Each of Chapter 720 contains a short excerpt (4200 words).
If Lu Yanhe and Wen Shengming are like this, then the other actors are even more so.
Whether they were tormented or tortured by Liu Bige, or felt so frustrated that they wanted to turn into a cat and scratch Liu Bige's face, in the end, they all obediently listened to Liu Bige's arrangements, or rather, they were repeatedly reshot and re-shot by Liu Bige until they could get a shot that Liu Bige could call "cut".
The situation on the set of "Dingfeng No. 1" gradually spread.
The crew members are all in this industry. They signed confidentiality agreements and didn't say much to the media, but their friends would talk about it more or less.
This is similar to when you participate in a highly publicized project at your company. You'll definitely have many friends and colleagues in the industry asking you about things. They don't necessarily need to know anything confidential; they just want to hear some gossip and tidbits, which is only natural.
The scene where Lu Yanhe and Wen Shengming were "furious" with Liu Bige on set naturally leaked some information.
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"Is there a problem with the filming of 'Dingfeng No. 1'?"
When these words reached the ears of Mr. and Mrs. Huang, their first reaction was whether the movie could be filmed smoothly.
"No, filming is still proceeding smoothly, but because Director Liu keeps making mistakes and reshooting scenes he's not satisfied with, the schedule is a bit behind schedule," a company representative said. "Judging from the current situation, it may go over time."
Huang Tai sighed, "That Liu Bige."
"But you just said that Lu Yanhe also had a conflict with Liu Bige?" Huang Tai changed the subject and asked again.
The company staff nodded, "They even got into a fight on set. After filming one scene, Lu Yanhe just left and refused to continue filming."
Mrs. Huang was extremely surprised.
"Why didn't you tell us about this right away?"
"Because Liu Bige told the producer that everything was fine, Lu Yanhe did indeed come to the set the next day."
Huang Tai fell into deep thought.
"Alright, you can go now."
After the company staff left, Mrs. Huang turned to look at General Manager Huang.
What do you think?
Mr. Huang said, "Let's just wait and see. It's normal to have conflicts during filming."
Mrs. Wong: "Lu Yanhe now runs his own film company. His relationship with Liu Bige has always made me worry that Lu Yanhe will poach Liu Bige."
Mr. Huang shook his head, "No."
"Won't?"
“Linghe is a company that develops film and television projects entirely under the leadership of Lu Yanhe,” said General Manager Huang. “They are now basically working on Lu Yanhe’s own projects.”
“Who knows what his plans are,” Mrs. Wong said. “Look at his moves in Hollywood. Except for ‘Buried,’ all those projects are multi-million dollar productions. They’re no longer those small projects from Linghe.”
“Liu Bige isn’t the type of director who makes big-budget films,” said General Manager Huang. “He didn’t want to make films in Longyan, so why would he want to when he’s with Lu Yanhe? After ‘Dingfeng No. 1’ is finished, let’s help him set up his own production company. We’ll invest and take a stake, but we won’t interfere with his production.”
Mrs. Huang was extremely surprised.
"So fast?"
"Actually, we should have done this after 'Even Faking Death Is Not an Option'," said Mr. Huang. "He signed a ten-year exclusive director contract with us, which is almost six years now. After 'The Wind Rises' is finished and released, it will probably be the seventh or eighth year. Given his current industry status and past achievements, he won't let him continue to be tied to us as an individual director."
Mrs. Wong: "If we hadn't given him his first acting opportunity—"
“You gave him a chance, which could be a favor or a grudge.” Mr. Huang interrupted Mrs. Huang. “Lu Yanhe has helped so many people, have you ever seen him use favors to settle things? When Xin Zixing wanted to return to Yemai.com, he generously agreed and even announced plans to continue cooperating with Yemai.com. When his high school classmate Bai Yu was poached and no longer worked as an editor at Jump Up, he also took the initiative to forward Bai Yu’s Weibo post and expressed his blessings.”
Mrs. Wong said, "Doesn't this just show how stupid he is? If he does this, then everyone around him will be able to leave whenever they want."
Mr. Huang smiled and said, "But look at him, how many people around him have left? And no matter what he does, is he always surrounded by a group of people helping him?"
Huang Tai was taken aback.
"Love Letter, his directorial debut, had a production budget of less than 20 million, yet he managed to get Chen Bige to star, Luo Yuzhong to be his producer, and Liu Bige to be his director of photography. When it was released, did you think that series of marketing plans were done by Chen Siqi alone? In the end, it grossed over 1 billion at the box office, and everyone called it a miracle. Do you think it was a miracle?"
