"Leaving so soon?"Yuan Hai asked in surprise.
He thought to himself that Huang Tianlin had nothing to say now.
Chen Siqi said: "There is still a lot of work to do in China, so I can't stay for long."
"Then..." Yuan Hai suddenly realized something. Lu Yanhe's notice list is full today and tomorrow. He has shooting tasks from morning to night. "How about I ask them to make some adjustments. Yanhe, I'll give you a day off tomorrow and let you shoot other scenes first."
Before Lu Yanhe could say anything, Chen Siqi immediately said, "Producer Yuan, there's no need to give him a day off because of me. I don't need him to accompany me. I'm too lazy to go anywhere. It's quite interesting to watch him act on the set. I haven't seen him act live for a long time."
Upon hearing this, Yuan Hai looked at Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe nodded.
Yuan Hai: "Okay, if you need anything, just tell me, don't be polite to me."
Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi looked at each other and nodded to Yuan Hai.
Yuan Hai helped them tear the chicken and put it on the small table. He didn't leave in a hurry. Instead, he took off his disposable plastic gloves and said to Chen Siqi, "Siqi, I want to talk to you when I'm free later in the afternoon. Is that convenient?"
Chen Siqi nodded, "Of course it's convenient. I'll be on the set this afternoon. Producer Yuan, just come and see me when you're free."
As soon as Yuan Hai left, Chen Siqi immediately said to Lu Yanhe, "This Mr. Yuan is quite honest. I came here on short notice, and there are no restaurants in this remote area, but he was able to get us a local specialty roast chicken as a snack."
Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "Generally, a capable producer is quite capable. Directors can be willful in dealing with people, but it's rare to find a producer who is not very good at socializing."
"What do you think he wants to talk to me about?" Chen Siqi asked curiously.
In Chen Siqi's opinion, as a Malaysian producer, Yuan Hai actually has nothing to talk to her about alone at the moment.
Lu Yanhe shook his head, "I don't know either."
-
Chen Siqi never thought that Yuan Hai came to her just to discuss the matter of the theater.
Yuan Hai has his own production company in Malaysia, and the directors he has signed up for include more than just Huang Tianlin.
However, the local market in Malaysia is too small. Yuan Hai can only get limited investment every year, and the number of film projects he can produce is even more limited. Many people can only take on small filming projects for local TV stations, or simply take on some private work outside during their idle period.
Yuan Hai wants to participate in the Jump Up project.
"I heard that you are also recruiting directors on a large scale and setting up a production team," he said. "I wonder if there are any suitable projects. If so, see if there is any possibility of handing it over to us to shoot? We will undertake the production."
Chen Siqi looked at Yuan Hai in surprise and didn't come back to her senses for a long time.
Seeing that she hadn't spoken for a long time, Yuan Hai thought she was embarrassed, and immediately said, "It doesn't matter if you don't need it. I'm used to it. I'll try to take on more projects from outside. There are many people in the company, including the production team. It's stressful to support the team. Please forgive me."
"Ah, no." Chen Siqi shook her head. "I was just inspired. Before you told me, I had never thought of finding a filming team from abroad to do a Jumping Theater show."
Now, one of the biggest problems facing Jump Up Theater is production pressure.
In the entertainment industry, at a certain period of time, there are actually only so many directors who have the talent, time and ideas to shoot Jumping Theater, including those who have been discovered and those who have not. It is impossible for them to be as numerous as crucian carp in the river for you to choose from.
Now that Jump Up Theater has just started, the reserves of directors and production team members can still support the filming of so many dramas. However, as the good directors found before have been used up, it will become increasingly difficult to find production teams to shoot suitable projects.
After all, she couldn't ask those directors who had already succeeded in the Jump Up Theater to use the salary they earned from the first Jump Up Theater play to shoot the second and third. The Jump Up Theater model was also doomed, even if the production budget could increase with the increase in advertising fees, it would never increase to the point where the market price could be paid.
This is just the most basic difficulty.
The model of Jump Up Theater must rely on the emergence of a steady stream of new directors and other creators to form an effective cycle, so that it can continue filming on this basis.
