The Fantasy Entertainment Empire

For the director of the "Demacia: Glory" film project, the requirements for talent are not so high. On the contrary, it requires more execution.

To be able to strictly implement the shooting plan and the shooting process, and to complete the projected shots with quality and quantity is all that Fan Zhe asked the director of the film "Demacia".

And since this is the case, there is no need to choose those famous directors.

Neither cost-effective nor appropriate.

Famous directors are very expensive, and at the same time, generally big directors have a relatively strong desire to control their own films, and they would prefer that films can be shot according to their own ideas. This is especially true for domestic directors.

This is also the difference between the so-called "heavy industry movies" in China and Hollywood. Hollywood commercial films are centered on the producer, and the director is in charge of the work on the set, and he doesn't even have the right to edit the film. But in China, the more popular one is the big director system, where the director is the boss of the project.

"Demacia: Glory" does not need a big director, a director who has a lot of ideas and wants to put his own mark on the film.

Therefore, it is relatively more important to choose a director who has certain shooting experience, strong enough execution ability, and will not mess around.

In the end, Fan Zhe chose a director named Liu Minghui, a young director who is only 27 years old this year. He graduated from the Directing Department of Nortel. He first made short films and had experience in directing feature films once.

Although his resume is mediocre, but he performed quite well in the interview, so Fan Zhe was selected.

Next, Liu Minghui will work with a number of producers sent by Dimension Entertainment to build the crew.

So, in mid-December, just half a month after 'Dimension Entertainment', Penguin and Riot signed the film and television development contract for League of Legends, the first film project was already in full swing. up.

According to the contract reported by Dimension Entertainment to Penguin, the total investment of this "Demacia: Glory" is 800 million RMB, about 117 million US dollars, which is undoubtedly a big investment movie.

Both parties fully invested in accordance with the contract, each contributing 400 million yuan.

This time, for the budget of "Demacia: Glory", Dimension Entertainment has made the accounts very clear, especially when it comes to the "dimension technology".

'Dimensional Technology' is a skin of Fan Zhe, used to cover up his 'Dimensional System'.

At the same time, this is known as the most mysterious place in the whole company. Except for Fan Zhe himself, only Ye Jiayi has done some accounting work for 'Dimension Technology'. Other than that, almost no one has come into contact with it.

In the past, Dimension Entertainment's works were all self-invested and self-financed projects, so the accounts for special effects were not particularly detailed. In many places, an approximate value was put in and the work was done. Anyway, the payment to Dimension Technology The money will eventually return to Dimension Entertainment's accounts in the name of investment.

Therefore, the related production cost, especially the cost of special effects and post-production, is not very rigorously estimated, after all, it is left-handed and right-handed.

But this time, it's different. Half of the film "Demacia: Glory" was funded by Penguin.

It would be a loss if the production cost was lowered.

Ever since, Ye Jiayi also came up with a detailed cost accounting for post-production, analyzed the number of shots, quality, time, etc. Check it out.

Ye Jiayi dared to take the entire financial department of Dimension Entertainment as a guarantee. Penguin couldn't find anything about this cost accounting list just by checking the accounts.

And in fact, there really can't be a problem. The quotation is based on the market price, and the production level is a bit higher than the market level. What's the problem?

Those special effects studios in the European and American world that provide technical support for Hollywood, to achieve the same level, their quotations will even be higher than that of "Dimension Technology" - they have always been like this, Hollywood companies have a price, and foreign companies have a price.

The budget given by Dimension Entertainment for the entire visual production has reached 550 million yuan, which is about more than 80 million US dollars.

Zhang Yanping was taken aback when he received the quotation, but after careful calculation, he found that there was nothing wrong with the accounts.

But this number still makes him a little scared - the total budget is only 800 million, and the actors haven't even been decided yet. 5.5 was allocated in post-production first?

Lao Zhang himself made a phone call: "Well...Mr. Ye, isn't our budget for special effects a bit too high?"

His tone was a little tactful.

"Mr. Zhang, why do you think so?"

"There is a remaining budget of 250 million yuan. Apart from a part of the cost of filming, the remaining money should not be much. It is difficult to invite too many good star lineups..."

This is where Zhang Yanping is more worried.

In the current domestic film environment, the cast is a particularly expensive place. It's not just some money-making movies, even some big productions like to spend a lot of money on the cast. It seems that if you don't attract a lot of movie stars and traffic niches, it's not considered a domestic blockbuster.

On the contrary, spending money on production is relatively not so much.

Of course Zhang Yanping knows that the main focus of this "Demacia: Glory" must be special effects, but it doesn't need to be so expensive, right? For the rest of the money, even if a lot of green screen shooting will be used, there are still a lot of fine live-action shots that need to be set up for shooting, a lot of equipment rental, crew salaries, and a lot of group performances required for war scenes...

Once these are removed, how much money is left? How many actors are enough?

"Our budget for the three main actors is about 80 million yuan, including other supporting roles, the total should not exceed 90 million yuan." Ye Jiayi replied.

"... just this tens of millions of dollars? We hope to find some Hollywood stars to play roles..."

"Our thinking is exactly the opposite." Ye Jiayi said, "We plan to find certain domestic stars."

"Huh?" Zhang Yanping was a little dazed: "But... LOL is a story with a western background..."

"So what?" Ye Jiayi said relaxedly, "Hollywood can use white people to make money-making works exclusively for the Chinese film market, why can't we use Chinese people in the background of Western stories?"

"Is this... really appropriate?"

