Depressive Screenwriter

At night, Su Yan was still modifying the script for Rurouni Kenshin: Trust \u0026 Betrayal.

The content of Trust \u0026 Betrayal itself is only one to two hours long, so its script is only tens of thousands of words.

It's normal to spend a month or two, or even longer, creating a script of tens of thousands of words.

But Su Yan directly started copying, transforming into a heartless writing machine. Before 8 p.m., he had already written the first two short chapters of Trust \u0026 Betrayal, "The Killer" and "The Lost Cat."

After all, it was his first time doing this kind of work since transmigrating, and Su Yan's typing speed was relatively slow. Converting the original story into a script format wasn't completely mindless, so that was all he accomplished in an afternoon.

But that didn't matter. Summer Country's TV dramas were influenced by the Sakura Province and adopted a shoot-while-airing model.

In most cases, screenwriters would modify the script based on the audience's attitude and feedback after watching it.

It was even common for a series to be quickly canceled and left unfinished at the request of the station if it flopped after airing, in order to minimize filming losses.

There was no need to completely finish the script before submitting it.

At this time, almost everyone in the writing department had left. Su Yan walked to the window, looked at the darkened sky and the dazzling city neon lights outside, and exhaled a long breath.

"Although it's still hard to accept the fact that I've transmigrated, since I'm here, I have to live a more exciting life than my previous one!"

Leaving Sakura TV, Su Yan transferred buses and subways, and after more than an hour, he returned to his rented room on the outer ring of Shanghai.

A single room of more than ten square meters.

The screenwriter industry sounds glamorous, involving film and television investments of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

Moreover, in the Summer Country, influenced by the Sakura Province, the status of screenwriters in the industry is much higher than in his previous life.

In the production of a film and television work, the screenwriter's position is no less than that of the director or producer. Famous screenwriters earn millions or even tens of millions from script fees and royalties.

But that's for famous screenwriters.

For a newcomer like Su Yan, who had just been promoted from an intern, a few thousand yuan a month in Shanghai was really tight.

Orphaned, single, poor.

These were the labels on Su Yan.

Worthy of being a transmigrator.

Su Yan felt that his situation was very typical when he thought about it.

The next day, Su Yan got up at six o'clock, bought two buns on the way, and jogged all the way to take the subway, arriving at Sakura TV before eight o'clock.

Summer Country and Su Yan's previous life, China, had many similarities, but also many differences.

Taking the TV industry as an example, basically, except for the Imperial Capital TV as the official media, other TV stations were privately owned.

Sakura TV, Shanghai TV, and China Summer TV formed a three-legged stand in the industry, with their headquarters all in Shanghai.

Of course, under these three, there were also five or six large TV stations and dozens of small and medium-sized TV stations distributed in various provinces of Summer Country, but there was a clear gap in viewership share and production strength compared to the three giants.

Moreover, although this world had entered the internet age, the development of video websites was not as explosive as in his previous life.

The big capital in the media industry was these TV stations, and they were very cautious about the development and investment of video websites.

There were indeed several video websites with a large user base online.

But the shareholders behind them were also these large domestic TV stations, which were their subsidiaries.

This also led to the fact that Summer Country's film and television audiences still mainly watched TV to watch popular dramas in this era.

The most top-notch and excellent film and television dramas in the country were broadcast on TV stations.

Then some low-cost, inferior, small-budget film and television dramas were produced and broadcast on online platforms.

For example, Sakura Network, under Sakura TV, was one of the top four video websites in the country.

Su Yan didn't have high hopes for Rurouni Kenshin: Trust \u0026 Betrayal.

It definitely couldn't be made into a TV series and broadcast on Sakura TV.

It wasn't that the quality of Trust \u0026 Betrayal wasn't good enough.

It was that Su Yan didn't have the qualifications.

The competition at Sakura TV was so fierce. The opportunities for each TV broadcast were competed for by veteran screenwriters and production teams who had been working at the station for more than ten years, or even longer. What made Su Yan, a newcomer, think he could compete with those people?

From the beginning, his goal in writing the Trust \u0026 Betrayal script was not to broadcast it on TV, but to broadcast it on Sakura Network after it was produced.

The four chapters of Trust \u0026 Betrayal could be filmed into four short episodes and broadcast over four weeks.

Of course, that was if everything went smoothly.

Walking into the writing department's office area.

"Good morning! Su Yan."

"Good morning, Sister Yosh井, you look beautiful today."

"Good morning, Sister Nishimura, congratulations on the huge success of the viewership ratings of the work you participated in writing, 'Tears of Sakura'. At this rate, the station will definitely let you be the main creator and build a production team for your work next season."

