Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 30 Enlightenment
Before his family arrived, Zhang Yan went to visit Teacher Zheng Ming as planned.

Professor Zheng Ming's home is near the Beijing Film Academy. Zhang Yan came here not only to thank him for his help during the incident involving the scholars of "Dream of the Red Chamber," but also to explain in person the reason for refusing the offer from China Youth Publishing House.

After getting off the bus near the film academy, Zhang Yan was about to ask someone for directions when a handsome young man ran up to her and greeted her familiarly, "Are you Teacher Zhang Yan? Do you remember me?"

Zhang Yan looked closely for a long time before recognizing the actor that Da Nao had brought to Shi Tiesheng's house that day. However, compared to his previous pretty boy image, the young man was noticeably darker and thinner.

"To prepare for my role in 'Life on the Road,' I recently went to the countryside to experience rural life," the young man said, extending his hand to introduce himself. "My name is Huang Lei, and I'm a freshman at the Beijing Film Academy."

"Oh, nice to meet you."

Zhang Yan shook hands with him and asked curiously, "Is 'Life on a String' the name of the movie adaptation of 'Life on a String'?"

"Yes, our Director Chen named it that, saying it's easy to understand."

Tsk~
Why don't you mind using something more colloquial now?
Moreover, compared to "Life on a String", "Life on a String" is clearly several levels lower!

While inwardly complaining, Zhang Yan casually asked, "What's Director Chen's full name?"

"That's director Chen Kaige. His film won an award abroad in 84. Director Zhang Yimou was his cinematographer at the time."

Chen Kaige?
This name seems to have appeared in my dreams before; it looks like Big Head will be popular for many more years to come.

At this point, Huang Lei added, "After that day, I made a special trip to read your novel. It's really interesting and unlike any other novel these days. No wonder it's selling so well."

Zhang Yan then understood why Huang Lei had taken the initiative to strike up a conversation. He said "Thank you for your kind words" twice, and handed over the slip of paper with Zheng Ming's home address written on it, asking, "Huang, do you recognize this address?"

Huang Lei glanced down and smiled, "One of our teachers lives here. I happen to have nothing to do, so I'll take you there."

The two chatted as they walked. Eighteen-year-old Chef Huang was already quite talkative and could handle almost any topic. Of course, being able to handle a topic didn't mean he handled it well; in some places, he was a bit pretentious about what he didn't know.

After dropping Zhang Yan off at Zheng Ming's building, Huang Lei left without saying a word, showing no intention of exchanging contact information.

This surprised Zhang Yan. He had thought that the other party was so enthusiastic because they wanted to befriend him, a well-known bestselling author.

It seems I overcomplicated things.

Compared to people like him who enter society at a young age, college students are relatively more innocent.

We arrived at Zheng Ming's house.

After exchanging pleasantries, Zhang Yancai told them that he was being transferred to Tianjin Literature and therefore had to decline the offer from the Youth Publishing House.

Zheng Ming didn't care about that; he was more interested in Zhang Yan's plan to write a script for Tianjin TV.

"Tie Sheng told me everything on the phone."

Zheng Ming said seriously, "His approach, from the perspective of a writer and screenwriter, is not necessarily wrong, but if you want to get this opportunity, you can't just rely on compromise."

Zhang Yan quickly sat up straight and earnestly said, "Teacher Zheng, could you please give me some pointers from the director's perspective?"

"I have no idea what a director's perspective is."

Zheng Ming waved his hand and continued, "To put it bluntly, compromise is something that happens after you get into the crew. Right now, your most important thing is to get the ticket to join the crew."

I'm not very familiar with Tianjin TV, but I know a bit about Beijing TV. They can only produce two dramas at a time, let alone a high-quality long-running series like 'Aspiration.' Even one of those shows is a huge challenge for them.”

Hearing this, Zhang Yan realized what was going on.

If even Beijing TV is struggling like this, then Tianjin TV's claim of simultaneously producing two or three high-quality dramas is most likely just a case of putting on a brave face.

They either boasted about the quantity or the quality.

Zhang Yan prefers the latter, since "high-quality drama" is a relatively vague concept, while two to three are solid indicators.

Therefore, it's more likely that two low-budget productions will be filmed simultaneously.

"clever!"

After listening to Zhang Yan's analysis, Zheng Ming praised him and then said, "But you should know that TV stations also have a scriptwriting department, and they will most likely take one of the spots, so you can only fight for the remaining one or two spots."

