Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 196 A safety net
On February 20, 2005, the "Provisional Regulations on the Management of Internet Comment Services" officially came into effect, clarifying that websites should verify the real identity information of registered users in accordance with the principle of "real-name registration in the background and voluntary registration in the foreground".

However, due to technical and practical limitations, supervision and management will currently only be carried out on large domestic online forums and websites, adopting a strategy of focusing on the major and letting go of the minor ones.

On February 21, with the filming of Xiaolongnu's scenes officially wrapped up, Hu Xiaobei, An Xiaoqian, and Liu Xiaoli, along with Laifu and Candy, drove back to Beijing.

Because he couldn't bring himself to refuse, Zhou Xiaowen remained in the Condor Heroes crew, which would take at least another month.

Even so, it's still much faster than the original timeline where The Return of the Condor Heroes didn't wrap up until the end of April.

Hu Xiaobei rushed back to Beijing for two reasons. First, his scenes with Xiaolongnu had finished filming. If he stayed on set any longer, he would have to reduce the amount of screen time Yu Minjie had, which would not be ideal.

In addition, there is an even more important reason.

The previously filmed short film "Xiang Lady" has passed CCTV's review and amazed everyone.

Correspondingly, the filming of the "Dialogue Between Past and Present" series also needs to enter the preparation stage.

If he, as the backbone, is not there, many things will be difficult to move forward.

It can be said that returning to Beijing is crucial for the development of the next series of work, and the preparation for filming the "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Times" series is of paramount importance.

This project will film the first part of the "Dialogue Between Past and Present" series, namely the 7 parts and 21 volumes of "Dialogue Between Past and Present: The Classics of China".

Hu Xiaobei plans to film 21 episodes, with one episode dedicated to each classic text.

In these 21 episodes, the protagonist Kokyo, who represents "Yang," is filmed from a first-person perspective and his face is not shown.

The one who will truly make an appearance is "Gu Jin," who represents "Yin" or the image of "Yin and Yang in harmony," and will be played by An Xiaoqian as the male protagonist.

This "past and present" is just a starting point; the real protagonists are actually distributed throughout each episode, possibly one or two or three.

That is to say, there are at least 21 main characters in each episode.

Finding suitable, talented actors for such a large number of important roles is extremely difficult, so it requires official leadership and joint responsibility with CCTV.

In this way, Hu Xiaobei was able to apply for and allocate some resources from the government and CCTV to support the filming of the "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Times" series.

Take the selection of actors as an example. He can use official channels to get institutions such as the Beijing People's Art Theatre and the PLA Academy of Arts, as well as some veteran actors, to cooperate in the filming.

As long as Hu Xiaobei is ruthless enough, he can definitely cover the actors' expenses within 50 yuan.

Of course, Hu Xiaobei wouldn't go that far; he's not short of money.

Paying 10,000 yuan per episode for the main actors is already very generous. (PS: Not counting days)
Regarding the actors' expenses for this drama, assuming each of the main characters in a segment filmed one episode, and at a rate of 10,000 per episode, the expenses for the 21 main characters in each segment would be 210,000.

If we take into account other important roles, this number could double again, but the maximum estimated expenditure would be around 50.

Including An Xiaoqian, the lead actress who plays "Gu Jin", assuming her salary is 10,000 yuan per episode, her salary would be 210,000 yuan, and the total expenditure for the main actors would be 710,000 yuan.

Of course, given An Xiaoxi's status as the lead actress and her current fame.

Normally, this price wouldn't be enough to hire An Xiaoqian, so Hu Xiaobei would compensate her in other ways.

For extras, students from Beijing People's Art Theatre and Beijing Film Academy can be hired to fill in.

Based on daily wages, it would cost approximately 0.5 yuan per day (50 people x 100 yuan/day). Even if the extras filmed one episode a day for 21 days, they would only earn 10.5 yuan.

Assuming the filming period is about two months, if the extras work continuously for two months (about 60 days), the extras' fees would be 30.

Based on this calculation, the total cost for the actors is estimated to be around 100 million.

In terms of scene rental, relying on official resources and cooperation with CCTV, it is possible to rent ancient costume scene venues for free or at a relatively preferential price.

The venue cost is 1 yuan per episode, so 21 episodes would cost 21 yuan.

Most props can be borrowed or rented from CCTV, Beijing People's Art Theatre, and other similar institutions; only a small number of special props need to be custom-made.

Assuming the cost of borrowing and customizing props for each episode is 1 yuan, the total cost for 21 episodes would be 21 yuan. The total cost of sets and props would be approximately 42 yuan. Even if we round it up to a whole number, it would still be no more than 50 yuan.

The equipment can be borrowed or leased from CCTV and Beijing Film Academy at a discounted internal price, just to give you a token amount. The equipment rental fee is 1 yuan per episode, totaling 21 yuan for 21 episodes.

Regarding staff salaries, director Hu Xiaobei will handle them himself, so they're not included for now. Production will be handled by Liu Xiaoli, and that portion of the cost is estimated at 21 yuan.

