Become famous another day.

Li Zhibai nodded.

“I have such an idea.”

"That's good." Lin Suyang nodded, "In the future, maybe there will be competition between you two."

"There must be more cooperation than competition between us," said Li Zhibai. "Such a big market, such a big pie - Yan He always said this. He never worried about others doing well. He even hoped that more people would do well.

"Because this will expand the market, right?" Lin Suyang smiled and shook his head, "But this is because our domestic market is in an upward period. One day, this ceiling will appear."

"It's definitely not a one-man show," Li Zhibai said. "Rather than worrying about us competing with each other in the future, we should worry about what will happen if we don't have the strength to help each other in the future and are suppressed by others."

Lin Suyang gave Li Zhibai a thumbs up.

"Your idea is great."

Li Zhibai: "We are the kind of friends who would never want to step on each other to prove ourselves. We are the kind of friends who hope to have the ability and talent to lift each other up higher."

Lin Suyang: "Sometimes, your relationship is really enviable."

Li Zhibai said: "I feel so too."

Li Zhibai's face was filled with pride.
-
The movie "Godless" was shot mainly indoors in the United States - to be precise, it was shot in a studio with a green screen.

After finishing this part, we will move to other places.

Therefore, it was also the first time that Lu Yanhe encountered a crew that required him to "go in and out three times".

He is not the main character, and all the scenes are not conducted from his perspective. Therefore, his filming also has to accommodate the crew's schedule.

However, Lu Yanhe thought this was a good idea.

The director of Godless is Ignaz Bell.

This is a director who once shot the special effects blockbuster "Ghost Ship Logs" - at that time the film achieved a global box office of 5.6 million US dollars, which was an excellent result.

However, because this director often went over budget when filming, even though the box office results were mostly excellent, allowing the studio to make a lot of money in the end, new projects always did not go smoothly.

Hollywood film studios don't have much trust in him.

The last time he made a movie was five years ago.

Midoriya didn't know where he thought of this talented director who didn't take the budget seriously but had many fans.

However, the fact that Midoriya chose this director shows that they really want to make this movie well.

After all, Ignaz Bell has no other shortcomings except that he likes to overspend and waste money when filming.

The works he directed are basically all well-received, but there is a difference between niche reputation and popular reputation.

Lu Yanhe and Ignaz Bell had video chats several times before.

This was the first time we met when I came to the United States.

Ignaz Bell is a short man, one could even describe him as "short and fat".

He wears a pair of round glasses and looks "cute".

Unlike many film directors, he started out as a TV screenwriter and has been working in the American film and television industry since he was very young.

Later, step by step, we came to this day.

Logically speaking, a director who grew up in such an industry should be very good at budget control, but he is not.

He always has a reason to spend more money than what is budgeted.

But such a "rebellious" director is actually a middle-aged man who is a little overly enthusiastic and like a caring neighbor.

"Lu, I watched the movie The Mist starring you. I am your fan!"

Lu Yanhe grabbed him without saying anything and gave him a hug.

"Director, if I had known that you were invited to direct when I signed the contract for 'Godless', I would have signed the contract more readily."

Ignaz Bell: "After I watched The Mist, I wanted to work with you, so when they told me that you would be joining Godless, it made me more determined to direct Godless."
-
Some directors do not respect actors, and think that actors are merely tools of the director and accessories of the film.

Some directors regard actors as "gods" because they equate actors with the characters in their movies and invest all their emotions into them.

Most directors are somewhere in between these two.

Ignaz Bell is the latter type when it comes to actors he approves of, and he is even worse than the former type of director when it comes to actors he disapproves of.

That's what Darren Wilson told him.

Lu Yanhe didn't know what impression or opinion Ignaz Bell had of him. However, he did have a general idea of ​​Ignaz Bell from Darren Wilson's evaluation.

Although Ignaz Baer has always been a blockbuster director, he also seems to be an author-type director.

There are also author-type directors among blockbuster directors.

Many people roughly believe that author-type directors must belong to the field of art films.

In fact, whether it is Peter Jackson who filmed "The Lord of the Rings" or the more famous James Cameron, the blockbusters they shot are bigger than ordinary blockbusters, but they have obvious personal imprints.

There is still a huge difference between blockbusters and traditional commercial films.

Then, Lu Yanhe realized that he had also become one of those people who agreed with the view that "you are talented and you are right."

After realizing that Ignaz Bell was this type of director, Lu Yanhe felt happy and even fortunate.

This feeling was the same as when he was on the set of "Burning Fire" and discovered that Wan Ren Hai was not just a director who could shoot commercial blockbusters and special effects blockbusters.

An actor like Lu Yanhe is definitely not the kind of actor who just hopes that the movie will do well at the box office.

Many people think this is nonsense - is there any actor who doesn’t want both box office success and good reputation?

But some actors have a attitude towards movie box office that this must be there, and other things, if they exist, are icing on the cake, and if they don't, it doesn't matter, even if it's a bad movie - for example, director Wang Baoqiang's first work, if it is really judged by the box office, it can be said to be unsuccessful. However, he dared to receive the golden broom, dared to apologize, and dared to admit that he messed up even though the box office was good, and he will work hard to improve himself in the future.

Therefore, even though Wang Baoqiang’s first directorial work had such a bad reputation and was almost so bad that it was almost criticized as a “money-making” work, his second film “Octagon Cage” was still believable to the audience and had a huge box office success.

