Chapter 277 Chapter 288 [Exclusive interview with popular movies, this is called making money while lying down]

The time has come on January 6st.

Well, Children’s Day.

Li Yishu’s impression of this festival still remains from the time when he participated in school cultural performances as a child. Thanks to his parents being filmmakers, he has some talent for acting.

But he didn’t have time to reminisce about his childhood. Today he had an interview appointment with Zhao Ni, the deputy editor-in-chief of Popular Films, at the Art Film Company on Chang’an Avenue.

The interview was decided a long time ago. After Lee Yi-shu won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, Popular Film magazine contacted Lee Yi-shu, hoping to conduct an in-depth and serious interview with her.

Li Yishu agreed to be interviewed, but he was busy with other things at the time, so he postponed the interview until now.

After the audition the day before yesterday, Popular Movies called again. Li Yishu wanted to finish the interview early to avoid dragging it out, so she scheduled it for today.

Chang’an Avenue.

Inside the reception room of the Art Film Company.

When the front desk staff walked in with Zhao Ni, deputy editor-in-chief of Popular Cinema, and her assistant, Li Yishu smiled and stood up to greet them: “Editor-in-chief Zhao, long time no see.”

“Yes, Director Li, long time no see!”

Zhao Ni smiled and said, “It’s really hard to get a date with Director Li, from February until today.”

She and Lee Yi-su are old acquaintances. They were interviewed once in 92. Although they haven’t been in touch much since then, it’s better than the awkwardness when they first met.

“I’m so sorry Editor Zhao.”

Li Yishu apologized, “I have been busy with work and I am in a hurry to return to China. I thought I would accept the interview when I am completely free.”

“Then Director Li should be free today, right? I have a lot of questions that I want to discuss with you.”

“Haha, of course. We have a lot of free time today, so we can chat slowly.”

Li Yishu smiled brightly, then warmly invited Zhao Ni and the photographer behind her to sit down at the table in the reception room, and asked the front desk to pour two cups of tea.

The two chatted briefly to warm up the audience, and when it was almost time, Zhao Ni asked the first question: “Director Li, I have a question I have always wanted to ask you. I wonder if you can answer it.”

Li Yishu nodded: “Editor-in-Chief Zhao, you can talk about it.”

“A few months ago, you held a new film press conference with Han Sanping, director of Beijing Film Studio, and Wang Xiaotang, director of Bayi Film Studio. The investment in Red Cliff of Three Kingdoms was over 6000 million US dollars, equivalent to 5 million RMB. Can such a large investment really recover the cost or even make a profit?”

This question is not only what Zhao Ni wants to ask, but many filmmakers in the circle are also very curious. 5 million RMB, according to the domestic box office market, it is definitely not enough to recover the cost.

Even if Hong Kong and Taiwan are included, it is still far from enough.

At the press conference, it was mentioned that there was a Japanese market, but can the cost really be recovered from the Japanese market alone?
Based on the 55-1.2 split with the theater chain, it would take at least $1.5 million to recoup the cost, not including taxes and other expenses. If taxes and other expenses were included, it would probably take at least $ million to recoup the cost.

This is just the return on investment. Not counting inflation, if you deposit this money in the bank over a few years, you will at least earn a lot of interest.

“In fact, recovering costs and even making a profit is not a big problem for me. The Japanese market alone is enough to recover costs and even make a profit.”

Li Yishu is considering the market, the Japanese love of the Three Kingdoms theme, and the future video copyright, including the copyright of electronic games and animation…

Japan is a mature market, and Lee Yi-su has a deep understanding of this. After his movie “Love Letter” became a huge hit at the Japanese box office, not only did the related books sell very well, but he also successfully cooperated with others on the copyrights of comics, animation, and even TV series.

In fact, this is just like the online literature in the later Internet era. Before Li Yishu’s rebirth, online literature IP had already formed scale, systematization and formalization. The popularity of a book led to film and television adaptations, animation adaptations, novel publishing, game adaptations… and so on.

It’s just that the domestic market is not familiar with this system yet, or has no intention of developing in the IP direction at all.

“I see!”

When Zhao Ni heard about these peripheral copyrights for the first time, she suddenly realized that the movie hasn’t been filmed yet, but many copyrights have already begun to be negotiated. How can it not make money?

“Director Li, you won the Best Director Award at Cannes this time. Some newspapers said that you wanted to win the three major awards again, but this time it’s the Best Director Award. Is that true?”

