Age of Legends

Chapter 108: Rongcheng on the Tip of the Tongue
After Wang Bowen became the Chengdu Promotion Ambassador appointed by the Rongcheng Municipal Bureau of Culture, he immediately plunged into his busy career.

The first is a promotional video project to promote Rongcheng cuisine. With the theme of “Eat in Rongcheng”, we aim to create an absolutely fascinating promotional video.

Moreover, the cost of shooting this kind of film is not high, which is suitable for those with limited production budget. No special effects are needed, but just simple snapshots of night market stalls and home-cooked meals, capturing the humanistic temperament of life.

But, are there any photography tips?
Of course there were. Before “A Bite of China” came out, there were certainly countless food promotional videos, but none of them reached that level.

Wang Bowen's previous food shows were actually very well made and filmed, but they were just simple and straightforward, telling the story of how to make a dish, calling in a few experts, talking about the origins of the dish, and teaching different ways of making it. Was it good? Just like the recipes, except that the housewives had to learn, it was boring and drowsy. No wonder the ratings were low, and no advertisers were willing to invest money.

The shooting script that Zhang Chen gave to Wang Bowen highlighted the sense of suspense of the story. When shooting a food program, one starts with the characters. The material revolves around the owner of the snack stall and starts with his family. What is his family like? What changes have taken place in his life because of the food stall? How is this specialty dish made? After each production, he invites relatives and friends to gather together. What a warm life it is.

It seems to be filming delicious food, but in fact it is about writing about people and filming life.

A food stall and a famous dish support the livelihood of a family. The food is delicious, and the fatigue of the day is comforted by the company of family. A dish is delicious and full of human feelings. These stories are healing and warm, and you can see the protection and persistence behind them.

There is a sense of power.

There is a market for this kind of documentary, regardless of the time period. It is there, the only difference is whether someone can shoot it and show it to the public.

During this period of time, Wang Bowen devoted himself to filming. The first restaurant he went to was the famous Leshan barbecue stall in Rongcheng. This kind of barbecue skewers called Baba Shao has a strong visual effect. Under the charcoal fire, a handful of fresh meat skewers mixed with sauce and secret hot sauce make a "sizzling" sound under the fierce fire rising in the oven. The so-called "the smell of fireworks in the world is the most soothing to the hearts of ordinary people" is there, and it makes people swallow their saliva.

When filming this episode, Zhang Chen was in evening self-study and took a break to call Jiang Rong. Wang Bowen was directing the scene, so he was definitely not available. Jiang Rong, who was running errands and helping out, had plenty of time to explain the scene to Zhang Chen.

Jiang Rong held a pile of grilled skewers and ate them while telling Zhang Chen about the filming.

Zhang Chen finally couldn't stand it anymore, "Can you please stop eating skewers! The food I had this afternoon doesn't taste good anymore!"

Jiang Rong: "Baji, baji, baji... It's so delicious. It's a pity that someone contributed such an idea but got no thanks for it..."

Jiang Rong now felt like she was eating sauce with her mouth full, not caring about her image and deliberately giving Zhang Chen on the phone a glare.

As a result, Wang Bowen shouted over there, "Stage Supervisor, Stage Supervisor... Wait for a while to eat, come here, next one!"

"Come, come, come..." Jiang Rong had no time to grab a piece of paper to wipe her mouth. She put the skewers on the plate next to her and hurried over with the board in her hand.

I thought, it's true. I'm a girl after all, but why am I like a little girl in front of Zhang Chen? I can't wait to show off to him, just to see him get humiliated...

Who made him look so indifferent all the time? He doesn't look like a high school student at all!
……

Of course, the advertising cost of "A Bite of Rongcheng" is not very high. This is different from "Emotional Whirlpool" which has guaranteed ratings. This is Wang Bowen's new program. Although it is well-produced, the party who placed the advertisement was shown a sample film, but they still didn't think the film was any good.

It is true that the Cultural Bureau endorsed it and it is the focus of Rongcheng's publicity and promotion. When it comes to official promotional videos, there are restrictions on the advertising side. Moreover, the bulk of the advertising is paid for insert ads, which is the money collected by the TV station. Wang Bowen can get 20%. Apart from that, the only thing he can get is the cost of product placement, but not many advertisers are willing to invest in product placement these days. In addition, although the Cultural Bureau did not need to pay, it still allocated yuan for this project.

So this is pretty much all Wang Bowen can get.

The main thing is product placement. Since it is product placement, it must be agreed upon at the beginning and cannot be added later. Therefore, it is impossible to reach the condition of broadcasting one episode and then adding advertising investment after the effect is good. The whole program has five episodes, and the product placement in one episode is 100,000, so you can get 500,000.

The TV station can earn about 200,000 yuan from commercial inserts.

Together with the funding from the Cultural Bureau, the total cost of the project is one million.

Of course, this is only the first part of the entire digital cultural festival.

After the reputation and popularity of the first stage increase, the advertising costs for subsequent cultural festival-related projects will become the bulk of the expenses.

The first battle at present is to promote "A Bite of Rongcheng" to make a name for ourselves.

Wang Bowen was busy filming, while Jiang Rong was doing odd jobs and stealing food.

Zhang Chen and Wang Shuowei went out to eat in the Xincheng District in the city center before school one afternoon. There is a well-known Maoxuewang restaurant here that is good. They always eat two big bowls of rice. In addition to Maoxuewang, this restaurant also has mixed beef, mixed ear slices, and hoof soup, which are all signature dishes.

Especially now that Zhang Chen is rich, he is even richer than his parents, so every day before evening self-study, he and Wang Shuowei can go around to eat delicious food. There are many flavors that are out of print in later generations, but they are not pre-prepared dishes. Of course, there is nothing wrong with pre-prepared dishes, but those have more so-called "wok flavor". I don't know why. When I was a teenager in my previous life, I liked to eat all kinds of snacks and packaged foods, but in my later life, I like freshly fried food with wok flavor more and more. In the end, I returned to nature and felt that the food outside was not delicious, and only the food cooked at home was the most delicious - on human self-domestication.

Now that he is rich, Wang Shuowei and he lead a life full of greasy food.

But today, I saw two acquaintances at the Maoxuewang restaurant, Hong Yao and the fat man Bu Ruijie, and they also walked in from the main entrance.

It was not surprising that the two of them were eating here. They usually worked odd jobs in Zhao Tao's game hall, and Zhao Tao also paid them a salary.

Seeing the two people here, Wang Shuowei greeted them again and invited them to eat together.

There were not many tables here, so the two of them decided not to wait for customers anyway. They sat together with them, and Zhang Chen ordered a few more dishes.

"Brother Zhang Chen, Xiao Wang!" Hong Yao greeted with a smile.

Bu Ruijie sat down. This fat man who usually gave people a fierce image seemed a little restrained at this time. He probably felt that it was a bit inappropriate to let two younger brothers pay for the meal.

Wang Shuowei casually asked, "How's Zhao's game room doing lately?"

Hong Yao and Bu Ruijie looked at each other.

Zhang Chen handed the menu to the waiter, then looked at the two of them, "What...did something happen?"

"There's a tough guy coming from the north recently." Hong Yao said, "Come, eat first and talk while you eat."

It's another underworld affair in Rongcheng.

(End of this chapter)