The interview room of the Internal Affairs Department is not the interrogation room of Scotland Yard, so it certainly cannot have handcuffs, incandescent lights, and restraint chairs.
After the fat assistant walked in the door,
I found that apart from the fact that the walls were painted whiter, there was no essential difference from common office spaces. There is a round table with a fruit plate in the conversation room, and there is even a potted potted plant in the corner.
The back office department doesn't just ask the fat assistant.
Deputy Director Schubert was now sitting at the table.
Seeing the fat assistant come in, Schubert just raised his head and glanced at him, and then continued to deal with a bunch of grapes in the fruit plate silently.
"Director Charlie, Deputy Director Schubert and Assistant Cole, since both parties to the interview have arrived, if you all have no objections, let's get started."
When Charlie, who was holding a cigar, entered the room and closed the door, an old man with a Chinese character sat at the table and looked at the three people opposite him.
Because Osborne's rank is too high, unless authorized by the board of directors, the Internal Affairs Department is not qualified to interview others.
"Director Charlie, regarding what you submitted, regarding the illustrator Detective Cat's violation of discipline in obtaining the contract for "The Little Prince" from Scholastic Group, which caused significant property losses to the group, do you have anything to explain?"
The person in charge with the Chinese character looked at Director Charlie.
"I demand that this project be stopped and the relevant disciplinary violators be held accountable. Those who should be fired should be fired, and those who should be called to the police should be called."
Now that we have arrived at the Internal Affairs Department,
Charlie didn't want to leave any room for error. He expressed his demands as coldly and ferociously as a lion king dealing with wild dogs running loose in his territory.
"As for the detective cat, I request that the relevant contract be revoked and be added to the blacklist of painters within the group, and I will never cooperate."
The fat assistant shrank his neck in fear.
blacklist!
Director Charlie is obviously determined to punish anyone who dares to cause trouble in his territory to death.
He must have hated this detective cat in his heart.
This is a ban!
Generally, only artists who commit plagiarism, serious breach of contract, or have other intolerable stains on their resume will be added to Scholastic's blacklist.
Being added to the blacklist means that any commercial activities related to the publishing house in the future will be closed to Detective Cat, and even a piece of paper will not be handed over to the other party.
That's not even the worst part.
It is true that major publishing groups are in a competitive relationship, but the blacklist of bad artists within the industry is sometimes universal.
Just like when a Silicon Valley Internet company is blacklisted by the HR Alliance, it is easy to find no job.
If you are not a well-known illustrator and I heard that you are on Scholastic’s blacklist, you will basically be rejected from invitations to other companies.
Career paths are a direct death sentence.
"Mr. Charlie, do you have any evidence?"
After hearing Charlie's request, the person in charge of the Chinese character face neither agreed nor rejected, but just asked expressionlessly.
"What other evidence is needed? Isn't it obvious? What kind of painter is the Wehrlein Studio, and what kind of bullshit painter is Detective Cat? If there is no insider trading, why would the contract fall into the hands of Detective Cat?"
Charlie stamped his cigar-holding fingers on the round table and said in a mocking tone: "Does she deserve such a big contract?"
Wehrlein Studio is already a top-notch illustration studio.
I have designed posters for Hollywood A-level animated movies. Because of Charlie, I have a long-term cooperative relationship with Scholastic Group. I have won a series of illustration and advertising design awards, including the publishing group’s own [Master Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art]. A top-notch illustration studio.
From the moment it was born, the Scholastic Group has operated the most prestigious art awards in the United States - the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.
The history of the publishing house is built around this award. Counting from the first award in 1923, it has a history of one hundred years.
This award was originally an art award exclusively for teenagers.
On average, it receives more than 300,000 different submissions from students aged 13-18 every year. The probability of winning a gold medal is only one in 10,000. The award is presented by the head of state of the United States in person. It is the most valuable children's art competition in the world. one.
Later, the publishing group added a master category award for adult artists on the basis of the youth award.
This is somewhat similar to many international art exhibitions, but the difficulty of winning a prize is much higher than that of ordinary art exhibitions, and the gold content is also higher.
