Entertainment: Who still wants to fall in love when there are cheats?

Chapter 235 Progress
The movie "Lost in Thailand" had an investment of 30 million.

Speaking of this 30 million investment, it's nothing compared to the cost of Li Boda's "Infinite Terror". The first "Infinite Terror" film cost as much as 600 million.

The second installment has already cost nearly 700 million yuan to produce.

[Lost in Thailand] That mere 30 million is really nothing to brag about.

However, before filming "Infinite Terror," the films that Li Boda directed, whether it was "Nightclub," "Lost in Thailand," or "Love is Not Blind," had an investment of less than ten million.

Therefore, as Xu Shan's first film as a director, the investment of 30 million yuan for "Lost in Thailand" is indeed a bit too much. Moreover, this is only the production cost; post-production promotion and other expenses will also require money.

It can be said that while the movie "Lost in Thailand" may not be considered a big-budget, big-production film, it is definitely not a low-budget, small-production film either.

For an actor who switched careers midway through his career to become a director, the investment of 30 million for his directorial debut is indeed a bit high.

However, aside from the fact that this was Xu Shanzheng's first time directing, the script for "Lost in Thailand" was excellent, and the actors he hired were all very talented, including Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo.

It could even be said that, setting aside the fact that Xu Shanzheng was the director of this film, "Lost in Thailand" is actually a very worthwhile investment.

Think about it, Xu Shanzheng and I are the same, both of us started as actors and then became directors. Although Xu Shanzheng doesn't have his own magic touch, it doesn't mean that Xu Shanzheng can't make a good movie.

However, Li Boda did not reply to Xu Shanzheng immediately, but instead invited Xu Shanzheng to stay in the "Infinite Terror" crew for a few days.

Li Boda planned to have Xu Shanxiong assist Xu Ke in "Infinite Terror," mainly because Li Boda wanted to see if Xu Shanxiong had the ability to be a director.

Xu Shanzheng understood Li Boda's meaning, and he was not angry at all; on the contrary, he was very happy.

After all, not just anyone is qualified to join the cast of "Infinite Terror".

Moreover, Xu Shanzheng himself is ambitious and wants to become a great director. Now that Li Boda has given him the opportunity to learn in such a big and awesome production team as [Infinite Terror], he couldn't be happier.

So from then on, Xu Shanzheng would arrive at the film set early every day and then follow Li Boda and Xu Ke around.

Sometimes, for relatively simple scenes, Li Boda would intentionally let Xu Shanzheng try filming them.

Of course, when Xu Shanzheng was filming, Xu Ke and even Li Boda were watching from the sidelines.

Then Li Boda discovered that Xu Shanzheng was actually quite capable. Although he was rather inexperienced and lacked ability or experience, Xu Shanzheng was really not a problem as a director.

As long as it's not a large-scale film production and the movie isn't particularly difficult, Xu Shanzheng really has the ability to handle it.

In other words, Xu Shanzheng is fully capable of handling the film "Lost in Thailand," and if he were to be paired with a capable assistant director, the film would be quite successful.

So, Li Boda invested 30 million!

After receiving the investment promised by Li Boda, Xu Shanzheng was overjoyed and couldn't stop smiling.

In fact, Xu Shanzheng did not expect Li Boda to invest 30 million yuan directly at the beginning. In his opinion, it would be enough if Li Boda invested 20 million yuan or even just 10 million yuan. He would try to find other ways to attract investment. If that didn't work, he would invest all the money he had earned from filming over the years. If it was still not enough, mortgaging the house would not be a big problem.

Unexpectedly, Li Boda directly secured the entire 30 million investment.

This saved Xu Shanzheng a lot of trouble.

After securing the investment, Xu Shanzheng reluctantly left the "Infinite Terror" production team.

If it weren't for the fact that he was going to be filming "Lost in Thailand" next, and that there was still a lot of work he needed to prepare himself, he really would have liked to stay on the set of "Infinite Terror" until filming wrapped up before leaving.

The main reason is that he was able to learn a lot from working on the set of "Infinite Terror".

Xu Ke's unrestrained filming style, Li Boda's ability to command the entire crew with ease, and their understanding and pursuit of the camera, as well as their use of light and color, all contribute to the film's success.

There are many aspects in these areas that Xu Shanzheng can learn from, especially the film crew of "Infinite Terror," which also involved many high-quality special effects shooting solutions.

These are things that cannot be learned through normal learning.

