Huayu: This celebrity doesn't follow the rules.

Chapter 101: The End of the Premiere and Two New Dramas by the Company

Inside the meeting room, people were seated on both sides of the long table.

Jiang Ye sat at the head of the table, lightly tapping his fingertips on the table as his gaze swept across the room.

Bai Lu sat diagonally behind him, holding a notebook, her pen already hovering over the page, ready to jot down key points at any moment.

The first person on the left is Zhou Tao, the production director. He is wearing a well-pressed gray suit and his hair is neatly combed.

As a senior producer at Guangxian Media, he had overseen the production of three films that grossed over 100 million yuan at the box office, but he was fired by Lin Jianjun and sent to Jiangye Company...

On the right is Zhang Xin, the administrative director, whose black suit skirt makes her look capable and efficient.

She worked at Huayi for eight years, rising from administrative specialist to director. She was best at using systems to streamline chaotic team structures. Within a week of joining the company, she had streamlined the reimbursement process and attendance system of Jiangying Media. Employees privately called her "Iron Lady".

The second person on the left is Chen Mo, the content production center manager, who is wearing a casual shirt with the cuffs casually rolled up.

He was also someone who had been found by Guangxian; his uncle had helped him find the job!
Jiang Ye valued his sensitivity to subject matter and specifically put him in charge of developing the subject matter and reviewing the scripts for the company's new dramas.

The second person on the right is Lin Xi, the marketing director. She wears thin-rimmed glasses and has a thick stack of data analysis reports spread out in front of her.

She previously worked as a marketing planner at Tencent Video, where she led the promotion and distribution of three S+ level web dramas and is particularly familiar with the platform's operations.

Zhao Feng, the post-production director, sat at the middle of the long table. He was wearing a black hoodie with the company logo printed on it, and there were coffee stains on the sleeves.

He is also a person who appears in the light...

For post-production, they simply poached a team from their own studio!

Although Lin Jianjun hasn't arrived yet, it doesn't mean he doesn't care about his nephew. He spends all his free time at the company helping him figure things out...

Guangxian Media is about to be completely drained dry...

Except for the director of the artist management department, who has not yet been recruited, the rest of the management team is basically in place.

Further down, Neko no Ki and Fumino from the director's office were talking in hushed tones, with several new faces sitting behind them.

They were all recent graduates that Jiang Ye had specially recruited from the Beijing Film Academy.

"Let's welcome our new colleagues first." Jiang Ye tapped the table, and the meeting room immediately fell silent.

He pointed to the first young man on his left wearing black-rimmed glasses: "Fan Wenhan, directing major at Beijing Film Academy, won Best Feature Film at the FIRST International Film Festival for his film 'Forgiveness'."

Fan Wenhan pushed up his glasses and nodded shyly.

He was wearing a simple white shirt with a bit of ink on the cuffs, making him look more like an artistic youth than a new director.

“Wu Haiyi.” Jiang Ye then gestured to the girl with a high ponytail next to him, “Her graduation project, ‘Zanzhu,’ won the Academy’s Directing Award. It was very experimental.”

Wu Haiyi was much more composed than Fan Wenhan. She smiled at everyone, her fingers unconsciously tapping a rhythm on the table, as if she were editing a video in her head at any moment.

“There are a few more,” Jiang Ye quickly moved on to the other newcomers, “Wang Licheng, cinematography major. Chen Mo, screenwriting major. Zhao Xiaoyu, production management.”

The newlyweds nodded in greeting.

Cat Tree sized up the group of young people who had just graduated from school, raised an eyebrow at Jiang Ye, and said, "President Jiang, are you trying to form a youth guard?"

Fumino was even more direct: "Are there any projects for them to practice on?"

Jiang Ye curled the corners of his lips, and Bai Lu immediately distributed the prepared proposals.

The conference room was immediately filled with the sound of pages turning.

Jiang Ye tapped his fingers lightly twice on the conference table, drawing everyone's attention back.

“Yesterday I met with Mo Bao Fei Bao from Jinjiang Literature City,” he said calmly, but the meeting room fell silent instantly. “I bought the copyrights to four of her novels: ‘Honey Stewed Squid,’ ‘I Really Miss You,’ ‘The Way Home,’ and ‘A Lifetime of Beautiful Bones.’”

Zhou Tao, the production director, suddenly looked up: "Mo Bao Fei Bao? Her works aren't very popular, are they?"

“Not a top author,” Jiang Ye continued, “but that’s precisely why the copyright fee is very reasonable.”

This is something Jiang Ye thought of a few days ago when he was sorting through his memories. Mo Bao Fei Bao's works are very cheap now, and it would be a shame not to buy them since he was reborn.

The price will go up after her newly published novel, "Go Go Squid!", is adapted into a different story...

The novel was adapted into a book called "Go Go Squid!"...

Wen Muye flipped through the synopsis of the novel he had just received: "E-sports theme? In the current market..."

“This one isn’t in a rush, it will take another 1 to 2 years!” Jiang Ye said decisively. “I’ve already asked the development department to do market research.”

