Chapter 579: Questioning

Lu Yan He had been saying that he should star in a Jump Up Theater production, not only to set an example for this theater but also to convey a signal—

This theater is not something that messes around; even he, Lu Yan He, is willing to star in one of its productions, so you others don't need to be so cautious, guarded, and wait-and-see.

The script for *The Silent Staircase* had just been written.

Lu Yan He read the script and nodded.

The quality of the script was very good; the whole story took place in one house, a bit like a murder mystery game—it was a very classic "Snowbound Manor" style suspense story.

"This script is quite good; I'll act in it."

Once Lu Yan He nodded, Jump Up Theater released its first batch of film lists, divided into three parts:

【Currently Popular, Setting an Example】

1. *The Silent Staircase*, starring Lu Yan He.

2. *The Intern*, starring Yan Liang.

3. *Love Negotiation*, starring Jiang Yuqian.

4. *Lies and Love*, starring Cheng Hai.

【Big IP, For Newcomers】

1. *Girl's Adventure* (adapted from Mingyin's popular short story of the same name).

2. *Whirlpool* (adapted from Liu Jiazhen's popular short story of the same name).

3. *Uncertain Ringtone* (adapted from Bai Yu's popular short story of the same name).

【New Cooperation, Under Negotiation】

? C〇

Huang Kairen, Jiang Jun, Zhen Hongyu, Zhang Lan, Li Yuefeng, Bao Zhenzhu

……

Final concluding sentence: New theater, new model, new gameplay, we are doing it for real!

Jump Up Theater was already attracting attention because it was a new collaboration spearheaded by the magazine *Jump Up*, and because Lu Yan He was involved, relying on his miracle halo of success, it was highly anticipated.

Now that the first batch of the list was released, it directly shocked the entire internet.

Especially with the names of Lu Yan He and the others as leads placed on it, except for Cheng Hai being a bit weaker, who among the others wasn't the most popular of the popular?

They all came to act in one of the films, not caring at all about its experimental and risky nature, not caring that the possibility of failure was very high.

This made many actors in the entertainment industry who were hesitant because of this unable to help but wonder if they had missed the best opportunity.

And just at this time, the monthly sales of *Jump Up* magazine, which had been stable at around 200,000 copies, suddenly ushered in new growth; while the March issue was reprinted twice, the pre-sales of the April issue also broke records.

Everyone was interested in this theater and suddenly became curious about what kind of novels could attract such a large-scale film and television adaptation plan.

In order to build momentum for this theater, Chen Siqi accepted an interview with a cultural and entertainment news documentary program on Yuehu TV.

The theme was why she wanted to do Jump Up Theater.

"The main reason is, of course, because I want to add value to the *Jump Up* magazine and brand, and expand its influence," Chen Siqi said bluntly, without telling lies. "From having this idea to finally finding platforms like Yuehu TV and Arctic Light Video that share the same goals and cooperate together, we actually went through quite a few twists and turns. Fortunately, because of Yan He's cooperation with them on *Friends*, we had a foundation for communication, and they were still relatively willing to listen to what we wanted to do."

"When we stated our idea, I was actually a bit nervous. Because actually, no one had ever played like this before, specifically making a theater that only adapts novels published in one magazine. I actually felt for a long time that it was very difficult to achieve. Unexpectedly, after everyone discussed and evaluated it, they actually felt it was worth a try."

"Then, in the process of promoting this project, I actually became more and more determined to do this. You have to know, for our authors, short stories are actually very difficult to get film and television adaptation opportunities. Their main adaptation channel is film, but as you know, such adaptation opportunities are even harder. With such a fixed theater in place, actually, for many of our authors, on a shallow level, it can earn them a copyright fee, and on a deeper level, it can also let them be known by more people."

"And for the film and television industry, I actually told Yan He that because this is ultimately an experimental product, mostly experimental in nature, we don't know if it can succeed. He didn't need to use the audience favor he had worked so hard to accumulate until now and everyone's trust in him to endorse this theater."

"But Yan He said that this theater actually has very important significance for the film and television market as well. It gives many directors who haven't had the opportunity to prove themselves and many good actors who haven't gotten acting opportunities more chances to prove themselves."

"Just our theater alone produces over fifty dramas a year. Of course, each drama is very small in volume, only about two hours long. Despite this, that's still over fifty projects. Setting aside the popular actors like Yan He and Sister Yuqian who came to set the example, our theater, to tell the truth, still mainly uses actors that everyone might not usually recognize, and uses directors who have the ability and talent but lack an opportunity to direct independently. Because our theater's budget is still quite tight, no one has done it before, so everyone is afraid of losing money."

Following Chen Siqi's explanation, Jump Up Theater officially announced the premiere time.

This theater would open on the first Sunday of May.

The first drama to be broadcast was *Girl's Adventure*, with an all-newcomer cast.

Immediately, netizens ran to the comment section of Jump Up Theater to ask: Why not use a drama starring Lu Yan He or Jiang Yuqian for the first one? To get a good start and attract the audience?

