Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 162 I have something better (Monthly Tickets Plus)
Lin Chaoyang's words caused a brief silence in the room. Li Hanxiang's face was serious and a little cold.

Shi Kuan looked at his expression, fearing that the two of them would break down the discussion, and said, "Comrade Chaoyang, this movie script still has to be based on the director. Good scripts are made through revisions, how can we not make revisions?"

Lin Chaoyang said calmly, "I'm not saying that it can't be changed, but it can't be changed drastically. I can change it if I want to, but if the workload is too heavy, I can't change it."

Lin Chaoyang proposed that the script should not be changed drastically because he suffered a loss at the hands of Xie Jin last time. He had written the script of "The Shepherd", but Xie Jin dragged him like a slave for half a month in the name of changing the script.

In fact, there were basically no changes to his literary script, all of which were done in cooperation with Xie Jin to create the storyboard script.

This time he has learned his lesson. He can change the script, but he must do it in moderation and not waste too much of his time and energy, otherwise he will lose the money he earned!
I might as well write more novels if I have more time!

Shi Kuan keenly grasped the key point of Lin Chaoyang's words and asked, "You mean, you don't want to spend too much energy on revising the script, right?"

Lin Chaoyang nodded slightly, "That's right."

After getting this answer, Shi Kuan felt relieved. He glanced at Li Hanxiang's expression, and the seriousness on the other's face also faded a lot.

Shi Kuan joked, "Director Li hired you as a screenwriter, and it's your job to revise the script. You don't want to just finish writing the script and throw it to Director Li, do you?"

Lin Chaoyang smiled and said, "Of course I will communicate with Director Li during the script writing stage. I am talking about the revisions after the final draft."

Listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, Shi Kuan looked at Li Hanxiang, asking for his opinion with his eyes.

Li Hanxiang's expression had relaxed at this moment, and he said, "Okay, I can promise you this. What's the other question?"

"The other question is simple. How is the manuscript fee calculated?"

Lin Chaoyang's question surprised Shi Kuan, but Li Hanxiang was not surprised. He worked for Shaw Brothers and was already accustomed to highly commercialized communication.

But before he could open his mouth, Shi Kuan said, "The royalties will be in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Culture and the film studio, not a penny less."

Lin Chaoyang shook his head and asked, "How much did Director Li get paid for making this movie?"

Li Hanxiang was stunned again when he heard this, and then he understood Lin Chaoyang's subtext.

Shi Kuan asked: "Comrade Chaoyang, what do you mean..."

"Although Director Li's film is a co-production, since everyone is a participant in the film, the effort and salary should be on the same level. The amount of royalties does not matter, but there must be no discrimination in treatment."

The reason why Lin Chaoyang said this is because Li Hanxiang, who was later in life, had an incident due to the treatment of the crew when filming "The Last Emperor" and "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace".

At that time, the crew included people from Hong Kong and the mainland, and not only were their salaries different, but their living conditions were also different.

In the end, it was the lead actress Liu Xiaoqing who caused a big scene on the set, which managed to win some treatment for the mainland staff.

But even so, the salary gap between the two sides is still huge.

In this world, what is worrying is not the scarcity but the inequality.

Listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, Shi Kuan was a little unhappy, "Comrade Chaoyang, the remuneration standards given by Director Li and our co-production company are based on the highest standards set by the Ministry of Culture. Director Li and his team are from Hong Kong, so their remuneration is naturally based on Hong Kong standards."

Lin Chaoyang said calmly, "I don't care about other people's affairs. I can choose not to write this script, but I can't accept this kind of discriminatory treatment."

"This……"

Shi Kuan was unhappy to see Lin Chaoyang's firm attitude, but he also knew that Li Hanxiang wanted Lin Chaoyang to write the script, so he looked at Li Hanxiang.

Facing Lin Chaoyang's resounding attitude, Li Hanxiang has been hesitating.

For him, there is actually no difference in paying Lin Chaoyang according to Hong Kong or mainland standards, because it is the investors' money that is being spent anyway.

The reason why he remained silent was that he didn't want to agree to Lin Chaoyang all at once. The young man in front of him had talent, but he was also very arrogant.

If you don't take advantage of him, it will be difficult to communicate with him in the future.

Seeing that Li Hanxiang had a gloomy face and didn't speak, Lin Chaoyang thought that he was unhappy with his conditions and didn't seem to be prepared to agree.

So, Lin Chaoyang stood up and said, "I have made my thoughts clear to you two. It is fate that we meet today. I think we should leave it at that for now. We can communicate with each other later if we have any other ideas."

After he finished speaking, he walked straight towards the door without waiting for Li Hanxiang and Shi Kuan's reaction, leaving the two of them disheveled in the wind.

No, you’ve stated your conditions and you don’t allow us to consider it?
Li Hanxiang really didn't expect that Lin Chaoyang would run away just because of a disagreement. His temper was too impatient.

He finally spoke, "Mr. Lin, please stay!"

Seeing Li Hanxiang speaking, Shi Kuan stood up, quickly pulled Lin Chaoyang back, and said with a smile: "We can discuss the royalties slowly, we haven't finished discussing the matter yet. Don't leave in a hurry, I'll treat you to lunch at noon."

Shi Kuan's words gave both Lin Chaoyang and Li Hanxiang a way out.

He originally wanted to take control of Lin Chaoyang, but he didn't expect that the young man had no moral principles and would overturn the table when they disagreed.

