Pei Shaoze picked up his phone and sent a message. [Cheng Xia? Is your apartment on the 33rd floor?]
Cheng Xia replied, [Yes, it is a coincidence. I live opposite President Pei’s office and I saw you are the window! [Smiley face]]
Pei Shaoze, [The heating is too hot so I came to the window for some air.]
Cheng Xia, [The heating in the apartment is also very hot. I have been sitting for a long time and came to the window to move my body.]
The two people, “……”
Thus, he saw Cheng Xia the moment he opened the window.
Such a coincidence made Pei Shaoze very happy and the exhaustion of working overtime was wiped out. His lips curved up slightly as he sent a voice message and patiently advised, “I’m going on a business trip for the next few days. Follow Chen Yijun to shoot the MV while also learning the skills of facing the camera from Director Zhang. You are a newcomer. If you show respect for the people around you then they won’t be too hard on you, you know?”
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Cheng Xia pressed the play button. The voice that entered his ears was a low and sexy voice unique to an adult alpha. It was especially nice to hear in the quiet night. It was obviously a light statement but Cheng Xia felt his heart beating. He inexplicably heard some concern in President Pei’s words. Or was he thinking too much?
Cheng Xia drove away the nonsense in his mind and typed quickly to reply, [I know. I will cooperate with Director Zhang for the shooting. Rest assured and I hope your business trip is successful!]
[Yes, I’m getting off work. Good night.]
[Good night!]
At the end of the conversation, Pei Shaoze turned off the lights and headed downstairs. Cheng Xia also closed the window, rubbed his sore neck and headed back to the table to read.
The next day was the weekend and the weather was fine.
Cheng Xia got up early and took Chen Yijun’s nanny car to go and shoot the MV.
Yesterday, they filmed two interior shots and today’s content was all exterior shots such as running on the sports field and playing on the court. The weather might be good but it was winter after all. Cheng Xia’s hands and feet were numb when filming these scenes.
Assistant Rong hurriedly wrapped the down jacket she had brought around him and also prepared hand warmers for him. Zhou Yan looked at Cheng Xia’s frozen red hands and was distressed. “It is too cold. I’ll talk to Director Zhang about letting you wear an extra sweater.”
Cheng Xia smiled and shook his head. “It’s fine. This school uniform fits just right and adding one more will make me very bloated.”
As an actor, it was common to wear short sleeves in winter to shoot summer scenes or wear a lot in summer to shoot winter scenes. If he couldn’t bear this small bit of suffering then it was better to give up as soon as possible. The entire crew was waiting for him. What qualifications did he have as a newcomer to delay the progress?
Cheng Xia rubbed his hands together and ran to the studio. Director Zhang’s strict requirements meant this scene was shot five times. Chen Yijun saw this and couldn’t help saying, “Director Zhang, is it almost okay? Don’t let Cheng Xia freeze to death!”
Director Zhang beckoned to Cheng Xia. “It’s cold right? Come and have a cup of hot water.”
Cheng Xia’s cheeks were red with cold but his smile was bright when he took the thermos. “Director Zhang, I’m sorry. I didn’t perform well enough and delayed everyone.” Looking at this young man’s smile, the staff felt that this newcomer was too sensible and their attitude toward Cheng Xia naturally became much gentler.
For the next few days, Cheng Xia followed the crew to shoot the MV.
Meanwhile, Pei Shaoze took Zhang Fan on a business trip.
The two of them arrived in Xing City and went to the hotel to rest for one night. Early the next morning, Pei Shaoze took the materials prepared by Director Liu and Screenwriter Xu to the General Office of Radio, Movies and Television in person. The people at headquarters hadn’t expected Tianxuan’s boss to make this trip himself. As one of the best companies in the entertainment industry, Tianxuan submitted many works for review every year but this was the first time everyone had seen this new boss.
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Pei Shaoze was very polite and offered to buy a meal for the people of the general office.
