Depressive Screenwriter

Even though they were all from the same television station, and Su Yan spent his days in the production team filming, writing scripts, designing the fight scene storyboards for Lu Yuan and Lu Shi in 'Gu Xiang Si Qu,' and composing original musical scores for the drama's insert songs like 'Bishang Guan' and 'Kong Dai,' he still heard news about the drama 'Night Sakura' from his colleagues in the writing department.

At least, the 'Night Sakura' production team's goal for the drama was to break a 3.2% viewership rating and rank in the top ten for the autumn season.

"There's no way around it, Su Yan," said Ayumi Shinozaki, her expression helpless.

"I don't want to lose to 'Night Sakura' either, but the broadcast schedules for the two dramas are just too different. Saturday at 10 PM has always been a high-viewership time slot for the TV station, with an average viewership rating of 2.86% for the dramas broadcast then.

In the past three years, the dramas broadcast in this slot have had a highest average viewership rating of 4.12% and a lowest average viewership rating of 1.95%, depending on their quality."

"And do you know what the situation is for Sakura TV's Sunday late-night slot?"

Ayumi Shinozaki didn't keep him in suspense.

"In the past three years, the average viewership rating for dramas broadcast in that slot is 1.02%. The highest-rated drama had a viewership rating of 1.96%, and the lowest had a viewership rating of 0.73%. I don't need to say more about the difference between these two slots, right?"

Moreover, Ayumi Shinozaki didn't mention some things to avoid discouraging Su Yan.

From what she understood, the star actors, directors, and production team members involved in 'Night Sakura' were almost all people who had been promoted by Yoshiki Akasaka's faction back in the day.

Some people agreed to join the team for extremely low pay to repay favors, while others may have received promises from Yoshiki Akasaka regarding their future career development.

In addition, under Yoshiki Akasaka's operation, 'Night Sakura' was given a lot of promotional resource allocation.

On the surface, 'Night Sakura' is a C-level drama with an investment of 15 million, but in reality, its production team configuration is that of a B-level drama with an investment of about 30 million.

Otherwise, they wouldn't dare to set the goal of being in the top ten for the next season.

"But as far as I know, Central China TV and Shanghai TV have both had dramas with viewership ratings exceeding 3% in the Sunday late-night slot in the past two years, right?" Su Yan asked, puzzled, recalling the memories of the original owner of the body.

"Wouldn't it be fine if we could achieve that kind of result too?"

"Those are just occasional occurrences!" Ayumi Shinozaki took a deep breath and said.

"There will always be some works that are inexplicably not favored by everyone before their premiere, niche time slots, low budgets, zero promotion, and ultimately achieve great success. But that can't be taken as the norm.

Saying that letting 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' air in the Sunday late-night slot is to boost the sluggishness of this time slot is just bullsh*t. Why didn't they do it earlier? This is just that big idiot's excuse for retaliation."

Everyone present knew who the "big idiot" Ayumi Shinozaki was referring to.

"The TV station executives don't actually expect 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' to compete with dramas broadcast in prime time for viewership ratings. As long as our work can achieve more outstanding results than the dramas broadcast in the same time slot in the past, then in the eyes of the station's executives, 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' will be considered qualified."

Su Yan thought for a moment after hearing this.

"If Central China TV and Shanghai TV can have such breakthrough dramas, why can't 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' achieve the same, or even better, results?"

"Are we worse than others?"

"If these historical data for time slots also apply to our work, 'Rurouni Kenshin' would have flopped long ago."

Ayumi Shinozaki and Shi Peihua were stunned upon hearing this, unable to come up with a rebuttal.

"If 'Night Sakura's' goal is to be in the top ten for the autumn season's viewership ratings, then our goal is to be at least one rank higher than it!" Su Yan said seriously.

"'Rurouni Kenshin' cut our budget, and 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' is being assigned to this kind of dead-end time slot? How is it possible to just not fight back? Is Yoshiki Akasaka's purpose to promote his nephew? Then our only purpose is to slap him in the face hard and let the TV station executives know that his nephew is just hopeless."

Ayumi Shinozaki thought carefully for a long time after hearing this.

Honestly, her anger towards Yoshiki Akasaka had also been stirred up by Su Yan's words.

"But after this goal is set, it will quickly spread throughout the production team, and eventually spread throughout the TV station's production department and writing department. If we ultimately fail to achieve the goal, it will likely become a laughing stock within the TV station," Ayumi Shinozaki said.

"Goals are not set for others to see; goals exist in one's own heart."

"I don't care if unimportant people laugh at me. I only care whether the people I hate can still laugh in the end!" Su Yan said.

The other two people in the room were silent for half a minute in unison.

"I understand."

Ayumi Shinozaki took a deep breath, turned around, and crossed out the 1.4% viewership rating and the goal of being in the top thirty for the season that she had written on the whiteboard with a marker.

What's there to be afraid of?

No matter what the final result is, if you don't even dare to think about it, then that's a complete failure.

Of course, when announcing the viewership expectation goals for 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' to all the staff in the production team, you definitely can't mention 'Night Sakura'.

Personal grudges and what the ultimate goal is, only our own people need to know.

Therefore, when Ayumi Shinozaki announced the goal of 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' to the public, it was the same as 'Night Sakura'.

"Top Ten for the Season!"

Gu Qingyuan's mood couldn't calm down after hearing this from Su Yan.

The others in the production team showed amused smiles on their faces after hearing this goal.

It wasn't exactly ridicule, but basically everyone felt about this goal like a neighbor's child saying they want to go to Beijing University when they grow up.

They thought that Su Yan, Ayumi Shinozaki, and Shi Peihua, the three giants of the production team, were joking, drawing a big pie, and making a splash.

But Gu Qingyuan was different.

After hearing this goal from Su Yan, her first reaction was to imagine the scene of this coming true.

"I've been influenced too!" Gu Qingyuan exhaled a long breath.

She, who had never chased stars before, somewhat understood why some people like to chase stars.

During the time that Gu Qingyuan and Su Yan were filming 'Rurouni Kenshin'.

She personally saw Su Yan display his swordsmanship and martial arts abilities, acting skills, and scriptwriting skills.

She thought that these were already exaggerated enough.

But during the time she was filming 'Gu Xiang Si Qu'.

Su Yan guided her throughout the entire process on how to play the Konghou instrument.

And three days ago, Su Yan also showed his creative abilities in music.

At that time, Su Yan submitted several musical scores to Ayumi Shinozaki.

And when Ayumi Shinozaki knew that those songs were composed and arranged by Su Yan and had registered the copyright, and requested Ayumi Shinozaki to pay the copyright fee for use, Gu Qingyuan and Ayumi Shinozaki's expressions were extremely exaggerated.

So the reason why you asked to decide which songs to use as insert songs in the drama yourself was not because you found a capable musician to help create the songs, but because you yourself took the time to create music while filming and writing the script?

Next was the classic questioning session.

Also the classic face-slapping session.

After Su Yan then played the tune of "Bishang Guan" with a flute in front of Ayumi Shinozaki, Shi Peihua, and Gu Qingyuan, the whole place was silent.

It wasn't just that the musical score was well-written.

Su Yan's flute sound was also too rich in emotion, definitely not limited to just knowing how to play, it felt like it would definitely be no problem to find a job in some well-known large orchestra.

Would a person as amazing as Su Yan talk nonsense and set goals randomly?

Although reason told her that under the current conditions, it was too dreamy for 'Gu Xiang Si Qu' to want to be in the top ten for the season's viewership ratings.

But emotion made Gu Qingyuan's thoughts run wild.

"For Su Yan, is this really a difficult challenge?"