415: Chapter 415 No Budget Limit

With Producer Zhang Man at the helm, and various teams assisting below, "la la land" had finally begun to get on the right track.

Lin Chuyan also had to discuss, provide input on, make decisions for, and ultimately sign off on the many preparatory tasks that came one after another. As it stood, he was doing a good job as a director, and Producer Zhang Man was certainly becoming increasingly impressed by him.

Besides that, Lin Chuyan was finally able to carve out some time to busy himself with other things.

He had kept his secrets well; aside from Producer Zhang Man's team, no one else was from the mainland, so the news hadn't leaked out. Everyone still thought he was working on some small Journey to the West story.

It was just that... while it was supposedly a small animation, the commotion was truly massive... Look, he had even registered a film company.

Registering a company had long since ceased to be a secret; after all, anyone interested could find it with a quick search online.

However, the name "Yanyu Film" was quite interesting.

And when you looked at the actual controllers of the company, wasn't it just the two of them?

[Yanyu, a thousand words, right? Everything is left unsaid, hahaha.]

[Who understands the feelings of us Little Potatoes? They actually started a company together!]

[What do you call this? This is called having you in me, and me in you; we are inseparable~]

[Looking forward to my brother's new film!]

However, there were plenty of detractors too. After all, this was an entirely new track; could he really handle this too? It wasn't like he could succeed at everything he touched, right? If you didn't mock him now, when would you?

[Journey to the West? Journey to the West has been filmed to death, and he's still doing it! It's been so many years, can't you have some creativity? Stop staring at old IPs, okay?]

[It's true, this guy is now obsessed with Journey to the West. Playing Erlang Shen in "black myth: wukong" and "lotus lantern" wasn't enough; now he's out to ruin things again.]

[I'll put it out there: this project is bound to flop. Just wait and see; I bet the new company won't last many days.]

Brother Mosquito was so angry seeing this... A bunch of idiots, spraying hate without even seeing a trailer.

Was this his former self? No, he wasn't like this before! This kind of behavior belonged to the most low-level, brainless type of Haters; it was incomparable to what he used to be like back then.

Brother Mosquito also launched into a passionate tirade.

["lotus lantern" hasn't been released, and the short film hasn't been filmed yet, yet there are dogs barking here. I haven't heard that you can get paid for badmouthing Lin Chuyan; are you bringing your own dog food? You're putting it out there? Didn't your mother teach you not to defecate everywhere? You see a lamppost and subconsciously lift your leg, right? Project flop? Is your brain broken from eating too much chocolate?]

Good, good, good; our side's general is different when he takes the field. Once Brother Mosquito made a move, the fans found it satisfying to listen to.

[It has to be Brother Mosquito; I'm studying it word for word.]

[Brother Mosquito is a literary giant; the whole text sticks to the theme of "dog".]

[Don't get it, what does the last sentence mean?]

[To the person above, don't you know dogs can't eat chocolate?]

With so much news online, how could Lin Chuyan possibly pay attention to it all? He just buried his head in his work, hoping to bring the project to life as soon as possible.

He was still drawing the storyboard for "summer of the little monsters", but to his surprise, a company had already approached him, wanting to buy out the copyright for this work while it was still in the creative phase...

Don't know what type of story it is? Don't know what the story is about? Don't know what characters are drawn? Don't know if the quality of the work is good? It doesn't matter. You just need to know that the screenwriter and director is Lin Chuyan.

When Wu Yue mentioned this matter to him, his tone was quite calm, as if it were within his expectations.

"So, which company is it?"

"Bilibili. I think if the conditions are right, selling it to them would be quite good; there isn't a more suitable platform in the country than them."

Lin Chuyan still had a very good impression of Bilibili. He remembered having accepted two live interview requests from them, and besides, "drama" was also a Bilibili self-produced series, so there was a sense of attachment.

"Okay, let's talk. But shouldn't I wait until I finish drawing it first, and then I'll find a company to make my work before we talk..."

"No need. How much of the storyboard have you drawn?"

"Almost there, it's a short film after all."

"That's fine!" Wu Yue offered him a suggestion, "Bilibili has its own animation company, and I can tell they want to partner with you. You don't need to finish drawing everything before finding them; if you're willing, you can let them get moving now."

"That's true." Lin Chuyan took the advice readily, "You arrange it."

