章 22: Shooting the Show
編集者: Henyee Translations
"What's this?"
"It's a Fairy Crystal Necklace."
"What's it for?"
"It's a media for magic and one can also use it to transform into a fairy.
"So…"
Meng Lang cut Mr. Tao off before the latter could finish. "Mr. Tao, don't you have work to do?"
This guy showed up on the shooting site early the following morning.
It wouldn't have been a problem if he was only visiting, for there was no secret on the shooting site. Mr. Tao could come as often as he wanted and Meng Lang wouldn't care less.
But this guy simply had too many questions!
Apart from all the questions, he was drooling over the fairy flute and Fairy Crystal Necklace. Had it not been for the adamant objection of the costume group, the old man actually wanted to try a fairy costume on himself.
Meng Lang didn't know what to do.
Meng Lang didn't have to guess to know why Mr. Tao was here, but since there was a better channel, there was no reason for her to give up the chance!
The CCTV-14 was the most viewed children's channel that had the largest coverage, which was much better than most provincial satellite channels.
Would anyone abandon such a great platform and give the show to Jiangchuan Children's Channel instead? Of course not.
"Director Meng, are you really not going to think about it? We don't want an exclusive right, but a first-round right only," said Mr. Tao expectantly.
Meng Lang wanted to say yes to Mr. Tao. After all, the guy was already humble…
However, he hadn't heard from the National TV yet and the deal hadn't been finalized. If he agreed to Mr. Tao without careful consideration, he might have ended up offending both channels.
Sitting on his director's chair, Meng Lang took off his baseball cap. He then rose to his feet and led Mr. Tao to where the props team took their breaks.
After making sure that no one was around, Meng Lang said, "Mr. Tao, you're making it difficult for me. We're still in the process of shooting and you haven't even seen the completed work yet. Why the rush?"
"Of course I'm in a rush. It's free…"
Before Mr. Tao could finish, Meng Lang cried out in surprise. "You greedy old man! You're getting used to the free lunch, aren't you? Who told you that Balala the Fairies is going to be free?"
"You're going to sell it this time?" Mr. Tao was baffled.
Meng Lang nodded.
Pengda Pictures had given Blazing Teens out for free to open up the market. Although the production cost had been covered later by selling the exclusive online and overseas broadcasting rights, making a huge profit at the same time, Meng Lang's initial plan had only been to open up the market.
He had given it out for free because that was the only way that anyone would broadcast the show. With the success of Blazing Teens, even if some TV channels would be scared off by the price, Balala the Fairies wouldn't have a problem finding its buyers.
Of course, Meng Lang wouldn't keep giving out free stuff.
Mr. Tao mumbled, "How much are you going to charge, then? The Jiangchuan Children's Channel may be able to afford it if the price isn't too high…"
Meng Lang stared at Mr. Tao, slightly surprised. He even circled around the latter a few times.
The strange look in Meng Lang's eyes gave Mr. Tao the creeps. He couldn't help but ask, "Is there a problem?"
"Yes! And a very big one!"
Smacking his lips, Meng Lang suddenly wanted to laugh. He blurted out. "Mr. Tao, I haven't bribed you in any way, have I?"
"Of course not! I've never accepted a bribe from anyone, you included," said Mr. Tao, shaking his head.
Then, there came the problem!
The man hadn't seen the completed work and there were no stars in the show, not to mention that the director was a nobody and the show was a medium budget live-action feature show. Why was he so eager to buy it?
Mr. Tao was either an inside man Pengda Pictures put in the TV channel, or a really, really kind man.
He was too kind a man to be real!
Meng Lang wavered a little at Mr. Tao's promise, but only momentarily.
Broadcast rights were mainly about reputations. What mattered was being broadcasted by bigger channels.
Meng Lang would still give the first-round broadcasting rights of Balala the Fairies to the National TV, even if he had to sell them at a lower price than to the Jiangchuan Children's Channel.
How much could the first-round broadcasting rights be worth, anyway?
As long as Balala gained its popularity, they would make a fortune selling the toys alone. Frankly, Meng Lang didn't think much of the petty amount the first-round broadcasting rights would make him.
After nicely sending Mr. Tao on his way, Meng Lang went back to the monitor, instructed the others to move to the outdoor shooting site, and got ready for the next scene.
