China Entertainment 1997

In the dimly lit hall, a high platform is welded with an iron frame, with a transparent top and a transparent pool below.

Da Mimi was dressed in cool clothes and had chains tied around her body. She stood on a high platform and interacted with the extras in the audience with a look of eagerness. Then the mechanism on her feet opened and she fell into the pool below.

"OK!"

Wen Ziren shouted, indicating that it was okay, and a strong man ran out of the camera, jumped into the pool and lifted Damimi up.

"Pfft~"

After spitting a few times, Damimi wrapped her soaked suspender skirt in a bath towel and ran over to ask.

"Director, was it okay just now?"

Wen Ziren frowned: "Yang, I'm sorry, the splash was too big, and your hair blocked your face when you went into the water. Can you do it again?"

"no problem."

Damimi glanced at Cao Xuan next to her, then went to change clothes and dry her hair without saying a word.

Cao Xuan didn't say anything. As long as the shooting details were agreed upon, he would not interfere in the actual shooting. Not to mention Da Mimi, he was the one who had to dance without saying a word.

The powerful scene is the appearance of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at the beginning of "Now You See Me". It must catch the eye and let the audience see at a glance how awesome the protagonists are.

Simply put, this scene is an escape magic.

The upper water tank is a piranha. Da Mimi jumps into the lower pool, unties the chain within 1 minute in the diving state, and then swims up and escapes successfully. If the 1 minute limit is exceeded, the piranha above the water tank will There is no need to say much about the fate of falling into a pool.

Another routine set up in the movie is that Damimi pretended to make a mistake in the water and failed to unlock the lock for one minute. Then the piranha fell down and dyed the entire pool red.

Just when everyone thought the magic had gone wrong and a tragedy had occurred, Damimi appeared in the corner of the hall and announced that it was just a performance.

Compared with normal escape magic, this magic is undoubtedly more exciting, causing great sorrow, joy and surprise, and it is definitely eye-catching.

That is of course to attract the extras in the movie, and it is also a good plot even for movie audiences.

Although the movie looks great, the actual filming was very troublesome.

The plot was shot in segments. The first time Da Mimi went into the water was not satisfactory, but the momentum was used to film the panic scene of unlocking the character underwater first.

For this scene, Damimi spent the whole morning swimming back and forth in the water. It was difficult to finish filming, and she had to reshoot the scene where she fell into the water.

After all, it is a movie, and beauty must be considered. The lines of the face at the moment of falling into the water must be captured clearly.

Damimi could only change clothes repeatedly, blow dry her hair, and then come up and dance again.

After struggling for a long time, my physical strength was almost exhausted. I used to swim up on my own, but now I have to ask the divers responsible for safety to help me down.

After repeated filming four times, James Wan was finally satisfied. Damimi got wet and went to film another segment that finally revealed the mystery of the magic.

Afterwards, Damimi went to change clothes, and the crew began to tinker with the rest of the scene. In fact, they dyed the pool red, and then kept gushing out, creating a crazy scene of piranhas.

It is worth mentioning that the piranha is a special effect. Before, it was done by Damimi without any physical performance. Later, the piranha scene was synthesized and it was done directly.

After all, Cao Xuan couldn't really let the piranha bite the big honey honey. He thought about letting other fish swim, but after testing, he couldn't swim as crazy as he wanted, and it also caused trouble for the special effects team.

Cao Xuan, who ran over in the afternoon, finally went on stage to film.

When red water surged in the pool and the surrounding performers screamed in fear, he took off his hood and stood silently among the crowd looking at the pool, with the corners of his mouth raised.

"OK, let the actors take a rest, while everyone else clears the place and prepares for the night show."

Wen Ziren shouted, props, venue staff and other staff started busy, while the extras quickly collected their money and left.

A small group of 200 people took away tens of thousands of dollars in one day.

It has to be said that in fact, a large part of the expenditure for filming "Now You See Me" was extras.

Compared with China, Hollywood extras are really expensive. Of course, they are not as exaggerated as many marketing accounts claim.

