33 Mr.Boss (1/2)

Wang Yang sat behind his desk in the chairman's office at A-Pix's headquarters. He handed a piece of A4 paper, on which he'd drawn the company's new name and logo, to a Caucasian girl named Lisa Gero. She was a professional designer. She took a look at it and was puzzled. As a full-time artist at A-Pix's publishing department, it was her duty to design cover art, posters, and other graphic material for the company's movies. She also designed and maintained the company's official website.

Lisa Gero sat across the desk from Wang Yang, looking at the piece of paper in her hand, her head tilted to one side. She spoke carefully, trying her best not to ruffle Wang Yang's feathers. ”Um, Mr. Wang, forgive my bluntness, but are those penguins? And is that a crown in the middle?”

Wang Yang was stunned. All the color had gone from his face. He had not expected his drawing to be as ambiguous as to confuse moths and butterflies with penguins. ”No!” he corrected her smilingly and shook his head in self-deprecating humor. ”Those are not penguins, and that's not a crown. That, on the left, is the side view of a moth and that, on the right, is the side view of a butterfly. And that, down the middle, is a torchlight,” he explained with a smile.

”Oh! I'm so sorry.” Lisa Gero smiled apologetically. In an attempt to spare her boss's feelings, she made a joke at her own expense. ”Perhaps I need to get myself a pair of glasses.”

”It's okay. I'm more of an abstract painter anyway,” Wang Yang said with a smile and a shrug. Lisa relaxed upon hearing Wang Yang's friendly tone. Then, Wang Yang went on to describe his vision to Lisa. ”Lisa, I'm going for the impression of a moth and a butterfly chasing after the light in a beautiful and spectacular sort of way. Do you get me?”

At first, Lisa nodded her head and said, ”I get it.” But then, she wagged her head slowly and asked, ”But what does it all mean? I mean, why a moth and a butterfly?” She hesitated for a moment but felt it best to tell Wang Yang her honest opinion. ”Mr. Wang, as you know, moths are associated with death in many cases, just like the moth in The Silence of the Lambs. Aren't you worried it might affect our company's image?”

Wang Yang leaned back in his chair and smiled softly. He knew moths represented death in many cases, but not all cases. He said, ”Lisa, the moth in The Silence of the Lambs didn't represent death. It represented rebirth. Did you know that? The truth is, many people wish to come out of their shells. They want to show the world their true potential and to fulfill their destiny. But most people are not honest about their desires. They run and hide from their dreams, so they can never break out of their shells and be reborn into something truly magnificent.”

”The moth represents transformation, evolution; in the flames, it is redeemed.” Wang Yang took a deep breath and said with a smile, ”Anyway, I like moths. I see myself in them. I think they'll do nicely in our new logo, and that's that.”

Lisa listened to Wang Yang with a confused look on her face. But he was the boss. Whatever he said went. She nodded and said, ”All right. Got it.” Then, she noticed the company's name on the piece of paper that Wang Yang had given her. She traced the name ”Flames Films” under the torchlight with a pencil and asked, ”Mr. Wang, how about we put our company's name here?”

”Okay. Looks great,” Wang Yang agreed after looking at it.

Flames evoked a sense of heat, light, and passion. In the logo, it was depicted by a torchlight. It represented dreams and the pursuit of dreams. It also represented the cinema. Wang Yang hoped that, just like a torchlight, the movies produced by his company would captivate the audience and brighten up their lives. He hoped that his movies would kindle people's dreams and inspire them to break out of their shells and show the world their true beauty.

Thus, their new name and trademark were registered, and the company was officially rebranded. Thereafter, A-Pix Entertainment would be known as Flames Films. The logo was designed by Wang Yang and rendered by Lisa Gero. It consisted of a light-yellow moth on the left and a colorful butterfly on the right. The critters formed a symmetrical image around a yellow-red, cartoon-style torchlight in the middle that shone above the company's name. All the elements were tied together in colors that were pleasing to the eye, and the cartoonish rendering style made the whole thing look vibrant. The logo popped with the youthfulness and optimism of its creators.

The old nameplate that had said ”A-Pix” had been removed from the main door of the company, leaving behind a pale, empty spot. That spot would be filled by a custom-made, acrylic plaque with the new name and the new logo once it had arrived from the manufacturer.

Flames Films kicked off its first week of operations with a top management meeting. It was attended by the manager of every department within the company as well as the higher-ups, which sounded like a daunting affair. But in fact, the meeting only consisted of fewer than 10 people.

As the owner of the company, Wang Yang was naturally present. He sat at the head of the meeting table. He was wearing a grey shirt that laid underneath a black suit. He was not wearing a tie. Sitting beside Wang Yang was Mark Strong. He was also decked out in a black suit that matched nicely with his silver tie and black-rimmed glasses. He looked like a million bucks because he was no longer Wang Yang's agent but the Chief Executive Officer of Flames Films.

Due to his outstanding performance in the acquisition of A-Pix Entertainment and the fact that Chris Lynch, the former CEO of the company, had resigned, he had been an obvious candidate for the position. One day, Wang Yang had asked him, ”If you were to become the company's CEO, what would you do to grow the company?” and liked his answer.

”We should gradually expand our company's presence in the market while sticking to what we do best—low-budget films. By that, I mean any movies that cost less than $10,000,000, as we can't always count on finding ultra-cheap steals like Paranormal Activity. Second, there's little room in the market for companies that only specialize in film production. Hence, we should build an advertising channel of our own so as to regain control of our company's image; we can't always rely on the media to paint us in a good light. As for our revenue, we should look beyond the box office to other means of monetizing our movies. Merchandise, DVDs, live performances… wherever there's potential for a huge payoff.”

