Li Qianqian: "...What?"
She momentarily thought she had misheard her boss's request and cautiously asked Shao Yichen to repeat it. When Shao Yichen did, the requirements remained unchanged.
Was this charity? Or did they just have money to burn?
She inquired further: "If not a film review, then what should be written?"
"Anything," Shao Yichen's tone was extremely serious, though her content was utterly unreliable. "Flowers and plants, birds and insects, feel free to write reviews of other films too. If you want to rebrand as a Cat Mint cultivation blogger, we support that as well. In short, during the film's release period, just don't write a review of 'Journey to the West on Film'!"
Li Qianqian listened in bewilderment, pondering for a long time but still unable to figure out what Shao Yichen was up to.
Shao Yichen certainly wasn't going to tell her about her money-losing enterprise. After deliberately being mysterious and dancing around the topic with Manager Qianqian for a while, she decisively hung up, leaving Li Qianqian to ponder alone.
Though Li Qianqian was puzzled, she didn't dare disobey her boss's instructions. As a dedicated general manager and former head of distribution, she quickly personally contacted the public account that her boss had specifically named.
When Cat Mint received the contact, she was initially very hesitant.
She had already written two promotional posts for Director Shao Yichen in succession, both objectively playing a significant role in boosting the film's box office. Although her intention wasn't to promote Shao Yichen, after such operations, most people assumed she had definitely taken money from Shao Yichen.
If she now actually accepted Shao Yichen's promotional offer, wouldn't that confirm these suspicions?
But while she was worrying, she received an explanation from Li Qianqian, stating that the requirement for this collaboration was—don't write a review of Shao Yichen's next film!
Of course, Morning Star Media acknowledged that this might reduce some of Cat Mint's public account's popularity, so they were willing to offer financial compensation.
Hearing this request, Cat Mint was first confused, then suddenly enlightened.
So that's it! Director Shao Yichen apparently had the same concerns as herself!
She was also worried about her films being limited by the public account's interpretations, so she proactively broke this predicament, jumping out of the cycle!
Realizing this, Cat Mint felt somewhat admiring—worthy of being a genius director, this courage to step out of one's comfort zone wasn't something everyone could have.
After her amazement, Cat Mint became concerned again.
But if she didn't write a film review, what should she write? After all, following the previous plagiarism controversy, Shao Yichen's fame had risen even higher. Whether she wished it or not, "Journey to the West on Film" was destined to attract film enthusiasts' attention from the beginning.
At this point, the previously silent client Li Qianqian, after careful consideration, proposed: "How do you feel about us collaborating on an exclusive interview with Morning Star Media's artist—Li Xingyu?"
After all, as the company's business handler, Li Qianqian naturally thought differently from Cat Mint. Moreover, she had assumed from the beginning that Cat Mint's two promotional posts were done under Director Shao Yichen's instructions. This change in collaboration must be because Director Shao planned to have Cat Mint promote other areas, thus temporarily suspending the film-related collaboration.
What else besides the film needed promotion at Morning Star Media? Of course, it was their only artist, Li Xingyu!
It was perfect timing—Li Xingyu had no connection to the new film and wasn't interested in conventional exposure methods. This kind of exclusive interview was just right for him!
Hearing this, Cat Mint also thought the proposal was excellent.
After all, while Li Xingyu seemed unrelated to this film, he was practically Director Shao Yichen's go-to male lead.
Inviting him for an exclusive interview was also indirectly riding on Director Shao Yichen's popularity during the film's release!
The two agreed immediately and quickly settled on a collaboration intent.
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After resolving the major threat (self-perceived) of Ms. Cat Mint, Shao Yichen felt completely unburdened.
Although she knew that self-media operations also needed attention, and doing this might slightly affect Cat Mint's readership, after the compensation, her guilt also disappeared.
After all, popularity was temporary. As long as Cat Mint continued to maintain her public account, she wouldn't be too greatly affected.
As for the character interview that Li Qianqian and Cat Mint had arranged on their own initiative, she was completely unaware—in her eyes, her so-called "collaboration" was just an excuse, essentially just wanting Cat Mint to stop her excessive analysis and excessive praise. Who could have imagined that her company's manager and the public account operator would actually use this opportunity to create a real collaboration?
Completely oblivious to the approaching crisis, Shao Yichen hummed a little tune as she logged into a game she hadn't played for a long time.
She'd heard that "Frozen Starriver" had updated with a new version, and she had been itching to try the new profession for a while. Moreover, the new profession could pilot mechs—vast universe, here I come!!
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Half a month later.
Xiao Bai, wearing glasses and a mask, had bundled himself up tightly and was looking around at the movie theater entrance.
Since the film wrapped, he had reverted to his previous student appearance, and his carefully styled hair had once again become a buzz cut—the kind that looked like insects had nibbled at it, with uneven edges that clearly showed it was done by his own hand.
As he was searching around, someone suddenly patted him from behind: "What are you looking for? We're right here."
He turned to see the actors playing Xiao Sun, Xiao Zhu, and Xiao Sha, each wearing a mask and holding a bucket of popcorn—Xiao Zhu was holding two—seemingly having waited behind him for some time.
