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

Chapter 460 President Meng is our eternal sun!

"Zhang Wansen, it's snowing..."

With the end of "Lin Beixing's" last line, "Twinkle Twinkle Star", which has dominated the top of the popular online drama list for more than half a month, finally ushered in the finale.

In the last flashback, Lin Beixing finally changed the future, saved Zhang Wansen, and completely returned to her original timeline. She started her normal life again with the good memories of Zhang Wansen in another world.

Spring came, autumn passed, and heavy snow fell in winter. Lin Beixing walked on the street and looked at the snowflakes, and thought of Zhang Wansen again. Just when she was thinking about him alone, a familiar figure stood behind her with an umbrella...

Unlike the "BE" or "HE" that many viewers predicted, the script adopted an open ending at the end of the story. It did not clearly state why the male protagonist appeared, leaving the audience with ambiguous imagination.

[No, that's the end? Did Zhang Wansen come back in the end? ]

[He should be back. Judging from the shoulder width and head-to-body ratio of the figure from behind, it's obviously Qu Chuxiao.]

[Be content, everyone. In a plot that has set the BE atmosphere from the beginning, it is still possible to keep the current ending. President Meng has taken good care of everyone. (In memory of Fang Mu, whose whereabouts are still unknown)]

[Ahhhhhh!! This ending makes me so sad, the screenwriter should come out and add a second season soon, I want to watch a sweet love story! ]

[Mr. Meng: It’s so funny, there are still people looking forward to my second season? ]

[Hot Knowledge: As of now, among all the scripts that Mr. Meng is responsible for, 3/16 have second seasons. It is speculated that he may be competing with his good friend Zhang Ruoyun for the first place. ]

[By the way, isn't there anyone who likes Lin Beixing? I think our Xingxing is pretty good too. ]

[Xingxing fans +1, this character is so cute, I even have a crush on Meng Ziyi now. ]

[y1s1, Meng Ziyi's acting skills have always been okay. What we hate is those resourceful people who steal other people's roles but don't perform well. Those who perform well are acceptable. ]

【…】

As for the ending of "Twinkle, Twinkle Star", the audience who have followed the show with true emotions from the beginning can be said to have a love-hate relationship with it.

But as someone said, it’s pretty good that there wasn’t a be ending of eternal separation. After all, Mr. Meng has a “previous record” of manipulating the audience’s mentality.

As the drama ended, the phrase "Zhang Wansen, it's snowing" became a new meme. Whenever there is a video with elements like "snowing" or "snow scene" on the Internet, you can see someone posting this phrase.

However, netizens' ability to create abstract ideas should not be underestimated. The names of the people in this joke soon evolved into some wonderful combinations.

For example, "Zhang Zuolin, it's snowing", "Zhang Juzheng, it's snowing" or "Zhang Huaimin, it's snowing". Anyway, many netizens with the surname Zhang have been "harassed" by their friends several times during this period.

How should I put it, “Geng Xiaogui” is indeed annoying, but it also proves that the performance of “Twinkle Twinkle Star” is really popular.

The final peak popularity value of the entire drama exceeded 12000, and the cumulative number of views counted by the data platform exceeded billion. The number of views of related topics on Weibo exceeded billion, and the number of discussions exceeded million.

This kind of data would have been at the top of the trending search list in the past. However, Weibo was recently summoned for "too entertaining" and temporarily removed all the trending search lists, so it is not visible now.

The drama became a huge hit, and the person who benefited the most from it was Qu Chuxiao, who successfully recovered from his somewhat outdated state last year, and is now even more powerful.

Chen Zhixi also struck while the iron was hot and announced that he would play the male lead in the movie "Send You a Little Red Flower", which was considered to be riding on the popularity.

The second highest-earning platform is Heng Video. Thanks to the hit drama and the current special season, the number of paying users has increased by nearly 10 million. Although it is not as good as the previous three major platforms and Mango TV, it has surpassed the "outdated" old streaming media platforms such as Leshi.com and Sohu Video.

The share price of Hengten Network also continued to rise. Evergrande saw the good effect and directly promoted it offline through its real estate projects and communities. Although it attracted many complaints from ordinary residents, the platform's popularity was indeed promoted.

As for the female lead Meng Ziyi, who is the core of the whole drama, she is the one whose popularity has increased the least.

Firstly, the audience of this drama is mainly female, so they will naturally pay less attention to the female lead actress. In addition, due to the attacks from black fans, many passers-by still have the impression that she is a "resourceful actress".

As the saying goes, first impressions are strong. Although many fans of the drama admit that she played the role of "Lin Beixing" well, they still hesitated when facing the real person.

