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

Chapter 445: Jianghu Rules, Three Knives and Three Holes
Looking at the name "Li Qin" on the screen, Ni Ni picked up the phone and looked at Meng Bai: "Boss Meng, your woman's phone number."

Meng Bai looked at her strangely: "Do you want me to pick you up?"

"No, I just want to tell you." Nini said embarrassedly.

I almost forgot this was my phone.

"Hello, Qinqin." Ni Ni answered the phone, her voice slightly hoarse but her tone very warm: "Good morning."

"It's already morning, how can you say good morning?" Li Qin's charming voice came from the other end of the phone, "I guess you went to bed late last night, so I didn't bother you this morning."

"Well, baby is so thoughtful." Nini praised with a smile.

Meng Bai on the side touched his chin. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that there was an inexplicable doting in Ni Ni's tone.

"I saw you on the red carpet last night. Your dress was beautiful."

"Haha, come on, who knows if you're looking at me or someone else."

"Seeing him doesn't prevent me from seeing you..."

It can be heard that the relationship between the two people seems to be quite good in the crew, and they started chatting enthusiastically over the phone.

Meng Bai was listening with boredom. Just then, Ni Ni turned over and lay on the bed in a comfortable position. Her white and tender little butt was right in front of him, so he touched it.

"You called me, is there something?"

"It's nothing, I just wanted to ask when you'll be back."

"I have a flight this afternoon, so I should be able to return in the evening... hum——"

Nini was chatting happily, and the sudden stimulation made her hum unconsciously.

Li Qin naturally heard the strange noise from the other side, and hurriedly asked curiously: "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Oh, it's okay."

Ni Ni responded in a panic, biting her lip and turning to look at Meng Bai. She shook her head at him with a pleading look, and explained: "I was just about to go wash up, but I stood up too quickly and felt a little dizzy, and I couldn't stand steadily."

Meng Bai couldn't hold back his laughter and gave her a thumbs up. Good job, girl. This reason is much fresher than "seeing a cockroach" or "bumping into the corner of the table", and it is also more reasonable.

Sure enough, Li Qin had no doubts at all and warned: "This is what happens when you get up too quickly. Just sit by the bed for a while, and when you get used to it, you can get up again and it will be fine."

"okay, I get it."

Ni Ni took a deep breath and tried to keep her voice steady as she said, "Okay, I'll go wash up first, and I'll talk to you when I get home tonight."

"Okay, have a safe journey, I'll wait for you to come back."

"Ah."

After hanging up the phone, Ni Ni finally groaned with relief, then turned back to look at Meng Bai with a sad look: "You, aren't you afraid that Qin Qin will hear it?"

"She heard it, so she didn't know it was me." Meng Bai pulled her over and sat her on his lap. "Tell me, did you take advantage of my absence to seduce my woman? Why did she call you first and not me?"

"Yeah, so what if I hooked up with her?" Nini narrowed her eyes and said with great momentum.

Unfortunately, this momentum lasted less than a second before it was broken. Meng Bai grabbed her hands and put them together, stretched them upwards and pressed her down on the bed.

"According to the rules of the underworld, anyone who hooks up with a boss's woman will be stabbed three times and pierced six times. I'll give you a half-price discount, three stabbed times and three pierced times. You've already had two pierced times, and you still need one more, so let's do it all at once."

"What do you mean three holes, one hole short? How can I..."

Ni Ni was halfway through her words when she suddenly realized what she meant. Feeling the strange contact under her body, she pushed Meng Bai away in panic: "No, Teacher Meng, I was wrong, no, I have to go back in the afternoon, and I have a scene tomorrow. I really can't, please, please...ah!"

A mournful cry echoed in the room. Meng Bai carried out the punishment without mercy, safeguarding the little "jianghu ethics" left in modern society.
-
Although she was injured, Ni Ni still limped back to Shanghai by plane in the afternoon. Before leaving, she bit Meng Bai fiercely with shame and anger, and the teeth marks were clearly visible even through the clothes.

Meng Bai received a call from Li Qin at noon. The girl called him at this time because she was worried that he went to bed late last night and was afraid that calling him too early would disturb him.

"You said before that you would come to Shanghai to visit the studio after the ceremony."

"Go ahead. I've promised you." Meng Bai said, "But it'll take a few days."

"It will take a few days." Li Qin's tone was a little disappointed, but she still asked with concern: "Why, are you not done yet?"

"Yes, isn't this year's Golden Rooster Awards being reformed? The Film Bureau and the Executive Committee have asked us to discuss any suggestions for improvement. It will probably take a day or two."

