Chapter 816: The Mansion
While the outside world was bustling with news, Guowen Society seemed like a paradise.
The swap of positions between the president and the editor-in-chief did not seem to have any impact on the work of the company, and everything went on as usual.
The president should be in charge of all work, with the emphasis on the word “all”.
A leader who is reluctant to delegate power wishes to hold all power in his own hands. His subordinates complain that he does not give them opportunities, but he himself is exhausted.
Lin Weimin is a person who is willing to delegate power. Nothing is irreplaceable, and no job can only be done by one person.
If he delegates his power, his subordinates will be happy to work and he will feel relaxed too. So why not do it?
After serving as the president for a few days, Lin Weimin finally discovered Lao Cheng's happiness.
Isn't this much better than being an editor-in-chief and working hard to review manuscripts every day?
Freed from the heavy workload of reviewing manuscripts, Lin Weimin boldly delegated administrative duties. His work intensity was reduced a lot at once, and he even had time to leave early to pick up his daughter from kindergarten.
"Dad, don't come to pick me up tomorrow!"
Little Doubao curled up in Lin Weimin's arms, with his little face tilted up, and spoke to Lin Weimin.
Lin Weimin was puzzled, "Why? Doubao doesn't like daddy to pick you up?"
Xiaodoubao smiled guiltily and said, "No!"
It is a woman's nature to say one thing and mean another.
Looking at his daughter's hypocritical expression, Lin Weimin suddenly felt a little sad.
He's only four years old and he already starts to dislike himself. If I get married in the future, will I still be able to live a peaceful life?
Teacher Lin thought about this and became melancholy and unhappy.
When the little boy found out that his old father was unhappy, he kissed him twice on the face.
Lin Weimin felt that his daughter was a caring and thoughtful girl. She was just worried that his coming to the kindergarten would delay his work.
When I got home, the meal was ready.
Xiao Doubao is now four years old. Lin Weimin specially made a chair for her so that the little girl can sit and eat with the adults.
However, her arms are still short and she often cannot reach the food. She has to lean forward and lie on the table to pick up the food from time to time.
Every time Tao Huimin saw her like this, she couldn't help but scold her: "Look at you, do you look like a girl at all?"
Little Doubao had just stuffed his cheeks with chicken legs. Upon hearing this, he looked at his mother with a confused look on his face, his big eyes full of grievance.
"She can't reach it." Lin Weimin said, moving the dish on the table in front of Xiao Doubao, "If you want to eat some food, just tell your mother and let her pick it up for you, right?"
"Yeah." Xiao Doubao nodded in response with oil dripping from his mouth.
Tao Huimin felt depressed when she saw the father and daughter singing the same tune.
Now she is the only bad person in this family.
Before going to bed at night, Lin Weimin, who had finished telling a story to Xiao Doubao, returned to the room. Tao Huimin was leaning against the head of the bed, looking unhappy. Seeing his happy expression, she became even angrier.
Lin Weimin keenly felt the low pressure in the room. He glanced at his wife's expression, then got on the bed, skillfully put his arm around Tao Huimin's arm, and coaxed her with a few sweet words. Tao Huimin's expression softened.
"I'm warning you, don't spoil her anymore. Look at what she has become because of you," Tao Huimin warned.
"Yes, yes, my wife is right."
Being able to bend and stretch, and to be both soft and hard, are the basic qualities of a middle-aged man.
Next, Lin Weimin fully demonstrated his excellent basic qualities.
Two days later, "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" was broadcast on CCTV.
On the day of its broadcast, the ratings were good and continued to rise, reaching a peak of 28%, making it another hit drama on CCTV this year with a rating of over 20% after "Season of Flowers and Rain".
The TV series' premiere on CCTV achieved high ratings and received excellent word-of-mouth among the audience, sparking a lot of attention and discussion.
Li Baotian, who played Liu Yong, Zhang Guoli, who played Qianlong, and Wang Gang, who played Heshen, all became famous because of this drama.
The three of them had some fame in the domestic film and television circles before, especially Li Baotian, who was much more famous than Zhang Guoli and Wang Gang, as he starred in Zhang Yimou's movies.
But in the 1990s, the influence of TV series has surpassed that of movies. A successful TV series has a much greater impact on the general public than a movie and is more deeply rooted in people's hearts.
