director of the millennium

Chapter 74 Producing "Stealing Hearts"

Jiaozhou, Qingdao.

Zhang Guorong's "Stealing Heart" crew is intensively filming here.

The preliminary preparations of the crew of "Stealing Heart" went smoothly, at least much smoother than the original track.

As early as last December, after "The Undertaker" was finished, Zhang Guorong came to Qingdao to select the scene.

In fact, he has never been to Qingdao before, but when he was in Hong Kong Island, he had seen some postcards with old photos of Qingdao, pictures of Qingdao in albums.

The city's strong cultural atmosphere, 19s style and quaint architecture and landscape left a deep impression on him.

So at the beginning of writing the script, he set the scene in Qingdao.

After a trip to Qingdao, Zhang Guorong was very disappointed. The buildings in the old photos had long been replaced by new modern buildings, and most of the plots he had envisioned had lost their support.

Some members of the crew suggested filming in a similar city, but Zhang Guorong, who always demands perfection, believed that would weaken the background of the film and affect the overall style.

So he made a bold decision and changed the script now!
After spending two or three months piecemeal and rewriting the script, at the end of March, "Stealing Heart" finally officially launched.

I have to say that it is really cool to be backed by the big tree of China Film Group!

Whatever actor Zhang Guorong wants, Director Han can help him!
The crew of "Stealing Heart" has brought together many big names and small fresh meats such as Tranquility, Hu Jun, Siqin Gaowa, Shen Dianxia, ​​Chen Daoming, Huang Xiaoming, Jiang Wen, etc.

Except for Shen Dianxia, ​​who is Zhang Guorong's good friend in Hong Kong, and Huang Xiaoming, who is just a newly famous actor, the rest of the actors were all helped by Director Han.

And on the seventh day after the crew started, Wu Yuan, the last crew member of "Stealing Heart", also came to join the crew in a low-key way.

"Zhang Sheng, don't be so angry!"

On a Minguo street built in the suburbs of Qingdao, Wu Yuan met the new director Zhang Guorong.

Not to mention, Zhang Guorong, who was sitting in the director's chair, really looked like a director. At least when he was cursing with a loudspeaker, no one dared to talk back.

Wu Yuan also saw something new!

Zhang Guorong was in the crew of "The Undertaker", and he carried out the four characters of "gentle and elegant" to the extreme in his work.

Although he likes to smoke and play mahjong in private, and he also has a funny side, he will never swear, curse, or quarrel with others in a red-faced and thick-necked manner.

But it was different on the set of "Stealing Hearts".

From a distance, Wu Yuan heard Zhang Guorong's curses mixed with Cantonese. From the stage manager to the props, camera, assistant director and actors, no one escaped from being scolded.

The one who was scolded the most was a prop master, who seemed to have misplaced a prop in the correct position, and reminded him several times, which completely annoyed Zhang Guorong.

Wu Yuan didn't feel too surprised about this.

Anyone who has really worked as a director knows that there is no director who does not curse people on the set.

Wu Yuan did not swear less when he was on the set!

There is no way, a crew of nearly a hundred people work together, and there will always be a lot of things that go wrong every day. I am really angry at the clumsy behavior, and I always have to scold a few words.

But the director doesn't scold people just to feel good. Swearing is just one of the ways to solve the problem, not just to discourage him.

Just listening to it, Wu Yuan also realized that something was wrong.

Like Zhang Guorong, who is already completely angry, and his sanity is almost gone. It is not a good thing for any director to catch everyone scolding together.

"It's all over, it's all over, the crew will call it a day and rest for half an hour!"

Wu Yuan, who arrived on the scene in time, immediately took up his duties as producer.

Dismissing the crew members who were being scolded by Zhang Guorong, Wu Yuan dragged Zhang Guorong to the shady tree, took two folding chairs and sat down.

Handing Zhang Guorong a Huazi specially brought for him, Wu Yuan lit a cigarette with him and smoked.

