Global Film Emperor

Chapter 415 Zhejiang TV and the Program Production Team Combined
"Sister-in-law, up so early? Do you have an iron? I'd like to iron a couple of pieces of clothing."

At six o'clock in the morning, Lu Ze quietly pushed open the door and found that Wang Pushen's wife was already busy in the kitchen. The casserole was steaming. Judging from the steam, she had been up for a while. When she saw Lu Ze push open the door, she smiled and said good morning.

"Ironing your suit? Just leave it here for now, I'll iron it for you later. You guys are too clumsy to do this kind of work. You're too rough and won't iron it properly. It won't be comfortable to wear, and it won't look good either. Go back and get some more sleep. You can get up when dinner is ready."

"It's alright, don't worry, sister-in-law. I iron clothes all the time, and I feel bad for always troubling you. Just tell me where it is."

After a few words of argument, she gave up trying to persuade Lu Ze again. She pointed to the location of the nanny's room, praised Lu Ze, and then pretended to complain that her husband was always bad at this kind of thing. To this complaint, Lu Ze could only smile, said a few nice things about Wang Pushen, and then went into the nanny's room.

The nanny's room was quite large, about 20 square meters including the bathroom and work area. There was a bed with the blankets neatly folded, but it didn't look like anyone had ever lived there. Presumably, because of Lu Ze's arrival, Wang Pushen and his wife sent the nanny out to keep it a secret, and she would come back after Lu Ze left.

After placing the ironing board and heating the iron, Lu Ze carefully ironed out all the wrinkles on the suit. After waiting for it to cool, he put it on and walked out of the nanny's room with his pajamas.

At this moment, the family of three all got up. Wang Pushen and Wenwen were washing and playing around in the bathroom, making quite a bit of noise. Lu Ze took the white porridge handed to him by his sister-in-law, thanked her, and didn't start eating right away. He waited until the father and daughter sat down at the table before picking up his chopsticks.

"Lu'er, how do we get to Hangzhou later?"

"The high-speed train at 10:40 in the morning."

"Let it go. You caused such a commotion at the airport yesterday, do you want to do it again at the train station? I just called a company car over. My secretary, Xiao Zhang, will drive you all day. If he knew he was your driver, he'd be ecstatic."

"This is too much trouble for you guys, Brother Shen."

“It’s not troublesome at all. The only problem is the car. It’s a 20-year-old A8. If you don’t mind, it’s settled. Let’s eat.”

Breakfast was nothing more than plain porridge and pickled vegetables, a change made to cater to Lu Ze's taste. Seeing that Wenwen had little appetite and kept stirring the porridge with her spoon, she probably didn't like it very much. However, she didn't throw a tantrum. Seeing that Uncle Lu Ze was eating with relish, she quickly ate a couple of mouthfuls as well.

After dinner, Mrs. Wang helped Wenwen pack her schoolbag, while the two men sat blankly at the table waiting for the water to boil. Once the induction cooker stopped heating, they picked up the gooseneck kettle to brew coffee and drank a cup to refresh themselves.

"Dong dong dong..."

Wang Pushen got up and opened the door. Standing outside was a young man, not very tall and a bit overweight. When he saw Lu Ze, he didn't know where to put his hands. He stretched out both hands to shake hands with Lu Ze, muttering things like, "I'm finally meeting my idol."

"Then I'll be going now, Brother Shen."

"Okay, see you in the capital then. Xiao Zhang, drive slowly and be careful."

The two brothers gave each other a light hug. Seeing this, Xiao Zhang hurriedly picked up Lu Ze's luggage, went out first, pressed the elevator button, and waited for Lu Ze to put on his shoes and come out. In the elevator, neither of them spoke. Xiao Zhang's attention was focused on the floor indicator, and it was unclear whether he wanted time to slow down or speed up.

