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The essence of deception is actually poor information. Whoever has more information has an advantage.

Low-end deception is nonsense full of loopholes, has a very low success rate, and can only deceive people who don't understand anything. High-end deception is to deceive with the truth.

Just like the national football team.

First, in the history of the World Cup, only three teams have defeated the national football team, and they have lost fewer games than the football kingdom Brazil.

Second, in the century-old history of the World Cup, the national football team has only conceded 9 goals in total, and the number of goals conceded is less than that of Italy, which has a strong defense.

Third, in all the World Cup finals, the national football team has never lost any of them, and it has crushed many football powers such as Germany, England, the Netherlands, and Argentina...

Every word is true.

If you don’t know enough about football, you will think that the national football team is the best team in the world, which is completely out of touch with the actual situation.

The current situation is a deep-water duel between HBO's president Richard Bleiler and Ziweixing's boss Zhou Buqi.

When you are cheating, you must not let the other party see that you are cheating, otherwise the other party will not be fooled.

It's not okay to tell lies. Both parties are human beings and can easily reveal their lies.

Be sure to tell the sincere truth.

According to Bright, president of Purple Star's Global Television Department, this so-called TV series "Game of Thrones" is a project of HBO, and they have the most information.

They are very bad!

At this time, don’t be impulsive or agree to anything. Even if you are interested in this TV series and want to spend money to help HBO solve the dilemma of lack of production funds and make this TV series better and more complete, you must organize a professional team to do due diligence. Otherwise, you may be deceived.

This is certainly true.

But Zhou Buqi is an exception.

Richard or Zhou Buqi, who holds more information about the American TV series "Game of Thrones"?

Even if Richard is the president of HBO, he only has all the information about "Game of Thrones" in the past two years since its inception. Zhou Buqi is different, he holds the information of this American drama for the next ten years!

Who has the advantage?

Bright didn't know where Boss Zhou's confidence lay, so he was very anxious. Zhen Yu didn't know what her man's confidence was, but that didn't matter.

Over the past few years, Zhen Yu has developed a strong and blind trust in Zhou Buqi. There is nothing to worry about!

However, she couldn't show it at this time. Zhen Yu hesitated and said, "What you said makes sense. Please go over and remind me. You are a professional, and I don't know much about TV production."

Brett was not polite. When he saw Richard over there, he was still fooling the big boss, so he rushed over and said in a deep voice: "Zhou, this kind of epic historical theme is not recognized by the market."

Zhou Buqi was stunned for a moment, "Really?"

Bright said with a serious face: "Director Scott's masterpiece "Kingdom of Heaven" failed completely at the box office, and the film "King Arthur" by the great producer Bruckheimer also suffered huge investment losses..."

Richard was startled and quickly interrupted him, "It's different. A movie is a movie and a TV series is a TV series."

Bright snorted coldly: "In the 1990s, this kind of movies were very popular. "Braveheart" and "Gladiator" both achieved great success, setting off a trend of epic productions. But in the new century , the trend has changed. Movies in this category are no longer popular. "Knights," "Kingdom of Heaven," "Troy" and "King Arthur" were all large-scale productions that invested huge amounts of money, and all failed without exception."

Zhou Buqi asked: "But TV dramas are different from movies, right? TV dramas have a larger length and can tell the story better with richer details. Especially this is HBO, which can have a larger scale and less limits."

"The same goes for TV series. Starz's "Spartacus" was originally planned for six seasons, but later it was only filmed for three seasons. There is also "Roma" that you just mentioned." Brett looked at the situation with his eyes. Chad, "If I understand correctly, "Roma" is planned for five seasons, right?"

Richard looked coldly, "I haven't heard of it."

Bright said: "Whether you admit it or not, "Roma" was canceled after only two films. Don't look for reasons why the investment is too large. As long as the return rate is good enough and the ratings are high enough, it won't be a problem. . The plot of "Spartacus" has been reduced, and "Rome" has been cancelled. This is enough to show that market feedback and investment are not proportional!"

Richard glanced at Zhou Buqi guiltily and said bravely: "The reason why "Roma" was canceled was mainly due to problems with the production and the script. We made a series of mistakes. But we are very cautious about this type of movie. We have not lost confidence in the subject matter. After "Rome" was canceled, we quickly started the "Game of Thrones" project to take over. We have more experience in producing similar large projects, and this is an adaptation of a novel and a script There won’t be any big problems. We are very confident in this project.”

Bright immediately asked, "If you are very confident, why do you want to cut the budget by $40 million?"

Richard said: "Economic crisis..."

