Feature Shows Extravaganza - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Blazing Teens

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

Hearing that Old Meng was a little agitated, Meng Lang said with an obsequious smile, “How long have we had that house? Five years? I’ve only just graduated from college and it’ll be years before I get married. That place will be 10 years old by the time I get married. Are you going to give me a flat that’s been deserted for 10 years as my marital home? You might as well kill me first! Dad, just trust me on this one! Sell it! We can always buy a new flat after I make some money!”

“You, you…”

Vexed, Old Meng didn’t speak for a moment. Meng Lang was wondering if he had really pissed his dad off when he heard him say, “Fine, whatever. It was going to be your flat anyway. Just keep your paws off the place me and your mom live in and you can sell whatever else you want. The property ownership certificate is at my place and I’ll have the agent put it up for sale tomorrow. You’ll have the money after it’s sold.”

“Thank you, dad!”

After hanging up, Meng Lang began thinking about how he was going to spend that money.

The house at Garden Bridge was quite spacious and the location was excellent. It would be sold for at least 4 million. If Old Meng wouldn’t keep some of that money for himself, Meng Lang would have an extra 4 million in his account. With the 800,000 he still had, he would have nearly 5 million to cover the production cost of Blazing Teens!

And that was as much as he could get. No matter how supportive Old Meng was, he would never put everything he had on the stake.

Selling that house had almost touched Old Meng’s bottom line. Meng Lang knew his father well to know that no matter how miserable or impoverished he appeared to be from now on, Old Meng wouldn’t give him any more help.

Of course, Meng Lang wouldn’t ask Old Meng for more money either since that 5 million was more than enough for him to make Blazing Teens!

The original version had a production cost of over 10 million and was created by 12 animation studios, led by Aofei Anime.

The difference in time between the two worlds needed to be taken into consideration. In Meng Lang’s original world, Blazing Teens was created in 2004, but the technology in this world was from 2014, judging from the standard of the other one.

After 10 years, the cost of production had to have dropped tremendously.

Moreover, in the original world, the animation version of Blazing Teens was made alongside the live-action one. If Meng Lang skipped the animation version and only worked on the live-action, 5 million would be more than enough.

…

To create a crew, one required all sorts of equipment and the personnel to operate them.

Having experience in the industry, Meng Lang wouldn’t do such a dumb thing as buying each piece of individual equipment when needed. Instead, he found an equipment rental company and rented an entire set of filming equipment that would meet his minimal requirement, at a total price of 580,000 for a total of three months.

It wasn’t a high rental price. It would cost more to pay the insurance for all the equipment.

Once the equipment was handled, he moved on to looking for the crew.

Meng Lang alone could cover the work of producer, director, and screenwriter, thanks to the experience from taking charge of crew in his previous life.

The cameraman, log keeper, lighting, recording, makeup, props…

All these positions needed filling and Meng Lang was only a human being. He couldn’t work on all positions at the same time. Even a TV show with a large budget would need all those staff members.

To solve that problem, Meng Lang went to Hengdian alone. With enough money, he soon had all the people he needed to form a crew.

Although they weren’t exactly professionals, they were good enough for this job.

It was only Blazing Teens, not Game of Thrones. As long as the yo-yos shone, he could make do with rubbish camera man, lightning operators, and makeup artists.

Meng Lang put in more effort in gathering the crew. In comparison, the casting was relatively easy.

Actors of Blazing Teens were easy to find. Pretty much any young actor would do, unlike Balala the Fairies or Explosive Boys, which required child film stars.

Meng Lang chose a C-list young actor named He Yifan for the main character Li Fei.

Li Fei played quite a big role in Blazing Teens and the actor had to have decent acting skills. Although the show itself was filled with clichés, it didn’t mean that the main character would do nothing but play yo-yos with a poker face.

Hence, Meng Lang spent half a million to hire He Yifan for the role.

He Yifan started off as a member of a boy band, but his agency closed and his new employer didn’t support him with enough resources. Hence, he was a nobody in the showbiz.

Meng Lang had watched some of He Yifan’s works. He was not an award-winning actor, but was good enough for a soap opera like this one.

More importantly, Meng Lang had chosen He Yifan because he looked a lot like the actor playing Li Fei in the original version. He Yifan was the sunny boy next door type, who fit Meng Lang’s requirement.

Once the actor playing Li Fei was determined, the selection of supporting roles was very straightforward.

The main purpose of this show was to promote yo-yos. As long as the leading role looked decent, he didn’t care if the rest of the characters had poker faces.

However, the character Mi Li made Meng Lang hesitate for quite some time.

To be honest, when he watched Blazing Teens back then, what impressed him the most, apart from Li Fei’s spectacular stance known as “Silver Dragon from the Wonderland”, was Mi Li’s sweet smile.

Back then, Mi Li was the dream girl of countless teenagers.

Every teenager who played with yo-yos had two ultimate questions:

“Why won’t my yo-yo shine like that?”

“Why don’t I have a girl like Mi Li in my life who plays yo-yo?”

Mi Li was a very popular character in Blazing Teens, so much so that her popularity could surpass Li Fei, the main character.

Which actress should I give the role to?

Meng Lang was lost in his thoughts.

Good-looking female stars all came with high price tags, even the C-list ones. If one reached out to them, one would be scared off by the salary they asked for.

Ordinary-looking actresses were much cheaper, but there was no point in having them for the job.

If she wasn’t pretty, she couldn’t be Mi Li.

After some thought, Meng Lang made his decision.

Mi Li could only be played by someone with a pretty face. She didn’t have to be a good actress, which would cost him a fortune. He could just find one from the extras, who was pretty enough and had a smile of the girl next door.

He had to do this because he was running out of money!

Just setting up the crew had cost him almost 3 million and he hadn’t even shot a single episode. He would go bankrupt if the pretty face turned out to be expensive.

“I’m selling yo-yos! I’m selling yo-yos! I’m selling yo-yos!” After repeating it three times in his head like he was singing a spell, Meng Lang finally dissuaded himself from hiring a famous actress.

Yo-yos were the real main characters!

Li Fei and Mi Li could all go to hell!

…

After a week-long preparation, Blazing Teens finally started shooting!

Old Meng, who was invited to attend the opening ceremony, clapped his hands in bewilderment. He was more than amazed when he saw the crew members, who really looked the part.

Meng Lang had pulled through?

“Where did you find all these people? This equipment looks expensive to me. Of the 4 million from selling the house, how much do you have left?” Old Meng found an opportunity to talk to Meng Lang alone when no one else was looking.

“I have about 2 million left.”

Smacking his lips, Meng Lang said with an expression that showed he was still living in the moment. “The money is never enough. With the 2 million, I still have special effects to take care of during post-production and after the editing, I’ll have to find a way to promote the show. Aside from those, I still need to cover the expenses of the actual shooting. I don’t know if the 2 million will cover it all.”

Hearing this, Old Meng nodded in an understanding manner.

It was good that Meng Lang had a plan. He was worried that his son would jump in without knowing the first thing and end up making a mess.