That was all to the script. There were less than ten sentences, and a single page was enough to accommodate all the lines.
Zhang Zuting looked confused.
Where’s the plot?
I am a movie king after all. I might be past my prime, but I have been training non-stop. My acting skills are becoming much better! I was already prepared to give an explosive acting performance this time, and yet… what is this?
What kind of script is this? It’s obviously an extremely roughly-done script for the advertisement! What kind of acting skills can I bring to the table?
I’m not even talking about whether these few lines were worth the two million yuan. It would be a waste even for the expensive and elaborate costume and props alone!
Zhang Zuting turned to look at Pei Qian once again, and yet he only saw Boss Pei’s encouraging and proud expression.
Zhang Zuting took in a deep breath and scanned the lines, memorizing it immediately.
Pei Qian was standing right next to the director. He said, “Don’t worry, just film Trust Mr. Zhang’s professionalism!”
Pei Qian did not care whether Zhang Zuting’s acting was good or not. In any case, he just needed the latter to say those lines to the camera.
The moment he heard the word ‘action’, Zhang Zuting entered the zone.
Pei Qian had to admit that Zhang Zuting was a veteran actor indeed. There was no way his professionalism could be compromised.
He immediately looked high on emotions. His expression showed his full commitment and high excitement as he said, “Hello, everyone! I am Zha Zhuti. I have acted in many shows…”
When Pei Qian heard Zhang Zuting’s accent, he nearly burst into laughter.
That was a bit of the right feeling!
However, the only thing that went off from the original script was the amount of emotion Zhang Zuting was putting into the advertisement. At once, he brilliantly displayed the acting skills of a movie king. Even with the strong Hong Kong accent, the advertisement did not sound lame enough.
At first, when Zhang Jiahui[1] was filming commercials, he felt tired and unfocused. That was how he became famous for the scene where he introduced himself with a heavy Hong Kong accent.
However, Zhang Zuting had eaten a King Crab the day before. He also had a good night’s rest. Now, he was full of energy. What’s more, he was grateful for the way Boss Pei had treated him. That was why he was performing so excitedly.
Now, everything was fine except for that small defect.
“Dis is the newest update dat you haf never played before. In just swee minutes, you will luf this gam as much as I do!”
He said his final line. After the director yelled ‘Cut!’, Zhang Zuting looked at Pei Qian once more.
Boss Pei raised up his big thumb, praising Zhang Zuting.
Zhang Zuting felt nervous. Was that alright?
He felt terribly awkward while saying his lines. If not for his many years of acting experience and his professionalism, he would not have been able to carry on.
Was Boss Pei really satisfied with that performance?
That can’t be! There must be room for improvement!
Indeed, the staff was not dismissed. Pei Qian walked to Zhang Zuting and gave a few pointers.
“Mr. Zhang, you performed very well! However… there is still a tiny bit of room for improvement. You should know that we’re not filming a serious movie – we’re just filming an advertisement.
“In this advertisement, you’re acting as an avid gamer. It’ll be great if you could act more languid and casual. This would make you appear warmer to your viewers.
“Be more casual; don’t stand so upright. Clear your mind and say your lines as casually as you can.”
When Zhang Zuting saw Pei Qian walking over, he had thought that the latter would give him pointers on his acting skills or change the harsher lines to something else.
Instead, Boss Pei asked him to tone down his acting?
He was to act more languid and casual?
Zhang Zuting looked confused, but since Boss Pei had already made his requests, he could only try his best.
Once again, they were rolling.
“Hello, everyone! I am Zha Zhuti. I have acted in many shows…”
This time, Zhang Zuting was acting in a much more ‘accurate’ manner. Of course, he toned down his acting skills without any question. He also looked more awkward.
Pei Qian nodded, satisfied.
Alright, there’s the right feeling now!
Although they had not done everything perfectly and Zhang Zuting’s good acting skills dragged the plan down, the fact that he could produce an advertisement like that really satisfied Pei Qian.
He finished reading all the lines, and the director finally yelled, “Cut!”
Zhang Zuting looked uncomfortable. He felt like he looked more awkward this time than the last. In fact, his awkwardness was through the roof! As a movie king, Zhang Zuting had not felt the helplessness of not being able to take charge of his own acting in a long time.
At that very moment, he felt like a calefare who knew next to nothing about acting-he was confused and helpless.
“Boss Pei, I’m sorry, I wasn’t in my best form. Wait for me to find myself again, and then we can film it once more.”
Zhang Zuting planned to relax for a while, so that he could repeat the lines over and over again until he knew best how to say them.
However, Pei Qian shook his head profusely. “There’s no need! You’re already done. It was perfect! We don’t have to film again! Filming is complete. You can go back to your hotel to rest. I’ll arrange for someone to send you to the airport in the afternoon.
“It has been a pleasure working with you!”
Zhang Zuting was stunned.
They were done filming?
