China Entertainment 1997.

Chapter 137 The Amazing Rate of Return of "Youth Bao Qingtian"

After Cao Xuan returned to the crew of "Young Bao Qingtian", the crew started shooting non-stop again.

From the beginning of November to the middle of February, "Youth Bao Qingtian" has been filmed for three months, and the progress has basically reached the late stage.

Important supporting roles such as Chen Daoming and Zheng Peipei have already finished and left, and the rest of the scenes are all for the protagonist group.

At present, four of the seven cases in the whole drama have been filmed, only the second case "The Altar of Blood", the third case "Mystery of the Hermit Village", and a small part of the sixth case "Magic Phantom".

Among them, "Magic Phantom" did not have Bao Zheng on stage, so it was specially used by the crew to make up for the plot when Cao Xuan was not around.

Cao Xuan was very embarrassed.

But there is no way, this is the side effect of inviting big names to act, there are too many things on my body, and I can't stay on the crew steadily.

Even the veteran actor Chen Daoming took several leave of absence during filming.

People in the rivers and lakes can't help themselves.

However, although Cao Xuan asked for a leave of absence, he did not interrupt the show and maintained his passion for character creation.

At the same time, he also cooperated with the crew's arrangements, and even took the initiative to ask for the show to reduce the negative impact as much as possible. He is already a very good big-name star, and the director, actors, and behind-the-scenes personnel also rarely complain.

But Cao Xuan still thinks it's not good. You can't just compare yourself to being bad at acting and doing things. You can work hard with those traffic stars, but any decent actor is a role model in the industry.

Therefore, it cannot be said that being better than a traffic star is a good actor, but that there must be stricter requirements to benchmark against those truly outstanding and dedicated actors.

This time I taught Cao Xuan a lesson. In the future, he still needs to plan a good schedule for the play.

I dare not say that the behavior of asking for too much leave is completely eliminated, but it should be avoided as much as possible.

Leaving aside the sixth case, the remaining two cases of "Blood Sacrifice" and "Mystery of the Hermit Village" are definitely the two scariest cases in "Young Bao Qingtian".

The creepy cave altar in "Blood Sacrifice", the brutal killing method, and the horrible and weird mummy in "Mystery of the Hermit Village", together with the BGM and camera clips of the underworld, can definitely be called the childhood shadows of countless people.

It can even be said that "Young Bao Qingtian" has impressed many people, and the similar childhood shadows are absolutely indispensable.

However, when Cao Xuan and the others were filming, it was not as horrifying as it was on TV.

The so-called mummy was made of wood and cloth with a layer of paint on it, so it wasn't scary at all.

But that cave is a bit more difficult. After all, the environment is dark, and several statues are deliberately terrified. Coupled with the gloomy atmosphere created by the lighting, it is quite a bit like the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.

The male actors Cao Xuan and Ren Quan were a little embarrassed, let alone the female actors.

In the end, Cao Xuan came up with a good idea. Before each shooting, he set up a stereo to play "Good Day" and "Gong Xi Fa Cai", and the atmosphere of the underworld in the cave instantly became positive.

The actors have no negative emotions such as fear, and can devote themselves to filming, but the aftereffect is that it is easy to laugh, and as long as one person laughs, a group of people can't hold back.

The director specially arranged for the photographer to record this episode as a sideshow, which he thought could be used for publicity.

.........

Cao Xuan returned to the film crew in early February until the filming in early March. He took two days off to go back to Beijing to participate in the Lantern Festival Gala. The rest of the filming was postponed and he devoted himself to filming.

March 3, Women's Day

"Youth Bao Qingtian" lasted four months, and it was finally finished. Cao Xuan and others attended the wrap-up banquet arranged by the crew.

Especially the protagonist group, they stayed together for four months, and the relationship is still good, especially Shi Xiaolong, holding Cao Xuan and his two sisters and crying loudly.

The next day, Ren Quan and Hu Jing both rushed to Qin Province to participate in "Journey to the West".

The former has already said that he will play Qiao Ling'er, the reincarnation of Lord Buddha, while Hu Jing has settled on the role of Bai Lianhua, one of the two heroines, and the other is Bi You, still played by the original actor Juanzi.

