136 The amazing rate of return of 'Youth Bao Qingtian'
After Cao Xuan returned to the crew of "Young Man Bao Qingtian", the crew started filming non-stop again.
From the start of filming in early November to mid-February, "Young Man Bao Qingtian" has been filming for three months, and the progress has basically reached the advanced stage.
Important supporting roles such as Chen Daoming and Zheng Peipei have all finished filming and left, and the remaining scenes are for the protagonist group.
At present, four of the seven cases in the entire drama have been filmed, including the second case "Blood Altar", the third case "The Mystery of the Hermitage", and a small part of the sixth case "The Magic Phantom".
Among them, "Magic Phantom" did not feature Bao Zheng, and the crew was specially used to cover the plot of Cao Xuan's absence. The filming was scattered and very fragmentary.
Cao Xuan was particularly embarrassed.
But there is no way. This is the side effect of hiring big names to act. I have too many things to do and I can't stay on the set in a down-to-earth manner.
Even veteran actor Chen Daoming took several days off during filming.
When people are in the arena, they can't help themselves.
However, although Cao Xuan took a leave of absence, he did not participate in the drama and maintained his passion for character creation.
At the same time, he also cooperated with the crew's arrangements, and even took the initiative to rush to the show to reduce negative impact as much as possible. He is already a very good big-name star, and the director, actors, and behind-the-scenes staff have few complaints.
But Cao Xuan still feels that this is not good. You can't just compare yourself to poor craftsmanship and work hard with those popular stars. All decent actors are role models in the industry.
Therefore, you cannot say that you are a good actor if you are better than popular stars, but you must have stricter requirements and benchmark yourself against those truly outstanding and dedicated actors.
This time taught Cao Xuan a lesson, he still needs to plan the schedule well when taking on roles in the future.
I don’t dare to say that we should completely eliminate the behavior of asking for too much leave, but we should try to avoid it if we can.
Putting aside the sixth case, the remaining two cases, "Blood Altar" and "The Mystery of the Hermitage", are definitely the two most thrilling cases in "Young Man Bao Qingtian".
The creepy cave altar in "Blood Altar", the brutal killing techniques, the terrifying and weird mummy in "The Mystery of the Hermitage", coupled with the underworld BGM and camera editing, can definitely be regarded as the childhood shadow of countless people.
It can even be said that "Young Bao Qingtian" left a deep impression on many people, and similar childhood shadows definitely contributed.
However, when Cao Xuan and the others were filming, it was not as scary as on TV.
The so-called mummy is made of wood and cloth, painted with a layer of paint, and is not scary at all.
But that cave is a bit difficult. After all, the environment is dark, and several statues are deliberately made scary. Coupled with the gloomy atmosphere created by lighting, it is quite the style of the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony.
The male actors like Cao Xuan and Ren Quan were a little embarrassed, not to mention the actresses.
Finally, Cao Xuan came up with a good idea. Before each shooting, he got a speaker to play "Good Days" and "Gong Xi Fa Cai". The atmosphere in the underworld of the cave instantly became positive.
The actors no longer have negative emotions such as fear and can participate in filming. However, the side effect is that they laugh easily, and as long as one person laughs, a group of people cannot hold back.
The director specially arranged for the photographer to record this segment as a behind-the-scenes video, which he thought could be used for promotional purposes.
………
Cao Xuan returned to the crew from early February until filming wrapped in early March. He took two days off to return to the capital to attend the Lantern Festival Gala. The rest of the time, he even postponed commercial performances and devoted himself to filming.
March 8, Women’s Day
"Young Man Bao Qingtian" lasted four months and was finally completed. Cao Xuan and others attended the wrapping banquet arranged by the crew. They had a happy reunion and said goodbye to each other at the same time.
Especially the protagonist group, they have been together for four months and their relationship is still good, especially Shi Xiaolong, who cried while holding Cao Xuan and his two sisters.
The next day, Ren Quan and Hu Jing both rushed to Qin Province to participate in "Journey to the West".
The former has already mentioned that he will play the role of Qiao Ling'er, the reincarnation of the Buddha, while Hu Jing has settled on the role of Bai Lianhua, who is considered one of the two heroines. The other is Biyou, who is still played by the original actor Juanzi.
