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

Chapter 496 This year has gone by so fast

It seemed that she was too bored staying at home during this period of time. Tang Yixin pulled Li Qin to chat from the afternoon until the lights came on, and finally it came to an end.

Meng Bai and his friends were invited by Tang's mother to have dinner together. Before leaving, they took a large bag of homemade Sichuan-style bacon and then said goodbye.

"Going back to the villa?"

"Well, you can stay tonight."

"Okay."

After a brief exchange, Li Qin drove the car towards Meng Bai's villa with familiarity.

They are already an old married couple, so there is no need to act reserved anymore.

After returning home, Meng Bai packed his luggage and the things that Tang's mother had given him in return, then washed up briefly and sat down on the sofa in the living room.

I turned on the TV and waited for a long time before I saw Li Qin, who had changed into pajamas, coming down from upstairs.

"Why are you sitting so far away?"

Meng Bai patted the place beside him. Li Qin gave him a coquettish look, but she still leaned over without hesitation and snuggled into the man's arms.

With the soft jade in his arms, waves of fresh fragrance lingered around him, causing Meng Bai to involuntarily twitch his nose and sniff twice more.

"Hey, did you change your perfume?"

"Yeah, didn't I sign a Dior endorsement before? They gave me new products." Li Qin lifted her hair, "How is it?"

"It smells light and nice."

As Meng Bai spoke, he lowered his head to his girlfriend, then deliberately took a deep breath, followed by an artificial sigh.

"..."

Li Qin made a disgusted expression on her face, but she was quite happy in her heart. This guy didn't like the strong smell of the fragrance, and she also chose this one after a long time.

"What are you looking at?"

She looked at the TV screen. It seemed to be a variety show she had never seen before. There was also a horizontal video logo in the upper left corner. "Hey, why did that girl just now look like Ziyi?"

"It's her. This is the new program she is recording recently, called 'Fifty Kilometers Taohuawu'." Meng Bai introduced.

At the beginning of the month, the pilot episode of "Fifty Kilometers Peach Blossom Village" was broadcast on Heng Video. Although it was only less than an hour long, the discussion of the program was directly on the hot search.

However, this hot search was not due to the high quality of the program or how good the effect was, but because Song Dandan "forced" all the guests to introduce themselves at the beginning of the program, which aroused the "relative ptsd" of the audience and netizens.

[I laughed so hard, this part took me back to my childhood when I was at a family gathering, and my mom asked me to perform a show for everyone.]

[Song Dandan is really like the elder relatives in my family. Every time we have a Chinese New Year meal, no matter how familiar we are, she will start with the three fatal questions: "How is your work?" "How is your partner?" "Is it time to have a child?"]

[Am I the only one who thinks this is okay? Although Song's tone is a bit harsh, she is a senior and an elder, so it is normal for her to say this. Besides, these guests are basically newcomers, so who would know them if they don't introduce themselves? ]

[I looked at the lineup. Apart from Uncle Guoli and Song Dandan, I only know Bai Lu from the rest. I know her from her emojis. (花棉褂大笑.jpg)]

[What does Bai Mengyan's emoticons have to do with me, Bai Lu? (Funny)]

【…】

As veteran actors who have been in the industry for decades and have produced more than a dozen representative works, it goes without saying that Zhang Guoli and Song Dandan, the two "Taohuawu Heads", are well-known. As long as you haven't had a TV at home for so many years, basically everyone knows them.

The remaining young newcomers are not so well-known. Even Wang Sulong, Guo Qilin, Li Xueqin, etc. are only popular among a certain group of young people. For most ordinary audiences, they have only heard of these names at most.

In comparison, Bai Lu is the most popular girl. She was a regular member of the new version of "Running Man" last year and attracted a large number of fans. "Running Man: Yellow River Edition" which was launched a few months ago, also became popular with a wave of laughing emoticons.

