Chapter 38: Teaching Ning Hao to Revise

The Beijing Film Academy is the cradle of film talent in China; this statement is certainly recognized by the industry, but the food at the Beijing Film Academy is truly terrible.

Therefore, there is another saying: "Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications is the baby bottle for China's film talent."

In his past life, Lu Kuan attended school here, and he would always follow the crowd to stroll over to the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, a kilometer away, to mooch a meal, or go a bit further to Beijing Normal University to look at the girls.

"Lu Kuan, how are you so familiar with the Beijing Film Academy?"

Ning Hao temporarily set aside his original intention of discussing the script with him to first satisfy his own curiosity.

"Oh, I'm more interested in the beauties from your acting department, so I often come over to mooch meals."

The guy with the buzz cut looked at him silently as he devoured the crispy lamb bones; if he dawdled any longer, it would all be eaten, so he rolled up his sleeves and started digging in.

After being wined and dined, Lu Kuan patted his belly with satisfaction.

During the Spring Festival, restaurants outside were closed, and his cooking skills from his early years had been completely lost, so he had truly neglected his stomach for the better part of a month.

"Little Ning, speak up if you have something to say."

Boss Lu had a keen awareness of the saying "he who eats another's food has a short mouth," and he decided to mentor this "junior" who was still wavering between choosing art films and commercial films.

Ning Hao was stunned, looking at his slightly youthful face yet unusually mature temperament, and for a moment, he couldn't think of how to refute the way he addressed him.

"Um, I do have a script, I wanted to discuss it with you..."

"Oh, let's go!"

Ning Hao's train of thought couldn't keep up with his rhythm; didn't you even ask a single question?

The two arrived at the improved housing that Ning Hao and his wife had moved into after leaving their basement: the Jimenli residential complex.

After the millennium, portrait photography became all the rage, and Ning Hao's side business upgraded from setting up a stall to draw to personal photography and videography. Ever since he shot that industry-famous personal photo set for Liu Laowu of the Tang Dynasty Band, the rumor that there was a guy at the Beijing Film Academy named Ning Hao who was incredibly good at photography spread throughout the scene.

Thus came the influx of orders for music videos from Jin Haixin, Tu Honggang, and even Pu Shu. Ning Hao and his girlfriend Xing Aina, whom he met while drawing, took the opportunity to improve their lives and moved near the Beijing Film Academy to make it convenient for school and his part-time work in photography and editing.

Under her boyfriend's introduction, Xing Aina greeted Lu Kuan and very virtuously went to the kitchen to boil water and make tea.

"The place is a bit humble, don't mind it."

"It's quite good! Who doesn't know how to live when they have money? You can't see true feelings then; it's only in these hard times that you can cultivate a bond!"

Boss Lu hadn't handled Ning Hao's PR business in his past life, but the couple should still be relatively harmonious.

Ning Hao didn't dawdle either; he dug a script out from a pile of discarded drafts that reached high, with "Big Diamond" written on the cover.

"Let me take a look first."

Lu Kuan had no sense of modesty; he leaned back on the sofa and flipped through the script brazenly.

Xing Aina put down the teacup and gently nudged her boyfriend, whispering, "Who is this? Is he reliable enough to bring home?"

There's a reason they say women have a natural intuition; she saw at a glance that Boss Lu was no good.

And by the time other women realized this, they had likely already paid a considerable price, such as the heartbroken Sister Jiang.

"The script is too poor, it must be heavily revised!"

Xing Aina felt a bit indignant; this script also contained her intellectual contributions, so how could it be so easily dismissed?

Ning Hao, however, spoke with a heavy expression: "What's the plan?"

He didn't feel too much about it; if the guy could even tear apart Zhang Yimou's scripts until they were nothing, who was he to complain?

"Little Ning, have you ever seen a proper Hollywood script?"

The excellent master's student from the USC film directing department decided to give a lesson to an advertising film director who had entered the field halfway.

The two shook their heads in unison, and Lu Kuan spread out the script.

Sharpening the knife does not delay the work of cutting firewood; only by teaching the tool-man can he better work for himself.

"Hollywood film companies and major studios usually set up a very important position called a script analyst."

"Take your script for example; if I were a script analyst and received your draft, the first thing I would look at is your synopsis and summary, which should be about two or three sentences, followed by a plot outline of no more than two pages."

Does it feel familiar? It's the same process as editors at Qidian reading and approving manuscripts, and book lovers choosing books: look at the tags, look at the synopsis, look at the golden three chapters.

In short, book lovers = Hollywood script analysts.

Lu Kuan said these things to guide him toward improving in the direction of a commercial script, then continued: "I know a Warner Bros. script analyst. Usually, in the Hollywood film industrialization process, they use a series of quantitative standards to evaluate a script."

As he spoke, he picked up Ning Hao's script and flipped to the part he had just marked: "For example, in this 'Big Diamond' of yours, if the male and female leads' screen time doesn't exceed 75 scenes, it's often rejected outright. This is to ensure the screen time of big-name stars, thereby ensuring box office."

"Take your dramatic events, for instance, like the cola can that appears at the beginning, or Bao Ge mistakenly giving the real jade to his wife, etc. These types of events in a script generally need to reach at least 50 scenes or so. This is to prevent the movie from being too much of a running account and failing to grab the audience's attention."

Does it feel familiar again? In short, dramatic events and male/female lead screen time = 'cool points' (shuangdian); if there aren't enough 'cool points,' the book gets deleted and taken off the shelves.

"Let's go back to 'Big Diamond' now. According to the classic Hollywood three-act structure, you generally need to create a dramatic topic or suspense within ten minutes, and create a story or branch within thirty-five minutes."

"Calculating based on a standard 120-minute movie, it means designing the plot and screen time according to a structure of roughly 3:6:3. Looking at your current script, it's typical of being heavy at the beginning and light at the end, and it's missing material in the middle. The setup at the beginning is too much and too dense, and when the suspense is revealed in the middle, there's no dramatic tension."

Ning Hao listened with rapt attention; problems he hadn't discovered even after pulling his hair out were being dismantled by Lu Kuan like a master butcher carving an ox, and he couldn't help but exclaim in his heart that his script was saved.

"Now, let's use the plot points as a benchmark and fill in the standards of 75 scenes and 50 dramatic events I just mentioned. Of course, yours is an ensemble piece without a specific lead, so these two numbers should be increased accordingly."

Ning Hao nodded incessantly; although he didn't understand Hollywood, he wasn't unfamiliar with basic screenwriting knowledge like plot points.

In short, a plot point is a landmark event, fact, or plot twist that marks the turning point of each act; it guides the audience to develop toward the next plot branch, thereby connecting the entire play together.

It's similar to a protagonist in a Xianxia novel clearing a map, suddenly receiving a sound transmission: the mountain gate is in danger, return quickly, and then entering the next chapter's map or plot—that's about it.

"Also, you need to change this title."

'Big Diamond'? Anyone who hangs out on Qidian knows that the fewer words in a new book's title, the more it will flop.

"What should it be called?"

Boss Lu pondered for a moment: "'Crazy Stone'!"

(End of chapter)