Huayu: When the director changed his major

Chapter 14 Finalizing Cooperation
After a brief moment of surprise, the three of them sat down and chatted.

"Zuibai, I didn't expect you to be so young." Yi Zhenxing was still surprised by Cheng Xi's age.

Young people around 20 years old can actually write "My Love from the Star" and "Never Expected". The young people are really to behold!

"Brother Xing, you're welcome."

Cheng Xi didn't feel comfortable calling the other person "beast" in person, so he politely called him Brother Xing.

"My name is Cheng Xi, you can just call me Xiao Cheng. This is Reba, we are both freshmen at Beijing Film Academy."

Yi Zhenxing looked seriously at the girl next to Cheng Xi, who had a Western-style temperament, and then said:

"My name is Yi Zhenxing. No wonder you guys graduated from a prestigious art school. No wonder you're both good-looking and talented."

When Reba heard this, she smiled and said thank you.

After everyone praised each other for a while, they started talking about the script.

"Why did you think of letting me be the director of this drama?" Yi Zhenxing actually always had this question.

"I understand Brother Xing's confusion. I'm a student at the Beijing Film Academy, so it seems more appropriate to ask seniors from the directing department to film it."

"But I am your fan myself, and the main inspiration for writing this script came from the video you uploaded on Tudou."

"I've observed carefully that you were responsible for the copywriting, filming, dubbing, music, editing, and props in the video. In fact, you did the work of an entire crew by yourself."

"This script aligns with your ideas. If I let someone else shoot it, I'm worried that they won't capture the essence of it. I don't have the ability to shoot it myself, so you're the best choice."

Yi Zhenxing was surprised to hear Cheng Xi say this. He had obviously done his homework, so he said:
"To be honest, I really like your script, but I'd like to ask what your considerations are regarding funding."

Yi Zhenxing asked politely, but Cheng Xi understood the off-screen voice: he was worried about the money issue:

"The main focus in terms of funding is still on low costs. I can't afford anything too high."

"Each episode is 5 minutes long, the budget is less than 10 yuan, and we will be shooting about 12- episodes."

"You can choose to only receive the salary for the lead role, with the copyright and subsequent expenses belonging to me; or you can invest with me, with the director and script fees included in the investment."

Yi Zhenxing asked again: "Are you considering profitability? Which platform will it be broadcast on?"

If you are just a director, you don’t have to worry about so many things, but if it is a joint investment, the cost and profit issues must be discussed first.

"It might be difficult to make a profit in the first few episodes. If we were self-produced, we would put it on Tudou or Youku platforms."

"Or you can play it directly on your podcast, which can save some publicity costs, but it also limits the independence of the short play."

"The only way to make money right now is to put in advertising. Let's see how the first few episodes perform. If no one watches, then we'll just lose money. Or we can just start filming and see the quality of the finished film. Then we can ask Tudou or Youku for a quote."

After saying that, Cheng Xi also handed Yi Zhenxing a simple project plan that he had prepared in advance.

Seeing Cheng Xi talking so eloquently and confidently, Reba realized that it was no wonder that Sister Xueer always liked to mention him.

It was so intense that Reba almost forgot that they were actually of the same age.

Thinking about how she couldn't even cry in a simple crying scene, and then looking at Cheng Xi, Reba really felt like crying.

Cheng Xi answered in detail and frankly; he had nothing to hide.

To put it bluntly, "Wan Wan" originally belonged to Yi Xiaoxing, he just made the show come into being early.

Even without Cheng Xi, there will still be "Never Expected".

Yi Zhenxing quickly finished reading the plan, and the content was basically the same as what Cheng Xi said.

When he saw the three words "Season 1" of "Never Expected" on the title page, his eyes flashed and he understood the ambition and confidence of this young man.

He wants to make "Never Expected" into a series.

Yi Zhenxing read the plan again, giving himself some time to think, and said after a while:

"We're making a dozen or so episodes, so can I take a look at the rest of the script?" "We've only written four episodes so far, and this is the script for the last two."

