Chapter 709

Being able to earn money, Jin Li is naturally happy.

But some things don't need to be dragged out at all, and having to drag them out until overtime is required is actually a bit of a waste of her time.

Once money is earned to a certain amount, it's just a string of numbers; one's personal time is even more precious.

Following the shooting progress of "Nianhua," if it continues at one set per day like this, even if they are willing to pay a huge amount of overtime, Jin Li is unwilling to waste any more time.

There are less than seven days left before she has to start school.

And before school starts, she still has to participate in brand activities for Fang Fei, Rumengling, and Yajun Watches.

Although brand activities don't require consuming too much physical energy, at the very least, she has to stay at the venue for two or three hours.

This back-and-forth also destined that on the day she participates in the activities, she won't be able to rush to the "Nianhua" shoot.

Therefore, the shooting for "Nianhua" must be accelerated.

This is for the October cover, and it's not even September yet.

If Nianhua's progress remains this slow, then Jin Li can only drag out the shooting on her end.

Changing from having relatively ample time to only being free on weekends after school starts.

After chatting with Gu Cheng, Jin Li thought for a moment and called Fang Jie.

She asked: "You said yesterday you were going to negotiate with Nianhua; how did it go?"

Sui Lingfang sighed: "Not very well. The explanation they gave is that they want to strive for perfection, and shooting one set per day is already a very fast speed; this way, they can better guarantee quality.

I demanded they shoot two sets per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but they didn't agree."

Jin Li: "But the contract we signed only gives them a maximum of five days of shooting time. If the shooting is extended, additional fees need to be paid, and that fee isn't cheap."

Sui Lingfang said helplessly: "Right, I told them the same thing, but the result was that Nianhua's people replied to me that they would rather pay overtime than delay the shooting."

Jin Li:...

Four words floated into her mind again:

It's just very magical.

Jin Li said calmly: "They can afford to drag it out, but I can't. I have three more brand announcements coming up. I originally planned to finish the Nianhua shoot early before going to participate in those.

Even if I can't finish the shoot ahead of schedule, according to the dates in the contract, as long as the shooting is completed within the stipulated time, I will still have time to participate in those three brand activities.

Now Nianhua insists on extending the time, but my announcements cannot be postponed."

Jin Li paused and mused: "Tell them about my announcements. I will only shoot for them until the date stipulated in the contract; after that, the shooting time needs to be negotiated separately.

After I start school, I will only have time on weekends. If they are willing to wait for my weekends, then they can shoot for as long as they want, even if it's until the weekends in October."

The release date for "Nianhua" is October 13th, staggered from the release times of other top magazines.

Sui Lingfang was also thinking about this problem and happened to want to call Jin Li to communicate and see if they could find a way.

This was the first time she had encountered a client willing to keep paying overtime to delay the schedule.

After all, given Jin Li's current price, the overtime pay is really not cheap.

If Nianhua keeps dragging it out like this, all the overtime pay they give would be enough to hire another first-tier star to shoot for the magazine.

Sui Lingfang thought for a few seconds and nodded: "Let's do it this way. If Nianhua is really willing to wait for your weekends after school starts, then I'll give up all the weekend announcements and use them for their shooting."

She smiled, "After all, your overtime pay is really not cheap; it's equivalent to participating in an announcement."

Jin Li also smiled.

If Nianhua is willing to accept such conditions, then she has nothing more to say.

In her view, Nianhua's staff is far from releasing their potential; many problems were not thought of in advance and were only solved on the day they were discovered.

This is too much of a waste of time.

Students know to preview before going to class; Nianhua cannot use the excuse of complicated arrangements to skip the preparation stage.

She is prepared to go on set at any time, but others cannot do it.

The next day, Sui Lingfang took Jin Li to Nianhua's shooting location.

Sui Lingfang asked: "How many sets do you have left to finish?"

Jin Li: "Seven sets left. What did they say on their end? Are they still deciding to extend the shooting with overtime?"

She has to shoot 10 sets for Nianhua in total, but the contract was signed for 5 days, and it is already the 4th day.

For a top star, spending a day shooting two outfits for Nianhua is already giving them a lot of face.

Because top stars have busy schedules, many stars' teams will propose requirements such as only shooting for a certain amount of time, and one set must be completed within an hour.

Jin Li's team naturally also proposed this requirement, and it was also very detailed: how much time is shot must be given to Jin Li for rest.

But out of trust in Nianhua, they didn't hold too strictly to the working hours.

Even if the time was exceeded, the overtime pay was already planned.