"Good morning, Senior Xu Fang."

"Su Yan, you've become even more handsome today. You shouldn't be in the company's writing department. You should sign a contract with a performing arts company and become an artist."

Walking along the way, Su Yan greeted the colleagues in the writing department.

After all, he had just been promoted, and Su Yan had the least seniority here, so he had to be sweet-mouthed to avoid anyone disliking him and making things difficult for him.

Soon, his eyes narrowed, and he greeted a handsome, aloof man as well.

"Good morning, Senior Kiyota."

Although Kiyota Yamaji had only been in the writing department for half a year, he was older than Su Yan, and he was also a well-connected person, so Su Yan still had to show respect on the surface.

Honestly, Su Yan hated this kind of polite colleague greetings.

It was a pity that Sakura TV was a Sakura Island company, with a strong local corporate culture and a large number of well-connected people. More than half of the people in the station were Shanghai drifters recruited from the Sakura Island area, so Su Yan had no choice but to pretend to be a grandson in front of these seniors.

And Su Yan was even more careful with this Kiyota Yamaji guy.

He himself graduated from a famous Sakura Province film and television directing major, had an excellent appearance, and came from a wealthy family.

Moreover, his uncle was Akasaka Yoshitoki, the deputy director of the production department, and everyone in the entire writing department had to give him some face.

Although Kiyota Yamaji's own ability was average, under the arrangement of his uncle, he jumped in line in several film and television writing project teams at the station to gain experience.

In all aspects, Kiyota Yamaji was stronger than Su Yan except for his looks and height.

But precisely because of this, Su Yan could clearly feel his faint jealousy towards him.

Among the three most important elements of a man, tall, rich, and handsome, rich can be obtained through hard work.

But tall and handsome were out of the question.

"Work hard. The writing department is a place that values ability, and doesn't need so much politeness and smoothness." Kiyota Yamaji raised his eyelids and inexplicably began to preach.

Su Yan's expression stiffened slightly when he heard this, and then he smiled lightly.

Values ability, huh?

With your personality, if I greet other people but don't greet you, you'll make things difficult for me if I eat.

But Su Yan had worked for several years in his previous life, and there were too many people more disgusting than Kiyota Yamaji.

After Su Yan complained a few words in his heart, he forgot about it.

As a promoted screenwriter at the TV station, Su Yan was helping other screenwriters' projects as a chore assistant before his own work was approved.

Tedious, boring.

But every screenwriter had gone through this.

Not long after starting work, Su Yan's mentor, Sawai Teruhiro, came over.

He had launched a small-budget TV series at the station this season, and the viewership ratings were okay, so he had been in a good mood recently, with a smile on his face.

"Are you ready to submit the script to the production department?" Sawai Teruhiro said with a smile.

Su Yan handed him the Rurouni Kenshin: Trust \u0026 Betrayal script that he had prepared long ago, printed out, and packaged.

"Rurouni Kenshin?" Sawai Teruhiro looked at the title of the work with some surprise.

This kind of title was very Sakura Island-style.

"What kind of story is it?" Sawai Teruhiro asked casually.

"Ancient costume, martial arts, love..." Su Yan said.

"About how long is the work?" Sawai Teruhiro asked.

"Well, a short drama. The length is about three to four episodes. It's not suitable for broadcasting on TV. I hope that after it can be produced, it can be broadcast on Sakura Network, which is owned by the TV station."

Sakura Network...

"That's right. With your current reputation, it's really difficult for you to expect those producers at the TV station to decide to make a big investment in you.

Sakura Network, as an online broadcasting platform established by the TV station less than ten years ago, although the number of viewers is far less than the accumulation of Sakura TV for decades, there are many works that have become popular in the past few years as long as the works are good." Sawai Teruhiro pondered for a moment and said.

In fact, he didn't think that Su Yan's script would really be favored by the production department, but after all, he had to say something good.

"I understand. I'll help you submit your script directly to the writing department's high-level review later, so the speed will be several days faster. After our department's high-level review is passed, it will probably be sent to the production department for review tomorrow."

Those famous screenwriters at the TV station all had their own fixed producers with strength and connections at the station to cooperate with. If they had any good scripts, they would be too lazy to go through this kind of procedure and directly contacted them privately.

Only a newbie screenwriter like Su Yan, who had nothing, would go through this process, and the chances were very small. It was considered good if a new screenwriter's submission was favored by a producer and got a script approval opportunity once out of ten times.

Talent and opportunity were indispensable to stand out in this industry.

