Simon leaned on the sofa and turned over the script in his hand. Hearing Lin Suyi's pointed words, he said, "You can do it if you want to, but don't have high expectations. The light and dark thresholds of the Chinese film and television industry are too restrictive. If you want to It’s impossible to make it big.”
Before Lin Su could speak, Lin Lan had already come over, handed a cup of tea into Simon's hand, sat down next to him, and said with disapproval, "Isn't Jin Shu doing a good job?"
Simon shook his head: "I just made a random layout here. It's only been like this for a few years. What does it mean?"
"It shows that my brother-in-law is very powerful."
"That's right," Simon smiled and continued in Lin Subai's eyes: "But to put it more clearly, China's market is already here. I dug a little bit and found such a big gold mine. Then why has no one done this before? ?”
Lin Lan reacted and repeated what Simon had just said: "There are too many restrictions."
Simon raised a finger and clicked on the tea cup he was holding: "Bingo!"
Lin Su interjected: "Since you can do it, it means that restrictions have been continuously relaxed. A lot of reforms have been made in the past few years, and there will definitely be more adjustments in the future."
"This is the threshold on the surface," Simon said. "As I just said, there are also unspoken rules under the water. In short, just don't have high expectations. It will take at least ten years for China's film and television industry to reach scale. Moreover, even after ten years, it will only be large-scale, but it will still be very chaotic inside."
The Lin sisters were a little confused for a moment.
Simon didn’t elaborate.
Hard to say.
For example, movies, do movies make money? Perhaps ten or twenty years from now, the public will be able to see films that continue to break new box office highs every year, one billion, two billion, five billion... However, compared to China's domestic production of thousands of movies every year in a dozen years, The entire industry as a whole is losing money.
Why do it even if you lose money
This is another very interesting topic, with different reasons at different stages.
Let’s talk about TV series.
The best era for China's TV drama industry was actually the decade around the millennium.
I didn’t say it before, but later, Simon felt that there was a small node in it.
A veteran actor who created classic series such as "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" and "Miracle Doctor Xilaile" was participating in a certain project because the producer wanted to extend the series from 30 to 33 episodes. Gu objected and said that you can't do this. This is irresponsible to the series and the audience. In the end, he couldn't stand it and took the producers to court.
Then it was blocked.
Then the public opinion overwhelmingly attacked the old drama star as a drama tyrant, blah blah blah.
Then, the extension of 30 episodes to 33 episodes was nothing. It didn’t matter. In the following years, 40 episodes, 50 episodes, 80 episodes, and 120 episodes of ‘big dramas’ came one after another. If you make a movie with only 20 or 30 episodes TV series, I feel embarrassed to say hello to people when I go out.
As a result, I couldn’t watch the TV series.
Are the audience stupid
Not stupid.
There was no response just because everyone didn't care.
Moreover, the key question is, who has the time to watch a TV series that can be finished in 20 episodes but is stretched to 80 episodes
Then, the TV drama industry began to involute.
The form of involution is that fewer and fewer people watch the drama. What should we do? The answer is to grab the few remaining people and squeeze them out as hard as they can.
Here comes the problem.
If you talk about money, it's something that hurts your feelings, and everyone will be fine with it.
The result is a vicious cycle.
Some people may think that is wrong. Twenty years later, China's TV drama industry will also be very prosperous. There will still be so many dramas every year, with huge productions costing 1 billion or 80 billion at every turn. The rich are very rich. Although, the quality of the finished films is also poor. It's often terrible, but in short, it's still very prosperous, so what's going on
The truth is, because the whole thing has nothing to do with the TV series itself.
It has nothing to do with the TV series itself. Of course, the quality of the series does not matter. If you can make do with it, you have to make do with it. If you can't, you have to make do with it. After all, no one cares.
The problem comes again.
What does that have to do with anything
Um…
This is another big, big problem.
So, does China’s film and television industry have no future
have.
Just like a movie, after a period of chaos and impetuosity, it gradually returns to normal.
Continuously breaking box office records have made people in the circle understand that you can only get high box office by making movies that the audience likes. Just improvising like a TV series will not work. After all, the cost of making movies to increase the box office is too high, and it may not be useful if you make movies.
It should be noted here that it is a movie that audiences like, not a 'good movie' that is praised by professional media or film critics in the traditional sense.
A good movie may not necessarily get high box office, because the audience may not like it.
