"Weige, what kind of awards season public relations is your retirement?" Tur called Ye Weile and asked with a smile, "We Are All Marshall" lost miserably.

65 million production fees, not much exaggeration and strategy offset, Legendary Pictures accounted for the majority, 36 million in three weeks, according to the estimate, it is fortunate to be able to paint for 45 million, and a lot of money is wasted. McG, the producer and director who paid a lot of money, is the director of the "Breaking Bad" series, and the dramas "Orange County Boys" and "Evil Force" that he participated in the production of are also very popular with young audiences, and even if they don't win the award, they shouldn't be a commercial failure......

Movies are films, and Tours is beginning to understand this phrase and has come to appreciate the cruelty of the film industry.

In the week of January 5-11, "Wonderful Night at the Museum" continued to be the top weekly champion in North America, while Ye Wei's two films, "Lovely Bones" in Week 9, grossed $781,659 in 418 theaters and grossed 138,928,817 in 418 theaters, and "Winter Bones" in Week 4 earned $1,603,910 in 60 theaters and grossed $4,759,034, expanding the scale to 105 this week.

"No, no, it's really a shadow, it's really a football trip. Ye Wei's laughter came from his mobile phone, "It's funny, right? ”

Who can understand the speechlessness and heartache of Tour, because his ribs were cracked, and the past Christmas and New Year holidays were not good. He happily invited: "When is it time to have dinner? I also want to talk to you about cooperation, our company has a lot of projects that need your talent, or invest in your projects......"

"Brother Thomas, I have told people that I don't have a film project right now, but I want to tell you a little more, I have some friends whose projects I can recommend to you, purely as a friendship, I don't guarantee anything. Ye Wei said seriously, "As for my project, if there is anything new, I will not forget you." ”

"Of course that's good......," Tours responded "happily," Tours replied "happily", wanting to smash the rugby ball in his heart.

......

Ye Wei's friends include Darum.

After doing "Dog's Christmas", they continued to cooperate in new comedy projects, and there was a track record of success in the plan, if they did another project of the same type and level, it would not be difficult to raise money, but what they had to do was at the screen distribution level, and the budget was 3 million, which was more complicated.

He's not Bill Gates, and he can't provide funding like a nanny, but this really enlightened him, remembering how hard he was to find money in the first place, and more people had more difficulties, and there are many independent filmmakers who spend years in vain.

Now the world is even worse, because the golden goose of Germany has been killed.

It is no coincidence that in recent years German companies have always been on the list of producers of American films. Germany allows investors in its film industry to receive tax breaks from their film investments, even if the films they invest in have not yet started filming. If a German wants to postpone the date of their tax bill to a more desirable date, investing in a film to be made in the future.

For Hollywood and the independent film industry, German law is like a most considerate lover, giving you nothing but beauty. Unlike other countries' tax laws, it does not require films to be filmed locally or to employ local personnel. It only requires that the film be produced by a German company that owns the rights to the film and can share in the future profits.

As the saying goes, "Hollywood is a bunch of lawyers and accountants", lawyers easily find loopholes.

First, the Hollywood studios sold the rights to the film to a German company through a written plan, and then immediately rented the film back. At this time, the film seemed to belong to the German company, and the Germans signed a "production service agreement" and a "distribution service agreement" with the studio, and the studio then bought the film back with the help of the right of first refusal, ending the symbolic and temporary ownership of the Germans.

What happened in between? For this "ownership", the Germans paid the studios more than 10 percent more than they ended up with through the lease and the right of first refusal, which was not given away for nothing, but was earned because of the tax reduction. And this extra 10% is an instant profit for the studio, with no risk and no cost, except for some legal fees.

In previous years, a mainstream studio like Paramount could make a windfall of $70 million to $90 million a year through this channel, which was enough to smash a blockbuster. The independent film industry is also benefiting, the big studios have the big studio play, independent has independent, the Weinstein brothers took the $5.5 million jointly invested by more than 9,000 Germans and made "Life Together" is one of the masterpieces.

Hollywood will not publicize the advantages it has taken advantage of, firstly, because it does not want the German government to revise its policies, and secondly, it does not want fans to be disgusted. But eventually, the German government tinkered with the tax code, and since 2007 the road has not worked, and Hollywood can begin to say that it has been hurt.

Ye Wei thought about taking this road at the beginning, but what was he four years ago? He didn't know a few Germans, and he turned back to the issue of pre-sale when he was looking for a middleman.

