The Fantasy Entertainment Empire

The director of the film project "De Marcia: Glory" does not have that high level of talent requirements. On the contrary, it needs more execution.

Being able to strictly implement the shooting plan and shooting process, and complete the expected shots with quality and quantity, this is all the requirements of Versace for the director of the film "De Marcia".

In this case, there is no need to choose those famous directors.

Neither cost-effective nor inappropriate.

Famous directors are very expensive, and at the same time, the general directors have a relatively strong desire to control their own film works, and they will hope that the film can be shot according to their own ideas. This is especially true for domestic directors.

This is also the difference between the so-called ‘heavy industry films’ in China and Hollywood. Hollywood commercial films are centered on the producer, the director is in charge of the studio work, and even the film editing rights are not available. In China, the more popular one is the big director system, and the director is the boss of the project.

"De Marcia: Glory" doesn't need a big director, a director who has many ideas of his own and wants to put his own mark in the film.

Therefore, it is relatively more important to choose a director who has a certain amount of shooting experience, has strong enough execution ability, and can't mess around.

In the end, Fan Zhe chose the director named Liu Minghui, a young director who was only 27 years old this year. He graduated from the Nortel Directing Department. At the beginning, he made short films and had experience in directing feature films once. It was a low-cost film.

Although the resume was mediocre, but he performed well in the interview, Fan Zhe chose.

Next, Liu Minghui will work with multiple producers sent by Dimension Entertainment to build the crew.

Ever since, in mid-December, when the three parties signed the League of Legends film and television development contract with Penguin and Fist in mid-December, the first film project was already in full swing. Up.

According to the contract that Dimension Entertainment reported to Penguin, the total investment of this "Demacia: Glory" is 800 million yuan, about 117 million US dollars, which is undoubtedly a big investment in the film.

In accordance with the contract, both parties have fully invested in the investment, each paying 400 million yuan.

This time, for the budget of "Demacia: Glory", Dimension Entertainment has made the accounts particularly clear, especially when it comes to the ‘Dimension Technology’.

‘Dimensional technology’ is Fan Zhe’s skin to cover up his ‘dimension system’.

At the same time, this is known as the most mysterious place in the whole company. Apart from Fan Zhe himself, only Ye Jiayi has done some accounting work for Dimension Technology. Apart from that, almost no one has contacted it.

In the past, Dimension Entertainment's works were self-invested and self-financing projects, so the accounts on special effects were not particularly detailed. In many places, we put a rough value and finished it. Anyway, we paid Dimension Technology. Money will eventually return to Dimension Entertainment's accounts in the name of investment.

Therefore, the related production costs, especially the cost of special effects and post-production, are not very rigorously estimated. After all, it is left-handed and right-handed.

But this time, it was different. Half of the funds for the movie "Demacia: Glory" came from Penguin.

If this were to reduce the production cost, it would be a big loss.

Ever since, Ye Jiayi also took out a detailed post-production cost accounting, analyzed the number of shots, quality, time, etc. of the special effects. In the name of "Dimensional Technology", he took out a quotation, which can be provided to Penguin. Check it out.

Ye Jiayi dared to take the entire financial department of Dimension Entertainment as a guarantee. Penguin couldn't find out anything about this cost accounting list.

In fact, there is really no problem. The quotation is based on the market price, and the production level is a bit higher than the market level. What's the problem?

Those special effects studios in Europe and the United States that provide technical support for Hollywood, achieve the same level, and offer even higher prices than ‘dimension technology’—they have always been like this. Hollywood companies have a price, and foreign companies have a price.

Dimension Entertainment's budget for the entire visual production has reached 550 million yuan, which is more than 80 million US dollars.

Zhang Yanping was shocked when he received this quotation, but after careful calculation, he found that there was no problem with the accounts.

But this number still makes him feel scared-a total budget of only 800 million yuan, which has not even been determined by the actors, and the post-production first has been set aside 5.5?

Lao Zhang called by himself: "Um... President Ye, is the special effects budget we made a bit too high?"

His tone was somewhat euphemistic.

"Mr. Zhang, why do you think so?"

"The remaining two hundred and five hundred million budget, apart from the cost of some film shooting, the remaining money should not be a lot, it is difficult to invite too many great star lineups..."

This is where Zhang Yanping is more worried.

In the current domestic film environment, the cast is a particularly expensive place. It's not just some money-making movies, even some big productions, but also like to spend a lot of money on the cast. It seems that if you don't get a vote of the actor, the traffic niche, it is not a domestic blockbuster.

On the contrary, spending money on production is relatively small.

Of course Zhang Yanping knows that this "Demacia: Glory" must be focused on special effects, but it doesn't need to be so expensive, right? For the remaining money, even if a lot of green screen shooting will be used, there are still a lot of fine real-life shots that need to be set up for shooting, a lot of equipment rentals, crew salaries, a lot of group performances needed for war scenes...

How much money can be left after these are removed? How many actors can you hire?

"Our budget for the three main actors is about 80 million yuan, including other supporting roles, the total should not exceed 90 million." Ye Jiayi replied.

"...Only this tens of millions of dollars? We hope to find some Hollywood movie stars to play roles..."

"Our thoughts are just the opposite." Ye Jiayi said, "We plan to find certain domestic stars."

"Oh?" Zhang Yanping was a little dazed: "But... LOL is a story with a Western background..."

"So what?" Ye Jiayi said relaxedly, "Hollywood can use white people to make money-making works exclusively for the Chinese film market. Why can't we use Chinese people in the context of Western stories?"

"Is this... really appropriate?"

