"Sign with you?" Li Xingyu asked. "Didn't Director Shao just say you haven't signed with any managent company?"
Hearing this, Shao Yichen finally realized what she had just proposed.
She had actually, upon learning she needed to open a dia company, instinctively invited Li Xingyu to sign with her company.
—But her dia company didn't even exist yet!
No matter how unreliable Shao Yichen might be, she wasn't unreliable enough to tell Li Xingyu sothing like "although I currently have nothing but money, I'll definitely open a dia company within six months, so why don't you wait, and you can certainly sign with my company within half a year"—after all, why should soone at the peak of their popularity wait six months without signing, just for a company with absolutely no guarantees?
She quickly fabricated an explanation for her montary brain lapse: "Actually, it's like this—although I haven't signed yet, I've had my eye on several dia companies. I instinctively wanted to recomnd one to you just now, but then I thought about it and realized that actors and directors are quite different. A company with good terms for directors might not necessarily be good for actors, so I probably shouldn't complicate things for you."
Hearing Shao Yichen say this, Li Xingyu didn't probe further. But he did say sowhat suggestively: "Actually, I haven't decided which company to sign with either. For , the commission split isn't that important; rather, the freedom of the contract is more critical. If Director Shao has any companies she'd like to recomnd within the next half year, feel free to continue discussing it with ."
Shao Yichen agreed and hung up the phone, then thought about his words again. The more she considered them, the more suspicious they seed—had Li Xingyu guessed she was planning to open a company? Wasn't his aning essentially "I won't sign with any company for the next six months, so if you want to sign , you can contact anyti"?
Could he also see what tasks the system had assigned to her?
Shao Yichen's speculations grew increasingly scattered and implausible. But then she reconsidered, realizing that opening a company had nothing to do with her task of losing money on films. The main source of losses wasn't company salaries but film box office returns. Li Xingyu signing with her company didn't an he had to act in her films. She could fully advocate for resources for her company's artists while simultaneously ensuring her own films lost money completely—these two objectives were fundantally not in conflict.
As for what would happen to the signed actors after she returned to her original world—why not just sign a one-year short contract!
In other words, if she could actually sign Li Xingyu to her company, it might achieve a win-win situation!
However, it was best to wait until she had actually established the company before discussing this further.
With this thought, Shao Yichen sighed, opened the system panel, and checked the results of this settlent.
As soon as she opened the system's settlent page, the two glaring words "Profit" made her heart sink.
Profit again! How had she made money again!
Shao Yichen was convinced she had done absolutely nothing productive during the filmmaking process and had only been a hindrance to the crew, never having a positive effect.
But unexpectedly, this ti she had earned even more ridiculously than with "The Last Wish"!
Could making money on films truly be so mystical art? As long as your luck was good, you couldn't lose money no matter how you fild?
Thinking this, Shao Yichen secretly decided to find a fortune teller before her next release to cast a divination, then specifically choose the most inauspicious day for the premiere.
When science cannot save a person, they turn to superstition—Shao Yichen had deeply experienced the truth in this saying.
"The Web's" box office on the final day not only steadily broke ten million yuan but may even have risen slightly due to the film's imminent departure from theaters, earning over thirty million. The film's total box office finally settled at 320 million yuan, slightly less than the highest box office for detective films, but still absolutely outstanding among its genre.
According to the distribution thod where theaters, cinemas, and distributors split profits three ways, with the distributor dividing the inco equally per contract, and the system ruthlessly taking half, Shao Yichen's final net inco was 22 million yuan.
At the sa ti, the system's film production fund pool also increased, from 1 million to 10 million yuan. Unlike Shao Yichen's inco split, however, this money could only be used purely for filmmaking.
Twenty-two million was indeed a substantial figure. Even Shao Yichen, who had been wealthy before her rebirth, had to admit that quickly spending twenty-two million without causing trouble and just spending money would be very difficult. But she hadn't had ti to relax about these twenty-two million before quickly realizing a problem.
—The system hadn't provided funds for starting a company!
Moreover, even the usage permissions for that ten million didn't include anything related to starting a company.
Didn't this an that the funds for starting a company would have to co from this twenty-two million? And if Shao Yichen didn't manage it well, this twenty-two million might not even be enough!
Realizing this, Shao Yichen beca absolutely furious.
What defines a profiteering system? This is what defines a profiteering system!
Not only does it split profits with you 50-50, but it also finds ways to make you cough up even your half!
But despite her anger, Shao Yichen truly had no recourse against the system's operations—after all, if she failed to complete the task, she would be the one punished; only if the task was completed but lost money would the system lose out.
It seed these twenty-two million couldn't be spent carelessly; at least she had to wait until she had established the company before the remainder could truly be used as she wished.
Thinking of this, Shao Yichen felt her heart, which had been slightly comforted by the twenty-two million, was once again severely wounded by the system.
Well, she might as well ask Nan Rongyu and his brother if they had any experience with starting a company, or if not, have them ask the South Polar Bear Group's affiliated distribution company—exactly how does one start a distribution company from scratch?
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
Shao Yichen sent WeChat ssages to Nan Rongyu and his brother—not because she didn't want to call, but because after the film beca popular, these two purple-star leads' phones were nearly overwheld with calls, either busy or unanswered, making WeChat more likely to be seen—asking what preparations were needed to open a dia company. She then put aside both her phone and the matter of opening a company to fully focus on another issue.
What kind of cody film should she make with this ten million?
Although she had indeed included so codic segnts in "The Last Wish," they ultimately accounted for only a small proportion of the entire film.