Tsk~
If it were just two people, it would be fine. But if it were a fierce competition with thousands of people vying for a single spot, Zhang Yan couldn't guarantee that he would stand out, since he wasn't the only one with connections.

"So if you want to stand out, you must write a concise and exquisite script, that is, strive to make the script exciting enough while saving costs for the production team as much as possible." He paused, then added, "It would be best to affirm Tianjin's achievements and praise the people of Tianjin in the script."

This last point was truly enlightening!
The reason why Tianjin TV is in such a hurry to produce a TV series is because the higher-ups feel that they cannot fall too far behind Beijing. If the series praises Tianjin's achievements and looks forward to its future, it will definitely be welcomed by the higher-ups.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yan gave Zheng Ming a thumbs up: "You truly deserve to be called a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy; every word you say is insightful!"

Zheng Ming shook his head and said, "It's easy for me to say this when I'm not in the situation. If I were to actually direct a movie, I definitely wouldn't be able to bring myself to do it."

The two then chatted about many topics related to movies, scripts, and novels until 10:30 p.m., when Zhang Yan took the initiative to say goodbye and leave.

As Zhang Yan walked towards the bus stop, he kept thinking about how to write the script.

His original idea was to write a story about solving cases in ancient times, modeled after "The Detective of the Dream of the Red Chamber". After all, the middle-aged author had collected many classic crime methods, which were enough for him to choose from.

Then we can choose a famous person as the main character, such as Bao Zheng, Song Ci, or Di Renjie, and that will complete the project.

However, considering the cost and the need to cater to the leaders' preferences, period dramas are no longer suitable; otherwise, the set design alone would be difficult enough.

Then it can only be changed to a modern crime drama.

The setting is the Economic and Technological Development Zone, which is the driving force of Tianjin's economy.

Regarding the main character's personality, the male lead is basically confirmed to be a criminal police officer.

As for the female lead...

Suddenly, the image of Zhou Tao in his police uniform flashed into Zhang Yan's mind.

Yup!

He slapped his thigh excitedly and decided that the female lead would be based on Zhou Tao, a female college student majoring in performing arts who had to temporarily work in the Public Security Bureau in order to secure a spot in Tianjin.

This way, it's only natural to find a young, beautiful, and fashionable actress to play the female lead.

However, female college students majoring in performing arts and criminal investigation teams don't seem to be a good match. We have to give her a 'special skill' so that she can enter the criminal investigation team by chance.

EMMM~
How about adding micro-expression analysis?
For example, she can always keenly sense whether the other party is deliberately lying or acting—which matches her professional background.

Another aspect is the skills in recording and photography. You can specifically choose some techniques related to these areas to highlight the importance of the female lead.

The first case is about a female lead who was originally assigned to logistics, but was unexpectedly dragged to the crime scene by the male lead. Then, with her professional knowledge, she happened to notice the suspect's flaws.

The male protagonist quickly turned the tide, solved the murder case, and brought the female lead into the criminal investigation team, while the female lead only wanted to find an opportunity to transfer to the drama troupe.

Wouldn't this lead to a reversal of the conflict later on?!
Zhang Yanzheng became increasingly agitated as he thought about it, when suddenly he heard Huang Lei's voice beside him: "Teacher Zhang, are you alright?"

"Ok?"

When Zhang Yan came to his senses, he realized that he had unknowingly arrived at the platform, and there were many people around him pointing and whispering.

Thinking back to how I was slapping my thigh and scratching my head, I guess people thought I was crazy.

Zhang Yan blushed and asked awkwardly, "How did you know I was here?"

Huang Lei pointed to the side and said, "These two sophomores saw us talking this morning. They know you're my friend, so when they saw you here... they had someone call me over."

Zhang Yan looked in the direction he pointed and, unsurprisingly, saw two beautiful women.

He explained sheepishly, "I'm fine. I just suddenly had a great idea and got a little carried away."

"Oh~"

Huang Lei suddenly realized what was happening and then shouted to the surroundings, "It's alright, it's alright. My friend is a novelist. He was so engrossed in thinking about the plot that he forgot we were outside."

When people heard that he was a novelist, they were no longer surprised.

After the onlookers dispersed, Zhang Yan made a special trip to thank the two female students and also remembered their names: Yu Feihong and Wang Qian.

Figure:

(End of this chapter)