When I reached middle age, I suddenly had the opportunity to become a director.
Because of this opportunity that suddenly came to him, Wu Chi even went to have his fortune told, to see if his fate had become harder as he reached middle age.
every dog has his day.
It was his first time as a director, and although he only had two million in production budget, for Wu Chi, that was a lot.
He had never seen so much money at one time in his life, and it was enough for him to use.
His apprentice Li Chao became his deputy.
The director's scene was in chaos.
"When will Jiang Yue arrive?" Wu Chi asked with an irritated look on his face.
Li Chao said: "We are on the way, it will take about three hours."
"Oh my, the whole team is waiting for her! Why couldn't she come earlier?!"
"I didn't expect that she would suddenly have to show up in this scene." Li Chao said, "Why don't we just shoot first and find time to reshoot when she comes."
Wu Chi looked overwhelmed.
Everyone else looked at them.
Everyone who came to this crew actually knew that this was a novice director.
But no one expected that this "newcomer" would be so powerful.
The daily efficiency is too low.
The actors acted very hard for a long time, but in the end they said that what they had just shot were all long shots and they wanted close shots tomorrow.
The actors wanted to vomit blood after hearing this.
Not to mention other technical departments, because they don't get clear instructions, resulting in them not knowing how to do a lot of work. When they arrive at the site, they are dissatisfied with various things and have to start over again.
Of course, Wu Chi himself is the most troubled. He also knows that many situations are caused by him, but he does not have the ability to perfect everything. The director cannot just sit on the scene with a loud speaker and speak.
He not only has to make demands, but also has to make accurate demands.
However, he did not understand actual filming, and no matter how much he thought about his ideas, he would not be able to execute them because he did not take the actual situation into consideration.
Just pulling and tugging and filming like this.
-
This was the situation that Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi encountered after arriving at the crew.
Wu Chi didn't receive the news until an hour before Lu Yanhe and his team arrived, saying that they were coming to visit the set.
People are stupid.
Wu Chi's first reaction was to think about whether he should pull everyone together for a short meeting and pretend to be in trouble so as not to expose so many problems of the crew to Lu Yanhe, otherwise he would appear to be so incompetent.
Although this is also true.
Wu Chi felt that he had just started, so it was normal to have problems.
Give him some time and he will adjust.
The problem is that we haven’t adjusted yet... The overall condition of the crew can be described as terrible.
Wu Chi felt like he was facing a formidable enemy.
-
"Did you know that Linghe has a new movie coming out this month called 'The Sea, My Bah'?"
Huang Kairen asked Xin Zixing.
Xin Zixing nodded, "I heard that when they were collecting scripts from the Jump Up Theater, they received a script and some footage that the director had previously edited. They decided to sign him and support him in making his first movie. That's it."
"This name is a bit strange." said Huang Kairen.
“Yes, a little bit. But since they chose it, the script must be good, right?” Xin Zixing turned over, got out of bed, walked barefoot to the table, and got herself a glass of water. “But this movie has basically nothing to do with Yan He. Linghe probably wants to do some projects that have nothing to do with Yan He, just like ‘Housemates’ before. Oh, by the way, they have a new project called ‘2 Broke Girls’. Yan He only provided a story idea this time and will not write the script himself.”
"2 Broke Girls?" Huang Kairen was stunned, then he came to his senses, "It's that new sitcom, right?"
"Yes." Xin Zixing nodded. "After Hu Siwei came to Linghe, he seemed to be planning to delve deeper into the sitcom genre, from "Wulin Wai Zhuan" to "Housemates" and now "2 Broke Girls."
Huang Kairen: "He is the only producer in China who can consistently produce good sitcoms."
Xin Zixing: "The second season of "Wulin Waijia" will be broadcast during the Spring Festival next year. You won't be able to rest. Will you have to resume work and start promotions on the second or third day of the Chinese New Year?"
