Rebirth of the Wild Age

Sohu's current two CEOs actually have a very clear division of labor. Gu Yong will be in charge of internal affairs, and Zhang Chaoyang will be in charge of external affairs.

Attending awards ceremonies, conducting nationwide publicity tours, holding press conferences, participating in industry summits on behalf of Sohu, and receiving leaders at all levels who came to inspect. Zhang Chaoyang is responsible for all of these. Even Sohu's branches, if they are to be split up and listed in the future, the IPO roadshow will let Zhang Chaoyang go.

Anyway, Zhang Chaoyang loves to show and love to play, so let him play enough, show enough, he will be a living signature of Sohu in the future.

People use their talents, perfect use!

Zhang Chaoyang quickly adapted to his new role and took the initiative to take over the task of buying the copyright of film and television dramas. This job seems to be errands, but Zhang Chaoyang enjoys it because he can deal with many talented players in the entertainment industry. When discussing the purchase agreement, it is quite common to ask two actresses to accompany and cooperate with each other.

The Chinese entertainment circle is roughly divided into the following factions: Beijing circle (human art school, Beijing film school, narrow Beijing circle), northwest circle, northeast circle, Shanghai circle, Hong Kong circle, Taiwan circle-there is also a Guangdong circle in the 1990s , Was able to fight against the Beijing circle, but it gradually cooled down after entering the new century.

Under Jiang Wen's recommendation, Zhang Chaoyang quickly opened up the Beijing circle.

Sohu Video, the TV drama production center of CCTV alone, bought more than 400 TV dramas, about 4,000 episodes. Some TV shows have a length of 70 or 80 episodes, some have only a few episodes, and some have only filmed one or two episodes, and many have not even been broadcasted publicly.

Regardless of whether the filming is over, whether it is broadcast or not, Sohu will pack and buy it with a single brain. A total of 1.6 million yuan is spent, and the average price per episode is 400 yuan. Among them are the old editions of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West" and "A Dream of Red Mansions".

In addition, some privately-produced film and television dramas that have not been screened or broadcast have been taken by Sohu at almost this price. For example, Chen Xiaoer and Xiaogangpao’s company made some films that failed to pass the review, and they were all packed in good films for sale. On average, each episode was less than 300 yuan, and the price of each movie was less than 6,000 yuan.

After a raid in the Beijing circle, Zhang Chaoyang was introduced to the northwest circle by Jiang Wen.

Most of the productions in the Northwest Circle are literary and artistic films, so they are also called the "winning circle." In fact, many companies in this circle are located in the capital.

The films of Lao Mouzi, Gu Photography, Section Chief Jia and others were all swept away by Sohu Video. Some of these films are very expensive, each costing 20,000 to 30,000, such as "Hero"; but most of them are very cheap, and you can buy a niche literary film for two to three thousand yuan.

In general, the closer the production time, the more refined the production level, the higher the purchase price.

Zhang Chaoyang also went to major local film studios, and was packaged by Sohu to buy a lot of fine products. Take "The Mountain, the Man, and the Dog" as an example, you can buy the exclusive copyright on the Internet for 10,000 yuan, and it is a high-definition copy made by the Japanese side. It's not too cost-effective!

Sohu Video intends to implement a dual-track system of free and fee. Netizens can watch all the films for free, but the pictures of these films are very blurry. It's not that Sohu video is disgusting, but that the quality of the old film is just like that, and the high-definition picture is too high for the Internet speed.

However, netizens can also recharge to become VIP members, and with the help of video caching technology, they can enjoy the pleasure of watching movies brought by high-definition picture quality.

And Sohu Video also promised to major film and television companies that VIP members will receive 20% of the profit from watching the high-definition version of the on-demand cost-permanent effective!

High-definition conversion of film and television dramas is hard work, anyway, a little bit, Sohu Video will specifically launch a high-definition video area. Classic literary films like "The Mountain, That Man, That Dog" or the Chinese-language blockbuster like "Hero" must be put in priority.

The current Chinese film industry is miserable, and Sohu Video can be considered as an increase in revenue for producers.

Take "The Mountain, The Man, the Dog" for example, which won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Picture and Best Actor. As a result, a copy was not sold in China and could not be shown in theaters. In the end, it could only be sold to CCTV Movie Channel. Fill up the library.

Fortunately, a Japanese benzene distributor came to China to participate in the event, and accidentally saw this film, and then bought the overseas distribution rights to get it back to Japanese benzene for release. "The Mountain, The Man, the Dog" has been in theaters in Japan for a year, and the box office sold 350 million yen (over 20 million yuan) in more than 10 theaters. The Japanese side also bought the copyright of the original author of the novel and created a collection of short stories, which was printed five times within a year by selling the book through the film’s Dongfeng.