This golden goose is actually occupied by big studios and big people with heads and faces, such as Bruce Willis, one of the reasons for his great success is that the Germans have shared some of the risks for him, and now that the German golden goose is gone, he has lost money again and again, and the Cheyenne enterprise has closed its doors.

Speaking of this, Ye Wei sighed a little, and couldn't forget how to promote LMS and himself in the conference room of Cheyenne headquarters, not even a beautiful immortal.

Brian and they can't be persuaded recently, and directly use money to tempt him to make commercial films, the media says that the salary is 20 million to 30 million, but in fact, Paramount offers more.

As long as he nodded, the director of the project was 50 million before tax and a budget of 100 million. With the project paperwork of "VIY's first commercial blockbuster", Paramount has a way to make the project recoup its costs and make money before filming even starts through government grants, tax-free deals, product placement, etc.

2001's Tomb Raider is a prime example, with Paramount announcing to the press an official budget of $115 million, which cost $94 million to declassify, while the studio spent just $8.5 million. First of all, the rights of Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan were pre-sold to German companies for 65 million yuan, and then a few scenes were arranged to be filmed in the United Kingdom, and the British companies made 12 million yuan by virtue of the British tax reduction policy, and then they made another 10.2 million yuan from the German Golden Goose.

Before filming started, there was 87.2 million, and 1.7 million was given to agents, lawyers, etc., and 85.5 million was not enough to budget? 8.5 million.

It's like Peter Jackson who is very angry with the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy planning book to find money, but when the new line takes over, Germany + Britain + New Zealand + pre-sale, almost zero cost start-up. Overseas publishers who bought the pre-sale at the time may end up crying, but the new line will not.

This is even more true of the "VIY First Commercial Blockbuster" project, where various copyright pre-sales will be sold skyrocketing, and various product placement advertisements will come one after another, and Paramount will make a steady profit. The biggest boss in Hollywood is talent, and the core of this whole plan lies with him, and his 50 million is what he deserves, if promised.

However, the German golden goose is gone, and Brian uses this to threaten: "However, now is your hottest and most valuable time, and it will be different when you go to play football for two years and come back." Now that the market is good, you can earn the 50 million, and it will be gone in two years. "If you have gold, you have to catch it!"

This makes sense, but not necessarily, Hollywood can always find other flying money, like the increasingly powerful Chinese market, after ten or eight years, who knows what will happen?

In this money game, it is sometimes difficult to know whether a Hollywood blockbuster has lost or not, and who has lost the money. In addition to the company's earnings report, decryption, media reveal, etc., the sequel is a good practical reflection, and those who have a sequel will definitely not lose.

The death of the German Golden Goose was hit hardest by independent film financing, and many projects that still wanted to gather Germans had to find another way.

The key to "Hand in Hand" is tax incentives and crowdfunding, 5.5 million is a lot for one investor, and an average of more than 600 yuan for more than 9,000 investors.

On the evening of Saturday the 13th, in the garage of his residence in Palisad, Pacific, Ye Wei called Lev and Chen Nuo to hold a website entrepreneurship meeting.

In the core five of the Dream Chaser League, Bard and Corwin can't come from out of town, and their ambitions are not in this area, cooking and photography are. And don't look at the big nose and glasses, a freak and a nerd, no matter what, he is the top of Harvard-Westlake, Chen Nuo is applying for Stanford's computer science major.

"You know, a lot of rich people want to invest in movies, but they don't have a way, they don't live in Los Angeles, New York, just like Minneapolis, Cleveland, they don't even have the opportunity to be fooled by filmmakers, many fans also want to invest in movies, but they don't have that much money, it's okay to get 12000, they can't get more, but they don't have the opportunity to become movie investors with a few thousand dollars. ”

The garage was rudimentary, and the Lamborghini and Hummer drove away, which gave it a Silicon Valley vibe, and later it was possible to proclaim that "our site was born in a small garage." ”

The lights were bright, Ye Wei stood in front of a moving whiteboard, writing "Investment-Opportunity" with a whiteboard marker while talking, and Lev and Chen Nuo sat on the two shabby wooden chairs in front of them from the flea market, drinking tea with a thoughtful expression.

It's not November 2003, they're all 18 or 19 years old, and when it comes to making a career, it's no longer just a fun thing to do. They're not too old or too young in Silicon Valley, and if they want to do something cool about the site and stuff, it's best to start today.

