China Entertainment 1997

"The most willing to forget the ancient poems

The most disdainful thing is lovesickness

Guard your love and be afraid of people laughing

Still afraid that people will see clearly

Come see the red beans bloom again in spring

I didn’t see any lover picking it up

Fireworks embrace the romance and true love is not there

…”

Accompanied by the powerful yet poignant singing, the first two episodes of "Journey to the West" came to an end.

Many people present in the conference room were still immersed in the singing, savoring the taste, and a few focused on the TV series itself, whispering about the plot just now.

For example, Zhang Zijian, who had never read the script, was very interested in the drama and kept asking Qian Yanqiu related questions.

As the boss, Cao Xuan himself made a comprehensive comparison from all aspects of the TV series.

First of all, in terms of actors, several actors played their roles well in the first two episodes.

Tang Seng, played by Huang Haibin, is not only compassionate and gentle in the popular impression, but also a little more persevering and strong.

This is a specially added character based on the plot of the TV series. After all, "Journey to the West" is no longer the master protected by several apprentices, but the Buddha of Zhantan Merit.

He is a Zen and martial arts practitioner who knows spells and fighting. He dances like a tiger with an upgraded and enchanted nine-ring tin staff. He also knows the magical skill of cassock, and even the purple gold alms bowl has become a magic weapon.

When Sun Wukong fought against Wu Tian, ​​Tang Seng and Nezha were also his most powerful teammates.

Even many times, he is responsible for the important task of guarding the family. Generally speaking, he can be said to be the best-performing Tang Seng among the Buddhist scripture collection teams in all major versions.

This character is actually much more brilliant than Qiao Ling'er, who descends to earth to fall in love, second only to Sun Wukong and Wu Tian.

When Ren Quan first read the script, he wanted to play Tang Monk, but Huang Haibin had already decided, so he decided to play Qiao Ling'er.

The actor who plays Zhu Bajie is called Lu Hanbiao. He has a very special surname. He is a classmate of Huang Lei and Jiang Wu in the 90-level acting department of Nortel. He is also teaching at Nortel and later joined Guohua.

Lu Hanbiao was able to get the role of Zhu Bajie, and Qian Yanqiu was partly responsible for it. The two were brothers, and he supported the other's role in this role.

Being able to study abroad at Nortel and enter the National Theater, Lu Hanbiao's professional skills are quite excellent, and Zhu Bajie's silly and funny performances are all shown.

In the first two episodes, he is the most eye-catching of all the characters who appeared. If it weren't for the quality of Monkey King and Tang Seng, the scenes would have been robbed.

Sha Seng doesn't have many roles, he plays steadily, and Xiao Bailong is just a supporting role. He has a young actor who is average and medium-range.

All the rest of the highlights are actually the character of Monkey King.

At first, because Teacher Six's asking price was too high, Cao Xuan overcame all objections and asked Ding Jian to play the role of Sun Wukong.

To be honest, many people on the "Journey to the West" crew disagreed with this at the time. After all, Ding Jian was unknown and no one could guarantee that he would be able to take the lead.

So the crew had two voices at that time. One was to continue to spend more money on Teacher Six, and the other was to hire someone from Xiangjiang, Cao Rong, Zhang Weijian or Chen Haomin.

Needless to say about the former, "Journey to the West: The Continuation" was extremely popular at the time, so hiring Teacher Six would guarantee the actor's strength and publicity.

Among the next three Xiangjiang actors, Cao Rong has been in contact with the crew before, and the last two have played the TVB version of Monkey King. They have received a good response, their popularity and performances are guaranteed, and they are also convenient for publicity.

This proposal was directly refuted by Cao Xuan. It was easy to throw money away, but what if you couldn't get your money back?

Ding Jian himself is the "low-end version" of Teacher Six. When the two parties disagreed on the salary, Cao Xuan naturally chose the one with higher cost performance.

As for those in Xiangjiang, Cao Rong doesn't talk about it, and the other two don't talk about whether their styles are suitable or not. The key people are now popular and are paid millions. With this money, he might as well spend money on Teacher Six.

Since becoming the boss of a film and television company, Cao Xuan's thinking has also changed.

When I was an actor in the past, I always felt that the producers and producers were incompetent, and the filming was not grand at all. What's wrong with spending more money in order to get better results?

But when he himself became a producer, he was worried every day that those directors and actors would waste money one by one, and they would spend money on things that were obviously unnecessary.

You don't have to pay for love!

