After finishing their conversation, both of them stood up, preparing to leave.
Meng Chang suddenly remembered something and quickly said, “Wait, there’s one more thing.”
“I just realized that we haven’t decided on the protagonist for the promotional video.”
Tian Mo was a bit surprised, not understanding why Meng Chang was bringing this up with him: “The protagonist for the promotional video? Why not hire a celebrity? I definitely can’t help with that.”
Meng Chang shook his head: “Initially, I was planning to hire a celebrity, but after talking with you, I suddenly realized that wouldn’t be suitable.”
“It’s complicated to explain in detail, but celebrities don’t meet my requirements in many ways.”
“I now need someone with a good image and temperament, but not to the level of a celebrity. Preferably someone relatable from among ordinary people, but who appears positive, bright, and optimistic. Either male or female would work.”
“If they actually have experience in a similar industry and can grasp certain emotional details during filming, striving to convey a sense of authenticity, that would be even better.”
Using a celebrity for this promotional video would definitely not meet Meng Chang’s requirements.
Because what Meng Chang wanted was controversy and authenticity, while leaving enough room for future plot twists.
Using a celebrity would, firstly, create too much initial buzz, and secondly, make later plot twists difficult.
Because using a celebrity naturally gives people the impression that “this is a very formal commercial promotional video,” making it difficult to later explain the deeper implications of the video from multiple perspectives.
What Meng Chang needed was authenticity and relatability, so the final product would be closer to real-life situations. This would allow for multiple interpretations in the future, making Pei’s promotional method complete.
Moreover, the person’s image couldn’t be too perfect, nor could their acting be too good.
If both image and acting were excellent, it would be easy to genuinely move the audience.
Meng Chang’s intended result was to leave room in the audience’s emotional response, allowing for questioning and revealing the problems behind this emotional manipulation.
Therefore, the promotional video needed to be seventy percent real and thirty percent fake. The acting couldn’t be too impressive, otherwise the balance would be disrupted, causing the direction to go off track.
But these details were difficult to explain to Tian Mo, and even if explained, Tian Mo probably wouldn’t understand.
After all, Pei’s promotional method was a very special and profound discipline that couldn’t be summarized in a few words.
Meng Chang himself had only scratched the surface after studying it for so long, let alone Tian Mo.
Fortunately, Tian Mo didn’t have the habit of digging too deep, and instead, he seriously considered Meng Chang’s requirements.
“In that case… I actually have a candidate who seems to meet your requirements.”
“Do you remember when I was at the real estate agency, I had two deals, one of which was passed to me by a colleague?”
“There was a young woman there who helped me a lot. She’s not exceptionally beautiful, but she has a sunny, cheerful, and cute personality.”
“I just got in touch with her recently. She’s no longer working at that real estate agency, and I was thinking of recruiting her for our sales department.”
As Tian Mo spoke, he pulled out a photo to show Meng Chang.
Meng Chang glanced at the photo and immediately nodded: “Great! I’ll go back and prepare, and we’ll arrange to start filming right away!”
Tian Mo sent Meng Chang her contact information: “Her name is Ding Xiyao. I’ll let her know, and then you can contact her directly. The sales department hasn’t formally assigned her any work yet.”
In fact, Tian Mo had always remembered Ding Xiyao. The reason he hadn’t contacted her until now was mainly because there hadn’t been a good opportunity.
At the beginning, he himself was uncertain about his position as head of sales, feeling like he might be fired at any moment. Every day’s work was filled with a sense of unreality, so it didn’t seem right to drag others into the situation.
His good buddies all had poor jobs, so Tian Mo felt no burden recruiting them, but Ding Xiyao was doing quite well in the real estate agency business and was quite popular. Tian Mo didn’t want to rashly poach her.
Later, Tian Mo himself had a lot of work, constantly busy with the experience store, and hadn’t had time to reach out.
It wasn’t until recently, when work became more stable, and Mr. Pei specifically emphasized that the sales department was a special case and could recruit friends and relatives without going through the normal hiring process, that Tian Mo began to carefully screen people around him, bringing in those he thought met Mr. Pei’s requirements.
He was afraid that the people he recruited might not meet Mr. Pei’s requirements, so he had to be very selective. It was only recently that he decided to bring Ding Xiyao into the sales department.
When he asked, he found out that Ding Xiyao was also tired of working at that agency and was planning to change jobs.
Their needs matched perfectly, and Ding Xiyao happily joined Tenda.
Meng Chang was quite pleased—wasn’t this perfect timing?
This was exactly the kind of person needed for the promotional video!
“Good, then let her know, and I’ll go back to arrange the filming. The content is very simple, not many lines, just a few simple shots. She just needs to be herself!”
……
After returning to the Marketing Department, Meng Chang began working at high speed.
First, he quickly wrote a simple script, then found several suitable locations for exterior shots.
The scenes Meng Chang chose were all quite representative: a small, specialized real estate agency and scenes inside a rental apartment.
Besides these, he also needed to find a few representative extras.
The rental apartment issue was easy to solve—they could just use the model room of Sloth Apartments for filming. The extras weren’t a problem either; they had worked with many actors before, or they could simply have internal employees make cameo appearances.
The only issue was the real estate agency, which needed to be set up.
But that was also manageable. They could build an interior set based on the agency in “Real Estate Agency Simulator,” which would simply require a front desk, two bar stools, a computer, a coffee table, a sofa, and other common items.
They didn’t need a perfect recreation; a general resemblance would suffice.
Meng Chang first arranged for Yu Yao to select people and set up the scene, then went back to his computer to review the entire script for the promotional video, ensuring that each scene met his requirements, while carefully planting many foreshadowing elements.
He worked until the afternoon, by which time the script was fairly complete.
Because Meng Chang already had a relatively clear idea when talking with Tian Mo, now he just needed to put that idea into writing, so the efficiency was very high.
He checked everything from beginning to end and was quite satisfied with the script.
Of course, whether the final product could perfectly express what the script intended was uncertain; they would have to see during filming.
They might also need to make some adjustments to the content of the promotional video on site.
Meng Chang called Yu Yao and learned that the set at Sloth Apartments was already prepared.
The other sets were still being arranged, and the agency set was still being built. They could film one part first, and after finishing the shots at Sloth Apartments, they could film the other parts, then edit everything together.
Meng Chang felt full of energy and said to Yu Yao on the phone: “Good, you continue to push forward with the sets and filming, I’ll contact the actress, and we’ll officially start shooting tomorrow morning!”
……
……
November 8th, Thursday.
Ding Xiyao arrived at the Sloth Apartment model room according to the address Meng Chang had sent her.
The entire model room had been rearranged according to Meng Chang’s requirements. Cameras, lighting, and other equipment were all in place, and many staff members were busily moving in and out, seemingly very efficient.
Ding Xiyao was a bit nervous.
When she first heard the whole story from Tian Mo on the phone, she couldn’t believe it at all.
Being in sales was one thing, but being the protagonist in a promotional video?
This was too strange!
Ding Xiyao was very clear about her own qualities. Her appearance was only average, nothing compared to celebrities.
Many people might look beautiful in real life, but once in front of a camera, they don’t look good at all.
This is what many call “not being photogenic.”
Many people who are actually quite thin with small faces can appear wider on camera, looking at least three times worse.
With her condition, she could actually be in a promotional video?
This made Ding Xiyao feel extremely unreal.
But Tian Mo assured her that this was absolutely reliable, and then she received a call from Meng Chang, the head of the Marketing Department, which finally convinced her to come, albeit with some skepticism.