The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

The Nanjing Grand Theater is not in Nanjing, but in Shanghai, which is the Shanghai Concert Hall for later generations.

The theater was just completed earlier this year, with more than 1,500 seats. It is mainly used to play movies, and sometimes operas and ballets are also performed. The theater manager is a Belarusian nobleman named Witmsky.

Zhou Hexuan came to the Nanjing Grand Theater in the evening with bodyguard Sun Yongzhen in a car.

There are several VIP boxes in the front of the auditorium, and several people are already seated in one of the boxes.

As soon as Zhou Hexuan appeared, Luo Mingyou immediately introduced: "Mr. Zhou, this is Mr. Li Minwei, the owner of Minxin Film Company."

Although Zhou Hexuan doesn't pay much attention to movies, he still knows Li Minwei, the father of Hong Kong movies and the grandfather of actress Gigi Lai. He shook hands with a smile and said, "Hello, Boss Li."

"Hello, Mr. Zhou!" Li Minwei shook Zhou Hexuan's hand with his body bent.

Luo Mingyou introduced again: "This is Mr. Luo Yongxiang, director of the technical department of Minxin Company, Mr. Guan Wenqing, the art consultant, and Mr. Sun Yu, the great director."

"Hello!"

"Hello!"

The four shook hands respectively. Luo Yongxiang is a filmmaker born and bred in China, while Guan Wenqing and Sun Yu are returnee film talents. Guan Wenqing graduated from the Film School of the University of California, majoring in writing and directing, and also worked in Hollywood. Sun Yu is a graduate of Tsinghua University, and went to the University of Wisconsin and the New York Institute of Photography for advanced studies.

Today's premiere of "Old Capital Spring Dream" is a film directed by Sun Yu. The male and female protagonists are Wang Ruilin and Ruan Lingyu, and the second female actor is Li Minwei's wife Lin Chuchu.

"Hello, Mr. Zhou." Wang Ruilin was a handsome guy with a hearty smile.

"Hello." Zhou Hexuan focused on Ruan Lingyu.

Zhou Hexuan had watched the movie "Ruan Lingyu" starring Maggie Cheung before, and seeing the real person again now, to be honest, Maggie Cheung was crushed by Ruan Lingyu regardless of her appearance or figure. (Don’t search encyclopedia photos, just go to the movie "Goddess", the camera technology in the Republic of China is too bad)

Ruan Lingyu has a gentle temperament, and there is a bit of sadness between her brows. It is obvious that life is not going well.

Audiences came in one after another in the theater, and about two-thirds of the 1,500 auditorium seats were filled, which shows that the promotion of "A Dream of the Old Capital" is still doing well.

I heard that this movie is an adaptation of "La Traviata", Zhou Hexuan didn't feel it at all after watching it, because the localization is too thorough.

The general plot of "Spring Dream in the Old Capital" is that a down-and-out scholar meets a red singing girl in Beiping, and uses it to become an official. After taking the singing girl as his concubine, he takes his original wife and two daughters. The eldest daughter failed to learn from a singing girl, and her original partner was forced to leave. The scholar's political backer was assassinated and killed, and the scholar himself was arrested and imprisoned. Fortunately, he was rescued by his uncle's bankruptcy, and the singing girl took the opportunity to elope with her old lover. The original wife took back the scholar and the seriously ill eldest daughter, the scholar regretted it, and the family lived a happy and ordinary life from then on.

Although the plot of the movie is old-fashioned, the filming is actually not bad, and the acting skills of the actors are also very good. Zhou Hexuan actually watched it with great interest.

After the film screening ended, the audience left one after another.

Luo Mingyou shook hands with Li Minwei, Sun Yu and others, and said happily: "It seems that this movie will be a big success, and the audience's response is very enthusiastic."

It was indeed very enthusiastic. When the original partner was fighting with the singing girls, the audience cursed out of righteous indignation. Later, the family was reunited, and the audience clapped their hands and applauded loudly.

Everyone left the theater together, went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, and began to discuss business matters during the dinner.

Luo Mingyou took out a plan and said, "Mr. Zhou, please have a look. This is the company's detailed plan."

Now that you have decided to invest in a film company, you must ask about the situation in advance. After all, 100,000 yuan is not a small amount.

Zhou Hexuan first looked at the company's structure, and found that the soon-to-be-formed Lianhua Film Industry was quite modern, quite different from the current family-style management common in the Republic of China. First of all, ownership and management rights are separated, shareholders are only responsible for investment and dividends, and the general manager enjoys absolute management rights of the company. The general manager has three departments under the jurisdiction of production, general affairs and sales, and the three departments manage each executive department respectively.

