China Entertainment 1997

Still in [Flying on the Grass], Cao Xuan met Li Yuan and Qian Yanqiu again.

In fact, before this, Cao Xuan roughly knew the bottom line of Qin Shengtai through Qian Yanqiu.

In principle, Qin Provincial Taiwan is willing to sell this project, but it would be best if it could retain a certain share.

This way you don’t have to invest too much, and it doesn’t matter if you lose money. If it becomes popular, even if you don’t make any money, it will still be Qin Shengtai’s achievement.

Seeing this, Cao Xuan simply came up with a cooperation plan acceptable to both parties.

Fanxing contributed all the investment, occupying more than 80% of the share of "Journey to the West" and the absolute dominance of the crew.

Qin Provincial Station does not have to pay a penny, but it has to provide some professional behind-the-scenes personnel, venues and various channels. Qin Provincial Station is also responsible for liaison, accounting for 20% of the share.

To put it bluntly, Cao Xuan spent money, Qin Shengtai provided resources, "Journey to the West" made money, and the two families split the accounts 80-80.

Qin Provincial Station must have made money. It just borrowed the resources of the TV station. Fanxing was still responsible for the related expenses, so it got 20% of the profit in vain.

Cao Xuan is not at a loss. If he is allowed to handle these channels by himself, the money will not be spent less, and the effect may not be good. It is better to cooperate directly with Qin Shengtai.

Not to mention, if we can take the opportunity to make good relations with Qin Province and Taiwan this time, it will also be good for Fanxing's future development.

Cao Xuan's proposal has been recognized by Qin Provincial Station, and relevant leaders will be sent to the capital to sign the contract.

Li Yuan and Qian Yanqiu were even more delighted.

The former is happy that his director has been retained. Although he has to hand over the power, he finally did not follow this project for so long. The latter is excited that, according to the previous agreement, he can take over after Fanxing takes charge of the crew.

Cao Xuan also kept his previous promise.

After negotiations, Cao Xuan, who basically got the control of "Journey to the West", immediately promoted Qian Yanqiu to the position of director.

In addition, Cao Xuan added another director, his favorite MV director Chen Hanzhu.

Although Lao Chen has not signed with Fanxing yet, he has been with Cao Xuan for so long and is considered half of his own. Cao Xuan still trusts him.

Most of the crew of "The Continuation of Journey to the West" are from Qin Provincial Television, so Fanxing will definitely have someone to keep an eye on them.

Cao Xuan himself has no time, and Jiang Yue is not familiar with film and television production. Generally speaking, Chen Hanzhu is the most suitable person for Cao Xuan.

Moreover, as Chen Hanzhu is the director, it is also convenient for Cao Xuan to control "Journey to the West" at any time.

Don't get me wrong, Cao Xuan is not Principal Chang. He has no intention of micro-managing and will not interfere with the director's actual shooting, but he cannot sit back and take things easy.

For example, weird tricks like shaking the camera to take pictures, avoid them if you can, and just stick to normal shooting mode.

The script is for 20 episodes, and Cao Xuan personally hopes to write more. This is not a difficult task for the screenwriter.

In the original time and space, Qian Yanqiu took advantage of Shi Gandang's "Journey to the West" and filmed 45 episodes directly.

Cao Xuan did not ask for more writing. After all, too much water was poured in, which slowed down the rhythm of the plot. However, if some details are appropriately fleshed out, it will have little impact on the overall quality, and it may even have a beneficial effect.

The number of episodes of major TV series is too small, and not only can they not be sold at high prices, the key point is that many TV stations are unwilling to accept them.

Therefore, Cao Xuan would rather add more costs for this, and also hopes that Qian Yanqiu will expand the script, not to mention the original 30 episodes, but at least 25 episodes.

In this way, the senior team of "Journey to the West" has been established.

Cao Xuan and the relevant leaders of Qin Shengtai are the producers, and Cao Xuan also serves as the producer.

This producer is mainly a nominal producer, and Cao Xuan doesn't have much time to follow the crew. Again, as long as the crew does not exceed his expectations, he will not easily interfere.

In addition, Li Yuan serves as the chief director, the two co-directors are screenwriters Qian Yanqiu and Chen Hanzhu, and Fanxing deputy general manager Jiang Yue is temporarily named as the producer.

During this period, Cao Xuan tried to see if he could find a professional counterpart to take over. If he couldn't find one, he asked Li Yuan and Chen Hanzhu to jointly serve as producers.

The producer also reminded Cao Xuan of this incident.