Jiang Ye isn't filming this drama right now. He needs to wait until the popularity of e-sports picks up again before filming it.

A low murmur of discussion broke out in the conference room.

Cat Tree was quickly skimming through the synopsis of "One Life, One World: Beautiful Bones" when he suddenly heard his own name called.

“You’ll be directing this project,” Jiang Ye pointed at him.

The cat tree suddenly looked up: "Me?"

He was a little stunned. Did the opportunity come so quickly?
“I’ll assign you two senior assistant directors,” Jiang Ye smiled at him, “and I’ll be the producer myself.”

He then looked at the newcomer, Fan Wenhan, and said, "You'll be joining this team and will be in charge of storyboard design."

Fan Wenhan pushed up his glasses, his fingers unconsciously stroking the novel cover.

“We plan to make two parts,” Jiang Ye continued, ““Zhou Sheng Ru Gu” is a period drama and “Yi Sheng Yi Shi” is a modern drama, using the same cast.”

"We will develop this series together with Tencent Video!"

As he said this, his gaze suddenly turned to the egret.

Bai Lu was engrossed in taking notes when she felt someone's gaze and looked up blankly. Thinking Jiang Ye wanted coffee, she instinctively tried to get up.

"For both of these dramas, the female lead will be Bai Lu, an artist from our company."

With a "thud," Bai Lu's pen fell onto the conference table.

Her face flushed instantly, and her fingers unconsciously gripped the hem of her suit jacket.

All eyes were on her, but she could only see Jiang Ye's smiling eyes.

"I—" Her voice was barely audible, then she cleared her throat, "I will definitely live up to the company's expectations!"

Cat Tree winked at her, Wen Muye shook his head with a smile, and the newcomer Wu Haiyi curiously sized up this newcomer who was about to take on a major role.

Zhou Tao stroked his chin thoughtfully: "President Jiang, are you trying to build the next Jing Tian?"

Jiang Ye looked around at everyone and continued, "《一生一世》 and 《周生如故》 are our company's self-produced projects, and all departments must fully cooperate."

He tapped another document on the table: "In addition, iQiyi has officially signed a contract with us, and 'The Best of Us' will be produced by our company."

Seeing the puzzled looks on the faces of the newcomers, Jiang Ye explained: "Producing means that we are responsible for everything from script development and casting to filming and post-production, while iQiyi provides funding and platform support."

In fact, many TV series are collaborations in this form.

The most famous example is "Eternal Love" (also known as "Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms"). The copyright for this film belongs to Juku Culture, and it was produced by Jiaxing Media, but they were given a 25% investment share.

The main reason why Jaywalk Media was able to secure production rights is its advantage in artist resources.

Juku Media approached Yang Mi with the project, asking her to play Bai Qian. Jiaxing Media, with its strong lineup of artists, was able to quickly assemble a cast and provide suitable actors for the series through a "bring your own people to the set" model. This was a key factor in Jiaxing's acquisition of the production rights.

Of course, the fact that they had previously worked on some of the productions that had earned them a good reputation, which led the producers to recognize their production capabilities and believe that they could successfully transform "Eternal Love" from a script into a film and television work, was also an important reason.

There are advantages and disadvantages to undertaking a contract.

The advantage is that you don't need to find investors yourself; you can just focus on filming.

Moreover, you have complete control over the director, actors, and so on for this drama, and the production company can take 20% of the total investment as profit.

For example, the investment in "The Best of Us" was around 3000 million yuan. After filming, Jiang Ye could get a profit of 600 million yuan. If he were to direct the film himself, he could also get several million yuan in director's fees.

Of course, Jiang Ye can also exchange the money for investment quotas; this is all negotiable.

More importantly, he can use the actors in this production to develop his own artists or exchange them with other companies.

However, his artists are currently too busy. Meng Ziyi is about to join the cast of "Love O2O", and Bai Lu also has two dramas to film.

As for Li Xian, we'll see which role suits him best when he auditions!
“I will personally oversee this project,” Jiang Ye said, his gaze sweeping over the new directors present. “Wu Haiyi, you will join this team and be responsible for the storyboard and directing some scenes.”

Wu Haiyi's eyes lit up, and her fingers unconsciously tapped lightly on the table, as if she were conceiving the language of the shot.

“The casting team will start work tomorrow,” Jiang Ye said to Zhou Tao. “We will first select a batch of new actors, with priority given to those from top universities’ acting departments.”

Zhou Tao nodded and noted: "Is the male lead supposed to be a top student?"

“A clean-cut, sunny campus heartthrob,” Jiang Ye added, “not the greasy type, but the kind who looks like a real high school student in a school uniform.”

Cat Tree interjected, "Should we let Li Xian audition first?"

"Let him try them all, and you can see which one he's more suited to film!"

"Regarding the script," Jiang Ye continued, "I'll have the screenwriting team prioritize adapting 'The Best of Us.' I want to see the scripts for the first three episodes next week."

He stood up as the meeting drew to a close: "Fan Wenhan is in charge of the storyboard design for the 'One and Only' project, reporting directly to Cat Tree. Wu Haiyi will begin pre-production work on 'The Best of Us' tomorrow."

