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

"Tone your expression down a bit, yes, yes, keep that look, let's do one more scene."

Jiang Yilei held up a DV camera, standing in the middle of the crowd, with the lens pointed at three girls who were auditioning.

Someone nearby muttered quietly, "What are they filming?"

An enthusiastic onlooker from Chaoyang spoke up: "Casting for the short film 'Immortal Name'."

"I heard that the top three essays will be made into a 20-minute short film."

Students from drama, acting, and directing departments flocked to the event, and several students from the neighboring Beijing Film Academy also came.

Students could be seen everywhere on campus discussing scripts and forming teams to audition.

The passion for writing essays has been carried over to the creation of images.

"Phew, thank goodness the filming location is off campus, otherwise we would have been surrounded by onlookers too."

Seeing this scene, Tang Yan whispered to Bai Baihe beside her.

Bai Baihe nodded: "Yes, it's someone else's 20-minute short film."

"Our movie is also using the name of 'Story Club Adaptation,' and it's the first one of its kind."

The two exchanged a glance, and a strange sense of pressure inexplicably arose between them.

"Stop thinking about it, we need to get to the film set quickly. The pressure of filming off-campus is immense."

Meanwhile, on the other side, a small meeting was being held between the operations and marketing departments of Youku.com.

"To give or not to give??" The operations manager slammed his fist on the table.

"The other team has already uploaded the second episode's behind-the-scenes footage, and our people have seen it. Other video platforms don't have it."

"What is your marketing department still hesitating about?"

The marketing staff looked rather distressed.

"There's no precedent for this. It's obvious that Xianming is trying to get a spot so he can get himself killed."

"Since it's a failed attempt, why use an unproven model to earn promotional fees?"

"No? Where is it not?" The operations manager gestured with his chin.

Xiao Zhou immediately stepped forward and said, "Leaders, the model has already been proven."

He projected the content onto the wall.

"Hu Ge, the original author of 'A Bloodbath Caused by a Steamed Bun,' has moved into 6rooms.com."

"The new online video movie was a huge success, with two million views within a week."

He switched to another picture, which was none other than the Fairy Name Storytelling Contest page.

"Their story writing contest just ended, and before the buzz has died down, they've already announced the production of a short film."

"1600 people registered, more than 800 submissions, and the forum generated a huge amount of discussion."

"Even if only three articles are selected for production to begin now, they already have a strong following."

The market was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke:

"How many daily active users do you think their storytelling platform has left?"

Xiao Zhou was stunned for a moment, then quickly adjusted the data.

"The estimated daily pageviews are in the hundreds of thousands, but the actual daily active users are only a little over ten thousand."

"What about the content?"

"It's still the same student work, but there are already signs that forum authors are flocking to the platform."

Market leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a long time.

The operations team urged from the side, "Stop thinking about it, their content has already become a force to be reckoned with."

"It's already a content pool; now all we need to do is polish it into videos."

"If we promote it further, we won't lack an audience at all. They only have one Hu Ge in six rooms."

"There is a regiment here."

Xiao Zhou tactfully withdrew, then picked up his notebook again and pretended to take notes.

"Let's do it!" Market slammed his fist on the table.

"Go talk to them now and create a special column for them, called the Immortal Name Culture Column."

"Directly comparing themselves to Hu Ge and criticizing Liujianfang for having only one creator is not enough to make a difference."

The operations team beamed and added:

"Let them send us their behind-the-scenes footage five days in advance from now on. We'll release the footage that no one else has."

Xiao Zhou asked, "What about the short film?"

"Of course, exclusive rights must be given to short films. If exclusive rights aren't possible, then five days; if that's not possible, then three days."

Tell them that the featured spot on the homepage of the column will always be reserved and will be updated regularly.

Xiao Zhou turned to leave, but the operations manager called him back:

"Wait, be more polite."

"They're in high demand for video content right now; it's not that we're giving it away, it's that we're begging for it."

When the news reached Xianming Xiaolou, Jiang Yilei had just called the actors together for a script reading.

She looked at her email on the computer and hurriedly called Wang Song.

"Youku is going to launch a Xianming Culture column, not a separate regular column page."

"But they want the behind-the-scenes footage given to them five days in advance. Should we do it?"

Without hesitation, the person on the other end of the phone said, "Agree to them."

Jiang Yilei asked again, "Aren't we going to discuss terms?"

"The conditions have been given; the column is the condition." Wang Song's instructions were clear.

"They provided a column on immortal culture, not a column on movie highlights."

"What does this mean?"

Jiang Yilei thought for a moment: "Does that mean they want to promote our entire brand?"

"right."

"They want the content, we want the exposure, it's a win-win situation, so we agreed directly."

Jiang Yilei hung up the phone, the sound of clapperboards still echoing in his ears from the film set.

