The literary era since 1979

"Stewardess", like "Harbin at Night" and "Soldiers of the Yang", won the third prize of the Feitian Award for TV Dramas. Since then, the entire award ceremony has come to an end, and reporters who have been eager to try have swarmed to the winners, vying for interviews.

Gong Xing, Wang Shuo, Zheng Xiaolong, Su Ya and others were surrounded and faced a barrage of questions from the media.

Fang Yan hid in the corner quietly, scanning the crowd that was receding like the tide, and suddenly noticed that Zhu Lin was leading Yang Ju and others towards him.

"Teacher Fang, it's great to see you here again!"

"Me too, Director Yang. Long time no see. How are you?"

"TOEFL, TOEFL, I'm fine."

Yang Ju smiled, with a barely perceptible hint of worry between his brows.

Fangyan did not catch it, because the attention was on Li Chengru at this time. According to him, this trip back to Beijing was to select actors for the subsequent episodes of "Journey to the West", and also to fulfill the original promise to invite Qiu Peining, Zhu Lin and others to play Chang'e and the King of the Kingdom of Women.

"Before, I was a little worried and hesitant about whether you could play the role of the King of the Kingdom of Women well."

Yang Ju said: "But after watching your performances in "The Ring", "Da Qin" and "Stewardess", my colleagues and I are relieved. We all think that you can portray this gentle, dignified and elegant image."

"I will do my best and never let you down!"

Zhu Lin was very excited and his voice trembled slightly.

“Organizational cultivation, individual performance.”

Yang Ju waved his hand, "And if you want to thank someone, you should also thank Teacher Fang and Cheng Ru for their strong recommendations."

Seeing Zhu Lin thanking him and Fang Yan with great joy, Li Chengru grinned and said:
"You should thank Director Yang the most. The role of the Queen of the Kingdom of Women was originally given to Teacher Yang Chunxia, ​​but it was Director Yang who decided on you."

"Is it the White Bone Demon from 'The Three Strikes on the White Bone Demon'?"

Fangyan clearly remembers this behind-the-scenes story in "Journey to the West".

Yang Chunxia is a famous Peking Opera performing artist, who was known as "Shanghai's No. 1 Dan Dan" at the time. She originally refused to play the role of the White Bone Demon because the White Bone Demon, who wrongly accuses Sun Wukong and sows discord among the team, is a very typical villain character and could easily give the audience a negative impression.

So, she put forward a condition that as long as she could also play the subsequent role of the Queen of the Kingdom of Women, she would agree to play the White Bone Demon first.

However, Yang Jue did not fulfill the promise made by the "Journey to the West" crew, saying that "an actor playing two roles at the same time may confuse the audience." But this is actually untenable, as there are so many actors who played multiple important roles in "Journey to the West."

Yan Huaili, who played the role of Sha Seng alone, played the roles of "Taishang Laojun", "Bull Demon King", "West Sea Dragon King", "Clairvoyance"...

This resulted in a lot of unhappiness and controversy. The bottom line was that Zhu Lin was more suitable to play the role of "The Queen of the Kingdom of Women" than Yang Chunxia.

"I only care about making a good film of Journey to the West and giving myself, the organization and the people an explanation!"

Yang Ju said firmly: "As for the infamy, I will bear it alone!"

"Director Yang, don't get excited. There may be a solution. How about this?"

Fangyan thought of "Song Ci, the Chief Justice of the Song Dynasty" and suggested using an important positive character as compensation.

For example, "Yu Niang" is the woman who was wrongly accused of being a fickle person who slept with anyone in the Cao Mo case. Just like Pan Jinlian, she had an affair with Cao Mo and plotted to murder her husband, but in fact she was a good wife who abided by the code of conduct for women and was virtuous.

It can not only bring out Yang Chunxia's superb acting skills, but also transform the negative impact that the "White Bone Demon" may bring.

"Hey, that's great, Director Yang, Teacher Fang's idea is really great!"

Li Chengru clapped his hands excitedly, while Zhu Lin secretly cast a grateful look at Fang Yan with sparkling eyes.

Yang Ju was delighted at first, then he sighed quietly:
"This is just a small problem. Now there is a bigger problem. If it can't be solved, I'm afraid we won't be able to film the episode about the Kingdom of Daughters."

"what happened?"

After the interview, Gong Xing, Su Ya and others also joined the conversation, speculating whether the "Journey to the West" crew had encountered any difficulties.

Upon asking, I found out that the 300 million shooting budget allocated by CCTV to the crew had almost been spent.

"300 million?!"

Lu Xiaowei, Zheng Xiaolong and others were greatly shocked. This amount of money was enough for the Television Art Center to produce eight, nine or even a dozen TV series.

