Chapter 123 Changing Settings and Powering On

After the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards ceremony, it also caused a wave of heat in the outside world.

However, because the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards do not have a great influence among the public and information dissemination is not very developed at this time, the popularity dissipated relatively quickly.

The news about Qin Hao being crowned the Golden Rooster Emperor continued for a while. In this life, he was no longer a guerrilla. With the support of Zhoushan Studio, he still received the treatment he deserved.

No matter how the Golden Rooster Awards are criticized, Qin Hao has been completely recognized by the industry this time.

Coupled with the huge box office success of "The Piano Tuner", Qin Hao has also reaped both popularity and awards.

Although Qin Hao won the award and was happy when he should be happy, he threw himself into the rehearsal of the drama "Youth" after being happy, and he was not at all impatient.

If Zeng Jiaqiang hadn't persuaded him to take an endorsement job, now that he has no pressure in life, he wouldn't even want to show up in public.

Qin Hao's style also made people in the drama troupe and studio admire him very much.

Liu Zhou didn't have time to pay attention to this. After the award ceremony, he became busy again.

On November 18, the launch conference of "The Swordsman" was grandly held at Hengdian World Studios.

As the most anticipated movie in mainland China at present, the launch conference of "The Blade of Eternal Youth" attracted more than 200 media outlets from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macao.

The focus of this press conference was undoubtedly Liu Zhou, Andy Lau and Xie Tingfeng.

There is no need to mention Liu Zhou and Andy Lau, but the reason why Xie Tingfeng is so concerned by the media is because of his love affair.

This period was when the relationship between Feng and Fei was on and off, and coupled with the elusive appearance of Hong Kong beauty Zhang Baizhi, the relationship between the three has always been the focus of media reports in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Although Xie Tingfeng is still young, he knows the importance of things. He did not mention his relationship at the movie launch conference and controlled his temper when arguing with entertainment gossip magazines.

The press conference ended very smoothly. In the afternoon, Liu Zhou held a ceremony to worship the gods before the launch of the film.

In the past, Liu Zhou did not hold worship ceremonies, but now there are many people from Hong Kong in this crew, and they believe in this more, especially the martial arts actors, who believe in it without a doubt.

Liu Zhou doesn't think this is a bad habit. It is the tradition of Hong Kong filmmakers and he respects other people's traditions.

At the beginning of filming, Liu Zhou picked some simple shots in order to get the crew to work together.

The first scene filmed was the one when Shen Lian and Zhou Miaotong met at the Jiaofangsi.

Here, Liu Zhou made some modifications to the plot of "Xiu Chun Dao".

After the huge success of "The Swordsman", it can be seen that "The Swordsman 2: Shura Battlefield" is obviously trying to take advantage of the popularity of the IP, so some of the plot settings have many loopholes.

The connection between the two films is very far-fetched. It is more like two films than a prequel, and many details do not match.

The most serious problem is the timeline. The prequel of "The Swordsman 2" tells the story of Chongzhen's ascension to the throne, while "The Swordsman" tells the story of the exile of Wei Zhongxian. There is only a three-month interval between the two.

If we follow the plots of the two movies, the male protagonist Shen Lian fell deeply in love with two women and fought for them in just three months. Unless he is addicted to being a bootlicker, it would seem too fake no matter how you look at it.

And another thing is that the relationship between the two brothers Shen Lian and Lu Jianxing became so deep that they were willing to live and die together in just three months, which is also very fake.

In the prequel, Shen Lian was already a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and was very famous. But in "The Sword of the Assassin", he became a general flag and an unknown person.

However, his elder brother Lu Jianxing worked desperately for the position of a centurion, and tried his best to curry favor with and bribe his superiors.

Although in Hollywood, the settings of film series often have flaws, Liu Zhou planned to develop "The Blade of Embroidery" as a film series from the very beginning.

Since there is a prequel, it is not impossible to have a sequel. When Shen Lian came to Suzhou, there was also a story to be filmed.

Even when the Qing troops entered the pass, the Ten Days of Yangzhou, and the Three Massacres of Jiading, there were still many tragic and moving stories to be filmed.

If they are popular enough, Jin Yichuan and Ding Xiu can both have spin-off movies or TV series.

Therefore, some detailed settings must be made at the beginning.

However, Liu Zhou did not think too far ahead and just thought of "The Blade of Red Mansions 2", which left some foreshadowing and explanation in the first movie to form a connection.

Liu Zhou turned the heroine Zhou Miaotong into the cousin of Beizhai's uncle's family. Both families were killed by Wei Zhongxian because they opposed him.

Beizhai was rescued by Chongzhen's conspiracy group, but Zhou Miaotong was exiled to the Jiaofangsi.

Shen Lian felt guilty as a participant in the raid on Hokusai and Zhou Miaotong's property.

So in the prequel he wanted to save Hokusai, but later he was moved by Hokusai, and felt guilty and in love with him, which made him willing to fight for Hokusai.

After the prequel ended, Shen Lian wanted to find Hokusai, but was afraid that the petty-minded Chongzhen would kill her, so she stayed in the capital and looked for her cousin.

Later, he found out about the heroine of Kyosho, Zhou Miaotong, and confirmed that she was Hokusai's cousin. He wanted to save her, but had no money, so he could only protect her silently.

In order to gain Zhou Miaotong's trust and help her avoid some harm, Shen Lian pretended to be in love with her.

As for why Hokusai was not mentioned in front of Zhou Miaotong, it was because it involved Chongzhen’s scandal.

Knowing the emperor's private affairs often means life and death danger.

This explanation is at least more reasonable.