"We have begun to actively communicate with many domestic first-line film actors such as Peng Yuyan, Xie Tingfeng, Deng Chao, Chen Kun."

"No, Mr. Ye, I think I still have to talk about it." Zhang Yanping said on the phone, "Now, according to our analysis of the global film market, using white actors can be compared globally. Strong acceptance, including in the domestic market; and if actors of the yellow race are used, their performance in the domestic market may be better, but in the global market, their competitiveness will significantly decline..."

Ye Jiayi said: "We also understand this. However, we lack sufficient budget to invite multiple Hollywood movie stars. If only ordinary white actors are used, there will be no appeal. Secondly, instead of focusing on the goal. In the global market, the first thing we need to do is to grasp the domestic market. Without a domestic market, the global box office is just a cloud."

The current Chinese film market is no longer what it used to be.

In the past few years, China’s film market has flourished. From the very beginning, it was not taken seriously, and it quickly became an extremely important part of the global film market. It quickly surpassed Europe and became the second largest market after North America. In 2018, the box office of the Chinese mainland market surpassed North America and became the world's largest ticket warehouse.

Obviously, it is a movie made by a Chinese company. It doesn't take into account the world's largest ticket warehouse and licks the domestic audience, just thinking about licking the European and American markets. Isn't that silly?

"The Great Wall" is a counterexample.

In other words, for the movie "De Marcia: Glory", the performance in the domestic market is the key to success, and the overseas market can only be regarded as the icing on the cake.

This is completely different from the environment faced by "Taiwu 2" this year. After all, domestic single-player game players still have a significant gap between their desire to pay and their ability to pay for the time being and the international market.

Movies and games are two completely different situations. Although the domestic film market is always said to be immature, it is far better than the game market.

According to the agreement, Dimension Entertainment has the final decision on content production, and Penguin only has the right to make suggestions. Ye Jiayi doesn't need to say so much, telling the other party a result and it's over.

However, after all, the cooperation between the two parties, and this cooperation on the film and television project of "League of Legends", is not surprising and will last for ten years. Therefore, it is more important to explain well, maintain a good cooperative attitude, and have a more harmonious cooperative relationship.

In the end, the result of this communication ended with Ye Jiayi persuading Zhang Yanping.

"Come according to your ideas." Zhang Yanping said, "I only hope to succeed in the end, at least let us continue to do this series..."

He has been quite smug recently.

They negotiated a cooperation and spent 400 million on the first film project. They are looking forward to seeing the film, and within two years, this "De Marcia: Glory" will be released, and then in the domestic market and even the entire world. In the market, what kind of wind and rain can be rolled up in the end.

As long as the first work is successful, the subsequent series will keep up with a large number of projects one after another, and there will be more places to make money.

Even making a superhero series similar to Marvel is not impossible to imagine.

But at the same time, if the film fails, it will also bring a heavy blow to this cooperation between the two parties.

Even Zhang Yanping, who is in a high position and has experienced many ups and downs, would feel both anticipating and apprehensive.

But this energy hasn't passed yet, and the next words of Ye Jiayi made his heart tremble.

"Not only the project of "De Marcia: Glory", in March next year, we are also preparing to make another LOL movie, which is expected to be released within six months after the release of "De Marcia: Glory."

"What? In two or three months, do you have to open new projects?"

On the phone, Zhang Yanping's attitude was a little gloomy.

Ye Jiayi is very normal: "Yes, it should be an independent movie of'The Hunter in the Night. Vine'. There should not be many original heroes involved in this project. The main character is VN, but the investment amount should not be too small. 650 million should be required."

"Too radical, isn't it?" Zhang Yanping was a little worried.

He is still worried here about whether the first hero movie will be successful and whether it will hit the street. Renjia Dimension Entertainment is already preparing to carry out two projects at the same time.

"We have full confidence in the works and in the LOL series." Ye Jiayi said, "I mentioned this to you. I want to ask, does your company have any ideas for follow-up investment on this project?"

"An investment of 650 million... Let us think about it."

"Okay." Ye Jiayi said, "However, I hope you can do it as soon as possible. Project preparations should start in January and will officially start after the year, so we hope you can give us a reply within a month."

Zhang Yanping reluctantly said: "Well...then let's...go discuss it."

After hanging up, Zhang Yanping wiped his face.

Dimension Entertainment established the VN independent film project. This news was a bit too sudden for him. Before that, he hadn't prepared at all.

For Penguin, this is not just news, it also means an investment of at least 300 million yuan.

Three hundred million! This is not a small sum of money.

Before, Penguin had already spent 400 million on "De Marcia: Glory". We haven't seen the return of the investment yet, so there will be 300 million going to be spent soon?

This was completely unexpected by Penguin Pictures ~www.wuxiahere.com~ so that they did not prepare the funds at all.

Of course, after all, backed by the giant penguin, Penguin Pictures has no shortage of funds if it wants to. But the premise is that their back-end support.

In terms of pure profitability, let alone 700 million, Penguin Pictures could not get the previous 400 million. From the perspective of "Penguin Pictures" alone, their profitability is quite limited. Take four. 100 million in cash is very difficult.

But on the other hand, if Dad Penguin behind them is willing to give money, let alone 700 million, seven billion will be easily taken out.

It just depends on whether they are willing to give it.

This is also a lot of pressure for Zhang Yanping. Don’t you know if the previous work is successful or not, just do the second one?

He thought about it for two or three days, and talked with his subordinates, and finally decided to keep up.

Play, just play with big pens. Four hundred million have been invested, but still another 300 million?

However, when he applied for more investment funds from the group headquarters, he was rejected.