154 Time management and the two blossoms of the film and television music scene
In mid-September, Cao Xuan's album recording has basically come to an end, and he is preparing to free up his schedule in the past few days to shoot the MV starring himself.
Now that Fanxing Company has grown and the team has become more stable, he does not need to worry too much about many small things.
For example, in the MV, Cao Xuan used to have to write the script by himself and help the coders. The timing was tight and all parties had to coordinate the time.
But now he only needs to come up with a rough idea, and the screenwriting team will directly complete the script. Cao Xuan's royal MV director Chen Hanzhu personally formed the crew and arranged everything around Cao Xuan's schedule.
Otherwise, everyone would like to be their own boss. It would be so great to arrange work according to your own wishes...
Cao Xuan first spent most of the day recording the singing parts of the other eight songs.
The operation is very simple. Except for a few outdoor scenes, the rest are curtains. Even Cao Xuan does not need to sing, as long as the lip-syncs match. Everything else is left to subsequent editing.
After filming these "partners", Cao Xuan became much more serious when it was his turn to star.
The previous two parts of "Stars" received rave reviews and sold well. In addition to the quality of the songs, the MV has always been a highlight.
In the music world that doesn't pay much attention to MVs nowadays, Cao Xuan's "Fairy Tale" and "Those Years" are two MVs that tend to be micro-movies. The effects achieved cannot be said to be groundbreaking, but they are definitely impressive.
Many fans even bought the album specifically for the content of Cao Xuan's MV.
Nowadays, some singers are following suit. There are a large number of short film-style MVs appearing on albums. The cost of album production has increased rapidly. Many directors, actors and staff who were unsatisfactory in the film and television industry have turned to the MV industry.
To a certain extent, Cao Xuan has indirectly promoted the positive development of the music and film and television circles.
Due to schedule and time factors, the number of MVs starring Cao Xuan this time is small, and the quality must be improved.
Especially "Fireworks Easily Cold", this poignant and beautiful love story is extremely gripping, with farewell, infatuation, dryness, etc., separated by yin and yang, and all kinds of sad elements gathered together, it is difficult not to leave it fresh in people's minds.
The heroine is Zeng Li. On the one hand, her appearance and temperament are more suitable for this kind of infatuated woman. In addition, according to the plot, the heroine will have short hair. Zeng Li's hair is not long, and she has not received any subsequent roles. It is more convenient to compare with Hu Jing.
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Cao Xuan was busy during this period, Zeng Li had just started school and had a lot of things to do, and there was a troublesome Hu Jing in the middle, so the two had not seen each other for ten days.
Now when I look at her again, I can see that the beauty of Zeng is still the same, with a little more momentum.
It is also understandable that Zeng Li is one of the only students from Class 96 of the Chinese Theater Academy to stay in school and is highly regarded by teacher Chang Li.
Just as Class 96 graduated, Chang Li began to take charge of the newly admitted Chinese Opera Performance Department Class 00. Zeng Li, a former student, was also transferred to help temporarily.
It is said that during this period, Sister Zeng watched the freshmen's military training during the day and went to the girls' dormitories at night to check the dormitories. The management was strict. Garbage bags were not allowed to be hidden, wallpapers were not allowed to be pasted, and all eight thermoses in the room had to be placed...
Staying in school has its advantages and disadvantages. Since the beginning of the school year, Cao Xuan has often heard her complain about all kinds of weird and unnecessary systems.
But as a first-year graduate student who is not even considered an intern teacher, she has no choice but to just accept it. Once she gets a formal establishment, she won't have to worry so much.
Despite his complaints, Zeng Li still liked the stable life at school.
Relatively speaking, the school is the place with the least amount of gossip in the entertainment industry. It is stable and quiet, and it is in line with her major, and her social status is also good.
After experiencing scandals in the first half of the year, Zeng Li, a Buddhist, became less and less interested in entering the entertainment industry.
If it hadn't been for the four-year academic course that kept her passion for acting alive, Zeng Li might have quit the industry and concentrated on teaching.
Cao Xuan was happy to see the results of Zeng Li's choice. To put it selfishly, his career was booming and he was extremely busy, leaving him with very little private time.
If two busy girlfriends are added to the mix, the three of them will spend less time together and more separation, and it will be difficult for their relationship to last long.
Zeng Li has now chosen to be a teacher, which is considered a semi-retirement, and has created the conditions for this relationship to continue.
Not only her, Hu Jing had always wanted to stand with Cao Xuan and didn't want to be left too far behind by him, so she worked hard on filming and career.
But after being "stolen" by Zeng Li, and after spending time with Cao Xuan on the crew of "Young Bao Qingtian", she also learned to be wise.
You can take your time when it comes to your career, and first get a man in your hands.
The two girlfriends coincidentally relaxed their pursuit of an acting career, which brought a lot of benefits to Cao Xuan, at least he no longer had to miss people every few months.
Of course, there are pros and cons. With two people staying in the capital, Cao Xuan doesn't have to worry about having no one to accompany him, but he has to worry about which one to accompany him, so he can only slowly practice the "time management method".
………
In the MV for "Fireworks Easily Cold", the main perspective is actually on the female protagonist played by Zeng Li, while the male protagonist Cao Xuan does not have much role.