It's 600 to 1,000 US dollars a day. It doesn't take much thinking to compile this kind of news. Many ordinary middle-class individuals in the United States only earn US$50,000 per year. Hollywood extras have to make this much money, and half of the United States has to come to Hollywood.

In fact, it is not that there are no extras who can achieve this number, but these are special extras.

They have lines and appearances, but they may only have one or two scenes. They are not as good as regular actors, but they are better than ordinary extras, and they will definitely get more pay.

Some special roles have many or difficult roles, and the pay is even more than a few thousand dollars, and some earn more than 10,000.

This is actually the same situation in China, but the overall asking price is definitely a big discount compared to Hollywood.

As for the Hollywood extras who say they stop doing anything after eight hours, this is an exaggeration. To be precise, many extras can work overtime, but they must be paid enough overtime pay.

And this overtime pay is often double, or even several times, the salary of ordinary extras. If it is not necessary, the crew definitely does not want to spend this money.

Selfishly speaking, this policy is very good and should even be introduced in China to ensure the rights of group performers.

But back to reality, domestic labor costs are too low. If the market for group performances really increases, the crew will just dare to use dummies to fool them.

Not to mention China, many Hollywood crews cannot bear the high cost of extras. Many big scenes will be replaced by puppets. Once the special effects are rendered, it is difficult for the audience to find something wrong.

"Now You See Me" has many big scenes and requires a lot of extras. It is estimated that the cost of the extras alone is likely to reach several million US dollars.

There is no way, the lowest-level Hollywood extras cost 35 to 55 US dollars a day, which is about 300 RMB, which is several times higher than in China.

For a slightly higher-end group performer, the daily salary can easily exceed US$100, or RMB 650+.

A similar large-scale scene requires more than a thousand extras at a time, and it also needs some special actors who are paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars to lead.

Taking into account the large number of people, various arrangements for shooting are required. A scene will take at least several days to complete, and money is spent in a real sense.

So sometimes I don’t blame the extras in China for not being able to cope with the situation. They only pay tens of dollars a day. Why should they work for you? If you were treated the same as in Hollywood, all of them would immediately become "veteran actors".

Cao Xuan benefited a lot from his trip to Hollywood.

As mentioned before, Fanxing Film and Television City is also consciously cultivating professional group performers, and even opened the [Fanxing Performing Arts Training School] internally, specifically for group performers.

This school is basically run by Cao Xuan with a small amount of money. It hires professional acting teachers and offers almost free tuition. It only requires some teaching materials and a deposit of 500 yuan.

This 500 yuan deposit is mainly to prevent some people from running over to cause trouble and not attending class properly. As long as you study normally for a period of time, the deposit will be fully refunded.

However, although the acting skills of the extras have improved, due to cost, the crews of all parties have been tacitly suppressing the remuneration of the extras.

Even within Fanxing, there are many people who support this approach. After all, the increase in the remuneration of extras also means that the annual budget of the film and television department will increase.

Cao Xuan's previous attitude was more of acquiescence, mainly to influence the whole body.

There are many things that even if Cao Xuan is the leader in the industry, he cannot forcefully promote them, otherwise it will harm the interests of other people, cause public anger, and cause grievances, which will bring disaster to himself.

However, this trip to Hollywood allowed Cao Xuan to see a way to break the situation.

Domestic countries have always liked to imitate Hollywood. They can advocate more of Hollywood's "advanced concepts" and then compare them domestically, allowing the media to build momentum and set the pace. Then Cao Xuan can legitimately come out with reforms and improve the treatment of group performers.

Of course, there are still many details that need to be considered in the specific implementation.

In particular, how to ensure that after the treatment of group performers is improved, business capabilities will be optimized and positive feedback will be formed.

Otherwise, the salary has increased, the extras continue to perform poorly, and the cost of the entire crew has increased, but they cannot get good feedback, then Cao Xuan will be hated to death...

………

Cao Xuan had half a corn in his mouth, and asked Zhang Chong to take a notebook, and he kept writing and drawing, all of which were ideas about the group performance plan.

He still takes this matter very seriously.

When he was young, he came from a group performance background and never changed his original intention, wanting to make life easier for the group performers.

