Chapter 33: Screening
"Bruce, are you here to watch your brother's TV series this time?"
Hearing that someone asked a similar question again, Bruce Levi was still talking with a smile on his face, but there was some impatient look on his face.
Why is his younger brother so bad that he once again encountered the situation of hitting the street? Why is everyone obsessed with Nick's TV series? Are they unaware that the show has been privately rejected by ABC, want to show they care or are they using these words to disgust himself? In any case, these words sound very unpleasant.
Regardless of whether they are right: Bruce is the director of Variety's film division, and logically he shouldn't be at the screening. He came here today to help his younger brother, to see if there is any chance for his TV series to find a way out. However, Bruce is not very optimistic about this - ABC has internally vetoed it even before the screening. They even said that this TV series had overturned all the tenets of Disney.
Bruce hasn't seen this TV series, and he hasn't even read the script, but in his heart, he doesn't appreciate it: Maybe Disney made mistakes, but how can Nick question them? How can a TV series be filmed to overthrow all three strategies of Disney? If such a significant effort is successful, it will be a classic. Forget it. If his younger brother is competent, he will not be at a dead end filming TV shows. If Bruckheimer made it, he would be interested, but it was his younger brother who made it.
Reminiscent of his younger brother, who had just lost nearly a million dollars because of a movie, Bruce didn't believe he was intelligent or competent. This is not to belittle his younger brother but to be cautious as a top film critic. How could someone like his younger brother, who has failed more than once, produce a top-notch TV series? Some people break the rules because they're geniuses, and others break the rules because they're not smart enough.
However, fortunately, according to his friends at ABC, this TV series was rejected because it violated too many ABC rules. In other words, although ABC is not optimistic about this TV series, it admits that it still has a certain shooting level. This made Bruce still have some expectations: It will be difficult to become a hit drama if all these rules are violated. However, if the shooting level is still good, finding a small TV station to broadcast it is still possible.
Now there is only one problem: if the TV show can attract enough advertisers during the show, it may be sold to a slightly smaller TV station. If the advertisers' evaluation of it is okay, then the four major TV networks may not be willing to broadcast it, but other TV stations must be willing to accept this TV series, right?
After all, whether advertisers like it largely determines the future of TV dramas.
Generally speaking, TV programs are broadcast in one hour or half an hour, and a considerable part of this time is for advertising. For a TV series, the drama length is about 42 minutes, and the sitcom length is about 22 minutes. The purpose is to leave 18 minutes or 8 minutes, respectively, of commercial time.
This is true for all public service TV programs - it's different if you're a pay station because they already charge users a fee, so they have slightly fewer commercials and can reach lengths of 50 and 27 minutes, respectively.
An essential function of the screening is to see how many people are interested in investing in advertising fees for TV dramas. If there are many advertisers, then the advertising fees will increase. If the advertising fees are hefty, then naturally, you don't have to worry about sales. Either way, advertising costs are a crucial part of TV dramas.
Calculate an advertisement every 30 seconds; for 18 minutes, there are 36 advertisements in a public station's one-hour show. TV dramas with the top 20 ratings can reach about 100,000 dollars for a 30-second advertisement fee. Such TV dramas can make a steady profit on any TV station—For example, seeing tens of millions of production costs per episode for ER, many felt that the investment in this TV series was too high. Only a few people knew that the advertising fee for ER reached the level of $600,000 per 30 seconds, about 21.6 million per episode. That is to say, the TV series can earn a lot of money just with the advertising fee, so for production, the price is not considered high.
And if it is a relatively poor TV series with poor ratings, then, at the lowest point, the advertising fee for 30 seconds is about 20,000 US dollars. But even so, this also represents an advertising fee of about $700,000 per episode. For a big TV station, this amount of money is not enough to broadcast, but for a small TV station, being able to recover such a price is enough to continue filming TV dramas.
The only thing Bruce is worried about now is whether Levi's TV series can attract enough advertisers' attention. The number of advertisers paying attention determines whether the TV series will be broadcast in the future and where it can be broadcast. Eisner is domineering and will give up when he sees a TV series that doesn't fit his overall plan. This TV series will not worry about selling if it can reach 50,000 US dollars for 30 seconds. Big stations may not like $50,000 for 30 seconds, but not necessarily for other TV stations. If the production level is good, it is also possible that big stations will accept this TV series - which is the best-case scenario. If you try to save a TV series of this level, you can definitely broadcast it.
