Chapter 71
Beijing, a hotel
The box door opened, Cao Xuan took Jiang Yue in, and looked at the people waiting in the room: "Sorry, everyone, I'm late."
"It's okay, we just got here."
A chubby middle-aged man stood up, first led Cao Xuan and the two to sit down, and then introduced them to him.
"This is Mr. Chen Yong, the boss of Guangdong Oriental Pearl Culture Company, and the main investor in our film "Young Bao Qingtian"."
"Hello, Mr. Chen."
Cao Xuan stood up and shook hands with Chen Yong. He knew this man, who had been working in the film and television industry in Hong Kong before moving to the mainland to start a business.
He has produced many film and television works and is also an artist manager. He discovered Deng Chao by himself. Shu Chang and Jin Dong have also signed contracts with his company.
"Mr. Cao, you have finally met a real person. I am your fan."
Chen Yong doesn't look amazing, but he loves to laugh, and his movements are quite bold. This is also the standard feature of many business owners these days. Don't forget about other things, and you have to show off your posture first.
After chatting with Chen Yong for a while, the fat middle-aged man introduced the next person: "This is Director Sun of our Beijing TV Production Center. The production center is also the production unit of our drama."
As introduced before, the TV drama production unit under Beijing TV Station is also one of the birthplaces of Beijing Circle.
The boss of this unit is Zheng Xiaolong, the director of "Desire", "Beijing in New York" and "The Legend of Zhen Huan". Director Sun should be the deputy.
Beijing TV Station is an old acquaintance of Cao Xuan, and it is currently the only TV resource that he can cooperate with for a long time. In a sense, both parties are half of us.
Even this time "Youngster Bao Qingtian" is partly due to the introduction of the Beijing Production Center.
Of course, Cao Xuan's own popularity and popularity are the most critical reasons, otherwise people would not take a fancy to him.
Deputy Director Sun has a certain reserve within the system, but his behavior does not make people feel alienated. Instead, they feel that he is a very measured person.
Afterwards, the fat middle-aged man introduced the last middle-aged man with glasses: "This is Director Hu Mingkai from Xiangjiang, the director of our play."
"Hello, Mr. Cao."
Before Cao Xuan could say hello, Hu Mingkai stood up and shook hands with him.
He is not like the first two. One is a producer and the owner of a film and television company, and the other is a high-level executive in Beijing and Taiwan. Their status is here.
As a director who has just come to the mainland, I have very few works on my hands. The only famous one is Zhao Wenzhuo's "Once Upon a Time in Ideal Times". I really don't have the confidence to put on airs in front of the popular little king Cao Xuan.
It is no exaggeration to say that if there was a conflict between him and Cao Xuan in this drama and someone had to leave, then it would definitely not be Cao Xuan.
Hu Mingkai felt that he was a nobody, but he didn't know that Cao Xuan really knew him.
This actor is not famous at the moment, but he will produce many works in the future. Among the more famous ones are "Young Bao Qingtian" and Huang Haibin's version of "Heroes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties".
In addition, Hu Mingkai has also filmed several series of TV movies, such as the "Father and Son Detective" series, "Tiger Head Fortress Series", and Zhong Hanliang and Shi Xiaolong's "Fire Chase" series. It can be said that he is a frequent guest of the Six Princesses of CCTV.
There are two producers and directors. The fat middle-aged man is the producer of "Young Bao Qingtian". Together with Cao Xuan, the male protagonist, the important members of the crew are complete.
That's right, with Cao Xuan's rapid rise to fame after September, he has become extremely popular and has the ability to initially break through the barriers in the film and television industry.
It’s hard to say for the Hong Kong and Taiwan drama crews, but if Cao Xuan wants to compete for the Mainland’s non-big-production TV drama crews, he has a good chance of getting one.
The drama "Young Bao Qingtian" is very popular. Chen Yong and director Hu Mingkai are both from the Hong Kong film and television industry.
But Chen Yong's company is located in Guangdong Province, and with the addition of Beijing and Taiwan, it can be regarded as an out-and-out mainland crew.
