Become famous another day.

Chapter 630 Director's Eyes

With Luo Yuzhong directing "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" and with sufficient budget, the filming of this drama has an atmosphere that is almost as good as that of a movie.

Lu Yanhe was actually shocked when he arrived at the set on the first day.

Because this drama will use a lot of CG special effects, many scenes were shot in the studio.

However, there are also many scenes that were shot at real locations.

The production cost of this drama is very high, and a large part of it comes from the expenses of on-site stage design and props.

Not only Luo Yuzhong has high requirements in this regard, but Lu Yanhe is the same.

Since we are going to make a drama of this theme, the world view constructed must be convincing to the audience.

However, if they want to achieve the ideal production effect for "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", which is more than 30 episodes long, there is no way to cover it even with the current high production costs.

With the current production cost, it will be difficult to achieve profitability if the production cost is further increased. After all, they still have to leave enough budget for the production of CG special effects in the later stage.

It can be said that "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" is the most expensive Chinese-language drama to produce in China in the past three years. It has reached the top.

Top director + top screenwriter + the most popular starring cast + the most expensive subject matter.

Lu Yanhe was a little worried. With such a high production cost, the final profit of this project would not be as good as "Love Letter". Well, it could basically be concluded that it would not be as good as "Love Letter".

However, due to the huge box office success of "Love Letter", Linghe now has sufficient cash flow reserves, which alleviated the tension in the summer.

Xu Tianming also said: "As long as the normal broadcast rights income of this drama can cover the production costs, I will make money back from other aspects of the drama. I have already contacted a company for the development of peripheral products such as costumes, hair accessories, character models, and pillows. When the time comes, the peripheral development of this drama will make our money back."
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However, filming this drama is much more difficult for the actors than filming modern dramas.

Not to mention the various action scenes, just because of the styling every day, I need to get up two hours earlier to leave time for the styling.

Lu Yanhe had fewer scenes, so it was relatively okay. Li Zhibai basically had to get up at five or six in the morning and arrive at the set with his hair and makeup done before nine.

The same goes for Yan Lingyu.

Of course, according to the rules of the set, those already famous actors have it relatively better. For example, the new actress Jiang Lingyi, who plays Lin Yueru, usually has her scenes scheduled at the earliest or latest time.

That's how it is on the set, the best time slots are always reserved for the big names.

Of course, for newcomers, they don’t mind enduring a little hardship. What they are afraid of is enduring hardship without knowing whether it has a future.

Jiang Lingyi got the second female lead in "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", a pre-made hit drama. Under such circumstances, she worked as hard as ever every day, with 100% of her energy to shoot the drama and never complained about being tired.

As the only newcomer among the main actors who won the role through audition and from thousands of candidates, Jiang Lingyi knows how lucky she is.

On the set, Jiang Lingyi herself is a girl with a personality similar to Lin Yueru - it seems that most newcomers who get a role through audition are like this, more or less close to their true nature.

She got along well with almost all the crew members and had a very good relationship with them.

However, she was a little restrained in front of Li Zhibai and Lu Yanhe.

Fortunately, Yan Lingyu was in the crew. Yan Lingyu usually doesn't like to talk to people, but she and Jiang Lingyi often talk quietly together on the set. It seems that there are always endless topics to talk about between girls.

Lu Yanhe had no plans at all for the past few days.

However, he did not stay in the hotel. He basically arrived at the set early every morning and stayed with Luo Yuzhong for the entire day to see how he did things as a director.

After Lu Yanhe directed "Love Letter", he deeply realized his shortcomings in this area.

The director has so much to do. Every day when he opens his eyes, there are countless decisions waiting for him to make.

Fortunately, "Love Letter" is basically a very simple movie, with almost no big scenes, no complicated scheduling, and a small crew.

But "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" is different. It is a huge crew with hundreds of people.

Luo Yuzhong has four people in his assistant director team alone.

Each assistant director has different responsibilities, which helps Luo Yuzhong share a lot of work.

Lu Yanhe was amazed.

The crew also has a B group. According to the usual practice, the B group will shoot at the same time as the A group, which is to save the crew's shooting time.

The Group B formed by Luo Yuzhong was mainly used to shoot some transition scenes and some empty shots.

Seeing that Lu Yanhe had been following him and watching, Luo Yuzhong curiously asked Lu Yanhe if he wanted to shoot a few scenes directly.

Lu Yanhe shook his head and refused.

