“Excellent!” Lei Dongming nodded repeatedly. “We also need to cultivate commercial film directors within our own system. Our Huaying Group will produce this film ourselves. We won’t bring in private investors. That said, I can’t allocate too much funding. Xiao Chi, how much do you think this project will need?”
Now they had reached the heart of the matter.
Sweat dampened Chi Ying’s palms. She instinctively wiped her hands against her clothes before answering, “I think one million yuan should be enough.”
Director Han immediately grew anxious.
“One million is a little too low, General Manager Lei. Our Xiao Chi is just too honest. It should be at least two million…”
The big boss laughed.
“All right. You ask for the sky, I bargain from the ground. I’ll give you one and a half million! Haiyan, your Script Planning Center will take charge of this production. You can be credited as the producer. In the future, if your center has other projects, we’ll handle them the same way. Sounds good?”
“Absolutely!”
Before coming here, Director Han and Chi Ying had already made a rough estimate together.
The film wouldn’t require many people, and many scenes could be shot on location without building expensive sets. Since it would be an in-house project within the state system, equipment like cameras could simply be borrowed instead of rented, keeping costs low. One million yuan should have been enough.
But that also meant they wouldn’t be able to hire any famous actors.
Chi Ying had tactfully brought this up with Director Han before. Neither she nor Director Han, the newly appointed head of the Script Planning Center, had much standing in the film industry yet. Veteran professionals weren’t likely to do them any favors.
So Chi Ying planned to recruit her former upperclassmen who had only recently graduated and entered the industry. That would save a considerable amount of money while also making coordination much easier.
Many of her classmates were already living in the capital, and most of the film’s locations were local, which would also save a substantial amount on transportation and location expenses.
To be honest, even if someone suddenly handed them several million yuan, Director Han herself wouldn’t have felt confident. This was her first time making a movie. Just now, she’d instinctively tried to negotiate a higher budget. Asking for more project funding was never a bad idea.
“All right then. It’s settled.”
Lei Dongming made the final decision.
Director Han made one more request.
“General Manager Lei, why don’t you also be credited as a producer? Our two organizations can co-produce the film. This is my first time doing something like this, so I’m honestly a little nervous. The producer titles would really just be honorary. Xiao Chi will be the one actually running everything. Don’t you agree?”
“Sure. I’ll lend you a little confidence.”
The big boss readily agreed.
“Thank you, General Manager Lei. Then our Planning Center will start preparing the project proposal.”
“Go ahead. Once your proposal is approved and sent over, we’ll transfer the funding immediately. The money must go into a separate account, earmarked exclusively for this project. The bookkeeping needs to be clear and transparent. If your first project gets off to a good start, your future work will be much easier.”
Lei Dongming emphasized the key points once more.
“Don’t worry. We’ll make sure this first shot is a success!”
Seeing everything proceed so smoothly, Director Han hurriedly patted her chest in assurance. She was practically ready to sign a military pledge.
…
From the moment they left General Manager Lei’s office until they returned to their own building, Chi Ying felt as though she were floating.
The dream she’d longed for had actually come true. Even the hardest hurdle, securing funding, had been cleared. She felt like she was walking on clouds.
Her excitement must have been obvious because Director Han kept smiling at her the entire way.
After returning to the Planning Center’s floor, Director Han patted her shoulder.
“Call everyone to the conference room. Let’s have a quick meeting.”
Chi Ying ran from one end of the floor to the other, knocking on every office door. In the end, she only found the HR officer who had stayed behind and the young accountant.
When the few of them entered the conference room together, Director Han didn’t think much of it. The center had always been like this, and there was no point making a fuss.
Director Han then updated everyone on the latest developments.
The center would now independently produce its own project, and funding for their first film had already been secured. But with such a large investment arriving all at once, everything needed to be handled carefully. They had to establish proper procedures and make sure they got off to a good start.
As far as the filmmaking itself was concerned, Chi Ying felt reasonably confident.
But beyond that, there was an entire list of tasks that required manpower, including submitting the project proposal and applying for the filming permit. All of those procedural matters had to be handled by someone.
The HR officer’s surname was Zhang, full name Zhang Lina. She was very familiar with the administrative procedures within the system and knew all the right people, so she would take charge of those matters.
Chi Ying would draft the project proposal, while Sister Zhang would submit it, handle the official seals, and process all the paperwork. Later, applications for filming permits and other policy-related procedures would also be her responsibility.
Sister Zhang was an energetic woman.
As she often joked herself, the Planning Center had been so idle that they were practically growing cobwebs. Now that there was finally real work to do, she was more than happy to take it on.
The accountant, Su Juan, however, looked worried.
Handling the large sum of money and opening a separate project account wasn’t difficult. But once production officially got underway, Chi Ying would need to withdraw project funds regularly. There was no way Su Juan could manage everything by herself.
Previously, the cashier position had been handled concurrently by Sister Zhang because the center rarely had any financial transactions beyond payroll and travel reimbursements.
