Chapter 628: The Director's Eyes

With Luo Yuzhong directing *Chinese Paladin* and a sufficient budget, the filming set of this drama has an momentum that is almost no less than a film production.

When Lu Yan He arrived at the set on the first day, he was actually shocked.

Because this drama will use a large number of CG special effects, and many scenes are filmed in the studio.

However, there are also many scenes that are filmed in real scenes.

The high cost of this drama comes largely from the expenses of on-site dance beauty and props.

Not only is Luo Yuzhong's requirement for this aspect very high, but Lu Yan He is the same.

Since you want to film this kind of drama, the worldview built must be convincing to the audience.

However, for *Chinese Paladin*, which is more than 30 episodes long, if you want to achieve the production effect they want, even with the current high production costs, there is no way to cover it.

And under the current production cost, if you add production funds further, it will be difficult to achieve profitability. After all, they still have to leave sufficient budget for the production of later CG special effects.

It can be said that *Chinese Paladin* is the drama with the highest production cost in Chinese dramas in the past three years, and it has reached the top.

Top director + top screenwriter + the most popular starring lineup + the most money-burning subject matter.

Lu Yan He is vaguely worried that under such high production costs, the profit of this project is actually not as good as *Love Letter*. Well, it can basically be concluded that it is not as good as *Love Letter*.

However, because *Love Letter*'s box office exploded, Linghe's cash flow reserve is now very sufficient, which eased the tension in the summer.

Xu: "As long as this drama can cover the production cost in the normal broadcast right income, I will let this drama earn money back in other aspects. I have already contacted a company for the peripheral development of this drama's clothing, hair accessories, character models, pillows, etc. At that time, the peripheral development of this drama will earn our money back."

However, filming this drama is much harder for actors than filming modern dramas.

Not to mention all kinds of action scenes, just because you need to get up two hours early every day to do styling, leaving time for styling.

Lu Yan He's scenes are relatively few, so it's okay relatively. Li Zhibai basically has to get up at five or six in the morning every day and arrive at the set with makeup and hair ready before nine o'clock.

Yan Lingyu is the same.

Of course, according to the rules of the set, these famous actors are relatively better. Like the newcomer actor Jiang Lingyi who plays Lin Yueru, her scenes are generally arranged at the earliest or latest time.

The set is like this, the best time period is always left to the big names.

Of course, for newcomers, they don't care about suffering this bit of hardship. For newcomers, what they are afraid of is suffering some hardship that they don't know if there is a future.

Jiang Lingyi won the second female lead of *Chinese Paladin*, the second female lead of a pre-made explosion drama. Under this situation, she has 100% energy to film this drama every day, and never complains about hardship or fatigue.

As the only newcomer actor among the several protagonists who won this role through auditions and thousands of troops, Jiang Lingyi knows how lucky she is.

And on the set, Jiang Lingyi herself is also a girl who is relatively similar to Lin Yueru's personality—it seems that if a newcomer wins a role through auditions, it is like this, more or less close to the true colors.

She gets along well with almost all the staff on the set.

However, she is a bit restrained in front of Li Zhibai and Lu Yan He.

Fortunately, there is Yan Lingyu in the crew. Yan Lingyu is a person who doesn't like to talk to people, but she and Jiang Lingyi often gather together to whisper on the set. Girls seem to have endless topics to talk about.

Lu Yan He had no arrangements for him in the first few days.

However, he didn't stay in the hotel either. Basically, he arrived at the set early every morning and stayed by Luo Yuzhong's side, and stayed for a whole day, watching how he, as a director, did it.

After Lu Yan He made a director once in *Love Letter*, he deeply realized his shortcomings in this aspect.

The director has too many things to do, and there are countless decisions waiting for him to make every day when he opens his eyes.

Fortunately, *Love Letter* is basically a very simple movie, with almost no big scenes, no complex scheduling, and few crew members.

But *Chinese Paladin* is different. This is a large crew with hundreds of people.

Luo Yuzhong has four people in his deputy director team alone.

Each deputy director is responsible for different things, sharing a lot of things for Luo Yuzhong.

Lu Yan He was amazed.

The crew also has a B group. According to the usual practice, the B group will shoot synchronously with the A group, which is to save the shooting time of the crew.

The B group formed by Luo Yuzhong is mainly used to shoot some transition scenes and some empty shots.

Luo Yuzhong saw Lu Yan He watching by his side, and curiously asked Lu Yan He if he wanted to shoot a few scenes directly.

