Rebirth of the Wild Age

Sohu's current two CEOs actually have a very clear division of labor. Gu Yong will be in charge of the internal affairs, and Zhang Chaoyang will be in charge of the external affairs.

Zhang Chaoyang is responsible for attending awards ceremonies, nationwide promotional tours, holding press conferences, representing Sohu in industry summits, and receiving leaders at all levels who come to inspect. Even if Sohu's subsidiary company is to be spun off to go public in the future, the IPO road show will let Zhang Chaoyang run.

Anyway, Zhang Chaoyang likes to show off and love to play, so let him play and show off enough, he will be a living sign of Sohu in the future.

Make the best use of it, use it perfectly!

Zhang Chaoyang quickly adapted to his new role, and took the initiative to take over the task of purchasing the copyright of film and television dramas. This job seems to be running errands, but Zhang Chaoyang enjoys it because he can deal with many powerful people in the entertainment industry. When negotiating a film purchase agreement, it is simply a common thing to invite two actresses to accompany them to eat and cooperate.

The Chinese entertainment circle is roughly divided into the following factions: the Beijing circle (the Renyi School, the Beijing Film School, and the Beijing circle in a narrow sense), the Northwest circle, the Northeast circle, the Shanghai circle, the Hong Kong circle, and the Taiwan circle. It is a rival to the Beijing circle, but it has gradually become cold in the new century.

Under Jiang Wen's recommendation, Zhang Chaoyang quickly established relationships in the Beijing circle.

For CCTV's TV drama production center alone, Sohu Video bought more than 400 TV dramas, about 4,000 episodes. Some TV series last for 70 or 80 episodes, while some TV series only have a few episodes, some only shoot one or two episodes, and many of them have not even been broadcast publicly.

Regardless of whether the filming was finished or broadcast, Sohu bought it all in one package. The total cost was 1.6 million yuan, with an average price of 400 yuan per episode. These include old versions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, Journey to the West and A Dream of Red Mansions.

In addition, some privately-produced film and television dramas that have not been screened or broadcast have been won by Sohu at almost this price. For example, the companies of Chen Xiaoer and Xiaogangpao made some films that failed to pass the review, and they were packaged and sold among good films. On average, each episode even cost less than 300 yuan, and the price of each film was less than 6,000 yuan.

After sweeping the Beijing circle, Zhang Chaoyang was introduced to the northwest circle by Jiang Wen.

Most of the productions in the northwest circle are literary films, so it is also called the "award-winning circle". In fact, many companies in this circle are located in the capital.

The videos of Lao Mouzi, Gu Yingying, Jia Kechang and others were swept away by Sohu Video. Some of these films are very expensive, each costing 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, such as "Hero"; but most of them are very cheap, and you can buy a niche literary film for 2,000 to 3,000 yuan.

Generally speaking, the closer the production time is, the more refined the production level is, and the higher the purchase price will be.

Various local film studios were also taken away by Zhang Chaoyang, and many high-quality products were packaged and bought by Sohu. Take "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" as an example. You can buy an exclusive online copyright for 10,000 yuan, and it is a high-definition copy produced by Japan. It is not a bargain!

Sohu Video plans to implement a dual-track system of free and fee, and netizens can watch all movies for free, but the pictures of these movies are very blurry. It's not that Sohu videos are disgusting, but that the quality of old movies is just that way, and the conversion to high-definition images requires too high a network speed.

However, netizens can also recharge to become a VIP member, and with the help of video caching technology, they can enjoy the pleasure of watching movies brought by high-definition picture quality.

And Sohu Video also promises to major film and television companies that 20% of the profit from the on-demand fees generated by VIP members watching the high-definition version will be distributed to the producer and will be valid forever!

High-definition conversion of film and television dramas is hard work, anyway, a little bit, Sohu Video will launch a high-definition film and television area. Classic literary films like "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog" or Chinese-language blockbusters like "Heroes" must be given priority.

The current Chinese film industry is miserable, and Sohu Video can be considered as an increase in income for the producers.

Take "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" as an example. It won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Film and Best Actor that year. As a result, a single copy was not sold in China, and it could not be released in theaters at all. In the end, it could only be sold to the CCTV movie channel. Fill library.

Fortunately, a Japanese distributor came to China to participate in an event, saw this film by chance, and then bought the overseas distribution rights to get it back to Japan for release. "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" has been screened in Japan for a year, and the box office has sold 350 million yen (more than 20 million yuan) in more than 10 screening halls. The Japanese side also bought the copyright of the original author of the novel, created a collection of short stories, sold the book with the help of the movie, and reprinted it five times within a year.