Li Bingbing went to Hengdian to film "Young Zhang Sanfeng" with Zhang Weijian, Li Xiaolu and Su Youpeng.

Wang Jinghua, the number one agent in the mainland, had a bad eye. Zhang Weijian went north to the mainland to shoot TV, and she was immediately followed by her.

Cao Xuan did not leave Guangdong Province in a hurry, but discussed the distribution issue with Chen Yong who rushed over.

The premiere platform of "Youth Bao Qingtian" has already been set on Beijing TV. After all, it is one of the investors. This has been agreed in advance.

Beijing TV sets a price of 20 per episode, which is not a low price in the market. After all, the number of episodes of "Youth Bao Qingtian" is here, and 40 episodes is 800 million.

Fortunately, Beijing TV was not the only broadcast, and Chen Yong found two other platforms for the first broadcast.

The first one is Modu Channel, which is also 20 per episode, and the second is Xiangjiang TVB Jade Channel. This is also Chen Yong's old relationship. It is not counted according to the number of episodes, and the direct package price is 500 million.

800 + 800 + 500 = 2100
Just for the first round of broadcasting rights alone, "Young Bao Qingtian" has successfully returned its capital, and it can even be said to be a big profit. After all, the actual investment is only about 1000 million, which has directly doubled now.

And the 2100 million is not all profit, "Youth Bao Qingtian" has other income.

In the current TV drama market, making money is mainly divided into the following channels.

①Mainland broadcasting rights
This is easy to understand, it is to sell the film studio's TV series to a certain TV station.

The first round is the most expensive, not to mention if it is an exclusive broadcast, many of them are sky-high.

For example, if "Youth Bao Qingtian" wants to win the first round of exclusive broadcast rights in the mainland market, the minimum cost is 50 an episode, or even more.

The expenditure of 2000 million + for a TV series may not be able to bear even those TV stations in economically large provinces, so few TV stations play such a big game.

Generally, several TV stations will premiere together to reduce the purchase price of the drama and share the risk equally.

In addition to the first round, there are also two or three rounds. This price will definitely drop compared to the first round, and it may not be able to be sold.

Only popular dramas with good ratings in the first round can attract other TV stations to buy the broadcast rights for the second and third rounds, and the more popular the higher the price, the more they sell.

Theoretically, generally there will be no more than 3-4 companies in the first round, and no more than 6-8 companies in the second round. Otherwise, everyone will broadcast together, which will affect the ratings. Sell.

There is also an unspoken rule here that allows the film studio to exceed the quantity limit, that is, to sell the first-round and second-round broadcast rights to those urban TV stations, which are the so-called city-level and district-level TV stations.

These TV stations do not have stars, and have little impact on the ratings of those satellite TVs on provincial stations, and many provincial stations do not pay attention to them.

Therefore, if there is no clear contract, the film studio can take advantage of this loophole.

But the key is that many TV stations can't afford it, and the desire to buy dramas is not strong, and many of them are waiting for the third round of filmmakers to take advantage of the cabbage price sale.

For very few dramas that are particularly popular or have special significance, a small number of market stations will sell them, but the price will be much lower than that of provincial stations.

Of course, the above are just most of the normal broadcast rights models, and there are actually many weird ways to play.

For example, there is a certain TV station that completely buys out a drama, and there are multiple TV stations that jointly buy the drama in the second round, and several TV stations buy the TV station to share equally, and some do not allow the film studio to sell the third round.

Concrete situation, specific analysis.

In short, it's a principle. If the TV station wants to save money, it needs to maximize the ratings, while the film studios try their best to make more money from the TV series. The two sides argue according to their respective interests.

②Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas broadcasting rights

Fortunately for the Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, many TV dramas are now sold in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Mainland.

Most of them are first broadcast in Hong Kong and Taiwan/Mainland, and after the ratings are popular, they are introduced to Mainland/Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Of course, there are also premieres in two places at the same time, but this kind of situation is not too many, and it is a test of the network of the film crew and the influence of the TV series itself.

As for overseas, it is even more difficult, unless people take the initiative to introduce it and sell it at a certain price. If it is sold wholesale, the price can only be regarded as better than nothing.

