Chapter 366: A Good Shot

Lu Yan He, Chen Bige, and Wang Zhong met up by appointment to have dinner together.

Regarding the short script, Lu Yan He asked, "Director, have you been wanting to film this story for a long time? It shouldn't be something you just wrote, right?"

"Yeah, I wrote a script before, but it couldn't be filmed. I took a small segment from that script and adapted it," Wang Zhong said.

The reason Lu Yan He had this thought was that while reading the script, he felt many of the lines didn't seem like they were written in just a few days; many parts were clearly polished.

"Why couldn't that script be filmed?" Lu Yan He asked.

Wang Zhong said, "I could film it now if I wanted to, but back then, I couldn't find any investment."

"Then isn't it a bit of a pity to take it out now to film a short?" Lu Yan He asked.

Wang Zhong: "What's there to be a pity about? Being able to film it as a short now is also quite good."

Lu Yan He asked, "Director, could you let me see that script of yours?"

"You want to see it?"

"Yeah," Lu Yan He said. "I really liked reading this short script of yours."

Wang Zhong nodded. "Then I'll send it to you when I get back."

Chen Bige turned her head to look at Lu Yan He and asked, "You aren't thinking of turning Director Wang's script into a movie, are you?"

"No, no." Lu Yan He shook his head quickly and said, "I just want to learn from it. The director's script is written very well, and knowing the director has written another one, I just wanted to read it."

Chen Bige smiled and said, "I thought you were going to add another item to your massive list of projects waiting to be filmed."

Lu Yan He immediately said, "Sister Bige, there are two projects in my massive list of projects waiting to be filmed that you are starring in."

Chen Bige: "I only just realized now how exhausting it is to prepare a movie from scratch. Before, I would just accept a script, do the preparations for the acting, arrive on set when the time came, and leave after filming. I only concerned myself with the acting."

Wang Zhong smiled and raised a hand to point at Chen Bige. "This kid Yan He is so cunning. After using the script to get you on board, he ran off himself and left you to take the helm."

Lu Yan He hurriedly defended himself, saying, "Director, I didn't mean that at all. It's just that Sister Bige knows far more people in this industry than I do, and it's more convenient for her to take the script and find people than it is for me."

Chen Bige chuckled and said, "Let's just say that in private. I know there are countless people out there who envy me. Not only did you customize a script for me, but you also handed it over to me entirely. This kind of trust is very rare, Little Lu. Aren't you afraid I'll mess up your script?"

"You are Chen Bige; how could you let a project you're starring in be messed up?" Lu Yan He said calmly. "Your name is more precious than mine."

Chen Bige spat three times.

"I don't accept this kind of self-deprecating flattery." Chen Bige shot Lu Yan He a sideways glance. "I've just been in the industry a few years longer than you. At your age, I didn't even know what I was doing."

Lu Yan He asked, "Then, Director, do you have a candidate for the warlord in this short?"

"I haven't thought of one yet. Do you have any recommendations?"

"I want to recommend Teacher Jiang Jun," Lu Yan He said frankly. "With his acting skills, there's definitely no problem playing this kind of role. Because of his surgery earlier, many production companies were afraid to use him. This time, *Seventeen Layers* has become a hit, but I've heard some people still have reservations. I want to let everyone see that the surgery didn't affect him at all."

Chen Bige, who had also worked with Jiang Jun, heard this and helped out by saying, "Jiang Jun's acting skills really have no problem handling this kind of role."

Seeing that both of them said so, Wang Zhong nodded and said, "Then let's call him."

Jiang Jun had a very eye-catching performance in the drama *Seventeen Layers*, and the level of discussion around him was quite high. However, in terms of how much attention the characters drew, it was still dominated by Chen Bige and the others.

This drama was very popular right now, and every team was busy.

Before, they were worried the drama wouldn't be popular enough and that marketing would be useless. Now, they were trying every possible way to gain greater benefits from this hit drama.

Lu Yan He and Chen Bige already had the best character highlights and screen time, and with the platform's "guaranteed promotion," their investment in this area was relatively small.

