money player

"This is a difficult question for me to answer. Hollywood is not a black-and-white world. Everyone has a public side and a hidden side. Without in-depth contact, it is difficult to see a person clearly."

"The world of interests is inherently complex. I don't like the aggressive behavior of the major Hollywood studios, yet I maintain alignment with their interests. However, within Jorge Guinness, I am willing to treat actors as equals, without oppression or too many unspoken rules. Whoever brings profits to the company will receive the appropriate reward."

"Equality where the initiative is on your side?"

"Hmm, that's necessary. If I can't take the initiative, I'll just quit Hollywood and maybe do some side business to settle the staff."

"Businesses in the surrounding area?"

"The business of renting out costumes, photography equipment, and props, as well as setting up a script studio." Sin Yiu-man pointed to his temple. "There are hundreds of story outlines stored here. If I want, I can come up with five or six new story outlines in an hour."

I took out a story outline and asked a novice screenwriter to improve it. As long as the other party promised to pay me a sum of money, I could hand over the authorship rights.

As you know, screenwriters need a successful case to gain fame in order to make money. Only with fame can they ask for a price. A well-known screenwriter's first script is basically given away for free; they practically have to beg someone to accept it.

Kelly chuckled softly, "Why do you have so many stories?"

"Because I am Adam."

“Ha.” Kelly glanced at her sideways. “You’ve made this joke countless times. Please come up with a different one next time.”

"Okay, here's a new joke. You're to continue the story from before. You can create the female lead according to your own characteristics. The screenwriter column will only have your name on it."

"Should we continue writing according to your ideas, or should we have complete autonomy?"

“You have complete autonomy, but the review authority is with me. You have five chances to revise. If you fail to pass the review five times, you are out, and Audrey or someone else will take over.”

"What are the review standards?"

"Box office potential".

"OK, I accept the challenge."

“You get a 5% share of the box office profits, but that’s only in name. The money is mine; you get the fame, and I get the profit.”

Kelly rolled her eyes at Sin Yiu-man. "Adam, you're so stingy."

"Okay, I can give you 10% as a tip for your hard work."

"go to hell."

Sin Yiu-man shrugged, indicating his helplessness.

Profit-sharing will be the mainstream method of payment for Jorge Guinno in the near future. The main production and publicity staff will be paid a combination of low salary and profit-sharing. In this way, their interests are deeply intertwined, which will save a lot of management costs and sunk costs.

After all, film crews often have workarounds to save money. By setting rules to "forcefully save money," some people's livelihoods will be cut off, leading to complaints, perfunctory work, and ultimately affecting the quality of the film.

Only when interests are aligned, and everyone involved in key processes becomes "one of our own" who ultimately benefits from the profits, can we achieve the goal of reducing costs and increasing efficiency, thus entering a virtuous cycle.

Of course, this approach is only feasible in Hollywood. Doing it in Hong Kong would be disastrous. The Chinese are too intelligent, there are too many of them, and they keep eight different accounts for three people. If you don't satisfy some people's penchant for taking advantage and their sense of intellectual superiority, you simply can't lead a team.

Friendship Film Studio's projects can only be managed with a laissez-faire approach, turning a blind eye to some issues. When budgeting compensation, they have to include items for dishonest spending, giving subordinates room to complain about low pay and experience the thrill and sense of superiority of skimming money from others.

The rules must be numerous and detailed enough, and their enforcement must be so poor that everyone feels guilty, yet no minor offenses are punished. This is a management style that is full of human touch.

In Hong Kong, after having dinner, Cen Peipei went to the set of "Lin Mo" to film her last two scenes, marking the end of filming for the movie. She treated the entire crew to afternoon tea out of her own pocket, and then went to the YMCA office to review the accounts on behalf of Sin Yiu-man.

She mainly looks at the project ledgers. She knows exactly what expenses the production team will incur and how much they will amount to after filming a movie. She can spot any discrepancies in the ledgers and roughly how much is wrong.

Putting down an account book, she noticed two thousand in expenses that raised questions. She knew that some people were too clever for their own good and too daring. They had been tamed and it was time for them to be released and made into role models.

"Shiying, call Victor and ask how long the sentence is for embezzling two thousand dollars. After you find out, call the Yau Ma Tei Police Station to discuss it. In a couple of days, after the film crew finishes shooting, send a few acquaintances over to investigate."

"Yes."

Cen Peipei tapped her fingers lightly on the table, pondering who would be responsible for dealing with the family's pleas for leniency.

The person needs to be dealt with, but not necessarily sentenced. If the family comes to plead for leniency, we should take the opportunity to get them released. Rules are ultimately based on human relationships. Sending them to Stanley would be undesirable; a few slaps on the wrist are enough to deter them.

"The money from the Xian family is only given away, not taken... We also have to give the police a heads-up and tell them not to take too much from the family members, and to leave them a way to survive."

Having figured things out in a rough time, she moved on to looking at the other accounts.

