Chapter 651: Young You
After lunch the next day, Gu Wei and the other two finished the recording and left the Mushroom House.
"Zifeng, are you filming recently?"
As they were sitting in the production crew's car heading out of the town, Gu Wei turned around and asked.
“No, in March I joined the crew to shoot a movie called ‘Hello, Zhihua’, starring teachers Zhou Xun and Qin Hao.
After finishing filming the role, I went back to school.
I came to record the show this time because the TV series I filmed with Peng Peng is about to be released."
"Zifeng, how old are you this year?"
Liu Yifei, who was sitting next to her, asked curiously.
“17 years old.”
"Oh my god, you're only 17!"
Liu Yifei knew that Zhang Zifeng was relatively young, but she was still surprised to hear her age.
"Doesn't that mean you're still in middle school?"
Zhang Zifeng nodded slightly and replied with a smile, "There is still a month of summer vacation, and I will start my second year of high school in the second half of the year."
"Zifeng is just like you. Both started filming at a very young age. Even though she is not yet an adult, her acting experience is longer than mine!" Gu Wei added.
"real?
The first movie you starred in should be "The Sword of Assassin" which you filmed with me. I remember it was in 2012.
In 2012, Zifeng was only 11 years old!"
Liu Yifei was a little surprised.
“You’re talking too late.
Zifeng's first movie was probably "Aftershock" directed by Feng Xiaogang. How old were you when you filmed that movie?
"That movie was made in 2009, when I was 8 years old."
"That means it's been 9 years since my debut, and it really is true that it's better to become famous early.
Which school do you plan to go to for the college entrance examination, Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama?
With Zhang Zifeng's fame and acting skills, it is a foregone conclusion that she will be admitted to one of the three major film and television academies in the future. She will most likely not choose Shanghai Theatre Academy. Although it is one of the three major academies in China, Shanghai Theatre Academy is actually slightly worse than Beijing Film Academy and Central Academy of Drama.
It is said that the Central Academy of Drama produces actors and the Beijing Film Academy produces stars. This is indeed true. The Central Academy of Drama is more strict than the Beijing Film Academy in terms of acting majors. Many big names in acting are from the Central Academy of Drama.
But in terms of comprehensive strength, Beijing Film Academy is ranked first among domestic film and television schools. Not only has its acting department produced many stars, but its directing department has also produced many well-known directors.
"I want to go to Beijing Film Academy!"
Zhang Zifeng answered without hesitation. It seemed that she had thought about this question a long time ago.
"Haha, that's good. With your current acting skills, it doesn't really make much difference whether you go to Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama.
Your sister Yifei and I both graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, so when you get admitted, we'll be alumni."
The three chatted in the car and finally separated at the airport.
"I'm leaving now, Zifeng, see you next time."
"Brother Wei, when can I have the chance to work with you again?" Zhang Zifeng had been holding it in in front of the camera while recording "A Longing for Life". Now that they are about to separate, she finally expressed what was in her heart.
"You are so young, there will be many opportunities to film in the future. Maybe we can work together when there is a suitable opportunity. Don't worry, go back and study hard." Gu Wei smiled and rubbed Zhang Zifeng's head.
She and Zhao Jinmai are the two girls that Gu Wei treats as his sisters.
"Then don't forget me when you have the right opportunity."
"Don't worry, our Zifeng is such an excellent actor, he will definitely not forget you!"
After saying that, Gu Wei looked at Liu Yifei again.
"Xixi, see you in a few days!"
As the movie's release date approaches, various press conferences and roadshows will require the two of them to work together to promote it, so there will be many opportunities to meet during this period.
"Are you really not going to call me sister now?" Ever since the filming of "Time Raiders", Gu Wei has always addressed Liu Yifei as "Xixi", even when they just recorded "A Longing for Life". It turns out that he always called her "Sister Yifei" very politely.
Gu Wei touched his nose.
"We have such a good relationship that we don't need to worry about these details."
Zhang Zifeng and Liu Yifei are both going back to the capital, while Gu Wei is flying to the mountain city.
[Better Days] has already started filming, and is just waiting for the male lead Gu Wei to join the crew.
The mountain city is built on the mountain and lives by the water. It is the so-called 8D Magic Mountain and Water City. It has a natural three-dimensional sense, which is very suitable for composition and has a lot of beauty. Many photographers have taken good photos here, and many shots in movies also look very beautiful.
From "Crazy Stone" to "Hot Pot Heroes" and "Passing By Your World", the mountain city is a favorite city of film directors.
Zeng Guoxiang undoubtedly also took a fancy to this place.
