China Entertainment: I have been a director since 05

Chapter 438 "The Beginning" was suddenly released online! All major video websites were stunned!
[The chapter name is wrong, it does not affect the content]

"Director Guo, is the news on the Internet true?"

Beijing, Lingyun Media.

Guo Jingyu received a call from Wang Luodan, and the voice on the other end was a little nervous, "Are you really the head steward of Lingyun Media's TV business now?"

Since Guo Jingyu had previously chosen him to star in "Red Lady", the two had many conversations.

At this time, the relationship between the two people was still very familiar.

But even so, after seeing the official announcement on the Internet, Wang Luodan was completely dumbfounded!

Guan Ling is her junior, but since Guan Ling's first movie, she has submitted many roles to Lingyun Media's casting, but has not received many audition opportunities.

This always made her feel a little worried.

"It's all thanks to Director Guan's support. The official announcement online is indeed true."

Guo Jingyu smiled naively.

"What about our "Red Lady"? Are you still the director?"

"Everything is going on as normal, but I may be a little busier in the future. I will be responsible for reviewing the casting directors' choices and selecting directors. I will do my best to help Director Guan control the TV drama."

"That's good." Wang Luodan hesitated a little on the other end of the phone. "Are you also responsible for reviewing the casting director's casting? If there is a suitable role in the future, can you recommend it to me?"

Wang Luodan also felt that his words were a little abrupt, and added, "Of course, quality comes first. I understand that."

"That's easy to say," Guo Jingyu said. "Director Guan gave me a lot of control in this regard. But I still say that you know my attitude very well. If I think you are not suitable for this role, I will not choose you even if we work well together."

"I understand Director Guo. I completely understand."

After hanging up the phone.

Wang Luodan sat in the bathtub at home and was silent for a long time.

The only thing she could hear was what Guo Jingyu had just said, "a great deal of control."

Domination!
Wang Luodan is very clear about what these three words mean, which means that Guo Jingyu may even be able to make the final decision on the casting of all future TV series.

Of course, this is with Guan Ling's approval.

If there is a role that Director Guan wants to promote, Guo Jingyu probably won't be able to stop it.

But even so, her heart suddenly became hot.

"I must perform well in the play "Red Lady"!" Wang Luodan encouraged himself.
"Before, some people still rated me, Yang Mi, Mu Tingting and others as the four young actresses. Now, after two or three years, I am the only newbie in the entertainment industry..."

Thinking of this, Wang Luodan looked hopeless.

Yang Mi is currently filming Guan Ling's new movie, Mu Tingting is about to release "Never Gone", and Liu Yifei is even more unmatched. These are the Chinese actresses that are almost unmatched, and these people are all her junior sisters.

"It's a pity that my mother gave birth to me a year earlier."

Wang Luodan was thinking wildly, "If I were the same age as them, if I were at the same level as Director Guan, or if I was a closer actor, would things be completely different..."

…………

"Director Guan, taking advantage of the popularity of your Lingyun Media's official announcement of Liu Yifei's new drama and Guo Jingyu's official announcement, I plan to quickly launch "The Beginning"!"

On the day of the official announcement, Guan Ling received a call from Gong Yu.

"I would like to ask Director Guan what his opinion is?"

"Are you trying to test the quality of my TV series?" Guan Ling said with a smile, "As long as the shares in the contract are negotiated, this TV series can be launched at any time."

During this period, Fang Yu, as the legal officer of Lingyun Media, has been discussing the contract with the legal officer of iQiyi.

Guan Ling wanted to become a shareholder of iQiyi, and iQiyi agreed. However, in terms of how many shares to hold, the two teams naturally had to go through rounds of consultations and discussions.

The deal has not been concluded yet because both parties have not yet reached an agreement on the terms.

"We have decided to accept your suggestion to bet on the number of members based on the popularity of 'The Beginning'."

Gong Yu said, "Currently, we have more than one million members on iQiyi. If this TV series can help our membership exceed five million, we will agree to your proposal to acquire 30%. Of course, since iQiyi has a lot of capital behind it, this stake will definitely be diluted. Unless Lingyun Media can provide funds for us to expand continuously."

"Breaking five million?"

Guan Ling narrowed his eyes, "Boss Gong, you also know that many people like to watch pirated movies nowadays. You want to increase the number of paid members of iQiyi fivefold for just one TV series. How dare you?"

"If that's not possible, there are other progressive plans in our agreement. Of course, we won't sell Director Guan 30% of iQiyi's shares."

