Chapter 395： TV Market (2)

When I was young, I thought that TV was a conspiracy. The TV stations worked together to make everyone more stupid. Later, I realized that this idea was wrong, and it was not the TV station's fault at all. It was the result of the audience's own choice.

- Steve Jobs.

Although during the interview, Jobs said this in a joking manner.

But it is also enough to prove that the TV station is definitely the most dedicated effort on the road of catering to the joys, sorrows and sorrows of the vast audience.

This is especially true of TV dramas, because they are broadcast weekly.

The decision to survive or not is entirely in the hands of the audience. If someone watches it, if it meets expectations, one season will be broadcast, and there will even be a sequel. No one will watch it. Basically, it will not survive three episodes.

The pilot system is a feature of American dramas.

TV stations spend a lot of senseless money on this every year.

Every time a project is cut, it means that the TV station will lose a copyright payment for purchasing and broadcasting.

Because in the U.S., TV stations first see this project and pay the advance payment, then American dramas will start filming, shoot two or three episodes, and then sell them to the one who paid to see if the prospect of release is worth continuing.

But TV stations are not always willing to buy projects, which requires the personal connections of the various production companies.

Some powerful gold-medal producers are well aware of the needs of major TV stations and the preferences of their supervisors.

For example, the well-known Baum Gardner in the circle is an example. He is related to the media groups behind the major TV stations. As long as the ideas he sells, they can basically be filmed and broadcast. There is no one who does not give him the opportunity to test the waters.

And Charles took the same path. Lismanwish Films often relied on contracting part of the filming of the series to reap profits.

Furthermore, the length of the TV series is relatively long.

Therefore, TV dramas pay great attention to the plot, and the requirements for screenwriters are also greater.

It is no exaggeration to say that screenwriters who are absolutely weak in the film industry have achieved a great improvement in their status in American dramas.

The chief writer of most American dramas is equivalent to the production director.

The life and death of a character or even the direction of the plot is basically a very short period of time, the screenwriters quickly rush out of work, and then the main writer decides whether to hire or not.

A well-known joke in the circle is that a certain actor is not obedient, or his salary has risen too much, and there are endless examples of being written to death by the screenwriter.

Therefore, if you are an actor and you are in the TV circle, it is best not to offend the screenwriter too much.

......

WB Television's script library.

Lyman brought Thomas, Ryan, and a few staff from the screenwriting department.

Well, Nolan's younger brother Jonathan, after finishing the script of "Batman", joined Firefly Pictures and was temporarily in charge of the screenwriting.

Several people stayed here for most of the day, all screening scripts.

Every year, even if the WB TV station is not so strong, it will receive a huge number of project ideas.

After all, opportunities are limited. All TV stations combined, there are not many TV dramas that can be shown in a year. Compared with the huge number of screenwriters, the competition is even more fierce.

Therefore, everyone who has an idea will submit the creative script to N TV stations.

Anyway, they have recorded the protection of property rights in the relevant departments.

If someone really plagiarized the results and took it to court, it would be very troublesome. TV stations don't do that.

In the huge collection room, every wooden cabinet is filled with scripts.

Some have not been cleaned up, even dating back several years.

While busy, Lehman took some time to answer questions about the script.

For example, if anyone likes a script, Lehmann has to review it again, but he rejects all of them.

The reason for using it is basically that the story is too old-fashioned, the setting is not new, the subject matter is not prominent, or the shooting cost is too different from the expected market, and the risk is too high.

For these views, everyone is muttering in their hearts.

He said he came here to choose the script, but he didn't like any of them.

However, Lehman did not explain much, and focused on screening the script.

Actually, he came here this time, just to see if the ideas overlap, so as to save the embarrassment in the future.

After all, he basically knew the popular TV series in later generations.

I had another collision with a script independently created by a certain screenwriter, and I had to die of embarrassment.

Of course, other people don't know about Lehman's careful thinking, and they are really working hard to choose the script with their own eyes. After all, Lehman said a range of topics, saying that he wanted to shoot a drama about prison escape. .

However, this kind of subject matter is almost impossible to find, and there are very few even brushed edges.

After all, the hottest ones on the market today are family comedies, mystery dramas, crime dramas, etc. The focus of screenwriting is also here.

And Jonathan still feels strange about Lyman's attitude of turning a blind eye to other subjects. When he saw a fairly good script for the third time, and it was rejected for almost the same reason, he asked in surprise: "Actually, the theme of prison escape is not as broad as that of a crime drama. It's the fifth season, and it won an Emmy."

Well, "The Wire" and "Crisis Scene Investigation" are similar markets that they mainly focus on, and they have all been successful.

Anyway, instead of catering to the market audience, the tireless pursuit of a topic that sounds like a niche is really not so wise.

Even "The Shawshank Redemption" is so powerful that it was a loss when it was filmed.

This is all proven by the market.

"It's just too much homogenization Lyman is concentrating on rewriting the script. Hearing this, he raised his head even more surprised than Jonathan. "Even if the filming is similar, it will be squeezed by those TV dramas themselves. This is not what I want to see. "

"Why? If it's you, it shouldn't be difficult to shoot something new." Jonathan shook his head with emotion.

Speaking of which, "Bad Guy" is still the highest-grossing movie of its kind.

He guessed that this was the reason why Lehmann was reluctant to go the old way, and the same goes for movies, changing from one subject to another. He didn't expect to make a TV series.

Lyman stained his mouth.

His brother went to make a movie. After Jonathan was fine, he was in the mood to make fun of himself.

But what Lehman wants is not the ratings, but the popularity, or at least the top-ranked ones.

If you don't suppress Charles all at once and destroy all his superfluous ideas, I don't know how long the equity acquisition will be delayed.

Although, Charles is very dissatisfied with him now, but it is not enough, the basic plate has not been broken, this guy still seems to be confident.

This can't be done.

The reading continues.

It took two full days for Lyman to finally be sure that the car would not crash.

Actually, it seems that the idea of ​​this show was just a whim and put together by the producer, and he never thought that it would be possible to make so many seasons. Bad tails are very serious.

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