Chapter 368 I'll Give You 30 Million

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?"

"That's almost it. Her next Mandarin album will be handed over to us." Li Yaming replied.

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 hand over her second Mandarin album 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 the next step is coming, let's do a good job for her. By the way, how are you preparing for Xiaoxuan's new album?"

Zhang Gengyu is talking about Fan Xiaoxuan, one of the artists promoted by his company in the past two years. Although Fan Xiaoxuan is only nineteen years old this year, she has been with Foremost Records for several years.

In 1991, 15-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 Rookie and the Top Ten Charming Female Artists. This year, she was also shortlisted for the Golden Song. 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 that haven't been finalized yet."

"Is there going to be any problem?"

Li Yaming smiled and waved his hand: "How could there be a problem? The reason why it has not been decided is because there are several alternative songs, and I don't know which one to choose. Once it is decided, it will be completed 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 why I hired Wang Lihong was his musical ability.”

Li Yaming nodded and agreed, "This probably has something to do with their boss behind the scenes, Zhou Yan."

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.

"Tell me, will Huanyin mainly be a song output company in the future?"

"You mean, they don't train singers, they specialize in training songwriters?"

"Yeah, that's what I mean."

Li Yaming smiled and said, "If we only train songwriters, wouldn't it be a huge loss?"

Although Li Yaming is well aware of the importance of musicians behind the scenes, he also knows that it is difficult to make money behind the scenes. Unless he runs a company like him and Zhang Gengyu, he may not be able to support himself just 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 of money 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 escape control. After all, for many songwriters, it doesn’t matter whether they are signed to a record company or not. The more famous producers want to have their own studios, and even I want to sign a singer myself to maximize my 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, knowing that Zhang Gengyu was not staring at Huanyin, but 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 Sound 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, "Xu Xiangjie will come over tomorrow and I will have a good chat with him."

"When he comes over tomorrow, I'll go and meet him too."

"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".

Around ten o'clock, he received a call from Xu Feng.

As soon as he received Xu Feng's call, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Sister Feng, I was just saying that I would find a time to call you this afternoon."

Xu Feng smiled and said, "Is it about the new movie?"

"Yes, the new movie needs to be filmed faster."

"Why do you suddenly need to speed up the progress?" Xu Feng asked in surprise.

Xu Feng certainly knew about Zhou Yan's new movie. When she was in Hong Kong, she had talked to Zhou Yan about it, but the script was not finished at that time, and Zhou Yan did not tell her what the specific story was.

Until now, she has not seen the script.

"It's like this..."

Zhou Yan briefly told Xu Feng about Han Sanping's visit to him.

After listening, Xu Feng pondered, "It's a good thing, but also a bad thing. Director Han is a man of honor, 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 knew that Zhou Yan was efficient and it wouldn't take too long to shoot a movie, but the key is that Zhou Yan has more than just making movies. In addition to making movies, he 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 is to shoot this movie.

"I estimated it myself, and there should be no problem in terms of time, but the time for preparatory work in the early stage needs to be shortened."

"Just keep it in mind." Xu Feng smiled.

Compared to Chen Kaige, Zhou Yan is much less troublesome. Generally speaking, as long as Zhou Yan says something, it is basically certain, and there are rarely any accidents.

Since he said there is no problem, there is probably no problem.

"What kind of story is this? I haven't even seen the script yet. Director Han is faster than me."

"I'll have someone send you a copy of the script in the next two days. I'll tell you the outline of the story now."

Then Zhou Yan spent another ten minutes telling Xu Feng about "Time Traveler".

In ten minutes, he could only tell the outline of the story. The details could not be reflected. However, Xu Feng was already interested just by listening to Zhou Yan's narration.

"It's good to make a love movie. After all, you are only in your twenties. While you feel it, try it. Don't wait until you are older and can't make such a movie. And try new themes at this stage. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes."

Although Xu Feng said it in a teasing tone, he was speaking from the heart.

Zhou Yan is still young and can try any theme.

Unlike actors, directors have a very long career. Although male actors generally have a longer career than female actors, it is basically difficult for them to get a movie to play the leading role after the age of thirty-five.