The office next door.

Liu Wanqing wiped the corners of the filing cabinet with a rag. Her resignation had been approved. Today was her last day at Friendship Real Estate. On her last shift, she personally cleaned the office to bring it to a perfect end.

Suddenly, the phone on my desk rang.

"I am Liu Wanqing."

"Sister-in-law, I am Luo Yingshi."

"Brother Luo, what brings you here?"

“I’ve looked at that plot of land in Kwai Chung. The soil isn’t very stable. If we want to build a building, the foundation will need to be deeper, and the budget will need to be increased by 15%.”

"If we change it to a single-story house, can the budget be reduced a bit?"

"The same usable area?"

"Correct."

"We can definitely save some money, but we need to calculate how much."

"Brother Luo, please calculate it as soon as possible."

"That's easy to arrange. Is today your last day?"

"Yes, Brother Luo can come find me at Jinwu Real Estate in the future."

"it is good."

Chinese Garment Manufacturing.

Factory director Zheng Zhiping is inspecting a newly established workshop.

It's called a workshop, but it's really just an office set up in the office building for newly recruited embroidery workers.

This group of female workers was quite special. They were skilled in embroidery, but they did not participate in the production of orders. Instead, each of them was given a metal plate with many small holes. The female workers had to thread three different colored needles through the holes according to a certain pattern.

Zheng Zhiping didn't understand the purpose of the female worker threading the metal plate. The metal plate wasn't a semi-finished product provided by a customer. After the female worker threaded the needle, he would have someone else secretly disassemble the threaded needle, and then the metal plate would be returned to the female worker to repeat the threading process.

These female workers were nominally employees of China Garment Factory, but the boss instructed them not to collect their wages here. On payday, someone would come and distribute the wages to them.

The meaning is very clear: these female workers are just temporarily using this space, and they will probably leave for their own factory in a few days.

He was simply curious about what technique he was practicing by threading a needle through a metal plate.

He didn't understand the problem, but Wang An had a clue.

Just minutes earlier, he had received a registered letter from Adam of the Adam Foundation. The first page began with normal pleasantries, followed by a historical anecdote about knotted ropes used for record-keeping in ancient times.

He knew about knotted ropes for record-keeping, so he found it slightly amusing that Adam used two and a half sheets of paper to describe things, but since the handwriting was good, he patiently read on as if it were a story.

Unexpectedly, after the story was finished, the style changed abruptly, explaining the history and determination process of binary arithmetic in just a few strokes. Then, the style changed again, talking about the differences between Suzhou embroidery and Guangdong embroidery, and which needlework skills were superior.

With the advent of binary arithmetic and the connection to the story of knotted ropes for record-keeping, he understood that Adam was discussing "storage" with him. He became interested, slowed down his reading speed, and became more focused, afraid of missing any point.

But this focus didn't last long. Adam treated him purely like a child, and later talked about the loom, how to convey long messages through patterns, electric current pulses, voltage pulses, electromagnetic induction, and how logical 0s and 1s are mapped to physical winding and threading...

After reading the entire letter, he laughed and scolded, "You talk too much."

After reading two-thirds of the letter, he understood that Adam had provided him with a new storage principle. Although it was not explicitly stated, judging from the entire letter, Adam would probably name this storage method a braided memory or a rope core memory.

This storage method does not have the storage capacity of magnetic core memory, but it is more stable and can be used in many special environments. Wang Laboratories now has another product.

"But how should patents be calculated?"

at this time.

Sin Yiu-man and Kelly got up to go out, and Sin Yiu-man told Kelly the first story.

"In 1963, technology was more advanced than it is now. There was a non-existent country called Oceania, a non-existent intelligence agency called CAO, and a non-existent spy named Tang."

Oceania from 1984?

"It's just for temporary use; we can get a different one later."

What is the abbreviation for CAO?

"It's not an English abbreviation, but a Chinese phonetic symbol used in a small area. The Chinese characters marked by CAO translate to 'Fuck' in English."

On the other end of the wiretap, John Downey and Richard Fickto of the CIA's Black Cat Team exchanged bewildered glances.

"John, does the target know they're being wiretapped?"

“I don’t know.” John Downey took off his headphones. “It’s a pity I can’t hear what he said later, otherwise I could probably figure it out.”

Amid Kelly's laughter, the two left the room and strolled down the hallway.

"Tang was a surveillance officer responsible for monitoring targets related to the mission. He installed a new type of eavesdropping app in the target's room. This eavesdropping device was small but could store a month's worth of recordings."

"Such an advanced eavesdropping device?"

"Who knows, maybe technology will develop so fast that people in 2051 will be able to travel back in time to 1951."

"A time traveler?"

"Hmm." Xian Yaowen smiled faintly, "When you mentioned time travelers, I suddenly had an inspiration: a love story about time travelers."

"Adam, to hell with spy stories, I want to hear love stories." (End of Chapter)