Chapter 569 Director Selection for "Those Years"

"Master, the Yuehutai Jumping Theater is recruiting a director. What do you think, should we give it a try?"

Li Chao took his phone and went to his master Wu Chi's side, showing him the screen.

Wu Chi: "What is this?"

“We’re recruiting a director, Master. Haven’t you always wanted to be a director?” Li Chao said. “We’ve been doing editing all this time, stuck in a small room every day, doing the same thing every day. I think we should give this opportunity a try.”

Wu Chi rolled his eyes at him and said, "You believe this kind of information? It's just a marketing ploy, recruiting directors... Are you kidding me? Who recruits directors like this?"

“No, it’s true,” Li Chao said. “They said that this theater needs a short film every week to be shown on Sunday nights. They need a lot of directors, and they even provided a way to apply. We just need to send them some of the footage we’ve already edited, and if they’re interested, they’ll contact us.”

After listening to Li Chao's explanation, Wu Chi hesitated for a moment, seemingly somewhat tempted but still not quite believing it.

"Don't tell me it's a scam."

“Then I’ll send a message to Lu Yanhe and ask him. This is a collaboration plan between ‘Jump Up’ and Yuehu TV, he must know about it.”

-

The reason Li Chao and Wu Chi met Lu Yanhe was because they met by chance one night while the movie "Love Letter" was being edited here.

At that time, Li Chao proactively added Lu Yanhe on WeChat in a very "socially ruthless" manner.

Although we added each other on the phone, we never contacted each other again.

However, Li Chao could still occasionally see Lu Yanhe post a message on his WeChat Moments.

That's why Li Chao realized that the other person had neither blocked him nor deleted him.

He and his master have always worked as video editors.

However, they have always been looking for opportunities.

However, in the entertainment industry, if you don't have connections or resources, it's really hard to find opportunities on your own. Especially for those who work independently, they're never really on anyone's side, and good opportunities never come their way.

They don't even have the chance to film online movies.

Because they are just editors, they only know a little bit of editing techniques.

When Wu Chi heard Li Chao say he was going to send a message to Lu Yanhe, he wanted to tell him not to bother him with such a trivial matter, but he swallowed the words back.

Perhaps this really is an opportunity?

Within the industry, people generally have some idea which big names support others and which never do it.

Lu Yanhe is known to be a very helpful person, and many people know this. Many of the people he has helped are now quite famous; Jiang Jun is a prime example. Besides him, editor Li Fenglei is another example.

After Li Chao learned that Li Fenglei, who had been editing movies across from him, had been spotted by Lu Yanhe and signed with his company, he felt sour for several days—it was just a simple feeling of jealousy and envy. Why hadn't he been blessed with such good fortune?

Li Chao considered the message several times before sending it to Lu Yanhe.

He thought he would have to wait a long time, but Lu Yanhe replied to him in less than three minutes: there is a big gap, you can send them your previous works to see, and they will contact you if they are suitable.

Li Chao immediately cheered excitedly and took his phone to show his master.

“See, Master, I told you, this time they’re really casting a wide net to recruit directors,” Li Chao said. “Let’s give it a try, maybe they’ll be willing to meet with us and give us a chance.”

-

The first play at Jump Up Theater is called "The Adventures of a Young Girl". The original work is a short story written by Mingyin. It tells the story of a high school girl who accidentally meets another girl in a bookstore one weekend. She finds the girl's dropped wallet and chases after her. However, she unexpectedly discovers that another group of people are following the girl during the chase, and a series of strange adventures unfolds.

The director of this film is An Yuanyuan, a 30-year-old female director.

She had never directed a feature film before, only a 15-minute short film that had been screened at a film festival.

Both the director and the two leading actresses are relatively unknown newcomers.

To this end, Yuehu TV and Aurora Video went to great lengths, inviting several popular celebrities to make cameo appearances in a few scenes.

On the day of the shoot, Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi went there specifically.

Because it's a new production team, they were worried about encountering problems on the first day of filming, and they hoped that if I were there, I could help resolve some issues.

The reason for choosing this play as the opening piece of the Jump Up Theater is threefold: firstly, the short story is very famous and was very popular with readers when it was first published; secondly, the original author, Mingyin, is one of the most representative authors of the "Jump Up" magazine, so since this theater project is being launched, it is necessary to start with her or Liu Jiazhen's work; and thirdly, in the official poll "Which work do you most want to see adapted into a film or television series?", "The Adventures of a Young Girl" ranked third out of hundreds of works.

