Chapter 109
101 ways to save money on film crews
Ai Tianming's plan was to revise the script while preparing for the production, try to select actors as early as possible, and once Ling Sui completed her thesis defense and graduation drama, he would seamlessly join the crew and start filming.
Ling Suisui rejected his dangerous idea and said that it would be better to wait until the summer vacation to start filming "Game is Online".
On the one hand, she hoped to be given more time to study the script and adjust her state.
On the other hand, by scheduling the filming time during the summer vacation, many supporting roles can be selected from students currently studying at film academies.
What Ling Suisui wants to talk about is not the main characters, but the real supporting characters who don’t have many roles.
For this kind of characters, it doesn’t matter whether they are famous or not. We can’t expect them to bring traffic to the show anyway, so why not choose her junior brothers and sisters?
Ling Suisui is very popular in school and is familiar with several teachers. As long as she asks, they will recommend reliable students to her.
Participating in outside film and television projects during the holidays...can this be called hiring actors? It is obvious that the crew provided them with the internship opportunity for free and were willing to provide them with food, accommodation and salary.
If she wasn’t my direct senior sister, such a good thing wouldn’t have happened.
Ai Tianming was stunned when he heard this, and for a moment he couldn't tell who was the capitalist between him and Ling Suisui.
If you count them carefully, there are actually quite a lot of supporting characters with lines that can be used in this project.
The story background and world view of "The Game Is Online" basically follow the original work. Shi Zhen, played by Ling Suisui, is a prospective college student who has just finished the college entrance examination. This stage is the best time for her to have the broadest knowledge, the most flexible mind, and the best body.
At the beginning of the story, Shi Zhen was bound into the beta version of the "Doomsday Game" and came to a different dimension that was detached from reality, the City of Doomsday.
The game system told her that she had to survive in the copy successfully. If she died in the game, she would die in reality as well.
At first, she didn't know what to do and just tried to survive. Shi Zhen killed a required number of monsters in the dungeon, but after leaving the dungeon, he found that not everyone had completed the target. Some people even obtained items and chose to exit the dungeon early.
However, the monsters that the beta test players have not killed will go into reality to kill humans to achieve what the system calls "spatial balance."
In other words, for every monster they missed, one person would die in reality. The scenes of monsters killing humans will be played repeatedly on the most conspicuous big screen in the doomsday city.
Faced with such a "game" setting, many people suffered a mental breakdown. They are all ordinary people who were chosen innocently. How could they possibly bear such a heavy responsibility!
The dungeon is full of monsters that can put the player's life in danger at any time. Everyone is busy protecting themselves, so how can they even think about destroying them? Even if the monster wants to kill people, it’s the fault of this crappy game!
While some people are escaping and giving up, there are others who are brave enough to move forward.
The heroine Shi Zhen is such a person.
All the beta test players are from S City, and the monsters’ killing range is also the citizens of S City. Shi Zhen is a child who grew up in the S City Orphanage.
She has no father or mother, and grew up relying on city tax grants and donations from kind-hearted people.
So, she couldn't just watch S City suffer such a catastrophe. No matter how weak her personal power is, she wants to do more for the city.
Although many people laughed at Shi Zhen for being too naive, she also made friends with like-minded teammates on her way to clear the dungeon.
Well... although at first they just wanted to survive together with her and improve their clearance rate, in the process of getting along, they gradually developed common ideals and worked hard to save the city.
The original work has a good idea, and Ling Suisui and Ai Tianming do not intend to make any changes to the most important main line.
Their ideal direction for the film and television adaptation, in addition to letting the heroine's team go through more dungeons, would also refine every aspect of the "City of Doom" and further improve the worldview of the doomsday game.
That's why Ling Sui invited the original author to be a consultant.
Regarding the city of doomsday, Ai Tianming originally wanted to shoot it all live, so that the pictures would be the most realistic and beautiful, but the tight budget did not allow him to do so.
More than 100 million may sound like a lot, but it is not enough to invest in the film and television industry. Ling Suisui strongly requested that Ai Tianming should consider how much budget he can leave for special effects before spending money.
Of course, they can’t use top-notch special effects that rival those of Hollywood blockbusters, but at least they can’t be worse than domestic fantasy films. They look like 50-cent movies, right?
In order to save budget, Ling Suisui has set his sights on his junior fellow students, so how could he possibly allow Ai Tianming to spend money recklessly?
"If we are not allowed to shoot on location, then we can only build it in a studio."
Ai Tianming muttered quietly, "You get what you pay for. We can't have a doomsday city this big shot entirely in a studio, right? It won't look good."