Especially the classic picture of "Laughing in a Flowery Quilted Jacket". Even those who have never watched "Running Man" or don't know Bai Lu have saved this picture in their mobile phones.

As for Meng Ziyi, it's not like no one knows her. It's just that variety shows are different from TV dramas, and the audience composition is more complex, so naturally not that many people know her.

But then again, it is just a pilot episode after all, which is more focused on showing the program as a whole, and the shots of individual guests are limited. In particular, many clips with good program effects are placed in the subsequent main film.

In fact, when editing the program before, Xie Dikui had implicitly asked Meng Bai whether he wanted to increase the number of Meng Ziyi's shots.

In this regard, Mr. Meng said that it was not necessary and that the production should be carried out according to normal standards, as long as the clips of the girl that were useful for the show were preserved.

It’s not that he is deliberately being “noble and upright”. This entire program is specially designed for Meng Ziyi. There is no need to be pretentious in this regard.

Although he has not been exposed to variety shows much, as a senior film and television practitioner, Meng Bai deeply understands one thing: reality shows and film and television dramas are actually the same, and it is not the case that the more shots a show has, the better.

In movies and TV series, the audience will only be happy to watch a character if the character is well-defined and the plot is interesting. On the contrary, if the character itself is disgusting and the plot is stupid and brainless, the more scenes there are, the more disgusting the audience will be.

This can be seen from the reputation of some characters who were inexplicably "added to the drama" in various popular dramas.

The same is true for variety shows, except that the characters are replaced by the guests' own personalities and the effects of the show. And compared to film and television dramas, this situation is more obvious in shows.

No matter how annoying the character is, it is still on the screen, and the show will end when it ends. The guest artist is a real person, and he will still be there after the show ends, which will only make the audience continue to hate him.

In fact, there have been many actors who used to have good reputations, but their popularity plummeted after they appeared on reality shows and never recovered.

"Adding scenes" has always been a label that black fans have given to Meng Ziyi. It was not easy for her to regain some of her reputation with the drama "Twinkle Twinkle Star". Now if she adds scenes indiscriminately without considering the situation, it will only give black fans another chance to "hold her account".

So instead of adding some useless reaction shots, it’s better to have more highlight clips that make the show effective.

And then again, Meng Ziyi's personality is bound to be indispensable for the show effect. Judging from Xie Dikui's feedback on the first two recordings, there seems to be a lot of material available.

According to the program plan, "Fifty Kilometers Peach Blossom Village" has already aired its second episode. However, Meng Bai has been busy recently and is only starting to watch it from the first episode now.

In fact, he had roughly watched some of the content during the post-production editing, but they were only fragments. This was the first time he had seen a complete film.

"This small courtyard of 'Taohuawu' is quite beautiful!"

Li Qin looked at the display of Taohuawu on the screen and said with great interest.

"It was temporarily built by the program team in Pinggu. If you are interested, we can take you to see it directly." Meng Bai said.

Unfortunately, the nature of this program is different from other variety shows, so it can’t have “flying guests” or something like that. Otherwise, the program team could directly invite the guests to record an episode.

Although it felt a bit regretful, Li Qin didn't take it too seriously. She had participated in many variety shows before, but most of them were for publicity and she rarely stayed on.

In general, artists like her are closer to the traditional actor style. Except for publicity needs, they rarely show their faces to maintain the mystery of the actors themselves. In order to avoid appearing too frequently, causing the audience to see their characters out of the play.

The feeling of watching a show with two people is different from watching it alone. Li Qin kept muttering to herself while looking at the screen.

"I know this Li Xueqin. I've seen a lot of her talk show clips when I was browsing Douyin before."

"Hey, Guo Qilin is also a guest. There are many familiar faces on this show."

"Well, Ziyi's makeup is pretty. Did she do it herself?"

"Mr. Meng, your sister Chaoyue is out..."

Meng Bai listened to the girl mumbling for a long time and finally couldn't help it: "Hey, please don't add any more attributes casually, how come it becomes 'my Chaoyue'?"

