Chapter 768: 2 Broke Girls

"It is a good thing that Yan He can see this market and take the initiative to propose opening it up."

Chen Ziyan said to Lu Yanhe on the phone, "I am not at all surprised that he wants to do this. Currently, Linghe's film and television production and distribution business is basically managed by Chen Yin. As CEO, although he participates in the decision-making of major projects, he is not responsible for specific management. This has kept him somewhat disconnected from Linghe's core business. It is normal for him to want to increase his weight in the company's business segments."

Lu Yanhe said: "But if we do it according to his ideas, wouldn't many of Linghe's businesses have to transform?"

"Why transform?" Chen Ziyan said, "It can be completely expanded by Yan He as a new business segment."

Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said: "Maybe it's because I'm worried that this will affect Linghe's own production business."

Chen Ziyan said: "I understand your concern, but I don't think it's necessary. Every company must inevitably grow bigger and stronger. Linghe's positioning from the beginning was not that of a traditional film and television production company. Moreover, if you treat film and television production as the company's main business, it is easily affected by the general environment. Having multiple business segments can reduce the company's operational risks. If you can develop peripheral derivatives for film and television dramas, this is a brand-new field completely different from the production side, but because it is closely related to the film and television industry, it can still feed back into the production side."

Chen Ziyan's words plunged Lu Yanhe into deep thought.

Lu Yanhe's initial resistance was because he did not want to change the nature of Linghe. But Chen Ziyan's words made Lu Yanhe feel that this made a lot of sense.

A company's ability to resist risk is only greater when it has more business segments.

In the event that some force majeure factor really occurs, causing a 2-3 year gap in the film and television drama business, it will greatly affect the company's cash flow. Especially for those new companies, once there is a problem with cash flow, the company's rent, utilities, employee salaries, and various payments need to be settled, and it is very easy to be crushed.

Lu Yanhe nodded.

Of course, he understood these principles too.

He just felt before that Linghe had already exceeded his expectations and grown into a big tree far beyond his imagination. Was there a need to continue growing?

Feeling "awkward" in his heart, it wasn't actually Chen Ziyan who convinced him, but he himself had gotten over this hurdle.

When there is an opportunity to further grow, why not try?

In his own person, there are already too many situations where other fields assist the film and television field to climb step by step. He is the one who should be most clear that these things are not really unrelated to "Linghe's main business."

Regarding this idea proposed by Yan He, not only Chen Ziyan supports it, but even Chen Siqi supports it very much.

Lu Yanhe was not complaining about this to Chen Siqi. When he told Chen Siqi, he had already figured it out for the most part, he was just mentioning it to Chen Siqi.

However, Chen Siqi said: "The film and television industry has always been relatively special. It leans towards the service industry, right? It's actually very similar to 'Jump Up', both are about content. Of course, we all say that the audience's demand for content will always exist. However, what I think is, this idea proposed by Yan He has the hope of allowing Linghe's business to expand into first-tier manufacturing. Currently, what you are doing is brand co-branding, or rather, it is of an MCN nature similar to film and television IP peripheral derivatives. But, as you become more and more familiar with this area, perhaps when you encounter suitable opportunities, you can also acquire some factories and directly engage in full-chain development. I have a profound feeling myself, you have to know, actually, I have always especially wanted to acquire a few printing plants, but I haven't encountered one with a very suitable price. After all, there aren't many printing plants now, many have already gone bankrupt in the past, and most of those that can still stand tall are not so easy to be acquired."

Lu Yanhe had not thought in the direction Chen Siqi mentioned before.

With Chen Siqi saying this, it actually gave Lu Yanhe some ideas.

Indeed, the physical manufacturing industry is different from what they do in film and television.

Chen Siqi said again: "If we can really expand different business segments, it means that in the future, every time there is an industrial upgrade, we will have more cards to play in our hands and have more initiative, instead of being led by the nose by industry changes every time. Do you know why I want to acquire a printing plant? It's because the changes in the printing plant environment lead to our 'Jump Up' basically having to change several cooperative printing plants every year. We have about twelve printing plants that we cooperate with long-term. Every change means that our 'Jump Up' may miss the best sales period, affecting the changes in sales volume. Only when the printing plant is in our own hands can the influence caused by various factors be effectively controlled. The same principle applies to Linghe."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

If it were a stubborn person, they might ask at this time, what kind of influence can a peripheral or derivative development business have on film and television drama production.

Of course, Lu Yanhe would not ask such a silly question.

If nothing else, there is one more channel for recouping costs.

At this time, the new styling for him by Lucy Bates's team was finally modified.

Lu Yanhe went to try on the makeup again.

This time, Lu Yanhe was very satisfied.

They really do have hard skills in their hands.

They took another set of makeup photos and sent them to the director and the others.

