Business Closed Loop: Starting with Ringback Tones to Take Down Giants

Let's just give it a quick boot.

Wang Song picked up the camera again and sat behind the monitor.

After much persuasion, they managed to get Professor Ding to appear on camera and act out a short clip about how a strict teacher produces outstanding students.

It's obvious that they failed; the teacher still has an image to maintain.

"If you cause trouble, don't tell anyone about your teacher."

Why can't we be like Teacher Chang Li?

He would visit her on set every few days to see her students.

The entire 02 performance class participated, which was incredibly impressive.

"Director Wang, the director is in charge on set. Just teach what needs to be taught and don't worry about me."

That's what you say, but does saying it mean you're actually teaching?

Of course, Teacher Chang Li also declined to appear on camera.

Wang Song had no choice but to give up, but of course there was another consideration.

Version updates shouldn't be too frequent; these days, movie promotions even hide behind-the-scenes footage.

It would be best not to suddenly update to the pre-made bonus content section.

Zhang Yimou's shock.JPG

"Cut! One take guaranteed." Chen Shu slammed the clapperboard shut.

She's a screenwriter who graduated in 03 with a degree in Production Management, so this can be considered a return to her old profession.

He's full of catchy rhymes and wants to take the postgraduate entrance exam, aiming to go from production management to film and television directing.

Yang Shuo volunteered: "Director Wang, I'm also preparing for the postgraduate entrance exam. If you have any roles to play, I'll definitely take the plunge."

Since things have come to this point, let's just make empty promises for now.

Of course, things progressed relatively smoothly.

The emblem hasn't yet been formally recognized as the godfather of kung fu emperor Jet Li, and there's also the pressure from Chang Li.

He can't act like a big shot.

Why would you want to eat oil-splashed noodles in the middle of the night? Why would you want to drink freshly ground coffee and grind it in front of him?

nonexistent.

In a corner of the film set, Jiang Yilei held up a DV camera and squatted there for three whole days.

There was a backstage crew, makeup artists, and prop set up. Several new actors frequently burst out laughing while rehearsing their lines.

Wang Song looked at the materials and nodded in satisfaction.

Jiang Yilei asked, "Should we inform their operations team first?"

Wang Song waved his hand, "If we don't take the initiative, the one who takes the initiative will always be the weaker party."

"I'll split it into four videos, but upload them all at once, and see how the video platform reacts."

Jiang Yilei nodded and left.

As soon as she left, Tang Yan clutched the script and timidly approached Wang Song.

"Director Wang, could you please ask Deputy Director Jiang to stop making me reshoot the scene?"

"I feel really embarrassed."

She plays the role of the other woman.

The third party is prettier than the female lead played by Bai Baihe, and has longer legs, so there's nothing wrong with that, right?

Wang Song thought for a moment and then offered words of comfort.

"For the sake of film promotion, since we don't have traditional promotional channels, we'll find another way."

"You wouldn't want your film to be released with no audience, no box office success, and no brand awareness, would you?"

"Will it work?" Tang Yan asked doubtfully.

"Don't worry about me handling things," Wang Song nodded.

"Cut! That's it for the morning."

As they were talking, Tian Yusheng came closer.

"Director Wang, is this all the work a director can do?"

Wang Song looked up at him. He directed the "Ex-Files" film series and participated in the scriptwriting of "Lost in Thailand".

This child must not be allowed to return to the mountains.

However, it seems that this is the stage when he has just become interested in the directing industry.

Wang Song organized his thoughts, "Cut! Check the monitor! Say 'Let's do another take?'"

Tian Yusheng nodded.

Wang Song smiled and said, "These can all be practiced, but the threshold is there."

"If there were no requirements, why would you submit your script to me?"

Tian Yusheng was stunned; it seemed he was right.

Wang Song continued:

"Now you're a new director, and you've gone to great lengths to secure investment."

"What if the investor wants to add a top-tier star, but they're not satisfied with your filming and want to change the script?

"To change or not to change?"

Tian Yusheng did not answer. If he didn't change the fact that they were threatening to withdraw their investment, and if he did change it, would he still be the director?

Wang Song said earnestly, "So, for a director, the most important thing is momentum."

Tian Yusheng adjusted his mindset, "Then what about me?"

Wang Song felt it was about time.

"But Xianming can trust you, just like you brought the script here and trusted me."

Wang Song stood up. "Of course, right now we only have enough Immortal Names to start one film."

"Since you're free anyway, you can learn from them. If you can't afford to support a studio, you can come to Xianming."

After saying that, Wang Song left to prepare for the afternoon's scenes.

Filming continued on set, and Jiang Yilei pressed the publish button on his video.

That night.

In the operations department of Youku.com, Xiao Zhou was still refreshing the backend, looking for viral content and tomorrow's homepage push.

Having just secured funding, they are going all out to compete with Tudou.com for daily active users and users.

But the videos on the entire internet are just the same few things over and over again.