The Japanese side earns a lot of money, because whether it is a movie or a novel, the copyright fee is negligibly low.

The most funny thing is that after the film became popular in Japan, it became popular in China for export to domestic sales. After winning glory for the country, the CCTV movie channel immediately broadcasts it repeatedly, schools and other institutions also organize movie watching, and various movie seminars are held, but these have nothing to do with the producer.

Investors lose blood!

Even in two or three years, Internet viewing has become very popular. A small-cost film is sold to video sites for only about 10,000 yuan (non-exclusive), and only two or three sites are willing to pay for the original.

The TV drama industry is not much better. At present, about two-fifths of the TV dramas produced every year cannot be played, and they are thrown in the warehouse directly after the filming. No matter how small the mosquito is, it is meat. These TV series are packaged and sold to Sohu. Even if they can only sell for one or two hundred yuan an episode, they add up to tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands. The production company is very happy. Waste is used.

Zhang Chaoyang only spent more than 8 million yuan to fill Sohu Video's copyright library, but it tires the technical staff and editors into dogs.

And Zhang Chaoyang was also very happy. After running down the country in two months, he made friends with many film and television company bosses and producers, and also met many entertainment stars. Well, Mr. Zhang had a great time, and even accompanied an actress to participate in the awards ceremony at the end of the year.

When he returned to Shenghai again, Zhang Chaoyang had no complaints and seemed to enjoy his life very much. He is still Sohu's CEO outside. Although the news has been leaked, everyone thinks that he took the initiative to promote Gu Yongjiang, similar to Duan Yongping and Wang Shitou's operations.

What's more, Zhang Chaoyang's shares have increased by 1%, and he is playing more happily than before.

"This time I met a lot of film and television company bosses, among them the CEO of Hairun is the most interesting," Zhang Chaoyang said with a cigarette in his mouth, "This man is a real Confucian businessman and cultural businessman, I can talk to him very well."

Song Weiyang nodded and said, "Haiyan is indeed amazing."

Zhang Chaoyang also said: "I think Sohu can set up a film and television company to invest in film and television dramas, and I will be responsible for it in the future. This idea is also supported by Gu Yongjiang. He originally wanted to be in the film and television entertainment industry. He had invested in Sohu before joining Sohu. Film and television projects."

"Yes." Song Weiyang smiled. He recognizes Zhang Chaoyang's vision in this regard. Sohu Video has indeed invested in some hits, at least it is much more reliable than Ma Xiaoyun's filming.

"Then it's settled, I will set up a film and television investment company when I go back," Zhang Chaoyang said happily, "Now I am optimistic about a film ~ www.readwn.com ~ I think it is worth investing."

"What film?" Song Weiyang asked.

"The name is "The Bright Sword", which is an adaptation of a novel," said Zhang Chaoyang. "When I met Haiyan, he was eager to get investment and recommended the original novel to me. The novel is well written, it is an adaptation. It’s a bit difficult, and it’s definitely impossible to pass the trial last year."

Song Weiyang asked: "How can we pass the trial this year?"

Zhang Chaoyang smiled and said: "To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the victory of anti-French x Sri Lanka, as long as war films don't mess around, they are all green light."

In fact, as early as 2001, the copyright of "Bright Sword" was bought by two companies. But it was too difficult to change the script, and it couldn't pass the review after it was changed, so the two companies gave up. At the beginning of this year, police and gangster movies were suddenly not allowed to be broadcast during prime time, so TV drama companies looked for new types of dramas, and war movies and spy war dramas became the first choice.

The investment budget of "Bright Sword" is as high as 16 million yuan, which is an absolute big deal. Due to the high production cost, Hairun found several other companies to invest after setting up the project, but only three were willing to try, because the film would be cut off by the review if it was not noticed.

When Zhang Chaoyang was drinking with Haiyan, Haiyan was worrying about investment, so he wanted to fool Sohu to also pour money in, blowing up the prospects of the drama "Bright Sword".

Song Weiyang laughed and said: "I have also read the novel of "The Bright Sword", you can invest, you can do it, and by the way, take down the network exclusive copyright of this drama."

So, Sohu Pictures was born, and it will merge with Sohu Video in the future. However, Zhang Chaoyang went completely wrong and became a well-known domestic film and television investor. He also likes to run the game in film and television dramas. In another time and space, Zhang Chaoyang has guest appearances in "The Hanging Man" and "Pancake Man", and "Pancakes" Countless stars in "Xia Xia" are friends of Zhang Chaoyang.