Feature Shows Extravaganza - Chapter 47

Chapter 47: Mr. Tao Has Been Promoted

The shooting of Explosive Boys went rather smoothly.

Nothing out of the ordinary had happened so far, and Li Yu’s unsatisfactory acting skill wasn’t a problem to Meng Lang. All young actors were like this, and all they needed were some right instructions.

What had been troubling Meng Lang was which broadcasting channel to premiere it on.

That influential man’s connections were a one-time thing. More than enough people wanted to broadcast their shows on CCTV-14, and Meng Lang wasn’t even the first in line.

In other words, without that man’s help…

To premiere it on CCTV?

Not in a million years!

Meng Lang had no choice but to choose from other channels.

Which one, then?

Apart from CCTV-14, other children’s channels were all local ones that would cover a province at most.

But there was a natural shortcoming with an audience base like these.

Jiangchuan Children’s Channel was an old friend of Meng Lang, and they had a happy working experience together. Mr. Tao had been sounding out Meng Lang’s intention every now and then, and his channel had shown a lot of interest in Explosive Boys.

But Meng Lang couldn’t say the same for other channels.

A piece of information worth mentioning was that because of Mr. Tao’s great contribution to the channel, in mid-February, he was officially promoted to the deputy director of Jiangchuan Children’s Channel and the director of the content production center.

“Congratulations, Mr. Tao! You deserved this! There’s a great chance that you’ll become the director of the station before you retire!”

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“From now on, you’re Director Tao to us!”

In the chat group formed by Pengda Pictures’ clients, the purchasing agents of major satellite and children’s channels all over the country were offering Mr. Tao their congratulations.

They couldn’t hide the envy in their tone.

Before, everyone in the chat group had pretty much the same job title, but all of a sudden, one of them became a deputy director of a TV channel. How could they not envy?

This chat group Mr. Tao was in consisted of people in various lines of work from buyer and content creators of domestic TV channels to personnel of foreign TV channels.

Other film companies had chat groups like this as well, but their client base wasn’t the same as Pengda’s.

The incredible young Director Meng was able to sell Blazing Teens, his first TV work, to dozens of TV channels all over the world, hence attracting a lot of customers overseas.

No one would deny her capability.

Still, some people weren’t convinced.

But convinced or not, Blazing Teens had indeed been well-received all over the world, and Pengda had worked with TBS, making a new version of Balala the Fairies. No other film companies had been able to do that.

Cheered up by the promotion, Mr. Tao was no longer as low-key as before and had even chatted with people from other TV channels in the chat group.

Apart from sharing his joy of being promoted, their subject mainly revolved the three shows Pengda was making at the moment.

Magic Girls had already been announced as the Japanese version of Balala the Fairies, and the others didn’t have much interest in it.

Blazing Teens 2 and Explosive Boys seemed much more promising to them.

The sequel of Blazing Teens was still under preparation, and even the director was a newbie who was only selected a few days ago. Everyone might be chatting about it, but no one mentioned purchasing the show before its completion.

Explosive Boys became the center of attention.

The show was directed by young Director Meng himself, and the guy had proved his capability through Blazing Teens and Balala the Fairies.

The shows he directed weren’t Game of Thrones, but the viewership ratings were always more than satisfactory.

Because of that, even before Explosive Boys was completed, the TV channels were already subtly competing against one another for the first-round broadcast rights.

Thanks to the advantage in his geographical location, Mr. Tao had been visiting the shooting site almost every two days.

The other parties were much further away, and they needed approval from their superiors to go on a business trip, making it much more difficult for them to visit Pengda.

It was safe to consider that Mr. Tao would have the deal.

Everyone thought that way.

Jiangchuan Children’s Channel had been actively expanding its business. The director was decisive enough to invest heavily in creating high-quality content, and Director Meng was a close friend to Mr. Tao. As a result, everyone was convinced that Jiangchuan Children’s Channel would have the premiere broadcasting rights.

That was why the buyers of other TV channels hadn’t shown much interest in Explosive Boys.

Mr. Tao had been showing off his great friendship between him and Meng Lang all the time in the chat group, but Meng Lang had never denied it.

To other people, such acquiescence was the same as admitting that there was something unspeakable going on between Mr. Tao and Meng Lang.

Meng Lang had no idea that he had been set up.

He had put the chat group on silent since it was established, because he needed his rest, but these middle-aged men could talk nonstop at times, and the memes they sent gave Meng Lang a headache.

What baffled him was why the other TV channels didn’t show much interest in Explosive Boys. With himself as the director and the success of his previous two shows, they should have.

Anything would be possible if they just tried hard enough.

Mr. Tao’s great effort had made Meng Lang want to have Explosive Boys broadcasted on Jiangchuan Children’s Channel in the first round as well.

Their only disagreement lay in the price.

Mr. Tao insisted on 100,000 per episode for the first-round exclusive broadcasting rights and had denied Meng Lang’s request of raising the price or making the rights non-exclusive.

Mr. Tao was much more confident after becoming the deputy director.

“100,000 is our bottom line! Not a cent more! Here’s the deal. If you can sell your show at a higher price, I’ll apologize to you on my knees!”

Not again!

Meng Lang didn’t know what to say. He wondered where Mr. Tao got this habit from. The man could act like such a shrew.

“Kowtow again? You said the same thing last time, but did you do it?”

Mr. Tao said, “Did I? My memory isn’t all that good, so don’t try to trick me!”

Meng Lang showed him the screenshot of their conversation.

“Well… Have y’all heard about the hackers that would steal other people’s accounts? It’s a real problem…”

The man was doing everything he could to deny it.

Meng Lang was disappointed with Mr. Tao. The two of them were supposed to be friends, but all the guy ever did was try to trick him.

Explosive Boys was supposed to be 30 to 35 episodes long. It was slightly shorter than Blazing Teens and Balala the Fairies, but the special effects were much better made.

The special effects of Explosive Boys were completed by Thunderbird and the special effects team of Pengda Pictures together. Thunderbird was in charge of the virtual simulations of the revived popping balls, while Pengda would take care of the simple light effects.

The money spent on the special effects alone was higher than the price Mr. Tao offered.

Meng Lang didn’t agree with the price. He decided that he would see what prices the other TV channels would offer after the work was finalized.

Until then, it would be too early to talk about the price.

“Director Tao” left in disappointment.

“Meng isn’t as gullible as before!”

He used to give out the show for free. After that, it became 50,000 an episode.

But now, even 100,000 an episode wasn’t enough.

Mr. Tao decided that he liked the young man back then, who would give him things for free. This Director Meng wasn’t all that likeable…

Seeing on a stool behind the monitor, Meng Lang had no idea what sarcasm Mr. Tao had been venting in his head. He gathered the crew and quickly moved onto the shooting of the next scene.

“Be quick about it! What happened to the lighting? Are the propmen playing cards again? Get moving! We’re starting now…”