But no one expected that the "Journey to the West" crew not only spent all the budget, but also came to Yanjing to apply for continued funding from the station.

“It looks like the application was not approved.”

Dialect looks left and right.

"We are a step late."

Li Chengru hung his head in frustration and said that Wang Fulin had made preparations in advance and realized the serious shortage of funds earlier than they did.

So they applied to CCTV for another 300 million yuan early on. However, when they left their busy filming work and came to Yanjing to submit the application, they found that CCTV was already penniless and could not give any extra money to "Journey to the West".

After all, when the two famous TV series "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Journey to the West" were first created, no one could have expected that the filming costs would be so huge. CCTV had already invested all the energy, financial resources and manpower it could, only to realize that it was difficult to keep two crews running at the same time.

"This... I remember that Journey to the West has been aired for 5 episodes so far, right?"

Gong Xing hesitated for a long time before speaking out.

"Eliminating the Black Chicken Kingdom, stealing ginseng fruit, plotting to capture Zhu Bajie, defeating the White Bone Demon three times, and causing trouble at Guanyin Temple."

As soon as Fang Yan said this, Lu Xiaowei, Zheng Xiaolong, Su Ya and others looked at each other and immediately fell silent.

Since the project was established in 1982, only five episodes have been filmed with a budget of 300 million. The average cost of one episode is 5. If the entire "Journey to the West" were to be filmed, it would cost tens of millions. Even the wealthy CCTV cannot afford such a large amount of money.

“Every penny we spend is well spent.”

Li Chengru vowed: "In order to save money, the crew only has 50 cents per person per meal!"

"But why does the money go away so quickly?"

Lu Xiaowei and Zheng Xiaolong were both puzzled.

Fangyan suddenly asked: "It's an outdoor collection and filming, right?"

Yang Ju nodded: "Yes, we invested almost most of the money in location shooting."

"It is true, just like the situation in A Dream of Red Mansions." He explained concisely in dialect that TV dramas these days are shot in a few relatively fixed scenes, mostly indoor scenes.

But "Dream of Red Mansions" is different. All the scenes were shot at real locations. In addition to most of the indoor scenes taking place in Xiangshan in Yanjing, the outdoor scenes were also shot in more than 300 places, including Suzhou in Jiangnan, Jiaxing in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Qingcheng Mountain in Sichuan and Shu, Rongguo Mansion in Hebei, Grand View Garden in Shanghai, Fuzhuang in Yangzhou, Baiyun Temple in Yanjing, Dujiangyan, Jiaoshan Temple in Zhenjiang, and West Lake in Hangzhou. This is also the reason why the million budget could not withstand the "torture" of the "Dream of Red Mansions" crew.

The number of location scenes required to be shot for "Journey to the West" was no less than that for "Dream of Red Mansions".

As a mythological novel depicting the world of gods, demons, immortals and heroes, the book shows many strange worlds and scenes, including the prosperous Tang Empire, the terrifying and gloomy underworld, and the mysterious and ethereal heaven...

However, these scenes are illusory, and it becomes quite difficult to reproduce them simply through stage settings and props.

The technological level at that time had not yet developed advanced technologies such as green screen synthesis. Even Hollywood, which is top in physical special effects and computer special effects, could not produce them. The "Journey to the West" crew could only use the difficult and expensive method and had to rely on real-life shooting to present these fantasy elements.

The mountains and rivers captured here are certainly not comparable to those fantasy dramas that were crudely made with green screen cutouts in later generations!

After all, it is comfortable to shoot on a green screen without being exposed to wind, sun, rain, and the shooting speed is incredibly fast. There is no need to spend time on the road, and the actors can run several scenes at the same time. It is like eating a pre-prepared dish of braised pork with pickled mustard greens. Not only is it made of low-quality pork, it also doesn't taste good at all!
All of these films are fast-moving consumer goods, but "Journey to the West" is a true work of art.

Deserts, forests, waterfalls, mountains, seas, and stone forests, the exterior scenes are truly pleasing to the eye; you could even think of it as a low-profile version of National Geographic. But the price and effort paid for this was enormous. In order to fully present the vast world of Journey to the West, the crew had to travel across most of China, covering 20 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, and the itinerary covered all corners of the country.

Moreover, the crew is large, the equipment required is complicated, and they need to run around, which undoubtedly adds a lot of financial burden.

So it’s not just about location scouting, but also careful planning before filming to determine the filming locations and routes required by the script.

All of this will greatly prolong the filming period of "Journey to the West", and will greatly increase the manpower and living expenses of the crew.

