Unboxing, Director!

Chapter 17: Lao Lu is going to ruin the family again?

As of May 1998, 9.

"Titanic" has been released in mainland China for half a year and its box office has exceeded 3.5 million yuan.

Countless mainland industry insiders not only lament the strength of the American film industry, but also lament the future of domestic films.

Some even expressed despair that under the current industry system, the 3.5 million box office record would not be broken by domestic films for another years.

However, unknown to him, a group of people had already begun to take action, and the domestic film industry was approaching a turning point in terms of true commercial reform.

On September 9, the former Zhejiang University, Hangzhou University, Zhejiang Agricultural University, and Zhejiang Medical University merged to form the new Zhejiang University.

On the same day, the filming of "My Fair Princess II" started in Beijing.

However, "Return of the Condor Heroes" is basically not well-known in mainland China now.

So the popularity was quickly taken away by Lu Jiang.

9 month 16 day.

Lu Jiang attended the signing ceremony at the Beijing Hotel.

After ten days of seesaw negotiations.

Lu Jiang finally signed a two-year contract with Warner UFO with a signing fee of one million.

Within two years, Lu Jiang only had the task of releasing two albums.

After signing the contract, the business profits will be divided 4-. Warner UFO will enjoy the copyright management rights for two years, of which Warner will receive % of the copyright income from the first album, and the second album will be divided according to the performance.

Warner UFO will fully support Lu Jiang's album production.

Some of the distribution business in the Mainland will be jointly managed by Locke Anluo.

This is a small gift from Lu Jiang to Li Chao.

Li Chao will continue to serve as Lu Jiang's agent, and there will not be much conflict between the two businesses.

After the signing was completed, Lu Jiang personally announced to the reporters:

"The new album will be released at the end of this semester, along with the final assignment."

Make money and study at the same time.

Lu Jiang has a good plan.

This is also agreed by the school.

Firstly, as a college student, the school’s requirements are not that strict, so the MV can still be used for scoring.

Secondly, Lu Jiang's actions can also bring positive effects to the Central Academy of Drama.

College and vocational college classes make money faster than undergraduate classes.

Look at Beijing Film Academy, isn’t it doing very well in this area?
The Central Academy of Drama has long wanted to expand, but its majors are relatively limited.

Unlike Beijing Film Academy, where art, photography, lighting, dubbing, and other fields are all more professional than those of the Central Academy of Drama, and are very profitable, even the performance-related industries at Beijing Film Academy are very thriving.
Anyway, I understand everything.

So after Lu Jiang made his announcement, the Central Academy of Drama discussed the matter and directly expressed their willingness to cooperate.

Of course, the prerequisite is that Lu Jiang’s new works must be of acceptable quality.

This is crap.

As a director, the quality of the film must of course be acceptable.

His last name is not Bi.
The reason why Lu Jiang mentioned the final assignment, in addition to promoting it in advance, was mainly to highlight his identity as a director and prepare for the future.

Now people outside just know him as a singer.

The MV for "Fairy Tale" was so well shot, but most of the discussion focused on the plot.

Surprisingly, no one mentioned the fact that Lu Jiang wrote, directed and starred in the film himself.

Some media even believe that this was not shot by Lu Jiang himself, and that promoting him as the writer and director was just a hype tactic.

Lu Jiang didn't feel wronged about this.

He just felt sorry that "Fairy Tale" lost a lot of publicity because of this.

Otherwise, we could definitely sell tens of thousands more copies.
After the news of Warner UFO and Lu Jiang’s collaboration broke out.

It was no surprise that there was a wave of discussion in the industry.

First of all, the contract terms.

The contract is for two years, and they give such a huge signing bonus, and the profit sharing is so "conscientious".

Is this charity?

This posture is nothing like what a flying saucer that was once so popular should look like.

Many people's first reaction was that Zhou Jianhui was desperate and trying all kinds of treatment. Of course, many people also realized that Zhou Jianhui was willing to do this, and he must have sufficient confidence.

This also provides a very high foundation for the attention paid to Lu Jiang's new album.

In today's underdeveloped Internet.

It is easy to know whether the new major is attracting much attention in the industry.

But the fans' attitude is very slow, and perhaps we will have to look at the volume of letters in a few days to see it.

However, the fans’ attitude is still unclear.

As soon as the news was released, Lu Jiang soon learned about the attitudes of his classmates at the Central Academy of Drama.

I was bombarded with text messages and phone calls.

Most of them have one purpose.

Please hold my thigh, please lead me!
They are all smart people. When Lu Jiang’s new album mentioned the final assignment, they immediately figured it out.

Those who study acting want to perform, and those who study behind-the-scenes work want to participate in MV production.

For those in the acting department, Lu Jiang will choose carefully. He first looks at the treasure chest, and secondly at their appearance and attitude.

But for those in various professions behind the scenes, Lu Jiang welcomes them with open arms and accepts them on a merit-based basis.

After Zhang Jingchu knew Lu Jiang's intention, she was very positive about it and said she could help organize it.

Lu Jiang immediately waved his hand and promoted her to the new assistant.

Unfortunately, the treasure chest did not fall.

Lu Jiang was not in a hurry. The songs for the new album had already been decided. Even if there was one more song, he would only put it on the next album.

So after handing the matter over to Zhang Jingchu, he continued with his classes, commercial performances, and song recordings.
1998, April 9.

The battle to defend Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index remains fierce.

Lu Jiang originally planned to go down and provide support.

But after seeing the violent fluctuations of the Hang Seng Index at an exchange in Beijing, he gave up.

Novels are all lies.

It is impossible to just throw money in and buy stocks blindly and then sit back and wait for them to make dozens of times the profit.

A tug-of-war of this scale.

It’s better to stay away from small shrimps.

On this day, Lao Lu returned from his one-day trip to Hong Kong in a depressed mood.

This time he went to Hong Kong to visit Lao Lu's old house.

The price of that house has dropped by another 20% this year.

But it is still a sky-high price.

When he sold his house in the mid-80s, it was only worth over one million.

Now that the price has fallen for two years, it still costs five or six million, which is unaffordable.

This made Lu Jianguo increasingly regretful of his previous squandering behavior.

When can I buy it back?

In response, Lu Jiang comforted him, "Take your time, there's no need to rush. If one year isn't enough, then two years will do. I'm here anyway, and I'll be able to get it back sooner or later."

Lu Jiang was indeed not in a hurry.

Because Lu Jianguo’s golden treasure chest is not suitable to be taken now.

Now we can only release short films and MVs, so opening gold boxes is a waste.

It would be best to wait until you are able to film a TV series or a movie before reaping the rewards.

So even if he has money now, he will find reasons not to take it back.

As for Lu Jiang's comfort, Lu Jianguo seemed to have a new idea.

After returning from Hong Kong, Lao Lu didn't say much and kept frowning, thinking about something.

It wasn't until a week later, when Lu Jiang came home from class one day, that Lu Jianguo asked him, "Son, I want to start a business again. Do you support me?"

"Start a business?"

Lu Jiang's brows were crooked.

As far as I can remember, Lao Lu hasn't had this thought for four years.

Why do you suddenly want to squander money again?
(End of this chapter)