Ling Suisui was well prepared for this, and she did sufficient homework before discussing it with him.
"Then we'll use a combination of real-life shooting and post-production." She projected a map of the park onto the screen. "For the parts related to the internal test players' food, accommodation and transportation, we'll set up the scene in this area for real-life shooting."
"Since this place cannot be renovated, we will use the studio to shoot."
Ai Tianming originally wanted to ask why this park was chosen instead of Hengdian Film and Television City, until his secretary reminded him, he remembered it.
Oh, it turns out that this park belongs to him. The original plan was to develop it into an industrial park, but it was temporarily shelved for various reasons.
Ai Tianming understood: "Sui Sui, you are really smart. We can use this park to shoot for free!"
Ling Suisui: ...
She coughed twice and said, "How can investment in film and television IP be called freeloading? You have to be careful with your words. We are developing the diversified value of the park."
"Just think about it. After the show airs, this place will become a popular check-in spot for games that have been launched online. It can even be turned into a theme park. The profit level will definitely be higher than that of an industrial park."
Start the big cake art!
Ai Tianming was fooled - he was so shocked by the expectation of future earnings that his eyes lit up, as if he had already seen the scene of him making a fortune in the future.
He was naive and simple, and he admired Ling Sui very much. He patted his chest and said that he would explain everything to his family and that he would only borrow the park for a period of time. In the future, this place would become a treasure trove where he could make money without doing anything.
Ling Suisui encouraged him with a smile and thought to herself that if this drama didn't make money, the Ai family would definitely put her on the blacklist and they would never want to see her again.
But if you don't try, how can you turn a bicycle into a motorcycle? I believe that Ai Jia, who has made achievements in the field of angel investment, will definitely understand her.
As for the venue of each copy, we have to thank the original author.
She did not write about natural scenes such as caves, seabed, forest, etc., but chose places such as schools, offices, pharmacies, supermarkets, etc.
In fact, her original intention of setting it up this way was that she thought it would be easier to write, but when it was adapted into a film or TV series, it did save the crew a lot of money on setting up the scenery and cutting out the pictures.
After the venue was settled, Ai Tianming brought up the issue of actors for the main roles.
Shi Zhen's team consists of 5 people. If divided by profession, she is a wise and brave magic swordsman. The other members are the mage Qi Xingyue, the all-round assistant Jiang Yu, the archer Tong Huan and another mage Li Bufan.
Well, in the team of three women and two men, only the heroine Shi Zhen, played by Ling Suisui, is confirmed to be a melee profession.
After all, according to the world view of "The Game Is Online", there are only levels and attribute values, and learning new skills depends entirely on prop cards, and there is no advanced professional system.
Internal test players judge the opponent's profession by looking at the weapon he/she holds.
In this case, the player can become a mage by just holding a staff. If they can just stand still and fight monsters, most people would not want to face the monsters head-on.
This is not a keyboard online game, just move your fingers!
Ling Suisui remembered that there was a special paragraph in the original book of the game that explained that Shi Zhen chose to be a magic swordsman because he saw the unique advantages of close combat.
The accuracy of long-range attacks is very difficult to practice. Automatic aiming is impossible in real games, and it is also limited by the number of arrows. The mage's medium-range attacks may not always hit the target. There is a countdown when casting, and it consumes a lot of mana.
For the above two professions, once they run out of arrow feathers or mana, they basically lose their attacking ability.
Only warriors, as long as they have one breath left, can fight the monsters to the end.
She is the team's vanguard and also their backup in times of crisis.
If not, how could the team members be so convinced of her and always put her at the center?
Ling Suisui likes this setting very much - Shi Zhen grew up in an orphanage and her biological parents are unknown. Although the author did not arrange a noble birth for her, he gave her a noble soul.
She was able to become the captain not because of the "halo of the protagonist".
Ai Tianming sighed: "I said that this project should be played by you. If you change it to another female star, who can play the role of the magic swordsman? This requires rushing to the front and fighting monsters!"
"You don't have to say that." Ling Suisui shook his head. "The fighting here requires a lot of special effects. In terms of the difficulty of the action, it is much simpler than the one in Freedom House."
"For female celebrities who have perseverance and are serious about learning, practicing for half a month is enough."
After all, she was fighting with a real martial arts instructor at that time, but in the game, she must be fighting against the air in front of a green screen.
But even so, there are very few female stars who can do what Ling Suisui said, "practice for half a month."
For many popular stars, recording variety shows, shooting commercials...which one is not more important than studying the script and preparing for the role?
