February 22nd, Wednesday …
Huang Sibo brought Fei Huang Workspace's film crew and Zhang Yahui, the representative sent by the Cold-Faced Lady, to Chang 'an.
China's food culture had a long history. There were many famous night markets and snacks all over the country. Many of them were famous throughout the country, such as Gaozhuang Night Market, Dongxin Street Night Market, Zhanggongqiao Night Market, Xisi Night Market, Cross Street Night Market, and so on.
These night markets were all a gathering of local food and drink. Every night, there would be a hubbub of voices, the light of stir-frying, the shouts of hawkers, the dripping sweat, and the ice-cold beer. The night markets had a unique atmosphere and human touch.
The night market was a gathering place for delicacies. It was also a good place to set up stalls.
The first filming location chosen by the production team was Chang 'an's Dongxin Street Night Market.
The night market here first started in the 1980s. Most of the stalls and restaurants were located in the eastern section of Dongxin Street. The three most famous gourmet shops were the Wang Family's Bucket Chicken, the Zheng Family's Steamed Bun, and the Chen Family's Braised Vegetables.
Huang Sibo had already done his homework on these contents before he came.
Zhu Xiaoce might be the director and should have led the team over, but he had a more important job: supervising the post-production team's editing and post-production of Mission and Choice.
Zhu Xiaoce was the director of Mission and Choice after all. Many problems still needed to be decided by him.
Thus, Huang Sibo had led the team over to film this time and chosen another new director from the company. He could take this opportunity to train the newcomer.
It was still early when they arrived at the hotel. After everyone checked in, they gathered in the hotel's resting area. They planned to discuss how to shoot the promotional video.
They might have decided to film the night market, but the content of the night market was too broad. They still had to have a clear theme for what to film.
Huang Sibo and the entire team knew nothing about this. It would depend on the Cold-Faced Lady's representative, Zhang Yahui, how to film it.
However, what puzzled Huang Sibo was that Zhang Yahui was the only one from the Cold-Faced Lady's side. What's more, Zhang Yahui did not seem to know much about the Cold-Faced Lady's business. He was just a vendor who had joined the Cold-Faced Lady.
Huang Sibo specially called the person-in-charge of the Cold-Faced Lady, Qi Yan, to ask. Qi Yan said that it was alright. She had already told Zhang Yahui all her thoughts. The two of them had the same opinion. She still had to be in charge of the daily operations of the shop and the planning of the Gourmet Laboratory, so she would not go over. She told Huang Sibo to discuss any problems with Zhang Yahui.
Huang Sibo thought about it. That was right. With the Cold-Faced Lady's half-dead state, the final outcome would probably not be much different if Zhang Yahui or the management of the Cold-Faced Lady were to make the decision.
Hence, everyone looked at Zhang Yahui, waiting for him to say how the promotional video was going to be filmed.
Zhang Yahui had never dealt with such a professional filming team. Now that he was the focus of everyone's attention, he was a little nervous.
He adjusted his emotions and said, "Actually, Chief Qi didn't have any special purpose in shooting this promotional video. He mainly wanted to record the daily lives of the vendors and show netizens the hardships of setting up stalls. Of course, he could also promote traditional local delicacies in China. Of course, we can also focus on some innovative local delicacies that have been created on top of the traditional ones … "
"The reason why we want to film the stalls is mainly because the Cold-Faced Lady had organized a Street Food Contest previously. Boss Pei approved of it very much. Boss Qi thinks that digging deep into the delicacies of the stalls might be a future development direction for the Cold-Faced Lady. "
"What's more, the brand image and main dishes of the Cold-Faced Lady are inseparable from the stalls."
Huang Sibo was still confused. "I understand the general meaning, but the content is too complicated. There's no focus."
"Are we mainly filming delicacies or the daily lives of the vendors? The former would be a regular food promotional video, while the latter would be more like a documentary. "
Zhang Yahui was stunned. "Er … I'm not sure about that. What do you think, Brother Huang? "
Huang Sibo was speechless. He thought to himself, You're the one who wanted to film this film. You don't even have a clear idea, and yet you're asking me?
However, on further thought, the Cold-Faced Lady had only joined Tengda not long ago after all. Zhang Yahui had only been a vendor previously and had not been influenced by the Tengda spirit. It was normal for him not to understand these questions.
Under such circumstances, it was up to a Tengda old man like him to point the way for them!
Thus, he patted his chest. "Alright, I'll tell you my opinion from Boss Pei's point of view."
"At the end of the day, this promotional video is still meant to promote the Cold-Faced Lady. At the very least, we have to give the Cold-Faced Lady the impression that we care a lot about traditional delicacies and local delicacies through 'filming a promotional video for the delicacies of the street stalls'. "
"Therefore, my suggestion is that we pick a city, choose a local delicacy, and tell the personal story of a stall owner in every episode. That would give us the effect of 'seeing the big picture through the small'."