It only took one play for Boss Cao to learn the four words "cost control" without any teacher.

It is particularly worth noting that cost control does not mean shoddy manufacturing, but that money should be spent wisely. Cao Xuan can tolerate some overspending and will even take the initiative to increase money for better results.

What he wants is to pursue higher results within a reasonable cost, rather than saving money for the sake of saving money.

The former is based on cost-effectiveness, while the latter is due to choking.

He had repeatedly considered the matter of Teacher Six, and carefully considered the advantages and disadvantages before finally choosing Ding Jian.

The reason why the crew objected was because they didn't know Ding Jian. During the post-production period, there were fewer and fewer similar voices. At most, they said that the publicity effect was not strong, but they did not say that Ding Jian's acting skills were not good.

Ding Jian himself also knows that this opportunity is rare, and he is the hardest working actor in the entire "Journey to the West" crew.

The Sun Wukong in "Journey to the West" is calm, wise, calm and sharp, a bit like the mythical version of Yan Shuangying, or a combination of Di Renjie + Li Yuanfang.

In the original version, Cao Rong pursued this point blindly and made Sun Wukong look like a facial paralysis, which invisibly gave up some of the highlights of Sun Wukong.

In fact, in the plot of "Journey to the West", it can be seen that the screenwriter consciously designed some monkeys to be clever and mischievous, to tease the villains and annoy the teammates.

But the original version didn't work at all, it was a very dead version, which made many viewers who liked the show use fighting over Buddha to justify it.

But it was also Sun Wukong who defeated the Buddha.

The Sun Wukong portrayed in the animated film version and the TV series "Lotus Lantern" is a monkey wearing a cassock. Many people will smile knowingly after watching it, and feel that it is very consistent with Sun Wukong's character.

Whether Sun Wukong is the Monkey King, Monkey King, or Victorious Buddha, too much emphasis is placed on his human nature while ignoring his monkey nature, which seems too thin.

It is worth mentioning that what we are talking about here is the Sun Wukong in the popular impression, or the 1986 version of "Journey to the West" and "Havoc in the Sky" animations, as well as various simplified Chinese published images of Sun Wukong.

It is not the "angry" hozen in the original work, nor is it the peerless demon king/Monkey King who was impacted by online literature.

Ding Jian's performance is from the same line as Teacher Six, and his style is more popular. He is clever and mischievous, smart and brave, which also greatly fits the character of Sun Wukong in the script of "Journey to the West".

Of course, due to the plot of the confrontation with Wutian, the big villain, Sun Wukong in the play is aware of the difficulty of his opponent, and his performance will be more calm and serious.

Especially in the later part of the plot, when almost one person fights against the "Three Realms", it is too out of the ordinary and causes drama.

Therefore, Sun Wukong in "Journey to the West" should be a combination of human nature and monkey nature. The first half of the plot is mostly monkey nature, and the second half is mostly human nature.

How to grasp this degree is a problem that Ding Jian always pays attention to on the crew. Fortunately, he performed well.

At least in the first two episodes, Cao Xuan's performance is rich in levels as seen in the TV series, including Monkey King's cunning and clever side, as well as some calm and serious scenes.

Ding Jian's performance is originally like Teacher Six, and the crew specially hired Li Yang, the voice of Teacher Six from the 1986 version of "Journey to the West". Coupled with the monkey leather suit, ordinary people really can't tell the difference between the two.

In addition to the actors, the shooting shots are not as fancy and lopsided as the original version, but are shot according to normal shooting shots.

The fighting scenes also eliminated ghosts and beasts, and then hired a martial arts instructor from Xiangjiang. You can't say how amazing the action is, but it's orderly and looks good.

In addition, under the instruction of Cao Xuan, "The Later Biography of Journey to the West" did a lot of work in persuading the Tao.

To be honest, domestic dramas and movies can be so different, Fu Huadao has to shoulder a small part of the blame. Urban dramas are okay, but costumes are completely dependent on fate.

Especially the group of stylists and costume designers from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Although they have countless beauties and handsome men and classic film and television looks, they also have countless weird looks.

Rather than betting on the status of this group of people, Cao Xuan still believes in the great masters of CCTV. If the big boss can't poach them, there will be no big problem for their disciples.

Maybe these people rarely come up with any classics, but the lower limit is high enough and they won't easily do things that catch people's attention.

For an entertainment film and television company, it is very important to have a group of stylists with online aesthetic abilities.

