Started as an independent producer in 1988

Chapter 332 Don’t tease me, or I can’t help it!

1998 is almost over.

Chen Shiping doesn't miss this year at all. He was so busy that he doesn't miss it at all!
The office of Book Department No. 1, China Juvenile & Children’s Publishing House.

Chen Shiping, a group of writers and several editors were discussing the publishing of fairy tales.

Since they are all short stories, I plan to make a bound volume.

Chen Shiping looked at Chief Editor Yang of Book Department and said, "I heard that the sales revenue of the publishing house has reached 200 million this year?"

"Two hundred and thirty million." Chief Editor Yang said with a smile: "Now the conditions are better, both schools and parents pay more attention to the growth of children, and the development of children's books is still good."

Chen Shiping nodded and said, "That's right. I bought quite a few copies. How are the journals?"

Editor-in-Chief Yang smiled and said, "The seven journals have an average monthly circulation of one million copies, which is definitely not comparable to mainstream literary journals."

"Not bad. Children's books are a bit niche after all." Chen Shiping paused and said, "But the overseas publishing situation is not so good, right?"

"That's true. Currently, there are only more than 400 copyrights for overseas publications, but the channels are still sound."

Editor-in-Chief Yang knew that Chen Shiping wanted to create fairy tales and animations, and knew that this was a very good opportunity.

If we can catch it, maybe we can expand the scale of the society a little bit.

Chen Shiping pondered for a moment and said, "You have read all the teachers' stories, are you satisfied?"

"Very good!" Chief Editor Yang said with some guilt, "It should be our job to organize fairy tale writers to jointly create, but I didn't expect that China Film Group would do it."

"Haha, it's all the same. There are too many things to take care of in the club."

Chen Shiping looked at him and said, "We will make a bound volume of these stories and hope to distribute them domestically through the channels of Two Rivers, Two Lines and Three Ring Roads. As for overseas, I hope your publishing house can work with the Commercial Press to jointly publish overseas. At the same time, some overseas channels of China Film will also provide assistance."

Speaking of overseas publication, Chief Editor Yang couldn't help but ask, "Does China Film Group really intend to sell it for free overseas?"

"Yes, for the purpose of promotion, we give it away for free." Chen Shiping said with a smile: "It's not much anyway. The domestic market price is half of it. Some schools in poor areas also give it away for free."

Editor-in-Chief Yang couldn't help but say, "You have done a good thing for the children of China."

"Thank you for the compliment." Chen Shiping picked up the cup and took a sip of water, thinking that he would have to earn it back from their parents in the future.

When these children grow up and have money in their pockets, they will return these things for free.

Spend hundreds of millions now to build a solid audience base for the future, and then you can make as much money as you want!
Chen Shiping and Editor-in-Chief Yang were chatting when there was a knock on the office door.

A middle-aged man stood at the door and said with a smile: "Can I come and sit in?"

Editor-in-Chief Yang immediately introduced Chen Shiping: "This is the person in charge of our audio-visual animation art company, Lao Wang."

Old Wang smiled and walked up to Chen Shiping, stretched out his hand and said, "Hello, Mr. Chen, I have heard of your name for a long time and have always wanted to meet you."

"Hello, Mr. Wang. You're so polite. Please take a seat." Chen Shiping replied with a smile, probably guessing what he was thinking.

Let’s collaborate on animation!

Chen Shiping is not opposed to this point. Since he is making movies himself, he has no time to make feature-length animations.

It is important to find someone to cooperate with to develop and expand this IP.

After Old Wang sat down, he just listened from the side without taking part in their discussion. The more he listened, the smile on his face grew wider.

It is published all over the world and is almost completely distributed for free in Asia. What a huge readership base this is!
If it were adapted into an animated film, it would surely make a lot of money!
However, Chen Shiping's next sentence left him confused.

"China Film Group also has plans to make animated films, and plans to follow this model and give them away for free!"

Editor-in-Chief Yang couldn't help but ask, "Making money from movies? Can you make back your investment?"

Chen Shiping smiled and said, "Of course it's not all about movies, there are other things as well. Anyway, we won't lose money."

For the first time, Old Wang couldn't help but speak. He looked at Chen Shiping and asked, "How can we survive if cartoons don't make money? The cost of making cartoons is not small."

Chen Shiping shrugged and said, "It's not much for China Film. This is a long-term project. Making money is not the first goal."

"Who do you plan to find to make the animation?" Old Wang asked excitedly.

Chen Shiping asked with a leisurely smile, "Is Mr. Wang interested?"

