In the office of Shahai Entertainment, Ronan carefully flipped through the script of "Grey's Anatomy", and Shonda Rhames sat on the sofa on the side, patiently waiting for Ronan to read the script.

This is only the first draft of the script, which is relatively rough and has a lot of room for improvement, but the overall framework of the story has been built.

Ronan flipped through the script, occasionally jotting down points in a notebook next to him.

The script has twelve episodes, and because it is the first draft, the later episodes only have a synopsis of the story, and the specific content has not yet been written.

Shonda Rhames sipped her coffee and glanced at Ronan from time to time, and although the two sides had signed a cooperation agreement, if the producer was not satisfied with the script, she could call back and ask her to rewrite it.

Ronan jotted down the last strokes in his notebook and closed the script.

"The script is very good. Ronan looked at Shonda Remus and said, "It's not been easy these months, hasn't it? ”

Compared with the last time we met, Shonda Remus has lost more than one lap, and the experience of hospital life for most of the year has obviously been very hard.

Shonda Rhames laughs, "I didn't expect that work would help you lose weight. ”

Ronan also laughed: "You'll have more work soon." ”

Hearing this, Shonda Remus instantly understood that there should be no problem with the script passing Ronan's review.

She also breathed a sigh of relief, as a black woman who does not have enough qualifications, it is really not easy to get the support of producers and production companies.

Fortunately, I met a producer like Ronan who does not discriminate against blacks and women.

Shonda Rhames was in a good mood and muttered to herself: So, I'm still very lucky.

Black and female, these two things have led most studios to put her on the list of non-collaborators.

In Hollywood, there are far too few producers like Ronan who can treat blacks and women fairly.

Ronan asked at this time: "It can be seen from the script that you have gained a lot from the experience of life in the hospital. ”

"yes. Shonda Rhames said with emotion: "If you don't spend enough time on the front line of the hospital, it is difficult for you to understand the operation system of the hospital and the work of the doctors, these are not solved by imagination alone, if the professional level is not reflected in the play, the whole story has no skeleton, it seems amateurish and ridiculous." ”

Ronan duly complimented, "Shonda, you're doing a good job." ”

Instead, Shonda Rhames smiled modestly and said, "This is an essential quality of a screenwriter. ”

Ronan nodded slightly, just like a star actor has to undergo physical training before filming an action movie, and military training is required to shoot a military role, Shonda Rhames's behavior is actually nothing, and it belongs to the most basic professionalism in Hollywood.

Although there are all kinds of dishonesty in Hollywood, and there are also super unreliable star actors like Johnny Depp, the extremely fierce competition and public opinion environment are enough to ensure that the vast majority of people will not go too far.

This kind of thing is unimaginable in Hollywood shooting.

Many actresses, after the crew finished filming, took advantage of their free time to get pregnant and make people, but the crew temporarily made up the film, even if they were pregnant, they would not choose to cut out the picture, and would rather use a green screen to wrap their abdomen for filming.

I really can't move, and if I have brothers and sisters, I can ask them to do it for me.

Ronan retracted his divergent thoughts and asked, "When will the script be fully completed?"

Shonda Rhames told the truth: "It will take a month and a half at the earliest. ”

Ronan nodded slightly: "Yes." We're trying to start preparations in the second half of this year, and your agency, CAA, will provide a full range of services for the series. ”

Previously, he had reached an agreement with Brian Lord that CAA would provide a one-stop package for Grey's Anatomy, taking five percent of the profits as a service commission.

Shahai Entertainment doesn't have any experience in TV drama production, and it is definitely lacking in this aspect, and using CAA's packaged service is the best choice at this stage.

Moreover, the most successful and mature operation of CAA's one-stop packaging service is actually a TV drama project.

"Mr. Lord spoke to me once. "The CAA side will provide the greatest support for this project. ”

Speaking of which, she looked at Ronan again, knowing that if Ronan hadn't taken a fancy to her and "Grey's Anatomy", CAA wouldn't have taken a second look at this project, at least not for two or three years.

Having the support of a successful producer is a completely different situation than struggling with a stuffy head.

Shonda Rhames felt this well and asked, "Ronan, do you have any suggestions for the script?"

Actually, there is no need for Shonda Rhames to ask, Ronan will say it later.

"The story is a little tighter, and the emotional drama ends in the first season. Ronan didn't go around in circles, and said directly: "Some of the emotional dramas that have nothing to do with the main line have been moved to the second season, if we can still shoot and produce the second season." ”

Shonda Rhames smiled confidently, "There will definitely be a second season!"