If Fanxing wants to enter film and television, the two creative cores of director and screenwriter are indeed important, but the core producer behind the scenes who is familiar with the entire film and television production process and leads from early preparation to post-release is also key.

In the future, Fanxing will really have to find ways to recruit or train some producers who can work independently.

Cao Xuan, who holds the leadership of the crew, called Chen Hanzhu to hold a meeting with the crew of "Journey to the West".

Chen Hanzhu had received the letter and phone call before and rushed to [Flying on the Grass] without stopping.

I briefly met Li Yuan and Qian Yanqiu, exchanged a few words with Jiang Yue, and then sat on the right side of Cao Xuan, acting like I am a die-hard loyalist to Boss Cao.

Everyone had arrived, and Cao Xuan briefly talked about the crew's preparations.

Qian Yanqiu is responsible for script creation and producing the 25-episode script as soon as possible, while Li Principle is responsible for the crew structure, location selection and other tasks.

In fact, the crew of "Journey to the West" has already started working on this part before, and the filming locations were all in Qin Province.

Now that Cao Xuan has taken over, he has no intention of changing it. After all, it has the relationship with Qin Province and Taiwan, so it will be in vain if it is not used.

As for the last Chen Hanzhu, he is mainly responsible for the casting work of the "Journey to the West" crew.

Of course, the other two directors also have the right to make recommendations for casting, and Chen Hanzhu is also responsible for the other two directors.

Playing is a multi-party check and balance.

There are advantages and disadvantages to doing this, but considering that Fanxing's current foundation is too weak and his foundation in the circle is not deep, Cao Xuan personally feels that this method is safer.

Cao Xuan doesn't know much about crew construction and location selection, so he doesn't provide guidance, but he still has some say in scripts and casting.

Especially for the latter, with the original version there, Cao Xuan's vision for casting is definitely more accurate than Chen Hanzhu's in finding a needle in a haystack.

Cao Xuan didn't care too much and only paid attention to a few important characters.

The first protagonist in the play defeated the Buddha Sun Wukong in a battle. Without Cao Rong, he focused on the Sixth Teacher.

Cao Xuan has no feelings for Teacher Six, but as a monkey, he is really the best in the industry.

What's more important is that the sixth teacher was invited to play the role of fighting against the Buddha. It was a hit and publicity, and the TV station was willing to buy it.

The difficulty is that the crew had invited Teacher Six before, and the discussion was going well, but the other party later refused to act, saying that his wife did not agree.

What Cao Xuan meant was to add a certain amount of remuneration to see if he could make Teacher Six blossom again.

If that doesn't work, we'll use plan B and hire Ding Jian, Teacher Six's stand-in in "Journey to the West" and the actor who plays the six-eared macaque.

Ding Jian was a Peking Opera actor and was good at monkey opera. It is said that during the filming of "Journey to the West: The Continued", director Yang Jie once wanted to use him to replace Teacher Six.

But Teacher Six's performance was so classic and so famous that many people disagreed and eventually gave up.

Ding Jian later played the role of Sun Wukong in "Lotus Lantern" and "Magic Phone", and his performance was recognized by the industry and the audience. He is regarded as the actor with the best reputation as the Sun Wukong after the Sixth Teacher.

In terms of performance, there is not much difference between the two. Teacher Liu is better in acting skills, while Ding Jiansheng can perform well at a young age.

But Teacher Six is ​​famous and can help "Journey to the West" sell at a higher price. For this reason alone, Ding Jian's priority will be lower.

The main villain Wu Tian, ​​this Cao Xuan almost didn’t hesitate and decided on the original version of Heizi.

Heizi almost brought the fictional character Wutian to life, so much so that many people thought there really was such a god in mythology.

With good quality and high cost-effectiveness, Cao Xuan will naturally not change people.

For the role of Tang Monk, if possible, Cao Xuan would like to invite Zhao Wenzhuo to do a series of funerals for the mighty dragon Tang San.

However, Zhao Wenzhuo is now very popular and can make a name for himself in Hong Kong circles. The salary is not that expensive, so he can only settle for the next best thing.

The original Huang Haibin and old friend Ren Quan are both good choices, and they can even be packaged directly, one is Tang Monk and the other is Qiao Ling'er.

Ren Quan is not expensive at the moment. After "Young Bao Qingtian" is broadcast, his reputation will increase greatly, and the price of "Journey to the West" will increase accordingly.

Boss Cao feels that he is becoming more and more of a profiteer now.

The other characters are all supporting roles, so Cao Xuan doesn't have to worry about it. At most, there is one more role left for Hu Jing, the first sister of Fanxing. Zeng Li can also make a cameo, playing Guanyin or something.