China Entertainment started from Nortel 96

Chapter 71 Investment in "Party A and Party B"

Author: Knight Confused 2023

Chapter 71 Investment in "Party A and Party B"

After greeting the crew, Qi Wei and Gao Yuanyuan flew back to the capital the next day.

Gao Yuanyuan has just learned to walk like a duck and is a little uncomfortable with it.

Qi Wei bought her a suite near Gao Yuanyuan's school, and thoughtfully "taken care of" her day and night while she was "recuperating."

The next day Qi Wei returned to his company to handle things.

The first thing is about the film and television company. The previous consultation with Ge You has come to fruition.

In a living room of a high-end hotel, Qi Wei and Ge You were waiting for the distinguished guests to arrive and started chatting freely.

""Kou Lao Xi'er" is originally a costume comedy based on "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo". Since it is a comedy, who can compare with you, Uncle Ge?

Some people say this is not serious? Not being serious is the characteristic of this drama! This is a drama, but those old timers have watched too many serious dramas and are not used to it. The ratings prove the success of this drama."

Qi Wei consoled him.

In early November, while Qi Wei was filming on the set of "Love", the drama "Kou Laoxi'er" was broadcast on Beijing TV Station.

After this drama was aired, the ratings were gratifying, and it won the 1997 ratings crown of Beijing TV Station.

Qi Wei has become very popular during this period, and the crew also regarded Qi Wei as one of the selling points when promoting it. Qi Wei also mentioned this drama many times in interviews to promote the drama, which attracted Qi Wei a lot.

Fans watch.

For the episodes with Qi Wei's scenes, the ratings did increase significantly.

For newcomers, Qi Wei's performance in the drama is quite satisfactory, with no bright spots and no shortcomings.

But Qi Wei played a supporting role without much role, so this drama did not increase Qi Wei's reputation.

The focus is not on Qi Wei. The sky is falling and the taller ones are holding on.

The key to the success of this drama lies in Ge You.

But at the same time Ge You was also scolded miserably.

The reason is very simple. In fact, Guyun's down-to-earth image of a common citizen is completely inconsistent with the character of his generation in people's minds.

Liu Luoguo and Kou Laoxi'er were both prime ministers, but one was in the Qing Dynasty when Han officials were slaves, and the other was in the Song Dynasty when the scholar-bureaucrats shared the world. Can they be the same?

At this time, people were watching more serious dramas. When many people saw Ge You playing Kou Lao Xi'er, they felt as if the actor who played Wu Dalang had played Wu Song.

Even Ge You's old father didn't buy it and sprayed him hard.

Ge You also thought that his acting was a failure, and he has never acted in a TV series since then, and has basically never played similar roles.

"You are quite good at comforting people, but the old antique you mentioned also includes my father." Ge You replied with a smile.

"You are now Uncle Ge, and your father is even older. I am not trying to comfort you. I am speaking out for justice and expressing our young opinions."

I watched "Kou Laoxi'er" in Qiwei, and aside from its shortcomings such as poor camera shooting and shoddy production, it was a completely good drama.

It's true.

"There is indeed a generation gap between young people and us, haha!"

Ge You didn't mind at all and laughed loudly.

Personal relationships need to be maintained.

After finishing filming "Kou Laoxi'er" and leaving the crew, Qi Wei kept in touch with Ge You and others.

Once you have maintained your personal connections, you will be able to demonstrate your own value inadvertently.

Just like it is now.

The two chatted for a while, and soon the waiting VIPs arrived.

Qi Wei and Ge You quickly stood up, and Ge You quickly helped introduce each other.

"This is Mr. Han Sanye, the director of Beijing Film Studio," then he pointed at the man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks behind him and said, "This is Feng Xiaoan, the director of "Party A and Party B"."

Then he pointed at Qi Wei and introduced: "This is Qi Wei, the king of pop music in mainland China. He releases a record and sells it out, although he is still a student at Nortel."

"Uncle Ge, please stop teasing me. Nice to meet you two." Qi Wei said with a smile and shook hands with the other party respectfully.

Feng Xiaoan acted like a minion at this time, licking his smile and taking the initiative to help Han Sanping push off the bench, and the two parties sat down to talk.

Han Sanjing said: "You must be Qi Wei, you are a good young man. I just read in the newspaper and heard that your solo album "Nineteen Years Old" sold more than 4 million copies. I listened to your song specially. Your

That song "Autumn Will Not Come Back" is very good."

"Me too!" Feng Xiaoan agreed.

As expected of someone who has explored mainland commercial films together, he is still very down-to-earth.

What I like is this kind of "vulgar" song.

"Damn it! Why didn't I send you two records?"

Qi Wei quickly took out a set of exquisite albums and records from his bag, including DVDs, CDs, vinyl and tapes.

"I hope it's not too late. I hope you two can accept it. If I release another record in the future, I will definitely send it to you as soon as possible."

Qi Wei explained with a smile: "The newspapers and news are all exaggerated. How can I sell so many albums? I just sold two million copies."

