Chapter 691

It would have been fine if Sister Fang hadn't said anything, but now that she had, Seeing Jin Li was actually a bit curious about his promotional methods.

After all, this is a movie, which is quite different from a TV drama.

In movie promotion, roadshow promotion occupies a very large portion.

Some more powerful film and television crews will frequently have actors participate in various magazine shoots just to help promote the movie.

Seeing Jin Li had done this too; as long as it could promote the movie, she basically cooperated.

It's just that she had been too busy in the past year, and her popularity and heat had created a huge gap with other actors, so it wouldn't be appropriate for her to participate anymore.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have refused the director's request.

Seeing Jin Li guessed: "Is this director more skilled at online promotion rather than offline?"

Sui Lingfang nodded, a smile on her face: "Director Xu's luck can be said to be good, or it can be said to be bad."

"He started by filming youth movies and has already filmed several. The actors he collaborated with were basically top-tier celebrities, which looks like he has quite good luck."

"But you also know that top-tier celebrities have very full schedules. Even if a movie is about to be released and needs promotion, top-tier celebrities might not be able to find the time to promote it together."

"Moreover, some top-tier celebrities just treat filming a movie as testing the waters to see the audience's reaction; they aren't very willing to take the lead at the box office, nor will they put special effort into promoting it."

"Unless it's a drama that even the top-tier celebrity themselves is very optimistic about, but this situation is often rare. After all, they also know they are newcomers, and for the first drama they film, their acting skills haven't reached that level."

Seeing Jin Li nodded. As a former top-tier celebrity, she could understand the concerns of these top-tier celebrities.

A few years ago, the film industry borrowed the influence of top-tier celebrities and tried to use idol stars to carry the box office.

As it turned out, because the idols' acting skills were too poor and only fans paid for it, several large investment projects actually lost money.

And once the box office performance was poor, the top-tier celebrity's acting skills would be pushed out and repeatedly whipped by investors, directors, production teams, and netizens.

The public opinion was so intense that it once made people think that the top-tier celebrity was the one who caused the drama's box office to fail miserably.

But is that really the case?

In a movie, the actor is the carrier of expression; if their acting is not good, they indeed cannot express the movie's emotions.

However, the movie's composition, lighting, plot continuity, editing... these are not things an actor can do well just by relying on god-like acting skills.

Therefore, a movie's box office failure is definitely not just a problem with the actor's acting skills, but involves many aspects.

But who asked top-tier celebrities to be more influential, receive high pay, and have strong influence?

Once the box office fails, they will be pushed out by the production team to take the blame and bear all the infamy.

Top-tier celebrities were bullied too much in those few years, which led to the subsequent new top-tier celebrities holding a cautious attitude toward entering the film industry.

Even if someone wants to try to transform, they are just testing the waters a little bit and will never say anything like "highly recommend" to avoid being pushed out to take the blame.

Sui Lingfang said: "Because many top-tier celebrities are not active in promotion, Director Xu has specifically studied how to hype up online promotion."

"In the case of top-tier celebrities not showing up, he can still borrow the influence of top-tier celebrities to hype up the movie's popularity."

Seeing Jin Li asked: "For example?"

Sui Lingfang smiled meaningfully and instead threw out a question.

"Do you know what kind of dramas this Director Xu filmed before he officially entered the film industry to film movies?"

Seeing Jin Li shook her head, "I only know that he is an authority on youth inspirational films and is a director who has filmed quite brilliantly in this genre in recent years; otherwise, investors wouldn't have chosen him."

Sui Lingfang announced the answer: "This Director Xu actually filmed documentaries before."

"Precisely because the documentaries he filmed, whether about animals or humanities, had a sense of beauty in the frames and shots, netizens said there was beauty in the composition, which is why others took a fancy to him and let him film movies."

The investment for Director Xu's first movie was actually raised for him by fans of his documentaries.

Seeing Jin Li was a bit surprised, "He actually filmed documentaries."

Sui Lingfang was also curious: "I see that your relationship with Director Xu in the production team is good. He often chats with me on WeChat, asking me how the movie can enter overseas markets, and his words imply he is very familiar with you. How come you don't know?"

Seeing Jin Li's eyes curved slightly as she smiled: "In the production team, he probably only thinks about how to torture me."

Sui Lingfang:?

Seeing Jin Li said lightly: "I communicate with him a lot in the production team, but it's all about communicating how to use different ways to act out this scene."

"You also know the few conditions I put to him; he has a strong sense of crisis and will discuss with me from time to time, afraid that I will replace him."

"Other than that, we didn't talk about anything unrelated to the script, so I didn't know he was originally a documentary filmmaker."