So what kind of movies do audiences like
no one knows.
Hollywood has been struggling for a hundred years without fully understanding this problem. How many years has it been since Chinese films were commercialized? But no matter what, if you don’t do it carefully and just improvise, it will definitely not work.
So there is still a long way to go.
As for the recovery of the TV drama industry, it will be a long road ahead, who knows.
All in all, it is unlikely that China's film and television industry will become bigger and stronger just relying on the film and television content itself.
If it is just to make money, then at each stage, you have to adapt to the gameplay at each stage, instead of naively thinking that as long as I make movies and TV shows, I can become a giant and reach the top.
Let’s talk about the current Jinshu series. Why it can reach this glorious state in just a few years is because Simon has adapted to the current gameplay of the Chinese film and television industry.
Moreover, fortunately, the current gameplay of China's film and television industry is still very normal and mainstream, and the core is content, whether it is TV or movies.
Of course, it’s not just the content, you also have to have resources, connections, and channels, and these Jinshu series are not lacking, so they are booming.
Even too hot.
Although Simon did not go into details, with the Lin sisters' intelligence and their own environment, they quickly grasped the key points.
In fact, there is only one. If you only focus on the film and television itself, there will be no future.
Lin Su also quickly gave up some of his thoughts.
If this matter only requires focusing on film and television content, she doesn't mind getting involved, but if it involves too many things, she will be a little unhappy.
It's not that Lin Su is not as versatile as Chen Qing, it's just that she doesn't want to be that versatile. The second child will be born soon, and she still wants to focus more on her two babies.
While chatting like this, the time quickly came to evening.
Simon is leaving tomorrow, and tonight is very lively. Lin Su's grandparents, Lin's father and mother, Lin Dong, Lin Xing, who returned from the United States during the New Year, and Lin Lan and his wife are all having a dinner together.
The meal lasted until about eight o'clock, and they chatted about some trivial matters together. After nine o'clock, Simon and Lin Su returned to their rooms.
After coaxing a little guy to sleep and taking a bath, the two of them went to bed together. They were not sleepy yet. They turned on the TV and watched. Lin Su mentioned another thing: "A few days ago, the Economic and Trade Commission issued a "First Catalog of backward industries for batch elimination, Simon, do you know?"
Simon was looking through some policy documents that Chen Qing had sent over, and was very interested in one of them, the "Measures for the Punishment of Financial Illegal Behaviors" that will be released at the end of the month.
One of the provisions is quite famous, which is the maximum fine of 300,000 yuan.
The most well-known case is the case where a certain big-eyed person got the title of 'Buffett Zhao'. The couple manipulated the stock price and made billions. When the matter was exposed, the maximum fine was still 300,000. Well, the two of them together, 600,000.
When Simon heard about this incident, his first impression was that it was absurd, and the whole thing seemed like a joke.
Yet this is the truth.
However, from Simon's current position, he still approves of this bill.
After all, Simon is also a big player now, so of course he has to support it with both hands and feet.
Actually, who doesn’t know that a fine of 300,000 yuan is so inappropriate? The problem is, of course, everyone has to pretend to be confused while pretending to understand. After all, too many people want to fish in troubled waters.
Simon nodded when Lin Su mentioned a regulation that was also issued recently.
After last year's election change, coupled with the severe economic situation, China's reform pace this year has been very large, with various bills, regulations and institutional adjustments coming one after another.
As for the "First Catalog of Eliminated Backward Industries", to put it bluntly, it means to aggressively eliminate a large number of loss-making state-owned enterprises that are increasingly unaffordable in China, relax access to private capital, and further carry out market-oriented reforms. The most direct consequence of this incident is mass layoffs.
This is a massive layoff wave that is much larger than the cumulative number of laid-off workers from the 1980s until 1999.
People who don’t have an in-depth understanding of China’s economy often think that China’s economy seems to be on the upswing since the reform and opening up in 1978, and does not go through an economic cycle every ten years like the West.
Not really.
China has also been going through economic cycles.
Counting from 1978 to 1988, which was also the same ten years, the 'price breakthrough' policy was launched that year, with the fundamental goal of promoting the transformation from a planned economy to a market economy.
The result failed.
And the result of failure is known to many people.
Not even close.
Then there is now 1999, almost another ten years. The Southeast Asian financial crisis that broke out in 1997 seemed not to have affected the mainland, but that was not the case.
