Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 157: Disappearance and Transfer, Don’t Learn the Banned Guide’s Tricks

Preparations for the 2006 "Super Girl" are in full swing.

After the explosive success of the first two sessions, Zhang Hanyun, Li Yuchun, Zhou Bichang and Zhang Jingying became very successful.

For example, Zhang Jingying is now rehearsing with Yu Quan in the rehearsal hall of the China National Opera and Dance Theater.

The singers' brilliant careers have made the program one of the most popular entertainment programs in the mainland, and has changed the situation where Hong Kong and Taiwan singers dominated the mainland music market.

Liu Yifei had just mentioned it to Wu Chen when Wu Chen's cell phone rang.

He was startled by the caller ID, then he picked up the phone with a smile: "Uncle Zhang?"

Zhang Zemin on the other end of the phone felt warm in his heart when he heard this familiar name.

Although Wu Chen is now a well-known director, he still speaks as familiarly and naturally as he did back then.

After a few pleasantries, Zhang Zemin didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point: "Uncle has a small favor and would like to ask for your help."

"Uncle Zhang, please speak!"

Wu Chen already had some guesses in his mind. The popularity of Super Girl has been soaring recently, and the 2006 Super Girl will obviously be another carnival of popularity.

"It's like this. I already have a brand here. Thanks to you two years ago, I've also had a good time in the past two years. But it's difficult to go further.

You know, I, your uncle Zhang, am a gambler by nature. I want to take a chance by placing an advertisement in Super Girl.

Of course, I definitely can’t afford big ads, but I think I can give it a try for small ads.

But when I called their investment hotline, I found that they were all ordinary salesmen.

When doing business, if you can’t find the key person, you can only talk to the salesperson, and it may even go through a few hands in the middle.”

Upon hearing this, Wu Chen nodded slowly.

At this time, Liu Yifei was sitting next to Wu Chen, and the two were very close.

Liu Yifei's eyelashes trembled slightly. She smelled the scent emitted by Wu Chen, tilted her head and looked at Wu Chen. She found that the faint roots of hair on Wu Chen's lips were like newly sprouted grass, and his pair of bright eyes were full of cunning smiles.

She tilted her head and couldn't help but reach out and gently flicked the stubborn little hair roots with her fingertips.

Wu Chen was caught off guard and was slightly provoked by her action. He shuddered subconsciously, looked down, and was stunned.

"Hehe!" Liu Yifei retracted her fingers and her eyes curved into crescents.

Wu Chen glared at her helplessly, but still responded to Zhang Zemin first:

"Sure, Uncle Zhang, I'll ask one of my servants to find you the person in charge of advertising and investment for the program team."

"As long as we can find him, I'll talk about the rest." Zhang Zemin on the other end of the phone smiled happily. As long as they could find the person, things would be easy.

After so many years of ups and downs in the business world, he knows exactly how to negotiate, and what he is afraid of is finding the wrong person.

Otherwise, if you take some benefits here and kickbacks there, the expenses will be too high.

Wu Chen put down the phone, turned around, and said with a fake serious face: "What were you doing just now?"

"Hypocritical!" Liu Yifei suppressed her laughter, pointed at Wu Chen's lips, and blinked, "You haven't shaved cleanly. Look, there's a tiny mustache."

"Have you discovered all this?"

"It's obvious, very cute." Liu Yifei nodded, her tone serious. "Why don't you just stop shaving and let it grow longer."

"It has to disappear tonight." Wu Chen laughed, then got down to business: "Do me a favor and ask Zhang Jingying if she knows who's in charge of advertising and investment for Super Girl. I have an elder who wants to contact her."

"Okay!" Liu Yifei agreed immediately without any hesitation. She picked up her phone, found Zhang Jingying's contact information, and dialed her number directly.

Zhang Jingying, who was preparing for the "Sweet Honey Teresa Teng Golden Melody Symphony Concert," was stunned when she heard this. After thinking for a while, she said, "It's not difficult. I'll send it to you later."

"Well, Wu Chen said he wants to treat you to a meal." Liu Yifei conveyed in a light tone.

"Ah? Director Wu asked for it?" Zhang Jingying was startled, then smiled, "Tell Director Wu, you're welcome."

"Well, then let's change it to I'll treat you to a meal. That should be fine, right?" Liu Yifei turned her head and spoke.

Zhang Jingying's laughter came from the other end of the phone: "Okay, I'll take the meal."

Liu Yifei closed her phone, turned around and looked at Wu Chen with a smug look on her face: "It's done. Remember to treat me to a meal."

"Ah?" Wu Chen was stunned and didn't react.

"The dinner party won't disappear, it will just move. Don't you know that?"

Liu Yifei stood up gracefully, folded her hands behind her back, blinked at him, and smiled brightly and charmingly.

The spring breeze in April is always soft and intoxicating.

On the morning of the 16th, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee held a ceremony to award appointment letters to the main staff of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 29th Olympic Games.

Zhang Yi successfully won the position of chief director.

