A great director who grew up happily

Chapter 372 The Chaos of the Crew

At the filming site, Zhou Jiahang was already waiting outside the theater performance hall. Last year, he was just an insignificant executive director in a variety show crew, but this year, he can already be listed as the deputy director of a movie.

Such a drastic change happened just because he and Chen Jinnian chatted a few more words.

When Zhou Jiahang saw a young man wearing a mask appear in the photo, he quickly went up to him and said, "Mr. Chen."

Chen Jinnian nodded and continued walking forward without stopping. "Is everything ready?"

"We came here last night to set up the scene. Everything has been adjusted according to your storyboard. The actors have already arrived and are currently changing clothes and putting on makeup backstage."

Chen Jinnian walked very fast, and Zhou Jiahang could only jog to keep up, talking as he ran.

Seeing him like this, Chen Jinnian couldn't help but say, "Old Zhou, how much weight have you gained during the Chinese New Year? You're out of breath after walking a few steps. Let me tell you, filming is mentally demanding. With your current physical condition, don't die suddenly while filming."

Zhou Jiahang smiled awkwardly. He was indeed a bit unrestrained during the Chinese New Year. He served as the executive director of "The Beginning" and "Bad Genius" consecutively, completing a second leap in his career. So when he was happy, his weight also increased rapidly.

"I'm warning you, lose weight quickly, or you won't get any of this year's year-end bonus."

"Lose weight, I will definitely lose weight." Zhou Jiahang agreed hurriedly, then took a few quick steps, walked in front of Chen Jinnian, and took him to the backstage of the theater to put on makeup.

However, when walking into the backstage, Chen Jinnian grabbed Zhou Jiahang.

"Why is there only one public dressing room?"

"This is an upgraded version of an old theater stage. When it was built, there wasn't enough space, so the backstage is a bit small and there's no separate dressing room."

Zhou Jiahang explained that he thought Chen Jinnian was disgusted with sharing a dressing room with other actors, but he didn't expect the other party to glare at him.

"The girls are putting on makeup and changing clothes inside, what are we two grown men doing in there? Let's go to the stage first. I need to check it out."

Chen Jinnian said with a cold face that people in the film and television industry, compared to ordinary people, don't care much about this aspect. Not to mention sharing dressing rooms, some crews even have nude auditions.

But they are who they are, and Chen Jinnian will never allow anyone to mess around in his crew.

After receiving the stern look, Zhou Jiahang swallowed nervously a few times. At the same time, he was glad that the only male actor to be filmed today was Chen Jinnian. Otherwise, with a bunch of young men and women hanging out backstage, if something went wrong, Chen Jinnian would skin him alive.

"One more thing, I'm seriously warning you. After work begins, everyone on the crew must carefully check each other's luggage. If I smell that unpleasant leaf odor again, you'll be in trouble."

Zhou Jiahang wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded hurriedly, "I understand. I'll definitely take care of it."

Chen Jinnian's comments were not aimless. When he was filming in Thailand, he realized that the local leaves were so rampant. Not only were many Thai actors and staff in the crew inhaling them, but even the people he brought from China were also covered in leaves.

When Chen Jinnian learned about the situation, he was so angry that his face turned blue. He terminated the contracts with those people and threw them back. After returning to China, he made a special effort to inquire about it and found that many people in the industry were involved in this stuff, but it was not the leaves that are popular abroad, but methamphetamine and nitrous oxide.

Especially nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, which can be easily bought online and in bars, for only 20 to 30 yuan each, and you can get as much as you want.

Laughing gas has a very strong hallucinogenic effect and is extremely addictive. A person can inhale hundreds of it in one night. Once addicted to laughing gas, it is almost like stepping into a drug cycle.

While Chen Jinnian was inspecting the scene, he also deliberately checked the attitudes of the crew members, which made Zhou Jiahang, who was following behind him, nervous, fearing that he would notice something was wrong with someone.

Zhou Jiahang found an opportunity and called his staff to the side.

"Director Zhou, what do you want to talk to me about?"

"Tell me the truth, is anyone in our crew messing around?" Zhou Jiahang asked in a low voice.

"Messing around?" The staff looked at him puzzledly, somewhat unable to understand. "You want to know who checked into a hotel with whom?"

"Get lost." Zhou Jiahang couldn't hold it in any longer, and he wanted to beat up his own staff. "Who asked you that? Didn't you see our boss is here? I was talking about those leaves and other things."

"No no."

The groundskeeper was startled and quickly shook his head, "Our boss doesn't allow smoking in public places, so who would dare to do that? This isn't a foreign country. If the boss really knew about this, he'd send us straight to the police station."

The stagehands knew what Zhou Jiahang was referring to. Although the temporary crew formed today did not have many people, they were all regular employees of the company and knew Chen Jinnian's character. No one would dare to do anything wrong under his nose.

"That's good." Zhou Jiahang's anxious mood finally settled down a bit. "Tell our people that after the crew officially starts work, they should be smart and keep a close eye on those outsiders. If there's anything unusual, remove them as soon as possible or report it to me."

"clear."

"Oh, right, let's go find the theater manager and have them turn on the air conditioning. It's a bit chilly in there. If the temperature doesn't rise, the actors will catch a cold, and our boss will start scolding us again."

After hearing this, the groundskeeper ran out in a flash. If he didn't handle this kind of thing well, he would be the first one to be scolded.

After Chen Jinnian and other actors including Deng Xiaoqi came out from backstage, he was not in a hurry to put on makeup. After all, he only had one shot today and was not in a hurry.

The content of today's scene is Deng Xiaoqi performing ballet. As she was too scared, she vaguely saw the pervert played by Chen Jinnian sitting below in the crowded audience, and then she panicked and made a mistake, causing her to fall on the stage.

The scenes are not complicated, mainly because the switching between different camera positions is rather troublesome. Close-ups, close-ups, overhead shots, floating cameras and jibs are all required. Fortunately, there is no need for real audiences to sit in the auditorium, and it can be completed through post-production and editing.

"Be careful, I borrowed the machine. If it breaks, I can't borrow a second one."

Chen Jinnian repeatedly reminded the film crew that his 4K48-frame equipment is currently the top-level filming equipment. Although it is not as good as the 4K3D120-frame technology that Ang Lee is obsessed with, it is also the ceiling clarity that can be played on a large scale in movie theaters.

You have to know that when Ang Lee's film was released, there were only five cinemas in the world that could support the complete playback format, which is enough to show how expensive it was. It really relied purely on technology to turn commercial films into art films that audiences could not watch.

After he finished, Deng Xiaoqi came over and asked, "Director Chen, are you really going to play that sexual deviant?"

"Yeah." Chen Jinnian nodded.

"Aren't you afraid that it will affect your development?" Deng Xiaoqi asked hesitantly. She knew that Chen Jinnian had a good public image, and it would be somewhat risky to play such a pervert.

Teacher Feng Yuanzheng is a living victim at present.

"What else can I do? I really can't find a suitable candidate. Most of the young generation of actors are too thin. How can they play villains?" Chen Jinnian said somewhat depressedly.