Wen Yi stared at her phone, debating between replying to Gu Erye's message and returning the call, but finally picked up her phone and made the call.
Unfortunately, the other party didn't answer the call even after it rang with a busy signal.
Meanwhile, the director, who had gone off to attend to other matters, has returned.
He laughed heartily, "Sorry, the crew has been very busy lately, with many trivial and troublesome matters, so I've been unable to find the time."
Wen Yi hung up the phone and said to the director, "It's okay, I didn't wait long."
The director sat opposite Wen Yi.
Wen thought about it for a moment, and finally put her phone away.
Master Gu is unpredictable, mysterious and busy. If he doesn't show up himself, Wen Yi can hardly find him.
It's like if Wen calls but doesn't answer, it means he's busy, and no matter how many times Wen calls, it's useless.
Therefore, Wen Yi composed herself and dealt with work matters first.
"You called me specifically to say you wanted to have a meeting with me. What were you mainly going to talk about?" the director asked first.
"Let's talk about the female lead in the movie version." Wen Yi immediately got into work mode. "I want to confirm the choice of the female lead with the director again."
The director did not respond immediately, but squinted at Wen Yi, looking thoughtful.
Wen Yi continued, "As you know, the female lead in a TV series has a slightly smaller scope, and if we don't change her growth storyline and bring it to the big screen, it will directly turn this movie into a fast-food commercial film. I don't want that to happen."
“I know that Director Shi has a keen eye and chooses scripts that can withstand close scrutiny, so ‘Sword and Qin’ is no exception.”
After the director finished speaking, he got up and went to the side to move the two computers over.
He pushed a TV to Wen Yi and then turned it on, saying, "Several candidate screenwriters for the film have already edited the character designs and outline of the film version. You can compare and review them."
At this point, he said, "Perfect timing, I'll choose a suitable editor today."
Wen smiled, opened the file on her computer, and got to work.
Three hours later...
The director sent five film outlines and character designs in total. Wen Yi read through them all in detail and kept only two in the end.
"The female lead presented in A is more dashing and decisive, but she's a bit too ruthless and lacks guts," Wen Yi commented. "This could lead to issues with values."
"I think that since she was originally a young lady but was filled with hatred after her family was wiped out, if she wasn't ruthless, her character development wouldn't be able to be sustained," the director offered a different opinion.
Wen Yi frowned, somewhat agreeing with the director's opinion, but still feeling that it was inappropriate. Wen Yi stared at the document, hesitant to speak.
"What about B's work?" the director asked.
“B’s works all progressed according to my wishes, but there’s something… um…”
"It's a bit unoriginal, too conventional, lacking any breakthroughs or anything to look forward to," the director conveyed Wen Yi's unspoken thoughts.
That's exactly what I meant.
It cannot be said that B is not a good work; on the contrary, B is more complete and more specific than A.
While A is sharp in every aspect, and she portrays the female lead's growth and character development in a very distinctive way, the emotional interaction between the female lead and the male lead seems much weaker.
On the contrary, B's emotional interactions were good, but only good.
"In summary, B is flawless, while A has many flaws, but A always makes people want to take a second look."
The director, after all, has far more life and career experience than Wen Yi, and he was able to express the opinions that Wen Yi couldn't.
Wen Yi expressed strong agreement. This collaboration with the director was something Wen Yi took the initiative to propose to Master Gu, as an additional condition for him to increase his investment.
Although Wen Yi is well-known, he doesn't have much experience. He has only achieved his current success because he encountered good scripts and teams.
But she needs to learn more practical experience, and the director is a great teacher.
Wen Yi humbly inquired, "So, the director's intention is to favor option A?"
The director shook his head. "It's not very stable. A's professional knowledge is clearly not as good as B's, so we need to evaluate them."
"How does the director intend to conduct the assessment?" Wen Yi asked.
The director pondered for a moment, then suggested, "We can watch a few scenes first before making a judgment."
“Okay.” Wen Yi agreed. “However, we still need to remind this A to strengthen the emotional connection between the male and female leads, otherwise they won’t be able to beat B once the plot gets going.”
According to the director's rules, all submitted scripts are anonymous and tagged, in case someone tries to use connections during the script discussion meeting, which could cause problems with multiple votes.
"I'll remind you," the director chuckled.
“However, before that, I would like to ask the director one last question,” Wen Yi said.
"What?"
"Does the director really think Lin Manqing is suitable?"
"She has the right amount of buzz," the director said. "Things are different now than before. In this era of internet traffic, buzz is extremely important. Of course, the work itself is also important, but a prerequisite for a good work is that you have to pique people's interest first. What could be more captivating or cheaper than gossip for publicity?"
When he said the last sentence, the director was clearly making a self-deprecating joke.
What he said was basically the same as what Lin Manqing said.
That's the situation.
After thinking for a moment, Wen Yi finally expressed his opinion, "Lin Manqing just talked to me, and some of the things she said were indeed convincing. I'm thinking of casting her as the female lead in the movie. If we choose script A, Lin Manqing would be a perfect fit."
The director's eyes lit up. "That's what I think too."
“So, we still have to see what happens in the script,” Wen Yi said. “If B can deliver some brilliant highlights, it will overshadow A, and then Lin Manqing won’t be the most suitable match.”
"So it still comes down to the script," the director agreed.
The two discussed it for an afternoon and basically reached an agreement.
At the same time, the assistant director knocked on the door to remind the director that a scene was about to be filmed that afternoon.
Filming was supposed to start in an hour, but the meeting couldn't be stopped, so the director delayed it for an hour. Now, it can't be delayed any longer.
"Director, you should go now. I need to pack my things and go back to take care of some other things."
"Dinner at Golden Deer Gate tonight, wanna join?" the director extended an invitation.
Wen shook his head. "I have things to do tonight. I hope you all enjoy your dinner."
Wen Yi packed her things and borrowed a computer from the director before leaving the film set.
When Wen got into the car, he made another phone call to Master Gu.
Fortunately, it was finally connected this time.
"Where are you?" Wen asked directly.
"Golden Deer Gate".
"wait for me."
After Wen finished speaking briefly, he hung up the phone and then stepped on the gas and headed straight for Jinlumen.
When Wen Yi is working, he can suppress a lot of things, but now that he's not working, his mind is full of thoughts about the smell of someone else on the top floor of Jinlumen.
With her secret hideout with Gu Huaixu gone, Wen Yi couldn't stay calm and her pace quickened...
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