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

Chapter 540: Mr. Meng can find young girls wherever he goes

"Is this script of yours really a skit?"

After reading the story, Chen Zhixi was surprised and said, "This plot setting can be used to make a movie or a serious TV series. It's a waste to make a short play."

In the story of "Escape from the British Museum", she saw fantasy love, historical heritage, cultural relics protection, and patriotism.

If the character settings and story details are slightly enriched, it will definitely be an excellent movie script.

Chen Zhixi has been making movies for more than a decade. Based on her experience, this story would definitely be a hit at both the word of mouth and the box office. But now it is just a short drama, which is a bit of a waste of talent.

But Meng Bai himself didn't care much: "It's nothing to regret. The core of this story is just this. Even if it is made into a movie or TV series, it will just add a few more side stories and a few more cultural relics and characters. It may weaken the excitement of the theme itself."

Unlike many content creators, he has a plug-in called "inspiration fragments" that are constantly updated, so he never skimps on his story ideas. He makes movies when it's suitable for movies, and makes web series when it's suitable for web series. He basically won't force a different format just to make the story more grand.

Just like "Escape from the British Museum", the core content of the story is actually "historical inheritance + cultural relics transformation", which is a very short point. At most, it can be shot as a mini-series of about three or four episodes. If it is changed to a more refined short drama, the effect will be the same.

"That does make sense, but..."

Chen Zhixi sighed, "Forget it. You wrote the script, so you have the final say on the format. A short play is a short play. As long as it can be made into a masterpiece, it will still attract audiences. Have you chosen the actors? For such a good story, do you want to use some popular actors?"

"Who would take on a short drama if they are a popular actor?"

"Well, that's not the way to say it. If it was someone else's project, even a slightly famous actor would definitely not take it. But this is different. It's a project that President Meng is personally responsible for. Let alone a short play, even if it's a cheesy joke, there will be plenty of people rushing to take it."

There is nothing wrong with what Chen Zhixi said. Actors of long dramas don't shoot short dramas because they are afraid of losing their status, just like movie actors didn't shoot TV dramas and TV drama actors didn't shoot web dramas.

But this time is different. Everyone knows Meng Bai's current status and reputation in the industry. It is a rare opportunity to work together. Those first-tier and super first-tier actors may consider it, but those third-tier and fourth-tier small actors or newcomers would all dream of getting it.

As for the status? Just kidding, if I can really catch Mr. Meng's eye through this opportunity, the status of a star can just be arranged by him for a few dramas!

Meng Bai thought for a moment and said, "Let's try to find someone from the newcomers, especially the role of Xiao Yuhu 'Chanzhi', which requires a cute and smart person."

Although the story of "Escape from the British Museum" is told from the perspective of the male protagonist "Zhang Yongan", the core character is actually the female protagonist Xiao Yuhu. Including the subsequent plot, it also unfolds from her, so the requirements for actors are also higher.

Because short dramas have a low threshold and are small in size, most of the crews involved are small. The budget is limited, so the entire project period is very short. Generally speaking, the shooting time is 20 days to one month.

However, if you want to create a benchmark-setting product, it certainly cannot be that simple.

According to the script design, "Escape from the British Museum" has a total of five episodes, each episode is about ten minutes long. In order to fit the background of the story, the crew had to go to the UK for on-site shooting, which added more time.

Meng Bai has planned a total project period of three months for this drama, and the budget has reached tens of millions, which is comparable to many small-scale shared-revenue long dramas.

Considering the current size of the short drama market, unless the project becomes a huge hit after it is broadcast, it will be difficult to recover the cost.

However, ArcLight has now passed the stage of "every project is for making money" and has begun to be like big groups such as Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance. It doesn't matter whether the project makes money or not. The key is the influence and strategic positioning it brings.
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Nanmen Bridge, Taishan, Jiangmen, Guangdong Province.

Taicheng River runs through the city, dividing the city into north and south. On the pedestrian path next to the river, Li Yitong, who looks youthful, walks briskly towards a park bench with two cups of milk tea in her hands, and then hands them to Zhang Yi who is sitting on the side.

"Here, it's from the weekly journal."

Li Yitong sat on the other side of the bench, looking at the children running past her, and said with emotion: "Do you remember, we were like that when we were little? At that time, I thought the river was very long and I could never reach the end. When I grew up, I realized that I could just walk across it in two or three steps."

Zhang Yi, who had been silent for a long time while sipping his milk tea, suddenly said, "Your legs were short back then."

