Chapter 42: The Film Company’s Development

Though Adrian’s film company’s performance increased, and he also made a remark about a few workers to Laverne, there were still a small bunch of them that were still messing around during work. It was a normal occurrence, and naturally, it was normal that they were fired, because a company that wanted to grow would disallow having more hands than needed.

The next thing to do was to expand every department, so Adrian handed it to Laverne and had two requests. The first was to sign a few outstanding screenwriters as soon as possible, because honestly, the existing screenwriters in the editorial department were only good enough to make amendments, whereas Adrian needed talents who could write scripts based on given ideas.

Adrian completed the scripts of the two previous films he produced, and a few that he was going to produce after that. As time passed, more films needed to be produced but he could not write every script on his own. Besides, he had already stored more than ten script outlines at the Writers Guild.

Laverne had no opinion on this because he knew that Adrian sold some scripts to a few film companies. It would be extremely beneficial to the company’s development if there were screenwriters in the editorial department who could write a few more scripts for low-cost, high-profit films. However, he did not understand Adrian’s other request.

“Establish a TV series production department?” Laverne asked while in Adrian’s office as he was confused. “Why?”

“Of course it’s to prepare for TV series productions, Lave.” Adrian shrugged. “What else could it be for?”

“But… We’ve just started to do well, so we don’t have to rush to expand horizontally, right?” Laverne politely reminded him. Clearly, he disagreed on the idea.

“I know your concerns, but don’t be too worried.” Adrian was not unhappy, because he knew what Laverne was worried about. “I didn’t say that I need a completely established department immediately, and I didn’t mention that I want productions right away. I just need you to set the frame, recruit people to train them, and build a professional team so that production can begin when the timing’s right. I’ll give you enough time and funds, but it goes without saying that you shouldn’t be spending them freely.”

“May I ask what’s the right timing?” Laverne asked.

“Do you remember what I told you a few days ago? My aim is not only film production.” Adrian smiled. Previously, he more or less revealed to Laverne about his plan to build a media company with Claude, and since Laverne was wise and capable, he would be the best candidate for CEO once the film company grew.

Laverne instantly understood. “I understand, Eddy, I’ll do as you say.”

“That’ll be it.” Adrian nodded, then recalled something. “Oh right, you can ask them to email some preview tapes to TV networks as a way to practice TV series production. It’s not a bad thing if some of their works are fancied too.”

Big TV networks in America rarely invested in TV series, whereby a TV production company usually produced a 20 to 40-minutes long video to pass it to the person in charge of a TV network. Should the network find it valuable, they would buy it and would ask the TV production company to produce a first series, which would be scheduled for release according to its content. Needless to say, the TV network would cut off the series without hesitation if the rating did not hit the desired target.

Therefore, producing preview tapes was a good practice method for a team, and would be a good opportunity for them to train their screenwriting skills—America’s drama scripts were usually managed by five to six people, because only an episode was released every week, so every episode of a remarkable drama had viewpoints, be it suspenseful or funny. Furthermore, the plots were usually adjusted according to the audience’s opinions, hence screenwriting quality was a huge test. It would also increase the company’s income if a TV network actually bought one of them, which would even improve the company’s reputation if the series became famous.

“I understand.” Laverne nodded.

While Adrian was busy taking care of matters for the film company, Claude had not been idle. Soon enough, AC Entertainment & Media Company was established. The name seemed terrible as the letters of their first name were used, but Adrian did not complain. A company’s name was only a symbol, and a great name would mean nothing if a company was not influential.

Although Adrian gave Claude full authority in the company, it did not mean that he was not going to care about its development. Nevertheless, Claude did not need his help at all, because not only was the preliminary setup done for the company, but Claude also roped in a number of talents from his dad’s company—Adrian received complaints from his godfather a few times through the phone, who said that he and Claude lacked experience and were being too proud. Adrian only laughed bitterly, because he knew that his godfather was just not resigned to the outcome. Every dad would want their son to follow in their footsteps, but every wise dad also knew that their son needed to start their own business.

