Chapter 71
Su Ning had added director Tong Feifan before and had chatted with him. The two had known each other before the movie was released.
When reshooting was in progress, Su Ning saw his camera movements and scenes and knew that this man was no ordinary person, so he wanted to make friends with him, and they got along pretty well at that time.
Besides, Tong Feifan has a very good impression of Ji Xue. Many directors have actors they habitually work with, like muses of inspiration, and when they come together, there will be different effects.
The box office results this time speak for themselves. Director Tong still wanted to work with Ji Xue and even asked Su Ning about it. When he knew that Director Guo had taken over the drama, he gave up. But Su Ning took the opportunity to talk to him about the Glory MV.
The MV is at most two or three minutes long, and there are seven members in the group, so it is not enough to tell a story. So he discussed with Shen Mingzheng and wanted to make a big micro-movie of the length of the MV, about twenty to thirty minutes long, as a short drama to go with the MV.
Even if it's not very profitable, he just wants to shoot it.
Although the talks with Yuedong did not go well, they did not want to completely kill the possibility of Glory filming. It was because they were not professionally trained and had no experience, and they could not film bad movies, especially with a good director who could guide the actors.
After much deliberation, Su Ning finally set his sights on Tong Feifan.
The production cycle of this kind of MV supporting short drama is much shorter than that of ordinary movies and TV series. Besides, Su Ning was generous and the money he gave was indeed enough. At least Gaoshan Pictures did not refuse.
Tong Feifan had never photographed a popular idol before and was hesitant at first, but in addition to Ji Xue's guest appearance, Su Ning also gradually convinced him with other reasons.
"I know that most of the people who come to Director Tong nowadays are definitely romance movies, but the micro-movies we want to shoot this time to go with the three MVs include romance, drama, and suspense. You can definitely try your hand at this and try other themes. The shooting cycle is relatively short and it won't take too much time."
"Directors often have to bear the responsibility for the performance of their works. Especially with your current level of attention, it will bring a lot of pressure to the next work. But you don't have to worry about the performance of this work at all. It is included in the album. Our album reservations have broken records. You don't have to worry about the performance. Director Tong just needs to come."
“Believe me, this is a unique challenge.”
Moreover, when Su Ning reminded him, Tong Feifan thought of the MVs of various singers that he had seen when he was a child. At that time, there were no various music shows, and he only watched discs or tapes. Some of the stories and scenes were indeed very impressive.
Not many people are shooting this kind of thing now, as most of the production of idol groups is focused on the songs. Spending a lot of money to shoot this doesn't seem to be very cost-effective, but Su Ning is willing to try.
So after thinking about it, Tong Feifan agreed out of trust in Su Ning. He was still young and wanted to give it a try.
Therefore, Zhu Lan and Yuedong's visit today was destined to be fruitless.
Tong Feifan has heard too many compliments during this period, and many invitations have come like snowflakes, but in this world it is easy to add icing on the cake but difficult to send charcoal in the snow.
He didn't quite trust people like Zhu Lan and Mr. Sheng, and felt he had more common topics with Mr. Su.
In fact, there are many idealists in this circle.
Zhu Lan and Mr. Sheng were standing outside, waiting for Su Ning to sign the contract and come out.
The two of them were politely escorted out by the people from Gaoshan Pictures, but the expressions on both sides were very different.
When he reached the parking lot, Su Ning heard Mr. Sheng say, "Su Ning, I underestimated you."
"You are not underestimating me, but you are underestimating the true power of good works and think that everything can be controlled."
Su Ning stood in front of the car and replied, "It's not a bad thing to want to make money. People in every industry want to make money. Otherwise, who would work? But whether to make long-term money or short-term money, everyone has their own way. There's no need to say more."
He still said the same thing, no matter how powerful some people are, there is no need to cooperate with them.
Zhu Lan didn't say anything. She stood there watching Su Ning's car leave, then took a deep breath.
No matter how angry Mr. Sheng was, he didn't dare to lose his temper with her. He only lowered his head and cursed a few words in a low voice, then asked: "Mr. Zhu, this is someone from your Shen family, right? Why is he so..."
"I can't control him either," Zhu Lan said, "I was originally on your side, but Mr. Sheng, you know me. Wherever the money is, there I am."
After all, "Old Love Letters" is the most profitable movie this year, and her mind may change at any time.
People in the circle generally think like this. The fact that Glory didn’t win the award last time had a significant impact. Many people didn’t understand what happened at the time, and only knew a few words after the ceremony.
How to say it, Liang Xiaoliang is indeed a well-known gossip king in this circle. He absorbs gossip everywhere and also produces gossip.
Even if the big-mouthed Mr. Liang didn't say it, many discerning people outside could guess that when Yuedong was privately soliciting investment before, it used the Glory silhouette to persuade advertisers, and said that it did have the intention of cooperation, but after the award ceremony that day, it never did so again.