"I have some rough ideas for the subsequent scripts. If we want to finalize them, it would be best to hold a script workshop for everyone to discuss. We should also discuss the first four episodes before finalizing them."

Cheng Xi said as he handed two scripts to Yi Zhenxing and Reba.

This is also the reason why Cheng Xi wants to cooperate with the main creative team, because he can only remember the most impressive episodes and some famous scenes, and he cannot support the content of more than ten episodes by himself.

If only four episodes are broadcast and each lasts twenty minutes, it will not have any impact and will not make any money.

Moreover, even if he wrote the four episodes himself, he was not confident that they could rival the original work. He wrote them based on memory, so the quality was definitely discounted.

There are also some memes in it that are not suitable for today and need a certain degree of re-creation.

Yi Zhenxing thought for a moment, thinking of the excitement he felt when he first saw this script late at night, and made up his mind:
"Writer Cheng, I've accepted the director's job. The remuneration will be considered my investment."

Cheng Xi laughed happily, stretched out his hand and said:
"Director Yi, let's make this drama a success together."

The two palms were clasped together tightly!
Cheng Xi was very happy. After so many days of thinking, he finally decided on the general direction of his first drama.

After all, Yi Zhenxing is already a well-known podcaster, and Cheng Xi is just a freshman. Although he has the support of the author and the script, Cheng Xi is not 100% sure.

Now I can breathe a sigh of relief.

The general direction has been determined, and the following are discussions on the details.

Finally, the two parties preliminarily agreed that Yi Zhenxing would use the director's salary plus an additional investment of 8 yuan to account for 40% of the copyright and subsequent profits, and screenwriter Cheng Xi's salary plus an additional investment of 12 yuan would account for 60% of the copyright and subsequent profits.

This is the best result Cheng Xi could think of. "Wan Wan" can be filmed without any compromise, he can learn a lot on the crew, and he will also get the majority of the copyright of this big IP.

Cheng Xi is not greedy enough to ask for 100% copyright. Only steady progress can last long, and only cooperation can bring win-win results.

Copyright will be the most valuable thing in a few years, and making "Wan Wan" profitable is the most important thing now.

Yi Zhenxing already has a personal studio under his name, and Cheng Xi is also planning to register a personal studio after National Day, which will make it easier to advance subsequent work and implement the contract.

The preliminary plan is to shoot "Wan Wan" for about 15 days, and the special effects can be done while shooting.

Yi Zhenxing suggested that the preliminary work should be prepared in October.

For example, make a good budget plan, find the leading actors, extras, cameramen, props, sound engineers, set designers and other behind-the-scenes personnel, contact the equipment, etc., and the most important thing is the subsequent polishing of the script.

When everything was almost ready at the end of the month, Yi Zhenxing took all his annual leave and tried to finish the filming in one go.

We discussed this for half the morning, and when we had almost finished discussing the details, everyone relaxed.

Finally, Cheng Xi jokingly asked Yi Zhenxing, "Brother Xing, are you here to discuss cooperation with Tudou.com?"

When Cheng Xi got off the car, he saw the logo of Tudou.com, and remembered that Yi Zhenxing later founded a film and television company with some executives of Tudou.com, so he asked curiously.

"I just came to a meeting. Tudou.com held a website podcast meeting to promote the support policy and encourage us to produce more original content."

"Right now, Tudou and Youku are competing fiercely, both vying to be the first video website to go public in the US. So they are taking it very seriously."

It turned out to be the case.

With the popularization of 3G networks and the updating of video technology in China, traditional television media is gradually declining.

Everyone prefers to watch videos online on computers and mobile phones, and the ratings of TV stations have been declining.

As more and more grassroots content creators join in, video websites will have novel formats and down-to-earth content.

Reasons such as the ability to watch programs repeatedly have gradually emerged, changing people's viewing habits.

Many online video content producers, such as Jiaoshou Yi Xiaoxing and Bai Ke, took advantage of this trend and took off.

This marked the beginning of the era of online video!
(End of this chapter)