The commander

"Is this your company?"

James stood at the entrance, gazing at the metallic plaque above, and remarked with genuine interest.

"Yes, indeed. Let me show you around,"

Lyman patted his shoulder and led him inside.

After a complete tour, the two settled onto the sofa to rest.

While James continued to take in the surroundings, Lyman's thoughts drifted towards the growth and development of the Firefly Films.

Just the day before yesterday, after the change of ownership, Lyman entrusted Johnson with copies of his identity card and other necessary documents, and sent him to the Bureau of Commerce for the necessary procedures.

The whole process cost only 700 dollars, with 200 of those being taxes paid to the California state government.

With the company license in hand, this film company should finally see some substantial progress. They had an office space, a team of employees, and the qualifications for production. Everything was in place; they were just lacking a suitable project to hone their skills.

After James' initial enthusiasm waned, he suddenly spoke with excitement, "By the way, Lyman, someone from Universal contacted me today, asking me to direct a movie. They even mentioned a payment of $5M."

Lyman wasn't surprised by this news. Universal probably wouldn't be the last film company to extend an invitation. After letting his delight settle, Lyman finally inquired, "James, I'm thinking of having you join my film company. Would you be interested?"

"But how about my filmmaking..." James hesitated, "What will happen?"

Lyman chuckled, "Not much will change. If you join, our company's projects will take priority. If there's no suitable schedule for Universal's offer, we'll decline. Of course, if you're not willing, that's perfectly fine. I'm merely suggesting it."

James fell into silence for a while before asking, "Will I still have creative freedom?"

Lyman didn't hide anything and spoke candidly, "Compared to going solo, joining the company will certainly come with more restrictions."

James lapsed into silence once more, and after a moment, he nodded. Clearly, there had been a significant internal struggle. "Alright, I'll join. I'll inform my agent tomorrow and have them decline those other offers."

Lyman found this amusing and teased, "That's a $5M, you know. I might not be that generous."

After some thought, James, now more at ease, replied in a rather straightforward manner, "Back then, you gave me an opportunity. You let me be the assistant director for "Miscreant", and later you spoke to EuropaCorp about my movie project. Now that you need help, how could I not assist? Moreover, I'm already delighted to have become a director. You've done so much for me; I remember it all."

"Haha," Lyman chuckled, his heart warmed by this, "James, you've only been a director for a short while. Yet, you trust me this much?"

James also smiled and said, "Of course, I can tell who's good to me and who's not. I'm not clueless about that."

"Being loyal and grateful is important, but don't let yourself be too accommodating. Otherwise, you might find yourself getting walked all over by others." Lyman patted his shoulder, speaking with a sense of seriousness.

James rubbed his hands together, chuckling without saying a word.

Lyman continued, "I plan to shoot a sequel to "Saw", with you directing once again. I'll even help you establish a personal studio and have it affiliated with mine. Both studios will jointly invest in the project, and your payment will be directly included in the box office earnings."

"I invest too?" James shook his head repeatedly, saying, "Lyman, I know you've been good to me, but I'm still a newcomer. Getting a share is already great. However, involving me in the investment side's profit distribution might not be a good idea. Also, your trust in me makes me a bit worried. What if the movie fails? You'd still have to give me a share, and the risks involved... Have you thought about that?"

"Will it fail? Based on the foundation of the first film, are you really afraid the market won't accept it? Moreover, do you believe you'll always be a small director? Look at me. I wasn't confident in the beginning, scared of this and that, but I still came through. And as for investment, do you want to work for others your whole life? Not to mention me, look at Luc Besson from EuropaCorp. He also started as a director and now his company is doing very well."

Lyman continued, "This is the United States. Both you and I are outsiders, without social status, reputation, or wealth. Remember how people used to discriminate against you. You're young. Why are you less motivated than me? What's wrong with investing? Someday, you might even start your own film company, just like me, and I won't find that surprising. If you want to succeed, you can't do it without determination..."

In short, a lot was said, but the core idea was clear: Everyone works hard together, gets rich together, and reaches the pinnacle of directing.

Such persuasive eloquence was not something someone like James, a young man, could easily resist. His face flushed, fists clenched, clearly affected to his core by these words.

In fact, from the very beginning, Lyman had planned to collaborate in this manner.

They were equals in status, investing according to their own shares, just like partners in a development project.

Emotions are what can't withstand testing the most.

If Lyman were to constantly demand, which director would willingly sign a contract like selling their soul? James might agree, but that wasn't what Lyman wanted.

What he wanted was for Firefly to steadily grow, not end up like DreamWorks, in chaos at the first sign of trouble, always concerned with gains and losses, internal divisions leading to a fate of disintegration and division.

So, his idea was to create something like a cooperative platform similar to CAA. He could provide exceptional directors and projects, while distribution channels could be left to EuropaCorp, Paramount Pictures, or other strong companies.

Production rights would be fully shared or shared through collaboration, while distribution rights, due to various external factors, might not be handled well even with money, so they should be outsourced, allowing them to focus on project development.

Not aiming to become an industry dominator, being able to independently make movies was good enough.

Someone might ask, what's the difference from starting a studio?

Of course, there's a difference. As a production side, you'd at least have some ownership of the film's rights. There's a chance to get a piece of the pie in subsequent offline operations, merchandise development, character licensing—things that weren't possible before, even for your own projects, which you had to yield without a say.

And then there's box office profit. If it's pure investment, no matter what, the share can't be too high. However, independent production is different. You only need to sign a distribution agreement with the distributor, and after deducting the theater's share, you can almost keep it all.

For example, a movie makes $1M at the box office with copyrights being also $1M, the production side can get $350,000 from the box office, and $650,000 from copyrights. If it's just pure investment, getting $500,000 would be quite generous. That's the difference.