But everyone doesn't have any bad feelings, it's a tie. If there is another hit character with similar achievements, or another work, the popularity will go up immediately.

It’s hard to say what others think about this result, but Meng Ziyi himself is very satisfied with it.

"Uncle, let me tell you, I haven't seen any of those people scolding me lately when I've been watching short videos online."

On the phone, Meng Ziyi's cheerful voice came from the other side.

Meng Bai smiled silently, but said, "Is it possible that big data thinks you don't like this kind of content, so it gives you an information cocoon to prevent you from seeing it?"

"Ah?" Meng Ziyi responded blankly, "Is that so? That's fine, I can just ignore it if I can't see it."

"Sure girl, I like your mental attitude."

"Tsk, don't think I don't know, little uncle, you're just teasing me." Meng Ziyi snorted, "By the way, when will our "Eastern Palace" be filmed? I have nothing to do recently, and I have almost torn the script and the original novel to pieces."

"Don't just flip through it without reading it." Meng Bai said, "Wait a little longer. I received news that the current Level 1 status should be lifted next month, and we can relax a little. The crew has been preparing recently, and you should be ready at any time. When we receive the news, we will start filming."

"Don't worry, I've been well prepared. It's just that the stables have been closed during this period, so I haven't practiced much. I don't know if my skills have declined."

"It's okay. The crew will give you a few days of adaptive training to help you get back into shape."

"Okay, then I'll wait."

After hanging up the phone, Meng Bai took out the project preparation materials for "Eastern Palace".

The drama "Eastern Palace" is also adapted from a novel, with an ancient puppet theme. It tells the story of Xizhou Princess Qu Xiaofeng, who accidentally met and rescued the fifth prince of Feng Dynasty Li Chengyin, and a tragic love story unfolded from then on.

If the open ending of "Twinkle, Twinkle Star" can be considered sweet, then this drama is a complete tragedy except for the first few episodes.

The "Xizhou" in the plot is a fictional place, and its prototype is probably a grassland tribe like the Khitan, so the background of the first half of the story also takes place in the desert grasslands in the west.

The director found Li Muge, with whom he had worked before. Although his rhythm in shooting the plot was a bit scattered in the middle and he always had a strong desire to perform, it has to be said that his lens composition and aesthetics are really much higher than other directors of the same type.

Especially when shooting female leads, the effect of Ni Ni in the previous "The Lost Tomb" was particularly brilliant. Meng Bai also hoped that he could continue to work hard this time and shoot his niece well.

Of course, he also specifically told Li Muge not to use his "PPT" style transition to the underworld anymore, as the finished effect looked too abstract.

As for the male lead, Chen Xingxu was chosen. In addition to "Hunting Crime Picture Book", he also played the boyfriend of the female lead Zhu Huiru in "Undocumented Crime". Guo Yu, a "scumbag" character who was kind in the early stage and blackened in the later stage, is a bit similar to "Li Chengyin" this time.

Although Meng Bai did not participate too much in this drama, the creative team was carefully selected.

Although they often quarrel with each other, he still cares about his eldest niece.

In addition to "Eastern Palace", several other projects that Arclight had previously suspended, including "The Beginning" and "Want to See You", have also recently begun preparations. As long as the above policies are relaxed, they will immediately seize the time to start filming.

It's not just Arc Light. Many teams in the circle with projects are also preparing.

Of course, only large companies can do this. For small and medium-sized film and television companies, it doesn't matter whether to release it or not, because they don't have any work to do anyway.

It’s funny to say that this winter, online platforms have caught the bonus trend, but many offline production companies have "died" in the severe cold.

Perhaps exacerbated by this situation, during this period, some colleagues from small teams began to appear in the circle, somewhat jealous of Arc Light, and said sourly that they had been working in this field for so many years, but had never heard of "reviewing and broadcasting at the same time" in the domestic entertainment industry.

This is actually a bit unfair. Not to mention the TV dramas, but in the field of online dramas, there was no strict review until last year's "New Film and Television Regulations".

Or in other words, all the online dramas broadcast in the past few years were essentially "reviewed while being broadcast", but this was not stated openly.

The reason why "Twinkle Twinkle Star" was able to do this this time was because the entire review process had been completed as early as when the project was launched, so it was able to do this in the later stage.

"Should we talk to these people?"

In the office, Liu Jun asked inquiringly.

"Just do it! If they dare to talk about Arc Light behind their backs, they will be killed!"

Meng Bai looked at the somewhat confused Liu Jun and laughed, "I'm just kidding. Just talk to those who have the loudest voices. Don't worry about the other minor characters."

As a leading team in the domestic entertainment and film and television fields, ArcLight has many people who envy and admire it, and even more people who are jealous and envious of it.