"That's settled then. You can discuss the specific work assignments yourselves..."

……

At 8 p.m. on September 13, the Penguin Video "Si Teng" special page suddenly experienced a brief freeze.

The simultaneous influx of millions of viewers nearly crashed the servers during the peak of the finale's popularity.

This binge-watching extravaganza, which had been brewing for nearly a month, finally reached its climax tonight.

The top ten spots on Weibo's trending topics list were dominated by topics such as #Si Teng Cuts Out Heart to Get Fire# and #Jing Tian's Crying Scene in the Investiture of the Gods#.

#Sito cuts open his heart to extract rattan fire# trending at number one
The scene where Si Teng tears open her own heart to protect Qin Fang, with crimson flames leaping in her palm, became the trigger for the audience's collective breakdown.

The comment "The rain in Yunnan fell all night, and my tears were even more intense than the rain" was forwarded more than 50 times, and the text "I feel sorry for Si Teng" in the bullet screen almost covered the screen.

One netizen lamented, "Jing Tian's cut didn't just sever Fuji's heart, it pierced my heart!"

That evening, Jing Tian updated his Weibo.

"The time I spent with Sito was the most unforgettable period of my acting career. She came out of the book, redeemed me, and made me who I am today. Thank you all for falling in love with Sito. I will always remember this character."

Once this Weibo post was published, it was like a boulder thrown into a lake of public opinion, stirring up a huge wave.

In just half an hour, the number of comments exceeded 3, and an hour later, the number soared to 10.

It's worth noting that before filming "Si Teng," Jing Tian's Weibo posts usually garnered only a few thousand comments, with occasional comments exceeding ten thousand being quite rare.

Now, the comment section is full of heartfelt confessions from fans and viewers.

"Sweetie, you brought Si Teng to life! We love you!"

"Jing Tian deserves it; may she walk a flowery path from now on!"

"The baby is so beautiful!"

During the series' run, she topped the industry's popularity charts for two consecutive weeks, significantly increasing her commercial attention.

In the latest celebrity commercial value assessment in September, she jumped from the "Potential Artists List" in the first half of the year to the top 10 of the "Mainstream Actresses List", becoming the artist with the fastest rise in the ranking that month.

Brand collaboration inquiries increased threefold compared to before the broadcast, and long-term endorsement offers from mid-range beauty and apparel brands began to come in intensively. The industry finally saw the potential for her to explode with both "role and traffic".

That's the power of a hit drama.

Before the drama aired, Li Xian's Weibo followers were around 32, his daily posts usually had a few hundred comments and rarely got more than a thousand reposts, and he only occasionally received inquiries from fans asking "what is your next project?" in his private message list.

His portrayal of Qin Fang, from the initial "guardian of mortals" to the deep affection he shared with Si Teng in the later stages, gradually made the audience remember this boy with clean eyes and delicate emotions as the plot progressed.

On the night the finale aired, his Weibo followers jumped at a visible speed, exceeding 220 million by the next morning.

The single Weibo post bidding farewell to the character garnered over 8 comments and over 5 reposts, while the inbox was flooded with messages like "Qin Fang, don't cry" and "I want to see you play a deeply affectionate male lead again next time."

He started receiving script offers from film and television companies!
The growth trajectory of egrets is equally clear.

As the second female lead, although her screen time was less than that of the main character, she left a deep impression with her lively performance.

Before the drama aired, she only had 13 followers on Weibo, mostly music fans.

As the series became a hit, especially after the iconic scene of "Shen Yindeng protecting the tiled house" went viral, the number of fans steadily increased, exceeding 120 million by the time the series ended.

You can say you've officially debuted!
Unlike the actors, director Jiang Ye doesn't generate much discussion online, but there's already a buzz within the industry.

This name began to appear frequently in the core meetings of major film and television companies.

the reason is simple.

Two dramas, both hits, and more importantly, his dramas are particularly good at making people famous, especially female artists!
"Princess Promotion" propelled newcomer Meng Ziyi from an unknown to a top-tier actress, increasing her commercial value tenfold.

"Si Teng" enabled Jing Tian, ​​a former "resource-backed" actor who had faced difficulties in the entertainment industry, to achieve a successful comeback, garnering both critical acclaim and popularity.

That's a bit of an exaggeration!
What shocked the industry even more was that well-informed companies had already learned of it.

His company has started a new TV series called "Zhou Sheng Ru Gu"!
Furthermore, it produced iQiyi's latest web series, "The Best of Us," which is one of the "Zhenhua Trilogy" and a popular IP.

Currently, the actresses born in the mid-85s are still taking a wait-and-see approach, but the post-90s actresses who have not yet matured are already getting restless.

They all inquired about potential collaborations through their agents.

After all, who wouldn't want to be the next Sito?
On September 15, Jiangying Media issued an audition notice for "The Best of Us".

"Searching for Geng Geng and Yu Huai on the Zhenhua campus, continuing the old days with youthful stories."

A single line of text caused a stir in the entertainment industry...

(End of this chapter)