Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 293 304 [The biggest capital of domestic entertainment, two major TV drama directors]

Chang'an Avenue.

The Wen Yi Shi Dai agency is located just downstairs from the Art Film Company.

As the number of people signing contracts gradually increased, the number of corresponding staff also began to increase. In order for the company to develop rationally, Yongmei also rented the floor downstairs.

Currently, the company has signed nine artists, including Chen Hong, Zhou Xun, Zhao Mingming, Jiang Qinqin, Jia Jingwen, and Wang Qian.

Apart from Jiang Qinqin and Jia Jingwen who are still studying, Zhou Xun, Zhao Mingming, Wang Qian and others have already started playing supporting roles in TV dramas invested by the company, and corresponding assistants have to be assigned.

Li Yishu happened to come over to take a look, and learned that the main creative team of "Legend of the Han Palace" was having a meeting upstairs, so she went upstairs to listen.

"The crew will enter Zhuozhou Film and Television City next week, and will officially start filming around July 7rd. The filming time is one and a half months..."

After Chen Jialin finished speaking, he glanced at Li Yishu who was sitting in the corner and said, "Okay, everyone, we have almost finished talking about everything. Director Li just said that he will treat everyone to lunch at noon, so don't leave then."

"Yes!"

Li Yishu stood up and said with a smile: "It's a rare trip today. I have already contacted the hotel and arranged the car. Let's have a good meal and drink."

"Director Li is too polite."

"Thank you Director Li for the treat."

"..."

The creative team immediately expressed their gratitude enthusiastically, and Li Yishu also asked Yongmei to arrange for everyone to visit the company.

"Director Li!"

After everyone left, Chen Hong ran over immediately. She thought Li Yishu came for her and was very happy.

Li Yishu hugged the other person and asked, "How are you, are you adapting to the company?"

"It's OK, but I'm about to join the crew, and I don't know when I'll see you again."

Chen Hong pouted. It had been more than half a month since they last saw each other. She was already in a state of passionate love, so naturally she missed him a lot.

"When I'm free, I'll visit you on the set." Li Yishu touched Chen Hong's face.

Now Chen Hong's face is full of collagen and feels good to the touch.

"The director just said that the filming will take a month and a half. You must come to visit the set then."

"Don't worry, I will definitely visit the set."

"..."

The two were chatting when someone suddenly knocked on the door of the conference room.

Li Yishu shouted, “Come in!”

After a while, Yongmei walked in and noticed that Chen Hong's face was blushing. She couldn't help but sigh in her heart that her boss had such good luck in love, with all the beautiful women around him.

But Yongmei was not a talkative person. After a thought flashed through her mind, she said, "Boss, Zhang Guoli said he wants to see you for something."

Zhang Guoli?
Li Yishu seemed to be thinking about something. Zhang Guoli was the male lead in "Legend of the Han Palace" and played Emperor Cheng of Han, Liu Ao.

Originally, Chen Jialin's choice of actor was Zhang Tielin, but Li Yishu didn't like him very much, so he replaced her with Zhang Guoli. When it comes to playing emperors, Zhang Guoli has played many roles, including Kangxi and Qianlong.

"Okay, you arrange for him to wait for me in my office and come right over."

"Good boss."

After Yongmei turned around and left, Chen Hong felt embarrassed to stay any longer, so she stood on tiptoe to secretly kiss Li Yishu on the cheek, then straightened her clothes and followed her with a blushing face.

Didn’t you realize that Chen Hong had such a lively side when she was young?
When Li Yishu left the meeting room and came to her office, she saw Zhang Guoli already sitting on the sofa for guests.

Seeing Li Yishu coming in, Zhang Guoli immediately stood up and said, "Director Li!"

"You're welcome, sit down."

Li Yishu waved his hand and went straight to sit opposite Zhang Guoli. Looking at the young Zhang Guoli at this time, he smiled and said, "Guoli, do you have something to talk to me about?"

"I do have something I want to tell you, Director Li, but I mainly want to thank you for recommending me to play this role."

Zhang Guoli sat down a little awkwardly, and said with gratitude: "If Director Li hadn't recommended me, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to join the crew to play the role of Emperor Cheng of Han."

"I chose you because you are suitable."

Li Yishu said: "I have seen the film "Dead Water Ripples" you and Deng Jie filmed, and I feel that you are quite suitable for acting in costume dramas."

"I didn't expect Director Li had watched this TV series."

Zhang Guoli was a little embarrassed because he filmed this TV series in 88 and six years had passed.

Li Yishu laughed: "I am from Sichuan. Your TV series was produced by Sichuan TV Station. How could I not have seen it?"

