When it comes to industry accountability, the producer with full responsibility is paramount. Because from the moment a film project seeks investment, it tests his insight and operational ability. No matter which link has problems, he is responsible. Therefore, in the next project, investors may not trust your ability.

This is somewhat different from Si Country, where directors in Si Country have great power and responsibility. Directors of ordinary films are also in charge of production, supervision, and even the script, so if a film is a big hit, the director, through profit sharing, can earn even more than the leading stars who command multimillion International Coin fees. It is common for them to become investors or run businesses, like George Lucas who made tens of billions from one "Star Wars Series" and can live off it for life; or the renowned Spielberg, who is also very wealthy and further profited by investing in the production and directing of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

On the contrary, if an A-Class big investment (at least over one billion International Coin cost) fails miserably, the leading stars will be affected, but the director is impacted more severely, often resulting in nobody daring to hire you for filming for several years. Such financially devastating films occur every year, even Yun Country stars have experienced this, like after "Rush Hour Series" volumes one and two became wildly popular, Jackie Chan's big investment in Universal resulted in a huge loss, causing him to go silent in Si Country for a while, until "Rush Hour 3" revived him. Meanwhile, director John Woo, despite achieving a firm standing in A-Class films with the success of "Face/Off" and "Mission Impossible 2," was directly affected by the huge flop of "Wind Talker," leading to the movie company's president resigning, the company's bankruptcy, and subsequent merger. Since then, for many years, no one in Si Country dared to hire him, forcing him to return to Yun Country.

The domestic market is still developing and undergoing standardization, and the influx of a lot of amateur hot money once created a scenario where 'money is abundant, people are foolish, hurry up.' A group of directors, producers, and industry personnel deeply influenced by films from Cloud Island or grew up watching them, including some investors, still hold idol sentiments towards Cloud Island's big stars. Therefore, there are some big names, whom everyone knows are far past their prime, with current market appeal limited, but everyone only remembers their classic works from their golden era. So some focus on their acting skills, some on their fame, while others merely for the boast—I've worked with so-and-so, I've invested in so-and-so.

Reflecting on the market, their accumulated fame also brings broad popularity and fandom, but the average fans don't necessarily equate to paying moviegoers. They used to learn about Cloud Island stars through pirated videotapes and VCDs, and now their support for idols is merely BT support, and Xunlei support. Therefore, even for major stars, box office failure is possible. Some fans might say if someone else starred, the box office might be halved. That might indeed be the case, but substituting with another actor, the pay might be a fraction of theirs or even a tenth or much less.

Of course, it's not just the older generation, but many stars of the new generation are also like this. So even if a film fails, there are other investors willing to gamble on their appeal in the next one. But for producers, planners, or supervisors, they are behind the scenes, not stars, and don't have or have not accumulated popularity or fan bases, they can only rely on their works in the industry. Continuous failures mean no investor will dare to trust you anymore.

Qiao Pan is in such an awkward situation, so now he can only closely collaborate with Chuyi Culture, finding it difficult to earn trust from big companies for investment.

Seeing this, Li Yan believes Qiao Pan probably hasn't gathered enough investment yet, so there's still a chance to connect with them. He briefly searched for Qiao Pan's past successful productions as a producer and recognized a few. But to genuinely move forward, more detailed data is needed. Casual chat can rely on impressions, but investment requires data-backed evidence.

He called in his subordinates, assigning them the task. Have them thoroughly investigate Qiao Pan's most successful productions as a producer and his recent five works. Besides specific data like investments and box office returns, analyze the specific reasons for the success and failure of the works. If success is all due to the director or star's appeal, then his insight is questionable.

Everyone was a bit surprised by Li Yan's task. However, they also gained insight that Li Yan wants to explore the possibility of collaborating with Qiao Pan! They've been at the company for some time, some even arrived during the preparation phase, earlier than Jiang Xueyin, later realizing it was Li Yan. During his absence, they discreetly inquired, discovering a reputation quite poor, possibly due to climbing through connections, leading to little expectation for Li Yan.

Now seeing him immediately dive into research upon taking office, and then professionally organizing tasks, made them start to believe Li Yan had genuinely been out for market research these days, putting away their initial dismissal, and beginning to execute earnestly.

Li Yan then looked up Chu Yi's contact information.

Regarding Chu Yi, the CEO of Chuyi Culture, Li Yan still has a deep impression, besides the first meeting where he hosted for their company's signed student artists to accompany for dinner, also because an MM under him, Ling Wua, is Yu Xiaodi's classmate roommate. Ling Wua even watched videos with Li Yan at Xiaodi's place and conveyed to Chu Yi, enabling him to approach through his older brother, Chu Tian, a lecturer at S University, to close relations.

"Brother Li, long time no see, what brings you to me now?" Chu Yi's voice expressed not without surprise.

He later learned that Wen Qianyi terminated her film investment plans, so he wouldn't try to curry favor with Li Yan or Yu Xiaodi anymore. However, through his older brother Chu Tian's connection, he discovered Yu Xiaodi is the daughter of the current mayor, for this point, he specifically instructed Ling Wua to maintain good relationships with Yu Xiaodi. Even if Li Yan wouldn't have cooperation with them now, upon hearing the call, he remained very polite.

"Mr. Chu, our group recently formed a new film investment subsidiary, and I've been assigned to oversee this area. Your Chuyi Culture leads in this field, and my network is limited, so I thought of reaching out to Mr. Chu first, hoping for your guidance in the future." Li Yan said with a smile, revealing this unannounced secret.

This shocked Chu Yi momentarily, he knows well the scale of Paradise Group. As soon as Qiao Pan hinted, he eagerly got involved, being able to cooperate with such a large enterprise and maintain good relationships would definitely enhance future business for his company. But it was a pity when Wen Qianyi didn't value this profit and the pace of earning, deciding not to continue. Unexpectedly, they have already formed a film company quietly!

"Congratulations, congratulations! Your group establishing a new company, Brother Li with promotion, double happiness, should definitely be celebrated, tonight I'll host, honor me with your presence for a drink?" Chu Yi believes Li Yan's words, his industry network is limited, otherwise with Paradise Group's backing, they could directly drink and mingle with big company people, he won't miss such opportunities.

"No way, I should be the one inviting, let's have dinner tonight!"

They exchanged pleasantries for a few more sentences before hanging up. Whoever hosts is presumably more enthusiastic. Anyway, the purpose is not for food and drink, Li Yan only needs to hint this information, if Chu Yi is still worrying about investment with Qiao Pan, there's no need for more words, he will surely contact Qiao Pan immediately. Meanwhile, Chu Yi wishes to network with Paradise Group's background, regardless of the investment's success, making acquaintance with someone connected is satisfactory for him.

Once work was formally settled, with nothing else urgent for now, Li Yan wandered off to the business department. Being busy all day today, he hadn't had a chance to check on that girl Huang Ying. Not sure if her role has changed since Wen Qianyi took over from Ye Jiahong.

(Second update, there will be a third update tonight!) (To be continued, for more chapters, please log in to www.qidian.com, support the author, support legitimate reading!)

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.