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

Chapter 323 Arclight products must be top quality

As the largest streaming platform giant in the United States, Netflix has operations in 190 countries and regions around the world.

There are only 193 member states of the United Nations.

The three countries missing out are Iran, North Korea and China.

In 2015, Netflix carried out a technical upgrade with the aim of blocking the use of the platform's services through IP proxies.

The background data surprised them.

In the Chinese market, which has almost never received any publicity or business, there are more than 2000 million users who use VPN services to "climb over the wall" to watch.

Such a huge market is a treasure for any platform. So over the years, Netflix has been trying to find ways to open up channels in the domestic market.

Unfortunately, due to the foreign investment management policies and content review restrictions in the online publishing industry, this idea has never been realized.

After hitting a wall for several years, Netflix has come to realize that it is impossible for a foreign company to conquer the Chinese market, so it is better to cooperate with domestic video platforms.

Netflix first approached Sohu and introduced the first two seasons of House of Cards to China. Unfortunately, the censorship policy became stricter and Sohu gradually fell behind in the Internet industry, so the cooperation attempt was interrupted.

After that, we contacted various platforms one after another, and finally chose to cooperate with Youku and Qiyi TV.

Netflix was still hesitating, and just at this time, "Day and Night" broke out.

More importantly, this drama is very consistent with the consistent style of American dramas in terms of subject matter, rhythm and camera shots.

Strange TV immediately contacted Netflix, hoping to use this drama as a "stepping stone" to try to cooperate.

"We are still discussing this with our North American department, so it will probably take some time."

Dai Ying sat behind her desk in the headquarters building of Qiyi TV. She looked at Meng Bai and said, "When Netflix held its Asia-Pacific Operations Meeting in Indonesia, I showed 'Day and Night' to their vice president, who gave it a very high rating. It just so happens that this cooperation is a good match, so there shouldn't be any problems."

"That's great." Meng Bai said with a smile, "We can be considered to have contributed to the film and television overseas expansion plan. Next time when we talk to Director Nie about censorship, we can be more confident."

Dai Ying also laughed, obviously getting Meng Bai's subtext.

The Radio and Television Administration has recently notified all platforms that the "new 14 articles" that were previously discussed will be officially released in September.

Starting next year, the era of "air first, review later" for online dramas will be over. From now on, all online dramas will be the same as TV dramas, which must first be reviewed and approved before they can be aired.

In other words, the bonus period of the "wild growth" of online dramas has begun to fade, and will gradually enter a stage of competitive development.

"By the way, Sister Ying, I haven't congratulated you yet." Meng Bai said, "You should call me President Dai from now on."

In recent years, online dramas have accounted for an increasingly larger proportion of the video platform's business, and the importance of Dai Ying's position as director of the self-produced drama center has also risen.

In addition, since cooperating with ArcLight Pictures, several blockbuster works have been produced in succession, and the KPI has been maximized every year.

Therefore, the top management of Qiyi TV has already received the news and plans to promote her to vice president after the company meeting in October, and have her take over all the work related to the online drama content of the entire platform.

"Boss Meng, you are more informed than us." Dai Ying waved her hand, "It has not been officially confirmed yet."

"Unless there's some unexpected thing like an alien invasion, it's almost certain." Meng Bai said affirmatively.

Seeing the other party looking at him in surprise, he explained: "After all, I am also a shareholder of Qiyi TV. Although I am not on the board of directors, I still know some news."

Dai Ying suddenly realized that, indeed, if she hadn’t said it, she would have forgotten that he was now an investor in the company.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but sigh.

When I first met Meng Bai, he was just a new screenwriter who was looking for investment with a script.

By the time we met for the second time, he was already the head of an emerging online drama team in the industry, and we started talking about project collaboration.

Today, even though they don’t own much of Qiyi TV, they are already working for him to earn money.

And this process only took four or five years.

Tsk, the encounters in life are really amazing when you think about it sometimes.

"what."

Not knowing what he was thinking of, Meng Bai suddenly laughed, waking Dai Ying from her emotion.

"what happened?"

"Nothing." Meng Bai smiled. "I just suddenly remembered that when you first came to us to discuss cooperation on "The Best of Us", you were the only woman in charge of the online drama department of several video platforms. I didn't expect that in just a few years, almost all of them have been replaced by female heads."

Dai Ying from Qiyi TV and Fang Fang from Tencent Video, these two are people Meng Bai has worked with before.

In addition, Xie Ying, vice president of Youku and general manager of the drama center, Tang Fan, general manager and chief producer of Mango TV's film and television center, and those who took over the online drama department of Leshi.com after Liu Jun left are all a group of middle-aged women.