The official Weibo also replied, saying: The objective reason is that the two dramas they star in haven't started filming yet, and the broadcast time is undecided. The more subjective reason is that we hope to remind everyone of this theater's positioning through such a broadcast arrangement: digging for fresh blood in the film and television circle.

"This kid Lu Yan He is really ruthless, setting up such a Jump Up Theater; it's going to be lively from now on."

When Luo Yuzhong went out to meetings with people, many were discussing the Jump Up Theater matter.

Regarding this fresh novelty, just like when Lu Yan He did weekly broadcasts, sitcoms, and filming while broadcasting, it made the industry feel very confused. "It still has to be young people playing; every now and then there's something new."

"What new thing? Isn't it just that the number of episodes is getting fewer and fewer? Now it's better, directly coming up with a two-episode drama; it would be better to just go to the cinema to screen it. Is this still a TV series?"

"Look at what you're saying, can't a two-episode drama be a drama? It's quite good for Little Lu to do this, coming up with a fresh novelty, maybe it can bring about different creations."

"Have you read the novels in that *Jump Up* magazine? They are either some youth fantasies, secret confessions, or suspense mysteries; they are all things young people love to watch, not realistic at all."

"What is realism? Does it have to be bitter and deep to be realism?" Someone immediately retorted. "At least there is such a magazine now, constantly discovering new authors creating short stories, having different IP content."

"Does the significance of Lu Yan He doing this theater for the film and television industry need to be said? I heard that their theater has signed quite a few new directors and new actors to do it."

"Saying it so nicely, actually they are all newcomers that Yuehu TV and Arctic Light want to sign themselves, people they were going to cultivate anyway, just using this to practice their hands."

"Regardless of whether these people are all signed newcomers, this theater has brought new things and new trends, how is that not a good thing?"

……

Listening to the casual chat and arguments of the people around him, as Lu Yan He's teacher, Luo Yuzhong said nothing.

At this time, he wouldn't interject.

The controversy caused by Jump Up Theater was actually completely foreseeable. Because the appearance of any fresh novelty is inevitably accompanied by some "conservative" questioning and opposition.

One point Luo Yuzhong appreciated about these two young people, Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi, was that they never just talked without doing; they were very daring.

Both of them were people of action, daring to take risks and daring to try.

Chen Siqi did that Green Onion Project, failed, and was mocked by many. She was not hit by this, didn't dare to try new things again, and turned around to start doing Jump Up Theater.

Lu Yan He filmed art films, filmed sitcoms, was his own screenwriter, and had his ups and downs with Beijing TV. Every transformation attempt brought a lot of controversy, and in the end, he relied on eye-popping results to make all the BB-ing people shut up.

Regarding what these two people wanted to do, Luo Yuzhong didn't want to participate in the discussion on the scene at all.

"Luo Dao, what do you think about this Jump Up Theater?"

"Luo Dao, don't be biased just because Lu Yan He is your student."

"Will this Jump Up Theater have an impact on our current filming mode?"

……

Everyone was talking at once.

"I don't know." Luo Yuzhong's answer was something no one expected. "It's a fresh thing, it might succeed, just like *Friends*, driving the revival of our sitcoms, or it might fail, just like the Green Onion Project. But for the idea of young people wanting to do new things, regardless of whether it succeeds in the end, I definitely support it. We are in a creative industry, and we must constantly have new things coming out."

"Is Luo Dao considering directing a Jump Up production?"

"This theater is mainly to provide opportunities for those new directors. At my age, I won't go and snatch opportunities from them. Actually, this is a point I quite approve of. New directors have no experience; if you let them do a long drama of twenty or thirty episodes right away, the difficulty and requirements are high. A short drama of only two or three episodes is friendlier to new directors and easier to handle. Once they have experience, they can go and film long dramas, and they will have a sense of it."

"I heard that the dramas in this theater only have one week of filming time. Can this guarantee filming quality?"

"A script of 30,000 to 40,000 words, if your pre-filming plan is done well, all departments are coordinated, the storyboards are clear, and the daily filming tasks are set, is one week of filming time very little?" Luo Yuzhong said. "I have read the scripts for several Jump Up Theater dramas; the stories they chose themselves are not the kind of high-difficulty dramas with large coordination. In terms of filming volume, finishing in one week is actually more than enough. You shouldn't look at this theater with the thinking of conventional filming; the positioning is different, and the filming mode is different."

Old hands like Luo Yuzhong actually knew very clearly why controlling the filming time within one week was so important.

Time itself has never been the deciding factor in whether a drama is filmed well or not.

You have to know, in film history, many classic films actually had formal filming times of only ten or twenty days.

Their number of shots is much higher than the dramas in Jump Up Theater.

Domestic film and television dramas, to put it bluntly, are still a cut below in management and operation mechanisms, causing a lot of resource waste and time consumption. And this time, Jump Up Theater, they are using the *Friends* filming mode, putting all rehearsals and preparations in the front, and only doing filming on site, further improving filming efficiency.

"Luo Dao, then aren't you going to cooperate with your student on another drama later? Since *The Golden Age*, you haven't cooperated. Director Chen Lingling is already going to cooperate with him for the third time."

"It's coming soon, just wait and see." Luo Yuzhong said with a smile. ===== CHAPTER 580 =====