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

Chapter 525: Oda Taking the Backdoor
North Beijing, Zhongguancun.

A brand new building stands on the busy street, with the bright glass curtain wall reflecting the sunlight and appearing to be shining. The four big characters "Arc Light Films" are hung on the front wall, silently showing who owns the building.

"Mr. Meng, the interior decoration of the building has been completed. The overall style is arranged according to your plan. Next, we will ventilate it for a while and it will be ready for use after the New Year."

Inside the building, the person in charge of the renovation project took everyone around the building and introduced the overall situation.

Unlike most ordinary companies, Arclight, as a film and television company, has certain creative requirements for its employees. Therefore, most of the places inside the building are not formal offices.

Apart from administration, finance, and legal affairs, the rest of the production, post-production, screenwriting, etc. are all independent workstations separated from each other, which is equivalent to everyone having a small space of their own.

In addition, starting from the lobby on the first floor, there are a lot of free areas on each floor as rest areas. Tables and chairs can be seen every three or five steps, and neatly arranged papers, pens and pads are placed on the side so that people can record their sudden inspiration at any time.

"Is this what you asked for?" Liu Jun asked doubtfully, "It feels a bit like the corporate style in the US."

"Yeah, I learned from Netflix." Meng Bai said: "The core of a film and television company is content, and the key to content is creation. If everything is turned into a square cubicle, what can be created?"

After that, he looked over and asked, "How do you feel?"

"That's great. It doesn't matter what's happening outside. Anyway, I'm very satisfied with my new office. I finally don't have to squeeze into that small room. Haha..."

"You're exaggerating, Old Liu. When we first divided the offices, yours was bigger than mine. Don't make it sound like I've been exploiting you all these years."

"Really? Then why does your place always feel so much emptier than my own every time I go to it?"

"Purely psychological."

Meng Bai replied, but then the two of them started laughing together.

"As I said earlier, we can move here after the New Year. It's just right for us to come back from the Spring Festival holiday, so we can just come here directly."

"Well, it will be much more convenient to move during the Chinese New Year." Liu Jun said with emotion: "Alas, I have been there for so many years. Now when I think about leaving, I suddenly feel a little reluctant."

"It's not that hard to leave. They will continue to retain a group of people there, and you can be responsible for staying. Hey, it just so happens that I'll give you my office. You can use one on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the other on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It's so spacious."

"Well, forget it. New year, new atmosphere. People always strive for higher goals. It's not bad to change places." Liu Jun said, "Okay, you get busy. I'm going to look at how to design my new office."

Watching the old man walk out, Meng Bai laughed, turned and walked to the window, leaned on the windowsill and looked outside. Most of East City was in sight.

Since ArcLight was founded in 2015, in the past seven years, the company has grown from the initial small building to multiple office areas, and today they finally have their own independent building. After all, the years of hard work have not been in vain.

After standing by the window and sighing for a while, he put away the little bit of artistic spirit he had left and planned to go out and take a look around the place to get familiar with it.

After all, there are more than 30 floors in the building, and each floor is designed differently according to department categories. It would be interesting if you, as a boss, get lost in your own company.

As a film and television company, in addition to the office area, the building also has a variety of work scenes such as studios and recording studios. In the future, there is no need to go out to find a place to shoot urban or workplace dramas, and you can shoot directly in your own building.

Don't mention it, there is actually a crew filming in the building right now. But it's not a film or TV crew, but a variety show crew.

In the empty office, six girls sat around a table, discussing something with great interest.

Through the cameras set up around the room, another director's room not far away was also extremely busy.

"Mr. Meng, welcome to our office for guidance."

"Haha, Director Lu, you're too polite. I don't know much about variety shows. I still have to rely on you guys." Meng Bai said to a man standing next to him, "Has the recording of the main film started?"

"Yes, our plan is to record two to three episodes each time, so that the schedules of the members can be coordinated more easily."

Listening to Director Lu's introduction, Meng Bai nodded and looked towards the screen in the center, looking at the six girls on it.

If there are any viewers of "Detective Chinatown" here, they will definitely find that half of these six female artists are familiar faces.

The program being recorded right now is the "Women's Mystery Club" that Meng Bai mentioned before. In addition to Li Yitong, the other five people include Wu Xin and Qi Wei, two "regulars" of "Detective Chinatown", as well as Xie Nan, Li Xueqin and Tian Xiwei, three "newcomers".

To be honest, there was some luck involved in getting this group of people together.

When he first started planning for this show, Meng Bai was thinking about whether he could invite a few female guests who had performed well in "Detective Chinatown".

After all, those who have been tested are definitely better than a group of newcomers who know nothing, and they can also gain popularity by the way.

It’s just that Mango TV has not been able to reach an agreement on the matter. Although "Female Push" and "Detective Chinatown" are not exactly on the same track, they are not their own programs after all, so it is not a good idea to support the enemy.

Meng Bai didn't insist too much. He just wanted to ask, and since the other party didn't want to, then forget it.

Unexpectedly, at this time, an accident suddenly happened on the "Detective Academy" side.

According to the plan, the seventh season should be broadcast in the fourth quarter of this year. Unexpectedly, just when the preparations for the new season began, the original creative team of the program group, led by the chief planner He Chen, left Mango TV and went to Tencent Video.

At the same time, two "mystery-type" programs with similar themes, "Login to Yuanyuzhou" and "Start Reasoning", were launched at one time.

This can be said to have dealt a solid stab in the back to Mango TV. Not to mention that "Detective Chinatown" has been their only "trump project" for so many years, the key point is that this sudden wave of departures directly led to the inability to produce the new season of the show.

You know, when He Chen left, he took all the main creators and screenwriters away, leaving Mango TV with only a group of second-tier staff and interns.

It's not a big deal if the crew is missing, Mango TV is backed by Mango Satellite TV, so there are plenty of behind-the-scenes staff. The lack of a director is a bit of a problem, but the remaining original on-site directors can also support it.

But the screenwriter left, there was nothing we could do. Script-killing is different from TV dramas, its script is a different kind of production idea. The original batch was also cultivated by He Chen after so many years, and now they are all gone.

There was nothing that "Detective Academy" could do. After much deliberation, they could only find Meng Bai and hope to borrow the help of the "Arc Light Screenwriter Team".

After He Chen had developed his own team, he gradually began to reduce his reliance on the Arclight writing team. From the original participation in the production, to the later cooperation between the two sides, until the last season, he basically used his own people.

Meng Bai knew about this situation, but he didn't say anything. The current situation is different from before. There are plenty of opportunities to train your own screenwriters, and there is no need for the "Detective" program. Both sides have tacitly agreed to "part ways amicably".

Unexpectedly, after they matured, they ran away first.

Logically speaking, Arc Light could do nothing about it, but after all, there was a sense of friendship between them, so Meng Bai agreed to Mango TV's request. Of course, in exchange, Mango TV would definitely give something back to Arc Light, including allowing it to borrow personnel.

The production team of "Women's Mystery Club" asked several main female guests of "Detective Academy", but the two "veterans" Wang Ou and Yang Rong did not plan to take on new projects. Finally, after several comparisons, Wu Xin and Qi Wei were decided.

Wu Xin and Xie Nan are both hosts, one with a more formal and the other entertaining style, and they serve as the MCs of the show; Qi Wei and Li Yitong are both guests who have appeared on "Detective Chinatown" and performed well, and they serve as the mainstays of the show; Li Xueqin is a veteran in variety shows and is mainly responsible for the show's effects.

As for the remaining Tian Xiwei...she was stuffed in through the back door.

(End of this chapter)