Chapter 453: Harem Story
Chapter 453: Harem Story
I just visited the set of "My Brother is Shunliu" for over an hour, and it was like being in a temple. There were few actresses to be seen.
The crew of "The Legend of Ming Dynasty Harem" where Zhuang Muxi is located belongs to the other extreme.
Today we are filming the scene where the Queen Mother holds a birthday party and the concubines form a group to congratulate her. A total of fifty or sixty young girls were invited to play the role of palace maids, and the scene is grand.
When Fan Wumian came over, the crew was rehearsing.
These young palace maids and extras only earned a few dozen yuan a day, so who would care whether he was their employer? When they saw him, they went crazy and surrounded Fan Wumian in the blink of an eye, trying desperately to show themselves.
Someone in the crowd was talking, and someone even shouted, "I also graduated from the Performance Department of Beijing Film Academy!"
After graduation, students majoring in acting have very polarized incomes. Some can earn hundreds of millions a year, while others have trouble even eating. They start from the bottom as extras, dreaming of making it big one day.
Fan Wumian heard it, but pretended he heard nothing.
There are alumni graduating every year. Over the years, there are probably hundreds of seniors working in Hengdian.
What's more, there are so many extras on the scene, and it is not so easy to do favors. Helping one person may offend dozens of people, so it is necessary to treat them equally for easy management.
Faced with dozens of young palace maids, the personal bodyguards treated them as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
While he stretched out his hand to ask everyone to step back, he was also worried that they might accidentally touch the wrong place. He was so nervous that he could not move forward.
These bodyguards work for Fan Wumian and receive a high salary of three or four hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars every year. Apart from taking turns on duty at night, their daily work is actually very easy. They are not as likely to encounter danger as other colleagues, and the work is often so boring that it makes people sleepy and fall asleep.
The stage manager quickly came to the rescue, holding the microphone and shouting:
"Make way! Don't stop Mr. Fan!"
Fan Wumian had done this kind of work before, and he felt sorry for the stage manager for three seconds. It can only be said that there were many girls under his management, and they were not as happy as people imagined.
Just the endless chattering all day long and the occasional small conflicts are enough to make people feel overwhelmed, as if there are 2000 ducks quacking around them. Over time, it can cause your blood pressure to soar and your heart rate to accelerate.
A quick glance.
You will find that among the crowd, some girls are fair-skinned and good-looking, but not to the point of being stunningly beautiful.
If she really looked like Liu Yifei, Yang Mi and the others, even if she only played some minor palace maids, it would actually be very easy for her to stand out. Not to mention that there were so many men in the entire crew, there would always be someone who would sympathize with her and lend a hand, greatly increasing her chances of becoming famous.
The young palace maids were driven away by the stage management, and the queen played by Li Xiaoran could be seen rushing over with Liu Shishi, Zhuang Muxi, Qu Siyan, Zhang Jianing and others.
They have a very high average appearance value and are all dressed in ancient costumes, which makes them look particularly pleasing to the eye.
I heard Zhuang Muxi mention last night that the character she played was secretly poisoned by other concubines because she was too favored by the emperor.
The Queen is holding a banquet today, and Zhuang Muxi will take advantage of the Emperor's presence to run there and cry and complain, saying that before she dies she only wants to go home and see her family again.
Afterwards, the emperor and empress were furious. It was clearly Qu Siyan who secretly poisoned Liu Shishi, but she framed Liu Shishi. She tried every means to save herself.
Considering Zhuang Muxi's status, playing this kind of supporting role is purely to help attract traffic and promote Li Xiaoran, Liu Shishi, Zhang Jianing and others under Fan Wumian.
The emperor is played by Wang Kai, who played Prince Jing in Nirvana in Fire. Like Zhang Jianing, he is also signed to the Shenghuo Miaomiao (Hong Kong) agency.
Seeing Zhuang Muxi with her pale make-up and a red gauze dress on, Fan Wumian thought it looked just right. He couldn't help but smile, thinking that it would be great if he could let her wear this back to the hotel tonight.
Li Xiaoran is 30 years old this year. When she frowns, she looks capable and ruthless. With her hot body and strong potential, she can carry off the aura of the "Empress".
Seeing her coming over, one of the little palace maids, who was used to playing this role, subconsciously felt her knees weaken and she wanted to kowtow to her.
Coming in front of Fan Wumian, Li Xiaoran, whose studio is affiliated with Shenghuo Miaomiao Agency, stretched out his hand and said with a smile:
"Hello, Mr. Fan. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. The cast of this big-budget palace drama is so luxurious."
