Depressive screenwriter.

Chapter 33 Struggle
The weather in Shanghai in September is hot.

But in such hot temperatures, the audience of the drama "Qing Feng" was chilled to the core by the plot of the eleventh episode that was released last night, as if it were a cold winter.

A TV series that was all campus love comedy and pure love in the first ten episodes, but in the eleventh episode, the heroine was inexplicably diagnosed with an incurable disease, the hero's father's company went bankrupt and his old illness recurred and he was hospitalized, and his mother became depressed overnight.
It’s classic, it’s really classic.

We've watched ten episodes of sweetness, and you're going to peel off the sugar coating in the last two episodes and feed us shit?

[Did they change the screenwriter? 】

Overnight, Qingfeng's rating plummeted from 8.0 to 5.5.

After all, the eleventh episode only gave the audience the expectation that the story would end badly, but it didn’t make it clear that it was going to end badly.

It would be different if the heroine really died in episode 12 and the show ended tragically.

Word of mouth will collapse immediately.

The office of Yoshitoki Akasaka, deputy director of the production department of Sakura TV.

In the luxuriously decorated office, there are hanging photos of the completion of a bunch of film and television dramas and variety show projects that Yoshitoki Akasaka led when he was a producer in his youth, as well as the awards and trophies won by these works.

Among them, one work even won the trophy for Xiaguo's best TV series of the year.

Anyone who enters this office can understand how he became the deputy director of the production department.

If you have connections, there will naturally be a generation of competition.

Akasaka Yoshitoki slammed his palm on the power button of his laptop, shutting down the video call with Seifuku crew producer Tu Heng, the director, and the main creative staff including his nephew Kiyota Sanji.

"Stupid, why is my sister's son so stupid."

Akasaka Yoshitoki felt like his breathing was burning.

He could never have imagined that after he made an exception and secured tens of millions of dollars in investment for a web drama, Qingfeng not only failed to take first place in the web drama performance, but even its reputation plummeted.

Although in the phone call just now, Kiyota Sanji attributed the reason for the drastic change in the plot style of the eleventh episode of Seifuku, which caused a large number of bad reviews, to the fact that Kanzaki Yusuke saw the scene of Rurouni Kenshin's explosion and insisted on imitating and changing the script.

But Akasaka Yoshitoki is not a fool. Does Kanzaki Yusuke have the courage to do this?
During the video call, Kanzaki Yusuke saw that Sanji's expression was uglier than his mother's death.

Qing Feng ended peacefully, but its reputation among this season's web dramas was not as good as Rurouni Kenshin.

But it is still a good work, and for Kanzaki Yusuke, Qingfeng's achievement is enough to gild him.

The only person who would dare to be so reckless and take such a risk to achieve good results is his good nephew, Kiyota Sanji.

TV stations only care about profit margins. As for producing a well-received classic, that is the pursuit of directors and screenwriters, not shareholders.

Therefore, even if the reputation of the drama Qingfeng has dropped to zero now, the early paid broadcast volume of the drama has already made a profit, and for Yoshitoki Akasaka, who led the project of this drama, there is no risk at all.

He was angry that Kiyota Sanji was so short-sighted.

If the best performance target cannot be achieved, it is not unacceptable to settle for the second best, it is just a bit embarrassing, but Kiyota Sanji actually chose the most risky and stupid option, which was to change the script.

Kiyota Sanji had no idea how much of an impact Qingfeng, his debut work, would have on his career if its reputation collapsed.

Moreover, Qingfeng made a big splash on Sakura.net at this critical time today.
Yoshitoki Akasaka just hoped that no one would bring up this matter at the meeting later.

It took Akasaka Yoshitoki two minutes to calm himself down, and his expression became calm and confident.

I looked at the time and it was just time.

Yoshitoki Akasaka straightened his clothes, strode out of the office, took the elevator down two floors, and came to the large conference room where the production department held meetings.

As soon as they entered, the twenty or so senior executives from the production department who were qualified to attend this meeting all took their seats.

This is a meeting to decide on the project establishment, production and investment for the TV series and movies that will be broadcast on the station next quarter.

There are now several factions competing with each other in the production department. In any company, any group or faction, there is only one focus of competition.

money!
The production funds allocated by the station each quarter will not fluctuate too much.

But there are so many producers, screenwriters, and program planners in the station who are eyeing the money.

How the money is divided, which work gets more and which gets less, and who has more say, ultimately depends on how much revenue each group has generated for the station in the past.

Holding a meeting is about dividing the cake.

The meeting started with an argument.

Before the meeting began, everyone had basically reached a consensus on which works were eligible for project funding, and now there were only differences in the specific funding amounts.

But there are also some works that were not heard of before the meeting.
such as.

"Night Sakura", a fantasy romance script written independently by Sanji Kiyota.

And the fantasy costume romance script "Ancient Love Song" in which Su Yan served as the independent creative screenwriter.

One hour after the meeting started.

Akasaka Yoshitoki looked at the two scripts on the table and his eyelids jumped. Su Yan?

Why is it him again?
He has a new script submitted this quarter?

Yoshitoki Akasaka asked his brother-in-law's family to spend a lot of money to buy a high-quality original script from a retired gold medal screenwriter who used to work for him, and put the name of Kiyota Sanji on it.

He was just waiting to make a move at this meeting and push Seida Sanji to the position.

Why did another Su Yan appear?

Akasaka Yoshitoki frowned, having a bad feeling.