…
Jiangchuan Yulin Middle School.
Meng Lang graduated from this school himself. Therefore, when he recalled that part of the story happened in a school, he contacted his old school right away.
The old headmaster agreed to the application of shooting the show on school grounds without hesitation.
Because it was a good thing for the school.
Not only did he cooperate with the crew, the old headmaster also made an implicit request.
He wanted the camera to capture the school uniform, the school badge, and the front gate!
The old master had racked his brain trying to attract more students to the school. Now that there was such a rare chance to promote the school, he would make very good use of it.
Meng Lang agreed to the old master's request.
The school scene needed a lot of extras.
Finding all those extras turned out to be a problem here in Jiangchuan. After all, it wasn't Hengdian…
Luckily, a lot of students rushed to the school after hearing about the shooting of the show, despite the fact that it was the weekend.
Meng Lang then found his extras, who could play themselves!
After giving instructions to the students of what to watch out for, the shooting started.
The students knew next to nothing about acting, but they were playing themselves and with Meng Lang's instructions, they looked at what students having classes should have looked like after a few NGs. They looked quite the part.
The classroom scenes went smoothly, but when it was time to shoot the free activity periods, the problem arose.
"Brother Director, I'm sorry…"
Xiaopang, the student playing "Shi Xiaolong", humbly admitted his mistake in front of Meng Lang.
For this scene, all he had to do was to say "Yeah… the class is over…" after the teacher announced that the class had ended, then pull the back door of the classroom open.
It was a very simple scene.
However, the boy just couldn't do it properly. He kept darting glances at Lin Xue, the actress playing Yan Lili, across the classroom.
Everyone on site knew what Xiaopang was looking at!
Meng Lang gave Xiaopang's head a little knock with his knuckle and said with a solemn face. "Do you know what you did wrong?"
"I shouldn't have looked into the camera…"
That was certainly not what he had been looking at!
Xiaopang had made a mistake all boys would have done. Recalling that he had stolen glances at girls before, Meng Lang didn't want to scold the boy any more.
But soon, when another extra was supposed to strike up a conversation with Meiqi and Meixue in the last row, there was a problem again.
One could explain Xiaopang's glances toward Lin Xue with male instinct, but why would that female student blush whenever she looked at Tao Mi?
"Are kids nowadays so precocious?" Scratching his head, Meng Lang asked Xiaopang's dad, who was next to him.
Xiaopang's dad nodded.
"They are. I would have a wet dream if I talked to girls back in my day. My son is much more impressive. He's in Year 2, but he's already had two girlfriends!"
Hello, dad? Was that a bragging tone?
章 23: Traitor
編集者: Henyee Translations
The shooting of Balala the Fairy was making smooth progress.
Mid-December, there came a brief adjusting period of the shooting.
Initially, when they couldn't find an actor for Prince Fun, Wang Kui suggested that Meng Lang play the role himself.
Meng Lang took the advice.
Hence, he moved all his scenes to mid-December, devoting the period from December to early January to shoot his own scenes.
The shooting gave Meng Lang a first-hand experience of how hard an actor's work was.
Remembering the lines was the simplest task among all things. He also had to figure out his position and his acting style for each scene…
Other actors and actresses had him, the director, to give them instruction, but he had no one to turn to except for himself.
And that wasn't the hardest part.
The hardest part was to speak in the genuine "Fairy Castle accent"!
Prince Fun wasn't that attractive a character in the original version. The actor was also a mediocre one who didn't stand out in any way.
However, his unique accent gave soul to the role and "Fairy Castle accent" had also become the most attractive aspect of the role.
During the shooting, the crew only found their director's accent odd, but didn't find it exceptionally funny.
From a bystander's point of view, Meng Lang also couldn't understand why "it's none o' y'all business" suddenly became a meme.
Although he couldn't understand it, this didn't stop Meng Lang from recreating it. After all, he also wanted to know if "it's none o' y'all business" could become a hit phrase online again.
…
Something big happened before Christmas that year!
After some pre-broadcasting promotion, TBS aired the dubbed and repackaged Blazing Teens to the Japanese audience.
Once the TBS broadcasted it, Meng Lang found some time to check his email for the good news Mr Ishikawa sent him.