There is only one question left: how is this TV series?
"Mr. Bruce Levi, nice to meet you. Richard, Richard Morgan, I am responsible for receiving you from ABC. Please come in. We are broadcasting the TV series here."
When he walked to the ABC screening hall, someone greeted him from afar. Bruce glanced around casually. Obviously, the broadcast time of CSI is not very good, and there are not many people here. This TV series is obviously not the main TV series that ABC wants to broadcast this year. He felt that the welcome is far better than the enthusiasm for the TV series.
However, this kind of enthusiasm also made Bruce raise his eyebrows: Before the Oscars, they had enough respect for themselves and their father. Before the Oscars, they would never offend the big names of the critics. But after the Oscars ended, they had already rejected the TV series internally—how much money is this kind of respect worth?
"Richard, prepare yourself. Quite a few people may come to this venue to judge in a while." Bruce was not polite and said directly, "I saw Mr. Rottweiler and Mr. Johnson just now, and they said they would come to this venue later."
Knowing that he was looked down upon, Bruce could only name two big advertisers, hoping to use them to frighten Richard. It was a pity that he saw that Richard's smile had hardly changed: ABC TV station was not a small TV station, the receptionists were not new to the screenings, and they were not intimidated by one or two big names. Moreover, there are countless investors and film buyers at this screening, and which TV series to watch is not the key, but which one to invest in is the key.
He hoped this TV series had some investment value—while this idea was still in his mind, Bruce also walked to the venue and saw the CSI layout venue and the main poster in front of him.
These leading actors look pretty good. This is Bruce's first impression. The simple night scene of Las Vegas, combined with the group show of the five leading actors, tells people what this TV series is about in a simple and clear way. The poster made Bruce nod and walk into the venue.
Inside the venue, people sat in twos and threes. When Bruce came in, the screening theatre was almost empty. Richard apologized and walked away quickly, making Bruce laugh, 'I'm afraid this TV series is only for me to watch, huh?'
Let's see how good the TV show is.
The broadcast of the TV series started. With the sound of music, the night view of Las Vegas began to appear in front of people. The location is perfectly displayed. And in the night scene, the shots of reloading the gun are constantly interspersed, which also makes people know that this is a crime drama.
Only Las Vegas has such a hue and such a night scene.
This beginning made Bruce's eyes shine. The colors, scenes, and stories are all Vegas! The tones, scenes, and themes are wholly integrated well.
The TV series was still playing, and a voice rang out, reciting a suicide note, and the camera was pushed from a distant view to a close view; the camera kept getting closer, and a figure with his back to the camera walked into a room, and then, gunshots rang out.
"Bang!" A gunshot raised everyone's spirits.
The opening chapter is about death. Moreover, as a crime drama, anyone who watches the beginning will feel that this is a homicide.
Was it a direct display of the criminal photo from the beginning?
In less than a minute, everything was explained clearly. No wonder ABC didn't dare to say that the filming of this film was not good, even if it denied it.
Considering this, Bruce also stretched a little on the chair, picked up a muffin from the table next to him, and watched TV more relaxedly.
There are always different snacks and drinks in the venue of the TV show. The people who watch the film are either critics or advertisers. They are all people the TV network can't afford to offend, so they didn't spare any effort.
Sure enough, just as Bruce thought, after a series of evidence collection, the deceased's family members denied it was the deceased's message. This process was not unexpected, but during the period, the police officer's determination of the cause of death and the use of maggots on his body to determine the time of death made people think it was okay.
Then, after it was revealed that it was a murder, the music started to play.
"Who are you..." Bruce heard softly. What he paid attention to was not the apparent night scene and the unique color tone but the show's theme song. The rock band THE WHO's 1978 album "WHO ARE YOU," with simple and clear music, rock style with solid electronic sound, as the theme song of a crime drama set in Las Vegas, couldn't be more suitable.
Well done. This theme song alone is enough to attract many people.
The theme, tone, and music are all integrated, unknowingly pleasing the golden audience—Bruce suddenly discovered that this TV series might be much better than he imagined.
'Once again, I underestimated my brother.'
*****
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