Seeing that June was approaching, Lin Chaoyang was dragged to the outskirts of Changping by Li Hanxiang.
In order to make a movie, he wanted to recreate the Old Summer Palace.
The garden has just started to be built, and it has been more than half a month now, and it doesn’t even have a prototype.
What Li Hanxiang wanted to recreate was not the complete Old Summer Palace. If he were to recreate it according to the complete Old Summer Palace, no matter how shoddy it was, it would cost an astronomical sum. What he wanted to recreate was only a few partial scenes.
But even so, the cost of this scene is huge.
For the movie "Burning the Old Summer Palace", Yanjing City provided Li Hanxiang with a venue of more than 30,000 square meters on the outskirts of Changping.
Among the set design of the crew, the large water set alone covers an area of ​​13,000 square meters, uses more than 300 cubic meters of wood, requires nearly 10,000 structural parts, and costs more than 300,000 yuan.
Nowadays, Li Hanxiang's ideal "Old Summer Palace" is just a deserted land, but before his eyes there seems to be thousands of troops. He and Lin Chaoyang stood in the middle of the open field, holding his waist with one hand, high-spirited.
In the past, when he was filming movies in Hong Kong and Bay Island, especially costume dramas, he could only build some fake sets. Now when he comes to the mainland of the motherland, he has tens of thousands of square meters of shooting space, which makes Li Hanxiang feel that all the previous scenes were shot in vain.
We, Lao Li, have never fought such a wealthy battle in this life!
Lin Chaoyang listened quietly to the sidelines as Li Hanxiang explained the concept of shooting (chui) and photographing (niu) (bi). He could understand Comrade Li's feelings very well.
Few directors can resist the temptation to make a movie and build a city. Just look at his cheap nephew, who can be called a city-builder.
When Li Hanxiang wanted to make a movie in China, the government departments provided all-round support. The Yanjing Municipal Government provided the venue, and the co-production company, Yan Film Factory, and Qing Film Factory were responsible for providing manpower and technical support.
According to Li Hanxiang's idea, there should be large tracts of lawn around the Dashui method, so the props staff of Yanying Factory proposed using spring wheat to replace the lawn.
The prop staff tried planting it last month. In just over half a month, the wheat seedlings have grown more than two inches tall. They are so dense that they look no different from lawns.
It would cost at least 30,000 yuan to cover such an area with lawn, but now we use spring wheat instead, which saves most of the cost at once, which is a benefit without any expense.
"In the future, here, here and here, we will all need to transplant precious trees, spruce, Milan, palm bamboo, cypress... Once these are done, it will have a somewhat royal atmosphere."
When Li Hanxiang said this, he couldn't hide the look of pride on his face, as if the general was showing off his victory to others.
After walking around the empty "Old Summer Palace" and seeing the venue, Li Hanxiang pulled Lin Chaoyang into the car and chatted with him about casting.
"The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Government Behind the Curtain" are two consecutive films, which are actually one movie. Li Hanxiang had thought about making a movie with the background of Empress Cixi's Government Behind the Curtain a few years ago.
However, at that time, because the two films he filmed, "The Fall of the Country" and "The Blood of Yingtai" were released and their box office performance was not satisfactory, Shaw Brothers was not optimistic about his filming plan.
Shaw Brothers put forward a condition at that time. If Li Hanxiang wanted to shoot "The Curtain", he must make another tragicomedy with eunuchs as the theme. Since it is also a theme of the Qing Dynasty, he could film it together with "The Curtain", saving some money.
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Li Hanxiang was forced to agree to this request, but he had differences with Shaw Brothers over the selection of actors.
He wanted to cast Brigitte Lin as Cixi, but Fang Yihua, who was in charge of Shaw Brothers at this time, believed that Brigitte Lin's image was not suitable for this role.
At this time, Brigitte Lin was a popular movie star in Bay Island, but her screen image was more of a pure and beautiful woman, and she was also young. Fang Yihua's idea was actually very reasonable.