Blazing Teens's viewing rates skyrocketed on the first day and even defeated the popular show of NHK, "Amnesiac Mother".
Compared to this country, Japan had much fewer TV channels, which meant that the audience had much less choice.
If one of the limited TV channels had a popular show, group psychology would lead to viewing rates that were high enough to shock any TV professionals here.
Blazing Teens had achieved a viewing rate of 34.5%!
"This is great! Meng San, the president of my company, is very interested in the cooperation mode you mentioned and he would like to further discuss it with you."
Meng Lang was finally relieved after he read Ishikawa's email.
An exceptional viewing rate was great news. That way, it was possible to work with the channel again. If the show turned out to be a failure, it would be very difficult to attract TBS' attention again.
After logging out of his email box, out of curiosity, Meng Lang went to the largest online movie and television review forum, to see how the Japanese online community felt about Blazing Teens.
[Webpage being translated…]
"とてもクールです."
[It's so cool!]
"監督は天才です.霓虹の監督は彼に習うべきです."
[The director is a genius! Our directors should learn from him.]
[Only registered users can use the "like" function…]
"李飛は神です."
[Li Fei is a god!]
"ミリーは私の妻です."
[Mi Li is my wife.]
"A Chinese student studying in Japan sends his support!"
[Translation failed…]
"보기가지루하다."
[So boring.]
Most of them were positive reviews!
There were as many as over 100 posts on Blazing Teens on this forum, which proved how unbelievably popular the show was.
The show had only been broadcasted today and over 100 posts was already a scary number.
After all, the forum only had a little over 50,000 users…
After checking the forum, Meng Lang went over to the official webpage of several media outlets to see their news report.
Most of the Japanese media reported on the incredible viewing rates of Blazing Teens, but most of them were mocking TBS.
According to them, TBS had degenerated. The channel had turned to a TV show from this country to save its viewing rates.
Why wouldn't the channel consider Japanese or American shows, which were more finely made?
TBS was such a traitor!
The media review on Blazing Teens had been mostly negative, criticizing Blazing Teens through colored spectacles.
A senator even said during an interview that the government would adopt more rigorous censoring mechanisms, banning certain inappropriate foreign movies and TV works.
What the hell?
As if calling TBS a traitor wasn't ridiculous enough, some senator of the opposition party actually tried to ban the show. Who on earth did he think he was?
The media reviews aside, from the audience's perspective, Blazing Teens was a great success.
TBS should have seen that as well, which was why they had agreed to Meng Lang's request for future cooperation.
As for being called a traitor, TBS couldn't care less.
Money spoke louder. As long as there was profit, there was business.
The media was all empty words. Even if things got physical, TBS was still sure to be the winner.
The popularity the show gained in Japan gave Meng Lang a confidence boost.
The feature shows in this world had chosen the wrong path. They were supposed to be live-action shows targeting children and featuring toys, but had ended up becoming sci-fi horror cult TV series…
The audience had never seen a novel feature show like Blazing Teens that had been so "finely made".
This was what a feature show supposed to look like!
Happy, enthusiastic, and all-age shows should have been what feature shows aimed for, not some creepy horror shows, which didn't even have any toys at all. The directors were puffed up with pride after some idiotic comments online called their shows "divine".
They had actually tried to attract the grownups with such shows.
Forget about it. There were more Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters out there than they could choose from. Why would they want to watch a childish TV series with inferior special effects?
The feature show directors of this world had gotten it completely wrong.
It was with such a background that Blazing Teens' success became so plausible.
It was all thanks to the comparison.
Blazing Teens might have been crappy, but compared to its peers, it was a miracle!
After the show gained popularity in the Japanese market, more European and American TV channels contacted Meng Lang.
Their reasoning was the same as TBS.
We need yo-yos!
Meng Lang accepted all offers, regardless of the prices.
Afterward, the newly set up official Weibo account of Pengda Pictures created a post, which had gone viral and soon took over the frontpage of Weibo.
Even the haughty national owned media retweeted the post, calling it "the most incredible cultural export" of the literary and art circles.
Blazing Teens had gone viral overseas!
The movie and TV industry was baffled by the news.
Recalling all the works that had been ignored at Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, a lot of directors didn't know what to say.
Was this feeling called envy?
Why did so many people like this children's TV show?
The audience nowadays was incorrigible!
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