The Japanese earn a lot of money, because the copyright fees are negligibly low, whether it is a movie or a novel.

The funniest thing is that after the film became popular in Japan, it also became popular in China when it was exported to domestic sales. After winning glory for the country, the CCTV movie channel immediately broadcast it repeatedly, schools and other government agencies also organized viewing of the movie, and various film seminars were held, but these have nothing to do with the producer.

Investors are bleeding!

Even after two or three years, online movie viewing will become very popular. A low-budget movie can be sold to a video website for only about 10,000 yuan (non-exclusive), and only two or three websites are willing to pay for the genuine version.

The TV drama industry is not much better. At present, about two-fifths of the TV dramas produced every year cannot be broadcast, and they are thrown into the warehouse to collect dust after filming. No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. These TV dramas are packaged and sold to Sohu. Even if they can only be sold for one or two hundred yuan per episode, the total cost is tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. The production company is very happy, waste recycling.

Zhang Chaoyang only spent more than 8 million yuan to fill up the copyright library of Sohu Video, but tired the technicians and editors like dogs.

And Zhang Chaoyang was also very happy. After running across the country for two months, he made friends with the bosses and producers of many film and television companies, and also met many entertainment stars. Well, Mr. Zhang had a great time, and even accompanied a female star to participate in the awards ceremony at the end of the year.

When he returned to Shenghai again, Zhang Chaoyang had no complaints and seemed to be enjoying his current life very much. He is still the CEO of Sohu outside. Although the news has been leaked, everyone thinks that he took the initiative to promote General Gu Yong, similar to Duan Yongping and Wang Shitou.

What's more, Zhang Chaoyang's shares have increased by 1%, and he is having more fun than before.

"This time I met a lot of bosses of film and television companies, among which the boss of Hairun is the most interesting," Zhang Chaoyang said with a smile, smoking a cigarette, "This man is a real Confucian businessman, a cultural businessman, and I get along very well with him."

Song Weiyang nodded and said, "Haiyan is really powerful."

Zhang Chaoyang added: "I think Sohu can set up a film and television company to invest in film and television dramas, and I will be in charge of it in the future. General Gu Yong also supports this idea. He originally wanted to be in the film and television entertainment industry, and invested in it before joining Sohu." film and television projects."

"Yes." Song Weiyang smiled. He recognized Zhang Chaoyang's vision in this aspect. Sohu Video did invest in some hits, at least it was much more reliable than Ma Xiaoyun's filmmaking.

"Then it's settled. I'll set up a film and television investment company when I go back," Zhang Chaoyang said happily. "Now I'm optimistic about one film. I think it's worth investing in."

"What movie?" Song Weiyang asked.

"The name is "Bright Sword", which is an adaptation of a novel," Zhang Chaoyang said. "When I met Haiyan, he was eager to attract investment, and he recommended the original novel to me. The novel is well written, it is an adaptation The difficulty is a bit high, if it were last year, it would definitely not be able to pass the trial."

Song Weiyang asked: "How can I pass the trial this year?"

Zhang Chaoyang said with a smile: "To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victory against Fascism, as long as war movies don't mess around, they are all green lights."

In fact, as early as 2001, the copyright of "Bright Sword" was bought by two companies successively. However, it was too difficult to change the script, and it could not pass the review, so the two companies gave up. Just at the beginning of this year, police dramas were suddenly not allowed to be broadcast in prime time, so TV drama companies looked for new dramas, and war movies and spy dramas became the first choice.

The investment budget of "Bright Sword" is as high as 16 million yuan, which is an absolute big deal. Due to the high production cost, after the project was approved, Hairun found several other companies to invest in, but only three companies were willing to try, because the film would be cut off by the reviewers if they didn't pay attention.

When Zhang Chaoyang was drinking with Haiyan, Haiyan was worrying about investment, so he wanted to trick Sohu into throwing money in, and exaggerated the prospect of "Bright Sword".

Song Weiyang smiled and said, "I've also read the novel "Bright Sword", and I can invest in it. You can go ahead and get the exclusive online copyright of this drama by the way."

Thus, Sohu Film and Television was born, and will merge with Sohu Video in the future. But Zhang Chaoyang went astray completely, and became a well-known domestic film and television investor. He also especially likes to play a role in another time and space in film and television dramas. Countless stars in the movie are friends of Zhang Chaoyang.