Chapter 78: Shooting and Exhibiting

In March, Wu Yuchen also did one thing: finding an intermediary to help him register a film and television entertainment media company. Now it has been handled, referred to as Miracle Pictures.

This kind of early small film and television company is basically a shell company. Wu Yuchen just found a cheap office building, rented a small room, put a desk, and recruited an accountant, which was about it.

In the future, anything related to film and television can be handled through the company, and the reputation can also be slowly built up. He will have no shortage of brushing awards in the future.

*Coherence* still used 16mm film for shooting. This film doesn't need to pursue how clear the picture is; it mainly relies on sci-fi settings and suspenseful plots to win.

On the night of April 30th, in a rented villa, the *Coherence* crew officially started shooting.

Jiang Qinqin walked into the room and greeted her friends who had already arrived, seeing quite a few dishes already made on the table, and couldn't help but praise them.

Seeing Jiang Qinqin, Liu Mintao wanted to speak but stopped, bit her lip, and reminded Jiang Qinqin, who was taking off her windbreaker, beside her: "Amy, Wei Wei is also coming tonight. If you can't control yourself, I have sedative medicine here."

Jiang Qinqin was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly smiled and indicated that it wouldn't be the case. The rival relationship between her and Wei Wei was already a thing of the past and wouldn't cause conflict again.

Next, the remaining friends arrived, including Chen Shasha, who was dressed in a sexy red dress. She was Jiang Qinqin's former rival.

Looking at everyone's casual dress, she pretended to be surprised and covered her mouth, saying: "Am I dressed too formally?"

Seeing her pretentious look, one knew she was here to pick a fight.

"Cut! Very good, everyone's character characteristics are grasped in place this time, keep it up."

Wu Yuchen praised in his mouth, and started to grind for a while, mainly to let them find the character state. Everyone was well prepared, even Chen Shasha, whom he was a bit worried about, acted this sexy and pretentious red-dressed woman quite well.

Shooting started at 7 o'clock in the evening and lasted until 12:30. Seeing someone yawning, Wu Yuchen felt it was about time for today.

"Let's stop here for today. Everyone adjust their work and rest. We might shoot later tomorrow night."

All the scenes took place in the villa and near the villa, so they were shot in order. Today, a total of 15 minutes of scenes were shot. According to this speed, it would take about 6 days to finish. But Wu Yuchen felt that after the actors fully entered the state, it should be smoother.

The next night.

Sun Honglei wore glasses, his face was injured, and he had a band-aid on it. He raised his hands to show helplessness and said:

"It's not that I don't want to say it, it's that I'm afraid that if I say it, no one will believe me.

I just approached that house, and there was an identical table, wine glass, candle, and dishes inside, and around the dining table were the 8 of us! And 8 identical people were chatting and laughing!"

"What?!"

"Are you kidding!"

"Li Wei, did you get dizzy?"

"Li Wei, did you two just not recognize the way in the dark and walk around our own house?"

Everyone expressed disbelief.

"We are very sure and certain that we didn't walk in place!

We also don't need to make such a joke. The box was brought from over there!" Sun Honglei also said with some emotional excitement.

"Cut! Prepare for the next scene!"

This scene just now was to reveal to the audience that the existence of parallel space-time was confirmed.

Sure enough, as Wu Yuchen expected, by the second day, whether it was work and rest or state, everyone had adjusted to the right place. The shooting today was getting smoother and smoother, and some even passed in one or two takes.

Regarding the lines of this film, except for the introduction of "Schrödinger's Cat" through reading books, in fact, most of the lines were very life-like.

Therefore, Wu Yuchen didn't deduct it very finely this time, as long as the meaning was expressed in place. So some actors even spoke better than the original script lines when they felt good.

In fact, most of the scenes shot in one room are really a bit like a play. After a few people have a feeling on the stage, they will play better and better.

For the next three days, shooting from 7 o'clock every night to 2 o'clock in the morning, Wu Yuchen sent the shot film to be washed after shooting every night.

On the fifth night, in the lens, Sun Honglei held a piece of paper in his hand, his face flushed, and he shouted at Fu Dalong with excitement:

"Tell me, what is this?! You damn left a message telling me you slept with my girlfriend!"