Li Bingbing went to Hengdian to film "Young Zhang Sanfeng" with Zhang Weijian, Li Xiaolu and Su Youpeng.
Wang Jinghua, the number one agent in the Mainland, was very discerning. Zhang Weijian went north to the Mainland to shoot TV shows, and was immediately noticed by her. He directly won a female lead, and his ideas were extremely accurate.
Cao Xuan was not in a hurry to leave Guangdong Province, but discussed the issuance issue with Chen Yong who came over.
The first broadcast platform of "Young Bao Qingtian" has been decided on Beijing Channel. After all, it is one of the investors. This was agreed in advance.
Beijing TV is asking 200,000 yuan per episode, which is not low in the market. After all, the number of episodes of "Young Man Bao Qingtian" is here, 40 episodes is 8 million.
Fortunately, Beijing TV is not the only one broadcasting, and Chen Yong has found two other premiere broadcasting platforms.
The first one is Modu Channel, which is also 200,000 per episode. The second one is Xiangjiang TVB Jade Channel, which is also Chen Yong's old relationship. It is not calculated by episode, and the package price is 5 million.
800+800+500=2100
Just from the first-run broadcast rights alone, "Youngster Bao Qingtian" successfully recovered its investment, and it can even be said to be a huge profit. After all, the actual investment was only about 10 million, and now it has doubled.
And the 21 million is not all the profit, "Young Bao Qingtian" also has other income.
In the current TV drama market, making money is mainly divided into the following channels.
①Mainland broadcast rights
This is easy to understand. It means selling the TV series produced by the film to a certain TV station.
The first round is the most expensive, let alone if it is a solo broadcast, many of them are sky-high.
For example, if "Youngster Bao Qingtian" wants to win the first-round exclusive broadcast rights in the mainland market, it will cost at least 500,000 yuan per episode, or even more.
Even TV stations in economically prosperous provinces may not be able to afford the 20 million+ expenditure for a drama, so few TV stations play on such a large scale.
Usually, several TV stations jointly premiere the drama to reduce the price of purchasing the drama and share the risks equally.
In addition to the first round, there are also second and third rounds. The price will definitely drop significantly compared to the first round, and it may not be able to be sold.
Only popular dramas with good first-run ratings can attract other TV stations to buy the second and third-run broadcast rights. And the more popular the show, the higher the price, and the more it will be sold.
Theoretically, there will generally be no more than 3 to 4 companies in the first round, and no more than 6 to 8 companies in the second round. Otherwise, everyone will broadcast it together, which will affect the ratings. As for the third round, there are almost no restrictions. Just give money.
Sell.
There is also an unspoken rule here that allows the film studio to exceed the quantity limit, which is to sell the first and second round broadcast rights to those city TV stations, which are the so-called municipal and district-level TV stations.
These TV stations are not on-star and have little impact on the ratings of provincial satellite TV stations. Many provincial stations do not pay attention to them.
Therefore, if there are no clear provisions in the contract, the film studio can take advantage of this loophole.
But the key is that many markets can't afford it, and they don't have a strong desire to buy dramas. Many of them are waiting to take advantage of the third round of studio sales at cabbage prices.
A very small number of dramas that are particularly popular or have special significance will only be sold by a small number of market channels, but the prices will be much lower than those of provincial channels.
Of course, the above are just most of the normal broadcast rights modes. In fact, there are many weird ways to play.
For example, there are certain TV stations that completely buy out a drama, there are also TV stations that jointly buy the drama in the second round, and several TV stations buy it equally, and there are also those that do not allow the studio to sell the drama in the third round.
Specific situation, specific analysis.
In short, it is a principle. The TV station wants to save money but also maximize the ratings, while the film producers try their best to make more money from the TV series. Both parties engage in various disputes based on their own interests.
② Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas broadcast rights
It's okay for Hong Kong and Taiwan. Nowadays, many TV series are sold in both Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China.
Most of them are first broadcast on RTHK/Mainland, and then introduced to Mainland/RTH after the ratings become popular.
Of course, there are also premieres in two places at the same time, but this is rare, and it tests the film crew’s connections and the influence of the TV series itself.
