Bright Era of China Entertainment

Chapter 818 A Pile of Happiness

"You guys chat, let's go check out 'My Love from the Star'."

Chu Xuan said this, then he, Liu Yifei, and his cousin got up and left.

The "Ghost Blows Out the Light" crew has a great idea about the cast. Whether it can be accomplished depends on the director Kong Sheng and the company chairman Li Yu. If it is not necessary, they will not interfere in a project of a subsidiary, which would seem unnecessary.

And in the preset list of actors, they were originally thought to help out in this year's project, which aroused some interest. However, it turned out that their preset plan was postponed to several years later, which made them lose interest for the time being.

As for whether Li Qiaoqiao is willing to act and what her thoughts are, it depends on the two of them to talk about it. If the couple are present, because of the relationship between them as an older sister and a younger brother, it will affect her thinking and judgment to some extent.

So, the couple came to the "My Love from the Star" crew, giving Li Qiaoqiao and Kong Sheng space to talk, and also came to take a look at the post-production of "My Love from the Star".

"Director Chu, Producer Liu, why are you here today?" Long Fei, the chief cinematographer and post-production team leader of "My Love from the Stars", and his team members greeted the couple who pushed the door open.

"Hello, teachers. I came to see you." Liu Yifei walked a few steps closer and lowered her head behind the chair to look at the computer screen: "How is it going? Is it going well?"

"It's going smoothly. No problems so far." Long Fei said.

Liu Yifei nodded slightly. "My Love from the Star" has entered the post-production stage for almost a month. The post-production team reports progress in the group every day. So far, no problems have been encountered. The post-production is going quite smoothly.

She looked around and saw that the 9-person editing team was divided into three groups. One group was responsible for editing the sponsored product images, one group was responsible for editing the side plots of the supporting characters, and one group was responsible for editing the main plot of the male and female protagonists.

Seeing that there are five people editing the main storyline of the characters played by him and Chu Xuan, it seems that the current editing work is focused on editing the main storyline.

At this point, she asked, "Is it based on the main storyline?"

"Yeah." Chu Xuan responded. This was the instruction he gave to the editing team at the time.

Liu Yifei nodded. There are generally two ways of film and television editing, either focusing on side lines or focusing on the main line.

When focusing on the main storyline, you first need to piece together the scenes of the male and female protagonists according to the logic of the script or the chronological order, and then edit them.

For example, if there are 1000 minutes of footage of the male and female protagonists, after piecing them together in the order of the story, removing some "frames" that are redundant, boring, meaningless, affect the sense of character, or affect the style of painting, perhaps the overall footage of the male and female protagonists will only be 800 minutes.

Then, in this 800-minute complete main story, a second editing is done based on the plot rhythm concepts such as introduction, development, turning point, and emotional ups and downs. The professional term is also called transition, and the supporting characters' side plots are inserted at each required node.

For example, at the 100th minute, the heroine An Xin was too depressed and needed a comedic supporting role to break this emotion. Then the funny plot corresponding to the character Zeng Shuai played by Huang Bo could be inserted to complete a transition, which is also an emotional change.

But if Huang Bo's plot was originally planned to be inserted at the 100th minute, but the heroine's overly repressed emotions seemed to reach their peak at the 95th minute, then in this case it would be necessary to cut another 100 minutes from the previous 5 minutes of plot, in order to achieve the best possible story rhythm, which is also the ups and downs of conveying emotional values.

After she left the group to go to the United States, this was her first time to come to the company to check on the post-production editing. The professional working atmosphere with clear division of labor and smooth progress made her feel more at ease.

They stayed with Chu Xuan for half an hour, also to learn and observe. The couple were present and saw that these people seemed uncomfortable, so they just said hello and left so as not to disturb the editing members' work.

Progress will be reported every day, and if there are any problems, they will be dealt with. The normal and smooth editing process does not require their participation.