“Haha, of course I hope to be able to do it again, but whether I can win an award still depends on the judges of the film festival.”

“…”

The two chatted and laughed. Zhao Ni had also interviewed Li Yishu once and knew that the other party did not like to talk about those topics, so this interview was mainly focused on career.

The interview lasted for nearly an hour. Zhao Ni saw that the time was almost up. She had basically asked all the questions that needed to be asked. After confirming with her assistant that everything had been recorded, she stood up and said with a smile: “It’s almost time, so I won’t disturb Director Li from working.”

“Editor Zhao, you’re too polite. We agreed that we have a lot of free time today.” Li Yishu said as she looked at her watch. It was almost eleven o’clock, so she said, “Editor Zhao, it’s noon now. Why don’t we have a quick meal together?”

“No, Director Li, I’m in a hurry to get back to finish my manuscript.”

Zhao Ni smiled and declined, “I’ll invite you next time if I have a chance, Director Li. Don’t delay for a few months then.”

“Haha, no, no, no.”

Several people walked out of the reception room while talking. Li Yishu personally saw Zhao Ni and her assistant out the door, then returned to the company and talked with Yongmei about the company’s plans for the second half of the year.

The main focus is still on TV dramas, Zhao Baogang’s “Getting High” and Liu Yi’s “Frosty Leaves Are Redder Than Flowers in February”. The former is already in post-production, and the latter has also been successfully completed. It’s time to discuss the TV station’s broadcast.

CCTV is definitely the first target. CCTV’s brand is still very famous these days. What’s more, when Li Yishu placed the Pioneer VCD advertisement before, she had already contacted the people in CCTV’s TV drama department. Now it depends on the policy.

“咚咚-“

Just then, someone knocked on the office door. Li Yishu said without even looking up, “Come in!”

With a click, Huo Wenxi pushed the door open and walked in.

Yongmei saw the person coming, smiled and stood up and said, “Boss Huo!”

Hearing this, Li Yishu noticed that it was Huo Wenxi who came.

“Yes, President Yong.” Huo Wenxi smiled, then looked at Li Yishu: “Boss!”

Seeing Huo Wenxi coming, Yongmei also said: “Boss, I’ll leave first.”

“Well, communicate with CCTV as soon as possible. The policy should be released soon. Once the policy is released, we can discuss the TV drama procurement with CCTV.” “Okay, boss.”

Before leaving, Yongmei smiled at Huo Wenxi, then opened the door and went out.

“Come and sit.”

Li Yishu asked Huo Wenxi to sit down and asked with a smile: “Looking at you like this, this should be good news?”

“That’s good news!” Huo Wenxi smiled happily. “Sony has agreed to our proposal and will jointly develop DVD standards. They will also provide us with technical assistance and advanced production equipment in the future.”

“Well done, it’s completely safe this time.”

Li Yishu showed a look of joy. Sony agreed to the plan, which meant that in the future, Pioneer Electronics would be considered an international company that sets standards in the DVD field.

Although he has never worked in the real economy, he knows that first-rate companies set standards, while second-rate companies build brands…

This statement is certainly controversial, but Li Yishu agrees with it because he has seen too many companies that set standards and made huge profits by relying on technical patents.

What does it mean to set standards? To put it simply, it is just like the plug of the charger that came later.

The earliest Apple plug was one of the standards, but they used it for their own use and did not authorize it to others. However, the Android plug of the same period was open to the public and charged a fee.

Let’s not talk about counterfeit mobile phones and pirated chargers. In the years when smartphones were popular, almost all regular mobile phone brands used Android plugs. How much patent fee did this bring for the Android plug?
Even if the patent fee for a charger is only one cent, considering the production scale of hundreds of millions of mobile phones around the world every year, that would be tens of millions!
Later, Huawei formulated its own Huawei plug standard. Since then, mobile phone charging plugs are basically divided into three types: Apple, Android and Huawei.

This is the standard. The mobile phone charging plug is just one of them. There are many other standards regarding mobile phones, which were all monopolized by the West at that time. Why were branded smartphones not cheap at that time? In the final analysis, it was because of the expensive patent fees.

This is also the reason why Lee Yi-su, who clearly owns the patent for VCD and has made progress in the development of DVD, still wants Sony to join the market, because he has no ability to set standards.

Once Sony bypasses Li Yishu’s DVD patent and starts a new one on its own, the future of Pioneer Electric will be completely abandoned by the times. It will not be able to beat the wealthy Sony in price wars, let alone technology.

