Chapter 154 Filming
"He thinks your image fits his script perfectly and would like to invite you to play a role in his graduation project. I wonder if you are available to take on the role?"
Meng Fanxi adopted an extremely respectful posture, his eyes shining slightly with anticipation, which made Zhang Yang pause for a moment.
"good."
Zhang Yang agreed almost without hesitation.
"How could you agree so easily? I haven't even told you who he is yet." Meng Fanxi was surprised; he thought Zhang Yang would be quite resistant to acting.
"Isn't it you?" Zhang Yang said with a smile.
"ah?"
“That friend of yours is you.” Zhang Yang said with considerable confidence.
Meng Fanxi asked, puzzled, "Where did I give myself away?"
Zhang Yang chuckled lightly, "Your friend, or someone who has never acted before, would so sincerely ask me for a favor. Who else could it be but our teammates? Among us, you're the only one who needs to film a graduation project."
The scenery outside the car window flashed by, and the car gradually drove into the city center with the morning rush hour traffic.
"You agreed without even thinking about it? What if it's a role you don't like?" Meng Fanxi was filled with indescribable emotion.
"This is your graduation project. Whether I like it or not is not important. What's important is that it can help you."
Xu You then came a loud rebuttal from the phone screen: "Brother, you're making me look like a clown in the acting world."
Zhang Yang was confused.
Subsequent tests proved that Zhang Yang was indeed more talented than Xu You in acting; even Zhang Yang was able to instruct Xu You on acting.
In the dormitory living room, everyone gathered together for the first time. Meng Fanxi distributed the final script to everyone, and they all solemnly looked through it.
Everyone sat around the elegant yet simple dining table, which had become a small script reading session.
Meng Fanxi, just as if reading a book for the first time, carefully opened the script in front of him—"Climbing to the Summit."
The protagonist, Ye Yuan, is a self-conscious and sensitive teenager. Due to his family background, he rarely looks people in the eye. He always feels inferior, cowardly, and insecure, and is the most inconspicuous person on campus.
But one day, he gained a cheat code that allowed him to ask people who noticed him along the way to do something for him.
He had only one wish: to see the highest view.
Six teenagers with vastly different personalities, affected by his magical powers, became his wish executors, leading him to the highest mountain peak.
Thus, climbing this mountain became the beginning of the seven's healing journey.
The six teenagers were naturally VIER, and the protagonist, Ye Yuan, was played by Zhong Chu, who is now working behind the scenes in the industry, at Meng Fanxi's invitation.
Zhong Chu was very close to debuting after the end of "Group Camp". Although their original Fancy group was broken up in the show and the relationship between the members became quite awkward, they still had some fame in "Group Camp". Their company still planned to push them to debut as planned.
Zhong Chu later told Meng Fanxi that he had thought about it seriously. When he had participated in a stage like "Wings" and had such perfectly coordinated teammates, he found it hard to have any expectations for the current group.
They practiced together and participated in the show together, but under the rules of the show, they were like a pile of loose sand. Perhaps he was too idealistic, but he could not accept that reality.
So he chose to leave the group and the company to work behind the scenes.
Upon receiving Meng Fanxi's invitation, he accepted without hesitation, stating that he would accept it as long as Meng Fanxi didn't mind his acting skills.
Meng Fanxi had already sent the script to Zhong Chu for familiarization. His lines were numerous and dense, and he had already entered a high-intensity memorization phase.
After reading the script through once, Xu You exclaimed, "Fanxi, this is a big production! Is this really the graduation short film you're planning to make?"
Lin Ruohe praised, "The story is very complete; I can even imagine it being released as a movie."
This praise made Meng Fanxi blush slightly. "Actually, there weren't many scenes filmed. This short film was just a graduation project. If it were to be considered a movie, it would lack commercial appeal, and the audience might not buy it."
Director Feng had previously reminded him that the graduation project for Yunxi must be "substantial." It doesn't necessarily have to convey any moral, but it must allow the judges to see the knowledge he has gained in Yunxi over the past four years and apply it reasonably to the work.
Therefore, the graduation standards for Yunxi are easy for some people, but equally difficult for others.
"That's not necessarily true." Gu Huailang disagreed with the idea that the film might not be a box office success, and shifted his focus elsewhere. "It's a very good script. Even if it can't be released, it should at least be recognized as an excellent graduation project."
Gu Huailang, who was also in Yunxi, was familiar with the selection rules for graduation projects. He selected the best projects from those that passed the defense and then showcased them on campus and the official website.
The selection criteria are voting by students, teachers and teachers from friendly schools.
Yunxi’s sister schools are the two famous film academies in the capital – the Capital Film Academy and the Capital University of Performing Arts.
