"Weige, is your awards season PR?" Tour called Ye Wei and asked happily, "We are all Marshall" was in a bad situation.

65 million yuan in production costs, not much exaggeration and strategy offset, Legend Pictures accounted for the big part, with 36 million in three weeks, and it would be a blessing to be able to draw 45 million yuan according to estimates. The big money was wasted. This made no sense at all! The producer and director MCG, who was invited to a lot of money, is the director of the "Charlie's Angels" series. The series "Orange County Boy" participated in the production, and "Evil Force" is also very popular among young audiences. Even if you can't win the award, you should not fail in business...

Movies are movies. Tour began to understand this sentence and has also realized the cruelty of the film industry.

In the week of January 5-11, "Museum Night" won the North American Week championship again, while Ye Wei's two bones, "Cute Bones" in the 9th week received 781,659 in 418 theaters, with a total box office of 138,928,817; in the 4th week, "Winter's Bones" won 1,603,910 in 60 theaters, with a total box office of 4,759,034, and this week expanded to 105.

"No, no, I really stop movies, really a football trip." Ye Wei's laughter came from his phone, "Is it very interesting, right? Hahaha."

Who can understand Tour's speechlessness and heartache? Because the ribs were cracked, the past Christmas and New Year holidays were not good. He happily invited: "When should I have dinner? I also want to talk to you about cooperation. Our company has many projects that require your talent, or invest in your projects..."

"Brother Thomas, I told others that I don't have a movie project now, but I want to tell you a little more. Some of my friends' projects can be recommended to you. I don't guarantee anything because of pure friendly recommendations." Ye Wei said seriously, "As for my project, if there is any new situation, I will not forget yours."

"Of course..." Tour responded happily, thinking to smash the rugby in his heart.

...

The friends Ye Wei mentioned included Darum and the others.

After completing "Dog's Christmas", they continued to work together to do new comedy projects and have a successful history in the plan. If they do another project of the same type and level, financing will not be difficult, but what they have to do is the screen distribution level, with a budget of 3 million, which is more complicated.

He is not Bill Gates, and he cannot provide funds like a nanny, but this really gave him inspiration. He remembered the difficulty of finding money at the beginning, and more people were more difficult. He had an independent filmmaker who spent several years in vain.

The world is even worse now, because the German golden goose was killed.

It is no coincidence that German companies have always been on the list of American film producers in recent years. Germany allows investors in their film industry to get tax relief from their film investments, even if the films they invest in have not started shooting. If a German wants to extend the date of paying the tax bill to a more hopeful day, investing in the films to be filmed in the future is a good idea.

For Hollywood and independent film industries, German law is like the most considerate lover, giving you only beauty. Unlike tax laws in other countries, it does not require films to be filmed locally or to hire local personnel. It only requires that the films be produced by German companies that have copyrights and can share future profits.

As the saying goes, "Hollywood is a group of lawyers and accountants." Lawyers easily found the loopholes.

First, the Hollywood studio sold the copyright of the video to a German company through written planning, and then immediately rented the video back. At this time, the video seemed to belong to the German company. The German then signed a "production service agreement" and a "distribution service agreement" with the studio. The studio then bought the video back with the first right of purchase, ending the symbolic and short-term ownership of the Germans.

What happened in the middle? For this "ownership", the Germans paid the studio more than 10% more than the money they received through rental and priority purchase. This is not a waste of money, because tax reduction and exemption are made. And the extra 10% is the instant profit of the studio, with no risks and no costs, except for some legal fees.

In previous years, mainstream studios like Paramount could make $70 million to $90 million in surprise through this channel every year, which was enough to make a blockbuster. The independent film industry also benefited. Large studios have the gameplay of blockbusters, independent and independent. The Weinstein brothers made "Work Hand in Life" with 5.5 million jointly invested by more than 9,000 Germans, which is one of their representative works.

Hollywood will not promote the advantage it has taken. One is that it does not want the German government to modify its policies, and the other is that it does not want movie fans to be disgusted. But in the end, the German government repaired the tax law, and since 2007, this road will never be opened again. Hollywood can start to say that it has suffered.

Ye Wei wanted to go this path at the beginning, but what was he four years ago? He didn't know a few Germans, so he went back to the issue of pre-sales.

