Chapter 340 Need to pay more
The fourth day of my visit to Hong Kong.
In the evening, Zhang Qi appeared in the hotel again and hugged Lin Weimin excitedly.
"It's done! It's done for the people!"
Lin Weimin finally broke free from his embrace and asked, "Did Shao Yifu agree?"
"Three million! Three million!"
Zhang Qi pointed his finger with great excitement, almost shouting.
"Calm down! Calm down! This total is only over 4 million Hong Kong dollars."
"That's enough! That's enough! With this money, there will be no problem in establishing the foundation!"
Lin Weimin couldn't help but say, "Look at how little you have achieved. After all, we are a foundation that is run by a government-run organization, and we have only raised such a small amount. Why are you so excited?"
Zhang Qi was ridiculed by Lin Weimin, but he didn't take it seriously at all.
Without Lin Weimin, there would be no fundraising funds.
The foundation's fundraising work from beginning to end is inseparable from Lin Weimin's support, and he can be said to have made great contributions.
"When are we going to meet Huo Guantai?" Lin Weimin asked.
"I'll call tomorrow and try to arrange a meeting as soon as possible."
Where Jin Yong is, there is Yang Meng, and where Shao Yifu is, there is Jin Yong.
As for Huo Guantai, people from relevant departments had already helped to introduce him, so Zhang Qi didn't want to trouble them again. He could only go and make an appointment himself. It was estimated that he wouldn't be able to see him for a few days.
"Then I can't wait any longer." Lin Weimin said.
"Then you can wait for my good news in Yanjing!" Zhang Qi said, and then said to Lin Weimin: "By the way, Shao Yifu wants to see you."
"To see me?"
Zhang Qi then explained to Lin Weimin the specific situation today.
He and Jin Yong went to the golf course and met Run Run Shaw. With Jin Yong's face, Run Run Shaw readily agreed to donate one million Hong Kong dollars on the spot.
Zhang Qi was originally satisfied, but he thought of what Lin Weimin had said to him before, and felt that he might as well try to bargain, so he told Shao Yi-fu what Lin Weimin had said.
Unexpectedly, Shao Yifu immediately showed interest and promised Zhang Qi that if he could really promote cooperation between TVB and CCTV, he could donate three million yuan.
Lin Weimin looked at Zhang Qi helplessly, "You are selling me out!"
"I am doing everything you said. My dear brother, now that it has come to this, you won't refuse to help, right?"
Zhang Qi's expression, which said "Don't try to get rid of me, I'm a rogue", made Lin Weimin feel helpless.
"Help! You must help!"
"Good brother! I knew you would definitely help. I have just inquired about it. You have free time tomorrow, so it's a good time for you to go and meet Shao Yifu with me."
Lin Weimin looked at Zhang Qi and gritted his teeth: "You are really my good brother!"
"Good brother!" Zhang Qi hugged Lin Weimin again.
Lin Weimin broke free again, "I'll go with you to see Shao Yifu, solve this problem for me first!"
Zhang Qi took the note from Lin Weimin and asked, "What's this?"
“Purchasing things for others!”
Zhang Qi looked at the contents of the note and felt his scalp tingling. "This is a bit much, isn't it?"
"I'm just worried. I've helped you so much, you can't even do me a small favor, right? My dear brother!"
As Lin Weimin said this, he felt a sense of satisfaction as if he had achieved great revenge.
When he came to Hong Kong this time, not only his colleagues in the editorial department, but also his colleagues in other editorial offices did not let him go.
Everyone knew that Lin Weimin had foreign exchange, so they directly exchanged RMB for him according to the market price, and even considered the postage for him.
For the first time, Lin Weimin realized that the strength of so many colleagues in the company should not be underestimated.
Lin Weimin originally planned to ship the goods, since his colleagues had already paid for it, but it was a bit troublesome.
This time it’s good, with Zhang Qi here, the problem is solved.
Zhang Qi looked at the contents of the note again, mustered up his courage and said, "Okay, I'll help you solve this problem."
The next morning, Lin Weimin and Zhang Qi came to the headquarters of TVB at 77 Broadcast Drive, Kowloon Tong. In addition to TVB, there are four other radio and television stations here, namely Radio Hong Kong, Commercial Radio, Asia Television and ATV. Therefore, it is also nicknamed "Mount Wutai" by Hong Kong people.
Lan Jieying, a famous actress of TVB, was known as "the most beautiful woman in Mount Wutai" when she debuted. This is Mount Wutai.
There is limited space in Mount Wutai, so the TVB headquarters can only be squeezed into a small valley next to the Hong Kong Radio. The entire headquarters has only one administrative building, which is known as the TV City, but its scale is indeed a bit shabby.
It is hard to imagine that a TV station housed in such an office building has occupied the top spot in Hong Kong's television industry for decades.
After Lin Weimin and Zhang Qi entered the administrative building and registered, they were led to the elevator by the front desk, who helped them press the elevator button and took them to the top floor.
I arrived at the office door and knocked. A charming lady in her forties opened the door.
Lin Weimin bought several Hong Kong gossip tabloids these two days and recognized at a glance that this was Shao Yifu's second wife Fang Yihua.
At this time, Fang Yihua had not yet married Shao Yifu, but she had already become an indispensable assistant to Shao Yifu.
"You two, please come in!"
Shao Yifu has a gaunt and slightly thin face. He is nearly seventy years old, but he is in good spirits.
Seeing that Lin Weimin was very enthusiastic, he spoke Mandarin with a Shanghai accent.
"Hello, Mr. Lin!"
"Hello, Mr. Shao!"
