Chapter 382: 《Nirvana in Fire》 Wraps Up

"'Monkey King: Hero is Back?'" Xiao Cai and Xiao Fang sat in a coffee shop, looking at the four large characters on the mobile phone video, and exchanged a glance.

"This trailer has a bit of a vibe!" Xiao Cai is now a Drama Critic, so she instinctively began to provide a critique.

"What are you doing? Are you planning to write a thousand-word review for Luo Mo's concept trailer?" Xiao Fang laughed.

"How could I do that? I'm very expensive now; many film and television dramas are lining up to pay my writing fees! I'll give him five hundred words at most." Xiao Cai puffed out her meager chest, *white puff. jpg*.

She felt that this concept trailer was excellent and still had quite a vibe.

To be able to create this kind of atmosphere and effect without revealing much of the Drama is truly not easy.

She was already brainstorming, guessing what exactly *Monkey King: Hero is Back* was about.

As it turned out, her elaborate mental drama was interrupted by a single sentence from Xiao Fang.

"Do you think this *Monkey King: Hero is Back* is an Animation or a movie?" Xiao Fang asked.

"Eh, it doesn't seem to specify," Xiao Cai said. "It could also be a series. Look, Luo Mo's *Nirvana in Fire* is probably wrapping up too. It's possible he asked Tongguang Studio to make a concept trailer for his new show's content first!"

Xiao Cai analyzed it logically: "A movie is unlikely. Even if he wants to move to the big screen, he would definitely shoot a live-action film. How much box office can an animated film even make? It's thankless work."

"Hmm, that makes some sense." Xiao Fang nodded repeatedly.

"You're right!"

The two opened the comments under the Weibo post to take a look.

Most people were expressing their anticipation.

"Wow! Looks great, has a real vibe!"

"Damn, Laozi is blown away!"

"Great Sage! Is Luo Mo finally going to try his hand at a Myth story?"

"This works! A Journey to the West theme—I'm totally looking forward to it!"

"Honestly, the Journey to the West theme has always been a hot topic. Up until now, there are an insane number of TV shows, movies, and animations that use Journey to the West elements. And most of them are terrible shows and bad movies. If it weren't produced by Luo Mo, I definitely wouldn't be looking forward to it."

It must be said that sometimes, the word-of-mouth effect still plays a huge role.

Because of the great law that "anything produced by Luo Mo must be a boutique," his tinkering with the Journey to the West theme would trigger mass anticipation.

Just as Luo Mo said to He Yuanguang at the beginning, Journey to the West is a household name in Huaxia.

But precisely because it is a household name, coupled with the fact that the early *Journey to the West* TV series and animation have become classics in the hearts of several generations, it actually increased the difficulty.

If you do it well, it comes with its own traffic.

If you don't do it well, the audience's natural expectations are high, and they will naturally compare your work to the classics; then you can just wait to be roasted.

Besides this, many netizens, like Xiao Cai and Xiao Fang, were discussing what kind of trailer this actually was.

Most people felt it was a new Animation.

After all, Tongguang Studio is currently developing very well, and its reputation for quality works has never stopped. Plus, the whole industry currently has a feeling of prosperity, so of course, they have to put in more effort!

Basically, no one guessed in the direction of a big movie.

These days, some commercial advertisements will play a trailer before the main feature. Everyone would rather guess it's a commercial or even a game than think it's a movie.

The animated film industry is truly in a slump.

Currently, the Huaxia film industry is in a stage of strong development, and high-grossing films can already reach over two billion.

A single movie allowing the lead actor to join the "Ten Billion Club" is already a common occurrence.

But what about animated films?

Most are still in the range of tens of millions at the box office.

—There's no future in it!

Luo Mo took a moment to look at his Weibo comment section and couldn't help but laugh.

Xu Chujing, sitting beside him, saw him giggling at his phone screen and asked, "What's so funny?"

Luo Mo handed her the phone to look and said, "Nothing, just find it interesting."

How does that saying go?

—First, we eliminate the correct answer.

……..

……..

Time moved forward another ten days.

"Cut!" Luo Mo shouted, then stood up and said loudly, "It's a wrap!"

In an instant, cheers erupted throughout the set.

The *Nirvana in Fire* crew, after several months, finally wrapped up.

"There's a wrap party tonight, and everyone gets a red envelope!" Luo Mo said with a smile.

In an instant, the cheers became even more enthusiastic.

Many staff members on the crew had been following Luo Mo since *Chinese Paladin*, and they knew... the red envelopes wouldn't be small!

Luo Mo had always believed that saying too much was meaningless; just throwing money was enough.

What he wanted was to lead everyone to common prosperity!

As for Luo Mo, he still had to go remove his makeup, then change out of the wig and costume.

From this moment on, he was effectively saying a formal Farewell to the character of the Qilin Talent, Mei Zhangsu.

Not to mention, he used to watch the show as an audience member, but now he was acting as the director and as the character. The difference here was very obvious, and his perception of and immersion into the character were worlds apart.

"The weather is quite good today." Luo Mo looked up and saw the bright sun shining.

