Caught in Affairs with Superstar

Chapter 1534: Chapter 777: Interview

The secretary knocked on the door and walked into Yao Yuanfeng’s office.

”President Yao, Chen Qiren, a journalist from Daily News, has arrived.”

Upon hearing this, Yao Yuanfeng nodded and said, ”Please ask him to wait for a moment in Conference Room Two.”

”By the way, I’ve signed this additional budget. Please take it over to the finance department.” Yao Yuanfeng handed a folder to the secretary.

The secretary took it in hand, nodded, and exited Yao Yuanfeng’s office.

Seeing no one around, he opened the folder and took a glance.

Wow, an additional six million budget for Wen Bing’s untitled new movie.

The secretary secretly clicked his tongue in amazement.

Six million is not much for a movie, but for Yao Yuanfeng, this was unusually generous.

This boss truly values Wen Bing.

The secretary delivered it to the finance department, and the finance director took a look and exclaimed as well.

This number isn’t significant for a film company, but under the label of budget augmentation, it is rather rare.

The finance department is well aware of how frugal Yao Yuanfeng usually is in such matters.

...

Arriving at Conference Room Two.

As Yao Yuanfeng walked in, he saw his old friend, Chen Qiren.

Chen Qiren is a journalist specializing in feature stories for Daily News and also the chief journalist, with over ten years of experience, renowned in the industry.

Without such prestige, he wouldn’t have the opportunity for this interview.

Chen Qiren had interviewed him several times before.

”President Yao, long time no see.” Chen Qiren was fiddling with his camera, and upon seeing Yao Yuanfeng enter, he immediately stood up and shook hands with Yao Yuanfeng.

Yao Yuanfeng smiled and said, ”Old Chen, I heard you got married again.”

Chen Qiren: ”Oh, President Yao, you’re well-informed indeed.”

”Even though you didn’t send me a wedding invite, I’ve always kept an eye on you.” Yao Yuanfeng patted Chen Qiren on the shoulder and said, ”Sit down. It’s true that good things in life make people vibrant. I see you’ve gained a little weight.”

Chen Qiren laughed, ”Middle age, you know. How many men can be as disciplined as President Yao and still maintain their figure?”

Yao Yuanfeng: ”What else can I do, sit down. It’s been a long time since we chatted.”

Chen Qiren said, ”Yes, with New Shield developing so well under President Yao’s leadership, I should have taken the opportunity to do a comprehensive report on it long ago, but it got delayed until now.”

Yao Yuanfeng smiled.

Chen Qiren said, ”Previously, New Shield focused mainly on commercial films, but in the past two years, it has released works like Wen Bing’s ’Life’ and Hou Mengjie’s ’Four Killers’, which entered the competition units of the world’s top three film festivals. Has New Shield’s development strategy changed?”

Yao Yuanfeng said, ”It’s not that the development strategy has changed. Actually, we’ve never solely aimed at making commercial films. As long as it’s a good story and a good film, we want to make it. However, the company also needs to profit and maintain financial balance, so for higher artistic value projects, our investment is more cautious. For instance, during the filming of ’Life’ by Wen Bing, everyone knew the production budget was quite tight because initially, we didn’t see much profit potential in the film. Of course, in the end, it achieved a small box office miracle, and by the time of ’Four Killers’, we didn’t expect it to be selected for the Venice International Film Festival during production. However, given its subject matter and cast, we believed it would do well at the box office, thus justifying a larger investment. It’s all based on the film’s genre and profit prospects.”

Chen Qiren said, ”For a director like Wen Bing, who has achieved great success in both artistic and commercial films, would you prefer he focuses on artistic films or commercial ones?”

Yao Yuanfeng smiled and said, ”From my personal perspective, I encourage him to make any film he wants to. But from the company’s perspective, I obviously hope he can make more films that bring in revenue. In fact, in my cooperation with him, it’s never been about just making art films or commercial films. Let me give you a little scoop: Wen Bing is currently working on a film that is highly personal. It’s not a big budget or big investment, but because he wants to make it and has great enthusiasm for creating this film, I support him. He wants to cast Zhou Yun, Gu Huaichun, and Yuk Chu, and even though their fees are high, I still support him. Just before I came to meet you, I signed off on an additional production budget.”