Chapter 397: The Right Time, Right Place, and Right People for the Film and Television City
After hearing what Leader Zhao said, Liu Zhou could understand, but he still felt a little depressed.

When Liu Zhou first saw him, such a high-level leader, he thought he should be able to make the final decision, but he did not expect that he still could not make the full decision.

So far, no consensus has been reached.

This is the disadvantage of cooperating with official departments. The efficiency is too low and some things always have to be discussed repeatedly. No wonder it took Zhang Zhao almost a year to communicate with them before reaching a preliminary cooperation agreement.

Liu Zhou had no choice but to express his understanding:
"Leader Zhao, I heard from Zhang Zhao that you hope that the movie "Tangshan Earthquake" needs to be released in 2011, and the preparation of this movie will take a long time.

So I hope you can give me a reply as soon as possible, so that we can do our work better. Otherwise, if it takes too long, I am afraid it will waste time.”

"Don't worry, you won't have to wait too long. I'll give you a reply within this week."

"Okay, I hope to hear good news from you."

"Director Liu, I'm quite interested in the film and television base you mentioned. Can you tell me more about it?"

"no problem."

Liu Zhou then briefly explained to him the general operation of a relatively successful film and television base.

Leader Zhao seemed really interested in this and asked a lot of detailed questions.

At this time, Leader Zhao suddenly said:

"Director Liu, are you at Golden Harvest interested in investing in this film and television base?"

"Are you asking Golden Harvest to invest in this film and television base?"

"That's right. Through our conversation just now, I found that Director Liu, you know how to operate a film and television base, but no one in Tangshan knows this.

Although I am an outsider of the film and television industry, I know that a film and television base will only prosper if there are film crews moving in to shoot movies.

As a company as big as yours, Jiahe must have the resources in this area. So if yours invests in this film and television base, it will be more likely to prosper, boost Tangshan's economy, and increase the city's reputation."

Leader Zhao is right. The most difficult part of a film and television city is not its construction, but how to attract film crews to move in after it is built.

Domestic film and television studios all have their own sales teams, which recruit producers from all over the country, hoping that film crews will move in.

However, most film and television studios are not attractive to film crews because they lack supporting facilities.

If Liu Zhou were allowed to invest in a film and television city, he would definitely allow the company's crew to move in once it was built.

Nowadays, Golden Harvest invests in about 20 movies and TV series every year, as well as cooperating with other companies on projects. Not to mention, with the support of the Golden Harvest Group, it is actually possible to run a film and television city.

A film and television city can develop if a large number of film crews move in, which in turn drives the development of local tourism and other related industries.

To be honest, Liu Zhou did have the idea of ​​building a film and television city, and he was going to do so after Golden Harvest raised funds through its IPO.

After all, the Mars tourist attraction in Dunhuang is still too far away. Now that the popularity of "The Martian" has faded, the revenue of this tourist base has begun to decline.

This year, it has started to incur losses. Although not much, it shows that the attractiveness of this Mars tourist attraction is declining.

If there are no new projects, you can only rely on time to slowly build up your reputation.

However, Liu Zhou had already anticipated this. In addition to arranging Zhang Yimou's "Moon" crew to shoot there, Liu Zhou was also preparing to launch the "Ghost Blowing Out the Light" series.

By the time these two projects are settled in the scenic area, the situation should be better.

But it is impossible to place the film and television base in Dunhuang as well, that would be simply courting death.

In the entire western region, only Ningxia Zhenbeibao Film and Television City achieved profitability, while the others were almost all in a loss-making state.

Even if Liu Zhou built a film and television city in Dunhuang, he would not be able to compete with others because their supporting facilities are already very complete.

There is also no need to build a film and television city in the west. The main reason for most crews to come here to shoot is because of the unique rugged and desolate scenery here.

There are only a few crews in the country that have such demand, and they can barely feed the Zhenbeibao Film and Television City.

Therefore, if Golden Harvest wants to build a film and television city, it must be located in the eastern coastal area.

However, even if the eastern coastal area was not chosen, it would be impossible to build a film and television city in Tangshan.

So Liu Zhou couldn't agree to Leader Zhao's request:
"Leader Zhao, to be honest, after we went public, Golden Harvest did have the idea of ​​building a film and television city, but we prefer to build it in Jiangsu and Zhejiang or eastern Guangdong."

Jiangsu and Zhejiang have four distinct seasons, with neither severe cold in winter nor extreme heat in summer, making them the best locations for filming.

Another advantage of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions is talent. There are many good universities in Shanghai and Hangzhou that can provide corresponding talents for film and television post-production.

As for why eastern Guangdong was also considered as an alternative, it was because Liu Zhou was from eastern Guangdong, and he certainly wanted to go back to build his hometown. Apart from the two sides of the Pearl River Estuary, several other cities in eastern Guangdong were actually not very developed.

