Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 73 Boss Lu’s life movie starts filming!
On May 2002, 5, the crew of the updated "Whiplash" started filming in a low-key manner in the studio of the Central Conservatory of Music.

There was no launch conference, no ribbon-cutting and no flowers, and no celebrities visiting the set.

After experiencing so many disturbances, whether it is the hungry employees of Qingying Studio or young actors with little experience such as Jay Chou and Liu Yifei, they all work hard to prove themselves.

And Boss Lu, even though he is over sixty years old in his two lifetimes combined, he is still very excited that his dreams from his previous life can finally be realized in this life!

The actors are in place.

In addition to Liu Yifei, Jay Chou and Feng Yuanzheng, the other two drummers and band members were replaced by Huang Bo and others, replacing Chen Guanxi and Yu Wenle.

Yu Wenle's contract was finally bought out by Liu Zeyu at three times the price.

Liu Zeyu is a stupid man with a lot of money, and he spends money to buy face.

Boss Lu doesn't care. He doesn't mind this small-time guy.

Huang Bo was recommended by Jin Zhiwen, who had also performed in a bar in Sanlitun. He has a background in music and dance and has decent acting skills.

Huang Bo had previously collaborated with Guan Hu on a film called "Get on the Bus, Let's Go", and then returned to his hometown in Qingdao to open a factory.

Later, he still couldn't give up his dream of making movies, so he returned to Beijing from Qingdao. This year, he was admitted to the higher vocational class of the dubbing department of Beijing Film Academy. In his spare time, he worked part-time in a bar in Sanlitun.

Preparation work began on site in an orderly manner.

Generally speaking, the academic film shooting process is roughly divided into positioning, lighting, rehearsal, fine-tuning and formal shooting.

Just like now, Lu Kuan is leading the rookie Jay Chou to find the rhythm of movement in the first game, and he is explaining while asking the field staff to put tape on the ground.

The next step is to arrange and debug the real-time lighting. If the requirements are relatively high and the crew has sufficient budget, the lighting substitutes of big names will come out to perform this step on their behalf to ensure that the lighting in the camera can meet the director's requirements.

While Lu Kuan is explaining the scene to the lighting designer, the sound assistant will use this time to install wireless microphones for the actors with lines. The art staff will also work with the handheld camera to clear away debris and leave space according to the previously agreed-upon photography plan.

After these two steps are completed, the positions of the crew and lights on site are fixed, and the next step is a simple rehearsal for the actors.

For example, Jay Chou and Feng Yuanzheng are now rehearsing their lines with their makeup and scripts in hand. The first scene today will be their rival scenes.

Lu Kuan listened for a while and patiently guided the novice.

"Jaylen, two requests. First, speak more clearly."

Jay Chou's pronunciation is not unclear by nature, but he deliberately maintains this style.

Later in the movie “Curse of the Golden Flower”, he sang “Chrysanthemum Terrace” very clearly. When asked by reporters why, Jay Chou said frankly that it was the request of director Zhang Yimou.

Because the film's audience is very broad and not all of them are his fans, his personal style has to give way to the director's requirements.

"Secondly, the tone and intonation should fluctuate and follow the changes in emotion, such as the two "I'm sorry" in this sentence."

"The correct line for the first "I'm sorry" is definitely more urgent than the second, because the male protagonist Xu Huan doesn't want to lose points in the teacher's mind because of the mistake in the first meeting, right?"

Jay Chou’s ability to achieve such accomplishments in music is undoubtedly due to his good command of language skills, but he has not yet mastered the art of acting. Overall, his lines are passable.

"Good director."

Everything is ready and the first scene and first shot begin shooting.

This is the first meeting between the devil teacher Zhuang Zhong, played by Feng Yuanzheng, and the drummer Xu Huan, played by Jay Chou.

"What's your name?"

"My name is Xu Huan, teacher."

"I asked you why you stopped fighting? You were just hitting like a clockwork monkey!"

Feng Yuanzheng's voice suddenly rose, becoming very oppressive and penetrating.

Lu Kuan nodded silently behind the monitor. Fortunately, there was a talented actor to support the film. Otherwise, the quality of the film would be worrying if there were only traffic stars.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I thought it was just a test of basic skills." Jay Chou's timidity was quite good in this sentence.

Just like Lu Kuan’s previous consideration, Jay Chou’s life experience has many similarities with the protagonist of the movie, and to some extent he is playing himself.

The character Xu Huan's mother died young, and Jay Chou lacked fatherly love, which planted the seeds of introversion and loneliness in his character. It was not until he achieved great success in the Chinese music scene as an adult that he gradually became open and lively.

"Stuck, passed!"

The crew members applauded, it was a smooth start, and Jay Chou, the newcomer, performed better than expected.

This is also due to the jazz drum and basic performance courses arranged by Lu Kuan for more than half a month.

The second scene is a slightly more advanced shooting content, of course only for Jay Chou.

The plot is that after Feng Yuanzheng recruited Jay Chou into the band, he began to torture him severely mentally during the first practice session in order to temper him.

Feng Yuanzheng heard the band's performance suddenly stop, touched his chin and said to Jay Chou:

"Your rhythm is wrong. Tell me, did you rush the shot or drag it out?"

Jay Chou shook his head blankly: "I... don't know."

Feng Yuanzheng was furious and rushed over, scaring Jay Chou.

"Start counting!"

Jay Chou shrank back, his voice trembling slightly: "Five, six, seven..."

"Fuck you! Count to four, watch me count!"

Feng Yuanzheng cursed loudly with a ferocious look on his face. Liu Yifei, who was sitting on the side waiting, felt herself trembling as she looked at Feng Yuanzheng.

Jay Chou turned his head slightly as he requested, his lips trembling and fear written on his face.

"Okay, close-up!"

A perfect special!
"Stuck, passed!"

It started extremely smoothly and soon it was time for lunch.

"Director Lu, you're really good at explaining a play. The teachers I've hired for TV dramas and companies before weren't as good as you."

Jay Chou was impressed by his professionalism in just one morning.

Feng Yuanzheng also agreed: "The director's level of drama interpretation is not low, at least much better than the several TV drama crews I have worked with."

Concubine Liu Yi looked at everyone flattering Lu Kuan with envy. In fact, she also agreed, but she just couldn't say it out loud.

The little girl now opened her mouth to habitually retort him.

Nicholas Tse, Edison Chen and others had a preconceived bad impression of Lu Kuan, thinking that he was taking advantage of their scandals and the bad market conditions to lower prices.

He felt that his qualifications were not enough to explain acting to two young talents who had been in the industry for several years and had just starred in "Infernal Affairs". Only then did he feel that Lu Kuan was a fascist and a tyrant in the crew.

Lu Kuan didn't think he did anything out of the ordinary. On the set, he was naturally the dictator.

Hitchcock had a controversial personal motto: Actors are beasts.

When he was explaining the play and directing the actors in rehearsal, he never hesitated to show his iron-fisted style, which was extreme and strict.

Of course, according to him, this is to inherit the style of the silent film era, and also to use the harsh environment to inspire the actors' true feelings, so as to match the real characters in the play.

Moreover, even if this is true, according to professional rules, actors have no right to comment on it.

(End of this chapter)