Li Mu straightforwardly agreed to Teng Huatao's approximate budget of three million and allowed 30% of the actual shooting space. This made Teng Huatao heave a sigh of relief. An investment of three million and a budget of up to 3.9 million were more than enough for him to shoot this movie.
In fact, when Nine Blades was shooting "Those Years," they had prepared a total of 50 million NT dollars, which was equivalent to 10 million RMB. That was 10 million RMB in 2011. In terms of purchasing power, it was not much different from the current 3 million RMB. Moreover, this cost did not include the actors' salaries. If the actors' salaries were included, the total investment would definitely be 5 million RMB. Therefore, this production cost was more than enough.
After confirming the production cost, Li Mu asked Teng Huatao what he wanted as a director's salary. He thought for a long time and asked for 100,000 RMB.
Compared to Teng Huatao's current reputation, 100,000 RMB was neither high nor low. Li Mu gave Ning Hao a director's salary of 500,000 RMB, and 10% of the net profit was even more shocking. There was no other reason. Firstly, he was rich and willful. Secondly, he simply admired Ning Hao. As for Teng Huatao, he did not have a deep impression of this director. However, if he could really get into the state of shooting commercial romance movies, he might be able to shoot a few movies with high box office in the future. Therefore, Li Mu was also interested in signing him to Makino Technology.
If he really wanted to sign him, he had to do it as soon as possible. If he really waited until he finished shooting "Those Years," his value would probably increase a lot. Therefore, Li Mu immediately said to Teng Huatao, "How about this? If you are interested in Makino Image, sign a long-term contract with us. Starting from this movie, the director's fee for the first movie will be 200,000 RMB. After that, the fee for each movie will increase by 50%. Moreover, I promise to invest in a movie for you every year. As for your TV series, we will not interfere with it. You can take on more films on your own.
Li Mu had doubled Teng Huatao's director's fee. Teng Huatao was shocked, but the main reason why he was overjoyed was not because of the doubling of the director's fee, but because Li Mu was willing to invest in a movie for him every year.
Usually, directors who mainly focused on TV dramas would have a weaker influence in the film industry. For a director like Teng Huatao, it was already very good if he had a chance to shoot a blockbuster movie every two to three years. Moreover, every director's ultimate dream was to shoot a blockbuster movie, because that was the highest level of film and television entertainment. As a director, who didn't want to have more opportunities to shoot movies? Moreover, directors who were slightly famous would almost never take on a TV series. Even those directors who started out in TV series and later made achievements in the field of film directing would never return to make a TV series. The reason was very simple: they looked down on it.
Zhang Yimou had never taken on a TV series. Although Feng Xiaogang started out in TV series, he had not touched on TV series since 1997. His entire career was on the big screen. The reason was that every director saw movies as their ultimate pursuit.
It was the same for Teng Huatao. He also hoped to have more opportunities to shoot movies and become a first-rate film director. However, opportunities were hard to come by. Now that Makino Image was throwing him an olive branch, he accepted it without hesitation. He asked Li Mu, "Li Zong, how many years can we sign on for?"
Teng Huatao wanted to sign on for as long as possible. However, he also understood that there was a 1.5 times increment coefficient in the director's fee that Li Mu would give him. If he signed on for too long, the director's fee would be sky-high in the future. Therefore, Li Mu probably wouldn't sign on for too long.
Li Mu roughly calculated in his heart. With the 1.5 times increment coefficient, the director's fee for Teng Huatao's first movie would be 200,000 yuan, 300,000 yuan for the second, 450,000 yuan for the third, and 1,012,500 yuan for the fourth and fifth. If inflation was taken into account and his rising reputation was taken into account, the overall increase was not considered high. In fact, it was a little low. However, this was also the benefit of signing a long-term contract. At least for Teng Huatao, this price was very attractive.
Therefore, Li Mu said to him, "How about this, let's sign on for five years first. After five years and five movies, if everyone is happy working together, we can set a new standard."
Teng Huatao immediately said, "Okay! Li Zong, I'll sign on! "
Teng Huatao had heard about Li Mu. Ning Hao had also introduced Li Mu's current assets to him. The Makino Image had Makino Technology as its powerful backer. This was also a great opportunity for him. As a movie and television series director, he was very sensitive to box office sales, viewership ratings, and the number of people covered. If he signed on with Makino Image, it would be equivalent to finding a strong potential user group for his future movies. In the future, if Makino Technology used YY to promote Makino Image's movies, it could be said that he would be successful in every endeavor.
