1991: The Era of Hong Kong Dramas

The opening ceremony was then considered complete, and the normal filming process began.

Wai Ka-fai began directing the sound and lighting adjustments, Yuen Ying-ming led the cameramen in positioning, and the makeup artist touched up Lau Ching-wan's makeup.

Lin Yufen led out a group of passersby dressed in red vests and ties from somewhere and began directing them to stand inside the counter as human backdrops.

Meanwhile, Vivian Chow, wearing a brown dress, appeared on the sidelines alongside Amy Kwok.

At today's opening ceremony, many actors were present. Wai Ka-fai, who prioritizes efficiency, plans to shoot two key scenes directly.

One was the ultimate showdown in the stock market on "Miracle Day," and the other was the tragic death of Ting Hai's four sons who jumped off a building.

These two scenes are the crux of the entire series. One allows the audience to see Fang Zhanbo finally avenge his ten-year-old blood feud, which is very satisfying; the other pushes the madness and destruction of the stock market to the extreme, reflecting the theme.

For the production team, this arrangement is convenient and saves time and effort. Everyone can be present for the same scene, and there is no need to schedule actors' schedules separately.

But for actors, it's a huge challenge.

Without daily scenes to build emotional foundation, actors who directly enter into intense emotions are prone to delivering hollow, over-the-top performances, or even turning their characters into hysterical jokes.

For example, Wu said, "Su Yunjin, how are you going to repay what you owe me?"

Faced with this situation, veteran artists such as Adam Cheng and Damian Lau naturally had no problem, and even Lau Ching-wan had already gotten into character, finding a corner to squat quietly and letting the makeup artist apply white foundation to his face, making him look haggard.

As for the four sons of the Ding family, including Shao Zhongheng, they were busy rehearsing their lines. Both scenes were being filmed at the same location, but they were busy yet organized, and even cooperated quite well.

Looking around, it seemed that only Vivian Chow was standing there, lost in thought.

……

After the audition ended that day, Vivian Chow walked out of the meeting room, and her first thought was, "This screenwriter surnamed Huo is really annoying."

Despite his young age, he speaks without holding back. He may appear gentle and mild-mannered, but his actual demeanor is even more severe than that of the perpetually stern-faced producers.

Having been in the industry for six years, she has been criticized before, but this is the first time she has been told in front of so many people by a young man who looks younger than her that "you haven't even done the most basic things of an actor well."

However, when her anger subsided and she recalled the issues Huo Sheng had pointed out, Vivian Chow had to admit that he was right.

This made her feel even worse.

She was praised for her talent in the arts from a young age. She picked up things very quickly, whether it was performing or singing, and she could even reach a professional level in piano through self-study.

At eighteen, she participated in a singing competition for the first time and was spotted by an entertainment company, but she had to give up because her mother disagreed. At nineteen, she participated in an amateur radio DJ competition, won second place, and successfully debuted.

When she first entered the industry, PolyGram helped her build her reputation, and she immediately collaborated with veterans like Andy Lau and George Lam.

She always felt that she was capable.

But now, it's just a simple play, a simple role, and her performance, which she does effortlessly, has been criticized for not even being able to do the most basic things well.

What's even more infuriating is that Huo Sheng is right.

And it was precisely because she knew the other person was right that she felt even more aggrieved.

Why is it that Huo Sheng can see right through what she hasn't figured out?

She felt conflicted for several days.

It wasn't until her agent told her that she would have scenes on the opening ceremony day, which was also the most important "miracle day".

Filming was just one part of her day-and-night work, but the thought of filming under Huo Sheng's watchful eye and wondering how he would evaluate her made her a little nervous.

She could only pray silently that the annoying person wouldn't be there during the filming.

There are reasons for thinking this way.

On the day of the casting call, Huo Sheng attended with the producer and director, which indicates that he was at least an editor or the chief screenwriter in charge of the outline.

Therefore, the episode writer who followed the filming and corrected the details could not possibly be him.

Unfortunately, she couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she tried—the production team of "The Great Era" was quite peculiar; there was only one screenwriter from beginning to end, Huo Sheng.

Vivian Chow was completely speechless, staring at the tips of her shoes, feeling increasingly nervous.

……

"Over here, over here, hurry up!"

"Hey you over there, you stepped on the camera cable!"

"All personnel, to your positions!"

With filming ready, Huo Sheng moved a chair and sat down next to Wei Jiahui, fulfilling his duty as a bystander.

Wai Ka-fai did not force him to stay in the office or on set, since Huo Sheng had always submitted his manuscripts on time and the quality of his scripts was very high, so there was basically no need for on-site revisions.

Soon, Lau Ching-wan was ready and walked directly to the center of the exchange, while director Wai Ka-fai directed the camera to be aimed at him.

The production assistant appeared, holding a clapperboard, and stood in front of the camera, calling out, "Scene 1, Act 1, 3, 2, 1..."

"Action!"

The entire studio lit up, and the numbers on the large screen, symbolizing the stock price, kept changing.

This "miracle day" drama tells the story of how Hong Kong stocks plummet due to war panic, with the Ting family using all their resources to short the stock market, while Fong Chin-bo raises funds from various sources to go long.

Ultimately, Hong Kong stocks surged dramatically by about 4000 points, and Fong Chin-bo won the bet.

Lau Ching-wan has already gotten into character.

He was dressed in dark clothes, wearing a tie properly, staring at the screen like a gambler, his eyes bloodshot.

As the numbers climbed higher and higher, the entire cast cheered in unison, "It's going up! It's going up!"

He seemed unable to contain his emotions any longer, first raising his arms and shouting with others to vent his excitement, and then running all over the place.

Then she ran to a secluded spot, pounded the ground, and cried out in a hoarse voice the name she most wanted to share this news with, "Ah Mei! Ah Mei!"

Only when he heard someone call "Zhanbo" from outside did he look up again in surprise...

"Click!"

"very good!"

Yuan Yingming stared at the monitor and nodded in satisfaction—Liu Qingyun, without any dialogue or acting partner, expressed this emotion vividly yet with restraint, which cannot be attributed to a lack of talent.

He felt this take was already very good, but just to be on the safe side, he filmed another take as a backup before it was considered a success.

The next scene will be the one where Ruan Mei finds Fang Zhanbo at the stock exchange, and the two embrace.

Lau Ching-wan immediately showed off his skills by throwing four twos off the court, making Vivian Chow visibly more nervous.

The production team didn't care about any of that. The stagehands reappeared, shouting, "Scene 1, Act 2, 3, 2, 1..."

"Action!"

Vivian Chow wound herself up, suddenly becoming anxious, searching the exchange and calling out loudly, "Zhanbo! Zhanbo!"

Until he seemed to have discovered something, his face lit up with joy, and he hurriedly ran over.

As soon as she ran away, Yuan Yingming frowned.

Once the two were embracing, he immediately shouted, "Stop, stop!"

Yuan Yingming took off his headphones and said seriously:

"Huimin, why are you so agitated?!"