Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 282: It was called a business trip before, but it is called a visit this time

The next day, Xu Shanzheng and Zhang Zhao left Chengdu, and Li Qiutang kept Chen Zhixi.

Don't get me wrong, Li Qiutang has something to discuss with Chen Zhixi.

Although Li Qiutang's idea of supporting industrial management talents was a sudden idea at the dinner table, he really wanted to give it a try.

The domestic environment is very bad, and Li Qiutang wants to send Chen Zhixi to Hollywood for further studies.

Although Li Qiutang is the boss of Lantern Entertainment, he himself has never followed a Hollywood crew in its entirety and does not have much experience in this area. All he can do is act as a matchmaker.

Facing this pie, Chen Zhixi had no reason to refuse. But she couldn't help but wonder, was Li Qiutang being so nice to her for some other purpose?
Facts proved that she was overthinking it. Li Qiutang was really devoted to his work. He really wanted to get things done and not get involved in messy things.

But it is extremely difficult to get a Chinese producer into a Hollywood crew. Li Qiutang could send Chen Zhixi out, but he also said: "I can't guarantee that you will be able to join the crew and do management work as soon as you go to Hollywood. You have to start as an assistant and learn slowly." Even if there was a crew, Li Qiutang would not let Chen Zhixi manage it right away. He allowed newcomers to fail and lose money, but he was not rich enough to do that.

Chen Zhixi naturally understood that it was great to be able to learn from the Hollywood crew.

"How's your English?"

"Not very good, haha."

It just won't.

"I'll learn it right away." Chen Zhixi immediately promised. This opportunity might only come once, and if missed, it would never come again.

"Okay, I'll help you find a project and see where you can go. Just be patient and wait."

"Okay, thank you director." Although Chen Zhixi is two years older than Li Qiutang, she respects Li Qiutang very much.

Chen Zhixi is very capable, and Li Qiutang is attracted by her talent and wants to recruit her to his team, but there is no rush.

That afternoon, Li Qiutang took Chen Zhixi to a special effects company called Mojing Tianhe.

He has been traveling between Yanjing and Chengdu during this period, mainly to handle this matter.

Domestic special effects production is still very rough, not to mention compared with the world's advanced level, there is still a big gap even compared with special effects companies in Japan and South Korea.

Foreign special effects companies are of very good level, but they look down on Chinese projects. When they receive Chinese projects, they either subcontract them out or use third-rate engineers to do the work, and the results cannot be guaranteed.

"In Time" asked Weta to do the special effects. If the crew hadn't sent a team proficient in foreign languages to live in Weta Digital and keep an eye on them 24 hours a day, I believe they would not have taken it seriously.

Even with such a constant watch, Weta Digital and the crew had a small quarrel every three days and a big quarrel every five days, and the progress was very slow.

Li Qiutang wanted to do his own special effects after working on "In Time".

So he took a fancy to Mojing Tianhe, which was established not long ago.

Mojing Tianhe currently has two production centers in Yanjing and Chengdu, with the headquarters located in Yanjing.

During the past half month, Li Qiutang's talks went very smoothly.

Domestic special effects companies are still in their infancy, lacking technology and funds. Mojing Tianhe welcomes great directors like Li Qiutang to cooperate with us.

Li Qiutang took Chen Zhixi to visit Mojing Tianhe's Chengdu production center. Mojing Tianhe is not large at present, with only fifty or sixty people in the two production centers combined, and it also lacks representative works.

But making special effects is something that requires long-term persistence. It doesn’t matter if the scale is small now, as long as there is potential for development.

After two more days of talks in Chengdu, the two sides reached a preliminary agreement that Autumn Pictures would acquire Mojing Tianhe for 1300 million yuan. This price was quite good. Mojing Tianhe had only been established for a few years and had no representative works, so this million yuan was like picking it up for nothing.

MoJing Tianhe will operate independently and be responsible for its own profits and losses. The two parties will sign a contract in Yanjing.

By the time Li Qiutang returned to Yanjing and started preparing to sign a contract with Mojing Tianhe, the Lunar New Year movie season was already in full swing.

