Feature Shows Extravaganza - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: What’s Wrong with Selling Toys?

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

In the end, Mr. Tao accepted the first-round TV broadcast rights of Blazing Teens and promised that the show would be broadcasted as soon as possible at prime time. Afterward, Mr. Tao enthusiastically offered to show Meng Lang around the TV station.

Meng Lang tactfully turned down the offer. After leaving Jiangchuan TV, he immediately went to the airport and boarded the first flight for Zhonghai.

Zhonghai, Shangjing, Xiangnan, Pengcheng…

Meng Lang travelled up and down the country and managed to sign broadcast contracts with 12 provincial TV stations.

Of the 12, five had promised to broadcast Blazing Teens on their comprehensive channels, which had a broader audience base, and the other seven were going to broadcast it on their children’s channels.

While Meng Lang was busy negotiating deals on broadcasting Blazing Teens, a piece of information went viral in the film and TV industry.

“Some stupid second rich generation spent 10 million on making a TV series, then gave it to the TV channels to broadcast for free…”

“Seriously? Can someone be that stupid? Does his family own trees that grow money?”

“I don’t care about where he gets the money from, just tell me how the TV series is.”

“I’ve asked. It’s so bad! Like, incurably bad! And it’s a feature show!”

“Feature show? Do people still make such outdated things?”

“I told you he was stupid!”

The discussion in the industry hadn’t affected Meng Lang yet, probably because he hadn’t been in this world for long and knew no one in the circle.

But it didn’t take long for the discussion to go beyond the circle and soon reached the internet.

It first started when a famous director known from Chinese New Year movies bombarded actors and actresses in his Weibo posts, saying that their exorbitant salaries led to the increase in production costs, but the increase in the quality of the films wasn’t proportionate to that of the cost.

And the director, who was nicknamed “small cannon”, went on and on about that issue until he finally got straight to the point, saying that the root of all problems was the inflows of speculative money, which created too many bubbles in the film and TV industry.

At the mention of this, the director complained. “Is the inflow of capital a good thing? I was told that with generous investors, there will be much less constraint during the shooting, but if you ask me, although the investors are putting in more money, the actors and actresses are getting paid much more, too. When you add in the extra cost of the increased salary, the profit of the film remains the same. Am I right?”

What an obnoxious man!

Actors and actresses sneered at his speech and some were even cursing him behind his back. “Pork used to be a lot cheaper back in the days, but I don’t see you accusing the rise in pork prices.”

One had to admit that although those working in the industry found the director’s opinion contemptuous, the online general public enjoyed it.

The online community supported “small cannon”, saying that they were reading more and more news on overpaid actors and actresses and that the production company had spent all the money on the salaries, leaving no money for making good films.

So far, it was still a famous director complaining about overpriced actors and actresses.

But “small cannon” was never afraid of offending other people. Not only did he mention the invasion of capital into the film and TV industry, but he had even listed Meng Lang as an example.

“I heard about this deal recently, which I found rather funny. Let me tell you about it.”

“A film and television company was founded at Jiangchuan recently and it shouldn’t have been a big deal. Capital invasion didn’t happen yesterday. So be it.”

“But that company was something!”

“How so? It was backed with a lot of money and has made a TV series just to satisfy its boss, with no regard for its cost. I heard that they’ve completed the shooting in three months with an investment of several million. Once completed, they didn’t sell it, but let the TV channels run it for free.”

“When I heard about this news, I felt so sorry for my fellow workers in the TV industry. We’re all doing the same line of work and cherish our careers.”

“This troublemaker just came out of nowhere. He doesn’t respect the job, but decided to make a feast of pigwash for his guests. Naturally, the guests won’t be pleased after eating the pig wash and will blame someone for it. But who will they blame? Since the cook himself doesn’t live on the thing he made and took off after cooking, the guests will have no one to vent their anger, so they’ll have to blame it on other cooks.”

In the end, the director concluded. “The capital invasion has led to an increase in the salary, which I’m against. Of course, there’s good and bad capital. We welcome companies like XX Capital, but not someone, like a certain film and television company in Jiangchuan!”

Sitting in the airport lounge, Meng Lang read every single word of the director’s complaint he posted on Weibo.

Meng Lang agreed with some of, if not all of his opinions.

But he was speechless when the director named him as the villain and vicious capital.

Why would a filmmaker lash out at someone making TV series?

Plus, that metaphor was so out of line!

Quality-wise, Blazing Teens was indeed no annual hit show. After all, it was limited by the production cost and the positioning.

But surely, it was no pigwash!

Blazing Teens was a feature show targeted for children and a toy advertisement campaign in the disguise of a TV show.

Since it was for children, the quality was just about right.

Was “Legend of Zhen Huan” a good TV series? Yes!

But did children like it? No!

And that was the difference between the two types.

Meng Lang figured that the director complaining on Weibo probably didn’t know what kind of show Blazing Teens was and only mentioned it to express his resentment.

Ever since Meng Lang started shooting Blazing Teens, he had never thought about selling the broadcast rights. He would count himself lucky for broadcasting a well-packaged yo-yo advertisement on TV channels without paying them. He had never expected to make money from it.

What was wrong with this world?

Meng Lang racked his brain, but still couldn’t figure it out. All the countries in this world had a thorough mechanism for protecting intellectual property rights and piracy had been cracked down on until it vanished for good.

Under such circumstances, peripheral products of films and TV words should at least have become a major revenue source, if not enjoyed a leap-forward development.

However, he had searched and searched online, but found no one in this world trying the development path of combining films and TV works with toys.

Aofei Anime didn’t exist anymore, Bandai had switched to produce semiconductors, Hasbo became a cosmetic company, and Disney never seemed to exist in the first place…

An industry of peripheral products of films and TV works did exist and relevant toys were being sold.

But the problem was, the peripheral products in this world leaned toward “complete” rather than “specific”.

That was to say, for a hit film or TV work, a lot of products such as toys, adapted novels, games, clothes, and phone cases could be released to the market, but they were all by-products.

It had never occurred to anyone that they would make a TV series or film just to sell toys or peripheral products. Most of the time, it was the other way around. Film/TV series came first, then the derived products.

Since the jump-off points differed, the outcomes were different, too.