao Qu and asked, "Director Tao, how's it going? Are you still satisfied with my work?"
"Great, extremely great, Xiao Zuo! I didn't expect your trick to actually work. Now on Tudou.com, our video is leading all the other entries in both clicks and comments by a wide margin. And I see many of them are fans who came over after seeing your posts. Not bad, not bad!"
"That's my pay..." Zuo Jun still felt a little excited and embarrassed, it was the first time he earned money with his own professional knowledge, and he didn't dare to say too much.
"No problem, I'll transfer those 2,000 yuan to your card as soon as possible. If there's another opportunity in the future, we can cooperate again. You're really a young talent!"
"You're the one who's both young and talented."
"Haha!"
Actually, when Zuo Jun first saw Tao Qu's that alternative microblog post, he started thinking about how he would react if he came across such a post while browsing the web.
Firstly, he will definitely finish reading it because the plot is indeed intriguing and just one topic makes him unable to help himself; secondly, he will definitely not believe it, encountering such a thing and actually posting online for help, how unreliable is that? Are you expecting Taoist priests from Maoshan to go online to gather information about demons and ghosts? This sounds more like a trick to lure people into responding.
Even if you don't believe it, but if someone in the reply claims that this thing is true, and someone has made a film called "The Female Ghost" about it, and attaches a URL link, will you click on it to see?
If it were Zuo Jun, he would definitely click in without hesitation and see what tricks there are.
This is the normal thinking, after sorting out this idea, Zuo Jun thought about doing a deal with Tao Qu. He would help Tao Qu to promote this short film on the internet, covering most of the popular online forums, and in return, Tao Qu would have to pay him some remuneration.
Tao had initially intended to reject Zuo Jun's idea, believing that the quality of his film alone would be enough to guarantee a win. However, he reconsidered and thought that if there were other professionals with similar backgrounds participating in the competition, it could pose a threat. After much deliberation, he decided to collaborate with Zuo Jun, feeling more secure with a double insurance policy. He agreed to pay Zuo Jun 2,000 yuan as compensation, but only after the desired effect had been achieved. To this end, he specifically modified the ending of the story, having the female lead post the notice online.
It has only been two days, and the promotional effect is already very obvious. Among all the entries in the "Lenovo Cup - First Network Original Creative Short Film Competition", "Female Guile" ranks first with 18,000 clicks, far surpassing the second place "High Hand" with 5,100 clicks, let alone the ones behind.
Just as Tao Yue hung up the phone, He Mu's call came in again. He had seen so many hot posts about "The Female Trickster" online and was calling to ask what was going on.
Tao Dao didn't hide anything, and he exposed all the tricks he and Zuo Jun had played. Then he asked He Mu to take a look at the special page of the short video competition on Tudou's homepage. He Mu clicked in as instructed, and saw that the video frame with the title "Female Ghost" was hanging at the top of the list, while the ones behind only showed the names of the shorts. Looking at the click numbers, "Female Ghost" was far ahead.
"Xiao He, don't worry this time, the championship is definitely ours." Tao Qudu said confidently.
In the following days, He Mu continued to pay attention to the short film competition and also watched other high-ranking works. Indeed, Tao's work was the best, which is undeniable, but there were also some works that had unique creative elements that He Mu appreciated.
Meanwhile, the "Female Ghost" online incident triggered by Zuo Jun's hand was still spreading. After he let go, a large number of boring people spread the post that started with "Firstly, I want to talk about my personal experience..." to every corner of the internet, indirectly promoting "Female Ghost". Not only were major forums affected, but also small and insignificant ones, some of which were even flooded multiple times. These posts almost filled up the entire page, and netizens called it "Personal Experience Style".
This online spread event was called "birth experience event", which can be ranked in the top ten of major online events in 05, and has a profound impact, even ten years later, there are still people posting similar posts on the internet to deceive replies.
In short, "personal experience" has become the most popular online event in recent times, and Tao's short video has become the most direct beneficiary. Its clicks have skyrocketed, quickly exceeding 100,000 views, with tens of thousands of comments. Although many people said they were deceived into watching by the post, more gave positive reviews after watching the video. This is just one week's time, and the short film "Female Ghost" has already taken a huge lead over second place, who knows what heights it will reach in the end?
Another beneficiary of this incident is Tudou.com, under the influence of "The Distracted Girlfriend", Tudou's creative short video contest also became popular, even videos ranked after "The Distracted Girlfriend" benefited from it and saw a sharp increase in clicks and ratings.
It was originally a small competition for amateur video enthusiasts, but due to the unpredictability and magic of the online world, it became well-known throughout the industry, with the entire network paying attention. The organizers took advantage of the momentum and negotiated with Lenovo Computers, increasing the promotional efforts and the number of awards and winners, making the most of the opportunity to hype up the original short film competition and Tudou.com's reputation.
The original reward scheme was 200,000 yuan for the champion and only 1,000 yuan in encouragement awards for 2-10th place. After the change, a first prize of one person with a bonus of 300,000 yuan, two second prizes with bonuses of 100,000 yuan each, two third prizes with bonuses of 20,000 yuan each, and five encouragement awards with bonuses of 1,000 yuan each were set up. The registration time for the competition was extended to September 15th, and a press conference will be held on October 1st to announce and award the awards, at which time the creators of the award-winning works will be invited to share interesting stories about the shooting process.
Tao Qu and He Mu greeted each other warmly, and when the time came, he let him follow along to attend the awards ceremony, where each award-winning director had four admission quotas.
He Miao had thanked Tao for the fun, and he would definitely go. At this moment, the main problem he faced was how to adapt to his own small red state. Because he was also a direct beneficiary of this online hype event, netizens' discussions about He Miao were numerous, and Xiao He had unknowingly captured many fans.
In mid-September, He Mu and Li Ke were eating kebabs at a street stall when a young man at the next table saw He Mu and excitedly said, "Hey, aren't you that guy who played that role in that thing online?"
Look, it's already been recognized on the street at dusk, although I still don't know my name and works, as well as the roles I played, but this is already a great motivation for He Mu. The population of the capital is tens of millions, and it can be said that there are countless people, but it's amazing to meet someone who recognizes me, which shows how high the spread of "The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty" is online. Even if people don't remember his name, at least he has become a familiar face.
"Stay calm, don't be proud," whenever someone pointed at He Mu, He Mu would silently recite this sentence to resist the uncontrollable joy, so as not to become complacent.
On the 16th, He Mu returned home from the hospital after removing stitches and received a call from Tao Qudu, "Xiao He, our championship position is about to be lost."
He said this with a smile...
(Buddha said below: The scenery above is great! Old Buddha didn't check the almanac carefully and didn't expect so many big shots to release new books in these few days, most of which are urban articles. Old Buddha's chrysanthemum was numb from being exploded. Now it's 44th on the list, please recommend and click to collect and consolidate~~)