He was well versed in interpersonal communication. Back in the real world, many things were hard to say on the surface but they were talked about at the meal. In addition to the new drama, he explored the tone of the high level officials. For example, which subject matter was more strictly controlled, which subject matter was relatively loose, etc. so as to prepare for future works.
He also personally visited a high-level executive of the general office. This senior executive’s surname was Qin and he was a classmate of Pei Shaoze’s father. Although they were meeting for the first time, Uncle Qin considered Pei Sheng and was very concerned about Pei Shaoze who visited him in person. He promised to let Pei Shaoze know if there were any future developments so that a certain subject wouldn’t be filmed and then stuck at the review, unable to be broadcasted.
After finishing their work in Xing City, the two of them flew to Ya’an City.
There were two purposes for going to Ya’an. The first was the Minde Private High School located in the suburbs. Pei Shaoze had checked on the Internet that this school had a good environment and was the best choice for summer scenes of campus dramas. The second was the Xinya Movies and Television Studio. It was a well-known filming base and was extremely large. It could shoot dramas with various themes such as costume dramas, procedural dramas, war dramas etc.
Going to the movie and television studio for a field trip was also preparing for the future.
If Cheng Xia wanted to gain a foothold in the entertainment industry, he had to expand his range of dramas. A school drama was just to test the water. If the effect was good, Pei Shaoze would let Cheng Xia continue trying different themes that could be shot at the movie and television studio.
Zhang Fan ran around with President Pei for several days and found that he was a very clear-minded and far-sighted boss. Most people would just subconsciously solve the current problems and only handle current affairs. Meanwhile, President Pei often completed several things in one action and even included problems that hadn’t been encountered but might arise in the future.
It was a short week’s travel but the harvest was extremely rich. Since the original Accidental Mark didn’t write about any cities other than Rong City, Pei Shaoze wanted a more comprehensive understanding of this ABO world. This trip wasn’t just for business.
On the day he returned to Rong City, it was the end of January. The moment he got off the plane, he received three messages with good news.
The first was from Chen Yijun. [President Pei, the MV has been filmed. Cheng Xia’s performance is very good. Currently, we are in the late stages and there should be no problem finishing it by Valentine’s Day. I will keep reporting to you!]
The second was from Director Liu Xueyi. [President Pei, several scripts for the audition have been written and sent to your email. How is your progress? When will the audition time be announced?]
The third was from Uncle Qin of the General Office of Radio, Movies and Television. [Shaoze, I had people pay close attention to the review of the drama you are making. It has already passed. The license number is 20200106 and it could be found on the official website of the general office.]
Pei Shaoze replied, [Thank you Uncle Qin.]
He looked at his phone’s calendar. This year’s Spring Festival was February 10th and Valentine’s Day was February 14th. There were still 10 days until the new year. Pei Shaoze opened the conversation box with Liu Xueyi and said decisively, [Tomorrow will be a meeting, publicity on the 2nd and the formal audition on the 7th.]
Liu Xueyi, [So fast?]
Pei Shaoze leaned back, his expression calm. Time was tight but he believed Cheng Xia was ready.
Pei Shaoze returned to the company in the afternoon and immediately held a small meeting with people from the publicity department. The people of the Tianxuan publicity department didn’t look good when they received news of the meeting because President Pei’s order meant one thing—overtime.
The copyrights team and legal team had previously been so busy that the image of baldness could be seen. The new boss made bold changes upon assuming office. What would President Pei have the publicity department do this time?
Everyone walked into the conference room nervously. Unexpectedly, the meeting time was very short and the task he explained was quite easy. “The company has decided to set up a project filming the online drama Folding Paper. It has been approved by the general office. Let’s write a few articles and post publicity on the major websites.”
Manager Liu of the publicity department said, “Just post publicity on the major websites? Do you need to buy headlines or a hot search?”