Ignaz made a few more small suggestions.

Lucy Bates, however, argued strongly on grounds and told Ignaz the reason for her design.

Generally speaking, a stylist will not "sing the opposite tune" to the director.

However, Lucy Bates is clearly not an ordinary stylist.

What Lu Yanhe did not expect most was that Ignaz finally compromised.

This was what surprised Lu Yanhe the most.

Based on his previous understanding of Ignaz, he should be a director who is very persistent in his own ideas.

Lu Yanhe made a phone call to Darren Wilson and mentioned this matter. Anyway, whenever he encountered something he couldn't understand or felt strange about here, Lu Yanhe would make a phone call to Darren Wilson to ask or chat. He was really unfamiliar with the environment here, so perhaps many times, a phone call might let him know some things he should know but didn't.

Sure enough, this time after Darren Wilson heard his confusion, he said something he didn't know before.

"Lucy Bates is the stylist Ignaz has always cooperated with. Ignaz's stylist for basically every movie is her." Darren Wilson said, "So, Ignaz will listen carefully to Lucy Bates's opinions. Moreover, generally speaking, Lucy Bates's opinions on character styling are very accurate. She will make different designs based on different plots and different settings for what kind of styling each actor should have in the movie and what kind of clothing they should wear. In Hollywood, such stylists, even in Hollywood, are not that many. She is one of the top stylists."

Lu Yanhe understood as soon as he heard it.

Ignaz would listen, one, because the two of them are old partners and old collaborators who have worked together for a long time and trust each other, and two, because Lucy Bates herself is very professional, making people have to attach importance to her opinions.

Actually, Lu Yanhe also had a pretty good impression of her after this cooperation.

Because after he put on the styling design according to the beginning, the effect was not good, and before he even opened his mouth, Lucy Bates herself directly pointed it out.

And the problem with the styling was also understandable—

She didn't intentionally neglect him, but the styling she designed didn't fit his own image. The profession of a stylist also relies on experience.

Lucy Bates works in Hollywood and generally does styling for Europeans and Americans. For an Asian character like Lu Yanhe who has heavy scenes and a key identity, Lucy Bates might not have much relevant experience, so the design drawing is one thing, and actually putting the design on is another.

When a problem appeared, she didn't shirk responsibility, and she directly led the team to start making modifications. Professional and efficient.

Lu Yanhe really likes working with such people.

After he cooperated with her once like this, if he cooperates again, he will also attach great importance to the opinions she puts forward.

For example, this time, Ignaz proposed whether Lu Yanhe's hairstyle could be made a bit more "greasy" and "dirty."

Lucy Bates said: "This character in the movie does not need a contrast between image and nature. In fact, he is a very charming character in the movie. Would a greasy, dirty Eastern mage make people feel convinced? In the movie, there is no questioning in this regard. His biggest characteristic is mystery—because he comes from a mysterious place that everyone is not familiar with. At the same time, his clothing, words, and deeds are all different from everyone else, and his magic is also different from everyone else. But he is charming. This kind of charm does not need to be established through contrast in image. If modified like this, I instead feel that such styling is deliberately leaning towards wandering, rather than towards the word mystery."

Her reasons were very sufficient, based on the character and closely related to the positioning of the whole movie.

A stylist who can truly read the script, read the characters, and do character styling for them is a treasure in any crew—except for crews that don't know the value of goods.

The day Lu Yanhe first arrived at the set, he specifically did some homework and understood in advance which actors were in the movie "Godless".

It wasn't that he didn't do it in advance, but in Hollywood, especially for blockbusters like "Godless", the general actor cast is not all finalized before the start of filming.

Of course, this is not because the film company doesn't want to finalize it, but because according to the filming time and the actors' schedules, there are many things that need to be communicated and coordinated in between.

Therefore, you will often see news of "xxx is negotiating to appear" for a movie after it has started filming. About three or four days, or a week later, okay, this actor is confirmed to appear.

Generally, such actors are often already famous and are playing big supporting roles with only a few scenes. For example, in director Nolan's "Oppenheimer", Florence Pugh played a role with actually very few scenes. For such roles, the film company definitely has backups. Once it is almost time to film this role and it hasn't been finalized, the backup actor will go on. But if a well-known actor can be knocked down to come and act, it is basically signing the contract today and arriving at the set tomorrow.

In "Godless", there are actually many such roles that are currently empty, and it is not certain which actor will play them.

Even just one week after the movie started filming, two roles had their original actors replaced.

The protagonist of "Godless" is a seventeen-year-old boy, very similar to "Harry Potter", but the structure of the whole story is completely different.

"Godless" tells the story of this seventeen-year-old boy accidentally stepping into the "world of mages", coming into contact with the truth of the world, and gradually approaching the truth of the fall of the gods back then.