"Wow, so this is what film and television editing is like." My cousin exclaimed after she went out, as if she had discovered a new world.

"What do you think?" Chu Xuan said.

"I've also played around with editing, basically cutting from the beginning to the end," said my cousin.

"In the first second, the scene should be of the protagonist, so cut the scene of the protagonist. In the second second, the scene should be of the supporting role, so cut the scene of the supporting role. Is that so?" Liu Yifei said.

"Yes, yes, that's it, let's do it in one go." My cousin nodded.

“There are too many elements in editing like this. Professional editors basically cut one line first and then insert another. You cut all the lines together no matter how many lines there are. If you can still ensure the rhythm and video quality, then you are a top expert, otherwise you are a novice.” Chu Xuan said with a smile.

"Okay, I'm a novice." My cousin stuck out her tongue and shrugged, "No wonder no matter how I edited the video, it looked bad. It's not right. So that's how it is. I've learned something. I'll focus on one line first. This trip was not in vain."

She asked again: "Is it centered on emotional value?"

"Yes." Liu Yifei nodded: "It depends on what kind of video you want to edit. If it is a relaxing daily life, then focus on a relaxing mood; if it is a funny video, then focus on a happy mood; if it is a pet video, then focus on the pet."

For a good story, the emotional value conveyed by the characters and the plot is the core. Any editing method remains unchanged in essence, and all of them serve to convey the emotions in a proper and effective way.

As for whether the story pace is slow or fast, just right or seriously dragged out in the minds of the audience, this is a matter of the director's personal artistic taste.

The director believes that this rhythm is in line with his philosophy. If the audience does not agree with it in the end, there is nothing that can be done about it. There is no right or wrong in art, it’s just that everyone’s aesthetic perspectives are different.

When faced with a lack of audience approval, some directors stick to their own opinions and gradually become more artistic directors; some directors are good at accepting the audience's views and gradually become more commercial directors.

Directors who can stick to their own ideas and accommodate the audience's views are the ones who combine art and business. Such directors can not only win awards but also make a lot of money. They are highly sought after by capital and actors, and are also favored by the audience market. They are a perfect match.

However, there are not many such directors in the country. The representative ones who can be named are Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang and Xu Ke. Chen Kaige and Tang Jili are no match for these people.

Chen Kaige is a person with strong self-centered artistic ideas. Although he is the only one who can understand his artistic ideas, it does not stop him from saying that the audience does not understand art.

Tang Jili is a person who attaches great importance to commercial values. He was able to push Chenglong into Hollywood and make it the light of Chinese film. His keenness in the commercial market is evident.

So, compared with directors like Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang who attach equal importance to and combine art and business very well, it is not to say that Chen Kaige and Tang Jili are inferior to them in terms of directing level, but that their focus and directorial ideas are different.

The topic raised by her cousin made her imagine herself and Chu Xuan in the future. What kind of directors would they be? This was an undefined pursuit, but also something she was looking forward to.

"I understand." My cousin said she had learned it.

The couple originally wanted to go to the chairman's office to see how the conversation between Li Qiaoqiao and Kong Sheng was going, but when they arrived at the company's door, they ran into Li Qiaoqiao who came out, and Li Qiaoqiao seemed to be holding a character script in his hand.

Chu Xuan stopped and raised his eyebrows: "Did you answer it?"

Li Qiaoqiao walked closer and shook his head: "Go back and think about it, and then ask Sister Hua and my sister for their opinions. I am also conflicted."

Thanks to the good resources provided by the company, she went to Hollywood to play the second female lead in "Twilight", which is absolutely the best resource for Chinese actors.

Seeing that her film career was about to flourish, she was now asked to act in a TV series, and this drama also involved the overall planning and development direction of the company, which made her a little conflicted.

On one hand, there are the interests of one's own development, on the other hand, it is related to the interests of the company. The most important thing is that one's own studio and the company also form a community of interests. This requires going back to study and think carefully.

