Bright Era of China Entertainment

Chapter 763: My First Experience of Directing and Acting by Myself

March 3th is a very ordinary day, but it is a day of extraordinary significance for all the crew members of “My Love from the Star” because the filming of “My Love from the Star” will start today.

In the morning, Shenzhen International Film and Television Industry Park.

In a medium-sized studio with an area of ​​3,000 square meters, a scene similar to a shantytown was built, which is the location for the start of filming and the filming to be done in the near future.

Chu Xuan plays the male protagonist Qiao Ke, and his scenes in the "real world" are the only parts of the entire drama that need to be shot in a studio.

The world that Jock lives in is set in a high-tech era. Some high-tech elements and special effects scenes such as game crossing require the use of green cloth and equipment from the studio.

There are not many plots in Jock's "real world". The "main world" where the heroine An Xin is located is where the whole story unfolds. The production crew arranged the plot of Jock's "real world" at the very beginning of filming with the principle of "from easy to difficult", so that this part can be finished early.

At present, personnel from various departments are busy coming and going. Actors who have no scenes to shoot are acting as spectators and preparing to watch the show, while Chu Xuan is discussing his roles with the directors and teachers at the monitor located about ten meters east of the central studio.

In this busy atmosphere where everyone is doing their own thing, Liu Yifei finished a phone call outside the studio door and walked in with Liang Datong, the director of the production team.

"Have all the crew members' contracts been received?"

“They all returned.”

Liu Yifei was wearing a black women's casual suit with a white women's shirt underneath. She wore a silver watch on her right wrist and a ruby ​​engagement ring given by Chu Xuan on her left ring finger. The five-centimeter black high heels were not too high, but they left a little of the back of her fair feet exposed from under her trouser legs. Her long, shiny black hair was no longer hanging down, but was simply tied into a straight ponytail that looked very capable.

With this makeup and outfit, it doesn't matter whether he is called "Producer Liu" or "General Manager Liu", it is a perfect match.

"The sponsorship contract needs to be processed as soon as possible. I just called several CEOs. They will mail the sponsored milk tea, cakes, bread, mineral water, instant noodles and other items today. Shipping the sponsorship without receiving the contract is also giving face to our company, but we can't delay. We need to mail the contract to them as soon as possible."

"We are arranging it. There are a lot of sponsors, so it will take some time. Some of the sponsors have branches in Shenzhen, so I sent someone to personally deliver the contract to their door. The production team only has so many people, so it will take two or three days to get it done."

"Well, so be it."

Liu Yifei nodded and had been handling affairs in the hotel all day from the night before to yesterday.

The labor contract for the crew members is simple. They just need to sign, stamp and distribute the receipts. However, the sponsors are located all over the country, so the signed contracts need to be mailed separately, and then they need to wait for the signatures and stamps of the major sponsors and then mailed back. This is a bit troublesome.

Fortunately, Brilliant Times has a great reputation, and all the major sponsors were willing to ship the products for sponsorship without waiting for the contracts to be in place when they heard that the filming had started. The contract process will proceed step by step in the future.

This is quite comforting, as all kinds of daily necessities and food can be distributed to the crew members in a timely manner, which can save some money to a certain extent. Controlling funds is her responsibility as a producer, and the support from major sponsors also allowed her to successfully complete one of her duties when the crew started filming.

"Also, Brother Liang, whenever our crew is switching locations, if there are any landmark buildings or beautiful scenery nearby, please remind me and Director Chu to take photos, and use local stills, videos, or pictures and texts to promote Shenzhen's cultural tourism."

"Don't worry, I know this. Shenzhen Tourism Bureau will also provide promotional resources to the local news channel of the local TV station, and Mango TV's "Entertainment Pioneer" column will carry out periodic publicity for us during our filming. Producer Liu, to be honest, I have been a producer for so many years, and this is the first time I have seen a crew so popular. It will be hard for "My Love from the Star" not to be popular."

