I know not many people like me...
The lights were far away in the south, and in the second headquarters conference room, the atmosphere almost dropped to freezing point.
The thin man in the lead had his arms folded and a sullen look on his face, as if he had sunk completely into the soft leather chair.
If he hadn't sat at the top of the long table, controlling the pace of the meeting, it would have been hard to believe that he was the CEO of Second Voice, Kim Ki-duk.
"The above is a complete review of this year's 'Voice Power' Voice Actor Festival." Yan Dantong's voice was dry. Such a big incident as fans following the car had not only damaged the reputation of the Second Voice, but also caused President Jin to go to the police station twice. As the person in charge of the event, she really could not escape the blame.
"Sister Tong, don't be sad. It's all my fault. It's my fault." Artist coordinator Su Zhuo whispered to comfort her. He knew that taking the blame would cost him his job, but he knew in his heart that informing the performers of the activity schedule and arranging vehicles were his jobs. Even if he was fired, he would be paying for his mistakes and could not blame others.
Yan Dantong shook her head slightly, signaling him not to say anything more.
"Mr. Huang, what do you think?" Mr. Jin asked Huang Yun, the head of the marketing department, with a gloomy face.
Huang Yun shared a spreadsheet on the projection screen: "Overall, venue rental, production costs, and appearance fees for voice actors, singers, and performing arts groups accounted for 86% of the total cost. The event had 3,000 seats, and after deducting 20% for fire safety, 2,281 tickets were actually sold, generating a total revenue of just over 1.8 million yuan. If we exclude offline advertising and online promotional spending, and consider this as a stepping stone to Second Voice's long-term development, the net profit margin for this event is 1%."
"What if we include the publicity and promotion costs?" Mr. Jin asked again.
"It was a losing business, but it earned some publicity." Huang Yun put it simply.
"Even if it's publicity, it's still profit. Show me the media index."
Huang Yun received the order and activated the second backstage, presenting the visual media index to everyone.
Data shows that the search volume across all platforms with keywords such as "Second Voice", "Voice Power", "Voice Actor Festival" and the names of the voice actors and the roles they played has continued to rise. The daily visits to the official website and mobile version of Second Voice have exceeded one million, and the number of related topics on various social platforms has also increased significantly, and the total number of followers has doubled.
From this point of view, the Voice Actor Festival did not bring much direct profit to the Second Voice, but it contributed a lot to popularity, traffic and influence.
"Okay, the review meeting ends here. Product department, prepare the script for the next performance." President Jin changed his tone to a relatively relaxed one. If he didn't mention some things, it would be equivalent to letting bygones be bygones.
"Performance? Offline?!" Chen Yilan, head of the product department, suspected that he was hallucinating.
Chen Yilan, the product department's top producer, is known as the "Iron Lady." Every original audio work produced by Second Voice must meet her stringent production standards before it can be released. Everyone in the company knows that no matter who you are, you must not offend her.
"Do you have any questions?" Mr. Jin sat up straight, his hands spread out on the long table. "Okay, if you have any questions, ask them as soon as possible. The company will do its best to help you solve them."
Huang Yun's statistics aren't deceptive. These days, unless you have a financial backer, offline performances are only profitable. Furthermore, offline performances for Chinese dubbing are still immature, and audience spending habits haven't been cultivated. Currently, only die-hard fans of the dubbing artists are willing to pay for them without a second thought.
"How long should we reserve for the production cycle and publicity cycle respectively? Will the performance be held at the end of the year or next year?" Chen Yilan and Huang Yun asked at the same time.
"It's better to hurry than to miss the opportunity. Three months, the summer vacation." President Jin raised three fingers.
"Three months..." Chen Yilan wondered if her boss, besides being incredibly wealthy, was also mentally challenged. "Putting everything else aside, don't you understand how valuable summer slots are for theaters in Dengyuan? The National Exhibition and Convention Center, with its 3,000-seat capacity, isn't profitable, and a smaller theater with 700 or 800 seats isn't even worth your attention. I don't think we can get even a single day of free time during the summer, not to mention the time we have to reserve for stage set-up and rehearsal."
"You guys focus on the content, and I'll take care of the schedule." President Jin said proudly.
The theater schedule can be arranged, but what about the voice actors' schedule?
It is a consensus in the industry that dubbing teachers should be invited at least six months in advance unless they are particularly indifferent.
Three months from now, in order to maximize ticket sales for the summer season, you have to choose a weekend, right? So the options for dates are even more limited.
Everyone continued to discuss the details of the work arrangements, and no one paid attention to the ideas of Su Zhuo, the artist coordinator, who was sitting in the corner.
He thought that President Jin only looked at the traffic data and hastily decided on the plan for the next voice actor stage, but the boss might not know where these data came from.
Online, fans were raging with criticism. Besides the shock of Mr. An being trapped in the car, there was also negative feedback about issues like poor visibility for mid-priced tickets, the unfulfilled promised autographs, poorly designed materials, and long lines. He was new to the job, unknown to others, but it was Sister Tong, the hardest-working and most responsible, who took the brunt of the criticism.
