Huayu: This celebrity doesn't follow the rules.

Chapter 74: Industry Leaders Gather and Speak at the Conference (Combined 3000-word Chapter)
"Professor!"

Jiang Ye recognized this benchmark figure in online short dramas and quickly stepped forward to shake hands.

Yi Xiaoxing had three or four oddly shaped badges pinned to the collar of his leather jacket, the most eye-catching of which was a panda head rolling its eyes.

“Your ‘Princess Promotion’ made my wife stay up all night watching it,” Yi Xiaoxing said, wiping her sweat. “It made me break two keyboards just because I said that the director must be a seasoned womanizer.”

Jiang Ye laughed and said, "Your 'Unexpected' is the original creator. I watch every episode."

Jiang Ye's deepest impression of this web series is episode 10 of the second season, where the Chinese national football team was defeated 7-0 by Xiao Rizi.

Then the fabricated story was brought into reality...

"Alright, let's stop with the mutual flattery."

Yi Xiaoxing pulled a crumpled business card from the inside pocket of his leather jacket. It read "Chief Creative Officer of Wanhe Tianyi." "We're filming 'Unexpected Journey to the West.' Would you like to visit the set sometime? Your school should be on winter break soon, right?"

Just as Jiang Ye was about to answer, he caught a glimpse of the other people at the table turning around as well.

The person wearing the plaid shirt is Wang Nima, the production director of Baizou Comics, who is drawing emojis on the meeting manual with a marker.

The girl wearing a baseball cap is Ding Xiaodian, the screenwriter of "Men's Diary". There is a notebook with colorful cartoon stickers on the table.

There was also a middle-aged man in a Zhongshan suit whose name tag read "Deputy Director of the Planning Department of Hengdian World Studios".

They are all up-and-coming online content creators, a "non-mainstream force" in the traditional film and television industry.

Jiang Ye greeted them warmly and exchanged business cards.

"The penguin people are here." Yi Xiaoxing suddenly lowered his voice, his leather jacket sleeve brushing against the coffee cup with a crisp sound.

The entrance to the banquet hall suddenly fell silent.

Sun Zhonghuai, president of Tencent's online media business group, walked in with seven or eight people. The group, dressed in suits, resembled an aircraft carrier sailing into an inland sea, with people constantly standing up to greet them along the way.

Wang Zhonglei of Huayi Brothers was whispering to Sun Zhonghuai, followed by Wang Changtian of Guangxian Media.

He was wearing a dark suit and a neatly tied tie. As he passed the registration area, he patted the staff member on the shoulder, and his laughter could be heard from several steps away.

As I passed by Jiang Ye's row of desks, my gaze swept over the "Jiangying Media" sign on the table and I paused for a second.

Later on, there was Yu Dong from Bona Pictures, Su Xiao from Lemon Pictures, Ma Zhongjun from Ciwen Media, Chen Yuan from H&R Century Pictures…

As the entire group passed through the venue, the air was filled with the faint scent of cologne and the soft rustling of turning pages.

Behind these names are some of the most active capital and resources in the film and television industry in 2015!

Those glamorous celebrities are just tools for making money!

Jiang Ye paid special attention to one of the middle-aged men walking at the very back.

He wore a well-tailored dark gray suit, his wristwatch peeking out from the cuffs was understated and discreet, his hair was neatly combed, and he held a leather notebook in his hand.

Fang Ying is the Vice President of Keton Media and the General Manager of Juku Culture.

He is also a very famous producer. Jiang Ye came here today specifically because he holds the adaptation rights to Gu Man's trilogy.

The TV series "Binbin is Coming" made Zhao Liying famous.

The TV series "My Sunshine" is currently showing in theaters.

There's one last one, which is about to start production soon, and it's called "Love O2O".

Host Cao Xiaozhen, wearing ten-centimeter high heels, walked onto the main stage. As the leading lady of Tencent Video's original drama channel, she began her speech with a professional broadcasting tone: "Welcome everyone to the 2015 Tencent Video Film and Television Strategy Foresight Seminar. First, please look at some data..."

The electronic screen first went dark as a deep pool, then was split open by a beam of blue light.

In the TV series "Swords of Legends", a sword-wielding scene pierces through the black screen, with Li Yifeng's character, Baili Tusu, wearing white robes stained with blood, and the spiritual energy emanating from the sword tip flowing through the screen.

The numbers in the bottom right corner suddenly popped up: 16 billion views, with a single-day peak of 1.5 million.

The scene abruptly cuts to warm light, and Zhao Liying appears in a shot of "Boss & Me" wearing a pink overall dress.

A heatmap of female users pops up on the right: the dots from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen form a heart shape, and the data box is displayed in red font.

With 22 billion views, 78% of the users are female, and each episode has an average of 6000 million views.

Guo Jingfei, who plays Luo Fei, flicks a coin, and the camera cuts to the crime scene of "The Darker," where red thread is wrapped around the case file and data scrolls beside it.

3.1 million views, 85% completion rate, 8.2 rating on Douban.

The wind and sand, carrying the sound of camel bells, drift into the scene. Princess Jinyu, played by Liu Shishi, is dressed in red and rides side by side with Wei Wuji, played by Peng Yuyan, in the desert.

In the film "Pocahontas," the data in the lower left corner changes in real time.

With 9 million views and a VIP conversion rate of +40%, it ranks among the top 3 in the industry in terms of average views per episode.

The last frame went dark, and three seconds later, the screen switched to "Go Princess Go," with a shot of the female lead in her phoenix coronet and wedding gown flashing by before finally settling on a clear number: 28 billion views.

"Based on this growth momentum," Cao Xiaozhen clicked the remote to turn the page, "Tencent Video will launch the 'Green Mango Plan' in 2015, investing 5 million yuan to support..."

