Chapter 74: Producer of "Stealing Hearts"

Jiaozhou, Qingdao.

Zhang Guorong's "Heart Stealing" crew is currently filming here.

The preparatory work for the "Heart Stealing" crew went smoothly, at least much smoother than the original track.

As early as December last year, after the filming of "Departures", Zhang Guorong came to Qingdao to select the scene.

He had never been to Qingdao before, but when he was in Hong Kong Island, he saw some postcards with old photos of Qingdao and pictures of Qingdao in picture albums.

The city's strong cultural atmosphere, 1840s style, and quaint buildings and landscapes left a deep impression on him.

So at the beginning of the script creation, he set the scene in Qingdao.

As a result, after a trip to Qingdao, Zhang Guorong was very disappointed. The buildings in the old photos had long been replaced by newly built modern buildings, and most of the plots he envisioned had lost their support.

Some members of the crew suggested changing to a similar city to shoot, but Zhang Guorong, who always demanded perfection, thought that would weaken the background of the movie and affect the overall style.

So he made a bold decision to change the script now!

After spending two or three months on it and revising the script, "Stealing Hearts" finally started filming at the end of March.

I have to say that it is really great to have the support of China Film Group!

Whatever actor Zhang Guorong wants, Mr. Han can invite him!

The crew of "Stealing Hearts" brought together a number of big names and young actors such as Ning Jing, Hu Jun, Siqin Gaowa, Shen Dianxia, ​​Chen Daoming, Huang Xiaoming, and Jiang Wen.

Except for Shen Dianxia, ​​who is a good friend of Zhang Guorong in Hong Kong Island, and Huang Xiaoming, who is just a young actor who has just become famous, the rest of the actors were all arranged by Mr. Han.

On the seventh day after the crew started filming, the last crew member of "Stealing Hearts", producer Wu Yuan, also came to join the crew in a low-key manner.

"Mr. Zhang, don't be so angry!"

On a Republican street built in the suburbs of Qingdao, Wu Yuan met the new director Zhang Guorong.

It's not to mention that Zhang Guorong, sitting in the director's chair, really has the aura of a director. At least when he cursed with a loud speaker, no one dared to talk back.

Wu Yuan also saw something new!

In the crew of "Departures", Zhang Guorong implemented the four words "gentle and elegant" to the extreme at work.

Although he likes to smoke and play mahjong in private, and has a funny side, he will never swear or quarrel with others.

But it's different in the crew of "Stealing Hearts".

From a distance, Wu Yuan heard Zhang Guorong's cursing mixed with Cantonese. From the stage manager to the props, cameraman, assistant director and even the actors, no one escaped being scolded.

The worst scolded person was a prop master. It seemed that he didn't put a prop in the right place, and reminded him several times, which completely annoyed Zhang Guorong.

Wu Yuan didn't feel it was strange.

Those who have actually worked as a director know that there is no director who doesn't curse on the set.

Wu Yuan cursed a lot when he was on the set!

There is no way. There are nearly a hundred people working together in a crew. There are always a lot of mistakes every day. It is really annoying to be clumsy, so you have to curse a few words.

But the director doesn't curse for pleasure. Cursing is just one of the ways to solve the problem, not just to get angry.

Just listening, Wu Yuan also found something wrong.

Like Zhang Guorong, who was completely angry and almost lost his rationality, catching everyone to curse together is not a good thing for any director.

"Everyone, disperse, the crew will finish work and rest for half an hour!"

Wu Yuan, who arrived on the scene in time, immediately started his supervisory work.

After dismissing the crew members who were being scolded by Zhang Guorong, Wu Yuan pulled Zhang Guorong to the shade of the tree and sat down with two folding chairs.

Handing Zhang Guorong a cigarette that he brought specially for him, Wu Yuan lit up a cigarette with him and puffed out smoke.

"Director Wu, this director's job really looks easy, but it's hard to do."

After taking a few deep puffs of the cigarette, Zhang Guorong sighed: "When I was an actor, I felt that whether it was you, the King of Sunglasses, or other directors, it was easy to be a director. You just need to sit behind the monitor and shout "cut", "pass", and call it a day."

"I didn't know until I did it myself that the director has to take care of so many things in a day, and the director has to go through all the details of the entire crew."

"It's really not easy. I'm exhausted after working for a week."

Yes, Wu Yuan shook his head with some concern. Zhang Guorong is a perfectionist. He likes to do everything himself and wants to do the best. If he is a director, the level of worry is twice as high as others!

He does not approve of this kind of director who takes care of all the work. It's too tiring.

"Mr. Zhang, filming is different now than it was before. In the past, a crew had only a dozen or twenty people, and the director could direct it all by himself."

"But now a crew has at least dozens of people, and at most hundreds of people. How can the director direct it all by himself?"

Wu Yuan patted Zhang Guorong on the shoulder:

"You have to learn to delegate power! For example, the crews in Hollywood are divided into several different groups, and each group is responsible for a certain task."

"The director is only responsible for the problems of on-site shooting, focusing on the key points and controlling the overall situation. Other things will be solved by other responsible persons."

"This way you can relax a lot, and the crew will run more smoothly."

"Nowadays, directors who want to take charge of everything are not popular in the mainland. When Director Yimou was shooting "Hero", he divided the crew into A/B groups, and there were also assistant directors who were responsible for coordination, casting, and on-site rehearsal."

"If you have to take charge of everything in the entire crew, it will be like now, and you can't manage anything well, and there will be various omissions."

Zhang Guorong looked at the cigarette butt that flickered in his hand, thinking and reflecting thoughtfully.

Wu Yuan just observed carefully.

The assistant director of Zhang Guorong's crew basically only played the role of passing on messages to Zhang Guorong, and couldn't take up the burden at all.

This is because Zhang Guorong was a director for the first time, and he was afraid that there would be problems with the crew, so he had to personally review everything, which made several assistant directors "empty".

The result of this is that Zhang Guorong has more things to worry about, and he can't manage it at all. Instead, the crew is getting more and more chaotic.

"Mr. Zhang, you are too concerned and confused!" Wu Yuan said earnestly.

Half an hour later, the crew of "Stealing Hearts" resumed work.

After Wu Yuan's persuasion, Zhang Guorong also came to his senses and quickly returned the work that originally belonged to several assistant directors to them, and no longer personally grasped the details of everything.

After the assistant directors really had the power of the crew, they quickly started to manage the details of all aspects of the crew. The props were in charge of the props, the set was in charge of the set, and the group actors led the group actors to perform...

The crew, which was originally running stumblingly, immediately started to run the process after Zhang Guorong delegated power to the person in charge.

After all, these crew members all came from the film studios under the China Film Group. There were few experienced people and they were all dedicated to doing practical things. It was just that they lacked an effective command system from top to bottom before. Like a group of headless flies, they naturally did not do good things.

Now that the producer Wu Yuan has arrived, he has put the crew back on track, and everything has gone smoothly.

A satisfied smile finally appeared on Zhang Guorong's face.

In this way, Wu Yuan followed the crew for a month and a half, and personally taught Zhang Guorong how to be a qualified director.

He never cared about how Zhang Guorong filmed "Stealing Hearts", how the actors should act, and how the scenes should be shot. He never gave any instructions, and let Zhang Guorong decide for himself.

He only taught Zhang Guorong one thing, how to correctly direct and use a film crew!

During these one and a half months, Zhang Guorong felt that he benefited a lot every day, and he couldn't help but think again about Wu Yuan's previous proposal.

There's nothing wrong with following this director Wu!

At least there are things he is really willing to teach!