Lu Yan He shook his head and refused.

If he were to shoot, what he shot would definitely be the same thing as the *Chinese Paladin* in his memory.

However, this version is already very different. This version, whether it is the quality of the camera, lens scheduling, or style, has changed from the original version.

Luo Yuzhong is using the method and style of filming regular dramas to film this fairy drama.

Of course, in fact, Lu Yan He himself also felt that the original *Chinese Paladin* was not filmed as an idol drama. At that time, costume dramas still used a lot of regular drama performance techniques.

Li Zhibai and Yan Lingyu's scenes have no rotating shots, and no current popular CP ambiguous filming methods.

Just filmed very upright.

The man is chivalrous, and the woman is simple.

Lu Yan He noticed that on the set, Luo Yuzhong asked all the staff to call Yan Lingyu Linger, not her real name.

Luo Yuzhong also gave a lot of guidance on Yan Lingyu's performance.

"You smile too goddess-like."

"You are too cold, give me a pure and cute smile."

"Don't be coquettish, you are not a coquettish girl at all. It's strange for you to pretend to be coquettish."

Lu Yan He is very shocked by this point. Judging from his experience of working with Luo Yuzhong, Luo Yuzhong guides actors, often in a way of breaking it apart and rubbing it to explain the play, rather than like now, often using a negative sentence pattern to tell Yan Lingyu where she did wrong.

However, what also surprised Lu Yan He was that Yan Lingyu did not fall into a low mood because of Luo Yuzhong's criticisms, and basically could listen to it and then adjust her state.

"Yan Lingyu has too strong self-esteem and is too proud," Li Zhibai said to Lu Yan He. "Although her appearance is very suitable for Linger, it is easy to act and act, and act Linger, such a gentle and spiritual girl, into a cold goddess."

Luo Yuzhong has been correcting Yan Lingyu tirelessly.

Although he has been criticizing Yan Lingyu, he is not angry.

This is also where Lu Yan He is very surprised.

After Lu Yan He stayed on the set for three days, Luo Yuzhong took Lu Yan He to the computer room.

The material he shot has always been edited synchronously by someone, checking whether there is material that cannot be used. These problems must be discovered in time to facilitate re-shooting.

Lu Yan He didn't understand at first why Luo Yuzhong wanted to bring him here, until Luo Yuzhong asked the editor to open several videos.

They are all videos of Linger played by Yan Lingyu.

In the video, they are almost all Yan Lingyu's different reactions, such as smiling at Li Zhibai, such as sulking. Each shot is only a few seconds long, but Yan Lingyu in the lens is different from most of the time Yan Lingyu he usually sees. It really has the innocent, ignorant, and spiritual and cute temperament of Linger.

"Wow—" Lu Yan He let out an exclamation.

Luo Yuzhong said: "Did you think Yan Lingyu was not very suitable for playing Linger at the beginning?"

Lu Yan He nodded honestly.

The actress Yan Lingyu was decided by Luo Yuzhong.

Not Lu Yan He—even if Lu Yan He had worked with her on *Late Spring*.

Luo Yuzhong said: "I watched *Love Letter*, and the girl named Zhang Ruozhi in it is impressive. I heard that she was chosen by you at a glance?"

Lu Yan He nodded.

"She happened to be studying in Jiangzhi."

Luo Yuzhong: "Should it be a true-to-life performance?"

"Yes, she herself is very similar to the girl in the movie."

"But you should know that you can't be so lucky every time to find an actor who fits the role so well."

Lu Yan He nodded.

Luo Yuzhong pointed to Yan Lingyu in the lens.

"She herself is indeed not very similar to the role of Linger, but film and television dramas are the art of editing. We don't need an actor to be like a role all the time. As long as she can have some moments that make you believe she is, it is enough," Luo Yuzhong said. "Yan Lingyu is such an actor in this drama. Many of her materials actually cannot be used. Maybe she shoots for two hours, and only ten minutes can be used in the end, but these ten minutes are very good, and that is enough."

Lu Yan He listened to Luo Yuzhong's words, thoughtful.

"Being a director means knowing very clearly what you want. You may not be able to describe it in detail, but you must know what you want," Luo Yuzhong said. "You were very clear about this on the set of *Love Letter*, so everyone's work was relatively easy. In fact, many veterans in the film and television circle are not very willing to cooperate with newcomer directors. Do you know why?"