He looked at his watch. He rushed here at 9 AM and spent half an hour doing make-up. Then, he spent another ten minutes putting the costume and props on. Finally, he spent ten minutes memorizing his script before they filmed twice.
Now, it was not even 10 AM, and yet they were done?
Zhang Zuting’s expression was twisted. “Wait, Boss Pei! I did not do very well earlier on. It might negatively affect the advertisement. We should not stop until it’s perfect…
“What’s more, I did not speak Mandarin accurately. You must remember to dub my voice…”
Pei Qian smiled. “Don’t worry. We’ll act according to your wishes and consider cutting out some footage or looking for a professional to dub over your voice.”
The hidden meaning in these words was: If there is no need, we will not cut footage or dub over your voice.
Zhang Zuting did not catch this underlying meaning. After hearing that Boss Pei would ‘hire someone to dub over his voice’, he felt relieved.
He was still conflicted about his own performance.
However, since Boss Pei—the payer-was already satisfied and the staff was already preparing to leave, it did not seem to make sense for Zhang Zuting to insist on re-filming the advertisement.
What’s more, even if they filmed again, Zhang Zuting was not confident in reading the few lines well…
Thus, Zhang Zuting left worriedly.
He was not sad that he had not performed well. Instead, he felt sorry that he could not repay Boss Pei fully for the huge crab that he had been treated to the night before.
“Thanks for working hard today. Go back to your hotel and have a good rest. You’re welcome to visit Jingzhou any time!”
Pei Qian walked Zhang Zuting out happily. He was in a great mood.
The advertisement was complete. This meant that Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version was well on its way to incurring losses!
The advertisement would turn players who were naturally averse to traditional web-based games away.
The lack of purchase options in the game would turn ballers who loved traditional web-based games away.
It was a two-prong approach
, and it would surely prove to be effective!
[1] This is a famous Hong Kong movie actor.
Chapter 230 - New Way of Distributing Bonuses
Chapter 230 New Way of Distributing Bonuses
After sending Zhang Zuting off, everyone in Shang Yang Games got busy editing the footage they got into an appropriate advertisement.
Style and length requirements for advertisements on webpages, video sites, and other places were different. For example, some websites only dedicated horizontal spaces to advertisements, some had pop-up windows, and some only allowed videos to be a couple of seconds long.
Thus, the same footage had to be molded into different styles.
If they had to cut a video from tens of seconds to a few seconds, they would naturally have to select the most important bits of the footage.
It was during this time that everyone realized how forward-thinking Boss Pei was.
The video that they recorded could easily be molded into a perfect website advertisement after making just a few edits!
Zhang Zuting’s lines were white short. What’s more, there was not much content to it. Roughly cutting the video and re-assembling it did not affect the video’s original meaning. This gave the editors a lot of space to play around with the video.
If players got tired of viewing the same advertisement in the future, all they would have to do is cut the video again in order to create a brand-new advertisement.
“Boss Pei, Zhang Zuting’s Mandarin isn’t good. He sounds quite awkward. Should we find a professional voice actor to dub over his voice? This wouldn’t be too expensive anyway,” suggested Ye Zhizhou.
Pei Qian shook his head at once. “No, let’s leave it like that! You have to trust the movie king’s acting skills and delivering of the lines. What’s more, the rawness of this advertisement could serve to close the gap between him and the audience. If we look for someone to dub his voice over, the advertisement would lose its soul. Do you understand?”
“Er…” Ye Zhizhou vaguely felt like there was something wrong with what Boss Pei was saying.
However, on further thought, they had already filmed the awkward video. Why should he bother with editing it?
Director Lin had guessed that Boss Pei had purposely looked for an outdated Hong Kong celebrity to film this awkward video to attract as many traditional web-based gamers to play this game.
Since that was the case, the advertisement had nothing to do with class. It seemed to make sense to produce a more awkward-looking advertisement.
At that thought, Ye Zhizhou said nothing more. Instead, he obediently prepared the marketing materials. He was ready to paste this advertisement everywhere once research and development of the game was complete.
Until now, they had been working on Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version for one and a half months.
one
Although they had created the game from scratch, they had more or less copied the gameplay of Bloody Battle Song. They also had a very clear idea of the art resources to useall they had to do was update them.
The bulk of the work had to do with the art resources. Since they had outsourced this work to many other companies, the art resources were being produced very quickly.
Based on their predictions, the game would be complete at the beginning of September. This was slightly earlier than their initial plan.
Since they would complete research and development for the game early, they could afford to spend more time trying it out. They could focus on the game’s statistics and make improvements. This would help them win more time over competing games…
All in all, there were many advantages to this.
Now, they were almost done with preparing the publicity. Ye Zhizhou planned to focus all his energy on research and development so the game could be released to players as soon as possible.
At the same time, Pei Qian was busy as well. He had to juggle Tengda Games’ research and development and cautiously take care of Fei Huang Workspace.
