Huayu 2011: Starting with Hilarious Men

When people are young, their hormones are particularly strong.

During pre-shoot rehearsals, Zheng Nan didn't pay attention to Dilraba's acting skills; she only looked at her face.

"How is it?" Lin Wenruo asked, holding up her camera.

"It really is beautiful." Zheng Nan smacked her lips, savoring the memory.

"I asked you how the lighting is, do you need to add a fill light?" Lin Wenruo, a seasoned womanizer, saw through Zheng Nan's thoughts at a glance and said, "If you have feelings for her, get her before she officially enters the entertainment industry. Once she's been struggling in the industry for a few years, things will change."

"Old Lin, what are you saying? I'm a gentleman, okay?" Zheng Nan coughed twice.

"A gentleman? Xiao Chunan is nothing." Lin Wenruo turned and left; there was no point in talking to someone who was so stubborn.

With the experience of the previous two hours of rehearsal shooting as a foundation, and since it was shooting the same series of content, there was no need to change the scenes. In addition, Dilraba is not as prone to laughing during filming as Yuan Bingyan, so the shooting progressed much faster.

Zheng Nan also arranged several middle-aged roles for Wang Jian, such as store manager and shop assistant, allowing Wang Jian to experience acting.

The afternoon passed just like that.

At 5 p.m., Zheng Nan and the others restored Wang Jian's milk tea shop to its original state, and Wang Jian cooked to entertain everyone.

After eating and drinking their fill, everyone said goodbye to Wang Jian, as these first-year students had classes the next day.

"Will filming be like this after we graduate?" Dilraba helped carry the two tripods and glanced back at the 'Call for Milk Tea Shop'.

Today's experience was quite special for Dilraba.

"I think so? It can't be too far off." Yuan Bingyan chimed in from the side.

"It's a huge difference. We're just a makeshift crew. When we're actually filming, the director won't tolerate you doing 19 takes." Zheng Nan still felt resentful thinking about the more than a hundred times she slapped herself today.

"Shut up, you're last!" Yuan Bingyan retorted.

They took taxis back to the Shanghai Theatre Academy; the boys went back to their male dorms, and the girls went back to their female dorms.

After arriving at the dormitory, Lin Wenruo handed Zheng Nan all the memory cards used for filming that day.

"So many?!" Zheng Nan took a look and saw that there were at least twenty memory cards.

"What did you think? A 4GB memory card can record 12 minutes of HD video." Lin Wenru casually explained the parameters and functions of the Canon 5D Mark II.

"How much content can be cut from so many memory cards?" Duan Xingye asked curiously.

Zheng Nan estimated the amount of filming today and gave a rough estimate: "The final edited video will probably be about eight or nine minutes long."

"So little!"

"That's not a small amount; I'm preparing to include about twelve minutes of the main content in each episode."

The number Zheng Nan mentioned was one he had carefully considered; the original episode of the first season of "Men's Diary" was 15 to 16 minutes long.

When budgets are limited, shortening the content is an unavoidable choice.

"Isn't twelve minutes a bit too short?"

A standard TV series episode nowadays is between 42 and 48 minutes long, so twelve minutes is only a quarter of a normal TV series episode.

"It can't compare to a serious TV series. To put it bluntly, it's just a collection of jokes. Compared to a skit, twelve minutes isn't short. With a high density of jokes, the longer it lasts, the higher the audience's threshold becomes." Having experienced the era of short videos, Zheng Nan genuinely feels that twelve minutes is not short.

"So how many episodes are you planning to film?"

"Minimum six episodes, maximum eight episodes, depending on the budget."

After answering the three curious children's various questions, Zheng Nan turned on her computer and began exporting and editing the video.

The videos on the first few memory cards were invalid content from when Yuan Bingyan laughed during filming, causing the shooting to be interrupted. Zheng Nan did not delete them directly, but kept them so that they could be released as behind-the-scenes footage later.

Some of the videos on the memory card are usable, and some are not. Zheng Nan needs to watch them one by one and then edit out the usable parts.

Thankfully, Zheng Nan had worked as a laborer for a while in his previous life and was very proficient in using Photoshop; otherwise, hiring someone else to edit the footage would have been a huge expense.

The cost of editing the video was saved, but in the process, Zheng Nan discovered even more expenses.

For example, subtitles. You need to be very careful with subtitles in commercial works. You must not infringe on copyrights. If the work is not popular, it's fine. But once it becomes popular, if the copyright holder finds out that you used paid fonts, you will be sued without fail.

Zheng Nan checked online and found that licensing some nice fonts for a TV series costs between three and five thousand yuan.

This price prompted Zheng Nan to decisively choose the free font.

For example, soundtracks. The soundtracks for commercial works also require copyright purchases, which are usually much more expensive than fonts.

The opening sequence needed to be produced... the end credits needed to be filled with cast members... and so on. These problems made Zheng Nan's head spin more and more as she edited.

"This is too difficult!"

"Go to sleep, Lao Zheng. It's almost midnight. You have class tomorrow morning," Ren Yi, who is also a performing arts major, advised.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are works of art created in a day.

Zheng Nan listened to the advice, saved the contents, then turned off the computer and went to bed.

……

Monday, a new day begins.

While eating breakfast, Zheng Nan noticed that many classmates were secretly watching him.

When he got to the classroom, even more people were spying on him.

It didn't take long for Zheng Nan to find out why.

There are no secrets among students; everyone has heard about Zheng Nan's filming of the work with a budget of 26,000 yuan.

The phrase "26,000" and "film and television works" seem incongruous when put together.

Everyone wants to know who did this.

"They're treating me like a giant panda." Zheng Nan smiled helplessly.

"We both studied acting, so being a giant panda is a good thing," Ren Yi comforted him.

Soon, the school bell rang, and the teacher entered the classroom, marking the start of the lesson.

From an academic perspective, the Shanghai Theatre Academy's acting program is a top-tier undergraduate program, primarily focusing on acting, diction, physical expression, and vocal performance.

In terms of performance and dialogue, the focus is on imitation. Teachers will select some classic excerpts for students to imitate.

The teacher chose a scene from the fourth act of the classic play "Thunderstorm" for this lesson, which is also the most melodramatic scene.

Fan Yi: Zhou Ping! Come out here!

Zhou Ping: What are you going to do?

Fanyi: You want to leave? You want to abandon me? Let me tell you, you can't leave!

Zhou Ping: What exactly do you want?

Fanyi: I want you to be with me! I want you to destroy this family!

Sifeng: Brother Ping! Help me!

Zhou Ping: Sifeng!

Fan Yi: What a despicable couple! Do you even know what your relationship is? He's your brother! You're his sister!

Zhou Puyuan: What are you all doing?

Fan Yi: Zhou Puyuan! Look at your good family! Your son and daughter are having an affair! Your wife and son are committing adultery!

Normally, for such complex theatrical segments, students should choose roles and then perform them individually.

However, in order to "liberate their natural instincts" and hone their acting skills, teachers often asked students to perform solo, and then have them imitate the lines of both men and women.

In the past, Zheng Nan couldn't let loose when imitating others, which caused her grades to stagnate.