After talking about the contract, Zhang Gengyu asked about the business situation of the Chinese Department.
"How is the conversation with Zhengdong about Kelly Chen?"
"It's almost done. Her next Mandarin album will be handed over to us." Li Yaming replied road.
Kelly Chen is a newcomer who just debuted last year, but she performed very well right after her debut. She released several records one after another and won many awards.
She is a singer of Zhengdong Records. Her first Mandarin album was also produced by Zhengdong Records. However, Zhengdong’s main business is still in Hong Kong, so Zhengdong hopes to release her second Mandarin album. The album was left to Fumao.
The reason why Zhengdong is willing to hand over Kelly Chen's second album to Foremost is because they are brother companies. Both companies are under PolyGram, so they are like their own family.
“Since it’s coming next, let’s do it well for her. By the way, how are you preparing for Xiaoxuan’s new album?”
What Zhang Gengyu is talking about is that his company has been the main promoter in the past two years. One of the artists, Fan Xiaoxuan, although Fan Xiaoxuan is only 19 years old this year, she has been with Foremost Records for several years.
In 1991, fifteen-year-old Fan Xiaoxuan met Li Yaming while filming a commercial, and was later brought to Foremost Records by Li Yaming.
After coming to Fumao Records, Fan Xiaoxuan has developed a lot, shooting commercials, hosting programs, making movies, and releasing records. She has done very well. Last year, she won the Most Popular New Female Artist and the Top Ten Charming Female Artists. , this year was also shortlisted for the Golden Melody Award for Best Newcomer.
Fan Xiaoxuan will have albums released in April, June and the following August.
In addition to these albums, they are also planning to release another album to Fan Xiaoxuan at the end of the year. Zhang Gengyu asked about the one at the end of the year.
“Basically it’s almost done, there are still two songs left to be finalized.”
“There won’t be any problems, right?”
Li Yaming smiled and waved his hand: “Why? There may be a problem. The reason why I haven’t finalized it is because there are several alternative songs and I don’t know which one to choose. I will finish it soon.”
Zhang Gengyu rolled his eyes, "Yaming, do you think we should take advantage of Huanyin to poach Wang Lihong and establish a relationship with Huanyin? Although Huanyin has fewer people signing now, I can see that they The main reason for poaching Wang Lihong is the singer's creative ability."
Li Yaming nodded and agreed, "This probably has something to do with their behind-the-scenes boss Zhou Yan. It's related."
Although the relationship between Huanyin and Zhou Yan has not been made public, people in the industry know a little bit about it.
It is precisely because of Zhou Yan's existence that Zhang Gengyu does not dare to underestimate Huanyin Company.
“Do you think Huanyin will mainly be a song output company in the future?”
"You mean, they don't train singers, but songwriters?"
"Well, that's what I mean."
Li Yaming smiled, "If they only train songwriters, then Aren’t you losing money?”
Although Li Yaming knows the importance of musicians behind the scenes, he also knows that it is difficult to make money behind the scenes. Unless he and Zhang Gengyu start a company, they can only rely on You may not be able to support yourself by selling music.
A singer may become famous by singing a relatively popular song. It doesn’t take long to become famous. It takes a long time to make two years while the popularity is high.
But it’s difficult for creators. Maybe a composer has written a dozen or even dozens of well-known songs, but no one knows about them. The money he can earn is a one-time fee from the record company, and the better ones can get follow-up songs. divided into.
Relying on their hit songs, singers can participate in shows, get commercial performances, get endorsements, and even make movies and TV series. And these things are benefits that workers behind the scenes cannot enjoy.
Looking at the music scene in Hong Kong and Taiwan, there are a lot of famous singers, but there are not many who make a living by composing music.
Therefore, Li Yaming believed that if Phantom mainly wanted to cultivate songwriters, it would be impossible to make the company bigger.
And this model is not necessary. Good songwriters can easily get out of control. After all, for many songwriters, it doesn’t matter whether they are signed to a record company or not. The more famous producers all hope that they can He set up a studio and even wanted to sign singers himself to maximize profits.
"It may not necessarily only train songwriters, but their company will definitely promote singer-songwriters. Take this opportunity to build a good relationship with them, maybe I can invite some songs from them in the future... If I can invite some songs from Zhou Yan , even better."