"Well, is that so? Okay then." Li Qin heard that it was work-related matters, so she didn't mind and said with a smile, "Then you go ahead and do your work. I'll wait for you."

After hanging up the phone, Meng Bai touched the teeth marks on his arm. Fortunately, they were separated by clothes. Although the marks were deep, they did not break. They would fade in a day or two.

But what he said was not false. The Film Association, the organizer of the Golden Rooster Awards, did invite some film and television company executives and directors to discuss suggestions for improving the awards.

There were quite a lot of people who stayed for the meeting, including Chen Daoming, Fu Ruoqing, Chen Kaige, Huang Xiaoming from the Film Association, Meng Bai, Yu Dong, Wang Changtian, the owners of film and television companies, and directors Lin Chaoxian, Wu Jing, Xu Zheng, and Guo Fan.

"…There are still a few specific awards, including the regular sub-awards for international film festivals such as visual effects, songs, and best newcomer. We don't have them yet. In addition, for the 'Best Screenplay' award, I think it can be divided into two categories: 'Original' and 'Adapted', so as to avoid conflicts in evaluation."

"In addition, I think that if the Golden Rooster Awards want to break through the limitations of the domestic market, then first of all, there must be an award for Best Foreign Language Film or Best Overseas Film. Only with the participation of overseas films can it be considered the first step towards internationalization..."

In the conference room, Meng Bai calmly talked to everyone and shared his previous thoughts on the Golden Rooster Awards. There were no radical proposals, only suggestions that were suitable for change.

However, not everyone agrees with his point of view.

"I think the proposals for the several sub-awards mentioned by President Meng are good. The current awards are indeed a bit too few. But I'm afraid it's a bit simplistic to say that there will be more awards for foreign-language films."

The speaker was Chen Kaige. He said slowly, "The Golden Rooster Awards have always been held to honor domestic films. If we talk about it behind closed doors, the influence will be limited to the domestic market. Even if we want to develop internationally now, it cannot be achieved by adding a foreign language film award."

Many people nodded at the scene. Indeed, it is not easy for a regional award to develop into an international award. The Shanghai International Film Festival is nominally a global A-level film festival, but after so many years, its influence is still limited to its home. Seeing that someone supported it, Chen Kaige continued: "I think at this stage, we should focus on films from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. We should digest this part of our internal work first, and then consider the international part. This is a more mature development path."

Meng Bai raised his eyebrows. What he said was actually true, but the other party's tone of "young people are still immature" sounded a bit uncomfortable.

"What Director Chen said makes sense, but things are different now than before. In the era of the global Internet, information is transmitted very quickly. We set up the framework and put it out, and outsiders will naturally be able to see it." Meng Bai said.

Chen Kaige was stung and frowned slightly: "Mr. Meng, we can't just go international if we want to. We need others to be willing to participate. Although the domestic film market has developed rapidly in recent years, it is still far behind the mature systems in Europe and the United States."

Meng Bai smiled and said, "Director Chen, overseas films are not limited to Europe and the United States. The film markets in Eastern Europe, Japan and South Korea, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South America... these places are also developing, and there are many excellent works. For them, our huge film market is very attractive."

After this was said, many older generation filmmakers at the scene were stunned.

In their minds, when talking about overseas film markets, it’s either Hollywood or Europe, and at most, Japan and South Korea, which are relatively close.

However, Meng Bai's words directly broke the fog in their vision. Indeed, with the advent of the Internet age, exchanges among various regions of the world are becoming more and more common. Under the influence of the Internet, the film market in many relatively backward countries has also slowly developed.

For example, India, a certain oriental country, and Thailand in Southeast Asia, used to be markets where Western films collected money, but in recent years, many works have begun to be exported to Europe and the United States.

Including the United States, Hollywood, which has been controlled by several traditional film giants for decades, has gradually been confused by the global strategies of emerging streaming platforms such as Netflix in recent years.

European and American films influence the world, but world cinema is not limited to Europe and the United States.

"We should first extend our influence, and then slowly consolidate it and develop to a higher level. If we always play with our own people, we will still be stuck at home in another ten years." Meng Bai said bluntly.

Seeing Chen Kaige's face turning pale, Chen Daoming, the chairman of the Film Association, quickly spoke up to smooth things over: "What President Meng said does make sense. Since we at the Golden Rooster Awards are determined to reform, we can't be too restrained. Of course, internationalizing this influence is not something that can be achieved overnight, but we must at least open up the field of Chinese-language films first."

After calming both sides, he continued, "Now that the award has been changed to one per year, there are more opportunities for trial and error. We can try it first, and if there are any problems, we can correct them in time."

Chen Daoming's son-in-law is Wang Liwei of New Classics Media, who has some friendship with Meng Bai, so he still gave him some face and didn't say anything more.

