Chapter 338 New Layout of Online Drama and "Running Man"
In 2013, the world that survived the Mayan doomsday prophecy opened a new chapter of the year.
In terms of movies, after the hit of Cheng Long's "Chinese Zodiac", "Lost in Thailand" has entered the final stage of box office harvest, but it is still making money every day.
At present, Blue Whale has obtained a key extension for "Lost in Thailand" to extend the box office life as much as possible. According to industry estimates, there is a great hope that it will break 1.2 billion.
But whether it can break the highest box office record of "Avatar" in the mainland market of about 1.34 billion, we can only do our best and leave it to fate.
In any case, "Lost in Thailand" broke the 1 billion box office ceiling of Chinese-language movies, "Chinese Zodiac" and "Painted Skin 2" also performed well at the box office. It is rare that the top three box office of the year are all Chinese-language movies.
In addition, "Famous" also made it into the top ten, ranking seventh, lower than "Avengers".
The strong performance of Chinese-language films in 2012 was inspiring, and with the emergence of new movie stars such as Wuershan, Wei Yang, and Xu Zheng, industry insiders were all excited and full of expectations for the film market in 2013.
In contrast, the TV drama market also performed well, and what is more noteworthy is that the online platform has begun to rise.
There have also been a number of online dramas such as "Soul Ferry", "Diaosi Men", and "Northeast Past" that are exclusively for Internet platforms, which have a good influence.
The most important thing is the rapid surge in online broadcast rights!
Last year, the online broadcast rights of many TV dramas exceeded 50 million yuan, and a single episode of one million yuan was no longer a big news that shocked the industry.
And it is rumored that Blue Whale has negotiated a price with LeTV.com, and the latter will win the online broadcast rights of "Celebrating Yu Nian 2" and "Celebrating Yu Nian 3" for a total price of 250 million yuan.
The online broadcast rights of a single TV drama exceeded 100 million yuan, which is another new huge impact on the TV drama market.
Market economy, that is, money speaks!
Originally, the TV platform offered a high price, and the income from the online broadcasting rights was just a side profit. Then the film and television companies would definitely make TV series and pay attention to the requirements of the TV platform.
If the online platforms also offer high prices, the professional online drama market will develop rapidly, and the film and television companies will also make strategic adjustments accordingly.
At this stage, TV stations are still the boss, but the voice of online platforms can no longer be ignored, and the gap in status between the two sides has begun to catch up slowly.
Last year's "Soul Ferry", Blue Whale has already had the first mouth soup.
This year, it has increased its output. As early as the end of December, Blue Whale officially launched the [Online Drama Plan].
The first drama is naturally "Soul Ferry 2". This signboard that has been established with great difficulty must not fall.
The second drama "Darker", this project was not developed by Blue Whale itself, but was found from outside.
This drama is taken from the best-selling suspense novel "Death Notice". Someone changed this drama into a script, and then handed the script to Wei Yang through connections.
One of the initiators of this project is Zhou Linhao, who graduated from the Performance Department of Shanghai Theatre Academy. Feng Shaofeng is his classmate and college roommate.
He was able to get in touch with Wei Yang because of his relationship with Shanghai Theatre Academy. Moreover, he is not only a student of Shanghai Theatre Academy, but also a member of Shanghai Drama Center.
As mentioned before, there are three major drama centers in China, namely, the People's Art Theater and the National Theatre of China in Beijing, and Shanghai Drama Center.
Apart from the first two, the latter is basically the private domain of Shanghai Theatre Academy. As long as you are a graduate of Shanghai Theatre Academy, you can always find acquaintances there.
In addition, Zhou Linhao's girlfriend is Qian Fang, who is Qiu Yingluo in "Dragon Gate Escort".
Although Qian Fang is not well-known in the entertainment industry, she is a well-known figure in Shanghai Drama Circle.
She and Guo Jinfei are both with Ning Caishen. They are the leaders of the younger generation in the drama circle, especially in commercial drama.
In recent years, the best-selling dramas are divided into two parts: the north and the south. In the north, it is Happy Twist, with Shen Teng and Ma Li as the pillars, and in the south, it is Ning Caishen and his gang, with Guo and Qian as the flag bearers.
Lei Datou, Yang Haoyu (Uncle Gong) and many other backbones in the Shanghai circle and even the entertainment circle have a deep friendship with them.
At this stage, this group of people has not yet developed, but their connections cannot be ignored. At least they have the face to pass the script to Wei Yang through channels.
Wei Yang is really interested in this script, and this drama can also be made into a series and can be developed in the long run.
At present, the online drama market has not yet taken off. Wei Yang’s main purpose is to seize the market and make a name for himself. It is not a loss-making business, but the benefits are limited.
In this case, Wei Yang has ideas for the development of online dramas.
First of all, it must be large-scale!
Now the review of online dramas is loose, so priority is given to those themes that TV stations do not allow to be broadcast, so as not to waste creativity and the audience will also feel excited.
In addition, it is best to develop it for a long time!
Try not to do a one-time deal, so that even if the early profits are not big, they can grow bigger and bigger with influence, and even make up for the previous losses.
"Soul Ferry" and "Darker" are both like this. The scale is large, at least it is impossible to be broadcast on TV platforms. The series cycle is long, at least three or four parts, and the level and reputation can be maintained, and they can be increased.
Of course, the most important thing is excellent quality. These two projects have been tested in the previous life. Now with Wei Yang and the Blue Whale team optimizing, they will definitely not ruin their own brand.
The third web drama is called "Folk Strange Tales", which is an original script of Blue Whale, which is a bit mixed with reference to Lin Zhengying's zombie series.
