1980 My Entertainment Era

Chapter 125 Go out and find a horse!

Director Yang also chatted with Xia's parents and said that Xia Tian made many valuable suggestions on the filming of Journey to the West.

Thank you both for raising an excellent son and contributing to our literary and artistic work~
When Xia's parents heard this, they thought, "You're going to film Journey to the West! We must support it!"

Even if it means sticking hair on my son and making him act like a monkey, I would do it!

This time, Director Yang not only came to inform Xia Tian that he had been officially selected to play the role of Little White Dragon in the "Journey to the West" crew, but also invited him to go to the northern grasslands together!
Mr. and Mrs. Xia have already agreed in advance!
Execute first and report later, right?

On the train to the North Prairie on Sunday.

Director Yang: "After deciding to let you play the role of Little White Dragon, I started thinking about what to do with the White Dragon Horse?"

"Not to mention how difficult it is to get a white horse to obey orders, even finding a suitable white horse is difficult!"

"I first thought, can I paint a red or brown horse white? But after trying it, it doesn't work! The paint peels off too easily, and the color looks weird, which will affect the shooting effect..."

"After searching for more than a week, I found a little white horse on a nearby farm. They said it was one year old..."

"It's too small!" Director Yang slapped his thigh. "I tried riding it, but it's still too small. If Tang Seng rides on it, it would be like riding a donkey!"

The thought of Elder Tang riding on a white donkey—Xia Tian barely suppressed his laughter.

Director Yang finally felt that this was not possible and he had to find a qualified white horse, even if he had to buy it!
But who should I buy them from? These days, all the good horses are at the military horse farms in the northern grasslands.

So this trip, according to Director Yang's plan, took about three or four days without any problems.

But because her husband was busy at work and couldn't come, she wanted Xia Tian to go along.

This means that Xia Tian has already started to be used as a crew member!

These days, women are used as men, and men are used as animals.
On the way, Director Yang also talked about his preparations during this period - Chi Chongrui had already signed the contract, and told him in detail about the difficulties and time he might face.

He also agreed after careful consideration.

Director Yang cried poor to the station leaders about the funding issue, but there was really no money. So she said: Then let me do it at my own convenience and I will solve it myself!

As the saying goes, a slap in the face is followed by a sweet reward, or if you aim high you will get something in the middle, this is the little bit of "autonomy" we get.

Stylists, costume designers, and pyrotechnicians are also in place.

The only thing missing now is the actor who plays Monkey Brother, and the wire-acting technique that Xia Tian mentioned.

As for the wire technology, Xia Tian had already secured it through Lou Xiao'e's connections.

Next month, a Hong Kong crew will come to Beijing to shoot, and I can learn from their martial arts masters. Lou Xiao'e paid for it!

Of course, it would be even better if we could get a camera in the summer!
According to the normal timeline, Director Yang would have already started the trial shooting of "Exorcising Demons from the Black Chicken Kingdom" at this time.

She is the type of person who is decisive and solves problems when they arise.

But because of summer, now it has become a matter of planning~
Xia Tian remembered something and asked, "Aunt Yang, how far have you come with your cast list? Who has been confirmed?"

"Among the four masters and apprentices, only Tang Monk has been confirmed, but Zhu Bajie and Monk Sha are easy to deal with. The only difficult one is Monkey King... Do you have any recommendations?!"

Ever since he recommended Chi Chongrui in the summer, Director Yang has started to treat him as "Ding Dong". He is hoping to come up with a few more suitable candidates!
Xia Tian doesn't plan to get involved in Teacher Liu's affairs. He just wants to see what happens next.

So he said, "I can't think of it at the moment...what about the other actors?"

"Do you have a candidate?" Director Yang was a little impatient, but he was smart. He immediately understood what Xia Tian meant.

"Don't tell me, there really are two..."

"Wei Huili, who acted with me in 'The Transformation of the Spirit', you must have seen it. What did you think of it?" Xia Tian asked.

"What role do you think she can play?" Director Yang asked.

Xia Tian chose his words: "This is what I think... Although filming Journey to the West is full of difficulties, it also has its advantages!"

"Think about it! Journey to the West is a mythological story! So there is no specific era style, so there is a high degree of freedom in costumes, makeup, props and performances!"

"Then there are the actors... gods and monsters, so the prototypes are not important. You have a lot of room to play with, and you can just follow your own style~"

Director Yang's style is handsome men and beautiful women~
Director Yang couldn't help but nodded after hearing this.

What you said is good, it really boosts morale. I’ll credit you for it!
So Xia Tian said, "Wei Huili can play many roles, but I think she can play, for example...Gao Cuilan?!"

"Gao Cuilan?"

"Correct!"

"This is what I think! Among the four main characters, Sha Seng cannot be portrayed in too much detail, after all, he has few scenes in the original novel. But the other three may need more time and more screen time." "Let's not talk about Tang Seng, who has been involved from birth to becoming a monk, and his character is easy to portray. Monkey King is the main male protagonist, not to mention. But what about Bajie?!"

