Not within the scope of the project
In the past two years, the film and television market has undergone a structural reshuffle. Long-running drama projects with high investment, long cycles, and high risks have been impacted by short-running drama projects. The annual reports of the three major platforms that focus on long-running video content all show losses of varying degrees.
Platform producers are under immense pressure from executives to meet KPI targets and turn losses into profits, while simultaneously being pressured by State Administration of Radio and Television guidelines to prevent speculation and inflated figures. Everyone is suffering and desperately needs high-quality projects that deliver both high viewership and popularity to help their employers break out of their predicament.
In the past, the release time of the annual film lists of various platforms was usually announced in a high-profile manner according to their own strategic rhythm. Although there were intervals, the overall situation presented a concentrated burst and a grand competition for several days.
This year, due to regulatory intervention aimed at improving the quality of broadcasting and promoting healthy competition, all platforms were required to use the same time and output method, and the announcement was made at the "Annual Summit on Audiovisual Media" led by the State Administration of Radio and Television.
The staggered competition, with each side employing its own unique tactics, passively turned into a chaotic, closed-door alliance. The seemingly harmonious but secretly competitive relationship continued from official discussions where resources were exchanged, all the way to the project screening at Yunhe Entertainment.
Jiang Songhe believes that "Yan Ge Xing" meets the standards of a high-quality production. Now, with the support of a top star, Jiang Songyun, as the male lead of the project, has also made it to the finals of an international talent show. With the subsequent broadcast of the drama and combined with marketing, it is expected that he will become a guarantee of success in the drama.
However, the screening session began to send a series of pessimistic signals from the very beginning of the meeting.
The meeting, originally scheduled for 10 a.m., did not start on time because Liang Jinping, the producer of Qixun Video, the leading platform among the three, claimed to be stuck in traffic and arrived nearly 20 minutes late.
Although the other two platform producers didn't say much, they deliberately hinted through their actions that the two-hour meeting time would not be postponed because of this.
During the PPT presentation, Liang Jinping yawned repeatedly, Qiguo openly replied to WeChat messages at the table, and Leku even left the room to answer a phone call, causing the other investors present to look increasingly unpleasant.
Jiang Songhe felt from the beginning that it was inappropriate to organize the three platforms to participate in the meeting together, but when Lin Duole made the appointment, all three parties gave the same answer, saying that they were busy before the release of the film list and that this was the only time they were available, and that it was the result of mutual communication.
Since no one could be missing from the key group, and Le Ku Fang left, Jiang Songhe had no choice but to suspend the meeting and ask Lin Duole to go out and prepare a tea break that was earlier than planned.
When the producer of LeCool returned, there was already tea and snacks on the table in the conference room. Jiang Songhe invited everyone to enjoy the snacks while listening to the presentation. He then forced himself to finish explaining the cultural and creative tourism and other derivative sections at the end of the PPT. Afterward, he asked everyone if they had any questions for further discussion.
Qi and Le smiled without saying a word, their tea, snacks, and fruit untouched. Only Liang Jinping leisurely sipped his tea and drank.
"This Jin Jun Mei is quite good." Liang Jinping took a sip and, without any hesitation, invited his two colleagues to share. "You should try some too, it'll warm your stomachs. You might not be able to get such good tea here with General Manager Jiang again."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Songhe's brow twitched slightly. Ignoring the implied meaning, he raised his hand and pressed the remote control to exit the PPT. He skipped the extra-long trailer for "Yan Ge Xing" that was originally scheduled to be shown in the second phase of the media library, selected Janus's reaction teaser trailer, and paused it in full screen.
"It's particularly worth mentioning that Yunhe has just finalized a collaboration with top singer Janus." Jiang Songhe paused, "Janus will not only lend his voice to 'Yan Ge Xing,' but will also participate in the promotion in accordance with the marketing plan."
Upon hearing the term "top influencer," the audience finally showed some interest. The relatively young producer from Qiguo placed his phone face down on the table and asked, "Janus from Maner?"
“That’s right.” Seeing that the other two didn’t seem to have connected Janus with the influence of a top celebrity, Jiang Songhe looked at Lin Duole and whispered, “Submit the relevant pages of the PPT.”
