The next day...Zhang Xiaohua arrived early at the company, finding that Yuan Datong and the others had already gathered together in their work.
Because Zhang Xiaohua"s description was concise and detailed, it wasn"t difficult for everyone to create the settings for shooting the scene he wanted. As for the follow up, that would be Zhang Xiaohua"s job as the director.
Zhang Xiaohua felt a little nervous at this time.
After all, this would be his first time acting as a director. Although he was just shooting a music video, this would be their fans first impression of them and would help them decide if the incoming alb.u.m was worth buying or not, because if even the video was bad, the quality of the entire alb.u.m would be up for question. It was the most critical stage, the video could either solidify their position in the industry or destroy it leaving them an image as a one hit wonder.
Therefore, it was inevitable that he would be a bit apprehensive.
Just after eight o"clock, Zhou Yi sent over the camera crew and brought two professional photographers and four lighting technicians along with all the necessary equipment.
Their equipment was very simple, including only professional cameras and spotlights. They was also had an on-site camera drone and a real-time monitor, but he felt that these would be enough for the videos.
In addition, because the music video"s storyline was entirely in the mind of Zhang Xiaohua, there would be wasted time planning out scenes, so as long as no accident occurred, Zhang Xiaohua could basically finish the video in around two days. Considering the time post-production would take, he believed that before the end of the month they could release the entire alb.u.m along with their accompanying videoclips.
First, Zhang Xiaohua decided to shoot the video for "Broken Hearted Woman". In his memories, this song"s video was very monotonous, requiring only two different sets of clothes: one for the indoors scene and another for the outdoor scene. As the video required only 15 frames per second and both scenes were done in a matter of seconds, recording them would not take much time.
Looking around the company"s surroundings, Zhang Xiaohua discovered that some scenes could be directly shot here. So he promptly asked w.a.n.g Jingwen to change her clothes.
A while ago, Zhang Xiaohua spent some time using the computer, and with the knowledge he learned during those late nights, he quickly described all the sub-camera angle shots to the crew including the time needed to be spent on each shot and the rough angles they must shot from. It was comparable to professionals.
The two photographers were free to act independently, but they had been informed of the type of mood their photos needed to portray. The four lighting technicians set up their equipment in the proper location, connected it to the studio"s power supply with the help of Xiaohai and others, and adjusted the light curtain to the best condition. Done with the preparations, they could only wait for w.a.n.g Jingwen to get in position.
Yuan Datong served as his a.s.sistant. Although this was a very humble job, Yuan Datong had volunteered to take care of it so, it was decided.
In order to save time, Zhang Xiaohua used an arbitrary shooting method instead of following the conventional way.
There were no fixed rules and they could say whatever they liked or offer any suggestions. Anyway, with his precise notes, plus the fact that they would synthesise all the scenes for editing at a later period, they were not afraid of chaos.
The first scene was set on the stairs:
w.a.n.g Jingwen would slowly walk down the stairs, reaching the middle, she would sit down on the steps. Shaking her hair, she would look into the s.p.a.ce as if daydreaming, with eyes looking full of inexplicable expectations. Yet, she would also carry a bit of ambiguity, sadly stroking her hair as if feeling defeated.
When everyone was ready, Zhang Xiaohua sat in front of the monitor and officially a.s.sumed the director"s job. Not to mention how excited he was, looking closely, one would realise that he was slightly trembling.
After a moment, Zhang Xiaohua slowly lifted one hand and immediately swung it as he shouted, "Action!"
Suddenly, all the machines were up and running through the monitor. Soon afterwards, w.a.n.g Jingwen"s shadow appeared on the screen.
w.a.n.g Jingwen used to be a professional singer, and during that period of time, she made several videos, so her performance was good well. She didn"t show any nervousness, and just stepped down the stairs, yet she was slightly too fast.
"Cut!"
Zhang Xiaohua took the lead and decided to terminate the shooting. He immediately strode to w.a.n.g Jingwen and reprimanded. "Big Sister, we are filming a music video, not a catwalk. Can you not do this? Can you temporarily think of yourself as an individual, not as a G.o.d? In addition, the theme of this song is a heart broken woman. Can you show a little bit of sadness? Don"t look like you"re at the top of the world... and your eyes, what I need is yearning and confusion, not pride. Do you understand?"
