Chapter 106: The New Field of Arclight Film
and Television Unlike Meng Bai, who is a "newcomer who took advantage of the opportunity to take off", Zhu Zhenhua has been in the film and television industry for twenty years.
From Guangguang to Xinxiu and then to Sohu, he is the type of daughter-in-law who has been a daughter-in-law for many years.
He bought a total of three "Zhenhua Series" novels including "The Best of Us" a long time ago. In his own words, Zhenhua bought "Zhenhua", which is a fate.
Of course, this is a joke. In fact, he is interested in this kind of fresh style of youth campus stories.
"Ninety percent of the audience's youth will not have abortion, fighting, cheating and quarreling." Zhu Zhenhua said: "But they will definitely have exams, practice questions, be punished for being late, pass small notes with classmates, and cheer when the school power goes out."
Meng Bai recalled his high school life. In fact, the above things still exist to some extent, but they basically appear in campus rumors and folk legends.
Some people say that "only good-looking people have youth", but even for a "talented player" like Meng Bai who never has to buy his own breakfast, the most profound impression of youth is still "how much current can a magical metal rod generate when it passes through a rotating magnetic field".
How can ordinary people have so many bloody experiences? Is it because working from 6 am to 10 pm is not tiring enough, or is there not enough homework, or is math and physics not difficult enough?
But then again, people always yearn for unfamiliar things. It is precisely because the youth of most people is dull that they will pursue the "youth" that they have not experienced in youth films full of "bloody" things.
In other words, if the plot of the "youth film" is exactly the same as your own experience, then just recall it directly. Why bother to watch the drama specifically?
Hearing Meng Bai's question, Zhu Zhenhua smiled and said, "I don't mean to be rude. Mr. Meng should have just graduated not long ago."
Meng Bai did not hide the truth and nodded, "Two or three years."
"Two or three years, then the memory of youth should be quite clear." Zhu Zhenhua sighed, "But for those of us who have left campus life for seven or eight years or even more than ten years, and have been worn down and filled by society and work, it is difficult to recall those times."
Some youth films are made for people who are in their youth; while some youth films are made for people who are no longer young.
"Like the "Fleeting Years" we made before, the audience group is mainly college students and people who have just graduated. This "The Best of Us" is made for people over 25 or 26 years old." Zhu Zhenhua introduced.
At this point, Meng Bai curiously asked why he didn't ask Sohu for investment. With the success of "Fleeting Years", the new project should be easy to pass.
Zhu Zhenhua didn't rush to explain, but asked first: "Mr. Meng, you should have been to Mr. Liu just now. I wonder if he told you the reason for the refusal."
"The plot is bland, the online sense is too poor, the investment is too high, and the cost performance is poor."
"Haha, it turns out that the heads of these video websites have similar ideas, and the reasons given to me by Sohu are the same." Zhu Zhenhua laughed and shook his head and said: "Online dramas are also stories, which are similar to traditional film and television and literature. How come when you change the platform, there is an extra thing like 'online sense'?"
Meng Bai didn't agree with this view. Although the core is the same, there will definitely be differences in the form of expression.
Just like traditional literature and online literature, the latter is destined to have a faster rhythm, more explosive points, and more refreshing plots than the former.
Otherwise, it will be like some third-rate Chinese entertainment writers, writing a story and talking nonsense for a long time. If you don't fail, who will fail?
However, everyone has a different understanding of the plot style. Meng Bai didn't dwell on this point, but asked another question: "I heard that the investment budget for this drama, Mr. Zhu, is 20 million?"
When the budget was mentioned, Zhu Zhenhua's face suddenly showed some embarrassment.
"That's true, but to ensure the quality and let the audience really feel the youthful memories, whether it is the scene layout, machinery and equipment or post-production, it all needs to be arranged." Zhu Zhenhua sighed and said: "This is still on the premise that we don't use those popular traffic stars and try to use more newcomers to save pay."
After saying that, he suddenly remembered that the person sitting opposite him seemed to be a potential investor, and hurriedly said: "If there is a complete production process and production team that can ensure smooth filming, it should be possible to save another two or three million."
I do have a production team, but I'm afraid you don't dare to use it to shoot a youth film.
After thinking for a while, Meng Bai asked, "Do you have the script now?"
Zhu Zhenhua handed over a document, "This is our latest version. Compared with the original, we have added a second male role, and deleted some transitional plots to ensure a faster pace."
"Who is the screenwriter?" Meng Bai asked casually out of his instinct as a colleague.
"Teacher Li Jia." Zhu Zhenhua said, "He is the screenwriter and literary planner of the animated film "Kuiba" two years ago."