He felt that saying goodbye to Mei Zhangsu in such weather wasn't bad at all.

At the wrap party, Luo Mo drank quite a bit of alcohol.

Basically, as long as someone came to toast him, he was in a state of accepting everyone.

Although his alcohol tolerance had already been trained up from drinking with Run Jie.

He still ended up dead drunk.

To the point that he had a blackout afterward and didn't even know who had sent him back to his hotel room.

When he woke up the next day, he still felt a headache, and his whole person felt dizzy.

"I hope I didn't drink fake alcohol?" he uttered the lament that most people with a hangover would have.

When a person is dizzy, in order to confirm whether they really have a headache, they will mostly shake their head to see if it hurts even more.

Luo Mo was exactly like this.

While shaking his head, he picked up his phone and quickly saw a WeChat message left for him by Xu Chujing.

"The Medicine is on the table."

……..

……..

At the hotel entrance, after everyone exchanged pleasantries, the cast and crew of Nirvana in Fire were about to go their separate ways.

Luo Mo and Xu Chujing were to return to Shanghai today.

He had to carry out the post-production work for Nirvana in Fire, while Xu Chujing was going to make a cameo in Guan Fei's new movie.

Guan Fei's new movie this time focused on urban men and women, so Xu Chujing's cameo part would be filmed directly in Shanghai.

The character she was to play was a powerful, mature woman wearing bright red lipstick.

Luo Mo had also agreed to Guan Fei's request for a cameo, but his scenes couldn't be filmed today; he would have to go next week.

One must know, Luo Mo's big-screen debut was in Guan Fei's Cat Demon.

Even though he had only gone to make a cameo, the entire Cat Demon crew would bring his life-size cardboard cutout along when running roadshows to drive traffic.

This also led to a new trend in the industry: "The person didn't arrive, but the memorial tablet did."

Several movies this year imitated this trend while running promotions.

The entire post-production work for Nirvana in Fire had special effects and editing proceeding simultaneously.

For some places where it wasn't necessary to have too many special effects, they could be edited first.

These days, many costume dramas like to add filters to the whole show.

Some filters cause the colors of the entire show to become very strange.

Luo Mo didn't intend to use those flashy filters; normal was fine.

The Costume, Makeup, and Props were so attentive that it already had a great texture; there was no need to rely on special filters to process it and make it hard for everyone to see the details clearly.

In the evening, Luo Mo received a WeChat message from Penguin Video Vice President Cheng Wen.

"Luo Mo, is Nirvana in Fire already in post-production?" he asked.

"Yes," Luo Mo answered truthfully.

As the cooperation with Penguin Video became more and more in-depth, Cheng Wen had also become one of the joint producers of Nirvana in Fire.

Penguin had even acquired a portion of Xinyu's shares.

Judging from the current situation, Run Jie also seemed to have the intention of signing her studio under Penguin.

These days, video platforms all like to make self-produced dramas and self-produced variety shows.

And some directors gradually become management for video platforms.

Just like the "fragmented" variety show The Rap of China, General Director Che Che had served as a Vice President of iQIYI for a period of time before leaving.

Cheng Wen quickly sent another WeChat message to Luo Mo, saying: "Is it convenient to have a phone call?"

"Sure," Luo Mo did not refuse.

He knew that Cheng Wen looking for him must be for something, and it was mostly related to Nirvana in Fire.

After chatting for about five minutes, Luo Mo roughly understood what Cheng Wen meant.

These days, major video platforms are all putting in their best efforts to make breakthroughs in terms of 【Audiovisual】.

Unlike before, where it was good enough for everyone to watch a high-definition video, nowadays high-definition and ultra-high-definition are considered blurry.

On the Penguin Video side, like other video platforms, the 1080P Blu-ray mode is exclusive to members.

Recently, they have newly developed a 【True Color Audiovisual】.

According to Cheng Wen's intention, he wanted Nirvana in Fire to be the first series to feature 【True Color Audiovisual】.

After listening, Luo Mo only asked one question that struck at the heart of Penguin, and even its corporate culture: "Is there an extra charge?"

"No extra charge, this 【True Color Audiovisual】 is also exclusive to members," Cheng Wen said, feeling a bit between laughter and tears.

For any project that required an extra charge, Luo Mo would mostly not participate.

Like things such as 【Advanced On-Demand】, he insisted on not doing them.

If it were someone else, Cheng Wen would probably have started applying pressure.

This is a good thing where everyone wins together, why wouldn't you participate?

Everyone is doing 【Advanced On-Demand】, what would happen if we did it too?

This made Cheng Wen feel that this person was determined to be a "clear stream" in the film and television industry.

Extremely valuing reputation!

Then, the outrageous thing happened just like that.

The four major platforms all received news internally that Advanced On-Demand would not be allowed in the future!

After this form was explicitly prohibited, Luo Mo, who had never used the Advanced On-Demand function but had produced hit after hit, suddenly climbed the Hot Search again and was praised by everyone.

"Is it a coincidence?" Cheng Wen had this thought at the time.

(End of chapter)