As for Chen Kaige, although he was embarrassed by the stabbing, the other party did not say anything too extreme. In addition, Chen Daoming smoothed things over, so he just walked down the stairs.

Seeing that the atmosphere had returned to calm, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.

No one thought there was anything wrong with Meng Bai confronting Chen Kaige. Although he was young, he had a strong backing. Many people present might have to beg for food under this Mr. Meng in the future, so naturally they would not say anything.

After a whole morning, the suggestion meeting finally ended and everyone said goodbye and left.

Wu Jing and Guo Fan came over and gave Meng Bai a thumbs up: "It has to be our President Meng. He is so confident and speaks firmly."

Meng Bai smiled and said nonchalantly: "I am just discussing the matter at hand. I am not targeting anyone. There is no need to be tough or not."

Unlike many filmmakers present, Meng Bai started out as a web drama producer and has basically grown up with the emerging Internet capital. He has also collaborated with new generation directors such as Guo Fan and Chen Sicheng.

He really doesn't care about seniority in the traditional film and television industry.

Like Chen Kaige, other filmmakers might care about his qualifications and past achievements, but for Meng Bai, he is just a director who had achievements in the past but is now on the decline.

There are not a lot of directors of the same level, but there are indeed quite a few, so he just says whatever he thinks without any hesitation.

"Most of these older generation filmmakers are still stuck in the old ways of filming and producing." Wu Jing said with emotion: "I have another movie to work with him next year, and it gives me a headache just thinking about it."

"What movie?" Meng Bai asked curiously.

"It's called 'Changjin Lake', and it's about the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. Next year will be the 70th anniversary of the overseas combat, so it can be considered a tribute film."

Meng Bai understood after hearing this. Since "Wolf Warrior 2", the authorities may have discovered that the audience has a good acceptance of main-theme commercial blockbusters, so they have been developing in the direction of main-theme movies in recent years.

The same is obviously true for "Changjin Lake".

Meng Bai didn't think there was anything wrong with this kind of main theme tribute film. It was just a genre film after all.

The only thing we need to worry about is that the domestic film and television market likes to follow the trend. Once we see that the main theme of patriotic themes is popular, I am afraid that all the films in the next few years will be of this type.

No matter how delicious Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is, it's easy to get tired of it if you eat it every time. What's more, if the chef always relies on this dish, other skills will gradually be abandoned.

However, the direction of the development of the entire industry is not Meng Bai's responsibility. I am just a web drama producer, so why should I care about how the film market works?

After the meeting, Wu Jing, Guo Fan and others returned to Beijing North. As for Zhao Jinmai and others, they left even earlier.

Meng Bai stayed in Xiamen for two more days, but he was not idle. He observed several scenes suitable for shooting and recorded them. This way, if any project needs it in the future, it will save some trouble.

Because the skin was not broken, the teeth marks left by Ni Ni faded quickly. Meng Bai carefully checked his arm and confirmed that there was no trace of the marks to the naked eye, then he flew to Shanghai leisurely.
-
"The Best of Us" is adapted from Yi Shu's novel of the same name. It tells the story of two girls from Shanghai who grew up in different family backgrounds, and their friendship from college classmates to after graduation.

Because the story takes place in Shanghai, the production team behind the scenes also recruited people from Shanghai circles. The screenwriter is Qin Wen, Meng Bai's senior sister. She is from Shanghai and is very good at this kind of urban emotional drama. It is most appropriate for her to be responsible for the adaptation.

As for the director, he found Shen Yan who was recommended by Qin Wen. The two are old partners and have previously worked together on "Hot Mom" and "The First Half of My Life".

Let’s not talk about the quality of these two dramas, but they are very popular in terms of awards, especially the Magnolia Awards.

This time, "The Golden Years" is a big production in itself. In addition to Li Qin and Ni Ni, the starring lineup also includes Chen Daoming, Yuan Quan, Tian Yu, Wang Xiao and other powerful actors.

With such a production team and cast, it can be said that as long as Li Qin, as the heroine, performs well, she will basically be nominated for the "Best Actress" award in one of the three major awards.

But as to whether she can win the award, that depends on her own performance.

Li Qin naturally knew how good the treatment and resources she had received were, so she took the filming very seriously this time. She even found a dialogue teacher before joining the crew and adjusted her previous habitual pronunciation.

But she was a little absent-minded on the set today. After each scene, she would check her phone to see if there was any new message, and then put it down disappointedly.

"That's all, sister." Ni Ni looked at her, held her hand and said, "He's just a man. He has to come sooner or later. Why are you so nervous?"

(End of this chapter)