Chapter 221: The Script
But to be honest, Yu Linna herself was quite interested in scriptwriting. After all, it was a field she had never ventured into. She had spent some time in the entertainment industry before, and although she had since left, she had always been curious about how film and television projects operated within the industry.
This time, she wanted to see it with her own eyes.
The company that sought her help with the script was Jianghua Company, not a very famous one. They used to produce TV dramas, but the ratings were low, so they had been struggling. Recently, lacking the funds to hire stars, they were unable to produce a 52-episode drama and had turned to web series instead. And so, they invited Shion-Sensei.
The people from their company made a special trip to pick up Shion-Sensei and bring her to their office. When the company head saw Yu Linna, he was also taken aback, thinking they had brought the wrong person.
“Although I heard Shion-Sensei is very young, I never expected her to be a girl. Shion-Sensei, hello, my name is Guo Rui.”
The middle-aged man smiled and extended his hand. Out of courtesy, Yu Linna shook it.
He led her into the company, introduced her to some of the project planners, and then took her to his office. The company didn’t have many employees; it probably wasn’t well-known, and not many people stayed to work there. To put it bluntly, if this company didn’t start turning a profit soon, it would go bankrupt.
Guo Rui was also the director of this web series, and he had his reasons for seeking out Shion-Sensei. He couldn’t afford big-name stars. In this era, TV dramas always needed to cast some popular celebrities to guarantee ratings, because this was an era of traffic. But the salaries of these stars were often ridiculously high, and Guo Rui knew he couldn’t afford them.
He could only settle for second best, choosing some unknown second and third-tier actors. But then there was another problem: there wasn’t a single well-known person in the cast. This meant that when his drama was broadcast to the audience, he wouldn’t be able to create a buzz and increase publicity from the get-go.
Later, he came up with an idea. If he couldn’t hire a big star, hiring a small one should be possible. And since they were also short a screenwriter, he decided to invite Shion-Sensei, a popular author who was currently in the spotlight.
Others probably didn’t understand why he would invite a novelist. But he knew very well that by leveraging Shion-Sensei’s popularity in the novel circle, he could more or less increase the drama’s buzz.
It all depended on whether she was willing.
“We plan to shoot a youth drama, set in high school, focusing on romance, of course. I’ve thought about it. The female lead will have several people who like her, and during that time, she’ll have various misunderstandings and heart-wrenching plots with the male lead. In the end, they will overcome many difficulties and get together. This is our original proposal.”
Yu Linna sat in the office, carefully considering the story he had described. The general background was there, but the content was still uncertain. The story he had just told was still just an outline; the script hadn’t been written yet.
But this story wasn’t particularly good either. It was very cliché, too cliché. You could probably find a ton of them online.
No, it has to be changed.
“Mr. Guo, why did you think of looking for me?”
“I could only look for you, Shion-Sensei. Among the novelists I know, you are the only one who can grasp delicate emotional stories and move the audience.”
That made sense. Both Ballad of the Enchantress and Zixuan and the Paper Airplane moved readers with their delicate emotional descriptions and genuine feelings. The former was a love story, the latter a family story, but what they had in common was that they could both bring readers to tears.
That’s why Guo Rui wanted to find Yu Linna and have her write the script.
“So, Mr. Guo, has a title been chosen for this drama?”
“For now, it’s tentatively titled The Smile of the Reeds. It’s a female-centric drama.”
“A love story aimed at a female audience?”
“Yes.”
“And the content?”
“We’re still thinking about it.”
Yu Linna thought for a moment.
The other party was indeed troubled by the script; they didn’t have a screenwriter. But they didn’t even have an outline. How could that work? The main characters’ names had been decided, and the story was confirmed to be a romance, but the problem now was how to complete the script.
“Shion-Sensei, we are sincerely inviting you. You can rest assured, the price can be negotiated. One and a half million is the maximum we can offer at the moment. The highest salary for an actor doesn’t exceed this figure. Shion-Sensei, please consider it.”
Yu Linna was indeed thinking about it. The issue of money was certainly important, but the most important thing was the content of the story.
This romance story, if put on the market, probably wouldn’t sell well. It was too formulaic and quite cliché. If it were handed over to her, it would have to be heavily revised.
“Mr. Guo, that’s not what I mean. I just want to know how you came up with this story.”
“Because the company proposed this project in a meeting, and we want to broadcast this drama on a web platform in October. Time is tight, so we didn’t have time to polish the script. We could only think of the most popular theme on the market right now.”
“But Mr. Guo, the market prospects for youth films are not very good. Don’t be fooled by the high ratings of youth films now; that’s just an illusion. It’s the withering before the full bloom. After the peak period, it will inevitably go downhill.”
Yu Linna pointed out this problem.
