Huayu Entertainment: Tianxian really wants to improve

Chapter 290 Your Chicken Soup is on its Way!

"This is an actress whom the casting team believes is worth considering: Liu Yifei."

Ouyang Baoping pointed to Liu Yifei's information above and praised her lavishly for a while, saying, "Liu Yifei's advantage lies in her physical fitness and special action skills, which far surpass those of other actresses."

Meanwhile, her performances in The Forbidden Kingdom and Whiplash have been well-received by film critics and audiences, earning her a certain degree of global recognition.

The upcoming filming of "The Fault in Our Stars" is based on a global bestseller with over 1000 million copies sold, which will undoubtedly further enhance her global fame.

but……"

The turning point has arrived!

Ouyang Baoping himself really likes Liu Yifei.
However, due to the casting director's professional skills,
She said very seriously, "The casting team believes that Liu Yifei's personal image does not match the female lead's appearance, and her acting experience is also at a disadvantage compared to other actors."

"I think we can advance to the next round!"

Gu Bei stated directly, "We can wait until the second round of auditions, after makeup, to see how it looks in the photos."
But in terms of performance experience,
I don't think Liu Yifei's acting skills are a disadvantage.

In the recently concluded "The Message," her performance was no worse than Zhang Ziyi's in the same group!

After a pause,

Gu Bei looked at Han Sanpin and Lin Tianyi.

The people he needed to persuade most were not Ouyang Baoping, but these two.

"The female protagonist in the movie is mainly divided into three levels as the plot progresses."

In the beginning, she was a biologist who suffered psychological trauma because of the death of her daughter; she was a lonely soul enveloped in trauma.

Facing the threat of death when space debris destroys the space shuttle, she needs to demonstrate a rational awakening from fear to the instinct for survival.

Finally, there is the story of a person surviving in space, who must overcome humanity's fear of loneliness and achieve a phoenix-like rebirth of self-redemption amidst collapse!
Apart from the final level of transformation

Liu Yifei gave similar performances in other parts of "The Message" and "Starry Night".
I think she did a very good job in those areas!

After Gu Bei finished speaking, the conference room fell silent for a moment.

Anyone could hear the strong support Gu Bei had for Liu Yifei.
They need to consider how to respond to Gu Bei.

The tug-of-war between the parties,
It is itself a significant factor influencing the final product of a film.

Almost every movie involves complex tug-of-war.

"Director Gu and Liu Yifei have worked together many times. I trust Director Gu's judgment. I agree that Liu Yifei should advance to the next round. We'll see then!"

Han Sanpin paused only slightly before agreeing with Gu Bei's opinion.

His support for great directors has always been very thorough.
Trust those you employ, and don't employ those you don't trust.
Otherwise, the absurd casting and script of Red Cliff would not have been allowed to appear.

"I agree."

Lin Tianyi nodded in agreement.

Last time, Han Sanpin followed his opinion; this time, it's his turn to follow Han Sanpin's opinion.

After all, it was only the first round of auditions.

The subsequent rounds of auditions still had a very high margin for error.

"I still need to remind you,"
Liu Yifei's age differs significantly from the image of the female lead.

Ouyang Baoping emphasized this with some trepidation.

Is this going to be another cutthroat island project?

Cutthroat Island, a huge loss-making project in Hollywood back then.
It was even listed in the Guinness World Records as the worst-performing film in history.
It was because the director rewrote the script to highlight his wife and misused the production team's funds.
This resulted in the film losing a full $100 million in 1995, bankrupting Caroco Pictures, the studio behind the Terminator series.

If Gravity fails, it could potentially bury the burgeoning Rose Pictures in a hole.

"Let's see how it goes in the later rounds of auditions!"

Gu Bei said lightly.

In terms of image,
Actually, Zhang Ziyi, whom Ouyang Baoping ranked first, is the most suitable.
Moreover, his acting skills are good, he has plenty of experience in action scenes, and he also has a certain overseas audience base.

But if Zhang Ziyi were to have the personality of Yu Jiaolong in real life, then she would be the perfect representative of the gravity project, an absolute all-rounder.

Unfortunately, she wasn't.
Her risk factors and shortcomings

It outpaced all the other long boards.

After a pause, Gu Bei continued, "Let's play her audition video for everyone to see!"

Speaking of which,

Ouyang Baoping wasn't worried.

Liu Yifei's acting skills have undergone a transformation compared to when she first appeared in "The King of Kung Fu".