Although the filming period was only one week, the small crew of only a dozen people had already held several meetings before the official start of filming and were very familiar with the key points of the shoot.

The production model pioneered by "Friends" can be said to have created a new model that many production teams can adopt.

Both actresses are real high school students—and both are former child stars with extensive acting experience.

This shooting style dictates that newcomers with no acting experience cannot be used. Overspending carries the risk of financial loss.

Because it's a new concept, despite its grand scale and aggressive approach, so far, few brands have actively approached Jumping Theater for sponsorship and product placement.

The first scene was filmed in a bookstore.

The bookstore used for filming was contacted with the help of Chen Siqi; it was a partner bookstore for the film "Jump Up".

The owner was very happy to take half a day off for them to film.

He was well aware that once the show aired, his bookstore would become a filming location for "The Adventures of a Young Girl," bringing in a lot of foot traffic.

Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi watched them film on set. When they arrived, An Yuanyuan was already instructing two girls on how to film, so they didn't go over. Instead, they stayed to the side and didn't go into the bookstore. They chatted while looking at the bookstore through the glass window.

What are Yuehu TV's expected ratings for "The Adventures of a Young Girl"?

“They would be satisfied with 0.4%,” Chen Siqi smiled. “However, they also said that airing on a Sunday night, with neither of the two leads being top stars, might limit their appeal, resulting in an average rating of only 0.3%. Aurora Video is doing slightly better. You know, video platforms use different ratings calculation methods than TV stations, because they created a special ‘Jump Theater’ section, and we already have over 300,000 pre-registered viewers for that section.”

What is the second play in the Jumping Theater?

"It's 'The Whirlpool,' adapted from a short story by Liu Jiazhen," Chen Siqi said. "This drama is a bit better than 'The Adventures of a Young Girl,' and we got Zhang Meng to star in it."

“Hmm.” Lu Yanhe nodded. “Since we’re going to do this theater, let’s stick with it. If the ratings really don’t go up because there aren’t any stars in it, I’ll figure out a way to get some friends to act in it.”

"We still hope to make this theater a well-known brand and cultivate a group of regular viewers," Chen Siqi said. "Otherwise, there would be no point in having this theater."

Lu Yanhe understood what Chen Siqi meant.

Just like Noon Sunshine, when it comes to brand operation, none of the other shows like Love Theater, Mist Theater, or X Theater have the same appeal as Noon Sunshine.

Those so-called theaters, despite the names given to them by major video platforms, are not actually fooled by the audience. They simply group together similar themes and package them together without trying to build a real brand effect. As a result, there are hit shows as well as terrible ones.

Daylight Entertainment, on the other hand, produces dramas that are shown on television or on video platforms because it emphasizes content creation from the source. It has successfully produced dramas in all genres, including period dramas, modern dramas, political intrigue dramas, fantasy dramas, dramas about women, and dramas about entrepreneurship.

Chen Siqi wants to build "Jump Up Theater" into a brand that can gain the audience's trust with just these five words.

Lu Yanhe said, "Besides the label of 'Jump Up' magazine novel adaptation, we actually need to add something else, which may make this theater more unique."

"What is that?"

“For example, your support for new directors,” Lu Yanhe said. “Isn’t this something you’ve always wanted to do? An Yuanyuan, the director of ‘The Adventures of a Girl,’ had only directed short films before. Strictly speaking, this is her first time directing a feature film.”

Lu Yanhe added, "If Jumping Theater can truly become a cradle for new directors, this label will definitely make it a highly anticipated play in the industry. And if the industry spontaneously pays attention to it in the long term, the core audience will emerge."

Chen Siqi nodded thoughtfully.

The core audience of Jump Up Theater is actually the readers and users of Jump Up magazine and various media channels.

Mingyin is a very popular author in the "Jump Up Series".

Most of her readers will also support "The Adventures of a Young Girl".

However, compared to film and television dramas, a magazine media outlet still has far too few users.

We still need to focus on specific aspects while using high-quality content to attract more viewers.

-

However, no one expected that He Sha, who withdrew from the competition in the first episode, would suddenly mention why she withdrew from the competition in a program after two or three weeks of being the subject of much discussion.

"It wasn't just because of the conflict with Cheng Hai." He Sha seemed to have come to terms with the matter. "The only difference between Cheng Hai and me was our personalities and preparation methods. He's a really nice person. Another crucial reason I ultimately decided to withdraw from the competition was that the actors who participated in this program would all be involved in 'Jumping Theater' later on. To be honest, I'm not exactly a new actor. I don't want this job to tie me to other jobs, especially acting. I still hope to act in works that I enjoy."

