Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 317 328 [Qingxia's good son, group executives meeting]

There is only one word difference between film and television base and photography base, but the difference is actually quite big.

A film and television base is a film and television city. Its main feature is to build houses of various styles and then invite the crew to come and shoot on location. The most famous of these is Hengdian Film and Television City.

The photography base is a huge studio that uses artificial landscaping to rent out to people who need photography. After all, the architecture and style of a film and television city may not be suitable for all movies.

"What does Director Li mean?"

Director Zhang's eyes flickered. Although he was a member of the organizing committee of the Shanghai Film Festival, he was also affiliated with the Shanghai Television and Film Bureau.

If he could build a photography base in Shanghai that was comparable to the one in Columbia, it would be a plus even if he couldn't gain much political achievement.

Li Yishu said: "Our Art Entertainment Group intends to build a photography base of the same scale. We have been considering setting it up in the United States, but the labor and prop production costs here are high, so we are thinking about investing in China. If the investment is successful, the films invested by our group in North America can be shot in China in the future..."

It is definitely profitable to shoot American movies in mainland China. The difference in labor costs and prop production between the two places are enough to save a lot of production costs.

Take "Saw" for example. When James Wan made this movie in his previous life, the cost was about 120 million US dollars.

Li Yishu’s current investment is about 90 US dollars, but if it is filmed in mainland China, at least half of the money can be saved, and the effect will be even better!

In the future, Hollywood film crews will shoot in various parts of the world in order to reduce labor and props costs.

"Director Li, do you really have such an idea?!"

Director Zhang was very excited. He originally thought that Li Yishu just wanted to invest in building a photography base in Shanghai, but he didn't expect that he also wanted to shoot American movies in the mainland. If successful, it would be a steady stream of foreign exchange.

And maybe, in the future, the six major Hollywood film studios will also come to the mainland to shoot.

After all, who wouldn’t like to save money?

Li Yishu nodded: "Indeed, I have such an idea, but the specific situation still depends on the policies given by Shanghai. Investing in a photography base comparable to the six major Hollywood studios is not a small amount of money, so our group must be cautious."

"Don't worry, Director Li. Shanghai has been vigorously promoting the film, television, culture, tourism and other industries in recent years. If Director Li really wants to build a photography base of this scale in Shanghai, I believe the SH municipal government will definitely provide extremely generous policies and support."

"Then I'll trouble Director Zhang for your help. I'll arrange for Amy to take charge of this matter personally."

"No problem, Director Li."

Director Zhang was very excited. He couldn't wait to return to China to discuss this matter. If it really came true, it would at least be a step forward.

After visiting the Columbia Photography Base, Li Yishu then took Director Zhang and Director Chen to the crew. After having a meal together in the evening, she sent them back to the hotel.

Even though the matter has been discussed, it is not easy to go abroad these days, let alone on a government-sponsored trip. Director Zhang and Director Chen naturally want to have a good time in this capitalist America.

So for the next few days, Li Yishu asked Amy to be responsible for entertaining the two of them until they left North America.

Time flies and it is September 9th.

A private hospital in Los Angeles.

Li Yishu stood at the door of the delivery room and paced back and forth. He was still very nervous.

Although the risks of giving birth in modern society are very small, it is always a bit worrying until the last moment, after all, Qingxia is an elderly mother.

Zhao Xue watched her son wandering back and forth and shouted impatiently, "Stop wandering, you bastard. You're starting to worry me."

Li Yishu smiled awkwardly, then stood aside and waited silently.

About ten minutes later, the door of the delivery room was opened, and Li Yishu, Zhao Xue and Mother Lin rushed in.

Li Yishu couldn't wait to ask, "Alice, how is it?"

The blonde female doctor took off her mask and said with a smile, "Congratulations, Li. Everything went well for the mother. She gave birth to a 7.38 pound baby boy. Both mother and child are doing well now."

Li Yishu was overjoyed, as long as mother and child were safe.

"Yishu, what did she say?" Zhao Xue didn't understand English and asked hurriedly.

He said, "She said Qingxia is doing well and gave birth to a 6.7 catties baby boy."

After hearing this, Mother Lin's face immediately showed joy, she clasped her hands together and shouted repeatedly: "May Mazu bless you!"