Some advertisers were not aware of the situation and one person in charge even secretly complained that Glory did not keep its promise. In fact, it was all self-directed and self-acted. After Su Ning explained it, we realized that it was Yuedong's fault.
But it is one thing to understand the unfairness, and it is another to speak out or even fight against it.
The whole industry knows that Glory has strong capital, but no one dares to resist. Su Ning and the young idols are wronged, but when this matter is discussed in a mess on the Internet, there will always be uncontrollable comments. Some people even think that Glory is ungrateful even though they know the unfairness of it.
"If you agree, you can get the award, right? It won't interfere with your filming and stage performances. In fact, Yuedong's resources are pretty good. I don't know why you disagree."
"Did Tang Lulu become famous for her role in the drama Yuedong? How do you know it won't work if you don't try?"
"We can't keep Glory under Guangying Entertainment and Shen's Pictures, right? The company's resources are limited, and it feels like they have been monopolizing the group's only cash cow. This..."
Anyone would be affected by such remarks, right?
At least that's what Zhu Lan thought.
She had seen Glory's trust and solidarity with Su Ning. In fact, she found it incredible that people would always fall apart for the sake of interests. She didn't believe that this kind of relationship would last forever, so she watched things develop with cold eyes.
But the subsequent development was not as she imagined.
Not long after, "Old Love Letters" was released, and Ji Xue, who signed with Guangying Entertainment, became famous, and it was because of the resources that she once looked down upon and insisted on throwing away.
Even now, Tong Feifan did not accept her invitation. Even though the price and configuration she offered were higher than those from Su Ning, the other party did not even look at it and chose to cooperate with Su Ning.
Now Zhu Lan has become the one who somewhat doubts himself.
Glory's fans were originally very upset by these recent events, but they came together to clarify the rumors about fake data. Among them, there were also many discerning people who knew that they couldn't just take on any drama from Yuedong.
There are many popular movies released together with "Old Love Letter", and one of them just won the Audience Choice Award. It was invested by Yuedong Investment and was hyped up a lot before its release, but it ended up fizzling out with just over 200 million yuan, not even a fraction of "Old Love Letter".
The audience actually does have a choice. There is a scale to judge the quality of a work, and it cannot be completely controlled by capital.
Besides, as the old saying goes, "Misfortune may be a blessing in disguise."
Sure enough, not long after, the news that Glory and Tong Feifan were going to work together spread immediately. The fan group had been somewhat exhausted by the recent events, but when this resource came out, they were immediately excited from the negative emotions of being abused by their fans.
This is the director of a box office of 1.5 billion!
They actually filmed a MV for our group, it’s such an honor!
So what if I didn't win an award? Haven't you seen that the resources are getting better and better? With Director Tong here, who would envy those idol dramas produced in large quantities by Yuedong? The audience knows whether those dramas are of good quality or not!
As for the matter of going to "film", the seven people knew about it in advance. They never blamed Su Ning from beginning to end. They encouraged themselves privately, wanted to save face, and took the initiative to practice for the next album. However, the resources provided by Su Ning still often shocked people - he actually brought Tong Feifan here.
Su Ning had asked before if they wanted to act in a movie, and many of the seven people raised their hands.
It is normal for young people to want to try new fields. Su Ning knew that they had such intention, so he talked to Tong Feifan.
He was like a wish-granting elf who would grant whatever was asked of him. However, after getting the contract back, Su Ning also gave them a special reminder.
"Filming is not as simple as everyone thinks," he said. "If you want to try something new, I support you, but you will inevitably experience pain, so remember to be prepared."
But even with this reminder, they still couldn't understand with just one sentence. Su Ning had a teacher give them basic acting lessons, and it felt... not that difficult.
Although the seven people's initial ideas were not influenced by fans, some details of their thinking can be easily changed subtly by the Internet.
——For example, the threshold for acting seems to be quite low, especially for idol dramas with simple scripts and low requirements.
Many idols act, and their fans are full of praise for them. They even take screenshots of scenes from commercials and variety shows and make animated pictures to praise them, saying that their acting skills must be great, which makes people feel a little flattered.
Moreover, they read the script given by Su Ning carefully and found it not complicated.
The three micro-films correspond to the three main songs in the album, and their respective themes and stories are love, drama and suspense.
The love story is in the style of a youth movie, with some of the style of old idol dramas. This story is the simplest, about a school celebrity falling in love with Cinderella, a dreamy Mary Sue, which can only be regarded as a story for them to try out.
The corresponding song is "First Love" which they are about to release, which is a very cheerful little sweet song.
The second story is about a young girl who accidentally inherited a coffee shop and also inherited seven employees. In the end, it has a fantasy color, as these seven people were transformed from the small animals she once fed.
This one features a guest appearance by Ji Xue, and the theme song is the warm and lyrical song "I Met You";
The suspense story invited Xie Fangmin to act in several scenes. A retired teacher was murdered, and seven students who had been taught by her disguised themselves to find the murderer and seek revenge. The corresponding MV is the cool song "killer".