"We have already started actively communicating with many domestic first-line film actors such as Peng Yuyan, Xie Tingfeng, Deng Chao, and Chen Kun."

"No, Mr. Ye, I think I still have to talk about this matter." Zhang Yanping said on the phone, "Now, according to some of our analysis of the global film market, using white actors can be compared globally. Strong acceptance, including in the domestic market; and if actors of yellow race are used, the performance in the domestic market may be better, but in the global market, the competitiveness will obviously decline seriously..."

Ye Jiayi said: "We also understand this truth. However, we lack enough budget to invite many Hollywood movie stars. If we only use ordinary white actors, there will be no appeal at all; secondly, instead of targeting For the global market, the first thing we need to do is to grasp the domestic market. Without the domestic market, the global box office will be nothing.”

The current Chinese film market is completely different from what it used to be.

Over the past few years, China's film market has been booming. From being ignored at the beginning, it has quickly become an extremely important part of the global film market, quickly surpassing Europe, and becoming the second largest market after North America. In 2018, the box office of the Chinese mainland market surpassed that of North America, becoming the world's number one box office.

Obviously, it is a movie made by a Chinese company. If you don’t take into account the world’s number one box office and lick the domestic audience, you just want to lick the European and American markets. Isn’t that a shame?

"The Great Wall" is a counterexample.

In other words, for the movie "Demacia: Glory", the performance in the domestic market is the key to success, and the overseas market can only be regarded as icing on the cake.

This is completely different from the environment faced by "Taiwu 2" last year. After all, there is still a significant gap between domestic stand-alone game players and the international market in terms of their desire and ability to pay temporarily.

Movies and games are two very different situations. Although the domestic film market is always said to be immature, it is much better than the game market.

According to the agreement, Dimension Entertainment has the final decision on content production, and Penguin only has the right to make suggestions. Ye Jiayi didn't need to say so much, just tell the other party a result forcefully and it's over.

However, after all, the two parties are partners, and this cooperation on the film and television project of "League of Legends" will last for ten years without any accident. Therefore, it becomes more important to explain well, maintain a good cooperative attitude, and have a relatively harmonious cooperative relationship.

In the end, the result of this communication ended with Ye Jiayi persuading Zhang Yanping.

"Follow your ideas." Zhang Yanping said, "I just hope it will succeed in the end, at least it will allow us to continue this series..."

Recently, he has been quite smug.

After negotiating the cooperation and spending 400 million on the first film project, they are quite looking forward to seeing the finished film and seeing that within two years, this "Demacia: Glory" will be released, and then it will be released in the domestic market and even the entire world. What kind of wind and rain can be rolled up in the market.

And as long as the first work is successful, the following series will keep up with a large number of projects one after another, and there will be more places to make money.

Even, it is not impossible to imagine a superhero series similar to Marvel.

But at the same time, if the film fails, it will also deal a heavy blow to this cooperation between the two parties.

Even Zhang Yanping, who is considered to be in a high position and has experienced many ups and downs, will feel both anticipation and anxiety.

But the momentum hadn't passed yet, what Ye Jiayi said next made his heart tremble.

"It's not just the "Demacia: Glory" project. In March next year, we are planning to make another LOL movie, which is expected to be released within half a year after "Demacia: Glory" is released."

"What? In two or three months, you will start a new project?"

On the phone, Zhang Yanping lost his composure.

Ye Jiayi is very normal: "Yes, it should be an independent film of 'Night Hunter. Vayne'. This project should not involve many original heroes, and the main character is only VN, but the investment amount should not be too small. 650 million should be required.”

"Is it too radical?" Zhang Yanping was a little worried.

He is still worried about whether the first hero movie will be successful or hit the street. Dimension Entertainment is already preparing to carry out two projects at the same time.

"We have full confidence in the work and the LOL series." Ye Jiayi said, "I mentioned this to you because I want to ask, does your company have any follow-up investment ideas for this project?"

"The investment of 650 million...let us think about it."

"Okay." Ye Jiayi said, "However, I hope you can do it as soon as possible. The project preparation should start in January, and it will be officially launched after the next year, so we hope you can give us an answer within a month."

Zhang Yanping reluctantly said: "Okay... then let's... discuss it."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yanping wiped his face.

Dimension Entertainment has established a VN independent film project. This news was a bit too sudden for him. Before that, he was not prepared at all.

For Penguin, this is not just news, but also means an investment of at least 300 million yuan.

Three hundred million! That's not a small fortune.

Before, Penguin had already spent 400 million on "Demacia: Glory", and there is no sign of the return of the investment yet, and it is about to spend 300 million?

This was so completely unexpected by Penguin that they didn't prepare the funding at all.

Of course, with Penguin as its backing, Penguin Pictures has no shortage of funds if it wants to. But the premise is their background support.

In terms of pure profitability, let alone 700 million, Penguin Pictures couldn't even get the previous 400 million. In terms of "Penguin Pictures" alone, their profitability is quite limited. Billion in cash is difficult.

But in contrast, if the father penguin behind them is willing to give money, let alone 700 million, 7 billion can be easily taken out.

Just to see if they are willing to give it.

This is also a great pressure for Zhang Yanping. I don't know if the previous work is successful or not, so I want to make the second one?

He thought about it for two or three days, and chatted with his subordinates, and finally decided to keep up.

To play, just play with a big pen. I have already invested 400 million, and I still have to invest another 300 million?

However, when he applied to the group headquarters for more investment funds, he was rejected.

Please take a leave of absence and go on a business trip tomorrow