Liu Yifei smiled. Mango TV provided publicity resources when the drama was still in the shooting stage and it was still a long way from being broadcast. That was because Mango TV had booked the exclusive broadcasting rights of "My Star" in advance and had a good cooperative relationship with Brilliant Times for many years. It was understandable that it would give convenience to "My Star" at this stage.

I just didn’t expect that Shenzhen’s culture and tourism industry was so enthusiastic and provided TV station publicity resources for the local news channel of "You Who Came From the Stars". Although the local channel is only available in Shenzhen, the media, paparazzi and fans will definitely spread the new news across the country.

In this way, with the joint support of Mango TV and Shenzhen Tourism, this popularity may be as Liang Datong said, it is hard for "My Love from the Star" not to be popular. At least it is predictable that it will become popular before it is aired. The rest depends on the quality of "My Love from the Star" directed by our director Chu.

Director Huang Lei saw Liu Yifei coming and couldn't help but say, "This couple is good. One is responsible for logistics and solves the overall worries of the crew, and the other is responsible for controlling the operation of the whole team."

Huang Lei looked at Ning Hao and the others and said, "I'm quite envious of this couple model. It's really great. There's nothing like this in the whole country, right?"

Chu Xuan couldn't help laughing as he lowered his head and flipped through the script.

Zhou Jie Lun, Tang Ji Li, Ning Hao, Qi Mu and Fang Wen Shan laughed. The fact that the couple had been doing their own things for the past two days gave them a new impression of them. It was quite warm and interesting.

"I don't know if there is, but I haven't seen it anyway." Ning Hao said.

"When the husband is the director and the wife is the producer, they are usually going to quarrel. Two people with power will be strong and neither will submit to the other. That's how it is with Junru Wu and Chen Kexin on the crew. They are so harmonious and friendly now because they have just experienced this way of getting along. Let's wait and see after they get used to it. There will definitely be quarrels." Tang Jili, who has experience as a veteran, joked about the couple.

Liu Yifei sat down next to Chu Xuan, crossed her legs, and put her hand on Chu Xuan's shoulder. She turned her head and pretended to be indignant and said, "Director Tang, you too, don't want us to do well, but want us to quarrel. Really."

Tang Jili folded his arms and said, "It's not bad to quarrel. If a couple has a dispute over art, they will reach a consensus the more they quarrel, and then they will love each other more. Believe me, as a person who has been through it, this is the case."

"Really?" Liu Yifei turned her head back, thinking to herself: How can a couple become more loving after a quarrel? This is definitely Director Tang's twisted logic that he wants to make fun of them.

"Director Chu, everything is set up." Assistant director Xiao Zhang is from assistant director Lu Chuan's team and is also Lu Chuan's apprentice. He was brought into the team by Lu Chuan to learn and accumulate experience. He is responsible for things like guiding each group to set up the set according to the composition.

In a film crew, matters like set design are very important and complicated, and are usually jointly undertaken by the second assistant director and the artistic coordinator. However, Lu Chuan is interested in training an apprentice, and Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei have no objection. As long as things are handled within the specified time, it will be fine. With Lu Chuan backing up the apprentice, they are doing Lu Chuan a favor.

"Teachers, please sit down for a moment. We'll go take a look." Chu Xuan, Lu Chuan, Qi Mu and Fang Wenshan stood up, ready to go to the set to review and provide final guidance before filming began.

"Go ahead, Director Chu." Liu Yifei felt a strong sense of novelty. Not only was she a producer, but she was also very excited to see Chu Xuan directing for the first time.

"Just go, don't be so polite. You are a director, and being too polite in front of the crew will lower your class." Huang Lei joked.

Chu Xuan was speechless, turned his head and said: "Don't force your stinky feet when I give you face, I'm drunk too."

The teachers in the director team laughed, and this scene added a bit of fun.

