Chapter 491: Ten Years of Work Offstage

The intensive rehearsals began just like that.

Chen Cai and Du Bin also began to personally feel how serious Luo Mo was on set.

In just two short days, Chen Cai had more than once had the thought: "Should I just go back to the company and stick to Singing?"

However, it was just a thought in his mind.

Under the high-intensity work of these past few days, this young man's greatest mental support was showing off to the Newcomers at his company during short breaks that he was going to collaborate with Director Luo.

He was not a fool; he knew how precious this opportunity was.

"As long as you don't practice yourself to death, practice until you're dead!"

As for Du Bin, he actually brought Luo Mo quite a few Surprises.

"Is his acting truly that good, or is it a genuine outpouring of emotion, with a strong enough sense of immersion in the script?" Luo Mo thought to himself.

The most difficult part of this short film was the final sublimation; it contained a certain small Reversal, as well as the embodiment of its core and intent.

He had extremely high Requirements for the Actor's micro-expressions, demeanor, gaze, and even their breathing.

Yet Du Bin was able to perform extremely well.

So well that Luo Mo didn't even want to make him perform this part a second time.

He was afraid that if they performed it too many times, the person would become numb, and this feeling and state would be gone.

Honestly, Luo Mo had also been hesitating earlier about which Comedy script would be better to choose.

But due to the specific nature of Comedy, perhaps a tailor-made one would indeed be easier.

It's just like how even if you provide a script from Zhou Xingchi, an ordinary person still couldn't perform it.

There is factual evidence for this; back then, many directors wanted to promote certain people to replace Zhou Xingchi, but what was the final result?

Even some actors who later became Best Actor-level winners with many awards couldn't achieve this.

For example... Zha Zha Hui.

The script Luo Mo gave Chen Cai and Du Bin was called "Ten Years of Work Offstage".

It came from a variety show called "Annual Comedy Competition".

This was a work that even the mentors Huang Bo, Xu Zheng, Yu Hewei, and others praised endlessly.

Ma Dong praised it even more, feeling that if this script were polished a little further, it could absolutely ascend to an even bigger stage.

You say it is a Comedy, and that is correct.

Because many rather ingenious designs made a large number of the audience roar with laughter.

But don't forget a saying that many people are familiar with—the core of Comedy is tragedy.

This work cannot be called a tragedy, but it could definitely earn enough tears from the audience.

"Perhaps I should go and take on an endorsement for tissues?" Luo Mo smiled slightly and said in his heart.

………

………

Time passed quickly; variety shows follow a fast-paced route, so the work intensity was very high.

The day of the live performance soon arrived.

Fortunately, both Chen Cai and Du Bin had good physical fitness, and under Luo Mo's high-intensity "torture," the two of them were still in great final condition today.

Everyone from "Director Show" began to assemble in the hall.

In the hall today, there were also a full five hundred live audience members.

Every audience member had one vote and could choose to cast it or not.

The four directors each held 10 votes and could also only choose to cast them or not, rather than giving a score of 1-10.

This rule was clearly set by Ning Dan.

On the big screen in the hall, the content everyone performed in the back scenes would be broadcast in real-time in a moment.

However, before that, the four directors had to go on stage to draw lots to determine the performance order.

"Who is drawing first?" Wang Rong asked.

Luo Mo immediately stated: "I won't draw; you all can just leave the remainder for me."

His luck was notoriously bad; rather than drawing himself, it was better to just take what was left.

As a result, Luo Mo's camp was the last group to perform.

Wang Rong's camp was first, Fang Jie second, and Li Dongliang third.

The Science Fiction work brought by Wang Rong's camp was called "A Stone".

It told the story of a core crystal on an alien spaceship that ended up on Earth.

Calling it Science Fiction was actually just wearing a thin veneer.

The overall stage effect actually made people feel it was absurd and super ridiculous.

Wang Rong's representative works were mostly Comedy to begin with, and the deepest impression he gave people was also that of an excellent Comedy Actor.

Therefore, the laughs in the works he directed were usually relatively dense.

This short film had a rather wild imagination at the end, which actually pulled the theme back a bit.

Luo Mo watched with great interest and decisively cast his 10 votes; Wang Rong was not to be outdone, starting to boast and blow his own horn, cheering himself on and casting 10 votes—Laozi is awesome!

This work was not liked by Fang Jie; she didn't even understand it, so she didn't give any votes.

