Chapter 313 Erlang Shen's New Image
"We think that it should not be viewed as a myth, but rather adapted as a family ethics drama."
Sun Lu explained their creative concept, "After all, the protagonist Chenxiang and the villain Erlang Shen in the story are uncle and nephew. As the saying goes, the mother is the elder than the uncle. When his sister violated the heavenly law, Erlang Shen had no choice but to imprison his sister. Moreover, Erlang Shen also wanted Chenxiang to save his mother successfully, otherwise, with his ability, how could he not be able to deal with a child?"
"According to this line of thinking, we believe that it was Erlang Shen who helped Chenxiang grow up during his repeated captures, and he may have even provided help in secret, which enabled Chenxiang to successfully rescue his mother. In this way, he could give an explanation to the Jade Emperor and release his sister. After he successfully rescued his mother, the Jade Emperor pardoned Erlang Shen's mother Yao Ji. After Chenxiang successfully rescued his mother, he would naturally pardon San Sheng Mu."
"And we suspect that the Jade Emperor also needs a way out. After all, he is the uncle of Erlang Shen and San Sheng Mu, so how could he watch his niece suffer?"
Liu Hongmin laughed. This idea was very similar to the TV series "Baolian Lantern" in his original time and space. However, he didn't know how they would portray the image of Erlang Shen.
"It's a great idea. Have you finished writing the script?"
"The script has been written and we have reached the stage of finalizing the character's image."
"Show me the script."
Sun Lu asked someone to bring the script over, and Liu Hongmin roughly flipped through it and said, "You still lack some of the portrayal of Erlang Shen."
"After all, The Lotus Lantern tells the story of Chenxiang. If we focus too much on Erlang Shen, we won't be able to distinguish the main from the secondary."
"Just treat Erlang Shen as the second male lead."
When Sun Lu heard this, his eyes lit up.
When the animation company was founded, Liu Hongmin said that all animations should not be produced for young audiences, because children will always grow up, and they want to grow up and prefer to watch more mature works.
Japan has done a good job in this regard. Almost all of its cartoons are suitable for all ages. Even the childish ones like "Crayon Shin-chan" and "Chibi Maruko-chan" are suitable for all ages. Some viewers even watch them again from time to time after they grow up.
With this concept in mind, the animations produced by the animation company become much more interesting. Not only children like to watch them, but adults also like them very much.
Therefore, when Sun Lu and his team were producing "The Lotus Lantern", they also aimed at all age groups and were not opposed to making Erlang Shen the second male lead.
"But how should we portray Erlang Shen?"
In terms of screenwriting, they are still too weak.
Liu Hongmin thought for a while, “Don’t Erlang Shen have Roaring Sky Dog and the Six Saints of Meishan under his command? You can do something with them, let them help Chenxiang secretly, help him find a powerful master, or guide him to find important props such as the mountain-splitting axe. Give the task of hunting down Chenxiang to Roaring Sky Dog. Roaring Sky Dog always forces Chenxiang to the point of desperation, and then fails for various reasons. In the final decisive battle, after Erlang Shen was defeated, he looked at Chenxiang split the mountain to save his mother, and showed a satisfied smile.” Sun Lu hurriedly called the screenwriter and wrote down some points that Liu Hongmin said.
Liu Hongmin continued, "In terms of characterization, Erlang Shen should have two images. One is the good guy in the early stage, who must be serious and fierce. The other is the gentle transformation after seeing his sister being rescued. It would be best if some facial features remain unchanged and only some parts are changed, so that Erlang Shen looks gentler."
Sun Lu thought for a moment and said, "This is easy. We can start with his facial expression. At the beginning, Erlang Shen had a gloomy gray face, which looked scary. Later on, we can change his face to red, and then change his eyes and mouth corners to achieve this effect."
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "Following this line of thought, we can design more interesting points. Portraying Erlang Shen from the perspective of image will have unexpected effects. For example, these changes will often appear in the plot, but because of his complexion and other reasons, Erlang Shen looks more ferocious. But in the end, these changes will make Erlang Shen look gentler because of his complexion and other reasons. This method shows that Erlang Shen has always been gentle, but he just didn't show it before."
"This is a great idea!" Sun Lu urged the screenwriter, "Write this idea down, gather all the original artists later, and we will design these details together."
Liu Hongmin smiled and said, "Then you guys go ahead and get busy! We'll be leaving first."
Sun Lu hurriedly sent Liu Hongmin out of the company, and after watching the car drive away, he immediately turned around and rushed back to the production site.
"Quick! All original artists and screenwriters come to my office, let's discuss the image of Erlang Shen."
The original artists and screenwriters immediately followed up, and they were very puzzled. Wasn't the image of Erlang Shen already finalized? Why did it need to be changed again?
However, when they saw Liu Hongmin's opinion, they suddenly realized that it was the big boss who made the move, no wonder the change was necessary.
They had no complaints, Liu Hongmin's reputation was too great. As the saying goes, there is no false reputation under a great reputation, Liu Hongmin's achievements in novels and scripts are much greater than theirs. And these opinions were indeed good, and they agreed with them very much.
According to these suggestions, the image of Erlang Shen will be greatly enriched, and it may become a classic animation image. Thinking of a classic animation image appearing in their hands, they immediately became motivated.
After a long day of discussion, the image of Erlang Shen was basically determined. However, Sun Lu did not finalize it, but sought opinions from everyone in the project team. After the New Year, everyone agreed that the image did not need to be modified, and it was officially finalized.
On the way back in the car, Liu Hongmin suddenly had an idea and wondered whether he should write the tragic novel about Erlang Shen.
"Life is Long and Hateful and Water Flows East" is an online novel, but its portrayal of Erlang Shen is very classic, combining the love for his sister, the concern for his nephew and the maintenance of the overall situation of the Three Realms in Erlang Shen himself, fully describing Erlang Shen's emotions. The tragic ending at the end has left many readers with a hard time.
However, Liu Hongmin finally gave up the idea of writing it, because he did not like tragic stories. If the ending of "Life is Long and Hateful, Water Flows East" was changed, it would lose its soul.
Secondly, he only watched it once, and couldn't remember much of the content. And there was only the video in his mind, not the novel. "Life is Long and Hateful, Water Flows East" was not adapted into a TV series, so Liu Hongmin naturally couldn't take shortcuts to borrow from it.
Although it’s a bit regrettable, but regrets are what life is all about!
(End of this chapter)
