How did I become famous?

Chapter 117 Fang Bie's Eyes Are Only on the World (First Update, Please Vote.)

"Martial arts?" Wu Kai asked, puzzled. "Director Fang, you mean the period drama type?"

His previous work, "Iron-Blooded Sands," was intended to be a chaotic mix of war, martial arts, and romance, but he failed at all of them and ended up making a mess of things, which is why it flopped.

To be honest, he's not confident he can make another good martial arts film.

Moreover, he was unsure whether he could handle the audience well.

Although Wu Kai wanted to surpass Fang Bie, that was in the future.

Now he has come to understand himself better, so he wants to be a person who loves learning and asking questions.

Even if the other person is five years younger than him, the accomplished one is his teacher.

If someone else makes a better movie than you, you should learn from them.

So Wu Kai took a deep breath and asked, "Director Fang, what kind of preparations do you need to make when you're filming? And how do you handle things on set?"

Fang was a little stunned.

This question really stumped him.

What exactly did he do during the filming of his first two movies?

Fang began to recall.

The first one is "Captain China".

It seems like I didn't do anything back then.

Every day, he either dozes off behind the monitor wrapped in a military overcoat, or waits for mealtime to arrive and calls everyone to eat boxed lunches together.

No, he did things too.

That was to instruct Yan Shuangying on his acting skills, which basically meant just letting him act like he usually did.

It seems like they didn't really do anything else.

The same applies to the second film, "Shadows of Light".

Aside from how Chen Yongren and Kira Yoshikage portrayed "themselves" in "The Church," it seems like I haven't really done anything.

Fang Bie then confidently declared, "Just close your eyes and shoot whatever you want, and the movie will naturally be made."

Wu Kai: "."

He felt very tired.

He felt very hurt.

He felt that Fang Bie still didn't trust him.

That's normal, though. After all, he's just a newcomer, and he'd be very happy to be able to direct a movie right away.

As the meeting was drawing to a close, Liu Mang asked, "Director Fang, now that we've taken care of those two films, are you preparing for a new one?"

"No." Fang Bie's expression was serious. "I need to work hard on songwriting. Our young lady is going to release an album and debut as a singer. How can I not work hard? But people have limits. I've found that the more you pursue perfection, the less you get what you want, so..."

"so?"

"So I'm temporarily stepping down as a director."

Well, with the young lady not around, it's perfectly fine to shift all the blame onto her!

Fang Bie is busy working on "Minecraft," so he might use his spare time to be a director.

Liu Mang pushed up his glasses: "Then you have to play the male lead in my movie, right? This is also Miss Su's personal choice."

"Get the script done first," Fang Bie said with a wave of his hand. "Meeting adjourned!"

After "The Shadow of Light" ended, Miss Su casually assigned dorm rooms to Liu Mang and the others.

This is a high-end residential area near Hengdian World Studios, where each company employee has their own apartment as a dormitory.

Water and electricity are free, and there is no rent.

This place is only a five-minute walk from Nie Fang and others' post-production studio, and a ten-minute walk from Fang Mu Film and Television Company.

Fang also applied for a set, but it was rejected by Miss Su.

He had no choice but to continue living in his bedroom on the second floor of the company building, becoming neighbors with the young lady.

Wu Kai's apartment is right across from Liu Mang's; it's a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment, which isn't small at all.

He was quite satisfied.

That very evening, he brought a bundle of beer to Liu Mang's place.

On the small coffee table, the two looked at the bundle of beer and several dishes of cooked food they had bought, and neither of them said a word.

After a while, Liu Mang opened a bottle of beer and filled it for himself and Wu Kai.

Wu Kai raised his glass, and Liu Mang paused for a moment before raising his glass to clink with his.

Then the two of them finished their beer in one gulp.

They were both grown men; everything was understood without words.

After this drink, all past grievances will vanish like smoke.

Yeah, right.

Wu Kai started the conversation: "Fatty Liu, do you think Director Fang has a problem with me?"

Liu Mang glanced at him sideways: "Are you worthy?"

Wu Kai: "."

If he didn't need Liu Mang's help, he would have a "PK3.0" match with him right now.

Liu Mang picked up a piece of pig's head meat with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. As he chewed, he said, "You didn't know before you were in the company, but Lao Fang doesn't even care about you."

He downed another beer, a hint of melancholy in his eyes: "Actually, in my opinion, Lao Fang is a proud and arrogant person. Don't be fooled by his ability to chat with everyone and his seemingly down-to-earth demeanor. In reality, he doesn't see anyone else."

He was referring to the film and television industry.

His analysis makes sense.

No matter how much he boasted about surpassing Fang Bie, Fang Bie always seemed happy to see it happen, at most making a few jokes to tease him.

Even Wu Kai previously provoked them in various ways, and there were even online trolls smearing them, but Fang Bie still didn't react much.

And what about Xu Kuangfu now? Has Fang Bie retaliated against him?

No.

Fang Bie even mentioned to Liu Mang that Xu Kuangfu was his idol.

There's also Lu Shengyan, Wu Kai's former father-in-law, who, in his view, wields absolute power in the entertainment industry.

He is actually very famous and has a high status in the industry. Basically, everyone in the industry knows him and doesn't dare to mess with him.

But when Liu Mang mentioned this person, Fang Bie would even ask who it was—he didn't take the other person seriously at all.

Of course, what Liu Mang didn't know was that Fang Bie had only been in this world for less than a year, and many things and people in this world were unfamiliar to him.