Zhang Yimou VS Xu Ke, "The Flowers of War" VS "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate".

The former was criticized for showing off eroticism and pseudo-patriotism, saying that "The Flowers of War" "used eroticism to satisfy the West's imagination of Chinese women."

The film "Flying Daggers of Dragon Gate" was criticized for its poor plot and special effects. "Except for Yu Huatian and two classic lines, it was a mess."

The negative reviews of the blockbuster "The Legend of the Hongmen Feast" in the first week of the Lunar New Year holiday also broke out during this period.

Yang Mi's acting is poor and her voice is unpleasant.

Li Rengang's flying saucer hat was criticized again. Some viewers even denounced Hong Kong directors after watching four big movies in a row, "Resurrection of the Dragon", "Guan Yunchang", "The Imperial Guards" and "The Feast of Hongmen", saying "they should be banned from filming historical themes!"

The box office of "The Banquet" has exceeded 1.7 million yuan so far, and it was then overtaken by "The Flowers of War" and "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate". It has to be said that the purchasing power of bees is really strong, and a movie like this can be sold for 1 million yuan.

But Yang Mi doesn't seem to care. This year, she released two films, "Far Cry" and "The Banquet", which grossed more than 2 million yuan at the box office. No matter how you look at it, her journey on the big screen is a success.

What does the failure of "The Banquet at Hongmen" have to do with her?

A man's play, failed because of the vase female lead? You still collect money when the bees rush to the box office!

Autumn missed this year's Lunar New Year season, so the company has not been that busy recently. The Lunar New Year is at the end of January this year, and the administration department has already been preparing for the annual meeting.

The company's performance this year is very good. Several CEOs said they wanted to celebrate it in a big way and give out big red envelopes. Zhang Zhao said at the regular meeting that he wanted everyone to have a prosperous new year.

With a wave of his hand, Li Qiutang approved 1500 million in cash red envelopes and year-end bonuses at the annual meeting, not including New Year gifts.

When Li Qiutang was planning for the New Year's meeting, the administrator came into his office with two plastic bags: "This is from the Investment and Production Management Department."

Li Qiutang was confused and asked, "What is this?"

"Ten pounds of fresh beef." The colleague said, "The management department used the department fund to buy two cows. They were just slaughtered yesterday and produced more than a thousand pounds of meat. We are sharing the meat."

Li Qiutang smiled and said, "This is how they use the department's funds. It's quite practical."

"There are many families in the management department, and these practical things are very popular with them. They even said they want to raise a few sheep next year."

Li Qiutang thought that such gifts were very good and did not really care how the departments used their funds.

Li Qiutang took a look at the bag and said greedily, "Why is it all meat? Where are the tendons and brains?" Li Qiutang liked to eat these.

A colleague laughed and said, "The money was divided among several managers in the management department, and they were reluctant to give it out."

Li Qiutang smiled and didn't care. What could he be dissatisfied with after eating the ready-made food?

As he was speaking, the phone on Li Qiutang's desk rang. It was an unfamiliar number.

"Hello." Li Qiutang picked up the phone. "Yes, it's me. Huh? After New Year's Day? Okay, okay, no problem. OK, OK, I'll cooperate with the work."

The administrative colleague wanted to leave, but Li Qiutang waved her hand to signal her to stay.

"Okay, no problem on my end. Thanks, um, bye."

After hanging up the phone, Li Qiutang said to the administrator: "Please clear my schedule for the next two months. I have other plans."

Li Qiutang had never taken two months off except for filming.

The administrator asked, "What's the matter?"

There was no need to keep this a secret, Li Qiutang said, "I want to go out with the group."

"A business trip? It won't take two months."

Li Qiutang smiled and said, "It was called a business trip before, but this time it's called a visit."

"Follow above?"

"Well, go and make the arrangements. You don't have to keep it a secret, but don't tell anyone."

"Okay, I understand."

"Please help me book..." Li Qiutang counted his work in the past few days, "book a flight to Toronto for the day after tomorrow."

"Don't they report it?"

"I'm leaving early. I have something to do."

What else could it be? Just go see your girlfriend first.

(End of this chapter)