Chapter 6

In August, Beijing was enveloped by the scorching heat of midsummer. The sun released immense heat, baking the ancient city walls until they were still warm at midnight.

Sitting on the balcony, the electric fan whirred, but it did little to alleviate the sweltering heat. Zhang Ran let out a sigh, "I never thought Beijing could be this hot. Is it a problem with my body? This is too hot!"

Zhang Ran wanted to buy an air conditioner, but he couldn't afford it. His total assets amounted to just over 3,000 yuan, and an air conditioner cost more than 2,000 yuan. If he bought one, he would have to live on a shoestring for the rest of the month.

Actually, compared to an air conditioner, Zhang Ran needed broadband more. As someone from 2015, and someone who relied on the internet for a living, not having broadband was like losing half his life. In the afternoon, he called the telecommunications company, only to find out that the initial installation fee for broadband was 1,300 yuan, plus about 2,000 yuan for a year's service. He could only painfully give up on it.

Without broadband, without an air conditioner, life was unbearable.

No, he couldn't just sit here. He had to find a way to earn some money!

Zhang Ran got up and returned to his room, bringing his laptop to the balcony. After the XP desktop appeared, he opened Word and typed in four characters—Time Prisoner.

During his half-month stay in the hospital, Zhang Ran had already thought through his future path. He originally planned to stay at the Beijing Film Academy for a year or two, establish himself, and then start his plan. Now, it seemed he had to move forward with it earlier.

Zhang Ran wanted to make movies, but it was 2001, and the domestic film industry was at its lowest point. The chances of a new director getting funding were slim.

Given the harsh environment, Zhang Ran didn't expect his first film to be a box office hit. He just wanted to shoot a short film to practice and earn a little money to improve his life. His target was the Movie Channel, which produced a large number of TV movies each year. TV movies had many weaknesses—low investment, short shooting periods, and rough production—but they provided a rare opportunity for new directors. Directors like Guan Hu and Gao Xixi started their careers with TV movies.

Zhang Ran planned to write a script and collaborate with the Movie Channel under the name of the Beijing Film Academy's Qingying Factory. With the reputation of the Beijing Film Academy and Qingying Factory, the chances of success were high.

He had already decided what to shoot. He wanted to complete the short film he was working on before his rebirth, as a farewell to the past. The short film, titled Time Prisoner, was adapted from Liu Gongzi's classic science fiction novel, One Day Prisoner.

The story was somewhat similar to the American film Groundhog Day. On the morning of August 19, 2001, at exactly midnight, a mysterious man checked into a hotel. The front desk noticed that this man was very strange. He had clearly gone upstairs a few seconds ago, but a few seconds later, he walked in from the door again, as if there were many different versions of him. After 24 hours, the mysterious man died in the room. The front desk discovered a shocking secret in the man's room: the mysterious man was a criminal from the future, sentenced to time imprisonment, trapped in August 19, reliving the same day for ten years until his death.

The story of One Day Prisoner was extremely captivating and full of suspense, but unfortunately, it was just a short story, too thin to support a 90-minute film. Before his rebirth, Zhang Ran had planned to make it a 50-minute short film.

Now, planning to collaborate with the Movie Channel, which did not accept short films, he had to make it a 90-minute film. Therefore, Zhang Ran had to add content to Time Prisoner to expand the story to 90 minutes.

These days, while in the hospital, Zhang Ran had been thinking about the story, how to rewrite the script, and what content to add. He had already figured out how to adapt it.

Since it was to be made into a film, a positive ending would be more appealing. Therefore, Zhang Ran hoped that the female lead, Cai Yan, would save the male lead, Cao Lin. However, there was a serious problem: Cao Lin was a criminal with severe crimes. If Cai Yan saved him, it would be like saving a criminal, which would not pass the review. Cai Yan could save Cao Lin, but not the criminal Cao Lin.

This didn't stump Zhang Ran. He pushed the timeline forward by 40 years, allowing Cai Yan to prevent Cao Lin from committing his crime. This way, the future would change, and Cao Lin would not commit the crime, nor be trapped in the time prison. The male lead would be saved.