This golden goose is actually occupied by large studios and prominent figures, such as Bruce Willis. One reason for his great success is that the Germans have divided some of the risks for him. Now that the German golden goose is gone, he has lost money again and again, and the Cheyenne company has closed down.

Speaking of this, Ye Wei sighed a little, and could not forget how to promote LMS and himself in the conference room of Cheyenne headquarters, and even don’t want a beautiful fairy.

Brian and the others have been unable to persuade him recently and directly used money to tempt him to shoot commercial films. The media said that the pay was 20-30 million yuan, but Paramount actually offered more.

As long as he nodded, he made a project with a budget of 50 million yuan before tax, with a budget of 100 million yuan. With the project document of "Viy's first commercial blockbuster", Paramount has the ability to recover costs and make money through government subsidies, tax-free transactions, implantable advertising and other methods to make the project recover before it even started shooting.

The Tomb Raider in 2001 is a model. Paramount announced the official budget to the media was US$115 million, its decryption cost was 94 million, while the studio expenditure was only 8.5 million. What happened? First, pre-selling the copyrights of Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Japan to German companies to get 65 million; then a few scenes were arranged to shoot in the UK, and the British company made 12 million with the British tax cut policy; and then earned 10.2 million from the German Golden Goose.

Before the filming started, I had 87.2 million yuan, and I gave it to the agent, lawyer and others 1.7 million yuan. How much is the difference between 85.5 million yuan? 8.5 million yuan.

Like Peter Jackson, who was very angry when he took the planner of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, he was very angry, but when the new line took over, Germany + Britain + New Zealand + pre-sales started almost at zero cost. Overseas publishers who bought pre-sales at that time might eventually cry, but the new line would not.

This is even more true for the "viy's first commercial blockbuster" project. Various copyright pre-sales will be sold out, and various implanted advertisements will come in rush, so Paramount is sure to make a profit. The biggest boss in Hollywood is talent, and the core of this plan lies in him. His 50 million is what he deserves, if he agrees.

However, the German Golden Goose was gone, so Brian used this to intimidate: "Wei, now is your hottest and most valuable time. It will be different if you come back after playing for two years." "You can't miss the opportunity! Now you can earn 50 million yuan, and it will be gone in two years." "If you have gold, you have to catch it!"

This makes sense, but not all, Hollywood can always find other money-filled ones, such as the increasingly powerful Chinese market. Who knows what will happen in the last ten or eight years?

In this money game, it is sometimes difficult to know whether a Hollywood blockbuster is losing or not, and who loses the money if it loses. In addition to company profit reports, decryption, media reveal, etc., sequels are a good actual reflection, and those with sequels will definitely not lose.

The most hit by the death of the German Golden Goose was independent film financing, and many projects that wanted to assemble Germans had to find another way out.

The key to "Working Hand in Life" is tax benefits and crowdfunding. 5.5 million is a lot for one investor, and the average price is only more than 600 yuan for more than 9,000 investors.

On Saturday night of the 13th, Ye Wei called Lev and Chen Nuo to hold a website entrepreneurship meeting in the garage of Palisade, Pacific.

In the core five-player group of Dream Chasing League, Bard and Colwin couldn't come from other places, and their ambitions were not in this regard. Cooking and photography were the ones. Don't look at the big nose and glasses, one is a freak and one is a nerd, no matter what, they are all the top students of Harvard and West Lake. Chen Nuo is applying for Stanford's computer major.

"You know, many rich people want to invest in movies, but they don't have any way. They don't live in Los Angeles, New York, but they don't even have the opportunity to be fooled by filmmakers. Many movie fans also want to invest in movies, but they don't have that much money. It's okay to get one thousand or two thousand. If they don't have more, they can't get it out, but they can't use a few thousand yuan to become movie investors."

The garage is very simple, and Lamborghini and Hummer are driving away, which gives the atmosphere of Silicon Valley. In the future, we can promote "our website was born in a small garage."

The lights were bright, Ye Wei stood in front of a moving whiteboard, and wrote "i-female estment-oppor hips" with a whiteboard pen while talking. Lev and Chen Nuo sat in front of two worn wooden chairs bought from the flea market, drinking tea with thoughtful expression.

It's not November 2003. They are all 18 and 19 years old. When it comes to doing something, they are no longer just a terrible picture. They are not old or very young in Silicon Valley. If they want to do some cool websites and things, it's best to start today.

