Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 489 Special Reward
As the deputy director, Fan was in charge of the acquisition of TV dramas and programs by CCTV.

Today, when Director Fan came to the Beijing Film Academy, his expectations for Cao Yang's documentary were not the highest.

He came to Beijing Film Academy mainly because of Cao Yang; in other words, he came in person entirely out of respect for Cao Yang.

Otherwise, how could he possibly make a personal appearance for such a small "documentary"?

This isn't about showing off or anything like that. It's just that if he has to personally handle the purchase of a documentary, how could CCTV possibly manage with so many channels and so many programs and TV dramas that they purchase or co-produce every year?

Under normal circumstances, imported programs or TV series costing no more than 20 million yuan will not be reported to his office.

He generally doesn't get involved in projects worth over 20 million yuan unless they are key projects for CCTV; they are merely documents waiting to be signed on his desk.

That is why, over the years, Director Fan has never had a single documentary document awaiting his signature on his desk.

This is because in this day and age, it's virtually impossible for a documentary to sell for more than 2000 million.

Of course, it's somewhat inappropriate to say that.

The correct statement is that, apart from CCTV, no private or other state-owned institution would invest a large amount of money to produce a documentary.

With that money, wouldn't it be better to make a TV series? TV series sell much better than documentaries.

To date, the documentaries with the highest single-episode budgets have all been produced by CCTV.

For other television stations or organizations, the consideration when making documentaries may be recouping costs and generating profits, but for CCTV, these are not the main considerations.

However, Cao Yang's documentaries are definitely an exception.

In other words, Cao Yang didn't release the news to the public; the Beijing Film Academy only notified Beijing TV and CCTV. Otherwise, Director Fan believes that there would definitely be too many people here today.

Even before watching the documentary, Director Fan was absolutely certain that even if Cao Yang's documentary was only moderately good, as long as the price wasn't too outrageous, the TV station would definitely be able to recoup its costs.

Director Cao's graduation project, his first documentary... Just based on this title, I believe it could fetch a high price if a TV station were to advertise it.

And most importantly, he wanted to take this opportunity to befriend Cao Yang, which was his purpose in coming here personally.

Wang, the deputy director of Beijing TV, must have come for the same purpose.

Director Fan never expected that he would actually find a treasure today; this was beyond his expectations.

Even though Director Fan isn't an expert on documentaries, he can still intuitively feel the charm of "A Bite of China" even from the perspective of an ordinary viewer.

"Should we buy the rights to 'A Bite of China'? How willing are you to buy it? How should we price it? Let's all share our thoughts."

Director Fan led the CCTV team to the small conference room next door. Without any pleasantries, they got straight to the point.

Zhu Tong is the director of the comprehensive channel and the director of the program acquisition center. Apart from Director Fan, he was definitely the first to express his opinion.

After a moment's thought, Zhu Tong said without hesitation, "A Bite of China is not a traditional documentary; it is a groundbreaking new type of documentary. This nature dictates that CCTV must be the first platform to broadcast it."

The people in the conference room all nodded in agreement.

"As for the price, we can add a necessary premium to the pioneering aspect based on the market price. Since it is Director Cao's documentary, this will reduce the risk for the station to recover its costs, and we should also give it a necessary premium."

The people in the meeting room thought Zhu Tong's words made sense, and they all nodded in agreement, acknowledging his statement.

However, the people in the meeting room subconsciously overlooked the loophole in Zhu Tong's words: which "market price" was he referring to?
CCTV categorizes its TV drama purchases by grade.

Just like the TV series "Yongzheng Dynasty" that was purchased in 98, it received a super high premium due to its top-notch screenwriter, veteran actors, and the scarcity of historical subjects, and acquired the broadcasting rights for 2600 million yuan.

A single episode set a record of 98 in 60.

Don't think this price is low; it was a record price at the time. You should know that the market price for a typical TV series was only around 8 per episode.

However, CCTV doesn't have much room for premium pricing when purchasing documentaries.

If you have full copyright, the premium is only 2 to 3 times the cost. If you only have broadcasting rights, not to mention the premium, the price will be "shrunken".

Because the best documentaries are almost all produced by CCTV, CCTV is not as enthusiastic or attentive to purchasing documentaries from other countries.

"By the way, what was the production cost of 'A Bite of China'?"

Director Fan asked a question.

"It should be at least 15 million. This is the estimate after deducting the fees of all directors, including Director Cao. If we include Director Cao and the others, it would be more than 100 million."

