Starting from a Fake University
Chapter 141 - 138: Principal Ding is Angry! (First Update)_1

Chapter 141: Chapter 138: Principal Ding is Angry! (First Update)_1

Sipping bubble tea and munching on various snacks.

Ding Yue leisurely sat on the sofa, his attention focused on the projection screen straight ahead.

The head of the Film and Television department was currently preparing to show Principal Ding the first episode of "A Bite of Xia Country," a food documentary project created by his team.

Upon inserting the USB into the computer, Zhu Youzhao quickly located the sample clip and clicked play.

Ding Yue was filled with anticipation.

After all, this film team from the Film and Television department had produced each episode of the food documentary "A Bite of Xia Country" at a considerable cost of 1.2 million "RMB".

He was certain that the quality of the final product must be excellent.

Assuming "A Bite of Z Country" on Earth in Ding Yue’s previous life as the benchmark, Ding Yue would be fine if "A Bite of Xia Country" produced by the team were only a few levels below.

However!

The reality left Ding Yue somewhat disappointed.

The opening of "A Bite of Xia Country" didn’t dazzle Ding Yue as he had imagined, the voicing over on the documentary was too immature.

Such a food documentary shouldn’t use such a childish voiceover.

An in-depth sounding voice would normally do the job better.

Ding Yue couldn’t help but furrow his brows and continued watching.

Perhaps the inappropriate voice over was merely a small issue, which could be easily corrected by replacing the narrator.

The issue wasn’t big.

Ding Yue asked Zhu Youzhao to pause for a moment.

"The voiceover for the narration doesn’t work for me, it’s too immature," he offered his views directly to Zhu Youzhao.

"Okay, Principal Ding, shall we get another narrator afterwards?" Zhu Youzhao quickly agreed, nodding his head.

"Yes, let’s get a narrator with a deeper voice, it needs to sound charismatic, understand?"

Ding Yue emphasized one more time.

"Yes, yes, yes."

Zhu Youzhao continued to agree with a nod.

"Continue."

The first episode of "A Bite of Xia Country" resumed playing.

Actually.

Not just the narration, Ding Yue wasn’t satisfied with the opening visuals either; they seemed monotonous.

However, Ding Yue thought this might be because the production team’s sample was not entirely finished yet.

The voiceover narration was a problem.

As Ding Yue continued watching, he quickly discovered another issue.

The script.

Darn!

This terrible script!

Ding Yue couldn’t feel any immersion at all, solely due to the script which was simply too straightforward and mundane.

"Who wrote this script?"

Ding Yue couldn’t help but furrow his eyebrows, asking Zhu Youzhao and the three students.

"Principal Ding, this voiceover script was written by the students of our drama & film literature major at the Film and Television Department," Zhu Youzhao replied.

"Don’t you see it’s not about the poor writing quality. Can’t you feel it’s too monotonous and lacks immersion?"

Ding Yue really didn’t expect to spot quite a few disappointing elements despite watching for only a short while.

Even in his lowered expectations, these were hard to miss.

Who would watch such a food documentary?

Even the most basic voice-over was so terrible.

However, it’s not like everything Ding Yue saw was flawed.

There were also some positives.

For instance, the opening few camera shots were quite beautiful, successfully encapsulating how nature provided food to mankind.

This was somewhat similar to "A Bite of Z Country" on Earth in his previous life.

"Principal Ding, I also feel that, although the visuals are rather pleasing, this voiceover seems a bit subpar," commented Wen Ruohan, the secretary who was an advance viewer of the first episode of "A Bite of Xia Country".

After watching it, she also identified this issue.

"Did you hear that? Didn’t you realize this issue after production? Can’t you afford voice actors? Isn’t the budget 1.2 million per episode – hiring a professional voice actor shouldn’t be that hard, should it?" Ding Yue said severely, looking at Zhu Youzhao.

Zhu Youzhao started shaking.

He originally thought getting Principal Ding to review the sample would please him and maybe land more resources for the Film and Television Department in the future.

But unexpectedly, Principal Ding seemed to have high expectations for this food documentary.

"The utilization of camera angles is good," Ding Yue suddenly praised.

He couldn’t just point out the faults, he also had to acknowledge the positives.

Upon finally hearing a compliment from Principal Ding, Zhu Youzhao’s awkward expression relaxed a bit.

"The camera angles were mainly handled by student Tang Yuanhua in this episode," Zhu Youzhao explained.

"Impressive."

Ding Yue gave a slight nod, giving Tang Yuanhua an approving look.

Tang Yuanhua was immediately thrilled; after all, who wouldn’t be excited to receive praise from Principal Ding?

However.

Ding Yue initially thought that the only problem with this episode of "A Bite of Xia Country" was the voiceover narration. But it wasn’t like that.