But Li Hanxiang insisted on his own opinion, and the two parties finally broke up on bad terms, and the filming plan of "Behind the Curtain" was shelved.
Nowadays, Li Hanxiang has gone to the mainland to make movies. After many setbacks, he has picked up this subject again. The number one heroine in his mind is still Brigitte Lin.
Listening to Li Hanxiang's choice of heroine, Lin Chaoyang was a little surprised. He did not expect that he would say the name Brigitte Lin. In his impression, Brigitte Lin's image was far different from that of Cixi.
"When Xianfeng passed away, Cixi was only 27 years old. Brigitte Lin was a movie star in Bay Island and had acted in many movies. I think she had a strong and majestic air about her, so she was quite suitable to play Cixi."
Li Hanxiang might be afraid that Lin Chaoyang didn't know what Brigitte Lin looked like, so he specially handed him a photo.
Brigitte Lin in the photo has beautiful features and is bright and majestic, but her temperament is still a bit weak.
Lin Chaoyang couldn't help but think of her temperament when she acted in "The Invincible East". In fact, she is quite malleable, and she is not bad at playing Cixi, but he thinks Liu Xiaoqing's version of Cixi is also good.
"On this kind of thing, you, the director, can make the decision." Lin Chaoyang pushed.
Seeing what he said, Li Hanxiang was very happy. Ever since he met Lin Chaoyang, his authority as a director has been challenged repeatedly. It seems that today's trip to "Old Summer Palace" was not in vain. Lin Chaoyang finally realized who the king is.
The co-production of "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Government Behind the Curtain" is unprecedented in scale. Not only is it a rare historical blockbuster in the history of mainland films, it is also top-notch even when including Xiangjiang and Wandao.
Of course, the preliminary preparation work cannot be completed overnight, and it is just the beginning now.
After a few days, Lin Chaoyang finally finished writing the novel at hand.
Previously, Yan Film Studio invited him to be a script consultant for "An Unfinished Game of Chess", but because he did not agree with the ideas of the screenwriter and the crew, Lin Chaoyang did not choose to cooperate with them and left the crew. This novel is inspired by
Due to the conceptual dispute with the crew at the time.
The novel has nearly 130,000 words. If we count it in terms of length, it is a novella. If we insist on calling it a short novel, it is not impossible.
This morning, he came to deliver a manuscript to the editorial department of "Yenjing Literature" and received Lin Chaoyang's new work again after more than two years. Zhang Dening was overjoyed.
"It's not easy. The last time I posted your "Little Shoes" was two years ago."
"Didn't you also publish "The First Floor in the World"?" Lin Chaoyang said.
"Can the influence of a script be compared with that of a novel?" Zhang Dening flipped through the manuscript happily and looked at the title on the homepage. She asked with a bit of gossip: "You wrote this novel because of your relationship with Yan Film Factory
We broke up, right?"
"Who did you listen to?"
"Whoever said it, this matter has already spread."
"Don't listen to their nonsense, it's all rumors."
"Then you dare to say that you wrote this novel not because of that incident?"
Zhang Dening's question made Lin Chaoyang speechless. The reason for writing the novel was of course because of that incident, but he did not do it out of venting his anger.
Seeing his hesitation, Zhang Dening thought that he had guessed what he was thinking and was very pleased with himself.
"Oh! That's true. It's better to offend a villain than a scholar.
You writers, when you are in a bad mood, you have to pick up your pen and fight.
Being your enemy, if you are not careful, you will be infamy for thousands of years, it is terrible."
Lin Chaoyang smiled bitterly and said: "Stop talking nonsense, I think the rumors spread from you."
"Look at you, are you getting angry from embarrassment? Don't worry, I'm the strictest person and I never spread gossip. If others ask me, I will never tell them." Zhang Dening promised emphatically.
I believe you as a ghost!