Mrs. Huang remained silent.
"Of course we can't do projects like Lu Yanhe, who doesn't care about costs or benefits, but we should treat Liu Bige, a unique director and auteur director, with the utmost respect and support."
“He can choose to cooperate with us or with others, but why doesn’t he cooperate with a company he has worked with many times before, as long as that company continues to support him?”
Huang Tai remained silent for a moment.
Having navigated the film and television industry for so many years, she is not a shallow fool who can only stand on the shoulders of the giant Longyan and arrogantly enjoy the fruits of success.
She is the creator of this behemoth that is Longyan, and she is a master at managing the company and understanding people's hearts. However, sometimes she falls into the trap of "not seeing the true face of Mount Lu because she is in the mountain herself."
Her husband's reminder made her realize that Liu Bige was no longer the same person he used to be, and she could no longer treat him lightly or consider herself his "benefactor."
Those who consider themselves "benefactors" will only end up as "enemies."
Too many things have already taught us this lesson.
Mrs. Huang knew very well what was going on in her heart.
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"It wasn't a real argument, just a disagreement." Lu Yanhe was both amused and exasperated when he received Chen Ziyan's call. He hadn't expected that even Chen Ziyan had heard rumors and called to inquire.
Lu Yanhe said, "He was just trying to provoke me and help me get into the zone. I deliberately exchanged a few words with him to get back into the right mood."
Chen Ziyan: "The industry is talking about it now. After all this time, this is the first time we've heard that you had a conflict with the director while filming. Many people have called to ask what happened."
“Sigh, well, that’s how it is,” Lu Yanhe said. “When people argue or fight, the news spreads quickly.”
"Fortunately, no videos of the scene have been leaked, otherwise it would probably be trending on social media," Chen Ziyan laughed.
Lu Yanhe: "The management of the crew of 'Dingfeng No. 1' is quite strict. In order to prevent the plot from being leaked, all staff members are not allowed to bring mobile phones into the set."
"No wonder," Chen Ziyan said. "Then you should take good care of the filming."
-
"Okay, Cut!"
As soon as the director yelled "Cut!", Li Zhibai stood up.
"Director, how is it? Is it going to pass?"
Seeing Li Zhibai's anxious expression, the director was somewhat surprised and asked, "What's wrong?"
Li Zhibai: "Nothing much, just waiting to wrap up."
director:"……"
Li Zhibai chuckled.
In this movie, Xiao Yun plays the second female lead, Shen Jiayi's close female classmate, who later becomes an internet celebrity.
Xiao Yun glanced at Li Zhibai and said, "Why are you in such a hurry to finish work? Do you have a girlfriend secretly?"
Li Zhibai immediately spat a few times and said, "Yan Liang is here. Wait for me to go find him for dinner."
"Oh, so it's not your girlfriend who's here, it's your boyfriend." Xiao Yun immediately exchanged a glance with Yan Lingyu. The two girls understood each other perfectly and looked at Li Zhibai with teasing eyes.
Li Zhibai: "..."
He immediately rolled his eyes at them.
A group of young people, all together filming a movie, made it lively every day.
Leaving aside the male and female leads, the second male lead, Li Yuefeng, and the second female lead, Xiao Yun, are both popular stars with fan bases that are arguably as large as the leads'.
This is very rare for a youth romance film.
It can be said that this is a youth romance film starring four popular A-list celebrities.
However, since this was a script written by Lu Yanhe, Li Yuefeng and Xiao Yunlai played supporting roles, and their agents and agencies did not object at all.
After all, Lu Yanhe's films either win awards at international film festivals or are box office hits, which only have a positive effect on the actors.
Li Yuefeng worked with Chen Bige on "Raise the Red Lantern," playing only a cameo role. As a result, he not only went to the Situ Film Festival with the crew, but also added the Situ Film Festival's top award to his acting resume.
Needless to say, Xiao Yun's career took off. They started with "The Days of Youth," followed by "Phoenix Terrace," and then "My Own Swordsman." Her role as Guo Furong made her an overnight sensation across the country.
From a public and private perspective, and from a moral and rational standpoint, it is only natural for them to take on this role.
The director watched the shot we just filmed, nodded, and called "cut."
Li Zhibai quickly packed his things, finished work, and left.
"He's in such a hurry, he wouldn't really—" Xiao Yun clicked his tongue twice as he watched Li Zhibai's retreating figure.