Things would be very different now.
Personnel, equipment, and all sorts of expenses would be involved. Su Juan admitted she wasn’t familiar with industry pricing and had no idea what reasonable costs should be.
Fortunately, that wasn’t a major problem.
Those responsibilities normally belonged to the production manager.
Director Han made an immediate decision.
“Beijing Film Studio has been downsizing recently. I’ll ask around and find someone reliable to recommend.”
Su Juan added another reminder.
“Make sure it’s someone experienced, but not too old. Otherwise, I won’t be able to get them to cooperate.”
Director Han nodded repeatedly. She understood exactly what Su Juan meant.
Both Sister Zhang and Su Juan were actually eager to work on a real project.
Since being transferred here, they’d had almost nothing to do. Aside from their fixed salaries, there was no additional income. If the center really started producing films, their earnings definitely wouldn’t stay at the current level.
Everyone belonged to the same state system, and word had spread that when last year’s New Year’s blockbuster was made, the private production company had needed to partner with a state-affiliated organization to obtain a filming permit.
Beijing Film Studio had merely signed a contract with Ma Yuanchao’s team and allowed its name to appear in the opening credits. They hadn’t invested a single cent or assigned a single employee, yet they still made a fortune from that one project alone.
If their own Planning Center produced films directly, there was no reason they’d earn less than Beijing Film Studio.
Everyone was highly motivated.
Once everything had been sorted out, Chi Ying hurried back to her office to write the project proposal.
In her previous life at the television station, she’d written plenty of these.
Back then they had been proposals for launching television programs, but the format was essentially the same. She knew the process inside and out.
Once that was finished, it would be time to assemble the crew.
Having lived one lifetime already, Chi Ying understood how people and relationships worked. She carefully asked Director Han and the two women whether they had anyone they wanted to recommend.
The answer was no.
The three women were all relative newcomers when it came to filmmaking.
Only then did Chi Ying relax.
She had received formal film school training. Assembling a crew simply meant returning to her alma mater to ask professors and classmates for help.
She even made herself a checklist covering every department a film crew needed: cinematography, art direction, lighting, costume, makeup, props, sound…
She marked down people who had gone on to become well-known professionals in her previous life but were still complete unknowns now. For the ones she couldn’t remember, she’d have to rely on referrals.
She stayed busy until sunset.
It wasn’t until Director Han reminded her that she realized it was already time to get off work.
Remembering that Song Lin was still waiting back at the dormitory, Chi Ying skipped dinner in the cafeteria, packed up her things, and headed home.
The moment she walked through the door, she saw that Song Lin had already taken care of the extra bed.
The folding steel-frame bed looked about seventy or eighty percent new, definitely not brand new.
Out of curiosity, Chi Ying casually asked, “Where did you find this?”
Song Lin replied, “I asked around the guys’ dorm today. Apparently someone they were sharing a place with went home and didn’t want his stuff anymore. They cleaned this up and gave it to me. I got lucky.”
“That’s great.”
Song Lin had probably spent the whole day getting things in order. She had unpacked all her belongings, cleaned the room, and made it perfectly suitable for two girls to share.
“How did things go today?”
Seeing how cheerful Chi Ying looked, Song Lin finally couldn’t hold back and asked.
“It’s settled.”
“Really?”
Song Lin’s face immediately lit up. She squealed and threw her arms around Chi Ying.
“Really, really. Let go of me first!”
Chi Ying laughed happily as well.
“General Manager Lei agreed to invest in us. The project will be co-produced by Huaying and our Planning Center. Our center will file the project first, and once all the paperwork is complete, they’ll transfer the funding.”
“I’ll be in charge of the production itself. The center will oversee everything else.”
After finally escaping Song Lin’s enthusiastic hug, Chi Ying sat down on the newly made bed.
“I’ve been thinking…”
“Song Lin, how about you play my female lead?”
Song Lin froze in shock.
“Come on. Can you really make that kind of decision? This is your first film. If you’re too authoritarian and overstep your bounds, you’ll end up offending people.”
“I’ll explain everything tonight. Let’s eat first. The guys have helped us a lot these past two days. Why don’t we invite them all to dinner? I also want to ask them about a few things.”
After hearing such huge news, Song Lin actually became more cautious instead.
“Don’t invite too many people. You’re just getting started. Don’t make too much noise. If word gets out too early and something falls through later, people will just say you’re putting on airs.”
“That’s not it. The guys have wider connections. I want to ask if they know where some of our upperclassmen are now, and whether Tan Yi and the others have any plans recently.”
“The main thing is that our budget isn’t very large, and we’re all beginners. At the Planning Center, aside from me, everyone else, including our director, is basically new to filmmaking.
“For the crew, we absolutely need people with solid professional skills. But anyone with real seniority won’t take orders from me. Even if I somehow managed to bring them in, I’d have no idea who would actually be in charge on set. So I’m planning to ask some of our upperclassmen to come help.”
…
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