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

Chapter 94: The tacit understanding between the creators and the audience
Liu Jun introduced to him that Enlight Pictures saw the "Green Ivy Series" plan of Leshi.com and thought that the copyright owner of "Psychological Crime" was LeTV, so they contacted them.

I didn’t expect that after actual communication, I found out that Leshi.com was just a partner, and the one who really had the final say was another new company called “Arc Light Films”. So I had to ask LeTV Pictures to help them contact Meng Bai to discuss the film adaptation cooperation.

Meng Bai naturally knew about Anle Films, a "veteran" film studio that had existed since the Hong Kong film era. And compared to the old and declining studios such as Shaw Brothers, Anle, which has always maintained close cooperation with the mainland, has maintained a good operation since the new millennium.

The head of the company, Jiang Zhiqiang, originally collaborated with Zhang Guoshi to bring several films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" abroad, and was known as "creating the blockbuster era of discourse movies."

"Adapt a movie?" Meng Bai asked, "Do you want to remake the script?"

"No, from what they said, it seems that they want to keep the IP and story setting of "Psychological Crime" and write a new script." Liu Jun said: "The contact information of their person in charge is on the document. Let's chat about it when it's convenient for you."

Meng Bai glanced at the contents of the document, put it away, and then jokingly said, "Why, brother, aren't you afraid of increasing the performance of the film department?"

"Tsk, can my vision be the same as theirs?" Liu Jun said with a smug smile, "I want to see if they would be willing to agree to cooperate if we can really reach an agreement with Edko Films."

If you agree to cooperate, it means you are in Liu Jun's favor. If you dare to be sarcastic in the future, you can just say "Your movie still depends on our web drama to produce IP", and then slap him in the face;
If you don't agree to cooperate, it's a joke. You're the one who finally launched a big IP of your company. As the person in charge, do you still want to do this?

No matter which choice you make, it will be uncomfortable, as you will be bullied from both sides.

When Liu Jun thought of the scene where those old guys in the film department had to pinch their noses and "thank" him, he felt more energetic to go for a massage tonight.

But in the final analysis, he still has to thank Meng Bai for helping him hold on, otherwise he wouldn't have such a gain.

Thinking of this, Liu Jun's tone became more enthusiastic, and he said to Meng Bai with a smile: "Psychological Crime will be finished in half a month. I will urge the finance department to make the final settlement of the profit sharing before the New Year."

Because Arclight Films also participated in the investment of "Psychological Crime", Meng Bai's income this time includes two parts, namely the profit sharing of normal partners and the return on investment of investors.

Relatively speaking, the former is simpler to calculate. It can be divided directly according to the previously agreed-upon profit-sharing rules, based on the final playback data, new members and effective viewing data.

The investment profit sharing is much more complicated, because it involves the final settlement of various costs and expenses and the summary of overall income. If you want to calculate it all clearly, you have to wait until the annual report of Leshi.com comes out next year before the final confirmation can be made.

Otherwise, why is it that most people cannot invest in film and television? It takes a long time, has high risks, and is highly unstable. No matter how you look at it, it is not a good target project.

It often happens in the industry that a project finally gets aired and the costs are recouped, only to find out later that the initial investor has already gone bankrupt.

This is why many film and television producers will introduce a bunch of other investors when they set up a project even though they know it is a good project. It’s not that they don’t want to make money themselves, but it’s really that one person can’t handle such a big business.

Arclight Films was able to get a return so quickly thanks to the short cycle and fast turnover of online drama projects. Otherwise, like normal film and television projects, it would take at least a year or two to see no return.

Meng Bai knew that this was Liu Jun's way of thanking him, so it would be best if he could get the money earlier. After all, he needed the money right now.

"Okay, thank you, Brother Liu." Meng Bai said, "I trust our Leshi when it comes to profits. I came here today mainly to discuss the ending version of "Psychological Crime."

Liu Jun's eyes lit up, and he asked repeatedly: "Why, have you decided which version to choose? I remember you said last time that you were going to open a voting page at the end to let the audience choose the ending themselves." Meng Bai said: "Ha, I did have this plan when I was struggling before, but after thinking about it, I still felt that it was not appropriate."

"Oh, what do you mean?" Liu Jun asked curiously. Actually, he thought Meng Bai's idea was pretty good. Although he had never seen anyone do it before, web scripts were new products, so it was normal to come up with some new ideas.

Meng Bai said seriously: "Because no matter how new the online drama is, it is still a movie, not a game."

When an audience watches a movie or a TV series, they want to see a complete story, the relationships between the characters, and the choices the protagonist makes when facing various plots.

Although everyone knows that these choices were actually designed by the screenwriter, director and other behind-the-scenes staff, at the moment of watching the work, the audience will forget these factors and regard this story as a real world.

This is actually equivalent to a silent understanding between the creative staff and the audience - we use every possible means to create dreams for you, and you are willing to believe in the dreams we create at this moment.

Good creative staff will always try their best to avoid mistakes in the scenes to ensure that the audience will not be distracted.

Specifically in the drama "Psychological Crime", at the finale, when the male protagonist was facing the murderer and everyone was looking forward to how he would decide, a vote suddenly popped up...

This is not as simple as a play being cancelled, but is equivalent to erasing all the previous emotions, experiences, and difficulties of the protagonist, making the audience clearly realize that he is just a "paper man" and a "puppet". The emotional blow to the audience who have been following the drama is quite fatal.

Don't originally plan to get a big one, but end up getting a big lump.

So after careful consideration, Meng Bai gave up the idea. As he said, web dramas are film and television dramas after all, not galgames, and do not require the audience's "subjective initiative".

After explaining it to Liu Jun, he agreed with Meng Bai's point of view. Then he asked, "In that case, have you decided which ending to use?"

Meng Bai smiled: "I was a little hesitant when I came here today, but when I heard that it might be adapted into a movie, I have made up my mind now."

"Which version?"

"In the bright version, Professor Qiao protects the hero's escape and uses warmth to move him to get over his inner demons." Meng Bai said, "In this way, the character settings for the rest of the film can also be decided at the same time. They want a new script for the movie, so we can just take out the original story and expand and adapt it."

"Have you already written the script for next season?"

Meng Bai said: "It's not that fast, I just have a general idea."

"Have you got a name yet?"

"The working title is, 'City Lights.'

(End of this chapter)