Actor: Thank you.

"You won't believe it."

“I met an angel who gave me a magic phone!”

In a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment.

Xu Zheng hurriedly ran into the house and came in front of the elegant and dignified heroine, Teacher Jiang Hongbo.

He took off his coat as he had done countless days and nights before and threw it on the sofa.

Little did they know that the owner of this house had already changed.

"Hey, Lao Zhang, come quickly..."

"Are there guests at home?"

At this time, Zhang Yuan officially appeared.

He opened his eyes wide, with a slightly exaggerated expression, and made a cheerful face as if "a friend is coming from afar".

That silly look was totally unlike his usual state.

"Not bad..." Director Zhang turned his head and looked at the cameraman, and the head of the camera crew also looked at the director in agreement.

"He adjusted very quickly."

"He got into the role quickly, and the character fits in well... He should have a wide range of acting skills."

Zhang Jianya is a veteran director and he can basically understand an actor's ability and talent after just one or two scenes.

He now feels a bit regretful.

It’s a pity that my play is not so “serious”.

Rather than a movie, the picture is more like a TV series.

The cost was low to begin with, and we invited so many celebrities to make guest appearances.

For other dramas, it is already very exaggerated for the actors to take 50% of the salary.

He accounts for 70% of this play!

The content is more like a sketch, like a bunch of fragmented short stories put together.

This play does not require high performance from the actors.

So Director Zhang felt that Zhang Yuan had good abilities, but this play did not allow him to see the upper limit of this young man's abilities.

"I heard that he received 200 million yuan in salary from Zhang Yimou."

"Lao Mouzi is trying to lower the price."

"If he wants to earn money and take on high-priced roles, the price tag will probably double."

Zhang Jianya is quite familiar with Zhang Yimou and knows his style.

"He came to our show for Xu Zheng and Yi Wei's sake, and he didn't charge any money."

"At least I saved hundreds of thousands!"

Zhang Yuan was also aware of this. He lost at least hundreds of thousands during the same period.

But that’s not how the accounts work out.

This is too narrow a vision to calculate.

If you want to accomplish big things, you must first open up your horizons.

In front of the camera...

"Who is this?"

"That's the one in front of me."

"Oh, senior!" Zhang Yuan smiled, took a step forward and held Xu Zheng's hands tightly.

"Hehehe..." Xu Zheng couldn't help but laugh when he saw him like this.

"My bad, my bad... You are so different from your usual self."

Led by Xu Zheng, Jiang Hongbo on the side also started laughing.

"A big contrast is a good thing!"

The director called out “Cut” and stood up.

"It means he has entered the character."

"And I found that there is another advantage to him playing the role."

"What do you mean?" Xu Zheng turned around and asked.

"Because he's handsome, it makes perfect sense for your ex-wife to divorce you and marry him!"

"I don't want you either!"

As soon as the director said this, Xu Zheng touched his big bald head.

"As for that!"

Turning around, I saw the leading actress, Jiang Hongbo, nodding repeatedly.

Brother Shan Zheng’s face suddenly turned dark.

"Can you please stop being so vulgar? Men need cultural connotations, do you understand?"

"I choose the one who looks good." Teacher Jiang added.

Xu Zheng:......

“You see, this is the public opinion.”

Hehehe...

There was a lot of laughter on the set.

At the same time, thousands of kilometers away at the Magic City TV station, people were also laughing.

"Hehehe..." Haha, the person in charge of Xuandong TV, holding a newly released audience ratings data in his hand, his face full of joy.

Haha Xuandong from Shanghai is affiliated to SMG.

Its positioning, broadcast content, and even the time of its establishment are almost the same as Mango TV's Golden Eagle Animation.

These two are considered the largest and most professional local animation channels in the country.

This is why Zhang Yuan approached Shanghai TV and Mango TV.

Because these two companies specialize in broadcasting animations, they are in great demand and offer the highest prices.

"What were the ratings for the previous drama 'Good Mom, My Baby'?"

