Chapter 709: Start of Filming (7000-word update)

"We looked into it, and ha! Guess what? Nearly a third of our authors have been contacted by them!"

Chen Siqi was furious on the phone.

Lu Yan He could only comfort her: "So what is the situation now? Has anyone been poached?"

"The situation is okay for now," Chen Siqi said. "Basically, the first-tier authors still chose to stay with us and didn't agree to their conditions. However, two authors whose contracts were about to expire decided to go to their side. They offered them a signing fee of 600,000 a year."

Lu Yan He immediately understood.

Actually, in "Jump Up," besides the head authors who can get seven or eight figures a year relying on manuscript fees, publishing, and copyright adaptations, there are also some authors who haven't published single volumes yet and rely on publishing articles in *Jump Up* magazine and writing for other media of "Jump Up" to make a living through manuscript fees.

For this part of the authors, a signing fee of 600,000 a year means a guaranteed income, which is hard not to be tempted by.

Lu Yan He: "Didn't you always want a competitor before? Saying that only a competitor can make this market active? Now your competitor has come."

"Then I don't want to compete with a capital crocodile," Chen Siqi said angrily. "We spent more than six years slowly cultivating the current author lineup. The backbone even came from our own magazine. As a result, the two who were poached now were both authors we cultivated ourselves."

"They didn't have contracts that hadn't expired, and they didn't make a fuss about terminating the contract with you. To be honest, they might get at most 200,000 or 300,000 in manuscript fees here a year, and their income doubles there. If it were you, wouldn't you go?"

"That's how it's said."

"As long as they didn't backstab or betray, and left openly, don't say anything about them," Lu Yan He said. "And, they poached people, poached so many, and only poached two."

"It's two now, and I don't know what the situation will be in the future. They are not short of money. If they really want to throw money, poaching everyone is not difficult for a large capital like Shijin," Chen Siqi said.

"First, not everyone will be poached, you can rest assured. Many authors are not short of money, especially many authors we signed. We have cooperated for so long, and we have never treated authors badly, so don't worry about anything."

"Second, Shijin poaching people is of course very easy. However, after they poach authors, how should they plan? How to provide opportunities for these authors?" Lu Yan He said. "A magazine like *Jump Up* with a circulation of over 400,000 copies is enough for a large number of authors to choose to stay. No matter how much money the Shijin Group has, if they cannot provide such a large reader base for authors, to be honest, authors also have choices."

Chen Siqi: "Although I understand the truth, a tiger suddenly broke into your territory, staring like a tiger, you can't really put your heart down."

"That is indeed the case."

"Don't forget, although Shijin doesn't have *Jump Up* now, it has the Ye Mai network."

Lu Yan He: "Then, let's compete. No matter how much money they have, they can't change the laws of the market. What's more, we are not short of money ourselves. We can also support many authors to make money. If Shijin just relies on throwing money to throw some authors, they are not fools, and it is impossible to throw money indefinitely."

Chen Siqi: "Hmm, let's watch and see what they are going to do. How are you in the crew? Is the filming of the sequel easier than the first one?"

"Different difficulty," Lu Yan He said. "And, in the first film, the actors I cooperated with were not as big-name as now."

"Are the actors you are cooperating with now big-name?" Chen Siqi was a bit surprised.

"Anyway, they all have the confidence to act like big names," Lu Yan He said concisely. "Mukan is not the one who has the final say in the crew, so you know what the situation of this crew is."

Chen Siqi: "He didn't have the final say when filming the first one, right? In Hollywood, the director's power is generally not as good as the producer's."

"Mainly not as good as the producer of the production company," Lu Yan He laughed. "The producer who cooperates with Mukan still supports Mukan very much."

"Then what is the situation on your side now?" Chen Siqi asked. "The environment won't be very bad, right?"

"That can't be said to be bad," Lu Yan He laughed. "It's still in the running-in period."

