Chapter 654 In This Way?
“They refuse to cooperate with us!”
“If we don’t work with the top special effects teams, but choose the second-cla.s.s ones, the effects will be different.”
They had a good script and enough money, of course, they wanted the best special effects.
A movie without special effects could not be called a blockbuster.
Therefore, Zhou Fei’s expression changed for the first time.
The director and several staff members were also nervous, because they knew the importance of special effects.
They thought that everything would go smoothly with abundant funds, and they didn’t expect to get stuck like this at the beginning.
“What’s the matter? Our partners.h.i.+p still existed yesterday. Why did they change their mind today? Is it because of Edmund?” Zhou Fei was a little annoyed.
The staff replied, “It should be Edmund. They said in the phone conversation just now that we shouldn’t have offended someone and we have to bear the serious consequences. At least they will not cooperate with us in Hollywood…”
“This…” Zhou Fei was so depressed that her face darkened.
Seeing Zhou Fei’s expression, Chen Changqing hurriedly stood up and patted her on the shoulder.
When Zhou Fei turned around, Chen Changqing smiled and said, “Just special effects? It’s easy. I’ll produce the special effects for you.”
“You?” Zhou Fei was confused. Suddenly, her eyes lit up.
“I forgot!”
“Both Changqing and my brother in law are excellent masters who can even control the rain and the wind. It must be easy for them to produce all kinds of special effects.”
“Great! Haha. They don’t want to cooperate with us? We don’t care about them.” Zhou Fei’s eyes lit up again in excitement.
Zi Yan was amused by Feifei’s impatience.
If she encountered this situation a few years ago, Zi Yan would frown and think about how to solve the problem. But now, she had an almighty husband and didn’t need to think about these trivial things.
She even felt that she was dumber than before.
Every time Zi Yan said this, Zhang Han would laugh heartily and nod his head seriously as if it was true. Then Zi Yan would pinch him at the waist.
It was fun for a couple and couldn’t be understood by others.
Zhou Fei was completely relieved, but the director was still confused.
“What’s going on?”
They turned their gaze to Chen Changqing.
“Are you a special effects producer? You are alone and we won’t be able to release the film until the next century.”
They couldn’t believe in Chen Changqing’s ability.
What was more, it seemed not to be something one could do by himself.
Although he doubted this, he was only a director, and his boss had a two-hour conversation with him in person and asked many details before he came here. It could be seen how much his company valued this cooperation.
Therefore, the director took a glance at Chen Changqing and managed to swallow his questions.
He dared not say anything but sighed to himself.
He felt that the so-called promising film had encountered a very difficult problem at the beginning. He did not know whether they could tell such a good story according to the script.
Zhang Han took a glance at Chen Changqing and then nodded his head.
Their ideas coincided with each other. Though the other companies didn’t want to cooperate with them, they had many ways to get special effects by themselves.
“Then let’s move on.” Zhou Fei was thoroughly relieved and waved to the staff at the door, “We want to choose more actors, such as the Royal officer who appears frequently in the film, and…”
Zhou Fei explained it briefly. Although she had always been Zi Yan’s agent, what she had arranged now was all about Zi Yan’s work, which could be described as the role of a leading woman. Of course, she would like to be regarded as a good sister of Zi Yan.
This film was Zi Yan’s first work after such a long break, and Zhou Fei paid special attention to it. She had read the script more than ten times and made notes on the characters and appearance of main roles.
She was so familiar with the script.
While Zhou Fei was speaking, the audition continued.
But the next scene amused all the people in the room.
“I’m coming.” Jiang Yanlan entered the room in a casual way, took a glance at Zhang Han and Chen Changqing and said, “h.e.l.lo, everyone.”
“Well…Captain Jiang, what are you doing here?” Chen Changqing couldn’t help saying, “Why are you here?”
He had noticed Jiang Yanlan before, but he didn’t speak to her. Besides, with the strength, ident.i.ty and character of Emperor Qing, he seldom took the initiative to greet others except Zhang Han.
