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

Chapter 360: Huangquan is online

"Brother Yi, have you seen my senior brother coming over?"

Zhu Xudan looked at Yu Yi who had just arrived backstage and asked expectantly.

"I don't think so. At least I didn't see it when I walked over here just now." Yu Yi shook his head.

"Oh fine."

Zhu Xudan sat back down in a disappointed mood, muttering to herself, "You said you would come to the press conference, why haven't you come yet?"

Today is the launch conference of "Soul Ferry: Huangquan". She called Meng Bai two days ago to ask him if he would be there, and the answer she got was "definitely".

But now the press conference is about to begin, but there is no sign of him at all.

She wanted to call and ask, but she was afraid that her senior brother might be busy with something important and would disturb him.

How about sending a WeChat message to ask? This shouldn't affect anything.

Zhu Xudan took out her phone and was thinking about how to edit her message when Bai Lu, who was sitting not far away, suddenly walked over to her and said, "The boss said he'll be here in a few minutes."

"Ah?" Zhu Xudan blinked, "How did you know?"

"I just asked him."

"Ask...how do you ask?"

"Just ask directly." Bai Lu was confused and said, "How else can I ask?"

“…Ha, yeah, that’s right…”

Zhu Xudan gave a dry laugh, then frowned and pursed his lips.

Really, I know my senior brother better, why didn't I dare to ask directly? Besides, are you familiar with my senior brother? Why did you send WeChat directly?
Feeling somewhat depressed, Zhu Xudan glanced at Bai Lu. When the latter saw her looking at her, she thought she was thanking her for her help and grinned.

Zhu Xudan had no choice but to smile back. She really couldn't even get angry.

After waiting for a few minutes, I finally heard a noise coming from outside the lounge door, mixed with several familiar voices.

A staff member opened the door and everyone in the room walked out. As expected, they saw Meng Bai, Tong Liya and a group of people from Qiyi TV.

"Sorry, Mr. Dai, I was delayed by something and am late." Meng Bai said.

Dai Ying at the side said with a smile: "No, no, the press conference will start in a while. President Meng, you're just in time."

As the top IP in the field of "supernatural suspense" in recent years, Qiyi TV attaches great importance to "Soul Ferry: Huangquan". Although it is just an online movie, the launch conference was personally attended by Dai Ying, the vice president.

"Mr. Meng."

"Brother, you are here!"

"Hi boss."

Bai Shan, Yu Yi and others who had already arrived came out of the lounge and came over to say hello.

Zhu Xudan looked at Meng Bai with excitement in her eyes. But then, her eyes fell on Tong Liya behind him.

Did this woman come here with my senior brother?

With such doubts in her heart, she saw Meng Bai finished greeting everyone and there was some free time around him, so she pretended to move over naturally and said with a sweet smile: "Senior brother, I thought you were busy and couldn't come today."

"How could that be? I said I would come." Meng Bai said, "The company had an audition this morning, and I watched for a while, but ended up being delayed."

Wang Wei's "Secret and Great" is almost ready for preparation, and he has started auditioning for the leading role in the past few days.

The choice of the male lead, Zhang Ruoyun, was decided early on, which saved the crew some trouble, but the selection of the rest was not so simple.

For example, this morning, the crew was auditioning the female lead "Shen Qinghe".

Although Jin Chen had mentioned it last time, Meng Bai asked again. However, just as she said, Tangren directly rejected it on the grounds that "there was a conflict in the artist plan."

In a sense, Jin Chen was actually "hidden" during the remaining period of the contract.

Meng Bai didn't care much about this. As long as he could give an explanation to Li Yitong, it was enough.

It’s not that I don’t give myself a chance, it’s that the company won’t allow me to do so, there’s nothing I can do about it.

After eliminating Jin Chen, Hu Guang looked for his own Zhou Yutong.

It’s just that this girl’s image is heroic, but when placed in a spy drama set in the Republic of China, there is always an inexplicable sense of incongruity.

Wang Wei tried several different looks for her, but none of them seemed suitable, so he had no choice but to refuse.

