Chapter 83

As Cao Yang expected, Xu Jinglei refused.

She wasn't lacking in resources, and to curry favor with Cao Yang, playing a role was fine, but with Gao Yuanyuan as the female lead, that was a different story.

This sister was very proud.

This time, he gave three roles with decent screen time to Beijing Film Academy: one was the rebellious daughter of the kindergarten principal, one was the female lead's younger brother, and one was the clothing store owner.

Perhaps thinking that Cao Yang was a person who valued old friendships, this time at the Beijing Film Academy audition, it was still assistant director Li Mingyi and casting director Liu Shan in charge, and they actually used two acquaintances.

The female lead's younger brother was given to Zhou Yiwei, the clothing store owner to Dong Xuan, and only the kindergarten principal's rebellious daughter, who needed someone who looked younger, was finally chosen as Wang Luodan from the 01 class.

Born in 1984, Wang Luodan was only 17, and with short hair, she looked like a tomboy, which indeed fit the character's positioning.

There was also a pharmacy clerk with slightly more significant screen time, who was the one who introduced the religion to the female lead, requiring acting skills.

It just so happened that Ding Jiali called a few days ago, and after flattering him for a long time, her goal was to get a role.

Cao Yang just went with the flow and gave her the pharmacy clerk role.

Before she could speak again, Cao Yang told her there were no more male roles, so Ding Jiali had to give up.

Gao Yuanyuan didn't receive the call until two days before joining the set, telling her she had become the female lead of Cao Yang's new film. Cao Yang was mainly afraid that if he told her too early, she would be so happy that she would lose the state Cao Yang wanted.

For a moment, Gao Yuanyuan was both sad and happy.

After she made the decision and implemented it, she was indeed in pain, and it lasted for a period of time, but she had become the female lead of Cao Yang's new film, and she was happy from the bottom of her heart.

A very contradictory feeling.

Cao Yang called Gao Yuanyuan and Wu Qihua over, and whenever he had time, he would explain the scenes to them; whenever he didn't, he would let them read the script and write character biographies, insisting that they understand what kind of story this film was trying to tell before shooting started.

It had to be said that Gao Yuanyuan was a good choice; every time she listened, she would cry her eyes out, and when she read the script herself, she would unconsciously shed tears, her mental fluctuations being very large.

This made Cao Yang feel that with Gao Yuanyuan in this state, there was no need to pull any tricks; one immersion into the character and her acting would definitely explode.

As for Wu Qihua, Cao Yang was still a bit hesitant.

In terms of acting, Wu Qihua was actually quite good; he would wait and see what kind of performance he could give as the male lead, and then decide whether to add the immersion experience.

In late November, "Secret Sunshine" started filming in Luedongdao.

There was a small town in South Korea also called Miryang, and the original film was shot there.

But the English title of this film was named "Secret Sunshine."

Sunshine represents light, happiness, good luck, and reliance. Secret sunshine, hidden light, hidden good luck and happiness, reliance in the dark.

So the film title didn't need to be changed; the meaning was quite good.

This was also a question asked by a reporter at the press conference.

Cao Yang's explanation was that Miryang is secret sunshine, hidden sunshine, light, reliance, and love hidden around us that hasn't been discovered...

Thus, the media reported that big director Cao Yang's new film was a romance, and just looking at the title, it might be a great and sweet love story.

For a time, many media outlets scrambled to report that Director Cao's new film was a love story.

Fine, report it however you want; I hope that when the time comes, you can see a deeply moving sweet love story in the cinema, just don't come out crying. The shooting of this film, except for Old Tian being replaced by Gu Changwei, still had the same crew as "3-Iron," with assistants in each department still being students from Beijing Film Academy.

Compared to "3-Iron," this film used very few metaphorical shots, with the most prominent being three scenes: the first scene, where brilliant sunlight shines through the car window into the car, seemingly full of vitality and energy.

There was also the last scene of the film, where the female lead silently cuts her own hair, and then a gust of wind blows the hair to the ground, with a beam of sunlight hitting it.

The third scene was when the female lead was cutting her hair, and the male lead was holding a mirror; through the mirror, the female lead's image appeared inside, looking exactly like the male lead holding a dead person's portrait.

When discussing the first and last scenes with Gu Changwei, Cao Yang explored it with him for a long time, and finally reached a consensus, deciding to use lens language to give these two scenes more meaning.

The first shot of this film was looking up at the sky through the car window, and the last shot was exactly the opposite, looking directly down at the ground.

Looking up at the sky, "God" is in the sky, and we are separated from Him by a layer of transparent glass, looking unobstructed, with brilliant sunlight, very beautiful, but in reality, those beauties are hard to touch.

Looking down at the ground, it's chaotic, unobstructed, representing that her hair is mixed with all the trivialities; this is the reality of life we have to face, with sunshine and ugliness.

Gu Changwei liked to use a gray tone, especially when shooting this kind of tragic fate, using the gray texture to slowly seep the character's struggle with fate and spiritual sustenance into the audience's deep consciousness, which was particularly complementary.

Therefore, in terms of shooting style, Gu Changwei was better at handling the conflict and fusion between individuals and the world, emphasizing the powerlessness and resistance of tragic characters when facing the pain of reality and their own fate.

Cao Yang chose the first shot to be the car stopped on the road with its hazard lights on.

!

He didn't choose to shoot the people, but the car, just to make the first shot go smoothly.

The second shot was choosing to shoot the child in the car, who was looking through the front windshield at the female lead who was on the phone in front.

Before shooting, Cao Yang said to the child again: "Mengyun, we will be shooting in front of the car later, you just need to look forward, looking at the lens is also fine, you can make some small movements, pouting is fine, staring is fine, showing an expression of being impatient, can you do that?"

The child was found by Liu Shan locally in Luedongdao; at that time, there were two candidates, a little girl and a little boy, both of whom were young reporters learning hosting at the Children's Palace.

The little boy's parents had too many demands, and the child was relatively naughty, so finally Cao Yang chose the little girl who looked very gentle, and her parents were much easier to get along with.

The little girl's name was Du Mengyun, 5 years old this year.

In the original film, the female lead's child was a son, but actually, it didn't make much difference whether it was a son or a daughter; when he let Liu Shan pick people, he didn't specifically emphasize gender, and Liu Shan, in order to do the job well, found two child candidates.

"Okay uncle, I understand everything."

"All units pay attention, prepare to shoot."

Cao Yang picked up the walkie-talkie and said.

The crew acted quickly, chaotic but not disorderly, and the whole scene was silent.

Gu Changwei's camera was mounted in front of the hood, adjusting the lens; he liked to use natural light to create a sense of reality.

Because he had to shoot inside the car through the front windshield, natural light alone was a bit insufficient, so he needed to use reflectors to adjust the natural light.

After Gu Changwei gave the gesture and the clapperboard was hit, shooting officially began.

Du Mengyun pouted and looked forward, showing an impatient look, which instead looked playful and cute.

"Okay, cut."

Cao Yang shouted and gave little Du Mengyun a thumbs up; next was Gao Yuanyuan's turn for the shot.

(End of chapter)