Become famous another day.

When Jiang Lan proposed to produce two English OSTs for the overseas streaming version of the third season of "Seventeen Floors", many people in Beijing and Taiwan could not understand.

Jiang Lan directly said that this was a suggestion made by Lu Yanhe, and she agreed with it, because the series of "Seventeen Floors" would not end with the third season, but was planned to be a series. The spin-off series would be launched soon, and would also be aimed at the global market.

In this case, the production should have been a little more sincere.

However, to make an English version of the Chinese version of the OST, which consists of two songs, it would cost seven figures from re-arranging and recording to finding singers to sing.

Jiang Lan said, "Seven figures? Are you talking about RMB? I'm talking about the production budget of seven figures in US dollars."

Everyone was shocked.

Jiang Lan said: "I want to invite a popular singer from Europe and America to sing one of the English versions. Otherwise, what's the point of doing an English version?"

People from Beijing and Taiwan looked at each other in bewilderment.

“Is it necessary to spend so much extra money?”

"Will inviting a popular European and American singer bring more viewers to the third season?"

“Why not just play it safe like the previous two seasons?”

……

Faced with so many people's doubts, Jiang Lan had actually anticipated it.

Most people in Beijing and Taiwan are like this.

Anyway, whenever a new idea is proposed, there will always be more opposition than opposition.

If this idea doesn't produce good results, OK, they have expressed their opposition.

If the idea succeeds -

Who the hell would ask who opposed them when they succeed?

(Laws for survival within the system)

Jiang Lan remained unmoved.

"The Seventeenth Floor series is the only mainstay of Beijing and Taiwan at present. If it can attract more audiences and have a greater influence overseas, it will also make an outstanding contribution to the cultural dissemination of our country."

Put on the hat.

Jiang Lan: “It may not achieve the effect we want, but if we don’t try, we can only wait for it to be miraculously liked by more people.”

After all, Jiang Lan is the deputy director, and the deputy director with real power.

With the "Seventeenth Floor" series in hand and the lesson of "Friends" still fresh in mind, Jiang Lan's idea was finally approved. Beijing Taiwan will add a sum of production funds to produce two English version OSTs.

"Who should we ask to sing the second song?" someone asked immediately.

"Liu Zhiyin debuted in a Korean girl group. She is very well-known, influential and has many fans in Asia," said Jiang Lan. "Moreover, most importantly, she is relatively cheap. If we need to find a popular singer from Europe and America to sing another song, and we need to find a representative and impressive singer to sing the other song, Liu Zhiyin is the best choice. Of course, if you are willing to spend a little more on production funds and invite another singer with global influence to sing, that is also possible."

As a result, there was soon no controversy regarding Liu Zhiyin's choice.
-
"Your remuneration for singing the first few songs on these OSTs will be a little lower." Lu Yanhe said, "This is to get the singing opportunity first. When your fame in overseas areas gradually grows, we can discuss the price."

Liu Zhiyin nodded and said, "I understand."

She laughed again, "I never thought that one day I would be so honored to have you become my agent."

Lu Yanhe was stunned at first, then he reacted.

"It really is."

At this moment, Lu Yanhe suddenly felt where Chen Ziyan's passion and sense of value in her job as an agent came from.

Seeing someone who can go further, and through one's own abilities and operations, truly pushing that person to that further place.

Lu Yanhe said: "Sister Zhiyin, Superstar!"
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Throughout April, Lu Yanhe was basically in a state of "not doing his job properly".

Become Liu Zhiyin's agent.

Met with Wang Zhong, Liu Bige and others to talk about movies and scripts.

Went to see Qin Zhibai's performance at a music festival.

Participated in a public welfare activity of free cycling to protect the environment.

His serious work as an artist is to record a show called "City Travelogue".

We didn’t even shoot an extra commercial – it was all shot in March.

Lu Yanhe had a great time this April.

This kind of feeling is a feeling of being relaxed and comfortable without any pressure from work.

However, just after the beginning of May, Lu Yanhe had to start working again.

The first thing I did was to go to the Jose-La-Cebu International Film Festival with "Dragon Inn".
-
The Netherlands-Hilton Film Festival very much hopes that Lu Yanhe can attend the opening ceremony.

However, because the screening and promotional activities of "Dragon Inn" were both five days after the opening ceremony, Lu Yanhe didn't want to go to the opening ceremony just to walk the red carpet.

