At 7 p.m., the first day of shooting ended, and it was a wrap.
Zhou Yun did not expect that today, for the whole day, solidly, it would all be done in this single room, shooting one scene.
Eventually, Zhou Yun couldn’t rember how many tis she had co here; she was completely numbed by the acting.
Despite wrapping up early, Zhou Yun felt as if she had gone through a long night, returning to her room to take a shower, dry her hair, and then falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
In a daze, her phone rang.
Seeing that it was Zhou Lan who called, she answered, "Sister Lan, I’m so tired, I was sleeping. If it’s not urgent, let’s talk tomorrow."
Zhou Lan agreed.
Zhou Yun slept until the next day at six in the morning, waking up naturally, feeling refreshed and invigorated.
She yawned a long yawn.
Checking her phone, she was startled to see that Zhou Lan had sent her a ssage ten minutes ago: Call back when you wake up.
How did Zhou Lan wake up so early?
Zhou Yun suddenly rembered the phone call from last night.
Was there sothing that Zhou Lan wanted to talk to her about?
Zhou Yun imdiately called Zhou Lan back.
"Awake?" Zhou Lan said, "Was yesterday’s filming exhausting? I called you at nine o’clock, and you were already asleep."
"So tired, it really sapped my spirit," Zhou Yun mumbled. "Was there sothing you called about last night?"
"Yes, it’s like this. Binhai TV’s New Year’s Eve gala this year wants to invite the ’Heart Inquiry’ crew because ’Heart Inquiry’ has high ratings on Binhai TV and is this year’s top show. The live broadcast will also be on Haiyu Net. Both sides hope you can attend," Zhou Lan explained. "Other things aside, this ti it’s mainly about promoting ’Heart Inquiry.’ If you all attend as a crew, it will definitely achieve a great promotional effect, possibly even boosting the ratings further."
Zhou Yun said with so difficulty, "For the New Year’s live broadcast, there needs to be a rehearsal, right? If I ask for leave, it’ll definitely be for three days, which will be difficult for the crew to handle."
Zhou Lan said, "I can coordinate the timing with the crew. We don’t need to attend the rehearsal, just appear at the live broadcast on the day. That way, one day and one night should be almost okay."
"Will Song Chi and Su Yan be going?"
"I’ve asked. Song Chi will definitely go since he’s not filming recently and has so free slots. Su Yan hasn’t given a definite response, but I think she will go. She’s very popular right now, it’s a good publicity for the show, and there’s a lot of exposure. Binhai TV is offering a high appearance fee," Zhou Lan said. "I still recomnd you attend. Xiao Yun, I know you don’t want to leave the set during filming, but publicity is also part of an actor’s job. Asking for one day off won’t affect the normal progress of the crew. They don’t shoot just your scenes all the ti. If we communicate in advance and coordinate the ti, there shouldn’t be any problems."
"The main thing is that I want to ask for leave again in January. I want to attend the Qingmu Award ceremony," Zhou Yun said. "Song Chi will be presenting the Best Actress award."
Zhou Lan paused for a mont.
After a while, Zhou Lan chuckled and said, "What’s the big deal? Just ask for another leave for the award ceremony. The ceremony is held in Shanghai, and it only takes half a day. You can co back right after the evening event."
Zhou Yun: "Is it really okay to keep asking for leave?"
"You know each ti you film, I schedule your availability to the max for them, right?" Zhou Lan said. "If we were to be strict about it, we could have given just two months of availability. But we deliberately gave an extra twenty days. You’re a popular Celebrity, and there’s no such Celebrity in the world who devotes her ti only to filming without any other commitnts, not even an Oscar Movie Queen. Availability is sothing negotiated by mutual agreent. Of course, I know you don’t want to trouble the crew, but any crew engaging a star has to bear these costs, and we also need to make compromises."
"I understand."
"Don’t worry, any seasoned crew is skilled at coordinating schedules, especially since the producer of this film is Shi Luoqi."
As Zhou Lan had said, those two leaves were easily secured for Zhou Yun.
Shi Luoqi didn’t even hesitate.
Zhou Yun suddenly felt that her previous notions were naive and self-troubling.
How could there be such a perfect acting job in the world?
Any leading artist has partners from across industries, and availability itself is the result of multiparty coordination.
Filming a movie can take several months; it’s rare for an actor to be so imrsed and not to erge.
At least at this stage in Zhou Yun’s career, it’s not feasible to be so "willful."
In reality, with ’Heart Inquiry’ currently popular, it’s the most lucrative ti for her comrcial value.
At this mont, the attention focused on her is several tis more intense—not just from her fans, but also drama enthusiasts and the general audience.
All partners are willing to offer higher rates than usual to secure cooperation with Zhou Yun.
Whether it’s Song Chi or Su Yan, both are not filming with the crew at this ti, and newly added business deals have made them a tidy profit.
But Zhou Yun, due to being on set, missed this most profitable opportunity.
Zhou Lan didn’t say it, but Zhou Yun was aware of the imnse pressure from the company.
Why couldn’t Zhou Yun take on this business opportunity?
Filming? Does filming an no breaks?
Don’t all other artists manage to take breaks from the set? Just a half-day affair, and a reward of over a million.
Zhou Lan has been bearing this pressure, preventing it from reaching Zhou Yun.
Under such circumstances, Zhou Lan suggesting Zhou Yun to attend the New Year’s gala clearly shows that she truly sees the necessity of this event.
Zhou Yun reminded herself internally not to act solely on her whims in the future.
Zhou Lan leads a large team handling her managent, with people responsible for promotion, liaising for business, reviewing scripts, each with different responsibilities. Behind every job Zhou Yun has, there’s collective effort and negotiation.
Balancing the relationships and maximizing the benefits.
Zhou Yun reminded herself once again to trust Zhou Lan and trust their team.
...
On the set of ’Falling Leaves,’ everything proceeded smoothly, albeit sowhat taxing.
Surprisingly, while Xue Qin has a bad temper normally, she never lost it on set.
She would bang the table during etings, find faults during location scouting, and criticize every aspect that didn’t et her expectations at any given mont, but during filming, aside from being expressionless, she kept her emotions steady without major fluctuations.
To put it simply, she exuded a sense of calm and restraint on set.
But her standards were really high; she would only make clear what she wanted at the beginning.
Then, if not satisfied, reshoot, still not satisfied, reshoot again, slightly better, one more take, is it okay now? Another one.
Over and over again.
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