Chapter 3: A Foolproof Manual
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Without question, Chu Shun received a call from the bank manager, saying that because there had been millions being remitted to his account, he could now bring his documents to the bank and upgrade to a private bank card, there will be many other privileges available to him after successful upgrade.
Chu Shun did not seem interested, he said maybe next time and hung up the phone.
The most important thing to do now was to think through how to make the film, found a long bench to sit, closed his eyes like he was meditating, and the mind started to receive the filmmaking lessons, it was not just the script. In actual fact, if you give the same script to a famous director and a nobody-director, the result would have great difference. Those who have a slight understanding of movies would know, script is just a script. What a scene portrays, soundtracks, and editing are just as important to make a good movie. He was an assistant director, he knew that very well.
Let’s take Kill Bill for example, the heroine sought Ishii Mika for revenge, the scene where she walked from the hall of Aobaya1 to the restroom, accompanied by (Woo.Hoo) became a classic, this is the imagination of the director.
You may not even know the name of the heroine after watching the whole movie, you only learned her nickname, black mamba, when she was an assassin, the police called her the bride, But so what? It was a great movie.
The filmmaking lesson provided by the System was so detailed that even showed the location of the lightings, how to communicate with actors in order to act the scene well, it was a foolproof manual, even a layman would be able to produce a movie given enough time, whatmore a directing student like this former owner, with his theoretical knowledge, and the former life assistant director’s practical knowledge, and with a second job as a famous film critic, not a problem at all.
“If there was no detailed manual, I would not have the confidence to film Kill Bill. Although Tarantino had a feet fetish and love to chat, he was a genius director.” Chu Shun was thinking, while he was browsing the manual he realized the System even included bloopers from the movie to provide special annotation.
Even the most perfect romantic movie like Casablanca had bloopers, not to mention the others.
“On Earth, it took nine months to pick the cast and shoot the movie, they invested 60 million USD– Hang on, I just realized something.” The 60 million that he received was in RMB, the actual movie was in USD.
But he had not finished his questions, Chu Shun responded, on Earth, more than 50% of the 60 million USD of the movie was spent on publicity. Then he calculated the purchasing power of the two currencies.
“Sys, does the 60 million not include the publicity expense?” Chu Shun stood up slowly and asked.
[Yes.]
“Alright, I understand.”
“Traveling to this universe and I received more than 50 thousand to make a movie, what a privilege, I’m not sure I could handle it.”
“Makes me feel a little shy.”
System replied: [You are worth it.]
“Wow, Sys, are you trying to flatter me? You must be, you flattered me.” Chu Shun asked further, System disappeared. This made Chu Shun realize that he can’t rush with System. Afterall System was not human, you can’t force it, Sys would not be able to take it.
“I only have four months of time, there is much to do, I must make the most of it.” while he had the thought, Chu Shun was about to look for a quiet cafe. The standard screening room was right across the field. He bumped into a teacher, her last name is Bai, 32 years old, pretty and gentle, she was one of the most popular dialog teachers in Beijing Film Academy.
Teacher Bai greeted: ” Chu Shun you look happy.”
“I’m happy because I picked up fifty-cent, I’m about to go buy a coffee that costs 30 RMB, would you care to join me?” Chu Shun asked.
“Don’t be naugthy.” Teacher Bai said with a dulcet tone: “Chu Shun, I heard about what happened to “Six Grids”, you are still young, take it as a learning experience.”
“Thank you teacher, I’m alright, I’m not affected by it.” Chu Shun said, she must not know that he was about to be expelled.
Teacher Bai stared at him for a while, to make sure he was not faking it, she smiled, nodded and praised: “That’s great, you are quite amazing.”
She had class, could not stay long to chat.
Based on the memory of the former owner, teacher Bai was one of the good teachers, she never shy away from praising students when called for. She would smile and say amazing, she was one of the most popular teachers in the academy.
Chu Shun had an idea, what if after traveling to a parallel universe, your deskmate was called something Bin, teacher was named Bai, the school guard was named Qin, Headmaster was named Gao, director was named Hou, what would you do?
What can you do? This universe must be 4041.
He tried to recall, there was no deskmate named something Bin, he sighed with relief. Chu Shun came to the cafe next to the school, ordered a 30 RMB cafe latte, it tasted horrible, took a sip and left it there.
Business was bad, there were no other customers, it was just the peace and quiet that Chu Shun was looking for, he connected to the WiFi and started writing the script and the plot.