But then again, Huang Lei's joke is correct to some extent. If the director is very polite in front of the crew, the people below will easily get a little sunshine and become so radiant that they lose their own positioning, and they will become lax in doing things, thus causing various problems.

The director is the soul of the crew. It's okay to be polite in private, but you still have to put on airs at work. Human nature is unpredictable. Some people will work hard to please you because of your politeness, but more people will lose their minds when they see your humble attitude.

It’s just that Chu Xuan is a new director and this is his first time leading a crew. He still needs to slowly gain experience and adjust to the position of director.

"Move this cabinet a little to the right, and move this teapot a little out, otherwise it won't fit in the shot..." As soon as the experienced teacher Qi Mu arrived on the set, he instructed the staff to make fine adjustments to the set, and Fang Wenshan would occasionally chime in with a word or two of his own ideas.

"Almost done. I'll go talk to the extras and special guests about the scenes and positioning." Lu Chuan walked around and found that the scenery and composition were similar, so he prepared to talk to the actors about the scenes. He smiled and said, "You will handle your own shots?"

The opening shot is of the male lead Chu Xuan, and the first scene after the opening where the male lead appears and sets the tone for the character is also by Chu Xuan. Chu Xuan is also the director, but he is also a new director who has never directed a play or used the camera, so it is an interesting question for him whether Chu Xuan will arrange the shot himself or with help.

“You go and talk about the script, I’ll do it myself.” Although this was Chu Xuan’s first time directing and camera movement, this was their own original story, and he was very familiar with the characters and the entire story. Therefore, he had great confidence in how to direct the drama "My Love from the Star" so that the characters and the story would stand out.

Because it is my own story, even though I have never directed a movie, I know exactly how to film and tell the story.

If you direct a play based on an adaptation of another work, your thinking will definitely conflict with the original work, which will cause confusion and entanglement in your thinking, and a new director will be unable to make up his mind.

Therefore, he believes that by using his own story as the beginning of his directorial career, his ideas will be clear from beginning to end, and he will not need to listen too much to the advice of his teachers. This will be the beginning of his directorial career that will hone his directing skills to the greatest extent.

Seeing that Chu Xuan was going to arrange the shots himself, Lu Chuan was looking forward to it. He turned around and took his apprentice Xiao Zhang to explain the play to the actors.

Chu Xuan waved to Mr. Wang, the screenwriter of the director team, and then waved to Long Fei.

The camera crew of "My Love from the Star" borrowed Wen Muye's team. Long Fei is the chief cameraman of this team. This team has participated in the filming of Chu Xuan's marriage proposal documentary. Based on their understanding of Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei's emotional experience, this team was borrowed by Chu Xuan from Wen Muye to join the crew.

Chu Xuan lowered his head and flipped through the script while walking towards Long Fei's position.

[Shot 1: Position: the end of the corridor; Scene: wide panorama; Movement: push forward towards Jock; Angle: long shot, frontal flat shot; Content: the male protagonist enters and exits the room by walking up the stairs; Scene sound: noisy neighbors.

Shot 2: Position: end of the corridor entrance; Scene: close-up; Movement: zooming forward towards Jock; Angle: back-facing shot…

Shot 3: Position: Jock is in front; Scene: Close-up; Movement: Pushing back in sync with Jock; Angle: Frontal shot...]

Chu Xuan met up with Long Fei who was walking over. He looked up and said, "Change the No. 1 mirror and readjust it."

Long Fei raised his eyebrows in confusion, and only heard Chu Xuan say: "The original intention of our previous discussion on the long shot of lens 1 was to show Qiao Ke's loneliness. A long shot, a wide angle, a panoramic view to portray a character from far to near, this sense of loneliness is there, but I think such a shot is a bit exaggerated in an urban drama."

"Then how do we adjust it?" Long Fei had no other ideas, he just did whatever the director said.

