Chapter 1122: Three Preferred Majors — On the Same Stage?

The announcement from Hong Kong Island, which had arrived three weeks later than the mainland's, appeared in media reports across the web on the morning of the 30th:

All Hong Kong Island films and crews, including those already registered for the Golden Horse Awards, must withdraw entirely from this year's Golden Horse Film Festival activities and are not permitted to participate.

Immediately after, all the major sponsors that the Golden Horse side had just been "showing off" a few days ago also threw out official announcements in one go:

"After careful consideration by the team, we have decided to cancel the sponsorship intention previously reached with the Golden Horse Committee. The brand will not sponsor this year's Golden Horse Film Festival."

Sure enough, in less than two hours, Piaget, Bulgari, OPPO, Mercedes-Benz, Dior… every major sponsor had cleared out completely, not a single one left.

Even funnier was that around 10 a. m. at noon, when countless mainland film people were gleefully watching the Golden Horse circus and mocking them wildly, the other side finally cracked and got triggered.

Quite a few industry practitioners furiously posted their views online, letting the whole web see what a brain-dead forced attempt to save face looks like:

"It's best if no one comes. That way, all this year's awards can finally be kept entirely for our own people. This is the purest, most untainted edition ever."

"This is the most successful self-defense gathering of all local film people. We can't even contain our excitement…"

"This year's edition is absolutely the one with the highest gold content, because we finally don't have to, out of politeness, give film awards to their terrible films."

"Honestly, having no sponsors is quite good. This way, film truly returns to film, returns to art."

……

"The number of brand sponsors for the Golden Rooster instantly surged by thirty percent. This year is an absolute blood profit.

But on Weibo there were also quite a few eye-catching remarks, saying that if you have any backbone, you should permanently ban yourself from attending that film award — don't wait until next year or the year after and go licking their boots again, tail wagging."

"I called you to talk business, and you said it couldn't be explained in a few words over the phone. Now I've come in person, and here you are, chattering away endlessly about gossip?"

Sitting in the Director Department's office, Lin Nan crossed his legs and looked down on Director Jiang Da across from him. He was still thinking about heading back early to have lunch with Liu Liu Yifei.

"What's the rush?" Old Jiang shot him a look, then turned and walked to his own desk, pulling a document envelope out of a drawer.

"Here, take it home and read it, then burn it after reading."

"Good lord, no need to be this solemn, right? We're not running some underground rendezvous." Taking the envelope, Lin Nan laughed.

"Nonsense. According to the teaching plan: the enrollment situation of each department, including supervisor information and corresponding enrollment numbers — all of this can only be released to the public around mid-October, uniformly published on the school's official website.

In other words, this material is forbidden from being leaked to non-faculty personnel. In principle, even across departments it's not allowed!

Don't laugh. Although hardly anyone actually follows these rules, you and I should still be careful — no harm in that."

After retorting at Lin Nan with some annoyance, Old Jiang continued with other reminders:

"Also, quite a few professors with enrollment plans have already reserved spots, and some even have no spots left at all. I've marked and explained everything in the document I gave you.

To be honest, if you're willing to disclose early — publicly or privately — that it's Liu Yifei who's coming for further study, they'd absolutely be willing to apply to the school right now to change the enrollment and teaching plan and add one more spot.

After all, this stuff was only just finalized less than half a month ago. Once it's officially published on the official website in October and filed in the records, it'll be completely impossible."

Listening to Director Jiang Da's reminders, Lin Nan was completely unmoved.

Those students who got spots early basically all have some connections; their locking in a supervisor early is simply because they're after that supervisor's industry resources.

One could even say broadly that in this situation, students and supervisors are choosing each other mutually — it's a connection between two circles of connections.

But for Lin Nan, all of this was completely unnecessary to consider, and he didn't care at all.

Because others come for graduate study chasing resources, but his situation is exactly the opposite. His side's resources are recognized as abundant — so abundant they're practically endless.

So undoubtedly, Miss Liu is coming for graduate study purely for further study and rest, without all those complicated ulterior motives.

"By the way, has Liu Yifei picked which department she wants to go to?"