There is still half a month of practice left. Before filming starts, she puts on some light makeup and practices in front of the behind-the-scenes camera for half an hour, and then she can issue a press release boasting about her dedication and hard work.
If they sweat or even have some wounds, that would be a big deal, and fans would immediately feel like they are risking their lives for art.
However, for Ling Suisui, who has practiced martial arts for a long time and has a solid foundation in this area, she really feels that the fighting scenes in the original novel and in Huacai's script are a little lacking.
She said: "The difficulty can be increased when adapting. The magic swordsman is a combination of magic and swordsmanship, but since Shi Zhen obtained the magic skill card, she has basically used the magic sword as a staff, which has lost her melee advantage."
"I know it's better to use special effects during a fight, putting magic effects on the sword, instead of letting me just swing it and knock down a large group of enemies."
"If this kind of big move is used occasionally, the audience will find it very exciting. If it is used every time, people will lose the sense of novelty."
Ling Suisui also said: "As the only melee fighter in the team, I should master more ways of attack. In some scenes, a dagger is more useful than a magic sword, and the fighting scenes will be richer. I remember that in the original setting, the drop rate of weapon cards is not low."
Having said that, this means she will have to practice one or more weapons.
Ling Suisui was not afraid of this. This was her drama as the female lead, if she didn't fight hard, who would?
As for the remaining four main characters, they are either magic or ranged, and they can do whatever they want as long as they can make movements.
This is good. If other actors were to go up and fight, Ling Sui might not feel at ease.
Ai Tianming: "Didn't we sell the copyright to Aoqi before? When they paid the deposit, they put forward a condition that they would nominate a male actor to be the main cast, and it would be best if he could be the male lead."
"Well, I know there's no 'male lead' in this drama, and I told them that, but they think the official match for the female lead will definitely have a special status."
Ling Suisui nodded. After all, most of the domestic dramas on the market have been dominated by sexual narratives for too long. No matter how much they highlight the heroine's main line, there will still be many people who can only see Shi Zhen dating someone.
As for the people in Aochi Fortress, she had also prepared herself mentally. If Ai Tianming hadn't mentioned this, Ling Sui would have felt something was wrong and would have worried that Aochi was not optimistic about this project.
There is no way, this is the current situation of domestic entertainment. Even if they sell the copyright to Antenna or Corn, the result will be the same.
Ling Suisui glanced at the actor’s profile—his contract was signed to Planet Pictures, a company controlled by Aoqi Holdings.
Um? He had zero previous acting experience…
Oh my god, she thought it would be a showman, but she didn’t expect it to be a complete newcomer.
The boy's name is Li Mingxu, he is 22 years old and just graduated from college. What he studied was not acting or dancing, but engineering geological survey, which can be said to have nothing to do with the entertainment industry.
The reason why he was highly recommended by Aoqi and was recommended to play the "male lead" of Ling Sui in his first play was all because of his superior head-to-body ratio and handsome face.
He is nearly 1.9 meters tall, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes. He is definitely a model of a handsome guy.
"Aoqi has a good eye." Ling Suisui commented, "Li Mingxu has the potential to explode."
But when she said "become popular", she meant becoming popular with the male lead character in idol dramas.
As for the "male protagonist" in the game... his character design doesn't match his face, and as a complete newcomer who has never studied acting, it is difficult for Ling Sui to have confidence in his acting skills.
Ai Tianming asked: "Do you want to refuse?"
Ling Suisui thought about it. Although rejecting Li Mingxu would not cause Aoqi to fall out with him, it was hard to say whether they would squeeze in other actors.
What if some new talent has poor acting skills and doesn’t have the same good looks as Li Mingxu?
They can refuse once, but they cannot refuse every time, which would be too disrespectful to the platform.
What's more, Li Mingxu is the actor most recommended by the platform. If he was used, even if it was just to promote Li Mingxu, Aoqi would pay more attention to the promotion of the game.
Taking all factors into consideration, Ling Suisui was still inclined to keep him.
"Shi Zhen's official match is Jiang Yu. This character is positioned as a gentle assistant. Li Mingxu's face is not suitable."
And a newcomer certainly cannot produce acting effects that would be equivalent to plastic surgery.
She turned to another page of information: "Let him play Li Bufan. The role of a cool and handsome guy suits him. Make it clear to Aoqi that the other four characters in the protagonist group are of similar importance. Li Bufan's character is more likely to attract dream girls."
The most important thing is that Li Bufan has the same number of shots as others, but he speaks less. Most of the time, he keeps a cold face and tries to be cool, or just replies with a few "hmm".
