Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 257 Dedicated Meng Ziyi
"Hello... Producer Meng."

"Otherwise, I have to call you Teacher Ziyi." Meng Bai gave a thumbs up. "You can just call me 'Xiao Meng'. There's no need to add the title at the end."

"hey-hey……"

Meng Ziyi smiled sweetly with some embarrassment: "I am afraid that if I call him 'little uncle' in the crew, others will misunderstand that I am bringing money into the crew."

"You think no one knows now, right?"

"Ah?" Meng Ziyi looked at him blankly, "They all know?"

"Why don't you just say you're living a happy life?" Meng Bai said with a sigh, "Just shout whatever you want."

"Oh."

Meng Ziyi responded gloomily, but immediately regained his cheerful mood.

He took a step forward and stood in front of him, without saying a word. He slightly tilted his body and shook his head as if casually.

Meng Bai glanced at her and silently took two steps to the side.

Meng Ziyi moved sideways and continued to stand in front of him, even raising her hand to touch her hair.

Seeing that she would have to stay here if he didn't say anything, Meng Bai finally said, "Hey, you cut your hair short."

Sure enough, Meng Ziyi's eyes lit up instantly when he heard this: "Yes, the director said that short hair would be better, so I went to get it cut before joining the crew."

The girl spoke excitedly, with an expression of "hurry up and praise me" written all over her face.

"Wow, our little Meng is so dedicated!" Meng Bai cooperated without any emotion.

Meng Ziyi didn't care about his perfunctory attitude, and seemed to be satisfied as long as he heard these words.

"Does it look good, uncle?"

Meng Bai took a look and said, "Very good."

This is not a lie.

Although this girl is young, she has a bright and charming appearance.

Now that she has cut her hair short and let her bangs down, paired with simple jeans and a white shirt, she really has the fresh temperament of a college graduate.

Oh, she is just a college student.

Looking at Meng Ziyi who was so happy because of the praise, Meng Bai secretly said "little girl" in his heart and planned to walk around her on the set.

After walking a few steps, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and found that the girl was following me closely.

"Don't you need to prepare?"

"The director just said that the venue is not ready yet, so let's take a break first."

"Then you can just take a rest. Why are you following me?"

Meng Ziyi blinked: "Sister Tongtong asked me to help her keep an eye on you on the set to see if you're hooking up with other girls."

"You two have a pretty good relationship. You've even developed remote monitoring."

Meng Bai glanced at her sideways: "So are you on my side, or on your sister Tongtong's side?"

"Of course I stand on my uncle's side!"

Meng Ziyi said without hesitation, winking at Meng Bai and making a heart shape with his thumb and index finger.

"..." Meng Bai looked at her speechlessly, "Good girl, don't make things awkward all the time."

"Is it awkward? Shouldn't it feel cute?"

As she said that, she winked again.

Meng Bai took a deep breath, grabbed her shoulders and turned her around: "Now, except for the staff, you are the only girl on the set, so just look after yourself."

Meng Ziyi: (⊙_⊙)?——
Meng Bai's classmate was quite reliable. He sent a truckload of wooden planks over in less than an hour.

It's almost noon now, and if we delay any longer, we may not be able to take the photo today.

The crew didn't distinguish between directors, photographers, props or stagehands. About 20 to 30 people worked together to cover the entire camera area with wooden boards.

After paving the ground, the machine has to be re-set up.

After nearly two hours of hard work, I finally solved the venue problem.

Wang Wei asked everyone to eat and rest as soon as possible. At 2 pm, the first test shoot finally started.

Meng Bai stood behind the director team's screen. The picture here was consistent with the monitor picture the director was watching.

In front of the camera, three policemen were rummaging through a garbage bag, which contained bloody and foul-smelling pieces of meat.

As the camera moves back, a black police SUV enters the frame. The car stops in front of the camera, the passenger door opens, and Meng Ziyi jumps out of the car briskly. Meng Bai is here mainly to see how this girl performs. If her acting is too bad, at least he won't be scolded too badly by Wang Wei.

