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

Chapter 87 "Adaptive" Musician
The importance of film and television soundtracks to a work is unquestionable. Many famous scenes in film history are often remembered by the audience along with outstanding BGM.

Even some "bad movies" of low quality will not give up on working hard on the soundtrack, and then there is the classic law of "bad movies produce great songs".

When Meng Bai was shooting the first part of Soul Ferry, due to tight funds and limited budget, he basically used the basic music library commonly used by many film and television producers during post-production. There was no problem in ensuring the atmosphere, but it can only be regarded as neither good nor bad, and there was nothing too outstanding.

But this time it was different, because of the success of the first part, it became much easier to attract investment and even received advertisements from two small daily necessities brands.

Although the advertising costs are not high, adding up to only 300,000, this represents that the commercial value of the "Pendulum" series is being recognized.

In this case, both Meng Bai and Leshi.com want to keep the quality of the second part at the same level as before. With the first part as a good example, the second part must be improved in terms of both camera quality and plot production.

Therefore, the budget of Soul Ferry 2 also rose, crossing the million threshold and reaching million.

Budget is like firepower in war for producers. As the saying goes, "If you are poor, you can use tactics, but if you are rich, you can bomb me." With sufficient funds in hand, Meng Bai waved his hand and upgraded everything from equipment to personnel to crew size.

This naturally includes the film's soundtrack.

"Hello, Teacher A Kun, I'm Meng Bai, we talked on the phone before."

In a studio filled with various musical instruments and recording equipment, Meng Bai introduced himself while shaking hands with the man opposite him.

The man’s surname is Chen, but he is generally called “A Kun” in the industry. He is considered a very famous musician in the domestic film industry and has composed music for many movies, TV series, games and documentaries.

His most famous representative works include "Jiuer", the ending song in the TV series "Red Sorghum" (Zhou Gongzi version), and the classic "BGM for meals" in the documentary "A Bite of China".

It can also be seen from here that his musical style is quite varied, from passionate to folk songs to the mundane world, he can always provide suitable music according to the atmosphere of the plot.

Meng Bai doesn’t know much about music, but he understands one thing - if you don’t know how to select manually, it’s better to choose “adaptive”.

There is no doubt that A Kun, who has a diverse musical style, is a musician with abundant "adaptive" ability.

Sure enough, it was just as Meng Bai expected. After learning that the "producer"'s musical literacy was similar to that of an ordinary person, A Kun did not ask any professional questions about the style, genre, melody, etc., but directly asked him for the script.

"Soul ferry?" A Kun asked in surprise after looking at the document in his hand.

"What?" Meng Bai was a little confused.

"Oh, nothing." A Kun shook his head and explained: "I watched your first season."

Meng Bai understood, and asked curiously: "How does it feel?"

"The story is good, but the filming is too crude and the soundtrack is average."

As expected of a musician, he never strays from his profession.

Meng Bai didn't care about his comments and said with a smile: "So after we have money for the second season, we want to work harder on the details. As for the music, I'll have to ask Mr. A Kun to help."

Ah Kun smiled politely and flipped through the script in his hand. At first, he just wanted to take a look, but he couldn't stop reading it, and his expression was no longer as casual as before.

He read for ten minutes, and only when he had finished reading the last page did he slowly let out a breath.

"Chi Ling..." A Kun slowly read the name of the story.

"This is the title of this unit. Since it is the opening story of the second season, we hope it can serve as a representative of the entire season. We also want to use this as material to make a promotional song." Meng Bai briefly introduced it, and then took out a piece of paper and handed it over: "We hope to call the promotional song "Chi Ling". This is the first version of the lyrics I wrote."

Ah Kun took it and glanced at the words on it - "The play begins, the sleeves rise and fall
Singing joy and sorrow has nothing to do with me
……

In troubled times, duckweed endures to watch the beacon fire burning mountains and rivers

I am humble and dare not forget about my country, even if no one knows me

......"

"Did you write these lyrics?" A Kun asked.

Meng Bai nodded, and seeing the other party's slightly surprised expression, he explained: "Oh, I forgot to say that in addition to being the producer, I am also the screenwriter of this drama."

Ah Kun suddenly realized that it was no wonder. Although it was not his main job, screenwriter was considered a semi-professional.

but……

"That's right, Mr. Meng. Maybe you don't know much about music creation." A Kun said, "Generally speaking, our process is to make a demo based on inspiration and needs. Then, on this basis, we slowly adjust and perfect the song. Finally, we write lyrics based on the song."

“It’s not impossible to arrange music based on the lyrics, but it would be very difficult and complicated. Also, the lyrics may not necessarily fit the rhythm of the song.”

"So the lyrics were written later." Meng Bai hadn't considered this: "It's okay, you can just use this version of the lyrics as a reference, we can revise it later according to the finished song."

"this is okay."

A Kun was relieved when he heard that. What he feared most was not the clients who knew nothing, but the kind who had only a superficial understanding but thought they were "very talented writers" and insisted on having them rearrange the music after they wrote a lyric.

"When do we need the delivery to take place?" A Kun asked.

Meng Bai calculated in his mind that if filming started in July and everything went well, it would take more than a month to complete. Adding in the post-production editing, the publicity period would have to be at least until after October.

"By the end of September." Meng Bai said, "I hope to get the final song before October. In addition, the overall soundtrack work of this drama is also handed over to you."

As the saying goes, it’s better to do one thing at a time. A Kun has a special music studio that makes soundtracks for film and television dramas, so it’s just right to package them together.

"Okay. By the way, if there's singing in the later part, will it be a male or female voice?"

"Female voice, right?"

Meng Bai was thinking in his heart, Teacher Li is good at acting, but he wondered how is he at singing.

That's right, the singer Meng Bai had in mind was Li Qin. Including the "professional teacher" who he and Jin Chen had mentioned before, who would provide on-site guidance, it was also Li Qin.

He is a genuine Kunqu opera practitioner. With a professional like Teacher Li here, why should we look for anyone else?

I just wonder if Teacher Li will be happy or sad when he hears this news?
-
Although the filming of "Psychological Crime" has been completed, Meng Bai does not have free time.

He needs to oversee the post-production, and he also needs to keep in touch with the production of "Red Ling". In addition, there are the previously scheduled "Forensic Qin Ming", the "Pendulum" series of novels with the same name and the setting collection picture book, the lines and scripts of "The Pretender", and some daily operations of Arclight Films...

Meng Bai was so busy that he even missed the opening ceremony of "Pendulum 2". By the time he officially joined the crew, the filming had already started for two or three days.

(End of this chapter)