Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 18 Scheming boy
Li Qin: "We have already discussed it with the company. I am now an independent studio, so I will be responsible for the subsequent contracts and so on. I will go back to Shanghai to deal with some things first. Let me know when you are ready. I will come to Beijing North and we can talk in person."

Meng Bai: "Well done.JPG"

Li Qin: "By the way, there is also the issue of pay. My agent said that since we have no experience in web drama cooperation before, we will still follow the TV series method, determined by the broadcast time, 50,000 per episode."

Meng Bai: "Fifty thousand? Didn't you say you would try your best to get a 'friendship price'? Comrade Li Qin, the organization is now very suspicious of your position."

Li Qin: "Fifty thousand is already very low. The drama I just finished airing was filmed last year and it cost seventy thousand."

Meng Bai: "Wow! Rich lady wants to be supported~"

Li Qin: "Haha (disdain.JPG)"

Meng Bai: "Then why were you so excited about more than 600,000 yuan before?"

Li Qin: "The film remuneration is not entirely mine. I have to share it with the company, pay salaries to the studio, and pay taxes.

Besides, I can’t get all this money all at once, so I won’t get much in the end.

Besides, how can the feeling of being cheated and spending money be the same?

Meng Bai: "Ok, anyway, your salary is high, and the profit share is low, you decide for yourself."

Li Qin: "Hey, Mr. Meng, our cooperation hasn't even started yet, and you're already settling scores with me?"

Meng Bai: "Hey, Mr. Li, what you said is not right. As the saying goes, brothers should be clear about accounts. Let's make the money issue clear in advance so as not to hurt feelings."

Li Qin: "Haha, please don't. We only have friendship, not love. I won't say any more. I have to go through security and ascend the throne."

Li Qin: "Boarding, typo"

Meng Bai: "I wish Master Li a safe ascension to the throne and unification of the martial arts world!"

Li Qin: "White Eyes.JPG"

……

Looking at the emojis sent by Li Qin on WeChat, Meng Bai smiled and put away his phone. Then he raised his head and looked at Gan Wei who was sitting opposite him and said, "How about it, Sister Weiwei, do you have any questions about the terms of our cooperation agreement?"

Ever since reaching a preliminary cooperation intention with Leshi.com, Meng Bai has not been idle these days.

While he was working on converting the previous literary script into a dialogue script, he was also constantly in contact with Leshi.com to discuss the specific terms of the cooperation agreement.

As an independent screenwriter, and a new independent screenwriter with little qualifications and fame, Meng Bai had no say in the terms of profit sharing. It was already very good for him to get a screenwriter fee and a copyright fee.

If you are luckier, getting a tiered reward based on playback data is already a huge gain, so you don’t even dare to ask for any share of the profits.

But Meng Bai is different.

Relying on the three cards of "script copyright", "professional team production" and "famous actors joining", he is not just a screenwriter in this web drama project, but more of a producer.

Investment, production (production), and platform are the three most important components of a drama. Meng Bai now represents one of them, so he is naturally qualified to discuss the revenue sharing with Leshi.com. Of course, as the financial sponsor and broadcasting platform, Leshi.com will definitely take the lion's share.

The two parties have been negotiating on various aspects of the cooperation agreement in the past few days. Meng Bai also withstood the "group attack" from the film and television department of Leshi.com and finally achieved a good result.

According to the agreement, Meng Bai authorized the online drama copyright of the project "Soul Ferry" to Leshi.com for exclusive broadcast. At the same time, Leshi.com also has priority rights for subsequent sequels and other forms of film and television development, such as novels, feature films, stage plays, etc.

By the way, when it comes to script authorization, Meng Bai used a "little trick" commonly used in the industry.

Meng Bai registered two film and television studios, one called "Arclight Culture" and the other called "Arclight Film and Television". Later, he transferred the copyright of the script to "Arclight Culture" and then authorized "Arclight Film and Television" to use it. All subsequent contracts between him and Leshi.com were signed in the name of "Arclight Film and Television".

This is a common method used by content creators at home and abroad. Through the "nested" operation of the two companies, the copyright of their works can be guaranteed to the greatest extent possible, thus avoiding being eaten up by powerful investors or "outsiders" in subsequent cooperation.

In fact, for Meng Bai now, this set of methods is a bit redundant. The operation is rather complicated, and he has to bear some additional taxes for business operations.

However, people always have some high-level ideals, and Meng Bai also has some thoughts in his mind like "What if I become bigger and stronger in the future?"

So instead of sorting out all the copyright troubles at that time, it is better to be a "scheming boy" from the beginning.

Back to the agreement between Meng Bai and Leshi.com, in terms of profit sharing, Arclight Pictures, as the producer, can get 26% of the comprehensive revenue during the entire broadcast period of the series.

The so-called "comprehensive income" refers to all profits including advertising share, membership income, website traffic, etc.

Or to put it simply, for every 100 yuan that Leshi.com earns during the broadcast of "Soul Ferry" in the future, 26 yuan will be given to Arclight Films.

In addition, the agreement also stipulates some specific details, such as Arc Light Films must ensure the crew's preparation progress and project time, all expenses of the crew need to be reviewed by financial personnel sent by Leshi.com, and the Leshi.com platform needs to provide necessary promotion during the later broadcast, etc.

These are all trivial matters, but they cannot be ignored in cooperation.

Instead of waiting for the actual shooting and broadcasting to continue to argue, it is better to clearly stipulate all the requirements at the beginning.

Fortunately, Gan Wei did not quibble over the terms of the agreement. He only proposed some revisions on a few key issues, and then quickly agreed to the other conditions.

After all, the "Pendulum" was only a "B-level project" worth about 3 million yuan. If it weren't for the fact that it was independently invested and produced by Leshi.com and his personal relationship with Meng Bai, Gan Wei would not have bothered to care about such a "small project".

Therefore, after seeing that all of her requests had been revised in the agreement, she said to Meng Bai readily, "There is nothing wrong with the terms of the agreement. Once we have completed some internal procedures in the next few days, we can officially sign the contract."

"Thank you, Sister Weiwei." Meng Bai said with a smile, "Then I will also start preparing the crew and start filming as soon as possible. We will try to finish filming before the end of the year."

"So fast!" Gan Wei was obviously surprised by Meng Bai's efficiency: "Isn't it a bit too hasty? Although it's just a web drama, we still have to ensure the quality."

You have to know that it is early September now, and there are only three and a half months left until the end of the year.

Judging from the average efficiency, a normal film and television project, from project establishment to script writing, to crew preparation and filming, will take at least half a year even if everything goes well.

Of course, there have been many "quick shooters" in history. For example, during the heyday of Hong Kong films, there was an example where it only took seven days from project approval to completion of filming.

But after all, it is a movie, with few shots and short length. In comparison, it is difficult for a longer TV series to achieve this speed.

(End of this chapter)