"I only came clean to her about this the day before yesterday at noon. These past two days at home she's been torn, not knowing which major to pick — she kind of has the posture of wanting them all…"

"Heh, you two really are a married couple, your personalities are exactly alike!"

"Just wait, she'll definitely have it picked before registration in October, hahaha…"

"But she must have some range of preferences, right?"

"That she does." Lin Nan smiled and nodded repeatedly.

"Which ones?"

"School of Management, Photography Department, Literature Department."

"Got it, understood. Perfectly matching her identity as a producer, her weakness in photography skills and lack of aesthetics, and her little literary-young affectation!"

"Don't put it so bluntly, you're making me lose face." Lin Nan complained hurriedly, his face full of helpless smiles.

……

After a day of public screening, the market feedback for "Shenyeshitang" came in.

How to evaluate it? Although Liang Liang Jiahui had his own unique brilliant interpretation, the entire film was a textbook case of critical acclaim with no box office.

Barring any surprises, his directorial debut was destined to flop. Forget making money at the box office — even just recouping costs would be an unattainable dream.

On the morning of the 31st, sure enough, "Shenyeshitang" delivered three glaring opening-day figures:

17.5% opening-day screening share, 9.39 million yuan opening-day box office, 7.3% opening-day share of the total box office pie.

A severe box-office inversion directly wrote the final annotation on this film's fate: theater chains decisively slashed its comprehensive screening rate for the second day by 10 percentage points.

"After today, the summer season will officially come to a close, and next up is the National Day window at the end of next month. Half the industry is convinced that this year's National Day market pie will be at least 6 billion."

"6 billion? That means each of the three main-melody films has been assigned a box office task of at least 2 billion? Can't it be higher?"

Listening to the marketing department head's eloquent analysis, Chairman Ren Da couldn't help but laugh out loud and asked back with considerable confidence.

For a moment, sycophantic laughter and agreement rose and fell in the office, making it quite noisy.

As today's guest, Huo Huo Wenxi naturally understood very well that Chairman Ren Da was talking about his own "The Climbers."

After a good stretch of pleasantries, several management members left the office one after another; only Ren Ren Zhonglun and Huo Huo Wenxi remained, beginning to discuss business.

Composing his smile, Chairman Ren Da couldn't help but sigh:

"Compared to China Film and Huaying, Shanghai Film's disadvantage lies in its geographic location. It succeeded because of being in the Magic City, and for the same reason it's also far from the 'main melody.'

I'm quite sure that Huanxi's 'Cliff Walkers' has an excellent subject, very suitable for state-owned enterprises. But when it comes to competitiveness, compared to China Film and Huaying, Shanghai Film is indeed at a disadvantage."

"If Shanghai Film is at a disadvantage, then there's no need to mention Yinghuang way over in Hong Kong Island. For us to participate in mainland top directors' projects, it's fair to say it's incredibly difficult.

Fortunately, this time it's a Huanxi project, so we dare to have this idea, because Dong Ping is a pure businessman.

But even so, Emperor's hopes were slim... after all, on the other side were giants like China Film and Huafilm." Huo Huo Wenxi followed up, laying out her own side's position.

She didn't conceal her purpose for this trip either — she had come on behalf of Director Yang, hoping to board the Shanghai Film ship and join the "bidding" for that "Above the Cliff" project.

"Shanghai Film and Emperor have worked together many times. I've given your meaning serious consideration." Ren Ren Zhonglun nodded and spoke.

"So what's your inclination, Director Ren?" Huo Huo Wenxi asked impatiently.

"I can bring you along, but you can only be the supporting party."

"That's only natural, Director Ren can rest assured. Shanghai Film will take the leading position."

"Good, then go make preparations. We'll fly to the capital tomorrow morning."

……

On the morning of September first, the opening ceremonies of the three major arts academies trended on the hot search.

But compared with the positive coverage from Central Academy of Drama and Shanghai Theatre Academy, Beijing Film Academy's side was a bit laughable.

That's right, the Performing Arts Academy's fault again — losing face quite badly.