③Sponsorship fee and placement advertisement

The sponsorship fee is easy to understand. Generally, it is a product placement advertisement or a certain scenic spot or region pays to invite the crew to shoot for publicity.

The market is not particularly mature now, and only a very small number of crews can get a considerable amount of sponsorship fees.

When the market matures later, sponsorship fees will become an important source of income for film and television dramas, and there are even examples of crews making small profits directly from sponsorship fees.

As for the pre-roll advertisement, it can be regarded as a characteristic of the times, and it is also a kind of embedded advertisement.

Generally, a large advertisement picture appears at the end of the film, covering the end subtitles and video, so it is called a pre-roll advertisement.

This is quite common, and if it is too much, it will even appear in the positive film, with a picture or a few lines of words appearing in the upper left corner and lower right corner.

However, the latter affects the experience of watching dramas more, and it is regarded as the work of grabbing TV stations, so many TV stations explicitly prohibit it, and most of the pre-roll advertisements appear at the end of the film.

This pre-roll advertisement is entirely operated by the film studio. Some people can earn tens of millions of advertising fees for a TV series, while some people can't sell it for a dime.

So in this aspect, the film crew paid attention to it but didn't pay attention to it, it all depends on fate.

④ Advertisement redemption time

This is more complicated. To put it simply, the TV station sells part of the advertising time, and the film studio goes to solicit advertisements.

Many TV stations do not have enough funds to purchase dramas, so they will use this method to offset the funds for purchasing dramas.

This method was not uncommon in the 90s and early [-]s, but later due to various reasons, this mode became less common.

Similar to the previous pre-roll ads, this method is entirely operated by the film side.

Some people feel like a duck to water, and don't even need a penny, and specialize in advertising to make money, while some people don't do this at all, and only need real money.

⑤ DVD copyright
That is to say, piracy is rampant, even if it is sold, the price will be the same.

The above five channels are considered to be the main sources of income for TV dramas today, and there are still some branches with limited profits and more complicated ones, so I won’t list them one by one.

"Youth Bao Qingtian" sold well in the first round, and Hong Kong and Taiwan also successfully sold the broadcasting rights.

However, since the sponsorship fee is not an urban drama, it is not easy to insert advertisements, and there are no scenic spot invitations to promote, so the income is very low.

However, three of the pre-roll ads were sold, one family was 100 million, and another 300 million was earned.

This price is considered to be at a medium level. Considering that neither Chen Yong nor Cao Xuan has any advertiser channels, it is not bad. Even if Cao Xuan didn't poke it, they wouldn't even be able to sell it for 300 million.

The frustration of the pre-roll advertisement also made Chen Yong give up the idea of ​​exchanging TV station advertising time, and honestly chose real money.

2100 million broadcast revenue plus 300 million advertising fees is the first wave of income for "Youth Bao Qingtian".

Cao Xuan takes 20% of the share, that is, 480 million can be distributed, while Cao Xuan's investment is only 300 million.

And for the 300 million investment, Cao Xuan's actual investment was only 150 million, and the rest was his salary.

Even if all his salary is converted into money, Cao Xuan's investment is about 250-270 million, which is almost doubled now.

This is only the first wave. If "Youth Bao Qingtian" can reach the popularity of the original time and space, the second and third rounds are expected to earn another 1000-1500 million. There are also a few more pre-roll ads.

If Chen Yong and the others are strong enough, the total income of "Youth Bao Qingtian" may exceed 5000 million.

At that time, Cao Xuan was able to get 1000 million yuan, and after taxation, he also had a profit of several million yuan.

The rate of return is definitely incomparable to investing in Penguin, but the key point is that Penguin can't see the money in a short period of time and has to throw money into it, while "Youth Bao Qingtian" is a real return of blood.

At the same time, the nearly five times return rate of "Youth Bao Qingtian" also let Cao Xuan see the huge profits in the film and television industry.

He doesn't expect every drama to make such a profit. He will be happy if he doubles it two or three times, or even doubles it. As long as he can make money, he is also worthy of happiness.

If you can occasionally pop out a big hit with a small blog, double it by more than ten times, you can even wake up laughing when you sleep.

(End of this chapter)