Lu Yan He: "Lack of experience?"

"Lack of experience is just a superficial phenomenon. More because newcomer directors often don't know what they want to shoot, or what they want is not available according to the actual shooting situation," Luo Yuzhong said. "This will double the work of re-doing and repeating."

Lu Yan He nodded.

"Choosing actors is the same truth," Luo Yuzhong said. "Do you remember when I went to Star Entertainment to interview actors, your Star Entertainment found more than 100 idols to let me interview your role."

"Remember," Lu Yan He nodded, how could he forget.

That was the day that changed his destiny.

Luo Yuzhong said: "More than 100 candidates, do you think it can really be said that there is the most suitable and best one? At that time, among the actors, there were Li Zhibai, Yan Liang, and several others who I thought performed very well, but I finally decided on you."

"Yes, teacher, why did you decide on me at that time?"

"Do you want to hear the truth?"

"Want."

"The main reason is that Jiang Yuqian told me that she saw the shadow of a person she once loved in you. She would feel very good when she acted in college-era scenes with you," Luo Yuzhong said. "In fact, it has nothing to do with your audition that time. Of course, the performance you gave in the audition that time made me quite surprised, let go of my heart, and let me know that you are a person who can act."

Lu Yan He looked at Luo Yuzhong in surprise.

"Sometimes, as a director, I don't want to choose the one I think is the best. Like the role you played in *The Golden Era*, his importance is actually for Jiang Yuqian, and this scene between Jiang Yuqian and you determined the character tone of Jiang Yuqian's entire drama later, so her attitude is the most important. Facts have proved that this is indeed the case. You surprised the audience as soon as you appeared, and the college love between you and Jiang Yuqian is still mentioned and regretted by people until now."

Lu Yan He nodded.

During the time when *Love Letter* was just released, some viewers said that he came to play the white moonlight who died of the heroine again.

At that time, there was a hot search called Lu Yan He returning to the white moonlight track.

Luo Yuzhong said: "However, the role of Linger cannot be chosen like this. In fact, this has to blame the script you wrote. In your script, the female image of Linger can almost be said to be a perfect image that satisfies all Chinese people's imagination. All good qualities are on her. It is basically unrealistic to find an actress who matches her in reality."

Lu Yan He nodded, agreeing with what Luo Yuzhong said.

Otherwise, why say the fairy sister has thick blood? Without big companies and big capital, all relying on classic roles, she carried through the era of big flower hegemony, and then carried through the era of 85 flowers. In the internet flower era of ordinary women's competition, she is still the top stream when she returns.

One person carries three generations, only her family.

He also has no way to sea-select a fairy sister in this world.

"At this time, you can only find a raw material suitable for carving into this role," Luo Yuzhong finally talked about the main topic of bringing Lu Yan He to the editing room today. "An actor, as long as there are a few moments that make you feel that she is that role, then it is done. On the set, you have to dig into this side, stimulate more moments, use cameras, use editing, use clothing, hair and makeup, and various film and television means, in the lens, completely shape her into that role."

Luo Yuzhong sincerely pointed to Lu Yan He with his eyes.

"Your *Love Letter* is filmed very well, but you rely too much on the adaptability of actors and roles, rely on the actors' own acting skills and shaping ability, but ignore the various conveniences that the film and television industry can provide."

"If it weren't for Chen Bige, who could act out the effect of two people with two people who are so similar?" Luo Yuzhong said to Lu Yan He. "To be honest, *Love Letter*, whether it is photography, music, performance, or editing rhythm, is first-class, but the lens cannot deceive people. You rely on the actor to completely become that role in the performance. What if you have a role that cannot find an actor to achieve this?"

Lu Yan He's head boomed.

At this moment, what he thought of in his mind was Jin Xiangyu in *Dragon Inn*.

To this day, he can't think of which actress can play this role, so when Liu Bige said he wanted to film this script, he almost gave the script away with relief.

Luo Yuzhong poked his soft rib, poked his short board that he had been avoiding.

"You have been by my side for the past few days, do you want to see how a director works?" Luo Yuzhong asked.

Lu Yan He nodded.

"Do you want to continue to be a director in the future?"

"For some plays, I think it is better for me to be a director, so I can film the feeling I wanted when I wrote the script."

Luo Yuzhong laughed.

"Who was the one who said he didn't want to be a director anymore?" He teased Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He lowered his head and laughed softly.

At this moment, he only had respect for Luo Yuzhong in his heart.

