You were supposed to have a fake marriage with the diva, so how did you become her father?

For the next week, Lu Ran spent almost every day in the study until the early hours of the morning.

He rarely stays up this late anymore. He used to have no choice but to stay up all night writing code at the company, but this time it's different.

He sat at his desk facing the computer screen, with the system screen floating on his right, containing a complete library of materials—behind-the-scenes footage, storyboards, and special effects production processes from the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in his previous life, as well as the complete world setting and art resources of that game.

What he needed to do was actually not complicated: to dissect the grand production logic of those Western fantasy epics and then apply it to the Chinese classic "Investiture of the Gods".

The reason why "The Lord of the Rings" became a classic in its previous form is not because it told a very complex story, but because it used top-notch production to make the audience believe that the world really existed.

The grand-scale location shooting, the meticulous special effects polishing down to every frame, and the almost obsessive recreation of the original work's details combine to create an immersive experience that captivates the viewer. What he wants to do is use the same techniques to film China's own story.

He began writing the script outline in the document.

The story begins at the end of the Shang Dynasty, after Emperor Xin ascended the throne and became increasingly senile, neglecting state affairs, favoring the seductive concubine Daji, and persecuting loyal officials.

Chaoge City was filled with daily revelry and celebration, yet everyone in the court lived in fear. After being imprisoned for many years, Ji Chang, the Marquis of Xibo, escaped back to Xiqi and began secretly amassing power in preparation for his attack on Shang.

Above this human narrative, another power struggle between gods is underway—Yuanshi Tianzun, Tongtian Jiaozhu, and Taishang Laojun stand side by side, and the list of gods has already been drawn up in the Heavenly Court, waiting only for the flames of war in the human world to ignite as the catalyst.

He wrote in great detail.

He wanted the opening shot to be a panoramic view of Chaoge City in the twilight, zooming in from the distant mountains to the city walls and then to the palace, finally settling on an overhead shot of King Zhou sitting in the main hall.

The entire shot lasts about two minutes from beginning to end, without any cuts, using a continuous moving shot to convey the grandeur of the entire Chaoge city.

In his past life, he had seen the opening long shot of the Shire scenery in "The Lord of the Rings," and he remembered the rhythm of letting you see the world before telling the story.

For cinematography, he plans to borrow the technique from "The Lord of the Rings," which combines grand real-life scenes with a small amount of special effects.

There's no need to rely on post-production compositing for every frame. Shoot real scenes where possible, and use special effects to fill in the gaps where real scenes aren't possible.

The Dragon Kingdom is vast, so it's not difficult to find filming locations that match the atmosphere of Chaoge City. There are several places between the Taihang Mountains and the Qinling Mountains whose landforms closely match the descriptions of the capital city ruins from the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

He had already searched the system once; the storyboard for that movie itself marked the coordinates of the ideal shooting location for each scene.

The highlight of the first act is the ceremony of King Zhou's ascension to the throne.

He wrote a long scene description: the city of Chaoge was deserted, with people kneeling on both sides of the street to watch the emperor's entourage pass through the city. The soldiers' armor reflected the sunlight, and the sound of banners fluttering and footsteps mingled together, shaking the ground.

The visual impact of this scene doesn't lie in how dazzling the special effects are, but in the feeling of so many people that they overflow the boundaries of the frame.

Lu Ran found several scheduling plans for filming scenes with tens of thousands of people in his previous life in the system, and compiled those experiences into an operational suggestion attached to the document.

The second act shifts to the main storyline of the battle between the gods. He plans to extract the most familiar stories from the Investiture of the Gods and embed them into the plot.

He wanted to capture the fearless and reckless spirit of youth in the Nezha Conquers the Dragon King scene.

Nezha was taking a bath by the East Sea, which caused the Dragon Palace to shake violently. When the Dragon King's third son came up to argue with him, he was beaten down by Nezha with a few punches and kicks.

He planned to film that scene in a lighter, faster-paced manner, with crisp movements and the camera following Nezha's actions, so that the audience could feel the exhilarating feeling of a child who hasn't grown up yet possessing immense strength.

He planned to slow down the pace of the scene where Nezha returns his bones to his father. The sea breeze, Nezha's silence, Li Jing's anger, the knife, and the image of blood seeping into the seawater.

That kind of ruthless determination of a young person to settle scores in their own way so as not to owe anyone anything is one of the most poignant parts of the Investiture of the Gods story.

Yang Jian appears in the middle of the story, during the siege of a city by the Zhou army.

He didn't need much buildup. Standing on the open ground in front of the city gate, he slightly opened the third eye on his forehead, and the guards on the opposite city wall froze in that instant.

Lu Ran found several passages in the system describing Yang Jian's fighting style, which read, "Upright and honorable, never resorting to sneak attacks or underhanded tactics."

This personality type makes him a pillar of strength in the Investiture of the Gods camp, and audiences will like this kind of character.

Jiang Ziya, as the core character throughout the entire series, is positioned as "the seemingly inconspicuous person who has completed all the games."