“Hum!” Jiang Yanlan snorted, “I’m here to beat Instructor Liu.”
“Clatter!”
Zhao Feng, who was sitting on the side of the table, was amused by her words and almost laughed.
“I came to audition by the way to experience an actor’s life.” Said Jiang Yanlan.
The other staff, including the director, were shocked by her and wondered what she wanted.
But they finally decided to be onlookers because Jiang Yanlan seemed to have a good relations.h.i.+p with Zhang Han and his friends.
“You don’t have to be here.” Zhang Han found it funny.
Jiang Yanlan had looked after him several times, so Zhang Han had a good impression of her.
“I like it.” Jiang Yanlan said, “I could have had a rest, but Emperor Qing followed you to Hong Kong and thus our eldest brother arranged a task for me, in case you would hurt the flowers and gra.s.s when you dueled. I’m in a bad mood and will make trouble here if I don’t have a good time today. I don’t want the main roles or the important supporting roles since you have sister Zi Yan. I like the walk-on parts.”
It could be seen that if Zhang Han did not agree with her, she would not leave.
After thinking about it, Zhang Han waved his hand and looked at Zhao Feng, “Arrange it later.”
“Okay.” Zhao Feng nodded.
After achieving her goal, Jiang Yanlan hummed and turned around without hesitation.
But she didn’t expect that all the characters wouldn’t fit her.
Jiang Yanlan was also very beautiful, but only one beautiful heroine was enough.
Finally, after Zhao Feng discussed it with the director, he came up with a good idea and arranged a suitable role for Jiang Yanlan.
She was a.s.signed the task of shooting.
They didn’t know what kind of expression Jiang Yanlan would show when she got the news.
The audition continued. Zhang Han made a variety of choices among these people, and the whole process was very smooth. Except for Captain Jack and Turner, all the other roles were determined.
These two were the roles that interacted most with the heroine.
When he was about to leave at noon, Zhang Han thought about it, looked at Zhao Feng and the director, and then said, “Look for these two actors these days. If you can’t find the right person, let me play them.”
“Really?” Zi Yan’s eyes lit up.
“What else can I do?” Zhang Han had no choice because Elizabeth, the heroine, would experience a lot with Turner.
Although there were some ways for Zi Yan not to hug or kiss others, Zhang Han had a way to play Turner and Jack.
Zhang Han preferred the second method so he mentioned it to Zi Yan.
Zi Yan was overjoyed because she wanted to played husband and wife on screen with Zhang Han.
Zi Yan hurriedly turned around, looked at Zhao Feng, coughed softly and said, “Xiaofeng, you should not be too tired to find actors. You can have a proper rest. Anyway, your master can do it.”
“I see, Ma’am.” Zhao Feng nodded with a smile.
He knew what Zi Yan meant, that was, they didn’t need to find the actors at all, and could just wait for the shooting to start.
“That’s it.” Zhang Han thought about it in a more comprehensive way, saying, “You should arrange for those who partic.i.p.ate in the performance to train their martial arts knowledge these days.”
“Okay.” Zhao Feng nodded.
He knew that if they used real special effects, they really needed to let the partic.i.p.ants know about it in advance.
The number of laymen was not very large, and there were many members of the security group who were also involved in the ‘game’.
Yes, now many people regarded this movie as a game.
Basically, all the preparatory work was over. Now many engineering teams were working together for the completion of those main buildings, and they were quite fast.
A message came out that day.
“Several major Hollywood companies are refusing to a.s.sist Purple Moon Entertainment Company in special effects production.”
“Bang!”
The news was a surprise.
Edmund was very happy to hear this news. Not just a few big companies, but the whole Hollywood!
His affairs had been publicized to make many companies involved. They decided to punish Purple Moon Entertainment Company not only because of the force supporting Edmund, which was unable to affect the whole Hollywood, but also because someone wanted to push the boat with the flow of water and were willing to see such chaos.
