Chapter 922: Yan He's Reputation

"By the way, Arctic Light Video has decided to increase the promotion of the international version starting next year," Chen Ziyan suddenly said. "I estimate that they will contact you through private channels soon, wanting to start a new cooperation with you."

"Arctic Light International Version?" Yan He was a bit surprised, "Is it doing streaming media like Maxine and HP?"

"It's not doing, they have already done it, however, the previous international version mainly had some users in Asia, to the extent that it's better than nothing. I think they saw the overseas market for Chinese dramas and want to open up the market."

"Opening up the market at this time, I'm afraid it won't be opened up without burning some money, right?" Yan He said.

The streaming media market is only this big, and currently this market is basically monopolized by several American companies.

Maxine and HP are the two giants. After these two giants, there are several other second-tier media companies backed by groups with strong capital.

All of them are American.

Like South Korea, Japan, France, and Germany, it's not that they don't have their own streaming media platforms, but once they leave their own local market, they have no competitiveness.

Because burning money doesn't work, or even if you burn it, it doesn't work. Except for Japanese animation and Korean dramas, no content has formed a stable cultural influence. Without the support of local content, you have to buy content from outside. For those with local content support, the local market is not big enough to support "eating one fish in many ways."

Whether it's Maxine or HP, they all burned tens of billions every year in the initial stage.

Chen Ziyan said: "Arctic Light doesn't plan to grab the market and compete with Maxine and the others. Its positioning for itself is a small but beautiful boutique content platform. I have talked to Lin Desheng once, his thinking is still very clear. On the one hand, if purchasing overseas content, it must only purchase content that can pass the review and be broadcast in China. On the other hand, Arctic Light's procurement and production in China will be more inclined to meet the broadcast standards of overseas streaming media. To put it bluntly, it is to try to use Arctic Light Video's current investment to do the overseas market through adapting production strategies, procurement standards, etc. For example, for Arctic Light's self-produced dramas, big dramas, boutique dramas, the leads will tend to use actors with a certain popularity and influence overseas, and from the preparation stage, the overseas market will be taken into account."

Yan He understood.

"So, like you, they need cooperation even more," Chen Ziyan said. "They hope to be able to open a Yan He Theater on Arctic Light Video, referring to the Jump Up Theater. As long as it is a drama series under your name, it can enter this theater, from producer, supervisor to screenwriter, lead actor, etc. Of course, this requires your nod of agreement. To put it bluntly, it is to use your name to endorse this theater—of course, Lin Desheng is very generous, he knows what you care about, all the income of this theater, including advertising business income, you can enjoy 50% of the income."

Yan He was astonished.

"Are they inspired by the filmmaker trading unit of the Hexi Film Festival? Is it a bit exaggerated to directly do a Yan He Theater?"

Chen Ziyan smiled.

"It's not exaggerated, after all, film and television drama projects cooperating with them mean that the global streaming broadcast rights must be given to them exclusively. Judging from the current offers of Maxine and HP for your film and television projects, this is a big cake, although it doesn't mean that cooperating with Arctic Light means all your future projects must be given to them, the decision-making power is still in your own hands, you can put some experimental projects into this theater for cooperation."

Yan He pondered for a moment.

"I need to think about it. Although I haven't thought about it very clearly, I feel that if this matter is well planned, it might be able to let Linghe enter a new stage next."

Yan He Theater?

Why can't it be Linghe Theater?

Endorse this theater with his name? Use his name?

Forget it.

However, he can provide content to this theater stably as a supervisor or producer.

On this point, he fully accepts it, and he is also willing to do such things.

"Linghe Theater?" When Lin Desheng really contacted Yan He, and the two sat down, Yan He told Lin Desheng his thoughts.

"Arctic Light can say in the promotion and introduction that this theater is specifically responsible by me, and every work that enters this theater is decided by me, but I really don't hope to let my name directly name a theater. This is too strange, and too high-profile, although I understand why Arctic Light wants to do this."

Lin Desheng said: "Overseas, your name is the most critical signboard."

Yan He nodded: "If it's not done well, it will also smash my signboard. If it's done well, it will also make people feel that I am too high-profile, directly opening a named theater on a streaming media. Before this, no one has ever done this."

He added: "And, the works that need to enter this theater are all participated in by me. To some extent, it is using my influence to endorse it, isn't it? No need to overemphasize the name Yan He."

Besides that, Yan He also proposed that the copyright of these works should belong to Linghe itself.

All works will be produced by Linghe.

Arctic Light's theater only serves as a broadcast platform, purchasing the global exclusive broadcast rights of these works for a certain period of time.

On this point, Lin Desheng had actually anticipated it long ago.

In this industry, many people know how much Yan He values copyright. He hasn't sold the copyright of projects he wrote or Linghe controlled directly to others for a long time.

