Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 393 Guo Fan and Gao Xiaosong
When Li Qiutang returned, "My Old Classmate" had already grossed over 4 million yuan at the box office.

New director Guo Fan rose to fame overnight, and countless scripts for youth films flooded his attention.

"My Old Classmate" is the best-selling film in the first half of autumn. In just half a month of release, it has already equaled the box office of "Beijing Love Story" and is expected to earn another 5000 million to 1 million yuan.

Autumn Pictures held a celebration banquet for "My Old Classmate".

Some people say that Guo Fan was just a tool for Gao Xiaosong in "My Old Classmate" and that he had no real power on set.

But the producers at Autumn Pictures knew that it wasn't Gao Xiaosong who sidelined Guo Fan, but rather Guo Fan who, to some extent, sidelined Gao Xiaosong.

"He's very capable on set," said a vice president of the company who was also a producer on the set of "My Old Classmate." At the celebration banquet, she spoke highly of Guo Fan to Li Qiutang. "On the surface, he is very respectful to Gao Xiaosong and gives him a lot of face, but in reality, he has his own set of methods. For example, the scene where they stormed the embassy was added by Guo Fan behind Gao Xiaosong's back."

Of course, it's not to say that Gao Xiaosong had no influence on this film. The influence is obvious: "My Old Classmate" is indeed melodramatic, and the plot and characters are not particularly well-developed or three-dimensional.

Moreover, in the film, Gao Xiaosong's sense of superiority as a native of Yanjing almost overflows the screen, perfectly capturing the style of a "Beijing native"!
But in any case, "My Old Classmate" was an immense economic success.

At the celebration banquet, Guo Fan joked, "Finally, I can afford a house."

Li Qiutang also praised Guo Fan for his good work: "Now many companies are asking you to make films, you've really made it big."

Guo Fan said, "Indeed, many companies have approached me to act in movies, mostly youth films."

Li Qiutang said, "Youth films are great. They're not tiring to make, and they're profitable." From an economic perspective, if Guo Fan wanted to make money, he could just make two more youth films.

But Guo Fan said, "I still want to make blockbusters, science fiction films."

This is the ideal that Guo Fan has been emphasizing ever since he first met Li Qiutang.

Li Qiutang didn't insist that Guo Fan continue making youth films. After thinking for a moment, she said, "If you don't want to make youth films, that's fine. But you also know that if you say you want to make big-budget films now, it will be difficult to gain the trust of investors."

Guo Fan nodded.

"Here's what we'll do: you make another low-budget film to hone your skills. This time, I won't send a producer to mess things up. Gao Xiaosong is an outsider, so you can handle both the directing and producing. If this film makes money, it will be much easier for you to negotiate big-budget films with the company. We'll see if it's science fiction or some other genre later."

Guo Fan knew this was the normal path for a director's career, and Li Qiutang's promises were highly regarded in the industry because he genuinely believed he could deliver on his promises.

Although he was a little disappointed that he didn't get to shoot a big-budget film right away, Guo Fan was still full of energy because of Li Qiutang's trust in him.

But to his surprise, Li Qiutang gave him a big gift.

"Are you willing to go to America? Zhixi is being transferred back, and in return you're going to Hollywood to study for six months to a year before coming back to act. Are you willing to do that?"

Guo Fan was eager to learn Hollywood's excellent techniques to lay the foundation for making blockbusters in the future. He would definitely agree to go away for a week or two or half a month, but Li Qiutang asked him to go away for half a year or a year, which made him hesitate. He was already married and his child had just been born. What would happen to his wife and child at home if he went away for so long?
This is a very real problem.

Li Qiutang didn't know much about Guo Fan's family situation. Seeing that he was in a dilemma, she just told him to think about it.

At today's celebration banquet, besides director Guo Fan, producer and executive producer Gao Xiaosong was another focus, or rather, the biggest focus.

After all, he is much more famous than Guo Fan.

Many people attribute the success of "My Old Classmate" to Gao Xiaosong.

Gao Xiaosong was indeed very happy on set. The IP was his, the movie was a huge success, and he gained both fame and fortune.

He was so drunk at the scene that his face was flushed and his neck was red. He was in high spirits, and he got a little carried away with his boasting.

"Sigh, I'm a complete novice when it comes to making movies, and I never expected the results to be so good."

"When we were filming, I told them not to change my script, just film it like this, and it turns out I was right."

"We also have to thank the CEOs from the autumn department; they worked very hard too."

"Hahaha, whether we make money or not is not important. The key is that we get things done and feel good about ourselves."

He's willing to boast like that, and others are willing to flatter him.

"In the end, it's you, the producer and supervisor, who deserves credit. Who among us hasn't heard of 'My Deskmate'? Who can't sing it?"

Gao Xiaosong blushed even more and waved his hand, "It's all work. The credit belongs to everyone. I just helped out a little."

"Work is a team effort, but your leadership is still the best, and you should take the lead."

These words made Gao Xiaosong even more disoriented, and he drank two more cups.

He also called Guo Fan over and introduced him to some CEOs.

This is the CEO of a certain company, this is the director of a certain bureau, and this is the general manager of a certain company.

He embodies a noble image of mentoring younger generations.

He drank the most at the celebration banquet, and in the end, his assistant helped him into the car, where he lay in the back seat like a dead pig.

The next day, Gao Xiaosong sobered up, and his assistant took the initiative to call the production management department of Autumn Pictures to tentatively inquire about the company's newly approved project, "The Best of Us".

"We had a great collaboration on 'My Old Classmate,' and we can continue to work together on 'The Best of Us.' Professor Gao has a pretty good grasp of youth films."

But in the eyes of the production management department of Autumn Film Studio, Gao Xiaosong is an outsider!
Qiu Tian believes that the success of "My Old Classmate" is due to the IP and the popularity of youth films. Although the IP belongs to Gao Xiaosong, Qiu Tian does not acknowledge that Gao Xiaosong made any particularly noteworthy contributions to the filming and production of the movie.

Guo Fan, a new director, couldn't afford to hire big names like Zhou Dongyu and Lin Gengxin, but these two weren't invited by Gao Xiaosong either. They came for the company's sake—Lin Gengxin successfully connected with the company and is now filming "Fleet of Time" with Shu Chang.

However, it was difficult to say directly. The production management department only replied to Gao Xiaosong's side: "The project for 'The Best of Us' has just been approved and the script is still being worked on. The company wants to wait until the script is completed before deciding on the next steps. We have great faith in Mr. Gao's abilities and hope to continue our cooperation."

After hanging up the phone, Gao Xiaosong asked his assistant how the talks went.

"They said they would discuss collaboration once the script was finished."

Gao Xiaosong realized that Qiu Tian didn't want to repeat the mistakes of "My Old Classmate," so she didn't want to hand over the script to him or let him have too much real power in the production team.

He was overthinking it. The script for "The Best of Us" was handed over to Tian Yusheng's Shengtang Studio before Gao Xiaosong even asked him about it. It had nothing to do with whether he wanted Gao Xiaosong to take control.

To Li Qiutang's surprise, three days after the celebration banquet for "My Old Classmate", Guo Fan replied to him, saying that he was willing to go to Hollywood to study: "I told my wife about it yesterday, and she supported me to go. I asked what would happen to the children, and she said to bring my mother-in-law to Beijing to take care of them together, so I don't have to worry about it."

Li Qiutang was moved by what she heard, and felt that she was no human being to break up a family of three.

However, Guo Fan was determined to go to the United States to study film industry technology, and Li Qiutang granted his wish, promising to arrange for him to go abroad as soon as Chen Zhixi returned.

(End of this chapter)