The martial arts and grades that she knew were real, unlike the made-up ones that were written in Xianxia novels.
After Tan Mo had created the map and every small detail on it, she finally started writing the outline for the script.
Since it was the first drama that Tan Jinqi would be directing, Tan Mo had given 110% of her attention to the script.
It took her a whole month to create and edit the outline and story for the first two episodes.
Compared to the speed with which Tan Mo had written the Legend of Wei and Jin, this was considered extremely slow for her.
Finally, a month later, Tan Mo had finished editing the content for the first two episodes. She emailed that to her oldest brother along with the structure of the Xianxia world and an outline of the whole drama. She even sent him a few promotional materials for the story she was writing.
The promotional materials were for the filming studios.
It was the same as when one person went to buy some snacks from the convenience store. If there was a row of snacks they had never seen before, they would first be attracted by the one that had the best wrapping.
If the wrapping could attract the customers’ attention, people would have the urge to try them. It was the same with marketing a drama idea.
The main function of the promotional materials was to introduce the drama to the film studios and show why it was worth their time filming it.
Tan Mo had prepared all of that for Tan Jinqi as she was the scriptwriter, the one who understood the story the most.
The main reason Tan Jinqi wanted a film studio to film the drama wasn’t that he needed their fundings. It was because he needed them to handle the approval and other processes that would come along with filming a drama.
It didn’t take more than an hour for Tan Jinqi to call his little sister after receiving the files.
“Big Bro! How was it? Did you finish reading it?” Tan Mo anxiously asked.
She was afraid that she did not do a good job at writing the script. No matter how good her writing skill was, she still wasn’t able to recreate 0.01% of the Xianxia world that her master had told her about.
However, she did not get a response from her oldest brother, and it only made her even more nervous.
“Big Bro?” Tan Mo asked again. “Is the script bad? You don’t have to hold back. Tell me everything. I’ll be fine.”
“Oh! No! The script is literally amazing!” Tan Jinqi finally complimented her. It was as if he had lost his voice for a moment just now.
“Really?” Tan Mo was still skeptical because Tan Jinqi did not say anything when she first asked him.
“Really!” Tan Jinqi finally showed how excited he was. “I couldn’t say anything at first because I was still lost in the Xianxia world you created! It’s way too realistic! It’s as if the world really exists! From the continents to the countries, cultures, languages, and histories, all of it was carefully crafted to perfection! If this was a simulation, this world would’ve run perfectly! It’s hard to imagine that you could create such a systematic world in just a month! You even wrote the script for the first two episodes and the outline of the story. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought that it took you half a year to create all of this!”
When Tan Jinqi read the materials that Tan Mo had sent over, it felt to him as if the world in the story really existed.
Tan Mo finally let out a sigh of relief. “Big Bro, how about the plot and outline? And the points I have pointed out? Are those good too? Is there anything that you want me to change? Do you think it’ll be hard to film this drama?”
“Hard. It’ll be extremely difficult,” Tan Jinqi replied. “The structure of the Xianxia world is too perfect. I can already tell we’ll need to invest a lot in special effects for the first two episodes. Also, the world that you have constructed, we’ll have to visualize it first and finalize it through countless editing. That is the only way we can get a realistic effect. You already know that we’ll need a lot of green-screen background for filming a Xianxia drama. If we are going to do it, we’ll have to do it perfectly. There’s no way I’m going to use cheap effects to save time and costs.”
However, the problem was that after they had invested that much, they wouldn’t know if the people would like it or not, or whether they would watch it or not.
“But the plot is just too amazing,” her brother added. “Even the perfection level of the world you have created caught my attention. The first two episodes were so interesting that I’m already eager to read the rest of them. If we really want to proceed with this, we’ll have to perfect every little detail, or else it would be a waste of such a good script. The only problem is that if we want to do that, we’ll need a lot of funding. My thought at first was that we won’t need a lot of funding from the film studio. All they have to do is take care of the revision and distribution of the drama. But judging from the production of this drama, it would be hard for our family to fund it on our own.”
It wasn’t that the Tan family did not have the money to fund the production, but it would be a huge risk.
Tan Jinqi was also worried since this was his first time directing a drama. If it was a flop, his family would suffer a huge loss.
Even though he didn’t tell his family about it, the pressure he was shouldering was immense.
“Big Bro, when are you going to contact the film studios?” Tan Mo asked.
“Why? What do you have in mind?” Tan Jinqi asked.
“Why don’t you bring me along when you meet with them?” Tan Mo suggested. “As the scriptwriter, I’ll know more about the story more than you. You can answer the questions regarding the filming process while I’ll take care of the questions surrounding the plot and story.”
Another reason that Tan Mo wanted to go with Tan Jinqi was that this was his first drama. It would be a huge impact on his future career.
She wanted to be by his side for such an important moment.
“Sure thing,” Tan Jinqi agreed.
*
Two days later, Tan Jinqi contacted Tan Mo saying that they would be heading to Journey Films the next day to discuss the drama.
“Journey Films?” Tan Mo felt as if she had heard about the name before. It took her two seconds to recognize the name. “Aren’t they the biggest sponsor for Director Liu’s Legend of Wei and Jin? They withdrew their funding, and we stepped in.”
“Yes, them,” Tan Jinqi replied. “I’ve done some rough calculation. If we follow the path we have laid out, it will take at least $600 million to fund this drama. There’s no way our family could shoulder this alone. The risk is just way too high. What if this drama is a flop? How will Tanyue survive? We still need money for your studies too! As for Jinsheng’s and Jinqi’s careers, there are only eight companies that can handle this kind of project, Hanbang, Ledong Media, Xifu Media, Jiezhou Production, Journey Films, Taiyi Films, Zhulu Production, and Alliance Films. Hanbang has only been investing in dramas for the past few years and hasn’t touched a single one for a long time. Ledong Media, Alliance Films, and Jiezhou Production are also focusing on movies recently, but it has been years since they last took on a drama project. The only ones that are left are Journey Films, Xifu Media, Taiyi Films, and Zhulu Production. I plan to try my chance with all four of them. None of them can bear the cost all alone. If I can convince one of them to fund this drama, then the other three will have an easier time considering whether they should join in as well or not. Even if I can’t convince the other three companies to invest in us, I’m pretty sure other smaller companies will gladly fund us if we can get a huge company like Journey Films to sponsor the drama.”
