Huayu 1995

Chapter 159 They're all talented! (Seeking monthly votes at the end of the month)
"What songs are on the principal's album? Can we come up with a storyline for it too?"

"Don't be so rigid about gender! We want to act with the principal too!"

With such a great opportunity, who wouldn't want to take as many photos as possible?

These young men and women, all dreaming of becoming stars, were eager to get on board; none of them wanted to be left behind.

Even Fan Xuexue was thinking about how to design a music video.

Su Chao and Huo Jianqi discussed it briefly and quickly completed the storyline design for the music video.

It won’t work if it doesn’t happen quickly.

If we can take one more photo on this day, we can save one more dollar.

The poor have no right to waste time.

The music video begins with a girl's hand holding a red flower towards the sky...

Then shoot some shots of two people, some shots of a single person, and finally end with a man holding a white flower and facing the sky.

The song is definitely "Dark Fragrance".

The music video mainly expresses the girl's longing for love. She meets the boy in a flower field... The two separate and get back together, experiencing all the flavors of love. In the end, the girl leaves, leaving the boy waiting in the flower field.

As for what Zhang Tong said, the scene of them resting their heads on each other's thighs was also incorporated into the plot of the music video.

After we agreed on everything, we started filming immediately. There are still two or three music videos to shoot.

Zhang Tong is indeed experienced.

She has a great sense of camera presence, and when she's alone, she rarely needs to do any takes.

The scene of a flower petal being blown away by the wind from a girl's palm, in particular, was captured very well.

Huo Jianqi praised the group led by Su Chao for their extraordinary abilities and for their ability to surprise people. He even asked if they had been recruited from the Central Academy of Drama or the Beijing Film Academy.

After learning that these were all art students, he remarked that the industry has successors.

Su Chao's solo performance was also good.

The difference between him and Zhang Tong is that he needs to sing on camera.

No need for live recording; you can import the audio track later.

But at the very least, the lip movements and the voice should be synchronized so that it doesn't seem too fake. There are just as many people who nitpick these days as there are in later generations.

"Cut! Su Chao, relax. What couple is this tense? I feel like you're not even resting your head on her. The girl isn't hot. Don't forget, every time you mess up, we're wasting a huge chunk of 35mm film."

Huo Jianqi is a bit unserious.

In fact, most people in the art world are not very serious.

"Ahem, I understand!"

The thought of 35mm film made Su Chao grit his teeth and actually rest his head on Zhang Tong's lap.

The girl was wearing a mid-length skirt.

When you lie on it, you can feel the warmth of your skin.

Because he was a member of the performing arts troupe, he also practiced dancing regularly, so he was quite fit.

Whether it's smooth or not, I don't know.

"Cut! Remember that, another piece of film wasted, and it's 35mm. Zhang Tong, your expression is too unnatural. Su Chao, you're in trouble too. Relax, relax. I've said it a million times. Just sit there like a normal couple, relax. I'm not expecting you to act out any dramatic scenes..."

Huo Jianqi also knows that it's normal to have multiple takes during filming.

Especially for these young people who have little performance experience.

But the thought of wasting 35mm film made him feel as if a piece of his heart had been ripped out.

"I didn't expect her to beat me to it. Hao Lei, you didn't even get to act in the commercial or get the first MV. Weren't you so great?"

Zhang Ziyi watched from the side, feeling a surge of frustration rising within her.

Moreover, that little bitch Zhang Tong even boasted that she wanted to get into the Central Academy of Drama, making her her direct competitor.

Hao Lei said she likes Shanghai and might apply to the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

So although Zhang Ziyi and she still don't get along, they're not as bad as they used to be.

"They're capable, but I'm the lead actor in the music video for the main song, so what am I afraid of?"

Hao Lei does not accept being provoked.

She was naturally unhappy that she didn't get to appear in the shampoo commercial.

Why.

She's not bad-looking, and she has a good figure—better than those three flat-chested women in the commercials.

However, Su Chao said that she had no objection to being asked to star in the music video for the title song "The Moon Caused the Trouble".

That's the title track!

"Shut up, don't let the second generation look down on us. We're the older sisters of the first generation..."

Qin Hailu tried to mediate the fight.

"..."

I'm speechless. We just arrived a little early, we're not even going into our second year of university, what kind of older sisters are we?

You idiot!

Su Chao is gradually getting into the game.

The only downside was that Zhang Tong was wearing perfume, and quite a lot of it. When Su Chao was lying on her lap, it smelled pretty good, not cheap perfume. Unfortunately, he couldn't help but sneeze.

I practically held my breath while filming these few shots.

Su Chao immediately ran a few steps away and sneezed several times.

"Ha ha……"

The trainees burst into laughter, while Zhang Tong blushed with embarrassment.

"The principal is very allergic to smells, so we rarely wear perfume, and even if we do, we only apply a tiny bit..."

One of the trainees kindly offered a suggestion.

"It's okay, keep filming. You guys have to keep this weakness a secret for me, don't let my enemies find out."

Su Chao certainly wouldn't blame Zhang Tong for such a small matter.

Your allergies are your own business.

Why should anyone accommodate you? However, he wasn't joking when he said it was a weakness.