Meng Bai has heard of "Kuiba", a domestic animated film of high quality, but unfortunately it did not do well at the box office. After
flipping through the script in his hand, Meng Bai said, "Mr. Zhu, we at Arclight Films mainly deal in suspense themes, so we do want to expand the project type of youth dramas. So, I'll go back and take a look at the script and the original novel, and then we'll get in touch."
"Okay, thank you very much." Zhu Zhenhua thanked him solemnly.
Regardless of whether Meng Bai was being polite or not, at least this was the only good news he had heard during this period of time.
The two shook hands and said goodbye. Before leaving, Meng Bai said, "By the way, your 'Little Tangren Company' has no connection with the 'Tangren Company' in Shanghai, right?"
Zhu Zhenhua was stunned, shook his head and explained, "No, our sugar is the sugar in candy, so we call it Little Tangren. Because the original purpose of establishing this company was to shoot the 'Zhenhua Series', so we used a more youthful name."
Meng Bai nodded. No wonder he immediately turned to other websites to inquire after Souhu refused to invest. It turned out that this was their "original intention".
In the next few days, in addition to checking the post-production progress of "Soul Ferry 2" from time to time, Meng Bai spent the rest of his time reading all three novels in the "Zhenhua Series".
The three novels, "Unrequited Love: Orange Born in Huainan", "The Best of Us" and "Hello, Old Times", are three stories that take place in the same "Zhenhua Middle School" before and after the timeline, and the protagonists of the three books are related to each other, which can be called the "Zhenhua Universe".
Sure enough, the "XX Universe" is really worthless these days.
After reading the three original works and the adapted scripts, Meng Bai had to admit that Mr. Zhu was very discerning. The fun of this kind of fresh style youth campus drama is actually no worse than those "tearing bloody" youth films.
After considering for a few days, Meng Bai contacted Zhu Zhenhua and said that Arclight Film and Television was willing to participate in the investment and co-produce this drama.
However, the investment of 20 million yuan could not be borne by Arclight Film and Television alone, and considering the later publicity and broadcast, a video website must be involved.
Souhu was first excluded. On the Leshi.com side, Meng Bai could rely on his own face to go to Liu Jun to fight for it, but he gave up after thinking about it.
From the perspective of business cooperation, since Liu Jun had refused before, it means that he is not optimistic about this project. If Meng Bai relies on "face recognition" to get investment, on the one hand, it will be difficult for him, and on the other hand, it will be equivalent to owing a big favor.
If the performance is good after the launch, it will be fine, but if the performance is average, it will be a bit sorry for that brother.
From a personal point of view, it was said before that Leshi.com relied on Arclight Film and Television in self-made web dramas, but conversely, Arclight Film and Television also relied too much on Leshi.com.
Because it was just starting out before, it counted as which branch it could grab. But now that Arclight Film and Television has a little foundation, it is necessary to consider long-term development issues.
Meng Bai chose to expand the field of youth themes, and the original intention was to give Arclight Film and Television another development route. In this case, it would be meaningless to choose Leshi.com for cooperation.
Although the cooperation with Leshi.com has been very pleasant so far, he does not want to rely on Leshi.com all the time. Otherwise, if there is any change, Arclight Film and Television will really have no way out.
Therefore, Meng Bai and Zhu Zhenhua discussed and placed their main hopes on the three video websites of "Qiyou Goose".
Of course, this was the decision made in private, but Meng Bai still mentioned it to Liu Jun. He didn't say too much, just said that he also wanted to take advantage of the youth film trend, so he invested.
As he thought, Liu Jun was embarrassed when he heard that Meng Bai had invested, thinking that he was trying to persuade him to participate. It was not until he heard that Zhu Zhenhua was going to contact other websites that he returned to normal.
However, he still reminded Meng Bai that if he really wanted to take advantage of the trend, he should invest less and try it out, and not invest too much and get stuck.
Obviously, Liu Jun was still not optimistic about this project in his heart.
Meng Bai also knew that this brother was kind, but he just had different opinions, so he thanked him seriously, and then turned around and decided on a 40% investment amount with Zhu Zhenhua.
With a budget of 20 million, a 40% investment is 8 million, which is about the same as the funds currently in the account of Arclight Films. If he really went straight for it, Meng Bai would definitely have to face Chen Jing's "Daily Question" again.
Fortunately, this is just a preliminary plan. We have to wait until we convince a video website to invest before we can officially launch the project. Optimistically, it will take at least half a year.
By then, the investment share of "Psychological Crime" will be returned, and the profit share of "Soul Ferry 2" should also be credited. Arclight Pictures will have a lot more funds, and even if they spend 8 million at once, they will not be stretched.
Sorry, everyone, the scheduled release time is wrong.
(End of this chapter)
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