Bright interrupted him rudely again, "HBO has 50 million users around the world, with an annual fee of US$120. Just from TV station subscription fees, it has an annual revenue of US$6 billion. With HBO's strong revenue capabilities, If you are really confident about Game of Thrones, why can’t you come up with the $40 million?”

Zhou Buqi frowned, not very happy, "Bright, you should calm down."

"I……"

Brett was stunned.

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "The impact of the economic crisis is complex and all-round. It is not easy to manage a company as big as HBO. This is not a question of whether you have money or not. Under the economic crisis, risk control will be more stringent. We must Look at a problem systematically instead of looking for irrationality in a single point. The local part must obey the overall situation, and the local part is inherently irrational.”

Richard's stiff face suddenly burst into laughter, "Mr. Zhou is indeed a big boss and a real businessman. His structure and business perspective are admirable."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand modestly, "When it comes to business, the principles are the same. If you do business just to make money, you will never make big money. If you do business for feelings, then you can truly make a difference in the world. A major event. Jobs’ wealth came from Disney, not Apple, but he devoted all his efforts to Apple. This is the feeling of a world-class entrepreneur.”

Richard's eyes were filled with admiration and respect, "Mr. Zhou, you are also a world-class entrepreneur! Your feelings for film and television works are worth learning from every one of us."

After hearing this, Brett almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

Depend on!

This flattery is so shameless!

The key point is that this flatterer is very smart. He immediately set up Boss Zhou and praised him as a worldly expert who only cares about feelings and not making money.

It's over now.

Boss Zhou has no steps to go down!

All the earnest persuasion I had just given was in vain!

Sure enough, Boss Zhou was very pleased with the compliment and said with a smile: "Whether you are doing Internet business or entertainment business, the principles are the same. I believe that as long as you have love and feelings for film and television works, you will definitely make money. It would be too far.”

"Yes, yes, Mr. Zhou, you are so right!" Richard suddenly felt that his appearance was a bit exaggerated, so he restrained himself appropriately and said with a smile: "Those epic movies that Brett just mentioned Movies are all losing money. In my opinion, this is not a problem with the subject matter, but a problem with the movie itself. As long as it is a good movie, it will shine. Just like when "The Shawshank Redemption" was released that year, the market did not perform well and it suffered losses. Very miserable. But in the past few years, this movie has achieved amazing results in the DVD market! As long as it is a good work, it cannot be too short-sighted. As you said, if you have the passion to pursue great works, the market is destined to not Let down those who have ideals.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, but he still said calmly: ""Roma" is a great work. It is a pity that it only lasted two seasons. I don't know if "Game of Thrones" can achieve the level of "Rome" the height of."

"It will be better than "Rome"! "Game of Thrones" is just like your favorite "Lord of the Rings", with a fantasy color... By the way, we have already shot the sample of the first episode, why don't you take a look ?”

"Really?"

Zhou Buqi looked very surprised.

The distribution logic of American TV dramas is different from that of domestic TV dramas, because the United States does not have a special censorship agency for film and television dramas. Basically, major entertainment companies can make whatever they want. Therefore, in order to ensure profits, American TV dramas will first shoot a sample and release it.

If the sample results are good, I will continue to take pictures.

We can’t shoot too much yet, let’s shoot one season first. The first season was so good that we decided to renew it for a second season. The second season was so good that we decided to renew it for a third season.

This model can minimize investment risks.

Due to censorship in China, it is impossible to shoot and broadcast like American dramas. For major books such as "New Three Kingdoms" and "The Legend of Zhen Huan", dozens of episodes can only be shot at once and collectively undergo censorship.

After the review is passed, it will be released all at once.

After it is broadcast, if the market feedback is not good and the ratings are too low and no one watches it, it will be tragic. The subsequent dozens of episodes will almost be shot in vain, and the losses will be serious.

This is a systemic TV drama risk.

"Game of Thrones" is a big production, and the samples have already been shot.

Richard smiled and said: "After the sample film was broadcast on HBO, after our survey, it received a favorable rating of over 92%, which was higher than that of "Roma" back then."

Zhou Buqi was very happy, "Let's go! Let's take a look together!"

Brett couldn't stand it anymore, so he rushed forward to provide assists and said anxiously: "Mr. Zhou, HBO has broadcast a sample of "Game of Thrones". In addition to assessing the audience's preference, it is also shown to peers. But After the demos were aired, the production cost of Game of Thrones was still US$60 million, and they didn’t get a penny of additional investment!”

Zhou Buqi disagreed, "With the financial crisis, everyone has no money. But it doesn't matter, Ziweixing Global has money!"