This seventeen-year-old boy was a child star before, and has filmed two movies and one TV series, but none were the lead. Generally speaking, such roles will look for child stars with acting experience. Because they have been in contact with this industry since childhood, understand the set, and are more controllable. His name is Ivan Patterson.

How to put it, this is a boy who doesn't look very handsome, can only be said to be ordinary, and even his figure is a bit thin and weak.

Of course, such an image fits the setting of the "Godless" script very well.

Its essence is still a story of a boy growing into a man, a "coward" growing into a "hero".

Hollywood blockbusters are basically of this tone.

Lu Yanhe prepared a small gift for everyone on the set, a panda pendant.

These will be delivered to everyone's hands by Wang Biao leading Xing Lecheng and Yu Xiaoyan and the others.

But what Lu Yanhe did not expect was that as soon as he walked into the set, Ignaz led everyone on the set to applaud and cheer together, welcoming his arrival.

This was the first time Lu Yanhe received such treatment at the beginning of filming a movie abroad.

Ignaz also specifically prepared a gift for him, a scarf printed with the name of the movie "Godless".

"There are only three of these scarves, they are specifically customized." Ignaz explained, "There will be other scarves made later, but there are only three of this style."

One is in his hand, one is in Ivan Patterson's hand, and the last one was given to him.

What this means goes without saying.

And Ignaz gave it to him in front of the entire crew.

Lu Yanhe accepted this gift, hugged Ignaz, and shook hands and greeted several main creators present one by one.

What made Lu Yanhe feel very incredible was that everyone's attitude towards him was even more respectful than when he was in "Mist 2".

You know, the movie "Mist 2" was a sequel movie developed entirely with him as the core.

His weight in "Mist 2" was definitely heavier than his weight in "Godless".

Why this is, Lu Yanhe didn't know.

Subsequently, Lu Yanhe went to put on makeup.

In the makeup room, there were three people responsible for Lu Yanhe's makeup.

Because it was special effects makeup, it was not easy to apply.

Lu Yanhe chatted with them while putting on makeup.

One of them said: "You won an Oscar at such a young age, you are so enviable."

Lu Yanhe then realized that the attitude of these people towards him might be because he had just won an Oscar.

The weight of an Oscar in Hollywood is greater than any award in any market where it is located.

Sometimes thinking about it, isn't this also a kind of mutual complement between their Hollywood and the Oscars?

Various blockbusters are determined to recruit all the new Oscar Best Actors and Best Actresses into their own universe. Those commercial blockbusters always show a drooling posture towards those top actors.

This is something unthinkable in other markets.

In China, your blockbuster is not necessarily a box office hit just by relying on the hottest actors, let alone looking for those so-called Best Actors and Best Actresses.

This is determined by the stage of the market.

However, it still makes Lu Yanhe sigh.

What he sighs about is that there is not even an award in China that makes China's own industry and market recognize it from top to bottom.

Even if the scope is narrowed down a bit, just among the group of actors, there is no award with such credibility.

This is undoubtedly a regrettable thing.

"Lu Yanhe is now acting in 'Godless'. 'Godless' and 'Burning Fire' are the same type of movie. Is it possible that when 'Godless' is released, if it is a global hit, it can drive the box office of 'Burning Fire 2'?"

At the senior management meeting of Long Yan Company, Vice President Cheng, who is responsible for the overseas sales and distribution of movies, said.

"I personally feel that there is no need to sell the overseas distribution rights of 'Burning Fire 2' so quickly now."

"Wait until 'Godless' is finished filming and then released, that will be years later, right?" Huang Tai said, "'Burning Fire 2' will be released domestically during next year's summer season. Do we still have to wait until then to talk about overseas sales?"

"Wait until next summer, 'Godless' will also be finished filming." Vice President Cheng said, "The most critical thing is, wait until next summer, Lu Yanhe's first Hollywood movie 'Mist 2' will also be released. If the box office performance of 'Mist 2' is very good, 'Burning Fire 2' will also rise with the tide."

Huang Zhongjing said: "But now Green Valley has already offered a high price."

"Saying it's a high price, it's not even as high as 'Dragon Gate Inn'." Vice President Cheng said, "The box office performance of the first 'Burning Fire' outside the Asian region was indeed very average, making Green Valley not very optimistic about the box office in the European and American regions. But if Lu Yanhe has a movie that he truly carries the box office for and the box office sells well, they will have more confidence in the distribution of 'Burning Fire 2', and the conditions they offer us will naturally be higher."

Huang Zhongjing asked: "Do you think Green Valley will offer a higher price than now by then?"

