Age of Legends

Chapter 146 Project Establishment
The development of documentaries in China has entered a long and slow period of development for a long time.

There were many documentaries during this period, which seemed very prosperous, but when you zoom in on it, you will find that it is all false prosperity.

The subject matter, language, style, and structure are all similar, and have generally fallen into the state of template homogeneity.

More importantly, there is no direction and no topic.

Occasionally, there are documentaries, but their dissemination is limited to professional circles, and there is very little social dissemination and influence. Basically, no documentary work can reach the so-called "out-of-circle" level.

And this state will continue for a long time in the future.

How long? From the late 1990s until the release of A Bite of China in 2012, it was not until the millennium documentary in China that a wide range of social dissemination was truly opened up. It can be said that after a long period of chaos, a sword opened up the sky.

During this long period of time, the domestic documentaries that have been produced continuously have been going in circles.

During this process, with the development of foreign television festivals, the hot international documentary market has appeared in the eyes of domestic practitioners. They only see their own TV stations introducing European and American documentaries at high prices, which has an impact on the Chinese people and also on the concepts of all fellow practitioners.

At that time, most audiences would watch BBC documentaries and say, "This kind of film is called a documentary!" People couldn't help but want to watch them one by one. First of all, they had to be attracted by the exquisite production, and then they could accept the knowledge, the meaning and the truth behind it.

At this time, practitioners began to have a vague passion for the emergence of new ideas like in the 90s, but all practitioners had no direction. They looked up to foreign films, while all their own documentary films had failed and they felt that they could never catch up.

This is not surprising. Just like the film industry, the crown documentary in the television industry is only possible after the overall industrial development of the country.

For example, how can the underwater exploration and flying shooting techniques in BBC documentaries be achieved in China? Even the famous CCTV cannot easily mobilize helicopters for shooting and aerial photography.

These were things that only the capitalists with deep roots at that time could do.

Even for the documentary team of CCTV in China, the pitiful project funding is surprisingly low. Ten years later, the real "A Bite of China" team only had 400 million yuan for filming. Of course, with the CCTV name, some local resources could be mobilized during the process. But it was still very limited. Once when I was filming, I saw someone's agricultural plant protection aircraft about to fly, so I ran up to them and said hello, saying that I was from CCTV, could I help hang a camera and fly it again? They thought of CCTV, so they flew it for me! This is how the makeshift team formed the aerial photography.

So it is not surprising that domestic documentaries have been confined to fixed template forms for a long time.

But Zhang Chen's words awakened Chen Xiao in front of him.

Chen Xiao felt that Wang Bowen was right, and he was quite impressed by Zhang Chen. As a graduate of a media university, he had seen the current domestic situation, but he had no direction. Zhang Chen's simple analysis today, "shooting our own documentary in the BBC way", gave Chen Xiao a lot of enlightenment.

The young man completely rejected his filming plan, but then immediately put forward his own idea which was like tearing through the clouds to see the moon.

This filming plan, which incorporates botany, ecology, physical chemistry, and human sociology about food, has such brilliant ideas, multiple dimensions, rich overall presentation, and profound meaning, that even if Chen Xiao just thought about it for a moment, he was fascinated by the prototype of the documentary.

It was like a gift that came through time and space, like a gift from the future, which made him feel excited and thrilled as if he had been pointed in a direction.

On that day, he insisted on inviting Zhang Chen and Wang Bowen to the steel pipe factory to eat skewers. They continued to chat while eating the skewers, feeling that they had found a soulmate.

He is now completely convinced by Zhang Chen.

After eating and drinking well, when it was time to say goodbye, Chen Xiao felt a little melancholy. "This is a very good topic. I have a feeling that it will be great if it is filmed. But unfortunately... this documentary is unlikely to be made. CCTV's approval of documentaries now has to be ranked after many other projects. It is difficult to get a project approved. It will take many years to get it approved... Alas. It probably won't be able to be made."

It was not until 2010, faced with the long-term slump in the domestic documentary industry, that the country realized the importance of documentary as the crown of the television field. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Documentary Industry", and CCTV established a documentary channel in 2011 to provide separate support for documentaries.

At this time, it is very likely that this kind of topic plan from Chen Xiao personally will not be approved at all.

So Chen Xiao just felt extremely regretful and helpless.