Gong Yu was also very persistent.

"And in our future cooperation plans, there may be an agreement on the number of members, but the bottom line is that there will be an increase. You know, from a technical perspective, we have data to show how many new members each drama has attracted."

Guan Ling thought about it and agreed to this plan.
In fact, he doesn't have any definite idea in his mind about controlling iQiyi.

Because video websites don’t make much money, after deducting operating expenses and promotion costs, it’s already good to make a few hundred million a year.

In the previous life, it was not until 2023 that Tencent Video finally achieved profitability.

iQiyi's quarterly net profit in 2022 was 1.69 million yuan, marking the first time iQiyi has achieved quarterly profit since its establishment in 2010.

From its launch to the following decades, Youku has been losing money and has never made any money.

Guan Ling doesn't expect to make money by making long videos.

The reason why I want to invest in iQiyi is that the cost of investing in iQiyi is the lowest now.

After owning shares, Guan Ling will have a say in it, which will help him advance his star-making plan. After all, with the launch of various apps in the future, TV dramas still have more advantages in terms of national popularity.

As for paid membership, Guan Ling is not absolutely sure since piracy is rampant nowadays.

However, Guan Ling still has some confidence in letting his fans buy membership for the price of a movie ticket.

It’s no coincidence that there haven’t been any compelling TV series on online video sites so far.

First, the publicity for entry was not strong enough, and second, the impact on the audience was not wide enough.

The previous box office of 800 million yuan for "Source Code" makes "Beginning", the so-called "second Source Code", very appealing.

Secondly, Guan Ling’s own appeal is also very strong.

When the online drama had not yet shown the situation of the gods fighting each other, Guan Ling would not be so unconfident.

"Then promote it as soon as possible and launch it online as soon as possible."

"We have already done a lot of preparation for publicity," Gong Yu said, "and now our goal is to catch Tudou and Youku off guard."

Guan Ling indicated that it was okay.

…………

On the Internet, all kinds of news and information are flooding our ears. As the most prestigious place of fame and fortune, all kinds of news are gradually spreading everywhere. "New News Express: Lu Chuan's "The Banquet of Kings" has been secretly filmed at a film and television base in Beijing. Three kings and three queens have joined. Director Lu Chuan, Xingmei Chairman Qi Hong, and Zhongying Chairman Han Sanpin appeared at the filming site!"

"The release date of The Banquet has been set for the 2012 Lunar New Year holiday. The main creators are mostly silent on the much-talked-about casting of Yu Ji!"

"Brother Chen Kai's filming of "Along with the Gods" was airtight. In an interview, Brother Chen Kai claimed that although the script has a fantasy style, it is still an emotional blockbuster in essence!"

"Director Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" is about to wrap up. At a film and television base in Nanjing, Jiangsu, Zhang Yimou claimed that this is one of the five best scripts in China in the past 20 years."

"Hollywood blockbusters are coming in droves. Who among the major Chinese directors' summer blockbusters dares to compete?"

"Directed by Yang Qing, starring Liu Sisi and Sun Jian, "I Am a Witness" is scheduled to be released at the end of May. As the only director of Lingyun Media who has not yet made over 100 million yuan, can he sweep the industry?"

"Tsinghua University Lecture on "Never Gone", Huang Xiaoming and Mu Tingting appeared."

"Since the official announcement of her new movie, Liu Yifei has appeared at Lingyun Media, wearing sunglasses and long boots, looking like a strong woman!"

Among these news, the most popular one is naturally the news that Liu Yifei has transformed into a producer.

But among all the news, the news that "The Beginning" was suddenly released, jointly announced by the Source Code Post Bar, Source Code's official Weibo, Shanying, Lingyun Media, and even iQiyi, swept the entire film and television industry in an instant.

……

"Nazha's "The Beginning" will be launched on April 4th, and Lingyun Media's new drama will be exclusively launched on iQiyi video website!"

"A Chinese Ghost Story is so bad, I might as well save a movie ticket and buy a membership to watch the TV series Source Code!"

"Never Gone has not been released yet, so The Beginning has been temporarily released, which relieves my pain of missing Guan Ling."

"Why did Guan Ling support young actress Guli Nazha before? iQiyi's "Beginning" may fill in the doubts in your hearts!"

"iQIYI has officially announced that it will conduct comprehensive investigations, crackdowns, and prosecutions on online platforms or websites that pirate "The Beginning"! It aims to eradicate the piracy ecosystem!"

