1990My Entertainment System

Chapter 93: The Yanjing People crew is in New York~
Zheng Xiaolong's wife Wang Xiaoping was once one of the people who went to the United States for further studies. She traveled back and forth between the United States and China and often complained to Zheng Xiaolong about life there.

Then it happened that I came back from the United States in the summer and wrote "Yenching People in New York" on the plane.

When Zheng Xiaolong saw the original, he felt an irresistible urge to create...

It has been more than a year now, and the preparations have finally been successful.

In order to make the filming realistic enough, he planned to send the crew to New York for actual shooting.

But how much does it cost to shoot a TV series in the United States?

The government will never give you this money!
Zheng Xiaolong was unwilling to give up. He felt that he had to shoot it in real time to capture that feeling!

That feeling of being both heaven and hell, that feeling that countless people want to go to but feel painful when they go there.

Fortunately, he invested $100 million in the summer, but his budget was $150 million - equivalent to about 1200 million yuan, which was still one-third short.

After raising funds from all parties, cooperating with CCTV to advance advertising fees and repaying loans, there was still some shortfall.

Zheng Xiaolong was also cruel and directly mortgaged his own house.

Xia Tian also advised at the time, "If it really doesn't work out, I can invest another $100,000 or $200,000. It's not a big deal. There's no need to mortgage the house."

However, Zheng Xiaolong also had something to say, "The story is yours, and you've already paid one million dollars. What a huge sum of money! Even if I mortgage the house, it's not much, but if I don't mortgage it, wouldn't that be taking your money at risk? I can't do that!"

Regardless of how much the house is worth, there is a sense of sharing weal and woe.

In addition to obtaining a full mortgage loan for the production costs, the crew of "Yanjing People in New York" also pioneered the special case of negotiating advertising business matters on their own for the first time, completing a relatively complete economic operation. This is also regarded as a key turning point in the commercialization of domestic TV dramas.

……

Due to financial constraints, Zheng Xiaolong gave the crew a tight schedule, with a maximum of one month to shoot in New York!

And we should save as much as we can! Find a way!

This is how filming works in China these days. Whether it’s a movie or a TV series, you have to try every possible way to overcome various difficulties.

As for the situation later where people had so much money that they could squander it at will, or find various ways to put money into their own pockets, that doesn't happen now.

"A Native of Beijing in New York" spent 150 million US dollars to shoot abroad. This extremely innovative and courageous move attracted much attention from Zheng Xiaolong, Feng Kuazi and others.

Zheng Xiaolong and others ran around to solicit investment through mortgages and other means, almost making a desperate move.

If the TV series does not receive good market feedback, then the company will suffer huge losses.

Of course, summer will lose the most.
When I arrived in New York in the summer, I first met little Pierrot and Peggy.

Little Palo enthusiastically told him about the PR of the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars.

The Golden Globe Awards are a little simpler, because there are more opportunities here, and the classmates and teachers of little Palo can help a little. In addition, Shenlong Pictures has now squeezed into the second-tier film and television companies in Hollywood, so it has some power.

Oscar, on the other hand, is much more difficult and expensive. So far, two hundred thousand dollars have been invested, and we still don’t know what the final effect will be.

——The Oscar judges come from all professions in related industries, from directors to actors to behind-the-scenes actors, with thousands of people voting!

If this thing wants PR, it's going to be on a large scale.

It is necessary to use various means to influence the judges' opinions and gain their favor.

——It always gives people the feeling of a shrunken version of the US election!

After chatting with Little Pai Luo about the future development of Shenlong Film and Television, and then paying attention to the accounts, Xia Tian took Peggy to the Huanguang Comics Studio.

The professional manager we hired here had worked for comic magazines for many years and was kind of a tool. He talked to Xia Tian on the phone twice a month...

Now the "Phantom Comics" publications are selling very well, and have received unanimous praise from "SpongeBob SquarePants" to "Resident Evil".

The magazine also accepts manuscripts and publishes some short stories. It has a large audience, with readers ranging from twelve or thirteen years old to sixteen or seventeen years old.

It's also because American kids here have more pocket money~
Xia Tian participated in the autograph signing event and discussed the work content for next year, such as trying to adapt Xia Tian's own novels, from "Corpse Reborn" to "Bloodborne", which are all very good IPs.
It wasn't until they were driving to the set of "Yenching in New York" that Xia Tian had enough time to chat with Peggy more.