If he were allowed to shoot the film, it would definitely be the same as the "Legend of Sword and Fairy" in his memory.

However, this version is very different. Whether it is the quality of the camera, the lens scheduling or the style, this version has some changes from the original version.

Luo Yuzhong is using the techniques and style of a serious drama to shoot this fantasy drama.

Of course, in fact, Lu Yanhe himself also felt that the original version of "Legend of Sword and Fairy" was not shot in the style of an idol drama. The costume dramas at that time still used a lot of performance techniques of serious dramas.

In the scenes between Li Zhibai and Yan Lingyu, there are no rotating shots, nor any of the currently popular ambiguous CP shooting methods.

The photo was taken very nicely.

The man is chivalrous and the woman is simple.

Lu Yanhe noticed that on the crew, Luo Yuzhong asked all the staff to call Yan Lingyu Ling'er instead of her real name.

Luo Yuzhong also gave a lot of guidance to Yan Lingyu's performance.

"You smile like a goddess."

"You are too cold. Give me a pure and lovely smile."

"Don't be coquettish. You are not a coquettish girl. It's weird if you pretend to be coquettish."

……

This is what shocked Lu Yanhe. From his experience of working with Luo Yuzhong, Luo Yuzhong often used the method of breaking down and explaining the play when directing actors, instead of using a negative sentence structure like now to tell Yan Lingyu what she did wrong.

However, what also surprised Lu Yanhe was that Yan Lingyu did not fall into a depressed mood because of Luo Yuzhong's criticisms. He basically listened to them and adjusted his state.

"Yan Lingyu has too much self-esteem and is too proud." This is what Li Zhibai said to Lu Yanhe. "Although her appearance is very suitable for Ling'er, it is easy for her to turn a gentle and graceful girl like Ling'er into a cold goddess."

Luo Yuzhong never tires of correcting Yan Lingyu.

Although he had been criticizing Yan Lingyu, he was not angry.

This is also what surprised Lu Yanhe.

After Lu Yanhe stayed at the scene for three days, Luo Yuzhong took Lu Yanhe to the computer room.

The footage he shot was edited by someone else to check if there was any footage that was unusable. These problems had to be discovered in time to facilitate reshoots.

At first, Lu Yanhe didn't understand why Luo Yuzhong brought him here, until Luo Yuzhong asked the editor to open a few videos.

They are all videos of Ling'er played by Yan Lingyu.

The video shows almost all Yan Lingyu's different reactions, such as smiling at Li Zhibai or sulking. Each shot lasts only a few seconds, but the Yan Lingyu in the shot is different from the Yan Lingyu he usually sees. He really has Ling'er's innocent, naive, and lovely temperament.

"Wow——" Lu Yanhe exclaimed.

Luo Yuzhong asked, "Did you feel that Yan Lingyu was not suitable for the role of Ling'er at the beginning?"

Lu Yanhe nodded honestly.

The actress Yan Lingyu was chosen by Luo Yuzhong.

Not Lu Yanhe—even though Lu Yanhe had worked with her on "Late Spring".

Luo Yuzhong said, "I watched Love Letter. The girl named Zhang Ruozhi in the movie left a deep impression on me. I heard that you fell in love with her at first sight?"

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"She happens to be studying in Jiangzhi."

Luo Yuzhong: "Should it be a true-to-life performance?"

"Yes, she herself is very similar to the girl in the movie."

"But you should know that you are not always so lucky to find an actor who fits the role so well."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

Luo Yuzhong pointed at Yan Lingyu in the camera.

"She is indeed not very similar to the character of Ling'er, but film and television dramas are all about the art of editing. We don't need an actor to be like a character all the time. It is enough for her to have some moments that make you believe she is that character." Luo Yuzhong said, "Yan Lingyu is such an actor in this drama. In fact, a lot of her materials can't be used. It may take two hours to shoot, but only ten minutes can be used in the end. But these ten minutes are very good and enough."

Lu Yanhe listened to Luo Yuzhong's words, thoughtfully.

"To be a director, you must know clearly what you want. You may not be able to describe it in detail, but you have to know what you want." Luo Yuzhong said, "You were on the set of Love Letter, and this was very clear, so everyone's work was relatively easy. In fact, many veterans in the film and television industry are not willing to cooperate with new directors. Do you know why?"

Lu Yanhe: "Inexperienced?"