"Yes, how could I have forgotten this."

The TV series filmed by Zhang Guoli is not well-known and has only been broadcast in Sichuan. After Li Yishu's explanation, he suddenly realized it.

Li Yishu said, "Tell me, what do you want from me?"

"that……"

Zhang Guoli hesitated and said, "It's like this, Director Li. I heard from Manager Yongmei that your company is now preparing to invest heavily in TV dramas. I have a friend who wrote a script that I think is quite interesting, so I want to recommend it to him."

"No problem. Our company has been actively recruiting film and television talents recently. We welcome screenwriters like your friend to join us. By the way, what kind of TV series does your friend write?"

"Director Li, my friend is writing a historical drama about the Qing Dynasty. Its style is a bit similar to Hong Kong's "The Story of Qianlong", with a bit of comedy. It tells the story of Liu Yong of the Qing Dynasty."

Prime Minister Liu Luoguo!
Li Yishu's eyes lit up. He didn't expect that Zhang Guoli would recommend this script. You know, this drama made Qing Dynasty historical dramas with detailed themes popular back then.

It was also from "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" that the "The Secret Visits of Kangxi" and "The Iron-Tongued and Bronze-Jaw Ji Xiaolan" were born later. These are more or less follow-up works driven by the popularity of this TV series.

These two follow-up works will be turned into six or seven long TV series in the future, so you can imagine how much money they make.

Thinking of this, Li Yishu gradually came up with an idea. He nodded and said, "Costume dramas with themes of comedy have always been popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan. I think the mainland will also be very receptive to them. Let your friend submit the script directly. As long as there are no major problems, the company will invest."

"Thank you Director Li, thank you Director Li!" Zhang Guoli thanked him repeatedly.

"Don't thank me yet. If the script is not good, the company will not do a business that loses money." Li Yishu waved his hand. Without waiting for Zhang Guoli to speak, he continued, "Guoli, are you still an actor in the Railway Art Troupe?"

"Yes, Director Li."

"I heard that many local art troupes are disbanding now. How is your Railway Art Troupe?"

In the past, art troupes were established to enrich the spare time of troops and workers. Some large factories even had their own internal art troupes.

However, in today's society, there are more and more entertainment options, and the themes of movies and TV series are becoming more and more diverse. The stage performances of the art troupes in the past are no longer very popular with the audience.

Therefore, the authorities had long ago begun to disband some large-scale art troupes in cities. The major state-owned factories themselves could no longer afford to support so many people due to the decline in economic benefits brought about by the market economy, and began to buy out the years of service of the workers in the art troupes.

"It is true that many art troupes are beginning to disband, but we are the Railway Art Troupe, which is a self-contained system, so there is no sign of this happening yet."

The China Railway Art Troupe, where Zhang Guoli works, is now a real railway boss. It has its own railway troops, railway police, railway schools... It can almost be understood as a country within a country with its own system.

"That's a shame. I was thinking of signing you."

Li Yishu shook his head slightly. He wanted to sign a contract with Zhang Guoli, who could be regarded as an Ivy League star in the field of TV dramas.

Around the millennium, he became famous across the country for his two roles as Kangxi and Ji Xiaolan, and truly became a household name.

There are many actresses in the literary and artistic era nowadays, and there are also many actresses who can become famous in the future, but there is a lack of heavyweight male actors who can become famous in the future. Zhang Guoli is very good. The two TV series "Kangxi" and "Ji Xiaolan" alone can make a large number of new actors popular.

"Director Li, I can sign a contract!"

Zhang Guoli didn't expect Li Yishu to want to sign him, so he said without hesitation: "I can take a leave of absence from the art troupe, and then I can sign a contract with a company."

"Haha, that's great. Our company is in need of actors with acting skills like you. I'll have Manager Yongmei contact you later."

Seeing that Zhang Guoli agreed, Li Yishu nodded with a smile. With Zhang Guoli here, the company will have regular TV dramas to produce in the next few years.

"The Secret History of Kangxi" and "The Iron-Tongued and Bronze-Jaw Ji Xiaolan" were filmed one each year, and the profits would be quite high.

Although "My Fair Princess" was very profitable, Li Yishu knew that this kind of long-form TV series could make more money. Later, Zhao Benshan's "Country Love" was filmed for more than ten years in one go. Why would they film so many dramas if it didn't make money?

Although it cannot compare to those movies that easily make billions at the box office, compared to movies with hundreds of millions at the box office, this type of TV series really makes money.

After chatting with Zhang Guoli for a while, Li Yishu happily sent him away. Signing Zhang Guoli's contract means that she has a basic guarantee for her future in the film and television industry.