Li Yaming smiled, and he knew that Zhang Gengyu was not staring at Huanyin, but at Zhou Yan.
It would be great to get Ge Na from Zhou Yan, but it is too difficult.
Everyone knows that Zhou Yan’s pure music output is extremely high, but he has written very few pop songs. There is little hope of getting one of his songs.
But Zhang Gengyu had a good idea. Since he was destined to sell Wang Lihong to Huanyin, he might as well be generous and take advantage of this opportunity to form a good relationship.
"No matter what, it is definitely necessary to have a good relationship. Phantom Music will definitely not be able to help with Xiaoxuan's album, but it is possible with Kelly Chen's next album."
" Yes, I think so too." Zhang Gengyu laughed, "I'll have a chat with Xu Xiangjie when he comes over tomorrow."
"I'll go meet him when he comes over tomorrow."
“No problem.”
……
On the day of Kudo Shizuka's concert, Zhou Yan had nothing else to do, and his main focus was on polishing the script of "Space Traveler".
At about ten o'clock, he received a call from Xu Feng.
As soon as he received a call from Xu Feng, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Sister Feng, I was talking about calling you sometime in the afternoon."
Xu Feng smiled and said, " For the new movie?”
“Well, the new movie is going to be shot at a faster pace.”
"Why do you suddenly want to speed up the progress?" Xu Feng asked in surprise.
Of course Xu Feng knew about Zhou Yan's new movie. She had roughly talked with Zhou Yan when they were in Xiangjiang, but the script hadn't been finished at that time, and Zhou Yan didn't tell her what the specific story was.
Until now, she has not seen the script.
"That's it..."
Zhou Yan briefly told Xu Feng about Han Sanping coming to see him.
After listening, Xu Feng muttered, "It's a good thing and a bad thing. Director Han is a loyal person, and he will definitely spare no effort to help with the new movie. But the time is so tight, can you handle it?"
Xu Feng also knows that Zhou Yan is very efficient and it doesn't take too long to make a movie. But the key is that Zhou Yan doesn't just do movies. In addition to making movies, he also has a lot of other things to do.
And Xu Feng hasn’t seen the script yet, so he doesn’t know how difficult it will be to make this movie.
"I made my own estimate, and there should be no problem in terms of time, but the preliminary preparation time will be shortened."
"As long as you have an idea." Xu Feng smiled.
Compared with Chen Kaige, Zhou Yan is much more worry-free. Under normal circumstances, as long as Zhou Yan says it, it is basically guaranteed, and there are few surprises.
Since he said it was no problem, then it probably was no problem.
"What kind of story is this? I haven't even seen the script until now. Director Han is faster than me."
"I've had someone give me the script in the past two days. You give me a copy, and now I will briefly tell you the outline of the story."
Zhou Yan then spent another ten minutes narrating "Time and Space Traveler" to Xu Feng.
In about ten minutes, I could only tell the outline of the story, and it was impossible to reflect the details. However, just listening to the context of Zhou Yan's narration, Xu Feng was already interested.
“It’s good to make a love movie. You are only in your twenties after all. Try it while you have the feeling. Don’t wait until you are older and unable to make such a movie. And it doesn’t matter if you try new themes at this stage.”
Although Xu Feng’s tone was teasing, he also said it sincerely.
Zhou Yan is still young and can try any subject matter.
Directors, unlike actors, have very long careers. Although the average male actor has a longer career than an actress, it is basically difficult for him to get a leading role in a movie after he reaches the age of thirty-five.
Except for a few special actors, other actors will basically take a back seat at this time and play supporting roles.
But directors are different. Thirty-five is often the age when a director's career really takes off.
Directors of this age have more experience than newcomers and have more energy than the elderly. This is the best period for creation, and this state can often last for more than ten years.
After the age of fifty, although the energy has declined, the experience has become richer. As long as the frequency of making movies is slowed down, the quality of creation can still be maintained and even continue to improve.
Many film masters did not create their classic works until they were fifty years old.
Even in today's domestic environment, many directors have no chance to show their talents until they are in their forties or fifties, because they have to gain seniority in the system. There is only so much food, and even the elderly cannot afford it. How can there be any share for young people?