Speaking more broadly, group acting is also one of the cornerstones of the entertainment industry. If it can really get some positive improvements, it will be of great benefit to the entire industry.

Not only the treatment of the group performers, but also the promotion path, we must give them the opportunity to leap over the dragon's gate.

With the upward channel, everyone is willing to work hard to change the status quo.

If fate cannot be changed, even if the salary is improved, it will make people feel slack and content with the status quo.

Putting aside the bunch of Xiangjiang actors, in the past few years in the Mainland, the most popular A-list stars who have really worked their way up through the ranks of extras are Cao Xuan and Wang Baoqiang.

Therefore, Cao Xuan feels that he should set more examples so that the extras can see the hope of a carp turning into a dragon, so that they can work hard to hone their acting skills and look forward to the day when they can make a grassroots counterattack.

Artificial stars!

Cao Xuan plans to go back and pick a few good talents from the group to give them a try. It doesn't necessarily have to be a big name. If they can have a certain influence, it will be enough to impress many people.

It's a pity that Zhao Xiaodao's fate was changed by Hu Jing. He started out as an important supporting role. He also went to the Chinese Theater Academy to study and lost his experience in group acting. Otherwise, he would have been packaged and become another inspirational example in group acting.

Cao Xuan believed that there were leftover pearls among the people. As long as he searched patiently, even if Zhao Xiaodao was gone, there would still be Zhang Xiaodao, or even Sima Xuan and Huang Baoqiang.

Times can create heroes!

Boss Cao has the platform and resources, but he doesn’t believe that he can’t support a few stars who are background performers.

It's hard to say whether this is a big deal, after all, Cao Xuan's method cannot guarantee that the group performers can counterattack as expected in a stable and long-term way.

The entertainment industry is such a big place, with every carrot and every hole in it. Many students from major colleges and universities cannot get ahead, let alone group performers with inferior conditions.

But compared with the stagnant water before, at least there is a light, and if there are many talents for group performances, it may also cause major entertainment companies to actively explore.

If it can attract the attention of the entire industry, it may not be able to form a stable upward channel.

For example, in Hollywood, many stars are non-professional extras or small actors. Although their number is far smaller than that of other channels, they are indeed a way to counterattack.

Cao Xuan wrote and drew until five or six pages were filled, then he stopped writing, took a few bites, and started filming tonight's night scene.

As mentioned before, what is different from the original movie is that because of Cao Xuan's appearance, he summoned the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

He appears at the very beginning of the movie, performing a psychologically suggestive card magic, which also serves as a foreshadowing for what follows.

After the performance, Cao Xuan and his female fans were about to teach them the secrets of magic. When they saw a letter at home, they went to the street with an undercover police officer.

After that, there were performances by several other members of the team. Cao Xuan stood in the crowd with his hood on and observed silently, then left a token and invited the other party to discuss important matters together.

The character played by Damimi was the last one to appear.

Because she is the cousin of the magician (Cao Xuan) and her former assistant, there is no need to play mysterious. Cao Xuan shows up directly after the magic to invite.

After the site was cleared, there was no one around, leaving behind garbage all over the ground and a raised pool.

Damimi, who had finished changing in the movie, was about to finish her work when she passed by the pool and found a card floating inside, depicting a cartoon of one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

She looked at the glass seriously, and Cao Xuan's voice sounded from behind: "Xiaoya, you have lost weight (Chinese)."

Damimi turned around and saw the surprise on Cao Xuan's face, and then turned cold: "Please call me Michelle, thank you. I have to get off work. If you have any performance invitations, please contact me via email."

"That's so heartless. I am your cousin after all."

Cao Xuan was helpless: "The assistant resigned on your own behalf, not because I fired you. Because of this, I was scolded by your aunt."

"You deserve it."

When Damimi heard this, she became very angry: "Why did I resign? Why did you think so many people said I was fat?"

"Who made it impossible for you to get through that trap door? If I hadn't been smart, my name as the great magician Danny Lee would have been ruined."

"I'll say it again, it's not that I'm fat, it's that the trap door is too small. No one can get in, no one."

Cao Xuan complained expressionlessly: "The assistant after me, Chris Liu, can do it, and she can always do it."