"What will happen when we provide them with such an opportunity?" Ye Wei asked.

"Brother Wei, you mean to set up a crowdfunding website?" Chen Nuo's glasses seemed to reflect light, and he had realized how great the idea was.

"That's it!" Ye Wei burst out laughing, wrote "Crowdfunding" on the whiteboard, and then drew a row of ten stickmen, and said as he painted: "This is the era of the Internet! We can see that people are willing to use the Internet for other consumption and even investment! People regard the Internet as a vast platform full of opportunities. But are there any crowdfunding sites right now? I'm a movie fan, I have 2,000 dollars to spare, and I want to invest in a movie project that looks great, and it's cool, so what can I do?"

Lev was also excited when he thought about it, "It doesn't seem like there's a website like that." He looked at Chen Nuo uncertainly, and Chen Nuo nodded: "No." ”

"Gentlemen. Ye Wei spread his hands, hugged the vastness, and said in a speech: "Think about it! There are too many potential investors like me, if there is a website that can accommodate them, it will also accommodate those fundraisers! A financier establishes his crowdfunding project, sets the financing goal, financing period, rate of return, return method, return period, etc., of course, it must be professional, reliable and legal, which requires them to provide a business plan, a completion guarantee contract, and even a short film, etc., so that the website can be approved and attract investors.

An investor is looking for his heart, he has taken a fancy to a crowdfunding project of 1 million, in the range of the lower investment limit of 1,000 US dollars and the upper limit of 10,000 US dollars, he can invest as much as he likes. The project successfully raised 1 million in its financing period, by the way, the upper limit of the financing period can not be too long, one month, two months? When it does not complete the crowdfunding, the money will return to the investor, the financier can re-launch the crowdfunding, when it is finally completed, that is the next step, the financier takes the money to make a movie, sells it for money after completion, and then sends the return to the investor through the website, and completes. ”

Lev got up excitedly, his big nose spreading, "Brother Wei, that website is our website!"

"Cheer, roar!" Ye Wei raised his fist, "We have such a crowdfunding network, which will change the world." Man, the new financing of independent films is just one of them, and we can gradually grow it, music, games, art, technology...... All these creative projects, with great ideas but no money, I need money!Lev, you want to crowdfund 10,000 dollars to visit a brothel in Nevada, okay! Noah, you want to crowdfund 10,000 dollars to buy a comic book, okay! Anything, as long as there are investors to take care of you. ”

"Wow!" Lev cheered, and Chen Nuo thought of a key: "What about how we make a profit?

"Yes. Ye Wei had already thought about it, "We only charge some fees to successful fundraisers, and deduct them from the funds raised as a percentage, like brokers charge 3%, maybe 5%? But the fee should be introduced when the time is ripe. Not only did we start with no fees, but we also had to find ways to support some really good projects so that their success could make a name for themselves as a new model of online crowdfunding. ”

Chen Nuo had already done some mental calculations, "5% should be very suitable." ”

"I don't know, man, I'm not as good as you in this regard. Ye Wei smiled, "You know that I made a website for the sake of picking up girls, it's very interesting, and the rest might as well kill me." So let's be a partnership, I have money and fame, Noah you have skills and brains, Lev you have sociability and... Big nose. ”

"Actually, I have a concern. Lev didn't want to be like an idler, "Will this model be hindered by Hollywood?"

"No, it's just a networking of the crowdfunding model that has always been used for independent films. Ye Wei also said seriously, "Not only is it not an obstacle, but Hollywood wants to support it." ”

He told the two of them some clichés, the movie is a very high-risk thing, everyone is worried about how the finished film will be in the production stage, a perfect project can be made into a bad movie, and it is finally filmed, looking at it is a good film that can make money, then it is distributed, and a lot of money is invested, but it may end up losing pants.

Not to mention that this can't be stopped, the production model of major Hollywood studios has long been to do projects with independent studios or filmmakers, such as Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, but Legend is only one of its partners. This is all to spread the risk, who would refuse to skip the risk of a whole stage, just watch the finished film and consider whether to buy it?

No matter how you independent filmmakers make the money, and how you want to return to the investors, if it looks like a good movie that can make money, buy it, if it doesn't work, how far and how far it goes. Online crowdfunding has only increased funding channels, but it has not changed the rules of the game for distribution, and Hollywood is desperate for as many independent films as possible to choose from.