Mr. Cao made a request to Gu Weijing, hoping that he could win an award at the Lion City Art Exhibition. It was a bit harsh, but it was not impossible.
Compared with the promise of "becoming a disciple of Cao Xuan, the master of painting", if Gu Weijing was not too young, it was actually a very loose condition.
The Lion City Art Exhibition, the Magic City Art Exhibition, the Beijing Art Exhibition, the Osaka Art Exhibition, the Seoul Art Exhibition... There are more than ten or twenty large-scale international art exhibitions in Asia alone, and each art exhibition has won awards. There are only a few painters here and there, and there are quite a few painters in the whole of Asia, let alone the whole world.
For those who truly have the ambition to become a great artist, winning this kind of award is just the starting point of their career.
How many Asian painters who have won awards in the master category have no chance even if they just want to ask Mr. Cao some questions in person.
But Scholastic's Writing and Art Master Award is not a concept.
This is the temple of illustration.
The top of the mountains, the King of kings.
The awards will be announced in June every year, and the best writers and illustrators will be selected and awarded.
There are only five places in the world, four [Master Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art] and only one [Master Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art] every year.
[Master Award for Outstanding Contribution] is one of the most important awards in the illustration industry. It is only slightly inferior to the old Andersen Award, but it is not far behind.
If we really want to compare, the former may not be as serious as the latter.
To give a more popular example, in the literary world, France's Prix Goncourt (the oldest and grandest literary award), the Commonwealth's Booker Prize (the highest honor in English literature) and the Nobel Prize for Literature the slight difference between them.
For 99% of illustrators, it’s just the difference between incredible awesomeness and incredible awesomeness.
Previous winners include Andy Warhol, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Jane Arnold, George R.R. Martin and other well-known masters in the literary and art circles.
The [Outstanding Contribution Award], which has four places, is a little less popular, but it is also an extremely valuable art award.
You must know that in addition to senior painters, there are also many famous writers competing for these four places.
Scholastic Group is a publishing group. Compared to illustrators, Scholastic Group is actually more inclined to award awards to best-selling authors.
For more than half a century, only five painting artists including Jane Arnold and Andy Warhol have received the Outstanding Contribution Award.
Only Jane Arnold was awarded the Andersen Award and the Masters Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art at the same time.
Even two people have won the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Master Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art, Patrick Modiano (2014 Nobel Prize winner) and Heinrich Bohr (1972 Nobel Prize winner) .
This shows how rare it is.
Wehrlein Studio also won the Outstanding Contribution Award in the past few years based on more than ten years of cooperation with the publishing house.
"Oh? The Wehrlein Studio was originally going to take over this project."
The person in charge with a Chinese-character face had a slight ups and downs in his tone, lowered his head and turned over the folder in his hand.
Sure enough, he found a copy of the preliminary communication email between the art department and Wehrlein Studio regarding the content of the "Little Prince" project submitted by Charlie.
These letters of intent have no legal effect until a formal contract is signed, but they are enough to prove that what Director Charlie said is true.
The person in charge was originally a police detective in the Commercial Investigation Department of Scotland Yard, and was later hired by the publishing house to take charge of the group's back office department.
Even if he is not a professional artist, he still has a clear understanding of the value of the group's prestigious "Writing and Art Master Award".
without any exaggeration,
There is absolutely no comparison between this female painter Detective Cat, who is only slightly famous on the Internet, and not all of them have a good reputation, and the resume and experience of the Wehrlein Studio.
It's not on the same level as a child or a strong man.
The behavior of the senior management of the group in handing over the contract to Detective Cat is really unreasonable.
Only in terms of artistic attainments,
With the endorsement of the Master Award, Wehrlein Studio is not even much worse than top illustrators like Van Doorn. What it lacks is the opportunity to break through the fashion circle and make money every day like Van Doorn.
"This is indeed suspicious. Why would the project team agree to give this opportunity to a... with all due respect... there is no evidence that she is qualified to take on such a large project?"
The person in charge with the Chinese character face leaned forward slightly, and his tone was hard and cold.
According to criminal psychology, such an offensive psychological posture can increase the psychological burden on suspects and prevent many white-collar criminals with weak psychological endurance from causing trouble.