Zhu Tong shook his head and said with some helplessness.

One hundred million?

This is to say the least.

How much is Director Cao worth as the chief planner and director? That's hard to calculate.

Cheng Jianye, the executive producer of "A Bite of China," has won two Academy Awards for Best Picture as an executive producer. Even though he couldn't have his name engraved on the Oscar statuette due to rule restrictions, this achievement is still recognized by the market.

Gu Changwei, the director of the episode series "A Bite of China", was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography five times and won the Oscar twice. These are two genuine Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, without any exaggeration.

Ning Hao, the director of a segment of "A Bite of China," also served as the executive producer of "The Dark Knight," which is currently ranked third on the global box office chart. Moreover, his film "The Hangover," which is currently showing worldwide, is said to have grossed over $4 million.

Although Liu Shan and Li Mingyi, who are the remaining members, do not seem to have any outstanding achievements, they are Cao Yang's regular team members, and the price they charge is not low at all.

"hiss……"

A series of hissing sounds came from the conference room, and everyone, including Director Fan, felt a toothache.

The question is, how do we calculate the cost?
Before Director Fan could even figure out how to calculate the production costs for "A Bite of China," Liu Ying, deputy director of the Documentary Department III at the Film and Television Documentary Center, whispered:

"I heard that during the filming of 'A Bite of China,' the most advanced photography equipment and the large drones used for aerial photography were all provided free of charge."

Director Fan glared at Liu Ying but didn't say anything.

free?

Do you think I don't know?
So what if it's free?
Does the fact that the filming equipment is free mean that filming costs are not included?
Cao Yang used equipment for free; that's because of his ability—the manufacturer practically begged for it. These costs should definitely be factored in according to market rental prices.

"Alright, let's stop thinking about all that nonsense. Let's set the production cost for 'A Bite of China' at 1500 million yuan for now. We won't consider labor costs for the time being, otherwise we won't be able to afford it."

As he spoke, Director Fan himself laughed.

After hearing what Director Fan said, Zhu Tong also laughed.

Liang Hong, deputy director and deputy director of the Film and Television Documentary Center, did not smile.

With a production cost of 1500 million, plus the premium for Director Cao's reputation, as well as the premium for the documentary's pioneering nature and high quality... by any calculation, it would be around 3000 million, and that's definitely not the price for a full buyout.

The problem is that Liang Hong's CCTV documentary channel has an annual budget of only 1.5 million yuan, and any project exceeding 2000 million yuan requires special approval—yes, it needs to be submitted for special approval, not formally approved. But for Zhu Tong's general channel, 2000 million? 3000 million? That's nothing, just a drop in the ocean!

Looking at the smile on Zhu Tong's face, Liang Hong felt a pang of bitterness in her heart.

She came to the Beijing Film Academy with a sliver of hope that she could bring Cao Yang's documentary to the documentary channel.

But now it seems that competing with the general channel is an impossible task.

Sigh, Zhu Tong is such a person. Your channel has no shortage of high-quality films and TV dramas, so why does he have to compete with you for Director Cao's documentary?
It's a huge joke that documentaries aren't aired on the documentary channel!

Liang Hong felt a little annoyed.

Meanwhile, several people from the Beijing Film Academy were also discussing "A Bite of China".

Their main discussion revolved around whether "A Bite of China" should break with the tradition of the Beijing Film Academy by dedicating a whole day to screening Cao Yang's "A Bite of China" during the screening of outstanding graduation works from the directing department.

The graduation project screening at Beijing Film Academy can be considered an important annual talent selection and industry trend indicator event in the film and television industry. Its operational logic goes far beyond that of ordinary student achievement displays, with the core purpose of opening up upward channels for new directors and other talents.

Every year during the film festival, some private or other film companies from China come to the event to scout for talent and purchase the rights to short films that interest them.

Hou Keming and others were afraid that Cao Yang's "A Bite of China" would create comparisons among the visitors.

Even a simple visual comparison can have a very negative impact.

Because if you watch Cao Yang's "A Bite of China," even if you know you can't compare it to others, you'll still unconsciously make comparisons... and then you'll find that the other excellent graduation works from Beijing Film Academy are nothing special.

This is a subconscious comparison.

Finally, it was decided to open a special venue to prevent "A Bite of China" from being displayed alongside the graduation projects of the directing department, in order to minimize the impact.

