Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 114 Cooperation Agency
Although it ended with a joke, Meng Bai's speech still received applause from his fellow students present.

The producer personally came on scene to talk about the audition with a group of newcomers, most of whom had never even met the crew. This kind of opportunity is only available in school.

After getting off the stage, Meng Bai did not return to his original seat. He greeted Zhang Jianing from a distance, then turned around and sat next to his "agent" senior brother Yang Ming who had been on stage before.

"Hello, Mr. Meng." Seeing him coming, Yang Ming bowed and shook hands with him enthusiastically.

"You're too polite, senior brother. Now that we're back to school, there's no need for us to bother with each other." Meng Bai said politely.

Similar to Meng Bai, Yang Ming was also a well-known person when he was in the Central Academy of Drama. He started his own business in his freshman year and set up art exam training classes. In his junior year, he was recommended to join Zhou Xun's management team. He switched from the directing department to become an agent.

After working for a few years, he quit and worked with his classmates in the Internet industry for two years, but did not achieve any results. After that, he returned to the agent industry, joined Huayi, and became AB's agent.

"So, senior brother, you are from Huayi now?" Meng Bai asked curiously.

Yang Ming shook his head and said, "No, I left Huayi at the beginning of the year. Now, I am mainly responsible for AB's studio, and I do the rest on my own."

The two started chatting off the stage. Like Meng Bai, Yang Ming was also very interested in Arclight Films, especially online dramas and video websites.

In his words, the traditional film and television sector has been divided among the major established film and television companies. If you want to grow and develop, you have to seize those emerging markets.

This development plan coincides with that of Arc Light Films, and Meng Bai's ideas on traditional artist management and pan-network promotion are exactly what Yang Ming had considered before, and they both felt a sense of agreement.

"So, junior brother, do you also want to be an artist agent now?" Yang Ming asked.

Meng Bai said: "It's more of a need than a desire. Online dramas are a new market, and most of the main actors are newcomers. It's difficult for us to sign them or not."

Yang Ming nodded in agreement. Indeed, training newcomers like this is quite embarrassing for film and television production companies. If they train, it will be time-consuming and laborious; if they don't train, it will feel like a waste.

More importantly, training new talents is like opening a blind box, and no one knows which one will become popular in the end.

It doesn't matter to established companies like Huayi, which have many projects and sufficient staff, and there are plenty of opportunities for newcomers. They just select a group of newcomers like raising insects, and if one of them becomes popular, they will make a lot of money, and if one of them doesn't become popular, they won't lose money either.

This is also why many large film and television companies sign their own artists.

But for a new company like Arclight Pictures, signing new people and training them seems a bit useless.

"If we don't sign, it feels like we are helping others; if we sign, we don't have a professional management team." Meng Bai sighed, "We can't just sign and let them fend for themselves."

"In that case, why don't you find a brokerage company to cooperate with, transfer the brokerage contracts of the newcomers, and keep the film and television contracts if necessary." Facing his junior, Yang Ming did not hesitate to speak his mind and gave a suggestion.

Meng Bai smiled and said, "I was thinking the same thing, but I don't know much about artist management. I met you today, and I wanted to learn from you to see if there is a suitable option."

When Yang Ming heard this, his eyes flickered slightly and he looked as if he was thinking about something.

Seeing this, Meng Bai asked, "Why, Senior Brother, do you have any suitable recommendations?"

"Ha, to be honest, Junior Brother..." Yang Ming said, "Actually, ever since I left Huayi, I have always had an idea, which is to start my own independent agency."

Meng Bai said hesitantly: "You mean... you want to cooperate with Arclight Films?"

"I do have this idea." Yang Ming said frankly.

"It's just a suggestion for now." Yang Ming said, "Today's activities are quite busy and there are many people, so some things are not convenient to say. So, let's leave contact information and I'll visit you some other day and we can talk in detail."

"Okay, I'll prepare the bed for you."
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Meng Bai thought that Yang Ming's "some other day" meant that he would have to wait until after the Chinese New Year. Unexpectedly, only one day later, the other party asked him if the time was convenient.

In the courtyard of Arclight Film and Television, Yang Ming looked at the surrounding scenery and said with emotion: "Your environment is quite good!"

"It's better in summer and autumn. Now many leaves have fallen." Meng Bai said, "Half of the rent is spent on this scenery, but in the end I can only see it a few times a year."

After leading Yang Ming into the reception room, Meng Bai made tea while casually saying, "I thought you guys would be busier as it's almost the end of the year, but I didn't expect you to come so soon."

"I just happened to have some time today, so I wanted to try to ask." Yang Ming said, "Besides, Baby has a mature team now, so she doesn't need me to follow her all the time."

After a few casual pleasantries, the two turned to the main topic.

After the exchange meeting ended that day, Meng Bai used his connections to find out more about Yang Ming's specific situation.

It was roughly the same as what he said. He joined Huayi in 2011 and was in charge of AB, who had just confirmed his relationship with Huang Xiaoming. The two sides worked together for more than three years until the beginning of 2014, when AB's studio became independent and he left Huayi with it.

Although the people left, the studio still has a close connection with Huayi. Not to mention the relationship between Huang Xiaoming and AB and Huayi, more than half of the managers and staff in the team also came from Huayi.

So even though AB's studio is independent in name, the right to speak is actually in the hands of "Huang Yang" and Huayi, and Yang Ming is at best a senior manager.

It was for this purpose that he thought about starting over and establishing his own agency.

"Actually, Brother Xiaoming and Baby are fine. They basically don't care about the specific affairs of the studio. It's mainly about Huayi..." Yang Ming smiled. He was not very familiar with Meng Bai, so he didn't say the rest of the words.

Meng Bai understood what he hadn't finished saying. Like himself, this senior brother was not someone who liked to always obey other people's orders.

Yang Ming went on to introduce that he and several classmates who had started a business together had registered a company called "Taiyang Chuanhe", but it is still in its infancy.

Unlike film and television production companies, Meng Bai can rely on his own scripts as a stepping stone to build Arclight Films from scratch.

But the agency doesn't play it this way. If they want to develop, it's impossible for Yang Ming to start from scratch with a clean slate. Popular artists and resources are the foundation.

"There is no problem with the artists. I want to continue working with Brother Xiaoming and Baby." Yang Ming introduced.

In the early days, AB became somewhat famous in the domestic entertainment industry almost entirely because of her identity as "Huang Xiaoming's girlfriend".

But now it is different. This year, Jiangsu and Zhejiang TV introduced South Korea's "national variety show" "Running Man" and created a Chinese version of "Running Man". With Yang Ming's efforts, AB became the only female member of this variety show.

With the popularity of the show, AB became an overnight sensation, instantly becoming one of the new top-tier "85 Flowers" from a second- or third-tier artist.

Therefore, if Yang Ming's new company can directly transfer AB over, coupled with the help of Huang Xiaoming later, it would be equivalent to having a king bomb start.

(End of this chapter)