As a martial arts practitioner.

If his opponent is covered in perfume and turns himself into a biological bomb, Su Chao's fighting power will be reduced to zero if he can't win before he runs out of breath.

Su Chao's teasing eased Zhang Tong's embarrassment.

The principal is a really nice person.

If she were lying on Su Chao's lap, the two of them would have a much smoother time taking pictures, thanks to their previous experience.

The filming of the music video wrapped up at noon.

They filmed an advertisement and a music video in half a day, which is incredibly fast and shocks the industry.

However, considering the team's professionalism, the actors' talent, and the fact that the commercials and music videos were all filmed in the flower field without needing to change locations, the result isn't too outrageous.

The next music video will be titled "Goodbye".

The small film crew quickly loaded all the equipment onto the car and drove back to the classroom in the courtyard to continue filming.

The classroom was decorated yesterday.

"Director, if we take these ensemble scenes too seriously, I feel like it could take three to five days to film them properly. Could we try a different approach..."

Su Chao hopes to finish filming "Goodbye" quickly and then film "The Moon Caused the Trouble" tonight.

There's a bug with the rented equipment.

What they mean by "one day" is that the goods are taken away at night and returned the next morning.

There aren't such strict requirements for warehousing.

Some are outrageous; you can bribe the relevant personnel and have them take you away for several days, but they'll only charge you for one day.

However, that presents a problem.

Once discovered, not only will the person who accepted the bribe be punished, but the lessor will also bear joint liability.

Yuanmeng is now a legitimate advertising company, and it's even affiliated with Xi'an Film Studio. If something goes wrong, there will be many related consequences.

Therefore, Su Chao could only try his best to speed up the progress.

How do you plan to film it?

Huo Jianqi discovered that Su Chao was a very insightful person, and the suggestions he made during filming were very helpful even to Huo Jianqi, a veteran in the industry.

"It was just casual filming. Everyone was in the same classroom, and the students were all free to do whatever they wanted, like shooting behind-the-scenes footage."

Su Chao has lived through the internet age and has seen too many of these filming techniques.

Some of the things people film make you suspect they have a camera on their face.

When Guo Xiaofeng returned to the courtyard, he had already ordered a batch of boxed meals.

Each member of the film crew was given a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes.

They also said that after work that night, everyone would go out for barbecue together.

Even though you paid them to be hired, they were actually hired to shoot commercials.

After you finished filming the commercial, you didn't stop for a moment and went on to shoot music videos like crazy. You're treating people like animals.

So, even just a small benefit would be appreciated.

This way, everyone will not only be more willing to work, but the work will also be faster and better.

After eating a little something, Su Chao began explaining the play to the students:

"You are about to graduate and go your separate ways..."

"Principal, what you're saying makes me want to cry~"

Aside from those who enrolled in academic classes, the other students in the first cohort are indeed nearing graduation.

"Remember this emotion. Acting is about controlling emotions, whether it's projecting your own feelings or analyzing those feelings. It all depends on your individual performance. The camera will slowly move forward, and you can choose to act alone, cooperate with others, or even run over and make faces at the camera..."

When Su Chao said he was giving the trainees freedom, he meant complete freedom.

It creates a vivid portrayal of the diverse emotions and experiences of people facing separation during graduation season.

He decided to firmly link "Goodbye" with the concept of graduation.

When Chang Chen-yue's "Goodbye" first came out, there was no similar phenomenon. It was only after the development of the internet age that this song gradually became a graduation season anthem.

Similar examples include "Wishing You a Safe Journey" and "Wish".

Su Chao really liked the song "Wish," but he didn't know where the four girls were, nor did he want to steal the song.

Let those four girls make a dazzling entrance, then drop a bombshell and disappear.

Once everyone was ready, the camera entered the classroom from outside. The first person to appear was Huo Jianqi, who played the role of a teacher. He Bing and Wang Jinsong are both tenured employees and it was not appropriate for them to appear on camera as teachers.

Then, one student after another appeared in the frame.

When Hao Lei saw someone filming her, she picked up a book to cover her face, but quickly took it off again and playfully wrinkled her nose at the camera.

Qin Hailu was crying while holding Yuan Quan.

Actually, while the second cohort of trainees might not feel much about the impending separation, the first cohort of trainees could already feel the sadness.

To deepen the somber atmosphere, Su Chao put a cassette tape into the tape recorder and started playing the song "Goodbye".

"I will remember your face forever / I will cherish the memories you gave me / These days will never be erased from my heart..."

Once a person gets into that emotion, they can act with great passion.

If she thought about it carefully, she and Yuan Quan had both enrolled in academic classes, so they could stay for another two months.

Even after they graduate, they can still apply to the same school.

There's really no need to cry and whine.

Fortunately, everyone knew that this was a music video shoot and that they should take this opportunity to show themselves.

Fan Xuexue created a persona of herself as someone who is always in a daze.

She held her face in her hands without moving, staring blankly in one direction. As the camera moved away from her, it captured her large, brimming eyes, which were filled with tears that had not yet fallen.

Su Chao couldn't help but sigh.

His training class is full of talented people; there's not a single one who's easy to deal with.

(End of this chapter)