The mountain city has many large overpasses, tall buildings, and small alleys, like a maze.
Placing the characters here creates a sense of being unable to escape from this place, which greatly helps the film present the inescapable melancholy of adolescence. It is the most suitable filming location for "Better Days."
When Gu Wei arrived, the crew was holding a meeting. Several other main creators had already arrived in advance. They basically joined the crew a few days or even more than a week in advance to adapt to the environment.
"Director Zeng, I'm sorry, I'm a little late because I've been busy with a lot of things."
"The crew has just started filming, and Mr. Gu has arrived at the right time." After Gu Wei entered the room, Zeng Guoxiang stood up from his seat and shook hands with him with a smile on his face.
Tsang Kwok-cheung is currently one of the most promising directors of the new generation in Hong Kong. He has a strong background and is very capable. His last movie "Suddenly Come Dancing" was well received and produced two Golden Horse Award winners. He is currently at the peak of his popularity.
However, none of his previous works were particularly popular. Even "Summer 2014" only grossed 160 million yuan. Of course, this result is quite good for a feature film, but considering the current scale of the mainland film market, this box office is far from being a big hit.
He is not a director who is good at making commercial films, but this time he is able to work with Gu Wei, who is known as the box office king in the circle, and he is very confident about "Better Days".
When the project of this film was first launched, the producers were Goodbaby Production Company and Paipai Culture Media, which were controlled by him and producer Xu Yuezhen.
In order to bring Gu Wei into the game, the two major producers and other co-producers together gave 40% of the investment share to "Wei Ming Tian Xia". As a result, "Wei Ming Tian Xia", which joined later, became the largest investor of "Better Days".
The leading actor Gu Wei also became one of the people with the most say in the movie, and was also given the titles of producer and supervisor.
Of course, this is not to help Gu Wei. In fact, the combined investment share of [Goodbaby Production Company] and [Paipai Culture Media] is still the largest, and the control of the film shooting is still in the hands of him and producer Xu Yuezhen.
The main reason for paying such a huge price to bring Gu Wei into the partnership is to make the pie bigger.
No matter how much a filmmaker loves art, the ultimate goal of making a film is to make money. In the current domestic film industry, a movie starring Gu Wei basically means a big box office hit.
Over the years, as the movies starring Gu Wei have become big hits one after another, many people in the industry have analyzed why he has such a high box office appeal.
First of all, Gu Wei is the only top star in the domestic entertainment industry. His fan base is very large, which is unmatched by other stars. As a traffic star standing at the top position, no matter what kind of movie he shoots, the fans' behavior will bring a stable wave of box office.
This situation also happens to other traffic stars, but their fan base and appeal are far less than Gu Wei's.
Secondly, every movie he made in recent years has been a big hit, and he has rarely made a bad movie, which has allowed Gu Wei to accumulate a very good reputation. Among the largest group of passers-by, his appeal is very strong, and as long as a new movie is released, everyone will think about going to see it.
Finally, his popularity has always been very high. Every time a new movie is released, there is no lack of publicity. Moreover, due to his continuous success, theaters also trust him very much, so the movies he stars in almost never have to worry about being scheduled.
Only through the positive superposition of multiple aspects can Gu Wei continue to be successful.
As long as he doesn't do stupid things and doesn't continue to star in bad movies that ruin his reputation, his title of box office king will continue.
Therefore, even if it comes at a huge cost, producer Xu Yuezhen, Zeng Guoxiang himself, and other producers are all very welcome to Gu Wei's joining.
They are looking forward to Gu Wei once again playing his magical role and making the feature film "Better Days" a high box office hit.
When the project of "Better Days" was launched, the planned investment was 50 million yuan, making it a low-budget movie.
This is actually normal. After all, it is an artistic feature film, just like Zeng Guoxiang's previous film "Soul Mate", the total investment was only 30 million, and the final box office was 160 million. The producer earned about 60 million, with a profit of 30 million.
This "Better Days" is actually not much different from "Sleeping With Love" in terms of subject matter. Before filming, everyone thought that the final box office performance of the movie would most likely exceed "Sleeping With Love", but it would only be at the level of 200 to 300 million.
Now that Gu Wei has joined, because of his salary and the producer's increase in post-production publicity and promotion costs, the budget of "Better Days" has soared to 120 million yuan, more than doubling the cost.
However, the investors are not worried at all. On the contrary, they are looking forward to the performance of this movie after its release.
Even director Zeng Guoxiang is more confident. The movie "The Left Ear" that Gu Wei filmed with Ma Sichun a few years ago earned 800 million yuan at the box office. Now, although the subject matter of "Better Days" is different, they are both youth films. He feels that there is a great hope of breaking 800 million or even 1 billion.
