Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

The American TV circle strictly implements the "separation of production and broadcasting" mechanism. TV stations are only responsible for broadcasting programs or TV dramas (except for pure news programs), and the production of these programs or TV dramas is entrusted to the corresponding production companies.But this Oriental TV station under Jade is an exception. In order to abide by the agreement with Tom, the actual Oriental TV station still retains a production company of Oriental TV Production Co., Ltd.Today's Oriental TV station mainly purchases corresponding programs from Hong Kong TVB and Taiwan TV station, resulting in insufficient operating hours of Oriental production.Although the salary can still be paid as usual, the main income of the production company comes from the advertising share of TV programs. The current situation is that Dongfang Production is not hungry but also not full.

When this situation lasted for almost a year, it finally provoked protests from the entire Dongfang Production. Both the management and employees expressed their dissatisfaction to their parent company, Dongfang TV.These dissatisfaction finally shocked the "Sherman Family Development Fund", the owner of Oriental TV, so Jed was forced to come forward to appease these production staff.Before setting off, Jed had read the resumes of most of the management and core staff of Touhou Productions, and had to say that their creative abilities were very limited.

To be honest, it has been 1941 years since WCBW, the first TV station owned by CBS, started broadcasting in 50. Everyone’s production standards are not much different, and the criteria for distinguishing a production company are the degree of financial strength and creativity. degree of novelty.Obviously, Dongfang Production not only has no money but also no creativity. No wonder their parent company, Dongfang TV, is too lazy to give them a hand.However, Jed is unwilling to give up Dongfang Production. A TV production company is worth cultivating slowly. After all, his ultimate dream is to enter the film and television industry.So, let's start with making a TV series.

The capital of Dongfang Production is not considered generous, and they can't afford more money, so making sitcoms has become the first choice.Sitcoms can be produced very cheaply, with one or two interior scenes and then no more than ten regular actors.But which time slot this program intends to broadcast will depend on the quality of the script and the sophistication of the production.The TV time slots in the United States can be roughly divided into: early morning time slots, day time slots, prime time slots, and late night slots. In addition to program rebroadcasts, late night slots and early morning slots mainly broadcast news programs and documentary programs, so TV dramas are almost all in Aired during daytime and prime time.

The daytime slots are pretty much garbage time, basically for TV stations to fill their time.The TV series purchased during this period are usually 90 or [-] episodes, but they are all one-time buyouts.As for what advertising share you want and the release of future video tapes, that's basically a "daydream".So, Jed is all about prime time.Throughout the [-]s, the sitcoms with the highest ratings in the United States were "Friends" and "Will & Grace."

Although Jed can't fully recite the scripts of these two TV series, he can basically remember the basic setting of the TV series and the plot of the story.With these two items, Jed became the Creator of the two TV series.In the United States, screenwriters are divided into two categories, one is the creator (Creator), who is responsible for the background setting, character creation and plot outline of the entire TV series; and settings to fill the episode plot.

Although the main creator is sometimes the main writer, the status of the main creator is much higher than that of the main writer.You know, an excellent main creator can get an annual salary of one million, and even have the opportunity to become a producer.But the main writer of a play may earn tens of thousands of yuan, and there is almost no room for promotion, unless he can become the main creator.Of course, in addition to the main creator and main writer, a screenwriting studio also has various screenwriting assistants.They are either responsible for collecting some interesting passages or events for the main writers to adapt, or they are responsible for filling in some unimportant plots.Therefore, the screenwriting team of an American TV series is usually three to five people (not including assistants). If anyone can write an American TV series by himself, Jed can only say that this person does not understand the production process of American TV series at all.

The reason why American dramas are popular all over the world is that apart from their own production level, the most important thing is that their plots are completely operated according to the market.If the market is not satisfied, then some branch plots will disappear immediately.Therefore, this is definitely not something that one person can handle. Even if Jed has a complete set of "Friends" scripts in hand at this time, he will not directly use them for shooting.Can you guarantee that the taste of the audience in 1990 is the same as that of the audience in 1994?Therefore, Jed can only provide ideas, and the real script must be created by the screenwriters.

When he rushed to Dongfang Production, Jed could already feel the pessimistic mood in the company.After all, the employees are not fools. No program or TV series has been launched for a whole year, which almost means that Dongfang Production has reached the verge of bankruptcy.The reason why he is still carrying it here must be because of the agreement with the trade union.When seeing Jed and his group appear, the front desk lady showed a look of fear in her body. In her opinion, this must be the gods of death who came to announce the closure of the company, right?