If the actors in their own studio are not suitable, then they can only look outside. Meng Bai discussed with Wang Wei for a long time at noon, until Hua Yan reminded him that there was a press conference for the new film in the afternoon, so he hurried over.

As for Tong Liya, he specially invited her to come and support the event, so she arrived a little late.

After staying backstage for a while, a staff member from Qiyi TV came over and said that it was almost time, and then everyone headed towards the press conference.

"Soul Ferry: Huangquan" is an online movie and will not be released in theaters, so the launch conference was not held in any theaters or conference centers, but was held in the headquarters building of Qiyi TV.

In addition to the main creators and actors of the crew, those present also included reporters from film, television and entertainment media, as well as a number of fans and audiences who had won a spot by lottery.

The process is also very simple. The main creators of the crew come on stage to introduce the plot content and character settings, share some behind-the-scenes stories, and finally answer some questions from the audience.

"...Thank you to all the creative teachers for sharing these interesting behind-the-scenes stories with us. Next, we will move on to the question-and-answer session. Media and audience friends present here, if you are interested in the content of the film, please raise your hands and ask questions."

The host of Qiyi TV cueed the process, then turned around and whispered to Meng Bai and the others: "Dear teachers, this part was previously said to be a free question, and the candidates will be selected by us."

As he said this, he handed the microphone in his hand to Bai Shan who was closest to him.

"You come and I come?" Bai Shan asked Meng Bai beside him.

"It's all the same, just come."

Since that’s what he said, Bai Shan didn’t refuse. He glanced at the scene and randomly picked a girl in the back row.

The chosen fan girl stood up excitedly, and the staff in the audience quickly handed her the microphone.

"I want to ask Mr. Meng Bai, you just introduced the main characters of the film, Zhao Li is in it but Dong Qing and Xiao Ya are not, so does this mean there will be no scenes of the 'trio' in this film?"

Meng Bai didn't expect that he would be the first person to be asked, but he didn't refuse and took the microphone: "It's like this. I mentioned before that one of the two main plots of this film is the origin story of Zhao Li. According to the plot setting, the time takes place hundreds of years before the main film. At that time, there was no holly, so naturally there was no role for them."

"Oh, is that so? That's a pity." The fan girl said somewhat disappointedly. Meng Bai smiled and continued, "However, we have set some Easter eggs in the film. If you are interested, you can dig them out. Maybe there will be surprises."

The fan girl's eyes lit up when she heard this: "Mr. Meng Bai, can you tell me more?"

"As for the Easter eggs, they are only pleasantly surprised if you discover them yourself. It would be meaningless if you spoil the story in advance."

"OK, all right."

Although she didn't hear the answer, the fan girl still sat back happily.

The questions continued, but what Meng Bai didn't expect was that more than half of the questions were directed at him, while the leading actors were just watching the fun.

"I say to all our fans, please stop staring at me."

Meng Bai half-jokingly said: "Director Bai Shan and several actors have been resting for a long time. We can't let them just watch the show without working."

There was laughter from the audience.

But it's not the fans' fault, most of those who came to the scene were veteran fans of the "Pendulum" web series. What attracted them to this series, besides the plot, was the three main actors.

Now that Yu Yi is the only one left in the "protagonist group", there is not much to ask, and the rest is naturally the plot. And no one can explain this part as conveniently and directly as Meng Bai, the screenwriter, personally introduces it.

The host on the side of the stage vaguely reminded that the press conference was almost time. Upon seeing this, Meng Bai directly said that he would look for the last audience member.

"The girl in the front row here."

A petite girl stood up and said cautiously, "Well, actually I want to ask you, Mr. Meng Bai, too. Is that okay?"

Everyone on and off the stage laughed. Meng Bai also laughed and said, "Of course you can. Just ask."

"Well, I want to ask, the web series has already told the finale, and this movie has also ended the prequel, so does that mean that there will be no new stories in the Soul Ferry series in the future?"

The girl's question obviously expressed the thoughts of many fans, and the scene immediately became quiet.

Meng Bai actually expected that some fans would ask this question. After thinking for a moment, he said, "If you look at it from the perspective of the entire 'Pendulum World' main storyline, then this series is indeed over. There may be some spin-offs later, but they have nothing to do with the main storyline."

