Chapter 34: Stepped Advertising

The film's preparation is progressing rapidly; the exterior locations have been selected, the script has been filed with the Youth Film Studio, and the remaining props are being rushed to completion, with an expected finish in just three to five days.

Regarding the cast, the leads have been set: Liu Ye as the male lead and Yu Feihong as the female lead.

This time, Cao Yang didn't dare to pull any stunts, fearing a repeat of the situation with Li Xiaoran.

However, while waiting for the props these past few days, he has been spending time with Liu Ye and Yu Feihong every day, having them read the script thoroughly, share their interpretations, and then correcting them while explaining what kind of story this is.

This process could be called a script read-through, but since it only involves the two leads, it goes beyond the scope of a standard read-through; Cao Yang is forcing his own perspective upon them to prevent them from misinterpreting it.

This film is somewhat unusual because the leads have almost no dialogue, relying entirely on their performances; even a slight difference in interpretation would lead to vastly different results on screen.

Cao Yang is determined to break it down and explain it in detail to ensure they understand his intent.

Liu Ye and Yu Feihong are two completely different types of actors.

Upon first learning there was no dialogue, Yu Feihong's first reaction was that the film would be easy to shoot, as she wouldn't need to memorize lines or think about what expression to use for every sentence.

Liu Ye's reaction was one of worry; he knew his current state wasn't right, and that a lack of dialogue requires even more acting skill, body language, and micro-expressions—you can't just use one expression for the entire film when you have no lines, can you?

If you did that, a dog would have better acting skills than you!

At least a dog can bare its teeth from time to time.

In private, Liu Ye even approached Cao Yang, hesitating as he said his state of mind was a bit off and would be hard to recover in the short term; he suggested that if he weren't in the right state, perhaps they should switch actors.

Cao Yang wanted to laugh; if you were in a normal state, looking like a carefree, sunny boy, I wouldn't have chosen you in the first place.

"I believe you'll be fine. Keep your current state; that's exactly what I want. It fits the male lead's character perfectly, so don't you dare lose it."

Cao Yang comforted him with a smile.

If you were in a normal state, I'd have to spend time pulling stunts myself; now it's perfect, saving me the trouble, and when the time comes, I'll just layer on an immersion experience...

Cao Yang suddenly hesitated; given Liu Ye's current situation, is he suitable for an immersion experience? I hope he doesn't break under the pressure.

As for Yu Feihong, once Cao Yang let her fully understand the plot, he left her to it.

With this big sister currently so relaxed and at ease, there shouldn't be any problem giving her an immersion experience.

On the surface, *Empty House* is about a male lead who spends his days riding a motorcycle through the city; his favorite thing to do is find unoccupied houses, sneak in, and live there for a while.

He acts as if he were in his own home, leisurely eating and sleeping, and even taking photos with the owners' pictures as keepsakes. However, he never takes anything that belongs to others, and he even cleans up, does the laundry, and repairs furniture for them.

Then, one day, he sneaks into a villa and encounters the female lead, whose face is covered in bruises; she is curled up in a corner, silently enduring both physical and mental agony.

To the male lead, this was just another empty house, but for the female lead, who was frequently subjected to domestic violence, wasn't it the same? Although she had a home, she had no one to keep her company, so how was that any different from an empty house?

At this moment, the female lead's husband returns, and as usual, he immediately begins hurling abuse at her and even resorts to violence.

The male lead, unable to watch, beats the abusive man with a golf club and takes the female lead away to "experience life." Moving from one stranger's house to another, the female lead feels a sense of freedom and happiness she has never known before... then, the male lead is framed by the abusive husband and sent to prison.

Finally, when the female lead is forced to return to that cold home and face her husband's habitual violence, she finally stops being silent and chooses to fight back.

...The male lead achieves enlightenment in the prison yard, masters his divine art, joins the female lead's household, and while the abusive husband cannot see the male lead, the three of them begin living a shameless, happy life...

In fact, this final, most absurd part of the plot is the essence of the entire film.

Without this segment, it would just be a drama about domestic violence; it wouldn't achieve any sublimation, and it certainly wouldn't win any awards.

For the other actors, the most important supporting role, the abusive husband, has been cast with Hong Kong actor Wu Qihua, and the old police officer who helps frame the male lead will be played by Hong Kong actor Liao Qizhi.

Originally, Cao Yang wanted to find a Hong Kong actor for the correctional assistant at the detention center, but that character isn't a positive figure either, and we can't cast all the villains as Hong Kong actors—what if people accuse us of discrimination?

So, let's just stick with the two Hong Kong actors; there's a supporting role with significant screen time, and if it really comes down to it, we can just give them a third-billing special starring credit; it's all flexible.

Chen Kun and Fu Dalong both agreed to play those two supporting roles, and for the role of the photographer, Cao Yang spoke to performance teacher Wang Jinsong, who agreed quite happily.

With that, the roles with significant screen time are mostly settled.

The remaining small supporting roles will be cast from the Beijing Film Academy, which also serves as an explanation to the school; after all, it is nominally a student practice film, so it wouldn't look right without a few students involved.

!

However, Cao Yang doesn't need to worry about any of this; he can just leave it to the two assistant directors, Liu Shan and Li Mingyi—that's what assistant directors are for.

At the same time, as per the old rule, every department of the crew will recruit one or two assistants from the students, providing room and board and, depending on the situation, a small stipend, which counts as a practical component of their teaching curriculum.

With the support of the local authorities in Ludongdao, the entire shoot will take place there; this was one of the conditions.

This shoot won't be like the last one, which had a large opening press conference; this one will be held right in Ludongdao.

After several days of negotiations, Cheng Jianye finally settled on a few product placements.

Cao Yang's principle is that product placement is fine, but it cannot affect the plot. For example, the digital camera the male lead uses for selfies in the film—any brand will do, it's harmless.

For instance, the motorcycle the male lead rides can also be any brand; after all, if interpreted as the male lead being a fantasy of the female lead, and the female lead's husband being very wealthy, her imagining the male lead riding any brand of motorcycle is acceptable.

For example, the car the abusive husband drives—as a wealthy man living in a villa, and given that the story takes place in Hong Kong, he couldn't possibly drive a Mazda or a Hyundai; at the very least, it has to be a BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus.

For instance, the car the police officer drives couldn't be a BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus, but it could be something like a Mazda.

Product placement is also to ensure the film can recoup its investment, which is understandable.

But you can't have a second-generation heir to a listed company driving a car worth around 100,000 yuan to various places every day—a situation that is all too common in some TV dramas.

Following Cao Yang's advice, Cheng Jianye negotiated tiered advertising fees.

The base advertising fees aren't high, but if the film wins an award at one of the three major European festivals, the advertising fees will become a nice source of income—each one in the hundreds of thousands, in US dollars!

But even the base advertising fees have already recouped more than half of the film's investment; I suppose this is the "famous director effect."

(End of chapter)