Due to the diversification of genres, some were destined to be eliminated in the torrent of the times. Like the wuxia genre, which was currently enjoying a resurgence but was also on a downward trend. In the past decade, such genres were very popular in the market. At its peak, it was even exported overseas, making many foreigners fall in love with wuxia. The last time wuxia shone brightly overseas was when it won an Oscar.
Now, wuxia was slowly losing its former glory. Although the box office was still considerable and the ratings were guaranteed, its elimination was only a matter of time.
By the same token, it was the same for youth films. Too many people were making them, the formulas were overused, and it was always the same few tropes: drugging and abortion, car accidents, amnesia, love triangles. The audience would get tired of this kind of theme sooner or later.
This was the reason why Yu Linna didn’t like their script.
“So what you’re saying, Shion-Sensei, is?”
“How about this? It’s not impossible for me to agree to help you write the script. I have a few conditions that you must agree to.”
“Please, go on.”
“First, I want to rewrite your outline. I will be solely responsible for the script, and I have the right to make changes, which cannot be altered.”
“I agree.”
“Second, I will only write the script for the first season of The Smile of the Reeds. If you have any plans for a second season, that is not within my scope.”
Guo Rui felt a headache coming on. This Shion-Sensei had to make such a request.
With her on board, he had been thinking that if the drama’s viewership was high enough, they could have a second season. But he never expected her to pull this. Her doing so meant that even if the drama had a second season, she wouldn’t be involved, let alone write the script.
Jianghua Company wasn’t very famous at the moment, and they couldn’t afford big-name stars. If they didn’t agree to Shion-Sensei’s request, it meant the drama couldn’t start filming.
“…Alright, I agree.”
Helpless, Guo Rui could only bite the bullet and agree. At worst, he would have to sweet-talk Shion-Sensei later and beg her to write the script for the second season.
“Third, postpone the release date. I want your drama to be pushed back to November.”
“And why is that?”
“Mr. Guo, more haste, less speed. Rushing will affect the quality of the drama. It’s better to spend more time polishing it slowly. Postponing the release by a month will allow for better quality. Why not do it?”
“…Haha, Shion-Sensei, you’re truly an incredible person.”
Guo Rui leaned back on the sofa and smiled wryly.
Originally, he had been wondering if this blonde girl was really the famous Shion-Sensei, the one who had set records in the novel world. Now, thinking about it, he shouldn’t have judged her by her appearance.
She was indeed a genius.
She had her own ideas and opinions, and she wasn’t flustered. Very few children her age could be like her.
“I’ve rethought the script for you. First of all, the misunderstandings and love triangles you mentioned, we should reduce them as much as possible. I also don’t want the clichés of third-rate youth films, the so-called plain-looking female lead meeting a rich and handsome male lead. I want to get rid of that too. The female lead will be the school beauty, and the male lead the school hunk.”
“Will that work?”
“Since the old formulas are too cliché and there are no new ones, we have to take a different path. How about this? The male and female leads meet through an online game. They start an online romance, keeping the audience in suspense until… right, the two of them can’t be in the same school, or even the same city. They have to be far apart. That way, it will feel more like an online romance.”
The moment Yu Linna started talking about the story, she became enthusiastic and began to talk nonstop. She slowly explained her views and ideas. When it came to creating stories, it seemed no one had as much passion as Yu Linna.
Her mind was always full of many ideas and concepts. She often had different thoughts from others.
Perhaps this was her innate talent.
Guo Rui talked with Yu Linna for a whole afternoon and felt very satisfied. He confidently handed over the scriptwriting rights to her. Yu Linna also made another request at the time: that the screenwriter’s credit should not be her real name, but “Shion.” Guo Rui didn’t refuse.
People always said that writers were different from ordinary people, that some writers were strange in certain ways. He just thought of Yu Linna as one of those people.
“Then I’ll finish the script within a month.”
“Shion-Sensei, I’ll be counting on you. We’ll try to start filming before September and release it in November.”
“Mm.”
Although it was still a bit rushed, it was a web series after all, so this was already quite good. After agreeing, Yu Linna immediately went home and started working on the script. This time, writing a script was different from writing a manuscript. It required more energy, and the format was also different.
Most importantly, she couldn’t fail.
Chen Xi, on the other hand, was very unhappy. Her precious author was actually writing a script for another company. This was too unreasonable. Shion-Sensei should just write novels. Why did she have to write this damn script? It didn’t fit her status at all.
“If you ask me, Shion-Sensei, you should just turn it down. You have to know, you still have two novels to serialize.”
“It’s fine, I can handle it. The summer vacation is idle anyway, and I don’t want to do nothing. I’ll just work.”
“…”
Chen Xi gave up trying to persuade her.
It’s still better than that lazy Air, she comforted herself.
