Chapter Ninety-Six: What a Miserable Director!

On the way back to his rental, Chen Qi fell into deep thought. He was considering which work from Earth would be most suitable to remake.

First and foremost, it had to be low budget. Neither he nor Xu Bunian had much money, so they could not afford a large investment.

Second, it had to be a comedy. Even with a modest budget, they had to think about returns, and a comedy suitable for all ages would have stronger commercial appeal.

Finally, the film could not be visually flat. Its cinematography and techniques could not be too monotonous. After all, the main purpose of preparing this film was for him to learn something; if it was too plain, there would be no point.

After narrowing the field like that, the options dwindled considerably.

Chen Qi gazed silently out the window, while in his mind he searched hard through the low-budget comedies he had once watched. Strangely enough, he could recall quite a few, both domestic and foreign.

But which one was the best fit?

He wrestled with the question in silence.

Once he returned to the rental, he brushed his ring lightly, and a familiar virtual screen appeared at once.

With practiced ease, Chen Qi typed into the search box the titles of several low-budget films that had left a deep impression on him.

Yes, they were all in the system’s database.

Come to think of it, the ones he remembered so well were naturally all high-quality works, so it made sense that they could be found in the system.

He opened them one by one and watched them carefully.

He was not watching the plot. He was watching their color, their visual effects, their methods of expression...

By late evening, he had finished watching all of the memorable domestic comedies, and he had made up his mind.

This was the one.

A Nobody.

It had plot, it had humor, and it had depth.

It had everything he wanted.

Having decided, he wasted no time and immediately opened his laptop to organize the script.

He had no experience writing scripts, but transcribing the film’s entire plot and dialogue was no problem.

Because he was not the one directing it, he did not need shot breakdowns or scene divisions. He simply reproduced the story and the lines in full.

He gave the story. As for how to break down the shots, how to stage it, and how to edit it, that would depend on the ability of the director he found.

Two days later, after the script had been fully compiled, Chen Qi headed straight for Xu Bunian’s Future Film and Television.

Once there, he handed the script directly to Xu Bunian and said, “The script is finished. Take it and get the project approved first.”

“That fast?” Xu Bunian took it and flipped through it curiously.

Hmm, just from the script alone, it did not really reveal much.

But perhaps because it came from Chen Qi, merely looking at the lines of text on the page made Xu Bunian feel as though it must be something formidable.

After putting the script away, Xu Bunian took out a folder and handed it over. “I’ve listed the film companies and directors that meet your requirements. Take a look?”

“Sure.” Chen Qi took it and opened it at once.

There were more than a dozen film companies and seven or eight directors.

“Are these directors all available?” Chen Qi asked.

“Yes.”

“And their reputations?”

“All of them have had works that grossed more than a hundred million.”

Chen Qi looked carefully at the names on the list, then suddenly asked, “Is there any director among them whose recent work did poorly at the box office?”

Hearing that, Xu Bunian clearly froze for a moment. “There is... there is.”

“Which one?”

“The last one.” Xu Bunian pointed at the last name on the list.

“Zhou Xiao?”

“Yes.”

“Have the films he’s made in the past two years all done badly?”

“Badly? They were a total disaster. To put it mildly, the film company that invested in that project still hasn’t recovered to this day.”

Chen Qi: “...”

“Wait, you didn’t hear about the huge stir last year?” Xu Bunian looked at him in confusion.

Chen Qi gave him a sidelong glance and said indifferently, “Back then I was still a student. I didn’t even have time for dating. Where would I find the time to care about that sort of mess?”

“...”

Xu Bunian was speechless for a moment, then asked uneasily, “You’re not thinking of hiring him, are you? Rumor has it that after his last film lost so badly, no one dares invest in him anymore.”

“I’ll take a look at the films he’s made before I decide.” Chen Qi was not in a rush to make a choice.

“No, wait...” Xu Bunian still could not make sense of it. “There are seven or eight people here. Why must you go looking for someone who has already stumbled?”

“Because he’s cheap,” Chen Qi said with perfect righteousness.

“...”

Xu Bunian felt that made disturbingly good sense.

Chen Qi grinned.

Cheap was certainly a major reason, but another was that people like that were more likely to be persuaded. If he went to a director who was hot right now, there was no telling whether he could even land them. After all, their budget was only twenty or thirty million, and someone at that level might not think much of it.

“What about the film companies? Don’t tell me you’re going to look for ones that have been losing money for years too?” Xu Bunian joked.

“Are there really such companies?” Chen Qi’s eyes lit up.