Many people were shocked by the news.
The Entertainment Circle in many countries had more or less talked about it.
“It’s a bit too much for Hollywood to do this collectively.”
“Although the production cost of 200 million US dollars is high, it is not the top level in Hollywood, and they don’t care much about it. After all, Hollywood has developed earlier and has the most mature technology, which we still lack. But we are qualified to cooperate with Purple Moon Entertainment Company. Let’s wait for them to contact us.”
“A blockbuster masterpiece without special effects is s.h.i.+t. Now Purple Moon Entertainment Company is just as anxious as ants in the hot pot, right?”
They were too boastful. How dare a newly opened company directly make such an expensive movie? Purple Moon Entertainment Company will go out of business today next year.”
“…”
There were too many comments, but most people were not optimistic about Purple Moon Entertainment Company, a company that had made a publicity stunt. Even many people didn’t believe that they could invest so much money in a movie.
But in fact, all the staff of Purple Moon Entertainment Company were very relaxed and casual.
Sun Ming, in particular, whistled in the office, “No post production saves us a lot of money!”
Anyway, the news was spread today and there were many reports on it. But in daily life, it was just like a stone thrown into the water, arousing a little wave, and then calming down.
It took a long time to produce a movie. Now they hadn’t started shooting, so there were not many people focusing on them.
Ten days pa.s.sed quickly.
After everything was arranged, Zhang Han and Zi Yan began to study the script.
As far as acting was concerned, Zi Yan was much better than Zhang Han. But Zhang Han was learning at a fast speed and all he needed to do was to correct his expression, tone and so on.
Art came from life, which meant a lot of fun for them.
However, their study progress was not fast, because in such a romantic atmosphere, the direction of the script often deviated from the main line.
“Huh, ah…” The graceful voices rose slowly, representing the emotion of incomparable pa.s.sion.
Zhang Han realized that it was good to accompany Zi Yan to make movies in their spare time. At least she looked like an obedient kitten.
On Sat.u.r.day and Sunday, Zhang Han didn’t mention the script and devoted himself to playing with Mengmeng.
Happy times pa.s.sed quickly.
On the eleventh day, the last important buildings were completed in groups in a small archipelago on the south side of Hong Kong. It was so fast.
Although they couldn’t be used as real houses, it was safe to use them for making the movie.
Today is the day of The Curse of the Black Pearl.
At 8 a.m., Zhang Han drove Zi Yan to send Mengmeng to the kindergarten.
After the little guy went in, they went back to Cold Immortal School. At the edge of the cliff in the back mountain forest, under the confused gaze of Dahei and Little Hei, they jumped down.
They dived into the sea and experienced the moving melody of the fish.
The original voyage was an hour and a half. Under Zhang Han’s leaders.h.i.+p, the two arrived in less than half an hour.
Within ten nautical miles, there were many islands, and the buildings were distributed in two places three nautical miles apart. Now many actors, photographers, makeup artists and so on had arrived at the scene.
There were so many people talking about the movie. Zhang Han and Zi Yan stepped onto the bank and walked by them.
The director was stunned.
“How did they come?”
Zhao Feng, Xu Yong, Lao Meng and more than a dozen others were standing by in black suits.
Liu Jiaran went back to school in Lin Hai City, leaving Ah Hu in Lin Hai City, and they talked on the phone from time to time. Ah Hu had nothing to do these days, so he took part in the movie. The makeup artist designed him to be a subordinate and a busybody of the pirate s.h.i.+p.
He was dressed in rags, his hair was untidy and his face was swarthy, which was quite in line with the original description.
At the same time, many others were also ready.
The actors in the film were all looking around in high spirits.
They also knew about martial arts, which was so exciting. But they hadn’t seen a real martial artist yet.
“Let’s start if everything is ready.” Zhang Han and Zi Yan went to the front of the crowd and nodded.
The director was slightly shocked, “How can we start before our s.h.i.+ps arrive? Didn’t anyone contact the s.h.i.+ps?”