He is now a bit... how should I put it, he is having a good time.

do not want to work.

Just keep it like this, it's really good.

Even when it came to Li Zhibai's project "Flying on the Grass", Lu Yanhe also read the script with him, offered his own suggestions, and shared with Li Zhibai what certain parts would look like if he were to do it, etc.

These are just sharings with friends. What Lu Yanhe really suggests is the development of this project.

"I think since this project is in preparation now, it is better to make it a project that targets both domestic and international markets from the beginning," said Lu Yanhe. "Especially since Buried is now in theaters, you are attracting a lot of attention. I don't know whether Maxine and HP, the streaming media lists, will pay for the series produced by you, but they will definitely be very interested. If we can talk to them from the development stage and see what they think, Flying on the Grass may be able to target a larger market."

Li Zhibai nodded after hearing this.

"Has the domestic broadcasting platform been decided?" Lu Yanhe asked.

Li Zhibai said: "We are still in contact and communication. Dengta Video is willing to continue cooperation, but it requires the exclusive copyright of the drama for 20 years. Within 10 years, the copyright will not return to Liu Manbo. This makes Liu Manbo a little worried, and I am also a little worried."

This request from Lighthouse Video is indeed a bit exaggerated.

"Although the reputation of '19 Years of Crime' is average, the broadcast data should still be quite impressive, right?"

"The broadcast data is indeed okay, but not that good. After all, the production cost is so high. We didn't lose money, but we didn't make much money either." Li Zhibai said, "This time, "Flying on the Grass" is still facing the same problem. The production cost is very high. Dengta Video is willing to pay 2.5 million to buy our drama, and is willing to pay a 1.4 million advance payment in advance as the preparatory cost. After the start of filming, it will pay another million. After the delivery of the film, the remaining million will be paid within half a year. It is indeed very straightforward. They did not lower the price because of the last failure."

Lu Yanhe: "They can't possibly suppress it. Even though 'Nineteen Years' was controversial, the broadcast data still allowed them to not lose money, which is enough to prove your market appeal. Now you are more experienced than before, and the box office of the two movies you starred in has reached hundreds of millions. For Dengta Video, compared with other projects, the project 'Flying on the Grass' is a powerful tool for attracting investment and raising its stock price."

Lu Yanhe asked again: "However, Dengta Video offered 2.5 million yuan for the exclusive copyright of "Flying on the Grass" for years. Isn't that enough? What is Liu Manbo worried about?"

"Because the production cost of this drama alone, according to the current shooting plan, is more than 2 million yuan." Li Zhibai said, "And in the current shooting plan, Liu Manbo himself only received a salary of one million yuan, and nothing else. Once any problems arise during the shooting, such as delays, or additional budgets are required for other aspects, he will not make any money." Lu Yanhe understood what Li Zhibai meant.

Exclusive copyright.

This means that no matter what kind of profits the drama "Flying on the Grass" generates in the next twenty years, it will have nothing to do with Liu Manbo and others.

Including overseas sales.

Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "This is indeed a bit... How should I put it? For Liu Manbo, he can either lower the production budget a bit, so that he can spend less out of the 2.5 million yuan and earn more."

In fact, many domestic film and television dramas seem to have cost 2 million or 3 million yuan in production budget, but in fact there are countless tricks involved, and the money was put into the pockets of producers, directors and others.

Li Zhibai: "Why is the production budget of the drama "Flying on the Grass" so high?"

"He wanted to create a high-quality drama because it's a martial arts drama. As you know, nowadays, if there are any requirements for quality in costume dramas, such as costumes, props, real scenes or green screens, post-production special effects, etc., the cost cannot be reduced."

This is true.

For a costume drama, 100 million is considered a low cost.

This is determined by cost.

Lu Yanhe asked: "What about other platforms? Or is there any large film and television company willing to take over this project?"

Li Zhibai: "Not yet. Although the script has received high praise on various platforms, they all think it is difficult for this drama to become a big hit."

"Is it because it has a stronger literary quality?" Lu Yanhe asked.

He has read the script of "Flying on the Grass".

Li Zhibai nodded.

"Especially after the drama 'Nineteen Years', people were not very optimistic about the style of director Liu Manbo's drama. They felt that even if the drama had a good reputation, it would still face the problem of being too highbrow for the masses."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

That's what domestic TV dramas are like.

