Divine Lucky Star
Chapter 285 - Chapter 285 Chapter 285 Messed it up

Chapter 285: Chapter 285: Messed it up! Chapter 285: Chapter 285: Messed it up! “Little Wang, you might not understand this,” Chen Li spoke up at this point. “In filmmaking, you can’t just look at how many people a single scene needs, but you have to consider the big picture. Let me ask you, this shot requires four people riding four horses, right? But according to what you said, later in the Martial Arts Convention, the struggle for Alliance Hierarch, various mixed battles, how many people would that need? If you don’t maintain a team now, where will you find people when the time comes to shoot those scenes?”

“Yes,” Tong Tong sipped his wine and took over the conversation. “Wang Hao, you were with ‘Domestic Agent’ before, right? I’ve seen that show, the script was really good, and the plot quite intricate. It was the epitome of low-budget, high-return. But after all, it’s a low-budget web series, where a good look can cover many flaws. People may tolerate some low-budget issues because the story is engaging. But we’re making a TV series here, which is an entirely different concept from a web series. This over 100-people team, you might not need them now, but when you start shooting large scenes later, where will you even begin to find people?”

Hearing their points, Wang Hao scratched his head and said, “Wait a minute, this is a bit confusing, a bit confusing.”

The group erupted in laughter, with Yang Shoulin drinking and saying, “Hahaha, Little Wang, it’s going to get even messier later on! We’re still in the early stages of preparation, we don’t need too many people yet. Just wait until we shoot the big scenes, you’ll need even more people!”

“Director Yang,” Wang Hao thought carefully and finally pinpointed the issue. “What you mean is that filmmaking follows the script step by step, and because there are often large scenes later, we need to secure the entire team from the start?”

“Exactly,” Yang Shoulin nodded. “Otherwise, why do you think Miss Lan is sitting here?”

“It’s common sense,” Tong Tong smiled while holding back laughter. “You didn’t know that?”

There! Wang Hao finally got it completely.

Why Lan Zihuang was sitting at this table, why these people were emphasizing that the team must be maintained from now on…

It turned out they were filming based on the storyline from beginning to end. Damn it!

That meant Lan Zihuang needed to stick with the crew; she could only leave when the crew was done shooting all the plot, at least all her scenes!

Holy crap, you’re talking about a budget of seventy or eighty million? It wouldn’t be enough without over a hundred million!

“Ah, I knew I missed something!” Wang Hao slapped his forehead. “The process of making a movie isn’t quite what I imagined…”

Hearing Wang Hao’s comment, everyone laughed again, and Tong Tong playfully asked, “Otherwise, Mr. Wang Hao, how did you think the process should be? Not shooting in sequence, but perhaps in reverse?”

“I thought it was shot randomly,” said Wang Hao, scratching his head in embarrassment. “In ‘Domestic Agent’ I didn’t really pay attention to this, I wasn’t seriously involved back then. My mistake, my mistake.”

“Shot randomly?” Hearing this, everyone looked at each other, and Chen Li curiously asked, “What do you mean by ‘shot randomly’? Isn’t the scene of four people riding horses the opening scene of the first episode?”

Wang Hao: “…”

That’s the opening scene of the first episode, but didn’t you say to shoot something simple rather than do nothing?

Otherwise, wouldn’t I have said this location is suitable for such scenes first?

“Ah, I knew I missed something!” Wang Hao decisively shook his head. “Normall speaking, you definitely can’t shoot in the order of the script, right? How would we otherwise minimize costs for settings, scene changes, etc.? Therefore, we need to focus on shooting scenes from the same location, or even focus on those involving major actors, right?”

“Is that so?” Everyone listened to Wang Hao, looking baffled and exchanging glances. Yang Shoulin frowned and said, “Shooting that way would surely confuse the actors, right? Like with Yue Buqun you mentioned, the character starts as a virtuous gentleman and later turns into a major villain, can actors handle that?”