"Almost." Huang Kairen nodded. "Yuehu TV will start rebroadcasting the first season before the Chinese New Year. Everyone wants to see if the second season can take advantage of the Chinese New Year when everyone is at home, so that the whole family can sit together and watch the show. The promotion will also focus on this point. If it succeeds, this show can become a national comedy."
"It sounds like it's very important to you." Xin Zixing said, "Your popularity has always been a little lacking. People who are a little older basically don't know you."
For a star to have national popularity, this really requires the right time, place and people.
Some stars have been popular for seven or eight years, but their popularity may be just that.
Huang Kairen said: "Yes, probably because the box office of "Fake Death" made the industry see the box office potential of romantic comedy. In the second half of this year, I received no less than 20 romantic comedy movie scripts. In the past, they were all scripts of the style of "Rouge". I heard someone tell me that in the eyes of many film companies, there are only a handful of male actors who are capable and handsome enough to play romantic comedies. I took advantage of "Wulin Wai Zhuan". Everyone thinks I am suitable for comedy, but in terms of image and performance, there are not many who can be picked out."
Xin Zixing nodded.
"Look at how many actors I met while working on Birth of an Actor. Many of them have good acting skills, but they are all highly homogenized. If you ask them to act in serious dramas or roles with deep hatred and bitterness, many people can act like this." Xin Zixing smiled, "There is really no shortage of actors in our entertainment industry who can act well in good dramas. What we lack are actors who can act with ease and a moderate degree of relaxation in less serious and less serious dramas. Even Chen Bige, you see, she can only act in the role of Love Letter. If you ask her to act in Friends, she will definitely not be able to get people into the role. There are many dramas that do not require that kind of acting skills."
Huang Kairen: "That makes sense. Do you think I'm suitable for playing in "Friends"?"
"To be honest, I think you can at most perform the same effect as Yan He." Xin Zixing said, "The best actor in "Friends" is still Yan Liang. This is also related to the fact that Yan He wrote the script based on him. He doesn't feel like acting at all. Look at Yan Liang's performance in "Friends", and then watch "The Gold Rush" and "The Mountain Top". His state is completely different. In "Friends", he just speaks and acts normally and in a very lifelike way."
Huang Kairen: "It has some of the actor's accent and traces, right?"
"Yes." Xin Zixing said, "Especially the male lead in a romantic comedy, that's even more difficult. He has to be a handsome guy, and have no baggage, and be able to fit into the light comedy style of the movie. This scale is very difficult to strike. Generally, for this kind of movie, unless the character setting fits, it is difficult for famous male actors to act particularly well."
Huang Kairen: "Can a female actress do that?"
"It's the same. It depends on the character." Xin Zixing said, "Take Chen Bige for example. If the heroine in this romantic comedy is a powerful female boss or a female character in a high position, then she can play the role, and the comedy effect may be very good, because the audience's impression of her is a goddess or a movie queen, there is a contrast. But if the heroine in this romantic comedy is a silly and innocent girl or a common ordinary girl, it will be a disaster for her to play the role. No matter how ordinary your makeup is, the audience will still realize that she is Chen Bige when they see her, and the audience will not be able to empathize with her."
Huang Kairen: "You mean, I can play a handsome, rich and domineering CEO, because it fits everyone's impression of me, but if I am asked to play a crazy, neurotic and exaggerated young man like in "Fake Death", it won't work?"
"That's about it." Xin Zixing nodded, "But what I said is not absolute. How many actors' second spring in career comes from a performance that completely exceeds everyone's expectations, just like before you played Rouge, no one thought you could play such a role."
"Only Lu Yanhe thinks I can do it." Huang Kairen shook his head. "Are his eyes different from ours? Can he see things that we can't see?"
Xin Zixing rolled her eyes at him.
Huang Kairen: "I starred in two movies this year, a suspense crime film and a low-budget art film. I don't know what kind of results they will have." Xin Zixing: "Relax, you have "Wulin Waijia" to back you up. Before this drama is finished, you can try different things."
Huang Kairen nodded.