After He Sha made this statement, it was amplified by various media outlets and exaggerated by various marketing accounts, turning it into a situation where actors who wanted to appear on "The Birth of an Actor" needed to participate in the filming of the "Jumping Theater" segment.

Anything that involves the word "coercion" will inevitably become distorted.

The production team of "The Birth of an Actor" responded immediately, with just one word: fake.

The show's director also posted on Weibo, directly pointing the finger at He Sha: "I don't know why Ms. He Sha has misunderstood and thinks that by coming to our show, she can get the role of 'Jump Up Theater' without going through an audition."

The response was firm, but He Sha's side seemed to have sunk without a trace, offering no further comment.

Lu Yanhe and the others already knew that He Sha was saying these things just to generate more buzz for herself.

The things she said on another show, seemingly casually and unintentionally, were carefully chosen to skirt the line. They were neither enough to get "The Birth of an Actor" to sue her for spreading rumors, yet they still achieved their goal of generating controversy and keeping the topic of discussion.

There's nothing you can do about it. It's like stepping on a piece of chewy candy on the street; it gets stuck on you and makes you feel disgusted.

The positive response from the production team and director is enough.

But at this moment, Zhou Ping'an suddenly launched a fierce attack on He Sha, as if settling scores after the fact.

Suddenly, all the lies He Sha had told over the years and the scenes of her speaking recklessly were exposed by various marketing accounts in a frenzy of detail.

The sheer volume of material makes it difficult to readily conclude that an online troll army was behind the scenes.

Because when online trolls amplify the story, they usually reveal the same information.

However, on He Sha's side, there was too much information, as if she could command a hundred responses. For no apparent reason, all of He Sha's past scandals emerged like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

The core message is simple: He Sha is a woman who is full of lies.

He Sha isn't afraid of negative news; what she fears is a lack of buzz.

Therefore, the production team and director of "The Birth of an Actor" directly exposed her lie, which sparked a lot of discussion, but she didn't care.

I'll find another opportunity to clarify. What I meant on the show wasn't that the production team forced them to film; it caused a misunderstanding.

The word "misunderstanding" is so useful.

However, Zhou Ping'an's counterattack seemed to be aimed at putting her on the list of disgraced celebrities.

While public opinion solidified her image as a liar, Zhou Ping'an was also busy in the industry, digging up a lot of dirt on He Sha for betraying collaborators, having a bad work attitude, and taking on multiple projects at once, and spreading it everywhere.

Originally, as long as she had popularity, He Sha could have taken on many lucrative jobs driving her black and red car.

It's okay if she can't act; she can make money just by going on a live stream. The more people criticize her, the more traffic she gets, and the more traffic she gets, the higher her earnings will be.

Now, even live streamers are hesitant to invite her.

There were reports that He Sha would hire people to manipulate data in the live streams she appeared in, hiring a group of people to place orders to create the impression of very impressive sales and high sales performance, and then return the goods.

These things were originally industry secrets and wouldn't be widely spread, so naturally, people who didn't know the situation would flock to He Sha because of her popularity and want to work with her one after another. But now it's different.

Several previously agreed-upon collaborations were canceled because of this incident.

After He Sha and her team learned that Zhou Ping'an was behind it, and that they knew they had dragged Cheng Hai into the mess, even though she tried to say a few good things about Cheng Hai on the show, she still couldn't gain Zhou Ping'an's forgiveness.

Zhou Ping'an had clearly set his sights on her.

Whenever a potential partner wanted to collaborate with her, Zhou Ping'an would ruthlessly sabotage it.

He either snatches jobs away from He Sha and gives them back to his artists, or he recommends them to others, always with the same reason: working with He Sha is too low-cost-effective, so he introduces someone with a higher cost-effectiveness and no negative public opinion.

This sudden turn of events brought He Sha's promising momentum to an abrupt halt.

This is the path she chose herself.

Since they chose this path of controversy and self-promotion, they lacked a solid foundation. They could be easily crushed by Zhou Ping'an, and they can't blame anyone else for that.

With no other option, He Sha and her agent had to go and apologize to Zhou Ping'an in person again.

He bowed his head, apologized, admitted his mistake, and begged Zhou Ping'an to let him off the hook.

This was something they had planned from the beginning.

If things really get out of control, then do it this way.

It's not a major issue of principle, and once the hype dies down, it won't have much of an impact on the artist.

Cheng Hai also benefits from the traffic.