The twenty-minute micro-film script is short and easy to polish repeatedly, which is also the advantage of Su Ning's choice.
If they were to directly shoot a drama, there would be no opportunity to polish the script for idol dramas that often have 20 to 30 episodes, or even 30 to 40 episodes just to make money. In these three episodes, many unnecessary plots and lines have been streamlined, and the pace is very fast.
Each person has a modest amount of roles and lines, and their characters are tailor-made for them, which is a good attempt for newcomers who have just started filming.
So the seven people really went with full confidence.
In the first story, seven people played different roles. Li Chu was the young master of the school director's family and also the neighbor next to the heroine's house, Ji Mowei was a bad school bully, Ruisong was her childhood sweetheart, Qu Shoubai became the handsome and top student class monitor, Zhou Heng was her tutor, Wang Ruoyi was her deskmate, and Lin Zhi was her half-brother in her reconstituted family.
The girl transferred from an ordinary school to an aristocratic school because her mother married into a wealthy family. She met different people and developed different feelings with them.
The girl is a newcomer to Gaoshan Pictures. Since it is a collaboration, it is normal to insert a newcomer. Su Ning doesn't mind it. Besides, the performance of this actress is really good. The camera mainly highlights the members of the group. Most of the time, she only has her back or side face, but she is still fully committed.
The story is not new, but director Tong Feifan’s requirements are not simple.
It was fine in the beginning, as they only shot a few close-ups with no lines or interactions. The popular idols were very familiar with how to present their own image and completed it very quickly.
It seems that filming is really simple! It is not much different from taking photos or shooting commercials before.
But then, things changed.
I am still shooting at night. I chose a rainy day on purpose today.
The footage filmed tonight was of a girl who transferred to a prestigious school and was targeted. Her umbrella and wallet were taken away, and the driver who came to pick her up thought she had gone to a party and had already left, so she had to go home in the rain.
On the way, Ji Mowei, who came on a black heavy motorcycle, stopped her and threw a helmet and raincoat to her.
The heavy motorcycle was heavy and difficult to drive, so Ji Mowei practiced for a long time.
The lines in the script are very simple, with only one sentence: "Have you been bullied again? Get in the car", but in the heavy rain, there is a close-up shot of him looking over from the heroine's perspective.
I thought it would be over quickly, with just one line of description and two words in the script, but Tong Feifan shot for more than an hour and the rain didn't stop, but he was still not satisfied.
Ji Mowei felt that he had done this shot dozens of times. His legs and hands were almost stiff, and it was still raining. So he couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? Is it the expression? The action or the emotion?"
He must try his best to adjust it until the director is satisfied.
But Tong Feifan gave an ambiguous answer.
"It doesn't feel right between you two."
He even deleted most of the lines which only had a few words, leaving only two words: "get in the car".
"It's okay," he said calmly, "Let's have another one."
Anyway, he has plenty of time and is willing to polish the shots. Good shots are polished, but the idols who have been doing well since their debut are a little overwhelmed.
Not only Ji Mowei who was filming, but also the others who were watching nearby, they didn't quite understand what felt wrong.
This scene is so simple, how could it be wrong?
No matter how you look at it, Ji Mowei's movements and expressions are fine. He looks very handsome and cool in front of the camera. Every frame looks particularly good, quite like the male lead in an idol drama. If it was a commercial or something, it would have been passed long ago, but the director was never satisfied.
However, the advantage of these seven people is that they were very obedient at this time. They did whatever the director said, and they were not impatient because of the repeated polishing of the shots, nor did they have the slightest intention of playing big shots.
Ji Mowei went back and forth for almost two hours without a single complaint. The other six people who were waiting for their turn did not take a break either. Instead, they stood outside the camera in the rain wearing raincoats, thinking all the time.
Until Ji Mowei made a small mistake in his movements.
His helmet went wide.
His movements had been so precise and had never gone astray before, so the actress acting opposite him panicked a little and reached out to catch it. She was already in a shabby state, having been caught in the rain for a long time, but at this moment she looked a little panicked and her movements were a little messy.
Ji Mowei's first reaction was to help her pick up the helmet, so he straightened up from leaning against the car body and moved forward slightly, obviously showing some real concern, but the girl caught the helmet again at this time, and subconsciously held it in her arms, looking up at him a little at a loss.
After all, the other party was repeatedly exposed to the rain because of his mistake. In such a cold day, Ji Mowei felt really distressed and guilty. At the same time, he felt that his mistake was a bit funny at this moment, and the atmosphere was not so depressing.
He felt a little helpless, thinking that he would not pass this line. He stood there and looked at the other party for a while without saying any lines. But the director did not call out "Cut", so he continued to act.
After the two looked at each other, he raised his hand and signaled to the other party: "Get in the car."
These were his most real and natural reactions. He even forgot about his previous actions and poses. Then he heard Director Tong shout "Cut" and then told him "This one is OK."
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