China Entertainment: I just want to give my child a home

Chapter 373: Finalize the actors and sign new ones (Please subscribe!)

"I am sworn in with sin!"

When Xiao Yang shouted this line at the top of his lungs in a cracked, plastic Mandarin, the entire audition studio fell silent for a few seconds.

Shen Teng, who was called back by Chen Dong to watch, was unwilling to accept it at first, but after seeing the power of Xiao Yang's voice, he felt that he would most likely miss the role.

Sure enough, the next second, Chen Dong asked him to try Huang Landeng.

In fact, Huang Landeng’s role is no weaker than Kun Tai’s, it’s just that this character’s personality is not as outstanding as Kun Tai’s.

Shen Teng didn't complain. After all, he knew in his heart that if he hadn't had a personal relationship with Chen Dong during the recording of "Go Fighting", he might have been directly eliminated this time and would not have had the opportunity to audition again.

This time he was not as cheeky as the first time. He was even fully focused when preparing, fearing that he would be eliminated again.

When Shen Teng was auditioning again, Xiao Yang was notified to leave the audition studio.

Although he was just asked to go back and wait for the result, Xiao Yang had a hunch that this time, his luck might really turn around.

……

The audition lasted a total of three days. It should have been completed in two days, but because Chen Dong was not satisfied with the actor who auditioned Qin Feng, he added one more day.

But I didn't find the right one.

"Director Chen, if it really doesn't work, why don't we use Bai Jingting? He has a youthful feel that matches Qin Feng's. Although his acting skills are a little bit worse, he is still young and has great potential. We can find a teacher to give him some special training during this time."

Without waiting for Chen Dong to speak, Jiang Wen, who had participated in the whole process, directly rejected him.

"This Bai guy is too soft. I think he's not as good as this Wei guy if we ask him to play Qin Feng."

Chen Dong was actually not very satisfied with either of these two, so he chose to put the dispute aside for now, "So, let's finalize the list of other actors today, and as for Qin Feng's assignment, we'll discuss it later."

After he finished speaking, seeing that the others nodded, he continued, "First, let's go to Tang Ren. The actors on the shortlist are Wang Baoqiang, Huang Bo, and Bao Beier. Each of you has one vote. Vote for whoever you support. Let's begin."

"I'm insured."

"Huang Bo."

"Bao Qiang."

"Bao Qiang."

Chen Dong saw that most people supported Wang Baoqiang, which was in line with his expectations, so he was willing to be a democratic director instead of using his veto power right from the start.

Next, the leading female role A Xiang is confirmed to be played by Dilraba Dilmurat.

In fact, Yaya and Tao Hong are more suitable for this role. Di Lieba mainly loses in status and acting skills, but she has one biggest advantage that is enough to make up for the gap in this regard, that is, she is an artist of Dongcheng Pictures.

Huang Landeng has chosen Shen Teng, and his competitors are Chen Chichi and Wang Xun, both of whom are far behind in core competitiveness.

Xiao Yang got Kun Tai, Pan Yueming still played Li, the adopted father of Sinuo, the Beige originally played by Xiao Shenyang fell to Ailun, Sinuo still found Zhang Zifeng, Tony was taken by Zou Zhaolong, who was Chang Wei who liked to beat Lai Fu in Stephen Chow's movie "Justice, My Foot", the Vietnamese boy was given to Zhang Songwen, and Boss Yan was still Mr. Jin Shijie...

As for the last cousin, King Kong, when the voting was in progress, Jiang Wen suddenly asked him to come over.

Jiang Wen is such a big director, and he took the initiative to ask for a supporting role. Chen Dong naturally had no objection, but... his temperament is not quite suitable for the role of King Kong. Instead, it is more in line with the image of Brother Bei.

So Chen Dong suggested that he and Ellen switch places.

"Okay, then I'll play Brother Bei."

Jiang Wen seemed to have other purposes and asked, "How do I get my pay?"

"What kind of pay do you want for a guest appearance?"

When Chen Dong said this, he saw a meaningful smile on Jiang Wen's face and immediately thought something was wrong.

"Okay, I don't need to be paid, but I do have a small request."

"What request?" Chen Dong asked vigilantly.

"Ask me to be the assistant director."

"That's not a small request. Change it."

Chen Dong had been curious as to why Jiang Wen had been auditioning with them all the time, and why they had such a big plan.

"No, I'm such a big director, and you're not willing to work for you? Are you afraid that I will take your power?"

In fact, Chen Dong just refused subconsciously just now, but now thinking about it carefully, this seems to be a good choice.

However, Chen Dong still had some doubts.

