Chapter 353: The Chaos of Pinduoduo
Although there are still many problems, the idea of "script killing" is quite interesting. Arclight has no plans for the next movie yet, but maybe we can try it later.
Of course, the premise is that He Yihe has to come up with a qualified script first.
After finishing his recent chores, Meng Bai flipped through Arclight's recent plans.
"Soul Ferry: Huangquan" has completed the final version and started pre-promotion. It will be online next month.
The post-production of "Psychological Crime City Light" is almost done. If we hurry up, we can catch up with the tail end of the summer season. After all, if it is later, we will have to "kill each other" during the National Day holiday with "Detective Chinatown 2".
Wang Wei is still busy with the pre-production of "Secret and Great". According to the current progress, it is estimated that it will take another two months to start filming.
So, in addition to waiting for the announcement of the nomination list of Magnolia at the end of the month, the only things on hand are "Bad Kids" and "Hunting Crime Picture Book".
"Bad Kids" is the first part of the "Zijin Chen Trilogy" in cooperation with Qiyi TV. Meng Bai originally planned to start adapting the script before the New Year, but it has been delayed until now because of the cooperation with Netflix and the listing of Qiyi TV.
Although there is an original novel, due to the restrictions on film and television censorship, and the fact that Qiyi TV is linked to the other two works, the script must require a lot of adaptation work.
Meng Bai thought for three seconds and felt that since it has been delayed for so long, it would be okay to wait a few more months.
Privately speaking, the main reason is that this project is a cooperation with Qiyi TV after all. In comparison, "Hunting Crime Picture Book" is the "protagonist".
As the fifth work of the "Green Ivy Criminal Investigation Universe" and the last work of the first phase, the preparations for "Hunting Crime Picture Book" have already begun.
The producer and screenwriter are naturally still Meng Bai, but now Arclight already has a sufficient production team and screenwriter department, so he only needs to deal with some big things and does not need to do everything himself as before.
As for the director of this drama, the new director Dai Mo was used.
Although he is a newcomer, he is actually quite experienced. He graduated from the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama in 2004 and has been following Chen Sicheng ever since. He is the executive director of the two films and the web series "Detective Chinatown".
Although Meng Bai and Wu Bai's Arc Light Alliance is not as famous as Ning Hao's "Bad Monkey 72 Transformations Plan", they have indeed cooperated with many new directors over the years.
And fortunately, although these new directors are not experienced, they are all very capable. In addition, there is Meng Bai, a "top screenwriter" who controls the plot, so the quality of the finished product is very high.
"Old Dai."
Meng Bai greeted Dai Mo who had just entered
the door. The two have worked together several times, so they are quite familiar with each other. "Mr. Meng, this is the lead actor selected by our director team after the audition. Please see if there is anything inappropriate." Dai Mo said, handing over a document.
Similar to the previous works of the "Green Ivy Series", "Hunting Crime Picture Book" still has the character relationship structure of "male detective + male second detective".
Actually, there is no other way. After all, there is no such profession as "detective" in China. Non-public security, procuratorial and judicial personnel, or more accurately, non-front-line law enforcement personnel, have no right to investigate.
Therefore, if you want the protagonist to participate in criminal cases legally and reasonably, you can only arrange an identity such as "consultant" and a criminal police officer next to him.
It can be regarded as a national characteristic.
Meng Bai flipped through the actor information in his hand and compared it with the character settings in the play.
Among the male protagonists' professions in the first four works of "Green Ivy Criminal Investigation Universe", Qin Feng's "detective" and Guan Hongfeng's "former captain" are very common, Qin Ming's "forensic doctor" is relatively rare, and Fang Mu's "psychological profiler" is even more niche.
But compared with the profession of "simulated portrait artist" of the male protagonist Shen Yi in "Hunting Crime Picture Book", the previous ones can be regarded as popular.
The so-called "simulated portrait artist" mainly draws the complete appearance of the suspect based on the description of the witness.
This profession is not made up by Meng Bai. Before the "Skynet System" was perfected, the chance of taking a frontal shot of a person's face was very small, so if you want to know what the suspect looks like, you mainly rely on the description of the simulation artist.
Generally speaking, those who can become simulation artists are very talented in art. Including the public security police force, they often recruit people or invite help from art academies in various places.
