Literary Master 1978

Lin Chaoyang's words caused a brief silence in the room. Li Hanxiang's face was serious and a little cold.

Shi Kuan looked at his expression, fearing that the two of them would break down, and said: "Comrade Chaoyang, this movie script should still be based on the director. Good scripts are revised. How can it be done without revision?"

Lin Chaoyang said calmly: "I'm not saying that it can't be revised, but it can't be revised drastically. It's okay to revise it, but if the workload is too heavy, I can't revise it."

Lin Chaoyang proposed that the script can't be revised drastically because he suffered a loss from Xie Jin last time. He wrote the script of "The Shepherd", but was dragged by Xie Jin to be a cow and horse for half a month in the name of revising the script.

In fact, his literary scripts have basically not been changed. They are all in cooperation with Xie Jin to make shot-by-shot scripts.

This time he learned to be smart. It's okay to revise the script, but it must be moderate and can't waste too much of his time and energy, otherwise he will lose the money he earned!

If he has time, he might as well write more novels!

Shi Kuan keenly grasped the key point of Lin Chaoyang's words and asked, "You mean, you don't want to spend too much energy on revising the script, right?"

Lin Chaoyang nodded slightly, "That's right."

Getting this answer, Shi Kuan felt relieved. He glanced at Li Hanxiang's expression, and the seriousness on his face also melted away a lot.

Shi Kuan joked, "Director Li hired you as a screenwriter, and it is your job to revise the script. You don't want to throw the script to Director Li after you finish writing it, right?"

Lin Chaoyang smiled, "Of course I will communicate with Director Li during the script creation stage. I'm talking about the revision after the finalization."

Listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, Shi Kuan looked at Li Hanxiang and asked for his opinion with his eyes.

At this moment, Li Hanxiang's face had relaxed and said, "Okay, I can promise you this. What about the other question?"

"The other question is simple. How to calculate the royalties?"

Lin Chaoyang's question made Shi Kuan stunned, but Li Hanxiang was not surprised. He worked for Shaw Brothers and had long been accustomed to highly commercialized communication.

But before he could speak, Shi Kuan said, "The royalties will be in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Culture and the film studio, not a penny less."

Lin Chaoyang shook his head and asked, "How much will Director Li get for this movie?"

Li Hanxiang was stunned again, and then understood Lin Chaoyang's subtext.

Shi Kuan asked, "Comrade Chaoyang, what do you mean..."

"Although Director Li's movie is a co-production, since everyone is a participant in the movie, the effort and salary should be on the same level. The amount of royalties does not matter, but there must be no differential treatment."

The reason why Lin Chaoyang said this is because Li Hanxiang had problems with the treatment of the crew when he was filming "Behind the Curtain" and "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace".

At that time, there were both Hong Kong people and mainlanders in the crew, and the two sides not only had different salaries, but also different living conditions.

In the end, it was the lead actress Liu Xiaoqing who made a big fuss on the set, which was regarded as winning some treatment for the mainland staff.

But even so, the salary gap between the two sides is still huge.

In the world, the problem is not the lack of money, but the inequality.

Listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, Shi Kuan was a little unhappy, "Comrade Chaoyang, the remuneration standards given by Director Li and our co-production company are based on the highest standards set by the Ministry of Culture. Director Li and his team are from Hong Kong, so their remuneration is naturally based on Hong Kong standards."

Lin Chaoyang said calmly, "I don't care about other people's affairs. I can choose not to write this script, but I can't accept this kind of differential treatment."

"This..."

Shi Kuan saw that Lin Chaoyang's attitude was so firm, and although he was unhappy, he also knew that Li Hanxiang wanted Lin Chaoyang to write the script, so he looked at Li Hanxiang.

Facing Lin Chaoyang's resounding attitude, Li Hanxiang kept pondering.

For him, there was actually no difference in paying Lin Chaoyang according to Hong Kong or mainland standards, because it was all the investors' money anyway.

The reason why he didn't speak all the time was that he didn't want to agree to Lin Chaoyang all at once. The young man in front of him had talent, but he was even more arrogant.

If he didn't take advantage of him, it would be difficult to communicate in the future.

Seeing Li Hanxiang's gloomy face and not speaking, Lin Chaoyang thought that he was unhappy about his conditions and seemed not ready to agree.

So, Lin Chaoyang stood up, "I have also made my thoughts clear to the two of you. It is fate that we meet today. I think we should leave it at that for now. We can communicate with each other later if we have any ideas."

After he finished speaking, he walked directly to the door of the room without waiting for Li Hanxiang and Shi Kuan's reaction, leaving the two of them in the wind.

No, you said your conditions and you don't allow us to consider it?

Li Hanxiang really didn't expect Lin Chaoyang to run away as soon as he disagreed with him. His temper was too impatient.

He finally spoke, "Mr. Lin, please stay!"

Seeing Li Hanxiang speak, Shi Kuan stood up, quickly pulled Lin Chaoyang back, and said with a smile: "We can discuss the manuscript fee slowly. We haven't finished talking about it yet. Don't leave in a hurry. I will treat you to lunch at noon."

Shi Kuan's words gave Lin Chaoyang a way out and also gave Li Hanxiang a way out.

He wanted to take advantage of Lin Chaoyang, but he didn't expect that young people had no moral principles and turned the table over when they disagreed.

