Chapter 121 Trap

"Well, as soon as I see that you are a young man, I know that you will have a bright future. We will definitely not treat you badly for the pay for this movie!" Mr. Li, who came to discuss the movie contract, was very satisfied to see Zhang Querong come back.

Zhang Querong responded with a complicated expression: The pay for this movie is 6,500 yuan, which is already his salary for several months.

Although he had been paid 300 US dollars for his supporting role and music composition when he was filming with Su Yun before, there was definitely a difference between the prices in Hollywood and Hong Kong. Besides, he was pretty much a newcomer who had just started working. This time, his boss who appreciated him took the risk to hire him as the male lead in the movie. Even if the salary was not high, it was an excellent opportunity for advancement.

Not to mention that the theme is derived from the classic novel "Dream of Red Mansions", it is definitely a costume drama production!

Thinking of this, Zhang Querong became more cautious and asked softly, "Excuse me, is the script out now? I want to memorize the script as soon as possible so as not to delay everyone's progress."

"What script do you want? Why don't you just buy a copy of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' and read it? The story plot is already there. Our movie is just an adaptation of the original plot." The person negotiating waved his hand carelessly.

"That's right, I was overthinking it..." Zhang Querong, who had no acting experience at the moment, was stunned and nodded in agreement, "I have the book Dream of the Red Chamber at home. I like it very much so I read it from time to time. Don't worry."

"You have a very good attitude!" Li Sheng patted his shoulder with satisfaction. Perhaps he thought Zhang Querong was very obedient, so he gave him a suggestion, "By the way, if you read the book... read more about the 'Love in the Rain' part. The movie will not avoid this issue, so as a newcomer, you must be mentally prepared."

"I understand. Since I have chosen to make a movie, I will not avoid these shots. I will shoot them the way I want." A good actor cannot refuse the intimate scenes that he deserves, so Zhang Querong responded very seriously.

After seeing that Zhang Querong had finally signed the contract, Mr. Li told him with concern and asked him to take good care of himself so as not to look bad on camera.

Zhang Querong continued to nod obediently: "Jia Baoyu is the kind of young master who has been pampered and well-fed. Of course, he needs to take good care of himself. During this period of time, I will do my best to do sun protection and whiten my skin. I will definitely give the crew the most perfect image and state!"

Seeing Zhang Querong walking away with the contract in his hand with a smug look on his face, Mr. Li, who was in charge of negotiating with the actors, raised a malicious smile and made a phone call: "Hello? Boss Jin, it's me... Yes, we've already decided on the actor for the male lead, Jia Baoyu. It's the Zhang Querong you had your eye on before..."

"Script? Of course he wasn't allowed to see the script!"

"Nowadays, all the young men think they can be big brothers in the future. When they hear about the scenes of stripping, they refuse to do it. They are more conservative than those girls. Tsk, luckily I am smart!"

"Yes, yes. I will go to the TBB studio next door soon and will definitely sign Huang Hanxiu, the actress you chose..."

"With your carefully crafted script, Boss Jin, this movie will surely make the audience's blood boil and leave them with endless aftertaste, hahahaha..."

After the call, Mr. Li, who was in charge of negotiating with the actors, immediately went to TBB's studio.

Huang Hanxiu is currently an artist of TBB, so it is not impossible for her to be loaned out to film a movie, but TBB will, as per custom, take a commission of about 20% from the remuneration received - this is still the preferential treatment for popular young actresses. If it is other artists with lower popularity, the percentage of commission will be further increased.

Upon hearing that someone wanted to borrow one of their artists to shoot a movie, the department in charge of artist loans sent someone to convey the message to Huang Hanxiu who was on vacation.

At this time, Huang Hanxiu was worried about how to choose the leading actress among several Taiwanese dramas that wanted her to play the leading role. Then, out of the blue, she received an invitation to star in a movie. It was a costume comedy based on the recently popular Dream of the Red Chamber, and the producer was Wu Shiyuan, who was well-known in the industry for his upright style... So she decisively gave up the invitation to the TV drama and took on the leading role in "The New Dream of the Red Chamber".

Hong Kong's film production has always been efficient. In addition to the extremely fast shooting time, the pre-production time is also extremely fast. Compared to Hollywood, where it is common for movies to take more than 3 months to prepare... here they may be able to get it done in 3 days.

After confirming that the leading male and female characters and a number of supporting actors had been successfully signed, the crew, which was known as "The New Trend of Dream of the Red Mansion", quickly began the early preparations for filming, scouting for locations and starting to build the factory set. If it weren't for the fact that the costumes would take some time to be made, they might have been able to notify everyone to prepare to start work within a week.

After hearing from a friend that a new movie based on the theme of Dream of the Red Chamber was about to be filmed, Chen Boyang became even more excited for Zhang Querong: That's great! Someone with the looks and acting skills of his good friend should have gotten this opportunity a long time ago.

Because he is busy practicing and recording songs recently, Chen Baiyang is also under the supervision of his agent and has no time to visit the set.

However, his friend Ah Le loved Huang Hanxiu, who played the heroine Lin Daiyu in the movie, so much that he gave up the opportunity to catch up on sleep after finishing his night performance at a bar and brought flowers to the Jiancheng Studios where the costume drama was being filmed to wait for the goddess.

Ah Lek used to be one of the lead singers of the band The Losers. After the band disbanded, he went to the Middle East to do business. He only recently came back because of the reorganization of The Wynners. He is smart and loyal.

However, now that Ah Le has fallen in love, he is so disloyal that he even "throws" his brothers from Wynners aside.

"So, so, did you see her?" Upon hearing that Ah Lek went to deliver flowers today, fellow Wynners members Alan Tam and Zhong Zhentu immediately came over.

