"Qiande Brothers Film & Television?"
That night, after Lu Chen returned home, he gave Chen Fei'er a call to tell her what had happened during the day.
Autumn in My Heart was first politely declined by Zhu Minghe of Baolong Films, only for someone from Qiande Brothers Films to approach him proactively later. The sudden turn of events was just like something out of a novel, and of course, Lu Chen wanted to share it with the female lead.
As soon as Chen Fei'er heard the company name, she knew who they were: "The company run by Zhang Gan and Zhang De. I met them at a party before. I've heard the brothers are pretty loyal and have a decent reputation in the industry. If the terms are agreeable, then it's fine to let Qiande handle it."
Lu Chen breathed a sigh of relief. "That's great. I'll let your agent know when it's time to come in for negotiations."
This TV drama, Autumn in My Heart, wouldn't involve many special effects, so the overall production cost wasn't high, but Chen Fei'er's acting fee was a real concern.
Actor fees in the TV drama world have always been a hot topic, enough material to write a whole dissertation.
Back in the 80s and 90s, actor pay was extremely low, just a few dozen to a few hundred per episode. Earning over a thousand meant you were already a big name.
Nowadays, with the booming entertainment industry, the film and drama market has grown into a massive pie, and actor fees have skyrocketed. Celebrities with strong fan bases easily command hundreds of thousands per episode, and even then, they're not easy to book.
Top stars like Gao Ge and Su Yumeng quote over a million per episode. Their final contract figures are jaw-dropping. For a long-form drama, paying several million, or even over ten million, is par for the course.
When calculating the total cost of a drama, it's no surprise at all that actor fees often outweigh the costs of filming, post-production, and marketing combined. This is something everyone has just come to accept.
Especially for weekend prime-time dramas, actor fees are the major expense and usually take up the bulk of the budget.
Sure, you could hire newcomers to cut costs, but then how do you guarantee ratings? Who's going to buy it?
That's why for Autumn in My Heart, Lu Chen could offer himself at a rookie price, rolled into his investment share, which wasn't going to matter too much in percentage terms. But it was a different story with Chen Fei'er.
She was a huge star with a massive fanbase and zero TV drama experience, which made her fee a complicated issue.
Too low? Out of the question. Chen Fei'er didn't need the money, but if she gave herself a huge discount, people in the industry would mock her, she had a reputation to protect.
Too high? The production partner would surely balk. So it required careful negotiation and a balanced deal.
Technically, Lu Chen and Chen Fei'er had enough capital between them to finance the drama alone. But producing a TV drama isn't just about hiring a studio and shooting, it involves approvals for scripts and shooting permits, production and post-processing.
If a production company is only brought in as a contractor, the capable ones won't bother, and the incapable ones might just mess everything up.
So it's essential to offer a stake in the project. Shared interests mean shared responsibilities, and that's the only way to ensure a smooth and professional end product.
Otherwise, even if a production company agrees and signs the contract, they could play tricks during filming, bloating the budget and making everything more expensive in the long run. It's just not worth the risk.
Nowadays, most productions operate under a multi-investor model, sharing risk and profits alike. It's a mature system with a well-established process.
As someone new to the industry, Lu Chen had no intention of challenging this status quo.
Not even Chen Fei'er could ignore it, unless she started her own production company.
Which is why choosing the right partner was so crucial.
Chen Fei'er said, "I used to think pretty highly of Baolong Films. Since they don't know how to appreciate the opportunity, hmph!"
Clearly, she was a bit annoyed.
She had asked a friend to connect Lu Chen with Baolong Films, but hadn't expected them to reject the project.
Lu Chen smiled. "They had their concerns too, the theme isn't exactly mainstream. If I hadn't mentioned you, I doubt Qiande would've been interested either. Still, Fei'er, your name really carries weight!"
"What do you mean 'name carries weight'?"
Chen Fei'er snorted playfully, "I'm not some heroine from a martial arts novel. Hurry up and finish writing the rest of the script!"
So far, Lu Chen had only written the first four episodes. The plan called for a total of twenty.
Chen Fei'er had the drafts and had already read through them, she found them completely captivating.
Actually, Lu Chen was already working fast. Every morning, he trained at the Borui Club, then attended classes at Jingyin University, and still carved out time to write scripts. His schedule was packed.
Lu Xi, his sister, had even helped cancel many of his public appearances, losing them a lot of income.
If Lu Chen weren't running his own workshop independently, and was instead under a talent agency, there's no way they would have allowed that. He would've been buried in all kinds of money-making gigs.
Lu Chen scratched his head, "I'll try to pick up the pace."
Chen Fei'er smiled. "I'm just teasing. Don't take it so seriously. Don't overwork yourself, especially not late at night. It's okay to take your time."
Lu Chen felt a warm sense of gratitude in his heart.
