Under the cover of darkness, the motorcade drove along the bustling Fifth Avenue in Los Angeles.
There were a lot of vehicles and the speed of the convoy was a bit slow.
In the nanny car in the middle, Liu Yifei was still in high spirits, but as soon as she got in the car, she felt sleepy. She leaned on Chu Xuan's shoulder and said nothing, with her eyes closed and looking through the sofa opposite her.
Over her right mother's shoulder, she looked out the window at the night scene.
Liu Xiaoli was also very sleepy. She covered her mouth and yawned, then rested against the window with her arms folded.
During the twelve-hour flight, the mother and daughter didn't even take a few hours' rest. They had a really good time chatting on the plane, and now they knew they were tired.
Chu Xuan also leaned back with his eyes closed. Every time he went abroad, his biological clock was opposite to that at home. It was always a bother. Even if he took enough rest on the plane, he would still feel very tired.
"Chu Xuan." Liu Yifei suddenly shouted.
Chu Xuan opened his eyes and saw her pointing out the window.
Chu Xuan followed her finger and looked out the window. It was the campus of a luxury hotel.
"This is the most luxurious hotel in Los Angeles. It has everything in it. Many stars, directors and business bosses often come in and out of this hotel. Grande and I were here last time and saw Jiang Zhiqiang and Zhang Yimou.
You haven’t been here, have you?”
When Liu Yifei came to Los Angeles last time to discuss with Macron and his wife, she was invited by Jack to stay at this luxury hotel.
The extravagant feeling inside made her feel disgusted, but in the end, the successful outcome of the negotiation with Macron and his wife made her feel that it was a pleasant journey.
Just passing by here, she couldn't help but share her experience with Chu Xuan.
"I haven't been here before." Chu Xuan looked at the park outside the window. This hotel was big enough, and it took the car several dozen seconds to get past it.
He then asked: "Did you and Grande come here last? When?"
Hearing this question, Liu Xiaoli opened her eyes and looked at Chu Xuan, with hidden smiles in the corners of their eyes.
Liu Xiaoli knew that Chu Xuan asked deliberately.
After returning from a trip to New Haven, she told Chu Xuan the whole story of the last time her daughter came to Los Angeles to discuss with Macron.
She happened to be passing by this hotel, and her daughter probably wanted to show off her experience, but Chu Xuan happened to catch her suspiciously.
Concubine Liu Yi leaned on Chu Xuan's shoulder. When she heard this, she suddenly became stunned.
She was busy introducing and sharing her experience to Chu Xuan, but she forgot the secret hidden in her heart.
She was discussing cooperation with Macron, but she couldn't let the surprise she had prepared for Chu Xuan be revealed.
Liu Yifei's brain was spinning rapidly and she glanced at her mother: "Last October, my mother took me to my aunt's house to play, and Ailand invited us to stay here for a few nights."
Liu Xiaoli looked at her daughter's look for help and suppressed a smile in her heart.
Earlier, he was only talking about himself and Grande, but now he brought her with him inexplicably.
Judging from the daughter's ordinary language logic, if she, the mother, really came to Los Angeles together, her name would be placed in front of Grande's name no matter what.
This was a very subtle flaw. Judging from the way Chu Xuan wanted to laugh but didn't, he must have heard something was wrong.
This silly daughter can't even lie.
But she still cooperated and said: "This hotel is quite luxurious."
Chu Xuan nodded and cooperated: "Come and stay for one night if you have the chance."
Liu Yifei breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she had successfully deceived Chu Xuan, and looked at her mother with a sly look, as if to say: Not bad, not bad, the secret was almost exposed.
Liu Xiaoli blinked, as if responding: Is mom's reaction okay?
Liu Yifei raised her lips slightly and praised her mother: Mom is awesome!
Liu Xiaoli looked at Chu Xuan quietly again, as if to say: If you fool your girlfriend like this, you will be miserable when she finds out.
Chu Xuan squinted his eyes, as if to respond: That's because Auntie, you are so good, and your daughter has been deceived by you.
Liu Xiaoli couldn't help it anymore, fearing that her daughter would notice something strange. She lowered her head and held her forehead to pretend to be tired. She turned sideways to keep her face out of her daughter's sight, and then she started laughing silently.