Damimi: "..."

Then he puffed up his chest angrily: "I'm not fat, I'm big."

"Whatever you say, but as an assistant, you are indeed not as good as Liu."

Cao Xuan curled his lips and stabbed him again, making Damimi grit her teeth in hatred.

Because of the different actors, the character settings of the movie "Now You See Me" have also undergone some changes compared to the original version.

The biggest change was that of Juan Fu, who changed from a bald, mean and venomous man to a gentle man with a British temperament. However, he still retained the attribute of venomous tongue and was good at killing with one word.

Cao Xuan, the captain, is a bit chatty and likes to complain. He often teases team members. He especially likes to quarrel with his cousin, Damimi, and is only satisfied if he makes the other party angry.

Juan Fu is his half-nemesis, and he often kills him with just one word, creating laughter.

As for the character played by Mr. Tao, he is a junior and student in the team. He has a relatively honest and sincere personality. He is often teased by Cao Xuan. After being protected by Damimi, he has a crush on Damimi.

As soon as the episode just started, it showed the slightly mean temperament of the male protagonist Cao Xuan, and there was also a little easter egg buried in it.

Foreigners may not know this easter egg, but if domestic audiences see it, they will understand who Chris Liu is referring to, and it can be considered an official joke.

Compared with the previous scenes, the scenes between Cao Xuan and Damimi went smoothly.

Cao Xuan did it with ease, and Damimi also performed well.

Unlike Hu Ge, who played "Let the Bullets Fly" before, she and Cao Xuan have collaborated on several films, so they are familiar with each other and have a certain tacit understanding.

Although the two characters quarreled when they met, they actually had a good relationship. Damimi happily accepted her cousin's invitation. The two turned around and left, and the sounds of them discussing and bickering could be heard.

"Why are they called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Why can't they be named after a Chinese group?"

"As the Romans do, we are not the only ones on the team."

"Compared with the Four Horsemen, I still like the Four Heavenly Kings."

"The Four Heavenly Kings of Xiangjiang? Or the ones guarding the Nantian Gate?"

"From Xiangjiang, I love Dawn..."

Asia is an important ticket market, and with two Chinese actors, it is inevitable that there will be some domestic gossip.

Maybe North American and European audiences don’t understand it very well, but that’s normal. There will be some North American references in later movies, and domestic audiences may not understand it either.

Fortunately, this is just a small paragraph. If you know how to smile, what you don't understand will not affect the plot.

………

The filming of "Now You See Me" went very smoothly, especially since the protagonist group quickly got on track after the initial run-in.

If the filming goes well, the entire movie will be completed in mid-to-late June, or no later than the end of June at most.

This does not include the time when Cao Xuan took leave to return to China.

On April 28, Cao Xuan returned to China by plane to perform at the opening ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo.

In fact, Cao Xuan had already postponed this performance and did not even prepare the show at all.

As a result, when Cao Xuan was filming in the United States, Teng Junjie, the chief director of the Shanghai World Expo, called and invited him again. Even though he was just an appetizer, there were invitations from higher-ups later.

Cao Xuan couldn't refuse, so he could only agree.

At that time, it was less than two weeks before the opening ceremony of the World Expo, and he had no time to prepare a new program.

Okay, fortunately, arrangements have been made for him to sing an official promotional song with Sun Nan, Tan Jing, Zhang Shaohan and other singers.

To put it bluntly, people just want Cao Xuan’s face to add internationality and influence to the opening ceremony party.

Therefore, in the past two weeks, Cao Xuan had to practice singing after playing at night, and took a few days off to go to Shanghai to participate in the final rehearsal and recording.

Rehearsal is mainly about practicing movement and coordination. Recording the song is simple. It is lip-syncing on the spot, and the audio must be recorded in advance.

Cao Xuan is also an old man on the stage, and the chorus is not very difficult. All he needs to do is look at each other a few times and remember the order.

For Cao Xuan, the live broadcast of the World Expo's opening ceremony was almost not difficult, but because it was a rush, the performance experience was definitely the worst he had ever participated in major events in many years.

