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

Chapter 351 Actresses Don’t Get Close to Dangai
After finishing their meal, it was almost time for afternoon practice, so they said goodbye to each other at the door.

Yang Chaoyue held Meng Ziyi reluctantly for a long time. After he was done, he said hello to Meng Bai who was waiting on the side, and then he finally went back with his three teammates.

"It's not a life-and-death separation, why are you so excited?" Meng Bai said as he walked.

Meng Ziyi glanced at him and said, "If Chaoyue is selected, it will take three or four months to record the show, and I won't be able to see her for a long time."

"That's not certain. Maybe he'll be eliminated in one round and then come back."

"Tsk, I think Chaoyue will be fine."

Meng Ziyi said this with full confidence, but then he looked at Meng Bai again: "Uncle, do you think she can do it?"

"How would I know?" Meng Bai said, "If it's based on ability, then she definitely has no chance. But whether or not she's popular depends mainly on luck. There are talent shows for singers every year, but few of the popular ones are champions."

At this point, he sighed: "I have to say, Xiao Yang is a girl with a bit of luck and talent."

Meng Ziyi thought about it and it seemed to be true.

She won a year-end bonus of 10 yuan less than a year after she started working. She worked hard at the front desk and was chosen by the director to act in a movie. She wanted to be an artist and a girl group talent show just happened to come out.

"In fact, it's not just luck. I think Chao Yue has many advantages. She is beautiful, smart, sincere and straightforward, and she is also very popular. I just heard from a few other people that during the time she was in Ji Chuang Yin Li, many girls from other groups also had good relationships with her."

Meng Bai glanced at Meng Ziyi and said, "I thought you were going to say that she has good taste, so she has a friend like you."

"How can you praise yourself?" Meng Ziyi said, "Besides, everyone can see my excellence, so there is no need to praise me again."

"...Okay, I've finished looking, I'll take you back."

"By the way, little uncle, I have something else I want to consult you about."

After getting in the car, Meng Ziyi fastened his seat belt and took out his phone: "I recently received a script, and I don't know if it's suitable, so I wanted to ask you."

"What script?"

"It's a project adapted from an ancient style BL novel... Uh, you know BL novels, right? They're the kind of female-oriented novels with two male protagonists..."

"I know." Meng Bai interrupted her explanation.

Meng Ziyi suddenly realized that his uncle was a top producer in the field of online dramas, so how could he not have heard of BL themes?

She smiled sweetly at Meng Bai and continued, "The original novel is called 'The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation'. Now Tencent Video wants to adapt it into a web drama..."

Meng Bai was driving the car and pondered for a few seconds: "Your drama is called "The Untamed", right?"

"Ah? Yes." Meng Ziyi said in surprise: "Uncle, you also know about this project?"

"heard about it."

Penguin Pictures has been slowly merging with Tencent Video since last year, so Fang Fang is now also in charge of the film and television projects on the platform. She is the chief producer of this drama, and Meng Bai mentioned this project when he talked to her before.

Although Meng Bai is a typical straight male, as a film and television practitioner, he also has some understanding of the gay drama market.

The concept of "male-male CP" has existed for more than ten years. It was mainly born with the increase in consumption power of the female market, and then its audience among women became wider and wider.

After all, most fans are "girlfriend fans" and "wife fans". This can not only avoid the dissatisfaction caused by "a woman being close to their idol", but also satisfy the girls' preference for "cp", which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

In the domestic film and television industry, the first to try to reap this wave of "danmei reform dividends" was the 2015 hit "Addicted".

This low-budget web drama had over 100 million views within a week of its launch, attracting numerous fans and making the two male leads, Xu Weizhuo and Huang Jingyu, famous.

However, the online drama market was just starting out at that time, and everyone was still unclear about the boundaries of censorship. This drama was too straightforward during the adaptation, which resulted in the drama being required to be removed from the shelves for rectification before it was even finished airing, and then it was directly banned.

Despite this, the film and television industry has seen the huge potential behind the length of "danmei dramas" and has been experimenting with it in recent years.

For example, the "Go Princess Go" which was very popular in the past few years is somewhat skirting the line.

The same is true for The Untamed, which Tencent Video has approved this time. The fictional ancient costume background, coupled with the skin of martial arts, can completely explain the original plot in the name of "brotherhood in the rivers and lakes".

