Huayu: When the director changed his major

Chapter 320 The Second Leg of Big Entertainment
The high box office of "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" not only raised the status of Reba and others, but also made Guo Fan famous.

The last time he was filming the youth film "You Are the One Sitting Next to Me", everyone was doubting Cheng Xi's judgment.

And there are a lot of voices saying that Cheng Xi is partial to his people.

Just because Guo Fan was his direct senior, he bypassed other people in the company and gave him a new position.

And now the feedback on the finished film is so good, the return rate was amazing both times.

Guo Fan has become the number one director in the domestic film box office.

Now all the skeptics shut up.

They were all amazed at how Cheng Xi discovered that Guo Fan had this talent as a director.

It would be understandable if the selection from the "Young Director Support Program" was a selection of the best from the best, which led to the promotion of directors like Wen Muye and Xin Yukun.

The fact that he chose Guo Fan this time can only be said to be a result of Cheng Xi's sharp vision.

[As expected of Mr. Zuibai, his eye for actors and directors is truly amazing! ]

[Speaking of which, the Management Department at the Film Academy is quite impressive. I used to think most directors came from the Photography Department, but now the Management Department is really picking up steam.]

[A secret tip: I'm a student in the Management Department. Right now, thanks to Director Cheng, our department has the final say in the academy. Even the Performance Department treats us with extraordinary respect, unlike before when they treated us like invisible people.]

[I envy the person above me for being a direct disciple of Teacher Zuibai. I'll hold onto his thigh tightly. I hope he has a bright future!]

I'm envious too! The Management Department scores went up again this year, and I'm so upset! I blame Professor Cheng!

With such good results, Cheng Xi would certainly not treat Guo Fan unfairly.

Although this time it was mainly produced and invested by Zuibai Entertainment, Cheng Xi still gave Guo Fan Studio a small investment share.

Including the director and editor's fees, Guo Fan also made a lot of money this time.

After the movie was officially taken off the shelves, Cheng Xi even threw a grand celebration banquet for Guo Fan.

When I made my first film, Han Sanping from China Film Group held a celebration party for me.

Now I have opened it for my own directors.

When knocking on the ice sculpture, Cheng Xi deliberately asked Guo Fan to stand in the C position.

Guo Fan refused to agree no matter what.

"I treat everyone equally. From now on, whoever's celebration party it is will take the center position. If it's mine, I will take the center position as well."

"Brother, please don't refuse. Tonight is your honor."

"Thank you, boss. This is our honor and the honor of Zuibai Entertainment!"

After knocking down the ice sculptures, everyone started socializing as usual.

Looking at Guo Fan, who seemed a little uncomfortable being surrounded by so many people, Cheng Xi smiled knowingly.

This has all grown up.

At this time, several reporters quickly found Cheng Xi:

"Director Cheng, Director Cheng, could you please answer a question that many netizens are curious about: how did you choose Director Guo Fan?"

"I've also noticed this being asked quite a lot on Weibo. Director Guo Fan is indeed my senior, so we're naturally familiar with each other, but that's definitely not the reason I chose him to direct 'Mojin: The Lost Tomb'."

"During our university years, we were both outstanding alumni. I discovered Brother Guo's talent for drawing at that time, and he even taught me a lot of storyboard drawing techniques. We had a lot of exchanges, and we were not unfamiliar with each other as people thought."

"So what do you think about 'Mojin: The Lost Legend' breaking your box office record?"

"Of course I'm watching with a smile. Don't forget that I'm the boss of Zuibai Entertainment."

As soon as these words were spoken, the people surrounding Cheng Xi also smiled kindly.

The direct box office revenue of "Mojin: The Lost Tomb" is estimated to be around 4 million after all the revenue is received, which is just enough to cover the money for acquiring the 56 video website.

This made Cheng Xi happy and emotional.

Now that the company is on track, it’s good. I just need to make sure the overall strategy is in place.

The people in charge will do the job well themselves.

All you have to do is wait to make money, and make money and become famous together with everyone else.

So it's a virtuous cycle.

Zuibai Entertainment is now like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger.

Shortly after the celebration banquet, Mr. Zeng arrived.

Zuibai Video Co., Ltd. was already established when the contract was signed with Renren.

It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zuibai Entertainment.

In order to save face, the company does not have a general manager.

Mr. Zeng serves as the company's senior consultant and is actually in charge of all work.

Of course, in order to express your sincerity, you don’t give anything. Others will worry that you will abandon them.

So Cheng Xi directly gave him 5% of the shares of Zuibai Video Co., Ltd.

Even based on the current valuation, 5% is worth 20 million.

Not to mention, once it fell into the hands of Zuibai Entertainment and Cheng Xi, its value more than doubled.

Moreover, Zeng Xiongjie is very clear about the strategic value of the Zuibai video.

