Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 358 The Age of Speed
On the morning of May 16th, Long Wu, Andy Lau, Gong Li, and Xian Qiran, who had not traveled with them on the way there, left Tianjin and returned to Beijing.

Zhang Yan, who went to the hotel to see Gong Li off, felt that Gong Li was acting a little strange. She used to look people in the eye directly, but now she always glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

However, since the person has already left, there's no need to investigate this unusual situation further.

Moreover, he didn't have time to think too much, because no sooner had these people left than Liu Zhenyun came to his door with two up-and-coming writers, wanting to discuss the script for the youth idol drama with Zhang Yan again.

The two men were named Wang Shuping and Shi Kang. Coincidentally, neither of them were liberal arts students. Wang Shuping studied computer science, while Shi Kang studied mechatronics.

Wang Shuping was born in 62. He didn't feel like writing until he was 30. He spent two years publishing a short story called "Evening News," which has a dark humor.

[PS: Major screenwriting credits include: *Keep Cool*, *The Sun Also Rises*, *Devils on the Doorstep*, and *Let the Bullets Fly*.]

Shi Kang was born in 68 and only started writing last year. He has not yet officially published a book, but he has already published quite a few short articles in newspapers and magazines.

His writing style is also humorous and witty, but it is closer to the lives of young people than Wang Shuping's.

[PS: Major works include "Big Shot's Funeral" and "Struggle".]

Upon meeting, Shi Kang couldn't wait to ask, "Teacher Zhang, is the kind of youth idol drama you're looking for similar to 'Tokyo Love Story'?"

The 91 hit "Tokyo Love Story" was undoubtedly the benchmark for youth idol dramas of that era.

"We can take a look at this."

Zhang Yan said, "But our post-70s generation doesn't have that kind of unclear and sticky attitude from the Japanese. If we really filmed it like that, it would be a mess."

I wanted the script to be more down-to-earth, grounded, and realistic, so I had Lao Liu write it; but I also didn't want the drama to portray the dark, crawling state of young people's lives, so I had him bring you in.”

Shi Kang and Wang Shuping exchanged a glance, then asked curiously, "What do you mean by 'crawling in the shadows'?"

"Uh~"

Zhang Yan hadn't anticipated that this was what they were most interested in after hearing what he said.

Just now, Shi Kang used "Tokyo Love Story" as an example. He made a gesture with his hand and simply described it: "Since you watch Japanese dramas, you must have seen Japanese horror movies, right? It's that feeling of evil spirits crawling on the ground. It looks very dark and depressing."

The most typical example is Sadako, but Sadako was only introduced in 1995.

"Oh~"

Shi Kang nodded, and Wang Shuping continued, "So you don't want to crawl, or you don't want darkness, or neither?"

"Let's climb a bit and then run a bit."

Zhang Yan thought for a moment and said, "There has to be a blessing in disguise, and there has to be a reversal of joy turning into sorrow. But whether it's the former or the latter, I hope the audience can laugh. If they can reflect on something after laughing, then the script is a success."

Upon hearing these requests, Shi Kang subconsciously rubbed his hands together, clearly feeling somewhat troubled.

Wang Shuping's eyes lit up, and he pressed on, "Then can the two of us get the authorship rights?"

"of course can."

"The royalties..."

"It's up to Lao Liu to decide. As long as it doesn't exceed his own royalties, he can set the price however he wants."

After chatting with two up-and-coming writers for most of the day, Zhang Yan found that Liu Zhenyun's eye for talent was indeed excellent. Regardless of their writing skills, both of them at least had a certain screenwriting mindset.

In other words, when writing a script, they consider whether it's easy to film and whether it's entertaining—this seems like a simple thing, but it's also the issue that new screenwriters are most likely to overlook. In this respect, Wang Shuping, who is a few years older, is particularly outstanding, while Shi Kang is relatively less so. However, the scripts that Shi Kang comes up with are more in line with the current situation of young college students than those of Wang Shuping.

The biggest weakness of the two right now is their lack of ability to handle long-form storylines and their shortcomings in depicting everyday life, which are precisely Liu Zhenyun's strengths.

Since both of them were newcomers, Liu Zhenyun's reputation and status were more than enough to overpower them, so after talking with him, Zhang Yan felt completely at ease.

These three should be able to create a chemical reaction.

With these two helpers, Liu Zhenyun was clearly more confident. He even brought paper and pen with him to dinner that night, and the four of them each came up with a title for the play.

The first one to be rejected was the title given by Shi Kang – "My Struggle".

Then Liu Zhenyun's title, "The First Year of No Allocation," was also rejected because it wasn't youthful enough and was too heavy.

In the end, Zhang Yan's "The Age of Glory" won, not because he used his power to intimidate others, but because he incorporated the trendy element of personal computers.

For this reason, Zhang Yan also wrote a simple opening narration for the opening sequence:
In 1993, Intel officially launched the Pentium series CPUs, bringing the most powerful brain ever to personal computers.

At the same time, we also stepped out of the campus and into society, plunging headlong into this fast-paced era with trepidation and hope...

In order to get the script for "The Age of Glory" out as soon as possible, Zhang Yan handed over all the newly signed screenwriters of the company to Liu Zhenyun.

Since they don't yet have the ability to write good scripts independently, they might as well train under Liu Zhenyun first.

In addition, Zhang Yan also asked the newspaper and television station to use their relevant capabilities to collect relevant materials in Tianjin—since it is a youth idol drama launched by Yuanmeng, the story background must be set in Tianjin.

Once the arrangements for the youth idol drama are settled...

The collaboration on "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" has finally been sorted out. The final result is that Yuan Meng takes the majority of the long-term benefits, while Tianyin Film and Television Art Planning Center, which was just established by Pan Hongye and Zhang Guojun, takes 40% of the short-term benefits and a small portion of the long-term benefits.

There's nothing they can do; Tianyin is just a makeshift team. If Yuanmeng didn't prioritize long-term gains, they wouldn't even get 40% of the short-term profits.

Zhang Guojun was actually somewhat unhappy about this, feeling that at least half of the copyright should be in Tianyin's hands.

Pan Hongye, however, took a more open-minded view, saying that "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo" was originally derived from the crosstalk script "The Battle Between the Emperor and His Ministers". If you really want to trace it back, this script was originally created in Tianjin.

Zhang Guojun then ceased his activities.

Then the two sides began to discuss the composition of the production crew.

The first thing to be decided is the producers. Pan Hongye and Zhang Guojun will definitely serve as producers, but the majority of the investment in this production is from Yuanmeng, so it's impossible for them to have a monopoly on the production team.

So after negotiations, the producer added Chang Jihong's name to the list and assigned her to be primarily responsible for financial expenditures.

Needless to say, the director is Zhang Guoli, who has experience in historical dramas, while the assistant director is screenwriter Shi Ling.

Shi Ling is an experienced director. If Zhang Guoli hadn't already produced the hit drama "The New Dragon and Phoenix," Shi Ling would have been the director of this series.

As for the other technical personnel, they were basically the same as those in the "New Dragon and Phoenix" production team.

These people are currently preparing for the filming of "A Messy Life" which will begin at the end of the month. They are expected to be in place by the end of August, which will also be a good time to make advance arrangements.

It takes more than three months to prepare, which is considered particularly slow in Hong Kong Island, but relatively fast in mainland China.

These were all decisions that Yuanmeng could make, so the agreement was reached without much effort. However, an unexpected problem arose in the selection of the male lead—Li Baotian, whom Zhang Guojun and Pan Hongye had their eye on, suddenly claimed that he was unavailable.

(End of this chapter)