"Okay, okay!"

Zhao Xue was smiling happily because she now had a grandson.

After comforting the two, Li Yishu looked at the female doctor and said, "Alice, can we go in and see her now?"

"Sorry, it's not the right time yet. The baby still needs to be sent for various examinations, and the mother still needs to be taken care of. She will be sent to the ward in about twenty minutes. You have to wait here."

"OK!"

Female doctor Alice still had things to do, so she chatted with Li Yishu for a few words and then returned to the delivery room.

After Li Yishu told Zhao Xue and Lin's mother about it, they learned that Qingxia and the child were in simple condition and needed to be checked before they could come out. They immediately breathed a sigh of relief and began to chat and laugh about the child's name.

Zhao Xue asked curiously, "Yishu, have you decided on a name for your child?"

"Not yet. There's no rush to name it."

Li Yishu was in a dilemma for a moment. He wanted to name his child after the character "Bang" (Bang) in his generation, but he was not sure whether he should name his child this way.

Zhao Xue said: "If it's not urgent, why don't you ask your dad later?"

"Did you tell my old man?"

"I haven't said it yet, but I'll say it eventually."

"Okay, then tell me later."

Anyway, the baby was born in the United States, so at most I can give him an English name first, and then give him a nice and meaningful Chinese name when I return to China.

After half an hour.

In the hospital's VIP ward.

Looking at the boy sleeping in Qingxia's arms, Li Yishu was still very excited. He held Qingxia's hand, looked at her pale face, and said distressedly: "Thank you for your hard work, Sister Qingxia."

"I don't feel tired when he's around."

Qingxia smiled as she looked at the baby sleeping soundly in her arms, her face showing motherly love.

At this moment, the child suddenly burst into tears.

Qingxia was a little overwhelmed.

After giving birth to four children, the experienced mother Lin said, "The child must be hungry. I'll go make some milk powder."

"Let me do it, let me do it." Zhao Xue held down Mother Lin and ran to find the nurse to learn how to make milk powder.

After the child finished drinking the milk powder, he fell into a deep sleep again.

Zhao Xue looked at Qingxia's tired appearance and said, "Yishu, go back and let Qingxia rest first. By the way, tell Sister Huang to make some light soup. Qingxia needs to eat light food these days."

"Okay mom."

Li Yishu nodded. Huang's mother was good in every way except that she didn't speak English. She couldn't come to the hospital by herself, so he had to go back to pick her up.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

After a reexamination at the hospital confirmed that there was nothing serious, Li Yishu arranged a vehicle and took the whole family back to Beverly Hills from the hospital.

Mother Lin also notified her family immediately. Qingxia has a brother and a sister. Her sister settled in the United States after getting married early.

I didn't notify them before because I thought it was inconvenient. Now that the child is born, it doesn't matter whether it's inconvenient or not. I just made a phone call and brought the person here directly.

Mr. Lin is old and has high blood pressure, so it is not convenient for him to take a plane alone. He can only wait for his son to finish his work.

Originally, Qingxia had an older sister, but due to special circumstances, she was left in the mainland with relatives, resulting in them being separated for many years.

Later, they found their relatives, but the relationship was still a little distant. But after all, they were sisters with the same father and mother, so naturally they had to invite each other.

But Qingxia took Li Yishu's identity into consideration and decided to wait until later to invite her elder sister and her family over.

Zhao Xue also made an international call back to Sichuan. When Li Jian learned about this, he was greatly surprised. At first he thought his wife went to the United States for fun, but he didn't expect that his eldest son would give him such a big surprise.

Although he was surprised, he was naturally very happy to have a grandson, and immediately said that he would leave for the United States to see his grandson.

The arrival of the Li and Lin families naturally made Qingxia feel very happy.

The party was lively until early October, when Li Jiancai had to separate from his eldest grandson due to work reasons. However, before leaving, he named the child according to the Bang generation name envisioned by Li Yishu.

Named Li Bangguo.

The reason why it is the Chinese character "国" is that we hope that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will be unified as soon as possible.

Of course, Li Yishu had no objection to the name her father gave to her child, and Qingxia had even less objection.

Father Lin and elder brother Lin also returned to Taiwan first, but Qingxia's sister Lixia stayed here to accompany them.