Ronan nodded lightly and continued: "To compress the plot of the first season to less than ten episodes, we need to have both a tight enough plot and a proper budget control, after all, this is the first season. ”

Just like the film series, the first installment in the series is the most risky, and no one can guarantee that it will be successful.

Shonda Remes had had too many setbacks before and knew it would not be easy to win Ronan's support, so she didn't have any objections, saying, "I'll make changes to the script. ”

Ronan glanced at his notebook and said, "What do you think about the setting of the protagonist, ethnicity?" ”

Shonda Rhames smiled and said, "The five protagonists, there are whites and blacks. ”

This did not exceed Ronan's expectations, perhaps in the black world, there are only whites and blacks, and no one else exists.

Ronan said directly: "Whites, blacks, Latinos, and Asians, among the five protagonists, these four major ethnic groups should be included." ”

Shonda Rhames was not stupid at all, but one of the few smart women among black women, and immediately understood Ronan's intentions: "Expand the audience as much as possible?"

"Yes. There's no need for Ronan to deny this: "These are the four largest audience groups in North America. ”

These are actually nothing, and in a few years, it will become common or even necessary for people like TV dramas to have a permanent LGBT type of character.

Many popular TV series, for the sake of this Hollywood-style political correctness, do not hesitate to bend some normal characters in the play.

Those actors who indiscriminately attack the LGBT community without understanding the situation, the screenwriters dare to write their characters to death.

Situations like these will become routine operations in the future.

After only a moment's consideration, Shonda Rhames said, "I'm going to make changes to the character's background settings to make them more suitable. ”

Later, Ronan said something else.

For example, "Grey's Anatomy" will complete all filming and production in the first half of next year, and land on TV stations or other broadcast channels in the fall.

Only by looking at the actual ratings can you decide whether the second season will continue to be filmed and produced.

If the ratings are poor, even if the evaluation is high, you can only cut it.

In this day and age, ratings are pretty much the only measure of an episode.

Over the next three days, Ronan had more specific project negotiations with Shonda Rhims, and since Shonda Rhimes was not demanding, the negotiations between the two sides went very smoothly.

It can be said that Shonda Rhames is very aware of her current position, and knows that there are no good conditions for capital requirements, and a successful TV series project can change her career.

The negotiations focused on Shonda Rhames' interest and remuneration in the project.

In terms of compensation, Shonda Remus is mainly divided into three parts.

The first is the screenwriter, as the sole creator of the script, Shonda Remes exclusively enjoys the script buyout fee of Shahai Entertainment, but similar to the film industry, the script of ordinary screenwriters cannot be sold at a high price, and the screenwriter of the first season of "Grey's Anatomy" is only paid $5,800 per episode of the script.

Shonda Rhames is a member of the Writers Guild, which currently sets a minimum pay of $3,800 per episode for TV series scripts, which will rise to $38,000 after 2008.

The second is the producer, the first producer of "Grey's Anatomy" is Ronan, but the actual responsibility is for all the work is Shonda Rhames, who will serve as an associate producer with a total salary of $250,000.

Finally, the initiator and person in charge of the project, according to the prevailing rules in Hollywood, Shahai Entertainment will pay a one-time payment of $500,000 to Shonda Rhames as a project launch bonus, and Shonda Rhames, as the screenwriter and actual person in charge, will participate in the later stages of the project, and the share ratio of the first season is 2.5% of the net profit.

In addition, there are some provisions in other areas.

For example, Shahai Entertainment owns the rights to the follow-up creation of "Grey's Anatomy", which guarantees that the project can continue even if Shonda Rhames withdraws.

For example, Shonda Rhames' job is exclusive, and she is not allowed to participate in other companies' film and television projects while working for Shahai Entertainment, etc.

Of course, Shonda Remes also has a lot of power, such as the right to decide actors outside the main cast group and so on.

At the same time as negotiating with Shonda Rhames, Ronan also negotiated with CAA to formally sign a one-stop package service agreement with CAA for "Grey's Anatomy".

CAA will be responsible for providing all the cast staff for the "Grey's Anatomy" crew, from the actors to the behind-the-scenes staff, and assisting Shahai Entertainment in connecting with the TV series distribution platform.

Correspondingly, 5% of the net profit of the "Grey's Anatomy" project is the service fee of CAA.

Ronan also finalized the budget for the project after communicating with Shonda Remes several times, with a total of nine episodes in the first season and a production budget of $3 million.