He looked at the three elegant old ladies sitting at the table opposite him.

Xiaoguan Tiancai, Mei Bihong and Yu Delan.

These three people have basically had a tense relationship with him in the production department all year round. They have been friends with Shinozaki Ikumina's retired mother for many years. The four of them used to play mahjong frequently and are a well-known small circle among the senior management of the production department.

"In summary, Su Yan, a new screenwriter in our TV station's screenwriting department, fully demonstrated his extraordinary screenwriting skills in the summer. His debut work Rurouni Kenshin was invested with only 9.6 million, and it is expected to achieve an excellent performance of million paid broadcasts per episode by the end of September, breaking the record of the station's self-produced web series. In addition, this work has now received a rating of by hundreds of thousands of people, and its commercial value and reputation have exploded. Su Yan's new script Ancient Love Song has also been reviewed and is an extremely excellent work."

Xiao Guantian Cai kept talking nonsense to Su Yan, and finally said the most crucial words.

"I think that the work "Ancient Love Song" has a very bright market prospect. I propose that it be selected as a "B-level" TV series in the autumn season of Sakura TV and that 25.5 million yuan be allocated as production funds."

Sakura TV produces more than seven or eight TV series every quarter. If the station has sufficient funds and the market is hot, it is not surprising to produce more than a dozen TV series.

But not every drama can have high investment.

For this kind of thing, the TV station will classify the project before it is launched.

For example, C-level programs are broadcast during garbage time on weekdays and have a production budget of between 8 million and 15 million.

B-level dramas will be broadcast in non-prime time slots on Saturdays and Sundays, and the production budget is usually more than 20 million and less than 30 million.

As for A-level and S-level dramas, first of all, the broadcast time will definitely be prime time, and secondly, the production budget of the former is 30 to 40 million yuan, and the latter may be over 100 million yuan.

A-level dramas usually produce one or two each season, but for S-level dramas, it depends on whether there are suitable high-quality scripts, popular actors, directors, and production teams that can be put together. Even the three major TV stations are very cautious about investing in dramas of this level.
"Oh, it's just a drama with only four episodes that has achieved some success. How could a new screenwriter be given such preferential treatment? Su Yan has not even shown us that he has the ability to be the main screenwriter of a seasonal drama."

A middle-aged man with a mustache next to Akasaka Yoshitoki spoke.

"To be able to broadcast a drama on Sakura TV, it's not just about being able to control the plot within four episodes."

"On the other hand, the web series "Qingfeng" which performed well last quarter was written by a professional screenwriter, Kiyota Sanji. His debut work "Qingfeng" has achieved an average of 320 million paid views per episode so far. His new script "Ye Ying" this quarter is more trustworthy."

"I propose that Night Sakura be given the treatment of a B-level drama project and be given a production grant of 27 million. After all, screenwriter Su Yan has only achieved some success in short web dramas. Perhaps after his new script is approved, he should continue to train in the webcast market of Sakura Network."

"You can't say that." Mei Bihong chuckled, with a mocking look on her wrinkled cheeks.

"As far as I know, the reputation of the drama Qing Feng collapsed last night, and the entire Internet was scolding it. The rating dropped to less than 5.5 overnight."

"What does 5.5 mean? Sakurajima Love Song in the first half of the year only scored 4.7. This shows that Kiyota Sanji is not capable of producing a complete TV series that will be well received both in the early and late stages."

"The collapse of Qingfeng's reputation, as far as I know, is due to the behavior of another co-screenwriter, Kanzaki Yusuke, and has nothing to do with Kiyota Sanji. As a co-screenwriter, Kiyota Sanji was responsible for the script writing of the highly acclaimed early episodes, while Kanzaki Yusuke was responsible for the last few episodes." Akasaka Yoshitoki said at this time.

"If the top beam is crooked, the bottom beams will be crooked too. When a drama's reputation collapses, everyone from the screenwriter to the producer to the director, and even some people above them must be held responsible. What does the team's mistake have to do with an individual?" Yu Delan spoke with full energy, his voice louder than many men.

Akasaka Yoshitoki's expression darkened.

This is just short of openly scolding him.

The other parties in the meeting room, such as Minister Yoshizaki Shigeyoshi, remained silent and watched the two sides quarreling with each other.

Both sides knew that after the station's production budget was allocated to a bunch of previous projects, there was not much left.

It can probably only support the establishment of a B-level drama project.

Is it for "Night Sakura"?

Or should I give it to "Ancient Love Song"?

The two sides exchanged sharp words and poked at each other's sore spots.

Especially Kiyota Sanji, the drama with an investment of more than 10 million was crushed by Rurouni Kenshin with an investment of more than 1 million in terms of performance and reputation. The people on Akasaka Yoshitoki's side were speechless, their cheeks flushed but they couldn't let go.

If Kiyota Sanji's achievements can get a new script project approved for investment, why can't Su Yan?

Akasaka Yoshitoki was becoming increasingly annoyed.

How great would it be if Seifeng by Kiyota Sanji could take first place in the online drama series?

It would have been great if Kiyota Sanji hadn't lost his mind in the last two weeks and messed around with changing the script, causing the work's reputation to collapse.

Yoshitoki Akasaka glanced at the minister next to him, Shigeyoshi Yoshizaki, who was in his seventies, and a smile appeared on his face.

"Since two talented new screenwriters emerged in the TV station at the same time, this is a good thing. Why should we abandon one and promote the other?" Yoshizaki Shigeyoshi said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)