Therefore, the role of "Shen Yi" must have some literary and calm temperament.
Dai Mo and his director team looked at many people and finally chose Zhang Xincheng, who had previously starred in "Hello, Old Times".
As for the second male "Criminal Police Captain Du Cheng", the requirements for this role are simpler, and the final candidate is also a new actor Chen Xingxu.
Meng Bai thought about it and always felt that he seemed to have heard this name before. He looked down at the drama he had filmed before, Yang Kang in the 17th version of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", which is the latest version of "Tong Ronger", and then he realized it.
In addition to the male lead and the second male lead, there is another main role, the female lead who serves as a forensic doctor, and the actor is Zhu Yan Manzi.
Oh, wait.
Meng Bai suddenly discovered a problem. All three main actors were from the Central Academy of Drama. If Meng Bai and Dai Mo were included, this drama would almost become an internal drama of the Central Academy of Drama.
"Don't mention it, it's true." Dai Mo said, "I didn't pay much attention to this when selecting the actors. Otherwise, should we change the candidates?"
"That's not necessary. Since they have been selected, it means that they meet the needs of the role."
Meng Bai shook his head. He just said it casually. There is no need to make more trouble for such a small matter.
However, the rumor that "Huguang likes to use people from the Central Academy of Drama" is expected to deepen in the circle.
In fact, it is not entirely a rumor. Because of Meng Bai, Huguang and the Central Academy of Drama have always had a close relationship and have cooperated with each other.
The school recommended a lot of new actors, so naturally there are more actors from the Central Academy of Drama in the Huguang drama.
After deciding on the main actors, Dai Mo has also made preliminary preparations. The two discussed and decided to start filming before the end of the month.
But before that, Meng Bai had to go to Tianjin to find a consultant for the crew.
Tianjin Judicial Appraisal Center.
"Hello, Director Lin, I'm sorry to bother you again."
"No, I don't have anything to do here. Please take a seat, Mr. Meng."
In a room filled with various skeleton models and drawing boards, a middle-aged man with a refined temperament greeted Meng Bai enthusiastically.
The man's name is Lin Yuhui, and he is Meng Bai's fellow villager from Shandong. And his profession is a "simulated portrait artist" that few people have heard of.
The two of them sat down, Lin Yuhui handed over a cup of tea, and then looked at Meng Bai and said, "Mr. Meng said on the phone before that he wanted to make a TV series about "simulated portraits"? "
"It's a web drama." Meng Bai said, "I have heard of your name, Director Lin, for a long time. When I was a child, I read the report of the "Xintai Major Arson Case" in the newspaper. At that time, I felt that the profession of "simulated portrait artist" was very magical. It just so happens that I am mainly working on suspenseful criminal investigation themes now, so I thought about moving this profession to the screen so that everyone can understand it."
In August 2008, during the Olympic Games, a fire broke out in a celebration company in Xintai City, resulting in one death and two serious injuries. After investigation, the public security determined that someone had deliberately set the fire. After a visit, a suspicious person was finally found in the surveillance of a gas station.
However, due to the technical level of surveillance at the time, the image clarity was very poor, and the sky was dark, so only some vague features of the suspect could be seen.
But with this "landline quality" lens, Lin Yuhui drew a clear portrait of the suspect. After getting the portrait, the public security department caught the murderer of the arson case in less than three hours.
Moreover, when comparing the real people afterwards, it was unexpectedly discovered that the portrait and the actual appearance of the murderer were more than 90% similar.
This incident was reported and reprinted by many provincial media at the time, and it was also on many TV news. It was from that time that Meng Bai learned about the profession of "simulated portrait artist".
As for Lin Yuhui himself, his skills are far more than that. With childhood photos, one can draw the appearance of a person 20 years later, and with only six facial positioning points, one can draw a complete portrait. As for drawing portraits on bones, it is even more commonplace.
In the "Zhang Yingying case" in the United States last year, Lin Yuhui, at the invitation of Li Changyu, drew the appearance of the suspect based on three blurry videos provided by the FBI. Three days later, the suspect Christensen was arrested.
In the preparation process of "Hunting Crime Picture Book", Meng Bai contacted Lin Yuhui and wanted to invite him to be the technical consultant of the show to help the crew find plot loopholes.
