Chapter 32 The Crew Is in Place

Of course, although they were invited to the show, Chris and Scarlett still had to audition. If their acting skills were not good enough, they would have to choose new actors.

Wu Yuan briefly exchanged pleasantries with the two and talked about their acting experience before the formal audition began.

Actually, there was nothing much to say. Each of them was given a short script and asked to play a scene to see if it felt right.

As for acting?

To be honest, as long as the acting is not so bad that you can't accept it after just one look, it can generally be trained.

For example, Huang Xiaoming's acting skills are often criticized for fluctuating, not only because he likes to reward himself with a domineering CEO role after a good performance.

It is also because his acting skills need to be trained on the spot.

Huang Xiaoming, who graduated from a professional school, at least has an acting level above the passing line, and his upper limit is also high.

When he meets a director who knows how to train actors, he can bring out his upper limit and hand in a paper with 70, 80, or even 80 or 90 points.

But if he meets a director who doesn't know how to train, Huang Xiaoming can only show a 60-point performance, or even fail.

If you let Huang Xiaoming act in a play directed by Zhang Yimou, do you think he will be able to act well?

Although Wu Yuan is embarrassed to say that he has Zhang Yimou's level of training actors, he has a trick!

He clearly knows how the protagonists of the movie "Juno" should act well and brilliantly!

"Juno" is not a classic movie, but the original actors' performance is indeed remarkable. With reference answers, it is relatively easy for Wu Yuan to train the actors.

Chris and Scarlett's acting skills are not bad either. Chris has studied acting, and Scarlett debuted as a child star.

The two cooperated to play a rivalry in front of Wu Yuan. Although it was not perfect, it was above the passing line.

Wu Yuan nodded with satisfaction: "Not bad, I think you can handle these two roles."

"Sign a contract with the crew, and leave two months of time. The film will start shooting in half a month at the earliest!"

It is easiest to let a 16- or 17-year-old girl play a 16- or 17-year-old girl.

In addition, Scarlett's personality has many similarities with Juno, so it is easier to understand the role.

As for the remaining shortcomings, Wu Yuan can teach while filming, as long as Chris and Scarlett cooperate seriously, it can be done.

Fortunately, they are now two unknown little actors, and they dare not be lazy or disobedient in front of Wu Yuan, the director, even though Wu Yuan is also an unknown little director in Hollywood.

This is why Wu Yuan prefers to find these two little actors, they are cheap and obedient!

Since the director approved and the producer had no objection, the contract of Chris and Scarlett was easy to deal with.

On the same day, they signed a contract with John, who represented the crew. The pay of both of them was not high, and the main focus was on cheapness.

Afterwards, Wu Yuan and John interviewed a group of actors who played Juno's parents and the child's adoptive parents in the film.

These were recommended by the Hollywood Actors Guild, and they often played the roles of mothers and fathers in major film and television dramas. They were equivalent to the blue-collar class in Hollywood, or the golden supporting roles.

Wu Yuan didn't know most of them, but it didn't affect his audition. He only needed to pick the best actor.

Within two days, the four main supporting roles were also finalized. They were all veteran actors with good acting skills, and they also focused on being cheap.

Whether in Hollywood or China, this kind of golden supporting role is synonymous with "cheap and easy to use".

In addition to the expected extras and the performance fees of school students, the movie "Juno" has not even started shooting, and one million US dollars has been spent.

The total budget given by Fox Searchlight for this movie is only 6 million US dollars.

It seems that it is 500,000 less than the original movie's cost of 6.5 million US dollars, but it is actually higher than the original movie's budget!

Because Wu Yuan's $1.2 million director + script fee has not been included, this will be paid after the gambling agreement takes effect.

With this $1.2 million, Fox Searchlight's production cost is $8 million!

As for why there is an additional $800,000, of course it sounds better to say it out!

After getting the main actors, Wu Yuan will no longer have time to spend time with blonde beauties, and John will no longer have time to organize any parties.

The two of them took the crew's cameraman and traveled around North America to start scouting locations.

Even if the time is advanced by six years, some things cannot be changed.

For example, due to budget constraints, although Wu Yuan likes a small town in Minnesota the most, in order to save budget, after a few people discussed it, they finally settled for the second best and set the shooting location in Vancouver, the same as the original film crew.

Because Vancouver has financial support for filming, it is the most cost-effective!

After the filming location was determined, the long-awaited actors, photographers, lighting, sound engineers, art directors, art designers, set makeup and other crew members rushed to Vancouver from the United States.

These crew members were not selected by Wu Yuan, but arranged by Fox Searchlight. Wu Yuan tested their skills and found that they were all good, at least enough for filming "Juno".

And the Hollywood crew has a very clear division of labor, which is almost the level of the mainland in 2015. This made Wu Yuan feel professionalism for the first time in a long time, and he felt like he was back in his dream world!

Of course, it is undeniable that some staff members in the crew looked down on Wu Yuan, a director from China.

In their opinion, how could a Chinese director make a movie that is popular in Hollywood?

Don’t mention Wu Baige, he is a director from the Hong Kong film industry, and Hollywood still recognizes Hong Kong films, after all, they were strong rivals back then!

But the mainland film industry has no status in Hollywood.

Now that Wu Yuan, a director from China, is directing them, some racially discriminatory staff members will be unhappy and pretend to obey.

At this time, John, the producer, comes in handy.

Fox Searchlight invited Wu Yuan to make a movie to make money and win awards, not to let him experience Hollywood’s discrimination against Asians.

John, who is usually very friendly and cheerful with Wu Yuan, is like an angry lion when facing the crew members!

During the run-in period of the crew and before the actors officially started shooting, John sat next to Wu Yuan every day!

Once he found that a staff member did not listen to Wu Yuan, or was sloppy in work and dragged his feet, John immediately cursed!

"Son of a bitch!"

"You do whatever Daniel says, and get out immediately if there is any delay!"

"Fox Searchlight does not need disobedient crew members!"

"In the crew, Daniel is God, and his words are the truth!"

John is more like a tyrant on the set than the director Wu Yuan, but it must be said that this is indeed very effective.

Under John's watchful eyes, the crew ran in very quickly. It only took a week for Wu Yuan to feel that the crew was at his fingertips.

With the crew obedient, the first official scene of "Juno" finally began shooting.