Seeing the look of his mother-in-law, Chu Xuan felt very uncomfortable. Liu Yifei lay on top of him to rest. He didn't dare to laugh, so he could only suppress the urge to laugh.
Only Liu Yifei, a silly girl, pretended to sleep with her eyes closed, secretly glad that she and her mother had tricked Chu Xuan, but she never thought that her mother was already a double agent.
In this wonderful atmosphere, it didn't take long for the motorcade to reach its destination, and the nanny car gradually stopped.
Chinatown is the collective name for Chinese communities in the United States. Chinatowns exist in New York, Washington, San Francisco and other cities.
When a Chinese crew comes to Hollywood to film a movie, it is almost impossible to get sponsorship for hotel, food and accommodation. Bright Times does not have overseas resources in this regard.
Food and accommodation have always been a financial headache for any crew, let alone in Los Angeles, a city where consumption is very high.
If the filming lasts for several months, the expenses for food and accommodation alone will probably exceed several million.
Fortunately, Cheng Long's influence was great enough. With his help, the crew successfully obtained sponsorship from two large hotels in the Chinatown community of Los Angeles.
It only costs several hundred thousand in water, electricity, food and other expenses, and housing and processing fees are completely free, saving a lot of money for the crew.
Half of the floors in each of the two hotels provide residential services for the crew, and the other half is used for promotion and advertising.
Chenglong, Chu Xuan, and Liu Yifei will stay at this hotel? Once such publicity spread, it can be said that Chinese people visiting Los Angeles came in droves, bringing hot business to the sponsored hotel.
"A warm welcome to the cast of "At the Castle"!"
The hotel owner is also very knowledgeable. At ten o'clock that night, he brought a large group of waiters to greet him at the door. Not only did he attract Chinese tourists who came for Chenglong, Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei, but he also attracted many people who were shopping and passing by.
of tourists.
"Oh my god! That's Jack Cheng!"
"Sincere Dragon!"
"Chu Xuan!"
"Liu Yifei!"
Many foreigners were very excited to see Cheng Long. The "local Chinese" who have been developing in Chinatown for many years were also excited to see Cheng Long. Young tourists from China were excited to see actors such as Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei.
Wave.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei waved to the onlookers. This is the first time they have received this treatment abroad. Of course, this is also the reason why this is Chinatown. It is almost a must-visit for domestic tourists.
Yes, it's normal to know them.
Look at how enthusiastic people are at this late night.
Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei signed several autographs for this purpose and took several photos with several men and women.
"Are you here to make a movie?"
"That's great, I just said you are so popular, why don't you make a movie?"
"When your movie is released, I will definitely buy a ticket to support it!"
Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei said "thank you" repeatedly and walked into the hotel with the troops.
Many tourists followed them into the hotel and asked if there were any vacancies, which made the hotel owner grin.
Isn’t this business coming? This wave of sponsorship that lasted for several months will not only make no losses, but will also make huge profits if this situation continues.
The hotel owner was very enthusiastic and prepared wine and food for the crew in the lobby to entertain everyone.
Everyone who barely ate a meal on the plane could finally satisfy their appetite.
It's just that everyone is very tired, and few people drink. They all want to simply fill their stomachs and then go back to the room to rest.
It only took about half an hour, except for one or two tables of drunkards who were still drinking, Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei and most of the people went to the floor where their respective rooms were to prepare to rest.
Liu Xiaoli had arranged for their team to come over in advance a few days ago. After meeting everyone upstairs, they said hello and then went back to their respective rooms.
As the male and female protagonists, the layout of the room they live in is family-style, but it is different from the Chinese style in Hengcheng. This time they live in a European and American style room.
The 180-square-meter space was luxuriously furnished but not complicated. After looking inside and out, the young couple went to the bedroom to pack their luggage, took out a set of pajamas and took a shower.
"What are you looking at?"
The sound of the hair dryer stopped in the bathroom, and Liu Yifei came out wearing a purple ice silk dress.
While flipping her hair to make it smoother, she walked towards Chu Xuan in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
Chu Xuan was in front of the window looking at the scenery outside the window. The muscle lines exposed on his bare upper body were full of strength and vitality.
