Li Yixuan spent a week writing the outline of the script of "Breaking Bad" and handed it to Wen Bingxi to register with the Screenwriters Association.

In his view, AMC, as a pay-per-view TV station, cannot be positioned as a free-to-air TV station and only position itself as a communication platform, but must put itself in the role of a content provider.

Therefore, for the next period of time, Li Yixuan has been working as a copyist. He must copy as many classic TV series as he can when he still has free time, if he doesn't take advantage of this time, wait for him to get busy or forget, then these excellent TV series will become someone else's.

Li Yixuan kept copying, Wen Bingxi's work did not let go, "Friends" is the first TV series since the establishment of AMC, he is related to AMC's future development strategy, so he can only succeed and not fail.

The whole TV station understands that everyone is busy and devotes 120% of their energy to the TV series "Friends".

Recruiting crews, directors, actors, and filming venues, everything went quickly and methodically according to the plan.

Li Yixuan was pulled over by Wen Bingxi from time to time, after all, he provided the script, so he must be present when selecting the director and the leading actor in order to provide advice to the production team.

Li Yixuan is self-aware, so if he can provide any advice, let Wen Bingxi choose by himself, but Lao Wen still forced him to come.

Wen Bingxi's words were, "I know that Xuan Shao is not good at recruiting directors and actors, but you are always the boss of AMC, you are, you can tell all the employees that the boss attaches great importance to this show, so that they will get serious." You don't need to do anything, you just sit there. ”

Yes, the other party has said so, what else does he have to refuse, go, sit like a mud bodhisattva.

"Friends" was directed by Roger in history, and because the show was more than ten years in advance, the director must re-elect people, and it turns out that the director doesn't know where it is.

After several screenings, Wen Bingxi finally decided that "Friends" would be directed by a middle-aged man named David Aniston.

David Aniston, 42 years old and a graduate of USC, has been in the advertising industry since graduation, starting as a commercial director ten years ago, and in the last two years, he has been involved in urban TV dramas, but both have served as assistant directors, and this "Friends" is his first independent director.

Li Yixuan is also quite satisfied with Wen Bingxi's choice, "Friends" is a modern drama, and letting an advertising director who has changed careers take charge of the director, theoretically speaking, there is no problem at all, at least it can grasp the theme.

David Aniston is also very interested, this is his first independent directing of a TV series, once failed, it will greatly affect his future career.

Although there is a saying that there are three certificates out of Hollywood, it is a privilege that very few people have, for him, as long as "Friends" fails, he will never want to step into the profession of TV series director for the rest of his life, he can only be an advertising director for a lifetime, let alone a film director.

I have to mention here that on the surface, although film and television are one, TV drama directors and film directors are two completely different creatures, the directing methods and broadcast platforms between the two are completely different, and the requirements for actors are not the same.

This is true not only in Hollywood, but in every country in the world. Like my country's famous TV drama directors Zhao Baogang and Yang Jie, they have never made movies, only TV series. Feng Xiaogang is the same, except for his debut and filming a TV series, when have you seen him make a TV series at other times.

The same is true of Hong Kong's famous TV drama director Wang Tianlin, who focuses on TV series shooting, and has never made movies, of course he has filmed, but they all ended up hitting the street, and after a few failures, he can only shoot his TV series with peace of mind, and the movie is saying that he will not shoot anything.

Only Li Hanxiang was invited by Liu Xiaoqing in the early 90s to shoot a TV series "Wu Zetian", but he passed away before the filming was finished.

On this day, David Winneston took out the actor recruitment plan and said to Li Yixuan and Wen Bingxi: ""Friends is a modern urban sitcom, we don't need actors with high acting skills, but several leading actors must be young, handsome, beautiful and youthful, and must cause urban fashion." ”

Li Yixuan turned his head to look at Wen Bingxi and nodded in agreement. Indeed, at the beginning of the filming of "Friends", several leading actors were young, beautiful and handsome, and their acting skills were as long as they were passable.

