2001 Media Godfather

Chapter 44 Rule Coercion
In Lu Mingze's view, Chu An was unpredictable and acted on a whim.

Are you going to make a movie about the future?

That thing is nothing like something out of a TV drama; it's much riskier, and you'll die much faster.

Little did he know, Chu An's ambition went far beyond simply making one movie.

"You should focus on finishing episode ten first before talking about ambition!"

This is mocking President Chu for not even being able to handle a simple hook at the end of a film.

Before Chu An could retaliate, a light cough came from the classroom doorway, "Isn't it good for young people to have some ambition?"

Lu Mingze frowned and turned around, immediately startled, and quickly stood up: "Director Sun, you..."

Sun Jianyi, the director of CCTV, has come to Ningyuan? This was something Lu Mingze never expected.

Chu An also stood up and quietly scrutinized the old man.

With his gray hair and vigorous spirit, he looked kind, but his eagle-like eyes held a majesty rarely seen in ordinary people.

Following Lu Mingze's greeting, "Old Sun!"

Sun Jianyi had been listening at the door for a while, but the two were so engrossed in their conversation that no one noticed.

He walked up to the two with his hands behind his back, and greeted Chu An with a smile, "This must be Xiao Chu, right? The script is well-written! But his acting skills... need some improvement!"

Chu An's little tricks might fool the audience, but they couldn't fool industry insiders; they could tell at a glance that he was a greenhorn.

Moreover, this initial greeting didn't indicate any respect; quite the opposite, Sun Jianyi didn't take this young man seriously.

There are plenty of outstanding young people in the industry; Chu An is no exception. Besides, he's not here today to network with the younger generation.

Before Chu An could reply, she smiled at Lu Mingze and said, "First of all, congratulations on your achievements, Director Lu. I'm here to learn from you!"

This made Lu Mingze a little uneasy. He thought to himself, "Is the old man kidding me? Is he trying to kill me?"
He foolishly took it seriously. "Mr. Sun, please don't say that. I'm the one who only has the right to learn from you!"

This wasn't just Lu Mingze speaking eloquently; every word came from the bottom of his heart.

This old man may be in administration now, serving as the station director, but in his youth he was a renowned television director, with several of his films displayed in film museums.

He is also a leading expert in film and television policies at the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

Studying? Lu Mingze couldn't handle that responsibility.

"Please let me know if there's anything you need. I'll learn from you."

Sun Jianyi felt a little embarrassed upon hearing this.

However, knowing Lu Mingze's personality, he smiled and said, "How about I stay with your crew for a few days and watch your filming?"

Lu Mingze: "Great! That's wonderful!"

Having received this reply, Sun Jianyi didn't say anything more. After chatting briefly for a few more minutes, she returned to the guesthouse to rest, instructing Lu Mingze to just call him when filming started.

Even after Old Sun left, Lu Mingze was still baffled.

"This old man came all the way here just to tell me he's going to stay for a few days? I don't feel quite right about it."

"Heh." Chu An, who had been pretending to be a good boy, sneered sarcastically, "You, it's a miracle you've survived in the entertainment industry this long!"

Lu Mingze, "..."

You didn't understand a single word the old man said!

"Since they can't understand it, they'll just have to keep it for a few more days to read it themselves!"

"What does that mean?" Lu Mingze was completely confused and still didn't understand.

Just then, Ma Lan and Tong Meng entered the classroom carrying lunchboxes. As soon as they came in, they exclaimed, "Old Sun came straight here from the guesthouse, why did he leave after only saying a few words?!"

Director Lu was exasperated, feeling his intelligence completely outmatched by Chu An. "I was about to ask you something too!"

Staring at Chu An, he demanded, "Are you going to talk or not?"

Chu An sighed deeply, "I can only say that there are still some truly exceptional people out there!"

He suddenly said to Lu Mingze, "Take good care of this old man! Whether there will be any more weekly dramas in the future, and whether you can still make big money on the county-level TV station, depends on these few days."

Upon hearing this, Director Lu, Ma Lan, and Tong Meng were all stunned, thinking to themselves, "Is it really that serious?"

Chu An looked at Director Lu and asked, "Learn what? Learn how to film? What do you have to offer that he can learn from you?"

"People come here because of the two biggest differences between us and others!"

"First broadcast on county-level TV stations and broadcast as soon as it is filmed."

Actually, Sun Jianyi's visit is not hard to understand.

The biggest impact of the county-level station's premiere is not on satellite TV stations or cable TV stations. Those stations cover areas with widespread cable TV coverage at the prefecture level and above, namely large cities.

However, "The Best of Us" is not available in many big cities.

In areas without cable television, CCTV, like county-level stations, is the easiest television station to obtain a signal from. Therefore, when a county-level station premieres a program, it's essentially vying for CCTV's audience.

Sun Jianyi happens to be the director of CCTV.

Hearing Chu An's explanation, Lu Mingze was terrified. "So, the old man came here to interrogate me!?"

Chu An: "Not really! First, competing for TV drama viewers isn't CCTV's primary responsibility. Second, they don't need to get involved to crush us, but we definitely feel a sense of crisis."

This made Lu Mingze feel terrible. I am quite famous, okay?

Ma Lan, however, paid no attention to these questions and asked, "So he came for another purpose?" Chu An replied, "Yes, to film and broadcast immediately!"