After the major redesign of the A8 in 2019, there have been no changes to the model in recent years. Unless you are a car enthusiast, the average person has no idea which year the car is. The interior is very clean, and the beige leather seats have not shown any signs of wear and discoloration from long-term use. Lu Ze is not nearsighted, and he glanced at the control panel. This four-year-old car has only driven less than 20,000 kilometers.

"Mr. Lu... which way do we go?"

Xiao Zhang was a little nervous. After fastening his seatbelt, he had to ask Lu Ze which way to go, just like a ride-hailing driver. Only after getting Lu Ze's response did he adjust the navigation route and start gently, all to give Lu Ze the best riding experience.

Because it was rush hour, the ring expressway was very congested. Taking advantage of this time, Lu Ze could appreciate the changes in Shanghai over the past few years. The core business district had basically remained unchanged, just as it was when Lu Ze left. However, as he walked into the outer city and approached the expressway exit, rows of townhouses and villas conflicted with Lu Ze's memory. If Xiao Zhang hadn't reminded him, he wouldn't have known where he was at all.

Xiao Zhang was a good driver and drove very steadily. The radio broadcast became the "real culprit" that hypnotized Lu Ze. Gradually, he became sleepy, leaned against the car door, and dozed off. When he woke up again, he was right in front of the Blue TV headquarters.

"Mr. Lu, we've arrived."

"I know, thank you for your hard work, Xiao Zhang. Please drive slowly on your way back. Just leave your luggage at the airport. I've already spoken to the airline, and I'll pick it up myself."

"Okay, Mr. Lu, please take care."

After Lu Ze got out of the car, Xiao Zhang did not drive away immediately. Instead, he watched Lu Ze's back until he entered the headquarters of Lantai and sent Wang Pushen a text message saying that he had arrived safely before driving away.

……

He sent a message to Wang Zixuan, asking her to bring her team over. He put away his phone, and before he could even walk to the front desk, the central elevator stopped on the first floor. A group of people rushed out and quickly walked towards Lu Ze, expressing their excitement and welcoming him to Lantai.

"Hello, Teacher Lu, I am Du Mei, who contacted you before. I would like to apologize to you first. I am very sorry for the inconvenience I caused you before. I hope you will not mind. Let's go upstairs first. I will tell you the details later."

Lu Ze didn't exactly dislike Director Du; he had just accidentally offended him and gotten a good scolding from him. Otherwise, given Lu Ze's personality, he wasn't one to take things lying down. He nodded to indicate that he didn't care, and then followed Director Du into the elevator to the program team's lounge.

At this moment, the filming of the show "The Performer" has already begun on the floor where Lu Ze is located. Even though the room is well soundproofed, the female voice reciting lines and background music can still be heard coming from the speakers.

The so-called invitation of Lu Ze as a guest mentor for the first episode was simply to film all of Lu Ze's words in one go and then cut them into the content to be broadcast in the first episode. It did not necessarily require Lu Ze to watch the contestants' performances before making comments.

The filming of this type of variety show is basically divided into several steps: contestants' performances, mentors' comments, hosts' speeches, and audience voting. After these steps are filmed, the entire content is divided into several episodes for post-production. This is the production process of a program, at least for the first round. Programs that require online voting are a different story.

This shortens the filming cycle, concentrates the artists' schedules, shortens the production process, and reduces costs—the advantages are obvious. The downside is that it turns variety shows into assembly-line productions, lacking any sense of authenticity and violating the principle of reality shows—showing real people. It becomes a tool for quickly making money by deceiving audiences and a factory for creating personas for artists. This is why Lu Ze particularly dislikes such programs. You could say that filming a forum is acceptable; even if it's scripted, you can still speak the truth, have a heart-to-heart talk, reminisce about the past, look forward to the future, and express your views and values—it's quite interesting.

These talent shows, whether domestic or international, are tools for making profits and creating stars. No matter how big the production is, how much money is spent on hiring mentors and setting up the stage, these clever people who don't use their talents wisely always manage to make their money back from the audience.