The most important thing is that Chen Yong's company has just been established, and he is eager to build the company's name. Praising people is secondary. This gives Cao Xuan, who wants to expand his influence in the film and television industry, an opportunity.
A popular actor is needed to attract attention for the play and hype up the topic.
One wants to value the influence of this TV series and consolidate its status in the film and television industry.
The two parties hit it off immediately and soon began discussing specific cooperation matters.
Different from "Little Li Fei Dao" and "The True Colors of a Detective", Cao Xuan, the two crew members, is a supporting role. You don't have to worry about the others, just play your own role.
But now that he has become the male protagonist in "Young Man Bao Qingtian", and the whole drama is centered on him, there are more things involved, and many things need to be discussed in detail.
The first and most important thing is the pay.
This is Cao Xuan's first time as a male protagonist, and because he has just become famous, there is no unified salary standard.
"Young Man Bao Qingtian" hopes that he can make some concessions. After all, Chen Yong's company has just opened and funds are a little tight. It would be great if he could make some room in the male protagonist's salary.
But Cao Xuan doesn't run a charity hall. No matter how optimistic he is about "Young Man Bao Qingtian", he can't just cut his salary.
The salary is easy to fall but not easy to rise, especially since it is his first time as the male lead. Once a precedent is set, Cao Xuan will not be able to get high pay for other movies in the future.
Therefore, it is difficult for actors in the entertainment industry to see actors reduce their pay. Even if it is reduced, it is emphasized that it is a friendship price, which means that the money is small but the favor is earned, and at the same time, other people's mouths are blocked.
I have a friendship with them, so I lowered the price, but I don't have a friendship with you, so we still pay according to the market price.
Cao Xuan's salary is not easy to calculate. In terms of popularity and popularity, he is almost as good as the first-line actors.
But his popularity comes from the music scene. He is a newcomer who has just debuted in the film and television industry, so even Cao Xuan is a little unsure about the price.
Later, I simply compared it to Ren Xianqi. Ren Xianqi starred in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and his announced salary was about 1.2 million.
The price was a bit low compared to Ren Xianqi's popularity at the time, but after all, he was playing the male lead for the first time, and given the aura of Jin Yong's martial arts IP in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," it was considered fair.
Cao Xuan is now even more famous than Ren Xianqi back then, not to mention that he also has an out-of-famous role, Ximen Qing. Taking into account the inflation in the past two years.
The salary he offered to the crew of "Young Man Bao Qingtian" was 1.5 million.
The price may be somewhat exaggerated, but the asking price is so high that Cao Xuan has to leave some room for bargaining with the crew.
Sure enough, the crew of "Young Bao Qingtian" couldn't accept this price. They intended to win Cao Xuan for 800,000 yuan, and the bottom line was 1 million.
This time it was Cao Xuan's turn to quit. He understood that he would be counter-offered, but he couldn't just stop him.
So the two sides began to argue.
Cao Xuan did not come forward during the negotiations, leaving Jiang Yue to take charge. After fierce negotiations, Cao Xuan reduced the salary to 1.2 million, but for "Young Man Bao Qingtian" he insisted on not moving when the salary was raised to 1 million.
Seeing that the talks were about to fall apart, Chen Yong really couldn't bear Cao Xuan's popularity, so he offered to use his salary to offset his investment.
If Cao Xuan agrees, his salary will be priced at 1.5 million, and the total investment in "Young Man Bao Qingtian" will be around 15 million. After conversion, Cao Xuan will have a 10% share.
Jiang Yue refused this proposal without even thinking about it.
What an actor earns is remuneration, and it has nothing to do with him whether the performance is good or bad. But if the remuneration is converted into investment, it is okay if he makes a profit, but if he loses it, it means that his work was in vain.
If it's the kind of big production that's expected to become a hit, that's it. If it's the first work of a new company like "Young Man Bao Qingtian", who can guarantee that it will be a hit?
However, Jiang Yue, who was about to refuse, was stopped by Cao Xuan.
Others don't know it, but he knows how popular "Young Man Bao Qingtian" is, one of the most popular TV series in 2000.
You can even remove one of them. At that time, this drama was rebroadcast for countless rounds on major provincial and municipal stations, and it still ranked first in the same period until a few years later.