Just like the romantic film "Ex-Files 3" at the beginning of the year, it grossed 2.3 billion at the box office.
You have to know that the box office of the first two films in this series was only 120 million and 250 million respectively. Zeng Guoxiang has seen all three films, and to be honest, he didn't see how good the quality of the third one was. He felt that the content and expression were not much different from the first two. It has the same director, the same production team, and even the actors have not changed much. The only difference is the addition of Gu Wei and Ni Ni.
Everyone knows how much box office appeal Ni Ni has, so from this movie, people in the industry once again saw Gu Wei's exaggerated box office appeal.
"Director Zeng, I have a movie coming out soon, so I may have to take leave from time to time." After exchanging a few pleasantries with Director Zeng, Gu Wei said the ugly words first.
"I understand, I understand. I know Director Xu Zheng's love movie has been very popular recently.
Congratulations in advance to Mr. Gu on the success of his film." Zeng Guoxiang also knew that with Gu Wei's status, he must have a lot of things to do, and he was prepared to arrange the filming plan according to his schedule.
This world is always unfair, but also relatively fair.
The demands between people are always in line with their status. Big directors have strict requirements, but they will also consider who the other person is. Take Gu Wei's current status as an example. Even Zhang Yimou and Chen Kai would not ask him to concentrate on filming and do nothing else.
After the greetings, Director Zeng pulled Gu Wei aside to talk about the movie. Although he was the last to join the crew, Zeng Guoxiang found that Gu Wei was not completely unprepared for the filming. After listening to some of Gu Wei's ideas about the story and character design, he nodded secretly in his heart. Sure enough, such a great fame was not earned in vain, and he was indeed quite capable.
"Gu Wei, I didn't expect that we can finally work together after so long since graduation."
After entering the door, Gu Wei greeted everyone and kept chatting with Director Zeng, which left Zhou Dongyu, who wanted to get close to him, no chance to interrupt. Finally, producer Xu Yuezhen brought up a topic to divert the director's attention, and she had the opportunity to speak.
"Dong Yu, you are the Golden Horse Film Queen. Please take care of me in future filmings," Gu Wei said politely. Although he had a general impression of Zhou Dongyu, he still insisted on not offending a smiling person. After all, they were classmates and would work together in the next two months.
"My requirements are very strict, you must work hard!"
Zhou Dongyu followed Gu Wei's words and didn't know why he came up with such a reply.
Gu Wei couldn't do it for a moment. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly and he couldn't even keep smiling.
He didn't know whether this person really thought so or simply had low emotional intelligence and couldn't speak. Although Gu Wei had never won the Best Actor award at an international A-level film festival, he was at least the Magnolia Best Actor award, and his acting skills had never been doubted.
"Haha. Let's work hard together." Gu Wei said perfunctorily. He was no longer in the mood to chat with Zhou Dongyu. Then he looked at Zhou Ye who was sitting on the other side of him.
"Xiaoye, when did you join the group?"
Zhou Ye was wearing a sky blue dress today, with long black hair draped over her shoulders. Her small face, the size of a palm, had delicate features. In terms of appearance, she was more than one level higher than Zhou Dongyu.
She had been staring at Gu Wei since he entered the room, as if she wanted to say hello but didn't dare.
Now that Gu Wei took the initiative to talk to her, Zhou Ye immediately showed a sweet smile on her face.
"I arrived a week ago. I've been familiarizing myself with the venue, memorizing my lines, and adjusting my form over the past few days."
"It's so early, don't you have classes at school?"
"I have already taken leave. My teacher knew I was going to act in this play and specially guided me for a while.
I am now very confident in playing the role of "Wei Lai"! "It seems that he was really well prepared, otherwise Zhou Ye would not be so confident.
"So I have to test you. How do you understand the character of "Wei Lai"?"
Zhou Ye thought about it and organized his words.
"Wei Lai is undoubtedly the villain in the movie. On the surface, she is a beautiful and well-behaved rich girl, but in fact, she is very dark inside. She relies on her strong family background to bully the weak in school and enjoys it.
I think she should have two faces, one is the good girl from a rich family that she shows to others, and the other is the real face of an abuser.
Although she grew up in a wealthy family, they were repressive and cruel, which made her have no basic respect for human life. Beneath her angelic face was an unfathomable darkness.
Wei Lai’s name sounds like “future”, but she ultimately has no future.”
"Very good, you understand it very well. It depends on your performance during the filming."
Gu Wei praised, making Zhou Ye's smile even brighter.
(End of this chapter)
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