As soon as the words were spoken, a whisper immediately arose from the audience.

Although many viewers had guessed this result before, they were still a little surprised to hear the creator admit it himself.

After all, it is not easy to come up with an influential IP in the film and television industry these days, so many creators will not stop until they have fully exploited the potential of all fans in the entire series as long as they can catch a wave of popularity.

In comparison, the "Soul Ferry" series obviously still has many fans supporting it, so it's a pity to announce its end like this.

But on the other hand, many fans actually think this is pretty good.

Now that the story is over, it should end. If it continues, the whole story will become boring and long, and the characters will be very different from the beginning, which will make people feel that the things they like are ruined.

So although many viewers felt it was a pity, they also felt that it was not bad at all.

What's more, Mr. Meng Bai said that there might be some side stories. Although they are not in the main storyline, as long as the story is exciting, it is totally fine to support them.

After the press conference, the audience and media began to leave with the crew's commemorative gift packs.

"call--"

Meng Bai let out a long sigh: "Okay, we've finished what we need to do. Next we just have to wait for the official start of the show tomorrow at noon."

"Yes, it's over." Bai Shan on the side also sighed.

"Soul Ferry" is the first project he collaborated on with Meng Bai, and also his first official work.

It has been nearly five years since the first filming started, and now we have to say goodbye to this series.

The only question left now is to see how well it can perform at the box office.

"Brother, what do you think the box office of our movie can reach?" Zhu Xudan asked for Bai Shan: "Can it exceed 100 million?"

"What are you thinking? You think this is a movie in theaters."

Meng Bai said: "According to our unit price of revenue, the box office share must exceed 100 million, which means at least 50 million moviegoers. If converted into theater box office, it would be at least 2 billion."

Zhu Xudan pursed her lips when she heard that. A box office of 2 billion was something she would never dare to do even in her dreams.

Dai Ying heard the conversation and came over to say, "According to the current audience market of online movies, it is indeed difficult to get a 180 million yuan box office share within a -day sharing period."

Unlike the one-month release period of cinema movies, the profit-sharing period of online movies is much longer due to the differences in platforms and viewing methods, and is basically around half a year.

In other words, as long as there are new viewers watching the show within six months from the date of its premiere, the producer will continue to receive a share of the profits.

After the half-year profit-sharing period, most online movies will be sold directly to the website. The platform will decide the price based on the performance over the past six months.

This model prolongs the payment collection period, but it is not much different from theatrical movies. After all, after various audits from theaters to theaters, the payment collection period is actually that long.

"Among the domestic video platforms, Youku is the one that has developed the most in terms of online movies."

Dai Ying introduced: "The current box office records of online movies are also very cool. One is "The Soul Master" which was launched at the end of last year, and the other is "The Monkey King: City of Monsters" which was launched at the beginning of this year. The final box office share was around 3700 million."

Meng Bai calculated in his mind that the box office share of 3700 million was roughly equivalent to the box office of over million at the cinema.

In this era of blockbuster movies, where the box office revenue is often over 100 million, it may not seem very impressive. But compared with the production cost of only a few million, the return rate immediately stands out.

After all, the "Pendulum" series is a big IP with a fan base and popularity bonus, so Qiyi TV has also positioned "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" very high, hoping to surpass Youku's record.

Now that everything is ready, it all depends on the actual results after the show starts.

……

The press conference for Soul Ferry: Huangquan was held on Friday, and the show was broadcast the next day, which happened to be Saturday. Plus it was summer vacation, so many viewers slept until noon, ordered takeout, and then watched the show firsthand.

While the audience was lying comfortably in bed watching the drama, the staff of Qiyi TV started their overtime work.

Starting around 11:30 noon, the website traffic began to increase significantly, and the number of online users also continued to increase. Although there is still some distance to the warning line, the technical department is still preparing seriously.

After twelve o'clock, the website's server traffic reached its peak and lasted until two or three o'clock in the afternoon.

　Happy Mid-Autumn Festival reunion everyone!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)