Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 1183: Fei Huang Workspace, Prepare to Set Off!

At the same time, at Fei Huang Workspace…

Zhu Xiaoce brought the core members of Fei Huang Workspace, Cui Geng, Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Zuting, Lin Jiaqiang, and a group of actors who had worked with him to a meeting in the conference room.

Huang Sibo was not around because he had gone on a holiday with Hu Xianbin. What’s more, he had left in a very peaceful… no, in a hurry.

It was a little difficult for Zhu Xiaoce to do it alone. Fortunately, Fei Huang Workspace had been consciously nurturing the next generation of directors. Thus, someone would be able to take over immediately after the person-in-charge left. Nothing would go wrong.

The script for ‘Successor’ had long been written. The preparatory work had almost been arranged.

The meeting this time was to review the script for the last time, unify their thoughts, and then prepare to officially start filming.

The filming this time was different from before. They had to work with the American team to film. The characters in the show were mainly foreigners. Naturally, they had to choose foreign actors.

Thus, Zhu Xiaoce had not intended to find any local actors.

However, Lu Zhiyao had obviously tasted the benefits of the previous cooperation. He had to act as a calefares in the movie no matter what. He would not leave if he did not give it to them.

Zhang Zuting, Lin Jiaqiang, and the others also expressed that they had to help out, even if it was just a few minutes.

Zhu Xiaoce found it difficult to turn them down. He could only think of a way to force all of them in. Fortunately, these people’s English was not bad. There was no problem in memorizing lines. Even if there was a small flaw in their accent, it would appear more realistic. If it really did not work, they could still dub over later. Thus, the problem was not big.

Zhu Xiaoce briefly introduced the basic content of the shoot.

“This time, we are going to film in the form of a web series. There will be a total of 12 episodes. Each episode will be about 50 minutes to an hour.”

“I’ve sent the script for the 12 episodes to everyone. There’s also a simple story outline at the back so that everyone can better understand this story.”

“After filming is completed, this drama will be released in China. It might cooperate with the video website in a unique manner and temporarily not have plans to be released overseas.”

“The specifics are not the main point. After all, we don’t have to worry about the quality of the movie. It’s too early to think about these.”

“We have a meeting today. The original author, Cui Geng, is here as well. If you have any questions about the story, feel free to ask. Cui Geng and our script writers will try their best to answer them.”

Lin Jiaqiang was also present.

He was obviously not good enough compared to Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Zuting, and the others. However, he had worked with Tengda many times after all. Thus, he had come to ask for a bit of help. He had not expected to be paid much.

If he still had the image of the fatty from before, he would only be a comedian. It was obviously not appropriate for him to guest star in this show. However, he was on a diet now. It would not be a problem for him to act as a passerby.

However, as he flipped through the script, he revealed a slightly incomprehensible expression.

Would that work?

Fei Huang Workspace’s filming this time was full of bad points. It had more bad points than any other time in the past!

First of all, he had invested so much money and had to work with the production team in the United States to film the movie. It was only an online show, not a movie.

Secondly, this web series was all dubbed in English. It acted in a story that happened overseas but did not have plans to be released overseas. The local market was a priority.

Third, from the theme and content, it might be said that this was a movie with a superhero theme, but it was actually not related to traditional superheroes at all. There was not even a traditional good person in the entire episode, and the biggest protagonist was even worse.

Lastly, the original work of this novel had been serialized on Zhongdian Chinese Network. The effect was not very good. The local online literature readers were not very receptive.

Would that work?

It looked like he was going to fail no matter how he looked at it.

Lin Jiaqiang secretly looked at Lu Zhiyao and Zhang Zuting. He realized that even though both of them looked very determined on the surface, their small actions had exposed that they did not have 100% confidence in the script.

Obviously, no matter how many miracles had happened, people would still be doubtful if the next miracle would happen.

This was human nature. What’s more, the difficulty level this time was obviously higher than before.

Zhu Xiaoce had obviously realized this. That was why he had held a meeting in advance to unify his thoughts. If even insiders were doubtful about whether this web series would succeed, there would probably be many detours during filming.

They were all old acquaintances, so everyone stopped hiding and spoke truthfully about their confusion.

Zhang Zuting was the first to speak.

“The script this time is… quite special. However, are you sure you want to use online dramas? As far as I know, online dramas are normally done with low cost and small production content. After all, there is a limit to how much profits web series can generate.”

“They want to recoup their costs even though they invested a lot. It would be best if they filmed a movie and earned money at the box office. What’s more, they want to earn money at the global box office.”