"What will happen when we provide them with such an opportunity?" Ye Wei asked.

"Brother Wei, are you talking about starting a crowdfunding website?" Chen Nuo's glasses were reflecting. He had already realized how great this idea was.

"That's it!" Ye Wei laughed, wrote "crowdfunding" on the whiteboard and drew a row of ten stickmen, saying as he painted: "This is the era of the Internet! We can see people starting to be willing to do other consumption and even investments in shopping through the Internet! People regard the Internet as a vast platform full of opportunities. But is there any crowdfunding website now? I am a movie fan, I have 2,000 yuan spare money, and I want to invest in a movie project that looks great. It's cool, so what can I do?"

Lev was also excited as he thought about it, "It seems that there is no such website." He looked at Chen Nuo uncertainly, and Chen Nuo nodded: "No."

"Gentlemen." Ye Wei spread his hands and hugged the vast majority, saying like a speech: "Think about it! There are too many potential investors like me. If there is a website to accommodate them, they will also accommodate those investors! A financing person sets up his crowdfunding project and sets up financing goals, financing period, return rate, return method, return period, etc. Of course, it must be professional, reliable and legal. This requires them to provide business plans, completion guarantee contracts, and even short films to allow the website to pass the review and attract investors.

An investor was looking for his heart. He took a fancy to a project that crowdfunded 1 million yuan. In the lower limit of investment, the upper limit of $1,000 and the upper limit of $10,000, he would like to invest as much as he liked. This project successfully raised 1 million in its financing period. By the way, the upper limit of the financing period cannot be too long, one month or two months? When it has not completed the crowdfunding, the money will return to the investors. The financing agent can re-initiate crowdfunding. When it is finally completed, that is the next step. The financing agent uses the money to make a movie, and after it is completed, it will be sold to the investors, and then transfer the returns to the investors through the website to complete it."

Lev stood up excitedly and opened his nose with a big nose, "Brother Wei, that website is our website!"

"Cheer, roar!" Ye Wei raised his fist, "We will change the world when we run such a crowdfunding network. Man, the new financing methods for independent movies are just one of them. We can gradually expand it, music, games, art, technology... all these creative projects have great ideas but no money, I need money! Lev, you want to crowdfund 10,000 yuan to visit a brothel in Nevada on-site, OK! Noah, you want to crowdfund 10,000 yuan to buy comic books, OK! Everything is fine, as long as there are investors to take care of you."

"Wow!" Lev cheered, and Chen Nuo thought of a key point: "Then how we make a profit? Are we charged a handling fee?"

"Yes." Ye Wei had already thought about it, "We only charge some fees to investors who have successfully crowdfunded funds, and deduct them from the funds raised by percentage. They charge 3% like brokers, maybe 5%? Not much. But the charges must be implemented at a mature time. At the beginning, we not only do not charge any handling fees, but we also have to find ways to support some particularly good projects and make their success a name for the new model of online crowdfunding."

Chen Nuo had already thought about it, "5% should be very suitable."

"I don't know, man, I'm not as good as you in this regard." Ye Wei smiled, "You know that it's very interesting to ask me to build a website to pick up girls, and it's better to kill me for the rest. So let's work together, I have money and reputation, Noah, you have skills and minds, Lev, you have socializing and... a big nose."

"In fact, I still have a concern." Lev didn't want to be a chaotic person. "Will this model be hindered by Hollywood?"

"No, this is just networking the crowdfunding model of independent films." Ye Wei also said seriously, "not only does not hinder, Hollywood needs to support it."

He told the two of them that movies are very high-risk things. During the production stage, everyone is worried about how to make a big movie. A perfect project can make a bad movie. After finally shooting it, it looks like a good movie that can make money. If you do distribution, you will invest a lot of money, but you may eventually lose your pants.

Not to mention this cannot be hindered. The production model of Hollywood studios has long been to work with independent film manufacturers or filmmakers, such as Warner Bros. and Legend Pictures, but Legend is just one of its partners. This is all about diversifying risks. Who would refuse to skip the risk of the entire stage? It is directly about watching the film to consider whether to buy it? How happy this is for publishers of all sizes!

No matter how you independent filmmakers get the money and how you repay investors, if you buy a good movie that makes money, if you don't, you can go as far as you go. Online crowdfunding only increases financing channels and does not change the rules of the distribution game. Hollywood wants to put more and better independent movies there for them to choose from.

