Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 30 I'm bragging

Qin Lan's agent has always known that Qin Lan helped her fellow villager Li Qiutang shoot a movie for two weeks without any pay.

It is also because, as Qin Lan said before, it is a student assignment and will not be released to the public, so it is not considered a commercial filming activity. Qin Lan did not report it to the agency, and the agency did not intend to intervene. They thought it was a private activity during the artist's spare time, so they just let Qin Lan do it.

It was not until "The Night the Comet Came" won two awards in Montreal and Toronto, sold the global copyright for more than 600 million US dollars, and was confirmed to be released in theaters nationwide that Qin Lan's agent became interested in this film.

This was filmed by my artist, why are you withholding his pay?
Yes, Qin Lan's agent felt that it was "delayed payment" rather than "not paid" - we had agreed to settle the pay after the filming was completed, but now that the movie has been released, my artist's pay has not been settled, which can also be considered as delayed payment.

There are extremely smart people in the entertainment industry, and there are also extremely stupid people like this!
The Comet crew and Li Qiutang were not informed of this matter for the time being.

Qin Lan was very opposed to the agent's behavior of asking for salary. She felt that she had agreed to act for free and it didn't take up much time. Even if Comet sold for 1 million now, she would not ask Li Qiutang for the salary.

"That's not the way to do things. This is not a way of going back on one's word. How can we meet again in the future?"

"How is this going back on one's word? He made tens of millions from a movie, so what's wrong with asking him for a salary of one or two million?"

In fact, putting that aside, Qin Lan is not worth 100 million in pay now.

No matter what, Qin Lan did not allow her agent to ask Li Qiutang for remuneration because she felt that she had already gained enough from "Comet".

The person who benefited the most from "The Night the Comet Came" was naturally the director Li Qiutang, followed by the heroine.

To be more utilitarian, the huge sales of "Comet" allowed her to enter the film industry. But entering the film industry is not just about acting in a movie, you have to have a representative work.

The success of "Comet" brought her fame to a new level, and she received more invitations to commercial activities and more scripts. Isn't this real money?

Even the crew of the currently filming "Embroiderer Lan Xin" has benefited from this, and the producer said he would renegotiate the purchase price of the film with the TV station.

Just because of his leading actress, a movie sold well!
On the other hand, many people in the film academy are also eyeing this film. What they are eyeing is not the one or two million yuan salary, but the entire profit of "Comet"!

Some people in the academy are jealous of the revenue from "Comet" and think that this movie is just a student assignment at best, so its full copyright should belong to Qingying Studio, and then the box office revenue and copyright revenue of the movie should also belong to Qingying Studio!
As for Li Qiutang's income, these people believed that the director's fee and part of the investment income could be paid according to the market price, but the bulk of the money would definitely go to Qingying Studio.

This matter was brought up privately by a teacher to the Director of the Directing Department, Tian Zhuangzhuang, during the National Day holiday. Tian Zhuangzhuang pointed at the teacher's nose and called him a bastard on the spot!
After Tian Zhuangzhuang kicked the teacher out, he immediately contacted Han Sanping and told him about this. After hearing this, Han Sanping also cursed that this was taking advantage of the situation and even scolded the school:
"When Xiao Li dragged his suitcase to Canada by himself, who in the factory helped him? He was a kid who had just graduated, unfamiliar with the place and unable to speak the language. He had to climb up and down the market to work alone, and negotiate prices with foreigners one by one. Did it seem easy for him? Now that he's made money, you think... You're stealing the fruits of the revolution!"

Tian Zhuangzhuang said helplessly: "I didn't say anything. I also said this was ungrateful behavior."

Han Sanping was about to curse again, and said, "Why does Qingying Studio need money? The Ministry gives money every year, and the college also has money. Qingying Studio doesn't distribute to the market, so why would it cost so much money to shoot some teacher and student homework? You let them give up on this matter. It's not easy to get a good seedling out, but it was delayed because of money. I'll be the first one to disagree."

"I know. I'm just giving you air."

"Okay, I know about this. Xiao Li and his team are going to hold an event to appreciate fans in Yanjing in a few days. I will go and I will remind Xiao Li to pay attention." Mr. Han hung up the phone after saying this.

Li Qiutang is eating hotpot with Xiao Ma's Big Dog. Big Dog is easy to get along with, straightforward, talkative and funny, and his words are full of motherly words, but they are not offensive.

Today's meal was not at some fancy restaurant, but at a fly-in-the-wall restaurant that Li Qiutang had never even heard of. When Big Dog brought him here, he said it was his private restaurant.

Without a driver or Xiao Ma, Big Dog drove a jeep SUV to Li Qiutang's hotel, picked him up and left. At first, Li Qiutang thought he was the driver.

As soon as Big Dog sat down, he offered Li Qiutang a cigarette. Li Qiutang said she didn't smoke, but Big Dog forced one into her mouth, saying, "It's normal for men to smoke and drink when they go out."

Li Qiutang took the cigarette but still didn't smoke it. She just put it on the table.

"I watched The Night the Comet Came Yesterday. It was awesome." Big Dog lit up a cigarette and took a deep breath. "It's different from everyone else."

"Fortunately, we are also standing on the shoulders of our predecessors."

Unlike Wang Zhonglei, Big Dog let Li Qiutang talk during the meal. He said he didn't understand science fiction movies and asked Li Qiutang to introduce them to him.

Li Qiutang certainly had a lot to say about this, and Big Dog listened carefully, and would also interrupt and ask a few childish questions, asking Li Qiutang to answer them for him.

But Li Qiutang knew in her heart that although Big Dog was generous, he was definitely not stupid. How could the leader of Xiao Ma be a fool? Big Dog was a serious listener, allowing himself to talk a lot, which was to satisfy his own emotional value.

Generally, a new director would feel very satisfied if he saw that such a big boss was willing to listen to him and ask him some naive questions for him to answer.

"...But now we can only do soft science fiction like this. We still can't do hard science fiction because the technology is not up to it."

"What specific technology is it? We can look to foreign countries for special effects." This is true. Whether in the United States or China, the special effects of many movies are divided among multiple domestic and foreign companies.

"It's more than just special effects." Li Qiutang patiently explained to Big Dog, "For example, if I want to shoot a scene of mining on an alien planet, I can't simply use our current mining carts. Can the engineering design team I find design and manufacture a new mining cart for me based on the characteristics of future time and space and the alien environment? Is it enough to have a mining cart alone? Do we also need to redesign the supporting mining base? Do we need to rebuild the supporting facilities?

"In order to achieve the effects I want, the crew even has to spend hundreds of millions to develop software before the production begins. We don't have the capability to do that yet."

Li Qiutang paused for a moment, then said: "The most important thing is that now, whether it is the audience or the filmmakers, they have no confidence in domestic science fiction. Before the release of my film, my own audience said that they did not believe that science fiction could be made in China. What is the reason? The lack of confidence caused by the country's weak national strength.

"If our country's per capita GDP can also reach 4 US dollars, damn it," Li Qiutang started to swear when he was excited. "What kind of movie can't we make? Spaceships? I dare to blow up the moon with a nuclear bomb for you."

Big Dog was a military man, and his blood boiled when he heard this. He then said, "Come to Xiaoma, I'll give you money, and you come and shoot a movie to blow up the moon with a nuclear bomb."

Li Qiutang was stunned. I was just bragging. I can’t explode now.

How did it get to the point of signing a contract?
(End of this chapter)