I didn't want to be an actor

Yang Bei is the vice president of iQiyi.

As the head of Qizheng Studio, she leads the team to purchase copyrights and produce customized dramas for iQiyi. She is also one of the producers of "Go Go Squid!"

In addition to "Go Go Squid!", she also participated in the production and development of "Story of Yanxi Palace", "The Son-in-law", "The Golden Years", "A Flowing River"...

She has cooperated with most companies.

After all, iQiyi is a platform-type website, and naturally needs high-quality content.

But how can we get high-quality content?

Yang Bei makes high-quality content!

Shen Liang certainly knows her. When "Go Go Squid!" was being made, they had communicated...

At the end of the day, Yang Bei specifically asked Shen Liang if he had any particular subject matter he liked.

Then he said, "Ancient puppet dramas can also be considered!"

It just so happened that Huace Film \u0026 TV, the producer of "Go Go Squid!", was preparing to adapt another work of Mo Bao Fei Bao, "One Life, One World, Beautiful Bones", and the screenwriter was also the original author.

This drama is pretty good.

It was adapted into two dramas, "Zhou Sheng Ru Gu" and "Yi Sheng Yi Shi"...

The former is a great tragedy, while the latter is a forced sweet drama.

However, the filming was not good - the character of the male protagonist, "drunk on the beach of bones, singing wildly, a pot of wine, a horse, how many people in the world are like the king"!

Young and promising, experienced in the battlefield, invincible, caring about the world, abiding by the duties of a minister, feared by the family, slandered by the government and the public, but still not changing his original intention, broad-minded, but also bitter...

Such a good opportunity to show the character, but it was not even filmed!

Here are some scenes to recall how brave he was on the battlefield;

Drunk and lying on the beach of bones, what a great scene: The little Nanchen King, who had won battles again and again, drank with his soldiers, and suddenly felt sad after the joy. He lay drunk on the beach of bones with a pot of wine and a horse. He looked at the moon with a cold heart and sighed as he sang. As the sun set and night fell, he looked at Zhongzhou silently, and only his lonely and upright back remained in the vast world...

The desolate scene exaggerates the tragic tone of the play.

In the TV series, Sanniangzi only recited these lines, and it took more than ten seconds...

Guo Hu is really bad!

If "Lotus Tower" had a different director, it would have scored at least 9 points.

"Camp of Love"... simply exposed its true colors!

However, Shen Liang did not have a schedule: "I have four movies to shoot later..."

"It doesn't matter, we can wait!"

Shen Liang was silent for a while, then said: "...Four movies, at least until August next year... and there is also a TV series... I guess it will take at least until the end of the year..."

"Okay, as long as you agree to act!"

"Director team... I hope to find Director Yi Zheng... or Director Lou Jian!"

"...This..." Fang Ying hesitated for a moment...

Shen Liang looked at Yang Bei and said: "Lotus Tower was originally a project of Huanrui. They found Tengxun, and Tengxun gave me the script... I like it very much, but the director's ability is not up to par, so Tengxun bought out the copyright and found Noon Sunshine, spending nearly 20 million more!"

"Director Lin Yufen..."

"She is a professional, I want high-quality and high-quality products!"

"...Let's think about it..."

"Well...you can think about it..."

...

Changing the director means changing the production team!

This is not a trivial matter.

Shen Liang actually means not wanting Hong Kong and Taiwan directors!

At present, the S-level dramas on the platform are basically exclusively produced by directors from Hong Kong and Taiwan...

Before online dramas became a regular high-quality product, there was a saying in the industry that Hong Kong directors are "cheap, fast, and high-class".

There are three key points in this sentence, namely: price, efficiency, and texture.

In the past, when the aesthetics of Hong Kong and Taiwan directors prevailed, it was because they often shot in the studio, and used multi-directional lighting to create an effect similar to the shadowless lights of stage plays, which made people look very bright. At the same time, the scenes of domestic dramas in the mainland were often dark.

By comparison, it immediately brightened up, and it felt that the shots were much more fashionable, so at that time, the "big flat light" used by Hong Kong and Taiwan directors was equated with a synonym for fashion sense.

"Efficiency" is the unique hand speed of Hong Kong directors in addition to the "fashion sense" of lighting.

For example, it is common for Hong Kong drama directors to finish filming a 45-minute × 20-episode costume drama within 30 days, but it was an impossible task for many mainland directors who were professionally trained and inexperienced ten years ago. This is due to the system of TVB and ATV in Hong Kong, which need to produce TV dramas continuously every year for TV stations to broadcast without interruption.

Another point is that Hong Kong directors often work together to shoot in the north, with each director responsible for a part, and the crew is divided into two groups A and B to shoot at the same time, and even a large crew adds a C group, which will speed up the efficiency a lot.

As for the low price...

How low is it?

More than a decade ago, when there were not many directors who could shoot a big ancient puppet drama, the pay for a single episode of the top directors in the mainland could reach six figures. Around 2007, the pay for a single episode of a Hong Kong director was between 25,000 and 30,000. A 40-episode TV series can be paid millions after shooting, and the work period is guaranteed to be never delayed or even finished early, which is indeed an affordable price.

However, at this stage, the highest fee for screenwriters and directors for S-level projects is 300,000 per episode. If it is a 40-episode TV series, it can earn more than 10 million after filming, which is not a low price.

Why doesn't Shen Liang like it?

Because Hong Kong directors are not creative!

The general working level.

Hong Kong directors still have the habit of using three-point fixed camera positions for high-speed filming in Hong Kong's small-scale TV towns. That is, if they can use fixed camera positions to shoot, they will use less moving lenses. If they can move in a small way, they will not use big actions, except for big scenes. Use it as little as possible outside the mobile group...

They underestimated the progress of the audience's aesthetics.

As online dramas become more and more sophisticated, audiences can watch more and more good foreign dramas. When netizens talk about dramas, they are very professional. They are very knowledgeable about lighting, angles, and costumes, so it is difficult to fool them. .

What Hong Kong directors contribute is products, not works!

Since it is a product, what is needed are experienced and cost-effective “workers”, not artists.

This is undoubtedly a slander and insult to a director with aesthetic requirements.

Therefore, director Zhu Ruibin of "Stars Fall into Sugar" was very dissatisfied.

So he became obsessed with using techniques including but not limited to face-shaking, nostril magnification, 45-degree overhead or upward shots, headlights, washing machine-style camera movements, funeral filters, and mysterious transitions.

Netizens jokingly called it ‘Vicious Mirror Movement! ’

The same goes for "Peace is Like a Dream"...

The rapid rotation of the camera makes people feel as if they are in a whirlpool, showing the heroine's rebirth in a 360-degree manner with a washing machine-like camera movement!

Ahem...

As for what iQiyi will do, Shen Liang doesn't really care...

Anyway, he has already made his request, and it is non-negotiable!

They agreed to these requests, and Shen Liang didn't mind taking two months to film a "Chow Sheng Ru Ru Ru", which is only 20 episodes anyway...

If you don’t agree…then let’s cooperate next time!