Chapter 128: First Lunar New Year Film Festival

June 25th, Zhou Shan Studio.

In the small conference room, a few senior executives of the studio were waiting for Liu Zhou's arrival.

General Manager Zhong Lifang, Head of the Brokerage Department Zeng Jia, Head of the Public Relations and Publicity Department Wang Yingping, and Finance Manager Xiao Rongfang, together with the boss Liu Zhou, make up the top management of the studio.

Liu Zhou didn't let them wait too long and arrived at the small meeting room on time at nine o'clock.

This was also the first time that Liu Zhou convened a high-level meeting of the studio, mainly to summarize the work done in the previous period.

Although there are not many people, each of them is an elite soldier.

Needless to say, Zhong Lifang and Zeng Jia have become an excellent agent after their rapid growth in the past two years.

He now has five artists under him, including Zeng Li, Qin Hao, Zhang Tong, Tang Wei and Dong Xuan, and Liu Zhou can even be added to the list.

Zeng Li and Qin Hao are both very popular, Zhang Tong and Tang Wei are also well-known. Although Dong Xuan is a newcomer, she also has a TV series starring a female lead to be broadcast, so her future development is also promising.

Such a configuration is not inferior to Chang Jihong, and is also a banner in the mainland brokerage industry.

Wang Yingping was poached by Liu Zhou from China Film Group. He was previously in charge of publicity work.

He is relatively young, only less than thirty-five years old, but his abilities are outstanding.

However, in state-owned enterprises, ability is sometimes not the most important thing, and seniority is very important.

In addition, China Film Corporation had just been established at that time, and several large state-owned studios had been merged together, resulting in too many people and too little resources. Wang Yingping was frustrated at China Film Corporation.

When Liu Zhou collaborated with China Film Group on his first two films, he happened to come into contact with Wang Yingping and had a general understanding of his abilities.

So after poaching Zhong Lifang, they also poached him over and let him take charge of the studio's public relations and publicity work.

As for Xiao Rongfang, she also worked at China Film Group, but is now approaching retirement.

She was too lazy to engage in intrigue with others, so she simply retired early.

Liu Zhou needed an experienced financial officer to help him handle financial and tax matters at that time, so he invited this elder sister.

She can be said to be the earliest employee of the studio besides Liu Zhou.

Liu Zhou has been getting along with these people for at least two years, and they are quite familiar with each other.

So after entering the office, Liu Zhou didn't say anything polite and started the meeting directly.

The first thing we will discuss is, of course, the most important project of the studio at present, "The Sword of Embroidery"!
At present, the post-production of "The Sword of Embroidery" has been completed. Although there was a severe influenza outbreak some time ago, it does not mean that the entire capital city has come to a complete standstill, and some work can still be carried out.

In the past two months, Liu Zhou was not just resting, but also paying close attention to the post-production of "The Blade of Embroidery".

The finished film was released in early June, and Liu Zhou felt there was nothing wrong with it after watching it.

Now we need to discuss when the movie "The Swordsman" will be released.

Liu Zhou has chosen two time periods. One is the summer vacation in July and August. Although there is no such thing as a summer vacation season yet, we don't have to wait for Zhang Yimou's "House of Flying Daggers" to create this season next year.

Liu Zhou can also become a pioneer of the summer season in mainland China.

Another time is the Lunar New Year period, which is a mature period and people are now accustomed to watching movies during this period.

However, there is news that Feng Kuzi's new film "Cell Phone" is also scheduled to be released during the Lunar New Year holiday.

In this regard, Wang Yingping said firmly:
"Liu Zhou, I think it would be most appropriate to release "The Blade of Embroidery" during the Lunar New Year holiday. Even if it collides with Feng Kuazi, the one who should be worried is not us, but the other party."

"That's right. If we go against them, they will definitely lose this time. If they don't care about the loss of interests, they will definitely not dare to confront us head-on." Zhong Lifang echoed.

Having said that, Liu Zhou knows that Feng Kuzi's movie "Cell Phone" was still quite successful at the box office, earning more than 50 million yuan, making it the box office champion of mainland movies this year.

"Although there are a lot of people during the summer vacation because students are on vacation, we have just experienced the flu and everyone is still a little afraid of gathering together, so this period of time during the summer vacation is not suitable," Wang Yingping continued.

"Zeng Jia, what do you think?"

"I?"

Zeng Jia didn't expect Liu Zhou to ask for her opinion, and she didn't react for a moment.

However, after seeing the looks from the others, Zeng Jia did not panic and said calmly:
"I also think the Lunar New Year period is suitable. Hero has already paved the way for us, and we can achieve twice the result with half the effort."

Seeing that everyone agreed to put "The Swordsman" in the Lunar New Year period, Liu Zhou no longer hesitated and said:
"If that's the case, then it's settled. Yingping, please discuss the specific release date with President Han later."

"Okay Mr. Liu."

"Boss Zhong, is there any money left for Embroidered Spring Blade?"

“After finishing the post-production, there was less than two million left.”

"I plan to invest another 10 million in the promotion of "The Swordsman". Mr. Zhong, please communicate with China Film Group and Emperor Entertainment Group and ask them to provide the funds in proportion."

