Millennium director

Jiaozhou, Qingdao.

The crew of Zhang Guorong's "Stealing Heart" is busy filming here.

The preliminary preparations for the crew of "Stealing Hearts" went very smoothly, at least much smoother than on the original track.

As early as December last year, after the filming of "The Embalmer" was completed, Zhang Guorong came to Qingdao to select locations.

In fact, he has never been to Qingdao before, but when he was in Hong Kong Island, he saw some postcards with old photos of Qingdao and pictures of Qingdao in picture albums.

The city's strong cultural atmosphere, 1840s style and quaint architecture and landscape left a deep impression on him.

So at the beginning of writing the script, he set the scene in Qingdao.

After a trip to Qingdao, Zhang Guorong was very disappointed. The buildings in the old photos had long been replaced by new modern buildings, and most of the plots he had envisioned had lost their support.

Some members of the crew suggested filming in a similar city, but Zhang Guorong, who always demands perfection, believed that would weaken the background of the film and affect the overall style.

So he made a bold decision and changed the script now!

After spending two or three months piecemeal and rewriting the script, at the end of March, "Stealing Hearts" finally officially started filming.

I have to say, it’s really cool to have the big tree of China Film Group at your back!

Whatever actors Zhang Guorong wants, Director Han can hire them for him!

The crew of "Stealing Heart" brought together many big names and fresh faces such as Ning Jing, Hu Jun, Siqin Gaowa, Shen Dianxia, ​​Chen Daoming, Huang Xiaoming, Jiang Wen and so on.

Except for Shen Dianxia, ​​who is Zhang Guorong's good friend in Hong Kong, and Huang Xiaoming, who is just a newly famous actor, the rest of the actors were all helped by Director Han.

On the seventh day after the crew started shooting, the last crew member of "Stealing Hearts", producer Wu Yuan, also came to join the crew in a low-key manner.

"Zhang Sheng, don't be so angry!"

On a Republican street built in the suburbs of Qingdao, Wu Yuan met the new director Zhang Guorong.

Not to mention, Zhang Guorong, who was sitting in the director's chair, really looked like a director. At least when he was swearing with a loudspeaker, no one dared to talk back.

Wu Yuan also saw something new!

In the crew of "The Embalmer", Zhang Guorong took the four words "gentle and elegant" to the extreme in his work.

Although he likes to smoke and play mahjong in private, and he also has a funny side, he will never swear, curse, or quarrel with others in a red-faced and thick-necked manner.

But it was different on the set of "Stealing Hearts".

From a distance, Wu Yuan heard Zhang Guorong's curses mixed with Cantonese. From the stage manager to the props, camera, assistant director and actors, no one escaped from being scolded.

The one who got scolded the most was the prop master, who seemed to have misplaced a prop in the correct position and reminded him several times, which completely annoyed Zhang Guorong.

Wu Yuan didn't feel too surprised about this.

Anyone who has ever been a director knows that no director does not curse on set.

Wu Yuan often cursed people when he was on the set!

There is no way, there are nearly a hundred people working together in a crew, and there are always a lot of mistakes happening every day. If you are really annoyed by your clumsy behavior, you will always have to scold them.

But the director doesn't scold people just to feel good. Swearing is just one of the ways to solve the problem, not just to discourage him.

Just by listening, Wu Yuan also realized that something was wrong.

It is not a good thing for any director to be in a situation like Zhang Guorong, who is completely angry and has almost lost his sense. He catches everyone scolding him together.

"It's all gone, it's all gone, the crew will call it a day and rest for half an hour!"

Wu Yuan, who arrived on the scene in time, immediately began his supervisory duties.

After dismissing the crew who were being scolded so hard by Zhang Guorong that they couldn't hold their heads up, Wu Yuan took Zhang Guorong to the shady tree, took two folding chairs and sat down.

He handed Zhang Guorong a cigarette specially brought for him, and Wu Yuan lit a cigarette and puffed away the smoke together.

"Director Wu, this director's job looks easy, but it's hard to do."

