I’m a Director, I’m Not Bad

Chapter 398 396. Big problem!

The crew started filming.

Although it was a temporary crew, fortunately the tasks were assigned clearly enough.

Lu Yang had arranged everything that needed to be done and whose job it was.

Today is the first day of filming for "The Deal", and the task is not too heavy. But coming up is the highlight.

Not only was it necessary to interpret the romance in the nightclub, but there was also a scene where the bartender took a letter given by a child and hid in the bathroom crying.

If the shooting goes well, the camera and the camera may not even need to be used all morning.

But if the shooting doesn't go well...it might be stuck for a whole day.

Then when Wang Junkai arrives in the evening, Xu Xin will check on the child's condition and, if possible, film a few night scenes.

There's something nice about shooting in a nightclub.

That means there is no need to distinguish between day and night.

The completely enclosed environment makes the light source quite stable.

At this moment, Xu Xin is no longer the kid who could only direct and act by himself. At this moment, the work of the crew was coming to an end, so he found a girl who played the role of a model beauty to act as a lighting replacement, while he sat in front of the monitor and communicated with the lighting engineer little by little to make adjustments.

We have almost found a few extras dressed as big brothers in society, as well as those extras who at first thought it was just a simple short film, but when Xu Xin arrived, all of them were looking for extras that were more colorful than flowers. They were all getting ready to take their places.

Regarding these group performances, Xu Xin no longer has the ambition to stop just because Zhao Liying said "good director" in "The Golden Armor".

He was a junior brother at that time.

Also have patience.

When I see these extras who are struggling for a chance to get ahead, I always give them the best care I can.

But although he has only made two movies in the past two years,... for some reason, he is now a little numb to the "director, look at me" eyes of these extras.

It can't be said to be numb.

All I can say is...they are really not beautiful.

Maybe he is tall enough, maybe his temperament is good enough, but there is always a flaw in it.

For example, the facial features are not suitable for the movie, or the eyes are not smart enough, etc.

When seeing these people, one or two Xu Xin might have a chat, but when there were more people, he had no choice but to shut up.

Not everyone can make a living in the entertainment industry, this is inevitable.

But facing the dreams these people have, he doesn't want to be the dream-killing mentor.

So, neglect became a matter of course.

There is no way to encourage them because they are not suitable.

…

"Director Xu, we are almost ready."

Hearing Lu Yang's words, Xu Xin nodded:

"Let a few extras take their places first and make adjustments. Lao Fang, get ready. Yifei, get ready to go on stage."

Orders were issued in an orderly manner.

The entire crew began to get on track.

No drama required.

That's the assistant director's job.

The assistant director is responsible for telling the extras what they have to do for a while, and they just have to do it. If Xu Xin feels something is wrong, he will ask them to adjust it when the time comes.

Then, after everyone was seated and the table was filled with wine bottles, Fang Xiu turned to look at Xu Xin.

At this moment, Lao Xu was sitting in front of the monitor, putting the headset on his ear with one hand. He didn't look here, but stared at the screen in front of him.

The crew is also waiting for the director's order.

For a while, the scene was a little quiet.

Fang Xiu couldn't help but take a deep breath.

I was a little nervous for no reason.

Three years ago...when I was filming "Not Drunk" with Lao Xu, it was just to help.

It's okay to say it's "condescending".

After all, they are all going to be seniors.

As a senior, it must be a bit of a favor to help a freshman.

And this favor was soon repaid by Lao Xu with a formal employment contract at the Olympics.

Fang Xiu was actually grateful to Xu Xin.

After all...CCTV is really not a place where anyone can enter just because they say they can.

After joining CCTV and getting a stable job, he suddenly became a hot commodity at home.

A formal job in a state-owned enterprise in Yanjing made it difficult for his parents' family to have a matchmaker break through.

After repeated choices, his family arranged a blind date for him.

My parents are both retired employees of the education department, and their pensions are generous and stable. And my side is also part of the CCTV staff. As long as they don't make mistakes, it can be said that the entire family is an extremely strong iron triangle.

After finishing graduate school, I didn’t want to go back to my hometown. The unstable photography job should be considered a shortcoming of the family. But after joining CCTV with the help of Lao Xu, a stable working environment and prospects were established, completing the final step of stability.

And my girlfriend's house is also in my hometown... Although it's not a prosperous business, it's still a slightly famous businessman.

The income is four to five million yuan a year. Not to mention rich, but he is still a rich man at any rate.

There are three children in total, two daughters and one boy.

My girlfriend’s father is quite liberal, and he serves his three children a bowl of water very evenly.

And the most coincidental thing is that the girlfriend also doesn’t want to go home.

She studied preschool education and is currently studying for graduate school at Yanjing Normal University. I don’t have to worry about finding a job after graduation.

After graduation next year, the two will get married.