Therefore, no matter how much appearance fee they offer Lu Ze, whether it's more than what he would get for acting in a painful and physically demanding role, Lu Ze will not take the money. At least when it comes to making movies, he earns a living through his own talent and ability. Whether he is hungry or full depends entirely on his strength, unlike talent shows that create cheap idols for young people to make a fortune.

When his career was just starting out, he didn't take on mindless romance films or time-travel period dramas for the same reason. These kinds of messy stories about you loving him, him loving her, and her loving you are really not good stuff. You might as well watch a couple of episodes of Country Love, which, although exaggerated and a bit silly, is still close to reality.

Therefore, he came here only to discuss the cooperation between Universal Brothers and Zhejiang TV; he will not speak of anything else.

"Teacher Lu, shall we go backstage for a walk? Let you see for yourself whether our performing guests will satisfy you."

She poured Lu Ze another cup of tea. Seeing that Lu Ze had rested enough, she was somewhat tempted and invited him to watch the recording of the show. This was reasonable, so Lu Ze did not refuse and followed Director Du to the recording studio. Sure enough, the audience was empty, and actors were performing on stage. It seemed that some problems had occurred, so the crew was stopped, and the actors discussed the parts that needed to be modified.

This is normal. Mistakes happen during filming, especially since they are participating in a competition and remaking some very difficult movie scenes. For these young actors, surpassing the original is out of the question, and even grasping the essence of the original is a challenge.

Like what's shown on TV, where they come on stage and perform, then leave immediately, the actual versions are carefully selected from multiple remakes to find the best one. Otherwise, why would there always be a scene of the audience applauding when the actors come on stage? Why is there a scene in "The Voice" where someone pushes open a door with a microphone?
However, this is merely to achieve a seamless cut in the eyes of the average viewer, making people believe that they are just starting out and performing for the first time. Even cutting to the audience and then back during the performance could be for this purpose.

Lu Ze didn't recognize any of these young people, and he had never even seen their faces before. But judging from their performance in just over ten seconds, a few of them were passable. They were the type of actors who would easily be praised by audiences in TV dramas or web series. They couldn't compare to the monsters of the younger generation, but they could still hold their own among young actors.

However, their shortcomings are also very obvious. Once they appear on the big screen, their lack of talent is immediately apparent. They are not nearly as good as professional young film actors. Even though they are not far behind film actors in terms of lines, expressions, and body language, they always seem wooden and lacking in spirit.

There are definitely reasons why there are differences between movies and TV series. If it's a bad movie, you can blame the director's poor editing. After all, film is the director's art. A very capable director can make an ordinary person look amazing. But ultimately, the difference lies in the word "detail".

Film actors need to be meticulous in expressing emotions and maintain their performance until the end of a scene. If they lose their composure, even for a second or a single line, the scene is ruined. For an actor of Lu Ze's caliber, a single glance, a single word, or even a mistake of a fraction of a second could lead to the entire scene being reshot.

For TV dramas, directors tend to be too lenient with the requirement of "details." Otherwise, how can anyone film dozens of episodes? Can they film a scene like a movie, taking a month to film one scene? If such detail were truly pursued, a 30-year-old director might not be able to finish filming a complete work even if he were to pass away at the age of 70.

Of course, this excludes bad directors and a small number of foreign drama production teams that produce films, because their main roles are basically played by film actors.

Therefore, Lu Ze had already mentally rejected these actors on stage. Even if they won the championship in any way, Universal Brothers was unlikely to want them. After all, they could choose from the existing actors, and they didn't need to train an actor with a fixed performance style, unless they were given a small role that lasted only a few seconds to a few minutes.

Of course, he wouldn't go to the trouble of playing tricks on Zhejiang TV and the audience in the country for money, letting a young actor who is highly regarded in China participate in his company's movie as a minor supporting role. Lu Ze wouldn't do that. If Mickey wanted to do it, Lu Ze would break his legs.

