Chapter 411 TV Series and Variety Shows
In the first decade of the new century, there were four relatively well-known film and television companies in the mainland.

There are two that are more familiar to everyone, Tangren and Zhouyi. The other two, although not well-known, are extremely well-known in the circle. They are Jinyingma Film and Television, which produced "Feng Yun", and Jingcheng Yahuan Audio and Video, which produced "Young Zhang Sanfeng" and Su Youpeng's version of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber".

These four companies have one thing in common, that is, they are all film and television companies established through cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macau.

The directors, screenwriters, action directors, costume and props designers and other creative teams in these companies are mainly from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

It is undeniable that in the early days, there was a big gap between us and Hong Kong and Taiwan not only in the film and television industry, but also in the TV drama industry.

At that time, almost no one in mainland China could produce a TV series with good fighting styles, bloody plots, and bright and colorful costumes and props.

The bloody plot mentioned here is not a derogatory term. As we all know, the more bloody the plot is, the more the audience likes to watch it.

Moreover, the melodrama at that time was not like that in later generations where the audience could see the loopholes at a glance or it was melodrama just for the sake of melodrama. Some screenwriters in Hong Kong and Taiwan could at least justify themselves and had a reasonable logic.

As for Zhang Da Hu Zi's Jin Yong drama, although he is the main controller, the main filming team is still the behind-the-scenes team from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

But the mainland teams will also learn. As people from Hong Kong and Taiwan become more and more integrated into the mainland, the mainland film and television teams are also gradually embracing marketization.

After learning the Hong Kong and Taiwan methods, the Hong Kong and Taiwan film and television teams began to be marginalized, while the mainland teams began to become the mainstream with higher artistic pursuits and increasing attention to the film and television industry.

The representative of these is the Noon Sunshine team which was born out of Shanying. They used the original model of shooting serious dramas in the mainland to shoot popular IP dramas in the market. The dimensionality reduction attack was a bit exaggerated, but it didn't take long for them to eliminate the Hong Kong and Taiwan director team.

After 2015, it is rare to see Hong Kong and Taiwan director teams receiving top resources for costume dramas, urban dramas, spy war dramas and other dramas.

They can only shoot urban sweet romance and ancient costume idol dramas like "The Untamed" and "Ashes of Love". This is considered a successful transformation. Those who failed to transform have been eliminated.

So in the second decade of the new century, the four film and television companies that had been so prosperous in the previous decade began to decline or go bankrupt.

Zhouyi suffered the most because of the discord between the founder and his wife, serious internal friction, lawsuits, and lack of funds, which led to its bankruptcy.

Jinyingma and Jingcheng Yahuan Audio and Video also began to decline, and the number of productions decreased significantly. Because they were not well-known, the outside world was not very clear whether they had gone bankrupt or not, or did not care.

The company in the best situation is Tangren Film and Television, because it has Cai Yinong, an excellent head, and has developed well-known IPs such as "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and "Startling by Each Step". It also has two very popular artists, Hu Ge and Liu Shishi.

Therefore, Tangren has always been active in the mainland film and television market.

However, Tangren was unable to keep up with the mainstream in terms of aesthetics and content, resulting in a serious loss of talent and increasingly inferior works, so it inevitably declined.

The decline of Tangren means that in the TV drama industry, the Hong Kong and Taiwan teams are completely marginalized, just like the film industry.

Among these four companies, the most regrettable one is Zhouyi Film and Television.

The predecessor of Zhouyi Film and Television was the Pumpkin Creative Center, which had more than 20 writers and screenwriters who specialized in writing scripts for TVB and Taiwanese TV stations.

The quality of the script has always been good and has been highly praised in the industry.

Later, the Pumpkin Creative Center was officially registered as Hainan Zhouyi Film and Television Company, and began to develop into the production field. In the millennium, it produced its first TV series "The Love of Qinghe", which became an instant hit.

Subsequently, he created popular martial arts dramas such as "Wulin Waishi", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Cave of Water Moon", and was known as the three giants of costume dramas together with TVB and Tangren.

Zhou Yi was a breath of fresh air in the industry at the time. They were the only film and television company that attached great importance to screenwriters, and the screenwriters’ power in the crew was almost equal to that of the producer.

As we all know, the status of screenwriters is relatively low, whether in mainland China or Hong Kong and Taiwan. Zhou Yi's approach has undoubtedly attracted a lot of attention in the industry, and has also attracted a large number of outstanding screenwriters to join.

Therefore, this also makes Zhou Yi's screenwriting department more powerful.

