This director needs to apologize

Chapter 6 Starting a business before half of the budget is spent
Plans are meant to be disrupted.

In the last week before filming started, the crew's schedule was packed.

The behind-the-scenes team was divided into two, with the photography team shooting aerial shots and the props team renovating the scenery.

As a result, something went wrong with the props. When Da Zhuang started working on the borrowed yacht, he found that it was not big enough and the camera and track could not be moved.

This is already the largest boat in Da Zhuang's circle of friends. Even if it could be borrowed, a boat bigger than this one would not be able to sail into the Huangpu River.

In desperation, Da Zhuang could only mobilize Huang Ama's power, and through the relationship with the Demon Shadow Factory, he chartered the largest cruise ship on the river.

Friendly price, 3 for 20 days.

So the reserve fund was wasted before it could be turned on.

The late emperor spent his entire budget before starting his business.

To book someone else's boat, we had to stick to their schedule, so the scene had to be moved to late August.

The schedule affected everything at once, so Chen Yiming had no choice but to move the scenes from behind to the front. Ma Dazhuang almost had to ring up the phone when he contacted her about location schedules, and Xiaomei's budget changed almost every hour.

Standing out from the big stage of Hengdian, which is full of logistics and exhausted, and all the crew members are rookies, Chen Yiming regained some of the sour feeling he had when he first entered the industry after a long absence.

……

After finishing all the preliminary preparations in a hurry, the main actors and heads of various departments of "Holiday in the Magic City" gathered together and borrowed a large conference room in the Xijiao Hotel, where the first scene was filmed, to start filming on time. Script reading.

Generally speaking, script reading is a necessary step for all the main creatives of the crew to reach a consensus before filming starts. In this link, all departments including actors, directors, screenwriters, costumers, lighting and recording, editing, and post-production must be involved. .

As the core creative directors and screenwriters, they need to fully explain their creative intentions to the team members, and obtain full "understanding" from the actors and other departments for the more subjective parts.

After the round reading, the script, which is the basis of the play, will not change in principle, and the entire team will operate based on the script after the round reading.

Of course, in the actual implementation process, the so-called principles are used to achieve breakthroughs.

In this place on the set, either the east wind overwhelms the west wind, or the west wind overpowers the east wind. There can only be one person to speak up, without exception.

Actors compete with directors, directors compete with screenwriters, producers compete with directors, and even some powerful martial arts directors and photography directors can interfere with each other.

Where can I get the right to speak if I don’t fight for it?

Under the old studio model, the seriousness of script readings is well guaranteed. After all, China's film tradition has always been that the director is the most important, and his position as the narrator is endorsed by the superiors.

Of course, the director's words and deeds must also be supervised by the studio to which he belongs. Even director Xie Jing and Xie are not allowed to casually add "private goods" to the finalized script.

In this way, the director naturally attaches great importance to script reading. After all, this is a useful procedure to consolidate his authority and implement his creative intentions.

After the restructuring, the director-centered system continued, but the supervision of the studio existed in name only.

Once the Chinese directors were freed from their restraints, they were like wild horses running wild, unstoppable on the road to letting themselves go under the banner of creative freedom.

With such power in hand, how could the director respect the results of the reading?

When pursuing art, what you need is sparks and collisions. If you don’t change, you won’t feel comfortable!
The script to be shot the next day was not new enough even though I had saved it the night before.

The director takes the lead in disrespecting the script, how enthusiastic can the other creators be?
After several years of hard work, script reading has now ceased to exist in name only. The few crew members who insist on this procedure are limited to the main actors reading their lines together, and there is almost no restraint on all the main creatives.

Of course, analyzing the specific situation in detail, as far as "Holiday in the Magic City" is concerned, the main creators are still full of "expectations" for the script reading.

After all, no matter how director-centric the system is, creative freedom is not something that comes naturally, but is given by status and achievements.

As the director and screenwriter of "Holiday in the Magic City", Chen Yiming has nothing. He studied radio and television and has never even filmed a short film. How can he give orders to dozens of people?

