It's reasonable for me to be a three-time Golden Horse Award-winning director and an all-around

Chapter 45 Earning Money While Standing Up!
Upon returning to China, as expected, the cast and crew of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" were immediately surrounded by a group of reporters at the airport.

Someone shouted at Lü Rui, asking him what he thought of Feng Xiaogang's harsh words earlier.

He reiterated his previous statement: "I have never considered 'Cell Phone' as a competitor."

That afternoon, the news was pushed to the top of the portal websites' headlines.

The discussion within the industry continues.

But Lü Rui had no interest in paying attention to it.

As soon as the wrap party ended and he received his salary, he rushed back to school, dragged Zhao Peng and Shen Ao, the two "tools," and plunged into the editing room to start working on the rough cut of the film.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty features many special effects scenes, unlike the arrow rain and martial arts effects in Hero, which are not as simple as those in Hero. These effects could not have been achieved simply by compositing and editing.

3D modeling, fluid simulation, and scene rendering are all technologies that are required to accomplish this task.

Unfortunately, current domestic special effects technology is limited, and most can only perform blue and green screen keying and process some basic special effects shots, which is far from meeting Lü Rui's requirements.

There are professional teams in Hong Kong that can meet his requirements.

But after asking Han Sanping to inquire about prices, he discovered that the prices offered there were even higher than those in Hollywood!

Isn't this just taking advantage of him and fleecing him?
Fortunately, Warner Bros. was willing to help and said they would only charge a friendly price.

This was partly out of consideration for Han Sanping, and partly because Lü Rui himself was highly capable.

With his two masterpieces, "Gone Girl" and "Mystic River", he has long been the focus of attention for foreign film companies.

Foreigners aren't stupid; befriending a promising new director like him who can win awards can only bring benefits, not harm.

In addition, he had already planned to acquire some new copyrights overseas, so the two sides hit it off and immediately finalized the cooperation.

Now, Lü Rui's primary task is to complete the rough cut of the film, retain usable shots, delete obvious continuity errors or acting mistakes, and form a "rough version" of the storyline.

Then he can take this "raw material" to Hollywood and have a professional special effects team create the special effects shots he wants.

Once everything is done, it will be taken back to China for fine editing, matching the dialogue and ambient sounds with the visuals, adding background music, and so on, until the final cut is achieved.

The plan is all set, now it's time to get to work!

Before we knew it, May was already halfway over.

While editing videos, Lü Rui was also taking extra classes and exams with Zhao Peng, making their lives quite fulfilling.

Although Shen Ao was extremely busy following them around, he was in great spirits!
Ask yourself, among his classmates, who else had the opportunity to learn alongside a film crew?
That noon, after finishing his work, Zhao Peng picked up his phone and glanced at it. Suddenly, he jumped up from his chair, his eyes shining!
"Brother Rui, the 'Kung Fu Hustle' crew is here at the school casting. I heard Stephen Chow is here too. Do you want to go take a look?"

“Not interested.” Lü Rui didn’t even look up, his fingers still sliding across the timeline of the editing software.

"Hehe, then I'm off with Shen Ao."

"Could you also bring me lunch?"

"it is good."

As the door closed, Lü Rui stretched and rubbed his sore eyes.

The casting news for "Kung Fu" has been circulating widely in the industry recently and has been a hot topic of discussion.

Liu Yifei sent a message saying that she also went, but unfortunately she was not selected.

It's not that their appearance or acting skills are lacking; the key issue is that Stephen Chow requires the selected actors to sign with his company.

This alone is enough to make Liu Xiaoli give up on him.

The mother and daughter had already made up their minds not to be tied down by a contract, so they chose to withdraw after trying it out once.

Liu Yifei even secretly messaged him to complain: "Senior, you have no idea how outrageous the contract terms of Stephen Chow's company are. They're practically treating the artists like cattle!"

Lu Rui couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

So this girl invented the term "ox and horse"?
Less than half an hour later, the door to the editing room creaked open, and Zhao Peng sauntered in, carrying a lunchbox and looking dejected.

"What's wrong with you? Didn't you go to see Stephen Chow? Didn't you see him?" He thought the two of them were looking dejected because they hadn't found him.

"Oh, forget it."

Zhao Peng put down his food and slumped weakly onto the sofa.

"What's wrong with him?" Lu Rui asked Shen Ao curiously.

Shen Ao scratched the back of his head awkwardly and explained, "I ran into Teacher Jiang on the way. He asked Brother Zhao how his graduation project and thesis were going since he's graduating next year."

The air froze instantly!

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Zhao Peng jumped up from the sofa and grabbed a cushion, giving it a good beating: "I'm doomed! I haven't even chosen a topic yet, and the storyboard I wrote last time got a terrible scolding from Teacher Zhang!"

Lu Rui's lips twitched, and his gaze subconsciously swept over the snack bags scattered haphazardly on the coffee table.

