Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 79 Photography and Exhibition

In March, Wu Yuchen also did something else: he found an intermediary to help him register a film and entertainment media company, which has now been completed and is known as Miracle Pictures.

These early-stage small film and television companies were basically shell companies. Wu Yuchen simply rented a small room in a cheap office building, put in a desk, and hired an accountant, and that was about it.

In the future, he can handle anything related to film and television through the company, and he can gradually build his reputation. He will definitely win many awards in the future.

"Coherence" was filmed using 16mm film. This movie doesn't need to pursue a very clear picture; it mainly relies on its science fiction setting and suspenseful plot to win over audiences.

On the evening of April 30th, the filming of "Comet" officially began in a rented villa.

After entering the room, Jiang Qinqin greeted her friends who had already arrived and praised the many dishes already prepared on the table.

Upon seeing Jiang Qinqin, Liu Mintao hesitated, then pursed her lips and walked over to Jiang Qinqin, who was taking off her trench coat, and reminded her, "Amy, Wei Wei is coming over tonight too. If you can't control yourself, I have some tranquilizers here."

Jiang Qinqin was taken aback for a moment, then quickly smiled and said that it was not that serious. The rivalry between her and Wei Wei was a thing of the past, and there would be no more conflict.

The remaining friends arrived next, including Chen Shasha, who was dressed in a sexy red dress and was Jiang Qinqin's former love rival.

Seeing everyone dressed so casually, she feigned surprise and covered her mouth, saying, "Am I dressed too formally?"

Just by looking at her affected manner, you can tell she's here to cause trouble.

"Pass! Very good. Everyone has captured the character traits well this time. Keep it up."

Wu Yuchen praised them, saying that they did need a little practice at the beginning, mainly to help them find their character. Everyone was well-prepared, even Chen Shasha, whom he was a little worried about, played the sexy and pretentious woman in the red dress quite well.

Filming started at 7 p.m. and continued until 12:30 a.m. When Wu Yuchen saw someone yawning, he felt that the day was almost over.

"That's all for today. Everyone, please adjust your schedules. We might be filming even later tomorrow night."

All the scenes take place in and around the villa, so filming was done sequentially. Today, we filmed the first 15 minutes of scenes, and at this pace, it should be finished in about 6 days. However, Wu Yuchen feels that once the actors are fully in character, the filming will go even more smoothly.

The next night.

Sun Honglei, wearing glasses and with a bandage on his face, raised his hands in a gesture of helplessness and said:
"It's not that I don't want to say it, it's that I'm afraid no one will believe me if I tell you."

When I approached that house just now, there was an identical table, wine glasses, candles, and food inside, and around the table were the eight of us! Eight people exactly like us were chatting and laughing!

"what?!"

You must be joking!

"Li Wei, are you seeing things?"

"Li Wei, did you two get lost in the dark and walk around our own house?"

Everyone expressed disbelief.

"We are absolutely certain that we are not going in circles!"
"We don't need to make jokes like that. The box was brought back from there!" Sun Honglei said, somewhat agitated.

"Cut! Prepare for the next scene!"

The scene just now revealed to the audience and confirmed the existence of parallel universes.

Just as Wu Yuchen predicted, by the next day, everyone had adjusted their schedules and mindset, and the filming went much more smoothly, with some scenes even being completed in just one or two takes.

Aside from the part about "Schrödinger's cat" which is introduced through reading a book, most of the dialogue in this movie is actually quite colloquial.

Therefore, Wu Yuchen didn't pay too much attention to the details this time. As long as the meaning was conveyed well, that was enough. So some actors were in good form and even said things that were more touching than the original script lines.

Actually, when most of the scenes are filmed in one room, it's really a bit like a stage play. Once the actors get into the mood on stage, they perform better and better.

For the next three days, they filmed from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night. After filming at night, Wu Yuchen would send the film rolls to be developed during the day.

On the fifth night, in the footage, Sun Honglei, his face flushed, held up a piece of paper and shouted excitedly to Fu Dalong:

"Tell me what this is?! You fucking left a message telling me you slept with my girlfriend!"

Fu Dalong had a look of utter dismay on his face. This was a letter written to Sun Honglei by another version of himself from a parallel universe, exposing his secret.