In this situation, it is too stressful for everyone to rush to organize the next one.
He was really uneasy.
"Su Zhuo," the receptionist knocked on the conference room door, "Teacher Wen Zichuan is here, he wants to see you."
"Oh, okay, I'll be there right away." Su Zhuo's thoughts were interrupted.
Wen Zichuan was invited into the small lounge area outside the meeting room. He couldn't help but sigh again at the wealth of the Second Sheng's family. The entire office area occupied an entire floor. Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows was a high-definition city skyline. The conference room next to it was also separated by a glass curtain wall. It not only cleverly utilized the space, but also made it appear spacious and transparent, unlike the studio rented by Yaya Yiyu, which always made people feel cramped and depressed.
"Teacher Wen, you're here." Su Zhuo sat opposite him and smiled at him.
"Well, thank you for helping me collect the boxes. Also," Wen Zichuan opened a courier box, "I also brought the costumes for the performance and will return them to you."
Although it was just an ordinary express box, it was flat and clean, and had obviously been well preserved. The costumes inside had been washed and ironed, and were neatly folded, which gave it an inexplicable sense of earnest cuteness.
Su Zhuo had been tormented by the negative comments online for a long time. After meeting Wen Zichuan, the feeling of being blocked in his heart seemed to be relieved a lot.
"Teacher Wen, our costumes are not recyclable. I'll leave them to you as a souvenir."
"Oh, really? Is that true for everyone?"
"Yes, you might not have noticed. Teacher Xia Man took his piece and asked all the participating teachers to sign it one by one. After taking it home, he took a photo and posted it on Weibo. His fans were so envious and said he was a winner in life who collected autographs like a philatelist."
Wen Zichuan's expression dimmed. He didn't notice it because Teacher Xia Man didn't ask him to sign.
Of course, there is nothing to worry about. After all, he was not feeling well at the time and hid in the safe passage. Teacher Xia Man couldn't go looking for him specifically.
Su Zhuo realized that he might have said something wrong and quickly asked again: "Teacher Wen, I saw that you didn't look very well on the day of the performance. Were you feeling unwell? Are you feeling better now?"
Wen Zichuan smiled and said, "Much better, thank you."
Su Zhuo felt a little embarrassed: "That's good. Hey, it's my fault for not taking good care of you."
Wen Zichuan could tell that Su Zhuo looked like a newbie in the workplace. He was warm and kind, but his influence was insignificant, and probably no one would take him seriously. He must have felt guilty about the voice actor's mishap, and that "you" included both himself and Teacher An Jie, who deserved the most care.
"By the way, what happened that day?" Wen Zichuan asked casually.
"I don't know. It's very strange." Su Zhuo's brows, which had just relaxed, furrowed again. "Teacher An's car was restricted that day, so President Jin asked us to arrange for someone to pick it up. As a sign of respect, we used President Jin's full-time driver. That driver has been with President Jin for quite a while. Not to mention that I sent him a message and called him in advance to inform him to use the VIP channel for pick-up and drop-off. Even if I didn't tell him, he should have known who was in the car and wouldn't have made such a low-level mistake."
"Did you look for him afterwards?"
"I've looked for him, but he said he didn't receive any notification."
"You didn't show the chat records to confront me?"
"I showed Sister Tong the message I sent, but nothing happened after that."
Speaking of this, Wen Zichuan could probably guess something.
In private companies, full-time drivers follow their bosses around and often know a lot that others don't. While the Anjie incident was a major fuss, it wasn't a serious legal battle, so Mr. Jin probably wouldn't have his driver pull out his phone for a public confrontation just to clear Su Zhuo's name.
This has always been the case in the workplace. It was Mr. Jin's decision not to pursue the matter or impose punishment.
"I believe you." Wen Zichuan said to Su Zhuo.
"Really, Teacher Wen?" Su Zhuo's eyes lit up.
"Yeah." Wen Zichuan nodded.
Trust between people is mutual. He is not famous and often encounters discrimination when performing on the same stage with big names, but Su Zhuo has never neglected him. Instead, he has given him the same respect and care.
On the other side of the glass curtain wall, the meeting was still going on, and when the debate got heated, it could be heard even in the lounge area.
Wen Zichuan thought that his sudden visit might affect their work, so he said, "The teacher at the front desk helped me take the box. I don't have anything else to do, so I'll leave first."
"Okay." Su Zhuo stood up, "I'll take you there."
Wen Zichuan also stood up. From his angle, he could just see the projection screen in the conference room. The theme of that page was "Commercial Value and Profit Conversion Statistical List". Below it were the voice actors who had worked with Di Ersheng, arranged from high to low according to the data.
Everyone on the list is like a commodity waiting to be sold, waiting to be judged and chosen.
Surprisingly, he saw himself, the last one in the last row.
"What's wrong, Teacher Wen?" Su Zhuo noticed that he paused.
"It's okay, no need to see me off." Wen Zichuan smiled gently and left the second voice.
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