In many cases, details really determine success or failure. Whether an actor really cares about his reputation, the quality of the film, and the audience can often be seen, and it must be conveyed to the audience. Otherwise, it will be like a piece of highbrow music that is not appreciated by many people, and good wine will not be appreciated by many people.

Lu Yanhe didn’t know what kind of movie “Godless” would become.

This is the first time for Lu Yanhe to work on a film shot by the world's top film company using the world's top resources.

Such a movie also means that it must be aimed at multiple goals.

It has to have good box office and good reputation, and best of all, it has to become a classic in film history.

Lu Yanhe also had no idea what kind of mark this film series would leave on his acting career.

But he is very clear that even though he is a supporting role in this movie, he is a well-deserved leading supporting role, comparable to the heavyweight supporting roles such as Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" series. Even Sirius in "Harry Potter" is not as important as Lu Yanhe in "Godless". The role that Midoriya gave to Lu Yanhe runs through the entire series and has an important impact on the main plot of the movie.

Lu Yanhe is not so arrogant as to think that this film series is just the "icing on the cake" in his acting career even though he has won so many trophies and has so many representative works.

Just like Professor McGonagall in "Harry Potter", the actress who played this role, Maggie Smith, is a well-known actress. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for the very famous art film "Dead Souls", not to mention other nominations. After playing in "Harry Potter", she also starred in the equally influential "Downton Abbey". However, for this actress, in the minds of the public, the first reaction that comes to mind when people think of her is Professor McGonagall.

Lu Yanhe knows very well what a blockbuster film series that can truly enter film history means to an actor.

Because he knew it clearly, he did not take it lightly at all.

It was precisely because of this clarity that he was so disappointed with the North American release of "Burning Fire".

In Lu Yanhe's mind, he believed that the quality of "Burning Fire" could compete with those top blockbusters.

Is it the movie itself that's bad?

Lu Yanhe always believed that what it lacked was a top-notch global distribution.

A few hundred theaters dismissed the North American release of such a movie——

Of course, no one would say anything.

Because that’s what Chinese films are like.

There are hundreds of cinemas.

You've made millions of dollars at the box office, but you're still not satisfied?
This is America, not China.

But Lu Yanhe felt regretful. It is possible to give it a try, maybe, he did not say for sure, but if the distribution conditions were better and the publicity and promotion were better, maybe "Burning Fire" could also achieve the same success in North America as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" in another time and space.

Is the quality of these two films so high that they can break all boundaries?

No, it was these two films that gained the confidence of North American distributors and had the best distribution conditions for Chinese-language films in North America in history. Then, their own content and quality supported such distribution conditions, without any waste.
-
Lu Yanhe studied the role he was going to play in "Godless" very seriously.

Then, go try on your makeup first.

Lu Yanhe spent three days just trying out makeup.

He really almost asked China for help again.

Because the styling that Lucy Bates, the stylist of "Godless", gave to Lu Yanhe was not suitable for him.

However, unlike in The Mist, Lucy Bates did not even need to wait for Lu Yanhe to speak. She took the initiative to say, "This look is a little off the track of my idea. I need to adjust it."

Lu Yanhe nodded and expressed his true thoughts.

“Do you need to put eyeliner on me?”

His character seems a bit evil.

Lucy Bates said, "You can try to wipe it off. I put eyeliner on you because the character you play is a wanderer. I want him to look more like a wandering poet, more down-to-earth."

In fact, Lucy Bates did not describe it very accurately, but Lu Yanhe immediately understood what she meant.

Lu Yanhe said: "You actually got inspiration from the gypsy look and wanted to add such elements to me."

Lucy Bates' eyes lit up and she looked at Lu Yanhe in surprise.

"Yes."

Lu Yanhe said: "But my current look makes me look more like an ordinary wanderer, dusty and exhausted, as if I have experienced a long journey and finally arrived at the destination with a cart of goods. It shows a sense of hard work, rather than the image of a wanderer with a mysterious origin who is a little out of tune with the surrounding environment."

"Another thing is that I am Chinese, and my appearance is very different from that of gypsies, so when their elements appear on me in a large area, we will subconsciously feel it is inconsistent the moment we see it." Lu Yanhe put forward his own point of view.

Lucy Bates nodded.

Lu Yanhe thought of something and said, "Wait for me."

He immediately called Chen Siqi.

"Siqi, didn't Jump Up do an issue on traditional Chinese legends before? Did you collect a lot of information at that time? Can you send me a package?"

Chen Siqi agreed immediately.

After Lu Yanhe received the information, he pulled Lucy Bates to look at the pictures in the information on the tablet computer.

"These are images from traditional Chinese legends, including gods, demons, monsters, traditional Taoist priests, monks, and other related images," Lu Yanhe said. "You can refer to these elements."

Seeing this, Lucy Bates said on the spot: "This information should really have been found earlier."

Lu Yanhe said: "It doesn't matter. There is still time before the filming officially starts. We should make the best use of the time to adjust it. Shouldn't it be in time?"

"I hope it's in time," said Lucy Bates, "to see if we can find a way to adjust the feel of the whole look by modifying some elements."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"I actually like the looks you designed for me, but some of the elements look a little weird on me." Lu Yanhe said with a smile, "For example, my eyeliner and black eyeshadow. Maybe it's because I've never tried this look before. I still can't get used to myself."

Lucy Bates nodded.

Fortunately, apart from his look, the looks of other main actors did not deviate much from the original design ideas after the actors put them on.

So, Lucy Bates and her team started working. (End of this chapter)