“Exactly,” Chen Li nodded. “That’s why when we shoot, we generally pick a scene location first, like that horse-riding trip you mentioned, then they are headed to Fuwei Escort Agency afterwards, right? So, we select a spot, set up the Escort Agency scene first, start riding, and once that’s complete, move into the Agency’s plot. After finishing this scene, we then move to the next scene’s location.”

Wang Hao immediately understood.

No wonder the film and television industry was so backward in this world; it turned out that the overall basic quality of the crew was poor. In his previous life, it would have been possible for two people to be deeply affectionate and joyful in the morning, and in the afternoon’s shot, they would be fighting fiercely–it was not a big deal at all!

But that clearly wasn’t the case here…

At first, Wang Hao had also assumed that movies and TV series were shot in sequence, but upon further investigation out of curiosity, he realized that this was not the case!

“Director Yang, it’s actually not like that,” Wang Hao began to explain to everyone, “For example, if the first scene is at home, the next scene on a mountain, and then another scene at home, for convenient operations and cost savings, the scenes at home will be shot together, because moving dozens or hundreds of people to another location is very energy and time-consuming.”

Everyone looked at each other and nodded together.

Chen Li said, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Wang Hao continued, “As for whether the actors will get confused, that mainly depends on the actors. Our first requirement for the actors is to be familiar with the script. Even if they can’t be as familiar as the screenwriter and the director, they at least need to know what emotions are needed for which part. Director Yang, think about it, our TV series are not stage plays. In stage plays, the performance by the actors is almost done in one go, cannot be interrupted, and mistakes cannot be redone. The plots of stage plays are mostly linear structures, where the progression of the plot is very clear. Therefore, it is truly satisfying for stage play actors to perform like that.”

“But TV series are different. The biggest point about TV series is that they can be shot first and then edited bit by bit. So, we can completely shoot out of sequence, according to the scenes. In one scene, you might be laughing loudly because you won the lottery, and in the next scene, you might be sobbing hard because of another matter. These two scenes might be separated by several episodes, but the actor must have the ability to quickly adapt to each scene–laughing in this scene and crying in the next is very normal.”

By the time Wang Hao finished explaining, the people looked at each other…

“Can shooting be done like this?!” Tong Tong was surprised when she heard what Wang Hao explained, her mouth agape, “You mean, we can divide the whole script into hundreds of parts, then find the scenes that are close to each other, and shoot them piece by piece, then put them together afterward?”

Ah, what a clever student, her mind really works fast; she got it at once!

“Yeah!” Wang Hao nodded, “That’s exactly how we can maximize cost reductions!”

“This way we can concentrate the closely related scenes and shoot them together. It’s indeed a good method!” Yang Shoulin slapped his thigh hard and nodded, “Indeed, there’s no need to maintain such a big team early on; it can save a lot of money!”

Wang Hao, “Exactly, that’s the idea.”

Among those present, Boss Ren, the investor, although he didn’t understand these professional aspects, clearly two words caught his attention in Director Yang’s talk–saving money!

“That’s settled then!” Boss Ren laughed heartily, throwing his arm around Wang Hao’s shoulder, “Ah, my lad, you’re truly remarkable! I told you, with your help, filming this would definitely be easier!”

Everyone burst out laughing.

After laughing for a while, Yang Shoulin thought carefully and then said, “However, Little Wang, in this case, the script is urgent. If you can’t write out and properly divide the entire script, we can’t start filming.”

“Yeah, I’ve thought about that issue, too,” Wang Hao said, “I’ll just stay here for the next few days and work with my classmates to get the script out as soon as possible!”

Yang Shoulin and the others looked at each other, nodded together: “That’s settled, let’s do it that way!”

“Hahahaha! My lad, you’re straightforward!” The second master slapped Wang Hao hard on his shoulder, raised his glass directly, “My lad, you’ve helped me save quite a bit of money, so here, drink! Cheers!”

Wang Hao’s face turned green in an instant–looks like he had to drink again!

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