Chapter 110: Technical Adjustments

Everyone was shocked—no one expected Xiao Ran to place such emphasis on talent, and they all felt honored. At that point, Xiao Ran nodded at Wei Dongling before sitting down. Wei Dongling cleared his throat gently to draw everyone’s attention before saying, “Since the company currently has ample funds, we’re going to establish three new departments. One is the Audio-Visual Department, responsible for producing and distributing videotapes and related products. Another is the Marketing Department, in charge of advertising. The third is the Investment Department, which will analyze the business environment and provide recommendations to me and Boss Xiao! The new manager is Tang Yan!” Wei Dongling pointed to one of them as an introduction.

At that moment, the only foreigner in the meeting room stood up and greeted everyone in Chinese with a smile. He was a friend Wei Dongling had met while studying in the United States. According to Wei Dongling, Tang Yan had excellent investment insight. Wei Dongling himself would have been an ideal candidate for the Investment Department, but unfortunately, he was the general manager.

After greeting everyone, Tang Yan promptly and seriously presented his first investment recommendation to Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling: “I’ve done some research, and property prices in Hong Kong have dropped by as much as 30%. All indications suggest this is already the bottom. Therefore, I believe the company’s investment focus should be real estate in the coming year!”

While real estate was indeed worth investing in, Xiao Ran placed even more emphasis on stocks—stocks in the Hong Kong market and Microsoft’s shares on the U.S. stock market. Although he wasn’t fully aware of Microsoft’s exact history, he knew it was in a period of growth. He also knew that Microsoft’s value would continue to rise in the future, so no matter how high its stock price was now, buying it was definitely worthwhile. Moreover, he had learned that Microsoft had only gone public last year, meaning there was still plenty of room for growth.

Most importantly, Xiao Ran found out that one of Microsoft’s founders, Paul Allen, had left the company and was selling his shares. With his skilled trader, Fang Xiaoqiang, at his disposal, acquiring Microsoft’s shares wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Coincidentally, Fang Xiaoqiang had just completed the acquisition of Xin Bao’s parent company a few days earlier. Taking advantage of the stock market crash, he managed to do it for just six to seven million. Xiao Ran gave Fang Xiaoqiang 200 million to go to the U.S. and acquire Microsoft’s shares—of course, under Xiao Ran’s personal name.

After handling all these matters in the short term, Xiao Ran finally felt a bit more relaxed. Yet, once in this position, it seemed he couldn’t stay idle. After working for a while, he began writing a script.

His next project was “Dark Flowers.” This film was so deeply etched in Xiao Ran’s memory that he couldn’t even change it. Within a few days, the script was completed. Xiao Ran then called over You Hai and You Zhi, who had always followed Wei Jiahui, along with their master.

In Xiao Ran’s office, Wei Jiahui brought his two apprentices in, looking puzzled. After they all sat down, Xiao Ran smiled and handed them water. “Xiao Bao, how are You and Zhi doing in their studies?”