Luo Yuzhong only watched one *Love Letter* and saw his shortcomings and defects as a director. Luo Yuzhong also only used Yan Lingyu as an example to make him deeply realize the difference between his perspective as an actor and Luo Yuzhong's perspective as a director.

At this moment, Lu Yan He also suddenly understood a truth.

Why many directors are famous for teaching actors.

It is not actually teaching actors.

But they can see things that others cannot see from the actors.

Just like Luo Yuzhong can see those things that belong to Linger from Yan Lingyu that others cannot see.

After being brought to the editing room by Luo Yuzhong, Lu Yan He watched Yan Lingyu act on the set again, and what he saw was different.

He noticed that Yan Lingyu herself is indeed a relatively cold person, which basically constitutes the main color of her image.

However, sometimes, when she talks more with everyone and has a little enthusiasm, it is like breaking the ice, and there is a little more temperature in her eyes and face.

And as long as there is this temperature, her temperament changes, giving her a little feeling of Linger.

But she is not like this all the time. If she hasn't talked to anyone for a while, her state will return to that somewhat cold time, and she needs to be like drawing a snake out of a hole, little by little, to draw out the temperature in her body.

Lu Yan He thought about what Li Zhibai said to him before, and he suddenly thought, is Yan Lingyu's coldness derived from her own self-esteem.

He knows that many people are self-esteem strong, so under normal circumstances, they will subconsciously hold on and not let go.

Looking at Jiang Lingyi who plays Lin Yueru, when she is with Yan Lingyu, it is often when Yan Lingyu is the most lively, but it is also when Jiang Lingyi is the least noisy.

She actually has a bit of boyishness, which just complements the bit of Jianghu spirit on Lin Yueru. Only when she is with Yan Lingyu, her state is particularly like a little girl.

This day, Li Zhibai asked Lu Yan He.

"You have been staring at Yan Lingyu and Jiang Lingyi for the past two days, what are you doing?"

Lu Yan He told Li Zhibai what Luo Yuzhong said to him.

Li Zhibai suddenly realized.

"You are not exercising your ability to observe people, are you?"

"Almost, I always felt that I was quite good at observing people, but after being told by my teacher, I found that I really overestimated myself before."

Li Zhibai: "How old are you, you are too exaggerated. Luo Dao just reminded you what you didn't notice before. You are good, you want to practice a pair of fiery eyes now."

Lu Yan He: "I don't, don't slander me."

"Then what are you thinking about?"

"I just want to see what I didn't see from Yan Lingyu before, why I didn't see it, and why Luo Dao could see it."

"Cut, isn't that what I meant." Li Zhibai rolled his eyes at Lu Yan He speechlessly. "I said, have you watched *Flowing Light*?"

"Watched," Lu Yan He nodded.

"How do you feel?"

"Uh, okay?" Lu Yan He said. "I think Yan Liang acted quite well. His character is quite good, but Zhang Lan..."

"Right? You think so too?" Li Zhibai said. "Why do I feel that Zhang Lan has no feeling in this play? She has no CP feeling with Yan Liang at all."

"Mm," Lu Yan He nodded. "The lens and soundtrack have already created the atmosphere there, but there is no such pulling feeling between Zhang Lan and Yan Liang."

Li Zhibai: "There are so many people scolding Zhang Lan on the internet."

"This can't be taken as true. That batch of actresses like Zhang Lan has many fans and black fans, and they are very active. Basically, you can't see it in the early stage," Lu Yan He said. "Now the broadcast results of this drama are okay, but I don't know what will happen later. However, both of us feel that they have no feeling. Maybe the audience will feel more like this?"

Li Zhibai: "But I took a look, everyone is still satisfied with Yan Liang, and many people are praising him for being handsome in this drama."

"Mainly in the fairy drama, his image is basically unseen," Lu Yan He said. "His character styling is done well, heroic, very much like the style of a young general, plus his figure, very handsome."

"Zhou Ping'an specially found someone to do the styling for him, and didn't use the stylist invited by the crew," Li Zhibai said. "Zhou Ping'an still has two brushes in this regard. He thinks the styling given by the *Flowing Light* crew is too similar to the images of generals and gods of war in other ancient idol dramas, and there is no difference."

"Now everyone is imitating whichever drama is popular."

"What if the reputation of *Flowing Light* is not good later?" Li Zhibai asked. "Will it drag Yan Liang down?"