It wasn't his own money anyway, so Li Hanxiang made up his mind and said, "Mr. Lin, I can agree to your salary standard. As long as your script satisfies me, I can give you a royalty of 30,000 Hong Kong dollars."

Hearing Li Hanxiang's words, Lin Chaoyang's expression relaxed and he smiled.

Now Hong Kong dollars are worthless, and the exchange rate of RMB to Hong Kong dollars is about 1:3.3. If the 30,000 Hong Kong dollars mentioned by Li Hanxiang is converted into RMB, it is about 9,000 yuan.

This figure is much higher than the royalties given by domestic film studios. He only gave Xie Jin 2,000 yuan for writing "The Shepherd".

Moreover, Lin Chaoyang also knew that Hong Kong movies have never paid much attention to screenwriters. Until the mid-to-late 1980s, a script by a famous screenwriter was only worth 50,000 or 60,000 Hong Kong dollars.

The price Li Hanxiang offered him can be said to be full of sincerity.

"Director Li, let's talk about the script." Lin Chaoyang said with a warm face.

With money, everything is easy.

Li Hanxiang has made many historical films, and he is particularly familiar with Qing history and has a very solid foundation in historical studies.

Before, he wanted to make "Tea House" and "The Last Emperor" because he had a complex in his heart, that is, a strong anger at the history of loss of power and humiliation in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

"I want to systematically and profoundly reflect the political corruption and stupidity of the people in power in the late Qing Dynasty, and truly reflect that tragic history on the big screen."

Li Hanxiang concluded.

Lin Chaoyang digested his ideas for a long time and asked, "How about starting with the character of Cixi?"

"Cixi?" Li Hanxiang's eyes lit up, "I had this idea before, and we have the same idea."

Li Hanxiang's tone was impatient, but Lin Chaoyang said, "I will go back and write an outline of the script, and I will ask you to review it later."

"When can it be written?" Li Hanxiang asked.

"It should be very soon. Is this urgent?"

Li Hanxiang said, "In two months, I will go to Haojiang to meet Mr. He and finalize the investment with him. The script must be completed within these two months. Is it okay?"

Lin Chaoyang nodded confidently, "No problem."

His confidence made Li Hanxiang very happy, but he was a little worried, "Can it really be produced?"

"Don't worry about this. It only took me one month to write the script of "The World's No. 1 Restaurant."

Li Hanxiang did not know the inside story of the birth of the script of "The World's No. 1 Restaurant". When he heard that the script only took one month, he could not help but asked in surprise, "One month?"

His surprise was not surprising. Whether it is a movie script or a drama script, the number of words is much less than that of a novel of the same size, but its information content is not less.

This requires that the content of the script must be refined and refined. It may not take long to write a script, but it is normal to revise three or five drafts. After all, the time spent is no less than writing a novel.

If such a mature and sophisticated script as "The World's No. 1 Restaurant" was really completed in just one month, it proves that Lin Chaoyang undoubtedly has strong strength and talent in drama creation.

With this kind of strength guarantee, Li Hanxiang put his mind at ease and said gently: "Then I will leave the script to you."

It was already past eight o'clock in the evening when he returned home from Yanjing Hotel.

In addition to chatting about some miscellaneous things in the morning, Lin Chaoyang and Li Hanxiang had been discussing the script in the afternoon and evening.

When he got home, Tao Yushu asked him if he had eaten. Lin Chaoyang said he had eaten, and then told her about writing a script for Li Hanxiang.

Li Hanxiang's name is not well-known in the mainland today, but Tao Yushu had watched a lot of internal reference films before, and was not unfamiliar with Li Hanxiang's name.

Lin Chaoyang had just finished writing a script for Xie Jin some time ago, and now he was going to write a script for Li Hanxiang. Tao Yushu asked: "You won't change your career to become a screenwriter in the future?"

"It's just to make some extra money. Do you know how much I pay for writing this script?" Lin Chaoyang kept her in suspense.

Tao Yushu cooperated with him very well, blinking her big eyes with hazy questions and curiosity, which made Lin Chaoyang feel itchy.

He stretched out a finger, "30,000 yuan!"

"30,000 yuan?" Tao Yushu exclaimed, with disbelief written all over her pretty face.

"Hong Kong people are too rich, this is not enough for you to write more than a dozen novels?"

More than a dozen?

Lin Chaoyang was stunned for a moment, and then realized that he didn't say the currency just now.

"It's Hong Kong dollars." He added.

"Hong Kong dollars? Is it more valuable?"

These days, no one cares about the exchange rate, and Tao Yushu doesn't know the exchange rate relationship between Hong Kong dollars and RMB.

"No. RMB is more valuable, one dollar is worth three and three Hong Kong dollars."

Tao Yushu calculated in her mind, that is more than 9,000 RMB.

When she heard the number "30,000 yuan" just now, she was happy, but she couldn't help but feel a sense of uneasiness, because this number has exceeded the cognition of most ordinary people today.

When she finished her calculation, she found that it was more than 9,000 yuan, and she felt relieved.

"More than 9,000 yuan, that's enough. Our house is just over 10,000 yuan, and you made enough money to buy a house with a script!"

Tao Yushu couldn't help but throw herself into Lin Chaoyang's arms, "Chaoyang, you are so great!"

Feeling the warmth and softness in his arms and the admiration of the woman, Lin Chaoyang was distracted.

"I have something better!" One of his hands wandered dishonestly on the graceful curves.

Tao Yushu's breathing was rapid and his eyes were blurred.