Before Li Yishu was reborn, the technical patents for DVD and VCD were monopolized by large Japanese groups such as Sony and Toshiba. Now that they can obtain the patents in advance and even participate in the formulation of standards, it is already a great victory.

Once you set the standards, you can make money without doing anything.

Huo Wenxi said, “Boss, I have already discussed the DVD standard with Engineer Jiang. He will lead the team to Sony’s headquarters in Japan next month to discuss it and communicate with the technical staff there.”

“Well, we still need to study technology well. Nowadays, Japanese electrical appliances are very famous all over the world. If Pioneer wants to develop in the field of electrical appliances in the future, it is necessary to learn overseas technology and innovate.”

At this point, Li Yishu suddenly remembered something and asked, “By the way, does Sony have a factory in mainland China?”

“some!”

Huo Wenxi nodded. “Sony established a joint venture with Shanghai Radio and Television in September last year and started operations in February this year. It mainly produces and sells cameras and other supporting equipment.”

“there is none left?”

“Not yet, but when I talked to their delegation this time, it seemed that they were planning to build a factory in the mainland to produce VCDs and DVDs in the future.”

Sony has already spent money to obtain the patent license for VCD, and they will use the technology to develop their own VCD in the future.

There is no way around it. Pioneer Electric is too weak. So far, its coverage area is limited to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and its shipment volume is not large. After all, ordinary people are not willing to buy new VCDs if they already have a video projector.

The situation is different in the mainland. The ownership rate of videotapes among mainland households is not high.

The emergence of VCD gave ordinary families a new choice, which was cheaper and had better picture quality. The only shortcoming might be the lack of variety of discs, but hundreds of movies were enough for many people to watch for a period of time.

Moreover, many film studios have noticed the emergence of VCDs and have begun to contact Pioneer Electric, hoping to take out the old movies in their film libraries and make them into discs for sale.

“So, you should lead the team yourself this time to Japan, right?”

“Yes, I will lead the team myself!”

“Then you can go and talk to Sony. If possible, we can do the OEM for Sony, which will save them the time and effort of building a factory in the early stages.”

“OEM?”

Huo Wenxi is not unfamiliar with this word. Hong Kong used to develop by relying on OEM, but because of its small area and sparse population, it later became a financial city.

After a brief thought, she understood what Li Yishu meant and immediately said with a smile, “Boss, this is a good idea. OEM can not only increase our profits, but also allow us to learn their technology and equipment.”

“Since you want to do OEM, you can’t do it under the name of Pioneer Electric. Wait until Sony agrees, then you can set up another company and rent some factories in the coastal areas of Guangdong to recruit workers.”

The essence of OEM is actually to learn technology, which is also the reason why piracy was rampant later. Because the bosses of those OEM factories learned the technology, they could change to another factory to get the equipment and technology to produce, and then they could sell it with their own brand logo.

Li Yishu’s current idea is quite simple. He will first rely on OEM to accumulate production experience and technology, and then use the money earned to invest in research and development, create his own brand, and wait until the wave of home appliances going to the countryside in the future millennium to completely unlock the brand value of Pioneer Electric.

However, it will take another ten years for home appliances to reach the countryside, and Li Yishu couldn’t possibly tell Huo Wenxi about something so far in the future. She just asked her to accumulate experience and technology through OEM first, and then slowly develop the Pioneer brand.

The two chatted until after noon, and then they had a quick meal with Yongmei at a nearby restaurant.

While eating, Li Yishu received a call from Chen Hong. When she learned that she would arrive at Yanjing Airport at 2pm, she smiled and said, “Okay, I’ll pick you up in the afternoon.”

After hanging up the phone, Huo Wenxi asked curiously: “Boss, do you have anything to do this afternoon?”

“Well, something happened.”

Li Yishu noticed her lost look and smiled, “Wenxi, when are you leaving for Japan?”

“It should be mid-month.”

“Mid-month? That’s about right. I’ll have to go to Japan by then, too.”

He just happened to be going to Japan to meet Takeshi Kitano. The guy survived a disaster and after half a year of recuperation, he has now almost recovered.

It’s time to talk to Takeshi Kitano about the movie “Hanabi”.

　In the last chapter, I changed the actors and skipped the business matters. I won’t mention it later. Today, I will just write one chapter. Let me sort out the subsequent plot.

　
(End of this chapter)