Yan Yan

Chapter 23.1 – Wronged

It was not a secret that the second female lead, Lin Yiran, could join the crew because of the investors. Because there was a backer behind Lin Yiran, she didn’t hesitate to bring in her own screenwriters.

Su Yan was mentally prepared for this before joining the group, but she was very angry because of it. She thought that even if some actors hired their own screenwriters, it would not cause a huge problem. However, reality poured a basin of cold water on her, completely waking her up.

Actors bringing their own screenwriters into the group was definitely contempt and insult to them, as well as contempt and disrespect for their work results. But most of the screenwriters didn’t dare to speak out because the screenwriter’s status in the group was very low, and he or she had no right to speak at all.

A film crew was a small society, the top of the society was not the director or the leading actor with a large fan base, but the kind of people with capital and backing behind them; the screenwriter was the bottom of the society, both humble workers and hard-working tool people.

For the crew of “Watching the Moon in the West Building”, the second female, Lin Yiran, was at the top of society; even the leading actor and director had to give her three points of courtesy. If she wanted to change the script, she would simply rush into the land of no one, and no one dared to stop her. What Su Yan was most worried about was that Lin Yiran would add extra scenes for herself. If the additions could be made without changing much of the original script, she could accept them, but if the additions were too outrageous, it would make the outline very inconsistent. It would seriously accept the overall storyline and destroy the beauty of the script. The biggest problem would be that, when the drama was broadcast, if the audience was dissatisfied with the drama, all of them would blame the poor screenwriter at the end.

Su Yan’s worries started the first day Lin Yiran joined the group, and she spent more than a week in anxiety. Therefore, the actual situation was much more serious than she imagined—Lin Yiran’s method of adding scenes was not to add her own scenes but to snatch the scenes that originally belonged to the heroine and add them to herself.

This was the first time that Su Yan had encountered such a difficult problem after working in the industry for two years.

If it were another drama, the impact of doing this might not be too big, but “West Tower Watching the Moon” was a bit different. The heroine and the second heroine were sisters who fell in love with the same man. The second heroine played many tricks to win the heart of the male lead. She even planned to kill her sister, took her sister’s identity, and deceived the male lead.

On the wedding day of the male lead and the second female lead, the female lead came back domineeringly, exposed her sister’s conspiracy and lies in public, and regained her innocence and justice.

What Lin Yiran wanted to add to herself was a scene in which the heroine risked her life to save the heroine on the battlefield and also changed the second heroine’s attempt to kill the heroine, which not only completely distorted the character design of the heroine but also seriously damaged the audience’s sense of involvement and empathy with the heroine.

As one of the screenwriters of this play, Su Yan couldn’t accept this kind of change that would destroy the story.

But what made her even angrier was that Lin Yiran did not discuss it with her at all before changing the script, and she only found out about it on the day the filming of the scene started.

Lin Yiran had only discussed this matter with the director and got the director’s support and approval, but the director didn’t inform Su Yan, the screenwriter, let alone come to discuss it with her. It clearly showed that the director hadn’t taken Su Yan’s position seriously and hadn’t had any respect for her. Even if he didn’t respect her as a person, he should respect the fruits of their labour, right?

For a screenwriter, maintaining the completion of the script was the bottom line, so she must stop this matter. So Su Yan couldn’t just sit and wait for her hard work to be destroyed in other people’s hands.

After the filming of that scene, Su Yan went to find the director.