"Fraud," Shao Yichen said.
"Blatant fraud," Li Xingyu agreed.
"The level of fraud could be reported to the Consur Protection Association by audiences," Jiang Miaomiao and Qin Lu further accused.
General Manager Qianqian slamd the table and stood up: "Where's the fraud! Every word in my promotional plan is absolutely true!"
"Isn't this work starring the entire all-star cast of Director Shao Yichen's team? Isn't it Director Shao Yichen's new work after half a year? Isn't it the long-awaited collaboration between Nan Rongyu, Nan Rongzhou and Director Shao again, plus the public rivalry scenes between Bai Pufan and Li Xingyu? Doesn't it have love, hate, passion, and conspiracy entanglents?!" General Manager Qianqian said righteously.
Shao Yichen refused to back down: "But when this promotion cos out, audiences will definitely think this work is an idol drama film with as director, Li Xingyu as the lead, and Little Bai as the second male lead, not a toy comrcial—I an, live-action animated series with Qin Lu's original work, Jiang Miaomiao directing, guest-starring as a mysterious passerby, Little Bai as the lead, and Li Xingyu and the twins guest-starring as villains!"
"Would anyone really want to watch act?!"
Except for General Manager Qianqian and Li Xingyu, all the main creators present nodded and applauded, indicating that Shao Yichen was right.
Only Li Xingyu said quietly: "Actually, I'd quite like to see you act."
Shao Yichen: "Shut up."
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It had been three months since "The Long Ballad of Immortals and Demons" finished its theatrical run, and the film's final box office landed at 2.8 billion yuan.
Although Shao Yichen was satisfied, feeling this achievent proved she could be a proper director, the other main creators still had so regrets—especially the ambitious General Manager Qianqian, who felt that this film's failure to reach 3 billion yuan was a regret in the entire history of cinema, and she almost wanted to pay the 200 million yuan difference out of her own pocket.
Not only that, but what gave General Manager Qianqian even more headaches was that their usually diligent director, who had almost never stopped working on film sets, had sohow suddenly slowed her pace on the path of filmmaking.
Specifically—Shao Yichen hadn't made a film in three months! There wasn't even a script in sight!
This was simply incredible! You had to know that this director, previously hailed as a workaholic, had fild almost seamlessly before, with the previous film still in theaters while preparations for the next film were already complete!
But now she was nowhere to be found every day. When called, she would just say "gathering material" or "seeking inspiration," as skilled as a serial author who had been procrastinating for years. If not for Li Xingyu still dutifully recording variety shows once a week, General Manager Qianqian would have suspected these two lovebirds had secretly gotten married and gone on their honeymoon.
Faced with this situation, how could career fan General Manager Qianqian not be anxious?
Fortunately, Shao Yichen had only relaxed regarding film production; other affairs were still being handled in an orderly manner.
After being jointly taken over by South Polar Bear Group and Morning Star dia, Liming Video Platform transford into Morning Star Video Platform. Previous users of Liming Video Platform could directly exchange their mberships and credits for equivalent amounts, and since the TV drama and film copyrights on the previous platform remained, along with all previous comnts and bullet screens being preserved—it was just an app na change—users accepted it very quickly, minimizing user loss to the greatest extent.
After having their own video platform, all signed directors at Morning Star dia were eager to try filming sothing on their own platform for practice. The fastest to act was Jiang Miaomiao, who submitted her proposal within three days. When General Manager Qianqian opened this proposal, she was imdiately blinded by the all-star cast listed within.
Comic rising star Qin Lu as the original creator! South Polar Bear Group investnt! Simultaneous broadcast with satellite TV! Rising new star Little Bai as the lead! Future Best Actor Li Xingyu guest-starring as the villain boss! South Polar Bear heirs guest-starring as mid-level villain bosses! Shao Yichen guest-starring as a passerby—wait, why was there a mysterious passerby here? Never mind, that wasn't important—and Jiang Miaomiao as head director!
And all these people were gathering together—just to film a fifty-two episode live-action animated series.
General Manager Qianqian began to question life.
With such a lineup assembled, what couldn't they do well? Why choose to film a special effects series? Even having Li Xingyu act in an idol drama would attract more people than this kind of live-action animation.
She took this question to Jiang Miaomiao, who unexpectedly gave a reasonably well-founded answer—although the cast looked luxurious, in reality only lead actor Little Bai needed to spend a lot of ti performing, plus the idle Nan Rongyu and Nan Rongzhou whose screen ti could be flexible. The forr was still in his career's rising period, in other words, his popularity was diocre, and he was a signed artist of Morning Star dia who had been running errands on various sets after finishing Director Shao's film, so he wasn't difficult to book. As for the latter... they were idle anyway, so rather than let them make noise, it was better to have them act more.
As for Li Xingyu and Shao Yichen, they both usually had their own affairs, and she would try to compress their scenes together to be fild within a week.