The plot is also very simple. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a war between the North and the South. Cao Xuan was a general of the Southern Kingdom, and he and the lady played by Zeng Li were a pair of lovers who were in love with each other.
The two wanted to get married, but there was a military emergency on the front line. General Cao Xuan had to rush to the rescue. Before the expedition, he and Zeng Li made an oath that "he will marry her when he returns home in triumph."
Like all flags, this one also ended tragically.
But it was not the general who had made the promise but the lady of the family who died. After the general went on the expedition, she had to go to the city gate every day to wait for his return. However, wars broke out frequently and the general still could not come back.
The lady of the house had been waiting for her, and her family forced her to get married, so she became a nun, dressed in blue robes and a monk's hat, and still stood guard in front of the city gate until she died of a serious illness.
A few years after her death, the general finally ended the war and returned to Luoyang. He heard that she had been guarding him and came to her tomb. He chose to remove his armor and become a monk, guarding the tomb for the rest of his life.
You wait for me in the first half of your life, and I will accompany you in the second half of your life!
This story is somewhat different from the original story. It was adapted in this way to highlight the deep love between men and women.
After all, it's a MV, it's just a general story, and there are many details that don't need to be considered, so it's natural to make it as sad as possible, and the purpose is to torture the audience.
The harder the knife is, the more profound the impression will be on the audience!
In order to film the MV for "Fireworks Easily Cold", the crew specially found a film and television base, and even hired hundreds of extras for Cao Xuan to perform, which was impressive.
Zeng Li also neatly shaved off half of his hair and used the hood to cover his bald head to pretend to be a nun.
She originally had a delicate appearance, but after she cut her hair short, she had a sassy and heroic aura, and she was also a little lively and playful, which made Cao Xuan feel itchy.
After filming every day, I would go to Haidian Apartment with Zeng Li to discuss the script and compare notes on acting.
It took nearly three days for Cao Xuan to finish filming "Fireworks Easily Cold", followed by "Ten Years" with Hu Jing.
There is not much to say in this MV. It is probably about a couple falling in love and breaking up. The male protagonist Cao Xuan was still in love. One day he fell in love with a scene somewhere and started to reminisce about it. It only took a little over a day to shoot.
It's a pity that Hu's father and Hu's mother didn't know whether they realized something was wrong with their daughter or something else. They didn't mention returning to their hometown at all. They even set a time for Hu Jing to return home and called Hu Jing from time to time to check on her.
As a result, Cao Xuan had no chance to make a move. Every night, he hoped that his father-in-law and mother-in-law would be homesick and go back to their hometown to visit their parents and fellow villagers.
Aside from time management between his two girlfriends, Cao Xuan did not forget about business.
After filming the MV, Chen Hanzhu and the others took the material back and worked overtime to edit it.
Cao Xuan and Warner have studied the current album production progress, album finishing, MV editing, album recording, distribution, etc. If everything goes well, they should be able to complete it by mid-December.
As a result, Warner and Fanxing officially announced the release date of Cao Xuan's new album on October 21, 2000.
It is suitable for opening the market, trading, collecting money, and good luck.
At the same time, Warner also decided that starting from September 22 (weekend), "Bright Stars" will start to release songs to hit the charts.
After that, one song will be released every weekend, and a total of 5 songs will be released, and the album will be officially released on October 21st.
Such situations are rare. After all, usually a singer’s album only has 1 to 3 title songs, and the quality of other songs is relatively weak.
Therefore, for the sake of sales, we usually release 1 or 2 title songs and promote them on radio and TV stations to attract fans to buy.
Including Cao Xuan's two previous albums, only two title songs were released in the early promotion.
It just so happened that he had 5 hit songs, 2 were released, and 3 were left. Fans felt that it was not a loss after buying it.
If the title song is released too early, fans will feel cheated when they see that there are not many good songs left in the album.
For a long-term business like physical albums, word-of-mouth is very important in the early stage. If it gets a reputation as a "cheat", it will be a big blow to sales.
Today's record industry is still very simple. Play songs first, let fans taste them, and attract fans to buy them.
It's not like later, asking fans to pay first and then not giving them any songs or future albums, this is such a shameful group.
In 2000, this kind of operation would have been criticized by the media and the industry, and would have cost money.
The title song of the album is limited, so many singers only dare to release 1 or 2 songs during the album promotion period. However, Cao Xuan's new album is different. All 10 songs are excellent. Even if 5 are released, the remaining 5 will remain the same.
Don't be afraid of losing your brand.
In this case, Cao Xuan and Warner started to play with all their heart and got the "Bright Stars" on fire in advance.
In addition to the publicity plan of "Bright Stars" itself, Cao Xuan now has a good momentum-building boost.
On September 14, 2000, the first TV series "Young Bao Qingtian" starring Cao Xuan will be broadcast on the prime channels of Beijing TV and Shanghai TV.
Cao Xuan has previously participated in four TV series, three with supporting roles and one with guest appearances. His performance was pretty good, and he was even nominated for the Golden Eagle Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in "The True Colors of a Detective."
But a supporting role is a supporting role after all, and for an actor, especially a rising and popular actor like Cao Xuan, everyone depends on whether he can take on the leading role in a TV series.
Cao Xuan himself is still a little nervous. The next two months will be directly related to his efforts in the past half year and future career development.
Whether the film and television industry and the music industry can continue to bloom next year all depends on whether these two hurdles can be overcome...