This kind of character setting has reduced the acting skills required of male stars to the minimum. All he needs is a handsome face, which is perfectly suitable for Li Mingxu in his novice period.
Since the platform makes demands, there is definitely room for bargaining. Li Mingxu has never acted in a play before, but now he can play the "second male lead" of Ling Sui, so his starting point is really not low.
She has awards and is well-known among the people. To say that traffic is her shortcoming is only relative to her well-known status. Compared with the 00 flowers of the same period, her traffic can definitely be ranked in the top level.
As for the casting of other leading actors, Ling Suisui and Ai Tianming also discussed a long list of candidates and planned to contact them one by one after the new year.
As for the project, that’s about all we have to talk about today. They have only talked about the framework and some details. A lot of content still needs to be implemented first and then adjusted slowly.
Ling Sui flew back to Guangzhou to celebrate the New Year and saw Bian Yuanzhou on the Spring Festival Gala, where he performed a skit this year.
When he first came out, Ling Fei asked Ling Suisui, "How many times has your colleague appeared on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala? Why haven't you found one yet?"
Ling Suisui: ...
She silently peeled an apple for Ms. Ling Fei and said that she would work harder to get it in the future.
Even though the programs of the Spring Festival Gala are complained about every year, in the hearts of many people, being on the Spring Festival Gala is the symbol of being "famous".
On New Year's Eve, Ling Sui also received many blessings from relatives and friends.
She skillfully copied last year's template, changed a few words and addresses, and replied to the list one by one.
Of course, for seniors like Teacher Tang Bing, she would definitely carefully edit new greetings and then wait to receive their red envelopes (.
While chatting with friends on the list, Ling Suisui did not forget to ask indirectly about their plans from July to November next year.
Even though it’s only New Year’s Eve, it’s not too early at all, as many popular artists have several films lined up consecutively.
Ling Sui checked and counted them one by one to see who he could invite to make a guest appearance.
She has been building up her network in the entertainment industry for many years, so it must come in handy at the critical moment, right?
After the New Year, Ling Sui returned to school, and Ai Tianming told her about the tentative arrangements for the game's protagonists.
Fu Ningyun was cast to play the female mage Qi Xingyue, but she asked to be ranked second; the archer Tong Huan was cast to play Zhu Yue, but she did not have any requirements for the ranking.
Zhu Yue is the actor who played Zhou Ziqing in "Freedom House". Although she has acted in two dramas, her film and television resources are still very average.
After all, she has no background and she signed with an internet celebrity operation company. Even if she is approached by other projects to play the leading role, she seems unwilling to do so. Zhu Yue feels that it is not as reliable as Ling Sui's "The Game Is Online".
Ling Suisui had no objection to the casting of the two roles. She had worked with Zhu Yue in two dramas and was very confident in her acting skills. She was more than qualified to play Tong Huan.
As for Fu Ningyun... among all the female idols who transformed into actresses, her acting skills are among the best. Ling Suisui is already very satisfied to be able to code with her.
There are actresses who are better than her in acting, but they may not be more popular than her, and they may not be willing to play second fiddle to Ling Suisui.
But now there is a problem.
Fu Ningyun is going to be ranked second, so even if she ranks the newcomer Li Mingxu fifth, the highest ranking left for the "official supporting actress" is only third.
Ling Suisui had no objection to this arrangement, and would not require the actor who played Jiang Yu to be ranked second. After all, the four characters in the protagonist group had roughly equal parts, which was what she and Aoqi had promised.
Moreover, Zhu Yue is an actress with representative works. Even if she has no requirements for the ranking, Ling Suisui does not want to treat her too unfairly, and the third position should be reserved for her.
So... it's really hard to find a male actor to be the official partner of the fourth-ranked female lead.
Ling Suisui knew that this matter would be a headache for a while. After she returned to school, Chen Yuening mentioned to her that he was willing to play Jiang Yu.
"Don't joke with me." Ling Suisui waved his hands quickly, "If I ask you to play the second lead of my dual-lead role, Liu Shou may not agree, let alone the fourth lead, and it's a group role."
"If you tell him about this, he'll either suspect you're out of your mind or that I've put a spell on you."
Chen Yuening paused and said, "Sorry, I didn't think that much. We have partnered up many times before and never paid attention to the order of names."
Ling Suisui thought that performing in a stage play at school was different from acting in movies and TV series outside.
She brought the topic back to school and asked him, "Let's talk about the cooperation for the graduation drama. Do you have any ideas?"
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