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

Chapter 209 Curry’s drum washing machine is a steamed egg!
"The Mysterious City" is the first part of "Ghost Blows Out the Light", which contains three stories in total.

One is the "Niuxinshan Kwantung Army Treasure", located in Changbai Mountain, Jilin.

The second is the "Nine-story Demon Tower on the Kunlun Iceberg", which is naturally located in Kunlun Mountain.

The third one is the main line of the first part, the westernmost section of the Hexi Corridor, the "Ancient City of Jingjue" in the thousands of miles of desert outside the Yumen Pass.

Meng Bai, Li Muge and their colleagues traveled around the Northwest, braving the clear autumn sunshine and the sandstorms of the Gobi Desert, and finally decided on a suitable location for filming.

But that’s not all, the crew still has to build the scenes needed for the plot on the real location.

For example, the appearance of the ancient city of Jingjue, the towers underground in Kunlun Mountain, etc.

In other words, when shooting a TV series or film, the most expensive part is the location. If you want a good picture, you have to spend money on real scenes.

On the contrary, for things like tombs and temples, you can just set up the scenery in the studio and shoot.

After staying in Dunhuang and Hami for more than half a month, Meng Bai returned first.

Instead of returning to northern Beijing, the plane went directly to Changsha.

"Gardenia Blossoms" has been released, and the post-production work has been completed. He Jiong's schedule is free, and the planning of "The Great Detective" has been put on the agenda.

The recording studio is not located in the Mango TV headquarters, but in a factory area rented and renovated in Xingsha.

When Meng Bai went there, he happened to see He Chen and others confirming the camera setup.

"...The guests should wear a GoPro on their chests, and all enclosed spaces, such as cabinets and drawers, should have a camera position. Yan Ji, you will be on the scene later, and make sure you can adjust the appropriate camera position at any time to switch between medium and close-up shots..."

Meng Bai sat next to her for a long time, waiting for her to finish her work arrangements before he walked up to her and said hello.

"Director He is very busy."

"Hey, Teacher Meng is here."

He Chen glanced at him, a smile first appeared on his face, and then he looked at him puzzledly: "Did you just come back from vacation at the beach?"

It’s only been a month since we last met, how come “Meng Bai” has become “Meng Hei”?

"The seaside is indeed a seaside, but unfortunately it is a sea of sand."

Meng Bai laughed and gave a brief explanation.

"Ah, it's the location selection for Ghost Blows Out the Light." He Chen said enviously, "I heard it's a 100 million investment, what a big deal!"

Compared to the audience who are just having fun and the platforms who are jealous and hateful, practitioners like He Chen are extremely envious of such "S+ level" projects.

Who doesn’t want to meet an investor who can give them a “budget of 100 million” with a wave of his hand?
The two exchanged a few words and then went out of a separate room together.

Meng Bai had mentioned before that he wanted to set up an assessment first to examine which guests were more suitable for this program.

In the next few days, the artists invited by the program team will come over for trial shooting.

This way, suitable guests can be selected, and the program team can also take this opportunity to conduct "actual combat" and run-in.

In addition, after the final members are decided, this part of the assessment can be broadcast as a pilot episode.

It can serve as a warm-up for the program and also allow the audience to get a feel for the format of the program first.

He Chen and his team followed the proposed ideas and conducted a low-difficulty assessment test, which was the room in front of the two people.

"Teacher Meng, are you interested in being the first to experience our pilot assessment test?" He Chen joked with a provocative tone.

"Will I test it too?" Meng Bai smiled, but did not refuse. "Okay, let me see your design."

Because the assessment was just a preliminary test and did not require a plot. The scene was designed by He Chen and his team, so he did not know the specific content.

He Chen opened the door and they walked in together.

As soon as he entered the door, Meng Bai looked around.

Judging from the furnishings, this should be the living room of a residence.

The room is divided into two parts by the sofa and coffee table in the middle. The front half is equipped with common TV, cabinets, etc., on which are neatly placed things like photo frames and remote controls.

Next to the TV cabinet there is a CD rack, which is rarely seen nowadays. It has now fallen sideways on the ground, with the original CDs on the rack rolling all over the floor. There is also a router next to it.

Behind the sofa, there was a mess. Overturned bookcases, broken cups, torn curtains...

On one side of the sofa, there was a lifelike mannequin lying down, with his clothes in disarray and several bruises and scars on his body.

Obviously, this was a simulation of a murder scene.

After looking around, Meng Bai asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"According to the assessment tasks we set, there are three levels in total. The first is to explain the cause of death of the victim, the second is to explain the murder weapon, and the third is to find the evidence left behind by the murderer." He Chen introduced.

"Okay, then I understand."

Meng Bai responded, then ignored her and turned around to look at this "crime scene" with interest.

You know what, the feeling of watching the scene and writing the script in your mind is really different.