"Bao Qingtian" made a large number of newcomers such as Ren Quan and Li Bingbing popular. Zhou Jie became the most popular young actor in the mainland with this drama and the two-part "Huanzhugege".
In 2000, the media rated the top four mainland students as Li Yapeng, Lu Yi, Chen Kun and Hu Bing.
The first two were okay, but the latter two were criticized by the audience. At that time, Chen Kung had just become famous with "Like Fog, Like Rain and Like Wind", and Hu Bing was not well-known, so he couldn't have acted with Zhou Jie and "You Are April Day in the World" "Compared with Huang Lei.
So there was another review later, and Hu Bing was replaced by Huang Lei, but Zhou Jie was still ranked outside the four major and minor students.
Aside from the negative news surrounding Zhou Jie at that time, his weak appearance was also an important reason.
Because of this, Cao Xuan is personally very interested in investing in "Young Man Bao Qingtian". He believes that the prospects of this drama are worth taking a gamble on.
The remuneration turned into investment, which was not something Jiang Yue could decide, so Cao Xuan personally took action today to start negotiations with the crew of "Young Man Bao Qingtian".
………
Everyone chatted for a while and then got straight to the point.
Cao Xuan's request was very simple. He was optimistic about the film and wanted to invest more. He would get 20% of the share of 1 million yuan plus the film remuneration.
In addition, as an investor who brings capital into the group, he plays an important role.
This request made Chen Yong a little hesitant and excited.
The hesitation was that if he gave up 20% of his share, his profits would be diluted, but again, Cao Xuan was willing to contribute capital + remuneration, which invisibly shared his pressure.
Deputy Director Sun looked indifferent. The Capital Production Center invested 5 million and would neither increase nor reduce its holdings. Cao Xuan’s share would be all matched with Chen Yong’s.
However, as one of the investors of the "Young Boy Bao Qingtian" crew, it is related to the change of the crew's investment share, so I have to be present to witness it.
Chen Yong thought about it for a long time, then went out and made several phone calls before speaking to Cao Xuan.
"Yes, but the investment cannot be less than 1.5 million. Mr. Cao, this is our bottom line. The remuneration has been converted to 1.5 million for you. This is also an investment of real money."
Cao Xuan thought about it for a moment, and seeing that Chen Yong didn't look fake, he nodded in agreement: "Okay."
1.5 million investment + 1.5 million remuneration, a total of 3 million, which is exactly 20% of the share of "Youngster Bao Qingtian".
Immediately afterwards, Cao Xuan talked about the role again. Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened his mouth, Chen Yong started to pour out his bitter words, and his words had different meanings, which the heroine could not give.
Cao Xuan was not surprised by this.
As Chen Yong looked like just now, he couldn't even decide on the 3 million share. Obviously, he, the first investor, was not as generous as he appeared.
Cao Xuan even suspected that Chen Yong may not have collected the so-called 15 million shares now.
The crew obviously only started filming at the end of this year, but now they have contacted the male protagonist in January. It is very likely that they are using Cao Xuan as a sign and then go out to attract investment.
This trick is not new in the film and television industry. Some crews don't even have a script, but they dare to go out and attract investment after booking a male and female lead.
There is no way, many lay investors don’t understand scripts and film and television shooting. Whether they invest or not depends on whether there are stars in your crew. Therefore, the more popular the stars in the crew, the better it will attract investment.
Many film crews with this idea contacted Cao Xuan before, but Cao Xuan refused, and only contacted "Young Bao Qingtian", a "jewel in the ocean".
Cao Xuan interrupted Chen Yong's complaint and said directly: "I don't want a female lead. Isn't there a female lead, Pang Feiyan, in the crew? I have a friend who is quite suitable."
"Pang Feiyan?"
Chen Yong glanced at Hu Mingkai, who nodded slightly. He knew it instantly, but still said: "This role is quite important, and the actor cannot be careless."
"Don't worry, my friend is from a Chinese opera major and has no problem with his acting skills."