Scattered snippets of daily life, pirated movies and TV dramas uploaded by imposters posing as users, and celebrity commercial performances and interviews.

ding dong~

Papi Jiang updated four videos at once?

He clicked on them and read them one after another, becoming more and more surprised with each one.

Xiao Zhou slammed his fist on the table. "Manager, manager, could you please consider pushing this away?"

"What Xianming just posted isn't a movie review or music video; it's something new."

"They hadn't updated for half a month, but this time they released four videos all at once."

The supervisor watched from the side, while Xiao Zhou shared his thoughts.

"Manager, these days in the film industry, everything on set is treated as top secret."

"The release date announcement trailer was edited to be very vague, as if they were afraid of revealing even a little bit of the plot."

"But they are different; they do the complete opposite."

He paused.

"Moreover, Papi Jiang has a fan base from film and television, so with a little push, she's sure to become a hit."

The supervisor remained silent for a moment after reading it.

Youku has the highest proportion of film and entertainment content among all video platforms.

He immediately made the decision: "Push it, push it now."

The following evening, in the Youku operations department conference room.

The behind-the-scenes footage was playing on the projector. There were seven or eight people in the room, and they were silent for three seconds after watching it.

"How's the data?" someone asked.

The supervisor in charge of the main promotion retrieved the backend data.

"Uploaded at 9 pm last night, within 24 hours, we pushed it out relatively early."

"Tudou has 18, we have 32, and 56.com has 11."

"It has basically become differentiated content; no one else on the entire internet dares to film like this."

The operations director nodded.

"Immortal Name, right? They were the ones who suggested it last time when he said 'GG'?"

The supervisor nodded: "Yes, but I doubt they'd care about such a small fee."

"Otherwise, there wouldn't have been no updates for half a month."

The director remained silent for a moment.

"Go talk to them first, ask them when the next issue will be released, and if they can give us an exclusive."

One of them stepped forward, "Exclusive? They won't accept that."

"Even though Tudou.com gave the name of the creator representative, they still couldn't secure an exclusive."

"That's because they're stupid. If they weren't pure, we wouldn't have signed them." The director raised his voice.

"Let's talk about priority, not exclusivity."

"We'll go first, then they can go later. This kind of content is something the audience hasn't seen before, so whoever promotes it first will reap the benefits."

Half an hour later, Jiang Yilei received a reply.

"Teacher Jiang, I watched the behind-the-scenes footage. The format is very novel; no one in the industry has ever done it this way before."

"Youku would like to pre-order the second phase; we've reserved a spot on the homepage."

Jiang Yilei handed the laptop to Wang Song, "The second episode is finished editing, do you want to release it?"

Wang Song shook his head: "Let's leave it hanging for now and say it's being cut. We'll show it to you when it's finished."

"No conditions?"

Wang Song smiled and said, "Let's not talk about it. We'll show our chips first and then wait for the other side to call."

Wang Song turned his gaze back to today's footage on the screen.

Bai Baihe's crying scene in the video was spot-on, but the new actress's original voice was really not good.

He marked the timestamps, "Have her come to the recording studio to re-record tomorrow after filming."

Jiang Yilei, standing nearby, took notes: "Where's the background music?"

Wang Song suddenly remembered something: "Over at the music team, has Yao Beina finished recording her theme song?"

"Almost done, the mixing is still being adjusted."

Wang Song nodded, "Let's edit a tearjerker scene from a movie and make a music video together in a while."

"It's probably time for the third episode of behind-the-scenes footage."

Jiang Yilei pondered for a moment and then stopped questioning.

It was almost 10 o'clock when I finished editing.

He thought for a moment, then opened the essay contest again to check the results of the fifth day.

Most of them are student compositions.

In a school dormitory, being able to tell the whole story of unrequited love clearly is already considered good.

Amnesia and abortion may be late, but they arrive eventually. In the past, they were more politely referred to as "youth pain literature."

It seems to be called sexual repression now.

I haven't seen a single storyline that became famous in later generations.

The story section, on the other hand, has seen a significant increase in the number of forum experts.

The writing style should be sophisticated, and the subject matter should be diverse.

There was a story about stock trading that started off quite intriguing, so I clicked on it.

Zi Jinchen's "Young Stock God" is updated to Chapter 8.

"The content is good, and the name looks familiar."

Wang Song frowned and pondered for a moment, but still couldn't remember.

I could only casually click on the platform's featured recommendation for him and then close the story page.

The daily active user data displayed in the background doesn't lie, even if we don't see any viral articles in the future.

The popularity of the Xianming platform is also slowly spreading.

The music program also began to receive many student submissions.

Nothing was exposed.

But everything is alive.

When the movie is released, the film adaptation rights will no longer be just empty words.

Stories, music, images, and films—walking on four legs is always better than walking on one.

"Hey!"

He took out his phone and sent a message to Jiang Yilei:

"At the end of each episode's behind-the-scenes feature, add a sentence: This film is adapted from an essay submitted to the Fairy Tale Storytelling Contest."