Chapter 56 New Project

Although the broadcast period has ended, the popularity of "Soul Ferry" has not dissipated. Every day, fans are asking on the official Weibo when the second season will start filming.

The official Weibo of "Pendulum" is still in operation, but unfortunately, even the producers themselves do not know when the next season will start, so they naturally cannot answer the fans' questions. They can only say that "the screenwriter is stepping up the preparation of the script" and occasionally release some behind-the-scenes footage and background setting collections to maintain the popularity.

However, taking advantage of this trend, Penguin Video has seized the opportunity to launch a web drama called "Spirit Exploration Files", which is also a supernatural suspense theme, which can be regarded as a ride on the popularity of "Pendulum".

Not to mention, many viewers still like this. Especially the leading actor of this drama is the "famous" Edison Chen in the world, which is undoubtedly an extremely attractive gimmick. Many people think this is his comeback work and rush to watch it.

With this wave of popularity, "Spirit Exploration Files" has exceeded 30 million hits in three days after its launch, and exceeded 50 million in one week, and its momentum is much stronger than that of "Pendulum".

Unfortunately, the plot of this drama is really average, and the production level is also relatively rough. After the first few episodes were broadcast, the number of negative reviews from the audience gradually increased, and the Douban score also hovered around the passing line, which slowed down the growth of the performance significantly. Until the end of the whole series,

it only had 70 million views. Many viewers who have watched it online said that if this drama was broadcast last year, everyone would have a higher evaluation of it. After all, as a supernatural drama, there can really be ghosts, and the plot logic is self-consistent, which is already good among domestic works of this type.

But the problem is that if you put it after "Soul Ferry", the same theme, the same web drama, and the cost are similar, but the quality is far apart, then the contrast is too strong.

However, Penguin Video doesn't care too much, and the 80 million views have exceeded their expectations. Moreover, the purpose of this drama at the beginning was just to take advantage of the popularity of "Pendulum" and Edison Chen. Their real main work is "The Darker Side" which will be launched next.

Similar to Soul Ferry, Darker is also a high-quality web series with "professional actors + professional production team + sensitive subject matter + low-cost investment". Although the 360 ​​million views of the first season are slightly less than that of Pendulum, it also crushes the "TV series" broadcasted online at the same time.

LeTV and Penguin have achieved unexpected results in three consecutive web series, which has stimulated the other video platforms to release their own web series plans.

Sohu has won the web series copyright of Fleet of Time, which is likely to be launched simultaneously with the previous film version;

Youku continues to increase its trump card "Wanhe Tianyi" and announced the second season of Never Expected and the new series "Report to the Boss";

even Qiyi TV has come up with a self-made situational drama "Waste Brothers" that imitates "Never Expected", which can be regarded as welcoming the "web series" trend.

For a time, all video platforms suddenly began to enter the "self-made web series" market, which made many people in the industry wonder, is the era of web series really coming?

Entertainment and film media also began to follow up and discuss the platform competition between "online dramas" and "TV series". Some entertainment media and self-media even directly shouted the slogan "2014, the first year of online dramas".

——

"The first year of online dramas?"

Meng Bai looked at the slogans shouted by major entertainment media and nodded: "Very good, so our 'Lingbai' is the 'Queen of Pure Yuan' in the online drama industry."

"Oh, Mr. Meng also watches "The Legend of Zhen Huan"?" Liu Jun laughed at the side, and his increasingly sparse hair was faintly glowing in the sun.

Meng Bai said: "It's okay for the audience not to watch this kind of 'station-stabilizing drama', but it's too unreasonable for us who are engaged in content creation not to watch it."

Liu Jun also smiled when he heard this, knowing that Meng Bai's so-called "station-stabilizing drama" was a joke about Leshi.com's lack of content before, and it was all supported by "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

But this is also a fact. Excluding LeTV Sports, even with "Soul Ferry", "The Legend of Zhen Huan" is still the first "traffic code" of Leshi.com.

Therefore, Liu Jun did not refute Meng Bai, but just said politely: "We believe that with the help of Mr. Meng, Leshi.com will definitely be able to find the next 'new town drama' that surpasses "The Legend of Zhen Huan."

"This is also what I hope to see in the future." Meng Bai said.

After that, the two smiled tacitly, and both understood that the other party wanted to continue cooperation.

This is also the reason why the two met today.

Previously, because of the popularity of "Soul Ferry", several other video platforms contacted Meng Bai and expressed their "hope to cooperate".

Among them, Qiyi TV and Penguin Video are particularly sincere.

The former said that they are only responsible for investment, publicity and broadcasting, and the content is completely determined by Meng Bai; the latter said that they are not short of money, as long as Meng Bai has a suitable script, the investment amount can be compared with the scale of the TV series.

Meng Bai is very tempted by these two conditions. Absolute voice and sufficient financial budget are the conditions that every content creator dreams of.

However, after repeated consideration, Meng Bai decided to continue to give priority to cooperation with Leshi.com.

There are many considerations here, but in summary, there are basically three points-

first of all, after all, his first drama was invested by Leshi.com. Although most of it is based on personal relationships, he is still willing to read this.

Moreover, even in business, the conditions given by Leshi.com are not much worse than those of the other two, and there has been a relatively pleasant cooperation, which is relatively more tacit.

In addition, Meng Bai, who was "dark-hearted", had another layer of security considerations, which was that he was worried that Qiyi TV and Penguin Video would contact him for cooperation for the purpose of "protective acquisition".

"Protective acquisition", also known as "defensive acquisition", refers to the acquisition and cold storage of competitors' related business systems by enterprises to protect their own business development in order to achieve the purpose of industry monopoly.

For example, a large enterprise has a leading market advantage in a certain field, and at this time another small enterprise has developed a more advanced technology through breakthrough innovation. This technology may have an impact on the market of large companies, so large companies use money and other means to dig up the technical team of small companies and then directly cold store them, so that they can continue to guarantee their industry advantages.

Meng Bai was also worried about the same thing. What if he took the project there and they blocked him? A project took a year. Even if the quality of the work is high, many market bonus periods have been missed.

It's not his fault that he was worried too much, because the parent company of Penguin Video is "famous and indescribable" in this regard.

However, although he decided to continue to cooperate with Leshi.com, he could also take this opportunity to improve his own treatment and needs.

"The second season of Soul Ferry will not start shooting until at least the second half of the year due to the schedule of the leading actors. Before that, I plan to prepare a new drama." Meng Bai said.

Liu Jun heard this and nodded without hesitation: "No problem, our Leshi.com is very willing to continue to cooperate with Mr. Meng. Including the investment, production, and profit sharing of the new drama, we can provide conditions that are in the interests of both parties."

Meng Bai smiled: "In this regard, I naturally believe in our Leshi.com, but... my plan for the next drama may be different from the traditional single drama."

Liu Jun was stunned: "What do you mean? Do you want to make a series?"

"It can also be considered a series." Meng Bai said: "Mr. Liu should have seen 'Avengers'."

Liu Jun frowned and looked at Meng Bai solemnly: "Do you want to make a film and television universe?"

(End of this chapter)