Chapter 394 Joining the Group

Early the next morning, Wang Zuxian came to work. Today she and Zhou Yan were going to watch the audition video.

As soon as he met Zhou Yan, Wang Zuxian smiled and said, "Xiao Rong cried all over the pillow last night."

"I didn't expect that she could finish "Alive" last night."

Wang Zuxian curled his lips and said, "You are just looking down on me. Besides, this book is so good and easy to read."

"If Yu Hua knew she was crying, he would definitely laugh again."

"Is it a bad taste for writers to feel happy when readers feel uncomfortable?"

Zhou Yan shrugged, "At least I don't have such a bad taste."

In fact, most authors don't have such bad taste. Some people say that Yu Hua is happy when readers feel uncomfortable. They also say that when he wrote "Alive", he was thinking about how to make readers feel uncomfortable. This is also a joke.

If a book makes readers feel bad, then the author certainly didn't feel good when he wrote it.

Although Yu Hua was laughing and joking every day and was very happy, when he secretly dropped the little pearl, no one saw it.

…

When watching the audition video, many people gathered in the conference room.

Everyone from the directing team was present, as were the makeup team, camera team, and costume team.

However, although there are many people watching, Zhou Yan does not engage in democratic elections. He will not ask for their opinions on who to choose or not. At most, he will discuss it with a few people from the director team.

There are a lot of videos, but it’s not possible to watch them all, let alone watch them all.

When Zhou Yan encountered some non-controversial videos, he skipped them directly.

After looking around, Zhou Yan's thoughts were basically the same as yesterday, and there was no change.

Li Xiaoran's performance in the camera is also good. She is afraid that she will gain 20 pounds in the camera, but in fact, she still looks very thin in the camera.

If you want to be more in line with the character, you have to gain some muscle.

After watching all the videos in the morning, Zhao Xiaoke from the costume team came over holding a notebook, "Director Zhou, have the roles been decided? Can you give us a list? Sister Miao Miao specifically asked me to get it as soon as possible. Actor’s size data.”

The costume team is very concerned about casting. Although the costume design has basically been finalized, each piece of clothing still needs to be fitted to each actor, so the actor's size is needed.

Before starting the filming, they needed to alter the clothes according to the actors' sizes.

Since the two protagonists have already been decided, the clothes have already been prepared, so there is no need to worry about it anymore. Now their costume team is mainly worried about the clothes of the supporting characters.

Zhou Yan nodded, "I will gather the actors here in the studio the day after tomorrow. Then your team can just come over and take measurements."

"Okay, I'll go back and tell Sister Miao Miao that Qizhi has a lot of work recently, and Sister Miao Miao is also very busy, so she doesn't have time to come over."

Dong Wenmiao now mainly cooperates with Qizhi Company and rarely takes on fashion design jobs. If it weren't for Zhou Yan, she wouldn't have agreed.

"It doesn't matter, it's the same if you come. One more thing is that for the character Qin Yu, the actor is relatively thin now. I plan to let her gain five to ten pounds before starting the filming, so the data before and after will definitely be different."

Zhao Xiaoke smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. We can measure her size first and reserve a little space. When starting up, if it doesn't fit, we can make minor adjustments. It won't take much time. And I remember, Qin Yu doesn’t have many clothes.”

"It's quite a few, seven sets."

"Although there are seven sets, they include one swimsuit and two pajamas. The workload should not be large. I will go back and look at the design drawings to confirm."

"That's hard work."

In fact, the costumes don’t have to fit that well, especially for the character Qin Yu. She needs to be sexy, so it’s okay if her clothes are a little smaller.

Furthermore, Zhou Yan only asked Li Xiaoran to gain five to ten kilograms of weight, not twenty or thirty kilograms. According to Li Xiaoran's height, the weight difference of five to ten kilograms would not be a big difference in clothing size.

After Zhao Xiaoke left, Hong Xin also walked over with a smile, "Do you want to give our hero and heroine some time to decide on their makeup?"

"Let's do the makeup together with the other actors. Anyway, you are familiar with our faces."

When filming "The Sixth Sense" before, the makeup was done by Hong Xin and others, so they were quite familiar with Joey Wong's face.

As for Zhou Yan, not to mention, when Zhou Yan was filming "Raise the Red Lantern" at the earliest, Hong Xin and the others had played with his face.

"Of course I'm familiar with your faces." Hong Xin looked at their faces with a smile, "But this time is different. I can't make you look too good this time."

In this movie, Joey Wong's early makeup was very ordinary, so Hong Xin and her makeup team needed to give Joey Wong ordinary-looking makeup.

