Feature Shows Extravaganza - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Production Completed

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

One could have all the fun they wanted, but the shooting had to be taken seriously.

As expected, after shooting the first scene, almost all the crew members had lost confidence in the show.

The director might have seemed professional, but he majored in computer science!

Although the script looked legit, the actual lines were so embarrassing!

Sure, the main actor could act, but he had to play a yo-yo in the show!

And despite the affluent appearance of the crew, there was no meat in their packed lunch!

All in all, the show ticked every box as a low budget crappy production. The crew members weren’t the only ones who found it unpromising, even Mr. Old Meng, who paid a visit one day, was astonished by how out of place the shooting site looked. He left almost right away, saying that he would rather go back and play with a yo-yo at home.

Facing the predicament where everyone was having doubts about the show, Meng Lang, the director, remained perfectly calm.

The show was embarrassing. So what?

It wouldn’t be an issue. They would hire some studio to add some flashy light to the yo-yos and elaborate special effects to the battles. Things would look much better right away.

The scene looked strange now because there were no special effects during the actual shooting, hence the embarrassment.

These people just weren’t professional enough!

All of those popular box office hits made by Hollywood looked embarrassing during their shooting!

After the special effects were added, everyone would cry out “Wow!” all the same.

Despite the doubts, He Yifan and Luo Wei, the main actor and actress, never wavered.

Luo Wei was the actress Meng Lang recruited to play Mi Li and she used to work as an extra in Hengdian.

One was a C-list actor and the other was an extra, and both were eager to find something to kick-start their careers. When there was finally a show that would have them playing the leading roles, the last thing they would do was be picky.

Even if the show seemed doomed, before the final cut was completed, no one would know that for sure.

Plus, the director said that special effects were going to be added!

The show might turn out amazing after that!

People needed to have dreams. One shouldn’t have been in the acting business if they wavered whenever they were challenged.

Apart from prophet with clairvoyant sights, no actor or actress knew how their show would turn out when it was still at the shooting stage.

…

Blazing Teens had been making quick progress in its shooting. In as short as three months, the shooting was almost done.

They had Meng Lang’s loose standard to thank. Other directors would call NG at least a few times before giving a pass, but with Meng Lang, as long as the yo-yo was played properly, he didn’t care if the actor or actress had a deadpan face.

Another reason was that the shooting sites were quite compact. Around 85% of the shooting took place at the summer camp and only less than 10% needed to be shot outside.

As for the remaining 5%, well, they were left to special effects!

Halfway through the shooting, Meng Lang found a famous special effects studio in the country and started working on the necessary special effects of Blazing Teens.

There was a quite hilarious misunderstanding during the process.

When Meng Lang reached out to the studio named “Thunderbird” and they asked him how many minutes of special effects he needed, Meng Lang said casually, “I’m not sure yet. A few hours in total, I think.”

And that shocked the studio!

The boss of Thunderbird Studio went to the airport in person to pick Meng Lang up with a Rolls Royce, then checked him into the presidential suite of a five-star hotel.

A few hours? That would be a major project!

Calculating the minimum price they would quote on his calculator, the boss of Thunderbird almost laughed himself unconscious.

If they could close this deal, they would have a vacation with a champion, pretty girls, a yacht tour, and racing cars! The studio would also be expanded into a bigger company…

However, when Meng Lang made his request, all the Thunderbird programmers were astonished.

“Do you realize you’re Party A here? What kind of Party A are you?! You only want a halo? And throw in a little bit of photo particle effect? You can almost do something that simple yourself!”

Since when was a Party A’s request that easy to meet? Weren’t they supposed to be abominable?

Because Meng Lang’s request was so simple, the boss of Thunderbird had to try his best to raise the price. “Well… The yo-yos move too fast! It can be quite difficult to add light effects to fast-moving objects…”

Before he could finish, Meng Lang replied without hesitation. “That’s easily fixed. I’ll provide you with slow-motion shots. You can add the light effects to them at one tenth of the normal speed. That will do, won’t it?”

“You… you…”

It was said that because of the contract with Blazing Teens, Thunderbird Studio, the boss included, went into a depressed state for three days.

1.85 million!

In the end, Meng Lang paid a price exceeding his budget on the special effects of the 4 episodes of Blazing Teens.

Thunderbird Studio didn’t charge Meng Lang a lot and the premium was only because Meng Lang gave them a very limited time to finish the job.

And the relatively low price was because of his loose requirement.

Usually, people who hired a special effects studio couldn’t be more strict with their requirements. They always wanted Hollywood-level special efforts, but were only willing to pay a basement price.

Meng Lang, on the other hand, was a different story. He only had one requirement, which was those “shiny yo-yos”. As for the battle scene, he left it to the studio. He would throw in whatever halo or photo particle effects they wanted. He didn’t care if they were exquisite, as long as they shone!

With the low requirement and the moderate workload, the boss of Thunderbird regretted the money he spent on that Rolls Royce and the five-star hotel room, but still signed a contract on the special effect with Meng Lang, who had tears in his eyes.

Once the special effects were handled, Meng Lang had only less than 100,000 left.

The shooting was almost completed. Once that happened, Meng Lang could take care of the editing himself and he wouldn’t hire any PR agency. That way, 100,000 would be enough to cover everything.

…

Soon, it was early September and it had been three and a half months since Blazing Teens started shooting.

Meng Lang had planned to finish everything in three months, but he had miscalculated the completeness about certain scenes. After all, this was the first time he made a feature show and there were a lot of details he could have missed.

Hence, they spent another half month on retakes and other scenes.

After the wrap-up party, the crew was dismissed and the members went their separate ways, some back to Hengdian and some to the next job.

Meng Lang then returned the rented equipment.

After that, the crew parted and everything was back to zero, leaving him behind alone in the empty Pengda Pictures for the final editing of the show.

The editing went relatively smoothly. With the help of the original work and some overtime, Meng Lang was able to finish the job in a week.

The next thing was going from door to door to sell the show.

Ever since Blazing Teens started shooting, there had been no news coverage on the show. Meng Lang didn’t spend a cent on PR and had put everything on the shooting itself.

Without PR, there was no attention and without attention, it was very unlikely that the TV channels would purchase the show, unless it was really well-made.

Blazing Teens? Well-made?

Who were they kidding? They took care of the shooting and flashy special effects in three months. How could it be well-made?

Since there was no PR and the show wasn’t well-made, his only option was to give the show out for free.

As the saying went, “Since it’s free, there’s no harm in trying!”

Meng Lang said, “It’s free, so try it! You can always take it down if the viewing rates are low!”

The TV channels: Sure!