The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 571 Inexplicable
"The boss lady is here."

"Good morning, Madam."

"Hello everyone!"

Liu Shishi's eyes swept across everyone's faces.

She found that many of them were relatively unfamiliar faces, and soon realized that some of them had been transferred to PPS and were new employees of the company.

"Everyone, get busy."

Liu Shishi waved to them with a smile.

Her main purpose of coming to the company today was to talk to Jiang Xueman about the next play.

PPS has been dormant this year, developing an online website and optimizing the server. Lu Yuan was not satisfied with the playback interface.

It will develop step by step with existing resources (Blueprint classic film and television dramas, Hunan Satellite TV variety shows, Dragon TV variety shows) and will officially start next year.

The company will be producing several dramas in a row, and Liu Shishi will also be involved in them.

Since the release of "Out of Time" this year, her popularity has skyrocketed, her schedule has been full, and she has had little rest.

According to her lazy nature, she would have to stay at home for a while, but her boyfriend was moving too fast and the company was expanding, so she had to help share some of the pressure.

Specifically, he uses his own popularity to lead the company's contracted artists, such as Zhu Yilong, Liu Xinyou and others.

After Zhu Yilong signed the contract, with the help of Wu Lang and Jiang Qiuyun, he had no shortage of resources, and he hung out in various major film crews, and his professional ability increased rapidly.

It just so happened that the company was releasing several dramas in a row, and it was time to push him to the forefront.

Liu Shishi pushed open the door of Lu Yuan's office with ease.

She walked to the desk, pulled out a chair and sat down, then stared blankly at the photo of herself and her boyfriend on the table.

"You bastard." She pouted and poked the dog head of Mr. Lu in the photo with her fingertips.

I flipped through the books in the office again, and finally leaned back in my chair, took out my cell phone and took a beautiful selfie.

Just after sending the money to my boyfriend, Jiang Xueman knocked on the door.

"Sister Meng." She stood up and greeted her.

"I heard from the front desk that you were here." Jiang Xueman smiled and shook the script in her hand.

Liu Shishi took a look at "Eternal Love".

"Three Lives" is a female-oriented TV series that revolves around the story of the heroine Bai Qian, which complements the audience of PPS.

However, compared with Tangren’s original version, the content has been changed significantly.

After watching for a while, Liu Shishi smiled and muttered knowingly, "Hmm, so plain. Where are the kissing, hugging and lifting scenes?"

Jiang Xueman glanced at her and said, "Auntie, I'm just an employee. The boss has spoken in the group."

She coughed and repeated what someone had said in the work group chat.

“In a good drama, there are many ways to express the emotions of the characters, and it does not necessarily need to rely on intimate scenes. The portrayal of the emotions between characters should start with details.

It can be a look, a gesture, or a pause in speech. On the contrary, relying on large-scale scenes to attract attention is actually the laziness and incompetence of screenwriters and directors.

In the final analysis, Three Lives Three Worlds is a drama for women, Bai Qian is the soul of the whole drama, and her character is the most important thing."

Liu Shishi felt that these words sounded very familiar. After thinking again, wasn't this his original words?

Humph, you bastard, she cursed in her heart, but also felt a sense of sweetness and enjoyment in it. Possessiveness is always the most direct way for a man to express his love for a woman.

Jiang Xuemeng didn't know what she was thinking, nor could she control it.

"What about Old K?" Liu Shishi closed the script.

"I have sent it to Cai Yinong. Once the actors are confirmed, we will go to Yunnan to look at the locations. We plan to start filming early next year, which happens to be the season when peach blossoms are in full bloom."

For the crew, digging out a giant cave and setting up the shooting scenes inside was not a strange thing.

Zhu Ganglie's lair was like this, with dim lights, lit red candles, iron hooks, butcher knives, and grinding wheels.
This is a scene that was built by a team led by Wu Zhiqing, a senior set designer at Hengdian Film and Television City. It took 20 days and cost 50 yuan to build.

Not only that, but the house in the movie "Ip Man", the cave in "Painted Skin", and the main fighting scene in "The Forbidden Kingdom" were all created by Wu Zhiqing.

After finishing the water fort plot, the crew changed the location and started filming Zhu Ganglie's scenes.

According to Zhou Xinchi's design, the life stories of the fish demon Sha Seng and Zhu Ganglie are quite miserable.

The fish demon was originally a very good young man.

Because he rescued a child by the river, he was mistaken for a human trafficker by the villagers and was beaten to death. His body was then thrown into the river and became food for fish.

The young man was filled with resentment, so he transformed himself into a fish monster and came to take revenge on the villagers.

Zhu Ganglie was originally an extremely ugly and infatuated man.

He loved his wife, but she didn't love him. Not only did she cheat on him, she also teamed up with her adulterer to kill him.

Zhu Ganglie was filled with resentment, so he transformed himself into a demon and vowed to kill all the women in the world who loved handsome men.

