The Best Entertainment Era

In Shahai Entertainment's office, Ronan carefully flipped through the script of Grey's Anatomy, while Sanda Rhimes sat on the sofa beside her, waiting patiently for Ronan to finish reading the script.

This is just the first draft of the script, which is relatively rough and has a lot of room for improvement, but the overall framework of the story has been established.

Ronan flipped through the script, and occasionally took notes in the notebook next to him, jotting down the points of concern.

There are twelve episodes in the script. Because it is the first draft, the next few episodes only have the outline of the story, and the specific content has not been written yet.

Shonda Rhimes drank his coffee and glanced at Ronan from time to time. Although the two parties had signed a cooperation agreement, if the producer was not satisfied with the script, they could call her back and ask her to rewrite it.

Ronan made a final note in his notebook and closed the script.

The script is pretty good. Ronan looked at Shonda Rhimes and said, Hasn't it been difficult these past few months? Shonda, you've lost a lot of weight.

Compared to the last time we met, Shonda Rhimes had lost more than a circle of weight. The experience of living in the hospital for more than half a year was obviously very hard.

Shonda Rhimes said with a smile: I never thought that working would help you lose weight.

Ronan also laughed: You will have more work soon.

Hearing this, Shonda Rhimes instantly understood that there should be no problem with the script passing Ronan's review.

She also breathed a sigh of relief. As a black woman without sufficient qualifications, it is really not easy to get the support of producers and production companies.

Fortunately, I met a producer like Ronan who does not discriminate against blacks and women.

Shonda Rhimes was in a good mood, muttering to herself: So, I'm still very lucky.

Black, female, these two things make most production companies include her in the list of non-collaborators.

In Hollywood, there are too few producers like Ronan who can treat blacks and women fairly.

Ronan asked at this time: It can be seen from the script that you have gained a lot from the experience of life in the hospital.

Yeah. Shonda Rhimes said quite emotionally: If you don't spend enough time going to the front line of the hospital,

It is difficult for you to understand the operating system of the hospital and the work of the doctors. These cannot be solved by imagination alone. If the professional level is not reflected in the play, the whole story will have no skeleton, and it will appear amateurish and ridiculous.

Ronan praised at the right time: Sanda, you did a good job.

Shonda Rhimes instead smiled modestly and said, This is the basic quality of a screenwriter.

Ronan nodded lightly, just like star actors need to undergo physical training before shooting action movies, just like shooting military roles requires military training, Shonda Rhimes' behavior is actually nothing, it is the most basic profession in Hollywood Literacy.

Although there are various unprofessional situations in Hollywood, and there are super unreliable star actors like Johnny Depp, the extremely fierce competition and public opinion environment are enough to ensure that most people will not go too far.

It is unimaginable to cut out pictures directly in Hollywood shooting.

Many actresses, after the filming of the crew, took advantage of their free time to become pregnant and make human beings. As a result, the crew made up for temporary supplementary shooting. Even if they were pregnant, they would not choose to cut out the picture, and would rather wrap their abdomen with a green screen for shooting.

I really can't move, if I have brothers and sisters, I can ask them to do it for me.

Ronan withdrew his divergent thinking and asked, When will the script be completed?

Shonda Rhimes told the truth: It will take a month and a half at the earliest.

Ronan nodded lightly: Yes. We strive to start preparations in the second half of this year, and your agency CAA will provide a full range of services for this drama.

Before that, he had reached an agreement with Brian Lord, CAA would provide a one-stop packaging service for Grey's Anatomy, extracting 5% of the profits as a service commission.

Sandsea Entertainment does not have any experience in TV drama production, so it must be lacking in this aspect. Using CAA's packaged service is the best choice at this stage.

Moreover, the most successful and mature operation of CAA's one-stop packaging service is actually a TV drama project.

Mr. Lord talked to me once. Shonda Rhimes said: CAA will provide the greatest support for this project.

Speaking of this, she glanced at Ronan again, knowing that if Ronan hadn't taken a fancy to her and Grey's Anatomy, CAA would not have paid more attention to this project, at least not within two or three years. .

It's a completely different situation to get the support of a successful producer and to run around with a dull head.

Sanda Rhimes had a deep understanding of this and asked, Ronan, do you have any suggestions for the script?

In fact, Ronan would say it without Shonda Rhimes asking.

The rhythm of the story is more compact, and the emotional drama ends in the first season. Ronan didn't go around in circles, and said directly: Some emotional dramas that have nothing to do with the main story have been moved to the second season. If we can still film and produce the second season if.

