Chapter 51 Writing a Script

Still, one has to promote oneself!
Shen Yan was a time-traveler, the kind who came with all his memories intact...
'Writing' a script that suited him was as easy as pie!
Actually, the most suitable choice would be *You Are the Apple of My Eye*, but Giddens Ko was unwilling to sell the adaptation rights because he wanted to direct it himself...
Well, it didn't really matter. For youth films, two words were crucial: Regret!
The agonizing pain of youth is that girls are forever more mature than boys of the same age.
As long as it fit this theme, it wouldn't turn out too badly!
Shen Yan pitched the story of *Architecture 101*...
He really liked this movie. The male protagonist had typical low emotional intelligence, felt deeply inferior about his poor family background, yet was too proud to confess his feelings. He always said the opposite of what he meant, cared deeply about others while pretending to be indifferent, and even avoided or gave them the cold shoulder...
Of course, Shen Yan discovered *Architecture 101* because of Jo Jung-suk from *Hospital Playlist*...
Jo Jung-suk had won the Best New Actor award for this film.
His acting was indeed top-notch, especially the scene where he taught someone how to kiss using the seven-step handwashing technique...
"That's a decent script," Ji Xiang said after listening to Shen Yan's story, but he had a question: "Why call it *Architecture 101*? Do you have any idea how many ticket buyers this crappy title will scare away?"
"The male protagonist studies architecture, and the two of them happened to bump into each other in an architecture 101 class. Besides, fifteen years later, because of the female protagonist's request, the male lead designs a house for her, and they meet again... It's all about architecture!"
"...No way. Think of another title, something related to first love..."
*First Love, Unfinished*? *Flowers Not Yet Blooming Back Then*?
"...Make it more straightforward..."
"How much more straightforward can it get?"
Chen Xu chimed in, "I think we could call it *Secretly Loving You*!"
"Not artistic enough... We'll talk about it later."
Shen Yan asked, "When?"
Ji Xiang immediately replied, "Once you finish writing the script, I'll go find Li Bingbing to play the female lead as an adult, and we'll get Ren Quan to play the male lead as an adult..."
"Huh?"
"Huh my foot... You'll play the younger male lead... Oh right, the younger female lead can go to Liu Shishi... I still need to contact a director. Taiwanese directors are better at handling this kind of fresh, light-hearted romance..."
"Wait... If you find a Taiwanese director, will they necessarily cast me?"
"I'll secure the funding... Why wouldn't they listen to me?" Ji Xiang was already deeply immersed in his plan. "If we use Liu Shishi, Tangren Media will probably invest a bit too... Even if they don't, it doesn't matter. With Li Bingbing and Ren Quan on board, financing won't be an issue at all. This story is simple to shoot, doesn't require extra set construction, and we can pull in some commercial sponsorships. I estimate it will cost at most around ten million to wrap it up... However, we can't go to Huayi. Once we get involved with Huayi, we won't be the ones calling the shots. I heard Perfect World and Zhang Zhao are also recruiting talent... Perfect World won't do, Chi Yuping is busy pampering his little honey... I'll go back and discuss it with Sister Hua; she knows way more people than I do..."
Shen Yan couldn't help interrupting, "Brother, how are you going to convince Sister Bingbing to star in it?"
Ji Xiang looked completely matter-of-fact. "Anyone can tell this script has a very high probability of breaking the 100-million-box-office mark. Why wouldn't she star in it?"

"Hold on," Chen Xu interrupted. "Who is Chi Yuping's little honey?"
"Yuan Di... You don't know her? Right," Ji Xiang nodded, "you don't know her yet, but you will soon!"
"What's wrong?"
"She's playing Wang Xifeng in *Dream of the Red Chamber*!" With that, Ji Xiang glanced at Shen Yan. "Let me tell you, a woman like that—you better show some respect around her..."
Shen Yan was speechless. "...Come on, Brother, I haven't even met her!"
"I'm just giving you a heads-up."
Shen Yan: "...You'd better save the warnings for someone else, I don't need them! By the way, who are you planning to get as director?"
"Isn't that what I'm trying to figure out right now?"
"I think for this plot, any rookie director will do..."
Ji Xiang looked at him. "...What? Do you want to direct?"
"...I mean, instead of a director with an established portfolio, let's just go with a rookie!"
"Why?"
"A rookie director will shoot strictly according to the script, whereas famous directors have way too many ideas of their own!"
Ji Xiang nodded in deep agreement. "That's true..."
"Let's go..."
"Aren't we eating?"
"Eat my foot, I'm heading back to work overtime and bang out the script!"

Writing a script wasn't all that simple...
Yet it wasn't overly complicated either!
Once you had the general plot outline, you could start writing!
The three-act structure...
No matter whose film script it was, the structure was always three acts.
This thing was an unwritten convention!
A movie's runtime usually fell between 90 and 120 minutes, and a script averaged about one page per minute, meaning a complete screenplay ran around ninety to one hundred and twenty pages...
Usually totaling around thirty to fifty thousand characters...
If dialogue took up a large proportion of the script, the total word count would be relatively lower;
Conversely, if there was a lot of descriptive text, the total word count would naturally increase.

To give a simple example: the script for *Goodbye Mr. Loser* was thirty-seven thousand characters; the script for *The Golden Era* was a full sixty thousand characters—well over half of which was narration!
*Architecture 101* had quite a few lingering silences designed to build atmosphere...
In short, Shen Yan stayed up the entire night just to finish the script!
—He knew he was going to shoot the scene where Fang Ning meets a heroic end today, which involved standing up at the very last moment, grabbing Zhao Zhe, and rolling down the cliff together to perish side by side...
This state of mind was completely in sync!
At breakfast, running into Ji Xiang, Shen Yan said, "...I sent the script to your email!"
"...Sent it to my email? You're done writing?"
"Yeah!"
Ji Xiang swallowed hard. "...You wrote the whole thing in one night?"
"..." Shen Yan yawned. "Yup, knocked it out in a single night."
"...You're way too fast. I was planning to stay in Xiangshan for a whole week!"
"Stay for a week?"
"To wait for you to finish the script, and then we'd head back to Beijing together!"
Shen Yan: "...My scenes wrap up in two days..."
"I checked the shooting schedule... Oh, right," Ji Xiang remembered something. "...Your relationship with Liu Shishi..."
"What about it? Not allowed to date?"
"It's not that you aren't allowed to date... It's just that we can't make it public right now!" Pausing for a second, Ji Xiang added, "This is also Cai Yinong's wish!"
Although Shen Yan was sleep-deprived, his mind was clear, and he knew that Shishi shouldn't make her boyfriend public at this stage...
So, he nodded, "...Alright, I get it."
"Actually, idols really shouldn't make their romances public. Look at Andy Lau; he went public with his relationship in his forties and lost a huge chunk of his fans!"
Shen Yan shook his head. "He had a concealed marriage... He belongs to the older generation of idols, times are changing..."
"That still won't do. If you want to remain an idol, don't even think about making your relationship public before you turn thirty!"
Shen Yan shook his head. "I don't want to be an idol!"
"You don't want to be an idol?" Ji Xiang was slightly stunned. "Then you want to be a serious actor focused on acting chops?"
"I want to be an artist! A people's artist!"
"An artist? A people's artist, my foot!"