Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 46 Daily Shooting
This year's Spring Festival was just an episode in the filming of a movie for Gu Wei who was in New York.

"Click."

"Xixi, congratulations on finishing the film."

Looking at Liu Yifei who had finished the filming, Gu Wei shouted into the loudspeaker.

"Hehe, thank you, senior."

"Crystal, congratulations on finishing your scene."

Other actors in the crew also sent their congratulations.

"thank you all."

Liu Yifei also replied very politely.

On February 2, Liu Yifei's scenes were finished filming, and thanks to her performance, the filming time was about the same as Gu Wei had expected.

"Xixi, Auntie, are you planning to go back home directly tomorrow?"

After finishing a day's filming, Gu Wei invited Liu Xiaoli and her daughter to dinner at the hotel restaurant as a practice for them.

"Yes, Director Gu, the flight tickets have been booked and we will leave early tomorrow morning."

"Thank you Director Gu for taking care of me these days."

Liu Xiaoli picked up the red wine glass and toasted Gu Wei.

Although Director Gu Wei is not very old, he is different from other big directors. As a well-known director, he is not arrogant to the mother and daughter. He is very considerate in all aspects, whether it is on the shooting scene or in daily life. Liu Xiaoli is also full of gratitude in her heart, but due to the sake of face, she can't say some things.

Seeing this, Gu Wei also raised his glass and clinked it with Liu Xiaoli.

As for Liu Yifei, she was not yet an adult and could only drink juice on the side.

"Senior, I'd like to toast you as well. Thank you for your care during this period of time," he said and picked up the glass of juice.

Seeing this, Gu Wei smiled and did not refuse.

"Senior, can I ask you for a few autographs?"

After toasting Gu Wei, Liu Yifei thought of her classmates' instructions and asked.

Gu Wei was a little surprised, but he still took the paper and pen handed to him by Liu Yifei and signed his name.

Liu Yifei saw Gu Wei's confusion and said, "Senior, our classmates are all your fans. We asked for these autographs on their behalf." After saying that, she smiled embarrassedly.

"There is a guy named Zhu Yawen in your class, he's quite interesting."

"Ah, senior, do you know Zhu Yawen?"

"Not really an acquaintance. I went back to school last year and chatted with him in the cafeteria."

Gu Wei told the two people who were standing next to him what happened in the cafeteria, and they also found it interesting.

"I didn't expect Zhu Yawen to be so brave. I'll have to ask him some questions when I see him again."

Liu Yifei said mischievously.

"Sissi, be a lady."

After hearing what her mother said, Liu Yifei stuck out her tongue and dared not say anything.

The next morning, Reid brought the crew to help send Liu Xiaoli and her group to the airport.

Gu Wei did not go to see them off in person, as the crew were waiting for him to start work and he did not want to waste other staff members' time.

...

After seeing off Liu Yifei and others, Gu Wei continued to immerse himself in the filming and time passed quickly.

On February 2, local time in Los Angeles, the film "Hero" by the famous domestic director Zhang Yimou was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

According to media reports, "Hero" will compete for the award with four films from Mexico, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands.

In addition, the film "Chicago" received 13 nominations including Best Picture, making it the undisputed favorite for this year's Oscars.

The news that "Hero" was shortlisted for an Oscar spread back to China and instantly made headlines in the entertainment industry.

Directors and well-known artists in the industry have sent their blessings, hoping that "Hero" will win the big award.

“Although I haven’t seen Director Zhang’s film yet, I believe in his ability and wish him all the best and win a big award.”

Gu Wei, who was busy filming on the crew, was also interviewed by reporters and asked about his views on this shortlisted film.

Although Gu Wei knew the result, he still sent his blessings. Everyone had the same intention.

After Gu Wei's interview was reported, some Hollywood directors and artists also sent their blessings to "Hero", and most people wanted to make friends with Gu Wei.

In Hollywood, Gu Wei, who has two films to his credit, has a much higher status than domestic directors.

The news of the interview with other Hollywood directors spread back to China, causing another wave of reports. Many people in the circle lamented Gu Wei's influence in Hollywood. Before this, when other domestic directors' works were released in North America, few foreign directors and artists expressed their support.

Domestic official media also gave positive comments and wished "Hero" to win a big prize.

For a time, "Hero" was the talk of the town, and the internet was full of discussions about the movie.

…The movie “The Day After Tomorrow” has a lot of special effects shots.

In order to shoot the scene of flood engulfing New York City, Gu Wei asked the crew to build a special large water tank in the studio in advance, and then "loaded" the street scenes of New York City into the tank and then filled it with water.

In this way, New York City was "swallowed up" by severe floods. Of course, other special effects had to be added in the later stage to make it look realistic.