Several veteran teachers from the Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy all had the same thought in mind: whether it was an honor or a misfortune for these outstanding graduates of Beijing Film Academy to happen to meet Cao Yang.

Cao Yang did not personally participate in the negotiations with CCTV and Beijing TV. He left those matters to the people at Beijing Film Academy, and there was no need for him to get involved.

Now that his graduation project was settled, Cao Yang breathed a sigh of relief.

It's only temporary.

In just a few days, on Father's Day, June 21, "Like Father, Like Son," the film that helped him win the final piece of the puzzle in the European Grand Slam of three major awards, will be released in China.

Although Cao Yang doesn't expect this kind of art film to gross a lot at the box office, corresponding promotion is definitely essential.

While he was busy with "A Bite of China," Wu Qihua, Huang Bo, Chen Hong, and others had already begun promoting it.

Li Xiaoran is currently filming "If You Are the One" for Xiao Gangpao, and she will be coming over in the next couple of days to participate in promotional activities.

After all, it's a movie that's very meaningful to Cao Yang, so everyone is working very hard to promote it.

On June 19, the premiere of "Like Father, Like Son" was held in Beijing.

Not only on the venue, but also in other aspects, the cards were played well.

As mentioned before, this film has special significance for Cao Yang and for Chinese cinema, so half of the entertainment industry's stars attended the premiere.

The reason it's only half is that the other half was excluded due to its lack of fame or reputation.

Not only celebrities, but also CEOs of domestic film studios and film companies, as well as many directors, all came.

Cao Yang hadn't originally intended to be so high-profile, and now these superficial efforts were meaningless to him.

However, it's not that Cao Yang can simply choose not to be high-profile if he doesn't want to. It's still roughly the same idea. The meaning of "Like Father, Like Son" is different, so it's okay to be a little high-profile.

Well, after all, Cao Yang is the only living European triple gold medalist in the Grand Slam, so it's appropriate to "show off" him at the right time.

No problem.

With a consensus reached, China Film Group and Qingdao Film Studio decided to make the premiere of "Like Father, Like Son" a grand affair.

The live broadcast on CCTV-6 (the sixth princess of CCTV) even included a few seconds of CCTV's "News Broadcast" reporting on the premiere of "Like Father, Like Son".

This wasn't arranged by Cao Yang.

It wasn't arranged by China Film Group or Qingdao Film Studio, and of course, they don't have the power to arrange for it to be featured on CCTV's "News Broadcast" for advertising.

Yes.

Don't be fooled by the host's brief statement: "According to our station, the film 'Like Father, Like Son,' which won the Golden Bear at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, held its premiere tonight at the Great Hall of the People..."

But shouldn't this be considered an advertisement?
Only the Central Propaganda Department and similar bodies have this kind of power.

With this approach, the previous publicity seems somewhat superfluous. No matter how much money is spent on publicity, it can't compare to this comprehensive promotion.

When Cao Yang learned of this news, he was somewhat stunned.

No one told him beforehand, so this was quite a shock. It's one thing to announce it when someone wins an award, but to announce it at the premiere is really a bit scary.

"This is a bit intimidating."

Cao Yang sighed to Hou Keming.

It was Hou Keming who came over, pulled Cao Yang aside, and mysteriously told him this news.

Hou Keming also gave Cao Yang a responsible look. "The news is advertising for you. Nobody will believe this if it gets out."

But this seemingly unbelievable thing actually happened.

It can only be said that Cao Yang's contributions to film over the years, combined with the special significance of "Like Father, Like Son" and other factors, led to this incredible event.

"It is a big deal. This kind of thing... can only be described as the country's trust in and high regard for you."

Hou Keming didn't know what to say. If it were anyone else, he would have immediately spouted grand principles, which was part of his political acumen. But with Cao Yang, that was all he could say.

Cao Yang originally didn't have high hopes for the box office performance of "Like Father, Like Son". After all, it's not like a few years ago, when almost any film that won one of the three major European awards would be a huge success.

If a film wins one of the three highest European awards, it's bound to be a box office hit.

In recent years, the upper limit of domestic film box office has been constantly broken, but the box office of art films has not increased much.

Given a choice, audiences still prefer to watch commercial blockbusters that bring them mental pleasure.

But with such media coverage, the box office performance is hard to predict.

Smartphones today aren't smart enough to compete with television, so news still reigns supreme.

(End of this chapter)