The video website industry in the Qin and Qi provinces is quite saturated, with major platforms like Penguin Video, Catmill, and Qiyi. These websites, known for their guaranteed high traffic, are all popular choices for video streaming.
Shen Qing is reliable.
He managed to secure cooperation deals with Penguin Video and Catmill. As we are not relying on exclusivity or selling the production rights to these platforms, the profit-sharing agreement wonât be that sizeable.
The profits arenât just limited to those earned from video streaming but from advertising as well.
Letâs use Catmill as an example.
The full name of Catmill is Kitty Cat Movies, but the audience prefers to call it Catmill.
In the Catmill platform, if an online feature film is watched for more than six minutes, itâs counted as a successful view.
Why six minutes? Because the first five minutes is a free preview. If you make it to the sixth minute, it means youâve paid to watch.
For each successful view, the profit share is approximately 1.5 yuan if itâs not exclusively broadcasted. If itâs exclusive, the share is around 2 yuan, while the platform prices the film at 5 yuan.
Advertising costs are calculated separately.
Lin Yuan has reviewed the contract in detail.
He didnât concern himself with the complex calculations, all he knew was that for each 5-yuan payment made by a viewer to watch âFlirting Scholarâ, he would earn 1.8 yuan. Including advertising revenue, the total would amount to more than 2 yuan.
Though the platform takes a bulk of the earnings, their profit-siphoning abilities are lesser compared to movie theaters, which is within the threshold that Lin Yuan is willing to accept.
After signing the contract,
The filmâs release date is also settled.
The official streaming begins on 1st July, during the summer holidays on the two websites.
This is a typical advantage of a web-based feature film, Lin Yuan wouldnât have to wait for a slot like regular films or TV shows. If he wanted to, he could even stream it today.
However, thatâs not good.
Even web-based feature films need publicity. The video streaming sites serve as the major platforms for this.
Penguin Video and Catmill have each drawn up several documents. Almost overnight, they hastily kickstarted the publicity campaign.
The publicity for web-based feature films is typically not very grand.
Catmillâs proposed publicity document read: [Investment of tens of millions in the biggest online movie, âFlirting Scholarâ, screening from July 1st, click to reserve and kickstart your summer holiday!]
Penguin Videoâs was similar.
Their promotion was placed at a rather noticeable location: [Web-based feature film also has a summer release. âFlirting Scholarâ, out on July 1st, all your happiness, I promise, here to save your unhappiness!]
Thatâs it.
Anyway, the audience interested in web-based feature films would surely take notice, however it seems that the movie still lacks a âwow factorâ. The number of reservations made by the audience is not very high after the publicity.
âThis is not good.â
Being behind the web-based feature film contract, Shen Qing naturally hopes for it to attract more audience.
He contacted Lin Yuan: âMr. Lin, would you mind if we use your name, Admirable Fish, for publicity? Most of the time, our movie publicity needs some controversial topics for the outside world to discuss. The entry of a gold record composer into scriptwriting would make a great topic.â
Using âAdmirable Fishâ for publicity?
Lin Yuan hesitated a bit, then agreed with Shen Qing.
Because at Starlight everyone knows that âFlirting Scholarâ is made by Admirable Fish, thereâs no usefulness to hide it. Even if he uses a pseudonym, his identity would be revealed in minutes, so itâs better to let Admirable Fish take full ownership of the scriptwriting.
The day after Lin Yuan agreed,
New promotional texts for the web-based feature film were introduced.
This time the texts from the two websites were similar, itâs not clear who copied who:
[The golden record composer and sensation of the music industry, Teacher Admirable Fish, makes his scripting debut with âFlirting Scholarâ, releasing on July 1st!]
The text was sneaky.
The words âAdmirable Fishâ in the publicity text were enlarged and bolded, to make sure theyâre not missed by the viewers.
There are also some small letters underneath the text, listing all the famous songs Admirable Fish had previously composed, attempting to use the popularity of those songs to boost the film.
Apart from this, the movieâs poster was also changed.
The original poster was a group photo of the male and female leads along with some supporting characters, nothing eye-catching.
Now it has changed to pictures of the lead actors, one on each side.
No need to focus on the leading male character, he looked like he was in a play.
The lead actress was different. A fiery figure, pretty facial features, with a sneak peek of her long white legs.
Anyhow, very enticing, leaving plenty to the imagination n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Itâs got hardly anything to do with the movieâs content.
The actress is Yu Xilu, the only one of any fame in âFlirting Scholarâ.
Even though sheâs a typical vase in the entertainment industry, at least sheâs got some fame.
This poster uses her beauty and figure as bait, giving off a âwe know whatâs upâ vibe.
The photographer should consider adding more chicken legs.
It can be seen that the website indeed has given the movie a bit more attention.
Initially, the two video websites werenât very enthusiastic about âFlirting Scholarâ.
Because at the beginning, Shen Qing did not mention that Admirable Fish was the scriptwriter.
