Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 159: Handicraft Workshops and Industrial Standards
Compared to the cautious Qin Lan, he was much more open and aboveboard when meeting Song Zhi.

"Meng Bai!"

As soon as he walked out of the airport entrance, Song Zhi shouted from afar.

He trotted over to Meng Bai, let go of the suitcase, and hugged his arm.

"Hey, the box."

With his arms hugged, Meng Bai stretched out his legs to stop the box from sliding away. He turned his head and glanced at Song Zhi beside him: "So happy?"

"Yes, of course I'm happy that the filming of the drama is finished." Song Zhi said with a bright smile.

What he didn't say in his heart was that he could finally get rid of Li Qin and "do whatever he wanted".

The two of them walked out dragging their suitcases. The girl, relying on the fact that no one knew her as an "18th-tier actress", stuck close to Meng Bai. Passersby thought they were a young couple who had just got off a plane.

As soon as he got in the car, Song Zhi's nose twitched, and a fragrance hit his nose: "It smells so good, did you spray perfume?"

Meng Bai took out a bouquet of flowers from the back seat and handed it over: "This is the taste."

Song Zhi's eyes suddenly lit up, he happily took the bouquet and said in surprise, "For me?"

As she spoke, she leaned in to smell it again, only to smell a sweet, creamy scent lingering around her.

"What kind of flower is this?"

"Gardenia." Meng Bai said with a calm expression: "Do you like it?"

"like!"

Song Zhi nodded vigorously, holding the bouquet in his hand with joy in his eyes, and picked it up to smell it from time to time along the way.

While Meng Bai was driving and not paying attention, she secretly used her cell phone to look up the language of gardenia.

"Persistence, waiting, separation and hope..."

Looking at the introduction on the phone, she pursed her lips and smiled.

The meaning of this flower language is exactly a reflection of their experiences.

Although she knew that this guy probably just picked someone he liked, the girl couldn't help but think so in her heart.

Meng Bai breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Song Zhi, who was smiling happily in the passenger seat and didn't notice any flaws.

No one knew what kind of perfume Qin Lan's sister used, but the fragrance lasted so long that he could smell a distinct scent as soon as he opened the car door in the morning.

There was no time to ventilate the car, so he went to the supermarket and bought a bottle of car air freshener.

After spraying it, he felt that he was trying to cover up something, after all, he never used these things normally.

There happened to be a flower stall at the entrance of the supermarket, so he asked the owner to pick out the one with the strongest fragrance, which just happened to offset the smell in the car.

Details determine success or failure, and scumbags stay away from accidents.

Rather than trying to cover up problems from the beginning by lying about them, he prefers to find ways to cover them up.

On the other side, Song Zhi was immersed in a cheerful mood for a while before finally waking up.

After taking a look at the surroundings, she asked, "Where are we going?"

"Send you home." Meng Bai said as a matter of course.

"It's already noon, how about we go eat together?" Song Zhi said, and then continued: "I said I would treat you to a meal before I joined the group, but I never had the chance, so today is the perfect day."

"Maybe not today, I already have an appointment."

Song Zhi was stunned, the smile on his face faded a little, and he asked casually: "Who are you meeting? Do I know him?"

Meng Bai thought for a moment and said, "Well, you should have seen it, but you may not remember it."

"what?"

Now Song Zhi was a little confused. He had seen him before but couldn't remember him. Who could this be?
Fortunately, Meng Bai did not shy away from the question and said directly, "It was Director Guo Fan who filmed a movie with me before."

"Ah, I seem to have some impression." Song Zhi recalled.

As for the name "Guo Fan", she really had no impression of it.

But if we talk about the movies Meng Bai has filmed, the only one is the project called "The Adventures of Li Xianji" when he was in college.

When Meng Bai had not yet quit the crew, I went to see him twice, so I should have seen him before.

However, her mind was entirely on Meng Bai at the time, and she didn't pay much attention to anyone else.

If Meng Bai hadn't introduced it, she wouldn't even be able to remember the name.

"Are you going to make a movie?" Song Zhi asked excitedly.

"No, we just want to get together and chat." Meng Bai shook his head.

Even though ArcLight Pictures is now thriving in the online drama market, it is still considered an "outsider" when it comes to movies.

Not to mention organizing your own group, even joining a promising high-quality project is not easy.

Just like his long-term cooperation with Leshi.com and he still has shares in Leshi Pictures, but he has no chance to play with the good projects of Leshi Films.

What he gets his hands on now are basically those projects that are unreliable at first glance, or are just designed to make money.

However, Enlight Pictures had previously taken a fancy to the IP of "Criminal Minds" and planned to develop a film project, which was a good opportunity for ArcLight to enter the film market.

Meng Bai had contacted Anle twice before, but they were just brief contacts. Currently, the entire project is still in the conceptual stage.

He is not in a hurry. Instead of trying to stick to the movie just to raise the level, it is better to lay a solid foundation for the web drama first and wait for the right opportunity to appear.

Song Zhi was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly asked, "How about I go with you?"

"Huh?" Meng Bai was stunned for a moment: "You want to go?"

"Yes, I have met Director Guo Fan anyway." Song Zhi blinked and said deliberately, "But if you find it inconvenient, forget it."

"If you say it's inconvenient...it's really inconvenient." "Then I will...ah?"

The smile on Song Zhi's lips froze.

From Meng Bai's tone, she thought he would go on to say something like "It's no inconvenience", and she was already prepared.

Unexpectedly, this guy actually refused directly.

Meng Bai didn't think there was anything wrong with it. He had originally agreed to go there alone, so there was no reason to bring other people along at the last minute.

