Huayu: When the director changed his major

Since time is money, filming started immediately at 8 o'clock.

After filming a few simple warm-up shots, we arrived at the most difficult part of the show: the circus scene.

Cheng Xi couldn't help but tease Fan Binbin beside her:
"Let me show you how we film circus scenes!"

Cheng Xi emphasized the word "circus," which earned him a roll of his eyes from Fan Binbin.

Although "Lady of the Dynasty: Yang Guifei" suffered a box office failure and its reputation was also ruined.

But the only highlight of the film, the "circus," is what really made it a hit.

Even those who didn't go to the cinema to see it still knew about this movie.

Unfortunately, most of them came to complain.

If this were ten years from now, perhaps some people would still watch it because of this joke.

But in 2015, sorry, the Chinese people weren't that relaxed yet.

Most of the comments were negative.

Some people criticized the director, some criticized the actors, and some even criticized the screenwriter.

But to be honest, Cheng Xi had seen this "circus" before.

Including Sister Binbin's "Apple", that's quite good too.

Many netizens in China have complained:

"The Empress of China" has been copied by three great directors. It's not easy to learn it well, but it's easy to learn it badly.

This incident also brought some negative impacts to Fan Binbin.

After all, she's the star of the "circus"!
But what could she do? She didn't dare to scold those big directors, so she could only endure it.

Hearing Cheng Xi tease her, Fan Binbin regretted coming early.

This "child director" is as sharp-tongued as ever.

However, Fan Binbin has a strong mentality. After so many years on the path of being a top star, if he didn't have an optimistic attitude, he would have been criticized to the point of depression long ago.

On second thought, at least Cheng Xi was still joking as always, and was also very interested in his movie.

That's enough.

After all, what I fear most is not poor box office performance, but that this guy will forget about me amidst all the beautiful women around him.

As long as one doesn't forget and maintains a consistent attitude towards oneself, then the path to becoming a top star should be able to continue for a few more years, riding on Cheng Xi's coattails.

Before long, the horse trainer brought over a tall, snow-white horse.

He was truly handsome and dashing.

Anyone who rides such a white horse would probably become a prince charming.

The beautiful white horse was right next to Cheng Xi, snorting loudly.

Under the guidance and cooperation of the horse trainer, everyone quickly put the reins on it.

"What's the name of this horse?" Cheng Xi asked.

"Hello Director Cheng, my name is Stephen Chow."

Good heavens, he shares the same name as Stephen Chow, no wonder he's called Master Ma!

Cheng Xi, Fan Binbin, and the others couldn't help but reach out and touch it.

It's clear that this handsome, tall, white horse is indeed very appealing.

Especially Wang Baoqiang, since he will be the main rider later, so the horse trainer specially arranged for the two to get to know each other beforehand.

He also shared some tips on horse riding with Wang Baoqiang.

Wang Baoqiang: "Stephen Chow, it's up to you now. Please give me your guidance."

Stephen Chow didn't turn around, he was just panting heavily, but his large eyes were fixed on Wang Baoqiang, as if he was observing something.

At this time, Wang Baoqiang, Cheng Xi, and Xiao Yang were already ready.

Seeing that it was almost time, the three of them jumped into the carriage.

Xin Yukun was communicating with the photographer in front of the camera not far away:

"The first shot is a close-up of the car following it, focusing on capturing the feeling of speed. We also used a drone to shoot a low-altitude effect with the fourth shot."

The cameramen were all on a large truck, with their equipment already set up to ensure real-time tracking. For added stability, camera position number 3 consisted of a crane camera mounted on the filming vehicle.

Including the camera angle for the carriage reversing, there are a total of four cameras used for this scene.

There's no other way; if we filmed them separately, it would take up a lot of time.

We can't afford to wait!
By 8 o'clock, Times Square had already started to get lively.

Many passersby and shop staff occasionally glanced at the film crew on the main road.

Everyone was wondering who was making such a grand entrance.

They even managed to get police cars to temporarily block the road.

It was quite unusual to see that the main characters were three Asian faces wearing trench coats.

After the crew was all ready, the horse-drawn carriage scene officially began with Xin Yukun's shout of "Action!"

First, the three main characters, Cheng Xi, stood on the carriage, while Tang Ren, played by Wang Baoqiang, stood in the driver's seat, raising his whip high.

Let me first take a still shot of this scene for you.

A few seconds later, Tang Ren started driving the carriage.

He cracked the whip against Xingchi's ear.

The horse trainer was also at the camera position in front of the carriage, calling out "Star Chariot" to gallop forward.

Then the horse-drawn carriage, the front carriage, the side carriage, and the drone all moved forward together.

Cheng Xi and the other two, sitting in the carriage, also cheered enthusiastically.

Because the pre-shoot preparations were quite thorough, the shooting plan was already in Cheng Xi and Xin Yukun's minds.

Aside from the large number of people and occasional coordination issues, the first day of the circus event was relatively smooth.

The filming went very smoothly.

However, Cheng Xi strives for perfection. After all, two days' worth of money has been spent, and you can't finish filming in one day.

So they worked tirelessly with the crew to refine the film and strive to achieve the best possible results.

Later, they even mobilized a helicopter to directly interact and film in real time with the Times Square screen.

We've finished filming some of the most difficult parts of this scene.

Cheng Xi was also very happy, because this would make tomorrow's filming schedule a little easier.

At 1 p.m., Cheng Xi's announcement of "That's a wrap" made everyone extremely happy.

Today's filming was under constant pressure, as the director had given prior instructions.

This is a race against time; the faster we shoot, the better, and nobody dares to make a mistake.

While watching Cheng Xi's scenes and the on-set coordination with Xin Yukun in front of the monitor, Fan Binbin couldn't help but say:

"Why do I always feel a vitality in Director Cheng's crew? And his directing and acting skills have improved so much that I feel like I can't keep up with him."

Xin Yukun: "How could that be? The director has always told me that Sister Binbin is one of the best actresses in China."

Fan Binbin: "Why does this sound so unreal? He actually said nice things about me?"

"It's true, you can ask Cheng Xiao if you don't believe me. The boss is just a bit sharp-tongued, but if he didn't approve of Sister Binbin, he would have had her come to the rescue when filming the first movie!"

"It's clear that your acting skills are fully recognized by the boss."

Fan Bingbing smiled happily upon hearing this.

She and Xin Yukun only met in "Detective Chinatown 1".

I only just realized that he's quite a remarkable person.

He truly deserves to be called a grassroots individual who has been lying low for many years and rose to the top based on his own strength.

No wonder Cheng Xi didn't bring so many directors along, but only Xin Yukun.

A capable, emotionally intelligent, and obedient subordinate is the kind of person a boss would prefer.

Fan Binbin is a boss himself.

Of course, I can understand the reasoning behind it.

But why is there such a big difference between these two circus shows? (End of Chapter)