The group walked into the elevator, and Chu Xuan pressed the button for the basement floor. Liu Yifei said beside Li Qiaoqiao, "Sister Qiaoqiao, I think there's no need for the movie floor to look down on the TV floor."

Li Qiaoqiao was stunned for a moment and shook his head repeatedly: "That's not what I meant."

"That's what you mean." Chu Xuan turned his head and smiled, "Not all of our Brilliant Times dramas are hits, but none of them are failures. Anyone who plays in our dramas can make money. This is very obvious, but you are very resistant. What else could it be?"

Li Qiaoqiao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She admitted that Liu Yifei had revealed her thoughts. Being in the film industry, she did look down on the television industry. It was only because Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei were also in the television industry that she tried her best to deny it to avoid being misunderstood.

Seeing Chu Xuan speak so bluntly, she didn't know what to say for a moment.

"Actually, movies are about the so-called box office appeal. Where does this appeal come from? To put it bluntly, it is popularity, that is, audience appeal. Where is the place that can maximize popularity and audience appeal? We have to admit that it is TV dramas." Chu Xuan said.

"Yes." Liu Yifei agreed: "Perhaps after the release of "Enemy at the Gates", Chu Xuan and I will focus on the film industry, but we have not given up the idea of ​​​​TV series."

"Of course, in our minds, both movies and TV series are artistic creations that can be industrialized, so we don't have a preference for either one."

"From your perspective, Sister Qiaoqiao, no one can guarantee that every movie they star in will be a success, and the filming and production cycle to the release of a movie is so long. If you fail once, it may have a serious impact on your career."

"But if there is a good TV series that can serve as a career node..."

Liu Yifei said playfully: "To use a phrase from the game, even if the movie fails, it can be fully revived by the TV series."

Chu Xuan, his cousin and Li Qiaoqiao all laughed. This description was very down-to-earth and quite interesting.

"That makes sense. I will seriously consider it." Li Qiaoqiao put his arm around Liu Yifei's shoulders, followed Chu Xuan and his cousin out of the elevator, and walked towards the parking space in the underground parking lot.

She added: "I just don't know if they can put together that cast list."

Chu Xuan picked up the car key and unlocked the car. The car lights came on and made two chirps.

“It may seem like a fantasy, but it’s actually not that difficult.”

"Xia Yu is one of us. He has no ambitions at the moment. He is just thinking about when to get married with Yuan Quan and hold a wedding. Since they reconciled during the Chinese New Year, they have been flirting with each other all day long. Let Xia Yu play the big gold tooth, and let Yuan Quan play a role as well. The two of them will join the crew at the same time. They will give him face."

"Teacher Jiang Wu is a classmate of Teacher Huang Lei and Teacher Wang Jinsong. If the company cannot hire him, then Qianqian and I will ask Teacher Huang Lei or Teacher Wang Jinsong to hire him. It shouldn't be a problem."

"As for Teacher Liu Ye, should we ask Brother Jun to invite him?"

Originally, he had been listening to everything, but when the last sentence came out, Li Qiaoqiao burst out laughing: "If you ask Jun Ge to invite Liu Ye, won't your Jun Ge beat you to death?"

Liu Yifei couldn't help laughing, but her cousin was the only one who was confused.

Hu Jun and Liu Ye both won Best Actor awards for their performance in "Lan Yu", but this movie with homosexual elements also caused the two former good friends to stop contacting each other until now.

It can be said that both sides are each other's nightmare.

Liu Ye is also Hu Jun's forbidden zone. If anyone dares to mention Liu Ye at any party, Hu Jun will immediately turn hostile.

Therefore, there is a consensus in their own circle that Liu Ye should not be mentioned when Hu Jun is present.

Therefore, hearing Chu Xuan's teasing, Liu Yifei and Li Qiaoqiao also teased him in their hearts, but Chu Xuan only dared to talk about it behind his back. If he dared to do this in front of Hu Jun, he would either be beaten or forced to drink.