"Lack of experience is just a superficial symptom. It's more because new directors often don't know what they want to shoot, or what they want is not available based on the actual shooting situation," Luo Yuzhong said. "This will double the amount of repetitive work."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"It's the same principle when selecting actors." Luo Yuzhong said, "Do you remember when I went to Star Entertainment to interview actors, you Star Entertainment found more than a hundred idols and asked me to interview your role."

"I remember." Lu Yanhe nodded. How could he forget?

That was the day that changed his destiny.

Luo Yuzhong said: "Among more than a hundred candidates, do you think you can really say that there is one who is the most suitable and the best? Among the actors at that time, there were Li Zhibai, Yan Liang, and several others who I thought performed very well, but I finally decided on you."

"Yes, teacher, why did you decide on me at that time?"

"Do you want to hear the truth?"

"think."

"The main reason is that Jiang Yuqian told me that she saw the shadow of someone she once loved in you, and she felt very emotional when acting with you in the drama of college days." Luo Yuzhong said, "It actually has nothing to do with your audition that time. Of course, the performance you gave in that audition surprised me and put my mind at ease. It made me realize that you are a person who can act."

Lu Yanhe looked at Luo Yuzhong in surprise.

"Sometimes, as a director, I don't choose the one I think is the best. For example, your role in The Golden Era is actually very important to Jiang Yuqian, and the scene between Jiang Yuqian and you determines the tone of Jiang Yuqian's character in the whole play. Therefore, her attitude is the most important. Facts have proved that this is indeed the case. You surprised the audience as soon as you appeared on the stage, and your college romance with Jiang Yuqian is still mentioned and regretted by people until now."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

When "Love Letter" was first released, some viewers said that he was playing the dead heroine's Bai Yueguang again.

At that time, there was a hot search called "Lu Yanhe returns to the white moonlight track".

Luo Yuzhong said: "But the role of Ling'er cannot be chosen in this way. In fact, this is also the fault of the script you wrote. In your script, the female image of Ling'er can almost be said to be a perfect image that satisfies the imagination of all Chinese people. All good qualities are in her. It is basically unrealistic for you to find an actress who matches her in real life."

Lu Yanhe nodded, agreeing with what Luo Yuzhong said.

Otherwise, how can we say that the Fairy Sister is very popular? She doesn't have a big company or big capital, but relies on her classic roles to survive the era of big flowers competing for supremacy, and the era of 85 flowers. In the era of internet celebrities where ordinary women compete, she is still a top star after her return.

She is the only one who has to support three generations.

He also had no way to select a fairy sister in this world. "At this time, you can only find a raw material suitable for carving into this role." Luo Yuzhong finally talked about the main topic of bringing Lu Yanhe to the editing room today, "As long as an actor has a few moments that make you feel that she is that role, then it's done. On the set, you have to explore this side, inspire more moments, use the camera, editing, costumes, props and various film and television methods, and completely shape her into that role in the lens."

Luo Yuzhong looked at Lu Yanhe sincerely.

"Your film "Love Letter" was well shot, but you relied too much on the compatibility between the actors and the roles, and on the actors' own acting skills and shaping abilities, while ignoring the various conveniences that the film and television industry can provide."

"If it wasn't Chen Bige, who could have made two people who look so similar act like two different people?" Luo Yuzhong said to Lu Yanhe, "To be honest, the photography, music, performance and editing rhythm of Love Letter are all first-rate. However, the camera can't deceive people. You rely on the actor to completely become the character in the performance. What if you have a role and can't find an actor who can achieve this?"

There was a buzzing sound in Lu Yanhe's head.

At this moment, what he was thinking of was Jin Xiangyu in "Dragon Inn".

To this day, he still can't think of which actress can play this role, so when Liu Bige said he wanted to film this script, he sent the script out almost with a sense of relief.

Luo Yuzhong hit the nail on the head and pointed out his soft spot, the shortcoming that he had been avoiding.

"You have been following me these days. Do you want to see how a director works?" Luo Yuzhong asked.

Lu Yanhe nodded.

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"Do you want to continue to be a director in the future?"

"For some scenes, I think it's better for me to be the director myself so that I can better capture the feeling I wanted when I wrote the script."

Luo Yuzhong laughed.

"Who was the person who said he never wanted to be a director again?" He looked at Lu Yanhe jokingly.

Lu Yanhe lowered his head and chuckled.

At this moment, deep in his heart he had nothing but admiration for Luo Yuzhong.