"Do you have a rough candidate?" asked Wen Bingxi.

David Winneston pulled out a shortlist of actors, pointed to a few young actors and actresses circled in red and said, "I think they're pretty good. ”

The men are handsome, the women are beautiful, although there is only one photo, Li Yixuan can also feel the radiant youthful vitality on their bodies.

Li Yixuan sighed in his heart, such actors may also be found in Hong Kong in the seventies and eighties, but the mainland and Taiwan will never find such youthful actors.

Although they can find young actors and actresses who agree with them, they have been sharpened by society, and they can't meet the requirements of the script no matter what.

Wen Bingxi looked at Li Yixuan, and after asking for permission, he said, "Arrange for them to audition." ”

Auditions for Hollywood actors are not what everyone thinks, just find a random place, and you must have a place designated by the Screen Actors Guild to conduct the interview.

During the interview, both the Actors Guild and the Actors Guild's lawyer must be present at the same time, in order to prevent unspoken rules. In fact, to put it bluntly, there are really unspoken rules that a certain person, with some means and tricks, can escape supervision, as long as both parties have no opinions.

However, this kind of thing can only happen to those speculators, and it is necessary to avoid it for people like David Winneston and Wen Bingxi who want to eat Hollywood for a long time.

Of the few people David Winneston had his eye on, two had to be re-recruited due to schedule problems, and it took a week to get them all done.

was not hired, and David Winneston did not completely refuse, because "Friends" has needed a large number of extras since the first episode, and each episode needs 30~50 extras, leaving the contact information of their agents, and recruiting them to play the role at any time when needed. This is much more reliable than if you go out and recruit everywhere, although it is all tricks, but after all, you are professionally trained.

The filming scene has been chosen, and the apartment where the six people live is 30 miles away from AMC TV, this apartment has been popular for a while before, and no one has come to live in the past two years.

The first floor of the apartment is a café opened by the landlord, and since the house is not rented, the business of the café is not good, and there is also a café scene in the play, so they can simply rent it together.

After negotiating the price and filming conditions with the landlord, the crew joined the crew.

The various props alone filled the two rooms, and the paintings hanging in the café were changed every three episodes. Works come from local, national and foreign artists at very cheap prices.

There is a convenience store next to the café, which will often appear in the play, and after discussing with the store owner, he is also willing to provide his store to the crew for filming, no charge just need to see the store door in the film, which is considered a product placement.

Speaking of advertising placement, Wen Bingxi told Li Yixuan that there are currently 5 companies that are more interested, but the price has not yet been negotiated.

Li Yixuan remembered the commonly used advertising implantation method in later generations, "Let's do it, let's set a ratings standard, oh, no, it's a subscription standard, pay if the subscription reaches a certain value, and don't pay if it doesn't meet expectations, how much does the subscription exceed the value, how much does the advertising placement fee increase, and how much does the advertising fee increase when it reaches a certain value, what do you think?"

"This is your method of video games, where every point reaches a certain value increases by one life. ”

Li Yixuan nodded and admitted: "Yes, I think it can be used in TV series product placement, so that both parties will not feel at a loss, we want to get more advertising product placement income, and the program must be more popular with the audience." ”

At this time, David Winneston walked over, "I think it's a good idea, it's good for either side, it's better than going on all the time." But first, you have to figure out how to calculate subscription ratings. After all, it is a pay TV station, and the statistical method is different from that of a free TV station, so it is necessary to figure out that those subscribers are coming for "Friends". ”

"There's no need to worry, Nielsen Ratings Statistics has a scientific approach to statistics and is a long-term partner of ours who can use their data as a reference for fees. After speaking, Wen Bingxi looked at Li Yixuan, after all, he had to nod.

Nielsen is one of the three major international TV ratings statistics market research companies, and has a reputation in the industry for its accurate and reliable statistics, so there should be no problem using his statistics as a reference. Li Yixuan nodded in agreement.