"With the successive launches of provincial TV stations in mainland China in recent years, the TV industry will enter a period of vigorous development. This is the best opportunity for the rise of Jinshu. After all, the threshold for domestic TV in China is far lower than that of movies. The demand far exceeds it. However, other capital will definitely not miss this opportunity. If Jinshu Department wants to stand out, it needs to have sufficient competitiveness. What should be the core competitiveness of Jinshu Department? In my case It seems that the key is to professionalize all aspects of film and television projects from incubation, production to marketing, distribution, etc., to form a mature industry chain."
"You have to remember, this is business."
"If any business wants to be successful, the core is high-quality products. But in addition to ensuring that the products are good enough, you also need to reduce costs as much as possible in the production process and become as famous as possible in the marketing process. The ultimate goal It’s about getting more revenue.”
"Maybe you're thinking, how to do it specifically, and can I teach you more than these broad concepts?"
"Of course I know what to do, because I came up step by step from the bottom. Even though the film and television entertainment environment in the United States is very different from that in China, if you look at it in detail, since it is business, it is inevitable to reach the same goal by different paths. However, I didn't Time will teach you, I just want results."
"If you are willing, with your current position and the resources available to the Westeros system, you can learn the operating methods of any professional field. Again, I only look at the results. Once done, I I will give you enough returns, certainly more than you think. Due to various regulatory restrictions in China, most companies in the Jinshu family and the Westeros system cannot hold too many shares. I hope that more of these shares will be used. Those of you who actually do the work take it away. Of course, if you don’t do it well, there will still be nothing. I am a person who highly values rewarding only if you give.”
In the study room of the mansion on the west bank of the West Lake.
Simon didn't have time to communicate emotionally, so he basically went straight to the point and communicated with several senior officials of the Jinshu Department, and Simon did most of the talking.
At the end of this, Simon once again flipped through a document that Lin Su had sent in before, and continued: "The last thing is about "Dragon Babu". This is a novel that I like very much. In fact, Mr. Jin Yong's I like most of the works very much. Therefore, besides business, I hope to do this project as my personal hobby and make it a real work of art. It just so happens that this project is a three-way cooperation between Hong Kong TVB and Mainland CCTV and us. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as a pure business, but has more special meaning. Therefore, being the best does not conflict with my hope. "
"Since it is my personal hobby, let alone how many resources CCTV and TVB can provide, I will personally give a budget of US$15 million."
When Simon said this, Wu Shanlin and Luo Que, who were sitting on the sofa opposite, were a little stunned.
15 million U.S. dollars? That translates to 120 million yuan.
"Tianlongbabu" is expected to only have about 40 episodes. "Water Margin", which CCTV is producing in the past few years, can be called a national drama, with a budget of less than 60 million yuan. Moreover, the US$15 million that his boss just mentioned was only the investment from Jinshu’s family, and the resources provided by CCTV and TVB were not included.
After spending money like this, it is obvious that his boss really has no intention of recovering the cost.
After Simon finished speaking, he gave a few people some time to digest, and handed the document in his hand to Wu Shanlin. He continued: "Therefore, there is no need to rush in terms of production. It will be completed in two to three years. It will be no problem, just like CCTV's production of the Four Great Masterpieces." That way, select the best actors and the best behind-the-scenes team. And lastly, this? I will personally donate an additional set of digital cameras and corresponding post-production equipment. The core is the latest digital camera developed by Sony, a 1920*1080 movie-level The resolution, huh, is actually less than that. It only has about 800 pixels in the vertical direction. The image quality needs to be compensated by hardware such as lenses, but it is far higher than the current 640*420 image quality standard for TV series shooting. You should find a suitable team to practice as soon as possible. Master the equipment.”
Regarding various famous epics in the past, and even the later CCTV Jin Yong series, Simon's biggest regret is the picture quality. All kinds of scenes with beautiful mountains, rivers, beautiful scenery, beautiful women and tough guys are greatly compromised by the rough picture quality.
Especially CCTV’s Jin Yong series.
If Zhang Dabeard could have filmed with movie-level picture quality, there would have been no room for all kinds of "extremely beautiful women" to act as monsters and beat them up again and again.
Therefore, what Simon wants this time is to get it right in one step.