"If Lu Yanhe's 'Mist 2' box office is successful, the price will definitely be higher." Vice President Cheng said, "Currently in the minds of Hollywood film companies, there are no more than ten actors who can truly drive the box office by a name alone, but Lu Yanhe is one of them. Since Lu Yanhe won an Oscar at the beginning of this year and then successively exploded with two movies 'Home Alone' and 'Buried', he has had a completely different evaluation in Hollywood. If it weren't for the poor box office performance of the first 'Burning Fire' in Europe and America, the conditions Green Valley offers for 'Burning Fire 2' would definitely be higher now."

Huang Zhongjing and Huang Tai looked at each other.

Huang Tai asked: "How much box office do you think 'Burning Fire 2' can get in Europe and America?"

"If it can be distributed normally and get 1,000 to 2,000 theaters for release, I think 'Burning Fire 2' has hope of exceeding 10 million in the North American box office, and in the European and American regions, it is also hopeful to break 20 million in total." Vice President Cheng said, "The reason I have such a judgment is based on the fact that the streaming media playback data of the first 'Burning Fire' is actually quite good, especially the evaluations after the audience finished watching are all quite good, which gives our second part a very good foundation. The premise is that we have enough distribution scale to allow these audiences who watched the first part on streaming media to conveniently watch the second part, instead of searching and finding that to watch this movie, they have to drive at least ten or even twenty kilometers away to watch it, which will definitely dispel the enthusiasm of many audiences, and then, we will once again welcome the evaluation that so-called Chinese-language films are unpopular."

Huang Zhongjing and Huang Tai looked at each other again.

If Lu Yanhe were here, he would definitely applaud Vice President Cheng's speech.

Vice President Cheng's words really spoke to his heart.

Can Chinese-language films really not get good box office?

Or is it that Chinese-language films simply don't have the opportunity to get good box office?

In the few years when Chinese-language films sold well in North America, hanging the word "Kung Fu" on them could sell a wave—even if they couldn't get into theaters, they could still be very popular in the DVD market.

After seeing too much, "Kung Fu" is outdated, and it seems there is really nothing interesting about it.

Chinese-language films began to "recede" from the mainstream film market in Europe and America.

But the reason for the "recession" is also because the European and American markets did not give other types of Chinese-language films a chance.

Of course, Chinese-language films themselves abandoned many characteristics and began to produce Hollywood-style "standard commercial films" on a large scale, which is also one of the reasons.

To put it bluntly, the selling points of many movies later were all things Hollywood had already played out.

The biggest selling point "Kung Fu" that Chinese-language films once created in the European and American markets, they don't even make such movies much themselves anymore.

At this time, Yuehu Station, Arctic Light Video, Ice Field Video, and Linghe started the promotion of a new drama.

"2 Broke Girls".

This sitcom does not have a famous actor.

However, this drama has the highest specification promotion matrix.

And the promotion of this drama is particularly simple, which is the promotion method Lu Yanhe likes the least in other film and television dramas—

Directly pushing "highlights" and "jokes" from the drama on various video platforms.

"2 Broke Girls" can do this because it is a sitcom itself, it has a large area of "highlights" and "jokes", and is not afraid that there will be nothing else to watch after watching a little bit.

How exaggerated is the promotion of the drama "2 Broke Girls"?

First, in the first episode of this season of "Young Days", the two of them became guest stars, and they were also the NPCs of the theme of this episode. The first episode of "Young Days" was directly themed around "2 Broke Girls" to promote this drama.

Second, Linghe directly bought outdoor advertising in the most prosperous areas of first-tier cities across the country. Many film and television dramas had long ago abandoned this kind of promotion method because the coverage area is small and the conversion rate is also small.

However, Linghe is not afraid.

Because of the theme of "2 Broke Girls", it is not afraid of low conversion rates. It is a comedy, naturally attracting audiences, and it is a sitcom. On the outdoor advertising poster, besides this pair of "broke girls", there is only one line of big characters: Created by the team of "Friends" and "My Own Swordsman", Lu Yanhe serves as the script consultant.

Hmm, the point is in this sentence.

What is the biggest advantage of "2 Broke Girls"?

It is the success of "Friends" and "My Own Swordsman", it is the audience group accumulated by these two dramas, it is everyone's love for the sitcom genre.

Third, "2 Broke Girls" directly had the screenwriter write four or five different sitcom jokes of about three minutes. The two of them took different jokes and appeared in top variety shows on Yuehu Station, Ice Field Video, and Arctic Light Video, directly advertising for the drama.

No drama can make the drama promotion so big.

This is not a matter of whether they are stars or not, this is various platforms using the best resources to operate this drama, treating it as a new hit to promote.

In fact, everyone thinks so too.

Lu Yanhe felt that it was normal for domestic promotion to reach this step, until on the set of "Godless", someone asked him, was the script for the drama "2 Broke Girls" written by him?

Wrote it for a whole night... (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 769 =====