It can be said that Zuibai Entertainment previously had an IP incubation base, Zuibai Chinese Network, but it would be a waste to guard the gold mine just to betray and sell it.

Moreover, for some IPs, if you don’t cooperate with others, it may be a big problem to broadcast them.

Now that the company has its own video website, it no longer has to worry about being manipulated by others.

Even if the movie cannot be released, Cheng Xi can even directly put it on the video website for playback.

It has truly completed the closed loop of adapting its own IP, investing, selecting artists and directors, shooting, and broadcasting by itself.

This is also the reason why Cheng Xi is determined to acquire the 56 video website.

"Xiong Jie, your most important task at the moment is to lead the team to complete the takeover and restructuring of the 56 video website, including the development of the mobile app."

"I will have Zuibai Entertainment's IT department fully cooperate with you on this matter."

"Okay, boss, I have something else to report to you. Several key employees of Sohu Video also want to come over and do what I want, including Xiao Hu, whom you know. Do you think they can all take over?"

After Zeng Xiongjie officially joined Zuibai Entertainment, Cheng Xi started calling him by his name.

"Of course you can. I told you, you have full authority over the specific implementation of Zuibai Video! I mean what I say! As for Xiao Hu, let's have dinner together sometime!"

When Cheng Xi heard that there were more core members joining, he was of course more willing.

Originally, they were all professionals in the video website field.

In this way, Zuibai Video Co., Ltd. retained a group of employees from the original 56 Video website, absorbed some backbones from Sohu Video, and also recruited for some important positions.

In addition, there is strong support from other departments of Zuibai Entertainment.

The personnel structure was established very quickly.

Next, Cheng Xi gave Zeng Xiongjie several mission objectives and current directions.

"First, the new Zuibai Entertainment video website will be officially launched on January 2015, 1, New Year's Day. Before that, we need to complete the optimization of the website and PC software. The mobile app will also be officially launched in March."

Regarding this point, Mr. Zeng immediately issued a military order.

"Secondly, we can start preparing for the promotion now. When the new video website is launched, the TV series I've been holding back on will also be launched."

Currently, the TV series "Detective Chinatown" and "Love O2O" are still in the works, waiting for the launch of the new video website. The company has also brought over its previous TV series and dramas, and plans to create a "Zuibai Exclusive Channel" to drive traffic to the new website.

"Third, in addition to our own dramas, we have also begun to extend olive branches to other production companies to see if there are any suitable TV series that we can buy and broadcast."

Cheng Xi had absolute "foresight" about this.

So you can buy good products at low prices, and you can recover the money you spent on the drama directly through advertising.

Zeng Xiongjie immediately started working on the three points raised by Cheng Xi.

Zuibai Entertainment's IT department and some newly recruited programmers are responsible for completing the optimization of the website and PC software.

At the same time, we are developing the mobile APP of Zuibai Video.

In addition to the company's own publicity department, they also actively contacted Li Wentao to divert the entire Zuibai Group's publicity resources towards the new video website.

Zeng Xiongjie feels that this is completely different from Sohu.

In terms of publicity and marketing, Zuibai Entertainment really crushed Sohu.

No wonder it has risen so quickly.

The publicity team is the company’s combat team!

Third, he also made full use of the industry connections he had accumulated at Sohu.

It started to move.

Zuibai Entertainment also actively cooperated.

After a few moves, everyone in the industry felt that Zuibai Entertainment was coming back with great force.

"Business News reports. Sohu's previously much-publicized acquisition of the 56 video website has finally been confirmed to have gone to Zuibai Entertainment for a whopping 3.99 million yuan. Experts have pointed out that Zuibai Entertainment's move was motivated by its focus on the 56 video website's license. Currently, all video websites, except those already established, must be controlled by state-owned enterprises, preventing Zuibai Entertainment from establishing its own business."

"Daily entertainment news. Zuibai Entertainment strikes again! They beat Sohu for 3.99 million and acquired 56 Video Network! Now Zuibai Entertainment has the IP transformation tool and now has its own terminal channels, it is sure to bring more miracles to the entertainment industry."

Just as all major portals reported that Zuibai Entertainment had taken over the 3.99 video website from Renren for a high price of 56 million yuan.

There is also a lot of discussion within the entertainment industry.

Perhaps the movie that audiences and netizens are more concerned about, "The Mojin: The Lost Tomb", has set a new box office record for domestic films.

But industry insiders clearly know that the acquisition of the video website is the bigger news.

Before we knew it, Zuibai Entertainment already owns Zuibai Chinese website, Zuibai Mahua, and Zuibai Games, and now it has added another major player, Zuibai Video.

You should know that Zuibai Entertainment has many well-known artists, directors and screenwriters.

Now everyone understood Cheng Xi's ambition.

This means wanting it all and not letting anyone trip you up.