This fact did offer some comfort to Ouyang Baoping.
At least in this respect, Liu Yifei is quite suitable.

"Action!"

"Has it started yet?"

Liu Yifei's stunning face appeared on the projection.

After receiving an affirmative answer from behind the camera, she stared intently at the lens and said, "Hello everyone, I am actress Liu Yifei. This time, I am auditioning for the female lead in Gravity."

The questions Gu Bei gave to everyone

It's about shooting close-up shots.

The performance depicts the transformation from panic and fear to the instinct for survival in a life-or-death crisis.

quickly,

Her performance then began.

Liu Yifei's face instantly turned panicked.
The iris in the pupil is shrinking to the size of a pinhole at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His breathing became rapid, and his breath created a wisp of white mist when it hit the camera lens.
She would still press the tip of her tongue against her palate to simulate the unconscious breathy sounds people make when they are flustered.

"Director Gu certainly has a good eye!"

Han Sanpin nodded.

He hasn't seen the other emotional levels yet.

But just this initial panicked performance,

She far surpasses actresses of the same age at this stage, and even most actresses.

"Very infectious!"

Lin Tianyi subconsciously tightened his grip on the pen in his hand.

Without the support of camera language and background music, he was unable to truly immerse himself in the performances of others.

But this part of Liu Yifei's performance,
But it made him truly feel that the other person was facing a life-or-death crisis.

He doesn't understand acting, but the emotional impact of this scene made him have no doubt about Gu Bei's judgment.

Next,
Liu Yifei's performance depicted her gradually regaining her composure after being initially panicked.

After watching an audition video, the three people no longer had any doubts about their three votes.

Two days,

The three of them, along with Ouyang Baoping, watched dozens of audition videos.

The list of candidates for the second round of auditions has finally been finalized.

"So this is how tiring it is to select actors in your film and television industry!"

Lin Tianyi patted his aching back and said, "I used to think your selection process would be a lot of fun, but I didn't expect it to be so boring!"

"The most tedious work isn't even here!"

Gu Bei said with a smile.

The casting director's studio where Ouyang Baoping works is responsible for the most tedious part.

She needs to find all the actresses who meet Gu Bei's requirements, contact them one by one, and obtain their audition videos.

Then, through further screening, dozens of qualified individuals were selected and handed over to three people for a final decision.

Upon hearing this, Ouyang Baoping smiled and said, "The work on this movie is already relatively easy. Basically, we only need to cast one female lead."

Subsequently,

She handed the second round of names to the three people: "Here's the list. Once you've confirmed it's correct, we'll contact them to send out invitations." Gu Bei glanced down at it.
There are only six people on the list.
First, there's Gong Li, who already holds Singaporean citizenship.
Then there's Liu Yifei, who still holds North American citizenship.
There's also Yang Ziqiong, a Chinese-American who has made her way in Hollywood.

And Liu Jialing, an actress who is still active in Xiangdu,

Finally, there were two people who made up the list: Shu Qi from Taiwan and Xu Jinglei from mainland China.

This list is essentially equivalent to a master of impartiality.
It catered to people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Hong Kong, Hollywood, and the Chinese community.

But actually, the two most promising candidates are Gong Li and Liu Yifei.
Yang Ziqiong and Liu Jialing, however, don't quite fit the roles.
The last two, Shu Qi and Xu Jinglei,

It was purely Han Sanpin who wanted to put together a list.
This is to express China Film Group's friendly attitude towards the Beijing film industry and Taiwan.

Gu Bei glanced at it: "Then let's invite them according to this list!"

in fact,

Gu Bei still had one regret.
That was the audition for gravity.

It still couldn't draw Maggie Cheung out of her hiatus from acting.

Zhang Manyu directly refused the audition.

Regarding Maggie Cheung's rejection,

Gu Bei also chose to respect this.

After all, he wasn't at the point where he couldn't live without Maggie Cheung.
If he really has his eye on Maggie Cheung, then even if she retires from acting, Gu Bei is confident he can persuade her to come back and finish filming Gravity before retiring again.

However, Gu Bei didn't feel comfortable with the character of Gravity and Maggie Cheung, so he didn't force the issue.

After the audition meeting ended,

Gu Bei returned to the hotel.

He started a Skype session with Liu Yifei at the agreed time.

Liu Yifei's stunning face appeared on the computer screen.

Even under the blurry camera lenses of this era, Gu Bei could still feel a breathtaking beauty.

