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

Chapter 339 Meeting an old friend in a foreign country

After signing a film purchasing plan with CCTV, "Peace Hotel" finally had a broadcasting platform.

In addition to the price of 110 million per episode, CCTV also agreed to "broadcast simultaneously on TV and the Internet" with Tencent Video, which shows that their reform efforts this time are indeed very strong.

This is naturally a good thing for Arclight. The only pity is that the application period for next year's Feitian Awards has already ended, so Peace Hotel has no chance.

However, there is still plenty of time for the Magnolia and Golden Eagle Awards. Although CCTV dramas do not have a clear advantage in these two awards, at least they are eligible to register.

For Arclight Pictures today, even just a nomination is considered a breakthrough in official awards.

Meng Bai breathed a sigh of relief after resolving the broadcasting issue of "Peace Hotel", but the matter was not over yet.

CCTV is indeed a behemoth, but relying on just one platform is obviously not enough. If Arclight Films really wants to enter the field of TV dramas, it will sooner or later have to contact other satellite TV stations.

In other words, if we don't solve the black industrial chain derived from the ratings, we will be slaughtered sooner or later.

Meng Bai had no intention of becoming an "industry law enforcer", but on the one hand, it involved the company's strategic planning and interests, and secondly, as a film and television practitioner, he really couldn't stand these evil spirits that depended on the shadows.

After all, he is still half young, and compared to those "mature bosses", he is always more passionate.

However, Meng Bai was also very clear that such things that exposed the inside story of the industry would be difficult to accomplish if they only relied on internal solutions within the industry without official intervention.

If you want official intervention, you have to make a big deal out of it, but you can’t be seen as intentionally creating instability.

And this requires a suitable opportunity.

Meng Bai was not in a hurry. He had a long time to wait.

……

After Peace Hotel was confirmed to be broadcast, all the projects announced by Arclight Films at the beginning of the year were completed.

The three dramas "Psychological Crime 2", "Day and Night Chase" and "Chef Fang in Flowers" were broadcast one after another and were a huge success.

Especially "Day and Night Chase", which was directly named "the No. 2017 online drama of " by netizens and audiences.

Then the three films "Soul Ferry: Huangquan", "Psychological Crime: City of Light" and "The Wandering Earth", which took three years to complete, have all been completed, and we are currently busy with post-production.

In addition, the filming of the movie "Detective Chinatown 2" and the web drama "Detective Chinatown" has also started.

There are still two months before the Chinese New Year. Meng Bai does not plan to start any new projects at this time. Instead, he turns to study the "Zijin Chen Trilogy" that he is preparing to cooperate with Qiyi TV.

It is called the "Zijin Chen Trilogy", but in fact it should be more accurately called the "Yan Liang Trilogy".

After all, apart from the fact that they all have a "Yan Liang", the three books have no connection in terms of background or time.

But I don't know if it's because of the reputation of the "Green Ivy Series" that Gong Yu has some strange stereotypes about Arc Light. When discussing how to adapt these three novels, Qiyi TV hoped that Arc Light could integrate the story backgrounds of the three books together.

In other words, they also want to create a "Yan Liang Universe".

Many viewers always have questions about the film and television adaptations of novels. The most common one is why directors and screenwriters often do not shoot according to the original plot, and always like to express themselves.

There are many reasons for this problem, such as some bugs in the original plot, the different expressiveness of text and film and television images, the financial budget is difficult to support the imagination of the text, etc.

Of course, there are also some adaptations where the director or screenwriter simply doesn’t like the original novel, but still wants to take advantage of the IP’s traffic, so they declare it as an adaptation of the original novel, and then add a bunch of their own plots to it during filming.

Don’t think you can rest assured just because the original author is among the screenwriters. Many times, the producers just ask the other party to be listed in the screenplay for the sake of good public opinion, and they have no say at all during the actual filming.

In contrast, Meng Bai, who is also a content creator, did not directly make changes according to Qiyi TV's suggestions, but first talked with the original author Zijin Chen.

Of course, he also made it very clear to the other party. Since it is a film and television adaptation, there will definitely be many places that need to be changed.

Zijin Chen is especially famous for his excellent stories and strange writing style.

For example, the famous "Zijin Chen-style metaphor" -

[She paused for a few seconds, and then tears rolled out like Lanzhou ramen.]