Except for a few special male actors, other male actors basically have to retreat to the second line and play supporting roles at this time.

But directors are different. Thirty-five is often the age when a director's career really moves forward.

Directors of this age have more experience than newcomers and more energy than old people. It 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 is richer. As long as the frequency of filming is slowed down, the quality of creation can be maintained, and even continuous improvement can be achieved.

Many film masters have not really created their own classic works until they are over fifty.

Even in the current domestic environment, many directors have the opportunity to show their talents only when they are in their forties or fifties, because they have to work hard to gain experience in the system. There are only so many meals, and the old people can't eat them, so how can the young people have a share?

Only factories with relatively rich resources such as Yanjing Factory and Chang'an Factory can train more newcomers. Other factories with less resources in other places have only one annual quota, and it is really strange to give it to newcomers.

Zhou Yan is only 26 years old now, and there is still a long way to go. It's always right to try more new themes.

Moreover, Xu Feng always felt that Zhou Yan's development was too smooth. Sometimes when she was alone and free, she would even feel flustered when thinking about Zhou Yan's affairs.

She didn't know how long Zhou Yan's state could last. Maybe the next movie would fail.

In fact, Xu Feng didn't think there was anything wrong with failing once or twice. Tang Chen could accompany Zhou Yan in the loss.

What Xu Feng was afraid of was that Zhou Yan was so young. If he encountered failure, would it affect his mentality?

If he followed Chen Kaige's old path again, it would be bad.

The second half of her sentence just now was also a shot of prevention for Zhou Yan, so that he would not worry about failure.

Zhou Yan did not respond to Xu Feng's statement, but smiled and said, "The male and female protagonists have been decided, and the rest is to decide on other roles."

"The male and female protagonists have been decided?"

Zhou Yan had not told Xu Feng about the actors before, so she was so surprised.

Zhou Yan was not in such a hurry to shoot, so he did not tell Xu Feng about this matter at the first time.

"The heroine is Joey Wong."

"Oh, that's good. It seems that your reputation is still quite useful with Joey. It's not easy to find her to make a movie now. I heard that she rejected several movies, including "All's Well, Ends Well 1997" and "Storm Warriors"."

Although Xu Feng doesn't usually hang out in the Hong Kong film industry, she is still relatively familiar with the situation in Hong Kong. She knows that Joey Wong 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 her, it is meaningless. At most, they will pay a little penalty.

"Where is the male lead?" Xu Feng asked again.

"Me."

Xu Feng heard the word "me" and thought it was just the beginning, and there was more to say, but there was no movement after the word "me". She asked in confusion, "Are you still there? Is the signal bad?"

"No, I've said it all. I will play the male lead of this new movie."

Xu Feng was stunned for a moment, then smiled, "Good, good, this role is also suitable for you. But in this way, you may be a little tired, after all, it's not easy to direct and act by yourself."

Zhou Yan not only directed and acted by himself, but also wrote and dubbed the script by himself. He did all the main work of a movie.

"Fortunately, the assistant directors this time are Xiao Can and Li Hong. The team is full of veterans. Everyone is familiar with me and has strong execution."

The mature team is good in this respect. For many things, Zhou Yan just needs to give an idea, and Xiao Can and Li Hong will naturally know how to do it. Especially Li Hong, he knows Zhou Yan too well, sometimes Zhou Yan knows what to do with just one look.

Zhou Yan has worked with so many assistant directors, Wang Xiaoshuai, Lu Xuechang, Huo Jianqi, many of whom are famous directors later, but they are not as easy to use as Li Hong.

Others are more complementary to Zhou Yan, helping him to come up with ideas, and Zhou Yan sometimes even learns from them.

Li Hong is different. He is more like a whip in Zhou Yan's hand, an extension of Zhou Yan, which can enable Zhou Yan to strengthen his control over the crew.

"Okay, I trust you to do the job." Xu Feng smiled, "It's been several years since you last acted in a movie, and by the way, is this your first time to play the leading role?"

In Xu Feng's eyes, Xu Xian in "Green Snake" is not the leading actor at all, but just a male character with more scenes.