"Yes! I wonder if Mr. Chen has a suitable partner?"

"Not yet. We are preparing to bid for it. A lot of animation companies have opened up in China in the past two years, so we also want to investigate them."

After hearing this, Old Wang nodded, chatted with a smile for a few minutes and then didn't ask any more questions.

Now is not a good time to discuss cooperation. We can talk about it later.

Soon Chen Shiping discussed the domestic publishing issues with the publishing house. As for overseas issues, he would meet with the Commercial Press tomorrow to discuss them together.

We are all from state-owned enterprises and in the propaganda department. It is a big deal to work together to promote our culture overseas, and it is easy to talk about it.

What's more, Chen Shiping is investing money here.

After leaving the publishing house, Chen Shiping took those fairy tale writers to Beijing Film Academy again.

Show them the materials collected by Beijing Film Academy and go back to writing stories!
There are so many princesses, write about them all for me and make them into a super big fairy tale IP!

In the Beijing Film Studio, those fairy tale writers saw so much domestic scenery and local customs and stories, and inspirations emerged in their minds in waves.

Why do we need to collect folk songs when writing a book? Isn’t it to get inspiration?

After Chen Shiping handed these things to them, he left them alone.

The creative ideas were discussed in previous meetings, and they all knew what kind of stories they wanted.

These writers now attach great importance to cooperation with Chen Shiping, and the development of fairy tales is not good.

The Children's Publishing House is such a big publishing house, but its annual total sales are only over 200 million.

Even if a book costs five yuan, the total sales of more than 200 million yuan is only for more than 40 million copies.

How many of the more than 40 million books are fairy tales?

Chen Shiping is now promoting it for free, but their royalties will not be free.

If these stories are promoted and become popular, they can also become famous.

Who among the fairy tale writers doesn’t want to be Andersen?

Chen Shiping chatted with them for a while and then left to see what was happening at Frozen.

Song Cheng led the team back when Chen Shiping was filming Uncharted.

The two met and hugged each other, and after a brief reminisce, they began to talk about animation creation.

Song Xian smoked a cigarette and said, "Shanghai Mei Factory is indeed powerful, but it also has serious problems. This time I went there to learn a lot."

Chen Shiping smiled and asked, "How do you say that?"

"Their creative ability is unquestionable, but the model is too old and there is no fresh blood."

Song Xian said with some emotion: "It has been more than three years since the project of Precious Lotus Lantern was launched. It is estimated that it will not be officially completed until next year. The efficiency is very low and there are not enough people. They are all old painters and their energy cannot keep up."

Chen Shiping nodded. The money allocated by the higher-ups was not small at all, but the progress was so slow because on the one hand they wanted to create quality products, and on the other hand they could not keep up with the development of the times.

The development of Shangmei Factory has indeed encountered a bottleneck, or to be more precise, it is going downhill.

Chen Shiping smiled and said, "Didn't Shanghai Film Group say it would focus on supporting us? Maybe things will get better in the future."

Song Heng shook his head and said, "It's difficult. Shanghai Film Group wants to compete with you. Now they are busy shooting a special effects film. What's the point of calling it an emergency landing?"

Chen Shiping laughed and said, "They asked me to do special effects for them before, but after seeing me build a digital film base, they changed their minds and wanted to do the special effects themselves." Song Yu also laughed and said, "Of course, they just want to compete with you. Those people are not convinced."

"It's good to compete. I hope they can succeed."

The two chatted for a while and were called away by Master Yang.

The original drawings of Frozen have been basically completed. If there are no problems, we will start the formal work later.

Studio No. 4 of the Beijing Film Studio is now the creative base for Frozen, with about a hundred painters working there.

Original design drawings are hung everywhere.

From tables, chairs and benches to costumes, from houses to palaces.
All items, big and small, have separate design drawings, and there may even be multiple drafts.

Since this was the first time for everyone to make an animated feature film, we naturally took it very seriously and tried to make it as detailed as possible.

Don’t be afraid of wasting time and energy, the explorations now will be the experience for future success!

Chen Shiping was very satisfied after reading it. It would be hard not to succeed if the work was done to such a meticulous level!
The only pity is that this is a 3D animation. If the 3D technology in the digital special effects lab was mature enough, it would be great to make it into a D animation.

However, 2D animation is more flexible and has a large market, so it is still worth developing in the long term.

I'll release a 3D animation when the technology matures.

Master Yang took the original paintings and turned to look at Chen Shiping and asked, "How long do you want?"

