How did I become famous?

"I still feel it's not right, there's a mistake in this shot."

Liu Mang yawned and took a sip of the tea with goji berries in his thermos.

Editor Luo Wei, sitting in front of his computer with dark circles under his eyes, said wearily, "Well, I'll change this shot then."

They have been working at high intensity and overload for several days in a row.

For this movie, they've been getting up earlier than the chickens and going to bed later than the chickens.

It's about three or four hours a day.

Several people even brought their sleeping bags over, and when they couldn't take it anymore, they would sleep and then continue working after waking up.

"By the way, Fatty, what did Director Fang say about the rough cut?"

The rough cut is mainly for the director to see if it matches the style he wants.

Some directors like to oversee the post-production editing process, and some even take charge of it themselves.

However, some directors simply finish filming, pack up, and go to rest, waiting to see if the rough cut matches their desired style.

Fang Bie belongs to the third type.

"Old Fang didn't check. He trusts us way too much," Liu Mang sighed. "That's why we can't let him down."

Normally, directors with a lot of power will draw up storyboards in advance and hand them over to assistant directors and cinematographers to tell them what style and look they want for the shots.

Some directors' storyboards are just stick figures; you have to communicate with them to figure out what they mean, or you have to rely on others to understand them on their own.

Some directors draw storyboards that look like comics, creating such a visual effect that the cinematographer can simply follow along when filming.

Fang Bie belongs to the third type.

He didn't draw any storyboards at all.

It's not that he can't; after all, he draws concept art for game companies.

His goal was for the movie to flop.

He only gave a rough outline verbally; the specific storyboard was drawn up by Liu Mang and the director of photography, Nie Fang.

After all, one of them was a top student who graduated from the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy, and the other was a top student who graduated from the photography department.

"I know." Luo Wei rubbed his temples to relax his sore eyes. "It's just that what style does Director Fang want? I'm afraid the result won't be what he wants, and then all the wasted costs will be money."

After all, he used to be an expert in the industry, so he really knew exactly how to make war films on the theme of resistance against Japan.

But this time is different.

It can only be said that Director Fang truly deserves the title of "genius director" from Fatty Liu. The style of this film is unlike any other genre that Lo Wei has ever been familiar with.

That's right, he's already realized that this isn't a war film.

Or rather, it's not a war film in the conventional sense.

He felt that Fang Bie had created a new film genre.

So he became even more tense.

For Fang Bie to entrust them with a film that pioneers a new genre, that takes immense trust.

He could not betray Fang Bie's trust.

Whether for oneself, for the other crew members, or even for Fang Bie.

He doesn't allow himself to slack off.

"No matter what, you must cut out the sample footage within a month," said Pan Xiao, the special effects artist leaning against the wall.

As someone from the world's strongest special effects company, DreamWorks, he had already figured out how to create the special effects based on the camera angles during filming.

However, the better and more realistic the special effects, the slower the rendering process.

A month was his limit.

Recently, he has been working overtime every day with Liu Mang, Luo Wei, and a few others.

Because he needs to know the style of the edited video in order to adjust his special effects production plan accordingly.

"Of course I know that!" Luo Wei, a graduate of the University of Southern California, cursed. "But the details have to be scrutinized meticulously; I don't want to leave any flaws."

The more he edited, the more he could feel Fang Bie's unrestrained imagination.

This is a film destined to become a classic. He certainly doesn't want people, decades later, to regretfully say in countless reviews, "This is the pioneering work of the XXX type of film. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of the production conditions at the time, this film still has quite a few flaws, blah blah blah..."

This is something he cannot accept.

Imperfect beauty is certainly nice, but he prefers perfection.

Liu Mang was certainly aware of these things as well.

He sensed that this trendy film might be criticized by conservative film critics, but it was destined to become a classic in film history.

"That makes sense, but we really can't afford to delay any longer. We only have two months for post-production, and then it'll be Chinese New Year. We haven't even done the submission for review yet."

Luo Wei didn't say anything, he just kept puffing on his cigarette.

The editing room was soon filled with smoke, and the mountain of cigarette butts in the ashtray next to the computer testified to the three men's anxiety.

After an unknown amount of time, Luo Wei stubbed out his cigarette, which was almost burned down to the sponge filter, in the ashtray: "Young Master Pan, is there any room for further compression in your special effects?"

"That's it." Pan Xiao frowned. "This is already the time I've compressed to the limit. If it's any shorter, I can't guarantee the effect."

"Okay..." Luo Wei thought for a moment, then looked up and said, "Fatty, ask Director Fang if we can extend the post-production time by a few days."

"Where is the time?" Liu Mang's fat face jiggled. "If it doesn't pass the review later, we'll have to set aside time for re-editing."

Luo Wei waved his hand: "No, no, no, what I mean is, if we have a few more days, I'm confident that the edited version won't be rejected."

Liu Mang asked suspiciously, "Are you sure?"

Luo Wei smiled; in his eyes was only one word: "confidence."

"You forgot, none of the clips I edited before have ever been rejected."

"Okay, I'll call and ask."

............

Neither Fang nor Su Mulin could convince the other.

Finally, Fang Bie used "adult methods," directly telling Su Mulin, "You're still young. You'll understand when you enter society," thus ending the conversation.

Miss Su ran back to her bedroom in a huff and sulked.

However, judging from her taking the three-line love letter written by Fang Bie with her, she actually agreed with Fang Bie's statement.

At the very least, she felt that Fang Bie's writing was much better than her own.

Sigh, this girl is going to have to go to school and put on a show again.

"Ta-da~ Ta-da~ Ta-da~"

Fang Bie answered the phone without thinking.

"Feed?"

"Old Fang, this is Liu Mang."

"Yeah, I know you're a scoundrel. So, what's up? Did you get arrested again and I have to go to the station to pick you up?"

"...I'm not talking about this with you, are you asleep?"

Fang glanced at his watch; it was 11:47 PM.

No, release.

"There's a slight problem with the editing. He asked me to ask you if we could give the post-production team a few more days. Don't worry, he won't ask for overtime pay."

Is there such a good thing?

Fang comforted him, "It's okay, this movie is just for them to practice. Just edit it casually, don't be too demanding. Don't put too much pressure on him either, his health is the most important thing, don't keep working overtime."

They really made the right choice in editing this wedding MV!

Cut it! Cut it badly! The worse the cut, the better!

It's a pity I didn't make a "youth film," otherwise it would have been even better if he had edited it into a special music video in the style of a wedding music video!

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end, then Liu Mang's voice sounded perfectly normal through the phone: "I understand, don't worry."

"Okay, I trust you to handle things. I'll hang up now."

Liu Mang really understands me. It's thanks to these amateur players he found that I'm more confident in getting the property rights to the entire street of shops and the building.

Then I'll just give him 200,000 from the "ice cream money" as well.

Okay, that's decided!

In a cheerful mood, Fang Bie hummed a little tune as she went upstairs.

He felt he would have a good dream tonight.

In dreams... anything can happen.

............

Putting down his phone, Liu Mang took off his glasses and wiped his reddened eyes: "Old Fang said there's no problem. He also told us not to push ourselves too hard, that our health comes first."

Luo Wei lowered his head and remained silent.

After a long while, his trembling shoulders finally calmed down.

He took a deep breath and lit a cigarette.

"Um."

For myself, for this movie, and even more so for Fang Bie.

He's going to... use all his skills.