Mark Strong spoke with great enthusiasm and candor, and he made a lot of sense. He spoke at great length about his vision for the company. His opinion was backed by facts and figures. He talked about acquiring and investing in low-budget movies and creating new revenue streams. He painted a picture of the company's future, and Wang Yang liked that picture and the way in which he painted it.

The strategy that Mark Strong described reminded Wang Yang forcefully of Lionsgate's strategy. But what set the two apart was the latter's ability to separate the wheat from the chaff and sniff out hidden gems like Paranormal Activity.

”Of course,” Mark Strong said, shrugging his shoulders, ”all these things require money. Unless you're willing to fork out the cash, we may need another moonshot like Paranormal Activity.”

”We may not have Paranormal Activity anymore, but we have High School Musical,” Wang Yang replied. ”I make the movies, you run the company,” Wang Yang said as he reached out for a handshake. Mark Strong grabbed his hand and shook it firmly. ”You got it, boss.”

Thus, Mark Strong was appointed as the CEO of Flames Films. His probation period was three months, and his monthly salary was $20,000, which made him the highest-paid employee at the company. After the probation period, he would be awarded a full-time contract that entitled him to more benefits.

In the boardroom, Mark Strong presented the business development plan, and the key action steps for the company. He and Wang Yang came up with it. The development plan was built around High School Musical, with the action steps paving the way for its release.

Simon Willis, the VP of Publishing, was all ears. He listened intently as Mark Strong assigned his task to him. ”We must target our promotional efforts at schools. During our promotional campaign, I want our posters placed in the halls of every high school, middle school, even elementary school in North America where all the kids can see them. We shall reach out to the administrators of schools and get them to support our promotional events. We shall set up a system that will allow us to screen our movie at schools during its debut. We shall do whatever it takes to reach them, for they are our most important audience.”

Wang Yang's rendition of High School Musical was not a television film. It would not be broadcasted on television. It was meant, instead, for the big screen. But how could they debut their movie with a bang and get the first batch of customers into the cinemas? The key was advertising. Even Paranormal Activity's spectacular success had been born out of an effective marketing strategy, namely the viral marketing tactic. If High School Musical were to become equally successful, it would need to rely on marketing as well.

After careful deliberations, Wang Yang and Mark Strong had decided preliminarily on what they called a ”school saturation viral marketing campaign”. They would cover every conceivable inch of wall space across schools with colorful and attention-grabbing posters in order to arouse students' interests and prime them for the movie's debut, which would take place in video rooms in hundreds of schools across America. Once they had won over the students with the first wave of advertisement, they would proceed with the second wave, which was a wide release in all major cinemas.

Should High School Musical turn out to be a hit, they would capitalize on it by introducing various peripheral products, such as DVDs, original soundtrack albums, books, clothing, and toys. But they would take it one step at a time. Once High School Musical was proven to be a success, some of the peripheral products such as clothing and toys could be produced in collaboration with other companies. Some could be produced by companies that had purchased the copyrights to do so. And some, like music albums, could be produced in-house, provided Flames Films was able to acquire a record company at a good price.

But it all depended on whether High School Musical took off or not. Records labels, toys, and DVDs would be the least of Flames Films' worries if High School Musical flopped.

”I understand.” Upon hearing Mark Strong's game plan, Simon Willis, the middle-aged Caucasian manager, nodded and declared, ”I'll draw up a proposal after this meeting.”

”Okay. I look forward to reading it.” After that, Mark Strong gave Wang Yang a look that said, ”That's all from me.”

Wang Yang looked around the table at his subordinates sitting on either side and they looked back. He produced a copy of his script that he had printed out, but he did not trust them enough to show it to them. After all, he could barely remember their names. He waved the script in his hand and declared, ”As you all probably know, a movie will soon be in the works. For now, we're calling it High School Musical. It's a musical set in a high school, and it'll be directed by me.”

The staff nodded passively. It was not news to them. They had gotten wind of it a long time ago. But someone seemed a little uncomfortable. Sandy Parks, the VP of Production Acquisition, looked at Wang Yang nervously. He was a Caucasian man in his thirties. He looked as if he was going to speak but found a frog in his throat and decided to clear it. Wang Yang saw him and paused to ask politely, ”Sandy, is there anything you'd like to say?”

He looked back at Wang Yang with a frown of trepidation and said, ”Mr. Wang, I'm just thinking, the market for this type of musical is really quite small. Are you sure you want to do this?”

”Please, call me Yang. All of you. I'm only 18. I'm Mr. Young, not Mr. Wang,” Wang Yang digressed, rolling his eyes. He did not like that everybody had been calling him Mr. Wang. It made him feel self-conscious. Every time he looked in the mirror, he saw an older man.

Suddenly, the room was filled with the staff's laughter. Shrugging his shoulders and putting his hands up, Mark Strong smiled and said, ”Okay, Mr. Young.”

Wang Yang laughed as well. Then, he looked at Sandy Parks and answered his question. ”Sandy, I've been asking myself the same question. But in the end, I've decided to go ahead with it. Why? Because great movies defy industry trends. There are movies that are dictated by the market and movies that dictate it.”

Strong in his conviction, he said bravely, ”I believe High School Musical has the potential to dictate the market. It all depends on us.”

”If you say so,” Sandy Parks relented and nodded. He decided not to press his views upon him, although he wanted to. Nothing he said could ever change his boss' juvenile mind. Wang Yang had made a name for himself with Paranormal Activity at just 18 years old and was worth tens of millions of dollars. Success had struck him quickly, so it was easy for him to believe he could do no wrong. Sandy took a deep breath and crossed his fingers in silence. He could only hope that his precocious young boss knew what he was doing.