Because of this, the filming speed of Hong Kong film crews is faster than expected. Every extra day of work means one more day of expenses.

All these problems put the financial situation of the "Journey to the West" crew in a tight spot.

"Director Yang, how much budget do you plan to apply for this time when you come to Beijing to apply for funding?"

Gong Xing's tone was filled with concern.

"Of course the more the better. If that doesn't work, we'd be satisfied if we could get another 300 million like the crew of Dream of Red Mansions did."

Yang Ju took a deep breath.

"Don't worry about it being insufficient. Considering the scale of the Journey to the West series, even if we allocate another 600 million, we may not be able to complete the trials."

Fangyan said seriously.

"Now, let alone 600 million, there is not even 60."

Yang Jue smiled bitterly and said that he and his colleagues in the crew had gone to CCTV to beg for alms many times in recent days, but each time was in vain.

Fang Yan said: "Since you can't get any favors from the Central Television Station, why don't you try to beg for favors elsewhere, such as state-owned enterprises, collective enterprises, or even private enterprises and self-employed individuals?"

"Yes, we can get external funds to invest in Journey to the West."

Gong Xing received further training in the Hong Kong film and television industry, and compared to the others present, his business thinking has been completely opened up.

"It's not like we haven't thought about these methods, but it just doesn't work."

Li Chengru said helplessly: "CCTV does not agree to allow external funds to enter Journey to the West. It only allows loans."

Then he clapped his hands and said angrily, "But we are just a TV drama crew under CCTV. We can't directly borrow money from the bank. We must get permission from CCTV and borrow money from the bank in the name of CCTV."

"That's going to be tricky."

Fangyan frowned. He had originally planned to get Li Jingwei's Jianlibao and Han Yuemin's clothing company to sponsor. The conditions were very simple. He just wanted the "Journey to the West" team to shoot an advertisement, endorse a beverage and clothing brand, and finally give a few performances.

"It was a difficult issue, so we stayed in Yanjing for a long time, trying our best to convince the leaders of the station."

Yang Ju tactfully asked him to lend a helping hand, because because of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, everyone from the radio, television, culture and propaganda departments to the central station leaders would definitely give him face, especially the station director Wang Feng.

"Why, Director Wang doesn't agree to the loan?"

Dialects are not without surprises.

Yang Ju told the audience frankly that the broadcast effect and ratings of the first five episodes of Journey to the West did not meet the expectations of CCTV.

The leaders of the station believed that the filming of "Journey to the West" cost a huge amount of money, was updated slowly, had low ratings, the effort was not proportional to the return, and the filming and return cycles were very long. They could not see the benefits of this TV series at all. So some people proposed to temporarily stop the filming of "Journey to the West" and shift human, financial and material resources to "Dream of Red Mansions" and strive to shoot one of the four great classics first.

I thought the dialect was ridiculous at first, but the 86 version of Journey to the West is undoubtedly the most-watched TV series in China. Its classic level has not been surpassed by any other TV series to date. It is simply the most popular TV series among the four great classics.

But on second thought, the real viewing frenzy for "Journey to the West" wasn't until the first climax scene, "Havoc in Heaven"!

"hiss!"

Everyone looked at each other in disbelief, but when they thought about it carefully, it made sense.

"In fact, Dream of the Red Chamber is not safe either. As far as I know, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Culture have considered stopping the filming of it."

Fang Yan consoled him, "In any case, Director Yang, rest assured. I will definitely help wherever I can!"

Yang Jue's frown relaxed, and she walked out of the Feitian Awards ceremony venue with Zhu Lin, Gong Xing and others.

As soon as I arrived at the door of the building, I saw Li Hongchang, the deputy director of the production of "Journey to the West", who would play the role of "Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord" in the future, running over in a hurry. He didn't have time to greet Fang Yan, Lu Xiaowei and the others. He came with a panicked look on his face and brought a shocking piece of bad news -

The station received an anonymous letter of complaint!

The content questioned the use of funds by the crew of "Journey to the West", accusing them of abusing the 300 million budget and traveling around in the name of filming, but in fact there was no substantial filming work...

"what?!"

Gong Xing, Zhu Lin and others were all shocked, and they all looked at Yang Jue at the same time.

Watching them leave in a hurry, Fang Yan shook his head:

"There are 81 trials in Journey to the West. I'm afraid the TV series Journey to the West also has its own 81 trials."

Everyone agreed. Zhu Lin held Gong Qian's hand tightly, and asked with a worried look on his face, "Teacher Fang, will something happen?"

"It may not be a bad thing." Fang Yan said meaningfully, "Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe the budget for the TV series will be settled." (End of this chapter)