Unboxing, Director!

Chapter 170 Various Layouts
"Lu, I can help you connect with some film company bosses."

Arthur's gaze was intense.

But after saying that, he leaned close to Lu Jiang's ear and added, "If you need it and are willing, I can also be your partner and your business partner."

The meaning is obvious.

Arthur didn't think Lu Jiang would act like an ordinary filmmaker, seeking out companies, submitting scripts, and raising funds. Instead, he believed Lu Jiang would become a capital investor and develop his own projects.

Lu Jiang did indeed think so. He had initially wanted to collaborate with John, with the ideal scenario being to work on a project together, such as "Happy Death Day," where Lu Jiang could take a share or sign a performance-based agreement to maximize his profits.

But no matter what, that's still working for someone else, not being a boss.

Now that Arthur's family has the basic distribution and screening conditions, Lu Jiang naturally wants to see if he can directly become the boss.

Being a boss not only grants you maximum freedom, but also ensures that your films are directly American productions, free from import restrictions, allowing you to reap the full benefits of the world's largest film market.

So at this moment, Lu Jiang couldn't help but re-examine Arthur from head to toe, and he suddenly realized that this person was quite cute.

"Lu, don't look at me like that. I'm serious, I'm not joking with you."

Arthur touched his face and laughed.

Lu Jiang laughed heartily after hearing this, and then stopped being coy and invited him to go back to the hotel with him to have a detailed chat.

On the way, Arthur explained to Lu Jiang the relevant matters about starting a film company in North America.

He truly lives up to the legacy of veteran American filmmakers.

Having grown up surrounded by the film industry, I have a fairly good understanding of it.

After a brief explanation, Lu Jiang gained a general understanding of how Hollywood film companies operate.

The most crucial question is how to realize Lu Jiang's idea.

For a foreigner to have a film made in North America recognized as an American film, it needs to meet the following three conditions.

First Productions is a U.S. registered entity.

The second major creative team, such as the director, screenwriter, lead actor, or producer, must have at least one American or a U.S. green card holder.

Third, more than 50% of the production costs are spent within the United States.

The second point is that regulations vary from state to state. Some places require that at least 75% of the creative team be Americans or hold U.S. green cards.

After this, Lu Jiang breathed a sigh of relief.

He was initially worried that if he collaborated with John, "Happy Death Day" might be able to be filmed according to his own vision.

After all, Fan Binbin will star in "Happy Death Day" and direct it himself. With the lead actor, screenwriter, and director all being Chinese, can it still be considered an American film?
Now that Arthur has explained, "Happy Death Day" is a sure thing!

Arthur then asked, "Lou, although I know you're very talented, are you really sure you want to produce it yourself? Making movies is quite risky!"

"I know, but I'm not making a blockbuster. The budget is at most two or three million US dollars, which I can afford to lose."

"Is this the cost of our first film?"

"More or less, maybe we won't even need that many."

Happy Death Day is a 2017 film with a budget of $480 million.

Even considering inflation, the value would be no more than 350 million today.

If we film it ourselves, the cost will be lower, and it is estimated that it will not exceed 300 million.

This amount of money is definitely something we can afford to lose.

After hearing this, Arthur asked again, "Can you really afford to lose money? I'm not saying you don't have the money, I just want to know if you're truly prepared."

"Don't worry, I'm not the kind of person who does reckless things."

Lu Jiang's tone was serious. After hearing this, Arthur seemed to have made up his mind as well: "Okay, since you've decided, then I'll do it with you! Let's consider this one last crazy thing before inheriting the family business! But let me make it clear first, I can't contribute too much money, at most $20."

Lu Jiang couldn't help but ask, "You trust me that much?"

"You might not believe it, but I feel really comfortable working with you, and that's why I'm willing to trust you!"

After he finished speaking, a blue treasure chest appeared above his head: [Arthur wants to continue working with the host, regardless of success or failure.]

Lu Jiang was now completely satisfied; having a treasure chest was what made things truly reliable.

As for asking him to invest 20, that's a minor issue. The regulations don't specify how much of a company's capital must be held by Americans, but it's definitely not acceptable to have no American shareholders.

And Arthur is so sincere and enthusiastic, and he has resources behind him. Although the resources are not large, they perfectly meet Lu Jiang's needs.

"No problem, we can discuss the details later."

That evening, Lu Jiang and Arthur reached a preliminary agreement.

He will next partner with Arthur to start a film company.

With Lu Jiang providing the content, Arthur handling management, and his father backing him up, the small company would be fully equipped, and Lu Jiang's plan to break into the North American film industry would have a starting point.
The following day, Lu Jiang continued his North American promotional tour.

The schedule is very tight, with only three days.

For most singers, spending only three days personally promoting their work is clearly too perfunctory.

But Lu Jiang had no choice; he still had to film.

However, given the current situation, three days is actually enough, and it's even fine if they don't come over.