Since the director's thinking was so thorough, General Manager Qianqian couldn't really refute much. Although she thought this kind of special effects drama was just live-action animation made for children, for a small star like Little Bai it was also a good opportunity to hone his acting skills. After thinking it over, she ultimately approved this project.
However, she remained determined to turn it into an idol drama and wanted to secretly create so publicity stunts—then was collectively rejected.
General Manager Qianqian felt her career had suffered a great blow.
After the eting, she was in her office looking out the window lancholically when the office door clicked open. She turned to look and saw that the boss who had disappeared for nearly three months had finally returned.
General Manager Qianqian was filled with mixed emotions, and a thousand words turned into one sentence.
"—Director Shao!! You have ti to act but no ti to make films!!!"
Shao Yichen hadn't expected that upon her return, instead of a touching reunion, her loyal subordinate would give her such a profound moral interrogation, and she imdiately backed down considerably.
She quickly explained: "This is Jiang Miaomiao's rare first independent work! And it's adapted from Qin Lu's original manga! As a friend and loyal fan of the manga, I should definitely show my support!"
"Besides, the manga is really good. It's now entering the pre-finale stage and is expected to conclude together with the special effects series that will air then. The male and female leads have already infiltrated the enemy and begun their thrilling adventure in the enemy's headquarters. I recomnd everyone should take a look—"
General Manager Qianqian: "I don't read manga."
Shao Yichen deflated like a punctured balloon.
"Then... watching the series is fine too," she awkwardly promoted. "You could also watch it with relatives' children."
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Shao Yichen naturally knew what this manager was really troubled about.
The so-called "promotional plan being collectively rejected" was just a trigger—she estimated that when General Manager Qianqian ca up with this chaotic promotional sche, she was already prepared to be rejected—what she was really worried about was Shao Yichen.
More precisely, what decision Shao Yichen would make after losing the system's driving force.
Of course, currently only Shao Yichen herself and Li Xingyu knew about her system, but those close to her had probably felt her changes to varying degrees. Whether it was her anxious mindset during previous film shoots or her lack of plans after the film ended, these actually showed that she was currently confused.
Jiang Miaomiao's insistence on having her guest star in this special effects series was probably her way of showing support for Shao Yichen.
Li Qianqian was different from the others—unlike Li Xingyu's attitude of "I'll support whatever choice you make," Li Qianqian firmly wanted Shao Yichen to continue making films. This was both for the developnt of Morning Star dia as a whole company and represented her trust in Shao Yichen.
As for Shao Yichen, during these so-called three months of "seeking inspiration," she had gradually clarified her direction.
Thinking of this, she cleared her throat: "Qianqian, do you know anything about the universe?"
Li Qianqian: ...
What, trying to change the subject?
"Not much," she answered cautiously. "I haven't taken courses in that field."
"Then I suggest you learn about it, or get in touch with so reliable scholars and contact them in advance," Shao Yichen said seriously. "Otherwise, when filming, it's easy to have those kinds of scientific flaws—I'm not very good at communicating with strangers, so I'm temporarily assigning this task to you."
Li Qianqian was stunned for a mont, quickly realizing what Shao Yichen was hinting at.
"The the for the next film has been decided!" she excitedly jumped up.
"That's right!" Shao Yichen snapped her fingers with feigned calmness. "A sci-fi blockbuster, a cosmic epic, with thes of human insignificance, the vastness of the universe, collisions between virtual and reality... and space fleets fighting each other."
Actually, space fleets fighting each other was Shao Yichen's main point.
Li Qianqian naturally wouldn't care about such small details. Even if Shao Yichen wanted to film space fleets fighting, or even cosmic black holes fighting, Li Qianqian would support her with both hands raised, as long as she continued making films. She imdiately perked up and fired off questions like bullets: "How's the script concept? What's the approximate duration? Do you have actors in mind—does Li Xingyu have ti?"
Shao Yichen magically pulled out a script from behind her and answered each question: "The script is already written, the duration... about two hours or so? For the lead actor, I want to use a child as the protagonist. If Li Xingyu could be ten years younger he might be able to play soone young, but now he can only be assigned the role of the protagonist's spiritual ntor who's destined to die... wait, why do I have to reserve a role for Li Xingyu?"
That's right, after three months of thinking, Shao Yichen's decision was still to continue making films.
However, without the system's restrictions, she decided to let herself go and film whatever she wanted. This film, which carried the title of a sci-fi blockbuster but was actually made to satisfy her desire to watch space fleets fight, was her first attempt.
Shao Yichen arranged the tasks, feeling quite good about herself, and leisurely left Li Qianqian's office. Li Qianqian was briefly happy about her boss's new task for a while, then suddenly realized sothing was wrong.
She was clearly going to be busy, so why was she still so happy? Could she be the legendary spiritual capitalist?
And she said she went out to gather material—if the film was going to be set in space, what material could she gather?!
As expected, the boss had been slacking off under the pretext of gathering material!!!
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