Moreover, at that ti, she had added legitimate cody bits to the film which, regardless of how you looked at it, were still reasonably funny. But now that she wanted to specifically make a money-losing cody film, she couldn't approach it with such a casual attitude.
Although, based on her experience with her first two films, when a film is destined to make money, it's like a pig caught in an updraft—unstoppable in its ascent.
But regardless, both films had shown a trend toward losing money at so point, indicating that her money-losing strategy was fundantally sound! The eventual profit was due to various unexpected factors. She couldn't abandon a previously sowhat effective strategy just because of those unexpected outcos!
After lengthy consideration, she decided to write the script according to the following principles.
First, this film couldn't be truly funny. Cody film audiences mostly seek entertainnt; they may not need a cody film to have profound aning, but they definitely need it to make them laugh heartily.
Given this, Shao Yichen would deliberately do the opposite! She would lure audiences into the theater under the pretense of a cody film, then cruelly shatter their expectations with extrely boring and padded content, ideally ruining their good mood for the entire day.
Once she achieved this, audiences would naturally reject the film, giving negative reviews online. After reaching this point, the film would likely not be far from losing its shirt.
Second, the film's cast absolutely could not include another mole like Li Xingyu with both looks and talent! Two painful experiences of profitable films had taught Shao Yichen that such moles in the crew would only stimulate other crew mbers in their efforts, ultimately leading the entire crew to beco positively motivated with healthy competition, severely damaging the film's money-losing plan.
This ti, Shao Yichen was determined not to let such a painful accident happen again!
Not only would she resolutely kick Li Xingyu out of the crew team—though she could speak so confidently now only because he had already decided to take a break—but she would firmly prevent actors like Li Xingyu from appearing in this film.
This ti, the actor selection criteria must ensure that those with looks lacked acting skills, those with acting skills lacked looks, and ideally, they would have neither.
Finally, besides these core money-losing factors, Shao Yichen also decided to maintain appearances on the surface.
Specifically, she would choose a title that had absolutely no connection to the film's content.
According to the system's requirents, this film's production cycle would be around six months. If so, its release ti would likely be between February and March of next year—right during the Spring Festival period.
That being the case, she might as well choose a title suitable for the Spring Festival atmosphere, allowing the film to blend seamlessly into the New Year's releases without attracting attention. If any viewers stumbled into it by mistake, they would be bewildered by the complete disconnect between the plot and the title, leading to negative reviews.
Right, hadn't recent Spring Festival films been fond of mythological elents? Piggy-backing on sothing like "Journey to the West" might be a good idea... "XX Journey to the West" sounded good! Of course, the content would have absolutely nothing to do with Journey to the West, since traveling west could also be abbreviated as a "journey west"...
What story should she write? Since it couldn't be funny, why not make it a mundane account? Her own life was quite boring, so why not draw material from herself...
Three hours later.
In the dead of night, Shao Yichen yawned and put down her pen with a "thud."
Finally complete! Her brand new screenplay!
"Journey to the West on Film"!
Despite the title piggy-backing on the famous novel "Journey to the West," the actual content in Shao Yichen's eyes was rely a boring account.
—Because this film's content was basically derived from Shao Yichen's filmmaking experiences, rely with appropriate adaptations. Her own experiences, in her own eyes, were indeed an extrely boring story...
Moreover, seeing the film's profitable ending, she felt sowhat inexplicably pained.
In simple terms, this film was about a con artist nad Old Tang who, to swindle money, set up an expensive film directing class without any qualifications or works. He had only three and a half students.
—A hot-tempered, rich second-generation kid nad Xiao Sun who was addicted to gaming and just wanted to find a place to idle away his days; a money-obsessed Xiao Zhu who enrolled thinking filmmaking could earn big money; a chuunibyou youth nad Xiao Sha who had absolutely no talent for directing but pursued his film dream wholeheartedly; and lastly, half a disciple, Old Tang's relative, a truly withdrawn youth nad Xiao Bai.
Originally, Old Tang's life was relatively peaceful as he hoodwinked these few people in his coaching class. But one day, the film coaching class was disrupted by a forr student. To preserve his coaching class and prove his instructor status, avoiding prosecution for fraud, Old Tang was forced to lead these three and a half disciples on a journey of deception and film-making.
As for explaining the "journey west" in the film title, Shao Yichen had already found a reason—this master-disciple group traveled west from the film coaching class to a small garden one kiloter away for shooting locations every day, hence "Journey to the West on Film."
How flawless!
Of course, to further provoke the audience and ensure everyone could find their own share of frustration in this film, Shao Yichen deliberately gave each character in the master-disciple group an unpleasant backstory, striving to make all viewers enter the theater expecting a good laugh, only to leave bewildered.
She, Shao Yichen, refused to believe that a film that started digging pitfalls from its very title couldn't lose money!
Looking at this script, Shao Yichen once again regained confidence in her talent for losing money.
Author's Note: Guessing ga without prizes: Who do Old Tang, Xiao Sun, Xiao Zhu, Xiao Sha, and Xiao Bai correspond to?
Shao Yichen: Isn't it obvious from their surnas who they correspond to in Journey to the West?
First update~
Thank you to the little angels who cast sovereign votes or watered with nutrient solution during the period from 2020-09-04 19:06:42 to 2020-09-05 11:33:40~
Thanks to the little angels who watered with nutrient solution: HSH 20 bottles; Chu n 10 bottles; Xiao Qi 2 bottles; Madman Above, The Most Delicious in the World, Making a Little Heart 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
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