Sui Lingfang thought of the scene when she and Seeing Jin Li approached him, and the shock on the faces of the screenwriter and Director Xu after they heard the conditions they proposed.

Well, in that situation, for them, it might indeed have been a bit horrifying and hard to understand.

It is estimated that they had never encountered such an actor who reverse-urged the director to be more serious and responsible.

Seeing Jin Li didn't care about such things.

Being in the production team is for filming; as long as the filming can go smoothly and everyone works together, it doesn't matter what the director did before.

She thought along the information Sister Fang gave, and a flash of inspiration crossed her mind, saying:

"Is it because he is a documentary filmmaker, so besides filming movies, he also likes to film all kinds of records, so he accumulated a lot of material while we were filming?"

"Is Director Xu planning to edit these materials together, release them one by one, and use them as promotional points?"

Sui Lingfang exclaimed admiringly: "Sure enough, I can't hide anything from you. That's right, that's it."

"I checked Director Xu's information and how the youth movies he filmed before were promoted. He used the method of releasing behind-the-scenes footage."

"Using behind-the-scenes footage for promotion is very common, but the behind-the-scenes footage he releases is particularly different."

"In order not to let the audience lose their sense of freshness, he never releases behind-the-scenes footage related to the movie's content, but releases the daily lives of the actors."

"He is very good at capturing beautiful scenery and composition, so the behind-the-scenes footage he films is very beautiful. Many audiences decided to walk into the cinema to watch the story of their performance after watching the behind-the-scenes footage and feeling a unique bond between the two actors."

Seeing Jin Li suddenly thought of something and asked hesitantly: "His behind-the-scenes footage, could it be so beautiful that netizens think it's filming an MV?"

Sui Lingfang snapped her fingers and said affirmatively: "That's right, that's it."

"And because the behind-the-scenes footage he edited was so beautiful, even though the top-tier celebrity knew he was hyping up the movie's popularity, they let him be, because the behind-the-scenes footage was really beautiful."

"The behind-the-scenes footage becoming popular also has a promotional effect on the top-tier celebrity."

When Seeing Jin Li heard this, she just held a mentality of watching the show and didn't think much about it.

Little did she know that in the next second, Sister Fang changed the subject and said with some worry:

"The behind-the-scenes footage edited by this director is as beautiful as an MV. I'm not worried that he will lose his standard in this editing; I'm worried that he will edit you and Gu Cheng too beautifully, causing the CP fans to be too obsessed."

"Your CP fans are already very strong. Even though it hasn't been made public, that group of CP fans has already defaulted to you being together."

"Even because you just live in the same apartment building, they have defaulted to you two living together."

Seeing Jin Li couldn't help but cough a few times.

The content of this topic was still a bit explosive for her.

She and Gu Cheng are so pure; at least they haven't lived together.

Sui Lingfang looked at Seeing Jin Li's reaction, her face was already a bit red, and she sighed in her heart again.

Maybe it's a mother-in-law's mentality of looking at a son-in-law; she now finds Gu Cheng more and more unpleasant to look at.

She said: "Fortunately, this director only hypes up online promotion and doesn't ask celebrities to participate in offline activities much."

"You and Gu Cheng have great chemistry. Zhang Guang and I are trying our best to avoid you two attending activities together, just afraid that the chemistry between you two will be exposed and make netizens and reporters think too much."

Seeing Jin Li said in a low voice: "There is an activity for Yajun Watches tomorrow, and Gu Cheng will attend as the national spokesperson."

Sui Lingfang smiled slightly: "I know, so I have already communicated with the director of 'Leisurely Slow Life' in advance."

"Tomorrow, when you two attend the brand activity, he will follow and film the whole process. With the camera there, it can also give you a reminder to pay more attention to your image."

Seeing Jin Li nodded and said confidently: "Don't worry, he should be very busy tomorrow; I guess he won't have time to find me."

At this time, Seeing Jin Li had completely forgotten what Gu Cheng said earlier about wanting her to follow him and introduce her to the senior management of Yajun Watches.

But Seeing Jin Li forgot, while Gu Cheng did not.

The next day, as one of the most important spokespersons for the 【Gift】 series of Yajun Watches, he arrived at the event site very early.

Today he has to stay at the brand event venue all day.

But Seeing Jin Li only needs to stay for two hours before she has to attend the next brand event.

So the time the two can meet is actually not much, and the schedule is very hurried.

The ideas of Sui Lingfang and Zhang Guang are actually quite good; normal people wouldn't think that doing this would go wrong.