Facing the media, Zhang Yimou solemnly announced that after completing "Curse of the Golden Flower", he would no longer take on any film roles within two years and would devote all his energy to preparing for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Whether out of respect for Chen Kaige or some other ulterior motive, Chen Kaige and Spielberg also quietly appeared on the list of cultural and arts consultants. Zhang Yimou and Spielberg also gave a joint interview arranged by the authorities and posed for photos with the media.

However, news reports showed that Brother Chen Kai quietly went to the United States the day before the news was announced, apparently to communicate independently with Warner about the North American release.

Wu Chen sent a message to congratulate Zhang Yi.

At this moment, Mu Deyuan called Wu Chen over.

"Jasmine Blossoms?"

Wu Chen was a little surprised because Mu Deyuan asked him if he would attend the premiere of "Jasmine Flower" together.

"This movie has been on hold for several years, but it's finally been finalized. Hou Yong has invited everyone, and when he invited me, he also invited you. See if you have time to attend."

Wu Chen understood.

Since I didn’t have anything to do recently, I agreed.

The release date of "Jasmine Flower" has caused a great response in the industry.

It’s not because the film was expensive to produce, but because of the weight of the participants.

Hou Yong, a graduate of the Photography Department of the class of 78, was once the personal photographer of Tian Zhuangzhuang. Tian Zhuangzhuang also personally served as the producer of this film.

Although Zhang Yi's name was not signed, everyone in the industry knew that he was the art director of this film.

As for the actors, there are Zhang Ziyi, Jiang Wen, and Chen Chong. The lineup is full of big names.

Jiang Wen even starred in the film for free, which was quite a courtesy.

Time quickly came to the end of the month, and a new batch of shortlists for Cannes was announced.

Huayi immediately took advantage of the situation and made a high-profile announcement: it would spend 400 million to hold a press conference for Feng Xiaogang's new film "The Banquet" in Cannes and screen an extra-long trailer.

This move made many media and netizens exclaim that it looked "familiar".

Because the last movie to do this was "The Promise", which spent 10 million on promotion in Cannes.

The media, which is good at doing things, just did it:
"The Banquet" is similar to "The Promise" and is showing trailers at Cannes again!

Is "The Banquet" following the same path as "The Promise" and repeating the Cannes trailer marketing?

When Feng Xiaogang saw the media headlines, he almost got so angry that his mouth twisted, and he cursed and criticized the media.

But what shocked the industry the most was that Lou Ye's "Summer Palace" was successfully shortlisted for the main competition unit of Cannes - and this film actually failed to pass the review of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

This caused a complete uproar.

This kind of thing might have been quite popular a few years ago, and everyone would be proud of it.

But this practice is no longer popular nowadays. Sending films abroad for competition without authorization will offend the regulators.

On the night of the premiere of "Jasmine Flower", the scene almost became a small internal gathering of the 78 class of Beijing Film Academy.

The bigwigs from the Photography Department and the Directing Department gathered together and the atmosphere was very lively.

Mu Deyuan pulled Wu Chen and said meaningfully:
"Don't follow their lead. If you want to go to a film festival, you have to follow the proper procedures. Otherwise, you'll be banned from directing for five years. That's no joke."

Zhang Yi and Hou Yong, who were standing by, nodded simultaneously: "You don't have to."

Wu Chen is a representative of the photography department in recent years, and he cannot afford to make such a mistake.

This kind of thing is something that the director's department will do, they don't play that kind of game.

Tian Zhuangzhuang remained silent, not saying a word. Instead, Jiang Wen muttered softly:
"Actually, that's what the ban on guiding is."

As a result, Mu Deyuan and the others glanced away.

Hou Yong even patted Jiang Wen on the shoulder and said, "Even Wu Chen can't imitate your style. When I visited the set of your movie "The Sun Also Rises", I didn't know what you were filming?
You can fool others, but you can fool us, haha."

"Hey, let's not talk about these things. Director Wu, let's add contact information." Jiang Wen immediately changed the subject, took out his phone, and said casually:
"When you argued with Lu Xun last time, I thought you were a very interesting person, but I just couldn't find the right opportunity."

Lou Ye and Lu Xun.
The corners of Tian Zhuangzhuang's mouth twitched slightly again.

What a coincidence, both of them are from the directing department.

"Director Wu, can I add one too?" Jiang Wen had just finished adding when Zhang Ziyi came over, clasped her hands together, and asked softly with a smile on her face.

Chen Chong, Liu Ye, Lu Yi and others also came together.

Wu Chen thought about it and decided that since he couldn't hide it anyway, he might as well add them all and then change to a more private number. He would use this number as a contact when needed.

The story of "Jasmine Flower" unfolds slowly, telling the emotions and destinies of three generations of women in different eras. The camera carries the heavy tone inherent in the directors of the 78 photography and directing departments.

A typical "author-type" image.

A movie, a reflection of several generations.

As the spring breeze fades away, the warm wind comes with the change of seasons.

As May begins, the global promotion of Now You See Me has begun.
(End of this chapter)