But no one expected that Nianhua really intended to honestly pay out overtime for more than five days.

Sui Lingfang: "I'm going over today to talk to their contact person and change to someone with greater authority to talk to me.

The current contact person's authority is too small. When I bring up our requirements, the contact person says they need to transfer it to the leader to look at, and then there's no sound.

So I'm not sure if they agree to our requirements or if they intend to finish shooting quickly in these two days."

Jin Li shook her head: "With seven sets left and only two days, having to shoot more than three sets a day, it's absolutely impossible to finish; it definitely has to be postponed.

If it's only postponed for two days, I can still find time, but if they insist on postponing for five days, then they can only wait for my weekends after school starts."

Arriving at the headquarters of "Nianhua," Jin Li was already very skilled at going to the dressing room to wait.

The makeup artist appeared on time at 9:30, not early or late, just right.

She greeted Jin Li, immediately coiled her hair, first did a simple style, and then did the makeup.

After the full set of makeup was done, she had to continue styling.

Just this step alone usually takes anywhere from two to three hours.

But Jin Li didn't feel irritable about this process.

Nianhua really strives for perfection in makeup and styling; the effect after slow work and careful production is very stunning in photos. Even Jin Li couldn't help but look twice when she saw herself in the mirror.

Quite rare.

It's not that she hasn't shot period dramas, nor hasn't shot advertisements related to ancient styles, but Nianhua is the only one that does it so meticulously, with all accessories restored.

Just for this craftsmanship spirit, Jin Li won't have any opinions when doing makeup and styling.

Ancient noblewomen needed several people to serve them; that is true, some clothing is really cumbersome.

However.

After the beautiful makeup and styling were finally done, but the shooting was dawdling, Jin Li didn't want to endure it anymore.

Even if Gu Cheng hadn't told her to be a bit more assertive, Jin Li was planning to bring it up to her manager.

While Jin Li was doing makeup and styling, on the other side, Sui Lingfang went directly to the editor-in-chief of Nianhua.

She thought to herself: Jin Se's editor-in-chief has such great authority, so Nianhua's editor-in-chief should be about the same.

As a result, when she reported the relevant problems to the editor-in-chief and saw the editor-in-chief's panicked expression, Sui Lingfang realized one thing:

Not every top magazine's editor-in-chief has such great authority.

This has to do with the brand's operating method, internal power structure, etc.

"Nianhua's" editor-in-chief is indeed better than other ordinary workers, but what she can decide is only the style of this magazine.

And there are many things about magazine operations, marketing, and other processes that the editor-in-chief cannot decide.

Nianhua's editor-in-chief's authority lies more in setting the style of the magazine, determining what makeup Jin Li should use, what clothes... grasping the aesthetics of the magazine.

But when it needs to be shot, and within how much time it must be completed, that is not her authority.

It can be said that Nianhua's editor-in-chief has never managed these things.

Seeing that she couldn't give a clear answer, Sui Lingfang pointed directly to the core:

"Jin Li's announcements are all arranged according to the dates stipulated in the contract. She must finish shooting tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow she has to participate in other announcements.

If Nianhua cannot finish shooting here, besides having to pay her a large amount of overtime, she will try her best to cooperate with Nianhua's time for shooting.

But here it refers to trying her best to cooperate, not forced cooperation. Jin Li doesn't have enough time, and if you cannot finish shooting within the two-day extension, you can only wait for her weekends after school starts."

Hearing this, the editor-in-chief also realized the severity of the problem.

Jin Li is different from other artists; she has to return to school to study and only comes out for activities during winter and summer vacations.

Her window period is far more than other artists.

And you can't turn around and say Jin Li is acting like a big shot.

Not to mention in the industry, who on the entire internet doesn't know Jin Li is a student at Qingbei?

Could you criticize Jin Li because she refuses to skip Qingbei's classes and not participate in your announcement?

The editor-in-chief's expression changed, and she asked with hope: "Can't you find more time?"

Sui Lingfang said expressionlessly: "Why don't you go talk to the professors at Qingbei and let them grant Jin Li a few more days of leave?"

Editor-in-chief:...

Where would I have that kind of face?

The fashion circle is not worth mentioning in front of the top academic circle.

Editor-in-chief: "Can't you give a few more days?"

Sui Lingfang shook her head: "There are two days left until the date stipulated in the contract. We will extend it for another two days for you. In my opinion, a total of four days to shoot seven outfits is completely enough.

If Nianhua is short-handed, why not see if you can transfer more people to help?"

Speaking of this, her expression was quite a bit of "hating iron for not becoming steel."