Zhang Xiaohua was so rude that w.a.n.g Jingwen immediately blushed to all the way down to her neck, ashamed, she wanted to find a hole to hide in.
However, in Zhang Xiaohua"s opinion, if the actor was not in place, then the director could hardly be resigned.
In other words, this showed that his work had not been properly done, resulting in w.a.n.g Jingwen"s failure to comprehend his own thoughts.
In order to make w.a.n.g Jingwen enter the correct mood as soon as possible and also to shoot his ideal music video, Zhang Xiaohua thought hard, but he suddenly had an inspiration and remembered the video where he first saw w.a.n.g Jingwen. It was this video that made Zhang Xiaohua have a keen interest on w.a.n.g Jingwen: "Remember the time when you filmed "Last Supper"."
w.a.n.g Jingwen nodded, listening to Zhang Xiaohua say: "Follow the mood from that time. Remember to not exaggerate too much, and don"t be too pessimistic. Just think that you have just lost the love of your life, but you"re still trying to maintain your hope in romance."
w.a.n.g Jingwen nodded again. After being scolded by Zhang Xiaohua, her ability to comprehend was significantly enhanced.
With Zhang Xiaohua"s orders, the shooting was gradually getting on track.
This time, w.a.n.g Jingwen completely followed Zhang Xiaohua"s request. Regardless of her demeanour or movement, Zhang Xiaohua found it was impeccable and that she had absolutely achieved his desired results.
Zhang Xiaohua was satisfied with the shooting, and in a very excited mood, he rushed to the car: "Emma, help w.a.n.g Jingwen change her clothes, bring the cosmetics on the way. Everyone else, put the equipment on the car, we need to swap venue. Remember, two weeks is all we have left, we have to complete all the work at hand. Go go go!"
Suddenly, the whole company got really busy as everyone responded with enthusiasm. The scene was like a bustling market, even Zhou Yi and his staff were deeply infected. It seemed that Zhang Xiaohua was being treated as the sole leader. And if the leader had orders, how could they not obey?
In this way, under the leaders.h.i.+p of Zhang Xiaohua, everyone was very positive and cooperative. They worked overtime every day for almost 24 hours. They did two days of work in a day. Although a bit tired, they were ecstatic, because everyone believed that if they worked hard, they would be rewarded.
Next, under the full authority of Zhang Xiaohua, the shooting progress was surprisingly smooth beyond everyone"s imagination.
Just two weeks later, the music videos of the six songs were filmed. The recording speed of these videos was so fast that it definitely broke the record speed of the category.
Zhang Xiaohua defined the t.i.tle of the alb.u.m as "Hearts Emotions", with a close-up photo of w.a.n.g Jingwen as the cover in a grey rainy weather. It matched with the songs in the alb.u.m and eventually got the unanimous approval of all members of the company. The editing of the videos was handed over to Sparrow Company to complete.
They did not dare to idle. Because according to Zhang Xiaohua"s request, Sparrow not only had to be responsible for post-production, but also produce 300,000 records within half a month. This workload was not small, so how would they dare dally around and act slowly?
Following the work being handed over to Sparrow. Yuan Datong finally let out a sigh of relief, both physically and mentally.
In these two weeks, Zhang Xiaohua had really learned a lot of things, and he also got a certain understanding of multimedia shooting, which fully laid a solid foundation for the future "films and television programs".
Taking advantage of this enthusiasm, Zhang Xiaohua wrote the Mandarin version of the "Broken Hearted Women" overnight and told Yuan Datong to help w.a.n.g Jingwen perform the recording work for inclusion in her alb.u.m.
In this way, w.a.n.g Jingwen"s first alb.u.m would contain seven songs. At the end of the songs, he would use the six music videos to make a short movie. Letting fans know about w.a.n.g Jingwen"s past situation and her struggles, this would encourage fans who were willing to spend money to buy the genuine records.