Chapter 84 World 2 [54]

From an investor's perspective, the film that Director Zhang wants to shoot is very niche in terms of subject matter, and the character prototype is just an ordinary person, which means that the film will hardly get any benefits during its promotion and marketing.

Not to mention that the prototype of this character seems very ordinary to most men. Didn't he just study hard to become a doctor, and then died suddenly because of excessive dedication to his job?

This kind of news pops up every once in a while. What kind of subject matter is there to film, and who would pay for it?

They saw no dramatic plot twists, no romantic love story, no thrilling adventures, and no flashy special effects. Even if the film could be made, the end result would be lost in obscurity, right?

Therefore, such scripts and themes, even if directed by Director Zhang, who is worthy of being included in textbooks, are rarely favored by investors who value return on investment.

Not to mention that Director Zhang didn't intend to shoot it casually, but rather treated it as a small-scale niche art film.

Director Zhang wants to start filming in the spring, using the seasons and time to illustrate the protagonist's growth experience. She wants to capture the vigor of spring, the splendor of summer, the harvest of autumn, and the withering of winter.

This means that the main actors need to set aside a whole year to settle down. Obviously, any movie with a little bit of traffic cannot afford such a schedule. They cannot spend a year on a movie that can only be regarded as a documentary at best.

So after meeting Jing Ke, who was willing to invest money, Director Zhang was really shaken for a moment and wanted to relax his requirements for the actors.

Fortunately, Director Zhang had seen through the glamorous entertainment industry. She resisted the temptation and, after confirming again and again that Shao Qing was not the kind of flashy idol, he took the initiative to give her the script.

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After spending a whole day carefully going through the script, Shao Qing began to write a biography of the character, and asked Jing Ke to find information related to the prototype for her.

There is not much information about the prototype of the character on the Internet. The name of the prototype of the character can only be seen from some outstanding student leaders published by schools and hospitals, lists of national scholarship recipients, and outstanding doctors.

Director Zhang provided quite a lot of information, but it was somewhat fragmentary. Director Zhang learned it from the character's prototype's family, classmates, and colleagues, and each person's description was somewhat different.

Jing Ke took a quick look, but she probably wouldn't be able to find information that was too old.

But in the nearly ten years since the popularization of electronic technology, she has been able to find a lot of useful things through the blog posts and updates posted by those people on the Internet.

Those materials clearly revealed their impressions and opinions on the character prototypes, and contained a lot more pointed information than the statements Director Zhang obtained from those people in his later interviews.

This is normal. After learning that Director Zhang wanted to make a movie related to the prototype of the character, they, as adults, would naturally beautify their past actions. There was absolutely no bullying or humiliation of the prototype of the character. There was only admiration and being moved by it.

After all, the prototypes of the characters have passed away. Apart from themselves, who else knows that they treated the prototypes in this way?

After finding the things, Jing Ke sent all the information to his girlfriend intact.

Shao Qing's original intention of asking Jing Ke to help her collect more information was to allow her to better empathize with the character prototype and experience her feelings and thoughts at different stages of her life.

But after seeing those sharp words, Shao Qing felt as if his throat was blocked by something and he couldn't speak for a long time.

"Their messages are very different from what Director Zhang said after asking." Shao Qing muttered to himself.

Director Zhang claimed that a person would stand up for the prototype of the character when he was bullied. The updates he left in high school were full of ridicule of the prototype of the character, and he even took the lead in bullying the other party.

"People tend to beautify their own behavior. After knowing that their every word and action will be recorded, all their words are purposeful," said Jing Ke.

"Shao Qing, I want to send a copy of this information to Director Zhang. I think the content of the script still needs some adjustments." Jing Ke said.

"Well, adjustments are indeed needed. The abuser is the abuser, and we can't be kept in the dark. Let her be bullied when she was young, and become a stepping stone for others after her death." Shao Qing said with his eyes lowered.

She hadn't thought about those people for a long, long time, so long that Shao Qing thought she had forgotten them.

But after seeing the experience of the character prototype, some images flashed through Shao Qing's mind.

When she was a child, she was bullied for several months by some relatives who had no bottom line. She did not recover from the psychological trauma until she went to college.

The prototype of this character has encountered all kinds of injustice and humiliation since birth. Under such circumstances, she can still bloom gorgeous flowers in the mud. She must be a very strong person inside.

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Director Zhang was stunned for a long time after seeing the information sent by Jing Ke. After replying with a thank you, he began to revise the script.

Director Zhang did not mean to glorify suffering, but the prototype of the character had suffered too much. She had to study it carefully and distinguish the main from the secondary so that the final movie would not be misunderstood.