"What if we film it and sell it to CCTV in the form of broadcasting rights?" Zhang Chen asked.

"You filmed it yourself? Are you sure?" Chen Xiao discovered that Zhang Chen was quite gambling and seemed to be ready to take a big gamble right away.

Of course, if it is really like what Zhang Chen said, something that can perfectly present the content he described, Chen Xiao knows that CCTV has countless talents who can recognize the treasure at a glance. The premise is that Zhang Chen can shoot the content he outlined. Chen Xiao himself feels that this is very difficult.

When launching a project, there is often no detailed planning. In many cases, there is just a topic and a direction, and then we start to gather a team, exchange ideas, and think outside the box. Finally, we set the tone and shooting plan, and then we implement it step by step.

So basically, it is usually large organizations that grasp the direction and provide a guarantee, just like CCTV and some local TV stations, who decide on topic selection, planning, and then launching projects.

Generally speaking, it is the TV stations and big production companies that control the direction. Individuals cannot bear the risks behind this.

But now, someone told him that he should make it himself and sell it to CCTV.

At any other time, Chen Xiao would say "You are so arrogant!" Do you know how CCTV reviews? How dare you say that? What if CCTV doesn't buy your film? Do you know what the requirements are? What kind of quality does it need to achieve to pass the internal film purchase review meeting?

But now he is not sure. On the one hand, the ideas and concepts proposed by Zhang Chen today completely defeated him in this brainstorming.

After meeting Zhang Chen today, he realized that his previous ideas had many shortcomings and were immature. In terms of the amazingness, were there any details that Zhang Chen mentioned? In terms of the overall system level, was there any so-called meaning and depth of decomposing and exploring various fields? None of them were achieved.

However, this does not mean that Zhang Chen can present what he imagines. There are many people in this world who talk big but do nothing. Some are full of ambitions and have a lot of theories, and are better than anyone else. But when it comes to putting them into practice, their true colors are revealed.

Those who are really good at theory and can actually do it have all changed the world and are remarkable figures in history. But such people are very rare, one in a million, so they are so precious.

Chen Xiao didn't think he had actually encountered such a person today.

But...it's worth looking forward to.

"If you can really produce it, and it's really as effective as you said before, I guarantee that CCTV will definitely buy it. But are you sure you want to produce it yourself? Have you ever thought about how much it will cost? If the finished film doesn't meet CCTV's purchase standards, it can be said that the investment is in vain." Zhang Chen said, "Don't worry about this, just get the production done first, but we are too short of manpower now, can we cooperate with CCTV, for example, you can be the chief director, my godfather can be the executive director, you can help to make connections, find the CCTV team, we will pay, and then CCTV will get the broadcasting rights."

"This is called copyright exchange. It means that you don't have enough resources, so you use copyright to exchange for CCTV's resources, such as teams, knowledge consultants, etc. It's impossible to just get the broadcasting rights. CCTV will require copyright." Chen Xiao shook his head.

Zhang Chen proposed several more plans, but Chen Xiao shook his head. It was simple. CCTV's cooperation model required copyright, either purchasing the film or commissioning the production.

For someone like Zhang Chen, if he asks CCTV to get involved in the production, it will basically not work if they don’t give him the copyright.

"If you only give CCTV the broadcasting rights, you can only produce it yourself first and then negotiate with CCTV. I still say that generally there is nothing to discuss, but there is one exception, that is, if this film is really as good as you said, then everything can be discussed!"

Chen Xiao said.

"If you have really decided, then that's it. Due to my position at CCTV, I can't shoot this for you, but I can be your consultant. I know a lot of director teams, some of whom are from CCTV. They all have experience and high level in shooting related documentaries for CCTV. I can help you make connections, but there is one thing: you need to pay a certain amount of labor fees!"

Zhang Chen nodded, "That's no problem, we'll discuss the details later."

"Okay, let's get in touch later!" After the initial contact, Chen Xiao returned to the main station.

……

After Chen Xiao left, Zhang Chen discussed it with Wang Bowen again.

“Is this really all you’re going to shoot?”

"Godfather, don't you have confidence?"

"To be honest, this is my first time doing such a big project, so I don't have much confidence. How much does this whole package cost?"

“It may cost 300 million.”