Chu Xuan handed the script to the screenwriter, gestured with his hands to the scene, and talked about his adjusted concept: "Our plan for the opening of "My Love from the Star" is to start with a high-tech city from a high altitude, then slowly sink into the high-tech city, and finally locate the shantytown in the city, to create a contrast between prosperity and poverty."

"This is a CG picture, which will be processed in post-production."

“For the first shot of the story, I think it would be better to follow up with a sinking CG shot.”

“Just think about it, the CG lens invades the shantytown from a high-altitude perspective and then disappears. The first shot after the screen switches to the male protagonist going upstairs at the tilt angle of the disappearing CG lens, and the male protagonist is shot from above at the same angle as the CG lens. This connection is smoother and better than the long shot that was set to wait for the male protagonist to go upstairs and appear.”

Chu Xuan's idea of ​​camera movement was very clear. As a senior cameraman, Long Fei had a specific picture in mind as soon as he heard it. He nodded and said, "I understand. Then I will reset the camera position and readjust the parameters. What about the lonely feeling required in the script..."

"It's okay, I'll show you later." Chu Xuan waved his hand indifferently.

"Okay, I'll adjust it now." Long Fei turned around and hurriedly discussed the rearrangement of the shots with the team.

"Then I'll go and revise the script." Teacher Wang took the script and turned back to the director's team to work.

The director says one word and all parties are moved.

This is something that rarely happens in the highly industrialized world of Hollywood.

The director and actors can only shoot the film the way the script is written.

But in the domestic film and television market, the director is the boss and can make changes at will.

Chu Xuan is also well aware of the differences between China and foreign countries in this regard. It seems that China is slow in efficiency in this regard, but he feels that there is no need to learn from Hollywood in this regard. The creative process can be programmed, but the nodes for presenting art require space for free play.

A script can be created very efficiently, but the director and actors' on-the-spot performance must be adapted to the scene and to the individual, so as to ensure the vitality of art rather than a repetitive and lengthy industrial product.

Industrial products may be exquisite, but they are just so-so after seeing them for a long time. If the director and actors have innovative ideas to improvise, then such industrial products will give the audience more new sensory experiences every time they appear.

The screenwriter brought the news of the shot changes back to the director team, and all the teachers laughed. Our Director Chu started making changes as soon as the filming started. This showed that Chu Xuan had a fresh creativity, but it also seemed like he was declaring the director's authority, which made them feel interesting.

Liu Yifei smiled and read the screenwriter's redefinition of shot 1 stroke by stroke. She said, "Not bad, a perfect connection, better than before."

The teachers all raised their lips, and praised the couple immediately without much thought after the changes were made. After all, they were a newly married couple, and the main point was that the husband should sing and the wife should follow.

Qi Mu and Fang Wenshan were fine-tuning the set, Lu Chuan and his apprentice Xiao Zhang were explaining the scenes to the actors, and everything was going on in an orderly manner before the filming began.

After Chu Xuan came back from the set, he hurriedly called over makeup artist Sister Li to touch up his makeup. His costumes had already been changed, but his makeup and hairstyle had gotten a little messy while he was waiting for the filming to start. He had to prepare again when the filming was about to start.

"Unit 1 is ready."

"Unit 2 is ready."

"Unit 3 is ready."

"The lighting crew is in place."

"..."

Sister Li was helping Chu Xuan fix his hair. Chu Xuan stared at the monitor. The monitor wall consisted of three screens corresponding to the signals of three lenses and a screen corresponding to the crane lens used to control the overall situation.

Chu Xuan used the God's perspective of the global main screen to observe whether the angles and positions of the three lenses corresponding to the screen images were in line with his conceptual composition. He also used the three lens screens to observe whether the elements that made up the picture, such as the focal length and field of view, were in place.

"The focal length of No. 1 is raised, the field of view is wider, and the male protagonist's picture looks empty. Zoom out the picture and focus more on the male protagonist."

The larger the focal length, the smaller the picture, and the more prominent the characters become.