The production team consisted of professional staff from CCTV. The personnel salary expenditure for each episode was 1.2 yuan, totaling 25.2 yuan for 21 episodes. The total cost of equipment and personnel was approximately 67 yuan, but let's just calculate it as 100 million yuan.

As for post-production, Hu Xiaobei is in charge of editing, so that's not considered for now.

The color grading work can be handled by the teachers and students of Beijing Film Academy. At 1 yuan per episode, the total cost for 21 episodes is 0.3 yuan. As for special effects and sound effects, since the subject matter is mainly historical and cultural, the special effects requirements are relatively simple. The cost is 21 yuan per episode, totaling 6.3 yuan for 21 episodes. The total post-production cost is approximately 27.3 yuan.

However, Hu Xiaobei had high requirements for the background music, so he handed it over to the official handling department. The cost was not high; rounding it up to 50 yuan wouldn't be much.

In addition, there are other miscellaneous expenses.

The scriptwriting was done by Hu Xiaobei, so let's leave that aside for now.

Since the filming took place in Beijing, the crew's travel and accommodation expenses during filming were negligible.

However, it can also be calculated at 0.5 million yuan per episode, totaling 10.5 million yuan for 21 episodes.

The publicity and distribution will leverage CCTV's platform and official channels, which is something Hu Xiaobei doesn't need to worry about at all.

Adding up all the above expenses, the total cost is approximately 310 million yuan.

If we include Hu Xiaobei's personal expenses for directing, filming, coordination, copyright, adaptation, editing, etc., it becomes difficult to calculate.

Assuming Hu Xiaobei's personal expenses total 90 yuan, excluding copyright costs, then the total expenses would be around 400 million yuan.

Even if that number were doubled, 800 million yuan would still be more than enough for filming.

In reality, the income of Hu Xiaobei, An Xiaoqian, and Liu Xiaoli will all be included in the investment, which means that the actual investment will basically not exceed 268 million yuan.

However, due to contractual reasons, neither copyright nor Hu Xiaobei's personal income is actually meaningful to calculate.

The revenue of this drama is divided into two unrelated parts: the CCTV exclusive broadcast acquisition price and the audio-visual distribution acquisition price.

Of course, this is also because of the official backing, cooperation with CCTV, and the support of the Beijing Film Academy, which provides Hu Xiaobei with ample resources to allocate.

Only by meeting all of these conditions can the filming budget be kept between 400 million and 800 million.

Otherwise, even if the budget for producing such a high-quality historical drama were increased to 1500 million, it might not be enough if a private company were to produce it.

At that time, CCTV was very wealthy, spending four to five hundred million RMB annually on purchasing new dramas.

Whether it's "Emperor Wu of Han" or "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Classics Illuminating China," CCTV purchased exclusive broadcasting rights for both.

During the copyright period, the production company cannot sell the broadcasting rights of the show to other television stations.

"The Emperor Wu of Han" was CCTV's opening drama of 2005. CCTV spent 4500 million yuan to purchase its broadcasting rights. The drama has about 58 episodes, with an average price of about 77.6 RMB per episode.

The acquisition price for the first 21 episodes of "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Times: Illuminating China" was 1680 million, averaging 80 RMB per episode.

It is worth mentioning that the 1680 million yuan in revenue went entirely to the production company and had nothing to do with CCTV.

In other words, even before filming began, the exclusive broadcast and acquisition by CCTV alone was enough to guarantee a profit of 800-1400 million yuan.

Fortunately, CCTV is there to back them up. As long as the content produced isn't too bad, CCTV will generally approve it.

As for other sources of revenue, at this stage, the only option is to produce and distribute DVDs, VCDs, and other audio-visual products related to the series, and then sell them through channels such as video stores.

The audio-visual distribution rights for "Emperor Wu of Han" were eventually transferred to Zhongkai Culture for 17.5 yuan per episode, totaling 1015 million yuan.

"Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Classics Illuminates China" is probably not as good as "Emperor Wu of Han". Logically speaking, it will likely only sell for around 300 million to 350 million.

It's hard to say exactly how many can be sold now.

Because the distribution of this portion of the revenue is clearly stipulated in the contract, all revenue from audio-visual products belongs to CCTV and has nothing to do with Hu Xiaobei.

The contract also specifies in detail the ownership of copyright, the rights and responsibilities of each party, etc., to ensure the smooth progress of the entire project and the fair and reasonable distribution of benefits.

From this perspective, it seems that only the Beijing Film Academy and the Beijing People's Art Theatre have suffered losses.

Actually, that's not the case. The actors from Beijing People's Art Theatre got the opportunity to hone their skills and gain exposure, and even got to play the lead role in a series, which was a great opportunity for them.

Needless to say, the Beijing Film Academy benefited from this, both by providing training for its students and by helping its own people.

Most importantly, Hu Xiaobei will also donate 100 million yuan each to the Beijing People's Art Theatre and the Beijing Film Academy afterward.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, CCTV's payment for the project will arrive as soon as filming is completed, demonstrating extremely high efficiency.

(End of this chapter)