Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 38: Teaching Ning Hao to Revise "Stone"

Beijing Film Academy is the cradle of Chinese film talents, this statement is of course recognized by the industry, but the food at Beijing Film Academy is really hard to eat.

Therefore, there is a saying that "Beiyou is the milk bottle of China's film talents."

Lu Kuan studied here in his previous life, and he would follow everyone to stroll to Beihang University, 1000 meters away, to get a free meal, or go to Beijing Normal University, which was a little further away, to see girls.

"Lu Kuan, how come you are so familiar with Beijing Film Academy?"

Ning Hao temporarily put aside his original intention of discussing the script with him and satisfied his curiosity first.

"Oh, I'm quite interested in the beauties from your Beijing Film Academy's acting department, and I often come here to eat for free."

The guy with the flat head looked at him speechlessly as he showed off his lamb cartilage. If he hesitated any longer, it would be eaten up, so he rolled up his sleeves and started working.

After having a good meal and tea, Lu Kuan patted his belly in satisfaction.

During the Spring Festival, all restaurants were closed, and he had completely lost all his cooking skills from his early years. He had been starving for most of the past half month.

"Xiao Ning, let's talk if you have something to say."

Boss Lu was very aware of the fact that he should be grateful to the person who helped him, so he decided to help this "younger generation" who was still hesitating between making art films and commercial films.

Ning Hao was stunned when he heard this. Looking at his slightly young face but extremely mature temperament, he didn't think of refutating his address for a while.

"Well, I have a script that I want to discuss with you..."

"Oh, let's go!"

Ning Hao's train of thought couldn't keep up with his pace. Don't you even ask?
The two came to the improved housing that Ning Hao and his wife moved out of the basement: Jimenli Community.

After the millennium, portrait photography became all the rage, and Ning Hao's side hustle evolved from painting on a street stall to personal photography and videography. Ever since he shot the industry-renowned personal portraits of Liu Laowu from the band Tang Dynasty, rumors of a talented photographer named Ning Hao at Beijing Film Academy spread.

As a result, with MV orders coming in one after another from Jin Haixin, Tu Honggang and even Pu Shu, Ning Hao and his girlfriend Xing Aina, whom he met through Huahua, took the opportunity to improve their lives and moved to the vicinity of Beijing Film Academy to facilitate their studies and part-time jobs in photography and editing.

Xing Aina greeted Lu Kuan after being introduced by her boyfriend, and went to the kitchen to boil water and make tea in a virtuous manner.

"The house is rather simple, don't mind."

"That's great! Who wouldn't live a life of wealth? If you can't see the affection, then you need this kind of hardship to cultivate feelings!"

Boss Lu had never done Ning Hao's public relations work in his previous life, so the couple should have been relatively harmonious.

Ning Hao didn't waste any time and pulled out a script from the pile of waste manuscripts. The cover of the script read "Big Diamond".

"Let me consider."

Lu Kuan had no sense of humility and leaned back on the sofa, flipping through the script.

Xing Aina put down her teacup, gently nagged her boyfriend and whispered, "Who is this? If you think you can take it home, don't worry."

It is said that women have a natural intuition and can tell at a glance that Boss Lu is not a good person.

By the time other women realized this, they had probably already paid a considerable price, such as the sad Sister Jiang.

"The script is too bad and needs to be revised!" Xing Aina was a little indignant. This script also contained her intellectual achievements, so how could it be easily rejected?

Ning Hao said with a heavy face: "What are the rules?"

He didn't feel much about it. Even Zhang Yimou's script was criticized, so who did he think he was?

"Xiao Ning, have you ever seen a serious Hollywood script?"

An outstanding master's student from the Directing Department of the University of Southern California decided to teach a lesson to some advertising film directors who had just started their careers.

The two of them shook their heads, and Lu Kuan spread out the script.

Sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood, and only by teaching the tool maker can he work better for himself.

"Hollywood film companies and major studios usually have a very important position called script analyst."

"Take your script for example. If I were a script analyst and received your manuscript, the first thing I would look at is your introduction and summary, which are probably just two or three sentences, followed by a plot outline of no more than two pages."

Does it sound familiar? Going through manuscripts with Qidian editors and choosing books with fellow readers is a similar process: look at the tags, the synopsis, and then the golden three chapters.

In short, book friends = Hollywood script analysts.

Lu Kuan said this to guide him towards improving his scripts for commercial productions, and then he said, "I know a script analyst at Warner Bros. Usually in Hollywood's film industry process, they use a series of quantitative criteria to evaluate scripts."

He picked up Ning Hao's script and flipped to the section he had just marked. "For example, in your film 'Big Diamond,' if the male and female protagonists have no more than 75 scenes, the script will often be rejected directly. This is to ensure that the big stars have enough scenes, and thus guarantee the box office."

"For example, the dramatic events in your film, like the Coke can at the beginning, and Brother Bao mistakenly giving his wife a real jade, etc., generally require at least 50 such events in a script to avoid the film being too tedious and unable to grab the audience's attention."

Does this sound familiar? Simply put, dramatic events and the main characters' roles equal excitement. If there aren't enough excitement, the book will be removed from shelves.

"Let's go back to 'The Diamond,'" he said. "According to the classic Hollywood three-part structure, a dramatic topic or suspense is usually created within ten minutes, and a story or branch is established before the thirty-five minute mark."

"Based on a standard 120-minute film, the plot and scenes should be designed according to a roughly 3:6:3 structure. Looking at your current script, it's typically top-heavy, lacking substance in the middle. There's too much foreshadowing in the beginning, and when the suspense is revealed in the middle, there's no dramatic tension."

Ning Hao listened attentively, and even pulled his hair out without noticing the problem, which was picked apart by Lu Kuan like a butcher cutting up an ox. He felt that his script was saved.

"As it stands now, we'll use the plot points as a benchmark and fill in the 75 scenes and 50 plays we just mentioned. Of course, since this is an ensemble drama and there's no specific protagonist, then these two numbers will need to be increased as appropriate."

Ning Hao nodded continuously. Although he didn't understand Hollywood, he was familiar with basic screenwriting knowledge such as plot points.

In short, plot points are the landmark events, facts, plots, etc. that mark the turning point of each scene. They will guide the audience to the next plot branch and thus connect the entire drama.

It's like the protagonist in a fairy tale novel who has opened up a map, but suddenly receives a secret message saying that the mountain gate is in danger and he should return quickly, and then enters the next chapter's map or plot. It's basically like that.

"Also, you need to change your name too."

What big diamonds? Everyone who has been on Qidian knows that the fewer names a novice has on his books, the less likely he will do well.

"what is it call?"

Boss Lu hesitated for a moment and said, "Crazy Stone!"

(End of this chapter)