Zhou Hexuan is very satisfied with this, at least the company structure looks very scientific.

Then, Zhou Hexuan glanced at the list of existing shareholders, and sure enough, he found the names of He Dong, Yu Fengzhi and others. In addition, Mei Lanfang is also one of the shareholders, along with newspaper tycoon Zhang Zhuping, former Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs Luo Wengan, printing company manager Huang Yichao and others. From political backers to big figures in publicity, distribution, production and other fields, this company is still very promising.

However, the production model of Lianhua Films made Zhou Hexuan feel very problematic. The company obviously belongs to the structure of a large studio, but it adopts an independent production model. Several production companies before the merger were renamed Lianhua No. 1 Factory, Lianhua No. 2 Factory, Lianhua No. 3 Factory and Lianhua No. 4 Factory after the merger. The money for making movies is paid by the head office, but the specific production is in charge of the branch factories. Moreover, the director-centered system is adopted, and the director enjoys unlimited rights, and there is no production manager to limit the director.

This company is a huge pit!

Zhou Hexuan returned the company plan to Luo Mingyou calmly, and said with a smile: "Mr. Luo, I don't know much about the film industry, so let's just invest and buy shares. But I will write the script of "Goddess", which is limited to ordinary people. Business cooperation."

Luo Mingyou frowned and said, "Is there something wrong?"

"Your company doesn't make a budget for making movies?" Zhou Hexuan asked back.

Luo Mingyou said with a smile: "The budget is not accurate. If the money for making a movie is set to death, it is equivalent to building a dojo in a snail shell. The director will be tied up, and there will be no good works at all."

Zhou Hexuan also said with a smile: "It's very happy to be a director in Lianhua Film Industry. The rights of the director are unlimited, and there is no production manager in charge. If I become a director, I will definitely strive for perfection. I don't care how much money I spend or how much time I spend. .Anyway, when the film is made, the reputation belongs to me as the director, and the head office belongs to the head office if it loses money. Do you think this is the truth?"

"I believe in the director's character." Luo Mingyou said.

Zhou Hexuan also said: "The soon-to-be-established Lianhua Films has a production company, a movie theater chain, and a large group of directors, actors, and photographers. This obviously belongs to the large-scale studio system. The large-scale studio system requires very meticulous planning. Operational planning. In terms of production, you are using an independent production model, which seems to be very contradictory."

Luo Mingyou said: "There is no contradiction, I am combining the advantages of the large studio system and the independent production model."

Zhou Hexuan said speechlessly: "We compare the blockbuster studio system to the planned government of the Soviet Union, and the independent film production model to the free government of the United States. Now you have combined the two systems, which is equivalent to the state system of the Soviet Union, but you are practicing freedom and democracy. , this is going to cause a big mess."

"Hahaha," Luo Mingyou laughed loudly, "Mr. Zhou, you don't understand movies, and what you speak is layman's terms."

As soon as Luo Mingyou said this, Zhou Hexuan had already seen his character clearly, which can be summed up in four words: undisciplined, conceited!

From the company's operating settings, it can be concluded that Luo Mingyou is a very undisciplined person, and he doesn't want to bother to manage control films. But he didn't listen to other people's suggestions at all, and said that others didn't know how to do it, which revealed a strong sense of conceit.

This kind of person is very suitable to be a friend, and maybe he can help a friend with a hot head. But for a partnership business, Zhang Jiazhu is better than him, and he has a prodigal temper.

Zhou Hexuan was right. Luo Mingyou was like this in history. Lianhua Films only existed for seven years before closing down.

Due to the company's production management loopholes, the production branch managers and directors squandered shareholders' money at will. In order to make a good movie, the director doesn't care about time and money at all. It is common for a movie to be shot for two years, and a scene can cost thousands of dollars. The filming of the famous movie "Yuguangqu" took more than a year, costing more than 100,000 yuan, and several thousand yuan was spent on advertising.

An investment of more than 100,000 yuan for a movie, this is the Republic of China!

The funniest thing is Luo Mingyou. Once he ran out of money in the middle of filming a movie. He said he went to Hong Kong to raise money. After arriving in Hong Kong, he traveled around the mountains and rivers, and finally went to Southeast Asia to travel, which made the staff of the production department angry. It's choking.

Generally speaking, the films produced by Lianhua Films are all high-quality products, not only of high artistic value, but also very popular. However, the production cycle is too long and the investment is too large, so it is impossible to recover the cost at all, and it is 100% operating at a loss.