"I don't know why, although you are not very satisfied with this crew now and have encountered some big-name actors, I always feel that after this film is finished, this situation will change."

"What change will happen?" Lu Yan He asked.

"Either you handle them, or they explode," Chen Siqi laughed. "In my opinion, you really have luck in this regard."

"Why do you say that? I don't feel that way."

Chen Siqi: "Think about it, every time you film a movie, can you meet a few friends who keep in touch and come and go even after the film is finished?"

"This is true, but this is also very normal, right? As long as it is a normal person, if you meet, have some fate, don't you become friends?" Lu Yan He asked.

Chen Siqi: "Then those who are unhappy with you either have their relationship eased with you in the end, such as Zeng Qiao and Li Yuefeng, or they collapse themselves, such as Simon Schmidt in the first *The Mist*."

Lu Yan He: "... The one who is unhappy with me and then collapses himself is just Simon Schmidt. He was abandoned by D19. Then why don't you talk about Lang Xia? Isn't he still quite popular now?"

"You are still thinking about him?" Chen Siqi laughed. "He has basically become the designated male lead of Yu Jiang. He will act in campus youth love movies for the rest of his life. Let's see how long he can act. When he had a movie last year, he was already complained about being greasy by some people."

Lu Yan He: "He is still popular."

Chen Siqi: "You actually still care about him?"

"I don't care about him, I am refuting you."

"You would rather refute me than care about him?" Chen Siqi raised her tone instantly.

Lu Yan He: "... I don't mean that."

"Then what do you mean?"

Lu Yan He: "... The director called me to film."

Chen Siqi: "Talk about it later, you'd better think of a reasonable explanation, otherwise it won't end."

Lu Yan He hung up the phone and looked up at the sky.

Oh heaven.

How did the situation turn for the worse with just one sentence?

How did it suddenly become that he would rather refute her?

Lu Yan He shook his head.

A lesson of blood—

Men still have to be steady, especially in front of their girlfriends, because once the mouth is fast, the speed of the brain's reaction cannot keep up with the desire to survive.

At the filming site, Lu Yan He was not in this scene, so he was not at the scene.

The film just started, and everyone was still in the running-in period.

The atmosphere of the ghost-catching team actors at the scene was still relatively cold.

Mainly because Erin Wallace and Lean Waters did not talk at all on the set, ignoring each other, which made others at the scene not feel like chatting enthusiastically.

Jason Potter asked Wang Jiaqi if she knew Lu Yan He before.

Wang Jiaqi nodded, "He and I have the same agent, we have eaten together before, do you like him so much?"

Jason Potter smiled embarrassedly.

"When he came to the UK to participate in a screening event before, I was dragged by my girlfriend at the time, watched his movie, and I felt he was very powerful."

"Which movie did you watch at that time?"

"*Sanshan*," Jason Potter said. "My girlfriend at the time was his fan, kept praising him, which made me a bit angry, but later I understood her."

Wang Jiaqi was quite surprised.

"You didn't tell him that."

"There is nothing to say," Jason Potter shook his head. "After I retired, I faced career choices. It happened that there was an athlete role in a movie at that time, so my agent asked me if I wanted to try it. I thought at the time, if I really become an actor, maybe I will have the opportunity to act in a movie with him in the future. I didn't expect it to come true."

"Really? Are you telling the truth? This is too cinematic," Wang Jiaqi said.

"It's not as exaggerated as a movie," Jason Potter shook his head immediately. "I don't regard him as an idol. I became an actor because of him. That actually has considerations in many aspects. I'm just telling you why I feel a bit excited to be able to film a movie with him this time."

Wang Jiaqi nodded.

Jason Potter suddenly looked at Lean Waters and Erin Wallace.

"And, he made them both honest on the first day, which is simply incredible."

Wang Jiaqi also showed a complex look.

"Indeed, this is also what I didn't expect. When I accepted this movie, my friend reminded me that they are not easy people to get along with in the crew."