Fei'er could afford to wait, but someone else couldn't.
The very next morning, Qiande Brothers Film & TV sent a team to Lu Chen's workshop to start official partnership negotiations.
Aside from Lu Yi, whom Lu Chen had already met, they also sent a VP and a department head, clearly showing how much they valued the project.
But Lu Chen himself didn't bother with the business talk. He left it all to his sister to handle.
The workshop was now running smoothly, and Lu Xi's growing experience had saved him countless headaches.
Chen Fei'er also sent her agent, and the three parties sat down to begin formal negotiations.
As always, word traveled fast in the entertainment industry, and rumors began circulating.
The rumors were confirmed on November 10th, the eve of the so-called "Singles' Day", when Lu Chen published a blog post on Waves Blog (浪潮博客).
In that post, Lu Chen dropped a bombshell: he was about to begin filming a TV drama that he had both written and would star in himself.
The news hit like a tidal wave!
Ever since his crowdfunding campaign to help a leukemia patient, Lu Chen had been relatively low-profile. Aside from occasional updates about his daily life, he hadn't made any headlines, leaving his fans feeling a little bored.
"Even a juicy scandal would've been better, at least we'd have something to talk about!"
Now, Lu Chen had finally given everyone a hot topic.
Fans responded with overwhelming enthusiasm, clicks and comments on the blog post soared.
Thanks to the "hero saves the beauty" and "loyalty to fans" episodes, Lu Chen had already surpassed 10 million followers on Waves Blog. For a rising singer-songwriter who had only debuted recently, his move into TV dramas caught the industry's attention and sparked widespread discussion.
"Whoa! Lu Chen is doing a TV drama? That's awesome!"
"Told you! Our Lu Chen could totally make it on looks alone, and now he's got his shot!"
"Support, support! Hurry up and start filming!"
"Uh... small question, who's the female lead? Has anyone been cast yet?"
"Forget the lead actress, I'm more curious about Lu Chen's script. Can we get a sneak peek?"
"I smell drama, this is going to be a heartbreaking dog-food fest!"
"Haha, Singles' Day is tomorrow. Wishing everyone a happy holiday in advance!"
"Still want to know, who's the heroine?"
On the night of November 11th, Lu Chen updated his blog again, addressing the questions fans cared about the most.
First, he revealed that the drama he was writing was a modern urban romance, falling into the youth idol genre.
Second, the drama was titled Autumn in My Heart. Starting tomorrow, he would begin serializing parts of the story in novel form on his blog, and after filming wrapped, an official book version would be published.
Finally, and most explosively, the female lead would be none other than Chen Fei'er.
If Lu Chen's first announcement had already caused a stir, then this follow-up post with its spoilers created an outright sensation, even beyond the entertainment industry circle.
The reason was simple: Heavenly Queen of pop, Chen Fei'er, was making her first-ever appearance in a TV drama, and she was playing the female lead.
There was no doubt about the authenticity of the news. Lu Chen even @-tagged Chen Fei'er at the end of the post, and she replied within minutes with just four words:
"Can't wait for it!"
...followed by a smiley face emoji.
Of course, Lu Chen didn't just impulsively decide to post those two blogs. It was a calculated pre-release marketing strategy.
After thorough negotiations among all three parties, the filming agreement for Autumn in My Heart was basically finalized. The script outline had already been submitted to the relevant authorities for approval. Once cleared, filming would commence immediately.
With Chen Fei'er on board, Qiande Brothers Film & TV placed great importance on the project. They made multiple concessions in the contract and even assembled a top-tier production team. Many staff members were already dispatched to Jinling to prepare.
About 90% of the filming and on-location scenes for Autumn in My Heart would be completed in Jinling and at the Jinling Film & TV City.
Of course, Qiande also had its conditions. One of them was that both Lu Chen and Chen Fei'er would use their personal platforms to start early promotion, in order to attract strong bids from TV networks and online streaming platforms for exclusive premiere rights.
This wasn't shady or underhanded, it was standard practice in the industry.
Many shows are sold for a hefty sum before even starting production, covering their entire budget in advance.
Naturally, single people were hit hardest by this wave of public romance.
"Damn! Are they openly showing off their love? My goddess, my heart is shattered!"
"Haha! I knew it! I knew Chen Fei'er would be the heroine!"
"Chen Fei'er? I totally didn't see that coming…"
"Looks like those past rumors might actually have some truth. What do you all think?"
"You guys are too much. Lu Chen and Chen Fei'er are just close friends, don't you know? It's a brother-sister bond."
"Wait, does that mean this is going to be a 'noona romance'?"
"Noona romance +1!"
Public opinion surged like a tidal wave, and Autumn in My Heart quickly became one of the most-searched terms on Waves Blog.
(End of Chapter)
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