Hearing Qi Wei's acknowledgment of Versailles, Feng Xiaoan felt a little incredible and said in shock: "It has only been half a year since your album was released, and it has sold two million? This is an exaggeration, isn't it..."

Seeing Qi Wei smiling and nodding, Han Sanping then looked at Qi Wei squarely.

If I had known that singers make a lot of money, selling so many records means that Qi Wei has made a lot of money, and he must be able to make money. This time, it will not be in vain.

"Speaking of which, my album sold so well this time, thanks to Mr. Han's help," Qi Wei complimented with a smile.

Han Sanping smiled and asked, "What does this have to do with me?"

Qi Wei smiled and explained: "The reason why my album is a big seller this time is because I regard the MV as a selling point. The MV can be shot well thanks to good machines. The machines used for shooting the MV are all from your Beijing Film Studio."

We borrowed it. We had limited funds for filming at that time, and Beijing Film Studio only took a token amount of money. This is a big help from you."

This was a compliment from Qi Wei. In fact, the machines that Wu Ershan helped rent from the Beijing Film Studio were charged at normal prices, no less than they should have been.

"It turns out that we still have such a connection. It seems that we are destined."

Han Sanping nodded, still smiling and asking straight to the point: "I heard from Ge You that you want to invest in "Party A and Party B"?"

"Party A and Party B" is a film project led by Beijing Film Studio led by Han Sanping. In this movie, Beijing Film Studio invested one million, and Forbidden City Pictures also invested part of it.

The rest was an investment from a dealer who traded cans for airplanes.

And this guy was a big talker who wanted to blow up the Himalayas. He promised to invest 360,000 US dollars in this movie, which is almost 3 million. But something went wrong and only 800,000 was received in the end.

And this leaves a gap of more than two million.

This posed a big problem for Han Sanjing.

Before the film reform started in 1992, the policy of "unified purchase and sales" of films was still implemented.

At that time, only the major film studios in the mainland had film production rights, and distribution and screening were managed by other government units.

Major film studios do not have distribution rights, which means they do not have to face market pressure. They only need to produce movies according to targets and then sell the copies to the corresponding distributors.

Without market pressure, there was no need to cater to the tastes of the audience. The films produced by film practitioners at that time were almost all artistic films with a personal style and rarely had commercial attributes.

Movies that are separated from the audience will naturally not be bought by the audience. Coupled with the competition brought about by the gradual popularization of televisions and the enrichment of entertainment life, the box office and the number of moviegoers have plummeted.

In 1993, the film market began to reform and distribution rights were decentralized. Major film studios had to rely on their own distribution. Without distribution guarantees, mainland filmmakers who were still in their comfort zone and had not yet reacted had to pay compensation for almost every film they made.

.

The cost of the film remained high, and in the end, even if it was lost, it could not meet the annual production quota, and it still needed to sell the quota to complete the task.

How serious is this situation? Let’s take Han San Ping’s Beijing Film Studio as an example.

When Han Sanping took over the Beijing Film Studio, the situation was like this: there were nearly 3,000 employees, and the balance sheet was only 270,000 at the most difficult time, but the medical expenses reimbursed to the employees every month was 400,000.

The annual national allocation is 5 million, but the funds required to complete the filming tasks are about 70 to 80 million.

This gap is not that bad.

In order to make up for this gap, he took the directors of Beijing Film Studio to "make money" and "beg for alms" everywhere.

He used various social connections to find money. He often waited for the boss to sign the contract in the guest house. Sometimes he would wait until midnight and hear the boss come back from drinking, and he would immediately run to sign the contract.

In order to raise money, he even hired someone to make "cassette tapes" for 50,000 to 60,000 yuan per film. The filming was completed in one week, and he could earn more than 4 million yuan a year.

But in fact, this kind of "cassette" is just a side project, a little violent, and soft-hearted.

This is the case not just for Beijing Film Studio, but for almost every film studio in the mainland. It is not easy to raise money, which also makes every film project have a strict shooting plan and budget.

The one million invested by Beijing Film Studio was squeezed out through frugality. Suddenly, the money was so short, and Beijing Film Studio couldn't get the money out for a while.

As for looking for outside investment

Don't be kidding, you can hear a sound when you put money into water, but you can't even hear a sound when investing in movies. Not many people are willing to get involved in the muddy waters of movies.

What's more, "Party A and Party B" is an experimental commercial film with a risky nature.

You must know that "Party A and Party B" is not a theme movie like "Kong Fansen" produced by Beijing Film Studio last year. There is no private theater within the government agencies and schools, so it has to rely entirely on the audience to watch it to support the box office.

Will this achieve high box office numbers?

If you are perfunctory and do not cater to the audience's taste, then the audience will naturally vote with their feet. At this time, mainland audiences do not like to watch mainland movies.

That being the case, why not make another movie with a theme similar to "Kong Fansen" like last year?

It’s true that today’s audiences have become fatigued after watching too many main themes. If there is no audience to watch, it is impossible to achieve the high box office of “Kong Fansen” just by booking the show.