Wang Jiaqi suddenly thought of something and asked: "You have been filming movies in the UK, this time you suddenly accepted a Hollywood movie, it won't be because of Lu Yan He, right?"

Unlike ordinary newcomer actors, because Jason Potter was a member of the British diving team and had won world championships and Olympic medals, his fame was very large.

He became an actor and basically never played small roles; they were all roles with heavy parts. It's just that he had been filming in the UK before and had never accepted Hollywood movies. Many British actors, especially those from drama schools, are not so keen on coming to Hollywood to film.

Jason Potter shouldn't be such a situation.

"This was contacted by my agent," he said. "There is no special situation, because I need such an image, so he helped me fight for this very popular sequel movie."

Wang Jiaqi suddenly realized.

The role in this movie is indeed hard to grab.

Many people are grabbing it.

Jason Potter's agent must be very strong. Since he started as an actor, he has basically appeared in projects that are in the spotlight, either famous directors or movies starring other big stars.

His situation is different from hers, who climbed up from small supporting roles.

"You just said your girlfriend at the time—"

Wang Jiaqi suddenly came back to her senses.

"Did you break up with her?"

"Yes," Jason Potter nodded. "She was studying at Cambridge at the time. After graduation, she returned to China."

"She is a Chinese?"

"Yes," Jason Potter sighed.

Wang Jiaqi: "Okay, then you two broke up... is it because of the long distance?"

"There are factors in this regard, but more importantly, it is because of other aspects," Jason Potter shook his head.

"Hey!" Suddenly, beside, Erin Wallace let out a roar of dissatisfaction.

Jason Potter and Wang Jiaqi looked over with some surprise.

Erin Wallace glared at Lean Waters angrily and said: "Stay away from me!"

Lean Waters looked blank, as if he didn't know what happened at all, looking at Erin Wallace suspiciously.

"What are you talking about?"

"I said, stay away from me!" Erin Wallace pointed to the chair with her name on it. "This is my area."

Lean Waters showed a look of disbelief.

"This is a public area, I didn't sit in your chair, don't go too far!"

"Who knows what you are trying to do by getting close to this side," Erin Wallace looked unkind.

"Crazy!"

The conflict between the two made everyone around confused.

Everyone didn't know what happened between them, how it suddenly broke out into a conflict.

Just because Lean Waters got close to Erin Wallace's chair?

"Don't get involved in their business."

Darren Wilson warned Wang Jiaqi on the phone.

Wang Jiaqi: "Of course I won't get involved, but I have to know what is going on with them so I can avoid this minefield. Something must have happened between them, I want to know what happened."

Darren Wilson: "Lean Waters helped his girlfriend at the time grab a role from Erin Wallace, and the two formed a feud."

Wang Jiaqi: "Lean Waters' girlfriend at the time? Who? Luna? Sally? This little thing, let them two hold a grudge until now?"

"Sally," Darren Wilson said. "At that time, Lean helped Sally grab the role, and the things he did were not glorious."

"What did he do?"

"At that time, in order to let Parameter choose Sally, he told Parameter executives that Erin had a drug addiction."

"What?"

"This is not the dirtiest thing. Lean's means are so dirty, you can't imagine," Darren Wilson said. "In order to make Parameter executives believe this, he found someone to bribe Erin's former assistant and also spread rumors about this in the media, which attracted quite a lot of attention at the time."

Wang Jiaqi was shocked.

"What a jerk," she said angrily.

Darren Wilson said: "Of course, Erin did have a drug addiction, she had been in a rehab center when she was very young, so after this matter was dug up at the time, it also caused a big blow to her image."

"Was this also exposed by Lean?"

"No, that was dug up by some media after that matter happened," Darren Wilson said. "Lean is a jerk, and Erin is not a good person either. Over the past few years, they have done a lot of jerk things, so you should stay away from them. How they fight between them, don't get involved."

"Their PR team is really powerful, almost no one knows these things about them," Wang Jiaqi said.