At this time, the United States was still in the age of Bush Sr., and the American economy was already showing signs of recession under the pressure of the Japanese economy.For ordinary people, once they are fired by the company, it is very difficult to find another job.This is also the reason why even though Dongfang Production is in a very bad situation, very few employees are willing to take the initiative to terminate the contract with the company.After Jed arrived at the company, he directly asked to see the chairman and general manager of Dongfang Production.

Since Dongfang Production is controlled by Dongfang TV, the chairman is actually the same person as Dongfang TV, but the general manager is a man named David Klein.Jed still had a slight impression of David Klein.He was a good screenwriter, but not a proper manager, so Jed decided to put him in his place.Although Jed is not the direct owner of Dongfang TV, he is a member of the Sherman family after all, so the chairman rushed over as soon as possible.

When Jed saw that the management was basically in place, he looked at his legal assistant, Ron Trotter.Ron was Paul Weiss' lawyer who suggested that Jed register the shell company, and now he has come out to work alone with Jed's funding.

Although Ron had doubts about going it alone at the beginning, Jed said to him, "You are a lawyer who is eager to show off in the spotlight, can Paul Weiss give it to you?" Ron is indeed a lawyer who is not very mainstream. , but had to restrain himself under the rules of Paul Weiss.With Jed's support, he teamed up with Tom Nixon (son of a congressional senator), Luther Gaines (a former California state attorney) and Alden Turrell (a former assistant to a state Supreme Court justice). ) formed a TNT&G law firm.

At present, in addition to dealing with some routine lawsuits, TNT&G's main client is Jade.Ron was very clear about Jed's thoughts. Jed wanted to make Dongfang Production independent and not mix it with the family fund.

"Everyone should know that Dongfang Production has reached a very embarrassing situation. Whether to close it or reorganize it is all on everyone's mind." Ron En looked at the management indifferently and expressed his thoughts on behalf of his boss.

The chairman of Dongfang Productions immediately interjected: "The production company has been losing money for several years. Although Dongfang TV is not a listed company, such a negative equity company is obviously not good for the TV station. Now that it has reached such an irreversible situation, we I think it's better to just declare bankruptcy."

The chairman's proposal is of course beneficial to the TV station. Oriental TV's ratings among the Chinese people are rising steadily, so it is naturally unwilling to have the big burden of Oriental production.However, this proposal immediately aroused dissatisfaction from the management. The general manager David frowned and said: "I admit that the development of Dongfang Production has been very bad in the past few years, and I am willing to resign and be responsible for this, but I still urge the board of directors to give serious consideration to Dongfang Production. The future. We have excellent production talents and well-equipped studios, which are excellent assets, and what we lack is only a script!"

David's proposal obviously did not satisfy the board of directors. David gritted his teeth and said, "If we manage to buy out the company, how much will it cost?" David's MBO (management buyout) plan made the board of directors shine. The offer made the board feel disingenuous.Jed looked at all this coldly. He knew very well that the management had limited funds, and no one was willing to inject capital, so it was almost impossible for them to eat Dongfang Productions.

Now that the management buyout plan was rejected, the board of directors naturally initiated the bankruptcy plan.But after this decision came out, Jed even found that many female executives covered their mouths.At this time, Americans are still very loyal to work, not to mention that Dongfang Production is an old company that has been around for nearly ten years.

"If the board of directors intends to sell, I'm interested in taking over." Jed suddenly interjected, "I'm willing to cooperate with the management of Dongfang Productions to initiate an acquisition of Dongfang Productions. I wonder if Mr. David Klein is still interested?"

David's eyes lit up. Of course he knew that the master in front of him had just won a claim against the insurance company, and he was probably running out of money at this time.Regardless of what his real intentions are, let's talk about keeping Dongfang Productions.Although the board of directors did not understand Jade's sudden intervention, they had no reason to reject Jade's acquisition in terms of business.Since both parties are interested, the acquisition will be settled soon.

Jade became the major shareholder of the new production company with 100 million yuan, holding 80%; while the current management holds 20%.According to the agreement between Jade and the management, Jade does not directly intervene in the company's daily operations, and promises to reduce the shareholding ratio to about 50% within five years.After more than a week of liquidation work, the new production company was handed over.

Jade named the new company "Dongfeng Production Co., Ltd.", which not only shows the origin with Dongfang TV, but also shows that this is a new company.David Klein continues to serve as general manager of the company until a suitable manager is found.

In addition to looking for a suitable manager, Jed also issued an order, no matter what, please bring the four screenwriters David Kelly, David Schur, Aaron Sorkin and Anthony Suk into Dongfeng Production, and even give them shares.