Chen Siqi knew before that Lu Yanhe's Linghe Company was actually looking for suitable young directors in Southeast Asian countries and regions to cooperate with. However, probably because there are many international cooperations in the film industry, there are actually many technical personnel from foreign countries in Chinese film crews, including many well-known directors, who actually carry out a lot of international cooperation. Therefore, Chen Siqi never thought that Jump Up Theater could also find a production team from overseas.
On the one hand, this is because there has almost never been such a precedent in the field of TV dramas, and everyone naturally thinks that if you hire a director from abroad to shoot a TV series, it will not be a good show. After all, TV series are, to some extent, more down-to-earth than movies, and they require an "insider" who truly understands Chinese culture to produce a story that the audience likes more.
On the other hand, Chen Siqi herself also felt that with such a low-budget play, the Dance Theatre couldn’t even afford to hire slightly famous domestic directors, so how could it afford to hire foreign directors?
As soon as Yuan Hai opened his mouth, Chen Siqi suddenly realized that not all foreign directors are expensive.
China's film and television market is already the largest in the world. This has also led to a surge in the salaries of film and television production staff. However, places like Malaysia and Thailand do not have such a large market, and their film and television production talent is not that high.
Two to three million RMB to shoot a two to three episode drama may be a very low cost for the Chinese market, but it may not be a low budget for Malaysia.
The question is, can the people here in Malaysia really shoot it? Can they shoot it well?
Regarding this question, if someone else volunteered, Chen Siqi might have to do more research and find out more about the other party's background. But this person is Yuan Hai, who has a legitimate production company and has done many film and television projects. Moreover, the most important thing is that he is Chinese and speaks Chinese fluently, so his cultural background is similar to Yuan Hai.
The shows shot at the Jumping Theater are not historical or serious dramas.
Chen Siqi said, "Mr. Yuan, I'm very interested in this proposal. I want to learn more about your production company. By the way, you should know that the production budget of each play of our Jump Up Theater is basically only about 600,000 US dollars, right?"
Yuan Hai nodded: "I heard about it."
"That's good. To be honest, although the production budget of Jump Up Theater will increase a little in the future, it will definitely not increase dramatically. It is impossible for a drama to cost tens of millions of dollars like those American, British or even Korean dramas we know." Chen Siqi said, "If your production company is really interested in Jump Up Theater, then we can try one or two projects first."
Yuan Hai nodded.
-
When Lu Yanhe learned about Yuan Hai's idea of looking for Chen Siqi, he was quite surprised. He had not expected it.
However, if you think about it carefully, it is actually not difficult to understand.
Lu Yanhe opened his own film and television production company and knew how stressful it was to run a company.
For a company that does nothing, the labor costs plus some fixed expenses such as company rent will be eight figures.
Yuan Hai's film production company is a high-risk industry in itself, not to mention that the local market in Malaysia is too small and the competition in the Asian market is too fierce, not to mention the markets in Europe and the United States. They can only survive in a small pool.
It is difficult to find investment, and the influence of film and television dramas is not enough. Without well-known and influential creators, Huang Tianlin has become the most representative figure in Malaysian films in recent years - and he has only made one movie, which was shown to everyone at the Toronto Film Festival and received good reviews.
One can imagine how much pressure Yuan Hai was under.
To be honest, if a Chinese drama with a normal scale and a budget of tens of millions of dollars were to be given to Yuan Hai's company, they wouldn't dare to take it, not to mention whether there would be any company that would dare to give it to them. Because the company is not big enough to handle such a large project.
Jump Up Theater happens to be a theater for "small projects".
A drama with two or three episodes and a production budget of around $600,000 is exactly what Yuan Hai's production company can afford.
Chen Siqi asked: "After the past few days of interacting with him, do you think he is someone you can work with?"
"Yes." Lu Yanhe nodded without hesitation. "In fact, I have not only been in contact with him in the past few days. Since the beginning of this film, Sister Zi Yan and I have been in contact with him for half a year. Sister Zi Yan, in particular, has been in contact with him more often. Sister Zi Yan thinks highly of him."
Chen Siqi: "Then I have to change my schedule. I want to visit his company and meet his production team."
After being the editor-in-chief of Jump Up for so many years, Chen Siqi has found that when deciding whether to collaborate with someone, she increasingly needs to meet and chat with the person in person. Of course, it would be better if she could meet and chat more often. For collaborations in the field of content creation like hers, most of the time, what matters is not how well the other person's plan is done, but how reliable the person is.