"Okay Mr. Liu."

At this time, Liu Zhou turned his gaze to Xiao Rongfang and asked:
"Sister Xiao, how much money do we have left in our studio?" "More than 29 million left." Xiao Rongfang paused for a moment and continued, "After settling the accounts of The Tuner, plus the more than 10 million you injected into the studio at the beginning of the year, we originally had nearly 70 million in funds.

We invested 30 million in "The Swordsman", 8 million in "Snow Goddess Dragon", plus the 5 million you spent on the TV series "Conquest" that you purchased some time ago.

However, in the past year or so, the agency department has earned more than 3 million, so now the studio has nearly 30 million in cash in its account. "

Purchasing the TV series "Conquest" was an accident.

Liu Zhou originally thought that this TV series which was very popular in his previous life would be broadcast smoothly, but he did not expect that no one was interested in this TV series.

The investor and director of "Conquer" was so anxious that he drank so much that his stomach bled, but still no TV station was willing to buy the broadcasting rights for the TV series.

Finally, Sun Honglei, the lead actor of "Conquer", couldn't stand it anymore and contacted Liu Zhou to ask him if he was interested.

Sun Honglei was also trying his best to give it a try. He had heard that Liu Zhou's studio had started investing in TV dramas, so he came over to ask.

After understanding the situation, Liu Zhou certainly would not miss this opportunity to pick up a bargain and spent five million to buy the copyright of the TV series.

Not only that, Liu Zhou was also planning to recruit Gao Qunshu, the director of "Conquer", to his team.

It's not that they are attracted by his ability to make money. The copyright of the novel of his only high-grossing movie "The Whistleblower" has been bought by the studio, so he is not the only one who can star in this movie.

The film Liu Zhou was interested in was his first film, Tokyo Trial.

This is a good movie that has been buried and is very warning.

Although the lead actor of this movie, Liu Songren, is quite famous, he does not have the ability to compete at the box office, so the movie did not have high box office and was not well known.

Liu Zhou was thinking about whether he could keep the movie "Tokyo Trial" from being obscured by the dust through the operation of his own studio.

In addition, Gao Qunshu's directing style is also unique, and he has experience in shooting police and western films.

The studio always needs to expand. Ning Hao is not yet able to handle the task, and he cannot always rely on Liu Zhou alone. So if there is a suitable director, Liu Zhou will also try to see if he can get a studio.

But this was obviously a failed attempt and Gao Qunshu refused.

Although Liu Zhou didn't know the reason, he was too lazy to find out. He just let it go and didn't take it to heart.

"Mr. Zhong, what is the current situation of the TV series? Are there any new projects?" Liu Zhou then asked Zhong Lifang.

"We currently have two TV series, Conquer and Snow Goddess Dragon, waiting to be broadcast. Then some time ago, Director Gao Xixi contacted me. He also took a fancy to the novel The Sky of History and wanted to make it into a TV series."

"That's great, but we have to take control of the project, and we can use this opportunity to build a good relationship with him. He's quite good at filming TV series."

The TV series "The Sky of History" was directed by Gao Xixi in history. Before "The New Three Kingdoms", the TV series he filmed were of very high quality.

Deng Chao became famous after filming two military dramas in succession, which is why he did not fall behind among those young actors.

"Okay, Mr. Liu, what about these two completed TV series?"

"Don't worry about that. I'll take care of it."

Zhou Shan Studio has always been engaged in film production. This is the first time it has made a TV series and it has no connection with the TV station at all.

However, this was not a difficult task for Liu Zhou, as he happened to have some connections at Shonan TV.

In 2000, the Xiangnan Radio and Television Group was officially established, and Kang Jianming, the then director of Xiaoxiang Film Studio, was promoted to vice chairman and deputy general manager of Xiangnan Radio and Television.

Kang Jianming was his senior at the Central Academy of Drama. When he was preparing to produce and shoot "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" at Xiaoxiang Film Studio, Liu Zhou helped him solve the funding problem.

The two met on that occasion and have kept in touch ever since.

Asking him for help to broadcast the TV series on Shonan TV shouldn't be a problem.

"Do you have anything else to do?" Liu Zhou asked.

"Nothing."

"Okay, then in the next six months, our studio will mainly focus on two things. One is the promotion of "The Sword of the Immortal". This is something that requires you, Yingping, to pay more attention to.

Another thing is the production of the TV series "The Sky of History", which Mr. Zhong needs to be responsible for.

Apart from the two reserved funds, do not use the remaining funds, and do not start any new projects this year. I have a use for those funds.”

After saying this, Liu Zhou announced the adjournment of the meeting, but kept Xiao Rongfang.

"Sister Xiao, how much money do I have now?"

"More than three million, but I haven't received the royalties for the first half of this year, so I should be able to get more than ten million."

"Then go and help me settle the royalties, and then see if you can get an advance from the Sprout magazine to make up the 20 million."

"This shouldn't be a big problem. Mr. Liu, your novels are selling so well now."

"Then go ahead and get busy. Try to get the money ready for me before August."

(End of this chapter)