A Genuine Shandong Native (Third Update)

Zhou Qifeng's head was full of question marks. "Senior Brother, you were so confident just now. You analyzed the industry, the market, and the content from every angle. You sounded so sure of yourself!"

"You even declared your resolve. I think President Han was moved."

Shen Shanden remained unmoved.

Why was his junior brother so naive?

Did he believe everything people said?

If someone claimed they'd landed on the moon in 2020, would he believe that too?

Thinking that he would still need his junior brother to handle things in the future, Shen Shanden explained, "The market is constantly changing. No one can guarantee success."

"It's true that I've made two short films, but whether I've worked on projects at this level before doesn't matter much."

The usual path for a director was to make short films first, then win some minor festival awards or student awards.

That proved they had a certain degree of talent.

That process could take one or two years at the shortest, but there was no telling how long it might take otherwise.

Those with connections would try to apply for support from youth film funds.

But there were far too many monks and far too little porridge.

Or they might run into some rich fool who wanted to acquire a bit of an "artistic" aura.

Or perhaps someone needed to launder money, wanted to promote someone, and gave them a chance to direct a feature film.

Young directors without backgrounds would shoot music videos and commercials, save up their own money, sell everything they had to make a feature film, and hopefully get it aired on the movie channel. That would make it a television film, proving they could handle a feature-length production.

Even then, it would only be a television film. The next step would still be theatrical films.

Only directors whose films made it into theaters and turned a profit could get famous actors on board.

Reaching that stage generally took ten to twenty years. Many young directors never made it into theaters in their entire lives.

A director who had even one theatrical release was already among the industry's elite, one of the top figures.

Shen Shanden had copied dozens of songs and gained a little fame, but he was only an online singer. He did not release physical albums, so his social standing did not match his fame.

Even first-tier singers found it difficult to become directors.

Jay Chou could direct not only because of his own fame, but also because Hong Kong and Taiwan backed him. Even then, he was merely a figurehead.

On the mainland, actors like Xu Zheng and Chen Sicheng had faced tremendous difficulty when transitioning into directing.

Xu Zheng had caught the moment when Enlight Media entered production, while Chen Sicheng had caught the moment when theaters entered production.

The two had caught the wave, but they had also reached relatively top-tier positions in the acting industry before receiving such opportunities.

In short.

For an individual, ability was certainly important, but so were platform and opportunity.

The film industry was currently on the eve of Chinese Cinema's great capital boom.

And the eve was precisely the darkest hour before dawn.

Shen Shanden did not think that producing a detailed script and planning proposal, along with a clear marketing strategy, would be enough to make people put together a hundred-million-yuan production for him.

Even if Han Sanping strongly supported him, there would still be other voices within China Film Group.

Even if China Film Group backed him with everything it had, it could not possibly fund the entire project. If it took the lead, how would it convince other investors to support Shen Shanden as well?

No matter how grandly Shen Shanden had boasted, he only wanted a small-to-medium-budget production.

He would take a certain share and increase his Discourse Power.

With China Film Group helping assemble the funding, guaranteeing distribution and theatrical release.

Zhou Qifeng's soul had been shaken. His senior brother was really something else.

"But..."

Even after they entered the school, Zhou Qifeng had yet to recover.

Shen Shanden said meaningfully, "There's no but. You need to understand that among all kinds of meals, government-funded meals taste the best. If I don't eat this bowl of rice, someone else will. Why shouldn't it be me?"

"I have to get a bite, no matter what!"

The film funds were right there. Projects like The Warlords and Red Cliff could be made.

The leads brought in from outside to act were being offered a hundred million yuan in pay.

Compared to that, if someone really gave him one hundred million yuan to make Brotherhood of Blades, Shen Shanden would truly dare to take it on!

He had no psychological burden.

And there was no other easy path.

Shen Shanden could invest some money himself, but there was no point in him leading the investment.

He had no theatrical releases and no record of success. No one would trust him.

But without trying, he could never succeed. Yet without success, it was difficult even to get started.

Blocked from both ends!

Shen Shanden had considered finding coal bosses, but after learning more about the situation, he gave up.

Not to mention that at this point in time, small coal mines apparently had not yet undergone large-scale regulation.

Even if they had, did he think coal bosses were fools?

Their money was not earned by taking baths. That was the first point.

The second was that they wanted to play with women.

There were plenty of people who could swindle coal bosses.

But the question was, was Shen Shanden a Hong Kong Island director? Was he one of the Children of high-ranking cadres?

In his previous life, he had worked in construction. For projects worth just a million or so—a basketball court, a playground, a school cafeteria—people could sometimes fight to the death.

In later years, In the Name of the Law was simply ridiculous.

Yu Tiancheng was not clean, and Wan Hai was just like White Lotus. Who were they trying to fool?

Those in construction and coal mining could not survive without ruthless methods.

Coal bosses had not yet entered the market on a large scale, and they were not easy to swindle either.

