Across the street from Lynn's Bar was a nondescript film company: a company of no more than ten people in total, who had only made one film. In Hollywood, there are so many such studios, many of them are set up, shoot a movie, and never exist again. The film company, called Mystery, is the same. In people's memory, the company seems to have been out of business for almost a month, and in the eyes of many, it seems to have gone out of business.

However, on this day, Mystery Inc. once again opened its doors. A few young men began to discuss their work inside, until the sun was about to sink into the horizon, and everything around them was colored with the afterglow of the setting sun, and they did not finish discussing the work at hand.

"$200,000 is not enough to make us happy! What we need now is an order for further pilot episodes, and that money can really let us breathe a sigh of relief. Guys, we've got to find a way to get the order, that's our biggest job right now. ”

From the moment he came to the company, Levy had already made the point of the discussion clear: the American TV drama market is not large, and the four major TV networks in the United States combined only have about 100 pilot episodes. With a script production fee of 200,000 yuan, it does not mean that you will definitely get the opportunity to be piloted, and how to make a TV series can be adopted by the TV network is a big problem.

"First of all, we have to have a good script...... In order to make a good series, we have to decide what we want to shoot. So, the question now is: what kind of story do we want to write in our script? ”

Bob's enthusiasm for work is much higher than Levy imagined, among several partners, only Bob has experience in writing scripts before, since everyone wants to work together now, Bob is naturally the most active, "Crime dramas, supernatural dramas, medical dramas, science fiction dramas, horror dramas, these are the categories that can be picked." ”

Since writing a script, the first thing to determine is naturally the division of the type of script. Several people also think about the same type of script, and it is possible to create a successful one. Otherwise, each thinks about his own thing, and then he will have to go his separate ways.

"You're talking about drama." Alexander, who was on the sidelines, interjected, "Who of you didn't ignore something?" ”

"Alex, we're just in trouble, it's not time to give up on the future. Sitcoms and soap operas are things we can't touch. Michael sat down beside him and retorted.

Levy didn't say anything, just listened to their conversation with interest. He knew exactly what these people were discussing, and as Bob spoke, he simply filtered out the two biggest categories, sitcoms and daytime soap operas, which was where Alexander objected, but Michael made it straight out: that kind of thing they wouldn't touch.

It is not without reason that he thinks so.

There are many types of TV dramas in the United States, and the timing of the broadcast is also different. Among them, daytime soap operas are broadcast for housewives who have no work and rest at home, and the general broadcast time is during the day, and the main content is some super chaotic emotional relationships, making up some rich family grievances, emotional stories or something, how to get bloody, what **, debts, and third parties can be, anyway, it is for people who have nothing to do. This kind of thing is really monotonous and boring, which also leads to this kind of TV series, except for housewives or poor and boring people, not many people are willing to watch it, in "Friends", Joey himself is a soap opera actor, and when he is interviewed, when asked what soap opera he likes to watch, he will also say "I have my own life, I'm not that boring".

Several people all understand that even if they shoot a TV series, they can't shoot soap operas: there is a big difference between daytime soap operas and TV dramas, and the biggest difference is that TV dramas are one episode a week, and they are broadcast in the season, that is, in a year, at most, there are about 24 episodes. The daytime soap opera is different, the soap opera is one episode a day, five episodes a week, and there is no talk of a season, and it is exactly 260 episodes in a year. Filming a TV series will only take up a part of people's energy, but if you shoot a soap opera, then a few people don't have to do anything, just shoot soap operas every day.

Moreover, because soap operas are easy to make up, it is very likely to be made up indefinitely, and once they are contaminated, it is difficult to get out. The long-lived soap opera "Our Days" in the United States has been compiled with more than 11,000 episodes, which has been broadcast since 1965 and has not stopped broadcasting for 40 years. CBS's TV series "Guiding Light" has aired a total of 72 seasons and as many as 18,262 episodes - some TV series are very long and attractive, but some TV series are so long that people will lose the number of episodes at a glance.

These things are sticky and endless, the story is very monotonous and old-fashioned, and the plot itself is not strong, so it is not much fun to shoot these. Although the small company of several people is at a low point now, what a few people want is to rise again, they want to shoot some excellent works to attract the attention of others, instead of relying on TV dramas to eat from now on, such things really do not reflect their creative ability, and they naturally will not consider it.