Luo Yuzhong only watched "Love Letter" and saw his shortcomings and flaws as a director. Luo Yuzhong also used Yan Lingyu as an example to make him deeply aware of the difference between his perspective as an actor and Luo Yuzhong's perspective as a director.

At this moment, Lu Yanhe suddenly understood a truth.

Why are many directors famous for training their actors?

Actually, it’s not about training actors.

Rather, they can see things in the actors that others cannot see.

Just like Luo Yuzhong could see things about Ling'er in Yan Lingyu that others could not see.
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After being taken to the editing room by Luo Yuzhong, Lu Yanhe saw something different when he watched Yan Lingyu act on the spot again.

He noticed that Yan Lingyu herself was indeed a rather aloof person, which basically constituted the main tone of her image.

But sometimes, when she talked to everyone more and became a little enthusiastic, it was like breaking the ice, and her eyes and face became a little warmer.

And just with this little bit of warmth, her temperament changed, making her feel a little bit like Ling'er.

But she is not like this all the time. If she does not talk to anyone for a while, her state will return to that cold and lonely state, and she needs to be lured out of her body bit by bit, just like luring a snake out of its hole.

When Lu Yanhe thought about what Li Zhibai had said to him before, he suddenly wondered if Yan Lingyu's coldness came from her own self-esteem.

He knew that many people had strong self-esteem, so under normal circumstances, they would subconsciously act reserved and unable to let go.

Let’s look at Jiang Lingyi who plays Lin Yueru. When she is with Yan Lingyu, that is often when Yan Lingyu is the most lively, but it is also when Jiang Lingyi is the least noisy.

She actually has a bit of boyishness, which just matches Lin Yueru's chivalrous spirit. Only when she is with Yan Lingyu, she becomes particularly girlish.
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That day, Li Zhibai asked Lu Yanhe.

"You have been staring at Yan Lingyu and Jiang Lingyi these past two days. What are you doing?"

Lu Yanhe told Li Zhibai what Luo Yuzhong had said to him.

Li Zhibai suddenly understood.

"Are you trying to train your ability to observe people?"

"About the same. I always thought I was good at observing people, but after my teacher told me that, I realized I really overestimated myself."

Li Zhibai: "How old are you? You are exaggerating. Director Luo was just reminding you of something you didn't notice before, but now you want to cultivate a pair of fiery eyes."

Lu Yanhe: "I didn't, don't slander me."

"Then what are you thinking about?"

"I just want to see what I didn't see from Yan Lingyu before. Why didn't I see it? Why can Director Luo see it?"

"Tsk, isn't that what I meant?" Li Zhibai rolled his eyes at Lu Yanhe speechlessly. "I say, have you read "The Flowing Light"?"

"I saw it." Lu Yanhe nodded.

"what do you think?"

"Uh, it's okay?" Lu Yanhe said, "I think Yan Liang's performance is pretty good, his role is good, but Zhang Lan..."

"Really? You think so too?" Li Zhibai said, "Why do I feel that Zhang Lan's acting in this play is without any feeling? There is no sense of couple between her and Yan Liang at all."

"Yeah." Lu Yanhe nodded. "The camera and the music have already created that atmosphere, but there's just no sense of tension between Zhang Lan and Yan Liang."

Li Zhibai: "There are many people cursing Zhang Lan online."

"It's hard to say for sure. Zhang Lan and her group of actresses have many fans and haters, and they are all very active. You can hardly tell in the early stages." Lu Yanhe said, "The performance of the show is okay now, but I don't know how it will be in the later stages. But we both feel that there is no feeling between them. Maybe the audience will feel the same way too, right?"

Li Zhibai: "But after watching it, I found that most people are satisfied with Yan Liang. Many people praised him for being very handsome in the drama."

"It's mainly because his image is rarely seen in fairy tales." Lu Yanhe said, "His character modeling is well done, heroic, and has the style of a young general. Plus, his body shape makes him very handsome."

"Zhou Pingan specially found someone to do his styling, and didn't use the stylist hired by the crew." Li Zhibai said, "Zhou Pingan is quite good at this. He felt that the styling given by the crew of "Liu Guang Yin" was too similar to the images of generals and war gods in other ancient idol dramas, and there was no difference."

"Nowadays, everyone imitates whatever drama is popular."

"What if the subsequent reputation of the drama "Liu Guang Yin" is not good?" Li Zhibai asked, "Will it not drag down Yan Liang?"

