I didn't want to be an actor

Chapter 769: Chat (23)

"almost…"

"Aren't you supposed to like simple, kind girls?"

"What you said is the official answer... In fact, most men like sexy things!"

Li Xueqing looked at Mao Buyi: "Really?"

Mao Buyi nodded embarrassedly: "Yes..."

"You are so superficial!"

Shen Liang waved his hand: "Being a human being... doesn't need to be so profound."

Li Xueqing pondered for a moment, then said, "Then Meng Ziyi, do you like him?"

"We have worked together before. I asked her to work on The Imperial Coroner, Lotus Tower and Shushan..."

"I heard her say you guys talked for a while?"

"Why does she tell everything to others?" Shen Liang complained, then nodded: "We talked for a while... but it wasn't suitable."

Li Xueqing quickly asked: "Why? Meng Ziyi is fine!"

"It's good..." Shen Liang explained: "I'm too busy... and I can't give her a sense of security... so, let's just be friends!"

"You can be friends with your ex-girlfriend?"

"We are all in the same industry... If we don't stay friends, what else can we do?" At this point, Shen Liang asked, "She didn't say anything bad about me, did she?"

"No, she said you have a good personality and are a perfect lover..."

"Thank you... Let's talk about something else."

Mao Buyi: "I think you'd better explain it. This part will definitely be on the trending search list... Our director is so excited!"

"It's my problem... In the past two years, my schedules were so busy that I had no time to cultivate a relationship... She would often take an hour to reply to my messages... I guess any woman couldn't stand it... So, I didn't date much after that!"

"She said she wanted to quit the industry and stay with you on the set!"

"That won't work. She's a great actress and can have her own career. I hate those who are in love the most... like a domesticated animal..."

Mao Buyi changed the subject: "... Let's not talk about this anymore, let's talk about your new movie "Annual Meeting, Can't Stop!"..."

"I thought big companies were a good theme before... There are a lot of big company jargons, which are very interesting... But I never thought of how to do it. Then, at the 2019 New Oriental Annual Meeting, there was an adaptation of Desert Camel, with live singing and dancing, and very eye-catching dynamic subtitles. It was on the hot search at the time. There was a sentence in it, "Those who work are not as good as those who make PPTs", and another sentence, "Customers ask about classes, directors don't understand, ask managers, managers ask employees, and employees also ask about part-time jobs", which brought the biggest laughter and applause from the audience..."

"Then my senior brother Dong Runnian and I decided to combine Liu Baorui's stand-up comedy "Three Levels Up"..."

After a pause, Shen Liang gave a brief introduction: "'Three consecutive promotions' is a crosstalk by Mr. Liu Baorui in 1955. It tells the story of a playboy named Zhang Haogu, who was born into a wealthy landlord family in Linqing Prefecture, Shandong Province during the Tianqi period of the Ming Dynasty. He was illiterate and uneducated. One day, he wanted to take the BJ Exam, but by chance he met Wei Zhongxian.

Because the emperor and the civil and military officials were all incompetent and failed to see through his incompetence, they allowed him to pass the imperial examinations and enter the Imperial Academy, and regarded him as a pillar of the country..."

"Our director Dong Runnian and screenwriter Liu Shou are both from Tianjin. They know a lot about crosstalk... We applied this to the workplace. The workplace is similar to the officialdom. Identity and background are the key to promotion. It doesn't matter who you are, but whose you are to is important!"

Mao Buyi was surprised: "Wow, it's so big?"

Shen Liang nodded: "It's quite big... We just want to make a satirical comedy. Mahua has been very disappointing to me in the past two years..."

Li Xueqing: "Isn't Gogol's The Inspector General also of this type?" "Yes... Comedy of Misplacement, let's call it that for the time being. Comedy of Misplacement is generally highly satirical. A typical example is The Shadow Tycoon directed by the Coen brothers..."

"'Shadow Tycoon'?"

"Also known as "Empire of Money", starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Paul Newman... I like this kind of comedy. The protagonist of "Annual Meeting", senior fitter Hu Jianlin, was promoted to the head office by mistake, and rose from K7 to K11. Every promotion and salary increase was a large-scale misunderstanding game mixed with power struggle and playing dumb.

The plot is basically a constant stream of changing comedy gimmicks to serve the "mis-tuned person maintaining a fake identity" premise.

One thing leads to another, and each movement must be arranged to have a double effect at all times.

Let him do whatever he wants and still show his extraordinary strength, let him turn his stupid moves into brilliant plans, let him speak a few truths and they will seem unfathomable, and all of this must make sense.

Anyone who has written a script or analyzed a comedy film will know that this kind of plot may seem wild and fanciful, but in fact it is purely the screenwriter's own fault. The room for creativity is very narrow and the test is extremely great.

Writing this kind of comedy takes a lot of brainpower, but of course, the story that is polished out is also very interesting... I think "Annual Meeting" is the best comedy in recent years!"

“I heard you wrote several songs?”

"Yes, I was in charge of all the songs in the Annual Meeting... including the song 'My Future Is Not a Dream + Workers' Song' sung by the Pan Ma Zhuang group in the movie..."

"Let me see…"

“It’s a rap song…”

Mao Buyi took the phone, looked at it, and then read it out: "The grassroots are panicking, the middle-level people are forming cliques, speaking in jargon very well, and the surface is glorious, but it's all an illusion."

Shen Liang immediately followed up: "The president farted, the director translated it into a sentence, the manager received the order but couldn't decrypt it, just wanted to escape, and threw it to the grassroots, OT tonight, you make a PPT. If you are not satisfied with the work, fire him, and everything will be fine. He spends money on wine and women, calls himself a brother all day long, has a financial crisis, is constantly corrupt, claims to be flat, and has a hierarchy like a jungle."

“The actors sang live?”

“Almost,” Shen Liang nodded. “Teacher Yu and Wei recorded it several times… Bai Ke finished it in one take, and Zhao Jinmai recorded it three times… They worked well together!”

Li Xueqing also took the phone, took a look, and then said: "Tsk tsk, just for the lyrics... I must buy a ticket to watch it!"

"This part of the lyrics is the climax... We don't know how to end it... Let's just end it with a song..."

……

After chatting about the "Annual Meeting" for a while, the three of them cooked.
In fact, it was Shen Liang who cooked, and the two of them helped out...

Li Xueqing remembered something: "I heard that Liang Ge's mother introduced a girl to Mao Buyi?"

Mao Buyi nodded: "Well, we met a few months ago..."

"and then?"

Mao Buyi scratched his head: "The girl is nice, but she doesn't know much about my work... Besides, I think being a public figure is actually a minus point in a relationship. On the one hand, she will find it troublesome, and on the other hand, they will think that we don't really want to date you..."

Li Xueqing: "That makes sense...Brother Liang, what do you think?"

Shen Liang smiled and said, "I found that middle-aged women especially like to act as matchmakers... Since their sons can't satisfy their ideas, they will set their sights on his friends... In fact, my mother also introduced me to blind dates..."

"You're going on a blind date?"

"I didn't go..." Shen Liang thought for a moment and replied, "Maybe it's just like what you said. After all, I'm a public figure. It's hard not to suspect what the woman wants from being with me..."

(End of this chapter)