Using CCTV, we can mobilize the huge resources of the country, the mature professional production team in Hong Kong and the abundant funds of the Jinshu Department to achieve the ultimate goal at once. There has been no Jin Yong drama before, and there will be no Jin Yong drama since.
To achieve this goal, the first thing is image quality.
The first 1080P movie-level digital camera was only launched in 2000. It was developed by Sony specifically for the filming of "Star Wars" at the request of George Lucas. In fact, the major electronic giants have already had sufficient technology. accumulation. This time, the great success of Tinker Bayer's i-Cam series stimulated the rapid development of digital camera technology in advance. With various electronic giants increasing their investment, Sony has launched 2-megapixel 1080P three years in advance. Professional digital video camera.
Of course, the current image quality of Sony's camera is still far behind that of film, and the actual pixels are less than 1080P. It requires some technical processing to achieve the corresponding effect. But this is an absolute leap forward for the current 420P TV shooting.
Although compression is definitely required for TV broadcasts in this era, shooting in 1080P image quality will not be outdated even twenty or thirty years later. This is also the fundamental premise for Simon to achieve "get it right in one step".
In order to achieve this goal, Simon donated three sets of Sony's latest digital cameras, together with various supporting lenses and storage accessories, as well as corresponding post-production equipment, with a total value of US$1.8 million, equivalent to nearly 15 million yuan is enough to film two or three low-cost TV series in China at this time.
As the people across from him gathered together to check the list of equipment that would be shipped to the country in the near future, Simon asked: "By the way, CCTV, have you contacted Zhang? How did he reply?"
Of course there is a big beard here.
Zhang Beard is still in the system at this time, and is currently serving as the chief producer of "Water Margin".
Fortunately, the filming of "Water Margin" has come to an end. The most indispensable thing at CCTV is the producer. They invited them in advance. As long as they are not stupid with a big beard, they will know that the significance of this job is no less than that of "Water Margin". 》.
Simon still hopes that Zhang Dabeard can serve as the helmsman of "Dragon" and even the subsequent Jin Yong series this time.
It has always been difficult for Simon to understand the outside world's criticism and even abuse of Zhang's bearded Jin Yong series. At that time, whether as an insider or an ordinary viewer, Simon believed that Zhang's Jin Yong series was definitely the best version, bar none. As for the adulation of the Hong Kong version in the 1990s, that is not aesthetic, just sentimental.
Just like the unofficial allusion about Zhu Yuanzhang's obsession with a bowl of "Jade White Jade Soup" before he became famous, due to the lack of film and television content at the time, some of them would become classics after watching them.
When Wu Shanlin heard Simon ask about Zhang Bearded, he quickly said: "Zhang has agreed, boss. We have been meeting during this time. He was also looking forward to meeting the boss. Unfortunately, he was not invited this time."
"Just agree. Forget it this time. There will be opportunities in the future. In addition, if the other party is willing, you can drag him into Jinshu Media."
Wu Shanlin said: "Actually, Zhang already has this intention. Boss, in this case, I will discuss this matter with him when I get back?"
"Can."
It was not until about ten o'clock in the morning that all the people who should be met had been met, and Simon officially set off to leave China. Lin Su is staying and is expected to spend the Lantern Festival with his family before returning to North America.
After the Boeing 767 took off, Simon began to understand another thing in the cabin office.
Or the 'Westeros effect'.
It can be said to be another coincidence. On February 4, the day after Simon arrived in China, Hanbao Steel Company, ranked 14th in South Korea and the second largest steel giant in South Korea, suddenly declared bankruptcy. The Korean stock market immediately fell sharply, and then It was transmitted to Japan, Singapore and other countries, causing the stock markets in Southeast Asia to fluctuate and fall.
The main reason for the collapse of Hanbao Steel and even the Hanbao chaebol, which controlled more companies behind the scenes, was debt.
In order to achieve its rapid expansion, Hanbao Steel has been frantically promoting the construction of tens of millions of tons of steel plants with only 2% of its own funds in recent years. The other 98% of the funds come from various banks, insurances, etc. in South Korea and abroad. Financial institutions, let’s not talk about how many violations there are. After all, more normal financial institutions should not provide a company with a 50 times leverage level loan. The result is that Hanbao Steel’s capital chain is broken, which in turn triggers the collapse of the entire Hanbao chaebol. .
