Chapter 816 Awaiting Release
"The first season of '2 Broke Girls' did quite well, with a relatively high viewership rating in China, consistently above 1%, making it the runner-up in annual viewership on Yuehu TV, only behind 'Friends'."
"However, its viewership on HP did not meet expectations. In fact, HP used top-notch promotional resources to try to make Friends a hit, but not many viewers were successfully converted."
Lu Yanhe asked, "So, how did the HP viewers rate it?"
"The word-of-mouth is still pretty good. Actually, '2 Broke Girls' has a very good viewership in Asia. It seems to be a barrier in Europe and America, with a very low completion rate for the whole season."
Lu Yanhe said, "Let's wait and see. After all, the main actors are not well-known to the audience. Friends didn't reach its current level in just one season."
"Yes, that's the same for HP. They still have confidence in '2 Broke Girls' because the platform's audience has given the show very good reviews and everyone likes it."
Lu Yanhe: "Besides Friends, 2 Broke Girls, and Roommates, do you have any other sitcoms in development right now?"
Chen Yin said, "There is an original sitcom that was selected through a bidding process. It has also been performed five times in theaters as a stage play, and we plan to start filming next year."
Lu Yanhe: "It's good to have new dramas. Linghe is producing more and more series now, but if we don't create new talent and just rely on past successes, it's easy to create a false sense of prosperity."
Chen Yin: "Understood."
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Linghe currently possesses a vast and powerful pool of talent for production.
There are nine production teams in total, each led by a producer.
It's a team-based operation, but unlike most team-based operations, the screenwriters, business managers, and artist coordinators are not included in the production team.
The production team consisted primarily of personnel from the technical department.
Chen Yin made this stipulation to minimize the possibility of his team being poached entirely.
For Linghe, technical jobs require relatively less investment and are easily replaceable. If someone is poached, a replacement can be found in the industry in a timely manner.
However, the screenwriters, business associates, and talent coordinators were all hand-trained by Linghe using its own resources; nurturing someone is no small expense. Money is secondary; the key is project opportunities. Besides Linghe, which other company can provide screenwriters with so many opportunities to work on set, offering a base salary so they can focus on writing their original scripts each month, participate in pitches, and receive stage performance opportunities to get audience feedback and make further revisions?
Such screenwriters, though newcomers, are seasoned veterans, making them highly sought-after by any platform and film company; everyone wants to compete for them.
If Chen Yin doesn't directly manage these people himself, or if the company has a department to directly manage and serve them, but instead disperses them to various production teams, their sense of belonging to the company will definitely be weaker than their sense of belonging to their team. Especially if the team leader knows how to win people's hearts, and if one person leaves, everyone will be willing to follow.
Therefore, Chen Yin now adopts two approaches for the company's projects: either a producer-centric system, where a producer has a good project, needs to find people to develop it, assembles their own team, and then looks for screenwriters within the company; or a script-centric system, where the company's own screenwriters produce many scripts, and once they pass evaluation, they can be released to the market. In this case, Chen Yin will prioritize providing the scripts to the company's production teams for bidding. If no team provides a satisfactory production plan, or if no one is willing to do it, the company will then find people outside to build the production crew.
Multiple options can ensure that core creators work closely with a production team for extended periods.
In this situation, the only constant and unchanging entity is Linghe Company.
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In fact, Chen Yin also had other ways to increase the cost of these people leaving the company.
For example, signing long-term contracts with them when they were still newcomers, starting at ten years.
However, because Chen Yin understood Lu Yanhe's personality and knew his way of doing things, Chen Yin did not implement this approach in the company.
To put it bluntly, Lu Yanhe is just too good at making money, so the amount of money involved is not really Linghe's primary goal.
He doesn't just talk the talk; he truly puts it into practice in every situation and at every moment, valuing the company's ecosystem and long-term development far more than short-term gains.
Therefore, he never used short-term profit as a criterion for evaluating Chen Yin and Xu Tianming.
Often, or rather most of the time, those bosses who also see the importance of ecological construction and long-term development want both: they want these things, but they also want immediate profits.
Lu Yanhe truly can be indifferent and not take it to heart.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that Linghe had basically been operating with "no capital" for the past few years, dealing mainly in Lu Yanhe's film and television copyrights, which resulted in considerable profits.
Basically, Linghe has never experienced a period of loss.
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Lu Yanhe was very pleased to see that Linghe had nurtured so many creative talents.
From directors to screenwriters, from producers to technical talents.
Although Linghe is currently working on all small to medium-budget projects, its production staff is almost comparable to that of a top-tier film company.
The reason why Linghe was able to accumulate so many production talents in just a few years is because it has many projects.
Many large film companies, such as Longyan, can produce blockbusters, such as "Burning Fire," which costs hundreds of millions of yuan. A single film crew consists of hundreds of people, making a grand spectacle that far surpasses the scale of small workshops like Linghe.
However, the number of projects that Longyan controls in a year may not even be as many as those in Linghe.
Taking this year as an example, more than 10 projects have started filming, including 7 films. Although the combined production budget of five or six of them does not exceed 30 million RMB, each project represents a number of job opportunities. Working as a camera assistant in a large crew for five years may not necessarily lead to faster career growth than working as a cameraman in a small team.
Being able to take charge in a group means that "though small, it has all the vital organs."
This is the advantage of Linghe.
This is also something creators care about very much. Lu Yanhe himself doesn't care how much he earns, but not everyone is Lu Yanhe, for whom a single production is a sure-fire way to make a fortune. Most people make a living through their skills, and one project can't sustain them for a lifetime. Having many projects, plenty of work, and each job adding prestige to one's resume and increasing income—how could anyone not be tempted?