It is said that in the restaurant carefully disguised by Zhu Ganglie, a pair of senior and junior brothers and sisters came in to have a meal.

The waiter enthusiastically introduced the popular dish in this restaurant, hanging oven roasted pork.

The girl's eyes were full of infatuation for her senior brother, and every word she said was infatuation.

Then he was attracted by the crispy and tender roasted pork and asked the shop assistant who could make such a delicious dish.

The shop assistant solemnly introduced the boss Zhu Ganglie.

The girl saw that the shop owner was actually a handsome young man with a greasy face, and his appearance was many times more pleasing to the eye than that of her senior brother.

After some teasing, the handsome boy revealed his true form, Zhu Ganglie.

The elegant candlesticks on the wall turned into sharp nine-toothed rakes, and the roasted pigs in the stove dripping with grease turned into rows of human corpses.

It was too late for the two brothers and sisters to escape, and they became the dead souls under Zhu Ganglie's rake in a few seconds.

Under the candlesticks, Tang Yixin was thinking about the plot while reciting lines with "Jiang Bao": "But, I'm not as pretty as you, Senior Brother."

She is from Sichuan and came to Beijing to develop her career after graduating from university in 2010.

At that time, there was news in the circle that Zhou Xinchi’s new play was casting, so she recorded a video and went for the interview.

She heard nothing for more than a year after her audition.

I didn't hold out much hope.

As a result, some time ago, she received a call from Zhou Xinchi’s staff, inviting her to Hengdian.

After arriving in Hengdian, it was considered a second audition. Zhou Xinchi asked her to make a lot of expressions, and then finalized her.

Because of her sweet looks, she has been taking the delicate route after her debut, playing the roles of Concubine Qi in "The Legend of Zhen Huan", Shen Bi in "The Female Prime Minister", and Shan Yingying in "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties".

But when she came into Zhou Xinchi's hands, she was disfigured, with her face painted as dark as possible.

"Tsk!"

Across from her, the actor who played her senior turned his head and said narcissistically, "Why do you always care about my appearance? Are you so superficial?"

Looking at Jiangbao's extremely mediocre face and artificial expression, Tang Yixin felt that Zhou Xinchi had a bad taste. Jiangbao's real name is He Wenhui. In 2001, he starred in his first personal movie "Shaolin Soccer", thus officially entering the entertainment industry. Later, he starred in the action comedy "Kung Fu" and became famous.

No matter from which angle she looked at it, she couldn't understand why the junior sister she played was so obsessed with him.

Her attention turned to the right, her eyes lit up, and she answered half-heartedly, "What girl doesn't like handsome guys?"

"Ah." He Wenhui sighed according to the script.

After a while, seeing that she didn't reply, he looked in the direction she was looking and saw the leading actor Lu Yuan and the director walking down the stairs, seemingly arguing about something.

Turning his gaze back to Tang Yixin's face, he curled his lips.

Another person who is ambitious and wants to take shortcuts.

After being in the business for many years, I have seen all kinds of people. Just by looking at her eyes, I can easily tell that this woman has bad intentions.

According to him, on the first day Tang Yixin joined the crew, she approached Lu Yuan in a very familiar way.

Come on, you're just a supporting actor, what do you want to do?
Later I learned that Tang Yixin was familiar with a male actor in "Snow Leopard".

After searching online, I learned that the other person's name is Zhang Ruoyun, who played Zhou Weiguo's younger brother in "Snow Leopard" and also starred in the sister film of "Snow Leopard", "Black Fox".

This drama was first aired last year, but the ratings were terrible. Compared with Lu Yuan, his stiff acting skills were criticized by netizens.

How dare you get close to someone with such a small relationship like this?
He Wenhui looked disdainful.

Seeing Lu Yuan coming in, Tang Yixin smiled. Just as she approached, she was stopped by Zheng Qian with a smile.

A woman's sixth sense is very accurate, and she can roughly see what the other person is hiding.

There is always someone who thinks he or she is the most special one.

Ever since the incident on the set of "New World", Zheng Qian now pays special attention to these details.

No actress in the crew can escape her eyes, and the boss lady has reminded her many times. Lu Yuan herself is also annoyed by this.

"Sister Zheng, what is this?" Tang Yixin was stopped but was not embarrassed.

Zheng Qian looked impatient: "Teacher Lu is talking to the director about the next scene."

"Oh." Tang Yixin stepped aside silently.

Lu Yuan noticed the other party approaching.

The day before yesterday, when Tang Yixin joined the crew, she came over to say hello and introduced herself.

He responded perfunctorily and called Zhang Ruoyun in the evening to ask, and it was indeed true.

Zhang Ruoyun claimed that in 2010, the two of them accidentally rear-ended each other in Chongqing and became friends by chance.

Moreover, Lu Yuan guessed that the boy seemed to be interested in Tang Yixin.

He doesn't want to get involved in other people's private affairs and just annoy others. Just like Huang Xiaoming and Yang Ying, no matter how outsiders persuade them, Huang Xiaoming doesn't mind.