"Director Wu, this director's job really looks easy, but it's hard to do."

After taking a few deep breaths, Zhang Guorong let out a long sigh: "When I was an actor, I felt that whether it was you, the king of sunglasses, or other directors, it was very easy to be a director. You only need to sit on the monitor Shout Ka, Pass, and call it a day.”

"It wasn't until I started working that I realized that a director has to take care of so many things in a day, and the entire crew has to go through all the details."

"It's not easy, I've been a little bit exhausted from doing this for a week."

But no, Wu Yuan shook his head worriedly. Zhang Guorong was originally a perfectionist. He liked to do everything by himself and wanted to be the best. When he was a director, his level of effort was even higher than that of others. Times!
He doesn't approve of this kind of directing behavior that does all the work, it's too tiring.

"Zhang Sheng, making movies now is different from before. In the past, there were only a dozen or 20 people in a crew, and the director could direct it all by himself."

"But now a crew can range from dozens to hundreds or even hundreds of people. How can it be directed by the director alone?"

Wu Yuan patted Zhang Guorong on the shoulder:

"You have to learn to delegate power! Like the production crew in Hollywood, the large production crew is divided into several different groups, and each group is in charge of its own work."

"The director is only responsible for on-site shooting issues, focus on the key points, and control the overall situation. Other things have to be solved by other people in charge."

"This way you can relax a lot, and the crew will run more smoothly."

“It’s actually not popular in the Mainland these days for directors who have to take care of everything. When director Yimou was filming “Hero”, he was divided into A/B teams, and there were also assistant directors who were responsible for coordination, casting, and on-site acting. "

"If you had to personally handle everything on the entire crew, it would be like now. Instead, you wouldn't be able to manage everything well, and there would be all kinds of omissions."

Zhang Guorong looked at the flickering cigarette butt in his hand, meditating and reflecting thoughtfully.

Wu Yuan observed carefully just now.

The assistant director of Zhang Guorong's crew basically only took on the role of passing on the message to Zhang Guorong, and couldn't provoke the burden at all.

This is because Zhang Guorong was the director for the first time. I was afraid that there was something wrong with the crew, and I had to go through everything in person, so that several assistant directors were "empty".

The result of doing so is that Zhang Guorong has more things to worry about, not to mention, it is impossible for him to manage it, but the crew is getting more and more chaotic.

"Zhang Sheng, if you care about it, you will be in chaos!" Wu Yuan said earnestly.

Half an hour later, the crew of "Stealing Heart" resumed work.

After some persuasion by Wu Yuan, Zhang Guorong also came to his senses, and quickly returned the work that originally belonged to several assistant directors to them, and no longer personally grasped the details of everything.

And after several assistant directors really owned the rights of the crew, they quickly started to manage all the details of the crew. Group acting...

The production crew, which was originally running stumblingly, immediately started to run the process after Zhang Guorong used it to delegate power to the person in charge below.

After all, these crew members are all from a film studio affiliated to China Film Group. There are few old fritters, and they all do practical things with heart. It's just that they lacked an effective command system from top to bottom, like a group of headless flies. It is bad to do.

Now that the producer Wu Yuan has arrived, he can put the crew back in order in time, and everything immediately goes smoothly.

A satisfied smile finally appeared on Zhang Guorong's face.

In this way, Wu Yuan followed the group for a month and a half, personally teaching Zhang Guorong how to be a qualified director.

He never cared about how Zhang Guorong made "Stealing Heart", how the actors should act, how the screen should be shot, he didn't point fingers, and let Zhang Guorong make his own decisions.

He only taught Zhang Guorong one thing, how to direct and use a film crew correctly!
In the past month and a half, Zhang Guorong felt that he had benefited a lot every day, and he couldn't help but think about Wu Yuan's previous proposal again.

There's nothing wrong with following Director Wu!
At least there is something he is really willing to teach!
(End of this chapter)