Upon hearing this, Li Yuefeng rolled his eyes in exasperation.
These girls, their minds are always filled with the same things.
-
After Li Zhibai rushed back to his hotel, he sent a message to Yan Liang: Where are you?
Yan Liang: I just got on the high-speed train and won't arrive until the early hours of the morning. Didn't I tell you that yesterday?
Li Zhibai: Oh, okay then. It's alright. I'll ask. We'll talk about it tomorrow.
Yan Liang: Hmm.
Li Zhibai put down his phone, sent his assistants away, and hurried to his room.
The door opened as soon as I swiped the room card.
He closed the door immediately before calling out, "Comrade Xiao Jiang, I'm back."
Comrade Xiao Jiang's voice came from the bathroom.
"Wait a minute, I'm taking a shower."
Li Zhibai entered the room and saw some women's clothes and bras scattered on the bed.
He immediately became distracted and restless.
He sat down in the chair, spread his legs, and scratched his head.
-
After Yan Liang boarded the high-speed train, he didn't immediately take off his sunglasses or hat. He found a seat and sat down, and his assistant and bodyguard sat next to him, effectively taking up all the seats in that row.
He opened his laptop and clicked on a document on the desktop.
This is a script he recently received.
Yan Liang put on his headphones and began reading the script intently.
After reading about two episodes, he lost interest.
I closed it and then opened another document.
It's a different script.
There are a lot of scripts being sent to Yan Liang now.
Yan Liang reads the script almost every day.
For many scripts, you only need to read the first two episodes to understand the overall tone of the story.
Yan Liang wasn't very confident in his judgment before, but as he participated in more projects, he gradually developed his own criteria for judgment.
Focus on the story, not the characters.
Instead of looking at whether there are roles that inspire creative desire or provide creative space from an actor's perspective, the focus is on whether the story itself is engaging and whether it makes people want to keep watching.
This is the fundamental premise. Once this premise is met, then we can examine whether the role offers room for performance.
However, Lu Yanhe told him to watch more action movies.
Therefore, Yan Liang has now started reading action movie scripts.
However, reading the scripts for these kinds of movies left him somewhat confused. He simply didn't know how to approach them—
Action movie scripts are often very simple and often follow a formula.
Yan Liang lacked the ability to distinguish which was good and which was bad.
Yan Liang never encountered another movie script like "Dragon Inn" again.
He even went so far as to read some martial arts novels to see if any of them would move him. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of Lu Yanhe and Li Zhibai and become a producer to develop a project. However, the novels he was interested in either had already sold their copyrights or had major flaws in their development.
Although the number of novels in this genre is decreasing, they are still very popular in the field of film and television adaptations, and show no signs of "falling out of favor".
Yan Liang was reading the script while taking notes, recording his thoughts.
Suddenly, Zhou Pingan called him.
"Where are you?" Zhou Ping'an asked. "When are you going back to Yuming?"
“I’m off tomorrow and the day after, I don’t have any work scheduled. I’ve come to Li Zhibai’s place,” Yan Liang said. “I’ll come back the day after tomorrow.”
Zhou Ping'an: "Shi Jin is preparing to make a big-budget movie. You need to come back quickly so we can try to secure this project!"
Yan Liang was taken aback. "What big-budget movie?"
"A big IP, a top-tier IP in the fantasy genre, 'Ten Miles of Fragrance'," Zhou Ping'an said. "Shi Jin is going to spend 300 million yuan to produce this movie and find a top-notch production team in the industry. If you can get this project, you will step into the film industry, especially... Shi Jin's future film resources will definitely be given to you first."
Upon hearing this, Yan Liang immediately frowned.
"Is 'Ten Miles of Fragrance' a woman's love story?" he asked.
Zhou Ping'an said, "Yes, but do you mind this? Although 'Ten Miles of Fragrance' is a fantasy romance story, do you know how many fans it has? The male lead of this story is one of the top 3 male leads in novels as voted by readers for many years. If you play the role, your popularity will jump to a new level."
Yan Liang immediately joked, "It could also be that I've been criticized to a higher level."
The more fans a male lead in a romance novel has, the more likely the actor will be criticized, unless you are really perfect for the role and make them feel that you fit the character perfectly, like a fictional character stepping out of the book. Okay, then you'll be a hit.
Zhou Ping'an: "This project is Shi Jin's first major project after entering the entertainment industry. You should know what I mean, right?"
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I'm not feeling well today, I have a headache, that's all.
(End of this chapter)
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