The entertainment industry: My 99 future timelines!

Two days before filming began for "Love Announcement," progress was faster than expected.

The first major scene that Li Xu was going to film was "the first encounter in the bookstore late at night".

— Du Minghao broke down emotionally at the after-party following the concert and fled alone. On a rainy night, he accidentally stepped into a bookstore that was about to close and met Song Qing, who was working there and organizing the bookshelves.

Because there had been test shoots before, this scene, despite being a major one, was still filmed quickly by the two of them within a day.

Furthermore, for the two scenes on the following day, each take was completed within three takes, demonstrating extremely high efficiency.

Thanks to Li Xu's top-notch acting skills, Liu Yifei was deeply immersed in the character of Song Qing.

On the third day, filming finally encountered a hurdle.

The filming then moved to a piano classroom area within the Huairou Film and Television Base.

This area was originally just an open space with red brick walls, but after being carefully arranged by the Love Confession Tool Group, it was transformed into a corner of a modern university piano room.

The scene to be filmed that day was the first scene after "Du Minghao infiltrated the campus".

This was also the first formal meeting between Du Minghao (pseudonym Du Feng) and Song Qing on campus.

"The key to this scene is the misalignment between disguise and familiarity."

Before filming began, Li Xu gathered the photography team and the lead actress Liu Yifei to discuss the scene.

Li Xu had already changed into Du Feng's clothes.

His hair was messy, like a bird's nest, and he wore a pair of huge black-rimmed glasses, a black mask, and an inconspicuous white shirt and jeans.

With his sleeves rolled up to his forearms and a storyboard in his hand, Li Xu calmly began to explain:

"First of all, we need to know that Du Minghao's disguise to enter the school was not to experience life; it was a psychological escape."

"He communicated with the school before entering, as a music major who was transferring to the arts department."

"Therefore, he would deliberately hide his identity in his daily life and would never want to have much interaction with those students."

"Besides his ordinary appearance and the black mask that concealed his identity, he always carried several thick books on music theory or philosophy, and he did not live on campus and had no roommates."

"But even though he disguised his identity very well, some things just can't be hidden."

"For example, he sometimes unconsciously shows his genius side in school music class. Even though I'm acting, you should still pay attention to these points, Senior Yifei."

Liu Yifei listened attentively.

Her outfit today was the typical simple attire of a music major.

Wearing a simple cotton dress, her long hair loosely tied up, and carrying a canvas instrument bag, she looked as clean as the morning dew of early summer.

"I understand."

After Li Xu finished explaining this part, Liu Yifei nodded in agreement as the photography team members nodded in agreement.

"Well, I'm glad you understand."

"As the female lead in our film, you are a somewhat socially awkward, talented girl majoring in folk music, but you are afraid of performing in front of too many people, and you only have one close friend, Li Chun."

"At first, you probably only vaguely felt that Du Feng, this classmate who always kept to himself and was aloof, looked somewhat familiar, but never really paid attention to him."

"Until the scene we're about to perform, you happen to pass by and overhear Du Feng playing an out-of-tune, broken piano in an empty old classroom. His technique is amazing, so you become curious and start trying to understand him."

He continued explaining from the director's perspective until he confirmed that Liu Yifei could understand.

Li Xu instructed Wang Luyao, Liu Hu, and others to determine the camera's shooting position and lighting, and the actual filming began.

The camera first opens from Du Minghao's perspective.

Du Feng (Li Xu), wearing black-rimmed glasses and a simple white shirt, carrying a stack of music books, hurriedly walked through the vine-covered corridor with his head down.

Sunlight streamed through the arched window, casting dappled patterns of light on him.

His body language was tense, his shoulders were slightly hunched, and his steps were quick, making him stand out from the groups of two or three students around him who were laughing and joking as they walked by.

In this performance, Li Xu naturally and completely revealed himself as a solitary, socially awkward male college student.

It was as if they weren't performing at all, but filming live.

"Director Li's acting skills are simply superb, reaching a level of divine perfection."

As the photographer, Wang Luyao watched the footage of Li Xu captured on camera, subtly adjusting the camera angle according to Li Xu's footsteps, silently following along, while muttering to himself.

He dared not make any sound, for fear of affecting the on-site sound recording.

In the footage, Li Xu has now walked into a piano room.

Seeing that no one was around, he carefully observed the surroundings and couldn't resist going into the piano room, where he began to play cautiously.

Just then, Song Qing (Liu Yifei), carrying sheet music, walked over from the other end of the corridor.

She heard elegant piano music suddenly coming from the empty piano classroom at this very moment (background music).

I couldn't help but stop and look inside the classroom through the window with some curiosity.

Then, she saw Li Xu playing the piano and his amazing piano skills.

Because she was so focused on it, Li Xu noticed her gaze and the two met eyes unexpectedly.

"Quick, switch to a close-up!"

