I really don't want to make bad movies!

An hour later, Xia Ming gave up.

Although using Da Vinci's LUT template can create a nice color scheme, it's still a long way from the cinematic feel I envision.

To create a sense of mystery and power in Shaozhuang, low color temperature lighting was specifically chosen for the indoor shoot.

If you're not careful when adjusting the colors, the entire face of the character will lose its color and become sinister and terrifying.

To maintain the color balance of the entire series, it is not advisable to adjust the color curve of a single episode or a single segment individually.

"The Swindler" is not a serious suspense film, so the overall tone cannot be too dark, but many scenes were shot in low light.

Balancing the colors of the entire series is a massive undertaking, and on top of that, recreating the cinematic color scheme in one's mind is even more challenging.

Xia Ming thought about it and felt that this money couldn't be saved; he still needed to find a professional colorist to create a dedicated LUT template.

"hiss--"

When Xia Ming thought about color grading, he suddenly remembered that he still had a lot of Kurosawa Akira's film color aesthetics and applications that he hadn't yet unlocked.

Using Akira Kurosawa's color aesthetics in a web series would be a waste of talent, but not using it at all would be an even greater waste!

Just like Jiang Wen's art of language, as long as one of his ideas is used reasonably, the quality of the entire web series can be greatly improved.

In particular, Kurosawa's ability to find color balance is exactly what Xia Ming is currently facing.

He currently has 85,000 followers.

We need 15,000 more active followers to unlock this milestone.

There's no trending topic to capitalize on right now, so where can they attract followers?

Xia Ming is now not only a director, but also holds several other positions. He also has to find time to check contract details with the QuanQuan platform, so he simply doesn't have time to make videos.

It will probably take a month to reach 100,000 followers by slowly accumulating fans through the previous eight videos.

too long!

Xia Ming's schedule was very full, and he didn't have time to wait a month.

He needs to figure out a way to attract more followers and break through 100,000!

I was just about to turn on my phone when I realized the battery was dead.

"..."

Apple's battery life is really inflated!

Left with no other option, Xia Ming had to return to the hotel.

After saving the video files and processing the hard drive, I was about to leave when I saw someone standing at the entrance of the color grading studio.

"Jiang Xi Xi?"

Xia Ming wondered, what was she doing here?

Jiang Xixi pressed her chest, panting heavily, looking as if she had run all the way, her whole face flushed red.

She wore a simple, loose T-shirt that covered her tight denim shorts, revealing only a pair of shapely, long, white legs.

Good evening.

Jiang Xixi, who had only just recovered, didn't know why her first words were a greeting.

After packing up his things, Xia Ming turned off the equipment in the color grading studio and replied, "Good evening."

After a moment, he couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing here?"

Jiang Xixi's face was flushed, and her nose was slightly stuffy from breathing in the autumn wind while running, making her speech a little slurred.

You didn't reply to my message.

Xia Ming was taken aback, then showed his phone, which had a black screen: "It's out of battery."

Jiang Xixi let out a long sigh, as if to adjust her breathing: "Yan Shu isn't here either. I thought—"

Due to limited budget, some crew members could only stay in double rooms.

The two girls were naturally assigned to a double room.

"What did you think?" Xia Ming asked, even more puzzled.

Jiang Xixi blew her nose, her messy bangs slightly obscuring her long eyelashes, her sparkling eyes fixed on Xia Ming.

Suddenly, she lifted the hem of her clothes, and before Xia Ming could see her slender waist clearly, she pulled out a thick stack of notebooks from her waist.

"I thought you went to give her acting instructions..."

"...Why did you stuff the script in your pants?"

"You can't run fast if you're carrying something in your hands," Jiang Xixi replied seriously.

Xia Ming found it somewhat amusing and shook his head helplessly: "I haven't seen Yan Shu since filming ended. Didn't she go back to the hotel?"

"They disappeared after I took a shower."

"I didn't give her any acting instructions. In fact, she acted so well that she didn't need any instructions at all."

After Xia Ming finished dealing with the equipment in the color mixing booth, he walked past Jiang Xixi, but when he turned around, he found that Jiang Xixi was still standing in the same spot.

She held the script in both hands, gazing at Xia Ming with sparkling eyes that seemed to melt like ice in the sunlight.

"Can you tell me...?"

Aside from acting, Jiang Xixi speaks without any emotion in her daily life, with a flat tone and almost uniform pauses between each word.