There are so many small attacks like this every year. If they all come one by one, Arc Light will have nothing else to do.

Besides, they are just making a few sarcastic remarks. We will find a few happy ones to "kill the monkey to scare the chickens", and the rest will naturally shut up.

Arc Light is just powerful, not a local tyrant. If he really does something too drastic, it would be bad.

Not only that, as the "leader" in the industry, sometimes you have to do something for the entire industry.

For example, this is what he has been busy with recently.

"Has there been any response from the radio and television department?" Meng Bai asked.

Liu Jun nodded, a bit of joy on his face: "Director Nie just had someone call me and said that they have studied it for a while and feel that the suggestion we put forward is indeed very reasonable. The resolution has been passed and an official announcement will be made in a few days."

"Great! It's finally worth all the trips I've made during this lockdown." Meng Bai slapped the table and said happily, "Let Li Mu prepare as well. We've put so much thought into this, we have to let people know who gets the credit."

"Okay, then I'll tell him to prepare."

……

In April and May of previous years, the film and television industry is usually very lively, because many awards are registered or the shortlists are announced during this period.

This year is an even-numbered year, and it is also a "big year" for awards. Golden Rooster, Hundred Flowers, Feitian, Golden Eagle, Magnolia... all of these will be held this year.

Generally speaking, the first event to start each year is the Magnolia Awards, which is usually held in May. However, this year, due to the impact of the flu, the time has been postponed.

Although the award ceremony was delayed, registration and announcement of the list continued as normal.

The first to release the registration notice was the Feitian Award. The deadline for registration, the types of works, the award introduction, etc. were similar to previous years, and everyone basically just glanced at it and passed it by.

Until the column of "Scope of registered works".

[In recent years, online audio-visual works have developed rapidly and become an indispensable part of the film and television industry... After careful consideration by the Feitian Awards Executive Committee, starting from the 2020nd Feitian Awards for TV Series in 32, online dramas will be included in the selection scope, but relevant certificates such as TV series distribution licenses are required...]

What the hell? Web dramas can now participate in official award selections!

Many online drama practitioners who saw this announcement were shocked.

In fact, the idea of online drama awards has been mentioned for several years, and there have always been rumors. However, the industry previously believed that even if online dramas were to be included, they would start with the Golden Eagle Award or the Magnolia Award.

Unexpectedly, the first to step forward and accept the web drama was the highest-standard and most orthodox Feitian.

But soon "inside news" came out in the circle. It was said that this time the Feitian Awards agreed to include online dramas in the selection. This was a suggestion made by Arclight Films and the five major video platforms to the organizer, China Radio and Television. After a long struggle, they finally agreed.

At first some people thought it was a joke, but soon more and more details came out, proving that the news was not false.

Now the big guys in the industry are really moved. After so many years of development, the online drama market has become bigger and bigger, the audience has become wider and wider, and the quality has become higher and higher, but every time it is talked about, it is still ranked at the bottom of the contempt chain.

The bottom line is that mainstream awards do not recognize online dramas.

In fact, in the past few years, some practitioners have wanted to find a different way and develop independent online drama awards, such as the "Golden Guduo Award" organized by Guduo Media and the "Wenrong Award" organized by Hengdian Film and Television, but they are basically for self-entertainment and have no reputation when announced to the public.

Until now, the official Feitian Award has finally recognized web dramas. Regardless of whether there will be a focus on it in the future awards, at least web dramas and TV dramas are now equal in status.

In this regard, online drama practitioners in the industry have only one idea - President Meng is our eternal sun!

Those who were behind the crickets a while ago disappeared without waiting for Arc Light to take any action.

Occasionally there are a few jealous people who say that ArcLight is doing these things because they themselves have the greatest chance of winning the award, so they are so active.

However, as soon as these remarks were made, they were immediately criticized.

"Arc Light has a better chance of winning the award because their works are well made and have many hits, so they deserve the award. Besides, if anyone else wants to win an award, they must have this opportunity first. If they didn't even have a chance like before, what's the point of talking about it!"

The sound of birds singing and flowers blooming blasted back all those sarcastic people.

But this is not the end. Just as online drama practitioners were gearing up to sign up for the Feitian Award, the other two major awards, the Golden Eagle Award and the Magnolia Award, also released their latest registration plans, and all of them opened up restrictions on online drama registration.

Everyone is really happy now. It is stressful to compete for one award, after all, TV dramas definitely account for the majority. But with three awards, the chances increase immediately.

Many online drama teams and companies have suggested that we should set up an online drama association just like the film association and the television drama association, so that everyone can work together when something happens.

The president of the association has been selected, so we can just let Mr. Meng come.

(End of this chapter)