The important task of producing behind-the-scenes footage was handed over to Tian Yusheng, while Jiang Yilei took over the filming of the short film.

The popularity of this column is like fermenting dough, slowly expanding.

On its first day of release, the Xianming Culture column on Youku received over 300,000 views.

Some people asked about the short film, some urged for the behind-the-scenes footage, and some even followed the link to the story section.

The new behind-the-scenes format seems to be generating discussion in various places.

Before we knew it, it was already late November.

New Pictures Films.

Zhang Weiping and Zhang Yimou just finished watching the rough cut of "Curse of the Golden Flower".

Zhang Wei lit a cigarette and commented, "The final product looks good. The premiere is scheduled for December 14th."

Zhang Yimou nodded.

"Old Mou, something interesting has happened recently."

He took a document out of his bag and handed it to Zhang Yi.

"A student film crew comes up with a new model, aiming to rival Zhang Yimou's new movie?"

"From the start of filming, we partnered with Youku to continuously release behind-the-scenes footage, which garnered nearly five million views in half a month."

Zhang Yi glanced at the materials a few times, then put them down: "What do you mean?"

Zhang Weiping flicked his cigarette ash: "I'm thinking, should we try to learn this approach too?"

"Release some behind-the-scenes footage so the audience can see Jay Chou's bloopers and stuff."

Zhang Yi thought for a moment, "They showed actors, not movies."

"We want to present the best characters to the audience, and we shouldn't be influenced by Jay Chou's personal life."

Zhang Weiping was still somewhat unwilling to give up: "So you're not going to learn?"

Zhang Yimou shook his head: "If we don't learn from them, the audience will only focus on Jay Chou when we release behind-the-scenes footage."

"Not the film itself, or the characters themselves."

After saying that, Zhang Yi got up and left.

After the door closed, Zhang Weiping sat in the chair and stared at the document for a long time.

He suddenly looked at the editor beside him: "Xiao Liu, how much footage of Jay Chou did we shoot?"

The editor paused for a moment: "Memorizing lines, practicing movements, and acting with extras all included."

"Just two minutes of cutting," Zhang Weiping said calmly.

"Don't cut out the outtakes, cut out the scenes where he memorizes his lines, practices his movements, and carefully studies the play."

The editor hesitated: "Mr. Zhang, the director just said no..."

Zhang Weiping interrupted him: "It's a backup; keeping the materials is just keeping them anyway."

"If this thing works well, we can send it out immediately."

"Send it to me as soon as it's cut."

The editor opened his mouth, but ultimately decided to comply.

Meanwhile, on the film set.

The female lead, Huang Xiaoxian, attends her old classmate's wedding.

The male protagonist, Wang Xiaojian, started with long and difficult sentences, and verbally defeated Lu Ran.

"Threatening me? Trying to steal the bride? You've got the date wrong, haven't you?"

"I'll let you know when I get things done."

"Cut! One take!"

Applause and cheers erupted on set.

Wang Song clapped his hands, "Everyone, take a break and recharge. You've worked hard."

To be fair, while the Herald Man is a bit arrogant, his acting skills are impeccable.

During the break, Jiang Yilei came over with a long face.

"Boss, this thing is really hard to film, how did you manage to do it?"

"Boss, am I... not suited for this job?"

She encountered frequent obstacles during filming and slowly finished shooting the footage for two short films.

During the editing process, it was discovered that many clips were unusable.

We need to reshoot.

But the concern is that even after reshooting, there might still be flaws, leading to further reshoots.

I'm currently learning directing from Wang Song.

Newcomer Tian Yusheng had the same question, staring at the monitor for a long time in a daze.

He remembered that other directors seemed to do it many times for each scene to see the effect.

But the footage was fragmented, consisting of individual segments, and a lot of effort was put into editing it in the end.

Wang Song's version, however, is coherent, complete, and can be viewed directly after editing.

Just like that.

The answer was found, and the process was exactly the same. Is it really that amazing?

"How...did you do that?" Tian Yusheng asked.

Wang Song smiled and said, "Watch more movies."

Of course, what he didn't say was that he would watch the movie a few years from now.

Tian Yusheng didn't ask any more questions, but just stared at the screen, as if trying to see something out of it.

Jiang Yilei whispered from the side, "Boss, what should I do?"

Wang Song looked at her: "You? Go find a professional editor."

"Two short films, outsourced, won't cost much."

"He said what was missing, so you filmed that part."

"Then you learn by following along, and after you finish learning, you can start editing the next one yourself."

Jiang Yilei nodded, then added, "And you?"

"I?"

Wang Song pointed to the film set, stood up, and struck the clapperboard.

"Alright everyone, break time is over."

"There are just a few more shots left, and then filming will be finished."