But this time, Xia Ming could read sincerity and pleading in her eyes.

Clearly, she has improved.

His eyes shone with light, and his gaze was full of emotion.

Xia Ming has always respected actors who are serious and hardworking, especially those in his own group.

He waved and smiled, "It's getting late, let's talk as we walk."

Jiang Xixi nodded seriously and followed Xia Ming.

"Aren't you cold?" Xia Ming asked, turning around.

The heat from running had dissipated, and although Jiang Xixi was shaking her head, her slightly trembling legs were more honest than she was.

October in Jinghai was already showing signs of cooling down. Xia Ming felt a slight chill in the middle of the night wearing only a thin long-sleeved shirt, let alone Jiang Xixi who was only wearing a T-shirt and shorts.

If they walked all the way back to the hotel, the cold wind would take a heavy toll on this thin body.

According to the CEO's logic, Xia Ming should go to the prop room now and pick out a warm woolen coat for Jiang Xixi to wear.

However, as a director, it is despicable to misappropriate props without the prop master's permission.

So Xia Ming made a decision that any modern person would make.

I took a taxi back to the hotel.

……

It was already midnight when I finished explaining the play to Jiang Xixi.

Xia Ming returned to his room and plugged in his phone to charge.

After clearing all the messages on several chat apps, I discovered that in addition to the polar bear emoji sent by Jiang Xixi, Huang Xuke had also sent me a message.

The content roughly translates to, "Junior, I've tried to persuade you several times, but the higher-ups are adamant, and I really have no other options."

Looking at Huang Xuke's information, Xia Ming suddenly remembered that his Sun and Moon commentary account had a partnership with the iQiyi website.

There was some kind of "Star Map Exposure Resource Support" traffic package, which he never used.

Searching for "Sun and Moon Commentary" in the "Green Fruit Short Video" section of iQiyi's short video platform reveals that the account does exist, but it has never posted any videos and only has a few dozen followers.

Xia Ming thought for a moment and sent a screenshot of the interface to Huang Xuke.

[Senior, how come Riyue Commentary has an account on iQiyi, but no followers?]

Huang Xuke, a workaholic who stayed up late, quickly replied: "Riyue Commentary is the champion of the fan-made content competition and we have a collaboration. But he doesn't release videos, so we can't promote them even if we wanted to."

Huang Xuke is the newly promoted vice president of the short video section. He was extremely busy after his promotion. It was only after Xia Ming reminded him that the Riyue Commentary account was managed by one of his subordinates.

He immediately messaged the employee in charge of the account: "Xiao Cheng, what's the status of Riyue's commentary account? Wasn't it supposed to post at least one video a month?"

If the "Sun and Moon Commentary" account doesn't post any more videos, DaMaFeng's popularity will completely disappear.

Xiao Cheng was just getting ready to go to sleep when he saw his phone light up.

She angrily picked up her phone and found it was her boss urging her to hurry up. She quickly found Riyue Jieshuo among the group of contracted creators.

[Hello, Riyue Commentary. I'm sorry to bother you so late. I was just wondering if you have time to make videos lately? The platform's traffic packages and recommendation slots are time-limited. You'll get the maximum traffic and earn more revenue if you publish your videos now.]

It's all fake; the traffic recommendations are just a matter of her moving her fingers.

But she urgently needed Sun and Moon's explanation to give her boss a satisfactory answer so she could get a good eight hours of sleep.

Fortunately, the commentator was also a night owl, and replies came one after another.

[It's definitely too late to make videos now, and I'm also quite busy lately. Could you just transfer my videos from Bilibili?]

Xiao Cheng's eyes lit up, and his fingers flew across the keyboard: "【Of course! But we can't repost those two videos from Big Hornet. Viewers will get annoyed if we keep pushing those videos】"

You can upload other videos you created on Bilibili, and I'll arrange recommendations for you tomorrow morning.

【it is good】

A while later, the commentator sent a screenshot.

[Director Lu's epic production, once again lowering the bar for domestic sci-fi, a 10,000-word analysis of 849 episodes] Uploading...

Xiao Cheng breathed a sigh of relief, forwarded the screenshot to his boss verbatim, and added: 【Solved, easy!】

Huang Xuke gave Xiao Cheng a thumbs up.

Xiao Cheng gave Riyue Commentary another thumbs up.

Xia Ming saw Huang Xuke's promise of video traffic push and replied with a thumbs up.

The three praised each other and had a wonderful evening.