Chapter 23 Under Construction...

At the intersection of a narrow street in the CP area of ​​Beijing North, a shop on the street is being renovated. Judging from the sign and decoration style, it seems to be a convenience store.

Passersby who occasionally pass by the door can't help but look at this convenience store under renovation with confusion.

After all, there are no community factories, office buildings or schools nearby. Will anyone really come to open a convenience store in such a place?

Moreover, the sign of this store seems too strange. Which businessman would name his store "No. 444".

These days, even if you open a funeral home, you have to call it "Hengtong", "Kangshou", "Tianxiangju" and so on.

In fact, this is not a convenience store, but a filming set that the crew of "Soul Ferry" is building.

In the past few days, Meng Bai, Wu Bai, and other people in the director's group have been running around the streets and alleys of Beijing North, looking for a suitable location.

Other plot scenes are easy to say, after all, there are not many extra-plots in this drama. The only thing that is a bit difficult to find is the main scene "Convenience Store No. 444".

Meng Bai and his team wanted to see if there was any ready-made convenience store at first, and negotiate with the owner to rent it for one or two months. The advantage of this is that it is more convenient, and you only need to slightly modify the door sign and so on.

But after finding several similar stores, they failed to reach an agreement.

Either the store's business is too good and the owner is unwilling to rent; or the owner heard that the crew was going to shoot a movie and immediately asked for a high price; or there are too many people around, which is not convenient for the crew to shoot.

After several days of failure, Meng Bai decided to change his plan and build a convenience store himself.

Of course, building it yourself here does not mean starting from scratch. They rented an idle store with a suitable environment, low traffic and convenient transportation, and then asked a construction team to come and renovate it according to Meng Bai's design requirements.

In addition to being busy recruiting crew members these days, Meng Bai basically spent the rest of his time on-site supervision.

After all, he wrote the script, and no one knew better than him what the "Convenience Store No. 444" in the play should look like.

"Fuck! Brother Meng, you are like a cow riding a motorcycle - so awesome!"

At the entrance of the studio, a medium-sized man with a pointed face looked at Meng Bai who was directing the workers to decorate, and couldn't help but said with envy.

Meng Bai looked over, his face lit up, and he walked over and punched the man on the shoulder: "Didn't you say you would come early in the morning? It's already noon, so you came for lunch."

The man who came was Liu Zhi, whom Meng Bai was waiting for.

"Sorry, sorry." Liu Zhi waved his hands insincerely: "Previously, a crew had a problem returning the props they rented, and I argued with the boss for a long time, and now it's done."

"Are you in charge of the props work now?"

"Well, a small crew saves money, and everyone does the work of three people."

Meng Bai was immediately happy when he heard it: "Then you are really a professional match. I happen to have a small crew, and I need people like you who can perform multiple duties."

"Fuck!" Liu Zhi cursed with a smile: "It seems that you are treating me as cheap labor."

After joking for a few words, Meng Bai returned to the topic: "How about being my executive producer?"

Liu Zhi smacked his lips and said with some entanglement: "Logically speaking, Brother Meng, you are praising me, I shouldn't hesitate. But the problem is that I have never been an executive producer, I have no experience."

"Haven't you seen it before? Besides, this is not my first time as a producer." Meng Bai didn't care: "Actually, your main job is similar to the coordinator. It mainly helps me contact the necessary personnel and props, and the other is the on-site dispatch."

"Oh, if you say so, then I'm relieved." Liu Zhi said, "I'm mainly worried that you will mess up your first play again."

"It's okay, just listen to my arrangements." "It

's okay if you say that." Liu Zhi had an expression of "I'm glad you can rest assured": "Then I'll go back and clean up in the afternoon and come over tomorrow."

Meng Bai waved his hand: "The set is still under renovation, so there's no rush for the time being. Your first job now is to help me contact a reliable group of lighting and recording; in addition, the crew has a batch of equipment to use, please help me contact them."