Both parties sat on the sofa and Fang Yihua brought them a few cups of coffee.
After the greetings, Shao Yifu said, "Yesterday, Mr. Zhang told me that Mr. Lin could help our TVB TV station contact CCTV for cooperation. I wonder how confident he is about this?"
Shaw Yi-fu, or rather, TVB really began to pay attention to cooperation with domestic companies after the 1990s, but the process was extremely difficult.
In the beginning, we could only cooperate with domestic companies to sell copyrights. It was not until 2000 that the cooperation became more in-depth.
At that time, TVB began to infiltrate the mainland through CCTV. China International Television Corporation, which owned CCTV, signed an agreement with Infinite Television, which bundled CCTV's Channel 4 programs with five other programs including TVB and Movie Channel, and sent them overseas using its own rented satellites, allowing CCTV programs to be broadcast in countries such as the United States and Canada. In return, CCTV had to provide channels for Infinite Television to broadcast in the mainland.
Unfortunately, due to the very strict domestic requirements for overseas television broadcasting, wireless television stations have never been able to touch the core businesses of television stations such as content production and advertising management.
As for TV series co-production, it was not until 2003 that it started, and it was still in cooperation with CCTV. Originally, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were going to co-produce "The Legend of the Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty", but because of the epidemic that year, they were forced to cancel the plan.
It was delayed again and again until 2006 when the co-production mode was resumed.
Yesterday, Zhang Qi told Shao Yifu what Lin Weimin had said in front of him, and Shao Yifu immediately took it to heart.
In recent years, Hong Kong's ZY Film Company has been collaborating with mainland production studios on martial arts films, which have been very successful. Several consecutive works have been critically and commercially successful, and Run Run Shaw has seen it all.
Now that the mainland is reforming and opening up, the atmosphere is gradually becoming more open. If we can cooperate in filming and take advantage of the mainland's colorful real scenes and cheap labor, it can save a lot of money for wireless TV stations.
In the evening, he and Fang Yihua carefully calculated that the length of TV series produced by TVB in the past two years has exceeded 700 hours each year. According to the length of domestic TV series, it is more than a thousand episodes.
More than half of them are costume films. If these costume films can be moved to the mainland, it will not only make up for the shortcoming of "fake scenery" of TVB, but also save a lot of expenses, and the scale of this expense is likely to be in the tens of millions.
Hearing Shao Yifu's question, Lin Weimin said, "I dare not deceive Mr. Shao. I am only 30% sure at most."
Shao Yifu's expression did not change when he heard this. He was a businessman and never believed people who were full of big words. Instead, he was more willing to trust those who were cautious in what they said and did.
"Then where does Mr. Lin get this 30% confidence from?"
Lin Weimin said: "Because my works have been adapted by CCTV one after another, I am familiar with several leaders of CCTV. Nowadays, our mainland TV drama industry is not mature enough, and the annual production of dramas is only more than 500 episodes. I have inquired before, this number will be half of your company's annual output.
Therefore, objectively speaking, domestic TV stations have the need and necessity to cooperate with wireless TV stations.
However, TVB is located in Hong Kong and CCTV is a national television station. If the two want to cooperate smoothly, they need to obtain the consent of the competent authorities above CCTV.
My personal suggestion can only be passed to the leadership of CCTV, so I said it is 30% certain! ”
Shao Yifu had been in the business world for a long time and could tell at a glance that what Lin Weimin said was sincere and without any falsehood.
He nodded and said, "Mr. Lin is right. In that case, I'll leave this matter to Mr. Lin!"
Lin Weimin smiled and said, "Mr. Shao has generously donated to the Chinese Literature Foundation. What I have done is insignificant."
He didn't expect to be able to answer Shao Yifu's question so easily. He was about to thank him when he heard Shao Yifu say, "I knew Mr. Lin was an outstanding writer in the mainland. He was famous overseas at a young age. Your "Lover" was published in the "Sing Tao Daily" before, and my assistant Miss Fang followed it from beginning to end."
Shao Yifu was referring to Fang Yihua. Lin Weimin looked at her and saw Fang Yihua looking a little shy. She said, "Mr. Lin is very talented and admirable!"
Lin Weimin nodded to Fang Yihua and said, "Thank you for your appreciation."
Fang Yihua continued, "Mr. Lin, your Farewell My Concubine is quite popular in Hong Kong. Are you interested in adapting it into a TV series?"
Lin Weimin was slightly surprised. He laughed and said, "Ms. Fang, it's not easy to adapt Farewell My Concubine into a TV series."
Hearing the refusal in Lin Weimin's words, Fang Yihua smiled and continued, "Mr. Lin mentioned before that Wuxian is cooperating with CCTV in the mainland. If we can make this happen through Mr. Lin's work, it will be a good story!"
Fang Yihua came to Shaw Yat-fu at the age of 18. After 30 years of ups and downs, she now holds a high position in Shaw Brothers Films and TVB. She is indeed a powerful woman.
This is probably because he is afraid that he is not doing his best to promote the cooperation, so he deliberately adds some trouble to himself.
Lin Weimin glanced at Fang Yihua, then at Shao Yifu, and said solemnly: "Okay! Since Mr. Shao and Miss Fang trust me so much, I will definitely do my best to make this happen."
Shao Yifu smiled and said, "Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Lin!"
"Oh, right!" Lin Weimin suddenly looked at Shao Yifu, his expression serious: "Mr. Shao, my screenwriting fee is very expensive, the budget needs to be increased."
Shao Yifu laughed and said, "Definitely add it! Definitely add it!"
(End of this chapter)
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