Huayu: The Big Players Behind the Scenes

In the top-tier sect of Beijing Film Academy, you can find all kinds of talents.

Zhuang Huai'an simply had Wolong and Fengchu put up a banner outside the canteen that read, "Film crew is recruiting. 100 yuan a day, meals and accommodation included. Internship certificate available after one month."

Good heavens, this salary is amazing! The senior students are going crazy, and even many young employees at the neighboring Qingying Film Studio are getting restless after learning about the salary.

In just one day, the chief manager, Wang Zhiyong, received nearly 200 resumes.

"Huai'an, this stack is from recommendations by professors in various majors, the middle stack is from those with internship experience on film sets, and the last stack was collected on-site." Although it was Wang Zhiyong's first time doing this, he was meticulous and reported the situation to his boss in an orderly manner.

"Zhiyong, you've worked hard. Leave it here." Zhuang Huai'an nodded.

"It wasn't hard work at all; I actually found it quite interesting."

Seeing Wang Zhiyong's excited expression, Zhuang Huai'an couldn't help but chuckle.

"Regarding the equipment, take Mouse and find another Mouse to coordinate with the logistics department."

"OK."

After Wang Zhiyong left, Zhuang Huai'an picked up the resumes on the table. He first threw the stack of resumes collected on the spot into the drawer, and didn't look at the rest carefully. He just crossed the left and right resumes into two stacks.

Then he closed his eyes and performed a great ritual.

Calling in the troops!

Zhuang Huai'an's finger hovered over the stack on the right. He flipped through it and found that all the job categories were complete and nothing was missing.

I threw the one on the left into the drawer, where it overlapped with the resumes from the beginning.

This is the advantage of having a powerful sect backing you up; you have so many resources that they're almost wasteful.

For the next period of time, Zhuang Huai'an worked non-stop.

The company registration documents have been submitted, but the process is still underway. Fearing that it would be too late, Zhuang Huai'an contacted an intermediary and bought a shell company that had no tax records yet. The name was not changed; this was only for temporary use, and it would be registered under the new company's name later.

They only hired two finance staff members to work with the team.

After setting up a corporate bank account, and on the advice of the finance department, Zhuang Huai'an invested 500 million RMB in the company in his personal name, with all investment returns belonging to him.

The purpose of this is to make bookkeeping easier and to facilitate tax payments later.

Throughout his two lifetimes, Zhuang Huai'an's principles have remained unchanged:

Pay the taxes you should pay, and don't sleep where you shouldn't.

All the preliminary work was completed, and Sun Hao and Ning Hao returned from filming in other locations.

On October 25, 2001, which happened to be the Double Ninth Festival, the autumn sky was clear and the air was crisp.

But the entire crew was freezing cold, looking like little kids.

just because,

To fit the storyline of "The Hunt," the two mice responsible for location scouting chose Xiangyang Town in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province, which is also the famous Sanjiangkou Scenic Area. Just across the river is the Russian bear kingdom.

"You son of a bitch!"

Zhuang Huai'an regretted two things. One was that he was too hasty in deciding on the filming location based solely on photos.

Secondly, with so many great movies in my head, I just happened to choose the most difficult one to start with.

The hunting plot doesn't really fit the current national situation because it includes a church and hunting rifles.

To better reflect the actual situation, Zhuang Huai'an slightly modified some of the plot.

For example, if the timeline is set in 92, at that time, Zhuang Huai'an's cousin next door in his hometown had not yet launched the Battle of Majinggele, and the family had not yet fully implemented gun control laws.

The story was then set in a small town in the far northeast of China, near Russia. The town also has many Russian residents, and with the blending of various cultures, the presence of a church doesn't seem out of place.

Seeing that the crew members were so cold that snot bubbles were coming out of their noses, Zhuang Huai'an didn't dare to delay and quickly told everyone to go into the station to take shelter from the wind. He was physically strong and continued to stand outside to wait for Wang Zhiyong and the others who had come to scout the location first.

Shortly after, two buses arrived at the exit.

Wang Zhiyong jumped out of the car, walked quickly forward, and explained, "Huai'an, sorry to keep you waiting. It suddenly got cold here this morning. I was worried that you didn't bring any clothes, so I went to buy some first. But the car was too cold, and the driver had a lot of trouble starting it."