But for Li Yuefeng, Shen Yue, and Lin Chan, this could be considered the most important battlefield of their year.

If they could rely on this drama to create a few topics that truly broke out of their circles, they would be able to reap more dividends.

This was true whether it was for further elevating their status or in other aspects.

Jiang Jun's age was what it was, and the role he played wasn't a "very fan-attracting" "idol-type" character. His agency didn't feel he was worth a massive investment to exchange for greater commercial value.

Therefore, although the audience watching this drama all knew him and liked his performance, it didn't effectively convert into fans for him.

Of course, because this drama was indeed very popular, even if he wasn't very fan-attracting, he could still reap some dividends from *Seventeen Layers*. At the very least, the number of programs inviting him had increased quite a bit.

Jiang Jun, however, had turned many of them down.

Lu Yan He found it strange when he heard about this.

Although Teacher Jiang Jun wasn't exactly short on money, this wasn't a matter of money. It was a rare opportunity for exposure. If Teacher Jiang Jun could grasp this promotional window, perhaps his popularity would rise significantly, which would be very helpful for him when accepting roles later.

Lu Yan He went to ask Teacher Jiang Jun why he didn't accept those programs.

He thought Jiang Jun had some of the aloofness of an actor.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Jun said, "*Seventeen Layers* hasn't finished airing yet, but these programs coming to me all hope I can appear in the character's costume from *Seventeen Layers* and record the program as the character from *Seventeen Layers*. So I refused. It's not good; it will affect the audience's feeling when they watch the rest of *Seventeen Layers*."

After hearing Jiang Jun's explanation, Lu Yan He had only one feeling in his heart: deep respect.

The reason the program teams made such a request to Jiang Jun was actually because Jiang Jun himself wasn't famous enough, and they wanted to use the popularity of *Seventeen Layers* to increase the program's topics and traffic.

Jiang Jun's refusal to record programs in that image was to protect his character's image in *Seventeen Layers*.

Lu Yan He said, "Alright, Teacher Jiang, I understand now that you've said that. I'll learn from you."

Jiang Jun said with a bitter smile, "I'm not worth learning from."

Lu Yan He: "I've already learned a lot from you, Teacher Jiang. I called you today because there's another matter; I'd like to ask you to help play a role."

Jiang Jun: "Sure. I've only accepted your *Squid Game* and *My Own Swordsman* afterwards, and have no other dramas. I've always had the time; just call me."

Jiang Jun agreed directly without even asking a single question.

"Teacher Jiang, it's a short, not a film or television drama," Lu Yan He said. "Director Wang Zhong, Sister Bige, and I have a movie to film. Before that, we want to film a short first to get a feel for it and test things out. There's a warlord role in it; the screen time isn't much, but the requirements for the actor are very high, so I wanted to ask you to step in and help play it."

"Oh, what a big lineup," Jiang Jun said with a smile. "I'm taking advantage of you again."

"What taking advantage?" Lu Yan He said. "I'm relieved that you can come help."

Jiang Jun smiled and didn't say anything else. Of course, he knew exactly what was going on in his heart.

Although it was a short, the amount of money needed to film with this team was not small.

Xin Zixing specifically went to talk to several brands about cooperation. They didn't want anything else; they just hoped their own brands could make an appearance in the film.

But this short was a film with a Republic of China background; how could they appear?

Xin Zixing read the script for a long time and constantly communicated with Director Wang Zhong's team. In the end, she acted as a bridge and obtained sponsorship from a camera brand.

The premise of the sponsorship was that all the filming equipment for this film had to use this brand's products, and after the short was released, it had to specifically include the brand's name, noting that the entire film was shot using this brand's cameras.

And this one sponsorship wasn't enough. Xin Zixing went to report to her superiors, striving to cover the remaining filming expenses.

She said, "Although this is a short, the attention it receives will definitely not be small. It can bring a lot of traffic to our Linghe Films."

To convince the top management, she made three reports before finally obtaining approval for such a budget, relying on the reputation she had built over the past few years.

For a short film, there are ways to film it with hundreds of thousands, ways to film it with millions, and of course, ways to film it with tens of millions.