"In the past, many food promotional videos used food as the core for publicity. For example, how precious the ingredients for this delicacy are, how complicated the production process is, and how much the boss has the spirit of a craftsman. "
"However, if we were to expand the scope to the entire 'street stalls', this perspective would undoubtedly be a little one-sided."
"We all know that street stalls are actually tiring work. Many street stall owners actually have a hard life."
"Therefore, the structure of our film is roughly divided into three parts. The first part is to introduce the city and night market that we are going to film in this episode. We will roughly introduce a few very famous local delicacies in this night market. Then, we will expand it to make a summary of the entire area's food culture and give the audience a very broad perspective."
"The second part will focus on a certain stall owner in this night market and introduce his mental journey in detail. For example, how did this stall owner embark on the road of setting up a stall? Have there been any relatively sad or touching incidents in his long career? This will allow everyone to better understand the inner world of these stall owners. "
"The third part will introduce his exclusive delicacies after introducing this stall owner's mental journey in detail. That way, the audience would already have a certain impression of this stall owner. It would be easier to resonate with him. "
"What do you think?"
Zhang Yahui immediately nodded. "Yes, I think that's pretty good!"
"However, there might be a small problem with this. It would make everyone focus on the night market, stall owners, and delicacies. They would not pay too much attention to the Cold-Faced Lady brand."
"I suddenly thought of a very important factor that I have to mention."
"The Cold-Faced Lady has set up a Gourmet Laboratory and will work hard to recruit all the outstanding food vendors from all over the country. Of course, many vendors will find it hard to leave their homeland. We will buy the recipes of delicacies from them at a high price and train professionals to learn them. We will try our best to recreate this original local flavor. "
"After adding this content, the focus of the publicity will no longer be on a certain city's night market or a certain stall owner, but on the Cold-Faced Lady!"
Huang Sibo immediately nodded. "Indeed."
"Since it's a promotional video, our ultimate goal is definitely to promote the Cold-Faced Lady."
"However, we shouldn't be too straightforward about this. It's easy to arouse disgust from others."
"I think we can just add a Cold-Faced Lady logo and a line of small words at the end of the film."
Zhang Yahui nodded. "Yes, sure. I'll listen to your arrangements, Brother Huang. I'm a stall owner myself. If you have any questions in this area, you can ask me anytime. "
Huang Sibo said, "Yes, I have a question for you now. Let's have a simple exchange and try our best before we start planning how to film it."
"Actually, I have a better understanding of the bright and beautiful parts. What I want to ask is, how bad can the gloomy side be?"
Zhang Yahui smiled in embarrassment. "Then … it's a long story."
…
According to statistics, there were 600 million people in China whose monthly income was less than 1,000 yuan. The economy might be developing very rapidly, so much so that there were many high-income groups emerging one after another, but there were still many people who were worried about their livelihoods.
Zhang Yahui knew many stall owners who were forced to set up stalls to make a living.
They did not like to set up stalls, but they had no choice but to treat it as a way to make a living.
These stall owners did all kinds of things. Some put film on mobile phones, some set up newsstands to sell magazines, and some sold umbrellas at bus stops, shopping malls, subway entrances. There were also some who made chicken chops or other snacks …
Of course, there were also people like Zhang Yahui who set up stalls to sell cold noodles.
During the process of setting up stalls, it was hard to describe how sad they were.
For example, they set up stalls in popular places and were ruined by hooligans. They had no choice but to swallow their anger and obediently 'offer up'.
They rented a popular shop, but the landlord chased them away with the demolition notice. After they left helplessly, they found out that the landlord had subleased the place at a higher price.
They wanted to open a small shop to do food and beverage. First, they had to go through a lot of trouble to apply for a business license. Then, they were ordered to rectify because of complaints. Their business was bleak …
As long as they walked this path, most of the stall owners would sleep later than dogs and wake up earlier than chickens. They would not rest all year round. However, most of them could only barely make ends meet and struggle on the line of food and clothing.
Many people sympathized with the small vendors, but the premise was that they would not set up their stalls in front of their house or where they were going.
The stalls of these small vendors were either unsafe (placed at crossroads or main roads) or unhygienic (raw materials were difficult to guarantee, and kitchen waste polluted the roads). At the same time, they also brought many problems to the management of the city.
Zhang Yahui had been setting up stalls ever since he graduated from high school. He might still be very young, but he had actually been setting up stalls for seven or eight years. He had also changed the location of his stall many times. Naturally, he was very clear about his beliefs.
Fei Huang Workspace's filming team listened and recorded. They began to plan the specific filming plan for the promotional video based on what Zhang Yahui said.
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