Seeing his guilty expression, Zhuang Huai'an didn't blame him. After all, Wang Zhiyong was only a 19-year-old college student, and it was his first time being in charge of the food, drink, and daily needs of dozens of people. It was impossible for him to make no mistakes.

Even geniuses need to keep learning in order to grow.

Zhuang Huai'an patted Wolong on the shoulder and said softly, "Alright, the brothers are all waiting inside. Go and help them get in the car."

"Hey." Wang Zhiyong went in, bowed slightly to everyone, and solemnly apologized.

They were all fellow disciples, their eyes filled with longing for the Northeast, so they didn't hold it against him at all and boarded the bus together, laughing and joking.

Today's visitors are mainly crew members.

And there's Guan Xiaotong, who was recommended by Teacher Cui to play the little girl, the handsome and charismatic actor who plays the little girl's older brother, and Xie Miao, whom Zhuang Huai'an contacted through Jiang Wu. He plays Lu Kai's son, Lu Sen.

It takes 3 hours to drive from Jiamu Railway Station to Xiangyang Town. By the time we arrived at our destination, it was almost dark.

Upon learning that students from the Beijing Film Academy were coming to film a movie in their town, the top official of Xiangyang Town personally led his team of leaders to treat the entire film crew to a feast of Northeastern specialties, including braised goose in an iron pot, Demoli stewed fish, and chicken stewed with mushrooms.

The substantial weight made everyone roll their eyes.

The actors arrived one after another the next day.

Everyone in the crew is from the same school, and they can find mutual friends no matter how they turn the screen.

Xie Miao was initially a little uncomfortable, but he grew up on film sets and was about the same age as the crew, so he quickly became one with them.

Seeing Xie Miao and Nai Liang Ge acting like best buddies with their arms around each other's shoulders, Zhuang Huai'an chuckled to himself. If Nai Liang Ge had as much fighting skill as Xiao Xie, would PG One still dare to take his sister-in-law to get her hair done?

As the weather grew colder, Zhuang Huai'an made the most of his time and finished filming the outdoor scenes first.

Just as they moved indoors that day, a heavy snow began to fall.

"What a blessing!" Zhuang Huai'an exhaled through his breath, filled with emotion.

After finishing his cigarette, he sat back in the director's chair, waved his hand, and said, "Continue!"

[Hunting scene 91, shot 1, cut.]

This scene was the climax. In the church, Lu Kai finally broke down in his emotions and questioned his childhood friend.

Wang Zhiwen truly deserves his reputation as a top-tier actor in China. His emotional control was impeccable; in just a glance as he turned his head, a complex mix of emotions was conveyed, leaving the entire crew speechless.

"Cut!" Zhuang Huai'an shouted, looking at the monitor, "Senior brother, you're awesome! That's a pass!"

As filming progressed further, Wang Zhiwen seemed to have completely immersed himself in the role of Lu Kai, and the once cheerful crew became cautious with everyone.

"Director, this..."

Sun Hao, who was acting as assistant director and script supervisor, looked at Wang Zhiwen, who was radiating a low mood in the corner, and said with some concern, "Should we take a day off? Senior Brother Wang is in such a state..."

"No need," Zhuang Huai'an shook his head after thinking for a moment: "No madness, no life. Haozi, you have to believe in the abilities of top male actors. They can get into character at any time and get out of character at any time. I believe in Senior Brother Wang."

"Well... okay."

That's what he said, but Zhuang Huai'an still walked over to Wang Zhiwen, sat down, and handed him a Changbaishan cigarette.

"Senior brother, is everything alright?"

"Don't worry," Wang Zhiwen said with a big sigh and a forced smile, "This is the Grotowski method of acting. It's very useful for exploring the inner world of a character and shaping their personality. It'll be fine after filming."

Zhuang Huai'an nodded. He knew about this school of acting, and its representative figure in China was Feng Yuanzhen. The character An Jiahe he portrayed using this method made him unable to shake off the image of a domestic abuser for the rest of his life.

"Come on," Wang Zhiwen stubbed out his cigarette, his demeanor becoming somewhat timid as he stood up, his expression shifting, and he said in a low voice, "Continue."

...

She even described the color of the walls in my basement, but I don't have a basement!

"Click!"

After 45 days, the filming of "The Hunt" has wrapped up.