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

Chapter 206 Watch Noon on TV and Arclight online

Besides promotion, the most important part of a movie premiere is watching the movie.

Meng Bai had read the script of "Gardenia Blossoms" before, and based on the plot alone, his evaluation was "bad".

But after watching the entire film today, he realized that he had given his evaluation too early.

It should be said that it is "very bad".

At the beginning, four girls appeared, then fought with each other, and then made up and became best friends, which made people think of "Tiny Times".

But in fact, this movie is not as good as "Tiny Times".

At least the actresses look good in the film, and they can also produce some memes like "Love without material things is like a pile of loose sand" and "Lin Xiao, you are really good at scolding people now."

As for "Gardenia Blossoms", there is nothing.

Moreover, the photos of the girls were not good looking. Anyway, Meng Bai felt that Song Zhi looked rustic in the movie.

As the movie's ending song sounded, the premiere came to an end.

Due to the large number of people at the scene, Song Zhi, who had been separated for a whole period of time, finally got close to Meng Bai.

As soon as we meet, I let out a long breath.

"call--"

"Are you tired?" Meng Bai asked.

"Not bad." Song Zhi smiled, and then said excitedly: "Recently, there have been a lot of invitations for shows and roles, and the schedule is too busy."

Aside from its own revenue, the biggest benefit of a hit drama is to promote its stars.

Although the role of "Yu Manli" can only be considered the third or fourth female lead, she is still very popular.

There was a character popularity voting ranking under the Weibo topic, and the number of votes supporting "Cheng Jinyun" and "Yu Manli" were almost the same.

This is because Li Qin has her own popularity among fans.

Therefore, it is conceivable how much added value the role of "Yu Manli" brought to Song Zhi.

Just over half a month ago, she was still an 18th-tier actress who didn't get a single role in a year.

In just less than twenty days, her popularity has reached at least a third-tier level.

It's not just her popularity. These days, it was the first time that people called her by name, the first time that she had fans pick her up at the station, and the first time that she experienced the feeling of having a full schedule.

It can be said that after four or five years in the industry, this was the first time she truly felt like a star.

She is still in the excitement of just becoming famous, and her daily schedule is exhausting, but her spirit is very cheerful.

Today was the only day she could take a break. The ostensible reason was the movie release, but the actual reason was that she wanted to see Meng Bai.

What she has now is not only affection, but also more gratitude.

I became famous because I starred in "The Disguiser", and I was able to star in the drama because of Meng Bai's recommendation.

For artists, popularity is like an extremely tempting addictive drug.

If you haven't experienced it, you don't feel anything.

But once you’ve experienced it, few people can get rid of it.

Song Zhi is no longer the little girl she was when she was in college. Now she has to consider both feelings and reality.

Coincidentally, both of Meng Bai's qualities far exceeded her standards.

If there is any "favorability" system now, you can see that this girl's favorability value is already "off the charts" and has exceeded the upper limit.

At this time, not to mention asking her to strike any pose, even if Meng Bai made some more excessive requests, she would agree without hesitation.

She didn't even need to be mentioned, she took the initiative.

After the premiere, the two went back to the apartment in two separate cars.

Meng Bai was about to go upstairs, but Song Zhi sent him a WeChat message asking him to wait in the car.

"Boom."

The car door closed. Meng Bai looked at Song Zhi who was getting in the car and asked, "Why are you not getting in and letting me wait for you in the car? Where else are you going?"

"Not going anywhere."

Song Zhi said something, then crossed over the car's center console and sat directly astride him.

Meng Bai reached out and held her in his arms. Because of the height difference, they could just see each other.

"What to do?"

"Didn't you say last time that the car's shock absorption was very good? I want to see how good it is."

Song Zhi had a bright smile on his face. He put his arms around Meng Bai's neck and whispered in his ear.

Meng Bai raised his eyebrows. He would naturally not refuse such a request.

"The driver's seat is too narrow here, it's more spacious in the back."

“Can’t you see it from outside?”

"Don't worry, there's reflective film, so even if you lean over the glass you can't see inside."

In an empty corner of the parking lot, a Porsche Cayenne trembled slightly, demonstrating its excellent air suspension system.

……

Song Zhi and Meng Bai only stayed for one day before going to continue the roadshow of "Gardenia Blossoms".

Although she only played a minor supporting role, due to the hit of "The Disguiser", her popularity has been very high recently, so naturally she cannot escape the task of publicity.

However, after watching the finished film, she was a little worried about the quality of the film.

"Don't worry, your character's appearance time is less than ten minutes in total, so whether it ends up being a good thing or a bad thing has nothing to do with you."

Meng Bai comforted her, "Even if the ratings are bad, the box office performance should be good."

"Why?" Song Zhi didn't quite understand this logical relationship.

"Because the audience's enthusiasm for youth films has not faded, coupled with the popularity of Mr. He and the leading actors, it is still no problem to support a low-budget movie."

The fact is just as Meng Bai said. The box office of "Gardenia Blossoms" reached 2.5 million in the first weekend. Although it fell off a cliff afterwards, the final total box office is estimated to reach 4 million.

Based on the production cost of 5000 million, the producers can be said to have made a huge profit.

However, the word of mouth is very bad. A score of 4.6 is almost at the bottom among similar youth films that have been known for being "bad" in the past two years.

I guess He Jiong’s title of “director” is just a one-time thing.