"As the role of the four members of the pilgrimage team who is responsible for making jokes, creating conflicts, and controlling explosions, it cannot be neglected. Gao Laozhuang is worth mentioning."

"In the plot of Gao Laozhuang, there is a scene where a monkey turns into Gao Cuilan to deceive Zhu Bajie. I think Wei Huili can definitely play the monkey well... By the way, Aunt Yang, many characters in the play need to be able to play monkeys, after all, monkeys have turned into many people. The audience must be able to tell that it was the monkey who turned into Gao Cuilan, right?"

Director Yang felt that Xia Tian was worthy of being a writer who could write novels, and that he indeed looked at Journey to the West from a writer's perspective... This was something he had not thought of before.

"Okay! Do you have her contact information?"

"Have!"

"Okay, then you tell her first, and then when we get back, I'll call her and talk to her myself."

Director Yang wanted Xia Tian to go and do favors first. Although Xia Tian felt that it was unnecessary, Director Yang meant well after all, and it was also a small rule of interpersonal communication, so he just had to abide by it.

……

Yanjing is not far from the grassland. After all, the emperor is guarding the national border!
In less than ten hours, Director Yang and Xia Tian arrived at Chifeng.
Sitting in a hard seat for eight or nine hours was exhausting for Director Yang, who was in his fifties.

Although he was spending public money, Director Yang still set strict standards for himself.

Not to mention discussing with Xia Tian all the way, the two of them drew six versions of the concept map of Monkey King alone, and finally decided on the image of the Journey to the West and the Monkey King.

Xia Tian also suggested that after returning to Yanjing, they should find a clay figurine craftsman to make specific images out of clay dolls. If they look three-dimensional, they will have a better idea in mind when shaping them!
It was already evening when they got off the bus. Director Yang pounded her stiff waist and looked at Xia Tian who was energetically helping her carry her bag, and she sighed, "It's great to be young."

The two of them got along well, showed their letters of introduction, and stayed in a guesthouse in the city that night.

The next morning, Xia Tian and his companions took a bus to Hongshan Military Horse Farm.

Director Yang has already made the call through his connections at the station.

Driving this car on the grassland, the feeling is really different!

The sky and the earth seemed to open up all of a sudden. Looking up, there were blue sky and white clouds. Looking far away, there was green grassland extending to the horizon and connected with the blue sky!
After driving a long way, you can occasionally see people grazing, with large groups of cattle and sheep scattered on the grass...

A different kind of happy emotion arises involuntarily in my heart!

All kinds of melodies began to appear in Xia Tian's mind involuntarily, as if they appeared involuntarily in the open air as the wind blew the grass low and the cattle and sheep were seen.

Suddenly, a passenger in the back seat of the bus patted Xia Tian on the shoulder and said, "Hello, comrade. Sorry to bother you. May I ask what song you are humming?"

"Ah?" Xia Tian was interrupted and then he realized that he had hummed involuntarily just now.

As a result, the person in the back seat listened for a long time and thought it was nice and very grassland-style, like a folk song, but he was not sure and couldn't help but ask the question.

He didn't think much about it, he just wanted to know what the song was called! He really liked it.

At this time, Director Yang looked at that person - she heard everything just now, but did not dare to speak out to disturb Xia Tian. After all, she was engaged in literary and artistic creation, and she knew about this situation.

Xia Tian looked at the man. He was wearing a fur coat and his face was weather-beaten. He looked like a Mongolian.

"Oh, it's okay. This song... This song is adapted from a grassland folk song I heard before. It's called... Let's call it "Wild Goose"!"

"'Wild Goose'? You just created it?!" Director Yang asked hurriedly.

"That's it."

Director Yang patted Xia Tian's shoulder excitedly, his hand was quite firm, "Good boy, you've got it! I knew you could write songs and compose music, but I never thought you could do this!"

Director Yang knew that Xia Tian understood music. Not to mention the children's songs, those two piano pieces alone were highly regarded in the industry.

Moreover, the public also has feelings about what is good and what is bad.

Even now, some people still write to the Chinese Radio Station, asking them to play the two songs!

Radio stations in other places also started playing it.

I didn't expect that he would create a song under such circumstances! It seems to have lyrics, but I didn't hear them clearly just now.

Before the grassland man could speak, Director Yang spoke up: "That's great. You can sing for us and we will be the first audience to listen!"

At this time, all the passengers in the car had paid attention, after all, Director Yang had a loud voice.

It's not popular to hide things these days. There's no such thing.

Seeing this, Xia Tian could only agree: "Okay, if my singing is not good, please don't laugh at me."

Xia Tian: Otherwise, I recognize you, but my fists don’t recognize you~
(End of this chapter)