Even the *Men in Black* series and *The Notebook* in cooperation with Solon, the movie copyright is also in Linghe's hands.

Lin Desheng is more concerned about another question.

He asked: "For this theater, how much content can Linghe provide a year?"

Lin Desheng knows that Yan He's production is very high, but no matter how high Yan He's production is, he alone is definitely not enough to support a theater.

Yan He gave an answer that surprised Lin Desheng.

"At a frequency of one play a month, providing at least 12 plays a year," he said. "For every play, I will participate in the preparation and production, and I will decide the main creative staff. Arctic Light doesn't need to pay high procurement fees in advance. I am willing to cooperate with Arctic Light in a way of basic procurement price + revenue sharing or performance rewards. Among at least 12 plays a year, there will be at least one play written by me. Of course, if it is a movie, the window period for theatrical release must be ensured first, and Arctic Light only serves as a streaming media broadcast platform."

Lin Desheng nodded.

Arctic Light Video needs Yan He and this theater to open up the overseas market.

The cooperation model proposed by Yan He can not only stably provide content for this theater, which is convenient for Arctic Light's subsequent long-term promotion, but also reduce a lot of pressure on Arctic Light in terms of funds—

12 plays, if they really want to follow the traditional pre-procurement model, for Arctic Light, it will pose a very big challenge to their cash flow.

You have to know, in order to reach this cooperation with Yan He, besides these normal procurement and payments, 50% of the income Arctic Light gets from this theater must also be paid to Yan He himself. To some extent, Arctic Light's income from this theater will be far lower than the normal market situation.

Of course, its value for Arctic Light Video's overseas strategy is many times higher.

In fact, Arctic Light didn't want to make money from this theater at all, just wanted to get this theater through concessions to help Arctic Light open up the overseas market.

For Yan He, the biggest benefit of opening such a "Linghe Theater" on Arctic Light Video is that he can launch projects on a large scale.

As far as the current situation is concerned, these film and television projects of Linghe basically still follow the traditional model.

Production-Sales-Broadcast.

Because of this model, although Linghe's projects are not worried about selling, they still need to maintain cash flow, control the development cycle and payment nodes of each project. Under the constraints of all aspects, Linghe actually could have further expanded production capacity, but had to be more cautious.

The benefit of opening this theater now is that, optimistically speaking, the projects of this theater can realize the "pre-scheduled" model of Hollywood.

Simply put, at least 12 plays a year, among which project A is scheduled to be broadcast on October 10. Around this time node, how much money needs to be spent at what stage, and how much money can be returned at what stage, is clear—of course, there will definitely be many mobile and uncontrollable accidents, but it is better than a play being filmed, bought by a platform for a year, and still not knowing when it will finally be broadcast, and the subsequent payment is far away.

Planning.

For a film and television production company, the more firmly these three words are chiseled, the more the company's money can be spent on the blade, and the higher the utilization rate of funds can be.

It's just a pity that many times it's not that the company doesn't want to have planning, but that this market environment makes people unable to have planning.

Yan He soon made the first batch of film lists.

He made the film list based on Linghe's subsequent filming plans and some project ideas he had on hand.

12 plays, including 4 movies and 8 drama series, only 1 is a long drama of more than 16 episodes, and the others are boutique short dramas within 10 episodes.

Arctic Light also doesn't need to worry about short dramas not making money, their risk is too high—although currently short dramas are indeed very easy not to make money. Yan He said, for the film and television drama projects of this theater, Arctic Light only needs to pay the basic procurement fee, mainly based on subsequent dividends and revenue sharing.

4 movies, which are *Corpse Phase 3*, *Scarlet*, and *Youth Maturity Diary* that Linghe is already preparing, and *The Fault in Our Stars* that Yan He brought back and is doing himself.

8 drama series, currently confirmed, are a 4-episode short drama that Linghe is preparing, the drama version of the movie *Oh My Sea*. Yan He himself is preparing to write the legendary American drama *Prison Break* for this theater. Other drama series will be found by Chen Yin for suitable projects.

"This theater, launched starting from June next year, how about it?" Yan He discussed with Chen Yin, "Or, is the time not enough, too rushed? Need to postpone the launch?"

Chen Yin said: "Currently, the projects that the company can start filming in the short term and don't need to spend too much time on post-production have already sold the broadcast rights of video platforms in advance. It's quite difficult to start from scratch."

Yan He nodded: "Then postpone it for another half a year, there is no need to be so anxious, starting from the year after next."

Chen Yin nodded.

"*Corpse Phase 2* we cooperated with HP and Green Valley, *Corpse Phase 3* not continuing to cooperate with HP?"

"This is indeed not appropriate, it affects the evaluation of our future projects within them," Yan He said. "Objectively, it's actually a bit of making wedding clothes for others, then take this project down, don't put it in this theater."

Chen Yin nodded.