Because his scripts are so good?Or is it because there is Ma Dazhuang, the second generation of the magic circle, standing behind him?
The right to speak comes from collision. Only after collision can you know who is strong and who is weak, and only then you know who to listen to later.

For example, in the conference room at this moment, the male protagonist Gu Yuehe and the assistant director Fu Ruixiang are two "rebellious thieves", and their intention to change the dynasty is undisguised.

If Chen Yiming cannot restrain these two overt rebels, there will be unprepared "traitors" who covertly rebel against him and jump out to take advantage of the situation.

No, at the beginning of the round-up reading, before Xiangrui (who was responsible for reading everything except the lines in the script) read a few sentences of the background of the first scene, Gu Yuehe took the lead to "attack".

"Yiming, I have a question, in what era did this story take place? There seems to be no marking in the script."

Chen Yiming spread his hands, "The vague background is probably a thousand years after the opening. After all, if it is too clear, the whole story will not be true."

Gu Yuehe looked embarrassed, "Does that mean it's not a contemporary drama, but a period drama?"

At this point, he added innocently (DAO), "I'm not making any excuses. The background of the male protagonist in the script is too sparse. I only know that he is a poor reporter. His age is unknown, his family is unknown, and his experience is unknown. These days I have been writing about the character. I can’t even write anymore.”

Friends are friends, now Gu Yuehe is the male lead, and the role of this drama is obviously biased towards the female lead. There is no argument now, since the filming started, he, Lao Gu, has been the pure sedan bearer.

This is his first big-screen movie, so how could he accept it?

In the industry, directors can't suppress actors, and they can't suppress them twice. As a result, there are more than one cases where a one-man show turned into a double-lead show.

You have to fight for what you have to fight for. This is called professionalism.Chen Yiming had rich experience in this kind of nonsense in his previous life, so he immediately suppressed it mercilessly.

"How you write the biography is your business, I don't care. I just want you to give the right emotion according to the instructions. If you can't give it, it's your problem. This senior, you don't want to delay because of insufficient preparation for desk work. ?”

Seeing that Gu Yuehe looked aggrieved, and that many people in the conference room, from assistant director Xiangrui down, looked disapproving, Chen Yiming opened his mouth to explain.

"You are all the main creators of "Holiday in the Magic City". Reading the script thoroughly is the minimum requirement. I will only say the next words once."

"First of all, this movie is by no means a period drama. Lao Gu, your understanding is totally different from the main purpose of the script. It is completely on the wrong track. Please turn around quickly."

""Holiday in the Magic City" is an adult fairy tale and does not have any realism genes, so please don't argue with me about realistic logic. If you really want to be more serious, in my country, there is no princess who can escape."

"Since it is a fairy tale, our creation must follow the logic of fairy tales. The princess can easily escape, the reporter at the bottom and the princess at the top can fall in love in one day, and the minister has good intentions and is not afraid of trouble."

"The reality is of course completely opposite, but there is a line that goes well. Fairy tales are all lies."

"Although the plot is deceptive, the emotions contained in it are not deceptive, and are even more touching than real people."

Chen Yiming turned to Guyuehe and continued output.

"So Lao Gu, the background setting of the protagonist in fairy tales has never been a problem. In other words, too detailed background setting will cause big problems. After all, being too concrete will hinder the audience's imagination!"

With the successful suppression of Gu Yuehe in the opening scene, everyone became much more serious in the subsequent script reading.

Regardless of whether everyone agrees with Chen Yiming's creative concept, as far as the script is concerned, Chen Yiming's creative logic is tenable.

Since it was irrefutable professionally, as a working man, everyone present was open-minded and took the initiative to argue with Chen Yiming, the trinity of investor, director and screenwriter.

……

The reading lasted for three days in total. There were no major setbacks, but small problems continued.

There is no other way. If you want to move the story that happened in Rome in the middle of the last century to China at the end of the century, it is absolutely impossible without drastic changes.

European and American audiences at the time could easily understand many of the character motivations and action logic in the original film, but today's Chinese audiences would be completely confused.

