Huayu: This producer has no bottom line.

Chapter 121 A Head Start

A cheer erupted in the conference room.

But amidst this joyous atmosphere, Ren Pingsheng keenly caught a glimpse of loneliness in Xiao Ai's eyes.

He didn't point it out on the spot. After the meeting ended and everyone else went about their business, he walked over to Xiao Ai and patted the back of her chair.

"Come on, let's go outside and chat for a bit."

The door to the inner room closed, and Xiao Ai stood there, looking somewhat awkward.

"What's wrong? You seem downcast."

"No, Brother Pingsheng, I'm fine."

Ren Pingsheng looked at him, and Xiao Ai held on for a few seconds, "It's just... I don't really know what to do."

He spoke very softly, as if afraid of being overheard by those outside.

"Everyone is improving, but me? I can't even write a good script."

Ren Pingsheng leaned against the table, waiting for him to finish speaking.

He understands Xiao Ai's feelings. Among the first few people who followed him, Zhang Yibo worked behind the scenes in technology and had his own pursuits.

Da Peng became a disciple of Zhao Bensan, secured resources for "China's Got Talent," and together with Bai Ke, became a sensation across the internet with "Old Boy." The two are steadily progressing on their acting careers.

But Xiao Ai remained in the same place, doing odd jobs and supporting roles.

What worries him even more is that those who joined the company later are also frantically trying to catch up.

Nazha, who was originally socially awkward, has become proactive in the office after a few days of intensive training in asking for directions. She now shares with everyone which aunties in which alley are the most talkative.

Another newcomer, Yin Zheng, also had a musical background. A few days ago, when he was observing and learning at the Beijing People's Art Theatre with Qiao Xiang, he was spotted by Chen Minghao and pulled into the cast of the musical "Stockholm Adventurers".

Such a huge gap would be hard for anyone to bear.

"Xiao Ai, do you know why I put you in charge of the script?"

"Because...everyone's busy?"

Ren Pingsheng was amused by him and shook his head, "Because you are the one with the best internet sense among this group."

Xiao Ai looked up, somewhat bewildered.

"You compiled the game information and memes from two games into a document in just a few days. Do you think anyone can do that?"

Xiao Ai opened her mouth, "Isn't that just browsing forums online..."

"Yes, it's about browsing forums online, but if you can extract those fragmented things into usable materials after you've finished browsing, that's what you call internet savvy. Da Peng doesn't have that, Bai Ke doesn't have that, and I'm not as good as you either."

Xiao Ai fell silent.

"Xiao Ai, the most important thing for a person is to find their own place, to find a place where you can bring out your talents and passions, instead of trying to reach someone else's place."

Ren Pingsheng pointed outside, "Dapeng is a natural social butterfly. He's suited to dancing in the spotlight. Bai Ke has a face that evokes empathy. He's a natural spokesperson for ordinary people."

"And what about you?"

He stared into Xiao Ai's somewhat bewildered eyes. "You are meticulous and organized. You manage the production team perfectly, and you can keenly grasp the humor and rhythm when rewriting the script. Your greatest strength is not acting in front of the camera, but controlling the scene behind the monitor!"

Xiao Ai suddenly raised her head and looked at Ren Pingsheng in disbelief.

"So, for this 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 2,' I've decided to have you direct it."

"What?!" Xiao Ai waved her hands frantically, her voice trembling. "Brother Pingsheng... this... this is a multi-million dollar order! I... I can't handle this..."

"A man can't say no."

Ren Pingsheng patted Xiao Ai on the shoulder, "Shengping Vision can't rely on me alone forever. If the company wants to expand, others have to step up. Xiao Ai, this is a hurdle that Shengping Vision must overcome, and it's also a hurdle that you must overcome."

Looking at the helpless young man in front of him, he smiled.

"Go, Director Liu, let everyone see what your world of gangsters is like."

Xiao Ai stood there, her eyes a little red, her lips moved several times, and finally she managed to utter a sentence.

"So, will Brother Dapeng and Brother Bai... listen to me?"

Ren Pingsheng chuckled, "You're the director, they're the actors. Who else would they listen to if not you? Of course, you know Da Peng's mouth too, he can be incredibly rude."

Xiao Ai sniffed and nodded vigorously.

As they pushed open the door to go out, Da Peng happened to pass by and glanced at them.

"What's going on? Who bullied our Xiao Ai?"

Xiao Ai wiped her face, cleared her throat, and tried to make her voice sound calmer.

"Brother Peng, go through the script for 'Tian Long 2' tomorrow, and take another look at the previous character settings tonight."

Da Peng paused for a moment, then turned to look at Ren Pingsheng.

Ren Pingsheng shrugged, turned around, and closed the door.

He took a break from directing web series to focus all his efforts on preparing for "Li Xianji".

This morning, the official announcement for the Youth Image Project was finally released.

China Film Group and Baidu Qiyi jointly launched a nationwide call for short films on the theme of youth.

时长5到60分钟，影片类型不限，参赛者需在5月20日前提交完整剧本及创作阐述，评委会将在6月1日公布入围名单。

Finalists will receive production support from the competition organizers, and the deadline for submitting the final product is July 20.

Ren Pingsheng read through the announcement from beginning to end and got a general idea of ​​what it was about.

5月20日交剧本，6月1日出结果，7月20日交片。

From being shortlisted to submitting the finished film, a full 50 days is a very tight schedule for a short film that includes both live-action footage and animation of a sports school.

But they can start filming earlier because they don't need the support from the event organizers.

This kind of "bring your own funding" approach is indeed unfair to other participants who are hoping for financial support, but competitions are never fair.

This is probably why Yin Le and Li Yang figured things out so quickly; if they hesitated any longer, it would really be too late.