He didn't have Yang Jian's fighting prowess, nor Nezha's youthful spirit. He was just an old man being pushed forward by fate, gritting his teeth as he finished reading the last edict on the Investiture of the Gods platform.

Lu Ran wrote a very full story about Jiang Ziya, starting from when he was enlightened by Yuanshi Tianzun and descended the mountain, all the way to the end of the Investiture of the Gods and the completion of his merits.

Interspersed throughout are his time assisting Ji Chang and his son in Xiqi, his design to break the Ten Deadly Formations, and his exhaustion as he sat alone outside his tent on the eve of the Battle of Muye.

The great battle where King Wu conquers King Zhou is the climax of the entire script.

He planned to use the same staging logic as when filming the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in "The Lord of the Rings" to handle that scene—multiple storylines running in parallel, long follow shots, overhead shots interspersed with close-ups, and infantry formations, cavalry charges, and magical attacks layered together to create a saturated impact on sound and image.

The camera pans across the entire battlefield from one end of Zhou Jun's lines to the other without cutting in between, taking a single, continuous shot. That shot couldn't be filmed live; it required special effects. However, the core objective of the special effects was to show the audience "how big the battlefield was," not "how dazzling the special effects were."

Among the materials stored in his system was a shooting technique called "miniature model plus post-production extension," which ensured the realism and texture of the image without relying entirely on purely digital scenes. He decided to adopt this compromise in the film.

Daji is not portrayed as a pure villain in the traditional sense.

He portrayed her as a contradictory being possessed by a fox spirit. When the fox spirit controlled her, her eyes would curve into an unnatural arc when she smiled, and in the instant her consciousness was taken back, her eyes would show genuine fear and confusion.

When Lu Ran was writing Daji's lines, he specially made a serious version of the dialogue and a version of the dialogue after she became a demon. The two versions had completely different wording styles. When she was an ordinary person, she would subconsciously frown and speak hesitantly, but after she became a demon, every word seemed to be popped out from the tip of her tongue.

Lu Ran wrote both sets of lines into the same scene in the script, so that the actors could decide the rhythm of switching between them.

He also wrote a lot about the story of Grand Tutor Wen Zhong.

As the last important minister of the Shang Dynasty, Wen Zhong's tragedy lies in the fact that he had long seen that King Zhou was beyond saving, but his sense of responsibility as a minister prevented him from turning back.

Before leading his troops into battle, he stood on the city wall of Chaoge and looked back at the palace behind him. There was not a single word in that shot, just a back view and the action of turning his head.

In the scene where he is defeated and dies, Lu Ran specially wrote a dialogue between him and Jiang Ziya before his death.

The two were separated by a burning trench, and they recognized each other as fellow disciples who had grown up together since childhood.

Wen Zhong said, "I knew this day would come." Jiang Ziya said, "Then why did you come?" Wen Zhong remained silent for a long time before answering, "If I didn't come, I would be letting down the armor I've worn my whole life."

The pace of the second half of the film gradually picks up.

Break through the Ten Deadly Formations, recruit various extraordinary individuals, and engage in the decisive Battle of Muye.

In the final scene, Jiang Ziya holds the list of gods up to the sky and reads it aloud. With each name read, the corresponding soul rises from the Investiture Platform and transforms into a pillar of light, which rises one after another into the sky.

When he wrote that scene, he was thinking of the ending of The Lord of the Rings, where Frodo stands on the dock watching the elves sail west, using the same logic—a sense of relief and sorrow intertwined with a vast farewell.

He plans to keep the entire film to around three hours.

Three hours isn't a long time to tell the whole story of the Investiture of the Gods, but the film is dense enough to support it.

He doesn't need to force in any preaching or cultural popularization; the power of the story itself is enough, because the story of Investiture of the Gods is already heavy enough, and there's no need to add any extra weight to it.

He sent the script outline to Shen Zhiwei the night he finished writing it.

Shen Zhiwei did not reply immediately, and Lu Ran did not urge him.

The next day at noon, Shen Zhiwei called. His tone still carried the familiar restraint, but it had an unusual warmth about it.

He said he had finished reading the script and that it was better than he had expected. He said, "Your script is very vivid; it's not the kind of script that you can only read as a novel. It's the kind of script that makes you visualize scenes as you read it."

He paused for a moment, then added, "Do you think that kid Tan Yu can be an assistant director?"

Lu Ran leaned back in his chair and smiled: "He can. As long as you're willing to mentor him, he'll definitely be willing to work. He should be back to work after his honeymoon."

"Then I'll contact him. Have him come over tomorrow to discuss the filming. Don't rush into anything else; wait until we meet before deciding on the next step."

"no problem."

After hanging up the phone, Lu Ran sat in his office chair for a while.

He recalled how "The Lord of the Rings" in his previous life had sparked interest in medieval European legends among countless people worldwide for the first time, and that his own country's mythology system was no less profound than that.

He believed that what he made would at least be no worse than that one.

After all, the rich cultural heritage of China, accumulated over thousands of years, is unmatched by any other culture in the world.

The same applies when you cross over to this world.

...