During Qingxia's confinement period, Li Yishu was not idle. In addition to staying at home to accompany Qingxia and the child, she went to the company's editing room to do post-production on "Chicago".

At the same time, he wrote scripts based on some of the more famous low-cost comedies and horror films in the United States that he remembered, and then gave them to the company to register the copyrights.

Li Yishu also wrote the script of "Rush Hour 1" and sent it to Cheng Long and Yang Shoucheng who were far away in Hong Kong. It is very likely that this movie will not be able to start shooting next year, but it can be shot the year after.

In addition to "Rush Hour", he also wrote the general plot of "Face/Off" and gave it to Wu Yusen to think about it carefully, and asked someone to adapt the purchased novel "The Bourne Supremacy".

"Face/Off" is Wu Yusen's famous work in Hollywood. After that, he only had one "Mission Impossible 2". After repeated consideration, Li Yishu decided to let Wu Yusen shoot "Face/Off", but he had to wait until he finished shooting five movies for the company.

The reason why the film was given to Wu Yusen was because he had the ability to do so. Secondly, after the film was completed, Li Yishu would not look for him again.

If "Face/Off" achieves the same impressive global box office results as the original, Wu Yusen will probably be full of confidence again, but Li Yishu believes that it will be difficult for him to make any masterpieces again.

In this case, the natural thing is to squeeze out every last bit of value from the other party.

This morning.

Arts Entertainment Group held its first executive meeting.

In addition to Li Yishu, Amy, Monica, and David who are in the United States, there are also Yongmei who came from the mainland, the person in charge Liu Yulan who came from Hong Kong, and Ichiro Tanaka who came from Japan.

The meeting discussed today is mainly related to the group strategy for next year.

David, the general manager of Golden Lion Pictures, reported: "Boss, the North American branch has completed the production of "Scream" and "Sense and Sensibility". The films in post-production include "Saw" and "Wrong Turn". "The Hills Have Eyes" and "Final Destination 2" are also being filmed."

"We plan to release Scream on Halloween, the follow-up Saw on Christmas, Wrong Turn in January next year, and Sense and Sensibility at the Berlin Film Festival in February next year..."

"In addition to these well-made films that are currently being produced and filmed, we plan to continue to produce low-cost productions at a high frequency next year, including but not limited to horror films, comedies, etc. It is estimated that an average of one film will be released every month next year."

"In this way, we can stabilize the cooperative relationship with the North American Theater Alliance, thereby expanding our channels and capabilities in theatrical distribution..."

After listening to the report, Li Yishu nodded and pointed out: "Golden Lion Pictures needs to expand the scale of low-cost films. It doesn't matter if a movie doesn't make money at the box office. We can completely rely on video copyright..."

Li Yishu is well aware that the next twenty years will be the peak period for Hollywood movies to sweep the world.

No matter whether it is a blockbuster or an ordinary Hollywood movie, there is basically no need to worry about the overseas market. Even if a low-cost horror movie cannot be released overseas, it can still make a lot of money from the videotape copyright.

This is also one of the reasons why Li Yishu decided to establish Golden Lion Pictures and expand investment in low-cost films. Big-budget productions require taking risks, not just the box office risk, but the most important thing is the sunk cost of funds.

Instead of using 10 million US dollars to make a movie, it is better to use the money to make ten movies with a cost of about one million US dollars. There will always be one that can make back the money and profit.

The Lionsgate Entertainment in Li Yishu's memory relied on this trick to embark on a different business path under the rule of the Big Six in Hollywood.

By producing and distributing low-cost horror films, Lionsgate gained a foothold in Hollywood and obtained overseas distribution channels, which established its position below the six major film companies.

After talking about North America, Li Yishu asked about Hong Kong and Japan.

Currently, Hong Kong Art Film Company is mainly focused on distributing films and has not invested in any film to date.

It’s not that Liu Yulan doesn’t want to invest, but the film market in Hong Kong is currently very distorted, and it is difficult to make a big profit with a small investment. Most of the box office revenue depends on well-known actors.

The two Zhous, One Cheng and One Li are now the guarantee of Hong Kong Island's box office.

Therefore, it is better to be a distributor and make more money than to find some less famous actors to film.

　It’s the end of the month, please give me a monthly pass!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)