So we need to work on the script quickly.

Although the story framework for Li Xianji was in place, every scene had to be redesigned, from the disorganized stream-of-consciousness animation to the linear narrative of a live-action story.

Ren Pingsheng turned on his computer, created a new document, and after the cursor blinked for a few seconds, he typed the first line.

A wrinkled hand reached out towards the back of a young woman.

The following days.

Xiao Ai officially took over "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils 2" as the director.

For the first two days, he was timid and hesitant, not daring to speak loudly.

Da Peng deliberately made things difficult for him on set, interspersing his lines with various improvisational remarks, throwing things off one after another, and messing up the script.

Xiao Ai's face turned red with anxiety. She trembled for a long time before finally slamming her hand on the table.

"Brother Peng, if you add any more lines, I'll cut your scenes."

Da Peng paused for a second, then raised his hand and chuckled, "Alright, alright, Director Liu, you're in charge."

Later, Xiao Ai learned that this was something Ren Pingsheng had instructed Da Peng to do beforehand; if he wasn't pushed, Da Peng would never learn to establish authority on set.

Meanwhile, Naza's training in asking for directions entered its second phase.

Ren Pingsheng gave her a new task: every day after she came back, she had to pick out a few people she had met outside that day, imitate their way of speaking, tone of voice, expression, and body language, and perform it for everyone.

This is more than just a test of courage.

Imitation requires observation, observation requires memory, memory requires reconstruction, and reconstruction requires expression.

Completing a full set of lessons is much more difficult than a typical acting class.

For the first two days, Nazha was still blushing, and every role she played sounded like she was reciting a text.

But the people she imitated were so lifelike that the people in the studio also cooperated with her. Gradually, her movements and lines became more unrestrained.

On the fourth day, she imitated an old man who taught her Tai Chi in the park, spreading her legs and focusing her energy in her lower abdomen.

"Little girl, you're too thin. If you learn Tai Chi from your Uncle Zhang for three months, I guarantee you'll be as strong as an ox."

The whole studio burst into laughter.

Ren Pingsheng didn't laugh, but he made a mental note of it. This girl's ability to imitate was even better than he had expected. Her body language was particularly flexible, and her dance background clearly contributed to this.

In late April, news came from Yin Le's side.

Xia Yu replied that his schedule was fine, and his salary was reduced to 100 million yuan because the short film was small in scale.

Compared to Liu Ye's asking price of three million, this price is already very reasonable.

Ren Pingsheng didn't haggle and let Yin Le finalize the price directly.

With the actors in place, the next step is the script.

He kept the story to 40 minutes, twice as long as the original animation, but every minute had its reason for being there.

The live-action segment is 28 minutes long, and the animated segment is 12 minutes long.

The live-action portion is responsible for storytelling, while the animation portion is responsible for creating tension and excitement.

Compared to Guo Fan's version, which stretched 20 minutes into 90 minutes, his adaptation approach was exactly the opposite.

The plot retains only one protagonist, one motivation, and one main storyline.

The romantic history between Li Xianji and Wang Qian was removed, and she was transformed from a concrete ex-girlfriend back into a symbol of obsession. The audience doesn't need to know how they got together; they only need to know that he lost someone and was willing to do anything to get her back.

Family relationships, workplace life, police chases—all those lengthy setups were cut, leaving only a few individual shots.

The few shots that were left out were only to help the audience understand what time difference syndrome really is.

The presentation methods for time lag syndrome have been redesigned.

When time freezes, the background becomes distorted and abstract, the background sound disappears, and only Li Xianji's own voice remains.

As time flies by, the background of the screen becomes a series of rapidly skipped frames, and the ambient sound becomes a blurry white noise, mixed with intermittent, accelerated human voices.

With these two states and plot points combined, time flies when Li Xianji and Wang Qian are together; an afternoon passes in the blink of an eye.

After Wang Qian left, time seemed to stand still, each second feeling like an eternity.

This design transforms time lag from a concept that needs explanation into an experience that viewers can empathize with.

Who hasn't felt this way?

Happy times are too short, and painful days are too long.

The entry of animated segments also has a clear trigger point.

Only when Li Xianji's emotions are at their most extreme will the real world disintegrate into animation.

Animation is a visual symbol of emotional breakdown, and also the switch to the main event.

In terms of production, Ren Pingsheng planned to borrow the high-speed editing of "Spider-Man: Into the Universe", mix different color styles, and break the boundaries of the frame in post-production, so that the audience could see Li Xianji traveling through different worlds with the naked eye.

He had also considered using the multiverse setting of "Instant Universe" to have Li Xianji encounter different versions of himself and Wang Qian in different timelines every time he cleared a game level, but he only wanted to find the original Wang Qian.

But then I thought that parallel worlds require a huge narrative to be established so that the audience can understand them, so I abandoned this idea of ​​adding unnecessary details.

However, he kept all the parody clips mentioned before.

Thinking of this, Ren Pingsheng took out his phone and sent a message to Wang Li.

"Have you managed to contact Daigo Umehara?"

Wang Li replied quickly, "I got in touch with them. Their agent said that Daigo himself watched the original anime and found it quite interesting. He's willing to appear in it, but they can only give him one day, and he needs to go to Japan to film it."

One day is more than enough for just one scene.

"What about Little S and Kevin Tsai?"

"We've also contacted her. Cai Kangyong said it depends on what Xiao S thinks. Xiao S said she was sleeping the whole time in the animation, and asked if we invited her to make a cameo appearance as someone sleeping?"

Ren Pingsheng's lips twitched.

Indeed, in the animation, Little S was sleeping because she was pregnant, and she didn't have any lines.

He thought for a moment and replied with a message.

Tell her you're inviting her to sleep here.