The total investment was only 1800 million RMB, which was only enough to pay the two leading actors of "Friends" for one episode of the TV series. But here, it can make the entire crew of one or two hundred people work hard for two or three months. After performing in Hollywood, Fan Wumian's understanding of "big production" has been raised. In response to Li Xiaoran's polite words, he joked:
"Let's not talk about anything else. Your crew is really pleasing to the eyes. I just came from the crew of 'My Brother is Shunliu' and the actors there were all covered in dust and dirt."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone at the scene laughed, regardless of whether they really found it funny or not.
Noticing that Fan Wumian's lips were a little dry, Qu Siyan immediately handed him a bottle of water and told him with a smile:
"I haven't had the new one yet, Mr. Fan, please moisten your throat. My name is Qu Siyan, and the show I filmed, 'Seven Fairies', has already been aired on Tudou.com. When I was filming 'I Want to Be Famous' in Hong Kong with Liu Qingyun and Lai Yaoxiang, they all praised you for being so amazing, saying that there is a successor to the Hong Kong film and television industry, and you have carried it forward."
This girl has high emotional intelligence.
I finally had the chance to meet Fan Wumian. I didn't care whether other actors would tease me behind his back. I just wanted to perform well and leave an impression on him.
Fan Wumian took the mineral water:
"Brother Yaoxiang, I met him once at an event. I haven't been in Hong Kong for a long time. You have a good image and are suitable for acting in costume dramas. There is also a "Story of Yanxi Palace" in preparation, and Gao Yuanyuan has been confirmed as the female lead. You can try to play the second female role then."
Done.
He glanced at Zhuang Muxi, meaning that he had already helped.
Zhuang Muxi understood, smiled and said nothing. Everyone knew that they were neighbors, so they just had to act casually.
On the other hand, Liu Shishi had a smile on her face and was looking at Fan Wumian with affectionate eyes. It seemed that she had come out of the social death shadow of her failed confession.
The two would occasionally send messages to chat.
Fan Wumian was a little suspicious that Liu Shishi had set up an "online reminder" function for his QQ account. He would often see her sending him messages shortly after he turned on his laptop, and he would try every means to find topics to chat about.
He once suggested developing a "QQ Farm" mini-game. Every time he planted vegetables, Liu Shishi and Yang Mi were the most diligent in stealing, and it was obvious that they had intentions towards him.
After a brief greeting, I chatted with the director, assistant director, and producer, asking them if they encountered any difficulties during the filming.
Because it is a project invested by Bandit King Media, there are no problems with funding. Apart from the fact that the venue is in high demand and frequent coordination with other crews is required, there are no other troubles.
Maybe there is, but the director didn't mention it. Causing trouble for the boss is a big taboo in the workplace. It is easy to be seen as incompetent and need help from others to settle the matter.
After the chat, the crew of "The Legend of Ming Dynasty Harem" continued filming.
The crew is still using this name for now, but in fact it has been modified according to Fan Wumian's suggestion, changing it to a fictional historical background, in order to prevent encountering "river crab beasts" in the future, which would cause the entire show to be banned and removed from the shelves, delaying its online broadcast and making money.
After staying for more than an hour again, I continued to stroll around other crews.
It's about three o'clock in the afternoon.
Fan Wumian returned to the hotel and took a nap, but slept for less than two hours. He got up, washed up, and prepared to go out for a date.
Pu Jiajing, whose day and night were turned upside down, communicated with the secretary of Hengdian tycoon Qu and learned that she could bring some friends, so she also invited Wang Baoqiang, Brother Hu, and Wang Kai. This was mainly to prevent the atmosphere of the drinking party from being too suitable for business talks and to prevent them from being asked some requests that were difficult to refuse. Having outsiders present might actually make things easier.
There was nothing much to say about the dinner itself.
The key point is that during the meal, Boss Qu talked about his desire to rebuild an Old Summer Palace, with an estimated investment amount of up to 30 billion RMB, and tentatively asked Fan Wumian if he was interested.
He just said that he was a bit short of money and there was a piece of land in Shenzhen waiting for investment and development, so he found an excuse to politely turn it down.
Another topic interested Fan Wumian a little.
Mr. Qu plans to start a company to engage in the distribution and production of film and television dramas, and try to enter the chain cinema industry. He wants to start with 200 modern large-scale cinemas in first- and second-tier cities across the country.
(End of this chapter)