Chapter 202 The script that asked Yan Lan to take the initiative to reduce her salary

"The boss wants to make a martial arts drama?"

Qiao Yinghong is very good at reading people. After managing the studio for so long, she has figured out the boss's character.

Although Fang Xing looks very young, Qiao Yinghong can feel that the boss sometimes talks wildly on the show, but in fact he is very calm in his work.

"There are plans to make a TV series. The current idea is to make a martial arts TV series, but not a traditional martial arts TV series." Fang Xing explained briefly.

Qiao Yinghong nodded and thought about it, then asked: "Does the boss plan to invest on his own? Or come up with a project to attract investment from film and television companies?"

Regarding investment, Fang Xing has already considered it: "We will invest our own money. If a film and television company wants to invest, we can also consider it, but the premise is that the capital will not interfere with the production of the series."

Qiao Yinghong probably understood what it meant, and asked again: "Does the boss plan to cooperate with the film and television company? Or find someone to build a crew ourselves? If we form a team ourselves, I'm afraid things will be very cumbersome."

A film crew is very complicated inside and out.

If you don't have a mature crew, it will be very energy-consuming to build a crew from scratch.

More importantly, the crew itself also has a circle.

If you are not in the circle and want to form a team, there will be many problems that are difficult to solve.

Not to mention the core members such as the director and cinematographer.

Let’s just talk about the prop team. If you are not an acquaintance, it is not easy to find a reliable prop team.

Add to this the lighting, set management, actor coordination, and group performances. If you want to start from scratch, you won't be able to do it within a year or two.

"Find a mature crew to work with. If you know a crew over there, you can make an appointment to chat. I'm going to have a meal with Yan Lan and He Rongchang in two days to see if there are any opportunities for cooperation."

Fang Xing does not plan to open a film and television company, so he does not need to form a crew by himself. It is easiest to find a crew to cooperate with.

Qiao Yinghong has been a manager for so many years. Although she has always managed singers, she occasionally involves actors, variety shows, and film appointments, so she still has some connections in the film and television industry.

She thought for a moment and said, "If that's the case, I'll try to visit Zheng Lisong's crew. Their film will be finished this month. I can try to see if I can continue the film they just finished and work together on a film."

"

Sometimes, when a movie is being filmed.

The film and television company feels that this crew is reliable and will invest in another film.

…

After the work meeting.

Fang Xing sent Yan Lan a WeChat message: Sister, happy New Year.

Yan Lan: The Lantern Festival is over, why don’t you just think of paying New Year greetings now?

Fang Xing: Isn’t it because the 2G network speed in my hometown is too slow, so it was only delivered now?

Yan Lan: Nonsense. Tell me, what is it?

Fang Xing: Let’s have dinner tomorrow. If Director He is free, call us.

Yan Lan: It turned out that I wanted to talk about work, but I wasn’t happy about it.

Fang Xing: Let’s talk about it when we meet, I promise you’ll be happy.

After a few more nonsense words, the chat ended.

The next night.

Fang Xing called Qiao Yinghong and made a reservation at Shanghai Lilac Restaurant to have dinner with Yan Lan and He Rongchang.

Both parties arrived ten minutes early, just in time to enter the restaurant.

We are both punctual people, so working together in this way will save a lot of trouble.

As a manager, Qiao Yinghong met Yan Lan and He Rongchang many times during the Spring Festival Gala rehearsals.

She took the initiative to reach out and said, "I haven't seen you for a while, and Teacher Yan is becoming more and more brilliant."

Yan Lan smiled happily and said, "Mr. Qiao really knows how to praise people."

After the four of them sat down, they ordered their meals and before the food was served, they drank some red wine and started chatting.

Fang Xing took the initiative to bring up the business: "I have a script that I plan to make into a TV series. I am in the process of preparing it. The first thing I thought of was Director He and Sister."

Yan Lan laughed angrily and said, "I'm just telling you, it's not that nice. If you invite me to dinner, you really want to talk about work."

She said this, but she was very interested in the script Fang Xing told him.