To everyone's surprise, when Zhou Ping'an saw them coming to apologize, he didn't listen to a word. Instead, he said sarcastically, "No, don't say anything yet. I'm scared of you. I'll start recording first, so that there won't be any more recordings of me cursing that get leaked... Sigh, never mind, I just can't help cursing. You'd better not talk to me. I'm too lazy to talk to you."

These words left He Sha and her agent blushing and speechless for a moment.

-

"It can only be said that evil people will be punished by evil people." This is Chen Ziyan's evaluation of He Sha's case. "For someone like He Sha who has no shame, only Zhou Ping'an's methods can strike at the heart of the problem."

Lu Yanhe: "Sister Ziyan, why do I feel like you're appreciating Zhou Ping'an more and more?"

Chen Ziyan: "Maybe this is what happens when someone excels in a certain area. Even if you dislike the person, you can't deny their ability. Especially in the past few years, my management responsibilities have increased a lot. A large part of my job now is cleaning up the messes of incompetent subordinates. I know that character is more important than ability, but to be honest, when you really don't know what kind of trouble will come your way every day, you really can't care if your colleague is a scumbag or not. As long as they can do their job well and don't cause me trouble, let them be a scumbag as long as they don't affect me."

Lu Yanhe burst into laughter.

Unexpectedly, while they were talking about Zhou Ping'an, Zhou Ping'an suddenly called Chen Ziyan.

Chen Ziyan waved the phone screen displaying Zhou Ping'an's name in front of Lu Yanhe and said, "I'll answer his call first."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

He said, "Then I'll go to the restroom."

After he finished using the restroom, he called Chen Siqi again to ask her what she was doing.

Chen Siqi: "What else could I be doing? Working, of course. Since the Jumping Theater incident, our magazine has received more submissions, and even quite a few movie scripts."

"Really?" Lu Yanhe was pleasantly surprised. "Then the number of manuscripts has increased again."

"Yes, but thankfully, our team has grown quite large now, and the difficult period of manpower shortage is over," Chen Siqi said. "What are you doing?"

"I'm here at Shihuo," Lu Yanhe said, "reading the script with Sister Ziyan."

"Don't you already have a project to shoot this year?"

"Most of the scripts I'm looking at now won't be filmed until next year," Lu Yanhe said. "Sister Ziyan found me a few good scripts, all by directors I haven't worked with before."

"Okay," Chen Siqi said. "I have a meeting with Ziju and the others later, so I'll talk to you later."

"Okay." Lu Yanhe nodded. "Bye, see you tonight."

See you tonight.

Lu Yanhe hung up the phone and returned to Chen Ziyan's office.

Chen Ziyan looked at Lu Yanhe with disbelief and said, "Guess what Zhou Pingan called me about?"

Lu Yanhe shook his head, "I can't think of anything. It doesn't seem surprising that he would do anything."

"No, you'll definitely find this strange."

"What is it?" After Chen Ziyan asked this, Lu Yanhe became even more curious.

Chen Ziyan: "He hopes that you can reserve a role for Yan Liang in the movie 'Dragon Inn'."

"Huh?" Lu Yanhe was indeed taken aback.

How should I put this?

There are too many strange things to tell, and I don't know where to begin.

The first strange thing is that, given the relationship between Lu Yanhe and Yan Liang, if Yan Liang wanted to play a role in "Dragon Inn," it would be impossible for Zhou Pingan to ask for it—even though Zhou Pingan is Yan Liang's agent.

The second strange point is that, given Zhou Ping'an's usual behavior towards Yan Liang, his sudden initiative to consider Yan Liang's career and try to help him expand into the film market seems like a weasel offering New Year's greetings to a chicken—too abrupt and suspicious.

The third strange thing is that Zhou Ping'an didn't call Lu Yanhe directly—even though their relationship had gradually improved after Lu Yanhe terminated his contract, and they hadn't reached the point of complete estrangement or being unable to discuss work properly. Instead, Zhou Ping'an went to Chen Ziyan, hoping she could persuade Lu Yanhe to cooperate.

Chen Ziyan asked Lu Yanhe, "What are your thoughts? Looking at the movie 'Dragon Inn' now, with Liu Bige as the director, you as the screenwriter, and Shang Yongzhou and Chen Bige as the leads, it can be said to be a top-notch movie cast. However, given Yan Liang's current situation, it's not appropriate to let him play a supporting role in the movie, especially considering his relationship with you."

Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "In this script, there really aren't any outstanding supporting characters."

“Those eunuchs were actually quite outstanding,” Chen Ziyan said. “In fact, if Yan Liang had played such a contrasting role, it would have surprised the audience.”