"What do you want?"

"Although I don't want to admit it, the truth is that I want to learn from you."

Seeing Chen Dong's suspicious look, Jiang Wen sighed and explained in a muffled voice, "When I was filming Let the Bullets Fly before, it felt very smooth and enjoyable, but the last time I filmed One Step Away, the process was painful, especially in the second half, the more I filmed, the more things felt wrong, so I think I must have encountered some kind of bottleneck. I became your assistant director just to learn from you."

Chen Dong suddenly realized, and after pondering for a moment, he expressed his opinion from the perspective of a bystander on the difficulties Jiang Wen was currently facing.

"You have a characteristic, you are very serious about movies, almost quibbling over every penny. The advantage of this is that if you shoot well, it is easy to achieve results, but once you run out of inspiration or get stuck in a dead end, it is easy to fall into internal friction."

Chen Dong said: "So this characteristic of yours is both your advantage and disadvantage."

Jiang Wen nodded, agreeing with Chen Dong's analysis. He said, "I know that too, but it's determined by my personality, and it's hard to change... And to be honest, I've been filming like this for half my life, and I don't really want to change it."

"In that case, what else are you learning from me?"

"I'm much older now. I need to learn your filming ideas, directing techniques, or find some inspiration..."

Seeing that Jiang Wen had said this, Chen Dong couldn't refuse anymore.

And to be honest, although Jiang Wen has a precedent of turning the tables in the director industry, he is, after all, a director of such a big company. If he really announced that he was willing to lower his salary to take the job of assistant director, I guess many crews would be willing to hire him.

Of course, Lu Chuan’s crew is an exception.

So Chen Dong stopped trying to take advantage of the situation and agreed directly.

Liu Haoran was born in 97 and is still a high school student this year.

Moreover, Chen Dong had no idea which high school Liu Haoran attended.

That’s why I didn’t ask him to play Qin Feng right away…

Just when Chen Dong had the same idea as Zhang Yimou and was preparing to conduct a large-scale selection of actors from major high schools and colleges, Liu Haoran himself entered his sight.

No, to be exact, it was a movie starring Liu Haoran that caught his attention.

The movie is called "Beijing Love Story".

Liu Haoran plays Song Ge in it.

In fact, this movie did cause some discussion online, but that was in March.

It happened that Chen Dong was focusing most of his energy on his family and was preparing for the arrival of his second baby, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

I mistakenly thought that Liu Haoran had not officially entered the entertainment industry and was just an ordinary high school boy.

"Director Chen, call me."

"Yes." Chen Dong enlarged Liu Haoran's photo on the computer, turned to his work assistant, and said to him, "See if you can help me contact this actor."

"OK……"

As soon as the assistant went out, Chen Dong's phone rang.

"Wang Jinhua? I haven't contacted this woman for a while."

Although the other party called at this time, Chen Dong guessed that it was probably related to the role, but he still answered the phone.

As expected, Wang Jinhua made this call just for a role, and it was one of the male protagonists, Qin Feng. I don't know how Wang Jinhua found out that they didn't have a suitable candidate, so she wanted to recommend his son to play the role.

"Ship Dong."

Chen Dong didn't have much impression of Wang Jinhua's son, and he didn't refuse outright just now. He just said he would consider it. The computer happened to be next to him, so he searched on the Internet. It was very ordinary. If his mother was not Wang Jinhua, he probably wouldn't have been able to enter the entertainment industry.

But her mother's face doesn't play much of a role for Chen Dong.

"Director Chen, we have contacted Liu Haoran's mother..."

Chen Dong, who was already on his way home, received a call from his work assistant. He did not ask the driver to turn around, but instructed on the phone: "Talk to his mother and see if she is willing to let her son audition." "Okay, Director Chen..."

Liu Haoran’s home.

When Liu's father came home from get off work and saw his wife was very happy, he couldn't help but ask curiously: "You found money today, why are you so happy?"

“It’s more fun than picking up money.”

"Oh? What happened?"

"Do you know Director Chen Dong?"

"This is not nonsense. I have watched all of Director Chen's movies. I also took you to see The Hearing Girl and Interstellar. Have you forgotten?"

"Then did you know that Director Chen's new play is recruiting actors these days?"

"I didn't care about that. What happened? Did you secretly take our son to the audition?"

"No."

"Did our son sneak off to audition on his own?"

"nor."

"..."

Seeing her husband getting anxious, Mother Liu finally stopped keeping him in suspense and told him the truth: "Someone from Dongcheng Films contacted me this afternoon and wanted our son to audition for Director Chen's movie."

"Is this true? He must be a liar."