“It’s almost there. I’ve taught them everything I can; now all that’s left is an opportunity to put it into practice!” Wei Jiahui looked helplessly at the smiling Xiao Ran and glanced at Shuang You, who seemed somewhat restrained. “Do you plan to use them?”
“That’s right. It’s indeed time to use them!” Xiao Ran said seriously. “People always improve through practice. The company is giving newbies many opportunities now—it’s time for you all to give it a try.”
Wei Jiahui and Shuang You immediately showed excitement; they had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. Ever since they learned a few days ago that the company had acquired an art theater chain with only four or five cinemas to serve as a testing ground for new talents and projects, they had become eager for it.
Xiao Ran didn’t say much more. He handed the scripts for “Dark Flowers” and “Secret War” to the three of them and then told them, “Go back and study these two scripts. Tell me what their common points are, their strengths, and their weaknesses!”
Xiao Ran hadn’t planned to start shooting “Secret War” yet—even if he did, he wouldn’t direct it. His current focus was on “Dark Flowers.” He would bring over Yu Jiayu, a producer who had already shown great ability, and give him the script to assemble the crew.
As for the lead actors, Xiao Ran had his own ideas. Naturally, it had to be Stephen Chow. As for the other actor, it would be really difficult to find one. There were very few male actors who could pair well with Stephen Chow. Xiao Ran himself wanted to play the lead, but he didn’t think his acting skills were good enough.
Seeing Xiao Ran’s worried expression, Yu Jiayu asked tentatively, “Boss, are you thinking about the lead actors? I suggest having Wan Ziliang play the bald character. What do you think?”
Xiao Ran shook his head slightly. Wan Ziliang was indeed suitable, but he preferred a contracted artist from the company to play the lead. Liu Qingyun was a good candidate, but he was still young and not good enough to pair with Stephen Chow.
Waving his hand, Xiao Ran gave a frustrated instruction and told Yu Jiayu to go ahead and get the crew together first. “I’ll decide on the two leads myself. Go and assemble the crew first. Remember, I only want the best.”
Frustrated, Xiao Ran went straight to Lin Qingxia. She was even more frustrated than him because she hadn’t acted in a long time. Hearing this, Xiao Ran became even more depressed. “The Smiling, Proud Wanderer” and “The Dragon Gate Inn” were good movies, but they were all directed by Xu Ke.
Now that Xu Ke was willing to help him shoot “The Ghost Bride,” it was already a great concession. If he wanted to continue like this, it would be difficult. Unless… unless he could bring down the film studio and get Xu Ke under his control.
If Xiao Ran had 10 billion, he would definitely spare no expense to buy shares in Lei Kaitai’s listed company in order to take control of the film studio, New Art City, and the Golden Princess theater chain. But with his current financial situation, it was clearly impossible.

In fact, Xiao Ran was well aware that he didn’t need to recruit every outstanding film artist. Yet he knew even better that it was extremely difficult without a true strong leader in charge of the company. Most importantly, Xiao Ran only wanted to bring in the few greatest directors of the present and future; the rest could go to other companies.

Next, he went to the artist training department and met Hai Lulu. The first batch of artists had graduated—eight singers and fifteen actors. The singers would soon find places to perform. Xiao Ran invested 100 million to establish a record company named Tianlai. However, this company was Mirage’s first subsidiary.

Hai Lulu handed Xiao Ran the profiles of the fifteen actors. He glanced through them but found nothing he needed. The only ones that caught his interest were a man and a woman. The man wasn’t particularly handsome but had a strong personality; his stage name was Su Renyao. The woman was named Feng Feier, who had a beauty that resembled classical elegance. But what intrigued Xiao Ran even more was her outstanding temperament. Clearly, both of them were quite talented. Xiao Ran nodded at Hai Lulu and asked, “Are they here?”

Hai Lulu frowned and shook her head. “I arranged for these graduates to go to several film crews for practical experience in acting. They’re not here!”

Xiao Ran nodded. That was exactly right. Only sufficient acting experience could refine one’s skills to a high level. Just like Zhang Manyu—without those early mediocre films, she would never have been able to become a star later on.

At this thought, Xiao Ran felt very frustrated. Television dramas were actually an excellent way to train actors. Countless true acting masters in Hong Kong’s film industry started their careers in TV dramas. It was a pity he didn’t dare to get involved in the television industry now; otherwise, TVB would surely turn against him immediately.

With TVB’s overwhelming strength, it had managed to suppress ATV for over twenty years, and Jiayi was even forced to close down. Later, TVB even started targeting cable TV stations. Xiao Ran couldn’t imagine how strong TVB’s desire for industry monopoly was. If he dared to oppose them now while still not firmly established, his life would surely be difficult.

“It’s okay. Go and get their graduation video tapes!” Xiao Ran thought these two were quite good. They already looked promising in the photos, and they would surely perform even better on screen.