I have to say that from this point of view, online dramas are indeed fully integrated with TV dramas.

Actually, it makes sense if you think about it.

In recent years, the traffic economy has been on the rise, and the most popular stars are a group of new generation traffic idols. As a result, the entire audience market is also dominated by female groups.

"Female viewers are more numerous, so naturally, we should focus on them when it comes to content production." Dai Ying said: "Obviously, women understand better what women like to watch."

Meng Bai smiled and said, "I'm afraid that in future dramas, there won't be much need for female protagonists. We can just have two male protagonists instead."

"That shouldn't happen." Dai Ying said, "At least we need to add a review tool."

"Haha, that makes sense."

After chatting and laughing for a few minutes, Dai Ying turned the topic back to business.

"For 'Day and Night', we will continue to promote it and keep the popularity high. Also, the filming of 'Soul Ferry: Huangquan' should be finished soon, right?"

"It will only take a few days." Meng Bai said, "But it may take a little longer to produce. This movie is almost entirely made up of special effects scenes, so post-production will be more troublesome."

It's not just the production needs of the movie itself. The more critical thing is that almost all of the top special effects teams in China have taken on the business of "The Wandering Earth", and the remaining production capacity is a bit unable to keep up.

"It's okay. We originally planned to release it next year. There's still more than half a year to go. There's no rush." Dai Ying said, "Don't mention it. I really want to see what the finished film will look like. Just by reading the script, I already thought the story was very exciting."

When she first saw the script of "Soul Ferry: Huangquan", she thought Meng Bai was going to continue the style of the feature version of the web drama and go for the "thriller and suspense" route.

But in fact, although this prequel film retains the mythological background of the original work, the entire story structure is closer to the popular fairy tale ancient idol dramas in the past two years.

Anyway, Dai Ying likes it very much, and I guess the final film will be of good quality.

Thinking of this, she laughed in her heart and thought she was worrying too much.

This is an Arclight project, and the script was written by Meng Bai, so how could it be bad?

The slogan "ArcLight's products must be high-quality" is an undeniable truth in the field of online dramas.
-
As September comes, the exciting 2017 summer season has finally come to an end.

Although the schedule has ended, the two most popular works of the summer still dominate the audience's attention.

Due to the extension of the key release date, the release date of "Wolf Warrior 2" has been extended to mid-September.

There were some complaints online, and some people felt that the film production team was being greedy, but the overall public opinion was still good.

After all, "Wolf Warrior 2" is not the first movie to be postponed.

However, the box office growth rate has slowed down significantly, with only one or two million a day. Even if it is extended for a month, it will only increase by tens of millions at most.

It is possible to reach 56 billion, but 60 billion is obviously impossible. In the film market, the popularity of "Wolf Warrior 2" is far ahead.

In the online drama market, Qiyi TV has suppressed other platforms with "Day and Night".

However, this is the era of the prosperity of online dramas after all, and several other websites are not made of clay either, and have launched their own new dramas.

Tencent Video launched the new drama "The Eternal Love" by Penguin Pictures, starring Liang Jie. Although it is a small production, it has gained more than 1 billion views in a short period of time thanks to its imaginative setting.

Youku launched a novel adaptation called "Trembling Abe", which also follows the route of imaginative ancient idol drama and is equally popular.

Although Sohu Video has fallen behind now, it still has its roots, having launched "Wu Xin: The Monster Killer 2" in collaboration with Tangren. With the fan base of the previous work, the data is still good, but the quality has obviously declined.

Even the newly launched Mango TV has launched a drama called "Dear Prince", which is also the sister drama of last year's hit drama "Dear Princess Syndrome", but unfortunately it failed to replicate the success of the previous drama.

Although these dramas were all suppressed by "Day and Night Chase" on third-party data platforms, they all made some splash among the audience.

The four or five dramas broadcast on different platforms at the same time actually have their own audience groups, which is indeed not common in the film and television industry.

It is no wonder that many people in the industry have expressed their feelings that now is truly the best era for online dramas.

After Bailu (the solar term, not Baimengyan), the summer heat begins to dissipate and the weather gradually becomes cooler.

Half a month after returning to the crew, Wu Jing finally announced the completion of filming. At this point, the plots of the "space line" and the "ground line" have all been completed, and the filming of "The Wandering Earth", which took nearly half a year, has finally come to an end.

However, for the entire film project, this progress has just begun. The next step is the more difficult post-production part.