What's more, it's really inconvenient for a few grown men to chat with a girl.

Song Zhi puffed his lips. He had been rushing around these past few days and had finally finished filming the movie. He came back excitedly, intending to "stay" by his side.

Less than twenty minutes after she got off the plane, she was told she was "driven away".

Although he knew that he had made the appointment a long time ago and that what he said made sense, Song Zhi still couldn't help feeling disappointed.

However, she is no longer the naive girl she was when she just graduated a few years ago.

In addition, after breaking up and meeting each other by chance, they have finally reached the current situation, so naturally they will not be too demanding and stick to each other.

"Okay, then you take me home first." Song Zhi said sensibly, "If you've been drinking, don't drive. I'll contact you when I have time in the evening or tomorrow."

"Well, I probably won't have much time tomorrow. I've been very busy lately." Meng Bai said.

After saying that, he saw the other person's somewhat disappointed face from the corner of his eye, and after thinking for a while, he said, "How about this, before the end of the month, when I have time, I'll call you and spend a day with you."

"Okay!" Song Zhi immediately became happy again and said with a smile: "Then I'll wait for you."

……

Song Zhi currently lives in the house he rented when he was with Meng Bai.

He took her home with ease and helped her carry her luggage. Meng Bai turned the car around and headed straight for Huaiyangchun in Yuetan, Xicheng District.

Just like Quanjude and Taifenglou, Huaiyangchun is also one of the “Eight Great Chun” time-honored brands in northern Beijing.

The so-called "Chun" is a name for restaurants in the old days.

It is similar to "Eight Great Residences" and "Eight Big Buildings", referring to several restaurants that cook good out-of-town cuisine.

For example, Huaiyangchun is mainly based on Huaiyang cuisine.

And there are not really eight, it is just an approximate number, just like there are more than a dozen "top 3" universities.

When I got there and pushed the door open, there were already two people sitting inside.

One was Gongger, whom Meng Bai had met before when filming "Psychological Crime", and the other was a middle-aged man with a beard, a round face and a slightly fat appearance.

This is naturally Guo Fan.

"Brother Guo." Meng Bai smiled and reached out his hand: "Sorry, I'm late, I'll punish myself with a bowl of noodles with soybean paste later."

"Fuck, you're quite good at finding a way out for yourself."

Guo Fan cursed with a smile, stood up, pulled Meng Bai over, and patted him on the shoulder.

The last time they met was at the premiere of "My Deskmate". But Guo Fan was busy at that time and didn't have time to chat.

"You are so good now, the famous 'Arc Light' Mr. Meng, the light of online dramas." Guo Fan joked: "I am someone who doesn't watch online dramas very often, but I can watch your dramas every day."

"My achievements are nothing compared to what I have achieved. If I really want to say something, it has to be you, Brother Guo. A movie with a budget of 4.5 million yuan can get a box office of million yuan. You are the next Nolan."

"I am over-flattered."

"Ask, accept, accept."

Gongger, who was standing by, watched the two people "boasting each other about business" and couldn't help but say, "How about you two just brag a little bit first, and I'll go out for a walk?"

Upon hearing this, Meng Bai and Guo Fan smiled at each other, skipped the greetings, and started chatting while eating.

"It's true. If you go to Hollywood and take a look, you will realize that the development of their film industry is 20 years ahead of ours."

When talking about the previous visit to Paramount under the "Young Directors Exchange Program", Guo Fan immediately became emotional.

"Is it that exaggerated?" Meng Bai asked. He didn't know much about the film industry. "We have had quite a few good films over the years, haven't we?"

Guo Fan shook his head: "The gap I'm talking about is not a problem of one or two movies, but the production standards of the entire film industry system. Let's put it this way, if we compare it to a physical enterprise, they are modern standard factories, while we are still at the level of a handmade workshop."

Meng Bai understood now. If we only compare the quality of a few items, the handmade workshops may not be worse than the standard factories. But if we talk about the entire industry system, then there is really no way to beat them.

"When we visited, we saw a project planning plan of one of their producers," said Guo Fan. "The detail that impressed me the most was that they even had a fixed standard for which color of memory card to use for which scene and which camera position."

"Look at our crew again. I'm not saying anything more than that. Being able to put a sequence on the footage cards is a sign of professionalism on the part of the photographers."

Meng Bai smiled knowingly when he heard this.

He has been the producer of several projects, so he naturally understood what Guo Fan meant.

At present, for the crews in the domestic film and television industry, no matter whether it is a movie, TV series or web series, the production level behind the scenes depends almost entirely on the performance of individuals within the team.

The so-called "high-level team" is simply a group of skilled workers who have worked together for a long time. The smooth progress of the project is not due to processes and standards, but simply depends on the tacit cooperation within the team.

However, Meng Bai's ideas are not consistent with Guo Fan's.

Production relations are maintained by productivity. The domestic film and television market has only been developed for more than ten years, so it is already very good to have a "handmade workshop".

Just like the real industry 20 years ago, supply and demand are still unbalanced. Talking about industrial standards and mechanized production at this time is pure nonsense.

It is not fair to compare the short development of more than a decade with others' hundreds of years of accumulation.

"Well, what you said makes sense." Guo Fan nodded and sighed, "It's just that as a practitioner in the same industry, I always feel unwilling to see other people's high standards and then look back at my own company."

"Don't worry, things will get better slowly." Meng Bai said, "Forget it, let's change to a happier topic. Brother Guo, are you planning to make a youth film from now on?"

(End of this chapter)