Pei Shaoze decisively replied, “No need to buy it. Try to contact the original writer to see if they are willing to join the script adaptation or participate in the audition. It is best if they cooperate and forward the news so the book fans know about it. This is enough.”
Manager Liu asked, “Will this audition be a national selection or a small-scale selection?”
Pei Shaoze handed him the plan. “It isn’t a national audition. The audition is only for six important roles. Post recruitment notices on the major artist websites in the circle. This drama needs more than 20 actors. Interested actors are welcome to join.”
The entire meeting ended quickly within 15 minutes. Pei Shaoze explained the publicity plan clearly and asked everyone to follow the plan. The members of the publicity department were a bit confused after the meeting. Everyone admired President Pei’s clean and tidy work style but wasn’t the publicity investment of this drama… too shabby?
No buying a hot search, no finding major movie and television bloggers to spread marketing, no looking for the water army to increase points? It was like sending a press release to tell netizens, ‘Hello everyone, I’m going to make a drama’ and then quietly start filming.
The people in the publicity department quickly concluded, “President Pei might not have enough money!”
”The company stipulates that the group investment can’t exceed 10 million yuan. Still, isn’t 10 million more than enough for an online drama? Is he so reluctant to spend money on publicity expenses?”
”President Pei obviously wants to use a drama to test the waters? There is really no need to promote this type of school drama that can barely make a splash.”
Pei Shaoze wasn’t in a hurry.
All the dramas who went on the hot search for an audition, when starting and when sending the makeup photos, how many of them ended up a mess? Constant hot searches raised the audience’s expectations. If the drama wasn’t satisfactory in the end, it would only cause backlash. It was better to take the drama seriously. First make the quality good and then surprise after the well-made drama was released.
As the producer, it was necessary to plan the use of funds as a whole and try to spend it on the right things. There was no need to spend too much in the early stage of publicity. The so-called publicity was just to tell everyone that ‘we are going to make a drama.’
After arranging the publicity, Pei Shaoze followed the company process to get financial allocation. The next day, he met with Liu Xueyi and Xu Moran to chat in detail about the next plan.
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Liu Xueyi brought his own team. The costume designers, the photographer and lighting engineer were directly called to continue the cooperation. Pei Shaoze personally acted as the producer and just needed to find some staff members to do errands before their team would be formed.
Today was a meeting for the creators of the play so Liu Xueyi asked about everything in detail.
“In terms of music, what does President Pei plan to do? Directly find a few nice songs to pay the copyright?” Most low-cost online dramas didn’t have their own original music. It was more economical to choose suitable songs and pay the copyright fee.
“Since we are taking the high-quality route, it is better to make original music.” Pei Shaoze thought for a while before saying, “I will tell Chen Yijun to help write a theme song. As for the episodes in the drama, we can find a professional music studio to tailor it.”
“Original music costs money. The money saved from publicity can be diverted here. However, Chen Yijun is a big-name singer. Will she be willing to write the theme song for an online drama?” Would it be too much to let the singing queen Chen Yijun write a theme song for an online drama filmed by 18th tier newcomers? It was normal for Liu Xueyi to have such doubts.
“Don’t worry, I will convince Chen Yijun.”
There was President Pei’s assurance and Liu Xueyi no longer doubted it. “That’s great. Chen Yijun can bring some fans over!”
Pei Shaoze nodded. “Tianxuan’s financial department takes time. The investment funds should arrive within half a month and the Spring Festival will be over by that time. Director Liu, choose a good day to officially start filming.”
The funds would arrive within half a month. This was already the fastest speed that Liu Xueyi had experienced.
Liu Xueyi shook hands with Pei Shaoze. “President Pei, it is really refreshing to cooperate with you! I’ll call the crew when I go back and prepare to start after the Spring Festival. I hope everything goes smoothly!”
At this time, Cheng Xia was in a private room of Ronghua Hotel opposite the 17th High School.
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