As for the wedding room... Although the house prices in Yanjing have risen very high, Lao Xu is very loyal. He was given several commercial housing complexes in quite good locations and asked him to choose from them. The price was cut in half, which is not an exaggeration.

Only then did Fang Xiu realize that the so-called "strong real estate" often seen on some houses under construction in Yanjing was the property of the old Xu family...

Um.

This name sounds like Lao Xu's style.

It's really a mess.

His parents had little savings, and his girlfriend's family didn't offer any sky-high betrothal gifts.

It's quite easy to come out with 700,000 to 800,000 in cash.

He probably looked at several communities with his girlfriend and found that with this money, he could buy at least a three-bedroom apartment of 110 square meters.

But Lao Xu didn’t let it go...

According to his idea, if you want to buy, you can buy two units, or squeeze in and buy three small apartments of 60 to 70 square meters. The two of you can live there first without children, and the remaining two apartments can be used for investment. In the future, if the price goes up, sell it and exchange it for a bigger one.

The couple discussed this idea and thought it was a good idea... The house was bought by Lao Xu for a halved price, so there was no reason to lie.

And house prices have indeed risen dramatically in the past two years.

The investment prospects are bright.

When his girlfriend's father heard the news, he originally wanted to buy two more sets... but Fang Xiu refused.

Friendship is friendship.

People may not care, but it would be inappropriate if they try to push their limits.

And the future father-in-law is also enlightened.

It seemed that he could see that the second son-in-law was promising, and for the sake of his eldest daughter's grandson and his younger son's grandson after he got married, he asked me to help him inquire, and simply settled one child in Yanjing.

Let your children have a good place to go to school.

Everything, Fang Xiu felt was extremely perfect.

There is financial pressure, but not great.

Even though he and his girlfriend were on a blind date, both their appearance and the tacit understanding of being in love were still how they thought about the person they love.

My parents are in good health, and I am an only child. The support of my pension will not put any burden on me at all. Although the brother-in-law on the girlfriend's side is still young, the filial piety of the two daughters and the lack of intrigue make the family live a harmonious life.

Oh yes, my girlfriend and her girlfriend’s sister also got the signature of Jay Chou that they cherished so much...

As he watched, his life, which may not be exciting but was happy enough, was about to begin.

But at this moment, when he turned around and saw Lao Xu sitting at the monitor table, Fang Xiu had a doubt for no reason.

The days of Lao Xu...

How have you been?

Such a beautiful celebrity wife.

Such a wealthy and prominent family...

Not to mention his own achievements.

But at this moment, in this familiar environment, familiar scenes...even familiar atmosphere, Fang Xiu really had an unreal feeling that things were different and people were different.

Especially when I see Lao Xu in a daze...

Unconsciously, he shouted:

"Old Xu."

"……ah?"

Xu Xin, who was looking at the monitor, raised his head:

"What's wrong, Lao Fang?"

"..."

Fang Xiu was stunned.

Sanity begins to return.

After suppressing the divergent thoughts in his mind, he said:

"Start?"

"Have you memorized the route?"

"remember."

"Okay...where are the others, if they are all ready, give me the OK sign in the camera."

After hearing the director's words, the male and female extras in the KTV box quickly assumed the OK pose.

Zhang Jiao, who was sitting at the very edge, took a deep breath.

He tightened his grip on the wine bottle in his hand.

"Okay, let's get ready to start. Yifei, please remember to be more intimate with your movements. Brother, don't be shy. We are both old players. Be more natural and don't be so stiff."

After hearing his words, Liu Yifei thought for a moment and simply put her arm around the middle-aged big brother's arm.

The big brother suddenly stiffened.

"It's okay, just relax."

Hearing Liu Yifei's words, Big Brother's mouth twitched...

The look in his eyes became a little weirder.

Xu Xin also saw that everyone seemed unable to let go, so he said:

"Let's take a test shot first. If you want to drink, drink whatever you want. If you want to drink, just drink. Everyone, have a good time."

After speaking, he nodded to the recorder.

The recorder walked directly in front of the camera held by Fang Xiu:

"The Deal, Act 4, Scene 1... ACTION!"

"Snapped!"

The board fell down, and in the KTV box without music, everyone began to dance to the "music".

Fang Xiu began to move according to the set route.

The camera in his hand was as stable as a smoothly running machine after several years of training, and every shot Xu Xin wanted was included in the monitor.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

Xu Xin squinted his eyes and looked at everything on the monitor.

In fact, strictly speaking, there are not many places in "Deal" that require the use of cameras to express metaphors.

If you really want to say that it has any core or something...it doesn't have one.

It just tells a story.

A story about a bartender and a child who find warmth in each other's hearts.

Even after deleting all unnecessary flimsy plots, its story became a very single-threaded "one shot to the end".

