How did I become famous?

Time flies, and years pass quickly.

Before we knew it, it was the next day.

The next day is Monday, which is also next week.

The young lady had to attend class, so she couldn't come to the opening ceremony.

Fang Bie maintained his consistent "low-key" style and did not invite the media to attend.

With ample funding for this shoot, everyone voted against other opinions and opted to book an entire small town for filming.

After arriving at the location and resting for one night, the opening ceremony was to begin early the next morning.

As usual, Fang Bie once again took out the small flowerpot for planting succulents and then stuck three cigarettes in it.

This time, unlike the last time when a pack of Hongtashan cost eight yuan, we're using Hetianxia.

But the portrait hanging there was different.

Liu Mang rubbed his chin: "Old Fang, why aren't you hanging Old Wang anymore?"

The Shaolin Temple's Wudang Mountain office is headed by Grand Master Wang Lama, or simply Old Wang.

This is the portrait that everyone prayed to when filming began for the previous "Captain China" movie.

That portrait was painted by Fang Bie himself.

Liu Mang thought it was quite effective.

Fang Bie rolled his eyes: "As young people raised in modern society, how can we be superstitious? This is just a routine matter; it doesn't matter what we hang up."

No wonder!

If another time traveler claims to be an atheist, he probably wouldn't even be able to convince himself otherwise.

He just felt that hanging up "Old Wang" was unlucky.

So he painted a new character overnight to hang up.

It's that kind of original character created by Fang Bie, who is a woman, a black man, a lesbian, and accompanied by cats and dogs, holding a stalk of wheat in his hand.

With such a powerful figure protecting it, this movie should be able to go according to its own plan, right?

Ignoring Liu Mang's dissatisfaction, Fang Bie led everyone in bowing to the portrait with the utter disrespect, and then casually tossed it into some unknown corner.

Once the work started, Fang Bie quickly got into the zone.

The town was still a bit chilly in April. Fang Bie, wearing a military overcoat, found a spot and sprawled out there.

Liu Mang saw this and was deeply moved.

He knew that this was Fang Bie giving him a chance.

So he quickly got into the swing of things, grumbling and urging everyone to get ready to start work.

As a result, they encountered difficulties in the very first scene.

Because this town was set as the hometown of the protagonist Chen Qing and the villain Kira in "Shadow of Light", the scenes of their childhood were set here.

The first scene we're going to shoot is the one where the old video store burns down.

I don't know if other film crews' post-production special effects teams came with Fang Bie, but the editing director Luo Wei and the special effects team leader Pan Xiao from Fang Bie's crew both came with the crew.

Now Liu Mang is squatting down with the two of them and the director of the photography crew, Nie Fang, smoking.

Nie Fang squinted and took a puff of his cigarette: "How should we film this scene?"

Liu Mang flicked the ash from his cigarette, put it in his mouth, and then pulled out Fang Bie's storyboard: "You'll have it the easiest. Just shoot according to this storyboard."

Nie Fang laughed: "To be honest, I've never seen a director draw storyboards so meticulously before. It feels almost like a comic book. The camera work and the fight scenes are so outstanding. I estimate that even if they were printed and sold, they could make a lot of money."

This is true.

Although Fang Bie felt he knew nothing about filmmaking and could only write lyrics and hum tunes for songs, he was a professional, and an exceptionally professional, when it came to painting.

"Yusuke Komura" and "Ken Obata II" are not just nicknames.

Moreover, he relearned his old skills, and unable to resist the urge, he stayed up all night for three days straight to complete all the storyboards for an entire movie...

Therefore, Nie Fang and his team's job was much simpler than in the previous "Captain China" movie.

When filming a movie, the director usually has a vision in mind beforehand, but sometimes it's uncertain.

Therefore, the camera crew was required to shoot repeatedly according to the director's instructions to achieve the effect he envisioned.

Or, according to the director's requirements, shoot several takes using different shots and methods, and then the director compares and chooses the one that satisfies him the most.

In "Captain China", Fang Bie is just a minor character. When Liu Mang asked him anything, he would just say, "Just do it your way."

As a result, Liu Mang completely changed when he started making movies. They had to shoot each scene at least ten times before they could barely satisfy Liu Mang.

They not only argued every day, they almost came to blows.

This film, "Shadow of Light," is simple; we just need to shoot according to the storyboard.

Even the camera position doesn't need to be changed.

However, Fang Bie's storyboards were too exciting and elaborate, resulting in some parts where he used a more abstract style to express the core message.

But storyboards are not comics after all; they don't contain speech bubbles.

So they're in a bind now.

Liu Mang spread out the storyboard, and the four of them squatted down in a circle to look at it.

He pointed to the abstract background of the old record store above: "What do we do with this?"

As the script stated, everyone guessed that it should be a burning flame.

But Fang Bie's drawing is too abstract.

It's not actually abstract, but art.

In that panel, Kira and Chen Qing, who were still children, were running outwards with something in their arms, while a very three-dimensional flame separated the two of them in the middle.

Behind Kira, in the flames, is an abstract and blurry humanoid creature. If you look closely, you can see two upright horns on the humanoid head.

There were no flames behind Chen Qing, but a shadow.

The shadow's face features a clown mask that is half smiling and half crying.

The problem is that Liu Mang and his team are unsure whether the movie should go ahead with this approach.

After all, storyboards are frame by frame, while movies are animated.

They were discussing whether to shoot the scene in two separate shots or combine them into one.

If we combine them, how should we handle the flames and shadows in the post-production special effects?

After all, it doesn't make sense for one person to have fire behind them while another person doesn't in the same shot, right?

But they had all read the complete script and knew that this was a metaphor and foreshadowing left in Fang Bie's script.

By this time, they had both awakened superpowers.

The flames behind Kira also have a metaphor, representing that his kind side was consumed from there.

The blank space and shadow behind Chen Qing indicate that he is half good and half evil, and the abstract smiling and crying clown expression on the shadow's face also means the same thing.

The four of them discussed it for a long time, but couldn't come to a conclusion.

Finally, Pan Xiao offered a suggestion: "Why not ask Director Fang?"

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

Fang Bie was wrapped in a military overcoat, huddled in a chair, staring straight ahead.

He was lost in thought.

Kira Yoshikage, Chen Yongren, and Liu Jianming were chatting happily nearby.

They didn't actually have any scenes today, but neither Yoshikage Kira nor Lau Kin-ming had ever worked with such a large production crew before, and their roles were quite significant.

Chen Yongren had no experience in making movies, so everything they saw seemed new and exciting, and they also wanted to leave a good impression on the crew.

At this moment, Liu Mang and his three companions walked over:

"Director Fang, we have a slight disagreement about this shot. Could you give us some guidance?"

Look how eloquent he is!

And they even know to call out "Director Fang" on set.

Fang Bie snapped out of his daze, glanced at the panel Liu Mang was pointing to, and casually said, "I thought it was something else, but it's a 'stand-in'."

The group was taken aback: "A body double? What body double?"

Could it be that more than one person died in the fire at this shop?

That shouldn't be the case... The script said that only the shop owner died here.

Fang Bie smiled slightly: "'Stand' is the ability of 'Stand User'."