"Don't worry, Brother Meng, I will definitely find the most cost-effective and cost-effective ones in northern Beijing for you." Liu Zhi said confidently.

"Okay, I'll wait for your news." Meng Bai looked at the time: "Let's go, let's have lunch together at noon, I'll treat you."

"Hehe, is this appropriate?"

"What a pretentious guy, isn't that why you came here at lunchtime!" Meng Bai said unhappily.

As he was talking, Meng Bai's cell phone suddenly rang. He took a look and saw that it was Gan Wei's.

"Hello, Sister Weiwei, what's up?" Meng Bai asked.

"Xiao Meng, how is the preparation of the crew going?" Gan Wei's voice came from the phone.

Meng Bai introduced: "The shooting site is already under construction. With the later decoration and cleaning, it will be completed in about a week."

"That's pretty fast." Gan Wei said: "Have you started looking for actors for the roles?"

"Not yet. I plan to wait until the crew's preparatory work is almost done before considering the issue of actors." Meng Bai finished speaking, thought for a while, and asked: "Why, Sister Weiwei, are you going to introduce me?"

"You understand as soon as you ask." Gan Wei didn't hide it, and said directly: "Indeed, I have a friend who I know and ask for an audition opportunity."

Meng Bai seemed to have realized that he just wanted an "audition opportunity", so it seemed that he should not be someone from Leshi.com or a close friend. It is likely that some friendship was not hindered by face and so he arranged it.

In fact, it is normal to use relationships to find roles. Meng Bai himself also had the opportunity to connect with Leshi.com because of Qin Lan's relationship.

So he was not very disgusted with this request. After all, they just wanted an audition, not to arrange a role directly.

"It's a man, right? Which role do you want to try?" Meng Bai asked. The female lead has been taken, and the remaining roles with some weight are only two male leads.

"It's a boy, not very old, and I think he is more suitable for the male lead 'Xia Dongqing'."

"The male lead..." Meng Bai pondered for a moment and replied: "Okay, Sister Weiwei, you have already said it, and I can't make it difficult for you. Just let him come to the crew to find me, and I will take a look with the director at that time."

Gan Wei was obviously relieved when she heard Meng Bai's agreement, and said happily: "You can just audition normally. If he is really not suitable, it doesn't matter if he refuses. Don't worry about me."

"I understand. Hey, Sister Weiwei, you just reminded me. I remember that we also have contracted actors in Leshi. If you see anyone suitable, you can come and try. After all, it's a unit drama with many roles, so it doesn't matter who you use." Meng Bai said.

"We have indeed signed a few young girls before, but most of them have no acting experience." Gan Wei was obviously also a little tempted. After all, it was a win-win situation for their own drama to promote their own artists: "Well, I'll see if there is anyone suitable and then contact you."

After making an appointment with Gan Wei for the audition, Meng Bai hung up the phone. Liu Zhi, who was standing by, saw this and asked: "Why, Mengge, the investors want to force someone?"

"It's not really a force, just to give you a chance to audition."

"Oh, which investor doesn't say that? They have to use their people every time."

Meng Bai smiled indifferently: "It's okay, I don't have many candidates anyway. As long as the image fits and the acting skills are good, who cares who he is."

However, Gan Wei's call did remind Meng Bai that he should really start considering the issue of actor selection.

As a unit drama, in addition to the three protagonists, each of the remaining episodes also has its own unit protagonist, which is the so-called "stage role".

This kind of actor is sometimes not easy to find, because it is a stage role, and each person only shoots for a few days. It is expensive to find talented actors, and the cost-effectiveness is not high. Finding ordinary extras can't keep up with the performance.

In addition, we have to consider the problem of character setting adaptation, and the range of choices is much smaller.

Where can we find a group of actors who are not expensive, have decent acting skills, and have a good image?

"Old Liu, help me." Meng Bai looked at Liu Zhi and said, "Please buy me two bottles of good wine."

"What? Brother Meng, two glasses later?"

"What? I have to respect my teacher."

(End of this chapter)