"They were all first-tier stars in Hollywood. Even though it has been many years since they got Oscar nominations, their foundation is here," Darren Wilson said. "Otherwise, how could they have taken this movie."

Wang Jiaqi asked: "Does Lu know about them?"

"Not so specifically," Darren Wilson said. "His agent in China is very powerful. Before Lu Yan He came, she was already inquiring. Although she didn't know the specific details from me, maybe she already knew from other places."

"Lu played a trick on them on the first day of the script reading meeting. Will they retaliate against Lu later?"

"Lu is not so easy to retaliate against," Darren Wilson said. "Especially actors like Lean and Erin who have lost power in Hollywood, they need the sequel to *The Mist* to help them regain the confidence and support of the film company, so they won't act rashly."

"Lu didn't endure them at all, which really surprised me."

"Why does Lu need to endure them?" Darren Wilson raised a question that made Wang Jiaqi think for a whole night.

Among Asian actors in Hollywood, Wang Jiaqi is already doing very well.

However, even in this era of political correctness, she is very clear that Asians are not only a minority among minorities in Hollywood, but also a very undervalued minority.

Even if projects like *The Mist* and *Squid Game* have increased the number of Asian leads in Hollywood projects, in absolute terms, it is still very few, with more monks than porridge.

In every project, even in projects where she is the lead, Wang Jiaqi rarely expresses her opinions and dissatisfaction directly.

It's not about judging the situation, it's that she doesn't want to make herself a "troublemaker."

If such a reputation and image spread, her few opportunities might be even fewer.

This is also the question Wang Jiaqi has been thinking about after talking to Darren Wilson.

The conclusion of the thinking is that maybe Lu Yan He can still do this, but she still can't.

She still has to hide her true emotions and attitudes.

For her, what is important is to keep her opportunities.

She is not Lu Yan He.

The first scene Lu Yan He filmed was his first appearance in this film.

That morning, he got up early and started doing his look.

The look of this character has a lot of special effects makeup.

Basically, the whole look takes two hours.

The whole makeup process just happened to let Lu Yan He watch the first part of *The Mist* again.

He is not reliving it, but looking for the feeling of the character.

The form of a ghost is definitely different from a human.

However, since he has the existence of emotions, ten years of time will definitely cause some changes in his state.

Where is the change?

With the great revenge reported and the wish fulfilled, the hostility on him should be put down a lot.

A person stayed in this small town for ten years, all the people in the small town left, becoming an empty place.

This loneliness—

Will ghosts have a sense of loneliness?

He may not necessarily feel lonely, but from the external presentation, it is definitely a picture that is somewhat lonely.

So what is his state?

Heart like still water, or extreme indifference?

The image of Voldemort in *Harry Potter* popped up in Lu Yan He's mind, and the image of Gong Li in *The Monkey King 2* popped up. Those are places worth learning from. They are all characters who bring their own atmosphere as soon as they appear. Actors use many details of design to make this extreme character more extreme, and at the same time have real flesh and blood.

This is what Lu Yan He wants to present in his character.

Lu Yan He had done a lot of homework before joining the crew, but he didn't make a decision.

Every scene, how to act specifically—

Lu Yan He wants to leave it to the scene.

After the whole look is done, Lu Yan He is going to the filming site.

He followed his on-site director with Wang Biao and Zou Dong.

There was a camera recording the crew's filming following him.

Everyone he passed by, when looking at him, showed a look of shock.

Lu Yan He had already started to enter the character state at this time, no longer greeting people, becoming unsmiling and cold.

He arrived at the studio—

A small town real scene that was almost copied one-to-one, but it was processed, with traces of time, with a sense of ruin and dust.

Lu Yan He's gaze looked over inch by inch, and the psychological construction was also built up bit by bit.

Actors really need imagination.

Not only the imagination of the picture, but also the imagination of the character.

