Caught in Affairs with Superstar

Chapter 1312: Chapter 694: This Formation (Part 2)

”Didn’t the script get an S rating from Chestnut Video back then?”

This script is a light-hearted historical comedy. The screenwriter is really good; maybe it doesn’t have much artistic value, but it’s genuinely easy-going and funny.

Song Chi felt this show shouldn’t sell for less than his ideal price.

Wu Chengbao said, ”The main thing is, in the past six months all the major video platforms have put out big hits: ’Deep Sea’, ’Immortal Feather Decision’, ’Linjiang Immortal’, ’Flying with Phoenix’, and that ’Silent Ark’ you had on air last month. Now the platforms all want dramas headlined by top-tier actors. For a newbie-led show like ’Daughter Will Not Leave the Hall’, they’re only willing to offer two-thirds of our asking price.”

Song Chi couldn’t help frowning.

If that was the case, Song Chi felt they’d be taking a loss.

He was convinced ’Daughter Will Not Leave the Hall’ was absolutely worth more than the prices those low-budget web dramas had to settle for.

Song Chi said, ”Have the acquisitions people from these platforms watched the rough cuts?”

”I organized a screening for them. Their reactions were actually very positive, but the moment they heard our asking price, they all backed off.” Wu Chengbao hesitated, then said, ”If we’d used well-known actors in the first place, the situation might be better now.”

”Maybe it would be easier to sell, but for this kind of light historical comedy, you have to cast faces that feel right at first sight for the audience to like them. We did approach some suitable big-name actors earlier, but no one was willing to come, and the ones who were willing—you know just how wrong they were for the roles.” Wen Bing felt just as helpless. ”So there was nothing we could do. This was the only way.”

Two rookie actors, one named Ma Qi and one named Liu Lingxin, both eighteen-year-olds.

Song Chi signed both of them to his own company.

Using newcomers for a whole show, to be honest, makes it very easy to lose money. Just like what they were facing now—there was simply no way to sell it at a high price.

Song Chi said, ”I’ll go talk to the boss of Chestnut Video.”

Wu Chengbao nodded.

After finishing the meeting with Wu Chengbao, Song Chi sent a message to the boss of Chestnut Video, asking him out for a meal.

The man was easy enough to set up a meeting with; he agreed right away.

Even leaving aside Song Chi’s identity as a boss, his status as an actor alone was enough to make every video platform’s boss treat him with respect.

Not to mention, just last month Song Chi had both ’Laissez-faire’ and ’Silent Ark’ released, one film and one TV series, and both had done very well.

Many large film and television companies not only produce their own shows, they also invest in other companies’ projects.

There are actually a lot of models in this industry. For example, some companies only make money on the production of a project. What does that mean? They spend fifty million to shoot a film, but they don’t want to wait for it to hit theaters to make money later on, so they sell it off to another company at a price of eighty million. The other company takes over a completed film, then waits to make money from the theatrical run and other rights deals.

This way, everyone can shorten their payback cycle, and the risks are cut down a lot.

If Song Chi hadn’t started his own company, he actually wouldn’t have been able to shoulder such big risks and pressure.

But in return, he would also lose a lot of say in things. Relying solely on his identity as an actor, he couldn’t really gain real discourse power and initiative.

At the very least, he wouldn’t have been able to push a project like ’Mother’ into production.

Even though ’Mother’ was made for Zhang Hongyu, what if in the future Song Chi came across something he wanted to make for himself? Or for Zhou Yun?

Song Chi met with the boss of Chestnut Video and talked with him about ’Daughter Will Not Leave the Hall’: about the quality of the show, about how bullish he was on it.

In the end, the boss of Chestnut Video promised to go back and take another look at the rough cuts.

Since the other side had softened a little, Song Chi could finally breathe easier.

When Song Chi called Zhou Yun, he didn’t mention any of these troubles.

He really rarely talked to Zhou Yun about these messy, stressful things.

There was still that so-called masculine pride in him, in a way.

Or maybe it wasn’t ”masculine” pride specifically, but a kind of pride that everyone has.

As long as it was something bad, something negative, he chose to digest it on his own and not talk about it with anyone.

Song Chi only asked about how filming was going on Zhou Yun’s side. From his tone, you couldn’t hear any concern about the company.

Zhou Yun even asked him, ”So will you be joining another crew later on?”

”Not for now,” Song Chi said. ”The next one should be in July, to shoot ’Moon Sinking at Sea’. I won’t be joining any crews before that.”