He stared closely at Deputy Director Schubert and the fat assistant at the round table.
Mainly fat assistants.
The back office department chose the fat assistant as the conversation partner instead of the supervisor, not only because he is the first person in charge of communicating with the illustrator Detective Cat, but also because these low-level employees who have just joined the job have little social experience and are more likely to be breached. .
"I...I don't know."
As expected by the person in charge, the fat assistant was very nervous at this time. There was a circle of sweat on his round face and his chin was shaking.
He's not stupid.
If the supervisor and vice president could operate in such illegal manner, I would not believe it unless there was some inside information.
"Fat boy, the marketing department of the group expects the sales of "The Little Prince" to be 300,000 copies in the first year. Each hardcover volume is priced at about 20 euros, which is 6 million euros. This is only the expected sales in the first year. .”
Charlie stared at the fat assistant fiercely: "What about two years, three years, ten years? One million copies is 20 million euros, and three million copies is 60 million fucking euros!"
"Sixty! million! euros!"
The director spoke every word and sprayed saliva on the fat assistant's face.
"The expected income of 60 million euros was messed up by a rubbish painter. Can you shoulder this responsibility? Think clearly, if you have to take the blame, how many years will you spend in jail for your boss!"
The person in charge glanced at Director Charlie. He knew that the amount of commercial crimes was not calculated this way, but the person in charge didn't mind scaring the young assistant.
The fat assistant was obviously panicked. He lowered his head and said, "I didn't commit a crime. I just did what my boss ordered me to do."
"Oh, what did your boss tell you to do?" the person in charge immediately asked.
The fat assistant was silent again, and there was a battle between heaven and man in his mind.
"Okay, he's just an assistant. Don't scare this young man."
Deputy Director Schubert, who had always been silent, suddenly spoke up to save himself.
"Why did you invite Detective Cat? You should ask President Osborne. As for the rest, we are just doing things in accordance with company rules."
Charlie turned his head sharply and glared at Deputy Director Schubert.
Schubert responded by spitting out a few grape seeds in his mouth towards Charlie expressionlessly.
The matter was brought to the back office department, otherwise the contract would continue and I would have a firm foothold in the art department, or they would get out together, and there would be no way out.
The deputy director who was willing to go all out became tougher.
"The sample manuscript stayed in the public backend for less than ten seconds from the time it was uploaded to the time it was submitted. This is considered compliant. Drawing with a knife? That bullshit drawing with a knife can pass the review of the art department. Is this a matter of following the rules?"
Charlie smiled sinisterly.
He originally promised to get stuck on the test draft of Detective Cat.
As a result, as soon as the "Little Prince" project team sent the prototype to the backstage of the art department, Schubert, a young man with authority, took the file away.
He didn't even see the fur of the Detective Cat sample.
Charlie almost exploded with rage.
I only found the file external annotation of the sample manuscript in the history record of the system background, and the theme category above said "drawing knife painting".
"A way to fool ghosts."
How long has it been since Scholastic Group did illustrations of drawing knives?
Charlie felt that even if he didn't deliberately block her, Detective Cat would never pass the art department's review according to the standards.
Seeing this classification label, Charlie even equated the level of Detective Cat's oil painting with some half-baked liars.
As long as she is drawing with knives, her work will never be any better.
This is also the reason why he dares to make things worse.
It is not news at all in the illustration world that a painter with a mediocre relationship gets some high-quality contracts that do not match his abilities.
The premise is, don’t put it on the table.
"I have been working hard every day, and I happened to see the background message reminder at that time."
Schubert said slowly: "As for drawing knife drawings, when did the company stipulate that drawing knife drawings does not fall within the scope of illustration commissions? I think she is very good at drawing."
"Work hard every day? Is your job to play darts?" Charlie said angrily, "You are good at drawing knife and drawing? Stop being ridiculous. How many people can draw knife and draw well?"
Suppose this sample was made by a professional knife artist like Professor Boggs of the Brooklyn Academy of Art.
Charlie turned and left now.
But a web painter...
"The detective cat is very good at drawing. Are your words worthy of your own conscience?" He sneered.
(End of chapter)