"I did see it, but I always feel it's a bit weird..." Ah Le described what he saw, saying that on the surface, there seemed to be nothing wrong, but based on his experience of reading erotic films, he always felt that the apparent calmness and the rather borderline lines were a bad sign.

"You suspect there's something strange about the plot of this movie?" Others asked one after another, "Are you sure? Do you want to remind Miss Huang?"

"Are you talking about... the movie called "New Trend of Dream of Red Mansions"? A friend of mine is also the male lead in it." Chen Baiyang murmured.

"Then give him a call and ask him. If there is something wrong, ask him to help remind Miss Huang!" Even if it is just a suspicion, once the newcomers of this era are exposed to this type of film, it is difficult to go back to their original way.

Chen Boyang became very anxious upon hearing this and immediately called Zhang Querong's home.

"No way? When we signed the contract, it was clearly stated that it was a costume comedy art film." Zhang Querong was a little confused when he answered the phone, but he still thanked Chen Boyang for calling to remind him, "The drama I'm currently filming has a scene where I chase a maid to eat rouge - it's also in the original novel, so it's not an extraordinary adaptation."

"Thank you for your concern. I have a scene to shoot today. We'll see how things go then. I'll treat you to tea when I'm free."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Querong drove out from home to today's shooting location.

What we were going to shoot today was the factory scene. When Zhang Querong arrived, the actress Chen Weiying, who was acting opposite him, had just arrived here.

"Lesley, don't you think that the dialogue in our latest play is... a little bit..." Although Chen Weiying has not received today's script yet, she still feels a little uneasy when she thinks of the filming scenes she saw a few days ago.

"Do you also think something is not right? It seems that it is not my illusion..." The earlier outdoor scenes with friends were fine, as they only added some weird jokes and even weirder martial arts fights, so Zhang Querong, who was concentrating on figuring out how to present the male protagonist Jia Baoyu more perfectly, did not pay much attention to it.

But today, Chen Baiyang called to remind him, as well as the fact that he had not received the complete script recently and Chen Weiying's doubts, finally made him realize that something was wrong.

We have already been filming for several days, why is there still only "flying papers" and no official complete script?

The so-called "flying paper" means writing while shooting. Because time is tight, the staff will throw the script fragments to the actors who are going to shoot that day like flying. They have to respond to the corresponding plot as quickly as possible. This is a shooting method that tests acting skills and adaptability.

This isn't like filming a TV series, where you have to use the paper-throwing method from time to time to shoot because the plot is too long and needs to be changed based on the reactions of family audiences. For a movie, even if you can't come up with a complete script, at least you have to give them an outline so that they know the general direction, right?

At first, Zhang Querong thought that with the original novel of Dream of the Red Chamber as the basis, the main plot could not be changed no matter how it was adapted. However, the more he filmed in the past few days, the more he felt that there were too many changes. Even someone who was so familiar with the original novel could not handle these strange changes...

Because Chen Weiying, who played the role of the attacker, was innocent, Zhang Querong didn't want her to take the initiative, so he comforted her and then went to find Director Jin, who was sitting paralyzed in a chair waiting for the filming to start: "Director, has the script for today been delivered?"

"Not yet - I'm also waiting so impatiently, waiting to start filming!" Director Jin glanced at him impatiently, "But don't worry, there aren't many lines in today's scene, so you don't have to memorize them for too long."

Hearing this, Zhang Querong felt relieved a little: If there aren't many lines, it will probably be a scene like the one where he got beaten before, right?

That kind of drama focuses on facial expressions and movements, so you don't really need to memorize too many lines.

Just when Zhang Querong breathed a sigh of relief and was about to go back and tell Chen Weiying the good news, Director Jin waved his hand again: "You and the attacker should take advantage of the break now to have a little chat. Don't be too embarrassed when you have to take off your clothes later. Film is expensive, don't do too many NGs..."

"Strip... take off your clothes?!" Zhang Querong was stunned for a long time before he spoke again, stumbling, "Are we going to shoot the 'love affair' part so soon?"

Although he was mentally prepared to shoot intimate scenes, generally speaking, such shots are shot in the middle of the shoot when the actors are familiar with each other. Why was the progress of this new trendy Dream of the Red Chamber so rushed that he and Chan Wai-ying had to start shooting just after they had acted together once?

"Why do we have to shoot 'Love and Sex' so soon? Didn't I give you a few days to adjust?" Director Jin, who was taking today's script from his assistant, glared, "It's already too late. If we don't start shooting 'Love and Sex', how can we have enough time for the passionate scenes later?!"

"Hurry up and get ready to take off your clothes. Here is the script. Read it carefully. We'll start filming soon." Director Jin looked as if time was money. While throwing a script in front of Zhang Querong, he told everyone else to start preparing for filming.

Zhang Querong picked up the script in shock and confusion, and immediately saw that the name on it was no longer "New Trend of Dreams in the Red Mansion", but -

"Spring in the Red Mansion..." Zhang Querong was stunned when he saw the erotic title of the film, which added another layer of spring to the other.

It's not that there were no erotic films in this era that used love and sex as selling points, but the erotic films produced by Zhao or other film companies were actually different from those Category III films that focused on love and sex: for example, most of the erotic films directed by Zhao's Li Xuexiang were classics that combined depth, watchability and storytelling, and love and sex were just embellishments of the plot.

But once the priorities of the two are reversed, then the plot and the core are just a condiment to show off sexiness and stimulate desire, and the audience basically goes for the nude shots and passionate scenes...

After taking a quick look at the complete script, Zhang Querong was almost in despair: judging from the appalling plot settings and messy adaptations, there was no doubt that this was a Category III film disguised as a costume comedy art film!

All these signed artists were deceived!