The television screen displayed Janus's background information. Jiang Songhe then introduced Janus using relevant data, stating, "Janus, a Mandarin singer, is 25 years old. As you can clearly see, Janus's fan base highly overlaps with the target audience of 'Yan Ge Xing'..."
Jiang Songhe further explained that with Janus joining the cast of "Yan Ge Xing", the show will inevitably expand its overseas user base, thereby driving new user registrations on the streaming platform and attracting the attention of existing users.
"We have already planned a series of promotional topics. The male lead, Jiang Songyun, has also made it to the finals of Manr Star Show and joined Janus's team. After the drama airs, we will communicate with Janus's management team to arrange relevant interactions to generate buzz."
As everyone's faces lit up with joy and they began to drink tea, Jiang Songhe turned around and gestured for Lin Duole to exit the PPT projection. Then, he played Janus's reaction teaser trailer.
The producers and investors were captivated by Janus's performance, whispering among themselves as they followed the emotional shifts of the top idol in the video and discussed the relevant plot scenes. After the teaser trailer finished playing, Jiang Songhe seized the opportunity to continue playing the clips they had just skipped.
To ensure a good viewing experience, Jiang Songhe asked Lin Duole to pull down all the blinds, while he retreated to the doorway to secretly observe everyone's reactions.
No one left their seats midway through the session. The platform staff gradually became engrossed in their conversations and stopped discussing among themselves. Instead, they sat a little further apart, staring thoughtfully at their screens, perhaps weighing their options or making plans.
Like Jiang Songhe, most of the investors were closely observing the platform's every move, occasionally giving Jiang Songhe meaningful glances. Only Tao Nian seemed to be purely appreciating the platform, showing her amazement at the most interesting parts.
As the hour-long trailer neared its end, Jiang Songhe was about to turn on the light when the TV screen suddenly flashed and switched to an audio playback interface.
The familiar intro melody filled the large conference room. Jiang Songhe looked up and saw the audio title on the player. Her heart skipped a beat. She quickly looked down and tapped the desktop next to Lin Duole's computer, urging in a deep voice, "Turn it off."
Lin Duole was sitting upright with his back turned. When the boss tapped him a few times, he suddenly jerked and exclaimed "Ah!" He reflexively turned around and showed the boss a "just say the word" attitude.
It's obvious that I couldn't resist the drowsiness and dozed off in the dark, accidentally touching the keyboard and connecting to the screen mirroring.
"Sorry." Lin Duole's slow reaction caused the audio to continue playing for a few more seconds. Jiang Songhe apologized to everyone while leaning over and tapping the space bar on the computer on the table. Then she got up, turned on the light, and declared, "The audio from just now is not part of the project scope."
"《Sacrifice at Dawn》?" Liang Jinping held his phone in one hand, swiping his thumb up and down on the screen. "I searched it up, isn't this the song Janus just officially announced as a turning point in his career?"
Everyone's eyes lit up upon hearing this, but Jiang Songhe had a bad feeling.
"He even managed to get his hands on top-secret, unreleased audio recordings of a top-tier singer. Looks like President Jiang really has some skills." Liang Jinping's eyes gleamed, as if he'd spotted a greedy, bloodthirsty tiger. "I suddenly remembered, last time at the hospital..."
When I was in the hospital last time, and I was disoriented due to alcohol poisoning, was Liang Jinping there too? And did he run into Jonathan?
"The Night of Dawn is indeed a transformative work of extraordinary significance for Janus." Jiang Songhe interrupted him seriously, not having time to think further.
Even though the people on the other end are people he desperately wants to win over, he has no choice but to interrupt.
Because whether it's Liang Jinping's later remarks about his relationship with Janus, or his attempt to use this relationship to acquire the film and television rights to Janus's transformative work, or his explicit statement that not signing the song was tantamount to admitting Yunhe's incompetence, none of these things are suitable for any party present to know or investigate.
He could only use harsh, realistic language to imply to the other party that they shouldn't expect top-tier celebrities to make endless concessions.
"However, Janus's cooperation with 'Yan Ge Xing' was also very high, which was amazing and touching." Jiang Songhe glanced at Lin Duole. "Everyone may want to take another look at the scene of the brothers' ultimate battle in the trailer. The background music will be replaced with the OST sung by Janus within three days, which is also the theme song of the main series."