[The security guard stretched out his big hand and blocked him like an Indian flying pancake.]

It is hard to imagine what Zijin Chen's physical state was like when he created the work.

But then again, in the field of novels, his metaphor is not really the most peculiar.

In The Catcher in the Rye, a must-read for literary youths, Salinger described the weather in December as "as cold as a witch's head";
In "Dawn Street", Keigo Higashino describes the appearance of a woman. The first half of the sentence is normal: "The oval face is small and delicate, and the nose is as straight as if drawn with a ruler." The second half of the sentence immediately changes its tone: "Such a face with glasses makes me think of Ultraman."

I can only say that Keigo Higashino is indeed a veteran and loyal fan of Ultraman.

Back to the present, Zijin Chen has no objection to the adaptation of Arclight and Strange TV, and even mentioned some plans that he had thought of when he was originally creating the series.

After discussion, the two of them and the screenwriter team of Arclight decided to make "Bad Kids" as the first project.

The reason is simple. The core protagonists of this story are three children, which is just the right starting point for the character of "Yan Liang".

However, before Meng Bai could get started, he was interrupted by an invitation from Qiyi TV.

Netflix held a global operator cooperation conference in Iceland in December. As a domestic partner, Qiyi TV was naturally on the list of participants.

It just so happens that the "Yan Liang Trilogy" is the platform's main project in the suspense drama next year, and it also wants to cooperate with Netflix, so it also invited Meng Bai to be the main creator of this project.

He had no plans to go at first, but later the vice president of Netflix contacted him through Qiyi TV and invited him to visit the California headquarters after the meeting.

Relatively speaking, Meng Bai was more interested in the latter and accepted the invitation.

So in December, a season as cold as a witch's nostril, Meng Bai brought Liu Jun and several other executives of Arclight, and followed the people from Qiyi TV to board a flight to Iceland.

……

Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland.

Although Iceland is at a similar latitude to Siberia, the actual temperature is not as cold as you might imagine.

Reykjavik means "smoking bay" in Icelandic. Because of the rich geothermal energy and hot springs here, the sky above the city is often filled with mist, which looks very similar to smoke.

It is located in the southwest of Iceland, so it can enjoy the benefits of the Atlantic warm current. Even though it is already December, the average temperature is still above zero degrees.

Of course, this refers to the daytime. It is a completely different scene at night. The nights in high latitudes are particularly long.

Netflix's operations conference lasts a total of four or five days, but except for the opening ceremony on the first day which is attended by all employees, the remaining two days are divided into different regions according to their respective markets.

The Chinese market naturally belongs to the East Asian region. Although it only includes China, Japan and South Korea, it is the largest audience area after North America and Europe.

Meng Bai attended the discussion and many issues were discussed, such as launching film and television projects with unique styles for the domestic market, strengthening cooperation between different national markets in the region, and operating and distributing global streaming channels.

But anyway, it has little to do with the production company Arclight Pictures.

So Meng Bai only stayed with them for one day, leaving Liu Jun and the others at the conference center to make friends with distributors in surrounding markets, and went out alone to explore the world's northernmost capital. The hotel Netflix booked for them was in the city center, not far from the central street of Reykjavik.

Meng Bai did not bring anyone else with him, and walked alone on the streets full of Nordic exotic scenery. Fortunately, although Iceland has its own native Icelandic language, English can also be used, so there are not many communication problems.

What's more, never underestimate the breadth of Chinese distribution around the world.

"welcome."

Meng Bai pushed open a convenience store on the street with the word "chaoshi" written on it, and heard a familiar greeting as soon as he entered the door.

I glanced at the cashier, and saw a young man in his twenties, with black hair and black eyes, who looked familiar.

"Chinese?" Meng Bai asked casually.

The young man nodded and smiled, and said enthusiastically: "Of course not."

After chatting for a while, I learned that this guy's surname is Sun and his hometown is in Northeast China. When he was traveling in Europe, he met an Icelandic girl, who is now his wife, and they opened this store together.

"There are quite a few Chinese people in Iceland." There was no one in the store at the moment, so Xiao Sun started chatting with his fellow villager Meng Bai: "There are only 11 people in Reykjavik, and there are to Chinese people."

"That's not as many as the Icelanders in China." Meng Bai said: "In my circle of friends alone, there are no less than 30 Icelanders."