“Web dramas, foreign themes, foreign actors, English voices, and subtitles for domestic broadcasts… These restrictions have repeatedly reduced the audience to a relatively small audience.”

“Can we really recoup our costs this way?”

To Zhang Zuting, Lu Zhiyao, and the other actors, it did not matter whether the movie could recoup its costs. After all, they were all getting fixed remuneration. If the movie became popular, it would increase their popularity. It did not matter if it did not become popular.

However, they were worried that if they failed this time, it might cause a blow to Fei Huang Workspace, both in terms of funding and mentality.

What if Fei Huang Workspace lost its unconstrained imagination and adventurous spirit because of this failure? Wouldn’t it be a pity if the quality of its future works decreased?

Thus, he had to remind them.

Zhu Xiaoce answered, “Uncle Zhang, these questions were specially requested by Boss Pei.”

“In fact, at the beginning, I had the same idea. I felt that the success rate of doing this was not high. However, after some careful thought, I realized that this show had to be filmed this way!”

“First of all, such a theme had to be shot overseas. Just like Struggle back then, it had to be shot overseas as the background. Otherwise, it would not have the taste.”

“Secondly, this script contains a lot of information. There are also many key scenes. If it is divided into a movie, it would have to be at least divided into three parts. It would also cause a lot of key information to be lost.”

“Even if the disassembly is successful, watching every movie alone is actually not enough. The entire story is cut apart. It must be made into a drama series to show the complete core to the audience.”

“As for why we should consider the domestic market first… it’s because this story can only be better understood from the perspective of domestic audiences.”

“It’s not that foreign audiences cannot understand, but that we have to prioritize domestic audiences.”

“Based on the above few points, we can only make this choice. The chances of success might be reduced but I believe that we will definitely be able to stand out as long as we film seriously since Boss Pei gave us a script!”

Lu Zhiyao could not help but ask. “What is the core of this story? Actually, I don’t quite understand it. I read the story outline. I only know that a despicable bad guy executed a series of plans and succeeded in the end.”

Zhu Xiaoce answered, “According to my personal understanding… this story should be combined with realistic works like Tomorrow is Beautiful and Struggle.”

“As for what its specific meaning is… let the original author explain.”

He looked at Cui Geng after speaking.

The situation this time was different from before. The previous script was mainly based on Boss Pei’s creativity. As for how to interpret Boss Pei’s creativity, that would depend on Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce.

However, the script this time was entirely Cui Geng’s original work. Boss Pei was not involved, so the final explanation rights must still be with the original author.

Everyone did not trust this script because the author was not Boss Pei.

Cui Geng cleared his throat and said, “Actually, my story was really inspired by Boss Pei.”

“Simply put, ‘Tomorrow is Beautiful’, ‘Struggle’ and ‘Successor’ are common in some ways. They all have a certain impact on reality.”

“Struggle and Tomorrow is Beautiful are related. The society in Struggle will develop for another few decades. Technology will make several leaps and breakthroughs. The entire social structure will become more extreme. It will become the social structure in Tomorrow is Beautiful.”

“On the other hand, ‘Successor’ is more like a story that happens in a parallel universe. The premise of this story is to make a hypothesis. If this is a world where ‘superheroes rely on faith and super villains rely on mutations’, that’s how the story would develop.”

“Just like the worry and mistrust in the expression of social structure in Tomorrow is Beautiful, I was surprised to find that the story in ‘Successor’ was also filled with such worry and mistrust.”

“This type of core is completely identical.”

“In fact, Boss Pei chose the theme of this story for me. At first, I did not understand Boss Pei’s intentions at all. I felt that the superhero theme was actually a theme that could not be written at all.”

“However, Boss Pei woke me up. He said three sentences: ‘Superheroes can also be written for domestic readers’ to read’, ‘We don’t have to make domestic readers like these superheroes’, and ‘We can write these superheroes until they are half-dead’.”

“I thought about it for a long time and finally understood. It turned out that Boss Pei hoped that I could use our own cultural perspective to overturn the popular superhero theme. He wanted to use China’s cultural perspective to observe the Western story and deconstruct it. He wanted to tear apart the perfect outerwear of these works and completely show its inner nature!”

“Just like Struggle, the meaning of ‘Successor’ is to deconstruct the false ‘ideal country’ in Western cultural works and show some social problems in a more absurd way.”

“Getting out of the real world would make it easier to see many problems clearly