In other words, factories with relatively rich resources such as Yanjing Factory and Chang'an Factory can train more new people. Factories in other places that are not rich in resources only have one target per year. It is really strange that they can train new people. .
Zhou Yan is only twenty-six years old now, and he still has a long time to live. It is always right to try more new themes.
And Xu Feng always felt that Zhou Yan was developing too smoothly. Sometimes when she was alone, she would even feel flustered when she thought about Zhou Yan. She didn't know how long Zhou Yan could last in this state. Maybe the next movie would suffer a disaster.
In fact, Xu Feng didn't think there was any problem if he failed once or twice. Tang Chen could accompany Zhou Yan.
What Xu Feng was afraid of was that if Zhou Yan failed at such a young age, it would affect his mentality.
It would be bad if we follow Chen Kaige's old path again.
The second half of what she said just now was also to inoculate Zhou Yan, so that he should not worry about failure.
Zhou Yan did not respond to Xu Feng's statement, but instead smiled and said, "The male and female protagonists have been decided, and the only thing left is to decide on the other roles."
"Have the male and female protagonists been decided?"
Zhou Yan had never told Xu Feng about the actor before, so she was so surprised.
Originally Zhou Yan was not in such a hurry to shoot, so he did not tell Xu Feng about it immediately.
“The heroine is Wang Zuxian.”
“Oh, that’s good. It seems that your reputation is better with Zuxian. It’s not easy to find her to make a movie now. Just I heard that she rejected several dramas, such as "Happy Events in the Family" and "Feng Yun Xiong Dominates the World."
Although Xu Feng does not usually work in the Hong Kong film industry, she is quite familiar with the situation there. She knows that Wang Zuxian has rejected many invitations in the past two years, including those from Shaw Brothers.
Although Wang Zuxian still has a film contract with Shaw Brothers, they will not force Wang Zuxian to film. And even if they force him, it is meaningless. At most, they can just pay a small amount of liquidated damages.
“Where is the male protagonist?” Xu Feng asked again.
"I."
When Xu Feng heard the word "I", he thought it was just the beginning, and there would be more words behind it, but there was no sound after the word "I". She asked doubtfully, "Are you still here? Is the signal bad?"
"No, I've said it all. I will play the leading actor in this new movie."
Xu Feng was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Good thing, good thing, this role suits you quite well." In this way, you may be a little tired, after all, it is not easy to direct and act yourself."
Zhou Yan not only directs and acts, but also writes and stars. The main work of a movie is taken care of. He did it.
“Fortunately, the assistant directors this time are Xiao Can and Li Hong. The team is all old people. Everyone is familiar with me and has strong execution ability.”
This is the maturity of the team. OK, there are a lot of things. Zhou Yan just needs to give you an idea. Xiao Can and Li Hong will naturally know what to do. Especially Li Hong, he knows Zhou Yan so well. Sometimes he knows what to do with just one look from Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan has worked with so many assistant directors, including Wang Xiaoshuai, Lu Xuechang, and Huo Jianqi, many of whom became famous directors later on, but none of them are as easy to use as Li Hong.
Others complement Zhou Yan more and help him come up with ideas. Zhou Yan even sometimes learns from them.
Li Hong is different, he is more like a whip in Zhou Yan's hand, an extension of Zhou Yan, which allows Zhou Yan to strengthen his control over the crew.
"Okay, I can rest assured that you will do your job." Xu Feng smiled, "It has been several years since the last time you acted in a movie, and speaking of which, is this your first time playing a leading role? ”
In Xu Feng’s eyes, Xu Xian in “Green Snake” is not considered the leading actor at all, he can only be regarded as a male character with more roles.
"That's right." Zhou Yan nodded and talked about other roles, "The actor's sister, I'm going to let Chen Derong give it a try."
"Chen Derong...is she willing to come?"
Xu Feng is from Taiwan, so he naturally knows that Chen Derong is now quite famous in Taiwan.
Nowadays, Chen Derong is Qiong Yao’s queen heroine, and she is a first-line actress of the new generation.
“Let her try, if it doesn’t work, forget it.”