Through his earpiece, Shen Ao, the executive director of this scene, quickly spoke to cinematographer Wang Luyao.

At that moment, Li Xu's performance began to emerge clearly in the close-up shot, progressing layer by layer.

In this close-up shot, only his upper body is visible. Li Xu first frantically pulls his fingers away from the piano, then his body instinctively shrinks back, and his face is full of panic at being discovered.

He subconsciously adjusted the black mask on his face, and after a quick eye contact, he stood up.

"that……"

Liu Yifei's voice rang out softly, tinged with slight curiosity: "Du Feng, was that piano chord you just played a lowered sixth chord followed by a dominant seventh chord?"

Li Xu's body stiffened slightly.

Liu Yifei (Song Qing)'s sudden appearance didn't involve asking "Why do you have such amazing piano skills?" but instead directly discussed piano technique, prompting him, a top singer, to respond:

"...It's down to six, but it doesn't resolve the issue of belonging to seven..."

Without turning his head, Li Xu hurriedly left.

Liu Yifei watched Li Xu leave, her eyes filled with curiosity.

"Click!"

"Director Li, could you come and take a look at this scene? Is there a problem?"

After filming the entire take, executive director Shen Ao looked at the footage on the monitor and couldn't help but frown.

Shen Ao's shout of "Cut!" allowed Li Xu to quickly switch from being an actor to being a director.

He took off his black-rimmed glasses and strode to the monitor to watch the playback.

On the monitor, his performance was almost flawless; he could have nailed it in one take.

However, Liu Yifei's performance had significant problems.

While it wasn't exactly bad, it was a complete disaster when compared to his Oscar-winning performance. It was as if one of them was obviously acting, and the two were completely out of sync.

Liu Yifei also came over at this moment. Watching her own performance in the replay, she couldn't help but feel her cheeks getting a little hot.

I didn't think so when she was acting, I even thought her acting was pretty good, but now when I watch it again, it's simply unbearable to watch.

"I'm sorry, junior Li Xu, I..."

He waved his hand, directly interrupting Liu Yifei's explanation. Li Xu always focused on the result during filming, never dwelling on the process.

"Your eyes are playing tricks on you, and so are your lines. Look here."

Pointing to the scene on the screen where she (Du Feng) was being called by Song Qing, Liu Yifei's tone was clearly off, her voice calm: "Teacher Liu, you said before that you could understand Song Qing's mentality and also understand my mentality as Du Feng. It seems you were just giving me a perfunctory answer."

"Next, don't film yet. I'll explain it to you again, and then you write down your psychological analysis of this part."

"Then we'll continue. If you don't get it in one take, we'll do two. If you don't get it in two takes, we'll do five. We'll keep doing it until you completely understand, okay?"

Hearing Li Xu's merciless words.

Liu Yifei felt a little wronged, but she knew very well that Li Xu was just that kind of perfectionist.

Especially when filming movies, he's completely like a robot. Even if he's the investor, if he doesn't act well, he'll still get scolded.

"……OK."

"My acting in this scene was indeed problematic, and I will definitely pay attention to it in the future."

Taking a deep breath, Liu Yifei composed herself and nodded earnestly.

"Okay, then that's settled."

"Don't feel wronged, don't have any extra thoughts, just execute, and if you make a mistake, work on it until it's perfect."

"Acting is acting, and filming is filming; don't let personal feelings get in the way."

Glancing at Liu Yifei's expression beside him, Li Xu offered words of comfort.

These words were the greatest comfort he could offer.

He dislikes bad actors, and even more so actors with an improper attitude, not even Liu Yifei.

-

explain.

to sum up.

write.

Performance.

Article 2, Article 3... up to Article 19.

One scene took three whole days to polish.

Just as Liu Yifei was on the verge of a mental breakdown, Li Xu, watching her performance through the monitor—a performance that even under his demanding scrutiny, he could only give a high score of 90—finally nodded and announced that it was approved.

"Pass!"

"Everyone, get ready to move to the next location and film the next take!"

Shen Ao breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Li Xu finally nod in approval.

He glanced at Liu Yifei with pity as she finally finished filming. Completely different from her lively and energetic self a few days earlier, she now appeared emotionally numb, her face like a robot. He offered words of comfort:

"Sister Yifei, relax. This scene is finished. Our director is always meticulous like this. Your acting is already very good."

"These past few days, I've been worn down by this too."

"Okay, thank you."

He nodded slightly.

Liu Yifei was so worn out that she was no longer in the mood to listen to comforting words. Even though she had already finished filming this scene, she couldn't help but keep thinking about all the details of her performance over the past few days.

After the transition.

The next scene has nothing to do with Liu Yifei; it's a scene featuring Li Xu and a veteran supporting actor.

Liu Yifei stood quietly to the side, feeling utterly exhausted, but as she watched Li Xu begin to torment others, she couldn't help but laugh out loud again.