The person in charge asked his assistant.

"Our station's average is 13%, and the highest is 20%!"

"Yes, yes, it's frighteningly high." The person in charge continued.

"This "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" was also produced by their original motivation."

"The first episode was 4.5%, but the second episode number increased to 7%."

"After four episodes, the highest rating has reached 12%. If there is a sequel, it will definitely go up!"

"My expectation for this animation is that it can at least match the performance of "My Baby Daughter, My Good Mother"."

The person in charge is very confident in his judgment.

Because there are two things about this movie that are scary.

The increase in its ratings is astonishing.

At the same time, the average viewership of animation during the same period was around 3%.

In comparison, the ratings of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" are simply far ahead!
"They just won the Outstanding Domestic Animation Award from the station."

"Now that this animation is out, I think they will win the award again next year."

The person in charge of the animation satellite TV station exclaimed.

"At first, the station heard that Mr. Li was going to bring an actor back to help design and plan the reality show."

"Many people even have crooked mouths."

"It is said that Lao Li must have received some benefits."

"Or, in other words, this actor was supported by him, and he planned to set up an outsourcing company to take over the work of the station and make money."

"As a result, once they arrived, they really got the job done after running around."

"Then 'Go! Good Man' has become popular now, and its ratings are on par with last year's 'Super Girl'."

"The advertising business alone is worth tens of millions, which is more than the investment ability of a top-notch production or one of the top three TV series of the year."

"I heard that everyone in charge of the variety show received a bonus."

"The people at our animation TV station are so jealous..."

"I just didn't expect that this young man is not only good at variety shows."

“He has also made great achievements in animation…”

The TV station director muttered to himself for a while and turned to look at his assistant.

"Call Original Power tomorrow and discuss the copyright of the animation with them."

"For the award-winning film, 'Good Mother, My Baby Daughter,' we offered a sky-high price of 50,000 yuan."

This person is not talking nonsense, it is indeed a sky-high price.

There is one downside to cartoons.

The advertising and investment attraction capabilities are not good enough.

The title sponsor of "Go! Good Man" is Leica... not the Leica of cameras, but the fabric and clothing brand under DuPont.

The title sponsorship fee is as much as 3000 million!
Although "Drawing Sword" and "Wulin Waijia" had amazing ratings, the revenue from the in-program advertisements was far less than that of "Moment in Peking".

Gujing Gongjiu alone paid 1500 million for interstitial and patch advertising.

Among TV commercials, liquor, fashion and fast-moving consumer goods, shampoo, and cosmetics are the brands that are most willing to spend money on advertising.

But these things have nothing to do with cartoons!
If the main audience of a cartoon is children, and half of the show is filled with the line "All parties share the welcoming wine, choose Yanghe for its mellow aroma", is that appropriate?

The child pointed at the screen after watching the animation.

"Mom, I want to drink Yanghe Daqu..."

The parents had to complain to the TV station.

The advertisements in the cartoons are mostly small advertisements for children's snacks, Wenquxing, study plans, English classes, electronic pianos, etc.

These ads cost millions at most.

In addition, the domestic animation market has been in a slump.

The movie "Journey to the West" back then even made Hayao Miyazaki dumbfounded.

What now?
It's basically the island country's animation going sideways.

In the 00s, there were "Naruto", "Bleach", and "One Piece".

There are also "Death Note" and "Inuyasha".

In 06, the phenomenal work "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" appeared.

Domestic animation was a complete failure.

It’s not good at attracting investment, and it can’t compete with the animation from Japanese countries.

Therefore, the purchase price of most domestic animations is below 500 yuan per minute.

The purchase price given by a TV station for a 15-minute animation is generally no more than 10,000 yuan.

If the money is too little, the animation company will not have the money to hire more people, upgrade equipment, or improve quality. The resulting works will be even worse.

The TV station felt that this was not right and offered a lower and lower price for the acquisition.