Firstly, he didn't place much importance on the revenue from commercial performances in North America.

Secondly, a good song can overcome everything.

All three songs were in the Billboard Top 30, with "Shape of You" even reaching number one. With Warner Music backing them, there was no need to worry about them not becoming hits.

If the song is popular, that's enough.

Not famous?
If you have enough hit songs, it's hard for people not to remember you!

And that is indeed the case. Since its release last night, the three songs have begun to sweep the North American music scene starting today.

Initially, Free Loop garnered the most attention due to the popularity of the "fragmented" episodes.

But on the third day, "Shape of You" began to overtake it.

On the third day, Lu Jiang heard "Shape of You" playing in a shopping mall in Washington, D.C., where several young men in black were dancing along. When they saw Lu Jiang, they were stunned for a moment, then excitedly exclaimed, "OMG! It's Lu!"

The power of this brainwashing song is already beginning to show.

"Hall of Fame" is relatively weaker, but Warner Bros. said it will be played at the NBA playoffs in three days.

Meanwhile, similar events will also begin to capitalize on the World Cup hype in Europe and South America.

The results shouldn't be too bad at that time.

Sales figures couldn't be compiled after three days.

So whether the new album will truly be a "hit" remains to be seen. All Zhou Jianhui can do now is patiently wait for the Billboard charts and sales figures to be released next Monday.

If it charts in the first week, even if only one song makes it, the new album is practically guaranteed to be a hit. Then we can start the second step of our plan, which is to collaborate with Western celebrities to produce music videos and further boost its popularity.

As Lu Jiang's music career progressed steadily, his musical footprint across Asia also expanded further. On May 12th, Lu Jiang returned to Beijing and met with Wu Zongxian.

Wu Zongxian has finally decided to let go!
Since last year, Lu Jiang has had Li Chao and Qi Dian keep an eye on Wu Zongxian's movements.

Until a few months ago, Wu Zongxian finally couldn't hold on any longer and started to spread rumors in the market that he wanted to sell the company.

Many companies came after hearing the news, causing Wu Zongxian's asking price to rise steadily.

Lu Jiang wondered if his appearance would cause the final bid to far exceed the original timeline's 3 million NT dollars.

In the end, he overestimated how much Wu Zongxian valued Jay Chou.

Money is the most important thing to him now, and of course, it would be even better if there was a sucker among them.

So Lu Jiang became the sucker.

Because of his good relationship with Jay Chou, Wu Zongxian can openly play the emotional card and take advantage of his close relationship.

So in the end, Lu Jiang "tearfully" acquired his company for 3.2 million NT dollars.

320 million, which is 20 million more than in the original timeline, or more than 4 million RMB.

At first glance, it seems like a loss, but in reality, it's a gain because Jay Chou's digital rights were also included in the deal.

In this era, the internet was just emerging, but the concept of digital music copyright was still very primitive, especially in the area of ​​paid music. Most people did not pay much attention to it, thinking that it was simply impossible to achieve.

Pay to listen to music? Who would be that stupid?

It wasn't until later, as relevant copyright laws gradually took shape and profits increased, that music companies began to renegotiate digital copyrights.

For example, in the original timeline, Jay Chou and his then-new record label, Sony Music, had a significant conflict over digital copyright revenue sharing, which led to the temporary removal of Jay Chou's early works. The matter was later renegotiated, and Jay Chou recovered a large portion of the profits that had been "infringed" on his earlier rights.

Now that the copyrights are all in Lu Jiang's hands, he will have more control in the future.

Jaylen was aware of the deal, but in his opinion, it was purely due to his good luck that he had become good friends with Lu Jiang early on.

Wu Zongxian's messy business outside caused his cash flow to dry up. If it weren't for Lu Jiang's intervention, he might have been bought by some lousy company, which would have been a dangerous situation with a bleak future!
Therefore, although Jay Chou doesn't hate Wu Zongxian as much as he did in the original timeline, he still harbors considerable resentment towards him.

As for Lu Jiang, of course, I am extremely grateful.

There were many benefits to working under Lu Jiang; firstly, the commission rate increased significantly.

Apart from that, the team remains the same, there's no need to move to Beijing, it's exactly the same as before.

Lu Jiang also gave lenient policies regarding starting one's own business in the future.

Lu Jiang also promised to make a movie for him, whether it's finding a director and script for him, or directing it himself, it doesn't matter.

See, that's why Lu Jiang is the one who understands me best; he even knows I dream of becoming a director!
So right now there's only one thing to do: write good songs and make good money!
Lu Ge said that our Chinese pop culture is the coolest.

Then let's follow Brother Lu and be awesome together!

After acquiring Jay Chou, Dawn Records added a new department: the music department.

After the department was established, Li Chao was mainly responsible for preparing for the promotion and release of Jay Chou's new album.

Actually, this department existed before, but it was mainly responsible for producing background music and interludes for the company's films and TV series, and it was mostly led by Lu Jiang. You could say it was Lu Jiang's private music team.