Speaking of YY, Teng Huatao was also full of praise for this magical tool. Now, he was one of YY's most loyal users and a loyal YY member. This was because he had set up several work groups in the industry. Communication, consultation, talent recruitment, and preparation could all be done in these groups. It was simply the best choice to improve work efficiency and promote the integration of resources. Therefore, he also held YY in high esteem. Signing on with Makino Image also gave him a strong sense of belonging and platform pride.
After talking with Teng Huatao about the long-term contract, Li Mu was also in a good mood. He said to Teng Huatao, "My goal for this movie is to be the pillar of Chinese-language campus romance movies. It wants to be the benchmark and beacon of youth campus movies so that all subsequent movies of the same genre can't catch up to it. Therefore, you must put in more effort to film the purest, most natural, and most resonant youth love story. You must not fall into a cliché."
Teng Huatao nodded in understanding and said seriously, "Don't worry, Li Zong. I understand."
Li Mu smiled and said, "You don't have to worry about the music for this movie. Simple Plan and Du Wei will both sing a theme song for this movie."
Teng Huatao asked happily, "They will all sing for this movie?"
Li Mu said with certainty, "That's right."
Teng Huatao naturally knew about Simple Plan and Du Wei's fame. Not to mention anything else, just from the popularity of the micro movie "Old Boys" alone, it could be seen that the original soundtrack of "Old Boys" was still very popular, which was also a great promotion for the movie itself.
Li Mu's idea was to give the song "Those Years" to Simple Plan and let Zhang Kexuan sing it as the first theme song of the whole movie, because there was no song more suitable to be the theme song of this movie.
In addition, Li Mu also wanted to give the song "The First Day" to Du Wei, because the lyrics of the song were also very beautiful and pure. The lyrics not only matched the atmosphere of this movie, but also matched the tone of the movie, which was filmed in the summer. "Those Years" was originally a love story that happened in the summer. The summer rain, the summer cicadas, the ignorant men and women in the summer, and the pure and beautiful love in the summer, perfectly matched the theme!
As for the other interludes, it was easy to deal with. He could either find two more suitable songs for Zhang Kexuan or Du Wei, or find a few songs from the ready-made songs and get some copyright royalties.
Teng Huatao's contract for five years and five movies was signed on the second day of their meeting. After that, they entered the preparation stage. Li Mu did not have too many requirements. He only reminded Teng Huatao to find the most beautiful high school and university as the filming location. Li Mu personally preferred Egret Island in the southeast of Fujian. The summer there was beautiful. To put it bluntly, even the air there was romantic. In particular, the few schools there were famous for their beauty throughout the country.
…
After Li Mu settled everything about "Those Years", Du Wei was finally willing to come back from Hong Kong.
This time, Du Wei stayed in Hong Kong for more than a week. During this time, Zhang Guorong and Mo Wenwei took her to meet many influential people in the entertainment and music circles in Hong Kong, which could be regarded as a solid foundation for her future development in Hong Kong. It was said that Du Wei also auditioned several times in the recording studios of several music producers, which amazed a lot of people.
Zhang Guorong didn't let her come back until she had met almost all the people she could meet. These days, Zhang Guorong and Mo Wenwei had a strong love for Du Wei. When Mo Wenwei sent Du Wei back to Jing City, she hugged her and shed tears because she was reluctant to part with her.
On the night when Li Mu came back, Dufy specially called Li Mu out, and the two sisters invited Li Mu to have a meal together. For Dufy, her younger sister almost depended on Li Mu's help, so she was very grateful to Li Mu. Needless to say, Du Wei almost regarded Li Mu as her own parent. She was not as obedient and obedient as she was to her parents' words.
At the dinner table, Li Mu listened to Du Wei talking about the people and things she had met in Hong Kong these days, and he was also happy for her. He said to Du Wei, "I wrote two new songs for you, a Cantonese song and a Mandarin song. When you have time these days, we can arrange these two songs and try to record them as soon as possible."
Du Wei was stunned and said, "Brother Li Mu, you wrote new songs for me again? And Cantonese songs? Were they also written by you? "
Li Mu nodded and said, "I have to let you release your first album this year, and you have to prepare at least eight songs. And I also arranged a movie for you during the summer vacation, which is the campus romance I told you before."
Du Wei put on a shy and admiring face and said, "Brother Li Mu, you are so good to me … You are even better to me than my sister …"
Dufy, who was on the side, was unhappy. She snorted and said, "Little ungrateful wolf, you always say how good your brother Li Mu is to you. Have you forgotten how good I have been to you for so many years?"
Du Wei smiled and said, "How can that be, sister? You are also very good to me, but you are different from brother Li Mu."
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