It wasn't his own money anyway, so Li Hanxiang made up his mind and said, "Mr. Lin, I can agree to your salary standard. As long as your script satisfies me, I can give you a royalty of 30,000 Hong Kong dollars."

After hearing Li Hanxiang's words, Lin Chaoyang's expression relaxed and he smiled.

The Hong Kong dollar is not valuable now, and the exchange rate of RMB to Hong Kong dollar is about 1:3.3. The Hong Kong dollars mentioned by Li Hanxiang is about more than yuan if converted into RMB.

This figure is much higher than the royalties given by domestic film studios. He only paid 2,000 yuan to Xie Jin for writing "The Shepherd".

Lin Chaoyang also knew that Hong Kong films had never paid much attention to screenwriters. Until the mid-to-late 1980s, a script by a famous screenwriter was only worth 50,000 to 60,000 Hong Kong dollars.

The price Li Hanxiang offered him was full of sincerity. "Director Li, let's talk about the script." Lin Chaoyang said with a warm face.

With money, everything is easy.

Li Hanxiang has made many historical films and has a particular understanding of Qing history and has a very solid foundation in historical studies.

He wanted to shoot "Tea House" and "The Last Emperor" before, actually because he had a complex in his heart, that is, a strong anger towards the history of loss of sovereignty and humiliation of the country in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.

"I want to systematically and profoundly reflect the political corruption and stupidity of those in power in the late Qing Dynasty, and truly reflect that tragic history on the big screen."

Finally, Li Hanxiang concluded.

Lin Chaoyang digested his thoughts for a long time, then asked, "How about starting with the character of Cixi?"

"Cixi?" Li Hanxiang's eyes lit up. "I had the same idea before. We have the same idea."

Li Hanxiang sounded impatient, but Lin Chaoyang said, "I'll go back and write an outline for the script, and I'll ask you to review it later."

"When will it be completed?" Li Hanxiang asked.

"It should be quick. Is this urgent?"

Li Hanxiang said, "In two months I will go to Haojiang to meet Mr. He and finalize the investment with him. The script must be completed within these two months. Is that okay?"

Lin Chaoyang nodded confidently, "It's not a big problem."

Li Hanxiang was very happy with his confidence, but he was also a little worried, "Can you really do it?"

"Don't worry about that. It only took me one month to write the script for 'The World's No. 1 Restaurant'."

Li Hanxiang didn't know the inside story of how the script of "The World's No. 1 Restaurant" was created. When he heard that it took only one month to write the script, he couldn't help but asked in surprise, "One month?"

His surprise was not surprising. Whether it is a movie script or a drama script, the number of words is much less than that of a novel of the same size, but the information content is no less.

This requires that the content of the script must be refined over and over again. It may not take a long time to write a script, but it is normal to revise it three or five times. All in all, the time spent is no shorter than writing a novel.

If such a mature and sophisticated script as "The World's Number One Restaurant" really took only one month to create, it proves that Lin Chaoyang undoubtedly has strong strength and talent in drama creation.

With this kind of strength guarantee, Li Hanxiang felt relieved and said gently: "I will leave the script matter to you."

When I returned home from Yanjing Hotel, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening.

In addition to chatting about some miscellaneous things in the morning, Lin Chaoyang and Li Hanxiang continued to discuss the script in the afternoon and evening.

When they got home, Tao Yushu asked him if he had eaten. Lin Chaoyang said he had, and then told her about writing a script for Li Hanxiang.

Li Hanxiang's name is not widely known in the mainland today, but Tao Yushu had watched a lot of internal reference films before and was not unfamiliar with Li Hanxiang's name.

Lin Chaoyang had just finished writing a script for Xie Jin some time ago, and now he was going to write a script for Li Hanxiang. Tao Yushu asked, "You won't change your career to become a screenwriter in the future, will you?"

"Just making some extra money. Do you know how much I got paid for writing this script?" Lin Chaoyang kept her in suspense.

Tao Yushu cooperated with him very well. His big eyes blinked with hazy doubts and curiosity, which made Lin Chaoyang feel itchy.

He held up a finger, "30,000 yuan!"

"Thirty thousand yuan?" Tao Yushu exclaimed, her pretty face full of disbelief.

"People in Hong Kong are too rich. Isn't this enough for you to write a dozen novels?"

A dozen?
Lin Chaoyang was stunned for a moment, then realized that he didn't mention the currency just now.

“It’s Hong Kong dollars,” he added.

"Hong Kong dollars? Is that more valuable?"

These days, no one cares about the exchange rate, and Tao Yushu is not clear about the exchange rate relationship between the Hong Kong dollar and the RMB.

"No. The RMB is more valuable. One dollar is worth three and a half Hong Kong dollars."

Tao Yushu calculated in his mind that it was more than 9,000 yuan.

When she heard the number "30,000 yuan" just now, she was happy in her heart, but she couldn't help feeling uneasy, because this number has exceeded the cognition of most ordinary people today.

After she finished the calculation and found out it was more than 9,000 yuan, she felt relieved.

"More than 9,000 yuan, that's a lot. Our house is only a little over 10,000 yuan, and you actually earned enough money to buy a house from just one script!"

Tao Yushu couldn't help but throw himself into Lin Chaoyang's arms, "Chaoyang, you are awesome!"

Feeling the warmth and softness in his arms and the woman's admiration, Lin Chaoyang was distracted.

"I have something even better!" One of his hands wandered dishonestly over her graceful curves.

Tao Yushu's breathing became rapid and his eyes became blurry.

(End of this chapter)