The entertainment industry: My 99 future timelines!

The next day, afternoon.

Li Xu led the five selected individuals to a small, temporarily rented studio off the campus of the Beijing Film Academy to familiarize themselves with the production team before joining the crew.

This used to be the site of a bankrupt GG company.

It's a bit old, but the space is open and equipped with all the basic equipment, such as a whiteboard and projector.

Of the initial one million yuan in start-up capital that Liu Yifei made, aside from paying a small deposit to early adopters, the first sum was used by Li Xu for this purpose.

"The conditions are basic, but we'll have to make do. This will be our base camp for the next two months."

Pushing open the glass door of the studio, Li Xu gestured for the five people behind him to come in, and spoke at the same time.

Inside the studio.

A long white table was placed in the middle, with several folding chairs already arranged on it.

Li Deyuan and his four companions followed and filed in.

After they sat down, they exchanged glances, their expressions a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

The five of them all graduated from the Beijing Film Academy, but belonged to different departments and were in different years.

Being selected from a group of top students at the Beijing Film Academy by Li Xu, a sophomore who was younger than them, gave them a peculiar feeling, and also filled them with a strange sense of mission and superiority.

-

In the evening, after completing the basic adjustment and familiarization process.

Li Xu left the studio and returned to his rented apartment off the Beijing Film Academy campus. He glanced at the darkening sky outside the window, then buried himself in his work, diligently drawing the storyboard.

The five members, including Li Deyuan, who were selected by him, only need to carefully familiarize themselves with the script during this period.

But as a film director, he has to coordinate everything, and there's still a lot to do.

The team is still gelling, and he needs to pave the way for the future.

-

The sky outside the window gradually darkened.

Li Xu's drawing work never stopped.

In terms of storyboards, some directors prefer comic book compositions, while others draw them as stick figures.

Li Xu, on the other hand, likes to turn each page of the storyboard into a meticulous and rigorous sketch of the shot.

The left side of the storyboard clearly marks the camera angle, character positions, and shot size.

The right side of the storyboard—describes the action, dialogue, sound design, and most importantly, the mood of light and shadow in concise language.

After finishing the last storyboard for the day, Li Xu looked at the finished product and expressed his satisfaction.

This last scene depicts the pre-breakdown of Du Minghao, the male protagonist of his novel "Love Announcement," after the celebration banquet.

Outside the celebration banquet, in front of the sink, Du Minghao looked pained. The pale white light above his head felt like a cage, and shadows like ghosts crawled all over his face.

Next to the picture, there is a text label:

[Light and Shadow Mood]: Top lighting is like a cage, shadows are like ghosts.

High contrast and cool colors (cyan and blue) must be used to express Du Minghao's "fear" and "suffocation".

At the same time, use facial shading to cover the entire side of the face.

The sound design for this scene: The faint sounds of laughter and clinking glasses from the banquet hall are distorted and elongated after being filtered through the door panels, like a series of buzzing sounds, sometimes near and sometimes far.

Interspersed throughout are sharp, tinnitus-like white noises that gradually increase in intensity. Instead of using conventional processing to mimic Du Minghao's heartbeat, irregular bass drum beats are used to simulate arrhythmia. Finally, the sound transitions to black and abruptly stops.

Just then, Li Xu's phone vibrated a few times; it was a text message from Liu Yifei.

"Li Xu, how did your team's meeting go?"

"Director, did your strictness really scare your senior colleagues?"

Looking at the message sent by Liu Yifei, Li Xu remained noncommittal.

Strict?

Considering that these people were recommended by Zheng Dongtian and Mu Deyuan, two elders who had treated him well, he had already been very considerate in his words and actions.

He casually replied to Liu Yifei: "It's alright. Among my senior brothers and sisters, five are reasonably competent, and two of them are a bit weak, but talent is hard to find."

"Besides, I should give Professor Zheng and Teacher Mu some face, so I'll train them a bit more later."

Within minutes of Li Xu sending the text message, Liu Yifei replied swiftly: "I didn't expect a robot like you to actually give people face?"

"Tsk~, but you really gave us a lot of face. Professor Zheng and Professor Mu brought you more than a dozen alumni from Beijing Film Academy, and you only selected five of them. Two of them were barely chosen."

"Junior Li Xu, your 'devilish' side will probably be talked about at Beidian for a long time from now on."

"By the way, my mom heard I invested in your movie and she wants to meet you. When are you free? Why don't you come over for a casual meal?"

Looking at the text message, Li Xu raised an eyebrow slightly.

See parents?

It was indeed time to meet Liu Yifei's mother, although Li Xu seriously suspected that her attitude would not be good and felt that he was trying to abduct her daughter.

But Li Xu was not afraid. After all, the quality of "Summer First Love", the broadcast response, and the two new endorsements that this film brought to Liu Yifei all demonstrated his strength.

Even though Liu Yifei's mother is known for her fierce protectiveness of her children in the film and television industry, he doesn't think he has any problem that he can be manipulated by this Ms. Liu Xiaoli.

"Next week, let me sort things out with the team first. Eating is a minor matter, the movie is the important thing."

Li Xu typed a reply to Liu Yifei, then put down his phone and focused on continuing his work.

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning, when Li Xu had finished drawing all the storyboards for another important scene, that he finally washed up and rested.

As for the "???" text message sent by Liu Yifei on my phone.

Li Xu simply read the message but did not reply.