When he was filming "Forensic Qin Ming" before, he actually saw a lot of "scenes".

But firstly, it was his own design, and he knew all the details of the cause and effect. Secondly, it was a criminal investigation drama after all, and the way to solve the case mainly relied on forensic examinations and investigations.

In comparison, this "assessment test" simulation is closer to the "reasoning type", and Meng Bai immediately puts himself into the "Conan's perspective".

He walked around the room twice, flipped over the mannequin, and finally lay on the floor to look under the furniture.

It took only five or six minutes for Meng Bai to return to the door.

After standing here and thinking for a while, a smile appeared on his face, and then he sighed.

He Chen was a little confused by the change in his expression and couldn't help asking, "Teacher Meng, do you have any ideas?"

"more or less."

"So fast!" He Chen widened his eyes in surprise.

Meng Bai smiled and began to explain, pointing at the furnishings in the room.

"The first cause of death is a wound on the neck and a strangulation mark. If you look closely, you can see that the strangulation mark is pressed on the wound. So the neck should have been injured first, and then strangled to death. Oh, I have to praise the props team. The lifelike reaction of the wound and the fragmentation state are done very professionally."

He Chen heard this and smiled bitterly: "We have to thank Mr. Meng for introducing our props team."

It seems that this prop is made too realistically, and it also has its shortcomings.

Since it is a "mystery-themed" variety show, there will naturally be murders and victims.

Meng Bai introduced the team that made props for "Forensic Qin Ming" to He Chen, after all, they had rich experience.

Of course, I did not forget to remind people that this time there is no need to simulate a real human body, a silicone dummy will do.

The boss of the prop team said that our original business was to make dummies.

"Then there's the murder weapon. The cable behind the router was plugged into the wrong port, and there were traces of bending. The murderer must have used this to strangle the victim."

"As for the evidence left behind by the murderer..."

Meng Bai raised his hand and pinched half of the broken CD with his sleeve: "It should be this. There is a little blood at the tip, and there should be the murderer's fingerprints or palm prints."

He Chen couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Meng, how did you figure this out? I thought we had set it up very secretly!"

Meng Bai smiled and said, "I didn't think of it at first. I just thought the scene was a bit strange. Then I looked at it for a while and suddenly realized that the CD rack was too conspicuous."

The back half of the sofa was a mess, which was correct, as it was obvious that the murderer and the victim had fought here.

But in front of the sofa, the TV, cabinets, photo frames, and remote controls were all neatly arranged, indicating that the fight had not spread here.

But the CD rack fell over, which seemed very awkward.

Meng Bai didn't understand this at first, until he saw the broken CD pieces scattered all over the floor, he finally reacted.

If you want to hide a drop of water, the best place is the sea.

Likewise, the best way to hide a broken disc is to have the scene littered with debris.

The process should be like this: the murderer first scratched the victim with a broken CD, then knocked him to the ground and strangled him with an Internet cable.

After finishing, he found that he could not find the half piece of debris. In desperation, he could only overturn the CD rack and scatter the broken discs all over the floor to cover up the evidence.

As for where the evidence is?
At the beginning, the ground was clean and everything was visible, but the murderer could not be found. There were only two possibilities:

Either it fell into a corner or was hidden.

Meng Bai is being a bit tricky here. He thinks that if it fell in a corner, it would fall under the category of criminal investigation and trace examination, which does not fit the "reasoning" nature of the program.

If it was hidden, there would be only the murderer and the victim at the scene. It must have been hidden during the strangulation process in order to leave evidence.

Meng Bai turned it inside out and found the half CD inside his pants.

"Pah, pah, pah!"

He Chen clapped his hands and said with admiration: "As expected of Teacher Meng, your design ideas are exactly the same as ours."

Meng Bai said politely: "It's mainly because I've seen too many reasoning routines, and our program team follows the routine, so the deduction is fast. But then again, this is really not difficult, and many clues are made too obvious."

"It's just a beginner's test, so we can't make it too difficult for everyone. And if it's too difficult, it won't be very friendly to the audience, after all, they can't see the scene."

He Chen explained, and then couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Although it is not difficult, Meng Bai's speed in solving the puzzle is a bit too fast.

In fact, they had thought about letting Meng Bai experience it first at the beginning, to prove the strength of the program team itself.

I thought I could make things difficult for him for half a day, but I didn't expect it to be over in less than ten minutes.

He Chen suddenly felt a little worried, as He Jiong and Sa Bening would also come over for testing in the afternoon.

The logical ability and IQ of both of them should not be underestimated, and Sabining has many years of experience in "Today's Statement".

It won’t be finished in less than ten minutes for these two, right?

　We are looking for candidates for the role of Yang in Ghost Blows Out the Light. The nominees so far include Wang Ou, Qiu Ya, Ni Ni, Zhang Junning, and Lu Jingshan.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)