Chen Yiming must give new motivations to the actions of the characters in the play so that the entire story conforms to China's current social psychology.

After reading the end of the script, everyone had serious disagreements and had a huge quarrel.

However, considering that the main creators come from different sources, it is completely understandable that they have different ideas.

Fu Ruixiang, who had been in Hollywood, didn't take it seriously when the two finally separated, and even looked indignant when talking about the excitement.

"What age has it been? Are there still too few royal nobles in Europe marrying common people? What a bullshit ending it is to break up in the end. Women should bravely pursue true love! If you want to pursue excitement, then follow through to the end!"

Lily, who is two years younger than Xiangrui, comes from an upper-class American family. She understands the thoughts of the European and American elites, and can actually understand the heroine's choice.

She weakly concluded, "According to the words of the chamberlain, the princess is the heir to the throne, and it is completely unacceptable to fall in love with a Chinese commoner."

At this point, she turned to Chen Yiming and said, "Director, since this is an adult fairy tale, can't you arrange a more romantic ending for this relationship?"

Greenwood, who seldom speaks, also interjected at the right time, "May I ask the director, what are the reasons for the change of the cabinet minister? The inner kindness actually hides utilitarian intentions, which ruins the character!"

Guyuehe took advantage of the situation and launched a counterattack, "Even though the hero is so devoted and deeply in love, it doesn't stop him from turning around and selling the princess's photo for a good price. What kind of fairy tale is this? A dark fairy tale, right?"

Lin Xiao, who had been watching the excitement, also joined the battle group with a smirk on his face, "This is my eternal loss of love. Is it worth the foreshadowing of the first hour or so without a kiss? Brother, this is a romance movie. There is no boat scene. How come there’s not even a kissing scene!”

His magic modification was attacked by a group of people, and Chen Yiming had to work hard to put out the fire. "Everyone, fairy tales must also tell the truth."

He was the first to yell back at Xiangrui, "You can absorb it, this is not a feminist movie, and it does not need to highlight women's freedom."

She turned to Lily with an amiable face and explained, "The princess always knows her responsibility as a national symbol. She just gave herself a vacation temporarily. This experience itself is romantic enough, and there is no need for a fairy tale ending. .”

Then he said to Mr. Greenwood, "Smiling laissez-faire and moderate acquiescence, this is the main premise for the whole story to happen. Thinking about it this way, is the final twist reasonable?"

Then he turned his face and stared at Gu Yuehe expressionlessly, "Continue reading the script before filming starts. You still don't understand. The role of reporter is the backbone of the entire story. While talking about love, it does not prevent him from thinking about survival. question!"

Finally, he looked at Lin Xiao with a smile on his face, "Boss Lin, that's a reserve for a country's head of state. According to China's diplomatic tradition, a hug is enough to jump across the line. I'm afraid the kiss scene won't be an immediate relief. We have to consider going to trial, right?"

Chen Yiming stood up and made a concluding speech to all the creators, "Everyone, I always believe that for a qualified love movie, the creator must cherish the emotional value of the audience, and the emotional value of the audience in pairs.

"It allows couples to gain a sense of immersion during the movie viewing process, and allows them to regain a sense of superiority after watching the movie."

"Of course we can make the whole story romantic and fairy tale to the end, but when the lights come on at the end of the movie, how do you ask ordinary couples watching the movie to face each other? Compared with the perfect love in the movie, in reality they will only feel lost, and The more you immerse yourself in it, the more you feel lost.”

"So at the beginning of the story, the princess and the reporter turned from reality into a fairy tale. At the end of the story, the princess and the reporter turned from a fairy tale into reality. The plot of the movie can be frivolous, but the emotions must not be frivolous, but should be down to earth."

Chen Yiming ended his speech with a meaningful sentence, "We are dream makers. In addition to the dream itself, before dreaming and after waking up from the dream are also within the scope of our work. Only after the after-sales service is done well can we have repeat customers, right?"

(End of this chapter)