It tells the story of a pair of capable sorcerers and their apprentices who traveled in the world and encountered folk stories, mountain spirits, wild ghosts, and the like. The story is set in the Republic of China.
China has a population of more than one billion. Even if the horror and suspense market is small, it is very large with this population base.
Early Hong Kong zombie films and many online movies in later generations have confirmed this point. If this market is tapped, the returns will be very considerable.
Taking advantage of the current lax network supervision, Wei Yang is thinking about making a test. Anyway, this kind of theme does not require too much investment, and it doesn't matter if it loses money.
The most important thing is who to find to play the sorcerer master and apprentice. This is the core of the whole play. The apprentice is easy to say, but the master must find someone of sufficient weight.
He is both serious and humorous, can laugh and scold, break the skin and play tricks, and can also be unfathomable and kill demons.
Wei Yang pondered for a while and wrote down a few names. The head of the name is - You Benchang.
These three dramas are the main online drama projects currently developed by Blue Whale.
In the final analysis, the company's focus is still on movies and TV series, especially TV series can still get a share of the online market.
If it weren't for the restrictions on the subject matter and long-term layout considerations, Blue Whale's investment in online dramas would be unwise and a waste of resources in the eyes of some people.
Many people think that Wei Yang attaches too much importance to online dramas, but they don't know that if it weren't for the many concerns, Wei Yang himself would want to act in online dramas.
There is no way, the current online drama review is too loose, and it is simply a paradise in the eyes of future generations. Wei Yang is full of creative ideas and is ready to move.
For example, a zombie movie, Wei Yang has wanted to make one since his previous life, but this theme is too difficult to pass the review in China.
But with the current review standards, the chance of passing is very high. Even if the modern background is not good, the ancient zombie movie is completely fine. If it really doesn't work, the setting can be changed, such as poisoning and epidemics. "Legend of Sword and Fairy 3" has a similar poisoning plot.
Now that Korean dramas such as "Kingdom" have not yet been released, Wei Yang really wants to take the lead and let the Jinyiwei and the zombies collide.
However, if you want to shoot an ancient zombie film, the investment is definitely not low. With the current online drama market, Wei Yang can only wait slowly.
But at that time, I don’t know how the policy of online drama review will change.
So the problem is this!
If the management is loose, the market is not good, and you will lose money if you do it too much. When the market picks up, you can do it too much, but the review standards will be strict, and many things cannot be filmed.
As a company mainly engaged in film and television production, Blue Whale will undoubtedly act with the changes in the film and television market.
Last year’s great success also gave Blue Whale more abundant funds, the team has better development, and attracted many new talents.
In addition to the above-mentioned online drama plans, many projects in film and television have also begun to be established and prepared.
Among them are movies such as "Detective Chinatown" and "Time and Space Cohabitation", as well as medium and high-quality production dramas such as "The Journey of Flower", "Ancient Swordsman" and "Why Sheng Xiaomo".
In addition, after the Spring Festival, the Blue Whale Agency Department will be officially established.
The company's first variety show will also begin preparations and production this year.
This variety show is adapted from the Korean national variety show "Running Man", tentatively named "Run".
Even though Wei Yang made arrangements in advance, he still paid a lot of price in the face of competition from major satellite TV stations, but fortunately the ending is good.
No matter how bad the variety show "Run" is in the future, it is indeed the most famous national variety show in China. Several old players have become first-line players. Even if they rely on their old foundation in the future, they have maintained enough exposure.
More importantly, this is a super money-making monster.
For the third season disclosed by the outside world in the previous life, the total oral hard advertising exceeded 500 million yuan, the title fee was nearly 350 million, the network exclusive title advertising was 180 million, and the purchase price of iQiyi was estimated by the industry to be more than 400 million.
Adding other miscellaneous income, it is hard to say that the total income reached 2 billion+, but 1.6 to 1.7 billion is not a big problem.
And this is just one season of "Run". Even if the third season is considered the peak in terms of influence, the other seasons cannot be compared with the same period, but the gap will not be too far.
So Wei Yang chose "Run, Brothers" as the opening variety show of Blue Whale without hesitation.
Even if this variety show has big and small slots and shortcomings in the later stage, Wei Yang will not give up billions of profits.
Moreover, Blue Whale can make adjustments and optimizations for some flaws and drawbacks of "Run", and it may not fall into the miserable situation of the previous life.
At present, "Run" has not been announced to the public, but it has quietly started the project preparation.
Two key points, one is to find a cooperative platform, that is, a TV station, to form a recording team.
The other is to select a suitable MC. The original Korean program has seven members, and the original group in the previous life was also a seven-member group. Guiyang plans to keep this setting.
But the running man group in the previous life was a cooperation between Zhejiang Satellite TV and Huayi. Now that "Run" is in Wei Yang's hands, the members must be replaced.
In Wei Yang's mind, the original seven-member group, Deng Chao and Wang Baoqiang are preferred, Chen Chichi is to be determined, and the other four will be replaced.
To be honest, Yang Tianbao's performance in the show is actually quite good, but there is only one female star spot, Wei Yang can't help but support his own people, so he gave it to Xiao Ming's wife.
So, if nothing unexpected happens, the only female member of "Running Man" will be chosen between Di Li Rouba and Guli Nazha.
Or just let the two take turns, each recording a few episodes, or each recording a season.
But this is not very stable, and it is not conducive to the formation of the so-called team spirit. It depends on the needs of the program group.
Anyway, no matter who is chosen, it means that Wei Yang has basically determined that they can't be powerful actors. The negative impact of variety shows on actors is not very meaningful to them. Increasing popularity and exposure is the right thing to do...