There is no suspense about the outcome of the negotiations, and the process is not interesting, so I won't say more.

In short, David Landau and his entourage stayed at the Beijing Hotel on May 3 and began negotiations on May 4.

Su Changqing began a very formal copyright transfer negotiation with the attitude of meeting for the first time as agreed.

The process was very cumbersome, and the two sides played fiercely, accusing each other of plagiarism when they were in a hurry, but it did not affect the development of the negotiation in a positive direction.

After contact, Su Changqing gave David Landau a phone number and established a secure communication channel, and the agreement actually bypassed Meluran Dora, and staged two different plays day and night.

According to the previous plan, Su Changqing proposed to exchange the agreed waiver price for an equivalent issuance service.

David Landau was very unimpressed: "I advise you to settle this matter with a sum of money, your film basically has no commercial value, the story is old-fashioned, the preaching is blunt, the lines are boring, the acting is childish, it will be a disaster to distribute in our market, you are not worth the risk." ”

However, Su Changqing insisted on the issuance cooperation and was willing to take risks.

The distribution itself is very simple, most of the cinemas in Europe and the United States are in the hands of a few cinema chains, and all the distributor has to do is to introduce the product, and then advertise it in newspapers and television, which is the same as selling other products.

But the actual situation is not so ideal, if you are not one of the eight major Hollywood studios, it is difficult to squeeze into that circle, and the theater chain has no confidence in your product and is not interested, and you don't even bother to answer the phone.

What Su Changqing needs is David Landau's distribution company to take a hand and enter the market in the form of cooperation first.

In fact, this is also the road that Zhongyi Brothers International Publishing Company has taken a few years later, and he is just groping for implementation in advance, hoping to be an instant hit.

After five days of tug-of-war, the two sides found a balance of interests, and finally reached a cooperation agreement, Paramount covered $3 million in promotion costs, and launched "Taiping" in theaters, home screenings and video peripheral omni-channels, and the distribution proceeds were shared together.

In other words, Su Changqing cannot collect copyright transfer fees, and Siwei Distribution Co., Ltd. and Paramount jointly distribute his new film "Taiping".

It just so happens that the producer of "Titanic" is also worried about how to pay for the acquisition of copyrights, so that it will be easy to pay the bills and will not leave a financial handle.

The $3 million publicity and distribution cost is not worth mentioning in Hollywood, but it is just the scale of the promotion of a small-budget film, which may not play much role, but Su Changqing is full of confidence: "If my movie box office reaches $20 million, you Paramount can divide it into three million, which is equivalent to taking away the copyright of "I Really Don't Want to Take the Titanic" for nothing, which is very cost-effective." ”

David Landau is not too optimistic about this.

If the box office of "Taiping" can reach 20 million US dollars, then the theater chain will share nearly 7 million, and Paramount co-distributors will share 3 million, and the rest will belong to four-dimensional distribution and production.

Therefore, cooperation is of great significance to Su Changqing, which is equivalent to exchanging a book for an opportunity to go out and promote his own movie.

The box office of $20 million is indeed not high in Hollywood films, only one percent of the later "Titanic", and even then it may be out of reach for Chinese films, and his ambitions seem unrealistic in the eyes of David Landau.

David Landau's negotiation was still a success for Hollywood, three million is not too much, and the change of a safe way of dealing is ultimately just a film released by Su Changqing for nothing.

If the box office is really optimistic, and even some can be recovered, then it is equivalent to a reduction in the cost of acquiring copyrights.

These days, David Landau has also watched Su Changqing's award-winning "Model Team" and his planned and screenwritten "My Sassy Girlfriend" and "The Princess's Decision", and his tone has loosened a lot, this crazy little director is still a little level.

However, he still has no confidence: "Mr. Su seems to have grasped some of the know-how of commercial films, but it is difficult to say whether the work will be accepted by Western audiences, and the box office created by your films in North America is not 10 million, I really don't know what to say about your idealistic experiment." ”

In fact, he doesn't care, anyway, the problem is solved, it doesn't matter if the film dies, give this kid a lesson.

Melulan Dora was not satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations, and the Hollywood businessmen were not mercenary enough to make too many concessions to the Chinese director.

But what can be done, in order to take care of greater commercial interests, we can only compromise, and without Hollywood's cooperation in the future, plagiarism investigation will be more difficult.

The investigation of intellectual property rights in the mainland has gradually tightened since the mid-90s, and 20 years later, it has become the fuse of many problems, and Su Changqing can be regarded as a pioneer.

Now that he has become a partner, Su Changqing especially released kindness to Meluran Dora: "When my "Taiping" is completed, please try it for the first time." ”

If the film is going to sea, it must have a good relationship in all aspects, don't treat the old American civil servants as cadres, some things are really more efficient to do with them now.

But looking at this girl's face, she was obviously not interested.

In order to further improve commerciality, Su Changqing added more sensational lines and conflicts, and appropriately changed some Oriental-style implicit expressions to be straightforward, and cultural barriers can easily lead to foreigners not being able to understand.

Pu Cunxi was keenly aware of it: "Why, our film seems to have changed to popularity." ”

It's really popular, Hollywood sells popcorn movies for a lot of money, and the sad things are too political, so it's better not to sell them.

At the end of May, the live shooting was completed, and the filming details were entered in the studio of Beijing Film Studio, and the six million of the film's budget had basically been spent, and Su Changqing had to add more than two million.

During this period, the labor cost increased a lot, and the cost of prop stunts in "Taiping" was too large, all of which exceeded expectations.

In this way, the investment in the film is more than one million US dollars, and a zero can be added to the back when North America is promoted to the outside world, and it should be calculated at the purchasing power parity of money.

Speaking of Xiaogang, he is still smart, and the "Party A and Party B" filmed two years later all relied on a few actors to talk about it, basically without other investment, it was filmed in four million, and the box office sold 30 million, which is really small and big.

Su Changqing stepped up the filming work, although the filming was not yet finished, part of the post-production also started at the same time, especially if you had to ask a good translator to match the English subtitles to a higher level.

For such a small-budget oriental movie, Paramount may not do its best to coordinate with the theater chain, and must reserve enough flexible time.

The end of the year is the peak season of the North American film market, blockbusters are piled up, of course Su Changqing can't jump into the fire pit, the film has to be completed as soon as possible, and a more suitable schedule can be picked before it, so as not to become a foil for the film schedule.

It is not a secret that Siwei has established a publishing partnership with Paramount, and Ding Jialuo also came up to ask if he could launch "My Sassy Girlfriend" first: "This is good for you and me, and by the way, Mu Mu can be praised as a real international star." ”

Su Changqing refused, this release is not a normal cooperation, there is only one chance at present, and he is more optimistic about "Taiping".

If "Taiping" is successful, it will be possible to continue to cooperate with Paramount, and it will not be too late to arrange Mu Mu's play in the future.

Ding Jialuo brought Tianyan's films into the North American market in order to expand her influence, and what she needed was beautiful numbers to make reports and write materials, which could not satisfy her.

The shooting in the studio was completed in half a month, and the post-production Su Changqing kept improving, striving to create a first-class level from the picture, music to sound effects, after all, this is the second film he directed himself, the conditions have improved a lot, and there must be a leap in quality.

In late July, the production of "Taiping" was completed, and at the same time as it was submitted for review, Su Changqing organized a trial film meeting, invited many peers in the industry, and specially invited Meluran Dora.

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The business war is over, and the film production is back, and there are a lot fewer recommended votes for the first two chapters, and it seems that many people don't like this kind of transitional chapter, so try to write as little as possible in the future, and let's stop it.