"In fact, you should make more movies in the next few years and stop filming TV series for the time being." Xin Zixing said, "With the Best Actor award brought to you by Rouge, in the current ecological chain, you should try to gain a firm foothold in the film industry first. There are only a few people in the entire entertainment industry who can do both movies and TV series like Yan He without affecting his status. His achievements in movies are really hard to ignore. You only have one film, Rouge, so you need to accumulate more."
Huang Kairen nodded.
"That's my plan. Basically, we are talking about movie scripts," he said. "But it's still hard to compete for better productions. Now, most of the people who come to me are ordinary productions."
Of course Xin Zixing would not say at this time, why are you thinking about big productions? You can also find gold in ordinary productions.
Unless you have a very good vision, for a project like a movie, you really cannot determine whether you should act in it based on the quality of the script. What is more important is whether the production team is good.
The script is just a small part of it, a foundation.
There are so many ordinary and extremely mediocre movies produced in China every year. Some of them have some creative ideas that seem eye-catching, but after watching them, you will regret it so much that you will want to slap yourself twice.
There are many reliable productions, even if the word of mouth is good or bad, but there are only a handful of movies that can truly gain excellent reputation in a year. At least reliably produced movies will not make people feel that they are money laundering.
It is very rare for a truly reliable production to fail miserably. It may be true that it is not profitable. This is the case with the film industry, especially Chinese-language films, which are too dependent on the box office of theaters, which is the only major profit channel. The risk is probably the highest in the world. But at least it will not damage the reputation of the actors too much.
Some movies can really push the actors to the position of the king of bad movies by their own efforts, not to mention the directors.
Even Director Chen could be killed in a bloody murder over a steamed bun, and a certain Director named Lu, who had a good reputation in the early stage, also saw his reputation plummet after the movie "Nine-story Demon Tower" and has not recovered to date.
For a first-line actor like Huang Kairen, it is normal and right to be cautious.
"In fact, you see, for the film 'Oh My Sea', although Linghe supported the new director and gave him funds to start filming, in fact, no important person from Linghe participated in the actual production." Xin Zixing said, "From what I heard, they just wanted to give Wu Chi experience in filming so that he could later film a script written by Yan He. Two million to buy the experience that a film director with hundreds of millions of box office potential can use is actually a good deal, but only an atypical film company like Linghe can do this."
"Why do you say that? Can't other film companies do the same?"
"Of course they can do it, but other film companies don't have the long-term vision of Linghe." Xin Zixing said, "Many film companies are maintaining their relationships with a few big-name directors. If a director's movie becomes a hit, they will rush to grab it, compete for it, and train new talents... Which film company is not serving the capital behind them and the stock price? Training new talents will not help the stock price."
Huang Kairen: "Yanhe has always been unwilling to accept outside capital investment."
"Think about it, he doesn't have to." Xin Zixing said, "Linghe now has its own film library and several production teams. It can shoot what it wants. Although the scale is not large and they are basically small productions, the advantage is freedom. Even if there is a loss or a total loss, the company will not go bankrupt. Yan He is very clear-headed. He never takes risks that may make him lose everything. All the risks he takes are risks that will not affect the overall situation even if he fails or turns the tables."
Huang Kairen: "He is really amazing. He has even started a dance theater now."
“Then you are wrong. Jump Up Theater actually has little to do with him. Linghe is just one of the producers of Jump Up Theater.” Xin Zixing said.
"Tiaoqi Theater was mainly jointly established by Tiaoqi, Yuehutai, Bingyuan Video, and Northern Lights Video. As far as I know, Yan He was not too involved in it. Although it was in the initial stage, his network of contacts played a decisive role."
"The most amazing thing about Jump Up Theater is that it has pioneered a model of low-cost production of small boutiques. In the past, the biggest shortcoming of Chinese-language film and television dramas was the poor control of production budgets. A play could have been made with only 10 million yuan, but due to low efficiency and various losses, it finally required 30 million yuan to make it. Jump Up Theater said it would give you a production budget of 1 million or 2 million yuan. How detailed would the budget be? It can really produce works with such a budget."
