BXBX NOVEL Chapter 227 - He Comes at You With Everything
“Don’t be in such a hurry to hang up.”
Mr.Sleepy interrupted Meng Fan. “Are you interested in the manga handover ceremony? If so, I’ll arrange for your flight right now.”
“There’s not much meaning in that right… I’ll pass.”
Novel adaptations were very different from creating original manga. For the latter, signing ceremonies were a means for interacting with the fans and drive some sales, but for the former… Well, would fans think of coming for the original author or the adaptation artist?
It wouldn’t just be awkward for Meng Fan and Mr.Sleepy if Meng Fan showed up. The fans would feel awkward as well.
“Sigh. Alright. I was going to organize a Shanghai signing ceremony, so I could see you… f*ck; he hung up so fast!”
Mr.Sleepy called Meng Fan back. “I wasn’t done yet. I need to talk to you about the pay.”
The manga for ‘There’s A Spirit Underground’ had uploaded its first 10 chapters on Penguin Animation Network for free. The rest would all be on a paid basis unlike ‘Guide To Campus RoMANce’. They hadn’t signed a contract for the latter, so they couldn’t charge for the manga and ended up making the entire series free.
The manga for ‘There’s A Spirit Underground’ was funded by Mr.Sleepy himself in addition to Meng Fan’s operations. Even those who had read the novel before would discover new elements in the adaptation, so it was very popular.
Plus, the artistic style and talent were on another level!
This manga was quite popular on Penguin Animation platform, and with Meng Fan’s recent frenzy of updates, a rate of at least once a day or even three times a day… They had dominated the place of top manga for a while now.
Meng Fan could see the figures, and all of them reaffirmed the prowess of Penguin Animation Networks’ paying customer base.
“As for the pay, it will be given to you based on the existing ration. Oh, and didn’t you say you hired some assistants? I will pay them for you. You didn’t receive much last month, but there will be a lot this month although it hasn’t been calculated yet. The animation network figured it out with my end, so I’ll pay you for the first half of this month.”
“The actual publication cost will also be calculated based on the existing conditions, but I should tell you first, the money will take a while to arrive. Basically, only the earliest commission will be fast since there isn’t much, but there will be more to come. If you need money, I’ll send it to you first.”
“Alright. I’ll let you know if I need it.”
This time, Mr.Sleepy hung up before Meng Fan could do it first. He then sent Meng Fan his portion of the payment from the manga manuscripts and rounded it to the highest number. 100,000 HXB.
This was a fat paycheque. After all, it was divided then got divided once again, and it had only been in stores for a short period.
It was just that compared to Meng Fan’s commission from hand drawing posters… It was almost too little, but the two were very different; one was a continuous stream of income, the other was a one-time payment.
Of course, if he used the money to pay Chen Da Qiang and the other assistants, it was more than enough to last a few months.
Lou Lan woke up at 8:00 in the makeshift bed that had been set up outside the recording studio. He yawned and headed into the studio’s bathroom and took out his toiletries. It took him less than ten minutes to shower, wash his face, beard, and brush his teeth. He then stuffed his dirty clothes into a bag and secured it…
When he looked at the amount of bags stuffed inside the closet, Lou Lan would have an idea of how long it had been since he last went home.
After several years, Lou Lan had long gotten used to spending days at a time in the studio without going home.
Voice actors had a tough job, but the staff assisting them did not have it easy either. It was the same concept as Bear Grylls’ cameraman being equally badass as Bear himself by following him everywhere.
“Another night?”
Once he exited the washroom, employees had already begun to arrive. Seeing Lou Lan had spent the night from their WeChat group, they had brought him breakfast.
After Meng Fan left the previous night, Lou Lan had organized his clips and sent them to the contractor. He then found some female characters that were suitable for Meng Fan before more voice actors arrived and worked him until 3:00 am sharp.
“I heard something happened with your previous contract and needed a new role. You said you’ve asked Tian for the female voice, but once she arrived, the role was gone.” The person then asked curiously, “Tian said Meng Fan ended up voicing the role. Is this true? He can dub for females as well?”
Lou Lan nodded as he ate his breakfast. “I asked Tian, but she said she couldn’t make it, who knew she was going to be available again? When she arrived, Meng Fan was already done.”
“Can he really dub a female? Does it sound natural?”
“You listen.”
“… F*ck! Is that really him! He’s too powerful!”
“That’s why I found some more female roles for him.”
“Respect!”
Not long after breakfast, director Charlie arrived. Lou Lan followed him into the office and showed him the female character roles he gathered for Meng Fan to ask Charlie’s approval. Although Lou Lan was in charge of distributing roles, some still required Charlie’s approval.
“Meng Fan?”
Charlie was stunned for a moment. After hearing the demos Lou Lan handed him though, he seemed convinced.
He then asked curiously, “How many roles has he dubbed in the last couple of days?”
Lou Lan roughly calculated the numbers in his mind and gave Charlie an estimate.
“This many already?!” Charlie became silent. He then said to Lou Lan, “Then you should prioritize him when you distribute roles. He needs to collect more experience and characters, so he can have the qualifications to voice bigger roles!”
“Oh right.”
Charlie took out a pile of papers from his bag and handed them to Lou Lan. “These are the new video game character commissions I just received. You organize them first. Most of these roles are suitable for Meng Fan.”
After leaving the office, Lou Lan gave Meng Fan a call, and in 20 minutes, Meng Fan was at their door.
“Why are there so many roles today?!”
Meng Fan rubbed his hands together and excitedly entered the studio.
Another dubbing assistant had already arrived before Meng Fan and had been briefed by Lou Lan on all the roles they just received. He was still contemplating the remaining roles Charlie had just handed out, though.
“We haven’t even started discussing roles yet, why is he in such a rush?”
This dubbing assistant had helped with Meng Fan’s dubbing process before and recognized his talents, but he just couldn’t get used to it.
Lou Lan nodded and thought to himself. To this iron god, a dubbing assistant was just for show. Just based on Meng Fan’s understanding of roles alone, he was already at the same level as this dubbing assistant who had experienced hundreds of roles being dubbed.
And reality had proven this to be true. Once Meng Fan entered the studio, he had already dissected completely the role before the assistant was finished explaining it to him. He opened his mouth and met the requirements of the assistants; he even exceeded them.
From 10:00 am until 7:00 pm, Meng Fan remained in the studio aside from a few trips to the washroom. Two dubbing assistants had rotated shifts during this time with Lou Lan subbing in for two hours in between. It was like Meng Fan was on steroids. His voice remained consistent, and so did his emotions. His efficiency was incredible as usual and so was the quality of his work!
After 8 hours, Meng Fan had dubbed over 400 lines and swapped between 37 roles!
“You’re done?”
“Done!”
Meng Fan sounded nonchalant while Lou Lan took a deep breath and sat himself down.
Lou Lan had assisted people who had worked for days on end, but he had never seen such power and consistency in just 8 hours as he had just witnessed from Meng Fan.
When other voice actors were dubbing, Lou Lan could slack off and rest all he wanted since they all had to take time to think and develop their voices for the roles, but when assisting Meng Fan, he felt himself falling behind as soon as his mind wandered.
‘This guy came at you with everything!’