How could such a strong gust of wind not blow a big guy like mainland China
Due to the impact of the financial turmoil in Southeast Asia, other Asian countries have tightened their finances, and Western countries have become cautious when investing in Asia. As a result, capital inflows into China have decreased significantly. In addition, China's exports to other parts of Asia have also been severely impacted by sluggish demand, which ultimately led to severe deflation in China starting in the second half of last year, and, more deeply, overproduction.
If you are short of money, you can only tighten your belt.
Overproduction is now the time to eliminate backward industries.
In fact, it’s just to put it nicely.
Most of the so-called backward industries are not backward at all. The problem is that these industries, to be more precise, are a large number of state-owned enterprises. Not only do they not make money, but they are constantly losing money and require continuous subsidies from the state finance.
This is not the way to go.
What's more, there really isn't that much money to subsidize.
What to do
Can only be eliminated.
Except for core industries that are not suitable for opening up, other industries should be restructured and closed.
The result was massive layoffs.
Compared with the big move in 1999, China's crackdown on the education and training industry many years later was really a small move.
Then, in 2008, needless to say.
And then, in 2015, the impact was actually no less than that in 2008, and it was a long-term pain, a cliff, a cliff, a cliff.
In any case, compared to the West, which even relied on launching wars to divert conflicts to survive economic crises, China's ability to adapt to economic cycles is much stronger. Even the several economic cycles after reform and opening up were basically affected by the world economic environment.
For example, in a typical year of 2008, the United States was completely passive in absorbing huge inflation losses.
In the bedroom.
When Simon heard Lin Su mention the "Catalogue of the First Batch of Eliminated Backward Industries", he nodded: "I know, what's wrong?"
Lin Su came closer and accompanied the man to read the draft "Measures for Handling Financial Illegal Behaviors" while saying: "The province recently gave me some corporate information. You know, it's all that kind. I hope I can help. In total More than 30 companies, involving more than 80,000 workers, will all be laid off if they cannot maintain the situation."
Simon felt the sympathy in Lin Su's words, put his arms around her waist, put his palms on the woman's bulging belly, and said: "If there are only 80,000 people, we can afford to raise them in vain, but you have to understand, China’s reform this time is to cut off dependence and wean many industries and people off.”
Lin Su leaned on Simon's shoulder and said, "But if they lose their jobs, how will they live?"
Simon reached out and rummaged through a stack of folders on the bedside table next to him for a moment, found one and showed it to Lin Su: "The Regulations on Minimum Living Security for Urban Residents. This is also a draft and will be released in the second half of the year."
"I know, but..." Lin Su took it, turned it over twice and put it back on the man's lap. He raised his eyes and glanced over, with a little emotion: "You just don't want to care about it?"
Simon tilted his head and kissed the woman on the forehead, and said with a smile: "There are 80,000 people in more than 30 companies, with an average size of two to three thousand people per company. They are obviously big companies. You have to know, in my opinion, Here, the key to managing an enterprise is actually to manage people. If I really take over, 80,000 people are all Chinese state-owned enterprises, involving various types of establishments, as well as intricate human relations and interest chains up and down, how could it be possible? Can I control it? And if I don’t fight for control and only invest money, the result is even more conceivable. If I can wear a customized suit, gold watch, and famous shoes, but can leave a pair of underwear on, that’s my skill.”
Lin Su couldn't help but laugh after hearing what Simon said to the end. After thinking about it, she realized that this was the truth. She could only sigh and said: "Then, I will choose two or three companies. I can't reject them all. If I can't do it well, You definitely don’t mind, right?”
Simon nodded: "Yes."
In fact, in recent years, the Westeros system has been continuously acquiring companies in mainland China through mergers and acquisitions or equity participation. But most of them, to put it bluntly, are companies with fairly good foundations. Not only do they have good performance, but they often have great Very good management team.
At this stage, China's various accommodations to foreign capital also make it easy for overseas capital such as the Westeros system to achieve their goals.
Since you can eat the most delicious fat meat, of course you won’t exchange it for the leftovers.
Even if vulture investing often means bigger profits, the problem is that this is not the United States, or some other Western country where Simon can influence the rules of control. You want to be a vulture, but maybe before you can bite, you become a meal for the local hyenas.
Anyway, things are different this time.
Simon will definitely not give up the idea of hunting in this wave of trends, but he must wait for the opportunity. As for others taking the initiative to come to his door, it is better not to have any expectations.