Entertainment: Who still wants to fall in love when there are cheats?

Chapter 171 Actor
With the director chosen, the next step is casting the actors.

However, in this era, the actors who have box office appeal are mainly from Taiwan, and most of them are from mainland China. Apart from a few people like Ge You and Jiang Wen, there are not many others who have box office appeal in mainland China.

However, actors in Hong Kong are paid exorbitant fees for making a single film.

Just like Chow Yun-fat, his box office is 40 million.

Jackie Chan and Jet Li each received a salary exceeding 100 million.

The remaining actors might receive slightly lower pay, but it wouldn't be too low either; it would be at least 20 million or 10 million.

Unfortunately, these latter factors didn't have much impact on box office appeal.

So after director Ye Weimin listed a series of actors, Li Boda crossed out almost all the names on the list.

The main issue is that it's really not worth it! Most of the names on the list are actors from Hong Kong. If invitations were actually sent out based on the names on the list, the investment in this movie would at least double, and possibly even more.

Li Boda wasn't surprised by this, because actors or directors from Hong Kong always liked to use Hong Kong's personnel before filming.

Despite potential internal conflicts, they are generally able to work together effectively in filming and other aspects, thus putting mainland actors under considerable pressure.

As the initiator and even investor of this film, Li Boda would absolutely not use this cast list.

I crossed them out and just wrote down two on the spot. I set the tone and decided to choose actors from mainland China. When choosing actors, in addition to considering their box office appeal, I also need to consider their cost-effectiveness and other factors.

Ye Weimin is indeed a capable man.

After Li Boda set the tone, he began to try to find some actors from mainland China to play these roles.

Jiang Wenli was the role that Li Boda had decided on from the beginning, to play the mother of the main character, and that's how it was decided.

Of course, the character Jiang Wenli, the protagonist's mother, was originally intended to be the protagonist's wife. However, since the protagonist's age was similar to Li Boda's, it would have been inappropriate to make her his wife. So, the character's seniority was raised by one level, making her the protagonist's mother.

The character Zhao Liying was initially conceived as the protagonist's daughter, but Yue Xiaojun later changed her role to the younger sister.

Everything revolves around the male protagonist, after all, that's the tone of the movie; the entire plot revolves around him.

Finally, Li Boda played the male lead, Zhao Liying played the male lead's sister, and Jiang Wenli played the male lead's mother. The remaining roles were taken by the director, and then the other members gradually took their places.

When Li Boda saw the actress chosen for the role of the woman that the coal mine owner Xiaoqiang was promoting, he couldn't help but show a slight surprise, because this person was none other than Li Xiaoran.

In fact, Li Boda had initially considered inviting people he was close to to act in the film, but there weren't enough roles for them. In the end, he simply entrusted director Ye Weimin with the selection and management of all roles except for Jiang Wenli and Zhao Liying.

In the end, Li Xiaoran was successfully shortlisted and became the actress who played the role of Xiaomei.

And so, filming began for the movie "The Camera Never Stops".

The opening ceremony was quite lively. However, the number of reporters attending the ceremony was not very large, and their attitudes were relatively lukewarm.

Li Boda didn't care much about this, after all, that's how the film market is at this stage.

Apart from a few big-name directors like Zhang Yimou, the rest, whether actors or directors themselves, have almost no box office appeal whatsoever.

Therefore, Li Boda's production team doesn't need to invite any A-list stars or anything like that. Most of the actors are like Li Xiaoran, who have certain acting skills and experience, but are not famous enough and don't earn enough money.

……

"Hello, Teacher Li, thank you for letting me act in this play. I am Wang Baoqiang..." A man who was not very tall, had dark skin, and whose features were not particularly handsome, but who gave the impression of being a very honest person, ran up to Li Boda with excitement and gratitude as the filming was about to begin.

"Perform well. Since we chose you, it means your acting skills are good enough to support this role..." Li Boda gave Wang Baoqiang a perfunctory encouragement.

As for who Wang Baoqiang was and what movies he acted in, Li Boda has almost no recollection of him now.

However, since Wang Baoqiang was willing to express his gratitude, Li Boda accepted it. He wouldn't tell Wang Baoqiang that he didn't know him, much less that he had never intended to specifically invite Wang Baoqiang to participate in the play. In any case, whether it was true or not, Wang Baoqiang's gratitude was enough for him.

After director Ye Weimin shouted "Exon!", the entire crew sprang into action.

The factory building looked dilapidated and run-down.

With a serious expression, Li Boda assigned tasks to the people around him, explaining how the photographer should be positioned and how the other roles should be arranged.

Simple scenes, simple shots, just a quick and easy take, and that's it.

After that, the crew began filming the second half of the series.

As for why the earlier scenes weren't filmed, it's because Li Boda and his team needed to film a long take for those scenes.

Shooting long takes is notoriously difficult, not only for cinematographers who face a heavy workload and challenging filming conditions, but also for actors and other performers who generally avoid them.

Because of the long takes, which are filmed in one continuous shot, it is too difficult to shoot. If there is even the slightest mistake, the entire shoot has to be restarted.

If you switch a long take to several short takes of roughly the same duration, you can practice whichever part is not working well. However, because it is a long take, if there is any accident in a one-shot operation, the entire long take will have to be reshot.

Therefore, the production team plans to save these long takes for later filming.

Because of previous filming, the actors may not have had enough time to get along, which may lead to frequent mistakes. This will not only waste the crew's time, but also damage the actors' mentality.

By placing these long takes later, and leveraging the established rapport developed over so long of filming, shooting those long takes becomes significantly easier.

(End of this chapter)