Less money, worse quality…a vicious cycle.

The high purchase price is usually only used to buy the TV station's self-made animations, or the make-up works of its relatives and friends.

At that time, Li Ruigang was willing to pay a sky-high price of 50,000 per episode for "My Baby Daughter, Good Mom" ​​because this animation beat the ratings of other Japanese animations of the same period!
Now seeing that the momentum of this animal-themed animation is no weaker than the previous one, the other party is even prepared to offer a 20% premium.

However, they still underestimated Zhang Yuan's ambition.

At the same time, we also underestimated the ambitions of our opponents.

Haha Xuandong’s biggest enemy is inside the Mango TV Golden Eagle Animation office.

"Okay!"

Lei Yin, director of Golden Eagle Cartoon Co., Ltd., couldn't help but smile when he saw the gratifying ratings report.

Golden Eagle Cartoon is an independent company but is affiliated to Hunan Broadcasting Group.

Just like SMG is affiliated to Shanghai SMG Group.

Mango TV has a big feature compared to other TV stations.

That is to make good use of women!
In addition to a large number of very famous female hosts, there are also many outstanding female workers in the team.

This is also the reason why their reality shows, variety shows and idol dramas are leading the country.

This thing is really for women to do, men can't play it.

Leiyin is also for women.

And in 04, when she was only 31 years old, she was personally appointed as the "Taoist priest" by Mango TV Director Ouyang Changlin.

Of course, Taoist Priest is a joke, meaning the person in charge of the cartoon channel.

That’s what they call it in Taiwan anyway.

And more often than not, they used this name to tease her behind her back.

A 31-year-old woman was appointed as the head of a new channel. How many people were jealous and dissatisfied.

It was just like how many people on Shanghai TV initially spread rumors that Zhang Yuan was a relative of Li Ruigang.

The rumors about Lei Yin were even worse.

As for women, it’s just the same thing anyway.

Said she was the director's mistress...

The more this happened, the more this woman wanted to achieve something.

Rumors will not disappear automatically, only strength can break them.

At the beginning of 05, he made major adjustments to the channel.

It abandoned the positioning of "cartoons for all ages" and instead proposed the strategic slogan of "happy cartoons, happy family", aiming to use the family as the audience unit, in simple terms, children and their parents.

And they also very trendily created the country's first animated Spring Festival Gala hosted by virtual hosts, "Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit Celebrate the New Year."

After that, the channel's ratings increased significantly, and it attracted children's products, children's shoes, and even paper towel companies to advertise regularly, and increased advertising revenue by more than three times.

It can be seen that this person is very capable.

So when she saw the ratings of "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" in the first three days... Mango TV broadcast it one day later than Shanghai TV.

“3% on the first day, 9% on the second day!”

“It reached 13% today!”

Lei Yin obviously didn't expect that a FLASH animation that didn't seem to cost much could produce such terrifying results.

Moreover, Mango TV’s ratings are obviously better than Shanghai TV!

The previous drama "My Baby Daughter, Good Mom" ​​was the best-performing one on Shanghai TV.

This is caused by positioning problems.

The positioning of Golden Eagle Cartoons was changed by Lei Yin to parent-child.

The Shanghai TV station is still aimed at teenagers.

But "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" is obviously more suitable for parent-child viewing.

Lei Yin is younger and bolder.

"For their company's previous animation, the price given by Modu for the first broadcast was 50,000 per episode, right?"

She asked her assistant.

“Yes, it was called a sky-high price at the time.”

The assistant pursed her lips and replied.

"Contact the animation company tomorrow...that's not right." Lei Yin thought for a moment.

"Contact Zhang Yuan directly. After all, he contacted us through Li Xiang."

"It's closer to go directly to him than to the animation company."

"understand!"

……

"Senior, let me tell you something!" On the set, Zhang Yuan spoke with a Taiwan accent in order to achieve dramatic effect as requested by the director.

In those days, the Formosa dialect was very popular.