"It's okay, but you have to pay attention to one thing. Although Chen Derong is more popular in TV series, he may not be good in movies." Because of her reputation, I lowered my standards for her.”
“Well, I trust you.”
“My main consideration now is the male protagonist’s father. This role is not easy to choose. "
"The hero's father... is about fifty years old, an elegant and gentle actor. What do you think of Jiao Huang and Du Yulu? "
Zhou Yan couldn't help but smile when he heard the candidates recommended by Xu Feng. Sister Feng really liked these two actors. When he was filming "The Sixth Sense", Xu Feng recommended these two actors among the older generation. people.
However, Xu Feng’s recommendation is quite reliable. The images of Jiao Huang and Du Yulu really match the male protagonist’s father.
"There is also Xu Huanshan, what do you think?" Xu Feng added another person.
As soon as he heard Xu Huanshan, Zhou Yan thought of Wen Zhong and Confucius, both of whom were his later roles.
As for his early roles, Zhou Yan doesn’t know much about them.
"Well, I've made a note of these three actors, and I'll invite them to come and give it a try later."
It's useless for them to think about whether they are suitable or not, they have to meet at the show.
"Okay, when you give me some time, the company will invite them. You can also make a list of other characters, and we will solve it together then."
"No problem, this paragraph I'll think about it for a while, and then I'll give you the list. I'll organize an audition when I get back from the United States."
"Okay, I'll wait for your list." Xu Feng smiled and said, "Let's talk about it now. , you haven’t told me how much this movie will cost.”
"I made my own estimate. It's about 20 million to 30 million. The company will have to calculate the specific details."
Estimating the cost of a movie is actually a very complicated matter, like in Hollywood. System, when determining the film budget requires professionals to make careful calculations.
Usually the cost of a movie is divided into two major parts, production and promotion.
Production costs are divided into direct costs and indirect costs. Direct costs include shooting costs and post-production costs, while indirect costs include venue rental, equipment rental, staff costs...
Promotion costs It also includes many aspects, and the calculation is no simpler than the production cost.
However, the cost calculation for domestic film production is usually not so complicated.
Generally unknown directors have no choice at all. They just decide how much money to pay and how big of a pot to use to cook.
The script "Time Traveler" could be filmed by a new director for one or two million, or even less.
First of all, the actors must save a lot of money. When Zhou Yan filmed "Time Traveler", the combined salary of all the actors would have been several million. If a new director comes to film, he probably only needs to graduate from the film school. Just bring a few students over and it will be done. If you encounter someone who is easy to cheat, just give them a basic salary and that will solve the problem.
For directors who have choices, it is not very complicated to calculate their own budget. Based on past experience, first calculate the salary and the production cost. As for the publicity cost, just calculate it as a fixed percentage.
Even if Tomson Company does the calculation, it won't be much more complicated than Zhou Yan's own calculation.
“Let’s settle on 30 million first, and you can see how you spend it.”
Xu Feng knew clearly that no matter how precise they calculated the cost, it would still depend on how Zhou Yan spent it. When the budget is insufficient, they will still have to make up for it.
The main reason is that Zhou Yan is not a person who spends money randomly, so Xu Feng is not worried that giving too much money will be wasted.
Zhou Yan also knew this situation. He smiled and said, "That's okay."
...
The day after Shizuka Kudo’s concert ended, Zhou Yan flew to New York, USA.
When he arrived in New York, it happened to be the afternoon of the 30th local time. He didn't even go to the hotel, but went directly to Radio City Music Hall.
When Zhou Yan walked into the lobby of Radio City Music Hall, he also felt a bit shocked.
If nothing else, this hall is really big and there are so many seats.
With more than 6,000 seats, the hall is the largest indoor theater in the world. A performance here can sell three times as many tickets as an ordinary concert.
Radio City Music Hall does not mainly host concerts, but more movie premieres, Christmas shows, indoor concerts and various award ceremonies, such as the Grammy Awards and Tony Awards.
The reason is also very simple. Very few symphony orchestras can support such a large hall.
A band with a low reputation cannot guarantee attendance at all.
The Piano Youth Orchestra does not have such troubles. A total of 12,000 tickets were released for the two concerts, and they were all sold out two days ago, with not a single ticket left. (End of chapter)