The situation is pretty ironic.
Admirable Fishâs foray into filmmaking is ridiculous in the companyâs eyes, yet this absurdity fits perfectly into the key to movie promotion: the importance of controversial topics.
No wonder some movies choose to attract attention with distasteful, boundary-pushing rumors and controversial promotions.
In this day and age, whether itâs praise or criticism, any attention is better than being obscure.
Apart from thatâ¦
After Admirable Fishâs name came out, the reservation numbers for âFlirting Scholarâ did increase quite a lot, proving that Admirable Fish indeed has some fame.
Of course, the cover girl Yu Xilu, who looks stunning after the photoshopping, also deserves some credit.
Lin Yuan has also logged into his Admirable Fish account to support them, by posting a picture from âFlirting Scholarâ.
Nine squares, nine pictures.
People with OCD will definitely be satisfied.
The text attached was: [The movie âFlirting Scholarâ, for which I have written the script, will be officially released on July 1st. Please support it.]
Next, Lin Yuan shared the post using Chu Kuangâs account, with two simple words attached:
[Support]
Shadowâs account was handed over to Luo Wei to manage, and Lin Yuan didnât bother with it since it didnât have many followers.
As a result, the commentary got lively.
This time, people didnât joke about the âgood buddiesâ gag, they were more interested in the fact that Xian Yu was making a movie:
âIs Xian Yu the screenwriter?â
âIâve heard of singers turning into actors and directors, but never a music composer turning into a screenwriterâ¦â
âHuh?
?
âCanât Xian Yu just focus on writing songsâ¦â
âFriendly reminder, Teacher Admirable Fish, making a movie is not for everyone.â
âI will definitely support you, however, I hope you focus on composing.â
âA music composer making a movie feels like youâre not focusing on your job. But since youâre Xian Yu, Iâll support you this once.â
âTeacher Admirable Fish is full of talent, he can even write scripts, I must support his movie!â
Xian Yuâs lyrics are always full of stories, so I am quite interested in the script he wrote.â
âI like Xian Yu too, but I donât support blind encouragement.â
II
II
Professional practice has specialties.
Even though Xian Yu has a great reputation in the music composition field, many fans still feel a sense of âthis doesnât seem rightâ.
They didnât criticize, they just expressed their views.
There were also a small number of fans who were supportive, acknowledging their true love.
It didnât cause a major stir.
In essence, this is nothing more than a composer moving across boundaries to write a movie script.
Under the amalgamation of Qin and Qi, someone made a rough count:
Every year, there are over five thousand online movies successfully launched.
What does this mean?
This means that even if these movies are allocated to each month, there are about four to five hundred online movies launched each month.
July is the beginning of the summer vacation.
The number of new online movies released by Qin and Qi in July might even exceed this number.
Among these numerous movies, âFlirting Scholarâ is not very noticeable.
Itâs just that the combination of Qin and Qi has a large audience, which gives these small-budget movies a chance to survive.
If it werenât for Xian Yuâs fame, no one would even discuss this movie.
Therefore.
As time transitioned into July, the online movie market was still very calm.
On the other hand, in the theater.
The marketing wars among various big companies were so intense it was dog-eat-dog.
This made Lin Yuan somewhat relieved that âFlirting Scholarâ did not choose to premiere in theaters.
And when July arrived.
Large scale movies began to premiere in theaters one after another. The war in the movie theater market had finally reached a climax!
The battle for box office began!
Compared to them, the premier of âFlirting Scholarâ by Catmill and Penguin, seemed uneventful.
Of course.
No matter how uneventful, under the large population base of Qin and Qi, there will always be some onlookers who will open this movie.
They might have come across it for a variety of reasons-
Like Deng Chi.
Deng Chi was a bona fide rich second-generation.
Driving sports cars, living in luxury houses, changing girlfriends monthly, he lived a luxurious life that many envied.
But such a person, he had mild depressionâ¦
The reason was complicated.
Perhaps because his parents got divorced?
Even though his parents gave him more and more money each month in an apparent competition, he was still not happy.
Anyway, due to this depression, Deng Chi would often lock himself in the multi-storied mansion, watching movies alone.
He watched comedies a lot.
Because his psychologist said that watching comedies can help soothe his mood when heâs bored.
On the first of July, much like any other day, Deng Chi opened the video website and started looking for movies that interested him.
Then he noticed âFlirting Scholarâ.
The tagline for this movie reads like this: âSaving the unhappy.
»
For some reason, Deng Chi suddenly felt somewhat irritated.
Because Deng Chi had watched many comedies, but he was still unhappy.
These comedies, branding themselves as hilarious, had fooled him again and again, he wouldnât believe them anymore.
Even though his psychologist explained that:
He simply had a high threshold for humor.
People with depression, more or less, tend to be emotional.
Of course, Deng Chi had no intention of opening this movie.
But when he was about to scroll past, he accidentally hit the play button and the movie started playingâ¦.