The more Ding Yue watched, the more issues he discovered.

The first one was that it had a high repetition of scenes.

Moreover, the clip editing was quite sloppy which seriously affected the quality of the footage. Compared to the beautiful shots that Ding Yue had praised earlier, there was a noticeable drop in quality in the latter clips.

The voiceover narration that Ding Yue didn’t like just made things worse.

This made the quality of the episode practically unbearable.

One million two hundred thousand!

And this is what they produced for me?

They already went out to film and capture the process of food preparation, couldn’t they make the shots more diverse and exquisite?

Zhu Youzhao noticed that Principal Ding was serious the entire time he was watching the episode.

At first, Principal Ding even praised the beautiful shots, but as he continued to watch, he didn’t say much, Zhu Youzhao sensed Principal Ding’s dissatisfaction with the episode.

Even Wen Ruohan, the secretary sitting next to Principal Ding, seemed bored by the episode.

"Principal Ding, this documentary feels a bit off. I can’t pinpoint it, but it doesn’t feel that good," Wen Ruohan cautiously whispered in Principal Ding’s ear, sharing her impressions of the documentary.

Right now.

Ding Yue was having mixed feelings.

He was both disappointed and a bit furious.

He was disappointed because he thought that the episode created by the Film and Television department’s team wouldn’t be that bad.

But seeing it now, the voiceover, the video, the editing, the quality?

Is this it?

If it was a low-budget documentary, that would’ve been fine.

But this cost One million two hundred thousand per episode!

What infuriated Ding Yue was this, that they spent One million two hundred thousand ’RMB’ and this is what they ended up with?

Thud!

Feeling rather angry, Ding Yue tossed the bag of chips to the side and looked at Zhu Youzhao with stern eyes: "Don’t play it anymore, turn it off!"

Zhu Youzhao shivered slightly when he heard this.

He immediately went to the computer and stopped the projector.

The four students also sensed that Principal Ding was not satisfied with the episode of ’A Bite of Xia Country’ they produced.

"Principal Ding, what...what’s wrong?" Zhu Youzhao asked cautiously in a low voice.

"Director Zhu, is this the level of documentary your department produces?" Ding Yue chided sternly, "And you thought you could outshine the Architecture Department and Art Department with this? Well, what’s your plan?"

Honestly.

Ding Yue was infuriated at this moment.

I approved a budget of several millions yuan for you, One million two hundred thousand per episode, and what you produced far short of my expectations!

This could only mean two things.

Either the Film and Television Department’s staff and students aren’t competent enough to produce a decent food documentary.

Or they weren’t sincere about producing it, Ding Yue felt like the money wasn’t used appropriately!

Ding Yue found the latter possibility more likely.

Given the ’BUFF’ perk which Ding Yue entrusted to the faculty and students of Mist City Arts and Sciences University, even if they were bad, they shouldn’t be incapable of making a passing grade documentary.

"Give me the budget for your shoot!"

Ding Yue, with a solemn face, said to Zhu Youzhao.

"Ah, okay, okay." Zhu Youzhao, who was very scared by Principal Ding’s anger, feared it would not bode well for the Film and Television Department.

Zhu Youzhao quickly took out a copy of the budget for the first episode of "A Bite of Xia Country" from his briefcase.

The budget details exactly how One Million Two Hundred Thousand was spent.

After receiving the Budget, Ding Yue read it carefully.

Firstly, the money was definitely spent on the entire shooting process. Ding Yue made sure there wasn’t fraud or misappropriation of approved funds.

If such a thing had occurred, it would have been a serious issue.

One Million Two Hundred Thousand ’RMB’! After reviewing the budget, Ding Yue realised most of it went to equipment procurement and daily expenses of the team.

It took nearly three weeks to produce the first episode of "A Bite of Xia Country", visiting Yunnan Province and Guizhou Province. The expenses on this journey were extravagant.

The rest of the budget was also within a generous range.

Yet the final product was this?

It’s clear the production team of the Film and Television Department didn’t put their hearts into producing "A Bite of Xia Country".

It was as if they were going through the motions, the money was spent, and the result was an episode that dissatisfied Ding Yue.

"One million two hundred thousand! The school approved One million two hundred thousand per episode, and you filmed this without due commitment?"

The more Ding Yue thought about it, the angrier he became. He threw the budget on the side and reprimanded Zhu Youzhao and the Film and Television students a few times.

"Can’t you guys take your job seriously? Aren’t you ashamed to have made such a lousy food documentary? Immediately tell the shooting crew to stop. Reflect on this first, and reshoot everything!" Ding Yue said with regret.

There was a sudden silence in the Principal’s office. This is the first time Wen Ruohan, as the principal’s secretary, had seen Principal Ding this angry.

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