Zuibai Entertainment can now be said to be completely self-sufficient.

Huayi Headquarters.

Wang Zhonglei: "Brother, something's wrong. Cheng Xi is going for a big entertainment strategy! And he's already got a small prototype. It seems unstoppable!"

Wang Zhongjun: "I told you long ago not to offend people carelessly. Either kill them or keep a low profile. You're not doing either. Aren't you just asking for trouble?"

"Now what?"

"You think we don't want to pursue a big entertainment strategy? This path is too difficult to navigate. Without sufficient capital injection, it will drag down a company. Do you think Cheng Xi can do it easily?"

Wang Zhongjun closed his eyes and said after a while:
"We will try to further ease the relationship while waiting to see how things develop. If that doesn't work, we'll have to resort to our previous plan."

Wang Zhonglei heard this and said with a hint of excitement:

"Brother, why don't you just go ahead?"

"Stupid! This is a self-defeating move. Nothing in the industry can be perfect."

"Let's see Cheng Xi's attitude first!"

Tangren Company.

Cai Yinong: "Hu Ge, it looks like we at Tangren will have to rely on Zuibai Entertainment for our livelihood in the future. Luckily, you have a good relationship with him and even appeared on Nirvana in Fire."

Hu Ge: "I didn't expect that Sohu didn't even deal with Zuibai Entertainment this time around. Cheng Xi doesn't seem that ambitious. He's always posting his gaming achievements online, and he's still a graduate student."

Cai Yinong: "How could he not have ambition? This is just the persona he created for himself to attract young people. If you ask young people today, who doesn't like Cheng Xi, you will understand his careful planning."

Hu Ge took a deep breath when he heard his boss' analysis.

He is obviously younger than me, but I didn't expect him to be so powerful.

Noon sun.

Hou Hongliang: "Are our films available on the 56 video website?"

Kong Sheng: "A small, broken website like 56.com was almost bankrupt. Who would have thought that Zuibai Entertainment would help it get back on its feet? It seems that Cheng Xi wants to stand on multiple legs."

Hou Hongliang: "We won't be selling the drama 'He's Coming, Please Close Your Eyes' for now. Someone from Zuibai Video has already contacted us. I believe they are just about to set up a website, so we can go and show our goodwill first. I believe there will be many opportunities for cooperation in the future."

Kong Sheng: "I think it's okay. It's better to help someone in need than to add icing on the cake!"

The crew of "The Legend of Conferred Gods".

After the script reading session, everyone relaxed and started chatting.

Angelababy: "Did you hear that 'Mojin: The Lost Tomb', directed by a relatively new director, grossed 17.9 billion yuan at the box office?"

Director Xu An: "I did go and see this film, and it gave me a lot of inspiration. I think we can use the same company for the special effects, and they did a great job."

Jet Li: "I haven't worked with Zuibai Entertainment much, but they've been all over the news lately. Xiaoming, I heard he's your junior?"

Huang Xiaoming: "Yes, my junior is really amazing. He has now acquired a video website. I think he has big plans. By the way, Wen Zhang, didn't you just finish filming "The Mermaid" with my junior and Stephen Chow? How did you feel about it?"

The article said: "Well, I definitely can't tell you about the plot, but I think this movie, how should I put it, the script is very strong. The scenes I filmed made me laugh so hard."

Some Hong Kong actors nearby, such as Xiang Zuo, Gu Tianle, Tony Leung Ka Fai and others, rarely expressed their opinions and just listened quietly.

They had heard of this talented director from the mainland a long time ago, but he rarely cooperated with Hong Kong, so they couldn't comment on him.

What if there is a chance to cooperate in the future?
But there was only one person who didn't seem to listen to what everyone was talking about, but was just lost in thought.

This person is Fan Binbin.

This time, after finishing filming the national director's movie "Women of Dynasty" in which she played Yang Guifei, she immediately took on the drama "Legend of the Gods".

Still playing the role of Daji.

Unfortunately, Cheng Xi did not recommend taking this role.

When Fan Binbin asked "How much do you disagree?", Cheng Xi replied:

“I recommend it less than The Woman of Dynasty!”

What puzzled Fan Binbin was that it was not recommended to take on the national director's films.

But with such a strong cast in this movie, why wouldn't you recommend taking it?
What made her most unhappy was that Cheng Xi hadn't taken the initiative to contact her for a long time.

Every time he has his own schedule and doesn't start a new film, and when I join the crew, he makes trouble again.

We can never get together.

Now he has made two big news:
Breaking box office records and acquiring video websites.

She had a vague premonition that Cheng Xi would sooner or later trample Hua Yi under his feet.

No, after I finish this script reading session, I have to go see him while I still have some time!
Otherwise, he would have almost forgotten about me, Sister Binbin!
(End of this chapter)