Retracting his thoughts, Lu Yuan continued to discuss with Zhou Xinchi.

During this period of time, he found that Zhou Xinchi was a director who liked to communicate with actors, at least on the surface, and was willing to listen to the actors' opinions.

But it was just listening.

Most of the time, he would pretend to ask the actors what they thought of the previous scene and whether there was any room for improvement.

After the brainstorming session, when the filming officially started, I still went my own way and ultimately had to follow his interpretation.

It can be said that the entire crew, except Lu Yuan, Shu Qi and others are basically the same, they are just simply concretizing Zhou Xinchi's ideas.

It is true that film is the art of the director, and Lu Yuan has to admit that most of the time, what Zhou Xinchi said makes sense.

One of the characteristics of director Zhou Xinchi is that he likes to "talk" out the plot.

To be more specific, the screenwriter conceives the characters and main plot of a play. He can fill in many performances and plot elements that the screenwriter himself could not think of, which often serve as the finishing touch.

At the same time, after understanding the characters that will appear in this play, Zhou Xinchi can also combine his own acting experience with the actor's image, dialogue and temperament characteristics to allow the actor to show more inspiration.

But all of the above refers to Zhou Xinchi's on-the-spot creative ability, which is based on performance, or the actor's own contribution to a certain segment.

In the context of the entire plot, he is not very good.

In other words, as a director, his narrative ability is not outstanding, which is a common problem among most directors.

Lu Yuan said: "I feel that the plot development is a bit abrupt, especially Miss Duan's feelings. Her love for Chen Xuanzang is inexplicable. Why would she like an exorcist who knows nothing?"

"Because he is kind!" Zhou Xinchi smiled and expressed his thoughts.

“First of all, Miss Duan and Chen Xuanzang are both exorcists, and they are in the same profession. This commonality in their profession allows Miss Duan to better understand the dangers and difficulties of this industry.

The fearlessness, selflessness and kindness revealed by Chen Xuanzang in the process of subduing the fish monster were very endearing in Miss Duan's eyes. She admired Xuanzang's concern for the world and his detachment from worldly matters, and therefore developed a special feeling for Chen Xuanzang.

Although these two people have completely different auras, they are strongly attracted to each other in some mysterious way.”

"You can convince me, but you can't convince the audience." Lu Yuan shook his head and asked, "When do you think this relationship started?"

Zhou Xinchi said without hesitation: "When Miss Duan helped Chen Xuanzang to subdue the fish monster."

"Isn't that a bit far-fetched? When the two met for the first time, Chen Xuanzang tried to persuade the fish monster with "Three Hundred Children's Songs", but the fish monster got annoyed and beat him up.

At this critical moment, Miss Duan appeared and subdued him effortlessly with her magic weapon.

It's like a peerless master saving a big fool, only to find that the fool is slovenly, powerless, extremely down and out, and is using nursery rhymes to exorcise demons and monsters. Can you like this?"

Lu Yuan couldn't understand.

"Feelings are unreasonable." Zhou Xinchi said confidently.

"That's right." Lu Yuan agreed with his point of view, and then refuted: "Reality does not need logic, but film and television works do. If love is unreasonable, it will not convince the audience. The audience will only think that Miss Duan's love is abrupt and inexplicable."

Zhou Xinchi frowned and pondered for a moment, seemingly convinced by him.

"So, what do you think?"

"Rather than saying that Miss Duan fell in love with Chen Xuanzang when they first met, it's better to say that Chen Xuanzang became interested in this rude and unfeminine exorcist because of this rescue, and even developed a kind of inexplicable affection for him that he couldn't explain."

Lu Yuan continued to analyze: "So why not design a plot for the scene of subduing Zhu Ganglie, so that Miss Duan can vaguely understand Chen Xuanzang's feelings.

Well. Or give Miss Duan an illusion and create a misunderstanding, so that when she escapes Zhu Ganglie's pursuit and Chen Xuanzang treats her, she can close her eyes and let him kiss her, which will make sense."

Zhou Xinchi pulled his beard and fell into thought.

He is self-aware and knows very well that he is not good at plot structure and introduction, development, turning point and ending.

Usually the screenwriter gives him the "skeleton" (structure) before he can push it forward, and then everyone brainstorms together.

Therefore, in terms of creation, he cannot do without a more experienced team, like Liu Zhenwei in his early years.

When he was filming "Lord of Destruction" that year, he relied on Liu Zhenwei to remotely control him. While Liu Zhenwei was filming his own play "Citibank Shaolin", he taught him over the phone how to shoot each scene, including performance, storyboards, plots, rhythm, etc.

The other party also participated in the later "Kung Fu" and "Shaolin Soccer".

He believes that he has some talent for creativity in acting, but he is not a unique and leading filmmaker in terms of controlling genre themes and text style.

He said, "Okay, I'll talk to Lu Zhengyu."

(End of this chapter)