They were afraid that Seeing Jin Li and Gu Cheng would get along too familiarly and have too much chemistry in public, to the point of exposing some things, so they specifically asked the director of "Leisurely" to film them.

With the camera there, it can remind them to some extent.

But what they didn't expect was that the director of "Leisurely" actually took the lead in shipping the CP!

The ultimate betrayal comes from a teammate's backstab!

After filming the three members of March Day and Pink Girls, the director of "Leisurely" keenly discovered that there were subtle chemical reactions between three pairs.

Although he hadn't filmed a dating show, people's capture of beauty is the same.

That subtle emotion between each other, the careful and considerate small actions, the cooperation and chemistry in behavior... are all a kind of beauty!

So after he arrived at the scene, he didn't even need Gu Cheng to take the initiative to find Seeing Jin Li.

Instead, as soon as Seeing Jin Li arrived, the director discovered her first and immediately reminded Gu Cheng to hurry up and pick her up.

After picking her up, the director even teased: "How come the greeting feels so stiff? Didn't you meet at school before and take a big class together?"

"I understand, you are deliberately avoiding it in front of the camera, right? Don't do that. We are filming a slow variety show, and we need to show the audience your chemistry and friendship like old friends. Come on, get closer!"

Seeing Jin Li was still remembering Sister Fang's instructions, but after being interrupted by the director, she basically forgot everything.

The director also said without fear of chaos: "Why don't you hug each other to break the unfamiliar atmosphere between you?"

Seeing Jin Li/Gu Cheng:...

Only someone who truly believes in your evil would hug!

Gu Cheng turned to Seeing Jin Li and said, "I'll take you around; I have a few friends I want to introduce to you."

Seeing Jin Li thought Gu Cheng was introducing the senior management of Yajun. After all, he had mentioned it before, but when he really took her to another place, she realized he was introducing his friends.

And among his friends, not a single one was a celebrity.

Gu Cheng said it like this: "The other members of March Day are enough as friends. Living with them every day is especially noisy, and I have no desire to communicate with other celebrities."

"Moreover, celebrities' work is too busy, and there are very few you can confide in. Occasionally, when you meet a few who want to confide in you, you will think others have ulterior motives and are deliberately approaching you."

Seeing Jin Li greeted Gu Cheng's friends in real life one by one, and then was taken by him to another place, intending to introduce her to the senior management of Yajun.

Gu Cheng said it was to say hello, and he really just took her to say hello.

Seeing Jin Li didn't even get to chat with those people for a few sentences before being taken away by Gu Cheng.

The speed was so fast that Seeing Jin Li was a bit dazed.

"Then how did you make these friends in real life? They aren't celebrities. Looking at their temperament, they all look like workplace elites."

Gu Cheng nodded: "Some of them work in the fashion industry, some are accompanying their wives to attend brand activities—their wives are loyal fans of Yajun Watches—and some have spent enough at Yajun, so they were invited."

He paused, "Actually, you have met them at the brand activities you attended these past few days."

"It's just that they know you, but you don't know them. They wanted to say hello to you, so they urged me to bring you to recognize them."

Gu Cheng chuckled: "These people aren't friends I made after becoming a celebrity; they are my elementary, middle, and high school classmates. My relationship with them is pretty good, and the relationship between our parents is also okay."

Seeing Jin Li suddenly realized and smiled: "No wonder, I felt for a moment that your temperament was quite similar to theirs."

Gu Cheng asked curiously: "How is it similar?"

Seeing Jin Li: "Both are relatively noble, with a feeling of a young master from a wealthy family."

Some people's temperament endows them with this unique feeling.

This is something that can be felt in daily life, which is different from the feeling that celebrities perform.

Celebrities perform a kind of temperament, which will be enhanced through makeup, scenes, and clothing, bringing a strong visual impact to the audience and preemptively determining that kind of temperament, so that the character image will become clearer and clearer as the plot progresses.

This process is also a process of domesticating the audience's senses.

But Gu Cheng's friends are not.

Their noble temperament emanates from their bones, permeated by years of fine food and clothing, conduct, and countless successes... the nobility and elegance.

Gu Cheng disagreed, "They just have a high starting point given by their families; it's not as good as you say. In my eyes, your temperament is much more noble than theirs."

Seeing Jin Li smiled.

After the two left, Gu Cheng's friends were also discussing them.

"Just said hello, introduced the names, and Gu Cheng took her away?"

"Was it three minutes?"

"No!"

"Tsk, Gu Cheng, this evil dragon, this miser!"

"I haven't even expressed to Seeing Jin Li that I'm her fan! This person, once he heard I've liked Seeing Jin Li for many years, didn't even give me Seeing Jin Li's autograph. Damn it!"