Chapter 113: Lu Chuan Seeks a Scolding and Sniping at the New Painting Crown

The preparation stage of a film is a meticulous process that requires strategy; much like building a house and drafting blueprints, the issues that need to be considered are extremely cumbersome.

Hollywood films generally follow a U-shaped structure, with relatively long pre-production and post-production periods, while the actual filming time is not as long; regular film crews in Mainland China operate the same way.

However, when Wei Jin shoots a film, he does not strictly follow this process because all the imagery and shots are already in his mind; as long as he follows the storyboard strictly, his films are often shot very quickly.

Benefiting from the preparation experience of *Painted Skin*, the preparation for *Brotherhood of Blades* this time was very smooth, and the costumes and props were crafted with great detail; Wei Jin could not accept his work being shoddy.

After nearly a month of preparation, the actors also underwent over half a month of action training.

On September 21, *Brotherhood of Blades* officially started filming at the Huairou Film and Television Base.

The first day of filming attracted numerous media outlets for interviews; after briefly answering the reporters' questions, Wei Jin held the opening ceremony with the main cast and crew.

The investment for *Brotherhood of Blades* reached 50 million, of which Wei Jin converted 20 million from his director's fee into investment, while the actors' salaries were only 6 million.

As one of the Four Young Dan in Mainland China, Huang Xiaoming received a salary of 1.5 million; these days, male actors in Mainland China do not have as much commercial value as female actors.

Because Wu Jing also had the job of martial arts director and held the status of a Hong Kong actor, he was given a total of 2 million, which included the costs for the entire action team.

Hu Jun received 600,000, Zhao Wenzhuo 800,000, and Duan Long, who was not yet famous at the time, had an even cheaper salary of only 200,000; all other supporting actors combined totaled less than 1 million.

The scene being shot tonight is a night scene; as everyone knows, shooting night scenes is very difficult.

Two patrolling soldiers holding lanterns discover the Blades hiding in an alley, then immediately turn and flee.

The most important part of this scene is the creation of the environment and atmosphere; when the protagonist appears under the faint firelight, he reveals the aura of a night-stalking god of death.

"Cut!"

Wei Jin looked at the shot on the monitor and frowned:

"Brother Xiaoming, the expression is wrong. Shen Lian is set as a tragic and serious little man."

"Sorry, Director, I'll adjust."

It was Huang Xiaoming's first time filming with Wei Jin, and he felt a bit embarrassed.

"It's fine, night scenes are inherently hard to shoot; it'll be better after a few more takes. But you need to get into the state and not be affected by outside matters."

After *The Banquet* was released, both its reputation and box office collapsed.

The film's opening day box office was 12 million, and over the first four-day weekend, amidst the jeers of the audience, it took in 55 million.

This result looks decent, but compared to either *Painted Skin* or *Time-Space Cohabitation*, it is far behind, and it cannot even compare to *Hero* or *Kung Fu Hustle* from a few years ago.

Judging from the first-week results, the industry could roughly estimate the final box office of *The Banquet*; what was even more miserable was that the copyright did not sell for much money, so compared to the 20 million USD production cost, losing money was inevitable.

"Director, you're joking. I was just the third male lead in *The Banquet*; what do the box office and reputation have to do with me?"

Huang Xiaoming smiled nonchalantly; he was quite open-minded about it.

"That's true. I heard Director Feng was hit hard and has been much more low-key lately."

The actors on set also began to discuss this matter; it seems many people cannot stand Feng Dapao's big mouth.

Seeming to think of Feng Dapao's frustrated look, Wei Jin was also a bit amused, but he still put the filming task first:

"Alright, is everyone ready? All camera positions ready, action."

The film *Brotherhood of Blades* cannot be called particularly stunning, but it looks good in every aspect and belongs to the category of films with a relatively high comprehensive index.

Although it is not like those classic films that make people ponder repeatedly, it is still watchable if you watch it once or twice more.

Of course, it is not without flaws, such as the characters being relatively repressed, and the male lead not even being particularly likable, which feels a bit awkward.

Perhaps it cannot be called awkward, because the film is about little people in ancient times muddling through the officialdom, which is inherently a difficult struggle for survival.

Therefore, Wei Jin also made some modifications to the plot to facilitate potential sequels; for example, the final ending where the male lead and Ding Xiu chase down the villain and face off against the Qing soldiers always felt abrupt in the original version, as if it were forced in. In this version, Wei Jin added some foreshadowing in earlier scenes so that the audience could understand that the villain had long been colluding with the outside of the pass, minimizing this sense of abruptness.

After finishing the day's filming, Wei Jin returned to his room, and not long after, Liu Yan came in with her room card.