"Let them handle the specific situation themselves first. Sister Qiaoqiao, you just need to consider the role of Shirley Yang." Chu Xuan sat in the driver's seat.

"I'll think about it." Li Qiaoqiao nodded and sat in the back seat with his cousin.

Liu Yifei sat in the passenger seat and fastened her seat belt: "Go home? Literary company?"

Chu Xuan started the car and turned the steering wheel to back out of the garage: "It's still early, Sister Qiao, let's go to the literature company to play together?"

"Okay, I'll go and play with you guys." Li Qiaoqiao responded.

Chu Xuan drove out of the underground parking lot, got on the main road and headed straight for the literature company.

The literature company is a bit far away, unlike the Brilliant Times Media Corporation, Donglin Villa and Century Culture, which are all in the big circle of Chang'an West Street and don't take too much time to get around.

The literary company was on the opposite side of their side, and even driving there would take at least an hour.

Normally, Chu Xuan didn't want to go unless it was necessary. When he was working on the script for "My Love from the Star", he was exhausted just from driving every day.

Just yesterday, Liu Yi said that the novel website plan he proposed last year has been implemented and has been built online. This aroused his and Liu Yifei's interest, and they decided to go and see what the situation was.

In the second half of last year, Liu Yi wanted to acquire the film and television adaptation rights of three popular online novels, "Panlong", "Shenmu" and "Douluo Dalu". Based on the principles of "the earlier you buy, the cheaper" and "copyright fees will rise as the market develops, so the earlier you buy, the more valuable it will be", he wanted to buy back the adaptation rights of these novels and temporarily store them in the warehouse.

However, as the market size of online drama adaptations has increased in recent years, capital has discovered the value of the profits and has therefore proposed a sky-high price.

The adaptation rights of the three novels add up to nearly 400 million. Even if the novels are very popular, this price is still exorbitant.

The total investment of some low-cost film and television dramas is not even that much. How dare you ask for 400 million for the adaptation rights? Aren’t you treating the brilliant era like a sheep to be slaughtered?

After analysis at that time, the reason was found.

Shengda Literature wants to acquire Qidian Chinese Network, and Qidian Chinese Network offers a sky-high price with the aim of raising the value of the website so that it can be sold to Shengda at a good price.

Raising the value of the website is also raising the value of the novel adaptation rights.

Raising the value of novel adaptation rights is, to a certain extent, also raising the value of screenwriters and scripts.

If the value of the novel adaptation rights alone is so high, then the value of the script will also increase differently from the normal market, and the income of the screenwriter who created the script will also increase accordingly. That's the logic.

This logic is consistent with Chu Xuan, Liu Yifei and Liu Yi's intention to increase the value of screenwriters and scripts in the industrialization of screenwriting, so that people like Wang Yuan who want to engage in the industrialization of screenwriting can make profits, so that they have the confidence to persist and firmly follow the Brilliant Times to carry out the industrialization cause.

Therefore, under this high-level and long-term plan, Liu Yi became a nouveau riche and bought the adaptation rights of these three novels for nearly 400 million yuan, which became a hot topic in the online literary circle at the beginning of the year.

At the same time, the value of the Qidian website increased. The originally agreed price of more than 2000 million US dollars was finally sold to Shengda Literature by the website's founder for 3000 million US dollars. Since then, Qidian has become the main business part of Shengda Literature.

Liu Yi originally wanted to let the company compete with Shengda and buy back Qidian to use as an original novel library, but this idea was rejected by Chu Xuan.

As the industry leader in online literature, Qidian is open to all kinds of activities and needs to invest a lot of energy and capital to develop and face competition from peers.

The Brilliant Era Creative Literature is about scriptwriting and film and television creation. The novels needed are also novels that can be adapted into film and television. A large number of novels that do not meet the adaptation threshold are not needed. What is needed is only the single track of novels that can be adapted into film and television comics.