The TV series and movies produced by Zhouyi are also known for their imaginative plots. Even the TV series "Wulin Waishi" and "Xiao Shiyilang" adapted from Gu Long's novels, although the plots are very different from the originals, they are still very interesting to the audience.

The original TV series "Water Moon Cave" produced by Zhouyi Film and Television is even more popular in both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macau.

Of course, Zhouyi Film and Television has many shortcomings. Compared with Tangren, the costumes and props are a bit eye-catching, and compared with Yu Zheng, its publicity ability is almost non-existent.

But Zhouyi still made a name for itself with its originality. If they had Yu Zhengzheng, they would have promoted and hyped it up. In the first decade of the new century, even Tangren would have had to stand aside.

The bankruptcy of Zhouyi was also related to their poor publicity.

Not long ago, the scandal between Zhou Yi's boss lady Jiang Yurou and her popular artist Yu Bo went viral on the Internet, and someone took pictures of the boss lady sitting on the man's lap.

Faced with such a scandal, Zhou Yi took almost no action. He did not control the comments immediately or did not have the ability to control the comments, allowing the news to ferment.

This directly led to the divorce between Zhou Yi's boss and his wife, and Zhou Yi began to be internally conflicted.

In addition, Zhouyi and the previous TV drama distribution company went to court over copyright disputes, which also led to Zhouyi's capital chain being broken.

So now it can be said that Zhouyi is in a precarious situation.

Now is indeed the best time to acquire Zhouyi Film and Television. If it is any later, Zhouyi’s most core and valuable screenwriter team will fall apart and go their separate ways.

Liu Zhou also felt that Zhouyi was a very good acquisition target and was quite complementary to Golden Harvest Films.

What Golden Harvest Films lacks most now is a production team and high-quality scripts, and Zhouyi Films happens to be able to provide both.

The main reason why Zhouyi Film and Television is famous but not large in scale is that they, like Tangren, are short of money.

Both companies usually finish producing a TV series and wait until they get the revenue from the current series before starting the next one.

Zhou Yi's situation was slightly better because he was able to attract some investment from Taiwan, but it was not much better. Once the lawsuit was filed and the revenue from some TV dramas was frozen, his capital chain was broken.

But what Golden Harvest Films lacks the least is money.

Even the current lawsuit against Zhouyi Film and Television can be easily settled by Golden Harvest. It is just a matter of a few million, which is not a big deal at all.

After listening to Zhang Zhao's introduction to the current situation of Zhouyi Film and Television, Liu Zhou said:

"Since you think Zhouyi Films is suitable, then acquire it and merge it into Golden Harvest Films. In addition to Zhouyi Films' production and screenwriting team, see if you can keep Jiang Yurou as well."

Jiang Yurou can be said to be the soul of Zhouyi Film and Television, and the Pumpkin Creative Center was built by her.

Later, Zhouyi Film and Television was established. Her husband was raising investments outside, and she was responsible for serving as the producer and leading the shooting and production of TV series. Together, she managed Zhouyi very well.

But for Golden Harvest Films, there is no need to attract investment, but rather a lack of producers. Jiang Yurou is undoubtedly a very outstanding TV drama producer, a talent that Golden Harvest Films lacks.

Golden Harvest Films will make great strides in the future, and she will undoubtedly play a significant role.

"Boss Liu, Jiang Yurou has always been her own boss. I wonder if she can accept working for someone else."

"Go and try it first. We can give him the position of deputy general manager of Golden Harvest Films."

Although Jiang Yurou also manages Zhouyi Film and Television, Zhouyi Company is relatively small after all, and her strength is not the daily management of the company.

Jiahe Film and Television is not a small company like Zhou Yi. It will be a large film and television company in the field of TV dramas. It is impossible for Liu Zhou to let her serve as the general manager of Jiahe Film and Television.

The reason why she was able to serve as deputy general manager was because of the production and screenwriter team of Zhouyi Film and Television.

However, the premise of all this is that Zhouyi Film and Television can be successfully acquired, otherwise everything will be in vain.

After arranging the TV series, Liu Zhou naturally turned his gaze to Zeng Jia.

"Mr. Zeng, I have decided to completely separate the brokerage department of Golden Harvest and establish Golden Harvest Entertainment Brokerage Company, with you as the general manager of the company.

As I told you before, if any artist wants to set up a studio, they will also participate under the name of Golden Harvest Entertainment.

Now that it is independent, it has the requirement to make profits. In the future, it can no longer rely solely on Golden Harvest Group, but also has to grab resources from outside.

So you can sign more artists depending on the situation.”

Golden Harvest is now listed and has money in hand. Not only TV series but also film production will increase. Considering the current number of artists signed by Golden Harvest, the resources that the group can provide in the future will definitely be in surplus.