"If Zhou Ping'an knew you wanted Yan Liang to play the eunuch, he would probably regret making this call to you."

“Zhou Ping’an made this call because he hoped that Yan Liang could use your movie to break into the film industry instead of staying in the television industry,” Chen Ziyan said. “If Yan Liang can play the role of the eunuch well and give everyone a refreshing feeling, then Zhou Ping’an’s goal can be achieved.”

“Zhou Ping’an probably hopes that Yan Liang can become an action star,” Lu Yanhe said. “Yan Liang has always persisted in martial arts training, and his skills are actually sufficient for action movies.”

He hesitated for a moment and said, "Let me think about it and ask Yan Liang's opinion. Actually, if Yan Liang really wants to make a martial arts film, I can just write another lead role for him later. That's what I told him too."

“You’ve thought about this yourself, but you also need to consider this: since Zhou Ping’an has made this unusual call, it’s very likely that he realized Yan Liang actually wants to act, but is too embarrassed to ask you directly, so he took it upon himself to call, hoping that we can offer Yan Liang the role,” Chen Ziyan said. “No matter what you think or what decision you make, remember to sound out Yan Liang’s opinion.”

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"Alright, now that we've covered these things, let's get down to business," Chen Ziyan said. "Take a look at this script."

Lu Yanhe took a script from Chen Ziyan. The script had the words "I spit on the sea" written on it.

"?" Lu Yanhe frowned subconsciously, but upon closer inspection, he saw the words "Wu Chi" written in the screenwriter's name in the lower right corner.

This name...

Could it be such a coincidence?

However, this name should be very difficult to find someone with the same name.

Seeing Lu Yanhe's strange expression, Chen Ziyan thought he was surprised by the name "The Sea, I Spit!" She explained, "Don't be fooled by its strange name. You'll understand why I showed it to you once you take a look at the script."

This is a movie script.

This script tells the story of a high school boy's adolescence, focusing on his restlessness, love, and growth.

He quickly looked inside.

During this time, Chen Ziyan did not make a sound to disturb him. She picked up another script to read and then silently waited for Lu Yanhe to finish reading it.

“This script—” Lu Yanhe spent an hour reading the script, and he looked at Chen Ziyan with surprise, “It’s very similar in style to ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’.”

Chen Ziyan nodded, "Yes, that's right. Take a look at this too. It was sent along with the script, along with a few clips he edited. This is Wu Chi, he's an editor."

“Yes, I know.” Lu Yanhe nodded.

"You know?" Chen Ziyan was taken aback, then realized what she meant. "You know them?"

"Uh, we met once before. His apprentice asked me about the Jumping Theater's director recruitment. Could this be the source of the information?"

“That’s right.” Chen Ziyan nodded. “Xu Fanxing, as a staff member of Linghe, participated in this Jumping Theater project. She saw the script and these edited videos and sent these materials over. She knew that you didn’t want to be a director anymore for a while, and she also knew that our company had a film called ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’ waiting to be filmed. She told me that this person’s script and editing style were very similar to how she felt when she read the script of ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’. After reading it, I felt the same way.”

“Indeed.” Lu Yanhe nodded. “The style of this script is too similar to ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’. It even makes me feel like it’s a remake of ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’. Although the story structure is not quite the same, it tells the same theme.”

Chen Ziyan nodded.

"You'll feel this even more clearly after watching the films he edited," Chen Ziyan said.

Lu Yanhe sat down in front of Chen Ziyan's computer again and carefully watched several clips edited by Wu Chi.

But if you want to see a person's style, a snippet is enough.

Chen Ziyan looked at Lu Yanhe and asked, "How about it? Do you want to meet with him and have a chat? I think he's someone our Linghe should pay attention to. Maybe after talking to him, we'll feel he's a good fit and he can sign with our company."

Lu Yanhe couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay, let's arrange to meet then." Lu Yanhe felt it was unbelievable at this moment. Suddenly, a director who was suitable to make "You Are the Apple of My Eye" appeared, and it was someone he had met once before.

“However, there’s one thing I want to discuss with you, Yan He,” Chen Ziyan said. “If we both ultimately feel that he’s suitable to direct ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye,’ I hope he can direct ‘The Sea, My Pfft’ first. The production cost of that script is easy to control, and it can be used as practice. He has never directed a film before, and I hope he can accumulate experience in making a film before directing ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye.’ So, if that’s the case, ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye’ may have to be postponed until next year.”

Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "Okay, I have no problem with that."

(End of this chapter)