Unfortunately, he was ultimately going to film "Lost in Thailand," so Xu Shanxiang had no choice but to leave with reluctance.

Upon returning to China, Xu Shanzheng immediately submitted the script to the Film Bureau for registration. He then contacted Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo, while also looking for cinematographers, lighting technicians, and other personnel to assemble the entire production team.

Xu Shanzheng was so busy that he couldn't stop for a while.

Compared to Xu Shanzheng, Li Boda had it much easier.

Since Li Boda started directing, he has delegated all such work to Sister Wang, so Li Boda doesn't have to do these things at all.

It also depends on the individual—whether they are willing to delegate power, or whether they have someone they can trust. For Li Boda, Sister Wang was someone he could trust, so he entrusted all his work to her.

Xu Shanzheng was just an actor with some fame before, and he had never even started working independently. Although he had people around him, he didn't have anyone as trustworthy and reliable as Sister Wang, so he had to do all these jobs himself.

After returning to China, Xu Shanzheng was so busy filming "Lost in Thailand" that he couldn't stop.

Meanwhile, the crew of "Infinite Terror" had almost finished filming some of the outdoor scenes.

So the entire crew moved back to the green screen and began filming.

The scenes filmed against a green screen were mainly the battle between the Zhongzhou team and Kayako.

The countless clones of Kayako, the various bizarre attack methods, and finally, the gigantic Kayako several meters tall.

These all need to be composited using special effects in post-production.

Moving to a green screen for filming meant that Yan Kuan and his team would have a lot of scenes requiring wire work.

They put the wires on their bodies, then loosened their grip, and began running, struggling, and fighting in a seemingly frantic manner.

However, since there were no real opponents to compare against, a lot of shooting without actual objects was required, which increased the difficulty of the shooting.

"Run! Run! Yan Kuan, run! Run as fast as you can! You're risking your life right now, you're running for your life. Don't worry about your image. What do you care about image when you're running for your life? In fact, the more ferocious your expression, the more real you are..."

"Liu Yifei! What are you standing there for? You're playing an assassin now, an assassin! Be decisive and ruthless in your actions, don't just stand there expressionless, in pain, in pain!"

“Huang Xiaoming, you’re struggling. I need to see struggle in your eyes. You want to kill Zheng Zha and the others, but you’re also moved by Zheng Zha’s kindness. You’re struggling internally right now…”

"What are you good for? Can't you act? Can't you act? Didn't you graduate from film school? Did you really study properly in school? Do you even know what acting is? Do you understand?"

"How many times have I told you? Are you idiots? Are you stupid?"

"Are you brainless? Are your brains empty?"

“Pigs, I feel like I’m insulting pigs when I call you pigs.”

"Liu Yifei!!! Where's your brain? Where's your brain?"

Li Boda held a megaphone and shouted loudly.

As the director, Li Boda could have simply sat behind the monitor and filmed the scene, letting others tell Yan Kuan and the others how to act.

However, having someone else do it is never as effective as doing it yourself.

Moreover, some things, if you don't say them yourself—no, I mean, if you don't curse them yourself—really, sometimes your heart will become dirty.

It must be said that while swearing is wrong, it's undeniably effective!

Under Li Boda's curses, Yan Kuan, Zhao Liying, Huang Xiaoming, and even Liu Yifei all improved their acting skills rapidly.

Especially Liu Yifei!
I don't know if she didn't study hard enough back then, or if she lacked experience. Or maybe the director didn't scold her enough during filming, or something like that.

Therefore, despite having been in the industry for so many years, Liu Yifei's acting skills have hardly improved at all.

However, now, under Li Boda's curses, although she would be envious from time to time, although she would hide and cry from time to time, and even her mother Liu Xiaoli wanted to take revenge on Li Boda more than once, wanting to drain Li Boda dry!

However, Liu Yifei's acting skills are indeed improving rapidly at a visible pace.

It can't be said that Liu Yifei's acting skills suddenly became incredibly good or outstanding, but at least her acting skills are already presentable.

Even in serious dramas or other types of TV series or movies, her acting skills are good enough to get her some roles.

At first, Liu Yifei was unaware of her own progress and was often saddened by being scolded by Li Boda.

But as time went on, her progress became more and more obvious. After being criticized less and less, she finally realized that her acting skills had improved.

So, from then on, Liu Yifei was cheerful every day, often smiling and showing her teeth, like a silly girl.

Although she would still feel jealous when Li Boda scolded her during filming, she seemed to be in a very good mood at other times.

(End of this chapter)