Fu Dalong had a dog-like expression. This was a letter left by another self in a parallel space-time to Sun Honglei, exposing his secret.

At this time, someone wanted to come up to persuade Sun Honglei to be calm, but Sun Honglei suddenly roared:

"Who else knows about this?!"

Everyone was silent.

Sun Honglei turned his head and asked Gong Beibi, who was closest: "Lina, do you know?"

Gong Beibi nodded weakly.

"Amy, Rod, do you know?"

Jiang Qinqin and Huang Haibing opened their mouths and were speechless, but Sun Honglei knew they knew as soon as he saw it. He swept over the others and said angrily: "You damn all knew they were having an affair, and you just kept me in the dark alone?!"

Liu Mintao's face was terrified, and Fu Dalong was also embarrassed by Sun Honglei's accusation, directly spreading his hands and saying:

"Li Wei, I didn't sleep with your girlfriend!

Don't you understand yet? We don't even belong here. You, me, her, the people in this room, don't even belong to one world!"

Fu Dalong simply said the truth he had already figured out.

"You damn slept with my girlfriend, and you're still talking nonsense with me here?!" Sun Honglei was still furious.

"Don't believe it? If you don't believe it, take out your mobile phone and show everyone!" Fu Dalong shouted the same.

Sun Honglei took out a mobile phone that was intact, but the way everyone looked at him changed, because when they first came, their mobile phones were all broken.

At this time, Fu Dalong said again: "We each took out an item from the box at the beginning. What were yours?"

"Napkin."

"Gloves."

"Ping pong ball."

As a result, after a circle, everyone's was different, which showed that everyone was not from the same world.

But this Sun Honglei still didn't understand the situation in his anger:

"What the hell does this have to do with you sleeping with my girlfriend?!"

Fu Dalong was also anxious, waving his hands and roaring:

"Don't you understand? You are not the Li Wei of this world, she is not your girlfriend Anna, and the Mike who slept with your girlfriend is not me! We don't belong to the same world at all. Why are you losing your temper at me?!"

Everyone was silent. Sun Honglei breathed rapidly for a few times, his chest heaving. He understood now.

But he understood one more thing: no matter which world he was in, he was cuckolded by this damn Mike. Thinking of this, his eyes turned red, and after a roar of "fuck you," he rushed up and gave Fu Dalong a punch, and the two twisted together.

The scene was chaotic for a while. The red-dressed woman Chen Shasha fell beside Huang Haibing, pitifully selling misery to seduce him, and Huang Haibing also hugged Chen Shasha and asked if she was hurt.

And Jiang Qinqin saw all this in her eyes, disappointed with the reality of this world. Her eyes suddenly became gloomy and firm, and she silently opened the door and walked out. She wanted to cross that black area leading to other worlds, find a world among so many parallel worlds that satisfied her, have a boyfriend who loved her, have friends who supported each other, and kill that self to replace her!

"Cut!"

Up to here, basically all the group scenes were finished. Below, only Jiang Qinqin's solo scene of killing herself remained.

In fact, it was to find a female actor wearing the same wig as her. Whenever there were scenes with both women, they would choose angles or use props to cover them, only shooting one person's face.

After the scene where Jiang Qinqin smashed herself to death in the washroom was shot, the crew also welcomed the wrap-up.

Wu Yuchen looked at the time, 11 o'clock at night, but it might be because everyone had maintained night activity in the past few days, so everyone's state was very excited.

Wu Yuchen directly raised his hand and shouted: "Wrap-up banquet, late-night snack, let's go!"

Everyone cheered.

At the dinner table, Fu Dalong suddenly asked:

"Wu Dao, do you believe that human nature is evil?"

"Hmm?"

"I see your *Bus 44* is satirizing human nature. Although the setting of this *Coherence* is very novel, the core is still satirizing that people are selfish and self-interested, so I feel you are very interested in this kind of subject matter."

Wu Yuchen didn't even consider this question himself. Being said by Fu Dalong, he thought that he was his first feature film, not *Don't Want to Grow

"Haha, Senior Brother Dalong, I'm not taking a stance on whether human nature is inherently good or evil. No matter what a person is like at birth, they are bound to be tainted by both good and evil after walking this world, and in the end, it all depends on one's own cultivation.