The plot of the movie is not complicated. The protagonist gave a speech at a climate conference in India, saying that the future climate will become colder and even enter an ice age. However, his speech was refuted by the participants because it was very different from the current mainstream view of greenhouse effect and climate warming.

Fortunately, he met an old professor with similar interests. He agreed with the protagonist's point of view and the two got to know each other, laying the groundwork for the development of the subsequent plot.

Then, the fearless reporter broadcast live from the plane, with a series of long shots showing the three giant tornadoes wreaking havoc, and a panoramic shot showing the tornado tearing apart the Hollywood sign.

Then came the snow and the temperature dropped sharply. Everyone wanted to escape to the south while the ice was solid, but the young boy firmly believed that the outside world was more dangerous and asked his friends to stay here and try to keep warm. However, none of the refugees chose to believe him, except his friends.

This also reflects the reality from the side that personal power is small. Sometimes you cannot change what you are facing, nor can you stop such a trend. But if you have your own beliefs, then do what you think is right. What does it matter what the outcome is?

Through filming, Gu Wei shows the significance of family affection in the face of disaster.

The filming of the movie is divided into several lines:

1. The affection between the male protagonist and his son. Even in the face of disaster, no one will give up and everyone will fight together.

Second, the protagonist’s wife also chose to stay with her child instead of leaving because there was a blind child in her hospital.

Third, the American president in the movie stayed in the dangerous area until the last second to wait for his wife, and was unfortunately trapped by the storm and died.

The stories in these lines are also what Gu Wei wants to express. In the face of disaster, mutual trust and love are the eternal themes.
On the other hand, it is also a call on everyone to protect the environment and not let such a devastating disaster actually happen.

For this movie, Gu Wei not only wanted to feature realistic special effects, but also wanted the audience to see the educational significance of the movie.

In Hollywood, if you want to win big awards or achieve high box office, then the choice of movies is a question worth considering.

Or they can make pure science fiction blockbusters, like Avatar and the Transformers series, where the audience won’t care too much about the plot and will go to the cinema to watch the special effects.

Either you go for the sentimental route and make movies adapted from real life events, or you make something that conforms to Western ideas. The two are not contradictory.

Gu Wei's choice is very clear. At this stage, he just wants to make money and earn it while he is at it. Once the domestic film market develops and is not inferior to the European and American markets, he can then consider making films that are suitable for the domestic mainstream.

The shooting time of this movie was the longest that Gu Wei had ever experienced, and it also had the largest crew members. However, the employees sent by Warner were very professional. Most of the time, Gu Wei was in charge of the central command, and the specific matters were left to others.

The filming of the crew is going on...

...

On the other hand, Liu Yifei returned to China, rested at home for a few days, and then directly joined the crew of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" to start filming.

It is March now. This time of year is the busiest time in Hollywood. Excellent nominated films from all over the world gather in Los Angeles, resulting in a large number of film receptions and public relations receptions.

Even Gu Wei, who was far away in Los Angeles, received many invitations.

Gu Wei declined all invitations, citing film shooting as an excuse.

On March 2003, 3, Los Angeles time, the 23th Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA. Steve Martin served as the host and the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) broadcast it live.

Zhang Yimou and the crew of "Hero" rushed to Hollywood to attend the closing ceremony of this year's awards ceremony.

On that day, Zhang Ziyi appeared on the Hollywood red carpet in a cheongsam outfit, which was full of Chinese style and received a lot of praise.

"Peace" has always been the theme of Oscar movie promotion, but a few days before this year's Oscar awards ceremony, the Iraq War officially broke out. I wonder if this is the so-called "peace".

This year's Academy Awards has a total of 28 awards (24 production awards and 4 special awards).

In the end, "Chicago" won the Best Picture Award.

Roman Polanski won the Best Director Award for "The Pianist", and Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Award for "The Pianist".

Nicole Kidman won the Best Actress Award for "The Hours".

"Hero" lost to "No Home" in the Best Foreign Language Film award.

The film tells an interesting little story about theft. The original work has long been at the top of the German bestseller list.

When the news of "Hero"'s defeat reached China, all major media outlets reported it, causing sighs among filmmakers in the industry. The attempt of a domestic film to win an Oscar ended in failure once again.

New York, the set of "The Day After Tomorrow".

"Gu, it's a shame that director Zhang Yimou's film didn't win the Best Foreign Language Film award."

The Warner executive talked about what happened at the Oscars during a break in the crew.

"Ah."

Gu Wei nodded without saying anything. This result was already predetermined.

Most domestic directors don’t quite understand the rules of the Oscars. They just wait for the judges’ decisions but forget the most important public relations aspect.

"Gu, how's the filming going?"

“So far, it’s going smoothly and we expect it to be finished by June.”

Talking about the filming time of the movie, Gu Wei rarely smiled. The nearly half-year filming time also made him feel a little tired.

(End of this chapter)