For this short, with Wang Zhong as director and Lu Yan He and Chen Bige as leads, the remuneration for the three of them couldn't be low.

As for how much economic return such a short could bring, it was unknown.

A short is different from a feature film; it doesn't have a mature sales channel.

In fact, to a large extent, shorts survive on certain funds or advertising sponsorships.

However, on the other hand, shorts are also the "inevitable path" that many directors experience when they first enter the industry.

Rarely does a director start by filming a feature film.

Especially auteur directors or film festival-type directors, they all start by practicing with shorts.

Xin Zixing felt that *City Travelogue* was a stable program, but besides that, what else could be done?

Xin Zixing thought of this short film plan.

She combined her own advantages and strengths. Over the past few years, she had accumulated quite a few artist resources, advertiser resources, and local government resources. Combining those, the "short film plan" was actually the most suitable place for her to step into next.

For example, some local governments wanted to film promotional videos for their areas, and some advertisers wanted to customize commercials specifically for their products, etc. These were all things people had come to her to talk about cooperation for, but she hadn't accepted them at the time because of her own work schedule.

Now, Xin Zixing wanted to do this.

On one hand, she could discover some talented and capable directors and help the industry see them through such shorts. On the other hand, she could also expand her career map, not just limited to the field of city documentaries.

Huang Kai had already prepared the plan for making their relationship public, preparing to announce it on Qixi Festival.

Xin Zixing thought to herself that she could then stand properly by Huang Kai's side.

She didn't want others to think she was a dodder flower that had to exist by relying on Huang Kai.

She could also provide help to Huang Kai.

She had her own strength.

It just so happened that at this time, she learned of Lu Yan He and Wang Zhong's plan to test-film a short.

Xin Zixing keenly sensed that this was a very good entry point for her to start her "short film plan."

Thus, she contacted Lu Yan He at the first opportunity.

"The down payment must be transferred before this Friday, Sister Miao. This isn't a matter of a day or two; they are waiting for our money to start the pot." Xin Zixing urged the finance department to transfer the money while getting out of the car, her high heels clicking as she walked into the studio in front of her.

Lu Yan He and the others were doing makeup tests here today.

She came specifically to take a look.

"Hello, Director." Seeing Wang Zhong, Xin Zixing immediately reached out with a smile to shake hands with him. "Are they putting on makeup?"

"Yes, they are still applying makeup." Wang Zhong looked at the exquisitely made-up girl in front of him. Over the past few days, he had been in contact with her and had already witnessed this girl's execution ability, even having the thought of poaching her to his side.

But after knowing her status at Linghe Films, Wang Zhong dismissed this thought.

There was no way she would abandon everything at Linghe Films to work for him.

Xin Zixing asked, "Director, when are we planning to film this short?"

Wang Zhong said, "We have to wait for Little Lu to finish filming *Silent River*. It's estimated to be in October. After he finishes filming *Silent River*, he still has to record the third season of *Young Days*."

Wang Zhong actually knew Lu Yan He's subsequent arrangements very clearly.

Xin Zixing nodded. "Alright, then our time is still relatively abundant, not so tight."

At this time, Lu Yan He and the others all came out.

Besides them, there were several other characters who, although they only had one or two lines or one or two shots, all came over today to do their styling.

Wang Zhong looked at them one by one, and neither his requirements for details nor other aspects were lowered just because this was only a short.

Lu Yan He, Chen Bige, and Jiang Jun were chatting about some things that happened during the filming of *Seventeen Layers*. I don't know what they were talking about, but they suddenly burst into laughter.

Everyone looked at them with surprise.

Xin Zixing noticed that the young actors looked at Lu Yan He and the others with more or less envy and yearning.

Especially when looking at Lu Yan He.

Compared to Lu Yan He's age, they were only older, not younger, but his current status was already far beyond what they could hope to reach.

Xin Zixing smiled slightly and said nothing.

She understood their feelings.

At this time, she heard Wang Zhong say to them, "Everyone, think about it more. Don't wait for me to come and tell you. Although the screen time isn't much, if you act well, you will still get good shots. Don't waste a single shot."