Fortunately, it is still October, and four months is enough time for Director Zhang to make some revisions to the script that he knows by heart.

As for the other roles in the film, with Jing Ke's strong investment and the efforts of the assistant director, suitable people were selected and contracts were signed.

It is worth mentioning that after learning about the content of the script, Yu Hongjun and Jiang Qingyi expressed their willingness to make a friendly appearance for free.

It takes time to polish the script, and it also takes time for Shao Qing to gain an in-depth understanding of the character prototype.

The name of the film was not finalized until the official start of shooting in early March of the following year.

"Song Xiaocao" is the name of the character prototype and also the name of the film.

When discussing the name of the film, there were some disagreements within the crew. Many people felt that "Wild Growth" or a more positive name would be better, which could reflect the tenacious heart of the character prototype.

In the end, it was Director Zhang who decided on the name Song Xiaocao because this was the name the character's prototype gave himself after he became an adult.

She didn't want to be Zhaodi. She just wanted to be a blade of grass that could grow freely anywhere and only needed a little water and sunlight to survive.

There was almost no publicity for the film when it started shooting, and Shao Qing's fans only knew that she had collaborated with Director Zhang and that she would play the leading female role in Director Zhang's film.

Losing ten kilograms is not a difficult task for Shao Qing, as long as he controls his diet.

But for Jing Ke, who was keen on feeding his girlfriend, it was a relatively torturous period. He tried to make infinite variations of the limited ingredients and also customized a daily supply of professionally proportioned vitamins.

The filming time is very long, and most of the filming locations are very special. They are not the popular movie studios, but the real mountains.

Shao Qing's scenes began in high school, and the filming location was a local key high school. The school's infrastructure was quite good, and the uniforms to some extent concealed the students' family backgrounds, and there was no sense of comparison.

In order to fit the character setting, Shao Qing cut off her long hair and turned it into the short hair that reached her ears required by the school.

Shao Qing's outstanding and bold facial features make her look youthful and beautiful even without any makeup. Once she puts on her school uniform and carries her backpack, she can blend in perfectly.

At first, Shao Qing was worried that his appearance would overshadow the character, but after seeing the one-inch ID photo of the character's prototype, he soon realized that there was no problem.

Because Song Xiaocao also has bright facial features, there is always a smile on the corner of her mouth, as if no hardship can knock her down.

Coincidentally, although the crew deliberately chose the time when students were on vacation to shoot the scenes on campus, the changed Shao Qing was still recognized by the students who stayed on campus to work and study.

What is even more coincidental is that these people all came out of the mountains. It was because Shao Qing arranged one-on-one assistance for them that they avoided the fate of going to work in factories after graduating from junior high school and embarked on a different path.

Finally, thanks to Director Zhang's performance, several students got a supporting role and earned some income.

After being led by several students to a small restaurant for a delicious meal, Shao Qing's understanding of Song Xiaocao's character was further enhanced, and there were almost no ngs in the subsequent filming.

The college entrance examination and the period before it were filmed in the spring, Song Xiaocao's university life and part of her internship were filmed in the summer, and Song Xiaocao's deeds as the surgeon who saved one patient after another in the autumn were filmed.

In comparison, winter is a little colder. This was the most difficult medical dispute Song Xiaocao had ever encountered. Both public opinion and hospital management put a lot of pressure on her.

Song Xiaocao finally got through it and successfully completed an extremely difficult operation.

How difficult is this operation? It's so difficult that it could even lead to the publication of a core paper. If everything goes well, Song Xiaocao's position could even be promoted.

But winter is destined to be full of regrets. Song Xiaocao, who had to work almost fourteen hours a day, left forever on New Year's Day, leaving behind only a pile of patient information and an unfinished paper at his workstation.

Jing Ke checked this paper and found out that it was taken over by a vice president of the hospital. Not only was Song Xiaocao's name not listed as the first, second, or third author, but even the name of the surgeon-in-chief did not appear in the paper.

If this movie had been successfully broadcast, the male vice president who stole the results of Song Xiaocao's hard work would have been infamous for the rest of his life.

To be honest, after devoting himself to the filming of such a movie, Shao Qing sometimes couldn't tell whether he was Shao Qing or Song Xiaocao.

Fortunately, Shao Qing can hold Jing Ke in his arms every night, allowing her to clarify her identity again and again.

"Jing Ke, who am I~" Shao Qing nestled in Jing Ke's arms and asked in a muffled voice.

"Shao Qing, the person I like and love, a good actor who will leave a deep mark in the film industry." Jing Ke patiently gave a firm answer over and over again.