Nothing worth digging for.

The bartender and the boy were neighbors in the same building. One day, the boy found the bartender and hoped to make a deal.

The child gave the bartender five hundred yuan and asked her to pretend to be his mother for a day.

She has to wear the clothes left by her previous mother and send her child to school.

Have parent-teacher meetings with your children.

Then at the parent-teacher meeting, I met the client who came with me for drinking and entertainment last night.

It turned out that when she was at school, the bartender didn't respect the deal. During the parent-teacher meeting, a client called her and wanted to book a table tonight, so she immediately walked out of the classroom and started communicating with the client.

The little boy’s deskmate said to the little boy on the playground: Your mother is a barmaid.

The two children started fighting.

As a result, I was called to the teacher's office. One was a bartender, and the other was a client who called me a bartender.

Neither of them had a good look on their face.

In the end, the matter was settled.

On the way back, the child confessed to the waitress and told her: "Actually, my mother is not busy, she just won't come back."

After the two parted ways, the hostess saw a letter in her bag that the little boy had written about his impression of her in the assignment "My Mom" ​​assigned by the teacher.

It turns out that the child has long thought of her as his mother, because she smiles like the winter sun.

Every time the little boy silently paid attention to her, watching her cooking noodles and watching her smoking. When it was time to go to bed every day, he could only sleep peacefully when he heard the sound of her high heels.

In the end, the escort girl broke down and cried in the noisy nightclub toilet.

It's such a simple story.

After the script was changed, it no longer forced too many bonds between the two people.

He didn't mention whether the fate of the two of them had changed.

It can be said that all the plots of this story are for the last 2 minutes.

It's just a very ordinary story.

Because of the "ordinary" nature of the story, Xu Xin used the simplest shooting techniques.

When shooting the waitress, a lot of hand-held shots were used to express her wandering and wandering through the slight shaking. When photographing children, it is a fixed frame shot with medium and close shots.

At the same time, everyone's clothing is also thoughtful.

Although the little boy's school uniform is simple, the location selection is always filled with all kinds of colors and shabby colors.

Although the waitress's clothes are bright, there are always things like sequins falling off or flaws in her clothes.

This time, he put all the side descriptions of the protagonist in the most inconspicuous position of the camera.

Nor is it intended to create any atmosphere.

We don’t even intend to make the shots too showy.

Just finish shooting one script and call it a day.

As the opening short film of the film festival, he didn't intend to do so many bells and whistles. Because these things are a bit too difficult for many new directors to control.

If they cannot master so many complex techniques, they will become dogs that are not painted as tigers.

Not suitable for newcomers to use.

Therefore, what he showed was a very simple shooting technique.

Let everyone see that even if you don’t rely on any spiritual core and just shoot a mediocre story, as long as your basic skills are solid enough and you know how to explain a story clearly and well, you can still produce a good work.

Looking at Liu Yifei in the camera, Xu Xin nodded slightly.

Well, not bad...

At least for him, through makeup, dressing up, and a bit of naive drunkenness, he temporarily forgot the fixed routine of "Fairy Sister".

From this aspect, it can be considered a success.

…

"call……"

Standing at the door of the bathroom, Zhang Jiao took a deep breath.

After going through the lines she wanted to say several times in her mind, she began to relax according to the method taught by the teacher.

"Liu Yifei is a bartender. Liu Yifei is a bartender. Liu Yifei is a bartender. She is my friend. She is my friend. She is my friend. Normal friends chat. Normal friends chat. Normal friends chat..."

The "Three Rules" began to flow in my heart.

Just like autosuggestion and hypnosis, let her temporarily get rid of all the baggage.

Sister Mi said that in the initial stage, don’t distinguish between the experience school and the method school. It’s enough to be able to interpret a role successfully, qualifiedly, and meet the director’s requirements.

This is the first stage.

The second stage is to start exploring methods that suit you.

The third stage is when you really delve into acting.

The prerequisite for all the second and third stages is that you can successfully complete the first stage and have a stable source of income to ensure that you will not starve to death...

Although this is quite realistic, Zhang Jiao, who has been working as a group performer, naturally knows that this is one of Sister Mi’s valuable experiences.

And she herself didn't dare to ask for too much.

Something like crushing Sister Mi or killing Liu Yifei...

OK.

step by step……

Just start with a small role first.

"Work hard, work hard..."

"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous..."

"Jiaojiao, get ready."

In an instant, Xu Xin's words pulled Zhang Jiao back from her self-suggestion.

"Hey, okay."

Zhang Jiao responded quickly, adjusted her clothes that looked... made her breasts look so big, and stood obediently at the door.

She has small breasts and she knows it.

So after Brother Xu asked her to play this role, she specially bought a mat online to make herself look more aggressive.

Even if the women in the nightclub are crowded, they have to squeeze out, otherwise they won't make any money.