Ma Lan was puzzled, "Does filming and broadcasting on the fly also affect CCTV?"

"Heh." Chu An laughed, "This is much bigger than CCTV. It affects the entire industry, the livelihoods of people like you and me, and can even influence the direction of Chinese TV drama creation."

Everyone, "..."

It felt cold from the soles of my feet to the top of my head.

Why did Chu An say something so frightening?

"Isn't it?"

Chu An smiled, "It really is that serious."

Suddenly, he asked Lu Mingze a seemingly unrelated question, "If I told you that the difference between you and Rob Bauman is more a difference in rules than a difference in talent, would you believe me?"

Lu Mingze suddenly froze, his face flushing slightly. He desperately wanted to believe Chu An was telling the truth; he was so pleased with the compliment. But…

Lu Mingze shook his head, "I could never create the kind of atmosphere with the extreme sensory experience of 'The X-Files'."

To be honest, Lu Mingze's sense of camera presence and ability to create atmosphere come from imitating Rob Bauman.

Therefore, he knows best that there are some things he can't learn.

Chu An laughed and gave the opposite answer, “You can do it! At least in my opinion, you don’t lack Robert Bauman’s talent. But you don’t have his creative environment and the pressure of the rules.”

Lu Mingze, “???”

Chu An explained, "American TV series are a product of taking the weekly broadcast rule to its extreme."

"Their rating system and the self-censorship model of the distributors dictate that capital will pursue an operating model that minimizes investment and maximizes profits. Weekly dramas are the creative method that best fits this business logic."

“I see.” Ma Lan responded at the right time, “According to Xiao Chu, the lifespan of a weekly drama is determined by the audience, so it must be fast-paced and full of climaxes. To put it bluntly, you have to create a dilemma and give immediate feedback so that the audience will continue watching and the production will make money. They can’t wait until next week or even longer.”

"Is this why Xiao Chu insisted on changing the end of episode ten?"

Chu An nodded silently and continued to explain to Lu Mingze.

"Directors, screenwriters, post-production editors, actors, and all other positions on this assembly line are born under such rules, and they can only survive by revolving around these rules!"

"In other words, whether it's Rob Bauman or other famous directors, they have undergone professional training, fought their way out in that environment, and developed instinctive reactions under the coercion of rules, rather than crushing you with talent."

Looking at Lu Mingze: "If I give you a few years to make weekly dramas, and then give you a team dedicated to creating hormonal explosions, what you produce might not be much worse than what Rob Bowman made!"

Finally, Chu An delivered a conclusion that made Director Lu's confidence soar: "Those American dramas that you call good, unsurpassable, and better than domestic ones are not because the directors are more talented than you, or the actors are better at acting than your actors."

"Do you really think they're smarter than us? More talented? More cultured?"

"How could that be? The rules dictate that it has to look good!"

Director Lu was panting heavily, his face flushed. It was the first time he had ever heard someone interpret an American TV series from this perspective.

He felt he was ready; he planned to film weekly dramas for a few years and then dominate American dramas.

Tong Meng slapped her long, white legs, suddenly realizing, "I knew it! That's why American movies are so good! It's not that they act better than us, or that their directors are more skilled, it's just the advantage of the rules!"

Chu An didn't give Meng Jie any face at all, "Wrong!!"

"They really acted well, the director was really amazing, and even the creative team was truly incredible!"

Seeing Lu Mingze's forehead full of "a hundred thousand whys," as if to say, "Didn't you just say they weren't awesome, that it was the system's advantage? Why have you changed your mind again?!"

Chu An immediately laughed and said, "What you can see is survivor bias."

"It's the cream of the crop, selected through rigorous screening and market testing. Of course it's great!"

"It's bad, but you can't see it!"

It's like someone who has watched a lot of high-quality American TV series and thinks that the production quality of American TV series is higher than that of domestic ones, and that this is the average level of American TV series.

How is that possible?
How many terrible shows are abandoned after only one or two episodes? How many mediocre productions disappear after just one season? And how many unknown productions are filmed but never even get a chance to air? These are the truths that viewers can't see.

American TV series are actually just like Chinese TV series. Tens of thousands, or even tens of thousands, of episodes are produced every year, but the most popular ones may only have a few dozen or a hundred episodes.

It would be unwise to consider these hundred or so episodes as the entirety of an American TV series.

Similarly, only one or two domestically produced TV dramas are exported each year, and these are all top-quality productions, regarded by outsiders as the benchmark for Chinese TV dramas.

Does that represent the overall level of Chinese TV dramas?
It's just a judgment error.

As for the advantages of the rules...

Are weekly dramas better than daily dramas?
Chu An smiled and looked at the three of them, "If I said that there is no difference in the rules between weekly dramas and daily dramas, would you believe me?"

"And that is the real reason why Mr. Sun wanted to stay in the group."

“They are the ones who make the rules, and we broke them.”

Everyone wanted to say they didn't believe it, but they were afraid of being proven wrong. Chu An's perspective on the issue was different from others.

……

.

P.S.: I don't really want to put these thought-provoking ideas in the free chapters.

A single in-depth discussion would take up a lot of space and slow down the pace. However...
The plot has reached this point where it needs to build up; if you can't handle it, click the "X" and skip it! Okay, I accept it.

(End of this chapter)