Shonda Rhimes smiled confidently: There will definitely be a second season!

Ronan nodded slightly, and continued: To compress the plot of the first season to less than ten episodes, we need both the plot to be compact enough and the budget to be properly controlled, after all, this is the first season.

Just like a series of movies, starting the first part of the series is the most risky, and no one can guarantee that it will be successful.

Shonda Rhimes has encountered too many setbacks before, knowing that it is not easy to win Ronan's support, she has no objection, and said: I will revise the script.

Ronan glanced at the notebook and said, What do you think about the protagonist's setting and ethnicity?

Shonda Rhimes smiled and said, The five protagonists are white and black.

These words did not exceed Ronan's expectations. Perhaps in the world of blacks, there are only whites and blacks, and no one else exists.

Ronan said directly: Whites, blacks, Latinos, and Asians, among the five protagonists, these four major ethnic groups must be included.

Shonda Rhimes is not stupid at all, on the contrary, she is a rare smart person among black women, and immediately understood Ronan's intention: Broaden the audience as much as possible?

Yes. Ronan didn't need to deny this: These are the four largest audience groups in North America.

These are actually nothing. After a few years, it will become common and even necessary for TV dramas to have resident LGBT characters.

Many popular TV series, for this kind of Hollywood-style political correctness, do not hesitate to bend some normal characters in the play.

For those actors who can't figure out the situation and attack the LGBT group indiscriminately, the screenwriter dares to write their characters to death.

Situations like these will become routine operations in the future.

Shonda Rhimes only thought about it for a while, and said: I will make changes to the background settings of the characters to make them more in line with the requirements.

Later, Ronan said some other matters.

For example, Grey's Anatomy will complete all filming and production in the first half of next year, and it will be released on TV stations or other broadcast channels in time for the fall.

Only after seeing the actual ratings can one decide whether the second season will continue to be filmed and produced.

If the ratings are poor, even if the rating is high, it can only be cut off.

In this day and age, ratings are almost the only criterion for measuring TV series.

In the following three days, Ronan asked people to start more specific project negotiations with Shonda Rhimes. Since Shonda Rhimes was not demanding, the negotiations between the two parties went very smoothly.

It can be said that Shonda Rhimes is very clear about her current position, knowing that no capital requirements are required, and only a successful TV drama project can change her career.

The negotiation is mainly about Shonda Rhimes' rights and remuneration in the project.

In terms of remuneration, Shonda Rhimes is mainly divided into three parts.

The first is the screenwriter. As the sole creator of the script, Shonda Rhimes exclusively enjoys the script buyout fee of Shahai Entertainment, but it is similar to the film industry. Writers are paid just $5,800 per episode for a season.

Shonda Rhimes is a member of the Screenwriters Guild. Currently, the minimum remuneration for TV series scripts stipulated by the Writers Union is $3,800 per episode. After 2008, this figure will rise to $38,000.

The second is the producer. The first producer of Grey's Anatomy is Ronan, but it is Shonda Rhimes who is actually in charge of various tasks. She will serve as an associate producer with a total salary of 25 Ten thousand U.S. dollars.

Finally, there is the project initiator and person in charge. According to Hollywood’s prevailing rules, Sandsea Entertainment will pay Shonda Rhimes a one-time payment of 500,000 U.S. dollars as a project initiation bonus, and Shonda Rhimes, as the screenwriter and actual responsible People, who will participate in the later stage of the project, the proportion of the first quarter is 2.5% of the net profit.

In addition, there are some other terms.

For example, Sandsea Entertainment owns the subsequent creation copyright of Grey's Anatomy, which can ensure that even if Shonda Rhimes withdraws, the project can continue.

For example, Shonda Rhimes' work is exclusive. While working for Sandsea Entertainment, she is not allowed to participate in other companies' film and television projects, etc.

Of course, Shonda Rhimes also has a lot of power, such as the right to decide on actors outside the main cast and so on.

While negotiating with Shonda Rhimes, Ronan also negotiated with CAA and formally signed a one-stop package service agreement for Grey's Anatomy with CAA.

CAA will be responsible for providing all crew members from actors to behind-the-scenes staff for the crew of Grey's Anatomy, and assisting Shahai Entertainment to contact the distribution platform of the TV series.

Correspondingly, 5% of the net profit of the Grey's Anatomy project is the service fee of CAA.

Ronan also finalized the budget of the project after communicating with Shonda Rhimes several times. The first season has a total of nine episodes, and the filming and production budget is 3 million US dollars.