When Xiao Sun heard Meng Bai's complaints, he was stunned for a moment, then he laughed heartily, obviously he got the joke.

It is said that WeChat statistics have shown that Iceland has a total population of more than 30, of which 1000 million live in China.

"Brother Meng, are you here to travel?" Xiao Sun asked in a familiar tone.

Meng Bai thought for a moment and said, "It can be considered work."

"Wow, you come to work abroad, and this is a big foreign company." Xiao Sun exclaimed.

There seems to be nothing wrong with this statement, as Netflix is indeed a foreign company.

"What industry?"

"Film and television media, just shoot some stuff or something." Meng Bai said vaguely.

Before he knew it, Xiao Sun suddenly realized, "Oh, I see. Brother Meng, you guys should be the crew here to film a movie."

Meng Bai asked curiously: "What do you mean?"

“As for filming, there are many Chinese crews coming to Iceland to shoot. We can see them almost every month.”

Xiao Sun pointed outside the door and said, "Just yesterday at Hallgrimskirkja Church, I saw a film crew filming."

Meng Bai raised his eyebrows and asked curiously, "What crew?"

"I don't know. They didn't write anything about it. I just saw a bunch of people filming with cameras." Xiao Sun shook his head and said, "I've been in Iceland for several years, and I don't really recognize any of the Chinese celebrities from those years."

After chatting for a few more words, Meng Bai bought some things and left.

After thinking for a while, he followed the direction Xiao Sun pointed and walked towards the cathedral.

It's rare to meet colleagues abroad. Whether I know them or not, I will go and see them to satisfy my curiosity.

Hallgrimskirkja Church is located in the center of Reykjavik and is named after the famous Icelandic writer Hallgrimskirkja.

There was a large square in front of the church. Meng Bai didn't walk far before he saw the church with a spire shaped like a missile.

Walking along the square, I saw a group of people gathered together in a scattered manner in the distance, surrounded by various filming equipment such as cameras, rails, and radios.

However, it seemed to be a break and no filming was seen.

Meng Bai wandered over, pulled over a staff member who looked like a field attendant at the edge and asked, "Brother, are you from China too?"

"That's right." The young man probably felt that it was a rare opportunity to see fellow countrymen abroad, so he was quite enthusiastic.

"Are you guys filming a movie?" Meng Bai looked at the scene. "Whose company is this from?"

The field boy looked at him puzzledly: "Why are you asking this?"

"It's not hard to see colleagues abroad and chat with them." Meng Bai said, "I'm also in the crew."

"That's quite a coincidence. Where are you from?"

"arc."

"Arc Light? Arc Light Films?" When the stagehand saw Meng Bai nod, his expression immediately showed a bit of envy and respect: "Fuck, brother, you guys are the real bosses!"

After sighing, he immediately introduced without hesitation: "The producer of our crew is Bu Er Culture."

Meng Bai thought for a moment and asked, "Is it Wu Xiubo's company?"

"Yes, he is the male lead of this drama." The stagehand pointed inside the crew, "No, that's him."

Meng Bai looked in the direction he pointed and saw that it was indeed Wu Xiubo.

He is one of the most popular male actors of the middle-aged generation in recent years. Especially last year's hit "The Advisors Alliance" made his popularity rise even more.

Like other middle-aged actors, Wu Xiubo also participated in the behind-the-scenes operation early on. The Bu Er Culture mentioned just now is his company.

Meng Bai didn't expect that he would run into a popular actor while just strolling around.

However, he had no relationship with Wu Xiubo, so he did not plan to go over. He looked around for a while and then planned to leave.

"M-Mr. Meng?"

Before Meng Bai could make any move, a familiar woman's voice suddenly came from behind him.

Meng Bai turned around and saw a woman in a light grey cashmere coat standing not far away, looking at him with suspicion and surprise.

"Sister Ou?" Meng Bai looked at Wang Ou standing behind him and asked in surprise, "Why are you here?"

However, as soon as he asked the question, he immediately realized that the other party was obviously here to film a movie.

Sure enough, Wang Ou pointed to the crew behind him and said, "My new play is being filmed here."

After saying that, she walked up to Meng Bai and smiled brightly: "I never thought that I would be able to meet Teacher Meng on the other side of the earth thousands of kilometers away."

Meng Bai spread his hands and said with the same smile: "Perhaps, this is called fate."

(End of this chapter)