And now, not many people in the industry are optimistic about the movie "Party A, Party B", let alone outsiders.

This can be seen from the chat with Ge You. He adopts a fixed salary instead of a split account model because he is not very optimistic about it.

When I learned that Qi Wei was willing to invest in "Party A and Party B", I also advised Qi Wei to think twice before committing.

Finally, when Qi Wei was firm, Ge You agreed to help bridge the gap.

Qi Wei smiled and replied: "Yes, I would like to invest in this movie."

Han Sanping said solemnly: "You must have learned about the situation from Ge You. There is still a funding gap for this film, but now I want to know if you really want to invest. I don't want people to say that I am.

Get coaxed into investing from a lay kid who doesn’t understand movies.”

Qi Wei shook his head and replied seriously: "The third master is wrong. I am a student of Nortel and a film and television person. I am not an outsider. I chose to go to Nortel to study instead of going to the Conservatory of Music. This shows that

I prefer film and television to music. I become a singer and make records to make money, and to prepare for my future film and television career."

"It would be very sad if your fans knew what you said." Han Sanping laughed.

"The truth will hurt people, but I choose to tell the truth. I am dissatisfied with what you said. Not long after the album "Nineteen Years Old" became a hit, I registered and established a film and television company. I have already invested in the TV series "Love"

Of course, when it comes to investing in film and television dramas, I would rather invest in movies. It doesn’t matter if I lose money, just treat it as if I stumbled when I learned to walk and just pay some tuition, and "Party A and Party B" may not necessarily lose money."

"Oh?" Han Sanping was a little surprised, "Are you so optimistic about this movie? Has Ge You talked to you?"

"That's not true, but I'm optimistic about Uncle Ge. The movies he makes will definitely not make a loss. I have always regarded him as a guiding light."

Qi Wei took the opportunity to sell Ge You a good deal.

Ge You laughed knowingly and said, "You kid, please stop complimenting me. The movie "Qin Song" I filmed last year screwed up investors."

"Crimes other than war are not human fault. I really like this movie you made!"

When talking about the movie "Song of Qin", Qi Wei thought of Princess Yueyang in it, who is really charming.

If possible, Qi Wei really wants to taste the moist taste.

Qi Wei's thoughts were instantly brought back, and he continued: "Besides, isn't the movie "Qin Song" starring Jiang Wen? What does the box office failure have to do with you as a supporting actor?"

"You're saying that the reason why this movie was so popular was because of Jiang Wen?"

"Isn't it?"

"Jiang Wen is my brother and close friend. Aren't you afraid that I will say bad things about you in front of him? He has a bad temper."

"Am I not your brother, your closest relative or your best friend? If not, I'll pay more."

"I'm just waiting for your words..."

Han Sanping smiled and watched Qi Wei and Ge You joking with each other and saying polite words to liven up the atmosphere, and the smile on his face became even brighter.

He asked Qi Wei: "In that case, I won't stop it. The film "Party A and Party B" currently has a funding gap of about one million. How much are you prepared to invest?"

Qi Wei smiled and stretched out one finger first, and then five fingers.

Han Sanping nodded with satisfaction, "Half a million is a lot. I'll find a solution for the rest elsewhere."

"I'm talking about 1.5 million. I'm going to invest 1.5 million." Qi Wei smiled, shook his head and stretched out a finger of his other hand.

This move shocked everyone present. Han Sanping didn't know whether Qi Wei was confident or ignorant and fearless. He thought Qi Wei was ignorant and fearless, so he kindly reminded:

"This movie needs at most one million to complete, but it doesn't need this much."

Qi Wei smiled and explained: "If this movie is a big hit, the distribution fee prepared by Master Han may not be enough. This 1.5 million is not too much. If there is any leftover, you can help me invest in other projects."

"I am a newbie, like a headless fly when I first come here. I believe in Han Sanping's vision."

"Then you have a heart."

Qi Wei was so good. Han Sanping became more and more satisfied the more he watched, but he said with a little regret: "The filming of this movie is almost finished, and there are only a few reshoots and post-production left. Otherwise, I can arrange it for you."

You are a character. I watched the drama "Kou Lao Xi'er" and your performance was still very good."

"Thank you for the compliment from Master Han. This is what Uncle Ge taught me well. I invested in this movie, not just for the role. Besides, your movie is going to be released during the Lunar New Year, and I don't have time to shoot it."

"Oh? Are you planning to release a new album?" Han Sanping asked curiously.

"No, the new record is planned to be produced and released early next year. I have taken over a movie and will be joining the cast in two days."

"What movie?"

""Love in the Internet Age"."

"Then you perform well and I look forward to cooperating with you in the future."

"Me too." Feng Xiaoan followed.

Han Sanping was thinking in his mind. He had received the investment from Qi Wei in the nick of time, and he was thinking about how to repay the favor.

Qi Wei happily reached an investment in "Party A and Party B" with Han Sanping.

(End of chapter)