Entertainment: Who still wants to fall in love when there are cheats?

Chapter 169 Zhao Liying

"Berda, no, I should change my address now. From now on, I should call you Boss. So, what's the next job? Is it filming? Perfect timing, I've been sorting through all the invitations I've received lately." Sister Wang said excitedly.

“No, this time, I plan to make a movie,” Li Boda said, shaking his head.

"Movies—Boss, we do have movie offers from outside, but none of them will likely satisfy you—"

“No, I mean, this time I’ve had someone write a movie script, and I plan to take the lead in making this movie ourselves. Sister Wang, I’d like to trouble you to be the producer this time,” Li Boda said to Sister Wang with a smile.

"Huh? We're going to be in charge of the film ourselves? And I'll be the producer? This, I've never done this before, I don't think I can do it." Sister Wang was very surprised, and while she was surprised, she was also a little hesitant, and a little eager to try.

“If you haven’t done this before, then take it slow. You’re the person in charge of our studio now, Sister Wang. You have to take charge in the future, you can’t just be a simple agent, right?” Li Boda said with a smile.

"Then, I'll give it a try?" Sister Wang's eyes lit up.

“Well, so Sister Wang, you’ll have to put in a lot of effort. And Xiao Yuan, you’ll work as my executive agent for now, and once you’re more experienced, you can be promoted to my manager.” Li Boda then said to Xiao Yuan.

Like Sister Wang, Xiao Yuan's eyes also lit up.

"Thank you, boss, thank you, boss. I will definitely work hard." Xiaoyuan was very excited. After all, she was just an insignificant assistant. For an assistant, getting promoted to manager was practically a dream come true. Because most celebrity assistants have no room for advancement.

You might work as a celebrity assistant for one or two decades, and in the end you'll just be a senior celebrity assistant. As you get older, you'll be fired.

Very few people can advance from a celebrity assistant to an executive agent, and even among those who advance from executive agent to agent, another wave of candidates are eliminated. This path is actually very difficult to take.

Xiao Yuan has now been promoted to executive agent by Li Boda, which is a huge step forward.

"Xiaoyuan, now that you're the boss's executive agent, don't forget to find him an assistant to take over your work," Sister Wang reminded her.

"Don't worry, Sister Wang, I'll arrange everything." Xiao Yuan nodded vigorously. She had already decided that she must find a good assistant, train her properly, and let her become familiar with all of Li Boda's living habits before she could officially start working.

After making certain adjustments to the studio's situation, the studio's appearance was completely transformed.

At this moment, Sister Wang made a suggestion to Li Boda.

"Boss, although our studio operates entirely around you, there might be some waste in terms of resources. So I suggest we sign one or two more artists and let them use the resources you leave behind. This way, we can make better use of the resources," Sister Wang suggested.

"Tell me your thoughts." Li Boda neither rejected Sister Wang's suggestion nor immediately agreed with it, but instead asked her to elaborate.

"Boss, given your status in the entertainment industry, our studio will receive a relatively large number of resources and invitations. However, you can only choose one, and the rest will be missed. Even if you do choose, you won't be able to maximize the use of the resources. Therefore, our studio can first sign one or two artists, mainly women. This way, there won't be any competition or encroachment on resources. On the contrary, when you appear in a certain film or television production, we can also engage in a quid pro quo, using your participation in the film or television production as leverage to secure a role for one of the studio's female artists..." Sister Wang clearly explained her point of view.

Li Boda listened and nodded.

Indeed, having the entire studio centered around Li Boda would be more convenient for him, but it would undoubtedly lead to some waste in terms of resource utilization.

The studio could easily use the resources that Li Boda missed to promote one or two more celebrities.

As for why newcomers were chosen, the majority were women.

This is naturally in order to avoid encroaching on resources.

After all, Li Boda doesn't play female roles, and female artists don't need male roles. In fact, once female artists gain popularity, they can complement each other.

"Sister Wang, do you want to sign established female artists, or do you plan to sign newcomers and train them yourself?" Li Boda asked Sister Wang.

"I would like to sign established artists, but with the size of our studio, it's clear we can't afford to. So let's sign newcomers and nurture them gradually. Anyway, when you're filming, it shouldn't be a problem to ask the crew for a small role or two," Sister Wang said with a smile.

"Alright, so, Sister Wang, do you have a goal yet?"