If such a large website is acquired, it will only affect the core development of the company, and a large amount of funds will be used to deal with competition from peers. This will draw away the energy and resources originally used in the screenwriting industrialization, which is completely putting the cart before the horse.

After hearing Chu Xuan's analysis, Liu Yi agreed with it and also believed in Chu Xuan's plan and idea of ​​setting up his own novel website.

It is very simple to create a novel website. Some people who work in network technology have various code templates. With slight modifications, you can make an original website. Then you can customize some functions according to your needs, build a server, and so on. It can be done in just three or four months.

And it’s very cheap, only about 100,000 or 200,000 is enough.

Of course, if the website is developed and a large amount of data flows in and is saved, the cost of servers and technical maintenance will be the bulk of the money.

But for the newly established websites, there is no need to worry about these yet.

Once the website is created, it needs to attract traffic.

How to attract traffic? Of course it costs money.

How to spend money? Where to spend it to attract writers?
Under the thinking of several screenwriters including Liu Yi and Ye Junce, a hyperlink activity called "Brilliant Literature" spread in the novel modules of Weiyu, Tieba and forums.

The activity allows writers to participate in any literary form, with no restrictions on subject matter or style, but only in the form of novels. The first place winner will receive 1 cash, the second place winner will receive 6000 cash, etc. The attractive rewards have really attracted many online writers.

Liu Yi and his colleagues were very pleased to see so many people participating in the event and investing. If there was just one surprise that could be made into a film or TV show, then whether they set up a website or spent money on publicity for the event, all the expenses would be earned back tens or even hundreds of times, and the website's fame would also expand.

However, the idea is good, but the facts are often unexpected.

Just look at the level of those writers, just look at the shit they write...

[Han Lei's hands couldn't stop shaking as she held the paternity test result. She never expected that her husband, who always looked honest, would cheat on her.

The child that she had worked so hard to carry for ten months turned out not to be hers, but the child of her husband and a wild woman who came from nowhere...】

“Hahahaha…” In the literature company office, Chu Xuan, Liu Yifei, Li Qiaoqiao and her cousin burst into laughter.

Liu Yi, Ye Junce, Gong Ge'er and Yang Dongxu, the four major screenwriters and also the four senior executives of the company, were also laughing. Even though they had seen such submissions, they still couldn't help but laugh.

What the hell is this written about?

The child you give birth to is not your own, but your husband's and another wild woman's. What kind of logic is this?

Are you rebelling against Tiangang?
And this is just one of the massive submissions of similar works.

[Three thousand liters of purple air from the East China Sea turned into a strong wind and blew away. The next day, ten beautiful women from all over the world became pregnant inexplicably. It was truly a shocking thing!

What shocked the world even more was that half a year later, the eldest aunt gave birth to a baby's head in Africa, the second aunt gave birth to a neck in Europe, the third aunt gave birth to an upper chest in America, and the fourth aunt gave birth to a lower abdomen in Australia...】

Seeing this, Liu Yifei couldn't stop laughing. She really couldn't bear to watch it anymore. She leaned her hands on the desk and trembled all over, laughing uncontrollably.

[Suddenly, various body organs flew and merged together in the sky. The intact baby cried like thunder, and the mighty and domineering Emperor Ye Lin appeared out of nowhere!

The ten mothers looked up at the sky, all of them were stunned and exclaimed: "My son is really so terrifying!"]

"Fuck, what a talent." Chu Xuan couldn't help but swear, moved from the desk to the sofa, and sat down with laughter.

I spent hundreds of thousands on building the website, hundreds of thousands on publicity, and another hundred thousand on activities, but in the end I bought a lot of happiness.

Is this a profit or a loss?
Chu Xuan didn’t know, Liu Yifei and Li Qiaoqiao didn’t know either, and at this moment, Liu Yi and the other four teachers didn’t know either.

Anyway, the current situation is that the laughter in the office can't be stopped...

(End of this chapter)