"How could this be? This drama is about Zhang Lan, the heroine of the drama. She is the one who carries the show." Lu Yanhe said, "Besides, with Yan Liang's performance, it's impossible to make fun of him. Obviously, ancient idol dramas were Zhang Lan's comfort zone before. I don't know why she acted so badly this time."
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When Yan Liang returned to the crew of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", "The Flowing Light" had been broadcast for a few days.

In the past few days, Yan Liang has been on positive hot searches on social platforms almost every day.

However, at the same time, Zhang Lan had several negative hot searches.

One of them is "poor acting".

It can be said that "Liu Guang Yin" is indeed quite controversial.

Yan Liang's mood was also a little affected.

Li Zhibai said: "Everyone is praising you, what are you afraid of?"

"Those were all trending searches Zhou Pingan bought for me. He didn't want the bad reviews of the show to affect me."

"But your performance is indeed good." Lu Yanhe said, "Li Zhibai and I have seen it. Believe us, we are not saying this just because you are our friend."

Yan Liang: "Okay."

"Hey!" Luo Yuzhong suddenly walked over and patted Yan Liang on the shoulder from behind.

Yan Liang looked at him in surprise, "Director."

"Although I only watched a little bit of it, you acted well in your new drama. Even though it's the kind of ancient puppet show that I don't like very much, I can see that you are seriously shaping a character and your acting is different from those actors in the same type of dramas." Luo Yuzhong nodded affirmatively to Yan Liang.

Yan Liang was flattered and said thank you.

Luo Yuzhong said: "However, since we are back to the crew, let's focus on the drama we are filming."

"Okay." Yan Liang nodded immediately, "Director, don't worry, I will concentrate on filming this drama."

As soon as Luo Yuzhong left, Li Zhibai hooked his arm around Yan Liang's neck.

"You guy, it doesn't work when we say it, you don't believe it, but when the director says it, you immediately grin."

Yan Liang had to struggle for a while before he could free himself from Li Zhibai's "control".

"Fuck, how come you have so much strength now?"

"It's the result of practice." Li Zhibai hummed proudly.
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On this day, Chen Yin came over, firstly to see the filming of "Legend of Sword and Fairy". As the deputy general manager of Linghe, he is the producer and showrunner of this project.

He also reported to Lu Yanhe on the progress of several projects of the company.

"'Housemates' has finished filming and is expected to be edited in October. Hu Siwei finally decided to let Northern Lights broadcast the show and agreed to the new revenue-sharing model launched by Northern Lights."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"The Home Alone movie has been approved and we are in the process of contacting the right director. As for the two stupid thieves in the movie, we are still planning to hold auditions to find the right actors."

“When will the filming of this movie start?”

"Next January, when Huang Feng is on winter vacation, the background of the script will coincide with the Chinese New Year."

"Ah."

"TVN said that the Korean version of Rouge will be aired in November this year. They hope you can go to Korea and attend the global launch ceremony of the show."

"They also held a global launch ceremony?" Lu Yanhe was a little surprised. "So exaggerated?"

"Yes." Chen Yin said, "In fact, it is just broadcasted simultaneously on Maxine streaming media around the world."

"Okay." Lu Yanhe said, "I can't agree to them for now. You can talk to Wang Biao and Sister Zi Yan and see if I can make time for it."

"Ok."

"In addition, the movie "Telephone" written by you is scheduled to be released on New Year's Day. "Lost in Thailand" will be released during the Spring Festival next year, and the second season of "Wulin Waijia" is also scheduled to be broadcast during the Spring Festival."

"Also, Director Wang Zhong is planning to submit Raise the Red Lantern to the West Tuol Film Festival. This may clash with Director Huang Tianlin's Tropical Rainy Season. Director Huang Tianlin's first choice seems to be the West Tuol Film Festival as well."

There was a fight.

Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "Let's just collide. One is the movie I wrote, and the other is a movie I starred in. Anyway, it's not me fighting against myself."

When Chen Yin heard Lu Yanhe say this, he said nothing more.

After listening to this, Lu Yanhe had only one feeling in his heart.

There are so many strange projects.

When did you start to accumulate so many projects?

I somehow feel that there will be projects related to him coming out every month, even movies and TV series at the same time.

"..."

It's like being very productive.

Never before had there been such a intensive bombardment of works.
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Recommended new book "The Demon-Catching Sword"

(End of this chapter)