"Is six months enough?" Chen Shiping asked tentatively.

Master Yang said nothing and looked at him as if he were a fool.

Chen Shiping then asked, "What about eight months?"

Master Yang frowned and asked, "So urgent? We don't have enough manpower right now."

"Okay! I'll find a way!" Chen Shiping immediately patted his chest and said.

The preparation alone took half a year, and now that we have started full-scale production, it will probably take eight months.

Master Yang hummed and looked at Song Yan and asked, "Song Chang, do you think it's okay?"

"It's okay if you try hard." Song Yu turned to look at Chen Shiping and said, "Isn't your daughter's birthday next September?"

Chen Shiping laughed and said, "I wanted to release it on Children's Day, not for my daughter."

Song Heng shook his head and was too lazy to expose him. He was not a newbie who knew nothing, so how could he say a deadline of six months?

Chen Shiping and their team agreed to complete the film in eight months, leaving one month for publicity and promotion, and it would be released in early September!

After finishing these things, Chen Shiping left. Why say so much?

Just do it!

Chen Shiping also wants to go see the movie of Cheng Kaige and Feng Kuzi.

In the screening room of China Film Corporation, Chen Shiping had a rare chance to sit down and watch a movie. He originally wanted to relax.

But now I’m having a headache because of the noise from Li Xiaoran next to me, she keeps chattering non-stop.

"Didn't you say you would come and watch us film the final battle? Why didn't you come?"

"It was so exciting, you didn't even see it!"

"Take a good look at my performance later. Director Cheng said it was great!"

Chen Shiping just responded with "hmm", but he was actually quite looking forward to it.

At this time, Cheng Kaige leaned back in his chair confidently, waiting for the movie to start.

He is very satisfied with the finished film of Mulan and feels it is much better than Disney’s animated version!

Domestic audiences complained so much about the animated version before, and now that the live-action version is out, it should be very popular.

Cheng Kaige had a hunch that this time he might really have to prove his box office appeal.

A director without box office appeal is not a good director!
Since they are making commercial films, they naturally hope that their box office will be as high as possible.

Soon the movie began, with a quaint complex of buildings.

This time, Chen Shiping provided Cheng Kaige with the best photography equipment.

In some previous movies, the colors were too gray. No matter how bright the colors were, they all looked a bit gray.

The color saturation and purity are not enough, but this time Mulan is different.

The picture looks very beautiful, very clean and very comfortable to look at.

After all, it is a movie aimed at children. How can children like it if the pictures are not good?

Adult fairy tales should also have the colors and texture of fairy tales.

It's not an art film, so it should have a hazy and grainy texture.

Chen Shiping felt very comfortable looking at the picture.

The key lies in the handling of life scenes and historical restoration, which are not completely realistic.

Otherwise, who would be happy seeing a shabby and dirty thatched hut?

Chen Shiping watched the movie silently, and Li Xiaoran looked at his profile silently.

The longer time went by, the more she felt she liked Chen Shiping.

This feeling did not dissipate as time went by, but instead accumulated more and more.

When I was still young, Chen Shiping pushed me away time and again without leaving a trace. Now that I have grown up, let’s see how he can still refuse!

Li Xiaoran was thinking about going to dinner with him after the movie and getting him drunk this time!

Last time I was drunk, Chen Shiping didn't touch me, but she is not such a lady!

You have to eat it! Otherwise, who knows if you will have another chance in the future.

Even if it's just once, it can be considered as putting an end to your youth.

The ignorant and secret love is about to break through the soil and bear fruit at this moment!

I'm already a grown woman, but I've never been in a relationship. It's so embarrassing to talk about it!
Chen Shiping felt a little uneasy when Li Xiaoran stared at him. What is this girl doing?

It made him feel itchy!

I have been well behaved for so long, don't let myself go back to being a prodigal again!

Otherwise you won’t be able to stop the car!
Chen Shiping sighed in his heart and decided to run away after watching the movie!
Don't give yourself the opportunity to make mistakes.

Otherwise, once Li Xiaoran comes close to me, I won’t be able to control myself!
I endured it hard enough back then, and I still feel regretful occasionally in recent years.

While Chen Shiping was daydreaming, Li Xiaoran secretly moved her legs closer to him.

Just by gently applying it, she felt very happy.

It’s just a pity that this is in the screening room of China Film. It would be better if it was in a cinema and Cheng Kaige was not there.

That's a date!

Thinking of a date, Li Xiaoran secretly reached out her hand.
(End of this chapter)