“s.h.i.+ps? Haha, they are already here!” w.a.n.g Zhanpeng burst out laughing as he summoned his Mountain and River Flag. Then he pressed it forward, and the flag flew into the air, becoming more than ten meters long.
Many people were stunned.
To see things once is better than to hear about it a hundred times. After hearing so many things, they were finally shocked by what they saw.
But the shock was just beginning.
“Clatter!”
A huge wave came out.
Under everyone’s gaze, a huge black s.h.i.+p broke through the water and appeared. The black flag on the s.h.i.+p was printed with the sign of skeleton. The s.h.i.+p was damaged, and there was a faint mist around it, which made it appear extremely mysterious.
“It’s like a ghost s.h.i.+p!”
The director was so shaken that he didn’t dare to board alone.
“What a spectacle!” Zhou Fei, Zhang Lili, Liang Hao and sister were shocked.
Even Zhang Han nodded slightly. This s.h.i.+p was the same as the one in the impression. However, from the view of whether it was weird, Black Pearl didn’t need accompaniment. It was frightening just because of its strong visual impact.
“Phoo!”
Then, the second wave was lifted, and a huge s.h.i.+p appeared beside it.
This was the s.h.i.+p at the beginning of the movie, followed by three smaller s.h.i.+ps.
“Go aboard and get ready.” Zhao Feng checked the time and said.
*Woos.h.!.+* *Woos.h.!.+* *Woos.h.!.+*
All of a sudden, the director and others saw the people who were going to play the Royal Army marching one by one towards the second s.h.i.+p.
Some officers and other actors were carried by these people. At the beginning, Elizabeth and Turner’s young actors were invited out of the houses on the edge of the back building complex and brought up with higher treatment.
“The moonlight is hidden in the sea fog. The road from Jies.h.i.+ to Xiaoxiang is infinite!”
w.a.n.g Zhanpeng shouted, “Mist.”
“Clatter!”
The Mountain and River Flag was waved again. Suddenly, on the sea surface of hundreds of meters around, a thick white fog rose.
The white fog was so vast that it immediately concealed the s.h.i.+ps, which was quite mysterious.
“Well, follow the beginning of the play. Let’s go. Everyone is ready.”
The director waved to Jiang Yanlan, who was lying on the side of the chair.
All of a sudden, the nearby shooting equipment was turned on, and a total of three sets of equipment were lifted into the air, submerged in the edge, suspended on the sea and started shooting.
“Buzz!”
Several s.h.i.+ps were scattered. In the first scene, the Royal s.h.i.+ps broke through the vast white fog and came face to face with the pirates.
Thus it started in this way.
The director was even more confused.
“I haven’t said ‘start’ yet.”
‘’What’s going on?”
“My G.o.d!”
“Is that how a real movie is made?”
“Crack!”
The director’s world view was broken.
At the same time, the cameramen next to him was also dazed.
“The equipment has gone to work by themselves. What else should we do?”
All the people around were confused, but it didn’t affect the progress of the shoot at all.
Equipment and other details were OK, but the actor’s acting skills were still p.r.o.ne to mistakes.
In the beginning, the expressions of two little actors and so on were shot more than ten times.
It took an hour to finish filming the beginning of the plot. When Elizabeth was a child, she found Turner. In order not to be found out, that he was the little pirate who took the necklace of gold coins hanging on his neck, she later found the broken s.h.i.+p.
The shoot was very fast. When it was necessary to change the scene, Jiang Yanlan clapped her hands.
The three s.h.i.+ps shattered and drifted on the sea in broken pieces, and they were burning in a miserable way.
The director was stunned.
“Breaking a real s.h.i.+p? My G.o.d!”
The filming ended when Elizabeth finally saw the strange Black Pearl emerge from the vast white fog.
The shoot took them less than one hour.
The director and others who just calmed down exclaimed, “Amazing, this is amazing. It’s so fast.”
“I didn’t expect the movie to be made like this.”