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Therefore, she wanted to meet other people in Yuan Hai's company and see their production team. After working in the Jump Up Theater for such a long time, Chen Siqi had her own standards for what qualities a good producer and a good production team should have and what they should not have.
Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "Sure, but does Mr. Yuan have time to take you there? I've seen him stay on the set almost every day these past two days and he hasn't left."
"It doesn't matter. It's better if he's not here. He can ask someone else to receive me." Chen Siqi said.
Lu Yanhe nodded.
"As long as you have an idea."
"Do you know what I'm thinking about? I think I'm a little exaggerated, I might be a little crazy." Chen Siqi suddenly said.
"Ah?" Lu Yanhe asked, "What's wrong?"
“I was thinking, if the model of Jump Up Theatre can be replicated, maybe in the future we can go around the world to collect production talents. Not only can they cooperate with us and film the novels in our Jump Up magazine, but we can also find scripts locally and film local stories. We can set up Jump Up's Malaysia branch, India branch, Singapore branch…”
"After I thought about this, I suddenly wondered why the overseas edition of Jump Up has not been very effective. In addition to the fact that physical books are not doing well, there is another point that I forgot. Even though the overseas edition of Jump Up is no longer a magazine but a theme book, the authors and articles on it are all from China. For local readers, it is too unfamiliar. I was thinking that when I continue to work on the overseas edition, I would like to invite local writers to make a theme book and invite several influential local writers to write articles around this theme."
Lu Yanhe was quite inspired by Chen Siqi's proposal.
“This sounds like it’s worth a try.”
Before, they had always been thinking about letting "Jump Up" "go out", so they forgot that many times, the premise of "going out" also requires them to "go in" better.
This approach has actually been used many times in the film and television industry. If you value an overseas market, you can find an actor from the country where the market is located to act in the film.
Behind the so-called international lineup are actually the simplest business considerations.
However, their previous idea of making an overseas version of "Jump Up" was constrained by the fact that they already had a lot of good works published. They preconceived that the problems with the overseas version of "Jump Up" were due to insufficient publicity, the downturn in the physical publishing industry, and the failure to connect a good book with a market.
In fact, what they think is good may not be so good to local readers.
Just like many highly acclaimed overseas works, it was met with a cold reception when it came to China.
There are differences in cultural background and aesthetics.
-
When talking about work, Chen Siqi's eyes are bright and shining.
Lu Yanhe felt like she wanted to fly back to China the next second to discuss this matter with her team.
When Lu Yanhe came out of the shower, Chen Siqi was holding a laptop, typing furiously on the keyboard at a very fast speed.
Lu Yanhe looked over and saw that she was writing ideas for the next steps in promoting the overseas version.
The page is already filled with dense text, and ideas are pouring out like a spring.
In addition to what was just said, Chen Siqi also wrote that we can refer to the "star effect" of "Jump Up" in China when it was first launched, and invite local and even internationally famous directors, screenwriters and actors to write columns. Rather than inviting stars to shoot the cover to attract a wave of fans to buy books, it is better to use this method to create the impression of "Jump Up" as a literary treasure.
In this era, physical books are destined to never be popular, so we should stick to the niche track and bring the attributes of "Jump Up" to the extreme on this track.
There are so many people around, no matter how niche the track is, as long as you do well, you will definitely be rewarded with flowers and applause.
Lu Yanhe sat down next to Chen Siqi, put his arm around her waist, watched her type, and didn't speak to disturb her.
I don’t know how long it was, but Chen Siqi suddenly felt a heaviness on his shoulders.
When she turned her head, she found that Lu Yanhe had fallen asleep while watching.
Chen Siqi came back to her senses, closed her laptop, put it aside, and patted Lu Yanhe's thigh.
Lu Yanhe opened his eyes, a little drowsy.
He saw that Chen Siqi had already turned off the computer and asked, "Have you finished writing?"
"Well, I'm done." Chen Siqi nodded, "Go to bed."
Lu Yanhe yawned and said, "Let's go."
As a result, as soon as he got into bed, Lu Yanhe felt refreshed and no longer yawned.
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Recommended old book "I Became the Scandal Heroine Overnight" (End of this chapter)
