Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: Photography

  The day after returning from the hospital, Lu Li came to the crew to watch the scenes that Jiang You had already filmed.

  Lu Li didn't expect Jiang You to start filming before he returned, so naturally he had to check it out and see how it was going.

  After watching, Lu Li nodded in satisfaction. Although Jiang You is a new director, he had famous instructors guiding him in college, learned a lot from Yan Wenchong during the filming of "The Legend of the Condor Hero", and had the help of experienced director Jiang Wei, so the final product was quite good.

  After comparing with the pictures in his mind, Lu Li was still very satisfied with most of the scenes. However, there was one scene that Lu Li insisted on re-shooting, which was the scene where they escorted the Dragon Slaying Treasure Sword.

  Jiang You's shot of this scene, although it was according to his own script, but after Lu Li saw it, he felt that there were too few people and the scene was a bit petty.

  "Jiang You, let's re-shoot this scene and recruit more extras. The bigger the scene, the better." Lu Li said to Jiang You who was standing beside him.

  "At first, I also wanted to recruit more people, but considering the cost, I didn't recruit many. Since you said you want to make a big scene, then it's no problem, after all, you're a big tycoon." Jiang You finished this joke and had someone go recruit extras.

  Lu Li heard this and smiled, but didn't respond to what was said.

  The crew's work efficiency is still pretty good, and they quickly recruited a lot of extras back.

  "Let them go change and make up first, then we can start shooting directly." Lu Li said to Jiang You.

  "Hey, I'm saying, am I the director or are you? You're just an assistant director, what kind of orders are you giving me here? Get out!" Jiang You yelled at Lu Li, having already forgotten about yesterday's events.

  But despite this, Jiang You quickly instructed the makeup artist and costume designer to hurry up and arrange for the extras to get made up and changed.

  Lu Li saw Jiang You temporarily put down the guilt in his heart yesterday, and he also felt at ease.

  The makeup requirements for these crowd actors are not very complicated, just change into special clothes. But even so, it can't stand the crowd, and after everyone has changed their clothes, it's already afternoon. This is also a major problem with many ancient costume dramas, where the time spent on makeup and styling is longer than the filming time.

  After dinner, Jiang You arrived at the scene, and after everything was ready, he shouted "A" and started filming.

  Suddenly, on an official road, a long dragon appeared in the distance. As it drew closer, it became clear that people wearing various dragon head masks were dancing with their hands and feet, somewhat like a wizard performing magic, or a ritual of jumping gods.

  Behind them was a team of dancers in uniform costumes, raising their hands and dancing alternately.

  Behind the dancing girl, there were many sturdy and robust men pulling ropes as thick as an infant's arm, walking forward with a "heh heh" sound.

  Looking further back, you can see that the rope is tied to a yellow car covered with cloth, and it's unknown what's inside. On both sides of the car are British soldiers standing guard with vigilant expressions.

  "Wait, Jiang You, something's wrong with the dancer." Lu Li said suddenly, looking at him from the side.

  "Ha!" Jiang You heard Lu Li's words and let out a loud shout.

  When there are more people, it's easier to get messy, especially since most of these people are extras, and it's hard for them to achieve uniformity in some group movements.

  "Pay attention to your movements, make sure they're in sync. When you're walking, take a look at the people on your left and right, don't make any mistakes." After Jiang You yelled "cut", he didn't use the director's megaphone, but instead walked over to the dancers to explain personally.

  After Jiang You finished speaking, he returned to the director's position and shouted "A" again after seeing that all the extras were ready, and the filming continued.

  "Card!" This time, Lu Li didn't need to say it, Jiang You saw it himself. Not only was the dancer's movement problematic, but even the person wearing the dragon head mask at the front began to show problems with their movements.

  "Card!"

  "Card!"

  "Card!"

  ……

  With many people, there's no problem here, but a little mistake will occur over there. Although Jiang You finished filming this scene quickly before, it was because there were fewer people at that time. This time, after increasing the number of people, Jiang You had a headache, contacting NG several times, and still couldn't finish filming.

  Lu Li looked at Jiang You's gloomy face and walked over to pat his shoulder.

  Jiang You looked at Lu Li and shook his head. He and Lu Li were both young and not used to scolding people when they got angry, so in most cases on set, they would endure it in their hearts and slowly resolve it, rather than bursting out in anger like some older directors.

  "Let's take a break first." Lu Li said, looking at Jiang You.

  "Let's take a break for now." Jiang You nodded and sat behind the camera, rubbing his temples.

  For several consecutive times, the crowd of actors on that side also had a hard time. After hearing the rest command, they all found a place to rest.

  Ten minutes later, Jiang You's mood improved slightly and he continued filming.

  "This play has been rehearsed many times, and everyone just rested for so long. I hope this time we can pass it in one go!" Jiang You sat in the director's chair, picked up a loudspeaker and shouted loudly.