The other one that was excluded was the sitcom. Sitcoms are for everyone's entertainment, the highlight is that the lines are funny, the plot setting can't be too complicated, the house drama is a thing, there are two or three scenes after hundreds of episodes, and the characters often need to sacrifice their IQ for the plot, as long as the audience looks happy, it's okay to come, anyway, no one is more serious - these characteristics determine that the work is extremely easy to shoot such a TV series, the screenwriter makes it up casually, the actors exaggerate, the director doesn't even need to arrange the scene, the producers can easily complete the work, Naturally, it will not attract anyone's attention.

If you want to show your ability and let the film producer invest in making a movie for you, you can't rely on soap operas without a plot, or comedy dramas that amuse you with lines. If you want to shoot a TV series, you still have to rely on a TV series with an excellent plot and fascinating shooting techniques.

"What we shoot has to be a drama -- to put it at the Emmys, it has to be a drama. Sitcoms or something, throw it aside, create that kind of thing, we don't have a day in our lives. What we need now is a drama -- crime drama, science fiction drama, medical drama, supernatural drama, school drama, and now we need to think about which type of thing to shoot. ”

In fact, there are more than these classifications in the drama category, but these are the classifications that a few people can shoot. Other types of TV series, a few young people really can't play it, the history category is all a big investment, and the political category is likely to touch the red line, those things, it's better not to think about them. Without that capital, without that way, it would be impossible to shoot that thing.

"First of all, let's exclude campus dramas, this thing is filmed, and it won't do us any good." Clark hesitated for a moment, then spoke first, and as soon as he spoke, several people nodded in agreement.

Among these types of TV dramas, campus dramas are another type of drama that can be easily thrown away. Because filming campus dramas, what is needed is also not shooting techniques, but to a large extent handsome men and beautiful women, as long as the actors are handsome enough, they can shoot good dramas. Two or three handsome men and beauties threw it over, and then they loved each other, deceived each other, and if they didn't act, they rearranged and combined, and continued to love and deceive in a different way.

"So which of the remaining types can be excluded?" Bob looked up and asked, "I suggest excluding science fiction and supernatural categories, which don't make much sense." ”

"Isn't science fiction a good story?" Levy asked rhetorically.

"It's not the golden age of the Big Three, and the quality of science fiction isn't as high as it was in the Asimov era. Moreover, this is especially true in the TV drama industry, science fiction and supernatural things, too many of them are the kind of things that can't make up the story and can't be explained at all, and they make up too much nonsense for the sake of the story, which has ruined the reputation of this genre - people hate science fiction dramas because of those pseudo-science fiction that don't talk about logic. Shoot this thing, you can't get investment. Whether it's science fiction or supernatural, the quality of the shooting is largely determined by the amount of investment, and if you don't have enough money, don't think about it. ”

Unexpectedly, it was Alexander who spoke, and Alexander was more familiar with this. Although he doesn't know much about creative things, he is very clear about the problem of funding.

The biggest problem with sci-fi and supernatural TV series is that the producers are sometimes too nonsense, and in order to drag the episodes, many times the settings can be changed at will. This kind of thing really doesn't have much shooting value. And the effect of such a TV series, that is, depends on the amount of investment, if you give more money and the special effects are done well, you can come out with a good TV series, and if you don't give much money, then it is nothing.

"Well, that's the two left. Medical dramas and crime dramas. Bob began, "But it's okay, these two are the biggest categories. ”

"It's also the two most difficult categories to shoot." Alexander said, "Law & Order, ER Story, these two works are now recognized as the top level of this type of TV series, both in terms of word-of-mouth and ratings, they are unparalleled. Filming this kind of TV series, it is easy to be suspected that they are imitating these two, and it is very difficult to surpass them. ”

In these two TV series of NBC, Levy has also admired his name for a long time. Now that he heard Alexander mention it, he immediately said yes, "That's right, it's really very difficult to surpass 'ER's Story'." Some TV dramas are of epoch-making significance, and this one is like this - from the time it is determined, the theme of the TV series itself is 'professional' and 'human nature', and it will be very difficult for future TV dramas to surpass it. In a sense, this TV series is a kind of royal road - a royal road that cannot be surpassed. ”

"What about Law & Order?" Clark seemed to hear something, "You mean to say that Law & Order can be surpassed?" ”

"Law and Order" is indeed a good TV series, but there are still some gaps between this TV series and the epoch-making TV series. It just so happens that I have an idea that can surpass this TV series and play an epoch-making significance for the development of the entire crime drama. Levy laughed, "I've got an idea, and it's called CSI - Crime Scene Investigation. ”