"I guess so." Zhou Yan nodded and talked about other roles, "The leading actor's sister, I'm going to let Chen Derong 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.

Chen Derong is now the heroine of Qiong Yao, and a first-line actress of the new generation.

"Let her try, forget it if she doesn't work."

"That's fine, but you have to be careful. Although Chen Derong is more popular in TV dramas, she may not be good in movies."

"I know my limits. I will personally control the audition and will not lower my standards for her because of her fame."

"Well, I trust you."

"Now I am focusing on the father of the male lead. This role is not easy to choose."

"The father of the male lead... around fifty years old, elegant and gentle male actor, what do you think of Jiao Huang and Du Yulu?"

Hearing the candidates recommended by Xu Feng, Zhou Yan couldn't help laughing. Sister Feng really likes these two actors. When he was filming "The Sixth Sense" before, Xu Feng recommended these two male lead candidates from the older generation.

However, Xu Feng's recommendation is still quite reliable. The images of Jiao Huang and Du Yulu are indeed quite consistent with the father of the male lead.

"And Xu Huanshan, what do you think?" Xu Feng added another person.

When Zhou Yan heard Xu Huanshan, he thought of Wen Zhong and Confucius, both of which were his later roles.

As for his early roles, Zhou Yan didn't know much.

"Well, I'll take note of these three actors and invite them to try later."

It's useless for them to think about whether they are suitable or not. They have to see it in the play.

"Okay, I'll invite them when you give me a time. You can also make a list of other roles and solve them together when the time comes."

"No problem, I'll think about it during this period and then give you the list. I'll organize auditions when I come back from the United States."

"Okay, I'll wait for your list." Xu Feng smiled and said, "You haven't told me how much the film will cost until now."

"I estimated it myself, about 20 to 30 million, and the company needs to calculate the specifics."

The cost estimation of a film is actually a very complicated thing. For example, in the system in Hollywood, when determining the budget of a film, professionals need to make careful calculations to get it.

Usually, the cost of a film is divided into two major parts, production and publicity.

The production cost is divided into direct cost and indirect cost. Direct cost includes shooting cost and post-production cost, and indirect cost includes such as venue rental, equipment rental, staff expenses...

The publicity cost also includes many aspects, and it is not simpler to calculate than the production cost.

However, the cost calculation of domestic film production is usually not so complicated.

For unknown directors, there is no choice at all. They just cook with the pot according to the amount of money they are paid.

The script of "Time Traveler" can be filmed for one or two million yuan if it is given to a new director, or even less.

First of all, a lot of money must be saved on the actors. When Zhou Yan filmed "Time Traveler", the total salary of all the actors was several million yuan. If a new director came to film, he could probably just pull a few students from the film academy to get it done. If he met someone who is easy to fool, he could just give him a basic salary.

For a director who has a choice, it is not very complicated to calculate the budget by himself. According to past experience, he can first calculate the salary and the production cost. As for the publicity cost, he can calculate it according to a fixed percentage.

Even if Tomson Company calculated it, it wouldn't be much more complicated than Zhou Yan's own calculation.

"Let's set 30 million first, and you can spend it as you like."

Xu Feng knew that no matter how carefully they calculated the cost, it would still depend on how Zhou Yan spent it. If the budget was not enough, they would still have to make up for it.

The main thing is that Zhou Yan is not a person who spends money recklessly, so Xu Feng is not worried that the money will be wasted if he gives too much.

Zhou Yan also knew this situation, and he smiled and said, "That's fine."

...

The day after Kudo Shizuka's concert ended, Zhou Yan flew to New York, USA.

When he arrived in New York, it was the afternoon of the 30th local time. He didn't go to the hotel, but went directly to Radio City Music Hall.

When Zhou Yan walked into the hall of Radio City Music Hall, he was also shocked.

Apart from anything else, this hall is really big and there are so many seats.

The hall has more than 6,000 seats and is the largest indoor theater in the world. The tickets sold for a performance here are three times that of 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 the Tony Awards.

The reason is very simple. Few symphony orchestras can hold such a large hall.

Less famous orchestras cannot guarantee attendance.

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. Not a single ticket was left. (End of this chapter)