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

Chapter 395 Welcome Teacher Li to join Arclight
"…Although we don't know what kind of home the new sun 4.2 light years away will bring, from today on, the courage and perseverance of mankind will be forever engraved under the starry sky. This long cosmic journey of despair and hope, which lasted for years, is known in history as the 'Wandering Earth' project."

In the screening room of the China Film Digital Production Industrial Base, on the wide IMAX screen, the earth was sailing in the vast universe with a light blue "long tail", while the cast and crew list slowly emerged in the background.

The lights in the theater came on, and the bright light showed everyone present. There were the film's main creators, such as Meng Bai, Guo Fan, and Wu Jing, as well as investors such as La Peikang, Song Ge, and Chen Zhixi, and many production and distribution company staff including China Film and Beijing North Culture.

Although the movie had ended, everyone was still immersed in the two-hour plot. Everyone was whispering to the people around them, and no one was in a hurry to stand up.

Speaking of which, the people present here basically represent half of the forces in the domestic film industry. Over the years, we have seen many works that are more grand and have more realistic special effects than "The Wandering Earth".

However, none of them could shock them as much as they did today.

There is no other reason, it’s just because this is a science fiction movie that belongs to China.

"This movie is awesome!"

Wu Jing, who was sitting next to Meng Bai and Guo Fan, said to them in a low but excited voice: "I had a feeling when we were filming, and I found out today when I saw the feature film that it is even more amazing than I thought!"

Meng Bai and Guo Fan looked at each other, then looked at Wu Jing and said with a smile: "How about it, Brother Jing, you won't say that I deceived you again in the future, right?"

"What are you saying? Ever since I joined the crew, when have I ever said that you lied to me?" Wu Jing glared. "If I had known that this movie would be of this standard, I would have been the first to agree."

After saying that, the three of them laughed. No one thought Wu Jing was talking after the fact, because he really did it.

Before they had talked for a few words, they saw La Peikang on the other side calling the three people over.

“This film is very well made.”

The head of China Film Group praised him right away, and then looked at Guo Fan: "Director Guo's efforts over the past few years have finally paid off, and he has produced a work that far exceeds expectations."

Guo Fan quickly said modestly: "It's mainly due to the support of the leaders. I just made the movie step by step. If I really want to say that the main role played in the production of the entire project is still Meng Bai and Director Wu Jing. Without them, this movie may not even achieve one-third of the current effect."

"Well, I've also heard from the people below that Xiao Meng is the chief planner of the crew and brought in half of the investment. Xiao Wu even invested his own money and finished filming the movie."

La Peikang said with emotion: "It is said that the main force of the development of the times lies in young people. China's film industry really needs young filmmakers like you to develop it."

To be honest, this big shot of China Film Group also had to bear a lot of pressure on the project of "The Wandering Earth".

It was he who insisted on changing the development direction of his predecessor "Han Sanye" and began to learn from the Western film industry. He also sent a group of young directors including Guo Fan to Hollywood to study.

The changes in the domestic film market in recent years, such as breaking the traditional "Domestic Film Protection Month" and increasing the number of imported films, are all development plans he formulated.

It is difficult to judge whether these changes are good or bad before the results come out. And this batch of "pan-science fiction" works headed by "The Wandering Earth" is the time to test the results.

Fortunately, Meng Bai, Guo Fan and Wu Jing and their team went through a lot of hardships and the final result did not disappoint.

Of course, it is still too early to say this now. If we really want to make a final conclusion, we have to wait and see the box office in a few months. However, seeing the quality of The Wandering Earth, La Peikang is very confident about the final result.

"The release date is set for the Spring Festival?"

"Yes." Meng Bai said, "It's the same schedule as 'Crazy Alien' directed by Ning Hao."

La Peikang nodded: "We watched his film some time ago, it's not bad, but the theme is still a comedy, which is different from yours. Anyway, I still hope you can achieve good results."

"It should be no problem. The current size of the domestic film market can already support two or three blockbusters selling well at the same time." Meng Bai smiled and said, "This is all thanks to our director Wu Jing, who has raised the upper limit of the entire market."

Several people laughed. Indeed, Wolf Warrior 2 directly raised the box office record of domestic films from to billion to more than billion. This number is estimated to be difficult to break in three or four years.

"Hey, your movie Detective Chinatown 2 should have been taken off the screen recently. What was the final box office?" Wu Jing asked curiously.

"Yes, it just came off the screen a few days ago." Meng Bai said: "The final total box office is 34.87 billion."

Guo Fan, who was standing by, was surprised and said, "So high? This should be the box office champion this year, right?"

Meng Bai shook his head: "No, it's a little lower than Operation Red Sea at the beginning of the year. The box office potential of the National Day is still a little lower than that of the Spring Festival."