"You all arrived so early?" Xiao Bai scratched his head, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
Xiao Zhu stuffed one of his two buckets of popcorn into his hands: "You're the one who's exactly on time—your film is about to be released, are you really not excited at all? Still so calm? I couldn't sleep all night yesterday!"
Xiao Sun leaned in from the side, staring at Xiao Zhu's face: "Wow, it's true, your dark circles are worse than Comrade Xiao Sha's. Where's your composure from when you were playing dead?"
Xiao Bai hadn't seen Xiao Sun for over a month since the film wrapped, only watching him flood their four-person group chat daily, talking about which teammates did what, which girl group he saw today, and how pretty someone was. Seeing him now, Xiao Bai noticed he had restyled his black hair, dyeing it blond, looking particularly bright, forming a stylistic extreme opposite to Xiao Bai—they were at different poles of unfashionable.
If Xiao Bai represented the homebody type of unfashionable, Xiao Sun was the urban-rural junction type.
Xiao Bai accepted the popcorn, but when he heard this, his face inexplicably became glum: "After all, it's almost New Year... My pre-holiday exam results just came out, and I nearly failed one course due to too many absences. I was so frantic I almost forgot about the film."
"Oh, I almost forgot you're formally trained, not like us who slipped through the nine-year education net," Xiao Sun chuckled, punching Xiao Bai's shoulder. "Anyway, since you didn't fail, don't think about that stuff. Let's see how the finished film turned out. I heard the film's pre-sales already reached tens of millions, first-day box office will definitely break a hundred million, just don't know what the reviews will be like..."
As he was explaining, the actor playing Xiao Sha bumped his shoulder. Seeing him look over with a still half-asleep expression, he stretched his neck toward the ticket check: "The ticket gate is open, shall we go in?"
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The four of them, clutching their popcorn, took seats in the last row of the theater.
Although the four of them each wore a mask, looking like some strange collective organization, it was flu season, so most moviegoers were wearing masks. Therefore, no one paid attention to these four energetic young men; at most, people found it a bit odd that four grown men were watching a movie together.
After all, who would imagine that the film's main actors would go to a regular theater to watch their own movie?
The four weren't just there to watch the film—in fact, they had all seen the rough cut with the directors and had some idea of what the editing would be like.
They had gathered here to see the audience's most genuine reactions to the film.
Although they knew the film's pre-sales performance was impressive and the momentum seemed strong, they were also aware that this was entirely due to Shao Yichen's reputation as a "conscientious director," plus maybe Qi Gelong's status in young people's parody circles and his past achievements in comedy films. This attracted passersby but had little to do with their performances.
How good their acting really was still depended on the audience's reaction.
So, at Xiao Sun's suggestion, they secretly bought tickets for the first screening on the day of release, meeting at a cinema in A City to observe the audience's most genuine reactions.
After entering, the lights soon dimmed. Following several s, the film officially began.
The film's first shot was the scene that had angered Director Shao, causing her to leave and halt filming for an hour and a half—although they later learned that Director Shao was dealing with plagiarism-related issues at the time, recalling this shot still made them feel uneasy.
Filming on set was one feeling; seeing it on screen was another entirely.
They watched as the camera panned across each of them, finally settling on Qi Gelong, who was lecturing at the center of the podium. Suddenly, the film's atmosphere shifted as burly men escorted a young woman into the scene, accusing Old Tang, played by Qi Gelong, of misleading students, lacking professional qualifications, and false advertising. The story's pace accelerated.
"I think I could have acted more naturally," Xiao Bai, having made significant progress in his acting after half a year of filming, felt somewhat regretful seeing his initial inexperienced performance.
Xiao Zhu shared the same feeling, nodding in agreement beside him.
Xiao Sha said nothing, while Xiao Sun confidently remarked: "Looking at it now, my performance wasn't bad at all."
The other three silently rolled their eyes—in the first shot, he only needed to hold a phone and play a game, a performance with absolutely no difficulty, naturally it couldn't have been that bad.
He looked around at the audience's reactions and continued quietly: "Besides, don't be so strict. Look at the audience's reactions!"
Hearing this, everyone observed the other viewers in the theater.
As it was a Spring Festival film, there were audience members of all age groups, many of whom had come as entire families. During the first shot, the audience didn't seem to have entered the mood yet, but as the plot developed, people's emotions were visibly stirred by the film, with waves of laughter emerging throughout.
The four men's spirits lifted.
Regardless of what happened later, the opening seemed to be working well!
At least they hadn't dragged the film down!
Author's Note: Today's first update!
That's right, after starting school, today the author finally had time for two updates...
Thanks to the little angels who gave me Overlord Tickets or Nutrition Solution between 2020-09-18 12:50:50 and 2020-09-19 11:59:47~
Thanks to the little angel who threw a landmine: Rice Porridge and Pickles 1;
Thanks to the little angels who gave Nutrition Solution: Nothing to Say 50 bottles; Red Bean Pastry 5 bottles; A-Deng 4 bottles;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!