Lin Chaoyang sat in the office and chatted with Zhang Dening for a while before leaving. After he left, Zhang Dening opened the manuscript he sent. Originally, she was reading other works in her hand, but who made her pay attention to Lin Chaoyang's works.
Her eyes fell on the manuscript paper, and the words before her eyes turned into pictures, like a slowly unfolding movie.
47 days have passed since the fall of Shanghai, and the Battle of Songhu that shocked China and the world seems to have become a very distant event.
The streets are filled with the smell of gunpowder smoke, but it is not brought by the war, but by the firecrackers used by every household to welcome the New Year.
The sound of gongs and drums and firecrackers welcome the Spring Festival. This is the first Spring Festival after the fall of Shanghai.
The temple fair in the City God's Temple was still as lively as in previous years. The city was noisy and pedestrians were bustling. The common people did not seem to be affected by the war.
There is a stall in the corner next to the wall of the City God's Temple. This stall does not sell New Year's goods, does no acrobatics, and does not sing. What is on display is the Othello chess game.
There have always been stalls setting up chess endgames on the streets, but few people set up Go stalls. Go has been an exclusive entertainment for literati since ancient times, and few common people understand it.
The owner of the chess game is a thin and elegant young man. He is wearing a long green gown that has not been washed for an unknown amount of time. It is dirty and torn. At this time, he is holding a white hand and a black hand, but he is playing chess with himself. It seems that the bustling market sounds
It has no effect on him.
A sign was erected next to him, which read: "In the game of Go, the one who beats me will get twenty silver dollars."
The common people call this silver dollar Yuan Datou. Today, Shanghai has fallen. The legal currency is almost like waste paper, but the ocean is still strong.
A third-class patrol officer in the Shanghai Police Department only earns six and a half oceans a month. Twenty dollars, which is equivalent to a patrol officer's three-month salary, can buy more than 600 kilograms of flour, which is enough for an ordinary family of three.
It's been half a year.
This is a big bet!
But young people have been setting up stalls by the wall since early in the morning. It's almost noon, and no one is visiting.
The short man selling candied haws next door joked: "Chess madman, don't think about good things. I think you should find a regular business owner as soon as possible to avoid starving yourself to death."
The young man raised his head, glanced at the short man, and ignored him.
"This madman can't understand human language!" The short man felt that he was being ignored. Just as he cursed, he felt the grass target shaking. He turned around and saw a ragged beggar holding a bunch of candied haws in his hand.
Run away like flying.
"You little bastard! How dare you steal my things!"
The short man cursed angrily and started to chase after him, but he heard a lazy voice saying: "Stop chasing, there are no targets for you."
The short man was startled. He immediately stopped and glanced at the young man. Seeing that the young man was still concentrating on playing chess, he said nothing more.
"Eh? Kondo-kun, look, someone is playing Go here."
The pretty girl stood in front of the chess stall and grabbed her companion who was about to walk forward.
Kondo Jiro stopped and looked at the chess stall and the young man with a slightly contemptuous look in his eyes.
"Go is a gentleman's elegant hobby. Setting up a stall on the street is unbearable. Let's go!"
But the girl grabbed him, pointed to the sign on the side and said, "Look, he also has a gambling game. This man has such a big tone!"
Kondo Jiro looked over attentively, "Interesting!"
"Do you have twenty silver dollars if you win?" he asked.
The young man looked at Kondo Jiro, "Japanese?"
"What's wrong with the Japanese?" Kondo Jiro asked, squinting his eyes.
"Nothing. If I win, I'll get twenty dollars. If I lose, give me two dollars."
Kondo Jiro looked the young man up and down, "Do you have twenty dollars?"
The young man dug into his pocket, and a package fell on the chessboard, making a crisp collision sound.
"If you win, you will get twenty yuan. If you lose, give me two yuan." The young man's voice was full of confidence.
The smile on Kondo Jiro's face became even brighter, "Okay, I'll follow you!"
Chapter completed!