Although the National Day holiday is also a seven-day holiday, there are many entertainment options. However, during the Spring Festival, since everyone has to go home for the New Year, there are not many entertainment options in small cities and counties, and the only thing you can do when you go out is to watch a movie.

This is why many movies try to squeeze in despite knowing that there are many competitors during the Spring Festival.

Even for this "Detective Chinatown 2", Meng Bai and Chen Sicheng initially discussed putting it in the Spring Festival next year. But later, as more and more big productions were scheduled, they moved it forward to the National Day.

I didn’t expect that the quality of the works released during this year’s National Day holiday was not very high, and almost none of them were good enough. This was an unexpected surprise.

"Xiao Meng, your film development seems to be going pretty smoothly. I remember you have two projects this year. There should be more next year, right?" La Peikang asked.

"There are currently two projects that have been confirmed to be launched, and the investment will be larger." Meng Bai said: "When the time comes, I will have to ask for your support, Mr. La."

"Haha, you are too modest." La Peikang laughed loudly and said, "I heard that your Arclight is very strong now. If we want to support you, it should be us at China Film that ask for your support."

Meng Bai was not polite and immediately hit the nail on the head: "Then let's make it clear, Mr. La, if you have any good projects, you have to think about us."

"Don't worry, we will not refuse any investment from China Film Group."

……

Meng Bai and his team were busy discussing cooperation, at the same time, someone on the other side of Jingbei was "breaking up".

"Aunt Li."

In the old office, Li Qin looked at Li Shaohong who was sitting opposite her and called out softly.

"Have all the contracts been processed?" Li Shaohong asked in her usual gentle voice, and she seemed to be in a good mood.

Seeing this, Li Qin's emotions dissipated a lot, and she smiled and said, "Well, it's almost done."

"That's good. Where are you going next, Arclight?"

"Yes." Li Qin's smile became brighter. "Actually, it's not really joining. It's still in the form of a personal studio, but they will invest part of it."

"Not bad." Li Shaohong said with some sarcasm: "It seems that Mr. Meng treats you very well."

"Ah, it's okay, hehe."

Facing Li Shaohong, who had single-handedly brought her onto the path of performing arts and had served as both her teacher and mentor for the past ten years, when Li Qin heard her mention Meng Bai, she felt that it was no different from meeting her parents. She bit her lip and smiled, feeling a little embarrassed.

"From your expression, I know it's good." Li Shaohong said with emotion: "Back then, you came to me for his script. Alas, if I had known that, I should have brought him to Rong Xinda."

Li Qin pursed her lips and smiled, but didn't say anything.

Based on her understanding of Meng Bai, even if Rong Xinda had really offered him some particularly good conditions, he would definitely not come.

That guy is like this, he usually looks lazy and easy-going, as if he can do anything, but in fact he is very proud of himself. Of course, his talent and ability do support his idea.

"Forget it. This industry belongs to young people like you after all." Li Shaohong looked at Li Qin. "Come to think of it, it's actually the company that has delayed you in the past few years. Fortunately, you have found a job."

Because several founders have shifted their focus away from the company, Rong Xinda has been declining over the years. Now that the only remaining Xiaohua is also leaving, the future situation is even more difficult to predict.

However, Li Shaohong did not stop Li Qin. After all, the girl had been here for ten years until the contract expired. No matter how great the favor was, she had done her best.

The two chatted for a while until the assistant Jia Jia knocked on the door and said that all the contracts had been processed.

Li Qin stood up and looked at the familiar office. Her nose felt sore and the corners of her eyes turned red.

"Well, all good things must come to an end." Li Shaohong comforted her, "If you have time in the future, you can come back and visit."

"Yeah, I remember." Li Qin responded in a low voice.

After leaving Rong Xinda, she felt a little depressed the whole night.

Until I saw Meng Bai the next day.

"Hahaha, welcome Mr. Li to join Arclight Films!"

At the door of the meeting room, Meng Bai shouted to the confused Li Qin with a smile on his face, and then waved back.

Inside the room, the Arclight staff who had prepared early lined up in two rows and began to cheer and applaud under the leadership of their boss. At the same time, a red cloth was pulled down, revealing a banner hanging on the wall that read "Warm congratulations to the famous actress Li Qin for reaching a cooperation with Arclight Films."

There was someone next to him holding a firecracker. After a crisp sound, colorful strips exploded in the air like flowers scattered from the sky.

Li Qin raised her hand to throw away the colored paper that fell on her hair, looking at the scene in front of her with a smile: "You...what are you doing?"

"It's a contract signing, so there has to be some sense of ceremony." Meng Bai said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"..."

In front of everyone, Li Qin resisted the urge to complain.

Wow, this is such a strong sense of ceremony. If it is paired with dynamic DJ music, it will be no different from "Congratulations to Sister Li for buying a Maserati after one year of micro-business."

