Chapter 351 Affiliation

Chapter 351 Affiliation

Chapter 351 Affiliation
The Lantern Festival is over.

Fan Wumian immediately joined the crew of "My Love from the Star".

Maybe the screenwriter was used to posting spam every day, so he actually wrote a total of 30 episodes.

When he saw the first draft, Fan Wumian was worried that the plot might be too watery. But after a quick read, he found that it was actually quite good.

After several revisions and rearrangements, the total number of episodes was extended to 33, and a lot of pretentious and face-slapping scenes were added, although the scenery was a bit troublesome.

Compared with "The Lonely and Great God", it basically uses a similar template, with the medicine in the old bottle being replaced with new wine.

All the tricks like pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger, beautiful superstar neighbors, car accidents, blindness, breaking up due to misunderstandings, etc. were used.

The 16th day of the first lunar month.

Fan Wumian began to busy himself with makeup and personally designed his look for the drama.

For this purpose, he bought more than a dozen suits and asked a barber to adjust his hairstyle bit by bit, changing from "confident and flamboyant handsome" to "low-key and quiet handsome", but he is still a hidden rich man.

The filming locations were mainly arranged in Hong Kong and Shanghai, mainly because we felt that old houses would be very effective in filming. Coincidentally, the local Shanghai city also provided a sum of support subsidies, and even arranged accommodation for the crew for free.

Many local companies in Shanghai became even more active after hearing the news, and took on more than ten product placements in total, with a total amount of more than 800 million yuan, almost recovering the shooting budget ahead of schedule.

This time, we will shoot in Shanghai.

The scenes in Hong Kong City are mainly exterior scenes and are scheduled to start filming in early March.

On the evening of the 16th day of the first lunar month.

Fan Wumian was familiarizing himself with the script in the Peace Hotel when Xu Zheng called him and said with a smile:
"I just talked to someone from your company, Mr. Fan, and I learned that you came to Shanghai. I grew up here and went to school here. You should at least arrange a meal for me and give me a chance to show my abilities. Are you free recently?"

I raised my arm and looked at my watch. It was already past five in the evening.

Fan Wumian replied:

"How about tonight? Let's find a place to eat something on the spur of the moment. I'm staying at the Peace Hotel, so it's easy to find a restaurant nearby."

"Okay, okay! How about 6:7 or ? I'll call the restaurant now and let you know once I've booked a place."

Xu Zheng was very familiar with the area, so he called the time-honored restaurant "Green Corridor" and arranged a private room for them in just a few minutes.

After Fan Wumian packed up and prepared to go out, he also contacted his company to inquire about the situation in order to avoid being clueless.

I learned that the negotiations with Xu Zheng went smoothly in the past two days, but after being sorted out by a third-party firm, there have been some changes in the mode of cooperation.

They had previously planned to start a company together. If the artists used the company to avoid taxes for themselves, Fan Wumian would also bear some legal risks.

Therefore, the cooperation framework was overturned and revised.

The newly negotiated form of cooperation is that Shanzeiwang Media will set up an artist agency, and Xu Zheng and his wife will set up a separate star studio, which will be affiliated with this new agency. While handing over profits, they will also enjoy some resources provided by the company.

However, if any unexpected events arise due to tax issues, Xu Zheng and his wife will need to bear the legal risks themselves.

The same goes for other stars who want to sign a contract with this agency. They each register a star studio and affiliate with it in a cooperative manner. They bear the risks themselves, while Fan Wumian provides help and enjoys a share of the profits.

Even if something happens to the stars' own studios, it will not affect the brokerage companies that pay taxes and do business honestly. The corporate structure and management structure are very strict.

At that time, the agency will assign each artist to a tailor-made group. Each group is composed of a major agent, a minor agent, an artist assistant, corporate publicity, public relations and other departments, and the artists will be built as brands.

Fan Wumian thought that this was the method that had been adopted in the industry before the "tax backlog" in the previous life. After hearing this, he immediately understood.

While I think it's very promising, I'm also a little worried that it will affect the interests of others. There's a lot of water involved here, and entering the "star studio era" early is not necessarily a good thing.
Around 6:15pm.

Fan Wumian took a car to the Green Corridor Hotel.

I stopped to read the introduction written on the wall and found that this place claims to feature "state banquets and boat dishes", and the prices seem to be quite high.

On the corridor leading to the private room, I ran into Xu Zheng and his wife.

Xu Zheng's wife Tao Hong narrowed her eyes and said enthusiastically:

"Mr. Fan, you're here really early. We were just about to go to the door to greet you. You must be hungry at this hour. I'll urge the waiter to serve the food quickly!"

It's cold outside.

Taking off his coat and handing it to Pu Jiajing, Fan Wumian replied:
"I'm sorry to have cost you so much, but this restaurant looks very high-end."

Xu Zheng also enthusiastically introduced:

"This restaurant opened last century. The Queen of England even came to taste its food there. The prices are not expensive, but I wonder if the food suits Mr. Fan's taste." He exchanged a few polite words.

There are not many people tonight, so we booked a smaller private room, otherwise it would have felt a bit lonely during dinner.