There are not many good TV dramas with humorous themes, and Zhang Guoli is one of them.

At noon, Li Yishu treated the main creative team to a meal at a nearby restaurant. Afterwards, she told Yongmei about Zhang Guoli's contract and asked her to arrange for the person in charge of Wen Yi Shi Dai to go and negotiate with the other party.

When it comes to contracts, Li Yishu never engages in exploitation. Except for newcomers who get a smaller share, the split is basically 50-50. If the talent is more famous, the split will be 40-60, or even 30-70.

Li Yishu never thought that she could make money by relying on commissions from actors. The pay for a TV series is at most tens of thousands of yuan. If that little money makes people feel exploited, then it is not worth it at all.

The key is to win over a large number of actors in advance, allowing the Art and Entertainment Group to form the scale of artist management, thereby driving the group's influence.

Wang Jinghua, the future famous agent, was able to leave Huayi Brothers and join Orange Sky Entertainment thanks to the large number of first- and second-tier actors on hand.

But unfortunately, with the intervention of capital, the old system of agents and directors choosing actors for the roles no longer works, and it is now more about the force of capital.

Of course, Li Yishu doesn’t have to worry about capital in this life.

Because by then, he will be the biggest capital of domestic entertainment.

At about 1 p.m., the dinner had just ended. Just as Li Yishu was about to drive Chen Hong away, Yongmei suddenly came over and said, "Boss, Wang Shuo just called and learned that you're back. He wants to meet you."

"Wang Shuo..."

Li Yishu didn't know what Wang Shuo wanted her to do, but considering that the two sides were now in cooperation, she nodded and agreed: "Call him back and tell him that I'll be waiting for him at the company at 2 pm."

"Okay, boss." Yongmei nodded, took out her cell phone and went out to contact Wang Shuo.

"Would you like to go back and wait for me first, or go to the company with me again?"

Li Yishu turned her head to look at Chen Hong beside her. She had just drunk some red wine at the dinner table. After coming out and being exposed to the sun, her face immediately turned red, like a ripe red apple.

"I'd better go back first and not disturb you from working."

Chen Hong thought about it and decided not to disturb Li Yishu from working. She knew very well that one should not disturb a man while he is working as this would cause dissatisfaction. As for how Chen Hong knew this, it was because she had filmed many romantic dramas and the annoying heroines in the scripts were mostly like this.

After a dozen years, I guess Chen Hong will know that there is a very intuitive word to express this kind of behavior, that is "acting"!
Li Yishu nodded: "Then I'll have someone take you back first."

After half an hour.

Li Yishu was sitting in the office talking on the phone with Jiang Qinqin. She was going to have a holiday the day after tomorrow, so she called to ask if she wanted to go back with her.

dong dong——

Hearing the knock on the door, Li Yishu shouted "Come in" and immediately said to Jiang Qinqin on the other end of the phone, "I'll go back with you the day after tomorrow. I have something else to do. Let's talk about it when we meet tonight."

With a click, the door was opened from the outside. The receptionist walked in first, followed by Wang Shuo and two other men.

Looking at the two people behind Wang Shuo, Li Yishu's pupils shrank slightly. They were all familiar faces.

The former is Zhao Baogang and the latter is Guo Baochang.

There is no need to say much about Zhao Baogang. His works "Over the Hook", "Never Forget", "Like Fog, Like Rain and Like Wind" and "Struggle" were all very popular at the time, and also made a large number of new actors famous. The most representative of them may be "Never Forget" and "Struggle".

The former made Lu Yi famous, and the latter made Tong Dawei, Wen Zhang and others famous.

Guo Baochang is also a director, and his most famous work is "The Mansion Gate".

Li Yishu stood up and greeted him with a smile: "Brother Wang, long time no see. How come you have time to come to my place today?"

The words "Brother Wang" gave Wang Shuo enough face.

Wang Shuo, who is very concerned about his reputation, naturally said with joy, "I heard from Manager Yong that Director Li has returned to Yanjing. It just so happens that I have two friends who are both directors and want to meet Director Li, so I brought him here to meet you."

"Haha, the friend that Brother Wang brought must be extraordinary. Xiao Zhang, go find Manager Yong and ask her to brew the tea that Director Han gave me last time."

While arranging for the receptionist to make tea, Li Yishu warmly invited the three people to sit down.

Zhao Baogang's TV series are a guarantee of quality and hot-selling, and Guo Baochang's "The Mansion Gate" is also a classic. If we can attract these two people to the company, then we will be secure in the film and television industry in the future.

(End of this chapter)