"It is reported that during the broadcast of "Beginning", the online versions of many TV series of Lingyun Media will be launched at the same time. The online copyrights of "Awakening Age", "Dream of Hualu", "The Hidden" and "Chinese Paladin III" have signed exclusive licensing contracts with iQiyi."

For a moment, the entire Internet was in an uproar!
There has never been such a big stir on the website due to the broadcast of a TV series.

However, Lingyun Media’s previous TV series was “Awakening Age”, and “Beginning” was promoted from the very beginning as the TV version of “Source Code”.

So when this news suddenly broke out on the Internet, all the viewers were excited in an instant.

Other competitor websites were also stunned for a moment.

"The Beginning" had never officially announced a release date before, so this time it was indeed a surprise.

They won't be arrogant. Guan Ling wrote the script, and there was the box office success of "Source Code". No one will underestimate Guan Ling, iQiyi, or this official announcement.

However, this makes it difficult for them to schedule broadcasts, so they have to use foreign dramas they purchased to compete.

In fact, there is no need to confront it. Although "The Beginning" is not the first online drama, it is the first TV series related to the Oscar for Best Director to be launched on the Internet. Everyone says don't panic, but it's all fake.

In the interim, Tudou and Youku responded quickly and rushed to put online the copyrights of imported American and Korean dramas in an attempt to prevent iQiyi from dominating the market.

But it was too late.

On April 4, with iQiyi's extremely fast production, the first four episodes of "The Beginning" were aired.

That evening, iQiyi experienced a fifteen-minute outage but soon returned to normal.

Then, Weibo's hot search directly topped the list.
"The TV series version of Source Code, The Beginning, is online, and the iQiyi online website is temporarily down!"

"How powerful is Guan Ling's TV series? It can directly crash a website!"

In order to launch this drama, iQiyi communicated with the bank specifically to ensure smooth recharge channels, and then told its employees that all programmers should work overtime to deal with possible crashes that might occur at any time.

But they still underestimated Guan Ling's power.

Fifteen minutes later, iQiyi returned to normal, but the number of posts by iQiyi programmers was significantly lower.

The programmer wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked at the number of people coming online with trembling lips.

Immediately pass the ministerial report,

"If the traffic continues at this rate, I'm afraid everyone won't be able to get off work this week."

Gong Yu also responded quickly when he heard the news. He gave extra meals and bonuses to all iQiyi programmers to ensure the smooth operation of the website.

That night, some people in the film industry were also attracted by Guan Ling's "The Beginning", and many people even opened the website to watch it.

After finishing the filming, Yang Mi and Guan Ling prepared to go to sleep in their luxury home in Shanghai.

Sitting in Guan Ling's arms, Yang Mi turned on the computer in front of her and prepared to take a look at "The Beginning".

"Director Guan, if you compare this drama to my "Gu Jian Qi Tan" and "Palace", which one is better?"

As Yang Mi prepared to look at the screen, her whole body moved up and down.

She looked back and said, "Director Guan, am I blocking your view of the screen?"

“I can’t stop it. My chin is resting on your shoulder, so I can see it clearly.

As for TV series, all three are not bad, but my favorite is "The Beginning", while the others are mostly about romance."

Yang Mi smiled. Although Guan Ling said that he didn't like romantic TV dramas, she could feel Guan Ling's two big hands supporting her waist and abdomen.

It's not like I don't like love at all.

Then she started watching the TV series excitedly.

When watching the first episode, Guli Nazha’s acting was average, after all, she is a newcomer, and the content of the TV series was also predictable.

Nezha dreamed that the bus exploded and wanted to get off.

Waking up from her dream, she was worried and deliberately created trouble, claiming that the actor played by Sun Jian molested her in order to stop the bus.

The conflict at the beginning is rather ordinary.

But soon after getting off the bus, it really exploded.

Yang Mi's originally moving buttocks suddenly paused.

The rhythm of this TV series made her confused.

The heroine was injured by a motorcycle, and the hero was almost burned to charcoal by the explosion.

The following plot unfolded rapidly. Yang Mi became more and more nervous and more and more focused as she watched. After watching all four episodes, an alarm suddenly went off in her heart.

Although she is on Guan Ling now, and it has happened several times.

But she knew it had exploded.

This new actress named Guli Nazha has completely exploded!
There is a high probability that it will blow up the entire TV drama circle!

(End of this chapter)