Chen Yong wanted to say more, but Cao Xuan became impatient: "Mr. Chen, I have made concessions many times before. You can't fail to satisfy me even with this request."
"Why did you say this? Isn't it Pang Feiyan? No problem."
Seeing that Cao Xuan was a little annoyed, Chen Yong also knew that he had pushed too far just now, so he immediately changed his tone. Deputy Director Sun was a transparent person before, but this time he also came out to smooth things over.
"Now that the conditions are met and all parties have no objections, then our cooperation will be established. I would like to mention one thing and wish us success in this cooperation."
As soon as he set up the ladder, Cao Xuan and the other two people climbed down the slope and raised their glasses together with the other people sitting there.
"Smooth cooperation!"
An hour later, Cao Xuan, Chen Yong and others waved goodbye and got into their business cars.
On the way, Cao Xuan rubbed the back of his head, which was a little dazed after drinking, and explained to Jiang Yue.
"Sister Jiang, please run around more. Our studio's business scope has expanded now, and all procedures must be completed."
"Don't worry, leave it to me."
Jiang Yue looked excited. Although she didn't understand why Cao Xuan chose to invest in "Young Bao Qingtian", Cao Xuan's taking this step also meant that Fanxing's business was no longer limited to an artist studio.
New fields and new challenges make Jiang Yue, who is gradually developing into a strong woman, feel excited and full of motivation.
The driver Zhu Jiang took Cao Xuan to Dashizuo Hutong, and then took Jiang Yue back to the studio to work on materials and prepare to sign an investment contract with the crew of "Young Bao Qingtian".
After entering the gate, Sun Lan was feeding the dog. She frowned when she saw Cao Xuan coming in smelling of alcohol.
"Didn't you quit drinking?"
"We just concluded the cooperation, and they kept toasting me. I couldn't let Sister Jiang replace me with a woman, so I had to do it myself."
"How much should you drink?"
"I didn't drink much. Mainly because a few people drank it to me at the same time. I drank too fast. I just need to wait a while and it will be fine."
When Cao Shuangguo heard the noise, he asked Cao Xuan to go back to the room and lie down, and poured him some hot water to sober up. Hearing that Cao Xuan had not eaten enough just now, Sun Lan hurriedly went to the kitchen to make noodles for him.
Although it was somewhat inappropriate, Cao Xuan really enjoyed being cared for by his parents, so he just used his alcohol to shamelessly pretend to be a pampered "giant baby".
Cao Xuan, who was in high spirits due to the influence of alcohol, was restless in bed. He took out his mobile phone and called Hu Jing.
"Guess who I am."
"...Liu Dehua?"
"You guessed it wrong, I'm more handsome than him."
"Pooh."
Hu Jing pooh-poohed him and asked, "Why did you remember to call me at this time? I'm rehearsing with my classmates."
"It's nothing, I just want you to pay attention to the schedule at the end of the year. I've got a role for you."
"What role?"
"I won't be able to tell for a while, but you can come to the studio later and have a detailed chat. Anyway, I think it's quite suitable for you, and the role is quite important, so I snatched the role for you."
Hearing Cao Xuan's words, Hu Jing felt sweet, but she was still a little worried: "Would this affect you? In fact, I don't care if I take the role or not. I can wait for the opportunity."
"The impact is not that big, but the price is quite high. I invested 3 million to get you into the group. You will have to repay me well later."
"How to repay?"
"It's just a normal repayment between an actress and an investor. If you don't understand, I'll teach you slowly."
"Pooh."
Hu Jing spat again on the phone, and Cao Xuan laughed, but the laughter soon stopped.
Cao Shuangguo stood at the door holding noodles with a serious look on his face. Looking at Cao Xuan whose expression changed, he turned around and shouted to Sun Lan in the yard.
"My dear, bring me the broom. I'm going to straighten things up for our old Cao family today."
"Dad, I misunderstood, I was just joking."
"Dad, don't be impulsive. If you have something to say, say it properly. Mom, please stop it for me.
"Dad...ah!!!"
Recommend this friend's book, "Red Dragon". It is said that when Jingmo Night falls, there will be dragons who kill people for fun [Oriental Punk + Myth Resurrection]