Another issue was what crime Cao Lin had committed to be sentenced to time imprisonment. The crime couldn't be something like murder or arson. Cai Yan wouldn't save a scoundrel 40 years later. Cao Lin's crime should be unintentional but with severe consequences.

Zhang Ran designed it this way: Cao Lin, driving under the influence, crashed into a school bus, causing it to overturn and resulting in the deaths of multiple children. This led to his severe sentence of time imprisonment.

With this, the plot for Cai Yan was clear. When Cao Lin died, Cai Yan saw his message on the wall. Forty years later, Cai Yan prevented Cao Lin from committing the crime, saving him and the children who died in the accident.

Of course, the focus of the story was on Cao Lin. He needed to add elements of redemption and humanity to make the story more engaging.

Zhang Ran added a redemption arc for Cao Lin. In the severe accident caused by his drunk driving, Cao Lin's wife and daughter died, leaving him in despair. This explained why, despite being trapped in time, he didn't indulge in pleasure like the protagonist in Groundhog Day, as his heart was already dead, and serving his sentence was a form of self-punishment.

Cao Lin's redemption involved saving a little girl who looked exactly like his daughter. This girl was hit by a car in front of him, so he decided to save her.

Of course, his efforts were not smooth. The girl was hit by the car again and again, no matter how many times he tried.

After countless attempts, Cao Lin finally saved the girl. However, when he woke up the next morning, he realized that everything had reset, and the girl had not been saved. The day would repeat, and the girl would meet the same fate.

Cao Lin discovered that he couldn't change anything, no matter what he did. He became completely hopeless, started drinking, and began to live a dissolute life. What else could he do with such a life?

Until one day, after a fight in a bar, he woke up with a bruised face. He suddenly realized a way to save the girl. If he saved her and then died on that day, time would move forward to the next day, and the girl would be saved.

This was similar to the ending of The Butterfly Effect, where Ivan repeatedly traveled back in time, only to find that his efforts led to even worse consequences. He realized that only his death could truly change everything, so his consciousness entered his mother's womb and strangled himself before he was born.

On the final day, Cao Lin successfully saved the girl and helped many others in need. He completed his self-redemption, wrote a message on the wall for the female lead, explaining everything, and then drank poison and died peacefully.

The two main storylines of the script were very clear, and the structure was well-defined. However, Zhang Ran didn't immediately start writing the specific content of the script. Instead, he began listing the key plot points.

The director of In the Name of the People, Jiang Wei, who taught scriptwriting at the Beijing Film Academy, once said that half of domestic screenwriters couldn't even write a standard script format. The low level of screenwriters was a significant reason for the low quality of Chinese films and TV shows.

Writing a script was not a problem for Zhang Ran. During his years of study in the United States, he had written several stories, some on his own and some with American screenwriters. He was very familiar with the union, insurance, and Hollywood's basic systems, the green light system for production company projects, and the quantitative evaluation criteria for scripts.

Time Prisoner was aimed at the Movie Channel, which catered to ordinary audiences. Artistic works had little market on the Movie Channel, so Zhang Ran planned to follow the Hollywood script format.

Hollywood movie scripts are generally structured in three acts. If the movie is 90 minutes long, the first 15 minutes are the first act—the beginning; the next 55 minutes are the second act—the conflict; and the last 20 minutes are the third act—the conclusion.

At the end of the first act, there should be a plot point that tightly weaves into the story and shifts it in another direction. For Time Prisoner, this plot point is when the female lead discovers the male lead's message on the wall, leading the story into the male lead's part.

At the end of the second act, there should be another plot point that leads the story to the conclusion. In Time Prisoner, this plot point is when the male lead figures out how to save the girl, and the story begins to move toward the conclusion.

Of course, Hollywood scripts have more than just these two plot points. They are composed of several major plot points, which can be further divided into many smaller plot points.

For example, before the end of the second act, there is a plot point called the "dark night of the soul." This is when the protagonist is in a difficult situation and can't find a way out. Before the "