Even though young people had pioneering spirits, and Claude was extremely capable, some things could not be solved so quickly. For instance, purchasing a publishing company and an agency. The former was easier because they only needed to look for one that was not doing so well once their new media company was more developed; the latter could not be done in a few days, because after buying one, rearrangements needed to be made according to CAA’s regulations, and the agents required training.

Apart from giving Dennis a 2-million-dollar cheque and allowing him to rest for half a year, there was nothing much Adrian could do. Though the box office sales for the second week ‘Memento’ was screened did not turn out to be satisfactory, and that the sales in North America were only around 21 million dollars when there were more than 1000 screening cinemas, it did not mean that the sales were going to decline.

This was because ‘Memento’ had too many clues and details that it could not be fully understood if it was only watched once, to which Roger Ebert agreed as well. It indirectly gave the impression that the film could not be easily comprehended, which affected the box office sales. Nonetheless, the clues and details that were closely related to the story would attract people to watch it repeatedly, which would result in another big batch of viewers toward the end. Hence, Adrian believed that there would not be a huge difference between the box office sales of ‘Memento’ and ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’, only his company might need to pay more theatre chains for their share in the former.

Thus, Adrian gave Dennis a bonus that was four times more than the one he previously gave. It did not matter if the final box office sales would not meet his expectations because Claude earned a lot of money for him through oil futures. Moreover, not all of the funds earned were invested in the newly established media company, because it did not need a lot of funds for the time being, and Adrian was going to invest some in other things like Microsoft and Cisco’s stocks.

He initially wanted to hold more shares in those companies. While their stocks were not as cheap as they used to be when they first went on the market, the IT industry’s development was not at its peak yet, so they were considered much cheaper than the bigger companies. That being said, their market value was only tens of millions of dollars, so it was good enough for Adrian to have 5 million dollars from each company under his belt. He was not too concerned though, because the 5 million dollars would be increased by more than a hundred times 8 years down the road if there were no mishaps.

As for Dennis, Adrian let him rest for half a year because the agency could not operate smoothly so quickly. Besides, he worked with Adrian for two films since May last year, thus he deserved to rest. In any case, he would not be needed for the next few films produced by Adrian.

Honestly, Adrian wanted to give Dennis a role, and he actually wanted him to play the male lead for his next film. If Dennis could showcase a high-standard acting skill, he could definitely become more famous, and would become an A-lister. However, there could be no mistakes for the next film as it would affect Adrian’s plan. Even though Dennis received good reviews about ‘Memento’, he was denounced by a few movie critics for being too young, thus Adrian decided to use the “original” cast.

‘It doesn’t matter, there’ll be many more films for him to participate in, and I’ll pick a few good ones. This can be a small test for him,’ Adrian thought to himself as he stared at the ceiling in his office while leaning against his armchair. He later curled his lips, because he thought of Kate due to the movie critics. As compared to the European reviewers at the Berlin Film Festival, some American movie critics were much harsher with their comments on her, where they said that she was like wood. Consequently, Kate who was only 17 years old was unhappy.

“Hey, my love, did you just wake up?” Adrian looked at the clock on the wall.

“Hey, Eddy, are you okay? Why did you call me at this hour?” When Kate yawned through the phone, Adrian imagined her stretching on her bed with only her panties on.

“Because I miss you.” Adrian smiled. “Did I wake you up?”

“Of course not.” Kate chuckled, then sighed. “It’ll be great if I can see you now.”

Perhaps she noticed that she sounded quite down, so she changed the topic. “Oh right, I encountered something interesting in school a few days ago…”

With that, they began talking non-stop, and they hung up reluctantly after a long time. Subsequently, Adrian pondered for a few seconds before he grinned.

‘Since I’ve been resting lately… I shall…’ He then pressed a button on his office phone. “Madam Jennison, book a ticket to London for me as soon as possible, thank you!”