While looking at these real-scene buildings, Lu Yan He recalled his experience of filming in Canada, entered the ghost's state of mind, imagining that after the great revenge was reported, everyone in the small town moved away one after another because they were afraid of his existence. He stood in a place where others couldn't see, watching those people move in a panic.

A very complex, alienated and real emotion emerged spontaneously.

Then, it was these ten years.

The sun rises, the moon appears.

Spring, summer, autumn and winter, there are nights with strong winds, afternoons with heavy rain, and quiet moments when everything calms down.

He has been staying in this small town and has not left.

Why doesn't he leave?

What is he doing?

Suddenly dazed?

Other actors saw Lu Yan He coming, kept looking at the surrounding environment, treating everyone as nothing, expressionless, like covered in frost.

Lean Waters glanced at him, lowered his head, and continued to read the script in his hand.

Erin Wallace wore headphones, also sitting on her chair alone, occasionally saying a few words to the assistant beside her, just glancing at Lu Yan He from time to time.

Jason Potter asked Wang Jiaqi suspiciously.

"What is Lu doing?"

Wang Jiaqi: "This may be his way of preparation, every actor has his own way of preparing for a scene."

Jason Potter nodded thoughtfully.

Other actors also had different expressions.

For a time, no one went up to greet Lu Yan He—

Afraid of disturbing him.

Mukan finished communicating with the photographer about some things on the filming, and walked towards Lu Yan He.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

Lu Yan He still didn't change back to his Lu Yan He state, slightly with a bit of arrogance, and nodded.

Mukan: "Then it depends on your performance next."

Lu Yan He still didn't speak, just nodded his chin lightly.

Mukan turned around and smiled.

He filmed the first part with Lu Yan He and knew very well what state Lu Yan He was in now.

Just as Wang Jiaqi said, every actor has his own way of entering the state.

Lu Yan He is constantly strengthening his psychological construction in this way.

Mukan gave Lu Yan He another ten minutes before calling all the actors together to tell them the scene to be filmed later.

This scene, how to say it.

Mukan really loves this character and designed a very cool appearance for him in the script.

The ghost-catching team fled into this small town in a panic, in extreme fear, and then someone talked about the legend of this small town.

Halfway through the legend, the other ghost played by Lean Waters chased over.

When the ghost-catching team thought they were going to die here, there was a slow sound of footsteps on the stairs.

Lu Yan He appeared here—

Ghost walking down the stairs has no sound.

In Mukan's lens design, it is a series of changes in close-up lens switching.

The pale hand that first appeared on the handrail.

Expressionless, and vaguely revealing a "noble death feeling."

When the third sound of stepping on the stairs sounded, the lens cut to his feet. Lu Yan He's feet were not stepping on the stairs.

But there was a sound of footsteps.

Mukan gave this appearance, just the lens of walking down the stairs, there were nearly thirty seconds, up to a dozen lens switches.

The soundtrack for this part was done before filming.

Mukan found a speaker at the filming site to play it.

A slow melody with a clear rhythmic point but also "thriller in silence."

Lu Yan He likes Mukan's design.

He is indeed a genius in filming horror films.

The effect of appearance is the setting of the tone.

If the oppression of the Asian ghost in the first part came from his revenge psychology, the oppression of the Asian ghost in the second part comes from his horror strength, as well as the oppression and horror he produced for this batch of strangers because of strangeness.

Every design of Mukan is magnifying this point.

Lu Yan He prepared, walked through the play once, and waited at his point, waiting for Mukan to start filming.

Now, he will never worry about acting badly on the scene, or not knowing how to act.

When Lu Yan He stood on the stairs, he suddenly realized this point.

Recently thinking about picking out some wonderful clips, posting on DY, promoting it himself, looking at the content written before, there is a very narcissistic feeling—

The bad places in this book are really bad, but the good places are really good, with a unique language rhythm.

Wang Po sells melons, boasting about herself.

Alright, you can throw bricks. ===== CHAPTER 710 =====