Because of the popularity of "Meteor Garden", many young people have the word "motorcycle" in their mouths.

Of course, after ten years or so, anyone who speaks with a Taiwan accent will definitely be laughed at by people around them.

This is a moment.

"My wife made this noodles with soybean paste."

"Really? There are only a few left in the entire imperial capital!"

Zhang Yuan looked serious and praised his wife's cooking skills from the bottom of his heart.

Teacher Jiang Hongbo standing by showed a look of relief and happiness.

Only Xu Zheng felt mixed emotions when he saw that his wife and noodles with soybean paste, which he once despised, were praised as "rare treasures" by another man. His face looked so gloomy that it seemed as if water was about to drip out.

"Card!"

"Call work today!"

Director Zhang Jianya clapped his hands.

"Zhang Yuan, we still have a few scenes to perform these days. Can you help out?"

"It's a small matter, it's my duty, not a favor." Zhang Yuan replied immediately.

The director chuckled and thought that this boy spoke very nicely, no wonder he was doing so well.

"Let's go have a midnight snack. It's my treat!" Xu Zheng waved his hand and took everyone to a nearby barbecue stall.

Even though Xu Zheng is from Shanghai, he can drink a lot.

But the problem was that he met Zhang Yuan.

Two hours later, the dazed man was helped back to the hotel by his assistant.

"You are the one who drinks the most that I have ever met, okay, okay..."

Zhang Yuan waved his hand.

It’s okay, you will meet Baoqiang and Huang Bo in the future.

Baoqiang can drink three bottles of white wine in one meal.

Brother Bo can keep drinking as long as he doesn't drink too quickly.

Then you will know how powerful it is.

The next morning, Zhang Yuan received a call from Mango TV.

Huang Weimin from the animation company also called him.

"Modu TV is willing to offer 60,000 per episode!"

Huang Weimin was very excited, and each time he shouted higher than the last.

"I know you're in a hurry, but don't worry yet."

"First of all, how many episodes do you plan to make for this animation... or should I ask, how many episodes can you make?"

"Do you have the screenwriting ability to continue the production for a long time?"

"Yes!" Huang Weimin replied without hesitation.

"Including me, there are five or six people in our company who have the ability to write scripts. If we take turns, there will be no problem in producing hundreds of episodes."

Zhang Yuan chuckled, his vision was still small.

I only dare to think of a hundred episodes at most.

"Well, if we have enough funds, how soon can we release an episode?"

"It takes about a week to produce one episode." The other party was very experienced in the business and didn't hesitate.

"Then if we divide it into several groups and start working at the same time, can we shorten the production cycle?"

"In theory, it is possible..."

"That's all, just do it." Zhang Yuan replied seriously: "And from now on, recruit another group of people."

"Form four to five working groups, take turns to produce and rest, and train new people at the same time."

"Ah, if we find more people, our office will be almost full."

"Once the deposit is paid, you can find a bigger office and upgrade the decoration and equipment."

Upon hearing this, Huang Weimin's mind flashed with the grand vision of "becoming bigger and stronger", and his blood boiled.

"That's the good thing about him, he's willing to spend money!"

"Unlike some bosses who are stingy, they use all the money they earn to buy themselves cars and houses."

“He still has a long-term vision.”

"Leave the remaining negotiations with the TV station to me, and you just continue producing the animation." Zhang Yuan instructed.

"No problem...By the way." Huang Weimin added.

"Tang Ren told me that there is a project that will be looking for me to participate in, and I will be responsible for directing and shooting some of the special effects scenes."

“It will probably take several months.”

"What project?"

"Boss Cai thinks highly of The Legend of the Condor Heroes."

Zhang Yuan: …

He knew in his heart that the film could not be made.

But he didn't say it out loud, just agreed.

Just let Huang Weimin arrange the work of the animation company.

Put down the phone.

Zhang Yuan moved his neck.

"Then, next..."

"It's time to negotiate the price with these two companies!" (End of this chapter)