However, when Li Qin looked at Meng Bai with a smug smile on his face, she still felt a warm feeling in her heart.

Just like this guy said, signing a contract is such an important thing, how can there be no sense of ceremony, even if it is in this kind of deliberately embarrassing form.

After figuring this out, Li Qin's smile brightened up again. She first shook hands with Meng Bai in a cooperative manner, and then expressed her gratitude to everyone at the scene.

The Arc Light staff present naturally said they were welcome. After all, everyone knew that the person in front of them might very well be their future boss lady...well, might also be one of the boss ladies.

After the welcome ceremony, the staff members went their separate ways, leaving only Meng Bai, Li Qin, and the teams on both sides.

In fact, there is nothing to talk about. After all, all the conditions have been discussed long ago. We are here today just to sign the contract.

As early as when she first met Meng Bai, Li Qin had already set up a studio, but it has been under the name of Rong Xinda all these years.

In addition, she was cheated in her first investment. This girl was "once bitten, she became afraid of ropes for ten years". She has not made any investments in recent years. Therefore, her studio has been purely serving herself for many years without any development.

According to the plan, the newly reorganized "Qinmeng Film and Television Studio" - the girl originally wanted to call it "Qinmeng Studio", but later felt that it was too straightforward and not nice, so she changed one word - the studio's shares will be composed of three parts.

First of all, there is Li Qin herself, who holds a 15% stake and is both the boss of the studio and a contracted artist.

Then there is Taiyang Chuanhe, which holds a 25% stake and is mainly responsible for business cooperation.

As for the remaining 60% of the shares, Arclight Films and Meng Bai each held half. The former was responsible for her film and television contracts, and the latter provided a sum of million yuan in funds - in fact, it was equivalent to giving her a "signing fee".

"Congratulations, Mr. Li." Meng Bai joked, "You will be a capital operator in the future."

Li Qin rolled her eyes: "Tsk, that sounds nice, but you took more than half of the shares. To put it bluntly, I am still working for you."

"You can't think like that. The more shares I have, the more risks I will bear. Besides, Taiyang Chuanhe and I usually won't care about you. It's up to you to decide."

Li Qin thought about it and felt that it seemed to make sense.

To put it bluntly, her current status in the circle is only at the upper second-tier level. Compared with the huge Arclight Pictures, a small studio is really not worth mentioning.

"Hey, then can I sign new people in the future?" Li Qin said excitedly.

"As long as you can convince the other party, you can sign whoever you like." Meng Bai said: "But I suggest you do it one by one, otherwise you will sign people without the resources or energy to lead them, which will delay them for nothing."

"Don't worry, I know." Li Qin said happily.

She finally got out to work on her own, how could she appear to be the boss if she didn't have one or two "little brothers" under her?

I've decided that when I have time I will go back to school and look for talented junior schoolmates to sign me. This can also be regarded as inheriting Aunt Li's spirit.

"Okay, Mr. Li, don't think about recruiting younger brothers for now."

Meng Bai waved to the staff to put a thick stack of scripts on the table: "Take a look first, this is the script I promised you before."

"So many!" Li Qin exclaimed.

"There are three in total, with various genres." Meng Bai picked up the thinnest one first. "This is the new movie directed by Lu Yang, "Assassination of Novelist", adapted from the novel of the same name, a fantasy action film."

Lu Yang is the director of "Knife of the Assassin". He and Guo Fan are friends. They have previously participated in China Film's "Young Director Program" together.

The two of them, together with Rao Xiaozhi, the director of "The Unknown", are considered to be in the same circle, and together they founded "August Water Drop Culture Media". Just like the Beijing and Shanghai circles before, several young directors stick together.

If the company wants to develop, it is not enough to have a director, it must have supporting capital. The three of them looked at their respective friend circles, each one was poorer than the other, and only Arclight Film and Television was the most powerful and reliable, so they pulled Meng Bai in as a backer.

It just so happened that China Film Group found Lu Yang to be responsible for the filming of "Assassination of Novelist", so ArcLight became the co-producer.

Since the money has been invested, it is only natural to ask for a role. Meng Bai respects Lu Yang as a director and only asks for the role of the heroine "Tu Ling".

Actually, Lu Yang wanted to find Yang Mi for this role at first. The two had worked together before on "Assassin's Blade 2". Although it was not as good as the first one, the cooperation was still pleasant, and Lu Yang had mentioned it to each other once before.

But since Meng Bai, the "investor dad", wants it, then he will give it to him.

As for which of the two candidates is better, Yang Mi is definitely more popular, but Li Qin is not bad either, and is more popular with the public.

Anyway, the focus of this drama is still on the male lead, so it doesn’t matter who the female lead is.

(End of this chapter)