novelraw Chapter 26 Water Content
Chapter 26 Water Content
Stage plays are two-dimensional, scene-by-scene; to adapt them into the linear narrative of a film, one needs a master screenwriter.
However, it's clear that Mahua Films doesn't have such a screenwriter.
As for his directing skills... well, they're just so-so.
Furthermore, looking back two to five years later, this kind of short film actually set a very bad precedent.
Many serious directors are furious. They think, "I've worked so hard, studying camera language, shooting techniques, and plots."
Then you can casually film a compilation of skits and jokes, and once it's released, you can make a fortune.
So what the hell am I worrying about?
As a result, more and more of these short, sketch-like movies appeared, and nobody really took making movies seriously anymore.
Even the legendary Zhang Yimou has gone astray, going off to make murder mystery games, which sold over 3 billion yuan in one go.
The old man might suddenly realize: "Oh wow, so money is so easy to make... What the hell was I doing all that hard work making movies before?"
"If I'd known you guys liked this, it wouldn't have been easy to film!"
Then, with a snap, by the end of 2004, everyone realized, "Oh no, the sky has fallen."
The box office has returned to what it was ten years ago overnight!
Wang Xiaohao was very satisfied with an editor like Cheng Dawei.
With his involvement, editing was able to cover up some of Wang Xiaohao's immaturity and awkwardness.
It makes the plot flow more smoothly and the transitions are even smoother, almost imperceptible!
The only downside is that this person is a bit old and can't stay up late.
Unlike Wang Xiaohao, who is so energetic, he can stay in the editing room for seventeen or eighteen hours every day.
Sometimes they would even live and eat in the editing room for several days and nights!
Cheng Dawei is no good; he can only work eleven or twelve hours a day.
As a result, Cheng Dawei later had to smile wryly and hand over most of the editing rights to Wang Xiaohao.
There was nothing he could do; he couldn't outlast Wang Xiaohao, and he couldn't kick Wang Xiaohao out of the editing room either!
So many times, even when Wang Xiaohao edits the videos himself, there's nothing he can do!
However, this also made him admire Wang Xiaohao even more, feeling that Wang Xiaohao was so hardworking and had the same enthusiasm that the older generation had when they were young.
He found Wang Xiaohao more and more pleasing to the eye, and was more willing to give him some pointers!
Under normal circumstances, as long as there is no conflict of interest.
Most people are good!
There is definitely no conflict of interest between Wang Xiaohao, a new director, and Cheng Dawei, a veteran editor!
This film has nothing to do with Cheng Dawei!
It was simply that Huang Anzhong used his connections to find Cheng Dawei, and gave him a large sum of money to get Cheng Dawei to take action.
Of course, Cheng Dawei is no one to Huang Anzhong!
There is absolutely no benefit for Cheng Dawei in this film.
Seeing someone so young, hardworking, and capable of producing a feature film at such a young age, and one that seemed to be of good quality, Cheng Dawei was naturally eager to make a good connection!
Day after day, time passed quickly.
As the editing process entered the fine-tuning stage, other post-production work also began.
For example, voice-over and background music.
Needless to say, the background music is excellent. Many classic background music tracks from the previous generation have become commonly used background music in various short videos, making them familiar to many.
In many cases, simply adding suitable background music can create a sufficient atmosphere in the story, which is very important.
In addition, a good song in a movie can often play a huge role in enhancing its appeal.
Since "My Sassy Girl" is a romance film, it naturally needs a romantic theme song.
Fortunately, Wang Xiaohao managed to get this done without bothering anyone else.
Having listened to so many songs in my past life, I can easily pick any cheerful love song.
In addition, he had some knowledge of music composition, so copying a simple pop song wouldn't be a problem.
Many time travelers, after returning to their homeland, want to make a fortune by writing songs, yet they don't even want to learn the simple art of composition, preferring to just hum along. Isn't that ridiculous!
This is like having your food served right on the table, but you refuse to eat and expect someone to feed you.
So after Wang Xiaohao transmigrated, anticipating that he might need to use the songs from his previous life, he specifically studied music composition.
However, he only studied it briefly and did not delve into it further.
Because he discovered that making music is a very complicated business!
The water is too deep, not because the difficulty is too great.
Rather, how should I put it? The more professional you are, the harder it is to write a hit song.
Therefore, Wang Xiaohao only dabbled in music and had no intention of going deep into it.
In fact, a little-known fact is that writing pop songs isn't that difficult. Compared to classical music, it's practically something anyone can do!
Of course, this difficulty refers to technical difficulty. As long as you find a melodic motif, it is easy to create a popular song by expanding on it.
Moreover, the chord patterns commonly used in popular songs are often limited. Everyone keeps writing the same old patterns.
Just like in martial arts novels, the protagonist is burdened with a blood feud, is being hunted down, jumps off a cliff or encounters other dangers, then has a fortuitous encounter, masters a divine skill, returns to the martial arts world, meets a beauty, and seeks revenge, and so on.
It's basically all become a formula!
Once you have the melody and add suitable lyrics, a song is basically complete!
This is also why many people look down on pop songs; they are simply too simple and lack any technical sophistication!
Many people find it amazing that a medley of old songs can be strung together, but in reality, these songs are just using the same chord progression!
Then came the era of the Four Heavenly Kings, Jay Chou, Wang Kai, Tao Lin, and others, which introduced something new to pop songs: rhythm. This injected new vitality into pop songs.
Yet, even in 2620, some people are still clamoring that songs from the 1990s are the best. They claim those are what songs should be, and everything that came after is garbage…
There's no way around it; it's due to a lack of aesthetic training!
They have no idea that Chinese music has been constantly improving, but due to factors such as the monopoly of media, most people simply cannot hear the truly good songs, which has led to them becoming a so-called niche genre.
Therefore, if you want to create a hit song, you can't learn it too deeply. Just learn the basics, and with talent, you're more likely to create a hit.
Learning too much actually makes it harder to create a hit song!
Wang Xiaohao wasn't a professional musician, and after learning this, he lost all motivation to study music professionally.
All he needs to do is know how to compose simple music!
He chose Jay Chou's "Confession Balloon" as the movie's theme song.
It's not because the song is particularly good, but because it's simple and catchy. Plus, it's upbeat enough to fit the movie's style.
Of course, there could have been other songs. It's just that Wang Xiaohao didn't have a search engine built in, and couldn't think of any right away. So he just randomly chose this one.