When an independent film is made, all copyrights are bought by a large company and an ideal return amount is obtained. Not every movie is so lucky, nor does every movie have that potential. Even if there are ten good movies, there will be people who will be eliminated, because the film merchants need to buy it for distribution, and the distribution costs money, and there are risks... Therefore, the distribution of independent films must find suitable ways, film festivals, overseas sales, video on demand...

But this is the producer's business, not the crowdfunding website.

Ye Wei smiled again: "Maybe in the future, you are unlikely to crowdfund $100 million to make a blockbuster. Our service target is those small projects ranging from thousands to millions. It is not necessary to start from scratch to crowdfunding. In the R&D stage, the pre-production stage, the shooting stage, the post-production stage, the distribution stage, any time you need money, you can crowdfund it, which is not illegal.

Guys, it’s really a blessing to have that channel for independent films! For investors, they love such opportunities. Maybe one of those projects is "The Big Man Napoleon", "Half Nelson", or "The Bones of Winter". Thank you for the crowdfunding and digital shooting."

"I'm joining!" Lev also laughed, "This can work!"

Chen Nuo also became more and more surprised as he thought about it. "Creative project online crowdfunding has great development prospects! It can become a part of the lives of ordinary people."

"Do you think I can only make movies?" Ye Wei asked. Lev laughed and scolded, "Brother Wei, you can still fuck him." Ye Wei smashed the whiteboard pen in his hand at him, and also scolded, "You bitch. I didn't go out to fuck tonight, just for this matter. This is not a saying. We have to start the website quickly and register a company in the next few days."

"What domain name is used for the website? Cha color-dream-league?" Chen Nuo said.

"It's too long, too formal..." Ye Wei said, and then he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and laughed, "spotpass! Just call this."

Lev and Chen Nuo all applauded when they heard this, and they were a good name! They were easy to remember, friendly and interesting.

Pass is passed, approved, spot can mean spot, spot, and vividly describe the target crowdfunding projects. They are not big, just small. spot-pass is also a football term. The meaning of the ball passing is in place is suitable for investment and financing.

Ye Wei took another whiteboard pen, wrote a big "" on the whiteboard, turned around and encouraged them, "Gentlemen, four years ago, our group of people achieved great crowdfunding, which became a textbook-style classic, and was said over and over again! Now it's time to move forward. Our slogan is, crowdfunding realizes dreams!"

Lev and Chen Nuo both stood up and raised their teacup with a smile. A cool website and financing investment method is about to be born, online crowdfunding!

crowdfunding-to-achieve-dreams!

...

On Sunday afternoon of the 14th, the sun was as bright as the Los Angeles. Ye Wei drove to the West Side Wave Training Ground in sportswear. The two kids and lawyer Salton were doing the website. He did whatever he should do. He parked the car and walked into the training ground, but saw a group of paparazzi guarding there, and as soon as he saw him, he walked up one after another.

Some people were taking pictures, and some were taking pictures with cameras and cell phones. He greeted him and strode towards the entrance of the training ground.

"Viy, can you talk? Why do you need to go to play football after you go to the movies?" asked a paparazzi, handing you a recording on your phone, "Tell me?"

"This is similar to when you spy on other people's privacy, you will also go running." Ye Wei said as he walked, "But I am a professional player."

Seeing that he was willing to speak, the paparazzi were excited, and another question sounded: "Will you attend tomorrow's Golden Globe Awards Dinner?" Ye Wei smiled and said, "Of course, although there is no big gift package this year, I will still go." The paparazzi smiled and laughed almost, and someone immediately asked: "Will Lily go with you?"

"You will know tomorrow." He pushed open the wire mesh door and Ye Wei stepped onto the grass. Lily didn't plan to go as her girlfriend. He understood her and she had her pride.

"Will your female companion be a future girl?", "Will it be Elizabeth Olsen?" The paparazzi asked, and some security guards stopped them.

Ye Weiyixiao, four future girls will step on the red carpet of the Golden Globe Awards tomorrow. They are not his female companions, and he will make a stand-alone appearance.

"Weige! Are you declining from movies because your creativity is exhausted?" another paparazzi asked, "Can't you make a movie?"

Ye Wei stopped and turned around to look at the group of paparazzi reporters behind the barbed wire, "What did you say?"
Chapter completed!