"I remember the two male protagonists of this drama have been decided, right?" Meng Bai asked.

Meng Ziyi nodded: "Yes, the crew is now talking about the casting of the two male protagonists, one is Xiao Zhan and the other is Wang Yibo."

After that, seeing that Meng Bai seemed to have never heard of these two names, he introduced them to him: "Xiao Zhan is a member of a group under Wajijiwa, and he also debuted through a talent show. He is currently a relatively popular idol in the domestic entertainment industry. Wang Yibo is a member of a Sino-Korean cooperative group under Lehua, and he is a returned idol who is slightly inferior to Lu Han and Wu Fan."

"Two idols, one domestically produced, and one exported and sold domestically?" Meng Bai concluded after listening.

Meng Ziyi smiled and nodded. This evaluation was very concise and vivid.

"There are two male protagonists, so who will you play?"

"The role I got is the female role with the most scenes besides the two male protagonists."

"Ah, the review tool."

"Well - not entirely. This character also exists in the original novel."

"So what do you think?" Meng Bai asked.

"I think this drama should be quite popular, but fans and audiences should only focus on the two male protagonists. I don't know if it is necessary for me to take this role."

A popular drama does not necessarily mean that the characters are popular, and a popular character does not mean that every character will become popular.

Meng Bai thought for a moment and said, "In your current situation, there is no need to consider the ranking of your roles. Having a hit work will not only increase your popularity, but will also be of great help in getting future roles. However..."

"But what?"

"There's a saying in the industry, 'Actresses shouldn't get close to gay dramas, or they'll become unlucky.' If you don't handle your role well in the plot, you'll easily get criticized."

Fans and audiences come to watch gay dramas because there is no female lead. If female characters have too many scenes, they will naturally attract hatred. But if they have too few scenes, then the actors will have no value. It is difficult to strike the right balance.

So even though everyone knows that gay-themed dramas are easy to become popular, there are still many actresses who are unwilling to take them.

"Being scolded..."

Meng Ziyi turned her head and said, "It should be okay. I don't think my character has a lot of plot. Besides, it's just a few scoldings from the male lead's fans. It will only be during the broadcast period. It's a good opportunity to increase my popularity."

"It's up to you to decide."

“Okay, then I’ll ask my agent to agree to the crew when I get back.” Meng Ziyi said affirmatively.

Meng Bai glanced at her and said, "If you really get scolded, don't cry to me." "Tsk, you should cry."
-
After Meng Ziyi returned, he found his agent and expressed his desire to take on the script.

Seeing that she agreed, the agent also breathed a sigh of relief. After all, considering the traffic and popularity, this resource is indeed good.

As for being scolded, which popular artist has not been scolded?

On the contrary, the more people scold an artist, the more popular he or she is.

If it were another artist, the agent would definitely ask to take the job even if they didn’t like the artist.

Although Meng Ziyi does not have much experience and her status is not high, everyone knows that she has the support of Arc Light behind her, so she has more freedom.

Originally, the agent was still thinking about how to convince the girl when she said she needed to think about it again. Unexpectedly, she agreed after she came back from a trip, and everyone was naturally happy.

The management team quickly responded to the crew, and preparations were almost complete there, so Meng Ziyi joined the crew of "The Untamed" before the end of the month.

On the other hand, Meng Bai received a call from director Bai Shan, asking him to go and see the first version of "Soul Ferry: Huangquan".

【…

Those who are in love are not afraid of life, death or separation.

Among all things in the world, only love is immortal, which is eternal life.

I miss you, and the beauty won’t come back;
Eight hundred Yellow Springs, bury my lovesickness. 】

Thousands of lanterns with the names of the people they miss floated up from the Yellow Springs and rose into the sky. Only one soul, Changsheng, was left, accompanied by a red spider lily beside him, looking into the distance at the Yellow Springs 800 miles away.

Accompanied by the unique narration of the "Pendulum Series", the picture returns to darkness.

The lights came on, and the post-production studio instantly became bright. Meng Bai looked at the screen that began to display the list of actors and production staff, and let out a long breath.

"What do you think?" Bai Shan asked.

"Nothing, I'm fine." Meng Bai said.