This kind of makeup is the most difficult to apply. First of all, Wang Zuxian is not ordinary. Secondly, they can't really make it ordinary. The effect Zhou Yan wants is that it looks ordinary at first glance, but very beautiful when you take a closer look.

The male protagonist is similar, but the male protagonist can basically only make a fuss about his hairstyle and clothing.

"It's better to wait until Zhao Fei officially joins the group in two days before we talk about this."

The makeup setting is the same as the audition. It cannot rely solely on feeling and naked eyes. It needs to be shown through the lens, so the lighting team, camera team, and makeup team need to work together to complete it.

Of course Hong Xin also knew that she came here just to give Zhou Yan a heads up to prevent the matter from dragging on later.

Although the director team can always take care of everything, they still need to remind the team of things that they should remind.

…

After chatting with Hong Xin about makeup for a while, Zhou Yan pulled Li Hong over and asked, "What's the situation with Liu Qing and the others now?"

Before the audition began, Liu Qing took some people from the set design and logistics to the filming location in Pengcheng.

Although the male protagonist's home is set in Pengcheng, there are actually very few places for filming in Pengcheng for this movie, and basically only one house is needed.

The house they used this time was provided by Zhou Yan's second brother Zhou Hong.

After the reform and opening up, the original residents of Jiaochangwei Village in Pengcheng moved away one after another, and a large number of houses were vacant. Zhou Hong planned to plan a tourist area there.

Zhou Yan didn't know about this at first, but his second brother told him about it when he heard that he was going to shoot a movie in Pengcheng and was looking for a location.

Zhou Yan was also quite surprised to hear that their family was cooperating with the government to develop Jiaochangwei. He only knew that their family business was doing well, but he didn't expect it to reach this point.

The renovation of such a large area requires a lot of funds.

Now Zhou Yan and his crew can choose any vacant houses in Jiaochangwei. Zhou Yan also picked the one with the best scenery and the largest area.

This time Liu Qing and his crew went there to renovate and decorate the house in advance.

There is another advantage of shooting in Jiaochangwei, that is, there are enough houses. When the crew goes there, they don’t have to worry about accommodation. There are so many vacant houses that the crew can’t live in.

"Brother Liu and his crew have settled down and are starting to decorate the rooms."

"Is it convenient to live there?" Zhou Yan asked again.

"Although many people have left the village, it is still relatively convenient because the village is not small. Brother Liu said that it is definitely more convenient than the Qiao Family Courtyard before. If there is really nothing to eat, you can go to the sea to catch seafood."

When Zhou Yan heard about seafood, he frowned. He recalled the group poisoning of the crew when he was in Dartmouth before.

Although he was not hit, the incident left a deep impression on him, especially the scene of dozens of people dancing wildly on the deck, which he still remembered vividly.

Moreover, the wound on his arm caused by Christie's pen had not healed yet, and he could still feel the pain when he moved a little bit.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yan couldn't help but instructed, "Tell Qinggen and ask them to pay attention to food safety on the scene. They should know clearly what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten. The ingredients should be kept hygienic, and not just anyone can enter the kitchen."

Li Hong had heard about what happened to Zhou Yan at Dartmouth, so he also knew why Zhou Yan cared so much about this.

Li Hong nodded seriously, "I will remind Brother Liu to pay attention."

Zhou Yan also nodded. Although there was a high probability that their crew would not have poisoning, it was always better to be safe than sorry. It was always better to pay more attention.

"Also, let them take care of the accommodation for the other crew members. We will be there soon, so don't wait until we are there before you rush."

"Don't worry about this. Brother Liu is reliable. He told me about this when I called yesterday. The logistics team has already booked the accommodation rooms. We just need to allocate the rooms when the list of personnel comes out."

Hearing what Li Hong said, Zhou Yan didn't say anything else. He couldn't take care of everything about the crew. For some things, just ask and know roughly.

For specific matters, he still believed that Li Hong and his team could execute well.

They have never let him down after such a long cooperation.

...

Li Xiaoran was playing "Contra III" at home when the phone in the room rang.

She was at a critical moment and couldn't bear to pause, so she simply stretched out her long legs and tapped the hands-free function with her big toe.

"Hello."

The voice of Zhao Baogang came from the other end of the phone, "Xiao Ran, are you playing games again?"

Li Xiaoran did not answer directly, but just asked, "What's wrong, Director Zhao?"

She did not answer directly, but answered. Zhao Baogang knew that she was playing games and was used to it. "I passed the audition for "Time Traveler". I will sign the contract tomorrow. Director Zhou said that you need to gain five to ten pounds before the start of filming."

"Isn't this a small matter?" Li Xiaoran was full of confidence in gaining weight.