After taking a few deep puffs of cigarette, Zhang Guorong let out a long sigh: "When I was an actor, I felt that whether it was you, the King of Sunglasses, or other directors, it was quite easy to be a director. All you had to do was sit on the monitor. Just shout "Ka, pass" from behind and call it a day."

"It wasn't until I started working that I realized that a director has to take care of so many things in a day, and the entire crew has to go through all the details."

"It's not easy. I'm exhausted after working for a week."

But no, Wu Yuan shook his head worriedly. Zhang Guorong was originally a perfectionist. He liked to do everything by himself and wanted to be the best. When he was a director, his level of effort was even higher than that of others. Times!

He does not approve of this kind of directing behavior of doing all the work with one hand. It is too tiring.

"Zhang Sheng, making movies now is different from before. In the past, there were only ten or twenty people in a crew, and the director could direct it all by himself."

"But now a crew can range from dozens to hundreds or even hundreds of people. How can it be directed by the director alone?"

Wu Yuan patted Zhang Guorong on the shoulder:

"You have to learn to delegate authority! Like the crew in Hollywood, the crew is divided into several different groups, and each group is responsible for its own affairs."

"The director is only responsible for on-site shooting issues. He just needs to focus on the key points and control the overall situation. Other people will be responsible for solving other matters."

"This way you can relax a lot and the crew will run more smoothly."

“It’s actually not popular in the Mainland these days for directors who have to take care of everything. When director Yimou was filming “Hero”, he was divided into A/B teams, and there were also assistant directors who were responsible for coordination, casting, and on-site acting. "

"If you had to personally handle everything on the entire crew, it would be like now. Instead, you wouldn't be able to manage everything well, and there would be all kinds of omissions."

Zhang Guorong looked at the flickering cigarette butt in his hand, pondering and reflecting thoughtfully.

Wu Yuan just observed carefully.

The assistant director of Zhang Guorong's crew basically only played the role of relaying messages to Zhang Guorong, and could not shoulder the burden at all.

This is because Zhang Guorong became a director for the first time, and he was afraid that there would be problems with the crew. He had to personally witness everything, which caused several assistant directors to be "emptied out".

The result of this is that Zhang Guorong has more things to worry about. Not to mention, it is impossible for him to manage them. Instead, the crew becomes more and more chaotic.

"Zhang Sheng, caring will lead to chaos!" Wu Yuan said seriously.

Half an hour later, the crew of "Stealing Hearts" resumed work.

After some persuasion from Wu Yuan, Zhang Guorong also came to his senses and quickly returned the work that originally belonged to several assistant directors to them, no longer personally paying attention to the details of everything.

After the several assistant directors really had the rights to the crew, they quickly started to manage all the details of the crew. The ones in charge of pipes and props, those in charge of the scenery kept an eye on the scenery, and those in charge of the extras. A group act...

The crew, which was originally running stumblingly, immediately started running smoothly after Zhang Guorong delegated power to the person in charge below.

After all, these crew members are all from the film studios affiliated to China Film Group. They are experienced and hardworking, and they are all dedicated to doing practical things. It is just that they lacked an effective command system from top to bottom. They were like a group of headless flies. Naturally, It's not good to do anything good.

Now that the producer Wu Yuan has arrived, he can put the crew back in order in time, and everything immediately goes smoothly.

A satisfied smile finally appeared on Zhang Guorong's face.

In this way, Wu Yuan followed the whole process for a month and a half, teaching Zhang Guorong step by step how to be a qualified director.

He never cared about how Zhang Guorong shot "Stealing Hearts", how the actors should act, and how the scenes should be shot. He didn't dictate and let Zhang Guorong decide on his own.

He only taught Zhang Guorong one thing, how to correctly direct and use a film crew!

In the past month and a half, Zhang Guorong felt that he had benefited a lot every day, and he couldn't help but think about Wu Yuan's previous proposal again.

There is nothing wrong with following this director Wu!

At least there is something he is really willing to teach!