Since they mainly wanted to talk about company matters, Xu Zheng and his wife did not ask anyone to accompany them, and Fan Wumian only brought Pu Jiajing and Feng Ying'er, who played the leading actress.

Come to the private room and take a seat.

When Feng Ying'er took off her mask, Xu Zheng and his wife couldn't take their eyes away.

Taohong showed her signature smile and said:
"Are the requirements for new actors so high now? I felt I was pretty when I was in school, but now I can hardly play a maid. Miss Feng is so exquisite that she can be on the cover of a magazine if she is photographed from any angle."

Feng Ying'er could understand Mandarin, but she was not so fluent in speaking it. She waved her hand modestly and said:

"Thank you. I've seen the movie 'Pigsy' you starred in, Sister Tao. I didn't expect you two were actually a couple."

It sounds like they are saying that they are not that famous.

Xu Zheng didn't mind at all. After all, Ying Er came from Hong Kong, so it was normal for her not to know him. He was already surprised that she had watched "The Legend of the White Snake". He laughed awkwardly and said:

"After the show was aired, people didn't know my name. They just called me Zhu Bajie when they saw me. But my wife and I met because of the show, so it was a good deal. You can take a look at the menu first and order whatever you want. The signature dishes include squirrel mandarin fish, crab meat and broccoli, and jujube paste crisps."

The busiest meal time is almost over, so the food is being served quite quickly.

Xu Zheng opened a bottle of Lafite red wine that he had brought specially, and the few of them ate and chatted. There is never a shortage of topics in the entertainment industry, and the atmosphere was very good.

Others drink red wine by tasting it, but Fan Wumian is not so particular.

After two glasses of wine, he took the initiative to mention the cooperation and said:

"You set up a celebrity studio and affiliated it with my subsidiary. This is obviously very beneficial to you. It is a win-win situation for both parties."

"But once this loophole is opened, we need to be a little careful. I'm afraid other celebrities will also start to think about it, and then they will all start their own companies to avoid taxes."

"If more people do this, the film and television companies will have a hard time doing business. The cost of shooting will skyrocket, which will easily arouse public anger. Oh, I'm not saying it's not okay, but you just have to be more low-key and try not to mention it if you can. Making a fortune in silence is the best way to go."

Xu Zheng was indeed nervous for a while, worried that the cooperation that was almost agreed upon would be changed. Upon hearing this, he nodded and said:
"We understand. Don't worry, Mr. Fan. We can just tell others that we have signed a contract with you. It doesn't seem to be a big problem."

Celebrity studios can be divided into two types.

One is to set up a completely independent business, and the other is to be affiliated with a studio under an agency.

The former is undoubtedly more free, but you have to rely on yourself for funds and resources, which is relatively risky. Although the latter is relatively less free, you can use the resources of the brokerage company to reduce the possibility of failure and has lower risks.

On Fan Wumian's side, the cooperation model launched this time is to allow celebrities to open studios and be affiliated with them.

It would be considered illegal more than ten years later, but no one will pursue it now. Even if you only pay the full amount of corporate income tax, it is already considered very law-abiding.

Many celebrities do not receive high pay for filming, and they receive cash for filming, and they don’t even know how they should pay taxes.

Therefore, in Fan Wumian's eyes, compared to problems with taxes, he was more worried about breaking the rules and causing dissatisfaction in the industry.

The current situation is that a number of film and television companies and brokerage companies have signed large numbers of stars. On paper, their pay for one episode is several thousand or tens of thousands of yuan, but after the company's profit sharing, they actually only have to pay a fraction of it.

The difference becomes the company's profit, which is what Bandit King Media is doing now.

Huayi Brothers is expanding rapidly, signing a large number of stars with the help of ace agent Sister Hua.

If the newly opened agency becomes popular and big-name actors flock to join Fan Wumian, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among others, so Fan Wumian said that "it is easy to arouse public anger."

When the film and television industry develops to a certain scale, even if Fan Wumian does not intervene, artists will flock to establish their own studios for their own interests.

Therefore, Fan Wumian decided to continue and only advised them to keep a low profile. After all, the actors' pay was low in the early stages and it would take some time to ferment to a large scale, so it shouldn't cause too much trouble.

For the time being, he only wants to sign some powerful cash cows. Xu Zheng is one of them. The actress Gao Yuanyuan who took the initiative to contact Shanzeiwang Media is not bad either. He has to look for others later, or sign them directly under a new agency.

For example, Wang Likun and Li Xiaoran are not that famous, so it would be a bit troublesome to force money to support them.

Seeing that Fan Wumian took the initiative to talk about this topic, Xu Zheng asked politely:
"Mr. Fan, I have a question. When the studio is affiliated with you, what kind of support can we get?"

"This is simple."

Fan Wumian said casually:
"In addition to providing roles in some works, we can also provide funds so that you can sign some good seedlings, or create your own brand to do business, shoot some TV series, etc. It is probably similar to venture capital, the difference is that others invest in Internet companies, I invest in you stars, and when the specific series are listed, it will be written into the contract."

(End of this chapter)