After training in Chengjia class for a month, my physical fitness has been obviously improved.
"The viewing angle is good, you can overlook the city." He said.
Liu Yifei arranged her hair, put her hands down to hug Chu Xuan's waist from behind, rested her chin on his right shoulder, and enjoyed the neon night view with him.
The "Legend of Red Flame" crew in Hengcheng was the first time they lived together outside, the training in Xiangjiang was the second time, and this time it was the third time.
It's still in a foreign city owned by Haolaiwu, which makes them feel very fresh.
But no matter how much freshness there is, it can't resist the sleepiness that comes over me.
Liu Yifei looked at the night for a while and then said: "Go to sleep, I'm so tired."
Chu Xuan yawned and said sleepily: "Sleep, sleep."
After a while, the lights were turned off, and the young couple fell asleep hugging each other in the middle of the night.
…
In order to allow the actors to adjust to the time difference, Tang Ji Li did not arrange any scenes immediately.
If you are not well rested and in the wrong state, your performance will only be wasted time and energy if it fails to achieve the desired effect.
And all matters in the studio are completed by the crew members through communication with the studio personnel here.
Taking advantage of the time when the actors were adjusting to the time difference, Tang Jili and the teachers from the directing team went to review them one by one to see if there were any flaws.
Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei were very interested in the film and television base in Haolaiwu. They had never seen it before, and the film and television industrialization industry was also related to it.
Before filming officially started, the young couple also followed Tang Jili to visit the Haolaiwu Film and Television Base with interest.
The crew rented a small film and television base owned by a production factory in Haolaiwu.
Covering an area of one square kilometer, there are a total of thirteen studios, large and small.
Factory-like studios are scattered throughout the base.
The flowers, trees, flowing water, bridges and other green areas in the base are also very prominent. At first glance, it looks like a very professionally built film and television park.
However, the appearance of professionalism is only secondary, the real professional place is in the studio.
"Is this a real scene?" Liu Yifei stared, shocked by the scene in front of her.
Some scenes outside the horizon in the movie script, that is, the second civilized world of mankind where the character Cheng Long plays, its gray soil, ruined castle walls, dead branches of trees and other elements seem to be restored one to one.
This is something she has never seen before. Even when filming "Hope", the scene at that time was just a frame built with props, and all the details were special effects.
But I didn't expect that the details of the scenes in this studio also used physical props.
"Professional." Chu Xuan only said two words. This kind of professionalism is unmatched in China, and it is also the reason why there is a big gap between domestic special effects and foreign countries.
Domestic special effects are pure special effects, while Hollywood's special effects are special effects combined with physical scenes.
The sense of reality that the two bring to the audience is obviously Hollywood's that is stronger.
"If you want to achieve this, you must work hard on props and spend a lot of money to train a group of masters who make film and television props." Chenglong said.
He actually believes that it is not difficult to make such physical models in China that can be combined with special effects. However, due to financial constraints and various interest issues, the props in film and television dramas are crudely made and look fake at first glance.
To put it simply, capital is not willing to spend money on this.
"It's not enough to be a prop master, you also need a special effects director with strong composition skills. Only with accurate composition can the prop master know what to do. If the composition is not good, the model will be just like that." Tang Jili added.
"Old Zeng, can we do this?" Chu Xuan glanced at Zeng Zhengzong.
Zeng Zhengzong is the manager of the special effects department of Bright Times Film and Television Company. He once served as a special effects director on the set of "Zhu Xian". He and Liu Yifei also met him and have been managing the company's special effects work.
Zeng Zhengzong is a returnee from overseas. He previously worked in special effects at Hollywood Hall for several years. As a special effects director, he also came with the crew to control the special effects shots during the filming process.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Not yet." Zeng Zhengzong shook his head: "It's fine if it's special effects technology. As long as the company is willing to spend money to train it, the daily work experience of the technicians is
Technical improvements.”
"But special effects directors are different. They need to experience one special effects film after another, and they also need to get support from the director team and have the corresponding power. Then they can gain experience from each special effects shot so that they can have better composition skills and thinking."
"Currently, I am the only one in the entire company who can barely be considered a special effects director, and the people in the team are not experienced enough."