Without a background or anyone behind him, if they lost money, they would find other ways to get it back.

As for coal bosses who were not afraid of losses, they had never been in the film business from the beginning.

They wanted to launder money, and they wanted actresses too.

If Shen Shanden had to send actresses up to them even after being reborn, then he really would be useless.

As for Enlight Media, it was currently focused mainly on distribution.

Huayi's circle had a terrible atmosphere. Once you got involved, it was difficult to break free.

Entering the industry through China Film Group carried the fewest hidden risks.

Chinese Cinema itself was on the eve of transformation, shedding external dependence and serving domestic demand. Historical blockbusters and the Blockbuster Strategy were also in a period of transition.

If Shen Shanden worked himself to the bone for Han Sanping, he could at least say he was contributing to Chinese Cinema.

If he worked himself to the bone for some other private company, what would be the point?

Even if he later fell out with Han Sanping, as long as he continued serving the film industry, no one could say anything about it.

That was right.

Shen Shanden had only just established a connection with Han Sanping, yet he was already thinking about how to leave.

Of course, now that he had boarded Han Sanping's ship, the benefits were enormous.

By tying himself to the other man's Blockbuster Strategy, as long as Han Sanping remained around, Shen Shanden would not fear falling.

Ning Hao would work too, but Ning Hao did not have that kind of awareness.

Shen Shanden would use his own fame to promote Han Sanping's film reforms.

Like some celebrities in later years, who kept returning to their hometowns and built good relationships with local governments.

If something happened, that relationship would give them a dignified way out.

This was not merely a personal matter for celebrities. The broader impact also had to be considered.

At the very least, if celebrities frequently returned to their hometowns and became tied to the hometown's image, then from the bigger picture, any scandal would have a bad impact.

That was not bureaucratic favoritism. Covering up matters of principle was.

If a leader wanted to get things done, they had to possess prestige. As long as it was not a matter of principle, if they could not protect their own people, how could they continue getting things done?

Just look at America's technological pioneer, Musk. He did not make money from rockets, cars, or technology. That was merely his public image.

What he lived off were subsidies. A large portion of his profits from selling cars came from carbon credit trading.

As a genuine Shandong native, he naturally had to eat government-funded meals.

What was wrong with telling a few well-intentioned lies while eating government-funded meals?

And they were not even lies. The script was real, the theme song was real, the project plan was real, and the analysis of theater development and industry development was real too.

He had mapped out the industry's future for Han Sanping. The old man should be thanking him!

Shen Shanden and his junior brother had barely left China Film Group when Wang Zhongjun, who was playing golf at a club, caught wind of it.

When he received the news, he was stunned.

What?

China Film Group was launching a major project!

Good. Huayi should see whether it could get a piece of the pie.

What?

One hundred million yuan!

That was indeed no small sum.

What?

The preliminary review had passed, and they said Third Master had been persuaded.

It really was a major project.

Who was the director? Chen Kaige seemed unlikely.

What?

They were going to promote a new director???

Wait!

Something was wrong!

Someone close to Han Sanping had also said that a song had won Third Master over.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Wang Zhongjun's mind was completely muddled.

After finishing his game and parting with his friends, he casually tipped the caddie.

Wang Zhongjun got into the golf cart, puzzled. "Who is this Shen Shanden?"

Wang Zhonglei, who had also come to play, asked, "Brother, what's wrong?"

Wang Zhongjun briefly explained the information he had received.

A song had made the old man support a hundred-million-yuan project? Wang Zhonglei was stunned too!

His expression seemed to say, Brother, do you believe that yourself?

Unable to stand the way his younger brother looked at him like he was an idiot, Wang Zhongjun added, "He's a graduate student at Beijing Film Academy, studying film management."

Who the hell would believe that? Wang Zhonglei did not believe it at all. "If he studied automobiles, would they build him a factory to play with? Whose kid is he?"

"Given President Han's way of doing things, anything shoved in through connections definitely wouldn't pass his hands. It should be a legitimate project." Wang Zhongjun said, "There's very little information right now, but since he caught President Han's eye, he's worth contacting first."

No matter how new the person was, with China Film Group taking the lead, there would definitely be money to make domestically. That was Han Sanping's power at the moment.

Wang Zhongjun began having other thoughts.

Huayi was pushing to take the company public. There was no precedent for mainland entertainment companies, so they would be blazing a trail.

And Huayi was currently highly dependent on Feng Xiaogang. It needed new directors, or at least needed to show that it was not so one-dimensional.

People had path dependence. Wang Zhongjun had tasted the benefits of poaching talent before. The New Year's films Feng Xiaogang had made back then had been approved by Han Sanping, opening up the Lunar New Year season for domestic films.

Now that Han Sanping thought highly of him, what if he turned out to be another Little Steel Cannon?

Shen Shanden returned to his teacher's office.

"What a beautiful place."

His phone ringtone kept going off.

He was dumbfounded.

Calls kept coming in. The news had spread far too quickly!