Although it was easier to access memory about the parallel world, one still needed to file a record with the State Film Administration. They required a movie outline, and the filing process is divided into online and offline, quite troublesome, I’m not going into the details here.
“Brother Chui, Are you free tonight? There’s something I want to ask for your help. Want to have dinner together? Chu Shun made a call to Brother Chui before started.
On the other end of the line, Brother Chui was in his forties, he could be called uncle.
Brother Chui, is called brother Chui, not because he liked to brag, or loved to drink. But because after drinking, he would brag that he and Gao Wang and Lu Guozhu were best buddies. For easy understanding sake, these two were akin to Zhang Yimou and Jiang Wen in the parallel universe, the former was the main director of the 2008 Olympics.
Although he liked to brag, Brother Chui had a wide network, he was the “connector” in the entertainment industry. Most actors have their management agencies, but the ones who worked behind the scenes, like cameraman, lighting, artistic director, they were all indispensable. But they were usually not attached to any management agencies. They either follow a director’s team or scattered everywhere.
Most importantly craft service, hiring an experienced craft service is important to the production of a movie. It will save the cast from lots of troubles, it will be money well spent.
A “connector”s job is to connect these people, the cast of Six Grids was put together with the help of Brother Chui for the former owner, based on the memory of the former owner, the people that Brother Chui introduced were reliable and fairly priced.
“This little brother is quick to pay the bill, but making a movie– I don’t like to watch.” Brother Chui went to the cinema to watch Six Girds, the whole of the capital, over the four rings each cinema played it twice a day, to be exact, a portion of the 45 thousand belonged to him.
“Stubborn as a mule.” Brother Chui knew why Chu Shun wanted to see him, it had to be about filmmaking.
For Brother Chui, this means business. Of course he was happy.
8 o’clock in the evening, it was drizzling, it did not stop the singles from driving a Ferrari, and it did not stop Chu Shun, who was worth tens of millions, to eat barbecue at the roadside stall.
Brother Chui got to the barbeque stall, and he saw Chu Shun was eating skewered meat.
“You have new ideas brother?” Brother Chui was impatient, he was to the point the moment he sat down, did not even say hi, the blackheads on his nose were covered in sweat.
“Please order something first, we’ll discuss as we eat.” Chu Shun passed a skewered beef to Brother Chui.
” Don’t mind me.” Brother Chui had already had dinner with his daughter before leaving the house, but to a Taurus and a Cancer, they don’t mind having another meal.
When Brother Chui was having his fifth skewer, Chu Shun said: ” The way Six Grids was filmed was a little too self-centered. So I’m here to propose a new idea, prepare to start casting, and need to trouble Brother Chui to help out.”
The moment Chu Shun spoke, Brother Chui put down his skewer, listened and nodded: “No problem, I will take care of it.”
“But brother, I’ve worked together before, you know that in order to find suitable people for you I need to know how much was invested in the movie, the plot of the movie.” Brother Chui said.
For example a period drama, Brother Chui would look for people with period drama experience to work behind the scenes. Then depending on the amount invested, it will decide which big shot they can get. Just like a million-dollar movie cannot afford to hire Gu Changwei.
“I’ve brought the script.” Chu Shun gave Brother Chui the script that he wrote and printed in the afternoon, he had already registered on the Chinese Screenwriter web in the afternoon. The original Tarantino’s script was more than two hundred pages, but that included the plot of volume one and two, the storyboard and the action design for the heroine.
Just in words, just the ten pages in Brother Chui’s hands.
Brother Chui looked at Chu Shun after he finished reading it. He then looked at the script again and poked the table with a toothpick. He looked as if he had something to say but not sure how to say it.
“Brother Chui you are a mature man, don’t play with toothpicks, it might hurt your fingers, most importantly we have to pay for the damages.” Chu Shun gave a friendly reminder.
Brother Chui put down the toothpick, looked at Chu Shun with complex emotion, he repeated the general idea of the story, the heroine was a member of the Viper Assassination Squad, she was pregnant and wanted to give up the old business. But her past lover, who was the head of the squad, Bill, came to kill everyone at her wedding. She was almost killed and was in a coma for four years. When she woke up, she sought and prepared for revenge.
Then the heroine acquired an unbeatable sword for revenge, 1v1, 1v10 were all small scenes, the heroine fought with dozens of people.
Honestly speaking, Brother Chui thought the heroine was more powerful than anyone from the Dynasty Warriors he played. What is this?
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