Chapter 500: What Does That have to Do with You?

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Big Bro, have you thought of what genre your first film is going to be?” Tan Mo asked, completely baffled by the fact that even when she didn’t tell her family about what happened at school right away, she was able to walk away without getting scolded too much for it.

Not only was she lucky for that but also because Wei Zhiqian and Tan Jinqi were helping her as much as they could.

However, Tan Mo still changed the topic as fast as she could to divert her parent’s attention to her oldest brother’s newest project.

Just as she had expected, after asking that question, everyone shifted their attention to Tan Jinqi.

The oldest among the siblings understood what his little sister was scheming and gave her a look before answering, “At first, I thought of doing a historical film. After thorough consideration, I realized that might be a problem as Director Hou and Director Liu are the pioneers of the success of the historical genre. Everyone also knows that I’m Director Hou’s student and the assistant director to Director Liu when we worked on the Legend of Wei and Jin. Even until now, the Legend of Wei and Jin is still the most-watched drama of all time and still tops the weekly charts.”

Of course, Director Liu’s directing ability was a huge part of the drama’s success, but another part of the success was also because of Tan Mo’s scriptwriting ability. The script for the Legend of Wei and Jin was one of the best of its kind.

Because of that, people began to have the urge to beat that success. A lot of historical dramas and films came out after that, but all of those ended up in failure.

Yet, it didn’t mitigate the fact that because of the Legend of Wei and Jin, the historical genre in the filming industry was over-saturated.

Every filming company had either filmed one or was still in the process of producing either a historical drama or film.

The only problem was that these films and dramas couldn’t even come close to the Legend of Wei and Jin. Most companies just wanted to take this chance to make some extra money.

Either these films had a bad quality or the script was boring. Some even lacked both when compared to the Legend of Wei and Jin.

This situation led to the Legend of Wei and Jin still being crowned as the best.

“Because of how bad the other films and dramas of the historical genre are now, a lot of distributing companies are refusing to purchase any of their distributing rights. There’s no point in filming one if there’s no one willing to buy it. Well, of course, we could go the online streaming route, but the cost for filming a historical film is too much for streaming online to cover. There’s just no way someone would sponsor such a film. It would even be hard to find someone willing to act in it,” Tan Jinqi explained. “Because of this, the market for the historical genre is in complete chaos. Not to mention that there’s also the fact that people will compare my work to the Legend of Wei and Jin since I’m Director Hou’s disciple and the assistant director of the drama. People even consider me sort of a disciple of Director Liu too. If I really went and create a historical film, any mistake would make people consider it a bad product. It would be a bad thing for the whole team. I still think I should choose a genre that’s more stable for my first film. Even if I can’t beat the Legend of Wei and Jin’s record, I would still want a good result. At least, I wouldn’t make a joke out of myself. I’m going with the stable route here.”

Tan Mo nodded as she could tell her brother had thought things through. “So, judging from what you said, you won’t be going for the historical genre, right?” she asked.

Tan Jinqi nodded.

“I wholeheartedly agree with you,” Tan Mo said. “Even though the scripts will be written by the same person, people would still compare the two of them if you chose the historical route. Let’s say your film is as good as Director Hou’s drama, people and critiques would still think that the Legend of Wei and Jin is better.”

“You’re right. Even if Director Liu directs another historical drama, it would get the same result as the Legend of Wei and Jin. That’s because the Legend of Wei and Jin is the first of its kind,” Wei Zhiqian agreed and turned to look at Tan Mo.

Since the script was written by the lady sitting next to him, he was proud of her.

Without the help of Tan Mo’s amazing script, even Director Hou’s directing ability would not be able to produce such a perfect work.

The rest of the Tan family could only look at Wei Zhiqian speechlessly, having the same thought in their heads.

‘The script is written by our Momo. What the heck are you looking proud for? This literally has nothing to do with you!’

“Another problem with the success of the Legend of Wei and Jin is that people’s expectation for Director Liu’s next work will be higher,” Wei Zhiqian said as he turned to Tan Jinqi. “I’m pretty sure that Director Liu is feeling the pressure now. Even if he could not produce a better piece than the Legend of Wei and Jin, it has to at least be on the same level. Otherwise, people would think that his skill is dropping, and the Legend of Wei and Jin would be the best work for him. This is also why Director Liu agreed to assist Jinqi in his first film. This is so that he could get another script from Momo. He still needs Momo to at least help keep the plot up to standard. As a famous director, he must’ve seen a lot of scripts and know that no one can best Momo in terms of scriptwriting.”

“But, Big Bro, if you aren’t going to do a historical film, what do you plan to do? And who’s going to write the script?” Tan Jinsheng asked. Even though he wasn’t well-versed in the film industry, he still mingled in the entertainment industry as Liu Shengtai’s disciple and knew a little of the filming scene.

As for Tan Wenci, he had learned almost everything he could about the industry when he invested in the Legend of Wei and Jin.

“Jinsheng’s right. This is your first time directing a film. It would be hard for you to find a good script,” the father agreed.

Hiring a famous scriptwriter would be expensive, even though it wouldn’t be a problem for the Tan family.

“Well,” the father added, “at least you don’t have to worry about the film studios. If they need more funding, we’ll give them all the money they need.”

What Tan Wenci meant to say was that Tan Jinqi did not need to worry if the studio agreed with his idea or not.

Whoever funded the film had the final say, and it would make them look bad if they interrupt Tan Jinqi too much.

“But Dad, we shouldn’t only rely on you for the fund,” Tan Jinqi said with a smile. “There’s no company that’s willing to fully fund a film themselves. The risk is too high. Not only that but there are still a lot of processes after we finish filming the film. It needs to be reviewed, ranked, and advertised. It’s better to leave it to companies that are good at it.”

In the end, the Tan family wasn’t well-versed enough in the film industry. It wouldn’t be a problem for them to fund a project, but the management part of it had too many rules that they still did not know.

“You’re right.” The father sighed. “I can see other problems before the filming process starts too. Getting a good script is one of them. It’s most likely impossible for you to hire a famous scriptwriter. If you want to find a good script from the non-famous one, it would be very time-consuming. It’s not even clear if you would find one or not. Let’s say you’re lucky and find one, but by then, it might be too late, and the plot might be outdated.”

“So, do you have an idea of what genre are you going to do?” Tan Jinsheng asked.

“I have a few ideas.. That’s why I want to discuss it with Momo,” Tan Jinqi replied.

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