When he's not busy, he either plays video games or squats downstairs in the girls' dormitory looking for inspiration. He doesn't seem to care about his graduation project at all.

Now, trouble has arisen.

"What else did Director Jiang say?" Lü Rui continued to press.

Zhao Peng stared at the ceiling in despair, his face long and mournful: "He said that if I don't get a high score on my graduation thesis after studying with you for so long, I might as well switch careers and drive an excavator."

As he spoke, he buried his face in the cushion again and groaned in a muffled voice, "I should have known better than to choose directing. I would have been better off learning to be a chef! At least I wouldn't go hungry..." Lu Rui suppressed a laugh, but a thought began to creep into his mind.

I'll be graduating next year, so what kind of graduation project should I make?

Although "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" would definitely get high marks, it will be released this year, and there's still some time before graduation, so I might as well use my energy to make a new film.

Unable to come up with any ideas for the time being, he simply shook his head and buried himself back into editing.

I'm going to Hollywood next month anyway, so I might as well see if there are any suitable copyrights I can acquire for Chinese localization.

Thinking of this, he glanced at Zhao Peng, who was still wailing...

We can lend this kid a hand when the time comes. After all, we can't just do one translation project. Consider it an investment in advance.

The 56th Cannes Film Festival concluded on May 25th.

The Palme d'Or was won by the film "Elephant". The Best Actress award went to a Canadian and the Best Actor award went to a Turkish actor, neither of whom Lü Rui recognized.

Lou Ye's "Purple Butterfly" yielded no results.

The following morning, the rough cut of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" was completed.

After watching the finished film, Han Sanping contacted Warner Bros. to discuss the special effects production.

Jiang Wen also returned to Yanjing from Cannes.

After watching the rough cut of the final cut, he suddenly slapped his thigh and burst into laughter: "Feng Xiaogang is going to be proven wrong!"

After saying that, he dragged Lü Rui straight to the airport and bought two plane tickets to Henan.

Gu Changwei's "Peacock" started filming at the end of last month. He helped so much with the filming of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," so we should go and thank him.

"Building a good relationship with Lao Gu will definitely benefit you; his photography skills are top-notch! If you encounter any problems in the future, calling him will be the right thing to do..."

Along the way, Jiang Wen kept rambling on and on to explain to Lü Rui the characteristics of the Beijing circle, the Northwest circle, and the Hong Kong circle, and who the important figures in these circles were.

After hearing that Lü Rui was going to Hollywood to broaden his horizons, he carefully explained the situation of the foreign film industry again.

“I have many friends abroad. If you encounter any trouble, just call me and I'll call people for you.”

This is a talent scout!
It's true!

Lü Rui was deeply moved: "Thank you, Director Jiang!"

However, Jiang frowned upon hearing this and reminded him, "You can thank me verbally, but please don't write me in your diary."

"Why?" Lu Rui was taken aback.

"Who writes a diary?"

Hey!
again!

Lu Rui's face darkened. "That was a notebook, not just a diary. It was mainly for recording my thoughts, insights, and lessons learned, for future reference..."

Jiang Wen agreed with this point: "You have to drink wine one sip at a time and walk one step at a time. If you take too big a step, you're bound to tear your balls."

Rough words are not rough.

Lü Rui nodded: "I understand."

"And one more thing," Jiang Wen suddenly said sternly, his face hardening, "Remember this when you go abroad!"

"what?"

"You have to have backbone to make money. If you can't make money standing up, come back and improve your skills before going back. If you kneel down, your life is completely over!"

He spoke very seriously, even giving the impression that if Lü Rui knelt down, he would sever all ties with him upon his return!
Knowing that he genuinely cared for him, Lü Rui quickly assured him, "Don't worry, I'll definitely earn the money while maintaining my integrity!"

"OK."

Jiang Wen was overjoyed; these words were exactly what he wanted to hear.

Upon landing in Anyang, the two bought some gifts and headed straight to the set of the film "Peacock".

Unexpectedly, upon arriving at the film set, I witnessed a very awkward scene.

Gu Changwei stood beside the van, his expression shifting between anger and uncertainty, his face contorted with conflict...

Not far away, his wife, Jiang Wenli, stood with her arms crossed, head tilted back, glaring angrily at the van like an angry female peacock.

Inside the car, Gu Changwei's girlfriend, Zhang Jingchu, was covering her flushed face, tears streaming down her face.

"Damn it! Something's wrong!"

Upon seeing this, Jiang Wen quickly stepped forward.

Lü Rui reacted quickly; instead of going forward to check the situation, he chased away all the onlookers who had gathered around.

After driving them away, he stood guard in the same spot, preventing anyone else from getting close.

Meanwhile, Lu Rui also memorized the faces of those guys who had been secretly taking photos and videos with their phones in the crowd...

(End of this chapter)