At this moment, someone tried to come up and persuade Sun Honglei to calm down, but Sun Honglei suddenly shouted:
"Who still knows about this?!"

No one said anything.

Sun Honglei turned to Gong Beibi, who was closest to him, and asked, "Li Na, do you know her?"

Gong Beibi nodded weakly.

"Amy, Rod, do you know?"

Jiang Qinqin and Huang Haibing opened their mouths but remained silent, but Sun Honglei could tell at a glance that they knew. He glanced at the others and roared, "You all knew they were having an affair, but you kept it from me?!"

Liu Mintao looked terrified, while Fu Dalong, somewhat embarrassed by Sun Honglei's reprimand, simply spread his hands and said:

"Li Wei, I didn't sleep with your girlfriend!"
"Don't you understand yet? We don't even belong here. You, me, her, everyone in this room—we don't even belong to the same world!"

Fu Dalong simply revealed the truth that he had already figured out.

"You slept with my girlfriend, and you're still spouting nonsense to me?!" Sun Honglei was still furious.

"Don't believe me? Show everyone your phone!" Fu Dalong shouted back.

Sun Honglei took out a perfectly intact phone, but everyone's gaze changed because all the phones had been broken when they first arrived.

At this point, Fu Dalong said, "Each of us initially took an item out of the box. What was yours?"

"paper napkin."

"Gloves." "Ping-pong ball."

When everyone reported their results, they were all different, which shows that everyone is from a different world.

However, Sun Honglei, still furious, failed to grasp the situation:
"What the hell does this have to do with you sleeping with my girlfriend?!"

Fu Dalong also became anxious, waving his hands and shouting:
"Don't you understand? You're not Levi from this world, she's not your girlfriend Anna, and the Mike who slept with your girlfriend isn't me! We're not from the same world at all, so why the hell are you taking it out on me!"

Everyone fell silent. Sun Honglei took a few quick breaths, his chest heaving. He finally understood.

But he realized something else: no matter which world he was in, he had been cuckolded by that bastard Mike. Thinking of this, his eyes lit up, and after yelling "Fuck you!" he rushed up and punched Fu Dalong. The two started fighting.

……

The scene became chaotic, and Chen Shasha, the woman in the red dress, fell down next to Huang Haibing, pitifully trying to seduce him. Huang Haibing hugged Chen Shasha and asked her if she was hurt.

Jiang Qinqin witnessed all of this, utterly disillusioned with the reality of this world. Her eyes suddenly darkened yet hardened, and she silently opened the door and walked out. She was going to cross that dark area leading to other worlds, to find one of the many parallel universes that would satisfy her—a world with a loving boyfriend, supportive friends, and where she could kill that version of herself and take her place!

"Pass!"

At this point, almost all the ensemble scenes have been filmed, and all that's left is Jiang Qinqin's solo scene of killing herself.

Basically, they would find an actress to wear the same wig as her, and in any scene where the two women were together, they would choose an angle or use props to cover up the faces of only one person in the shot.

After filming the scene where Jiang Qinqin smashes herself to death in the bathroom, the crew wrapped up filming.

Wu Yuchen checked the time; it was 11 p.m. But perhaps because everyone had been active at night for the past few days, everyone was in a very excited state.

Wu Yuchen raised his hand and shouted, "Wrap-up party, let's go for a late-night snack!"

Everyone cheered and jeering.

At the dinner table, Fu Dalong suddenly asked:
"Director Wu, do you believe in the inherent evil of human nature?"

"Ok?"

"I think your novel 'Car 44' satirizes human nature. Although the premise of 'Comet' is very novel, its core is still to satirize the selfishness of people. So I feel that you are very interested in this kind of subject matter."

Wu Yuchen himself hadn't considered this issue. After Fu Dalong brought it up, he realized that it was only because his first feature film wasn't "Mr. Donkey" that he made it. If he had made "Car 44," "Comet," and "Mr. Donkey" in a row, he would probably have been labeled as someone who loves to satirize human nature.

"Haha, Senior Brother Dalong, do I stand on the idea that human nature is inherently good or evil? No matter what a person is born like, once they come into this world, they will inevitably be tainted by both good and evil. In the end, it all depends on their own cultivation."

