At the same time, in Fei Huang Workspace …
Zhu Xiaoce brought along the core members of Fei Huang Workspace, as well as Cui Geng, Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Zuting, Lin Jiaqiang, and other actors who had worked with him before. They were having a meeting in the conference room.
Huang Sibo wasn't around because he had gone on a holiday with Hu Xianbin, and he had left very peacefully … no, in a hurry.
It was a little difficult for Zhu Xiaoce to handle this alone. The good thing was that Fei Huang Workspace had been consciously grooming the next generation of directors. Thus, once the person-in-charge left, there would be someone to replace him immediately. There would not be any problems.
The script for "Successor" had been written a long time ago, and even the preparatory work had been arranged.
The purpose of this meeting was to go through the script and unify their thoughts. After that, they were ready to officially start filming.
The filming this time was different from the past. It was a collaboration with the team in America. The characters in the movie were mainly foreigners. Naturally, they had to choose actors from abroad.
Therefore, Zhu Xiaoce did not intend to find actors from within the country.
However, Lu Zhiyao had obviously tasted the sweetness of their previous cooperation. He had to play a small role in the movie no matter what. He would not leave unless he was given a small role.
Zhang Zuting, Lin Jiaqiang, and the others also expressed that they had to help, even if it was just for a few minutes.
Zhu Xiaoce found it hard to refuse such hospitality, so he could only think of a way to force all of them in. Fortunately, these people's English was not bad, and it was not a problem for them to memorize their lines. Even if there was a slight flaw in their accent, it would make it sound more real. If it did not work, they could still dub it later, so it was not a big problem.
Zhu Xiaoce briefly introduced the basic content of the shoot.
"This time, we are going to shoot it in the form of a web drama. There will be a total of 12 episodes, and each episode will be about 50 minutes to an hour."
"The scripts for these 12 episodes have been sent to everyone. There is also a brief outline of the story attached at the back so that everyone can better understand the story."
"After filming is completed, this drama will be screened in the country. We may cooperate with video websites in the form of exclusive broadcasting, and there are no plans to release it overseas. "
"The specific release date isn't the main point. After all, there's no need to worry about the quality of the film. It's too early to think about this now."
"The original author, Cui Geng, is here for today's meeting. If you have any questions about the story, you can raise them. Cui Geng and our scriptwriter team will try their best to answer them."
Lin Jiaqiang was also present.
Compared to Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Zuting, and the others, he was obviously not qualified. However, he had worked with Tengda many times after all. That was why he came to help out as a cameo. He did not expect to be paid much.
If he still had the fat image from before, then he could only play the role of a comedian. It was obviously not suitable for him to make a guest appearance in this drama. But now that he had lost weight, it would not be a problem for him to act as a passerby.
However, as he flipped through the script, an incomprehensible expression appeared on his face.
How could this work?
Fei Huang Workspace's shoot this time was full of things to complain about. There were more things to complain about than any other shoot in the past!
First of all, with such a huge investment and cooperation with the film crew in America, it was just a web series and not a movie.
Secondly, this web drama was all dubbed in English. It was a story that took place overseas, but there were no plans to screen it overseas at the moment. It was prioritized domestically.
Thirdly, from the theme and content, it was said to be a superhero movie, but in reality, it had nothing to do with traditional superheroes. There was not a single good person in the entire series, and the main character was infinitely bad.
Finally, the original novel had already been serialized on Zhongdian Chinese Network. The effect was not very good, and the local readers were not very receptive to it.
How could this work?
No matter how he looked at it, it looked like it was going to fail.
Lin Jiaqiang secretly glanced at Lu Zhiyao and Zhang Zuting. He realized that although the two of them looked very determined on the surface, their small actions revealed that they did not have 100% confidence in this script.
Obviously, no matter how many miracles had happened before, people would still doubt whether the next miracle would happen.
This was human nature. What's more, the difficulty this time was obviously much higher than before.
Obviously, Zhu Xiaoce had realized this. That was why he had held a meeting in advance to unify their thinking. If even the internal staff had doubts about the success of this web series, they would probably have to take many detours during filming.
They were all old acquaintances. Thus, there was no need to hide anything. They voiced their doubts truthfully.
Zhang Zuting was the first to speak.
"The script this time is … quite special. However, are you sure you want to use the format of a web series? From what I know, web series are usually low-budget and small-scale productions. After all, there are limited ways to profit from web series.