"That's a good thing." Lin Yuhui said with a smile: "Nowadays, surveillance is well developed, and the public security's 'Skynet System' is also very complete. In many cases, simulated portraits are not needed. But in other places, simulated portraits still have many uses."
"Yes, we also hope that through such a film and television work, more audiences can know and understand the work and significance of the profession of 'simulated portraiture'."
"As a practitioner, thank you very much, President Meng." Lin Yuhui said: "I have no problem being a consultant for the crew, but I also want to ask President Meng for one thing."
"You say."
"My main job now is to help the parents of abducted children draw portraits of their children when they grow up, so that they can find them better. I hope that if it is convenient for President Meng, you can help me publicize it, so that more parents of abducted children will know that there is such a way that may help them."
"No problem." Meng Bai said without hesitation: "In fact, I have learned about some of your work, Director Lin, before. In fact, in the plot of this drama, there is a unit story about the search for lost children."
"That's great." Lin Yuhui's face lit up immediately. "If that's the case, then I have to be the consultant."
Meng Bai was also satisfied with this. In this way, the plot of "Hunting Crime Picture Book" will definitely be much more realistic.
After agreeing on a time with Lin Yuhui, Meng Bai originally planned to go directly to the crew.
Unexpectedly, before he left, he suddenly received a call from Gu Fei.
"Boss, Mr. Huang from Pinduoduo asked me to contact him and said that he needs your help with something."
"Ask me for help?"
Meng Bai was very surprised.
Pinduoduo is an e-commerce company, and its biggest intersection with film and television is title sponsorship or advertising, but he doesn't need to help with that.
"Did he say what it was specifically about?"
"He didn't say much, but it should be related to the offline collective boycott of Pinduoduo by platform merchants a few days ago."
"Oh, this matter..." Meng Bai said, "Okay, then I'll contact Huang Zheng."
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Shanghai, Pinduoduo headquarters.
"Long time no see, Mr. Meng."
Looking at Meng Bai who came in, Huang Zheng said with a smile.
"It's been a long time since we last met." Meng Bai also smiled.
Since Gu Fei came, she has been the one who has been in charge of the connection. Apart from checking the financial situation, Meng Bai really hasn't paid much attention to Pinduoduo.
Of course, I believe Huang Zheng also hopes that all investors can maintain his state.
The two sat down and exchanged pleasantries for a while, and Meng Bai took the initiative to ask about the situation.
"Alas, this matter is hard to explain." Huang Zheng put away his smile and frowned, saying, "I wonder if Mr. Meng has heard about the news about us and the merchants a few days ago?"
"I saw it online, but I don't know the details."
Seeing this, Huang Zheng first introduced the situation to Meng Bai.
As mentioned before, compared with Taobao and JD.com, Pinduoduo's position is much more inclined to consumers, and the various rules and regulations on the merchants are much stricter.
For a long time, many merchants have been full of resentment about Pinduoduo's operations.
Until a few days ago, some merchants who could no longer bear it joined forces and held banners to demonstrate under the Pinduoduo company building, shouting slogans to boycott Pinduoduo.
"If it were any other time, it wouldn't really matter. After all, the conflict between the platform and the merchants is not a one-day or two-day thing. If everyone talks slowly, they can always find a mutually satisfactory result."
Huang Zheng sighed, "But the problem is that we are about to go public. If public opinion breaks out at this time, it is very likely to disrupt the listing plan."
Pinduoduo has only been established for three years, and it is almost stuck on the standard line for listing. Although the capital market is optimistic about Pinduoduo's future potential, potential is potential after all.
A little disturbance is likely to lead to some unexpected situations.
What's more, there is such intense public opinion.
"This..."
Meng Bai groaned. It's really hard for him to say anything about this kind of thing.
From the perspective of the public, the platform, as the most powerful capital, is definitely the source of all evil.
But from the perspective of an investor, the current development of Pinduoduo shows that Huang Zheng's business strategy is not wrong.
After thinking for a while, it seems that he can't say who is right or wrong, so he simply stopped thinking about this issue.
"Just tell me directly, what do you need my help with?" Meng Bai said, "You can't ask me to help you make a film, right?"
Huang Zheng smiled when he heard this: "You are right. We want to shoot a few videos and need you, the great screenwriter, to design the plot."
(End of this chapter)
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