Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 50 Joining the group for trial shooting
Less than a week later, the media reported that director Rob Minkoff confirmed that Li Bingbing and Liu Yifei had joined "The Forbidden Kingdom". Liu Yifei had arrived in Yanjing, ready to meet with the director and join the crew for action training.

This news was also confirmed by Huayi and Li Bingbing.

The casting controversy that lasted for four months has finally subsided.

On the day the news was confirmed, Liu Yifei even called Li Qiutang to express her gratitude. Li Qiutang said that she did not help much: "The director chose you because he thought you were suitable. I did nothing."

After learning that Li Qiutang was going to start filming "No One in My Eyes" in Hengdian, Liu Yifei happily said that "The Forbidden Kingdom" was also filming in Hengdian, in the Qin Palace, and she also said that she would come to visit Li Qiutang when she had time.

Li Qiutang said that she was of course welcome to visit the set, but everyone was very busy filming, so he just took it as a polite remark.

The crew of "No One in Despair" set off from Yanjing three days later than originally planned.

The vanguard, three Beijing-licensed trucks carrying props and equipment, set off for Hengdian in the afternoon of the 23rd.

On the 25th, Li Qiutang joined the crew and began to set up the set and make preparations for the test shoot.

On Saturday, the four main actors of "No One in My Eyes" gathered at the Qingming Shanghe Tu Scenic Area, and Li Qiutang and Cao Dun began trial shooting.

The media began reporting on the same day.

"During last National Day, Director Li Qiutang became famous in the film industry with The Night the Comet Came, and became the most sought-after young director. At 3 pm today, Director Li Qiutang's new film, Unreserved, started filming in Hengdian. The picture shows Director Li Qiutang communicating with the actors."

"Yesterday, the new work of famous director Li Qiutang, "No One in My Eyes", was released in Hengdian World Studios. "No One in My Eyes" is Li Qiutang's second film after "The Night the Comet Came". The film tells the story of... The film has a luxurious cast, bringing together... The picture shows director Li Qiutang doing a test shoot."

Test shooting does not require the actors to perform well. Test shooting is mostly for the photographer to familiarize himself with the film and equipment, and also to see the modeling and artistic effects. Some large scenes and new scenes also need test shooting.

On the first day of the trial shoot, Li Qiutang discovered an important problem: the extras were unprofessional!
The crew chose Qin Niang's appearance scene for the trial shooting. Qin Niang had to dance here, so Li Qiutang specially invited a professional classical dance teacher from Beijing Dance Academy to teach Fan Bingbing the Dunhuang dance.

As a result, Li Qiutang and Cao Dun were very dissatisfied with the results of the test shooting!
Fan Bingbing has been learning for a few months and has gotten somewhat good at it. Although she still makes some mistakes, she can dance well after practicing a few times. However, the extras who dance with her are extremely unprofessional!

Li Qiutang originally thought that the girls had no experience in filming and that they could just shoot a few more times. However, she didn't expect that after shooting all night, Fan Bingbing's dancing got better and better, while the dancers' dancing got worse and worse!

"What's going on? This is weird." Li Qiutang stood next to the machine and looked at the set. There was no problem with the art and costumes. The actors had practiced for so long and there were no major problems. Why couldn't they be filmed? The actors were beautiful, but the filming did not look good.

Li Qiutang walked into the arena and started talking to a dancing girl: "Girl, which school are you from?"

"I'm from XX Technical School, director. I've been shooting in Hengdian for three years. I'm very experienced and have worked with many crews."

Li Qiutang knew where the problem lay.

"That's it for tonight. Let's go first. The director and production crew will stay."

At 11 o'clock in the evening, Fanlou was empty, leaving only Li Qiutang and five other staff members sitting inside.

Li Qiutang was the first to challenge the assistant director in charge of the group performances: "Where did you find these dancers?"

"Director, I selected people from professional dance schools according to your requirements."

"Bullshit!" He was still trying to fool her at this time, so Li Qiutang didn't hold back. "I just asked several dancers, they are all extras from Hengdian! Why don't you bring people over from Yanjing?"

The assistant director was speechless. He deserved to be scolded for being caught stealing a chicken.

Li Qiutang didn't want to investigate how much he had embezzled, and only demanded: "I don't care what method you use, but before the official start of filming, 10 professional dancers must be in place."

"Okay, director, I'll go find someone right away." The assistant director of the group performance nodded his head like crazy. He had already found his problem on the first day of the test shoot. The director would definitely use him as an example to establish his authority. There was nothing he could do about it. Li Qiutang didn't say much in the end. He just said that he didn't want to see such unprofessional things again, and then dismissed everyone.

After Li Qiutang left, another assistant director taught the assistant director of extras: "Among the 10 extras, you should at least hire two or three professionals to be in the front, so that the filming will look good. Who is like you? All 10 dancers are amateurs, and even a fool can see it."

"Oh, stop talking. I'm so unlucky." He didn't think he had done anything wrong, but that he was unlucky to be caught by the director.

He thought he was unlucky, but the production director looked at him with something strange in his eyes.

This dance of Qin Niang cost a huge amount of money. After a night of trial shooting, they found that there were problems with the dancers. The lighting, stage design, props and film cost tens of thousands of dollars for that night.

The production director gave him a stern look and left.

During the trial shoot on the second day, Li Qiutang found a prop very strange: "Were there thread-bound books in the Tang Dynasty?" Li Qiutang's knowledge of history was average, but his intuition told him that this thread-bound "Collected Works of Li Bai" should not appear here.

It was art designer Yang Baigui who told him: "There were no thread-bound books in the Tang Dynasty. As a prop, make a paper scroll."

This really cannot be blamed on the poor work done on the props, because the crew of "No One" did not have a history and folklore consultant, and the props were prepared according to the regulations of general martial arts films.

Li Qiutang said: "Although we are shooting an action film, we still have to pay attention to historical details as much as possible."

If Li Qiutang hadn't had a flash of intuition today, the book would have slipped by, but this detail has no impact on the movie.

If you notice it, correct it. If you really don’t notice it, there is nothing you can do.

After all, what Li Qiutang shot was a genre film, not a documentary.

Li Qiutang started work in Hengdian, while on the other side in Yanjing, the College Student Film Festival came to an end.

The annual College Student Film Festival actually receives quite a lot of attention, especially this year.

Because last year, two cutting-edge young directors, Ning Hao and Li Qiutang, emerged, and the College Student Film Festival has always favored young filmmakers because of its unique judging mechanism.

Chen Kun and Zhao Yanzi announced the prize together: "Best Director, Li Qiutang, The Night the Comet Came."

Ning Hao lost unfortunately.

Teacher Jiang Wei went on stage to accept the award on behalf of the students: "I'm sorry, Director Qiu Tang is currently filming a new play in Hengdian and cannot come to the scene to accept the award. He apologized to everyone through me."

Jiang Wei did not give a particularly long speech of thanks. He just thanked the film festival and the organizing committee, then bowed and left the stage.

Li Qiutang received a message from his teacher in the early morning, informing him that he had won the Best Director Award at this year's College Student Film Festival. This was his first domestic film award.

Li Qiutang looked out the window and listened to the teacher's phone call.

Several Beijing-licensed trucks drove in. I could tell at a glance that they were from a film crew. I couldn’t see clearly which crew the stickers on the windows of the trucks said, but the black GMC RV that came with the trucks looked familiar.

There were so many GMC RVs that Li Qiutang didn't think about anything else. He closed the curtains and prepared to rest.

Downstairs, the girl got out of the RV: "Mom, hurry up, I'm almost dying of sleep."

(End of this chapter)