Huayu 2011: Starting with Hilarious Men

Chapter 112 It's time to prepare for the movie.

Sennan Entertainment.

Zheng Nan lay quietly on the sofa in his small office, enjoying the peace and quiet of not having to work.

Sunlight streamed through the window, falling onto the floor. The central air conditioning vents hummed softly, and the sounds of employees working could be heard outside the room.

Humans are truly complex creatures. When they're in school, they want to be on vacation; when they're on vacation, they want to be in school. When they're idle, they want to work; when they're working, they want to rest. Zheng Nan closed her eyes, her mind racing with these chaotic thoughts.

"Knock knock knock!" The knocking sounded on the door.

Zheng Nan took a deep breath and forced herself to sit up: "Go in."

Ding Xiu pushed the door open and walked in from the outside, holding a bottle of electrolyte water in his hand, and closed the door behind him.

He glanced at Zheng Nan's messy desk, where scripts, storyboards, financial reimbursement forms, and all sorts of things were piled up together, as if a battle had just taken place.

"I heard from Reba that your biological clock has been messed up lately, and your stomach hasn't been feeling well either." Ding Xiu unscrewed the cap of the electrolyte water and placed it in front of Zheng Nan: "If your stomach isn't feeling well, don't drink milk. Drink some electrolyte water to replenish it."

"It's you, Uncle. I thought it was the editor asking for my opinion on editing again." As soon as he saw that it was his uncle, Zheng Nan's tense shoulders immediately relaxed, and he immediately lay back down.

"I heard you're going to invite Wang Fei to sing the promotional song for 'The Best of Us'?" Ding Xiu asked.

"Uncle, you like Wang Fei?" Zheng Nan asked with some doubt, as he remembered that his uncle was not a fan of celebrities.

"No, your aunt likes it."

"If the collaboration is successful, do you need me to get a few autographed photos for my aunt?" Zheng Nan admired her aunt, whom she hadn't met yet, because she had won over her uncle.

"No need, your aunt has a photo with Wang Fei." Ding Xiu shrugged. His father-in-law worked at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and his wife was also from a privileged background, so they had known Wang Fei for a long time.

Zheng Nan was taken aback, and her newly acquired enthusiasm vanished instantly.

"Uncle, did you come here just to show off?"

"No, I'm here to tell you some good news: the SP (Special Service Provider) qualification application for the entire network has been approved."

Zheng Nan suddenly jumped up from the sofa: "It's approved?"

"Approved." Ding Xiu nodded.

This is indeed great news.

With the SP (Service Provider) qualification across the entire network, Sennan Entertainment only needs to share its revenue from the ringback tone service with the three major telecom operators, eliminating the middleman's profit.

"Could we reclaim the ringtone rights to the songs we collaborated on with Longteng Sunshine before so we can produce them ourselves?"

"Our license with Longteng Sunshine is for one year. We can only take it back and do it ourselves after it expires. The song that will expire the earliest is 'You Exist in My Song'." Ding Xiu personally negotiated this part of the contract, so he had a deep impression of it and answered after a brief recollection.

"How many songs can stay popular on ringtone platforms for a year?" Zheng Nan leaned back and couldn't help but complain.

The rules of the ringback tone market are cruel. Zhuang Xinyan's new song "Ten Thousand Reluctances" released in February this year became a hit on the ringback tone channel as soon as it was released, with downloads soaring. The ringback tone revenue in the first month was even higher than that of "My Song".

But after just over four months, the monthly ringback tone revenue started to decline.

The revenue from ringback tones is not controllable, so the uncle and nephew chatted for a few minutes before moving on to the topic.

"By the way, the company's finance department did a cost check on all the filming costs of 'The Best of Us' and found that it was over budget. The ten million yuan that Sohu gave us wasn't enough."

Filming depends a lot on your condition; it's not like you can spend exactly how much money you write on the budget.

Bad weather delays progress, actors' performances are off and need to be reshot, props malfunction and need to be redone—any small problem in any of these areas means real money has to be spent.

Given Sohu's notoriously stingy nature, it's practically impossible for them to reimburse the overspending.

Ultimately, Zheng Nan has to fill this hole himself.

"How much over?" Zheng Nan asked.

"It exceeded 400,000."

"It's alright, not too much. Just consider it as spending 400,000 to learn directing skills." Zheng Nan was still very optimistic.

"Your fee for directing and starring is about the same."

"They offset each other?"

"No." Ding Xiu shook his head: "One is your personal earnings, and the other is the production crew's project expenses. They cannot be mixed up in the accounts. The term 'offset' cannot be used when it comes to monetary income and expenditure. You will receive the remuneration you are entitled to, and you will also cover any overspending you are required to pay. They are two separate accounts."

The accounts involved in the entertainment industry are too complicated. Zheng Nan was lucky to have his uncle help him early on. Otherwise, if he had been left to do the accounting, he would have been forced to evade taxes sooner or later.

After chatting for a while about the company's monthly expenses, there was another knock on the door. This time it was the editor asking for feedback.

On July 9th, after the final exams at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, Dilraba came to the company to find Zheng Nan.

Zheng Nan's office is much tidier now; at least you can see the desk.

Dilraba casually tossed herself onto the sofa, her long legs dangling on the armrests.

"What are your next filming plans? Do you need me to spend the summer in Shanghai with you?"

"It's not finalized yet. The next project will most likely be the final season of 'Hilarious Men,' and then we'll start working on movies!" Zheng Nan's voice rose when she talked about movies.

Starting with last year's "Hilarious Men," he is finally venturing into the film industry.

"When will 'The Best of Us' be released?" Dilraba couldn't help Zheng Nan with anything about the film, so she turned to ask about the drama that had just finished filming.

"The editing, color grading, music composition, and sound production for 'The Best of Us' will take three to four months, and it's estimated that it won't be able to air on Sohu until the end of this year." Sennan Entertainment still has too few editors, and Zheng Nan has specifically checked the progress with the editors.

"The end of the year? Doesn't that clash with the final season of 'Hilarious Men'?"

Since its first season, "The Laughing Man" has maintained a schedule of one season every six months. Now, in early July, "The Laughing Man 3" is airing. At this rate, "The Best of Us" and the final season will clash at the end of the year.

"The final season will be moved to a later date, two months before the movie's release."

When Zheng Nan first started filming "Hilarious Men", he was prepared to learn from the experience of profiting from the film's success.

Naturally, the final season should be used to promote the movie. Even if the box office doesn't break 1.1 billion like "Jianbing Man", it should at least reach 800 million.

Actually, we can also imagine a box office of 1 billion. "Lost in Thailand" hasn't been released yet, and there hasn't been a director with a box office of 1 billion in China.

Zheng Nan thought to himself, "Lost in Thailand" will be released at the end of the year, but it's still uncertain whether his movie will be able to start filming at the end of the year."

With nothing much to do during summer vacation, Zheng Nan let Reba go home, and he would contact her again if needed.

On July 13th, "The Voice of China" premiered.

The premiere achieved a 1.477% viewership rating on CSM city networks, sparking widespread online discussion that very evening.

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