However, despite such bad reviews, the results are still outstanding, which also shows that youth-themed themes are still popular.

In fact, it would be a good idea to broadcast "The Best of Us" at this time.

It's a pity that the shooting and production of Little Sugar Man were too detailed.

The filming started at about the same time as "Forensic Qin Ming". Now that Arc Light's drama has finished airing, they have just completed the post-production.

Meng Bai called Zhu Zhenhua and asked him about it. According to the current progress, the show would not be broadcast until November.

They have to wait, but Tangren’s previous drama "Wuxin: The Monster Killer" will be aired after "Forensic Qin Ming" and "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" are finished.

The result is not bad, with more than 7 million views, it can be ranked among the top five online dramas of the whole year.

The only embarrassing thing is that because "Forensic Qin Ming" was so popular earlier, Zhang Ruoyun, the second male lead in this drama, overshadowed all the other leading actors in popularity.

In addition, his plot line itself is also very exciting, which led many viewers to go to the "side plot", while the male and female protagonists did not receive much attention.

Jin Chen had been "complaining" to her good friend Li Yitong recently, saying that she had finally got a leading female role, but all the attention was almost snatched away by others.
-
As October came, "The Disguiser" came to its finale.

Although the plot of the second half was modified many times during the filming, fortunately it was always under the control of Meng Bai and there were no major complaints.

As a hit drama that became popular from the start, it is rare to guarantee a “strong start and strong finish”.

The ratings of the last episode successfully broke 3, and the average ratings of the entire series reached 2.2.

The average viewership rating of 2.2 is also among the highest among all TV dramas throughout the year.

The only three dramas that rank ahead of "The Disguiser" are "The Empress of China", "The Legend of Miyue" and "The Journey of Flower".

As for Noon Sunshine's other drama "Nirvana in Fire", although it was launched following the popularity of "The Disguiser", its ratings were average.

The data from the two satellite TV stations combined is barely over 1.

However, this drama is very popular on the Internet, and netizens are flooded with comments such as "Langya Talent", "Golden Composition" and "Chinese Aesthetics".

The rating is as high as 9.3 points, making it the best-received domestic TV series this year.

With two hit dramas in one year, Noon Sunshine’s reputation has been completely established.

A saying gradually began to spread among the audience:

Watch Noon on TV and Arclight online drama.

Many people even discussed online that if the best director of Noon Sunshine, Kong Sheng, and the best screenwriter of Arc Light Film and Television, Meng Bai, were to work together, the resulting drama would be extremely exciting.

It is not clear whether other people believed this, but Tencent seemed to have really listened to it.

It just so happened that the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" project had recently started selecting a director, so the wealthy Penguin really discussed with Arc Light whether they should cooperate with Noon Sunshine again.

Meng Bai’s answer to this is that cooperation is fine, but first a problem must be solved -

Whose responsibility is this project?
Obviously, Meng Bai will definitely not follow the rhythm of the noon sun now.

Will Kong Sheng follow the arrangements of Arclight Films?

If this veteran director could really accept other people's arrangements, he would not have quit Shanying in the first place.

The attitudes of both sides were very firm, and Tencent finally had to give up the idea of "1+1" cooperation.

Since Kong Sheng is not suitable, the director will have to find someone else.

Although Wu Bai and Wang Wei also work on suspense, they mainly focus on small scenes such as urban and criminal investigation.

But as a masterpiece of imagination, "Ghost Blows Out the Light" needs a director who can shoot big scenes beautifully.

Kunlun Iceberg, Nine-story Demon Tower, Long River Sunset, Desert Sand, Thousand Miles of Grassland...

If you want to reproduce these magnificent scenes in the book, you have to spend money on special effects and rely on the director’s lens aesthetics.

Since our own director can’t shoot it, we’ll look for one outside.

In early October, Tencent Video officially announced that it would cooperate with ArcLight Pictures to develop the "Ghost Blows Out the Light" series of web dramas.

At the same time in the industry, both sides began to invite and recruit suitable directors.

Just like actors have to audition, many projects also have "auditions" when recruiting directors.

Of course, the "audition" here does not refer to the director himself, but his previous works or shots.

The selection criteria Meng Bai gave to Tencent was that the film must have at least 15 minutes of finished footage.

"Leave the plot rhythm to me. All the director has to do is to shoot the scenes written in the script."

Tencent, Arc Light, and "Ghost Blows Out the Light", these three names are attractive enough individually, let alone now they are together.

Those big directors who have been famous for many years certainly don’t care, but for many young directors or second- and third-tier directors who are limited by their qualifications, it is a rare opportunity.

In just one week, Meng Bai received more than thirty pieces of information.

And this has already been screened once by Tencent.

If you take a quick look, you will find that there are many directors who are slightly famous or have had representative works before.

Meng Bai looked at the pile of information sent by Tencent and couldn't help but sigh.

The director chooses actors, each one is younger and more beautiful than the other.

The directors I choose are all a bunch of greasy uncles.

But you have to watch it. Anyway, the main thing is to see how it is filmed, and you don’t need to care what the director looks like.

After watching for two days, Meng Bai temporarily stopped this work and flew to Shanghai.

Huang Xiaoming and AB's wedding was held in mid-October, and most people from the entertainment and business circles were invited.

Naturally, this also includes Meng Bai.

(End of this chapter)