Although a film and television city cannot change too much, at least this is a gesture of my own. However, there is also a disadvantage to building a film and television city in eastern Guangdong, that is, the temperature is too high in summer, and it will be very hard for actors to shoot in ancient costumes, which may affect the entry of film and television crews.

But it's still early and we need to make a detailed investigation before we can say anything.

"Director Liu, didn't you just say that building a film and television base in Tangshan would be a great opportunity? Why did you choose Jiangsu, Zhejiang or eastern Guangdong?

If you come to Tangshan, we will give you preferential policies on land.”

"Leader Zhao, what I said about building a retro 1960s and 1970s film and television base in Tangshan is indeed promising. There will be a lot of period dramas in the future.

Moreover, such a niche film and television base does not need to be built too large, it only needs to meet the filming needs of "Aftershock".

Even if there are not many film crews coming here in the future, you can still operate it as a special commercial street, which will be equally attractive and will not result in losses.

If we at Golden Harvest were to build a film and television city, it would certainly not be something as small as this, and would not be limited to being a base for filming scenes from the 1960s and 1970s.

But if we build the film and television city in Tangshan, it will most likely result in losses.”

"why?"

"If you are not from the film and television industry, you may not know that there are nearly ten film and television cities around Beijing. Two years ago, China Film launched a film and television base and built Asia's largest digital production base in Huairou.

This is what I want to do. If I build a film and television city in Tangshan, it will directly collide with China Film’s digital production base.

In addition, the film and television city in Huairou has already grown in scale, and it will be difficult for our newly built film and television city to compete with them.

This is also why I chose the South as the location for my film and television city. By then, Golden Harvest’s digital base will not clash with China Film.”

As for whether Golden Harvest’s construction of a digital production base will steal business from China Film, there is no need to worry at all. Film will be eliminated in the future, and the giant Kodak is almost bankrupt. The future is the digital era.

"So there are so many things to consider. But with Golden Harvest's strength, it shouldn't be a problem to run a film and television city, right?"

"That's fine, but a film and television city cannot always rely on our company alone. This will definitely not last long. If Jiahe fails or adjusts its strategy, the film and television city will suffer losses."

In order to prevent the other party from thinking that he was deceiving him, Liu Zhou simply said something more clear:
"In ancient times, people paid attention to the right time, right place and right people when fighting a war. In fact, the same is true for film and television cities."

"What do you mean?" Leader Zhao asked curiously.

"There are now hundreds of film and television cities of all sizes across the country, and several large film and television bases are under construction. It is actually a bit late for us at Jiahe to start construction now, and we have already lost the right time.

You may not know that among these hundreds of film and television studios, only 5% can make money, 15% maintain neither loss nor profit, and the remaining 80% are in a loss-making state.

Several major film and television studios owned by CCTV and the film and television studios where Zhang Jizhong filmed his movies are all suffering losses.

Ningxia Zhenbeibao Film and Television City is one of the few profitable film and television cities. The reason why it can make money is because of its unique western scenery that other film and television cities do not have.

If you want to shoot a western-style movie, Zhenbeibao is the best choice, so Zhenbeibao can survive in the fierce competition.

There is no unique scenery in Tangshan, and it is close to Beijing, so it has no advantages at all.

Moreover, winter begins here in October. The weather is cold and the grass is withered, which is not suitable for filming. The crew only has about 200 days a year to shoot.

Therefore, Tangshan has neither the right time nor the right place, let alone the people. For a new film and television base, there is no such thing as people's support at all.

Famous film and television bases like Hengdian and Huairou have the support of many people.

Hengdian has a very complete range of filming bases in various subdivisions, and the supporting facilities are the most complete, so many crews go there to shoot, and it has already formed a scale.

As for Huairou, there are also many filming bases with complete supporting facilities. And most importantly, Huairou can provide one-stop service for post-production.

In other words, Huairou can meet your requirements from the start of filming to the completion of a project, which can save the crew a lot of money, so it has attracted many crews to come.

Therefore, Renhe has been occupied by Huairou in the south and Hengdian in the north.

If we want to build a film and television base in Tangshan, we can only build one that is small and beautiful and can be used for commercial operations.”

After listening to Liu Zhou's words, Leader Zhao finally understood the twists and turns and realized that it would be impossible to invite Golden Harvest to build a film and television city in Tangshan.

It is impossible for them to do business at a loss, and if it cannot attract people, then this film and television city will not be of much use to Tangshan.

So there is no way, this cannot be forced.

"Well, it seems that I am still an outsider, so let's not talk about this film and television city for now."

Liu Zhou paused, then continued:

"Leader Zhao, it is actually not impossible for Tangshan to seize Renhe. It just depends on whether you have such courage."

(End of this chapter)