In reality, both Shenlong Pictures and Phantom Light Studios had some involvement from Peggy, albeit minimally. She was the eyes Xia Tian left behind, watching over the operations of the company.

In addition, she has now begun to try her hand at financial operations and is trying her hand at the US stock market.
Peggy chattered about a lot of things, and Xia Tian also asked about her studies and work, and the conversation continued to the point.

Due to limited funds and unfamiliarity with the area, the fifty or so crew members were divided into two groups and lived in a rented villa and a hotel.

When Xia Tian and Peggy got out of the car, they saw a police car parked outside the rented villa. Two Arthurs were interrogating Zheng Xiaolong and Feng Kuazi.

Although the crew had translators and people who knew English, it was obvious that they did not understand American Arthur and American law.

The two tall and strong Arthurs looked at Zheng Xiaolong and others with a very suspicious look, which made them anxious!
Xia Tian hurried over: "Hello sir, how can I help you? I'm a friend of this crew..."

The two Arthurs looked at Xia Tian. One of them seemed to recognize Xia Tian and said with a surprised expression: "Charlotte?"

"Oh, it's me, hello."

"Oh my god! I love your rock! That 'Numb'! And 'Natural'!"

Then Arthur grabbed Xia Tian's hand and started shaking it, as if he was meeting a fan.

Ah, that's easy~
It seems that world reputation is still useful~
Xia Tian asked what was going on?
It turned out that in order to save money, the crew cooked and ate in the villa, which resulted in a lot of domestic waste.

The crow was discovered by the neighbors while rummaging through the trash can. The neighbors suspected that it was a gang of illegal immigrants and called the police.

As a result, when Arthur questioned them, Zheng Xiaolong and the others' answers were confusing.

Xia Tian took the initiative to explain what happened, and asked Zheng Xiaolong and others to take out various documents and took a quick look at them. Finally, he gave the two Arthurs their signatures, and that was it.

Arthur got in the car and waved goodbye to Xia Tian before driving away.

The car hadn't even driven a few meters when Feng Kuazi started flattering him out of habit: "It has to be Brother Tian'er! Even in American imperialism, it works!"

He hadn't said a word yet: "How come he's in America, and brought such a beautiful girl with him? Can this girl be 18 years old?"

The little girl he was talking about was naturally Peggy. In fact, Peggy was a little over 16 years old, and indeed less than 18.

Even though European and American girls mature early, they don’t look that old...but they don’t do anything in the summer!
In this play, Zheng Xiaolong promoted Feng Kuazi to co-director, which was the first time. After ten years in the industry, he had worked as an artist, a screenwriter, and even helped Feng Gong create sketches. Finally, he became a director!
This was a huge leap for him!

Feng Kuazi: Look at Zhao Baogang. He joined the TV drama production center on Xia Tian's recommendation and was even appreciated by a veteran director. He became a director a few years ago! Luckily, I got there before Dachun.
After seeing off American Arthur, the crew members breathed a sigh of relief.

There are a crew of about 20 people in the villa. In addition to Zheng Xiaolong and his wife, there are also Feng Kuazi and Dachun and their wife.

That’s right, Xia Tian squeezed Dachun and his wife in.

Dachun is a photographer~
For Dachun who wants to make a TV series in the future, this project is a rare experience!
Besides them, there was another group of more than 20 people staying at the hotel, including Napoli and Marvin...

At first, Zheng Xiaolong went to find Ma Wen. When Ma Wen saw the novel, he was like, "A Yenching Man in New York!" How could a Yenching man be so shameless?

He rejected it without even reading the script.

At that time, Xia Tian’s book had not been published yet, so he had not read it.

Zheng Xiaolong said, "This was written by Xia Tian. He asked me to find you and said you would definitely be suitable for the role."

When Marvin heard this, he said, "Oh, what a misunderstanding!"

I quickly picked up the script I had dropped and read it, and the first sentence I saw was, "If you love someone, send him to New York, because it's heaven; if you hate someone, send him to New York, because it's hell."

The feeling came up all of a sudden!

The second male lead is Chen Daoming. His wife, who used to be an announcer at CCTV, also joined the crew and played the first female lead.

In September this year, Chen Daoming was the first to come to the United States to experience life.

A lot of preparations have been made.

(End of this chapter)