The animation production company under Bilibili was naturally not called Bilibili, but something called Dolabimeng.

With both parties interested in collaborating, it was naturally a match made in heaven.

A whole bunch of people from the animation team came, clearly attaching great importance to this project. People from both sides held a meeting at Lin Chuyan's studio.

After taking their seats, Lin Chuyan distributed the script, which had been perfected and copyrighted. Once everyone finished reading it, he shared the first half of his storyboard on the projector screen.

With text and visuals, after the whole process, everyone in the conference room had no questions left.

These people were professionals after all, and they immediately realized that this was a very good story.

Originally, everyone had prepared themselves to see a "tragic" story, feeling uneasy and not knowing what kind of "major overhaul" they would have to face.

As it turned out, they didn't expect the completion level of Lin Chuyan's work to be so high...

The leader spoke up: "Teacher Lin Chuyan, this can really be a hit!"

"I think so too."

"...Yes, this is very new; we certainly haven't seen anything like it before."

Damn, he thought Lin Chuyan would be modest, but he didn't expect the guy to be even more confident than him.

"And the ending here is so touching..." A girl was moved while reading the script, "The Monkey King is the Monkey King. Teacher Lin Chuyan, you wrote the Monkey King so gently."

Lin Chuyan smiled: "Seeing that everyone likes it so much, I can rest assured handing the work over to you to complete."

Next, the two sides discussed the character settings and several scenes involved in the story. And most importantly, the overall art style of the story, on which Lin Chuyan made a direct, unquestionable decision:

First, it must be a traditional ink-wash style. The background and scene design must have ink-wash blending effects to create a classical atmosphere.

Second, the character design lines must be simple, color usage should focus on large blocks of color, and the overall style should be fresh and natural.

Third, based on the traditional ink-wash style, we must combine it with our modern animation technology to further enhance its expressiveness, but it must not overshadow the main theme.

Fourth, the story involves a "market" scene; I hope that more cultural symbols are preserved in the landscape and architecture, and the overall atmosphere should be culturally rich so that it doesn't break immersion.

Fifth, the overall color scheme should be warm, matching the story background to create a summery atmosphere.

Everyone in the conference room had their laptops in front of them, and at this moment, listening to Lin Chuyan's words, they all started typing away to take notes.

"Does everyone have any questions? If you feel that the requirements I've proposed are unreasonable, feel free to speak up; don't feel pressured." Lin Chuyan didn't want to be complained about as a difficult client.

"No problem, these can all be achieved. It's a Journey to the West background anyway, so this art style is just right."

"Oh right, I also want to stuff an Easter egg in there."

"...Please go ahead." A client is indeed a client.

"Here." Lin Chuyan reopened the projection, "There is a place here where the Little Pig Demon is listening to a storyteller in the market. When he hears others describing the four masters and disciples of the Journey to the West, he imagines it in his mind... You can see that in his imagination, the appearances of the four masters and disciples are all outrageous... Because the storyteller didn't mention that the Monkey King was a monkey, the one the Little Pig Demon imagines actually looks like... Erlang Shen." [Note: This is the original plot, not a magic modification.]

"Understood, how about making it look like Teacher Lin Chuyan's face?" Lin Chuyan nodded. Okay, very savvy.

Then there was only one question left.

"Unlimited budget, how soon can production be completed?"

President Lin was now wealthy and generous; he didn't care about the budget for this small amount of money. Besides, the budget spent here, whether by selling the copyright or charging fees, could be earned back from Bilibili in no time.

The other party pondered for a long while: "6-9 weeks."

This was the fastest they could do, and that was with the script, storyboard, characters, and scenes already mostly finished. For the rest, since the budget was unlimited, multiple storyboard artists could work on refining the storyboards together, multiple animators could complete character animations simultaneously, the background team could take the scene animations separately to work on them, and finally, the special effects team could join in at the same time... Even then, the absolute fastest would be one month. Adding in post-production editing and reserving time for revisions, 6-9 weeks was the fastest.

Lin Chuyan nodded: "Okay, waiting for your good news. Also, every step of the progress in between must be shown to me and confirmed by me before continuing to push forward; don't forget this."

He called it practice, but this was his first directorial work after all, so he had to take it seriously. If he could get off to a good start, then the upcoming battle for "la la land" would be easier to fight.