He was present almost throughout the filming process, and he would check in every now and then during post-production, so he actually had an idea of the approximate effect of the finished film.

Speaking of which, although "Soul Ferry: Huangquan" is just a web movie, neither the color of the picture nor the texture of the makeup has a sense of shoddy production.

Especially the lighting effects and filters of this film. When making it, Bo Shan did not make it into the dark scenes commonly seen in horror films just because of the theme of "Yellow Springs".

On the contrary, the entire film, whether in color or lighting, is dominated by warm tones of red and yellow, which looks very comfortable.

"In some scenes, I see the green screen is still retained. Is it not finished yet?" Meng Bai asked.

“Oh, when we watched the final film, we found some mistakes in those shots, so we found other shots to replace them. Some of the materials need to be re-rendered, so they have not been replaced yet.”

Bai Shan explained: "But don't worry, it will be ready this week and it won't affect the broadcast."

Online movies do not need to communicate with theater chains for screening schedules, and the demand for release dates is not very high, so they can basically be released online as soon as they are ready.

Arc Light has already made an appointment with Qiyi TV to have a one-month promotion period in advance, and then start broadcasting directly at the beginning of the summer vacation in June.

As for the profit-sharing model, it adopts a combination of "member playback times" and "single-piece purchase".

For Qiyi TV members, they can watch directly. At the same time, for every additional "member effective viewing volume", Arc Light can get 2.5 yuan in revenue.

This number of views is different from the billions of views of online dramas. It is counted as real views from real accounts.

As for "single-film purchase", it is for ordinary users who do not have membership of Qiyi TV. They can spend 3 yuan to purchase the film separately, and the profits will be divided into % and % between Arc Light and Qiyi TV.

Although the unit price is relatively low, the video platform has a large number of users after all.

Qiyi TV currently has nearly 7000 million member users. Even if only one-tenth of them watch it, the total box office share will be more than million.

To put it in perspective, it is roughly equivalent to a theater movie with a box office of over 100 million yuan.

With the influence and number of fans of the "Soul Ferry" IP, this achievement is not difficult to achieve. After all, whether it is a membership or a single purchase, it is much cheaper than a movie ticket.

Although the development of online movies is slower than that of online dramas, the market has gradually grown in recent years. The current record of single film box office revenue has reached 4000 million.

The cost of most films is only around 1000 million.

Even for movies released in theaters, few can achieve such a high return on investment.

"Okay, then let the post-production team hurry up and render it. Once the complete film is finished, I will make an appointment with the platform to come and see it together." Meng Bai said.

"it is good."

After leaving Bai Shan, Meng Bai thought about it and went to Guo Fan's studio again.

If the workload of special effects in Soul Ferry: Huangquan is a pond, then the workload of special effects in The Wandering Earth is a vast ocean.

It has been eight or nine months since the wrap-up, and the post-production process is only two-thirds complete. It is estimated that it will take another half a year.

If you want it to be released, the earliest it will be during the Spring Festival next year.

Compared to when he was in the crew, Guo Fan is now thinner. After filming the entire "The Wandering Earth", apart from other achievements, the effect of his weight loss can be said to be very obvious.

"Brother Guo, what's the situation now?"

"It's okay. The biggest problem is that the efficiency of special effects rendering is too low, which slows down the overall progress a lot." Guo Fan said.

The entire "The Wandering Earth" involved three domestic special effects companies and more than 3000 post-production personnel.

Because the workload is too heavy and the computing power of the equipment is insufficient, many people have to work overtime all night long.

Some special effects artists couldn't stand the long hours of overtime and ended up changing jobs. Unexpectedly, the first assignment they received after joining the new company was the "The Wandering Earth" project.

"Fuck, is this true?" Meng Bai couldn't help but asked with a smile after listening to Guo Fan's description.

"It's true! It happened just two days ago. I even told Gong Ge'er that the special effects guy was transferred from the previous 'Dungeon Project Team' to the 'Space Station Project Team', which is considered a promotion, haha." Guo Fan said, and he also laughed.

After laughing for a while, he paused and sighed: "I don't know how this movie will perform, I just hope it will live up to the efforts of so many people."

Meng Bai patted him on the shoulder and said confidently: "Don't worry, it will definitely succeed. Just like what they said in the movie, we choose hope."

(End of this chapter)