Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 35 New drama
The news that Li Qiutang signed a contract with Huayi came suddenly, but it was not surprising if you think about it carefully.

Among the film companies in the market today, it seems that Huayi is the only one that has the ability to attract and support directors.

Guangxian just announced this month that it had bought "City of Sadness" and would release it during the Lunar New Year holiday. This was Guangxian's first move into the film industry. Do you want Guangxian to sign the director directly?
Not to mention Xiao Ma, it has been rumored for several years that he will make a movie, but there is still no action yet.

State-owned companies such as China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group mostly adopt the investment-production-distribution model, and they do not sign directors.

Xingmei is indeed very strong, but it is still a little inferior to Huayi.

So it seems quite appropriate for Li Qiutang to sign with Huayi.

What the outside world doesn’t know is that what Li Qiutang signed with Huayi was not a director agency contract, but a project cooperation contract.

Huayi has the first right of choice for films during Li Qiutang's five-year contract period, and Li Qiutang will shoot no less than three films for Huayi during the contract period.

Huayi's offer was: a signing fee of 500 million, paid in one lump sum; director's fee, to be negotiated based on the specific project; and at least 6% of the investment for each film under Li Qiutang's contract.

Li Qiutang did not sign anyone, so he could not receive Huayi's salary and year-end bonuses like Feng Xiaogang.

After signing the contract, Li Qiutang and the screenwriter immediately closed themselves off to work on the script for "Arrogant". Wang Zhonglei did not even ask him to attend the premiere of "The Warring States".

The reason for choosing "Arrogant" was not because the story was so exciting, but to fulfill Li Qiutang's martial arts dream.

The original story of "Arrogant" was too simple, and it would definitely fail if it was put into theaters, so Li Qiutang and his screenwriters had to rewrite the story.

The entire screenwriter team, including Li Qiutang, consists of four people, two screenwriters and a producer hired by Huayi.

Li Qiutang put forward his own requirements at the meeting: "The main plot of the story is that Cheng Xiazi draws his sword to help kill the second generation. We must find a way to complete this story."

In fact, the development of martial arts films has reached its sunset, and Li Qiutang wanted to make a martial arts film in this last afterglow.

Sunset is not a good word, but in a sense, it also represents the incomparable maturity of this industry! It is so mature that almost all work has certain rules.

So Li Qiutang's request for the story was quickly responded to by the screenwriter.

Make an outline first.

Then it was rejected by Li Qiutang and the producer.

"It's too conventional. Isn't this the kind of stuff that's been filmed in the past twenty years?" Li Qiutang was not satisfied with this kind of work.

But the screenwriter also said: "Martial arts is mainly about action, we can do something new in the action design.

"Because after all the martial arts stories are just this much."

Li Qiutang certainly knew that what he said was true, but he still did not allow the screenwriter to be so lazy and write a job for him.

Of course, Li Qiutang himself was also thinking about the story of "No One in View".

The original "Arrogant" was a simple and refreshing revenge action film. Li Qiutang would retain the main plot of revenge and the refreshing action, but he wanted to put his own elements into his "Arrogant".

Of course, "No One in My Eyes" is always a martial arts action film, and its entertainment value is always higher than its ideological value. Li Qiutang will not sacrifice the entertainment value of the film for the sake of the author's expression.

The era of martial arts is coming to an end. Li Qiutang is unable to reverse this trend, so he can only bid farewell to martial arts in his own way.

His idea was echoed by the screenwriters. During a discussion, a screenwriter put forward a similar view: "I am thinking about the hero's end. I killed you and avenged you, but the dead cannot be resurrected. In the end, I become a blind man, alone on a horse, and set out on the road. This can be regarded as a farewell to the era of martial arts."

This idea was correct, but Li Qiutang still opposed it: "No! The audience finally takes a break to come to the cinema to watch a movie, you can't make things difficult for them.

"In the end, we still have to give Cheng Xiazi a happy ending." The screenwriter laughed and said, "As long as it sells at the box office, I will change it to a happy ending for you from beginning to end."

The final ending is definitely a successful revenge. Li Qiutang first tapped the ending scene: "Let Cheng Xiazi and Ni Yan leave together."

"Does it fit?"

"I didn't say they were a couple, I just let them disappear from the screen together. As for what kind of relationship they have, let the audience guess."

The ending scene did not affect the development of the main plot. Five days later, the screenwriters came up with a second outline. Li Qiutang read it the next day and rejected it.

"No, there are too many literary scenes. I don't even know where to insert the action scenes in your outline." Li Qiutang shook her head.

The screenwriter said: "Isn't this also to save you costs?"

Li Qiutang laughed and said, "You are the screenwriters, just write the story. If it can't be filmed, it's because I'm not good enough as a director, and if it can't make money, it's because the producer is not capable enough."

The producer who was sitting on the side eating snacks was stunned and said with a wry smile: "Don't think about money for now."

After half a month of intensive coordination, the four met every two days and finally finalized the 10,000-word outline of "Arrogant" at the end of the month.

The main storyline is about a ghostwriter who becomes a blind man to avenge Ni Yan, a restaurant girl whose entire family was killed on her wedding night.

There are four main characters: the ghostwriter Cheng Xiazi, the inn girl Ni Yan, the Luoyang singer Qin Niang and the villain Yuwen Ying.

After finalizing the outline, the four of them began to break it down into structure and fill it with stories.

While working on the script, Li Qiutang had already sent people out to scout locations. There were only two major scenes in "No One in My Eyes": Liangcheng in the northwest and Luoyang in the east, plus some exterior scenes.

Li Qiutang asked them to complete the preliminary survey before the New Year, and he would personally go to re-survey and decide on the filming location after the New Year.

It must be said that Huayi's professional team is indeed better than the makeshift team of students that they have put together. Their efficiency is not very high - in fact, it is not very high - but at least they know what is in what place and do things in a more targeted manner.

It’s not like a student crew, who have to learn by exploring and doing it at the same time.

As for Huayi, seeing that Li Qiutang had come up with an outline in just half a month, they praised him for his efficiency and said that he was a young man with a sharp mind.

He also said he wanted to start coding the actors, but was rejected by Li Qiutang: "I only have an outline, why are you coding the actors now?"

The people at Huayi said, "The actors' schedules are tight right now. If you don't hurry up and make an appointment, they may not be available later."

Half a month after signing the contract, creative conflicts arose between Li Qiutang and Huayi.

Li Qiutang insisted on casting after the script was finalized, but Huayi wanted to discuss it first with a script outline.

Both sides have their own reasons. Li Qiutang doesn't want to trick actors into coming without a script, but Huayi is more concerned about the market, saying that Li Qiutang is very popular now and many actors want to act in his plays, "a script outline is enough."

Finally, the company compromised: "If that doesn't work, give me 30 minutes of script and I'll use that to negotiate with the actors."

It does seem a bit excessive to take the script outline, and it does seem like deceiving the actors, but sending part of the script to the actors is a common practice in the industry, or in other words, very few crews use the entire script to schedule actors.

But Li Qiutang has his own habits. He is unwilling to give the producer even a 30-minute script: "Don't invite actors to me before my script is finalized. Even if you do, I won't meet them."

In the end, the producer didn't argue with the director, and didn't mention the issue of the actors for the time being, but the producer already had a grudge against Li Qiutang: "Why is this person so stubborn! My discussion of the actors won't hinder your writing of the script."

　In a few days, I will post the outline document of "No One" that I made in the group.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)