These days, South Korea is also celebrating the New Year, but the South Korean government is very worried.
In order to avoid a chain reaction caused by the collapse of Hanbao Chaebol, which has a total debt of more than 5.5 trillion (about 7 billion U.S. dollars), the South Korean government had to urgently provide 1 trillion won (about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in bailout funds to plug the financial loopholes of Hanbao Chaebol. , to avoid systemic financial risks in the Korean economy.
The wind blows the green leaves.
The economic boom in Southeast Asia that began in the 1980s inevitably led to over-investment in all walks of life. These investments not only consumed the wealth brought by the country's economic growth, but also caused investors to borrow heavily from the international market, thereby consuming revenue from a seemingly booming export business.
All this ultimately led to a huge debt problem hidden throughout Southeast Asia.
Debts borrowed must eventually be repaid.
The result of failure to do so is, first of all, corporate bankruptcy. After a company goes bankrupt, if there is a lack of remediation and huge debts cannot be repaid, it will cause problems in the capital chain of banks and other financial institutions, and even lead to bankruptcy.
If real industries are organs, financial institutions are the blood connecting a country’s economy.
Problems with a single organ may not be life-threatening as long as they are repaired or even removed in time. However, once the bloodline completely collapses, it will definitely be difficult to survive.
In this Hanbao Steel incident, the South Korean government limited the negative impact to financial institutions, that is, the blood of a country, before it suffered an impact through decisive rescue.
However, once the scale of debt is too large and even the government cannot save it, the result will be widespread bankruptcy of financial institutions, and the impact will be transmitted overseas. A large amount of international debt cannot be repaid. Rating agencies will lower a country's credit rating, triggering a bond sell-off. At this time, if someone cooperates in selling the currency, it will cause a country's currency to depreciate significantly and national wealth to evaporate out of thin air.
This is the economic crisis.
In fact, not only South Korea, but Thailand, which was once the flashpoint of the Southeast Asian financial crisis, has also begun to experience small-scale debt defaults in recent months. It is only because the scale is far less than that of Hanbao Steel that it has not attracted too many people's attention.
During the more than ten hours of flight, Simon read a thick stack of analysis materials on the economic conditions of Southeast Asia, but did nothing.
For the time being, he remains on the sidelines.
Three billion US dollars of funds have been lost to Soros, and Cersei Capital also has its own layout. When the general direction is correct, Simon is too lazy to delve into the details.
This time, Simon's main target is South Korea.
In fact, Japan is more attractive.
However, on the one hand, Japan is too big to swallow. On the other hand, the Japanese economy is actually far less open than the outside world imagines. It can even be said to be quite closed, which is really difficult to swallow.
Korea is different.
After the coming crisis, South Korea's economy will be forced to open its doors to the world. Moreover, South Korea's current GDP of around US$600 billion is within the appetite of the Westeros system.
The most important point is that compared to other countries in Southeast Asia, South Korea has many industrial fields that Simon is very interested in. The two major targets that were targeted very early include electronics and entertainment. After investigation and research in recent months, combined with the information in memory, , two more specific items were added, shipbuilding and architecture.
South Korea has now reached the world's top level in the field of shipbuilding and construction. The key is its considerable cost advantage. Investing in these two industries will bring considerable returns in the future.
As for the electronics field, this is a fairly broad concept.
Simon hopes to cut off the development of South Korea's entire industrial chain in the electronics field through the control of the Westeros system, and only serve as a parts supplier for direct electronic giants such as Nokia and Tinker Bell in the Westeros system.
In this regard, Apple used to be in trouble.
Simon would certainly not make this mistake again.
For example, Samsung, this time, can only choose one between semiconductors and LCD screens. Even in the semiconductor industry, Samsung can only choose one of them and will not allow it to develop in an all-round way.
Finally, the entertainment industry is completely suppressed, including music, film, television, and games.
After all, this is the area Simon is most familiar with.
Moreover, Simon needs a bridgehead for the entertainment industry in Greater China. Growth in China takes time. Japan is still too closed. South Korea is just right. Controlling audio-visual entertainment is, on the one hand, a pacifier, and on the other hand, it is also public opinion. As for playing with my thighs occasionally, it's just a way of doing it.