"hehe."

Li Qin gave a perfunctory smile in return.

After the program members appeared one by one, they finally gathered in Taohuawu. Then, they came to the "self-introduction" that has been hotly discussed by countless viewers and netizens for a long time.

I have to say that Song Dandan in this segment really looks like an elder who likes to chat awkwardly at a family gathering, and the whole place is filled with an awkward atmosphere. However, from the perspective of the program, it is not entirely a bad thing. First, although this method is debatable, it is indeed a way for the members to understand each other, and it also makes them feel like "sharing weal and woe".

Secondly, although there were a lot of complaints online, it also brought a lot of popularity to the show.

As far as Meng Bai knows, after the first episode was broadcast, the real-time popularity of "Fifty Kilometers Taohuawu" ranked third on the online variety show rankings of the same period.

At the top of the list are the new variety show "Hahahahaha" and "Talk Show Conference 2". The former is the re-employment of the original "Running Group" members such as Deng Chao, Lu Han, and Chen He, while the latter has a fan base and the popularity of talk shows in recent years.

In comparison, it is quite good that "Fifty Kilometers Taohuawu", a brand-new IP with not-so-outstanding cast, can achieve such results.

"I didn't realize that Ziyi is quite popular."

Looking at the girls on the screen vying to be Meng Ziyi's roommate, Li Qin sighed.

Meng Bai nodded: "She has always been very talented in making friends."

It goes without saying that since all her friends call her "Sister Meng", she must have some skills in socializing.

Each episode lasts an hour and a half, and Meng Bai has already made his own evaluation of the show after watching most of it.

He looked at the time and it was only eight o'clock, so it was still a bit early. He thought about it and exited the screen projection mode and switched to CCTV8.

"The Golden Years" is currently being aired, and it happens to be the prime time.

Dramas with two female leads have been a trend in the past two years. Li Yitong's "The Great Girl" was very popular. "The Golden Years" has become even more popular. Thanks to CCTV's huge audience, it has attracted many male viewers in addition to female viewers.

Although the ratings were average, only around 1.4, and CCTV- ranked only fifth for the whole year, the online broadcast volume and popularity were very high.

Especially the two female protagonists, Li Qin and Ni Ni, who already had a lot of fans, have seen their popularity increase significantly as their new dramas have become popular. In the real-time popularity ranking of female stars, they have all rushed to the top.

"Why are you looking at this? Change to something else."

Li Qin listened to her own voice coming from the screen and said uncomfortably.

"What's there to change? This will increase your ratings." Meng Bai said with a smile.

Li Qin rolled her eyes at him and puffed her lips. It was okay to watch the monitor on the set, but watching her own scenes after the filming was finished always made her feel awkward.

But for Meng Bai, he actually liked this feeling. Watching the characters on the screen lying in his arms was quite satisfying.

He stroked the delicate body with his hands, feeling the soft touch of the soft jade in his arms, and he stood there with some trepidation.

Although it was winter, the floor heating in the house was very warm, so Li Qin's pajamas were only a thin layer, and she could easily feel the abnormality under her body.

She raised her face, her eyes flickering with tenderness, forming a unique contrast with her beautiful face. She didn't say anything, but just rubbed her chin against the man's chest, and the scent of his body penetrated into her nose.

Humph, stupid woman, do you think you can seduce Mr. Meng with this little trick?

Well, she certainly can.

Just as Meng Bai knew the girl's sensitive points very well, Li Qin also had a full understanding of Mr. Meng's preferences.

"Are you still watching now? Do you want to go up?"

"Why go up? It won't waste time here."

Meng Bai stood up and then placed the girl in his arms on the back of the sofa from behind.

From this position, you can see both the screen in front of you and the beauty in front of you.

Li Qin understood the man's thoughts instantly. Even though she was no longer a young girl, her cheeks were still flushed.

"abnormal!"

"dislike?"