"The scenes in the thirteen studios in this base were completed last year with the help of professionals from the studio here."
"Without their help, we wouldn't be able to do it on our own, and even if we did, it wouldn't meet Director Tang's requirements."
Tang Jili patted him on the shoulder: "Do a good job, the company has to rely on you in this aspect."
Liu Yifei turned around and said to the men and women in the special effects department: "Come on."
In addition to the special effects scene composition and sophisticated prop production, everyone also carefully observed the equipment prepared in the studio.
All kinds of ultra-clear cameras, optical lens condensers used to capture light and shadow, three-axis crane machines, automated wire devices that can be controlled by machines, high-precision monitors, electric slide rails...
High-end film and television equipment such as this is very complete and has everything you need.
What surprised Liu Yifei the most was that each of the thirteen studios had a corresponding set of matching equipment for different scenes.
When shooting in China, the crew has to take their equipment with them when transitioning, because each crew only has one set of equipment, and they can’t shoot without taking it with them.
But you don’t need to use the film and television base in front of you. It’s all equipped for you. It’s just like moving in with your bags. The crew can just transfer to the scene and start filming.
She felt that Haolaiwu's studio had meticulously detailed every aspect of production to the extreme, which greatly improved the efficiency of the crew in filming movies.
"This gap is too big." Liu Yifei sighed.
With this level of industrialization, she estimated that it would take a year to shoot a movie in China, but it would only take eight months at most here.
But Chu Xuan saw a little further than Liu Yifei. He found that the specifications of each studio were different, and the equipment specifications were also different.
This represents the strong level of assembly line production.
And it is far more than just one assembly line, but multiple assembly lines producing equipment of different specifications.
In China, there is not even an assembly line factory related to film and television industrial equipment.
As Liu Yifei said, the gap in the film and television industry is indeed too big. The difference of thirty to fifty years is not an exaggeration.
Chu Xuan knew that this was the reason why there was no domestic market in this area.
Domestic film crews do not need these high-end equipment, so major manufacturing companies will naturally not spend time researching and producing such things.
He knew this reason before, but after nearly a year of growth, he has also seen through some of the essential problems that caused this reason, as well as ways to improve this situation.
In order to improve the market of the domestic film and television industry, one is to improve the audience's aesthetic appreciation of film and television dramas, and the other is to focus the attention of major capital on the production link.
The first point is easy to solve. As the country becomes stronger and living standards improve, the audience's aesthetics will also improve accordingly. There is no doubt about it.
As for the second point, this is a bit difficult to deal with.
Rather than focusing on the production aspects of film and television dramas, capital investors are more willing to focus on star power.
Compared with the benefits brought by film and television dramas themselves, the benefits obtained through celebrity business are safer and faster.
Therefore, all kinds of celebrity marketing and celebrity hype emerge in endlessly in China.
The significance of the existence of stars is already greater than the art of film and television works itself.
If we want to improve this situation, we can only benefit from the film and television works themselves, which far outweigh the star effect.
Domestic capital has seen this, so it will focus on film and television works and find ways to improve the quality of film and television works.
When the quality of film and television works improves to a certain level, the demand for the domestic film and television industry will increase, which will then drive the rapid development of film and television industrialization in the entire industry, thereby shortening the gap with Hollywood.
In this regard, he thought of the only way to solve this situation, which also circled back to a core point in his and Liu Yifei's career blueprint - film and television derivative copyrights.
Film and television derivative copyrights can greatly increase the benefits brought by a work, which is a value that even the most popular stars cannot bring.
If domestic capital benefits from this, perhaps the overall situation of domestic film and television industrialization will improve.
However, for now, this is just his fantasy, and those capitals will not do things according to his ideas.
My own company has not developed well, and I am not qualified to consider the entire industry.
The young couple visited with the teachers for a few days. They also watched Tang Jili and the directing team teachers correct some of the arrangements, and they also gained some knowledge.
During this period, I also reviewed the script, went shopping in nearby neighborhoods with my actor friends, and the crew was finally about to start filming.
"Go back and get ready. Your performance will be a good start tomorrow." After returning to the hotel, Tang Jili explained.
"Okay." Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei agreed.
After a few days of rest, the jet lag has completely adjusted, and the young couple is ready for filming.