She is not a person who can't gain weight. As long as she eats a little more, the flesh will grow on her body. Losing weight is not easy, but is it not easy to gain weight?

Zhao Baogang smiled and said, "I'm not worried about you gaining weight, but I want to remind you not to gain too much weight. I want you to gain five to ten kilograms, then follow this range, don't exceed. Let's not talk about whether Director Zhou can still use you if you gain too much weight, and you can't affect your future development because of this play."

"Don't worry, Director Zhao, I won't do anything wrong."

Zhao Baogang wanted to give him a few more instructions, but in the end he didn't say anything.

Li Xiaoran is a very talented girl, but she has no ambition and does everything.

She has been dancing since she was a child. After graduation, she joined the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe and her career has been good. As long as she stays in the troupe with peace of mind, she will definitely get better and better with her conditions. But she feels that dancing is too tiring and quits directly.

Now she is not very diligent in filming. Other actors are trying their best to play the leading role, but she thinks it's good to play the supporting role, with less work and more money.

In addition to "Time Traveler", Li Xiaoran also took on a play, which is a costume play invested by Taiwan. The role is small, but the pay is quite good.

Li Xiaoran was very happy to receive such a role.

The situation in "Time Traveler" is similar this time. The role of Qin Yu does not have many scenes, but the pay is tens of thousands of yuan.

Sometimes Zhao Baogang feels that it is a waste to give Li Xiaoran such a talent.

For an actress, it is very important before the age of 30, and according to Li Xiaoran's laziness, I am afraid that she will not be able to shoot many plays before the age of 30.

And no matter how good her talent is, if she is unwilling to work hard, her acting skills will not be too high.

Originally, Zhao Baogang wanted to say that Li Xiaoran could study hard after joining the crew of "Time Traveler", but the reason why he didn't say it was that he felt that it was useless to say it.

However, he heard that Zhou Yan was very strict with actors, and maybe he could help educate Li Xiaoran.

Although Li Xiaoran had few scenes in the movie, she joined the crew very early, so Zhou Yan had a lot of time to take care of her.

After Li Xiaoran hung up the phone, she turned her attention to the game again.

She knew that she would join the crew in a few days, so she wanted to play games while she had time.

She originally wanted to ask Zhao Baogang if the crew had the conditions to bring game consoles over, but she didn't have the nerve to do it in the end.

…

After the casting was finalized, other things also entered the fast lane.

After mid-September, the crew members began to rush to Pengcheng one after another.

Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian stayed in Yanjing for a few more days, and they didn't rush there until September 26th.

Originally, they were going to go directly to Jiaochangwei, but Zhou Hong insisted on picking them up when they arrived.

Zhou Hong always had a big show wherever he went, and this time when he came to pick up Zhou Yan and his friends, he drove a Rolls-Royce Silver Thorn to the airport to pick up Zhou Yan and his friends.

After getting in the car, Zhou Yan patted the seat and said, "This car is good."

Hearing Zhou Yan's praise of the car, Zhou Hong smiled and said, "If you like it, this car is for you. It just so happens that you are in Pengcheng during this period and need a car to travel."

Zhou Yan waved his hands repeatedly, "Forget it, it's too ostentatious for me to drive this car."

In fact, Zhou Yan thought that his second brother was already very high-profile in Jinling before. There were several luxury cars parked at home, including two Benz.

Only when he arrived in Pengcheng did he realize that Zhou Hong was already very low-key in Jinling.

This Silver Thorn is estimated to cost more than 10 million, which can buy several Benz.

Zhou Hong said indifferently, "It's not that you can't afford this car."

Hearing this, Zhou Yan couldn't help but pull the corner of his mouth. He could indeed afford this car, and he could afford more than one.

But he wouldn't spend so much money on the car.

The money from this car is almost enough for him to shoot a "Sixth Sense".

The key point is that cars are different from houses. Houses can appreciate in value, or at least maintain their value, but this kind of top luxury car basically has no value maintenance, and the annual maintenance cost is still a lot.

Of course, Zhou Yan can understand that his second brother bought a luxury car.

Buddha relies on gold and people rely on clothes. Luxury cars are a shining business card that can save people a lot of trouble.

Sitting in a silver thorn to discuss business, first of all, you have won in terms of momentum.

"I won't buy it even if I can afford it. With this money, I can make more movies."

"Are you still short of money for making movies now? Compared to lack of money, I think you are more short of time." Zhou Hong smiled.

I have to say that what Zhou Hong said is right.

Zhou Yan is not short of investment for making movies now. A movie has a budget of 30 million. Let alone making one movie a year, even if it is ten movies a year, the budget can be made up.

But Zhou Yan doesn't have that much time. It's not easy for him to make a movie every two years. (End of this chapter)