Guo Fan didn't rest for the whole day. He came out of the studio and went straight into the post-production studio.

Just over a week after The Wandering Earth ended, Soul Ferry: Huangquan was also announced to be completed.

After all, it was just a small production, and the whole process took place in the studio, with no need for location changes, so the progress was very fast.

At the wrap party, Meng Bai found director Bai Shan and toasted him individually.

"Director Bai, I'm sorry to bother you during this period of time."

"Mr. Meng, you are too polite. This cooperation is also very pleasant for me." Bai Shan picked up the wine glass and said with a smile: "I hope I can have the opportunity to cooperate with Huguang in the future."

He really wasn't being polite.

God knows, for a director, it is a blessing to have a producer who is professional, does not interfere, and never delays funding.

Bai Shan had previously been working with his old classmate Guo Jingyu. In comparison, although Meng Bai was much younger, he did not feel that there were any omissions during the filming process.

As expected, to have built such a large business before the age of 30, he must have outstanding abilities far beyond ordinary people.

After separating from Bai Shan, Meng Bai took only two steps when he saw Bai Lu (this time) walking towards him with a wine glass.

"Boss, happy wrap-up!"

Bai Lu grinned as usual and said happily.

But seeing Meng Bai staring at her grinning mouth, she reflexively pursed her lips to cover her teeth and said with a little embarrassment: "Sorry, boss, I've already changed it, but I always forget."

"It's okay, no need to change it, it's quite personal."

Meng Bai said: "As an artist, we are not afraid of beauty or ugliness, but we are afraid that the audience will not remember us. As long as we don't interfere with the performance of the role during filming, we don't need to care so much at other times."

"Really?" Bai Lu said happily.

Her agent once told her to act more like an actress and stop grinning all day long.

It doesn’t matter when you are not famous, but if you become famous one day, it is easy for black fans to expose all kinds of “ugly photos” and affect your image.

So over the past six months, she has been reminding herself to be careful from time to time.

However, it is a habit that I have developed since childhood. If I relax a little, I will return to it.

The crew had been working together for so long, and everyone was familiar with each other, so she didn't pay much attention to it. It was not until Meng Bai looked at her just now that she suddenly realized that she had forgotten it again.

But unexpectedly, the boss didn't care much about it.

"It doesn't matter what they say in private, they look cute." Meng Bai said, "And now many fans demand that celebrities show their true nature. Maintaining some personal characteristics may have a miraculous effect."

"That makes sense." Bai Lu nodded in agreement.

Sure enough, it has to be the boss. I have to write this down so that next time my agent talks about me, I can refute her.

But then again, didn’t the boss just praise me for being cute?

"Oh, by the way, there's something else I want to tell you."

Meng Bai ignored the smiling face of the girl in front of him and continued, "Mango TV has a project for an ancient idol drama recently. The plot is nothing new, but the setting of the heroine is a bit interesting. She is a rare 'villain' image. You can ask your agent to contact them and go for an audition."

Ancient idol! Heroine!
Bai Lu opened her eyes wide, her face full of surprise.

After more than a year of debut, she finally got the chance to audition for the female lead. Moreover, it was a TV series that was broadcast on satellite TV.

Hehe’s strategy turned out to be correct. It really works to become familiar to the boss!

"Thank you, boss!" Bai Lu bowed deeply, with a serious expression on her face, "I will work hard and will never embarrass you!"

"It's just an audition, there's no need to raise it so high." Meng Bai waved his hand, "Anyway, just take it seriously."

"Yeah, definitely!"

Bai Lu pursed her lips and said firmly.

However, this serious expression only lasted for a few seconds, and the next moment she went to happily tell her best friend the good news.

Looking at the other person's happy back, Meng Bai let out a light sigh.

This girl must have lived a healthy life since she was a child.

As the big boss of the crew, Bai Lu was naturally not the only one who came to toast.

Although there were many people around, he basically just touched his lower lip to show his respect, because no one dared to force him to drink anyway.

So after drinking all night, he remained sober.

The only person that concerned him was Zhu Xudan.

Ever since that night, this girl has been staring at him whenever she has nothing to do. There is a strange light in her eyes and no one knows what she is thinking.

Every time I asked her, she just said it was nothing.

After all, he was a grown man and there was no harm in being stared at, so Meng Bai just let her do as she pleased.

The main reason was that he didn't have the energy and he had other things to do next.

"The Wandering Earth" and "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" have both been completed, and ArcLight currently has no projects in production.

The team’s focus from now on is on the movie “Psychological Crime: City of Lights”.

(End of this chapter)