"If you want to recoup your investment, it would be best if you shoot a movie and earn box office earnings. What's more, you have to earn global box office earnings.
"The format of a web series, the theme is foreign, the actors are foreign, the English voice, and we have to add subtitles in the local broadcast … these restrictions have caused the audience to shrink. It has become a relatively niche format.
"Can we really recoup our investment this way?"
To actors like Zhang Zuting and Lu Zhiyao, it was not very important whether this series could recoup its investment. After all, they were paid a fixed salary. If this series became popular, it would increase their popularity. If not, it would not be a big loss.
However, what they were worried about was that if they failed this time, it might be a blow to Fei Huang Workspace, both financially and mentally.
If because of this failure, Fei Huang Workspace would lose its bold, unconstrained imagination and adventurous spirit, and the quality of their future works would drop. Wouldn't that be a pity?
Thus, there was a need to remind them.
Zhu Xiaoce answered, "Uncle Zhang, Boss Pei specially requested for you to ask these questions.
"Actually, at the beginning, I had the same thought. I thought that the success rate of doing this was not high. However, after thinking about it carefully, I decided that this series had to be filmed this way!
"First of all, this theme had to be filmed overseas. Just like Struggle, it had to be set overseas. Otherwise, it would not have the same flavor.
"Second, this script contains a lot of information, and there are many key scenes. If we split it into a movie, we would have to split it into at least three parts. What's more, we would lose a lot of key information.
"Even if we succeed in separating them, watching each movie individually would actually be lacking in meaning. The entire story would be separated. We have to make it into a drama series in order to present the complete core to the audience."
"As for why we have to consider domestic audiences first … it's because only domestic audiences can understand the deeper meaning of this story from a bystander's point of view.
"It's not that foreign audiences would not be able to understand it, but we have to focus on domestic audiences first.
"Based on the above points, we could only make this choice. Although this would reduce the chances of success, I believe that since Boss Pei has given the script, we can definitely stand out as long as we shoot it seriously! "
Lu Zhiyao could not help but ask, "What is the core of this story? Actually, I don't really understand. I read the summary of the story. All I know is that a despicable villain carried out a series of plans and finally succeeded. "
Zhu Xiaoce replied, "According to my personal understanding … this story should be read in conjunction with realistic works like Tomorrow is Beautiful and Struggle."
"As for its specific meaning … we'll let the original author explain it."
He looked at Cui Geng after speaking.
The situation this time was different from before. The previous script was mainly based on Boss Pei's creativity. As for how to interpret Boss Pei's creativity, it depended on Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce.
However, the script this time was completely Cui Geng's original creation. Boss Pei was not involved, so the final interpretation was definitely with the original author.
It was precisely because the author was not Boss Pei that everyone did not particularly trust this script.
Cui Geng cleared his throat and said, "Actually, I really got the inspiration from Boss Pei for this story."
"To put it simply, Tomorrow is Beautiful, Struggle, and Successor have something in common in some aspects. They all have a certain allusion to reality."
"Struggle and Tomorrow is Beautiful are related. The society in Struggle will develop for a few more decades, and there will be a few more leaps and breakthroughs in technology. The entire social structure will become more extreme, and it will become the social structure in Tomorrow is Beautiful."
"'Successor', on the other hand, is more like a story that takes place in a parallel universe. The premise of this story is to make a hypothesis. If this is a world where 'superheroes rely on faith and supervillains rely on mutation', how would the story develop?"
"Just like the worries and distrust expressed in Tomorrow is Beautiful about the social structure, I was surprised to find that the story in Successor is also filled with such worries and distrust."
"This core is completely consistent."
"In fact, Boss Pei was the one who chose the theme of this story for me. At first, I did not understand Boss Pei's intentions at all. I felt that the theme of superheroes was actually a theme that could not be written at all."
"However, Boss Pei woke me up. He said three things: 'Superheroes can also be written for domestic readers', 'We don't have to make domestic readers like these superheroes', and 'It's okay to write these superheroes half-dead'."
"I thought about it for a long time and finally understood. It turns out that Boss Pei hopes that I can use our own cultural perspective to subvert the popular superhero theme. I want to use China's cultural perspective to observe Western stories and deconstruct them. I want to tear apart the perfect outer appearance of these works and reveal their inner nature! "
"Just like 'Struggle', the meaning of 'Successor' is to deconstruct the false 'utopia' constructed in Western cultural works and show some social problems in a more absurd form."
"It's easier to see many problems clearly if you jump out of the circle of reality."
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