Aside from film and television music production, Lu Jiang's other music business is handled by Warner Music and Li Chao's Locke Anloo, as is the case with F3 and Fan Binbin.

But now Lu Jiang has brought it under his umbrella, officially bringing Locke Anluo under the Dawn Group. This means that Dawn has officially launched its music-related business and created and launched singers.

The main reason for doing this is because the era of ringback tones and the Internet era are coming soon.

The scale of the ringback tone business is self-evident; compared to traditional record companies, it requires less investment but yields explosive returns.

Of course, this requires establishing good relationships with the three major telecommunications companies and acquiring relevant copyrights and talent in advance.

Regarding the former, it is not a problem for Lu Jiang at present. The mobile ringback tone service has not officially started yet, but China Mobile has already contacted Lu Jiang, wanting to cooperate with him to launch the service in one fell swoop.

This is the unique advantage that makes him the leading figure in the Chinese music scene and the most promising and promising talent in the Music Association.

As for the latter, Lu Jiang may not be able to produce various catchy ringtones at any time, but it is not difficult to acquire talent in advance.

For example, Pang Long joined Locke Anlo at the end of last year.

It is now almost certain that Dao Lang will join Locke Anloo.

And then there's Phoenix Legend, which is a bit more troublesome.

Because of Lu Jiang's talent, he can't write songs whenever he wants, so he can't poach people on his own. He has to get the creative trio behind the scenes of the group sorted out first.

The best way to win them over is to take down that square dance anthem empire, Peacock Records, in one fell swoop.

Peacock Records was founded in 1995.

Before the era of ringtones, it was lukewarm at best, mainly producing cover songs and pirated CDs. Later, it transformed into original music production. In terms of scale, it can only be said to be slightly better than Rock An-Luo in the second half of 98.

Because they were utterly shameless; after all, Li Chao at the time would never have done something like piracy.

Later, when the era of ringtones began, Peacock Records seized the opportunity, focusing on sad love songs and internet hits, specializing in producing songs that were crudely made but low-cost and perfectly suited the lower-tier market.

For example, Zheng Yuan, Wang Qiang, Xie Jun, Wang Lin, Tao Yuyu, and others who signed later.

The name might sound unfamiliar, but the song title will make it clear.

Zheng Yuan's representative work is "Ten Thousand Reasons", Wang Qiang's representative work is "Autumn Never Returns", Xie Jun's representative work is "That Night", Wang Lin's representative work is "Can't Afford to Be Hurt", and Tao Yuyu's representative work is "Don't Say You Love Me When I'm Lonely".
In 03, Linghua and Zeng Yi won the runner-up prize in the "Guangdong Radio and Television Music Competition". Peacock Records signed them with a very low percentage of the revenue. They also collaborated with musicians such as He Muyang to create the later "Phoenix Legend" and reaped huge profits.

In short, this is a company that focuses on creating catchy melodies and simple lyrics, targeting rural areas, third- and fourth-tier cities, and square dancing groups, and is making a fortune.

This led to Peacock Records becoming the most well-known record company in mainland China, comparable to powerful record companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

So, to talk about poaching talent from Phoenix Legend...

In reality, the key figure is Chen Rentai, the boss of Peacock Records and a super talent scout.

Lu Jiang and he had met before; Lu Jiang was among the people brought by the Guangdong Musicians Association during a concert in Guangdong in 00.

At the time, Lu Jiang didn't pay much attention, because he was busy and, more importantly, because he didn't remember who he was.

Later, when Li Chao began searching for talent in various places as Lu Jiang requested, he found He Muyang, the author of "Above the Moon".

Lu Jiang didn't work in music in his previous life, but he knew this person's name, so he started to pay attention to him and hoped to bring him under his wing and work with Phoenix Legend to create another glorious chapter.

However, He Muyang later provided a clue about Peacock Records, which reminded him of this "giant" in later generations.

Don't ask Lu Jiang how he knew about this company. He lived through the era when TV stations would call in to request songs. Back then, his hometown station would display information such as the song, singer, record company, price, and number of plays.

Lu Jiang was deeply impressed at the time because the company's songs and singers were very famous and had extremely high play counts.

What surprised me most was discovering that even Phoenix Legend is owned by them, which was quite unexpected. So I did some research to make it easier to pick up girls.
Currently, Peacock Records still relies heavily on piracy for most of its revenue, while its original content business is in its early stages of development. Acquiring it wouldn't be too costly.

The specific negotiations have been going on for three months and are now basically complete.

After signing the contract with Wu Zongxian, Lu Jiang did not return to Hengdian, but went directly to Guangdong.

One day later, on May 14, 2002, after acquiring Jay Chou, Lu Jiang acquired 67% of the shares for a "sky-high price" of 5.8 million RMB, successfully taking over Peacock Records.

At this point, Lu Jiang's future music strategy has basically taken shape.
(End of this chapter)