  Everyone is ready, let's start shooting again.

  "Cut!" It's just the beginning, Jiang You shouts "cut" again.

  "Never mind, Jiang You, let's split up and shoot separately. First, we'll shoot the dragon head person segment, then the dancing girl, and after post-production processing, we can just edit them together." Lu Li suggested from the side, unable to bear watching any longer.

  Unexpectedly, Jiang You shook his head after hearing Lu Li's words: "Lizi, this is an opportunity for me to progress. If I take this path, I will encounter more difficulties when filming big scenes in the future. I won't be able to retreat like this every time."

  Lu Li was shocked by Jiang You's words and looked at his determined eyes. After a while, Lu Li said: "It was me who gave up the essentials for the trivialities." At the same time, Lu Li also warned himself that in the future, he must not have any thoughts of retreating when faced with such situations, but instead face them head-on.

  "Son, well said, once more!" Jiang Wei, who was also serving as the assistant director in the crew, heard Jiang You's words and looked at him with satisfaction.

  "Alright, let's try again!" Jiang You heard Jiang Wei's words and was also filled with determination. He sat back down in the director's chair, picked up the megaphone, and shouted towards the front.

  Lu Li stood beside him, looking at Jiang You who was full of fighting spirit, and smiled.

  Maybe heaven has tested us enough, this time the shooting went very smoothly, without any mistakes, and passed in one take.

  "Cut! That's a wrap!" As Jiang You's voice came out of the loudspeaker, all the extras got excited and applauded. They had been filming for so long and were exhausted. Now that their task was complete, they could collect their pay and look for new opportunities in other crews.

  The wages for the extras are naturally handled by someone else, and at this moment Lu Li and Jiang You, Jiang Wei and others were all sitting next to the camera watching the results that had just been filmed.

  Lu Li looked at it afterwards and felt very satisfied, even better than the picture in her mind, much more atmospheric.

  "Good, this scene is shot very well." Lu Li praised.

  "Hmm, it's great, much more magnificent than the scene I originally shot, thanks to you for re-shooting this part." Jiang You also finished watching and was very satisfied, smiling.

  "This has nothing to do with me, you've also put a lot of heart into filming this scene." After hearing Jiang You's words, Lu Li said. He had seen it so many times, and Lu Li had been watching from the side all along.

  "Come on, take a good shot, this is just the beginning." Lu Li thought for a moment and said.

  "Uh-huh, I knew it." Jiang You said firmly after hearing this.

  "Let's call it a day for now, it's getting late." Lu Li said after finishing watching the footage, standing up and looking at the sky.

  Filming is like that, especially when NGs occur during filming, it's very time-consuming. Many directors often lose their temper on set. In fact, the director's anger is also due to great pressure and extreme irritability. If they encounter continuous NGs, their anger will be even greater. It's not that people who direct are born to like losing their temper and scolding others, but rather directors also need to vent to relieve the pressure in their hearts.

  "Well, let's call it a day then. We'll start again tomorrow and try to speed up the pace. If we keep delaying like this, I don't know how long it will take to finish filming 'The Heaven Sword'." Jiang You said.

  Lu Li also deeply agrees with this, "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" has been delayed for a long time from the initial fundraising to the establishment of the crew and then to the start of filming. Not long after the start of filming, an unexpected accident occurred, which delayed it for several more days. It really can't be delayed any longer.

  In the following days, Lu Li accompanied Jiang You to the filming set and occasionally offered his opinions on Jiang You's shots. With the ready-made images in his mind as reference, Jiang You's shooting progress accelerated significantly with Lu Li's help. The director's techniques also made significant progress.

  Although Lu Li is nominally the deputy director, at times on set it's not an exaggeration to call him the chief director. His directing skills are also improving, laying a foundation for his future handheld film shoots.

  "Yi Tian" is slowly getting on track, everything is going smoothly.

  Lu Li is also very busy now, shooting "The Legend of the Condor Hero" during the day, and sometimes has to shoot special scenes until late at night before finishing work, or get up very early. While others can rest after filming, Lu Li still has to return to the hotel to write and store manuscripts.

  August 1st is an unusual day for the web novel world, as Lu Li's "Zhān Xiān" and Bu San Bu Si's "Xián Yóu" were both launched on this day.

  At the end of June, Lu left his new book to join Xian Xia, and the ancient great god returned without three or four. The new book Xian Xia made an appointment with Lu Li, which was a shocking explosion in the online literature world at that time.

  Since the new book started, the two have been neck and neck in terms of collection, clicks, and recommendations, with no clear winner or loser. But after going online, it's different, for the web novel world, an author's strength is often proven by monthly tickets.

  Many people are looking forward to the monthly ticket battle between Lu Li's new book "Zhān Xiān" and Bu San Bu Si's new book "Xián Yóu" in August.