The vice dean was giving a speech on the podium. At first, the self-praising brainwashing segment was still fine:

He just bragged that the school had many great directors, and that all students of the Performing Arts Academy would have the chance to act in these great directors' films;

He even pointed out emphatically to the new students that when walking around campus in the future, they might run into these great directors from time to time, and at that time they must have good sense and be sharp…

Then, in less than ten minutes, this vice dean went off track!

He said that many of the school's young teachers, when meeting great directors like Chen Chen Kaige and Zhang Zhang Yimou, had to call them "grandfather" — whether by lineage and seniority, or by age.

Then somehow, he dragged Chen Chen Feiyu, who was sitting below, into it again…

"…He said because Director Chen is of the grandmaster generation of many young teachers, and Chen Chen Feiyu is Director Chen's son, so Chen Chen Feiyu can barely be considered of the grandmaster generation of his own classmates, and of the uncle generation of many young teachers…

It nearly killed me laughing. You didn't see how chaotic the scene was — it just exploded instantly. Chen Chen Feiyu below was so embarrassed he wished the ground would swallow him up, because all the new students turned to look at him, in a complete uproar…"

"Isn't this flattery a bit too bare-faced?"

"Exactly. Everyone online is mocking them now. Saying the Performing Arts Academy side has gone crazy trying to flatter Director Chen, and has even started flattering his son in a roundabout way."

In the living room, Han Jianu was chattering away with Liu Liu Yifei and Shu Chang. She had rushed over from school.

Good lord, the moment Little Han changed the subject, she started urging Miss Liu to go to the Literature Department for her graduate studies, saying it was a roundabout way of helping her fulfill her dream. After all, she had originally wanted to go to the Literature Department for grad school, but Old Han had stuffed her into the Directing Department…

And Shu Chang was also advising her bestie to go to the Cinematography Department, saying that in the future when they went shopping, they wouldn't have to worry about not having someone to take photos.

This idea, when it reached Lin Nan's ears, struck him as utterly shallow — because that kind of skill was only entry-level knowledge for the Cinematography Department, and entry-level for undergraduates at that!

After a speechless chuckle, Lin Nan continued sunbathing on the recliner outside the door.

He couldn't help feeling a bit emotional about the miserable state of "Shenyeshitang" — the next day's box office was only 5.82 million yuan, and that was the Saturday daily box office.

The sudden buzzing vibration of the phone in his arms interrupted Lin Nan's thoughts — it was Wang Wei calling. This morning was the official launch time of "The Wandering Earth" on Tudou.

"The film has gone online on time?"

"Lin Dao, we scheduled the official launch at exactly 9 o'clock. It's only been two hours, and the popularity has already surged into the platform's top three. The results are still dazzling.

Before I made this call, I also checked Weibo's hot search — the news of 'The Wandering Earth' going online on streaming is right there on it." Wang Wei said with considerable satisfaction.

"Not bad. As long as it goes smoothly."

Seeing that Lin Nan was about to hang up, Wang Wei hurriedly spoke again: "Director Cao from Weibo personally called me this morning, clearly stating their appetite — very, very big."

"Don't bother with that. Let them fight it out with Penguin." Lin Nan said, completely unconcerned.

The next second, Wang Wei suddenly became much more serious: "Lin Dao, after resolving the Wanda matter, I think we should hold a formal shareholders' meeting."

"What's wrong?" Only then did Lin Nan sense something off in the other's tone.

"Regarding the ByteDance-affiliated platforms' long-term piracy of our long-video site's copyrighted works, their condoning of creators under them wantonly copying, editing, reposting, and secondary-creating works from our copyright library for profit — a whole series of issues.

This matter has already become very serious. They've completely ignored the warnings over there. Even Youku, iQiyi, and several other websites have come to talk to me, hoping to form an alliance to apply pressure together on this matter and resolve their continuous infringement once and for all…"

Damn, Lin Nan instantly got a headache. After a long silence, he finally said solemnly:

"You are the helmsman and CEO of Tudou in the real sense. I respect your decision. You don't need to worry about me having shares over there — there's no conflict."