After all, he is his own child, so he still has some sense of responsibility.

But after watching for a while, he felt that he was a little too suspicious. Meng Ziyi's performance was not bad, and the tone of his lines and his expressions and movements were all acceptable.

Yes, if his acting was really that bad, Wang Wei would have mentioned it to him long ago.

I have to say that the few days of preparation that the crew spent in advance were not wasted.

Throughout the entire long shot, no one made any low-level mistakes like lag, forgetting the lines, or laughing, and the scene went on quite smoothly.

8 minutes of shooting, 8 minutes of review, plus the time to restore the scene, it takes about half an hour to shoot one shot.

The daytime hours are relatively long in September, and I can probably take seven or eight shots before dark.

Watching the replay with Wang Wei and the others, although Meng Bai had never studied directing, he had learned a lot about it after a few years.

"Isn't there something wrong with the light?" Meng Bai asked, "The time in the plot should be morning, but it seems a little too bright now."

Wang Wei nodded: "Indeed. But the ones that are used in the end will definitely be the ones at the end. It will be evening, and the light intensity is about the same as in the morning. We can adjust the color later in the post-production."

There is a saying in the film and television industry: "Don't leave things that can be solved in the early stage to the later stage."

However, for photography, the morning time is too short and difficult to control, so most of the time it still requires the trouble of post-production adjustments.

After discussing for a while, Meng Bai's phone suddenly rang. He glanced at the screen and saw that it was Chen Zhixi's call.

"Hey, Miss Xi, what's up?"

After working together for a year, the two have become familiar with each other and their attitudes are much more casual than when they first met.

Chen Zhixi did the same, without any small talk, he asked directly: "Are you in Jingbei?"

"No, I'm out there, starting a new project."

"Well, can you come back the day after tomorrow? Detective Chinatown is a huge success, let's have a celebration party together."

"The day after tomorrow, right? Sure, I have to go back to Beijing North. Uh..."

Meng Bai paused.

"What's wrong?" Chen Zhixi asked.

"It's okay, I'll go directly there when the time comes."

After hanging up the phone, Meng Bai touched his chin. From Chen Zhixi's tone, it seemed that he didn't know about Wang Baoqiang yet.

After thinking about it, he walked some distance away and called Chen Sicheng again.

"Brother, you didn't tell Sister Xi about Brother Baoqiang?"

"I was just planning to talk to her these days," said Chen Sicheng.

Strictly speaking, this kind of thing is actually Wang Baoqiang's own private matter and there is no need to tell outsiders.

But since he is a star and the leading actor at that, the film producers must be prepared.

After all, although the movie has been taken off the shelves, it will be sold to streaming platforms later to make more money.

Such a big scandal will have an impact on subsequent profits.

Therefore, we need to consider when to break the news, how to break the news, and how to deal with public opinion after the news breaks.

But no matter what, if this matter is dragged until the movie is taken off the screen, Wang Baoqiang will basically have no weaknesses.

Unless his wife and agent caught him in some way.

"Don't worry, I've talked to Baoqiang about this. Unless the other side is spreading rumors, they have no advantage at all." Chen Sicheng said in an affirmative tone.

Meng Bai was half-believing and half-doubting. The entertainment industry was full of good and bad people, and people like him could be considered pure and innocent.

Those characters who appear to be honest may not really be honest.

However, since Chen Sicheng dared to say so, he should be somewhat confident.

Regardless of whether Wang Baoqiang is really innocent or not, at least the other party has no evidence.

"Okay." Meng Bai said, "We'll discuss the details at the celebration party the day after tomorrow."

"Okay, there's one more thing I want to tell you."

"Wow, Senior Brother, you're not going to tell me who's in trouble again, are you?"

"Don't worry, this time it's a serious work matter, so it's a good thing."

(End of this chapter)