Linghe watched as more and more projects were launched. The "Jump Up" channel used to do a maximum of 4 projects a year, but now it does 7 or 8, more than doubling.
The Ling River nourishes people.
As the number of highly skilled technical personnel increases, a plateau is formed, leading to competition among them, which in turn drives the improvement of professional skills and creates a virtuous cycle.
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It wasn't until this point that many film and television companies realized that while small projects like "Jump Up" theaters might only generate a profit of one or two million, they offered stable output and income, and also provided valuable training opportunities.
Many film and television companies can't sign many directors because they don't have enough projects or production budgets. But Linghe can.
Even if you, as the director, have your own ideas and want to do a project with a large investment that Linghe is not keen on investing in, Linghe will not stop you from finding resources and raising funds outside. He might even be willing to help you promote the project, just without using Linghe's name.
Even though they initially relied heavily on Lu Yanhe's genius copyright, Linghe is a company that values accumulating experience step by step.
This brings us back to Chen Yin's own personality.
Because he is a very down-to-earth and conservative person.
The two executives that Chen Ziyan found for Linghe are indeed suitable for Linghe.
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By December, the North American awards season had entered its most intense phase.
Lu Yanhe's award-contending film "Get Out" will be released this month.
Of course, until now, no one knew that Get Out would become a major contender in awards season.
Because, even now, in everyone's mind, this movie is still a gimmicky thriller.
Neither director Murken Sorge nor the actors are considered frontrunners for awards season.
And screenwriter Lu Yanhe—
Everyone knows that Lu Yanhe is indeed exceptionally talented in screenwriting. But he is not a screenwriter who is aloof and only writes scripts for art films. In Hollywood, his exceptional talent in screenwriting is mainly reflected in his ability to create box office miracles.
So, is this a thriller script written by Lu Yanhe?
Even though it received high praise from industry insiders, no one thought it could be considered a contender for an Oscar.
However, at this time, Lu Yanhe brought the cast of "Friends" to New York.
They were still there to promote Friends.
This time, they will appear on three popular mainstream American shows to promote the premiere of the new season of Friends.
Maxine's resources were once again tilted towards them; this time, they weren't even cast in the American version of "Friends" alongside them.
Over the past two years, Maxine has arranged for the American version of "Friends" to appear in the show together, allowing it to ride on the show's popularity.
Lu Yanhe thought to himself, "There's nothing I can do. Since I've already taken away someone else's luck, I might as well let them take advantage of me."
Even this time, if Maxine makes a request, Lu Yanhe does not intend to refuse.
However, Maxine seems to have given up altogether.
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During a break in the promotional activities, Lu Yanhe arranged for the crew of "Get Out" and the people from "Friends" to meet, have a meal, and then promote each other's work.
The former movie will be released soon, and the latter will also premiere soon.
Lu Yanhe organized another party—again, with Hua Ruzhen's help—and sent invitations to everyone he knew in Hollywood, regardless of their country of origin, as long as they were in New York.
Lu Yanhe rarely throws parties in the United States.
When such a rising "powerful figure" throws a party, naturally some people will flock to him, eager to "pimp" for the party.
Lu Yanhe refused outright.
We resolutely reject pornography, gambling, and drugs.
This regulation has drawn considerable complaints from some people.
Including some of Lu Yanhe's invited friends—
They attend many parties in the European and American circles, and while providing such services at parties isn't always the case, it has become an unspoken convention.
Very few people would directly say "prohibited" like Lu Yanhe.
But now there aren't many people who can directly raise objections to Lu Yanhe; at most, they might jokingly complain a couple of times.
Lu Yanhe was also straightforward: if you really want it, then go and get it yourself; anyway, these things are not allowed on his turf.
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At the party, someone praised Lu Yanhe, saying that Get Out would be another successful thriller.
Lu Yanhe said for the first time during the North American awards season: "It is definitely more than just a successful thriller."
Prior to this, Lu Yanhe had never brought up this topic.
The listener was somewhat surprised.
Lu Yanhe said, "After the movie is released, you will see for yourselves. It is not a formulaic thriller made according to the rules of thrillers. It has a very clear theme that is far more complex than it appears. It is one of the best scripts I have ever written."
The fact that Lu Yanhe could openly boast about his script surprised the listeners.
The other party immediately asked, "Is this script so good that it could win an Oscar?"
"I don't know if it can win an Oscar, but I think it will definitely receive a higher response than the industry currently expects."
If Lu Yanhe were a greenhorn who had just arrived in Hollywood, no one would pay much attention to him if he said such things; they would just think he was arrogant and self-important.
Lu Yanhe is now a creator who has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and has been the lead creator of many Academy Award-winning films.
The fact that he could say this so clearly and unequivocally will surely make everyone think twice.
You should at least check the pros and cons.
And that's exactly the effect Lu Yanhe wanted to achieve.
In response, D19 remained unusually silent.
Instead of taking advantage of the situation to promote the film, they calmly waited for its release.
Because they knew very well that, given the theme and content of this film, there was no need for large-scale pre-release publicity.
With the established fan base of Mu Ken and Lu Yanhe, the film generated buzz after its release, making it almost impossible for it not to become a hit.
It all depends on how much box office revenue this hot topic can translate into.
Yes, even now, people are only looking forward to the box office, not to any awards season success for D19.
Even Murken Sorge was surprised by Lu Yanhe's confidence in Get Out.
Lu Yanhe was confident in the film for two reasons: first, the success of the original work in another timeline proved its quality; second, he had already seen the film in advance and knew very well that it was very well made and no worse than the original work.
He built up momentum within his small circle and then waited for the movie to be released.
(End of this chapter)
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