An independent film is produced, and the entire rights are bought by a large company and get a desirable amount of return. Not every movie is so lucky, and not every movie has that kind of potential. Even if there are ten good movies, there will be outers, because the filmmaker buys it to be released, and the distribution costs money, and there are risks in spending money...... Therefore, the distribution of independent films should find suitable channels, film festivals, overseas sales, video on demand, ......

But that's a producers' business, not a crowdfunding site.

Ye Wei smiled again: "Maybe in the future, now it is unlikely that you will crowdfund $100 million to make a blockbuster, our service targets are those small projects, ranging from thousands to millions." You don't have to start from scratch to crowdfund, in the R&D stage, pre-production stage, shooting stage, post-production stage, distribution stage, anytime you need money, you can go to crowdfunding, and this is not illegal.

Guys, it's a blessing to have such an outlet for independent filmmakers! For investors, they love this kind of opportunity, and maybe one of those projects is "Napoleon the Big Man", "Half Nielsen", or "Winter's Bones", thank you crowdfunding, thank you digital shooting. ”

"I'm in!" Lev was happy, "This will work!"

The more Chen Nuo thought about it, the more pleasantly surprised he became, "Online crowdfunding for creative projects has great prospects for development! It can become a part of ordinary people's lives." ”

"You think I can only make movies?" Ye Wei asked. Lev laughed and scolded: "Brother Wei, you can still." Ye Wei smashed the whiteboard pen in his hand at him, and also scolded with a smile: "You-son raised." I didn't go out to tonight, just for this matter, it's not about pulling down, we have to get the website up and running, let's register a company in the next few days. ”

"What is the domain name of the website?Chase-Dream-League?"

"It's too long, it's too formal......" Ye Wei said and thought, and suddenly had a flash of inspiration, and laughed: "Spotpass! ”

Lev and Chen Nuo applauded when they heard it, they were all good, they were good names, they were easy to remember, they were close to the people, and they were interesting.

Pass is passed, approved, Spot can mean spot, spot, vividly describes the target crowdfunding project, they are not big, just a small dot. Spot-pass is also a soccer term that means to pass the ball in place, which is suitable for investment and financing.

Ye Wei took another whiteboard marker, wrote a big "www.spotpass.com" on the whiteboard, turned around and encouraged them: "Gentlemen, four years ago, a group of us did a great crowdfunding, which became a textbook classic, and was told by people over and over again! Now it's time to move on, our slogan is, crowdfunding to realize dreams!"

Both Lev and Chen Nuo stood up, smiled and raised their teacups, a cool website and financing investment method is about to be born, online crowdfunding!

Crowdfunding-to-achieve-dreams!

......

On the afternoon of Sunday on the 14th, the sun was burning in Los Angeles, Ye Wei drove to the West Side Spray Training Ground in sportswear, and the two boys and Attorney Salton were doing the work of the website, and he could do whatever he had to do. After parking the car and going to the training ground, he saw a group of paparazzi guarding there, and as soon as they saw him, they came up one after another.

Someone was taking pictures, others were holding cameras and mobile phones, and he said hello and strode to the door of the training ground.

"VIY, can you talk about it? Why do you want to play football?" asked a paparazzi, handing over the mobile phone recording, "Tell me?"

"It's similar to when you snoop on other people's privacy, you go for a run. Ye Wei said as he walked, "But I'm a professional player." ”

Seeing that he was willing to speak, the paparazzi were excited, and another inquiry sounded: "Will you attend tomorrow's Golden Globe Awards dinner?" Ye Wei smiled: "Of course, although there is no gift package this year, I will still go." The paparazzi laughed almost happily, and immediately someone asked, "Will Lily go with you?"

"You'll know tomorrow. Pushing open the barbed wire door, Ye Wei stepped on the grass, Lily didn't plan to go as a girlfriend, he understood her, she had her pride.

"Which future girl will your girlfriend be?", "Will it be Elizabeth Olsen?" asked the paparazzi, and venue security stopped them.

Ye Wei smiled, tomorrow there will be four future girls on the red carpet of the Golden Globe Awards, none of them are his female companions, he will appear alone.

"Weige! Are you out of the film because your creativity has dried up?" another paparazzi asked, "Can't you make a movie?"

Ye Wei stopped and looked back at the group of paparazzi reporters behind the barbed wire, "What did you say?"