Li Dongliang felt the Actor's performance wasn't good, so he didn't give any either.

Fortunately, Wang Rong was a person skilled at dealing with others, so he remained all smiles, using some high-EQ words to smooth things over for himself.

Fang Jie saying she didn't understand was actually criticizing the director's level.

Li Dongliang saying the performance wasn't good—besides the Actor being at fault, didn't the director responsible for training the Actor also have a share of the blame?

Luo Mo actually felt it was nothing; people of different generations have different aesthetics.

Luo Mo felt that after Wang Rong's work was broadcast, young audiences would likely quite enjoy it.

Although it lacked substance and lacked depth, it was simply fun to watch.

In other words, if it were released in theaters as a film, it would be a commercial film with decent box office, but its word-of-mouth would only be average.

The live audience gave it a score of 409 votes, out of a total of 429.

Since this was the first short film, everyone was unclear about whether this score was considered high or low.

When the Actors of "A Stone" walked onto the stage, some were crying, some were praised, and some were criticized.

This is actually one of the highlights of "Director Show".

Next up was Fang Jie's Romance film.

Honestly, this time it was Luo Mo's turn to not understand it.

He felt the establishment of the relationship was muddled, and the final reason for the breakup did not hold up for him.

He didn't think there was anything moving about it, but Director Fang Jie cried while watching it herself.

"So it turns out I don't understand Romance," Luo Mo sighed in his heart.

Ultimately, Luo Mo decided—to follow the vote!

"If Wang Rong votes, I'll vote." He looked at Director Wang with a smile.

Wang Rong was actually also confused, but in order to show his "respect" for Director Fang Jie, he voted decisively.

Luo Mo immediately followed the vote, and when it was his turn to comment, he even shamelessly said: "My thoughts are actually generally consistent with Director Wang's."

Wang Rong: "???"

He immediately picked up the microphone and said to Luo Mo: "Then next time, Director Luo should comment first!"

Wang Rong was still very good at creating show effects.

As for Li Dongliang, he frowned and still did not give a vote.

He didn't need to give Face to Fang Jie.

Most importantly, although the films Li Dongliang had directed himself in recent years were not very good, every comment he made on "Director Show" gave the people on site a feeling of hitting the nail on the head.

His comments were all on point and reasonable.

However, when it came to his action film, it was truly... so hard to watch!

It was simply a prison-like experience!

Because it was a short film of less than 20 minutes, it was still bearable; if this were a feature film, it would be too painful.

Luo Mo felt that the traces of him trying to promote someone in this film were too heavy.

"He is completely just promoting that young master from Tenglong Entertainment," Luo Mo said in his heart.

It could be seen that this was Afraid a nephew or younger relative of his.

Overall, Luo Mo felt that this young master's facial features and temperament lacked affinity, and he completely looked like a villain.

At the same time, he was trying his best to create a sense of realism with punches landing on flesh, but the fighting was not pleasing to the eye, nor did it make people feel excited.

Of course, this might also be because it had to be performed on stage, unlike a film crew where post-production could be done.

"If I didn't see wrong, the Actor who was acting with him was solidly hit by two of his punches," Luo Mo said in his heart.

When it came to the commentary segment, Luo Mo only said some polite words.

He had voted for both Wang Rong's and Fang Jie's films, so he would definitely vote here for Li Dongliang too.

Anyway, the audience would provide their own feedback.

Fang Jie's final vote count was 419, and Li Dongliang's was 425.

In other words, setting aside the Director Vote, their audience votes were quite a bit lower than Wang Rong's.

This made Li Dongliang's expression poor, and he picked up the microphone to start a long-winded speech.

Luo Mo could hear from it that there were personal emotions involved.

"It's not just because this short film's vote count didn't meet expectations; it might also be related to the fact that almost none of his big productions in recent years have broken even."

This reminded him of several older generation directors on Earth.

Many of them had publicly complained about the audience.

Some even formed cliques, pulling a group of stars to stand up for them and Shouting on the internet.

Recording a variety show is actually very exhausting.

It seemed like the three short films added up to less than an hour, but in reality, there were commentary, voting, arguments, and other segments, and two and a half hours had already passed.

Finally, it was time for Luo Mo's camp.

On the big screen, the film title began to emerge.

——"Ten Years of Work Offstage".

(PS: First update, asking for base monthly votes at the beginning of the month to boost the rankings!)

(End of chapter)