Also, another movie of mine that I didn't finish filming is a celebration of truth, goodness, and beauty!

Everyone laughed upon hearing this: "Ha, Director Wu, we're really looking forward to seeing what kind of movie you'll make that celebrates truth, goodness, and beauty."

Seeing that everyone was chatting away, Jiang Wu casually asked, "Director Wu, I'd like to ask what your plans are for this film going forward?"

Wu Yuchen chuckled and didn't hide anything: "I'll take it to the film festival for screening."

Jiang Wu nodded, and now he understood what had been puzzling him.

The movie *Comet* was filmed in a villa area, and several characters even owned cars. This made Jiang Wu feel that the film was somewhat out of touch with the current living standards of the Chinese people. However, if it were submitted to an international film festival, it wouldn't be surprising, as foreigners' living standards are far higher than those in China, so it wouldn't seem odd.

Jiang Wu wouldn't think Wu Yuchen was being obsequious to foreign things. After all, everyone does it this way now. Even his brother Jiang Wen's "In the Heat of the Sun" only achieved high box office numbers after winning an award. Otherwise, the movie would have flopped if it had been released in theaters directly.

After the late-night snack ended, Jiang Qinqin generously took Wu Yuchen's arm and walked into a hotel. With the filming going so late every day these past few days, she definitely couldn't go back to the dormitory and had been staying outside with Wu Yuchen.

Jiang Qinqin is no longer as shy as she was a few months ago; girls grow up too!
……

Wu Yuchen had already decided on a strategy for "The Night the Comet Came" from the very beginning: to participate in film festivals. And not just one, but multiple.

The three major European film festivals have an unspoken rule that you can only participate in one of them, but smaller film festivals don't have this rule. As long as you have the time and are selected, you are welcome to participate.

In terms of subject matter, the film "Coherence" is best suited to participate in the three major international fantasy film festivals. The original version won an award at the Sitges Film Festival.

However, Sitges won't be until October, which is almost half a year away. Therefore, Wu Yuchen plans to send copies of several suitable film festivals for the second half of the year to increase the probability of finding suitable buyers.

This is actually the normal operating model for low-budget independent films. Films like "Xiao Wu" participated in more than ten film festivals of all sizes in a year. Ning Hao also sent his film "Incense" to 10 film festivals, and he personally attended 3 of them. These internationally recognized film festivals reimburse your travel and accommodation expenses; otherwise, Ning Hao wouldn't have had the money to travel abroad for two or three months.

In mid-June, Wu Yuchen had just finished his final exams at the Beijing Film Academy when he boarded a flight to Australia.

The Sydney International Film Festival, founded in 1954, is a long-established and influential film festival in Australia, held annually in June.

Wu Yuchen walked with Jiang Qinqin on the streets of Sydney, accompanied by a young man.

This person's name is Tang Yu, a senior film production management student about to graduate from the film group. Wu Yuchen plans to recruit him into the company, as his films will inevitably participate in various film festivals in the future, and the company will always need someone for external communications. For some smaller film festivals, he can't handle it all by himself; often, the producer will go instead. Taking him abroad to participate in film festivals this time is to train him.

Looking at the bustling crowd around her, as if it were a festival, Tang Yu couldn't help but sigh:

"I've never heard of this film festival in China before, but I didn't expect it to be so big."

Wu Yuchen smiled and introduced:

"Although the Sydney Film Festival is not well-known in China, it attracts nearly 100,000 viewers every year."

Moreover, unlike the three major film awards, it selects 10 best films from the participating films. These 10 best films attract the attention of film distributors in both the UK and the US, and often include films that are huge hits in the UK and the US.

If Wu Yuchen remembers correctly, one of the films participating in this year's festival, "Shining Glory," will be a huge hit and will receive 7 Oscar nominations next year, eventually winning the Best Actor Oscar.

This is also why Wu Yuchen came to the Sydney Film Festival; after all, it has to be admitted that British and American film companies are the richest.

After listening, Tang Yu silently memorized Wu Yuchen's words. Much of the information was something she hadn't been able to access at school before, and this trip had been very enlightening.

Jiang Qinqin watched Wu Yuchen with sparkling eyes; her boyfriend was truly knowledgeable and worldly-wise!
(End of this chapter)