Chapter 540: Mr. Meng can find young girls wherever he goes
"Is your script really a short play?"
After reading the story in his hand, Chen Zhixi said in surprise: "This plot setting can be used to make a movie or a serious TV series directly. It's a waste to make a short play."
In the story of "Escape from the British Museum", she saw fantasy love, historical inheritance, cultural relics protection, and family and country feelings.
If the character settings and story details are slightly enriched, it will definitely be an excellent movie script.
Chen Zhixi has been making movies for more than ten years. Based on her experience, this story will definitely be a hit in both word-of-mouth and box office. But now it is just a short play, which is a bit of a waste.
But Meng Bai himself doesn't care much: "It's not a pity. The core of this story is actually just this little bit. Even if it is made into a movie or TV series, it's nothing more than opening a few more branches and appearing a few more cultural relics and characters, which may weaken the excitement of the theme itself."
Unlike many content creators, with the plug-in of constantly updated inspiration fragments, he never skimps on his story creativity. If it is suitable for filming, then film it; if it is suitable for web series, then web series. Basically, they will not force a change of format just to make the story grand.
Just like "Escape from the British Museum", the core content of the story is actually "historical inheritance + cultural relics transformation", which is a very short point. At most, it can be made into a mini-series of about three or four episodes. If it is changed to a more refined short drama, the effect will be the same.
"That makes sense, but..."
Chen Zhixi sighed, "Forget it, you wrote the script, you have the final say on the format. A short play is a short play, as long as it can be made into a masterpiece, it can still attract the audience. Have you selected the actors? For such a good story, should we use some popular actors?"
"Who would take a short play with a popular actor?"
"Well, you can't say that. If it were someone else's project, an actor with a little fame would definitely not take it. But ours is different. It's a project that President Meng is personally responsible for. Let alone a short play, even if it's a rustic joke, there are still many people who would rush to take it."
Chen Zhixi's words are not wrong. Actors in long dramas don't shoot short dramas because they are afraid of losing their status, just like movie actors didn't shoot TV dramas and TV actors didn't shoot web dramas.
But this time is different. Everyone knows Meng Bai's current status and reputation in the circle. It's a rare opportunity to cooperate. Those first-line and super-first-line actors may still consider it, but those third- and fourth-line small actors or newcomers below, which one doesn't dream of getting it.
As for status? Just kidding, if I can really catch Mr. Meng's eye through this opportunity, he can arrange a few dramas for me!
Meng Bai thought for a while: "I'd better try to find a newcomer, especially the role of Xiao Yuhu's 'Chanzhi', which requires a cute and spiritual candidate."
Although the story of "Escape from the British Museum" is cut from the perspective of the male protagonist "Zhang Yongan", the core role is actually the female protagonist Xiao Yuhu. Including the subsequent plot, it is also unfolded from her, so the demand for actors is also higher.
Because the threshold of short dramas is low and the volume is small, most of the participants are also small crews. The budget is limited, so the entire project period will be very short. Generally speaking, it takes 20 days to one month to shoot.
But if you want to make a "benchmark" boutique, it must not be so simple.
According to the script design, "Escape from the British Museum" has a total of five episodes, and each episode is about ten minutes long. In order to fit the background of the story, the crew has to go to the UK for on-site shooting, which adds more time.
Meng Bai planned a total project period of three months for this drama, and the budget has reached tens of millions, which is comparable to many small-scale long-form dramas.
Given the current scale of the short drama market, unless this project breaks through the circle and explodes after it is broadcast, it is actually difficult to recover the cost.
However, Arclight has now passed the stage of "every project is for making money" and has begun to be like big groups such as Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance. It doesn't matter whether the project makes money or not. The key is the influence and strategic positioning it brings.
-
Nanmen Bridge, Taishan, Jiangmen, Guangdong Province.
The Taicheng River runs through the city, dividing the city from north to south. On the pedestrian path next to the river, Li Yitong, who was full of youth, held two cups of milk tea in her hands, walked briskly to a park bench, and then handed it to Zhang Yi who was sitting on the side.
"Here, it's the weekly journal."
Li Yitong sat on the other side of the bench, looking at the children running past in front of her, and said with emotion: "Do you remember, we were like that when we were young. At that time, I thought the river was very long and I could never run to the end. When I grew up, I found that I could walk across it in three or two steps."
Zhang Yi, who had been silent for a long time while sipping milk tea, suddenly said: "Your legs were short at that time."