If you are doing realism, making dramas like family ethics or period epics, the market is still there.

But if your script has more literary ideas, more complex characters, or even a non-linear narrative structure, doubts will arise from various platforms.

First, this type of drama is rarely successful in China, and many people do not believe that the current production team has the ability to make this type of drama well.

Secondly, they also believe that this type of drama has a very high threshold for viewing. In other words, it will not have much commercial value.

The market stage has not yet developed to that point.

For a drama like this, Lighthouse Video would be willing to continue cooperating, basically just to continue working with Li Zhibai.

Lu Yanhe suddenly became curious.

"Didn't Lighthouse Video approach you to collaborate on other projects?"

Li Zhibai: "Yes, there are some, but I don't think much of them. It's not that they are all bad, but... they are not interesting. I don't find them interesting."

Lu Yanhe understood what Li Zhibai meant.

He has known Li Zhibai for so many years, and Lu Yanhe knows exactly what kind of scripts Li Zhibai finds interesting and what kind of scripts he finds mediocre.

How should I put it? When Yan Liang was reading the script, he might have also thought about the production team of the show, what the character settings were like, and whether the story was interesting.

However, Li Zhibai always takes his own feelings as the first criterion.

For example, he didn't get to play in the movie version of "19 Years of Crime", so he made a TV version of it himself. He thought it was fresh because he had never played the role of the villain in the movie before.

Lu Yanhe felt that if there really was talent, Li Zhibai was the truly talented person.

He has a natural instinct for "good stuff".

This is very valuable.

In particular, this intuition is different from Zhou Ping'an's "vision".

Li Zhibai's intuition is almost natural.

Lu Yanhe said, "If you are not particularly impressed by the project, it is okay not to accept it. However, I think that under such circumstances, Dengta Video is willing to spend 2.5 million to pre-order your drama. How should I put it? It is a bit unreasonable. I think it will put forward some conditions to you later. For example, you have to shoot another drama for Dengta Video, which is very in line with the mainstream market."

Li Zhibai: "They haven't told me this yet."

"I won't tell you now because we are still in the early stages of communication." Lu Yanhe said, "Wait until you have talked to them almost everything. If I tell you at this time, the cost of giving up will be much greater than it is now."

Li Zhibai hissed.

"It's still possible."

"Yes." Lu Yanhe nodded. "You don't have your own production company now. Liu Manbo relies on you to produce this drama. To be honest, you don't have the ability to develop such a large drama by yourselves. If you want to make this drama into a copyrighted drama, I think it's easy to get yourself into trouble. From the perspective of production risk, I would suggest that you find a strong production company, divide a part of the copyright rights, and ask them to be responsible for production. You only participate in the creation. Or this company is under Dengta Video, and you can transfer part of the copyright rights and let them be the person responsible for the risk. After all, think about it, the so-called 2.5 million is paid in three installments. If your drama is not successfully filmed in the end, you still have to pay liquidated damages, right? They directly offered such a high price of 2.5 million."

Li Zhibai nodded solemnly.

"You are right. I need to think about it carefully." Li Zhibai asked, "Can your Linghe do it?"

"Linghe is not able to undertake such a large project right now." Lu Yanhe said, "Funds are limited. We have several projects running at the same time, all of which are low-cost projects, you know."

Li Zhibai nodded.

"Too."

"Contact more different companies. The more you contact, the more you will know what kind of cards each person can play, which will be more beneficial to you and Liu Manbo. You will know how everyone values ​​the project from the market perspective." Lu Yanhe said, "You should also let Liu Manbo face these things himself. Since he wrote the script and directed it, if the so-called highbrow is unpopular under the market evaluation system, then he should be clear about this. In the face of this, whether to change or insist is a matter for the future. Don't take it all on yourself. He still thinks it's good to be under a big tree."

Li Zhibai: "I understand."

He held his chin to his hand, as if thinking seriously.

"How about I go ask Director Luo?"

After filming "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", Li Zhibai is no longer just Lu Yanhe's friend in front of director Luo Yuzhong, he is the male lead after all.

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"The teacher is very knowledgeable, you can ask him for advice."

"Ah, I was thinking, why don't we let Director Luo help me supervise this play?" Li Zhibai said, "With him here, those who want to cheat me should think twice, right?"

Lu Yanhe: "That does make sense." (End of this chapter)