The success of "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" made three male actors famous and also made Wencheng Film and Television earn a lot of money.
The total investment in the TV series was 2.6 million yuan, but the purchase price given by CCTV was 90,000 yuan per episode. The length of "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" is 40 episodes. The copyright fee for the first round sold to CCTV alone was 3.6 million yuan, and the profit was 1 million yuan.
When the TV series was in the middle of its broadcast, there was an endless stream of TV stations coming to Wencheng Film and Television to inquire about purchasing the rights for the second round of broadcasts.
By the time the TV series was finished, the broadcasting rights of "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" had been sold to 12 TV stations at all levels. This TV series alone contributed 22 million in revenue to Wencheng Film and Television.
General Manager Hai Yan has been in a very excited mood recently. At the beginning of the year, "Season of Flowers and Rain" was broadcast on CCTV and set a record high viewership rate of over 50%.
After the first round of broadcast, the rights for the second round of broadcast were snapped up by TV stations across the country and sold for 24 million yuan.
In less than half a year, the copyright income of "Season of Flowers and Rain" has reached 38.8 million yuan.
In addition to the 22 million yuan from "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" and the sporadic copyright sales of other dramas of Wencheng Film and Television, Wencheng Film and Television's revenue in the first half of this year has reached more than 60 million yuan.
Although information exchange is not smooth now, Haiyan is very sure that Wencheng Film and Television's revenue is enough to firmly maintain its position as the leader in the domestic TV drama production field.
There are still nearly seven months until the Gregorian New Year. Wencheng Film and Television will also broadcast another drama "Swordsman" this year. As long as the TV series performs normally, the company's revenue should still have a relatively large increase.
Haiyan has even set a goal for Wencheng Film and Television for next year: revenue exceeding 100 million yuan.
With the foundation laid last year and this year, this goal does not seem difficult.
When Hai Yan was planning the company's plans for next year, he received a call from Lin Weimin, saying that Zhang Yimou had an acquaintance who wanted to raise investment and wanted to have dinner together in the evening.
At around six in the evening, Haiyan drove a Santana and parked the car in front of Fengze Garden, which was where they would have dinner tonight.
Not long after he arrived, Lin Weimin and Zhang Yimou arrived, along with an old comrade who looked to be in his fifties or sixties.
Zhang Yimou introduced: "Teacher Lin, President Hai, this is Director Guo Baochang."
They shook hands, exchanged greetings, sat down, ordered their food, and started chatting.
When it comes to the name Guo Baochang, some people in later generations may not be familiar with it, but I believe that most people are familiar with the name "The Mansion Gate". Guo Baochang is the director of the TV series "The Mansion Gate".
"The Mansion Gate" describes the century-long rise and fall of the Bai family of Baicaotang. The Bai family in the TV series is actually the Yanjing Le family in real life, and the prototype of Baicaotang is the famous Tongrentang in later generations.
Xiangxiu, the girl holding the dog in the TV series who later became Bai Jingqi's concubine, was Guo Baochang's adoptive mother in real life.
Guo Baochang had planned to bring the history of the Le family and Tong Ren Tang to the screen since his youth. He wrote the script of "The Mansion Gate" many times, but the script was destroyed many times. It was not until he was over 50 years old that this ill-fated script was finally born.
In the following years, Guo Baochang tried to attract investment everywhere in order to smoothly shoot "The Mansion Gate". He finally got the investment last year and the TV series "The Mansion Gate" officially started shooting.
In 1982, several graduates of Class 1978 of Yanying were assigned to Guangxi Film Studio. At that time, Guo Baochang was serving as the artistic director of Guangxi Film Studio. With his strong support, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and other fledgling students had the opportunity to form a youth filming team and shoot the two works "One and Eight" and "Yellow Earth".
Because of this kindness and the experience of fighting together, Guo Baochang maintained a good relationship with several fifth-generation directors such as Zhang Yimou and Cheng Kaige.
Last year, "The Mansion Gate" started filming, and Guo Baochang's long-cherished wish came true, so he specially organized a party.
At the party, Guo Baochang also brought the script of "The Mansion Gate" to Zhang Yimou and others to read, asking them to help think about how to shoot it. Several people also gave Guo Baochang a lot of ideas.