Huang Kairen: "I feel this. Didn't I shoot a play for them before? The main scene of the play is a daily comedy story of a family in a house. We shot it in four days. Because we didn't need to change the scene or move around, and we had rehearsed in advance, we shot the volume and texture of a movie in just four days."
"They chose the subject matter and actors from the very beginning, combining the production budget and shooting plan." Xin Zixing said, "It's really amazing. You see, many places are following their example now, setting up XX theaters and small theaters with a story of more than 10 to 20 minutes. Some of them are really good, but they are too skit-like. Jumping Theater is still filmed in a film-like way, while their small theaters are just skits on the stage under the name of theater."
Huang Kairen: "If the performance of "Oh My Sea" is not very good, will it have an impact on Yan He? Now when people talk about him, the most common thing they say is that he has never failed."
"How bad can the performance of "Oh My Sea" be?" Xin Zixing smiled. "A movie with a production cost of only two million, TV broadcast rights, online broadcast rights, plus Linghe's overseas sales capabilities, it won't lose money even if it doesn't make a dollar at the box office. Yan He may not think so much, but Chen Ziyan will not let him fail. There is no way he can fail, not to mention that this movie has nothing to do with Yan He."
-
"If you fail, you fail." Lu Yanhe said to Wu Chi earnestly.
When he arrived at the crew of "Oh, My Sea", Lu Yanhe, who had been mentally prepared, couldn't help but feel shocked by the chaotic current situation.
I didn't expect it to be so messy...
Lu Yanhe looked at the previously shot materials. How should I put it? It was probably that he could occasionally find one or two usable clips from a pile of waste films.
The style is still the same, middle school, youthful, and comic-like...
Lu Yanhe could almost foresee that this movie would not be a miracle or a dark horse.
Fortunately, he was really prepared mentally that "it doesn't matter if he fails."
In fact, as can be seen from the production cost of two million, Linghe did not think that this movie could make money from the beginning.
Wu Chi didn't expect Lu Yanhe to be so "tolerant" towards him.
He was really ready to be fired.
He has been in this industry for so long and has heard of many "unreliable" directors being fired by film companies halfway through filming.
Wu Chidu had carefully prepared a draft in his mind, ready to explain to Lu Yanhe.
He is getting more and more feeling it. A lot of time and shooting were wasted in the beginning, but things will improve later.
As a result, all his preparations were of no use.
Lu Yanhe patted Wu Chi on the shoulder, encouraged him, and prepared to leave.
As soon as he walked out, more than a dozen people from the crew outside looked at him nervously.
Perhaps they also knew what they had been filming recently and were worried that the crew would be cut off from funding and would have to pack up and go home.
Among them, Jiang Yue's expression was the most nervous.
Who can understand her feelings?
I joined the crew with all kinds of expectations, but before I could even shoot the first scene, I was told that the plot was very bad, and since Lu Yanhe was visiting the set, the crew might be asked to stop work.
Jiang Yue was very worried that Lu Yanhe would really disband the crew with just one word.
Lu Yanhe noticed everyone's mentality.
He smiled and said, "I'm sorry for not saying hello before I came. I've caused trouble for everyone. The crew of "Oh, the Sea" is the first work produced by Linghe that I am not the lead actor or the screenwriter. I like this script very much. It is not serious and does not look like a traditional good movie script, but it is childish enough, like the comics we read when we were young. It is not realistic, but it has the power to infect us."
"Chaos is only temporary. As long as we have a good heart, things will get better and better." Lu Yanhe said with a smile, "Director Wu Chi is directing for the first time. He is very talented, but just inexperienced. Please help him. I have been a director myself, and I know best how much a new director needs help from everyone on his first work. The help you get at this time is really like a rain after a long drought."
Lu Yanhe smiled and encouraged everyone: "Then I'll continue to leave this work to you all."
After he finished speaking, everyone looked at each other, and for a moment, no one reacted.
I didn't dare to react.
At this moment, Jiang Yue suddenly let out a loud "Oh——" cheer.
"Fighting!" she shouted with full energy. (End of this chapter)