Knowing he had messed up, Lin Duole's eyes widened like saucers. He immediately received his boss's signal, quickly exited the screen mirroring, picked up the remote control on the table, fast-rewinded the progress bar, and stopped precisely at the beginning of the background music.
Producers and investors from all platforms except Qixun turned to look at the television, but Liang Jinping remained motionless, as if determined to gnaw on this tempting bone, and said loudly, "I almost forgot about the brotherhood battle if President Jiang hadn't mentioned it."
“Just looking at this one-hour trailer, Shen Zongli’s screen time is not to be underestimated.” Liang Jinping’s words had a stimulating tone. “Shen Zongli has been appearing in a series of dramas recently. How could we, as producers on this platform, not guess what this means?”
Jiang Songhe's heart skipped a beat when she saw everyone's eyes turn to her.
Liang Jinping continued with a forced smile: "To be honest, we can understand the same mentality as Yunhe and the producers of those shows that were suddenly brought in – you're in a hurry to release them online to minimize losses, right? But our platform producers are in a tough spot too; every one of us has a sword hanging over our heads."
The two people from Qiguo Leku looked at each other and nodded.
"I'm being realistic, so don't take it personally." Liang Jinping looked away, got up and poured himself more tea. "The win-win situation you mentioned in your PPT, is it achievable? Yes. But it requires concerted efforts from all parties involved, including the production platform and key creators, to achieve it. Otherwise, it's just empty talk."
"How many top actors and actresses are queuing up for period drama projects at the same time? Every second of exposure, both inside and outside the platform, is worth real money. Why should we give up our own productions to support and pave the way for your 'Yan Ge Xing' project, where the male lead is weak and the antagonist is problematic?"
Jiang Songhe was caught off guard when Liang Jinping suddenly connected Janus's song, which only had a few seconds of intro, to Shen Zongli's domestic violence scandal. He couldn't catch on for a moment, but he couldn't show his weakness. So he raised his chin slightly, straightened his shoulders, and planned to wait for the other party to finish speaking while thinking of a solution.
After all, saying so much actually means there are still conditions to be negotiated.
"You don't need to talk to me about 'content is king,' 'long tail effect,' or 'trusting the audience's aesthetics.' To put it bluntly, we platform producers are product managers working for the investors. We also have to focus on selling points, sales, and revenue. Lofty ideals are nothing but bullshit in the face of the film and television industry's winter. You can only speak with facts that show clear returns in the short term."
After Liang Jinping finished fanning the flames, he poured the cooled tea into the disposable paper cup in front of him to dust off cigarette ash, refilled his own teacup, and threw the puzzle to Jiang Songhe.
“I understand what you’re saying very well.” Jiang Songhe’s brain was working at high speed, extracting the keywords in the other party’s remarks that were directly related to the production company. He asked in a way that seemed like a retreat but actually a step forward, “But please enlighten me, besides the all-gold production team that guarantees quality and the support of a phenomenal top star, what kind of ‘selling points’ does ‘Yan Ge Xing’ need to clearly demonstrate in order to gain your favor and support?”
Liang Jinping slurped up another mouthful of tea loudly: "Hmph~~ President Jiang is usually so composed, is he already getting emotional?"
Jiang Songhe remained noncommittal: "The 'Grand Audiovisual Annual Summit' has just been officially announced by the State Administration of Radio and Television and will be held in Beijing on the 20th of this month. I just urgently want to understand the platform's demands so that we can cooperate as soon as possible to achieve a win-win situation for both parties."
Upon hearing "broadcasting," Liang Jinping dropped his sarcastic tone and became more serious as he got down to business: "I don't deny that 'Yan Ge Xing' is indeed of excellent quality and has the potential to become a benchmark project for earning a good reputation. But the platform cannot just seek critical acclaim at the moment; it must also be commercially successful."
“You strive for excellence in content creation, and we strive for excellence in attracting investment.” Liang Jinping put down his teacup and waved his hand dismissively at the TV screen. “The theme song, which users will automatically skip the opening and closing credits of, is meaningless, so there’s no need to waste time rewatching it.”
"Yunhe promised to secure Janus's transformative work, and the poster for 'Yan Ge Xing' will naturally be displayed on the giant screen of the Star Cinema Auditorium on the 20th."
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