He just wanted to see if any of the participating actors came from film backgrounds or had natural talent as television actors. If not, he wouldn't bother with the contract. He'd rather forgo the money than embarrass his own country's enthusiastic audience. He wasn't about to become a fake foreigner just because he went abroad for a couple of days.

As for the rule of allowing the male and female champions to join the film crew, Lu Ze believed that without any major behind-the-scenes manipulation, the film actors would definitely be able to win the championship. This was something that had to be discussed with the program team when negotiating the contract later.

Small-scale behind-the-scenes manipulation is permissible, and Lu Ze tacitly approves of it. Whether it's giving favored actors more screen time or helping them gain popularity, Lu Ze won't care, as long as the champion is truly deserving. If the production team is really bold enough to create a champion who doesn't deserve the title, then you'll see if Lu Ze takes action against them.

On stage, a few young people were chatting happily when Lu Ze and Director Du approached from below. The first young man to notice Lu Ze's arrival was initially surprised, then delighted, and finally stood at attention. The others also noticed something was amiss and copied the first young man's expression. In the end, the group lined up and stood like Young Pioneers.

"Hello, Teacher Lu."

There were no other titles, only the respectful address of "teacher." For those working in the film and television industry, they couldn't be happier if Lu Ze accepted this apprentice. Not only could they learn skills, but they could also become the grand-disciple of Master Chen Yongbin—how wonderful!

Putting aside status and power, just talking about Lu Ze's personal strength, after the release of "Rebirth", Lu Ze was praised to the skies by the Japanese media, and was even called the "Movie Emperor from the Dragon Clan". Although Lu Ze was not very willing to accept this title... after all, there was also the "Peerless Ferocious Tiger of the Empire" in front of him. Such a chuunibyou title always made him feel a little embarrassed.

While Europe doesn't praise Lu Ze as much as Japan, it's not like Mickey Mouse, who's a piece of stinking dog shit and gets cursed everywhere he goes. Most media outlets praise Lu Ze, and even when he gets criticized, it's because he suffers the same fate as the father-cursing maniac Mickey Mouse.

These news reports were reprinted by domestic media, which made Lu Ze's fans in China very happy. Gradually, a catchy rhyme spread widely and was recognized by Chinese audiences. Gradually, Lu Ze seemed to become a mountain on the heads of all Chinese actors.

"Every year there is hope of surpassing Lu Shen, and Lu Shen will teach them a lesson one by one."

Many people are indignant about this and even regard Lu Ze as an enemy, but it is undeniable that Lu Ze is the best Chinese actor in the world today, without exception. Moreover, Lu Ze is also a member of the China Film Association and a disciple of Master Chen. This anger... can't kill anyone even if they keep it in their hearts.

Lu Ze simply waved his hand dismissively at their performance, telling them to continue rehearsing, and then followed Du Mei backstage, leaving the few people on stage dejected and groaning.

Compared to the groups of people filming, there were many more people backstage. Without counting, there were definitely more than twenty people. When they saw Lu Ze, their reactions were exactly the same as those on stage. Lu Ze took a closer look and recognized a few of them. They were all actors who had become popular in recent years and were all quite young, mostly around twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

His gaze swept to the back of the crowd, where he seemed to spot a familiar face. Lu Ze frowned and stared at his face. Their eyes met, and the man's lips moved slightly as he said something that Lu Ze couldn't quite hear. But at that moment, Lu Ze revealed a rare smile.

He nodded slightly to him. Before anyone could figure out who Lu Ze was smiling at, Lu Ze composed himself and casually offered some encouragement to the young actors. Not long after, his phone rang. Lu Ze and Director Du turned and left the backstage area. He answered the call and learned that Wang Zixuan and the negotiation team had arrived at the conference room.

"Call your team over, let's have a proper talk."

"..."

(End of this chapter)