For example, a large part of the reason why Tang Dynasty's dramas are so good-looking is that there are so many handsome guys and beautiful women, and the stylists have done a lot of credit here.

Da Mi Mi, Liu Shishi, Tang Yan, Liu Tianxian, Zeng Li and many other women's classic film and television images were all born in the Tang Dynasty, and have attracted waves of fans.

Therefore, for a TV series targeting young people, whether the stylist can make the actors look beautiful is also an important factor in its success.

Fanxing currently has one stylist and two makeup artists hired from CCTV through connections. They are responsible for the styling design and makeup team for Fanxing film and television crew characters and artist activities.

In addition, there are a series of behind-the-scenes personnel including specialized photography, art, props, lighting, etc., all of whom are elites poached from various units in the capital.

Currently, Fanxing's foundation is still weak, so they basically do it themselves, and then temporarily second some people. When Fanxing expands in scale later, they will continue to recruit relevant talents, and even train them independently.

It is precisely because of the composition of this behind-the-scenes team that the service of "Journey to the West" has greatly improved compared to the original version.

The costumes, weapons, and makeup of the characters are all much more refined. Without the original version, it looks a bit cheap, like a 999 browser game.

The scenery is also good-looking. Although it didn't have too much action due to cost, it also enriched a lot of details. The places such as Tianting and Lingshan also looked presentable, not as "grassy" as the original version.

Of course, the cost of improving the quality of these services is not small.

Cao Xuan invested nearly 500,000 yuan more than expected, and spent all the money he had saved by not hiring the Sixth Teacher.

However, Cao Xuan thinks it is quite worth it. He actually has a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder and is obsessed with details.

Looking at the significantly improved service and the much more exquisite scenes on the screen, I feel very comfortable and have a sense of accomplishment in my heart.

Putting aside the screenwriter and director, Cao Xuan believes that the drama line "Serving Daojing Boutique" will be an important magic weapon for launching the Fanxing Film and Television brand in the future, and at the same time, it can also gain a lot of favor among practitioners and audiences in the industry.

………

Overall, Cao Xuan is quite satisfied with "Journey to the West", the first TV series independently produced by Fanxing.

A perfect score of 100 points can be scored as 80 points.

There is room for further improvement, but it is still considered good. Producer Ding Ying, directors Qian Yanqiu, Chen Hanzhu and all the participants were praised by him.

Cao Xuan has always been honest in his actions. In addition to verbal awards, there are also bonuses. The specific amount depends on the sales of the second round of broadcast rights of "Journey to the West", but he will definitely not treat everyone badly.

In addition to bonus awards, there are also corresponding changes in positions. Ding Ying serves as the producer of the two dramas "The Golden Family" and "Love Through Time" that have already begun preparations.

He also served as the co-producer of two dramas "Li Wei Becomes an Official" and "The Passionate Years" in which Fanxing participated.

Although Cao Xuan has the producers of the two dramas "Armor Warrior" and "Yan Shuangying" in his hands and is ready to support newcomers.

But even so, Ding Ying, who is in charge of many Fanxing film and television projects, can be considered inferior to one person and superior to dozens of people in the film and television production department.

Even within the entire Fanxing, he can be regarded as a high-level person. If his time was not short and there was no one to check and balance him, he would be able to get a deputy position in the film and television production department.

Chen Hanzhu and Qian Yanqiu also made progress, each filming a TV series independently. Qian Yanqiu wrote and directed "Yan Shuangying", while Chen Hanzhu got "Love Through Time and Space".

As for "The Golden Family", which requires a high level of director quality, Cao Xuan plans to find an outside director. The original version of Liu Guoquan is good, and his shooting techniques have the delicacy and romance unique to female directors.

Even Chen, Qian, and Cao Xuan plan to find an experienced assistant director to watch over them.

Especially Qian Yanqiu, he is talented, but his filming is too formulaic, and he doesn't like to pay attention to details, which makes him look particularly sloppy. Cao Xuan feels that if he can overcome this problem, the quality of the TV series can be doubled.

As for "Armor Warrior", its progress is the slowest, and it is a tokusatsu drama with a weak market, so its priority must be lower.

After the meeting, Boss Cao gave the employees a shot of chicken blood. Everyone walked out of the conference room one after another, and Hu Jing stayed behind openly.

Gao Yuanyuan and Zhang Zijian understood what was going on instantly. Gao Yuanyuan smiled at Hu Jing before leaving, which was a little more cordial and sweet.