"……like."
-
I don’t know if it’s because of the flu, but time seems to be passing much faster in 2020 than before.

Many netizens online lamented that it felt like they were still stuck at home supervising the work on the "Shuangshen Mountains" a few days ago, and yet it was already the end of the year in the blink of an eye.

As New Year's Day approaches, Meng Bai has been holding meetings at the company, mainly to make plans for next year's development.

In terms of film and television projects, "Sweeping Dark Storm" and "Police Honor" will start shooting one after another during this period, and the web drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" is the top priority.

In terms of movies, in addition to "The Accidental Detective" and "Detective Chinatown 3" which have already confirmed their release dates, there are also "The Journey Home" directed by Rao Xiaozhi, "Send You a Little Red Flower" directed by Han Yan, and "The Wandering Earth 2" directed by Guo Fan.

In addition, Meng Bai has also come up with an idea for the story he had previously conceived about "telephone fraud in northern Myanmar". He is currently writing the script and will start filming next year depending on the situation.

These are all at the specific project level, as well as the company's overall strategic planning.

Starting next year, he plans to start the group reform of Arclight. After all, the entire "Arclight System" now involves too many business areas, including investment, production, distribution, platform, artist management, copyright operation...

All in all, it has almost covered the entire industrial chain of the film and television industry, with only Internet promotion and marketing channels such as "Douyin, Kuaishou, Bhong" still a little lacking.

However, he has also been negotiating with short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou in this regard, hoping to have deeper cooperation.

The "Arc System" has more than a dozen business segments, large and small, and each segment involves a large number of different companies. The lack of communication between them can easily lead to waste of resources.

Liu Jun actually proposed group reform last year, but put it on hold due to the pandemic. Now that the worst of the crisis has passed and the situation has become clearer, he has revived the plan.

This can be said to be the most important work of ArcLight next year, which is related to future development.

At the same time, since he was planning to set up a group, the current decentralized office model was no longer suitable. So he also planned to buy a building as the main venue for the future "Arc Light Film and Television Group".

Just because of the flu, the development of the real estate industry has been hindered, and the price has become much cheaper after the bubble was removed. It is not a loss to buy now.

Thanks to the relationship with Hengten Network, Arc Light and Evergrande also have cooperative exchanges, so Meng Bai also consulted Zhou Cheng. Although they are mainly engaged in residential and cultural tourism real estate, they are in the same industry after all, and they always know more inside information than the outside world.

Not to mention, Zhou Cheng actually recommended several good buildings and industrial parks, and also provided detailed information.

"Thank you, Mr. Zhou. I will take this information back to the company and discuss it with them." Meng Bai thanked.

"Mr. Meng, you are too polite. This is not rare information. We just happen to have collected it. It just saves us some time at most." Zhou Cheng said with a smile.

After chatting for a while, he suddenly said casually: "By the way, Mr. Meng, the year-end board meeting will be held in a few days. I have a suggestion that I want to discuss with you first."

"President Zhou, please go ahead."

"It's like this. Last year, the company's revenue data was very good due to the development of Heng Video. I was thinking whether we should increase the dividend ratio. This can stimulate another wave of sentiment and show the company's healthy operating conditions, so that investors can feel more at ease."

"Increase the dividend ratio..."

Meng Bai narrowed his eyes slightly. "I personally have no objection, but Mr. Zhou also knows that Mr. Ke, Sister Xi and I need to keep in sync. So, I will talk to them later and ask for their opinions."

At this point, he laughed again and said, "As for dividing the money, I think everyone should have no objection."

"Haha, indeed, who doesn't like to share money?"

Zhou Cheng also smiled, and then the two of them raised their teacups and greeted each other from a distance.

Coming out of the office, Meng Bai's smile faded. After thinking for a while, he turned around and found Chen Zhixi.

As soon as they met, without exchanging pleasantries, he said directly: "Sister Xi, Evergrande's financial situation may be in trouble."

(End of this chapter)