Li Yitong rolled her eyes and stepped on the other person without hesitation.
"Well, this is my last vacation."
"You were expelled from school?"
"I went back to BJ for an internship! I graduated from graduate school... Don't you have anything to tell me?"
"Then have a good journey..."
Li Yitong clenched her fist and punched him. By the way , she couldn't help muttering in her heart: I don't need to ask about the style of the lines. I know that it was written by that guy as soon as I heard it.
At the same time, director Xu Jizhou, who was sitting behind the monitor, looked at the screen and smiled at the man sitting next to him: "Yitong's acting skills have improved rapidly in the past two years. It is much more natural than the last time we worked together."
Hearing that their director's tone was so gentle today, the heads of the photography and lighting groups who were gathered around looked at each other, and then tacitly made a smile to each other.
After so many years of cooperation, when have they ever seen him speak in this tone? But looking at the person sitting next to him, everyone can understand.
That's Mr. Meng of Arclight, and he is also the current chief producer of this drama, and the father of the investor. No matter who
comes, he will have this tone. "I remember that the last time the director and Yitong worked together was the web drama called "The Legend of Miyue", which seems to have been many years ago." Meng Bai responded.
"Indeed, I remember that drama was filmed in 2018 or 2019, which is about four or five years." Xu Jizhou said with emotion: "She performed quite well at that time, and she has improved a lot in recent years. It's a pity that her character setting is limited in this drama, and I'm afraid she can't play too much." The
success of "Sweeping Black Storm" before made the Political and Legal Committee very satisfied. As soon as it was broadcast, they immediately contacted Arc Light to cooperate again, which is the "Storm" that the crew is currently filming.
In order to distinguish it from the previous one, Meng Bai deliberately put the background of the story in Guangdong Province, which has nothing to do with "Green Vine City".
The production team did not use "Arch Light" directors such as Wu Bai and Wang Wei again, but replaced them with Xu Jizhou, who had filmed "The Indelible Number".
Speaking of which, this person who shoots the theme of "sweeping black" can be regarded as a professional counterpart. As early as 20 years ago, he filmed a TV series called "Strike Black Storm", which has a lot of origins.
As for Li Yitong's role this time, her name is "Meng Yu", the childhood sweetheart of the male lead "An Xin", and
she is also the nominal heroine of the whole drama. The reason why it is called "nominal" is mainly because her identity as a heroine is a bit "marginal". Whether it is the character setting or the role, it is even worse than the several female supporting roles in the drama.
Meng Bai didn't think of giving this role to her at first, but this girl had worked with Xu Jizhou before, and the latter thought she was quite suitable and invited her, and then the girl readily agreed.
Having said that, this girl has really played a lot of similar "marginal heroines" in the past two years. Lin Wan'er in "Celebrating Yu Nian", Zhu Yizhen in "The Rebel", and now Meng Yu in "Kuang Biao".
You say she is not ambitious, but she has never stopped playing various heroines; but you say she is ambitious, but she has not taken on a few key roles.
Compared with her, even Li Qin, who has always advocated the principle of "doing her best and leaving it to fate", seems so diligent. At least she knows how to invest in new drama resources for herself.
Li Yitong and Zhang Yi finished a scene and were relieved when they heard the director shout "passed". This was not the first time the two had worked together, so they were quite familiar with each other.
"Yitong's performance just now was very natural, very good." Xu Jizhou praised.
Li Yitong smiled sweetly and said a few polite words modestly.
It was not because of her natural acting skills, but Chunchun's familiar lines made her have a stress reaction, and she directly used the expressions and movements she usually had when she was with Meng Bai.
After watching the performance just now and confirming that there was no problem, she returned to the crew to rest. The assistant ran over and handed her water, and then whispered: "Sister Tongtong, Mr. Meng is here."
Li Yitong's eyes lit up instantly, but then she pretended to be calm and said: "Come if you want to, he is the boss and can go wherever he wants."
But within two seconds after she finished speaking, she immediately looked around and said: "Where is he?"
"He was here just now... Hey, it seems to be over there."
The assistant pointed in a direction, and Li Yitong took a look and immediately recognized the familiar figure even from a distance.
But then, her eyes moved to the side, and she couldn't help curling her lips - this guy really could chat with young girls wherever he went.
She knew that girl, her name was Chen Yao, and she was also an actor in the "Kuang Biu" crew. She played the role of "Gao Qilan", the sister of the villain "Gao Qiqiang".
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