As for the brotherhood between Shen Lian, Lu Jianxing and Jin Yichuan, Liu Zhou planned to set it up as the three of them being comrades in the army but were separated in the Battle of Sarhu.

Shen Lian was promoted quickly because he followed Lu Wenzhao. However, Lu Jianxing and Jin Yichuan had no backing, so after working as full-time Jinyiwei, they were transferred to the Southern Pacification Division and have been working hard at the bottom ever since.

Later, because of his meritorious service and bribery to his superiors, he was transferred to the Northern Pacification Office, and then he met Shen Lian.

At the same time, because of the events in the prequel, Shen Lian deliberately kept a low profile, so everything was led by his eldest brother Lu Jianxing, but in fact, he was still the leader of the small group of three. When the time comes, these settings will be mentioned in "The Sword of Embroidery" and its prequel, trying to make the timeline and settings complete and reasonable.

……

On the monitor, the flames in the indoor fire were jumping gently. Liu Dehua was sitting in the room, wearing an ancient cotton coat and a headscarf on his head.

Zhang Tong was wearing a light shirt and had a blank expression on his face. He looked at Liu Dehua and took the initiative to greet him:

"Come to bed."

Liu Dehua lowered his eyelids slightly, not looking at Zhang Tong, and spoke in a clear voice:

"I'll be back to the government office soon, you go to sleep."

Zhang Tong stepped forward and said with a hint of sarcasm and curiosity:

"You are such an interesting person. You spent money to come to Nuanxiang Pavilion but didn't go to bed. You are the only one in the capital."

"I'll sit here." Liu Dehua said calmly.

At this time, there was a commotion outside. Some guests shouted and cursed because Zhou Miaotong was now in a relationship. This made Liu Dehua clench his fists, but he thought of something and instantly let go. He said in a deep voice:
"Wait a little longer. I'll redeem you when I have enough money."

Zhang Tong smiled, with a bit of sarcasm and self-mockery on his face:

"My General Shen, with your little salary, you want to redeem me? Besides, this is the Jiaosifang. No one can leave without the approval of the Ministry of Justice."

Liu Zhou was silent, looked up at her, and said firmly:
"I'll find a way!"

After saying that, he found an excuse, took the knife and left, and before leaving he quietly taught the shouting guest a lesson.

"Click! This one passed."

Maybe because it was the first shot and everyone wasn’t in the right state yet, this simple scene was shot four or five times.

Seeing Zhang Tong coming over to see how the photo was taken, Liu Zhou quickly said:

"You'd better put on some clothes first, so you don't catch a cold."

The winter in Hengdian is also very cold, and now it is several degrees below zero. Although the indoor temperature has been adjusted and is not particularly low, Zhang Tong is wearing an ancient single garment.

Although her good figure was highlighted to the fullest, Liu Zhou still found that she was shivering a little from the cold.

To be honest, the character of Zhou Miaotong not only has few scenes but is also not very likable. However, with her face and outfit, she can still win Zhang Tong a lot of points in the impression.

Next are the scenes with Zhou Miaotong and Mr. Yan. Liu Zhou plans to finish filming the scenes in this room in the next two days.

Master Yan has even fewer parts. Seeing that Liu Ye had nothing to do recently, Liu Zhou asked him to guest-star in this role.

Liu Ye’s acting skills are still pretty good now, and they both finished this scene in one take.

Because Master Yan's final scene was mixed in with a passionate fight, his shots could not be filmed quickly.

However, Liu Ye has been relatively free recently, so he is happy to stay in the crew.

This is Liu Ye's first time filming a Liu Zhou drama, and he feels it's quite fresh.

But Liu Ye is no longer an unknown person after all, and he is also here to make a guest appearance. Even if they have a good relationship, Liu Zhou cannot let him stay in the crew all the time.

After two days of running-in with the crew, Liu Zhou also prepared to shoot the exciting fight scene in Yan's mansion, where the three Shen Lian brothers were surrounded and faced the siege of more than 20 people.

This is when Yuan Heping needs to take the stage. The design of the martial arts moves and the placement of wirework are all the responsibility of their team.

A martial arts instructor does more than just design the movements. He is also responsible for all the martial arts scenes during filming, and is equivalent to the executive director of the martial arts scenes.

Liu Zhou only needs to see the images he needs on the monitor.

All three of them had undergone half a month of martial arts training, so their movements were not a problem.

But this was a group martial arts scene after all, and some accidents happened during the filming. It took three full days to complete the scene.

After staying for another two days, Liu Ye's scenes were also successfully completed.

Liu Zhou invited him to dinner in the evening and then sent him away.

Next, Liu Zhou prepared to finish filming Zhang Tong’s scenes as soon as possible.

The play "Youth" they had been rehearsing was about to be performed, and she also squeezed out time to come and film.

Perhaps it was a blessing from God, as Hengdian had its first snow of the year in the past two days.

This saved the crew a lot of trouble, and natural snow looks much better than artificial snow.

But during the filming, it got stuck at Andy Lau.

Because some settings were changed, higher requirements were placed on Andy Lau's acting skills.

Not only does she have to hide the truth from Zhou Miaotong and make her and everyone else in the play think that Shen Lian likes her, but she also has to make the audience notice that something is wrong and make them think about it. The balance here is very demanding on her acting skills.

However, after filming the movie "Infernal Affairs", Andy Lau's acting skills have matured. After a few hitches in the early stages, he quickly and smoothly completed a series of shots with Zhou Miaotong.

After Zhang Tong finished filming, Fan Xiaopang started to join the crew. As soon as she arrived, she started to pester Liu Zhou.

(End of this chapter)