Besides, my other film that hasn't finished shooting is a tribute to truth, goodness, and beauty!"

Everyone laughed upon hearing this: "Heh, Wu Dao, we are truly looking forward to seeing what your film praising truth, goodness, and beauty is like."

Seeing that everyone had started chatting, Jiang Wu asked casually: "Wu Dao, I'd like to ask what your plans are for this film later on?"

Wu Yuchen chuckled and didn't hide it: "Taking it to film festivals for screenings."

Jiang Wu nodded; now he understood the source of his confusion.

The film "Coherence" was shot in a villa area, and several of the characters even had cars. This made Jiang Wu feel that the film was a bit detached from the current standard of living of the Chinese people. But if it were taken to international film festivals for exhibition, it wouldn't be strange; foreigners' living standards are far higher than China's current ones, so they wouldn't find it odd at all.

Jiang Wu wouldn't think Wu Yuchen was fawning over foreigners either; after all, everyone plays this game now, including his brother Jiang Wen, whose "In the Heat of the Sun" had to win awards before it could sell high box office numbers; otherwise, if that film had been released directly in theaters, it would have flopped.

After the late-night snack ended, Jiang Qinqin generously took Wu Yuchen's arm and walked into a hotel. With shooting running so late every day these past few days, she certainly couldn't return to the dormitory and stayed outside with Wu Yuchen.

The current Jiang Qinqin wouldn't be as shy as she was a few months ago; young girls grow up too!

……

Wu Yuchen had decided on the strategy for "Coherence" right from the start: to participate in film festivals. And not just one, but many.

The three major European festivals have an unwritten rule that you can only participate in one of them, but those smaller film festivals further down the line don't have this rule; as long as you have the time and get selected, you are welcome to participate.

In terms of subject matter, "Coherence" is best suited for the three major international fantasy film festivals; the original version in his past life won an award at the Sitges Film Festival.

But Sitges doesn't happen until October, nearly half a year away, so Wu Yuchen planned to send a copy to several suitable film festivals in the second half of the year to increase the probability of finding a suitable buyer.

Actually, this is the normal operating model for low-budget independent films. For example, "Xiao Wu" participated in double-digit numbers of film festivals, both large and small, in one year. When Ning Hao shot "Incense," he also sent it to 10 film festivals and went to participate in 3 of them himself. These internationally certified film festivals cover your travel and accommodation expenses; otherwise, Ning Hao wouldn't have had the money to wander abroad for two or three months.

In mid-June, just after finishing his final exams at the Beijing Film Academy, Wu Yuchen boarded a flight to Australia.

The Sydney Film Festival was founded in 1954 and has a long history; it is the most influential film festival in Australia and takes place every June.

Wu Yuchen walked through the streets of Sydney with Jiang Qinqin, followed by a young man.

This person's name was Tang Yu, a senior student about to graduate from the film group, majoring in film production management. Wu Yuchen planned to recruit him into the company. His films would inevitably participate in various film festivals in the future, and the company would always need someone for external liaison. He couldn't handle going to some small film festivals for exhibitions all by himself, and often it's the producer who goes. Taking him abroad to participate in the film festival this time was for training.

Looking at the bustling crowd around him that felt like a festival, Tang Yu couldn't help but exclaim:

"I'd never even heard of this film festival back home; I didn't expect the scale to look so large."

Wu Yuchen smiled and introduced:

"Although the Sydney Film Festival isn't famous in China, it attracts nearly 100,000 viewers every year for its screenings.

And unlike the three major awards, it selects 10 best films from the participating entries. These 10 best films attract the attention of film distributors from both Britain and America, and there are often films that become blockbusters in Britain and America."

If Wu Yuchen remembered correctly, one of the films participating this year, "Shine," would become a blockbuster and go on to receive 7 nominations at next year's Oscars, sweeping the Best Actor award.

This was also Wu Yuchen's purpose for coming to the Sydney Film Festival; after all, one has to admit that British and American distributors are the wealthiest.

After listening, Tang Yu silently noted Wu Yuchen's words in his heart. Much of this information was something he hadn't been able to access at school; this entire trip was a real eye-opener.

Jiang Qinqin, standing to the side, also looked at Wu Yuchen with sparkling eyes; her boyfriend was truly knowledgeable!