It's possible that outsiders, aside from those truly within the industry, are unaware that these three schools collaborate and mutually evaluate graduation projects.
This year is even more special, as the three schools have jointly launched a "Future Rising Stars Program" and have officially announced that they will take this graduation season as an opportunity to hold a centralized exhibition of outstanding graduation works from the three schools, and also plan to cooperate with TV stations and websites to broadcast the program.
The competition is fierce. These days, Meng Fanxi is busy with scriptwriting and preparations for various things, focusing entirely on graduation and paying no attention to outside opinions.
However, Gu Huailang and his group were aware of the rumors circulating outside. As soon as the three schools' joint plan was announced, everyone's attention was focused on several star students from the three schools who were about to graduate this year, especially Meng Fanxi.
Therefore, they were also on high alert during this period and dared not be careless in the slightest. They intensified their training of Zhang Yang and Xu You in terms of stage presence, dialogue delivery, and so on, in the hope that they would not let Meng Fanxi's graduation project down.
When Gu Huailang saw the script, he finally felt relieved. The script was so well-crafted that each character seemed tailor-made for him, and they were deliberately designed to be the opposite of the real-life personalities of the characters. Fans would smile knowingly when they saw it.
He can't wait to participate in this production.
Ren Yuchen then reluctantly looked away from the script and smiled, "I think the character I play in this short film is even more outstanding than many of the roles that are being offered to me now."
Meng Fanxi felt that if he kept going, he would become the best director in China, so he immediately stopped this behavior of praising the director excessively: "If you keep praising me, I will lose my bearings. Everyone, please take a look and see if there are any problems and where changes are needed?"
The five people said in unison, "No."
Meng Fanxi: "..." What am I going to do when my teammates trust me too much?
During the preparation period for the filming, public opinion became increasingly intense. At first, it was just a small quarrel between fans of a few celebrities who graduated this year, but when the online war of words broke out, Meng Fanxi was also dragged into it.
Those celebrities were all performing arts students, and since it was a joint program between the three schools, they were practically put on a pedestal. Previous graduates didn't care about their graduation projects, but this year they were the center of attention and under immense pressure.
The companies that employ those celebrity students are well aware of their artists' capabilities. It's not easy to complete a graduation project and achieve good results, so some companies have resorted to crooked means, using makeup and persuasion to lead fans to drag Meng Fanxi into this mess.
Statements such as "Acting students face far more pressure than directing students" and "Directing students only need to shoot beautiful scenery and some hazy, dreamlike scenes, and they'll have their so-called imagery."
Meng Fanxi's fans naturally stepped forward to refute him, which further enhanced the reputation of the three-school joint plan, and countless onlookers were waiting to see what would happen.
At this time, news that Meng Fanxi and his team had applied for a filming permit in Yunshan, Linyang City, spread like wildfire.
On the Chasing Light Forum, people had already started discussing it.
VIER's popularity has remained high over the past few years, and the fact that the group stopped activities for a year did not dampen the fans' enthusiasm. Countless popular fan-made videos have been created, and forums such as the previously neutral Chasing Light Alliance have become increasingly crowded with rival fans due to VIER's high popularity.
[Gossip | Meng Fanxi's graduation project invited all his teammates to act. Filming took place today in Yunshan. Although they were all bundled up, passersby still managed to take some photos. [Images][Images]]
3L: Wow, that's practically an all-star lineup!
6L: It's not easy to get all of these people together, the group activities have been suspended for a year.
11L: Zhang Yang has already returned to China. He and Xu You are also acting? It seems they all want to pursue acting careers. Is there no threshold for acting? I ask you.
16L: Are you sure this is a graduation project and not a group album music video?
19L: Hahaha, I agree with the comment above. What can these six people film together? I can't imagine anything except a music video. If they're really making a graduation project, I don't think it will be successful.
23L: Meng Fanxi is really good at currying favor. He probably thought he could take advantage of Zhang Yang's return to China to bring all his teammates into his works in order to win public favor.
26L: I can already imagine how shoddy the final product will be. I'll just have to sit back and watch.
...
Meng Fanxi planned to film the scenes on the mountain first. It was the off-season for tourism, so there weren't many people on the mountain, making filming go exceptionally smoothly. Due to the plot, they had more scenes in the morning and evening, but everyone was without complaint, which moved Meng Fanxi deeply.
Feng Huacan was also very interested in Meng Fanxi's script and often came to the set to give guidance. He would stand aside silently with a mysterious smile from time to time, putting Meng Fanxi under a lot of pressure.
After more than ten days of intensive filming on the mountain, they moved to the film studio to shoot the remaining scenes.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