Because the previous skit "Hello, Li Huanying" won the first place in the language program in the audience voting after the Spring Festival Gala, and there was a big gap between it and the second place.

The success of this skit is, firstly, because of the actors' good acting, and secondly, the script is the foundation of everything.

If you don't have a good script, it will be useless no matter how talented the actor is.

Therefore, Yan Lan was curious about the script Fang Xing told him and asked: "Where is the script?"

Fang Xing took out two scripts printed on A4 paper from his bag, handed them over and said, "This is the first half of the script. The rest of the script has not been sorted out yet. Let's see if you are interested."

Yan Lan was not polite. She took it over and opened it to read: "This is... a sitcom?"

Fang Xing nodded and replied: "Yes, I have seen the sitcom "Health Center" that you collaborated on, so I wanted to ask if you are interested."

A few years ago, He Rongchang and Yan Lan collaborated on a sitcom.

This sitcom is not a big hit, but it has a good reputation. It is a sitcom with a small investment and a good return rate.

However, sitcoms have limitations.

The investment is small, so we can’t hire big-name actors.

If the investment is large, it will be difficult to recover the cost.

The main reason is that the management does not have much confidence in sitcoms and it is difficult to make large investments.

Sitcom itself is not the kind of project suitable for large investments. It is best to find actors with good acting skills and low prices to perform.

besides.

Sitcoms are not like idol dramas. If you find a young talent to star in the drama, the drama itself does not need to be of high quality. You can gain a wave of success just by showing off your face. If you stir up the CP, it will become popular very easily.

This also leads to the endless stream of ancient puppet online dramas on the market. They don’t need to work hard to polish the scripts, and they can make a lot of money after they are filmed.

Sitcoms are different.

It's not an idol drama, just relying on your face won't do it.

Moreover, most comedians cannot rely on their faces to make a living.

This causes screenwriters to polish their scripts and actors to polish their acting skills.

The crew put a lot of effort into making the drama, but the result may not be as popular as the ancient idols who rely on their faces and filters to make a living.

It's simply thankless.

Under the vicious cycle, investors are becoming less and less confident in sitcoms.

He Rongchang has filmed sitcoms, so he knows that sitcoms are now a thankless type.

As a director, he definitely wants to become famous and make more money.

Therefore, when he heard that the script was a sitcom, he was interested, but he didn't have much confidence.

However, he still opened the script and read it for a while.

Judging from the scripts of the first two episodes, this one is pretty good.

This was He Rongchang's first feeling.

However, to truly determine whether this script has potential, you need to go back and read the script carefully.

It's dinner now, so I don't have time to slowly read the script. I can only briefly browse the first few episodes to get a rough impression.

He closed the script and said: "The first few episodes looked good. However, the market for sitcoms is not very good now, and it is troublesome to attract investment. Do you plan to invest by yourself, or find a film and television company to cooperate?"

Fang Xing did not hesitate and answered directly: "I will invest myself. If there is a film and television company that wants to invest, we can also negotiate, but the premise is that the management will not interfere in the filming of the series."

He Rongchang could tell that Fang Xing was very confident in the script.

He thought about it and said: "Today's sitcoms are different from the environment ten years ago. A sitcom ten years ago could be produced with only 100,000 yuan per episode.

"Now the shooting cost has increased. The cost of shooting each episode has approached one million, and I can't save much even if I want to."

If calculated based on the price of 1 million per episode, this means that filming a 40-episode drama will cost at least 40 million.

If 80 episodes are to be filmed, the investment will be 80 million.

The reason why He Rongchang asked about investment from the beginning was because he knew that the investment was too big and the risk of investing in photography personally would be too high.

Once the shot is broken, you will lose all your money.

Fang Xing's current funds in his studio account, plus the income from his songs in the next six months, can support this investment, but once the investment fails, he will return to before liberation overnight.

Hearing He Rongchang's worries, Fang Xing smiled and said, "I can handle the investment, there is no problem. Director He doesn't have to worry about the investment."

As a director, my favorite saying is: "Don't worry about investment."

He Rongchang couldn't help but smile on his face and asked: "Are you so confident in this drama?"
To be continued...