The graduation video tapes were tests conducted by Mirage when artists graduated. Mirage recorded them for future reference when evaluating the artists. After watching the tapes, Xiao Ran gradually smiled. Su Renyao was the typical manly type, while Feng Feier was the typical feminine type—there was a huge contrast between them.

“Good. It’s them. They’ll definitely become stars!” Xiao Ran smiled slightly. It was enough to have just two such truly talented individuals in each batch of trainees.

In fact, apart from other factors, another reason for the decline of Hong Kong cinema was the high salaries of celebrities. Even in foreign markets, they demanded the same high fees, which explained why there was demand without supply.

There are also many reasons why Hong Kong movies cannot sustain success, one of which is the lack of truly good actors—always the same actors over and over again, which is not a promising situation. To successfully dominate the Southeast Asian market, extremely high demands exist in terms of both the quantity and quality of actors and stars.

To address these two issues, Xiao Ran must cultivate a large number of stars and actors. Even if they can’t be used by him, it’s still worthwhile. With more stars, there are more choices. Before any star demands a higher salary, they will consider whether the movie really can’t function without them—this is one effective way to curb skyrocketing salaries.

Of course, Xiao Ran won’t deliberately suppress salaries; the key is whether the star is worth that much. For example, Stephen Chow and Lam Ching-ya have a market across Southeast Asia, so their salaries are naturally high. In markets where demand is lower, salaries are lower.

Hai Lulu had no objections to Xiao Ran’s choices, but she thought Su Renyao didn’t seem worth promoting. In her view, Su Renyao wasn’t even particularly handsome, nor was he very strong, so his potential for utilization was limited.

Seeing Hai Lulu’s expression, Xiao Ran smiled and told her, “The company needs not only stars but also actors—actors with acting skills. Acting skills are truly fascinating, and actors with distinct personalities definitely have a bright future.”

Acting skills are indeed very captivating, especially for movie fans—who would rather appreciate acting skills than the plot. At least Xiao Ran really liked the acting of Wu Zhenyu and Liu Qingyun; that was quite interesting.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re not good-looking; supporting roles are always needed in movies.” Seeing that Hai Lulu still didn’t understand, Xiao Ran shook his head and sighed, “As long as you perform well and have a unique style, you can still be attractive! After all, there are always comic characters, right?”

Hai Lulu finally understood what Xiao Ran meant. Xiao Ran sighed—acting skills were truly intangible. But then he had an idea: why not use Su Renyao to play Yaodong in “Dark Flower”?

Strictly speaking, Xiao Ran really wanted Stephen Chow to play the ruthless character Yaodong. Unfortunately, Stephen Chow had no reason to shave his head for this role. Thinking of this, he remembered the twin sisters and went to a dance studio with Hai Lulu, where he saw two young girls struggling to perform a strange dance.

Noticing Xiao Ran’s gaze, Hai Lulu smiled and explained, “This is Scottish dancing. Since the president plans to promote them, they must learn enough. Without that, they can’t become famous.”

Xiao Ran was deeply impressed—people these days were so innocent. In twenty years, not to mention beautiful girls, even a stray dog could become famous if there was enough money invested. But this also made him determined to preserve this good tradition at all costs.

Under the guidance of their dance teacher, the twin sisters danced gracefully. Though they saw Xiao Ran and wanted to go up to this impressive older brother to be friendly, they knew the dance teacher’s punishment would be severe if they made a mistake.

Xiao Ran smiled as he watched the two girls finish their dance, only to suddenly see them running towards him. Fan Xiaoya looked at Xiao Ran with a pouty expression and said, “Brother Xiao, learning these things is so hard. I’m almost exhausted!”
*****
Recommended works: A new novel by a famous professional author from Qidian, “The Man with a Thousand Faces” – http://www.feiku.com/showbook.asp?bl_id=40743. Another highly recommended work in the alternate history genre is “Ming Zun” by author Hu Wang Lina – http://www.feiku.com/showbook.asp?bl_id=39305