At the party, Tian Zhuangzhuang had a sudden idea and suggested that everyone play a cameo role for Mr. Guo in "The Mansion Gate", which immediately received positive responses from everyone.
Now everyone is different from what they were back then. They have all achieved success and fame, and they all make guest appearances in Guo Baochang's TV series. This is a big gimmick, and Guo Baochang is very happy.
But the following year, after only three episodes of the TV series "The Mansion Gate" were filmed, Guo Baochang had a conflict with the investors, who directly withdrew their investment and the production of "The Mansion Gate" was shut down.
This is a difficult situation for Guo Baochang. How can he continue filming this TV series if the investors withdraw their investment?
He had no choice but to disband the crew and look for funds again.
Zhang Yimou, who was busy with the post-production of "If You Are the One", heard about this and took the initiative to find Guo Baochang, hoping to raise investment for him.
When Guo Baochang wanted to make a TV series, the first company Zhang Yimou thought of was Wencheng Film and Television.
However, his relationship with Haiyan was average, and Haiyan had recommended actors from Wencheng Film and Television to him before, but Zhang Yimou had not used them. He had rejected Haiyan's offer before, and now he was asking Haiyan for help. Zhang Yimou was afraid of being rejected, so he thought of Lin Weimin.
Lin Weimin was also delighted when he received a call from Zhang Yimou. When people in later generations talked about domestic TV dramas in the 1990s, "The Mansion Gate" was a name that could not be avoided.
Such a classic, taking the initiative to surrender, he had no reason to refuse, and he wished he could open the bed to welcome her.
As the few of them were chatting, before the waiter served the food, Guo Baochang took out the script of "The Mansion Gate" and handed it to Lin Weimin.
Lin Weimin took the script but didn't read it. Instead, he handed it directly to Haiyan.
"I don't need to read Director Guo's script. Yimou has praised it to me many times. Haiyan, you should have a good discussion with Director Guo later to see how much funding is needed. Wencheng must give its full support."
From these words, Haiyan heard that Lin Weimin attached great importance to Guo Baochang and "The Mansion Gate", and he nodded in agreement.
Guo Baochang was extremely surprised. He thought he came to have dinner to talk first, but he didn't expect that Lin Weimin would decide the investment with just one sentence, without even reading the script.
While he was excited, he was also thinking that this was 100% because Lin Weimin did this for Zhang Yimou's sake.
This huge favor made him unable to sit still. He stood up and toasted Lin Weimin with a glass of wine, and also toasted Haiyan and Zhang Yimou.
When it was Zhang Yimou's turn, he looked embarrassed, "Master Guo, aren't you slapping me in the face? Without you, we wouldn't be where we are today!"
"You can't say that. You guys are all talented directors. You can succeed even without me," said Guo Baochang.
If Lin Weimin is Zhang Yimou's mentor on his path to becoming a director, then Guo Baochang is Zhang Yimou's mentor on his path to becoming a filmmaker.
Without Guo Baochang's insistence on setting up the "youth film crew", Zhang Yimou would not have been able to direct a movie the year after graduation, and there would have been no possibility for him to become a director later.
Lin Weimin smiled and said, "Director Guo has made great contributions to Chinese films. Without you, the fifth generation of directors would not have come to prominence so quickly. You got it wrong. It should be Yimou who toasted you."
His words broke Zhang Yimou's awkward situation. Zhang Yimou hurriedly stood up, holding the wine and said, "That's right, I should toast you."
After some pushing and shoving, the two drank a glass and then sat down.
While drinking and eating, Guo Baochang was in a good mood as he got the investment for the TV series. After chatting for a while, he mentioned the leading actor of the TV series.
Because the investors withdrew their capital, the crew has now been disbanded and the actors are all unemployed at home.
The second wife was played by Guo Baochang's wife Liu Gege, which surprised Lin Weimin.
In the later version of "The Mansion Gate", the filming was suspended for three years after the investors withdrew their capital before it was resumed. The choice of the heroine, the second wife, was changed from Liu Gege to Siqin Gaowa.
Siqin Gaowa's version of the Second Grandma is a classic, and Lin Weimin doesn't want to see a strange actress play the Second Grandma.
He then became concerned about whether other actors had the same version as the one he had seen, and asked Guo Baochang carefully.
(End of this chapter)
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