Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 74 Don’t come over!

After the class, Teacher He Jiping asked everyone, "You all have published novels, essays, and other works, right?"

Seeing that everyone nodded, He Jiping continued, "That's great. Choose one or more of your own works and write a script outline as our homework for today's class. Give it to me tomorrow."

After class, several people in Zhang Chao’s dormitory began to worry about this homework.

Zhang Chao was not worried, because although he was famous, he had only published three novels in total, so it was particularly easy to choose. After what happened yesterday, he naturally chose "Better Days Like You".

The other writers all had a lot of works, so it was a difficult question to choose which one to write. This story is not something that can be written at random. It must be based on what He Jiping taught in class, and it must be considered comprehensively from multiple angles such as budget, market positioning, and audience.

Seeing that Hu Xuewen was so worried that he was distracted during meals, Zhang Chao kindly reminded him, "I think your piece, 'You Can't Eat Hot Tofu in a Hurry', is pretty good! The characters are vivid and the dramatic conflicts are outstanding. It will definitely be a good script if you adapt it!"

We are all in the same dormitory, and looking at each other's work is a basic respect.

Hu Xuewen suddenly realized and said, "Yes! I am the one who is in charge and I am confused!"

After dinner, Zhang Chao opened his laptop and began to concentrate on writing the script outline of "Young Like You".

Usually, the screenwriter needs to prepare the outline of a movie or TV series for a long time, which may be weeks, months, or even years, and a lot of information needs to be consulted during this process. Therefore, He Jiping chose to let the students use their own works as a blueprint, which saved a lot of preparation work.

The novel "Youth Like You" itself was derived from a movie Zhang Chao had watched, but in the process of "transcoding", many of Zhang Chao's own thoughts were added. Therefore, it is not difficult to "reverse" back to the outline of the movie script.

Zhang Chao still positioned this film as a highly commercial genre film, so it was necessary to cut out the psychological descriptions and background explanations that would affect the film's rhythm, and some characters that were not particularly important were merged or simply deleted. There were also some overly violent bullying plots that had to be dealt with for review purposes.

The outline of a movie script does not need to be very long, probably between 1000 and 2000 words. The difficulty lies in explaining the main line of the story and the plot. However, this is also Zhang Chao's strength, so he basically finished it in more than 2 hours.

At this time, several other roommates who had no experience in script writing were still pondering over their manuscripts, while Zhang Chao leisurely washed up and rested.

The next day, everyone handed in their homework to He Jiping. As a top screenwriter in the industry, He Jiping graded the homework very quickly. Before the weekend, everyone received their homework filled with comments.

The only one missing was Zhang Chao’s.

Zhang Hongjie joked: "It seems that you are going to receive one-on-one tutoring!"

Sure enough, after class, Zhang Chao was called to the office alone. Teacher He Jiping was waiting for him, holding the outline of the script he wrote and the novel "Youth Like You".

He Jiping said kindly, "You must be Zhang Chao, right? I read the outline of the script you wrote and I think it's very good. It's the most 'movie-like' one among this class of students. If you weren't so young, I would have thought it was written by an old screenwriter."

Zhang Chao said: "It may be because when I first conceived the novel, a lot of images flooded into my mind. So the waves in the arrangement of the plot are more obvious..."

Zhang Chaobian said that He Jiping handed him the outline of the script, and only a few lines were changed in the outline.

After listening to Zhang Chao's idea for the script, He Jiping asked again: "I read your outline and spent some time reading the novel. I found that you seem to have simplified the content of the novel. Aren't you worried that this will weaken the artistry of the story?"

Zhang Chao said: "Teacher He, didn't you say that the first thing a screenwriter should consider when writing is 'money'? I think in the outline, it is more important to present the story well and attract investment."

He Jiping laughed after hearing this and said, "You are such a good student."

Then he asked, "Have you sold the film and television rights for this novel?" Zhang Chao said frankly, "A director sent someone to contact me. But I didn't sell it."

He Jiping nodded. She didn't ask why Zhang Chao didn't sell it. There were too many such deals that failed in the industry. She then asked, "Are you interested in adapting "Youth Like You" into a film or TV series?"

Zhang Chao nodded and said, "Of course. It's just that I don't have much in common with the film industry..."

He Jiping smiled and said, "This story is very good. Whether it's the theme, the characters, or the dramatic tension it contains, they are all first-rate. If you don't mind, I can help you find the resources."

Zhang Chao's eyes lit up. If He Jiping was the lead in the film adaptation of "Youth Like You", the result should not be too bad, so he said, "If Teacher He is willing to help, that would be the best."

He Jiping smiled and said, "Then I will take your outline and go to solicit investment! However, I don't know how much investment I can get, but I have thought of a very good director for this movie."

"Oh? Which one?"

He Jiping didn't keep the secret and blurted out a name that made Zhang Chao's eyelids jump: "Director Xu Anhua from Hong Kong Island."

Zhang Chao's eyes went dark, and he suppressed the urge to yell "Don't come over here!" and continued to listen to He Jiping's next words:

"The subject of your novel is somewhat sensitive, so it may not be easy to pass the censorship for film and television adaptation, and there seems to be no precedent in China. But if the background is set in Hong Kong Island, there will be no problem. School bullying itself is a common problem all over the world. Director Xu is good at the female perspective, which has a bonus effect on this movie..."

Zhang Chao didn't dislike Hui Anhua, on the contrary, he respected her very much. Many of the films she made have become classics in Hong Kong film history, and she herself has won many awards for best director and best film. But the biggest problem with Director Hui is that since she completely transformed into an art film director in the 90s, the films she made have basically been box office poison.

The film "Jade Guanyin" was released last year. It invited the most popular star in Hong Kong, Xie Tingfeng, to play the leading role. However, it only earned 800 million in the mainland box office and a miserable 7.7 in Hong Kong. The investors lost a lot of money. After that, no one dared to ask her to act in a movie for several years.

Zhang Chao doesn't want the film and television adaptation of his novel to fail, as that might affect the sales of the film and television copyrights of his other works.

He Jiping talked for a while, and found that Zhang Chao didn't respond and looked a little bitter, so she asked, "What's wrong?"

Zhang Chao decided to speak frankly, and answered with a wry smile: "Teacher He, what you said is very good, and Director Xu is also a very good director. But her movies, well, the box office..."

He Jiping laughed and said, "You are a young man, but you are more cunning than your age. I understand what you mean. You are just worried that Director Xu's movie will not be a hit! This is indeed a problem. I guess the investors will withdraw their investment and run away overnight when they see that she is the director...Okay, I will keep a close eye on it for you. The final decision on whether to sell it or not is in your hands."

Zhang Chao nodded gratefully.

He Jiping asked, "The last question is, who will write the script? Do you want to give it a try?"

Seeing He Jiping's eagerness to try, Zhang Chao was afraid that if he agreed, Teacher He would take the lead, so he decided - "I'll write it myself. I've been listening to your classes these days and I'm very interested in writing scripts. I'll ask you to check it when the time comes..."

He Jiping's eyes flashed with disappointment, but she still said, "That's fine. There will be no problem finding investment for your story, it's just a matter of whether it's more or less. From the perspective of filming and production, it's probably a medium-sized scale. Just write the script according to the existing outline."

"Thank you, Teacher He!"

"I'm going to be quite busy recently, so I may not have time to read the script. So, I'll find someone to assist you."

"……Fine."

(End of this chapter)