The time has been given to you as much as possible; it's Nianhua itself that is not living up to expectations!

If it really drags until the weekend after school starts to come and shoot, not to mention how much time it will take to rearrange the scene, this floor cannot be used only for Jin Li's shooting forever.

At other times, it also has to undertake other shooting tasks.

Just say that the shooting mood cannot be done in one go, and having to get stuck every week, I believe everyone feels uncomfortable.

Except for Jin Li.

As a professional actor, Sui Lingfang believes that Jin Li will not be affected during shooting and can enter the state very quickly.

Then, the problem comes.

Since there is an actor who enters the state so quickly, Nianhua can still drag the shooting into this state; they are also a talent.

Sui Lingfang couldn't directly say, is there something wrong with your photographer?

Are your staff related to photography all workplace slackers, used to slacking off in the workplace, able to get by one day at a time?

She said euphemistically: "If your photographers are not enough, I have a few good photographers here.

These photographers have all shot photos for the four major top magazines in other countries. I can help you ask if they have time to come and help out in an emergency."

Even if the editor-in-chief was stupid, she could hear the complaints in Sui Lingfang's words.

She just thinks Nianhua's photographers are not good enough!

The editor-in-chief thought for a while and actually didn't say it was impossible, but said:

"I need to report it upwards, and I will give you news soon. Today, no, I can give you news at noon, you wait a bit longer."

Sui Lingfang nodded: "Okay."

On the other side, Jin Li was doing makeup and styling, and the makeup artist was chatting with her.

After getting along for the first three days, the makeup artist was already quite familiar with Jin Li.

The makeup artist likes Jin Li's personality very much and will always tell her gossip about stars in the circle, but Jin Li usually just smiles and doesn't echo.

The makeup artist is not surprised; not every star is very keen on eating melons.

And she thinks the reason Jin Li has a good personality is that she respects everyone.

Even if it is a peer, or a peer with a lot of black material, she will respect them.

Because she hasn't been in contact with others, she holds the attitude of "not knowing the full picture, not commenting," and doesn't easily comment on others.

This made the makeup artist's favorability rise, and she liked chatting with Jin Li even more.

Because she is sure that Jin Li won't sell her out.

She likes chatting with this kind of star with morals and character; she doesn't have to worry about thunder.

The makeup artist chatted and chatted, although most of the time she was talking to herself, she suddenly thought of something and said:

"Jin Li, what do you think of Photographer Chen?"

Jin Li asked calmly: "What do you mean by what do I think?"

Makeup artist: "It's Photographer Chen's professional ability. What do you think of the photos he takes?"

Jin Li: "Usually I only listen to the photographer's suggestions. Whatever he wants me to shoot, I shoot. After shooting, I won't watch the photos too much, so as not to lose the stunning feeling of seeing the finished product later."

Makeup artist: "So that's it. I said why you have such a good temper, and you didn't get angry after shooting for so long."

Jin Li: "It was shot for a long time, but I saw that you all didn't seem to care, so I didn't ask."

Makeup artist: "It's not that I don't care, but I'm already numb. Anyway, I've already been tossed to the point of having no temper.

I am a makeup artist. You stars don't rest, and we can't rest either. I have to stay and follow the makeup throughout the process."

Jin Li understood. Right, this makeup artist has also been quite hard these past few days.

Whenever she finishes work, the other person also finishes work.

Jin Li took the initiative to ask: "Hearing you say this, are you still in the process of running-in with the photographer?"

Makeup artist: "You could say that. This photographer suddenly parachuted into the headquarters last month, squeezing out several other big photographers. It is said that the boss dug him out from the outside with a lot of money."

When she said this, she subconsciously turned her head and looked around.

Looking at the empty room, she recalled that this was Jin Li's exclusive dressing room. Except for the manager and assistant, no second person would come in, so she felt relieved.

The makeup artist whispered: "Anyway, I think this photographer takes photos no differently from other big photographers, and it's much slower.

He seems to always have many uncertain places, so he has to slow himself down and feel like he is refining it bit by bit."

"We discussed privately that this photographer looks quite like a certain chairman in the company. It is said that he was also recruited by this director at the beginning."

"But the son the director announced to the outside world does not include him, and the photographer's mother's name is not the director's wife's name, but the photographer happens to have the same surname as the director."

The makeup artist didn't sell the pass and directly said the answer: "We all suspect that the photographer is that director's illegitimate son!"

Jin Li:...

She just wanted to finish taking photos well, but didn't expect to hear such a big melon.