"Well, there really is!" Sister Wang smiled. "A while ago, our studio was quite free, so I was thinking about signing some new talent. So, I spent some time visiting places like the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the Central Academy of Drama, and the Beijing Film Academy. I actually saw quite a few promising talents. It's just a pity that many of them have already been signed by companies like Huayi Brothers or have had some discussions with them. Although you, the boss, are a very big star, our studio is still just a studio, so we don't have an advantage in this regard..." Li Boda looked at Sister Wang with new respect.

Previously, Sister Wang worked as Li Boda's executive agent at Tangren Media, where she didn't have many opportunities to showcase her abilities. However, after leaving Tangren, Sister Wang has shown a lot of ideas and even quite good execution skills.

"Then I'll trouble you, Sister Wang, to contact those people and see who's willing to sign with our studio," Li Boda said with a smile, handing the matter over to Sister Wang.

"Okay, boss, don't worry. I've got their contact information. All I need to do now is talk to them properly." Sister Wang smiled broadly. Her suggestion had been accepted, and she was even being given the lead. This was the trust Li Boda had in her.

Next, Sister Wang got busy contacting Zhao Yuqi, Lou Yixiao, and Jiang Shuying from the Shanghai Theatre Academy, as well as Mao Xiaotong and Song Tie from the Central Academy of Drama.

Xiao Yuan, meanwhile, was busy finding a new assistant for Li Boda, and after finding one, she would have to train him and so on.

Li Boda, the boss, actually found himself with relatively more free time.

However, he didn't have much free time, because Yue Xiaojun and his team had already written a script for Li Boda and sent it over.

The script is called "Don't Stop the Camera!" The protagonist's character was designed according to Li Boda's requirements. The protagonist, Xiao Shuai, is a genius director who has made several short films during his school years, and even won awards for them. However, after graduation, it is not so easy for Xiao Shuai to make a theatrical film, because outside investors prefer to trust directors with mature works. They would rather invest in established directors with some achievements than invest in a new director like Xiao Shuai who has just graduated from school.

As it happens, a coal mine owner named Xiaoqiang, who knows nothing about the industry, is willing to invest in Xiaoshuai's movie because he wants to make a woman named Xiaomei a star.

However, besides supporting Xiao Mei, the coal mine owner Xiao Qiang also made a request to Xiao Shuai: he liked watching zombie movies, so the movies Xiao Shuai made had to be zombie movies.

Xiao Shuai almost broke down. He had told Xiao Qiang, the coal mine owner, many times that zombie movies are not allowed to be made in China.

However, Xiaoqiang, the coal mine owner, was determined to make zombie movies because he liked them. He refused to invest in films that didn't have this genre.

The coal mine owner Xiaoqiang's demanding nature almost drove Xiaoshuai crazy. Finally, Xiaoshuai had a brilliant idea: to film a movie in a pseudo-live-stream format. This pseudo-live-stream movie would tell the story of encountering real zombies while filming a zombie movie, leading to everyone's frantic escape, and then revealing in a live stream at the end that this was also part of the movie's plot.

This movie depicts the process of making a zombie film.

The script is brilliantly written, with exaggerated parts that are extremely exaggerated and funny parts that are incredibly funny.

Li Boda took a liking to the script almost immediately.

So Li Boda signed the contract on the spot and transferred the remaining money to Yue Xiaojun and the others.

Upon learning that Li Boda's script had been finalized, Sister Wang, who was still out looking for someone to sign a contract, rushed back from outside.

Moreover, Sister Wang didn't come back alone; she brought someone with her.

Looking at the woman behind Sister Wang, Li Boda thought, well, she was quite pretty, one of the better-looking women in the entertainment industry. However, her face was a little round, and her demeanor was a bit plain, not giving off a particularly stunning impression.

She's more like the girl next door.

With her kind of presence, she would be suitable for playing a gentle, girl-next-door type, or the sister of a harmless male lead. Of course, this is just the initial impression. If her acting skills are good enough to break this initial impression, she could also take on leading roles.

"Boss, this is Zhao Liying, she was the champion of the Yahoo! Search Star program before," Sister Wang introduced with a smile.

Li Boda withdrew his gaze from Zhao Liying and nodded with a smile.

"Liying, this is Li Boda, the boss of our studio. You should know him, right?"

"Yes, yes, I know, I know. I've watched all the TV series and movies that Boss has acted in. I really admire Boss's acting skills. He won three Best Actor awards for just one movie. Boss has always been my role model." Zhao Liying nodded her head vigorously, and Li Boda's eyes were shining as she looked at him.

Hearing Zhao Liying say this, Li Boda couldn't help but laugh. Being admired by a young girl like this, whether it was an act or not, made him feel happy.

(End of this chapter)