As for overseas, it's even more difficult. Unless they take the initiative to introduce it, they can still sell it at a higher price. If they sell it wholesale, the price can only be considered better than nothing.
③Sponsorship fees and patch advertising
Sponsorship fees are easy to understand. Generally, they are product placement advertisements or certain attractions. The region pays to invite the crew to film for publicity.
The market is not yet particularly mature, and only a handful of crews can receive considerable sponsorship fees.
When the market matures later, sponsorship fees will become an important source of income for film and television dramas, and there are even examples of crews making small profits directly from sponsorship fees alone.
As for pre-roll advertising, it is a characteristic of the times and a type of product placement.
Usually, a large advertising image appears at the end of the film, covering the end subtitles and video, so it is called a pre-roll advertisement.
This is quite common, if it goes too far, it may even appear in the main film, with a picture or a few lines of text appearing in the upper left corner or lower right corner.
However, the latter affects the drama viewing experience more, and it can be regarded as stealing the work of TV stations, so many TV stations have banned it, and most of the pre-roll advertisements appear at the end of the credits.
This pre-roll advertising is all operated by the producers. Some people can earn tens of millions of advertising fees for a TV series, while some people can't sell it for a dime.
Therefore, the film crew attaches great importance to this aspect but does not pay much attention to it. It all depends on fate.
④Advertising redemption time
This is more complicated. To put it simply, the TV station sells part of its advertising time to the film studio, and whatever advertising it pulls is considered the film company's.
Many TV stations don't have enough funds to purchase dramas, so they will use this method to offset the funds to purchase dramas.
This method was not uncommon in the 1990s and early 1990s, but later due to various reasons, this model became less common.
Similar to the previous pre-roll ads, this method relies entirely on the operator.
Some people are like ducks in water, and they don't even pay a cent, specializing in advertising to make money, while some people don't do this at all and only want real money.
⑤DVD copyright
This means that piracy is rampant, and even if it is sold, the price will be the same.
The above five channels are considered to be the main sources of income for TV dramas today. There are also some branches that have limited profits and are more complicated, so I will not list them one by one.
"Bao Qingtian" sold well in the first run, and RTHK also successfully sold the broadcast rights.
But the sponsorship fee, since it is not an urban drama, it is difficult to insert advertisements, and there are no invitations to promote attractions, so the income is only a small amount.
Three of the pre-roll ads were sold, one for 1 million, and another 3 million was made.
This price is considered to be at a mid-range level. Considering that neither Chen Yong nor Cao Xuan has any advertising channels, it is not bad. If it weren't for Cao Xuan's prodding, he wouldn't even be able to sell it for 3 million.
The frustration of the patch advertising also made Chen Yong give up the idea of exchanging TV advertising time and honestly choose real money.
The broadcast income of 21 million yuan plus 3 million advertising fees is the first wave of income for "Young Man Bao Qingtian".
Cao Xuan holds 20% of the share, which means he can get 4.8 million, while Cao Xuan’s investment is only 3 million.
And of the 3 million investment, Cao Xuan’s actual investment was only 1.5 million, and the rest was his salary.
Even if all his remuneration is converted into money, Cao Xuan's investment is almost 2.5 to 2.7 million, which has almost doubled now.
This is just the first wave. If "Young Man Bao Qingtian" can achieve the popularity of the original time and space, it is expected to earn another 10 to 15 million in the second and third rounds, and there will be more pre-roll ads.
If Chen Yong and others work hard enough, the total revenue of "Young Bao Qingtian" may exceed 50 million.
At that time, Cao Xuan could get 10 million, excluding taxes, there was a profit of several million.
The rate of return is definitely not comparable to that of investing in Penguin, but the key point is that Penguin cannot see the money in a short period of time, so it has to spend money on it, and "Youngster Bao Qingtian" is a real return of blood.
At the same time, the nearly five-fold return rate of "Young Man Bao Qingtian" also allowed Cao Xuan to see the huge profits in the film and television industry.
He doesn't expect every drama to make such a profit. He would be happy if it doubled or tripled. Even if it only doubled, as long as it made money, it would be worthwhile.
If you can occasionally pop up a big hit with a small profit, it can be doubled more than ten times, and you can even wake up laughing when you sleep.