"Thank you, Mentor Sawai," Su Yan said gratefully.

"You're welcome. You're the one I brought out. If you make a name for yourself at the station, it will also be a matter of face for me, no matter what the final result is..." Sawai Teruhiro patted Su Yan on the shoulder.

"Work hard, persevere!"

Sawai Teruhiro quickly left to rush to his work's crew.

Su Yan looked at the slightly empty office area. The people who stayed here at this time were all like him, marginalized people in the writing department, only worthy of doing chores for other screenwriters as assistants.

"Kenshin, whether I can turn over in the writing industry depends on you!"

The emotional value for Su Yan to redeem the Kenshin script had to be obtained from the broadcast of the works that the original owner of the body had participated in during his internship in the past two years.

If the Kenshin script was rejected by the station, then it would be at least another year before Su Yan could gather two million emotional value to draw other works.

After the script was submitted, Su Yan inevitably became a little anxious.

In the afternoon, in the writing department of Sakura TV, several high-level reviewers casually flipped through the scripts submitted by the screenwriters in the department.

The viewing experience of a script without pictures and music was much worse than a film and television drama, and even quite boring.

Among them, Cheng Junsen had been staring at an unfinished script of ten to twenty thousand words for half an hour.

"It's really well-written..." Cheng Junsen closed his eyes, seemingly able to imagine the cruel era of swords and shadows.

The assassin of Kyoto, the boy who kills.

A script was just a script. Before it was filmed and achieved results, whether it was interesting or not, to reviewers like Cheng Junsen, only represented whether the work met his appreciation level, not the public's appreciation level.

But Rurouni Kenshin... Through this short script, with a few strokes.

A young man born in a troubled world, whose relatives were killed, who was starving, but who hoped to save the world and yearned for peace, was sketched out in his mind.

The story of "Kenshin", who became a tool for politicians to kill, and "Tomoe", a girl full of mysteries, temporarily ended in the second act script in the Kyoto fire and the two fleeing Kyoto...

Cheng Junsen, who had worked in the writing industry for more than twenty years and had read a lot of original scripts, rarely had the emotion of wanting to read the subsequent plot.

"Interesting! But it's a pity, it's just a short work." Cheng Junsen blinked.

Only then did he notice that Su Yan, the screenwriter of Rurouni Kenshin, expected this work to be adapted into a four-episode short film and broadcast on Sakura Network.

"Su Yan? Is he the apprentice of Sawai Teruhiro?" Cheng Junsen thought for a while.

That's right, newbie screenwriters shouldn't think about their first work having tens of millions of investments, being broadcast on major TV stations, and becoming famous in one fell swoop.

It would be very difficult for the station to invest one or two million to make the work make a small profit on the online platform and let him get rid of the "newbie" label.

Cheng Junsen thought for a moment and put the Rurouni Kenshin script in the document box representing qualification.

After a while, another screenwriter's work that passed the review was put into this document box.

It was a work co-created by the young screenwriter Kanzaki Yusuke and the well-connected Kiyota Yamaji.

It was said to be a co-created screenwriter, but based on Kiyota Yamaji's past performance, it was likely that the main writer was Kanzaki Yusuke, and Kiyota Yamaji would just assist in some work and get the title of main creator.

This work was also aimed at launching on the online platform Sakura Network from the beginning.

After all, the review requirements would be much higher if you wanted to be on TV.

Kiyota Yamaji, who had only joined Sakura TV for half a year, even with his uncle's help, it would be very difficult for the script he wrote with his qualifications to get the station's resource support to this extent.

That's why Kiyota Yamaji needed to do these operations.

With the help of the deputy director of the production department, any script that Kiyota Yamaji was credited with would often easily pass the production department's review and get the opportunity for the station to invest in the project.

And Kiyota Yamaji was quickly gaining experience. Perhaps it wouldn't be long before the script he wrote could be approved for filming and broadcast on Sakura TV.

Both of them got what they needed.

"Having someone at the station is really powerful."

Cheng Junsen looked at the Rurouni Kenshin script and then looked at the script work co-written by Kanzaki Yusuke and Kiyota Yamaji, and shook his head.

A script under Kiyota Sanji's name has a ninety-nine percent chance of passing the review and getting approved.

However, the station's resources are limited. If Kiyota Sanji's script is confirmed for approval,

how much can still be allocated to Rurouni Kenshin during the same period?

Although he prefers Rurouni Kenshin more.

But, this is workplace competition.

Connections are also part of one's ability.

Can only depend on the luck of Sawai Teruhiro's little apprentice.