It could even be described as a unique filter, giving Liu Yifei a hazy, ethereal beauty within the small frame.

"Is the audition meeting over?"

Liu Yifei noticed the video call had connected and asked with a smile.

"It's over!" Gu Bei smiled slightly. "Guess what your audition result was?"

"I do not guess you guess guess?"

A sly glint flashed in Liu Yifei's eyes.

Instead of falling into Gu Bei's pre-selected answer, she countered with a question.

"So, will you guess, I'll guess, or will you guess?"

Gu Bei was slightly taken aback, and immediately asked back.

"Childish devil!"

Liu Yifei wrinkled her nose slightly, widened her eyes, and glared at Gu Bei.

Gu Bei smiled and said, "I personally filmed your audition video. If you still can't get to the next round, then I'm a useless director!"

"cut!"

Liu Yifei curled her lips.

She immediately refuted Gu Bei's attempt to take advantage of the situation: "Wasn't it all my own performance?"

"Okay, okay, it's all thanks to you!"

Gu Bei replied with a smile.

"That won't work!"

Liu Yifei looked at Gu Bei with a smile and said, "We did it together, so I should still give you half the credit!"

A slight smile appeared on Gu Bei's lips.

Liu Yifei's behavior,
It sounds a bit like the childish idea of ​​sharing snacks with someone when you were in elementary school.
But as long as he saw her sincere face, he could feel her genuine emotions, which made Gu Bei quite pleased.

The two chatted briefly about their recent daily lives.

Gu Bei returned to China ahead of schedule to prepare for the audition for "Gravity".

Feeling bored on her own in North America, Liu Yifei went back to New York to visit Xia Mengqi and her former classmates, and they had a great time.

Then, the two started talking about Weibo.

This was also one of the important purposes of Gu Bei's trip back to China.

"You mean Weibo is about to go into public beta?"

Liu Yifei said excitedly, "Then I'll have to prepare well and share more content with my fans."

Seeing her excited expression, Gu Bei couldn't help but smile.

Weibo has been in internal testing for the past two months.

There was no large-scale marketing during the beta testing period, but some funds were spent advertising on other blog websites, attracting hundreds of thousands of beta testers.

Liu Yifei was one of the earliest beta testers.

Using the account name 'Liu Dongdong's Reading Notes'
She frequently posts her thoughts on reading and inspirational quotes, which has actually attracted more than 3,000 followers.

Although her 3,000+ followers are insignificant compared to her massive national popularity, they represent the number of fans she has attracted purely through her writing and thoughts, stripped of her celebrity status.

This achievement greatly piqued Liu Yifei's interest.

I plan to start managing my main account properly after Weibo goes into public beta.

Your inspirational quote, Qian, is on its way!

If this were in the future, Gu Bei would definitely stop Liu Yifei from doing this.

But now, in the early days of mobile internet,

The communities still have a very strong sense of human activity.

People can accept that celebrities interact with them just like ordinary people, and they can tolerate that celebrities have flaws.

Unlike in the future, when celebrities' Weibo posts will be scrutinized like a literary inquisition.

The key is,

Gu Bei created Weibo to control public opinion.
Weibo is their own platform, so how can they allow anyone to nitpick Liu Yifei?

I will delete any negative comments!

Therefore,
Gu Bei not only did not intend to stop Liu Yifei,

They even encouraged her: "Okay, post more, the task of guiding the atmosphere of the Weibo community is entrusted to you!"

"Hum~"

Liu Yifei narrowed her eyes slightly.

Just like a kitten having its fur stroked.

After ending the call with Liu Yifei,

Gu Bei began a meeting with Weibo Technology in Hangzhou.

"Is the server redundancy for the public beta prepared?"

Looking at the Weibo team led by Peng Shaobing on the screen, Gu Bei asked seriously, "I don't want Weibo to end up like Sina, broadcasting a Venice awards ceremony and then crashing the audience, becoming a laughing stock in the internet world!"

Peng Shaobing thought of the miserable state of his former employer, Xinlang.

He smiled and pledged, "President Gu, you can rest assured, the server redundancy is absolutely sufficient!"

After a pause, he continued, "In addition, Weibo has remained stable during the internal testing period, from the web version to the client, as well as the mobile client that includes iOS, Symbian and Blackberry systems."

We're just waiting for the public beta launch!

"Then let's set the public beta launch date for September 22nd."
The autumn wind is chilling; let us fight this most crucial battle well!

(End of this chapter)