"How can this be? This drama is Zhang Lan's big heroine ancient idol drama. She is the one who carries the drama," Lu Yan He said. "And, with Yan Liang's performance, it can't be mocked on him anyway. It was clearly Zhang Lan's comfort zone before, and I don't know why she acted so badly this time."

When Yan Liang returned to the *Chinese Paladin* crew, *Flowing Light* had also been broadcast for a few days.

In the past few days, Yan Liang basically has positive hot searches hanging on social platforms every day.

However, at the same time, Zhang Lan has had several negative hot searches.

One of them is "poor acting skills".

It can be said that the controversy of *Flowing Light* is indeed quite large.

Yan Liang's mood is also a bit affected.

Li Zhibai said: "Everyone is praising you, what are you afraid of."

"That was all bought by Zhou Ping'an for me. He didn't want the bad reviews of this drama to affect me."

"But your performance is indeed good," Lu Yan He said. "Li Zhibai and I both watched it, believe us, we are not saying this because you are our friend."

Yan Liang: "Okay."

"Hey!" Luo Yuzhong suddenly walked over and patted Yan Liang on the shoulder from behind.

Yan Liang looked at him in surprise, "Director."

"Although I only watched a little, you acted well in your new drama. Although it is the kind of ancient idol drama I don't like, it can be seen that you are seriously shaping a character, acting differently from those actors in the same type of drama," Luo Yuzhong nodded affirmatively to Yan Liang.

Yan Liang said thank you flattered.

Luo Yuzhong said: "However, since you are back to the crew, let's focus your attention on the drama we are filming now."

"Okay," Yan Liang nodded immediately. "Director, don't worry, I will focus on filming this drama."

As soon as Luo Yuzhong left, Li Zhibai hooked Yan Liang's neck with his arm.

"You guy, it doesn't work when we say it, you don't believe it, the director says it, you immediately grinned and laughed."

Yan Liang had to struggle for a while before he could free himself from Li Zhibai's "control".

"Damn, why do you have such great strength now?"

"Practiced it," Li Zhibai hummed proudly.

This day, Chen Yin came, one is to see the filming situation of *Chinese Paladin*. As the deputy general manager of Linghe, he is the producer of this project and also the producer.

He also reported to Lu Yan He the progress of several projects of the company by the way.

"*Shared Rent Men and Women* has been killed, and it is expected to complete editing in October. For this drama, Hu Siwei finally decided to broadcast it to North Aurora and agreed to the new revenue-sharing model launched by North Aurora."

Lu Yan He nodded.

"*Home Alone* movie has been established, and we are contacting suitable directors. As for the two stupid thieves in the movie, we are still preparing to hold auditions to find suitable actors."

"When can this movie start filming?"

"January next year, when Huang Feng is on winter vacation, it happens that the background in the script is also the New Year."

"Mm."

"TVN said that the Korean version of *Rouge* is ready to be broadcast in November this year. They hope you can go to South Korea at that time to participate in the global broadcast ceremony of this drama."

"They also held a global broadcast ceremony?" Lu Yan He was a little surprised. "So exaggerated?"

"Yes," Chen Yin said. "Actually, it is just broadcasting globally on Maxine streaming media synchronously."

"Okay," Lu Yan He said. "I can't promise them for the time being. You tell Wang Biao and Sister Ziyan to see if my time can be arranged."

"Okay."

"In addition, it is the movie *Phone* you wrote. The movie is scheduled to be released in the New Year's Day file. *Lost in Thailand* will be released in the Spring Festival file next year, and the second season of *My Own Swordsman* is also prepared to be broadcast during the New Year."

"There is also that Director Wang Zhong is prepared to send *Raise the Red Lantern* to the Xitu'er Film Festival for competition, which may collide with Director Huang Tianlin's *Tropical Rainy Season*. Director Huang Tianlin's first choice seems to be the Xitu'er Film Festival."

Fought.

Lu Yan He thought about it and said: "If it collides, it collides. One is a movie I wrote, and the other is a movie I participated in. Anyway, it's not that I fight with myself."

Seeing Lu Yan He say this, Chen Yin didn't say anything more.

After listening, Lu Yan He only had one feeling in his heart.

There are too many projects.

Since when did you slowly accumulate so many projects?

I inexplicably feel that every month in the future, there are projects related to him to be released, and even at the same time, there are movies and TV series.

"..."

High production is like that.

Never before have works been bombarded so densely.