As the soul of the crew, the director works so hard all day; as the lead actress, Liu Yan naturally had to come to help the director soothe his emotions and relax his body. However, this scene was seen by the new Assistant, Bai Bin.

At this moment, she finally understood why Wei Jin's assistant would be favored. "Wu Jing, what is wrong with you? Is this the level of an action actor?"

"Huang Xiaoming, hold that expression!"

"..."

Seeing the director lose his temper, everyone on the crew was confused. Everything was fine a few days ago, and there didn't seem to be any major problems today; what was going on? Seeming to sense the thoughts of the crowd, Wei Jin also felt he had gone a bit too far.

"Sorry, everyone take a half-hour break."

Wei Jin stood up and left the monitor, went to the motorhome, and fell into deep thought: he had been reminding Huang Xiaoming a few days ago not to be affected by outside matters, and he didn't expect it to be his turn today; Wei Jin mocked himself slightly.

However, it was not unreasonable for Wei Jin to be angry; these past two days, two idiots had been publicly attacking him in the media.

That dog-basket Zhang Weiping stated to the media at the promotional conference for *Curse of the Golden Flower*: "As a top-tier director in the country, Zhang Yimou's achievements in art are obvious to all, and his commercial achievements are second to none. By what right is the qualification for the Oscars handed to a young kid? Does his achievement compare to Zhang Yimou's? Are there not enough examples of 'wasted talent'?"

His words were full of dissatisfaction with Wei Jin, even questioning if there was a dark secret behind the selection.

The reason was simple: *Room* had officially received this year's quota for the Oscars.

After receiving support from the Film Bureau, Wei Jin took the time to visit his mentor Tian Zhuangzhuang and the Academy's Dean Zhang; after the older generation stepped in to operate, the qualification was finally set, and the overseas path to the Oscars had already begun.

This move really pissed off Zhang Weiping; one must know that the benefits brought by an Oscar-contending film are not small, and Wei Jin was blocking Zhang Weiping's path to wealth.

That would be one thing, as there is a conflict of interest, but the other idiot was someone Wei Jin never expected.

Lu Chuan, who also graduated from the Beijing Film Academy's Director Department and was Wei Jin's senior, actually also publicly stated:

"A great director should still focus on shooting proper films; always making small-budget productions to attract attention is of no help to the development of the industry."

This guy's statement seemed to be jealous of the results achieved by *Time-Space Cohabitation*, but in reality, he was taking sides with Zhang Weiping, saying that Wei Jin had no contribution to the film industry and that the Oscar qualification should not have been given to him.

This moronic move by Lu Chuan made Wei Jin laugh in anger. A second-rate director who relied on his family's legacy dared to point fingers at him? Wei Jin did not indulge Lu Chuan's moronic behavior and directly had the company issue a notice:

"Our company solemnly declares: Under no circumstances will we ever cooperate with directors suspected of plagiarism."

Once these words were out, it directly broke Lu Chuan's defense; Wei Jin was alluding to the plagiarism incident involving Lu Chuan's *Kekexili*.

In June of this year, Lu Chuan was sued; a director named Liu Yujun believed that the *Kekexili* shot by Lu Chuan was suspected of plagiarizing his work *Me and the Tibetan Antelope—The Glacier Flowed Here*, and sued Lu Chuan in court.

Although the matter eventually did not cause much of a stir under the pressure of several major investors of *Kekexili* and a group of old fogies in the circle, people in the circle regarded this matter as a joke.

Someone else had been shooting the documentary since '91 and it took ten years to film, yet Lu Chuan's *Kekexili* was filmed in '04, and the plot conception, creative scenes, on-site atmosphere, visual background, shot composition, and even the dialogue were exactly the same; did he really think insiders were all fools?

Lu Chuan is a half-baked director, so Wei Jin insulting him was fine; would the Academy really stand up for him? However, that guy Zhang Weiping is a businessman; arguing with him would only increase the heat for *Curse of the Golden Flower* and would not be a loss for him.

Wei Jin was certainly not a broad-minded person; after pondering for a moment, he took out his phone:

"General Manager Yang, let's schedule Ip Man for the New Year Slot; we can coordinate the specific release dates later."

"Lao Chen, let's schedule Room for the New Year Slot, and have North America follow suit simultaneously."

"General Manager Han, help me look at the screening schedule for the New Year Slot. It's nothing major, I just find Zhang Weiping unpleasant and I need to send him a big gift."

This time, Wei Jin intended to snipe Curse of the Golden Flower from both the front and the back, to let Zhang Weiping know not to speak loudly to him. I've worked myself to the bone today; here is the second update. I beg the big bosses to subscribe to the latest chapters; the editor needs to see the follow-read data to provide recommendations. Nineteen bows in thanks.

(End of this chapter)