It's wonderful to see someone suffer the same kind of pain you once endured, but not to experience it yourself.

"Beep! Beep!"

But just then, a truck suddenly drove in silently.

Liu Yifei instinctively felt something was wrong, and then she saw that the two familiar men and women in suits got out of the car first.

Then several well-trained staff members began to get off the truck and unload the "heatstroke prevention packs" in batches.

These heatstroke prevention kits contain everything you need: iced drinks, arm sleeves, cooling spray, fruit, and snacks.

What Liu Yifei found even more unbelievable was that no one in the entire crew stopped them. Wang Jing even walked up to them with a smile and greeted the two men and women in suits warmly.

Li Xu glanced at it only once and then paid no more attention to it.

This situation made Liu Yifei shiver involuntarily.

They didn't care that they had just been "tortured".

Feeling betrayed by the entire crew, and unaware of the situation, she immediately stood up, walked to Wang Jing's side, and said, "Producer Wang, what's going on? Are any random people allowed into our crew now?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Jing gave a wry smile.

It seems he's been unfairly blamed again.

He certainly knew why Liu Yifei had said those words.

But then, early this morning he received a call from Mr. Qian, who said that he, as the investor, would send a small gift to the crew in the afternoon to encourage everyone for the hard work of filming.

However, he himself was unable to come, as he had other things to do, so he asked the two staff members who delivered the custom floral arrangement last time to come and make the trip.

In this situation, how could Wang Jing possibly refuse such "good intentions"?

The only thing to do was to quickly report to Li Xu and then "warmly" welcome him.

He sighed inwardly, not daring to shift the blame to Li Xu, and could only chuckle as if he hadn't noticed anything amiss, saying, "Teacher Liu, this is a special gift from investor Mr. Qian to our crew, saying that filming is hard work."

"Our production team can't refuse this investor's offer, right? Hey, Mr. Qian is a coal mine owner, he has plenty of money. We should eat and take what we want, and not skimp on his money."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yifei gave Wang Jing a deep look.

Even though she was seething with anger, she couldn't really throw a tantrum. All she could do was glare at Li Xu, who was standing not far away.

The arrival of the truck also disrupted Li Xu's filming schedule.

He stopped now and was chatting with the veteran actor he was acting with about the details of the performance, while watching the truck crew distribute "gifts".

He remained calm despite Liu Yifei's glare.

He knew, of course, that these things couldn't really be from Mr. Qian; they were probably from Miss Chang'an Jing. But since they were using Mr. Qian's name as an investor to send their regards, he had no reason to refuse such a small favor for the crew.

We can't just cater to Liu Yifei's little mood and then directly "slap the face" of the investors, while also harming the interests of the crew members.

However, after the two men and women in suits, as well as the staff who unloaded the heatstroke prevention packs from the truck, left, before continuing to film with the supporting actors...

Thinking about the sudden arrival of the truck, it was indeed a bit of a disruption to my filming schedule.

Li Xu walked to a relatively quiet corner and made a phone call to Mr. Qian.

When the call connected, Mr. Qian was probably in some kind of club, with loud music, noise, the sound of dice, and women's giggling.

"Hey, Director Li, how are things? Are you satisfied with the gift?"

As soon as the call connected, Mr. Qian spoke up, his voice tinged with the euphoria of someone who had been drinking.

"Mr. Qian, that heatstroke prevention kit is very good. On behalf of my entire crew, I thank you for your kindness."

Li Xu's voice was tinged with laughter: "However, our crew was filming today when this truck suddenly came by, and the sound recording for that scene was almost completely ruined."

"Next time, you might as well give me advance notice. I'll have Producer Wang pick it up outside beforehand, so there's no need to bring it in directly. That would be more convenient."

"..."

"Ah, Director Li, I didn't even notice the problem you mentioned."

"Haha, I'll definitely pay attention to that next time."

Upon hearing Li Xu's words, President Qian fell silent for a moment, then burst into laughter, his tone tinged with embarrassment.

We exchanged a few casual pleasantries.

After Mr. Qian hung up the phone first, Li Xu put his phone back in his pocket, his fingertip lingering on the screen for a moment.

Heatstroke prevention kit.

It wasn't a flashy "announcement" like a flower basket, but rather a thoughtful, practical "care" for the entire group.

From the individual to the collective, from the high-profile to the meticulous.

This Miss "Chang'an Jing" is very tactful and also understands... people's hearts.

Li Xu glanced up at Liu Yifei, who was still sulking not far away, and then at Wang Jing, who was distributing supplies. He then turned and walked back to the center of the set.

"Alright, everyone, break's over. Let's get back to work."

His voice returned to its usual calm. "Let's do that scene again from the beginning."

Director Li Xu is back online.

As for Chang'an scenery...

He temporarily put the question back in a corner of his mind.

Right now, filming is the most important thing.