"I will return to the company to screen some suitable scripts as soon as possible and make filming arrangements," he said. "Suddenly having to start so many projects, the team we signed ourselves is definitely not enough, need to hire people from outside."

"Hmm, after the scripts are screened, you send them to me first. For the projects of this theater, I will intervene from the script," Yan He said. "After all, the producer, supervisor, and promotion will all carry my name."

"Okay," Chen Yin nodded.

Linghe suddenly has a big move, this news cannot be hidden from anyone.

Especially at the end of August and early September every year, it will be Linghe's press conference.

Linghe will announce some project dynamics at this press conference every year.

This year Linghe is also preparing to announce this cooperation with Arctic Light at this press conference.

Up to now, the projects Linghe is pushing on hand, which have entered the formal preparation and production stage, have already exceeded two digits, and can be comparable to first-tier companies.

Fortunately, Linghe has been cultivating its own screenwriters and directors over the past few years. Now that it suddenly wants to do 12 projects in one breath, if it has to find people from outside without these accumulations, it would be really difficult to gather so many people in one breath.

After all, it has to launch 12 projects within a year.

This press conference happens to be five days before the concert.

Yan He attended.

When "Linghe Theater" and 12 works a year were announced, there was a gasp and uproar off the stage.

This quantity... is shockingly exaggerated.

Yan He said: "This is a very challenging attempt. Of course, although it is said to be 12 plays a year, it is very likely that we will release pigeons at that time. 12 is just a goal, not a KPI that must be completed. I will participate in the production of these plays to varying degrees as a producer, supervisor, or screenwriter. If the quality is not up to standard and the filming is not up to standard, we will not broadcast just for the sake of broadcasting."

Someone immediately asked: "However, suddenly having to do so many plays in a short period of time, it seems to be a nail in the coffin that the quality cannot be guaranteed?"

"Is it?" Yan He shook his head, "When the first season of *Friends* was filmed, from the time I wrote the script to filming and then to broadcast, it actually only took a few months. What I want to explain is that I hope this is a long-term theater brand, not an experiment that ends in just one or two years, just like the Jump Up Theater. Each theater has its own positioning. At least the 12 plays in the first year are not the kind of plays that are difficult to film or require long post-production, such as sitcoms, such as author-oriented movies like *Oh My Sea*. We will not lower the production standards, we will only select projects that can be completed within a normal work cycle as the first batch of projects. Projects like *Rouge* or *Chinese Paladin* that obviously cannot be done in 1 to 2 years will not appear on the film list."

"Will you participate in 1 or 2 of these 12 plays?"

"If there is a suitable one, of course I will," Yan He said. "However, 'Linghe Theater' has a very clear positioning: Chinese film and television dramas that can arouse emotional resonance and viewing consensus on a global scale. The ranking of story and character is higher than its artistry. Compared to whether I participate, I think what is more worthy of attention is whether we can dig and cultivate a group of creative talents with international common aesthetics through this theater. I hope to make a breakthrough in this regard."

"So this theater is going to create American dramas, Korean dramas, and British dramas that are relatively popular in the market?"

"Why—can't it be film and television dramas that are as popular as those American dramas, Korean dramas, and British dramas in the market, and at the same time have the characteristics and style of Chinese dramas?" Yan He smiled slightly, "Just like the drama version of *Rouge*, although this is not produced by Linghe, it has won praise from many international media by virtue of its sophisticated production and unified style with Chinese historical and cultural aesthetic characteristics. Is it like those popular American dramas and British dramas in the market?"

"The drama version of *Rouge* is not very popular overseas, right?"

"Whether it's popular or not, distribution channels, promotion scale, theme positioning, right time, right place, and right people... none of them are missing," Yan He said. "I think you should understand what I am saying. I also hope that whether it is me or others, when we want to do something challenging, very likely to fail, but good and beneficial to the whole industry, everyone can encourage and praise it, which can give us more confidence and courage."

"After all, 12 plays a year sounds too exaggerated, sorry, I don't mean to question."

"I understand, so I just said I hope to get your encouragement and praise," Yan He said with a smile. "12 plays a year does sound a bit exaggerated, however, Linghe now has such production strength. We are a company that spends all resources and energy on production. We have 8 production teams, more than 20 screenwriters, and at the same time, we have been cultivating technical talents in various technical departments for many years. The film and television drama projects I participate in all have Linghe's technical talents learning and polishing in various departments. We also maintain good production relationships with many directors, producers, and screenwriters outside the company. We have solid industry reputation and abundant funds. Therefore, under these circumstances, 12 plays a year, the difficulty is great, but it is not a fantasy, the goal is great, but we have the foundation to realize it. Most importantly, these 12 plays, I have the final say. For those that are not up to standard, failing, or rotten on the street, I would rather hide them and lose money than let them come to tarnish my reputation." ===== CHAPTER 923 =====