In Chu Xuan's opinion, in such a small scene as going up the stairs, if the field of view is expanded too much, more empty elements will be included in the picture, which will squeeze out the audience's focus on the male protagonist, which is not good for the scene where the male protagonist appears and meets the audience for the first time.

"Adjust it a little more...Okay, stop, that's it."

"All departments should prepare for startup!"

Chu Xuan put down the intercom and waited for Sister Li to help him redo his makeup. He stood up and said to Liu Yifei, "Producer Liu is working."

Having said this, he hurried off to the set.

Seeing Chu Xuan like this, Liu Yifei smiled slightly. Although she could understand Chu Xuan's anxiety and panic in his first directing and acting, this was completely different from the calm and relaxed look Chu Xuan had when he was an actor in the past, which also made her feel a little happy.

Liu Yifei took the director's seat. It had been agreed before that when Chu Xuan went to film, she would act as the director and help give orders. Although it was just a minor job, it was still within the scope of a director's responsibilities. It could be regarded as an experience and preparation for her future career as a director.

"Jock, Jock, are you ready?"

Seeing that director Chu Xuan was making preparations rigorously and solemnly, the staff from all departments on the set also tended to have a serious atmosphere. But when they heard Liu Yifei's voice coming from the intercom, some people on the set couldn't hold it back and burst out laughing.

Chu Xuan was a little confused. This Liu Yifei was just trying to mess with his mentality. Why did she have to take the initiative to ask when he gestured to start the camera instead of waiting for him to do so?

It was his first time directing and acting in a film, so he was a little anxious. He finally managed to put his mood into character, but this sentence broke his defense.

Jock Jock? I'm still Shukebeta. I really don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Tang Jili, Huang Lei and Ning Hao from the director team also couldn't help laughing. This Xixi is really adorable.

"It's really interesting." Song Qian, who was watching the show, laughed happily.

"This couple is quite funny." Huang Bo also found it very interesting.

The actors nearby had their own interesting opinions and were amused by this scene.

Liu Yifei blinked, and seeing that Chu Xuan lost his state because of her words, she apologized quickly: "Sorry, it's my fault, you try to regain your state, I won't say anything."

Get back into the groove, I won’t say anything more… Huang Lei slapped his forehead, trying to hold back his laughter.

"My Love from the Star" already has light comedy elements. This scene with the couple made him feel that "My Love from the Star" was a success. The comedy already existed in reality and there was no need to act at all. He could just go on stage and improvise. It was really funny.

Liu Yifei became serious. She watched Chu Xuan on the screen and took some time to regain his composure. Seeing Chu Xuan giving her an "OK" gesture towards the camera, she said seriously, "Script supervisor, hit the board, start filming!"

The scene was completely silent. A man with a wind-like stage control ran to Chu Xuan, shouted ten numbers, and then hit the board: "My Love from the Star, one scene, one take, one time, start!"

The shot is taken at an angle of 60 degrees.

Long Fei set up a ladder four or five meters above the ground to carry the trajectory of the CG footage of sinking from a high altitude. He carried the camera and slowly walked down the ladder while shooting, with the camera moving from high to low and panning downward.

Chu Xuan had ordinary messy hair and was dressed in a non-mainstream outfit. His shirt had tears that revealed the threads, and his jeans had holes. He put his hands in his pockets, looked down, and walked up the stairs at a slow pace of half a second, one step at a time. He looked like a decadent, unsunny, but handsome young man.

Chu Xuan remained in this state and walked up the last step.

At the same time, Long Fei also landed completely from the ladder, facing Chu Xuan who had climbed up the stairs. The tilted camera angle rhythmically turned into a frontal flat angle of Chu Xuan during the process of descending the ladder, completing the camera movement concept of Chu Xuan's smooth connection with CG shots without excessive changes to character shots.

"Crack!"

"Perfect!"

Liu Yifei's happy voice came from the intercom.

"Good!" The whole team applauded and celebrated the successful start.

(End of this chapter)