Moreover, most of the artists in Golden Harvest are very famous now, and few of them will act in TV dramas.

In addition to absorbing as much of the resources that Golden Harvest Group can produce as possible, Liu Zhou's main purpose in separating the brokerage department is to prepare for the era of traffic.

In later generations, traffic stars have become almost everyone’s target, but despite being criticized, their commercial value is undoubtedly far ahead of those traditional artists.

The traffic market is undoubtedly a huge piece of cake for the entertainment industry, and there is no reason for Golden Harvest Group not to take a piece of it.

In later generations, Yuehua Entertainment and Siba Media, which rely on a few popular stars and mass production of trainees, are worth tens of billions. You can imagine how big this cake is.

With the support of Golden Harvest Group, Golden Harvest Entertainment is not only able to create stars and bring out top stars, but also able to fully release the commercial value of top stars.

If Golden Harvest Entertainment starts to operate independently and accumulate experience from now on, there is no reason why it would be worse than Yuehua Entertainment or Siba. By then, it will not be a problem to increase the company's market value to tens of billions.

There are independent brokerage companies now, but not many. The most famous one is undoubtedly Wang Jinghua's Shiba Media, which was established after he fell out with Wu Kebo.

It was destined that the two would fall out as both of them were relatively strong people. When Chengtian was first established, Wu Kebo even tolerated Wang Jinghua's faction.

Once he has established his foothold, he will certainly not allow the existence of semi-independent departments within the group.

So just like at Huayi, Wang Jinghua inevitably had a conflict with Wu Kebo.

Although Wang Jinghua still won over a large number of artists, the film and television companies in the circle also saw clearly what kind of person she was and would never accept her again.

So Wang Jinghua simply went it alone and founded Shiba Media. With the help of his past connections, he was able to do reasonably well.

However, Shiba Media cannot generate its own resources, and its connections will eventually run out, so this company is destined to never become the top in the industry.

Later generations proved Zeng Jia's ability, so Liu Zhou felt more at ease handing Golden Harvest Entertainment over to Zeng Jia.

Zeng Jia's face immediately lit up with joy when she heard Liu Zhou's words. She had long wanted to expand the scale of Jiahe's brokerage department, but had always been suppressed by Liu Zhou.

Unexpectedly, they have achieved their goal in one step and separated the agency department. This makes Zeng Jia even more delighted, as he can finally show his talents.

"Okay, Mr. Liu, I will definitely run Golden Harvest Entertainment well and will not drag the group down." Zeng Jia said seriously, "By the way, Yang Mi from Rongxingda, her contract expires at the beginning of next year, and she wants to join us at Golden Harvest.

I think she has great potential and can definitely support our group in the field of TV dramas, so I plan to sign her."

"It's up to you to decide. If you think it's appropriate, then sign it."

Liu Zhou did not comment on this. Although Yang Mi had just become one of the new generation of four little beauties and was quite famous, she was not worth Liu Zhou's worry about her.

With the TV series and entertainment agency, of course a variety show department must be set up as well.

In the later era of traffic, traffic stars are mainly born from TV dramas and variety shows.

In addition to promoting celebrities, variety shows themselves have a high ability to make money. Nima Canxing was able to be listed on the Hong Kong stock market with just one show, "The Voice of China." Its market value was 50 to 60 billion at its peak, and even if it has fallen, it would still be 20 to 30 billion.

The current variety show market in mainland China can be described as an undeveloped virgin land. If you enter now, you can definitely get the most delicious piece of cake.

It is entirely possible to include the popular shows like "The Voice of China", "Running Man" and "Go Fighting".

If it really owns these three variety shows, Liu Zhou feels that if the variety show department is listed separately, the market value is likely to reach 100 billion yuan.

In addition, Liu Zhou also has Sina Video as a broadcasting channel, and online variety shows are also a huge market.

TV dramas, variety shows, entertainment companies and video websites can be said to be able to play with traffic very clearly.

So Liu Zhou then said to Zhang Zhao:
“I plan to set up another subsidiary, Golden Harvest Productions, to specialize in producing variety shows.

Although we have never been involved in this market before, I am optimistic about the prospects of the variety show market.”

"Mr. Liu, variety shows in China are almost all produced by each TV station themselves. If we produce a variety show, will the TV station broadcast it?"

“Of course. TV dramas can be separated into production and broadcasting, so there’s no reason why variety shows can’t be separated. It’s just that no one has done it before.

Now we at Golden Harvest are doing it, with a bigger event and investment, and adequate publicity. I don’t believe the TV stations will not be tempted.

I can even appear in our first variety show! "

(End of this chapter)