Repent and Be Saved’s research and development was progressing smoothly. Until now, they were almost 60% done with the game. According to the rate of their progress, the game would probably be ready for publishing in the middle of October. This included running tests, making adjustments, and tying up loose ends.
Pei Qian instructed Li Yada to produce a demo as soon as he could because he wanted to try it out first.
On one hand, he wanted to check if the game was as difficult as he had expected. On the other hand, he wanted to search for a chance to sneak ‘Boss Pei’s special weapon’ into the game, in a place where people would be least likely to find it.
The System required Pei Qian to be able to win the game with his own skills.
Honestly, Pei Qian was not considered a complete noob[1]. Of course, that did not mean he was particularly formidable either. He was just an ordinary gamer. When put in a group of equally bad gamers, he could sometimes carry others.
The System was only making a requirement like that to prevent Pei Qian from taking advantage of the loophole.
For example, Pei Qian had made the monsters in the first stage multiple times stronger than the players were at the beginning of the game. In terms of attack power, attack frequency, and movement speed; the monsters would overpower the players. No matter how good a player was, they would die within seconds. Only extremely rare gaming gods would barely be able to pass the first stage.
This would be akin to maliciously turning players away. It would be unreasonable.
The System had imposed this requirement so average and slightly-above-average players with a good enough understanding of the game (Pei Qian had a very good grasp of the game’s system) should be able to win the game after several tries.
This way, although the game would still be difficult, most players would still press on in the hopes of winning.
However, given how smart Pei Qian was, he thought of a way around this problem.
He had three main considerations:
First, the System required Pei Qian to win the game, but it did not stipulate how long Pei Qian could take!
Even if it took Pei Qian a hundred tries to win and even if he had to play from the day he received the demo to the day the game was published, it would still be considered a win.
Second, the System did not stipulate how Pei Qian had to win.
He could hide an extremely formidable weapon somewhere in the game, in a place where nobody would suspect. If he could easily eliminate monsters with that weapon, he would still be considered a winner.
Lastly, the System did not stipulate which ending Pei Qian had to get.
He could create multiple endings for the game, one of which only required the player to unlock 30% of the game’s plot. Even if he took the shortest route to get to an ending of the game, it would still be considered a win, right?
Thus, Pei Qian was well-prepared. He would wait for Repent and Be Saved’s demo to be released. Then, he would find a place to hide his special weapon. After that, he would begin his training.
The demo might be produced in two or three days. Then, Boss Pei would have to get busy.
It all sounded torturous, but as the saying went, ‘no pain, no gain’. If he wanted to incur losses, how could he not work hard?
He had invested nearly twenty million yuan into Repent and Be Saved; he could not let it go to waste!
Apart from this, Pei Qian considered modifying some company procedures slightly. At the moment, Tengda Games’ gave out project rewards and bonuses. Fifteen percent of each game’s profit would be distributed to the employees as bonus.
Fei Huang Workspace was similar. Thirty percent of the profits would be distributed to the members of the workspace as a form of reward.
Pei Qian’s initial intention in coming up with this system was to spend as much of the money he earned as possible. This would allow him some relief from thinking about spending the System Funds.
However, after a period o
f pondering, Pei Qian found a huge problem with such a system!
If they could get such a large project bonus, the employees would be motivated to earn more!
Take Fei Huang Workspace for instance. They did not make much money from their last film. That was why Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce received only their base pay, without a single cent of bonus.
Although Pei Qian gave them a high basic pay to begin with and the video had received good feedback, their income did indeed take a hit.
That was why they decided to work on reviewing digital products and producing short videos this time. This would increase their chances of getting sponsored partnerships. Pei Qian could not help but wonder if this was related to their pay.
Of course, part of it was that they did not want to let Boss Pei down. They wanted to help Fei Huang make profits so Boss Pei did not always have to fill in the gaps for them. However, they must have been partly motivated by earning a bit more bonus for themselves.
That was why Pei Qian increasingly felt like something was amiss.
This way of distributing bonuses seemed to be akin to drinking poison to quench thirst!
Although it helped Pei Qian spend more money in the short term, it also greatly motivated employees to earn more money for the company. This brought more money-the root of all evil—to Pei Qian’s System Funds!
Thus, Pei Qian had to change the system!
Of course, it was impossible to get rid of the bonuses; that would be inhumane. What’s more, if he kept the bonuses, that would be causing more trouble for himself. He would be more stressed when trying to get rid of the funds.
Instead, Pei Qian needed the perfect solution to deal with all the problems.
He had to distribute the money and dispel the employees’ passion for making profits for the company.
After some thought, Pei Qian finally thought of a good idea.
Provided that he could keep the employees’ bonuses constant—with the slight hope of them increasing, he would distribute bonuses based on reputation instead of profits!
In other words—while he distributed rewards based on the amount of profit each project earned before, he would now distribute rewards based on the project’s reputation.
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