The original production of A Bite of China cost RMB 2012 million, and a large number of non-CCTV directors were hired, all of whom were paid for their work, which was a first. However, considering the factors of the times, the purchasing power of RMB 2001 million in and RMB million in are two different concepts.

Of course, there are some differences here. For example, the equipment used for filming is more expensive in this era, but labor is cheap and the services involved are also much cheaper.

Moreover, the requirements for the shooting equipment of the subsequent original works were actually lower in this era, and people were not so picky about vision. Of course, Zhang Chen intends to restore the original work as much as possible. In fact, the visual level of documentaries in this era is not low at all. Although people's TV sets generally do not have the 4k, 6k, and 8k ultra-clear digital images of later generations, the aesthetics of the basic standard-definition screen are online.

This is also the reason why Zhang Chen wants to find the CCTV team. CCTV has a lot of talents, especially in the field of documentary production. As for the production cost, based on the budget in the previous life, 300 million is estimated to be enough.

"300 million...it's so little. I thought that according to your idea, it might not be possible to produce it with less than twice this amount." Wang Bowen was a little surprised.

"I don't know the details, I still need to research, but I think the budget is about 300 million. It doesn't make sense to have more. This is not a documentary that costs a lot of money. We are shooting food, and sometimes what we need is creativity."

Wang Bowen nodded. "Then I'll make a detailed budget when we get to the specific planning stage to see if it's different from your estimate."

Zhang Chen was also a little dazed. He didn't expect Chen Xiao to come to see him, nor did he expect that after just a few talks, the plan seemed to be finalized.

There was no such plan before, and this was completely beyond Zhang Chen's expectations.

After he was reborn, not everything was done according to plan. He just went with the flow and tried his best to soar by taking advantage of simple opportunities such as the appreciation of real estate.

Who really wants to shoot these things? It’s time-consuming and laborious, and it’s not as good as the Internet, which can snowball investors’ money. All of these are hard-earned money.

But who knew that these series of chain reactions would push him to the path he is on now. Even if he was doing a TV show, he just wanted to rely on Wang Bowen to create an emotional whirlpool and take the route of explosive small plots.

It was all Liu Bingrong's fault that their program was banned, forcing him to ask his godfather to launch the International Digital Culture Festival to break through, and shoot promotional videos such as A Bite of Rongcheng, which inspired Chen Xiao to come all the way for a while, and thus the future of A Bite of China was finalized.

This is true. Sometimes when I look back, I wonder if what is said in the history and political textbooks is really true. In the torrent of history, many things are destined to appear in the surge of light and dark event lines. The difference lies in who is responsible for the process of making things come into the world.

However, documentaries like "A Bite of China" can only have such a great influence through the platform of CCTV.

Therefore, Zhang Chen still chose to cooperate with CCTV first, but he did not ask CCTV to buy the film, but to buy the broadcasting rights, or he could directly exchange the broadcasting rights for advertising revenue without paying any money. Copyright is the cash cow that Zhang Chen really wants to control.

CCTV in later generations had no idea that A Bite of China would become so popular, with the entire series of advertisements selling for two or three hundred million yuan.

The CCTV bidding war is still going on, so the advertising revenue will not be much lower than in the future, and may even directly bring a peak in revenue. So Zhang Chen may not have been unwise, relying on this series to intervene in advance and get a large share.

This is a great deal. Secondly, there is another benefit of having the copyright. With the reputation of CCTV, the film can be sold abroad in the future, and cultural exports can earn foreign money. The income from film purchases in foreign capitalist markets and the income in US dollars are probably something that is simply unimaginable in China.

Therefore, the copyright must be in my own hands no matter what. CCTV has no chance of approving the topic selection and even if it is approved, it may take several years. But if I and my godfather produce it first, the initiative will be in my hands.

"Godfather, don't you think this is a bit risky?" Looking at Wang Bowen who supported him unconditionally, Zhang Chen still asked one more question.

"Adventurous? It is a little risky." Wang Bowen nodded. "But, Zhang Chen, ever since I filmed A Bite of Rongcheng, it has been the best thing I have ever filmed in my life. I feel addicted! And after you talked about the idea of A Bite of China, I felt like a new meaning of my life appeared, which is to escort this film and see what kind of effect and shock it can bring to the audience after turning these imaginary things into reality."

"Your godfather, I'm beginning to feel that by being with you, we can turn the world upside down!"

(End of this chapter)