After holding up the breast pad, she heard Brother Xu's voice over there:

"Come, get ready in the toilet. After this shoot, let's eat. Everyone, work harder. ... Three, two, one... Let's start!"

The moment she heard this, Zhang Jiao felt that her mind was more focused than ever.

My ears only heard the sound of Liu Yifei vomiting coming from inside:

"Ugh~"

She immediately took a deep breath, held the door frame with one hand, and poked her head into the bathroom from the outside:

"Are you stupid?~~You drink like this every day?"

"Click."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Xin's voice rang out.

Zhang Jiao's face turned pale instantly...

Did I make a mistake again?

I, I, I...

"Liu Yifei is blocking the camera. Please don't move the camera. Liu Yifei goes to another pool and I'll take a look... Well, this is no problem. Use the pool you are standing in now. If you bend over just now, your butt will block it. Lens…”

With Zhang Jiao's face still somewhat pale, Xu Xin finished speaking, looked at her with only half of her head exposed in the camera and said:

"Jiaojiao's tone is good, just follow this... Come on, do it again..."

After hearing that it was not her fault, Zhang Jiao's face instantly began to warm up.

He even turned his head in disbelief and glanced at Xu Xin who was sitting on the sofa watching the screen...

Brother Xu praised me! ?

For a moment, Zhang Jiao felt like she was back in elementary school and was praised by the teacher during class.

That sense of... "The teacher praised me, this question doesn't seem to be too difficult" suddenly came to her, which immediately put her in a good mood.

Soon, when the crew adjusted again and started shooting.

Following the sound of vomiting, Zhang Jiao followed the feeling in her heart that she naturally knew how to handle the character, held the door and poked her head.

The lines with a Northeastern accent came out of his mouth with a look of helplessness, and he said:

"Are you stupid? Do you drink like this every day?"

"got used to……"

While arranging her hair, Liu Yifei answered.

Xu Xin, who was sitting in front of the monitor, raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Oh yo?

Zhang Jiao performed well.

Listening to the nonchalant chatter between the two of them as if they had known each other for a long time, and looking at the facial expressions and movements of each performing their duties on the screen, Xu Xin nodded with satisfaction.

This is the most satisfying scene for him since he met Zhang Jiao during "Golden Armor".

Natural, generous, and not at all artificial.

good.

But then again, the scene itself is not difficult.

Although she is in good shape, there is not much room for her to perform.

Soon, all the conversations between the two of them were finished, the camera was finished filming, and the two of them walked out of the bathroom together.

Because everyone was in the same room, Xu Xin, who was sitting on the sofa, could see that compared to Liu Yifei, who was very calm, Zhang Jiao's rosy face showed that she was still in a state of excitement.

That look almost says "I'm not satisfied" written on his face.

"Ha~"

Xu Xin suddenly made a funny noise, attracting everyone's attention.

Then I heard him say:

"Okay, I know you haven't had enough... but you only have so many scenes. But your performance is not bad. It is the most satisfying scene since I met you. Remember this state, no matter what role you encounter in the future , get yourself excited first, and then you can get into the mood quickly. This performance is good... Well, Director Lu, I will give Jiaojiao an extra chicken drumstick at noon."

Lu Yang was stunned...

Only then did I realize that Director Xu was not talking about Liu Yifei, but Zhang Jiao, who played opposite Liu Yifei.

He glanced at Zhang Jiao in surprise.

While mentally commenting on the relationship between the two, he smiled and nodded:

"Well, okay, Director Xu."

"Okay, everyone else has called it a day. We'll shoot the remaining two scenes after dinner. Everyone, hurry up... Yifei, you stay."

After signaling everyone to stop working and have dinner, Xu Xin pointed to his side.

"What's wrong?"

Liu Yifei asked curiously after sitting down.

Xu Xin pointed to the filming clip on the screen and handed the earphones to her.

After watching all the scenes she had just filmed, Liu Yifei removed her headphones and couldn't help but asked with some confusion:

"Is there something wrong?"

"..."

Xu Xin said nothing.

Instead, he glanced at the field workers who were cleaning up the lines.

Liu Zhou, the person in charge of the field management, looked at him and understood instantly:

"Okay, let's eat first and clean up later."

Then they called all the young people away.

Everyone left, and there were only two people left in the room.

There is the noisy sound of cooking outside.

Xu Xin lowered his voice at this time and said:

"I won't play tricks with you..."

"Well, tell me!"

Liu Yifei sat up straight.

I heard Xu Xin lower his voice and say:

"There's a big problem with your lines..."

"..."

The person who had just pointed out Zhang Jiao's lines was speechless for a moment after hearing the director's words.

Just... quite outrageous.

The tooth is swollen again.

I feel like my teeth are like an aunt who has to come here once a month.

Outrageous!