Besides, Fang Bie had no intention of getting involved in the film and entertainment industry, so why would he want to get involved with those people?

Wu Kai fell silent.

He had always thought that he and Fang Bie were lifelong enemies.

Even after joining the company, despite being prepared to start from the bottom, the idea of ​​challenging himself never disappeared from his mind.

But now, Liu Mang tells him that Fang Bie has never really taken him seriously.

Not only him, but even Lu Shengyan, whom he had never dared to resist before, was not taken seriously by Fang Bie.

Liu Mang took another bite of pig's head and a glass of beer, then patted Wu Kai's shoulder with his greasy hands, leaving an oil stain on his clothes: "Old Fang only has the world in his eyes. What he pursues is the kind of thing you and I only dare to dream about."

Wu Kai twitched his eye, quickly devoured a braised chicken foot, and then casually wiped it on Liu Mang's clothes: "Since Director Fang wasn't targeting me, could what he said be true?"

How could they produce two films, "Captain China" and "Shadow of Light," both of which grossed over 1 billion yuan, without doing anything?

You just close your eyes and shoot randomly, and then the movie becomes a huge hit?

Is it all true?

"How could that be? Old Fang is just being modest." Liu Mang lit a cigarette and, like a seasoned veteran, analyzed the situation for him. "You provided a lot of support when we were filming 'Captain China,' so you should know what preparations he made, right?"

Wu Kai nodded, took the cigarette Liu Mang offered and lit it himself: "I know. We pay the extras the highest standard of wages, the props are the best, the crew provides transportation, meals and accommodation, and the entire crew, including the extras, gets the best boxed lunches."

"That settles it." A wise glint shone in Liu Mang's small eyes behind his glasses. "Actually, there's a deeper meaning to all of this. What does it show? It shows that Lao Fang is a perfectionist."

"A perfectionist?"

"Of course," Liu Mang explained. "Look, not only are the props the best, but even the extras' costumes are the newest. And the boxed lunches—the best boxed lunches, the highest wages! Do you think the extras will just coast along? Then there's the crew providing transportation, food, and lodging. With all this, do you think anyone in the crew will complain and slack off? If they disagree, will the crew just pay lip service to Lao Fang's requests?"

He got up again, washed his hands, and then carefully took a stack of papers from the safe and handed them to Wu Kai.

That was Fang Bie's storyboard for "The Shadow of Light".

Wu Kai took the book, flipped through a few pages, and asked with a puzzled look, "This is... the comic book 'The Shadow of Light'?"

"You're so naive, aren't you? And you call yourself a director." Liu Mang said with an air of experience. "This is the storyboard for 'Shadows of Light' drawn by Lao Fang himself."

"Huh? This is a storyboard?!" Wu Kai was stunned.

The imagery in this drawing is incredibly vivid and its continuity is unparalleled.

He continued flipping through the pages, and it was exactly the same as the storyboard of "Shadows of Light" that he had seen!

No! It should be said that "Shadows of Light" was filmed entirely according to this storyboard!

As long as you shoot according to this method, any professional photography team in the industry can capture the same visual effects as "Light and Shadow"!

Seeing Wu Kai's astonished expression as he had expected, Liu Mang scoffed, "You're scared already? Think about the other main actors. Yan Shuangying and Chen Yongren were both complete novices acting for the first time, and Kira Yoshikage was just a minor character playing a Japanese soldier in war films before. Has anyone ever said their acting was bad?"

Yan Shuangying has now landed a leading role in a big-budget period drama, while Chen Yongren, a complete novice actor, has become the Venice Film Festival's Best Actor! Kira Yoshikage is ambitious; he's afraid that taking the role will conflict with Fang Bie's potential film schedule, so he'd rather not take the role and wait for Fang Bie's next movie.

He took a puff of his cigarette and blew out a standard smoke ring: "Let me tell you something else. Chen Yongren and the other two weren't good actors at first, but Lao Fang only had to give them one pointer, and they got into character. After that, they hardly ever had any retakes."

And he wrote all the scripts himself. Now you know how awesome Lao Fang is.

It would be an injustice if Fang Bie didn't become popular!

"Director Fang is truly amazing."

Wu Kai was completely convinced.

Liu Mang looked on with envy and jealousy: "That's why I don't understand why he only gave me an idea and then let me write the script myself, but he gave you a whole script."

Wu Kai sighed, "Fatty, I know you mean well, but you don't need to do this. Actually, we both know he wants to mentor you, and he also feels that I'm not as good as you."

One approach is to provide a ready-made solution and guide you through the process; the other is to give you an idea and let you improvise.

It's easy to tell who Fang trusts more.

"But you're definitely going to lose this time." Wu Kai's classic villainous grin, clearly humiliated, returned. "I have Director Fang's script now, this time the box office and critical reception will absolutely crush yours!"

"Nonsense! His ideas were the best!" Liu Mang spat. "As for you, if you can even flop a script that Lao Fang gives you, I suggest you change careers as soon as possible!"

"Then let's have a competition." Wu Kai poured a full beer. "Whoever wins at the box office and with the better reviews will be Director Fang's second-in-command. How about it?"

He immediately realized what was going on and added, "I was referring to the company's second-ranked director."

Liu Mang clinked glasses with him: "Let's compete then, who's afraid of who!"

求！

By the way, Wu Kai isn't Fang Bie's comedic nemesis; he's Liu Mang's nemesis.

Both of them are quite funny.

In Fang Bie's eyes, there was only the idea of ​​living a life of idleness and waiting to die.

(End of this chapter)