The Olympics, the National Games, the 60th Anniversary, and the Spring Festival Gala, Cao Xuan has not been absent from all major events and galas in the past few years, which also makes him somewhat tired.

He is annoyed, but the outside world is not. The South African World Cup Organizing Committee intends to invite him to be a guest performer in the finals. The Guangzhou Asian Games at the end of the year is also looking forward to Cao Xuan's joining.

People are afraid of being famous, but pigs are afraid of being strong. His wonderful performance at the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games and National Games made Cao Xuan the first choice for related events, and he couldn't be pushed away.

This was the case at the World Expo. Cao Xuan had already rejected it, but later the leader thought it was inappropriate and invited him to be the finale.

According to an insider, there are special instructions from above that a national treasure-level singer like Cao Xuan may not have a good show, but he must not not go on stage, otherwise he has not done his job well...

Cao Xuan felt that it would be difficult for him to avoid invitations to these events before he officially bid farewell to the music scene.

After the opening ceremony of the World Expo, Cao Xuan did not go back to the United States directly to film. Instead, he stayed for a few days to accept some interviews, waiting to attend the premiere of "Sword Rain".

"Sword Rain" is scheduled to be released on May 2nd, so it did not choose to enter the summer season and compete head-on with those movies.

It's not that I'm afraid. Cao Xuan's name has never scared anyone in the domestic film market. However, "Sword Rain" is originally a literary and artistic film. It doesn't have the overwhelming commercial advantage in the past, and it relies entirely on Cao Xuan to attract box office.

No one is afraid of one-on-one. If we fall into a chaotic battle, it will be hard to predict. Even if we can break out of the encirclement, we will only hurt the enemy a thousand times and ourselves hundreds of dollars.

It is better to choose a relatively simple and quiet schedule. With Cao Xuan's name, he is not afraid of competing head-on with anyone.

And because of the addition of "Sword Rain", this year's May slot is much more intense than in previous years.

But what is really worth mentioning is that there are only two movies in May, "Ip Man 2" and "Iron Man 2."

As for other movies, such as Wu Yanzu and Yuan Quan's "Like a Dream", Xiao Hei Fatty's "Three Smiles: The Talented Man and the Beautiful Lady", the Hollywood animation movie "How to Train Your Dragon", etc., it is difficult to pose a threat to the above three movies.

Even the media refers to the May release as a tripartite, directly ignoring the presence of other movies.

This is also normal. "Iron Man 2" and "Ip Man 2" are both series movies. The previous films performed well and the new films have guaranteed box office.

"Sword Rain" has Cao Xuan carrying the flag, and it is even more favored by everyone. After all, Cao Xuan's movies have not been hit since his debut.

Even "Saving Mr. Me", which had an unpopular theme and a lot of literary and artistic attributes, ended up taking 165 million at the box office.

After all, "Sword Rain" is the martial arts theme that Cao Xuan originally started his career in. Even though many materials revealed that the movie is biased towards literature and art, many people are optimistic that the box office of this movie will exceed 200 million.

Don't ask, just ask to believe Cao Xuan!

Of course, "Sword Rain" is not without its disadvantages, that is, Cao Xuan simply cannot form strong support in terms of publicity.

In the early stage of publicity, Cao Xuan only recorded a few VCRs, and it is unlikely that he will be involved in the later road shows.

Even Cao Xuan was able to attend the premiere this time because of the opening ceremony of the World Expo, otherwise he might not have been able to make it back.

Although Fan Xiaopang can also provide some support, she is currently filming "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and cannot show up often.

Zeng Li has always been low-key and introverted. It is unrealistic to point her at leading a promotion campaign. She mostly just participates in interviews or interviews.

The other actors are either not very good at publicity, or they have too few roles to support the show.

The publicity team of "Sword Rain" was almost depressed. If it hadn't been for the scandals involving Cao Xuan and Zeng Li, they would have given up their career long ago.

Fortunately, the publicity team quickly changed their thinking and shifted the focus away from the artists to several of their own platforms such as Penguin Weibo and Time.com.

These platforms have a large number of potential audiences. As long as they can penetrate these platforms, even without the support of many starring actors, the publicity effect will not be bad...