Hearing the great Lin Dao say this, the other end of the phone finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Understood."

After hanging up, Lin Nan immediately closed his eyes to rest.

The conflict between long-video platforms and the emerging short-video platforms was ultimately unavoidable.

Because the latter's start-up phase inevitably had to feed on the blood of the former.

The logic here was simple: I'm a new platform, I have no content, so I want your content, and you won't give me the rights, so naturally I can only pirate it.

Looking through all domestic internet audiovisual platforms, the vast majority, at their start-up, couldn't avoid pirating and infringing on other rights holders... because only this way could they develop.

It's just that the environment has gotten better in recent years, and the industry has gotten on track, so this kind of thing has gradually decreased.

But precisely because of this, now in the industry, as long as one party dares to infringe — even continuously infringe — they must be prepared to be held accountable by the other party.

But in this kind of thing, the one who actually wins and profits is always the more rogue side. And what the rights holders fear most is, without a doubt, a rich rogue!

……

Over at Huaxi, Ning Hao was sitting in his office drinking tea, secretly delighted.

Because in the conference room next door, an extremely brilliant scene was unfolding — three big shots were "sparring"!

Suddenly, Xu Zheng appeared at the door, giving Ning Hao a fright.

"How come you're out?" Director Ning asked with a smile.

"If I didn't come out, I was afraid I'd be remembered by the three chairmen. You didn't hear Director Ren's passive-aggressive tone and the barbs in his words — one sentence could twist eighteen turns." Xu Zheng's brows formed an inverted V, a bit shaken.

"They went at it?" Ning Hao immediately gloated. After all, when big shots put on a show, who doesn't love gossip?

"Needle against awn — completely a clash of leadership rhetoric. Some of it took me a good while to realize what it meant.

Only Dong Ping was impressive, still able to tough it out and stay in there. Huo Huo Wenxi was even more in a state of sitting in the corner, completely unable to get a word in, like a small underling."

"Just say she was in the exact same state as you and stop dragging Emperor's big steward through the mud!"

Faced with Ning Hao's contempt, Xu Zheng wanted to retort but couldn't get the words out. Because the other hadn't guessed wrong — he and Huo Huo Wenxi were in the same state, and he had even played deserter and fled out.

"Alright, let's get down to business."

"What business? Isn't the business inside still being discussed? The final charter hasn't come out yet." Ning Hao said suspiciously.

"I reckon the final result might be different from what you and I guessed before."

"What do you mean by that?" Ning Hao immediately sat up straight and pressed Xu Zheng.

Regarding the project "Above the Cliff," he and Xu Zheng had not had the same intention from the very start;

He was more inclined to sell it to Huaying, because through the collaboration on "My People, My Homeland," he felt that Chairman Fu of Huaying was more reliable.

While Xu Zheng had his eye on Shangying, because Xu Zheng himself was already half part of the Shanghai circle, and in fact over the past two years he had been slowly edging toward the core capital layer of the Shanghai circle.

"Looking at the way Dong Ping is, it seems like he doesn't want to offend any of those three big bosses." Xu Zheng affirmed very seriously.

"No way? Would those three agree?" Hearing this, Ning Hao instantly caught on to Xu Zheng's meaning.

"Nothing is impossible."

"Wait, let me recall…"

Ning Hao pinched the bridge of his nose, racking his brain over those big projects of the past. It seemed those three really had never shared the stage before?!

In the blink of an eye it was 12:30 noon. Dong Ping walked out of the conference room with a beaming face alongside La, Ren, Fu, and Huo Huo Wenxi.

"Director Xu, Director Ning?" He called out to Xu Zheng and Ning Hao.

"The private room at the hotel has been waiting for a long time. Shall we head over now?" Xu Zheng replied with a smile.

"Then let's go." Ren Ren Zhonglun nodded with a chuckle, and behind him was Huo Huo Wenxi, wearing the same smiling face.

"Let's go." Chairman La's expression wasn't quite as pleased, but a faint smile could still be seen.

"Everyone must have a good drink later…" Chairman Fu wore a warm smile, half a shoulder behind La and Ren.

……