Xu Bunian was stunned. “You’re serious?”

“Heh.” Chen Qi laughed. “As long as they have distribution ability and promotional channels, what does it matter if they’ve been losing money for years? Wouldn’t it be even more worry-free for us to talk to a company like that?”

Xu Bunian stared at him blankly, feeling that he was really starting to lose the thread of how young people thought nowadays.

Every step this kid took seemed to land in a place no one expected.

Were young people these days all so fond of taking the road less traveled?

After two stunned seconds, he finally said, “I don’t know whether they’ve been losing money for years, but the farther back they are on the list, the worse their performance tends to be.”

Chen Qi nodded, indicating that he understood his ranking method.

“By the way, is Zhao Wu and Bai Xiaoke free these days?” He suddenly thought of something.

“Free, why?” Xu Bunian looked at him in confusion.

His Future Film and Television had only just been established. Although he had some connections in the industry from before, not many of them were useful, so his resources were extremely limited, almost nonexistent.

If not for the small amount of goodwill he had accumulated while filming the second season of Wuwang, Bai Xiaoke and the others probably would not even have the chance to play bit parts.

“They’re both among the leads in this film. Have them start practicing the Mountain City dialect as soon as possible,” Chen Qi said.

In the spirit of keeping good things within the family, he had given the two robber roles to Zhao Wu and Bai Xiaoke.

He was not familiar with the actors in this world, so it was better to give the roles to Zhao Wu and the other, whom he knew somewhat. Besides, the two of them were a bit like the originals, so they should have no problem playing the parts well.

“Oh, all right.” Xu Bunian was not particularly surprised by the decision. After all, Zhao Wu and Bai Xiaoke had been discovered by him personally, so helping them when he could was only natural.

“All right then. I’ll go study Director Zhou’s work first.” Chen Qi opened a computer nearby and directly typed Zhou Xiao’s name into the search bar.

To his slight surprise, this Director Zhou was quite young; the online records showed that he was not yet thirty.

He had made only two films. The first was two years ago and grossed nearly two hundred million. The other was last year, and it made less than twenty million.

And he had graduated from the Department of Arts at Capital Normal University.

After briefly reviewing his background, Chen Qi found his first film and began watching.

It was a suspense comedy, and the plot was extremely tight throughout. Through varied camera work, the director brought the sense of being trapped inside the story to a peak of tension.

Chen Qi watched every frame without missing a single one.

Then he opened the second film.

This was an action film advertised as having a budget of two hundred million.

Well... how should one put it? From the perspective of an audience member, some of the fight scenes were indeed quite impressive, but that was also the only bright spot.

The plot was rather stupid, and much of the logic did not hold together. Moreover, the acting from those actors was hard to put into words...

Still, the stupidity of the plot should probably be the screenwriter’s fault, right? As for the actors not performing well, that did relate to the director, but surely not everything could be blamed on the director alone.

After finishing the latter film, Chen Qi could not help feeling a little sympathetic toward Director Zhou.

What a miserable director.

He then searched online for more information about him and discovered that, for nearly a year now, he really had not made much of a splash, as if he were on the verge of being forgotten.

After thinking about it briefly, Chen Qi dialed the number listed on the sheet.

“Hello?” The call was answered quickly, and the voice sounded somewhat weary.

“Hello, is this Director Zhou Xiao?” Chen Qi asked hastily.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Chen Qi. You may not know me. I called because I wanted to talk about a possible collaboration. I wonder if you’d be interested?”

“Chen Qi? The Chen Qi from Wuwang?” To Chen Qi’s surprise, the other man actually knew him.

“Yes, yes, that’s me.”

There was a brief silence on the other end before Zhou Xiao asked again, “What do you mean by collaboration?”

“I have a script here, and I’d like to invite you to direct it.”

Zhou Xiao fell silent again. After quite a while, he finally spoke once more. “Where are you?”

“Capital City.”

“All right. Give me an address.”

“Okay.” After hanging up, Chen Qi had originally wanted to send him the address of a nearby restaurant or coffee shop. But after some thought, he ultimately sent the address of Future Film and Television.

After sending the message, he continued searching the information on those film companies.

He checked them in reverse order, from the back of the list to the front.

He was clearly more interested in the companies that had been losing money year after year.

He looked into the films and dramas they had invested in, as well as the box office figures, their reputation, and their standing and influence within the industry. In short, he checked every bit of information he could find online.

More than an hour later, the dozen or so film companies on the list had been reduced to just five.

The other eight or nine had all been eliminated by him for one reason or another.