Li Yitong rolled her eyes and kicked the other person a few times without hesitation.

"Well, this is my last vacation."

"You were expelled from school?"

"I'm going back to BJ for an internship! I'm graduating from graduate school... Don't you have anything to tell me?" "Then have a safe journey..."

Li Yitong clenched her fist and punched the guy, and couldn't help muttering in her heart: I don't even need to ask about the style of this line, I know it was written by that guy as soon as I hear it.

At the same time, director Xu Jizhou, who was sitting behind the monitor, looked at the screen and said to the man sitting next to him with a smile: "Yitong's acting skills have improved rapidly in the past two years. She is much more natural than the last time we worked together."

Hearing their director's gentle tone today, the heads of the photography and lighting groups who were standing in a circle nearby looked at each other, and then tacitly made expressions to hold back laughter.

After so many years of cooperation, everyone had never seen him speak in this tone. But looking at the person sitting next to him, everyone could understand.

That's Mr. Meng from Arc Light, who is also the chief producer and investor of the show. Anyone would have spoken in the same tone.

"I remember the last time the director and Yitong collaborated was on the web drama called "Beauty Without Borders", it seems like it was many years ago." Meng Bai responded.

"Indeed, I remember that drama was filmed in 2018 or 2019, which means it's been about four or five years now." Xu Jizhou said with emotion: "She performed quite well at the time, and has improved a lot over the years. It's a pity that her character setting is limited in this drama, and I'm afraid she won't be able to play too much."

The success of "Sweeping Dark Storm" made the Political and Legal Affairs Commission very satisfied. As soon as the show was finished, they immediately contacted Arc Light to cooperate again, which is the "Storm" that the crew is currently filming.

In order to distinguish it from the previous part, Meng Bai deliberately set the story background in Guangdong Province, which has nothing to do with "Green Vine City".

The production team did not choose "Arc Light" directors such as Wu Bai and Wang Wei, but replaced them with Xu Jizhou who had filmed "The Eternal Number".

In fact, this man is a professional in the field of anti-gangsterism. As early as 20 years ago, he filmed a TV series called "Anti-gangster Storm", which has a lot of connections.

As for Li Yitong's character this time, her name is "Meng Yu", the childhood sweetheart of the male protagonist "An Xin", and also the nominal heroine of the whole drama.

The reason why it is called "in name only" is mainly because her identity as the heroine is a bit "marginal". Whether in terms of character setting or role, she is even worse than several female supporting roles in the play.

Meng Bai didn't think of giving this role to her at first, but this girl had worked with Xu Jizhou before, and the latter thought she was quite suitable so he invited her, and then the girl readily agreed.

Then again, this girl has played a lot of similar "sideline heroines" in the past two years, including Lin Wan'er in "Celebrating Yu Nian", Zhu Yizhen in "The Rebel", and now Meng Yu in "Kuang Biu".

You may say she is not ambitious, but she has been playing various leading roles; but if you say she is very ambitious, she has not taken on many key roles.

Compared with her, even Li Qin, who has always advocated the principle of "doing her best and leaving the rest to fate", seems so diligent. After all, she still knows how to invest in resources for her own new drama.

Here, Li Yitong and Zhang Yi finished a scene and heaved a sigh of relief when they heard the director shout "passed". This was not the first time the two had worked together, so they were quite skilled in cooperating.

"Yitong's performance just now was very natural, very good." Xu Jizhou praised.

Li Yitong smiled sweetly and said a few polite words modestly.

It wasn't because her acting was natural. Chunchun had a stress reaction when she heard the familiar lines, and she simply used the expressions and movements she usually made when she was with Meng Bai.

After watching the performance and confirming that everything was fine, she returned to the crew to rest. The assistant ran over and handed her some water, then whispered, "Sister Tongtong, Mr. Meng is here."

Li Yitong's eyes lit up instantly, but then she pretended to be calm and said, "Come if you want to. He is the boss and can go wherever he wants."

But within two seconds after she finished speaking, she immediately looked around and asked, "Where are the people?"

"It was here just now... Hey, it seems to be over there."

The young assistant pointed in a direction. Li Yitong took a look and immediately recognized the familiar figure even though he was far away.

But then, her eyes moved to the side and she couldn't help but curl her lips - this guy really can chat with young girls wherever he goes.

She actually knew the girl. Her name was Chen Yao and she was also an actor in the crew of "Kuang Bao". She played the role of "Gao Qilan", the sister of the villain "Gao Qiqiang".

(End of this chapter)