"The girl's voice is so gentle, how could she be a liar? Besides, would a liar use such a trick to deceive people?"

"That's true. Have you told your son?"

"Not yet. He hasn't finished school yet."

"Walk."

"Where?"

"Go pick up our son."

"and then?"

"Ask him for leave."

"Are you in such a hurry?"

"Now or never……"

Chen Dong returned home and saw Shu Chang there, so he greeted her.

"I heard that you've retired from the entertainment industry recently?"

"Brother-in-law, what do you mean I'm quitting the entertainment circle again? I've always been here, okay? I'm just not popular anymore."

Liu Yifei came over holding her daughter and said, "Changchang has been learning about production recently. She came here today to discuss this with me."

Shu Chang added to Liu Yifei's words: "And to visit my two lovely nephews and nieces."

"Are you going to move behind the scenes?" Chen Dong was a little surprised.

"I learned from Xixi. If there is a role, I will shoot it. If there is no role, I will work behind the scenes. By the way, is my brother-in-law's company still recruiting producers?"

"Yes, but I personally suggest that you sign an artist contract."

“But I want to try to change my style.”

Chen Dong received the hint from his wife's eyes and did not persuade her any more. He nodded and said, "Okay, I have a movie to start shooting soon. If you have time, come to the crew and learn how to be a producer."

"Brother-in-law, then I won't be polite, haha."

……

The next day, when Chen Dong came to the company, he saw Liu Haoran's parents had already brought him to the reception room.

"Hello, Director Chen. I am your idol."

"..." Chen Dong was stunned and congratulated himself for having another idol he didn't know.

"No, no, you're my idol. Sorry, I was a little excited to see you."

After greeting Liu Haoran's parents, Chen Dong conducted a private audition with the young man.

First of all, the performance was very awkward, which Chen Dong had expected.

But there is spirituality.

In addition, I had already acted in a movie before, so I had certain basic skills.

So overall, the boy's performance still met Chen Dong's expectations of him.

"You are in high school at the Beijing Dance Academy Affiliated High School, right?"

"Yes, Director Chen."

"If I'm filming, can I get some time off?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay, then congratulations, you passed."

"Really, really?"

"Of course it's true. I would never lie to you."

Because Liu Haoran is still a minor, a guardian must be present when signing the contract for it to be effective.

It just so happened that his parents were there today, so Chen Dong directly instructed his assistant to prepare the role contract and sign it immediately.

When Liu Haoran shared the result of getting the role with his parents, the two elders were even more excited than their son.

"Thank you, Director Chen. Thank you so much..."

"You're welcome. It's mainly because your son is good enough and is a good match for the role in my next play. By the way, let me ask you, has Hao Ran signed a contract with an agency?"

"No, not yet. When he was acting in Beijing Love Story, there was indeed an agency that wanted to sign him, but we felt that the child was still young and should wait until he reached adulthood before making his own decision."

Liu Haoran's mother saw Chen Dong said "oh" and then stopped talking, so she quickly said, "Well, if Director Chen's company is willing to sign our Haoran, it would be his blessing. As parents, we support him 100%. I'm sure the child would be willing too...right, son?"

Chen Dong didn't expect that Liu Haoran's mother was quite hypocritical... No, it's quite interesting.

However, the company's artist management business is not directly under Chen Dong's management.

So he asked someone to call Zhong Lifang over as well.

So on this day, Liu Haoran not only signed an actor contract for the role with the company, but also signed an artist contract.

After the actors of "Detective Chinatown" were confirmed, the next step was to communicate with the crew about their schedules to ensure there would be no conflicts during the filming of the movie... This process was completed by the producer team, and Chen Dong only asked about the results, so his work suddenly became easier.

After surfing the Internet for a while in the office, he found that it was still early to get off work. He did not plan to leave early today, so he prepared to get up and go to the editing room to see Lu Yang's "Lost in Hong Kong" which was in post-production.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he stood up, Li Wenlong brought the script and screenwriter of "Nirvana in Fire".

Chen Dong did not flip through the script immediately. After all, the TV series script was quite long and he could not finish it in a short time.

If he flips too fast, it seems disrespectful, but if he flips too slowly, he actually knows a lot of the plot.

But if we look back, we can avoid this embarrassment.

Chen Dong is doing the same thing now. After receiving the script, he talked with Li Wenlong about the shooting plan, and with Hai Yan about the creative ideas.

This chat lasted the whole afternoon. Before leaving get off work, Chen Dong did not go to the editing room for a tour. However, he still took the "Nirvana in Fire" with him on his way home.

……

(End of this chapter)