The spotlight conveniently swept across Section B, instantly making Jiang Ye the center of attention. He noticed that Fang Ying also turned to look at him, her fingers lightly tapping on her leather notebook.

Next up is the segment where the bigwigs will speak.

Sun Zhonghuai led four guests onto the stage, not in the traditional row of seats, but in a café-style curved sofa area. "We prefer to call it an industry dialogue," Cao Xiaozhen guided the flow, "First, please let Mr. Sun share Tencent Video's IP full-industry chain development strategy."

Sun Zhonghuai's speech was full of internet slang: "From traffic-driven thinking to user-driven thinking, we need to build a closed-loop ecosystem for IP..."

Several bigwigs took turns speaking, and Jiang Ye was getting sleepy in the audience.

Next, executives from several leading film and television companies discussed "new models for IP development and platform cooperation," ranging from copyright acquisition costs to revenue sharing ratios, with data charts switching back and forth on the big screen.

Next, analysts from video industry research institutions took the stage, presenting lengthy user profile reports analyzing the "viewing preferences of post-90s generation," their professionalism bordering on the absurd...

Finally, relevant personnel from the regulatory authorities emphasized the "standards for online content review," reciting each rule clearly and rigidly.

This series of speeches lasted for nearly two hours, and Jiang Ye stared at the patterns on the tablecloth so much that he could almost see the design.

During the Q&A session, Cao Xiaozhen announced: "Today we have a special guest who will share his insights on creating web dramas. Jiang Ye, the director of 'Princess Promotion,' please come to the stage!"

The spotlight is a bit hot.

After standing still, Jiang Ye calmed himself down and showed no stage fright.

"As a current student at Beijing Film Academy, I probably understand better than you why young people stay up all night to watch TV series."

The opening remarks elicited good-natured laughter.

Jiang Ye held up his phone, "After each episode of 'The Princess' aired, my classmates would analyze the plot points like they were discussing a game level..."

The big screen then displayed the user behavior data charts he had prepared, the continuity errors with the highest pause rates, and the climactic scenes with a barrage of comments...

"The reason this web series can keep people up all night is simply because it hits two key points: the thrill of subverting tropes and the subtlety at its core..."

"..."

"But today I want to talk about a different topic."

"After completing 'Princess Promotion,' I've been thinking about my next creative direction. As a game enthusiast, I pay particular attention to the possibility of adapting game themes into film and television."

"Although I have little experience in this area, I would like to share some basic thoughts with you."

Jiang Ye suddenly switched the PPT, and the screen became a player data chart for "League of Legends" and "JX3". "Young people nowadays spend half their time running around in reality and the other half living as another version of themselves in games."

"If I had a choice, I would choose a game-themed drama for my next project, because that is the true new martial arts genre that belongs to Generation Z."

There was a slight commotion in the audience. Jiang Ye saw Fang Ying in the second row put down his phone, his fingertips hovering above his laptop, his gaze fixed on him.

Jiang Ye steadied his voice, "But most game-adapted dramas on the market either use the game as a backdrop or are made like low-quality animated films. That's not what I want to do..."

"The first thing is to recreate the game. The visuals we produce in the film need to closely match the game memories of real players."

"This kind of recreation is not a simple stacking of special effects, but allows players to see the same scenes they have taken screenshots of and the dungeons they have stayed up all night to play, instantly creating a sense of familiarity with the show."

"For non-gamer viewers, this sense of realism also makes the virtual world seem believable, and they are willing to follow the characters into that world."

"..."

"..."

"One more thing, remove the melodramatic elements!"

"For works adapted from games, I believe that only simple, clean, and mutually reciprocated love can meet the audience's expectations for uncomplicated relationships."

"Especially for Generation Z, who are used to virtual social interaction, the idea that the tacit understanding in games can grow into real-life love is precisely their beautiful imagination that online emotions can take root."

"...However, this is just an immature idea from a new director, and its implementation will definitely require guidance from the seniors."

Amid the applause, Jiang Ye could feel Fang Ying's increasingly intense gaze.

……

That evening, Juku Culture held an internal meeting.

When Fang Ying pushed open the glass door of the conference room, production manager Lin Yan was struggling with the actors' photos on the whiteboard.

Three laptops were simultaneously playing audition clips of different actors, and the bitter aroma of Americano coffee filled the air.

"Director Lin just sent a message," Lin Yan said without turning her head, pasting a photo of Yang Yang onto the whiteboard. "She insists on casting Zheng Yecheng as Xiao Nai, saying that his eyes have the aloofness of an e-sports master."

Fang Ying placed the meeting materials on the table, with the "Love O2O" project schedule on top.

Directors: Lin Yufen, Yu Cuihua (to be determined)
Assistant Directors: Zhang Lizhong (Assistant Director of Acting), Guo Hu (Executive Assistant Director), Li Dachao (Assistant Director of Action)

The script was written by screenwriter Gu Man herself, but the game scene highlighted in red was followed by three glaring question marks.

This is precisely the core bottleneck in the current project's progress: the film and television adaptation plan for the virtual game scenes has not yet been finalized.

"At today's seminar, I met the director of 'Princess Promotion,' a freshman at the Beijing Film Academy."

Lin Yan finally turned around: "That director of the web series with 28 billion views? I heard Jing Tian brought his own investment to the project and snatched it from him."

"He has a very interesting theory about game adaptations."

(P.S.: Guys, these are all 3000-word chapters now, so the author has added extra chapters. From now on, the minimum will be 6000 words. If subscriptions are good, I'll start 10,000 words a day starting next month. Please support me!)
(End of this chapter)