Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 436 Zhang Yimou Visits the Set

Li Qiutang went to buy wet wipes for his wife and also brought back a bowl of oden and two grilled sausages, saying they were his late-night snack while he worked overtime writing. However, Liu Yifei ate one of the sausages.

Li Qiutang cursed her, saying she was a reincarnated starving ghost: "You don't buy it yourself, you just know how to steal from others."

While Li Qiutang continued writing her manuscript, Zeng Jia told Yang Mi that she had heard about a movie that was scheduled to start filming in December, but the female lead had not yet been cast.

Adapted from a popular IP, invested by LeTV and Huang Xiaoming, it's just missing a female lead, and it's called "My Sunshine".

Upon hearing the name, Yang Mi's heart skipped a beat. Of course, she knew about this drama; her best friend Tang Yan had just finished filming the TV version last month, and the two had even discussed their roles together.

“Given your relationship with Huang Xiaoming, you should have no problem playing Zhao Mosheng.” Zeng Jia felt this movie was very worthwhile for her to act in.

But Yang Mi was in a dilemma. Tang Yan had just finished filming the TV series, and Yang Mi immediately took on the film version. Would this be considered betraying her best friend?

She immediately opened Tang Yan's WeChat interface, wanting to sound her out. Tang Yan wasn't filming any night scenes tonight, so she could chat with her casually.

Tang Yan is currently filming "The Lost Tomb"—the first web series with an investment of over 100 million yuan, a true super web series.

Tang Yan bragged to her best friend that she had three dramas airing at the beginning of the year: *My Sunshine*, *Lady & Liar*, and *Legend of Fragrance*. All three would be released in January and February, guaranteeing her a huge media exposure.
Tangyan has a very high sales volume.

Yang Mi asked Tang Yan what projects she had planned after finishing filming "The Lost Tomb." Without much thought, Tang Yan told Yang Mi about her upcoming projects: "I'll be filming 'Diamond Lover,' starting in December. I'll be working with that girl from your company again. I'm the spokesperson for Tongling Jewelry, and this project was funded by Tongling Jewelry."

Yang Mi saw smugness and pride in Tang Yan's words.

It's not uncommon for brands to create shows for their spokespeople, but it's certainly rare, which shows Tongling Jewelry's fondness for and emphasis on Tangyan.

After finishing her conversation with Tang Yan, Yang Mi thought about it and decided to take on the film adaptation of "Silent Separation"!
Just then, Zeng Jia messaged us: "I'll have the production company send us a notice, you can give it a try."

Yang Mi only replied with a very ambiguous "You decide what to do."

Yang Mi was giving herself a pep talk: "It's not that I insisted on acting in 'My Sunshine,' it was the production company that proactively sent a notice to my company. I was just doing what the company told me to do, it doesn't count as betraying my best friend."

The next morning, Liu Yifei got up before Li Qiutang. When Li Qiutang got up, Liu Yifei was sitting there soaking her feet and scrolling through her phone.

"Serves you right for being greedy last night!" If you hadn't snatched Li Qiutang's grilled sausage last night, would you have been so swollen this morning that you needed to soak your feet?

Liu Yifei skillfully shifted the blame: "I told you to go buy tissues, not grilled sausages."

"I ate it myself, why did you steal it?" Is there any pleasure in arguing in the morning?

After washing up, the two went out together to work on the film set.

The filming has been going much more smoothly lately. However, Chen Kailin, being a newcomer, is still not very good at it and keeps saying sorry. Li Qiutang has told her more than once, "Saying sorry on set is useless."

Fortunately, most of her scenes are action scenes, so she doesn't need to do many dramatic scenes. If she can't finish a scene in one take, she can do it again. Moreover, she doesn't have a stunt double; she does all the fighting and falling herself.

It's hard to say whether this is right or wrong, but the TVB executives who came to visit the set agreed with Lee Chau-tong's approach, believing that newcomers should be trained in this way.

"Filming is not child's play, especially action scenes. Look at those stuntmen, which one of them hasn't broken a hand or foot?"

TVB went to great lengths to get her into Li Qiutang's production team, hoping she could use the "Mojin: The Lost Legend" team to open up the mainland market. Many of TVB's senior members are also conservative and stubbornly stick to the Hong Kong local market. At most, they can only see Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and they are not even willing to go to Guangzhou.