Cao Xuan kept watching the interaction between the two and said with a smile: "How does the boss lady feel? She is quite majestic."

"Don't talk nonsense. I am a newbie in caring. When did I start showing off my authority?"

Hu Jing was a little embarrassed, but she acquiesced to Cao Xuan's wife boss's statement. She secretly glanced outside and closed the door. Cao Xuan was so "nervous" that he tugged on his collar.

"What are you doing? You have to pay attention to your image in the company. If you really can't do it, you can't do it here. Go to my office, which is soundproofed."

"Bah, what are you thinking about?"

Hu Jing blushed and spat at him, then took out a key from her bag. Cao Xuan took it and asked curiously.

"What is this?"

"The key to the Tongzhou apartment. I bought a new apartment. I'm planning to move out of the apartment. I want to return the apartment to the company. Sister Jiang doesn't want the key, so I told you to give it to you."

"House? How much did it cost? Why did you remember buying a house?"

Cao Xuan didn't expect Hu Jing to get a house without saying a word, and was shocked. Hu Jing showed off a little proudly.

"Didn't you say that there is a lot of room for promotion in a house in Beijing? When I was filming, I saved almost 200,000 yuan as a salary and took some commercial roles. My parents gave me another 100,000 yuan, collected a down payment of almost 400,000 yuan, and took out a loan. For less than 200,000 yuan, I bought a small apartment of about 90 square meters in Dongcheng."

Hu Jing comes from a middle-class family, and her parents are both in business. Although she is not rich, she still has some financial acumen.

Cao Xuan's net worth exceeded 100 million in just a few years, and he made money from both investments. Hu Jing felt that Cao Xuan had a strong business acumen, so she planned to invest with the big boss.

During a casual chat, she heard that Cao Xuan was optimistic about the real estate market in the capital, and she took it to heart. After she had some savings, she planned to buy a house to preserve its value.

"We are really not a family. If we don't join the same family, we want to hoard a house after making money."

Cao Xuan was a little dumbfounded, but he didn't stop Hu Jing. With her capital and brains, buying a house was indeed a sound financial direction.

But there is no need to move out. Cao Xuan handed the key to Hu Jing again: "It's cramped to live in 90 square meters. That house in Tongzhou was originally bought for you, so live in peace."

"Bought for me?"

Hu Jing was a little stunned. Cao Xuan looked at her silly look and couldn't help but poke her dimples and said with a smile.

"The house book is all in your name. The company asked for your ID last time. I was afraid that you wouldn't want it, so I kept it here."

Hu Jing was a little panicked at first because of the house falling from the sky, but soon a question suddenly occurred to her.

"She...has?"

"No!"

Of course Cao Xuan knew who "she" was. He shook his head like a rattle and repeated the same words he said in front of Zeng Li a few months ago in a firm tone.

"This is our house, only you own it."

Hu Jing was doubtful, but she still felt sweet in her heart. She put the key away and couldn't help but come over and kiss Cao Xuan. Cao Xuan took the next step and hugged her and savored it for a few minutes.

If you weren't in an office and there were so many people outside, you might have misfired.

In fact, for Zeng Li and Hu Jing, the house is not particularly important. The most important thing is Cao Xuan's true love for them during this period.

The two chose to accept the house not only because of the value of the house itself, but more importantly because it was given by Cao Xuan.

Of course, the two of them are not just asking for things, they both responded in varying degrees.

Afterwards, Hu Jing found a famous craftsman to make a Han sword. Cao Xuan didn't have many hobbies and only collected half of it.

I don’t know much about antiques. Apart from personal souvenirs, I love jade and cold weapons. Jade is a thing for appreciation, and cold weapons are purely a man’s feelings.

Hu Jing got this sword, which cost over 80,000 yuan here and there. Zeng Li also gave Cao Xuan a watch worth more than 30,000 yuan.

The gifts given by both of them were not very expensive, but they were the most sincere gifts each could give.

Especially for Zeng Li, Hu Jing has become famous and has a steady stream of income. She is now a nobody, and she spent most of her cash in one breath, leaving Cao Xuan to find a way to supplement her.

Although the two of them happily accepted the house, they were rushing to build a love nest. Cao Xuan wanted to supplement the house every day, but he couldn't give it out without a "clever name".

——

ps: Recommended book "Tokyo Literary Age", written by Black Bicycle. This is an old author of entertainment literature. The quality of his writing is guaranteed. Interested book friends can check it out.