But there are always some people who want to move north and actively embrace the mainland market, and Grace Chan is one of the pioneers.

Therefore, all of Grace Chan's complaints and grievances about "Mojin: The Lost Legend" will basically not receive support from TVB, and Li Qiutang can do whatever he wants to her.

TVB is even considering that if "Mojin: The Lost Legend" does well when it is released next year, they could take the opportunity to discuss some collaborations with the company in the fall.

Someone will be visiting the set today; the crew is filming a night shoot.

"Will they come?" Those in the director's studio who knew about today's guests were already looking forward to it and discussing it.

Li Qiutang laughed and said, "Whether he comes or not, we'll still be filming." "No, I haven't even met him yet."

Li Qiutang smiled but remained silent.

Filming continued until the early hours of the morning, and Li Qiutang had almost forgotten that someone was coming to visit the set today, when a minivan finally stopped outside the studio.

Li Qiutang felt a cold wind blow in from behind, followed by footsteps, indicating that someone had arrived.

"Director," someone called him softly.

Turning my head, I saw Zhang Yimou, who had come to visit the set.

Li Qiutang stood up to greet him: "I thought you weren't coming."

Zhang Yimou's assistant presented the gifts, which were some tea and snacks.

The group sat down and, without engaging in idle chatter, Zhang Yimou asked him if the filming was going smoothly.

"Things have been pretty good these past few days."

Is shooting in 3D troublesome?

"It's quite troublesome. We also have a lot of 2D shots, which need to be converted in post-production."

Frankly speaking, tomb raiding is not the domain of the Fifth Generation of filmmakers, but Zhang Yimou is very interested in it: "Will you have any difficulties in handling this kind of subject matter?"

"Yes, tomb raiding is illegal, so we took action. The one who broke the law was someone else; the protagonist was forced to go into the ancient tomb. Just like in 'Indiana Jones,' Indiana Jones is an archaeology professor who protects cultural relics from damage and works for a museum. He doesn't participate in tomb raiding himself; in fact, he stops it."

Zhang Yimou asked many technical questions, such as what kind of machine Li Qiutang used, what the advantages and disadvantages of this machine were, and the problems with 3D shooting, etc.

Li Qiutang answered some of his questions, while other questions were explained by specific staff members.

The two watched the filming of a scene together. Li Qiutang called "cut" and invited Zhang Yimou to the set.

Everyone on set knew Zhang Yimou, and they were all very happy to see him visit the set.

Zhang Yimou looked at the set in the studio and said, "It's obviously very expensive. I've seen many Hollywood movies now made entirely with green screens, and 70-80% of them rely on post-production compositing."

Li Qiutang disagreed with that filming method: "Filming like that is too damaging to the actors' performances, because everything around the actors is fake, and the actors have no room to perform."

Zhang Yimou prefers to discuss issues with the on-site technical staff rather than chatting with the actors.

He had just finished talking to Liu Yifei, saying he had seen her in "Pacific Rim" and "Lucy," praising her as the most popular Chinese actress in Hollywood. Then he turned around and went to chat with the 3D modeler and special effects supervisor on set.

Zhang Yimou was particularly interested in 3D shooting and post-production special effects management, and also exchanged views with producer Li Qiutang on issues such as pre- and post-production management of the film crew.

After leaving the scene, Li Qiutang took Zhang Yimou to see other technical departments. It was almost 2 a.m. by then, but the two directors were still in high spirits.

Zhang Yimou consulted Li Qiutang about matters related to transnational cooperation, especially the things to pay attention to when cooperating with Hollywood.

On the way to the DIT tent, Li Qiutang asked Zhang Yimou, "Director, are you going to make a 3D movie with big special effects?"

Based on Zhang Yimou's interest in the technical department and the timing, Li Qiutang guessed that Zhang Yimou was probably going to make "The Great Wall".

Zhang Yimou laughed and said, "Yes, Legendary Pictures brought it in, and it's been in production for over two years. It's a monster movie, and it's quite fun."

It's unfair to criticize Zhang Yimou for taking on this film; a film like "The Great Wall" is indeed very tempting.

Since Zhang Yimou sought advice from the "Mojin: The Lost Legend" crew, Li Qiutang shared her knowledge without reservation, opening up her experience and insights on crew management, industrial processes, and international cooperation, as well as her understanding of the Hollywood production system.

(End of this chapter)