Chapter 173 Respect and the General's Dream
On May 15th, Liu Zhou officially joined the crew of "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff".

The two parts of "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff" span the entire Battle of Red Cliff, and there were many filming locations.

But because of the fame of this movie, all filming locations, including the film and television city, are free to the "Red Cliff" crew.

But free does not mean loss, on the contrary they are getting a great deal.

Because many filming locations require the crew to spend a lot of money to build or transform them into the scenes required for the movie.

For example, in Zhuozhou Film and Television City, the crew spent tens of millions of yuan to build and renovate some scenes in the film and television city.

There is also a generals' platform built in the Fangshan Shidu Scenic Area, which requires the crew to pay for it.

In the end, all these things that are built or renovated will remain.

It will even become a new tourist attraction because of the fame of the movie "Red Cliff".

In later generations, many places used the name of the filming location of "Red Cliff" to attract tourists.

The set is the biggest expense for the crew.

In addition to the scenery, costumes and props are another major cost.

The most expensive item was the dozens of actual or model tower ships and warships that were ordered, all of which had to be burned.

If Zhang Yimou is not satisfied with the first shot, he will burn it a second time.

In addition, the costumes and props were constantly refined, and the scenes were even more grand and majestic, and a lot of money was spent on this part.

"Red Cliff" was an investment of several hundred million yuan, and the cost of actors was limited. Excluding Liu Zhou's salary of one million yuan, the rest of the actors' salary added up to less than 30 million, which is not necessarily higher than the fees of a few directors, screenwriters and the big guys behind the scenes.

That’s right, Liu Zhou also charged a fee for playing Zhou Yu, and it was not cheap.

The price of five million was negotiated by Zeng Jia for him, and this price was no less than that of the popular stars in Hong Kong.

But Han Shanping and his companions gave it very readily.

Adding Liu Zhou's remuneration as the film's chief producer, Liu Zhou can get a total salary of up to eight million.

This is a project jointly invested by five companies, and it is impossible for Liu Zhou to work for free.

And Liu Zhou will do the same with his own company in the future, distinguishing between public and private affairs, and not getting a penny less than the compensation he deserves.

When Liu Zhou arrived at the crew, the filming of "Three Kingdoms: Red Cliff" had already started for nearly half a month.

With such a large crew, it is impossible for Zhang Yimou to finish filming all the scenes by himself.

The crew is divided into two large groups, a literary drama group and a martial arts group.

The drama group filmed the scene in which Jiangdong officials persuade Sun Quan to ally with Liu Bang and fight against Cao Cao at Zhuozhou Film and Television City, led by Huang Xinjian.

Zhang Yimou led the martial arts crew to shoot Zhao Zilong's seven ins and seven outs in a valley next to the film and television city.

Liu Zhou did not stop and drove directly to the martial arts group with others. Then he saw Huang Xiaoming, wearing a silver helmet and silver armor and riding a white horse, fighting left and right under the siege of Cao's army in black armor.

There are various different opinions about the clothing of the Three Kingdoms.

The one we are most familiar with is the 94 version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which uses Shu red, Wei black, and Wu green to distinguish them.

But to be honest, although the TV series has a good reputation, the costumes are not really exquisite.

On the contrary, Wu Baige's "Red Cliff", although it also has some errors, is generally considered to be the one with the most contemporary costumes and armor among the Three Kingdoms themes.

Of course, if we strictly follow reality, it is impossible for everyone in the three forces to wear armor.

In ancient times, armor was the most scarce strategic material, and only elite troops were qualified to wear armor.

However, in this movie, the same color division was chosen as in the TV series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

Liu Bei's troops wore red clothes and red armor, and the generals had red tassels on their helmets.

Cao Wei's troops wore black clothes and black armor, and their generals had black tassels on their helmets.

The Eastern Wu troops wore green armor and blue clothes, and their generals had white tassels on their helmets.

This is just a general costume, and some individual protagonists may have unique costumes.

For example, Zhao Zilong, he is riding a white horse and wearing a silver robe, holding a steel spear with a rotten silver tip.

If he were to ride a red horse and wear a red robe, it would make everyone feel uncomfortable.

We pay attention to costumes and props but we don't pursue them too much.

The high-quality costumes and props enhance the quality of the work itself!

Liu Zhou came to the filming location and did not disturb Zhang Yimou's filming. He just stood aside and watched.

Zhao Zilong charged back and forth at the foot of the mountain, while Cao Cao's central army was located on a mountain not far away.

Even though it may only take a dozen minutes in the movie, it is still very troublesome to actually shoot.

A crew producer who came with Liu Zhou told Liu Zhou that this scene had been filmed for more than a week.

It was not until today that we finished shooting the medium and close-up shots. The baby Huang Xiaoming was carrying was almost worn out.

Now is the long-distance shot, which is also Zhao Yun’s famous scene of showing off.

Prime Minister Cao looked at the extraordinary Zhao Yun below and said in amazement:
"I thought Lu Bu was invincible, but I didn't expect this guy to be even braver than him. Whose general is he?"

The generals were unaware, so Cao Hong rode down the mountain and shouted:
"Generals in the army can leave their names."

Zhao Yun rushed out and answered loudly:
"I am Changshan Zhao Zilong!"

Liu Zhou felt a little envious as he watched Huang Xiaoming charging back and forth heroically.

Which man doesn’t have an invincible dream of marching back and forth among a vast army?
But Liu Zhou can only envy, because his Zhou Yu is not like Wu Baige's version, where Zhou Yu needs to pick up a sword to chop people. In this version, Liu Zhou has no fighting scenes, even in the final decisive battle, he is just commanding the battle, and the fighting scenes are all carried out by those few generals.

After watching Huang Xiaoming who was still filming for a while, Liu Zhou came to the central military tent of Cao’s army.

They no longer have any scenes to act and are taking a break there.

When Liu Zhou came over, he saw Cao Cao, Jia Xu, Cheng Yu and several other civil officials sitting cross-legged and smoking, Cao Hong and several others were playing poker, and Hu Jun, who played Zhang Liao, was watching Huang Xiaoming filming with a telescope.

Hu Jun really wanted to play Zhao Zilong, but the crew didn't even conduct an audition and directly gave the role to Huang Xiaoming, which made him quite regretful.

Although I later learned that Huang Xiaoming got this role because he joined Liu Zhou Company, I was not dissatisfied.

He is not a rookie. This is how the entertainment industry is. The choice of investors is the most important, and all other factors are unimportant.

So I'm going to take advantage of the break now to see how Huang Xiaoming took the photos and enjoy the experience.

When Liu Zhouyi arrived, several people including Chen Baoguo stood up.

They may not give face to the male lead, but no one dares to ignore the investor + general producer.

"Teacher Chen, Teacher Zhang, Teacher Wang... Brother Jun, thank you all for your hard work."

These actors may not be as famous or as popular as him, but in terms of age and experience, Liu Zhou must respect them.

Several of them were very enthusiastic, not only because he was the boss of the crew, but also because of what he had done in Hong Kong before.

It can be said that it was a great relief for the mainland performers and crew.

In addition, Liu Zhou insisted on using only mainland artists in the "Red Cliff" crew, which made these seniors respect the young people in front of them from the bottom of their hearts.

Liu Zhou had just arrived, and he was not very familiar with the others, so he did not chat with them much, except to say hello. However, he was more familiar with Hu Jun, so the two chatted for a few more sentences.

Before leaving, Liu Zhou asked if they had any problems in life. After all, with such a large crew, it is impossible to take care of everything.

Now that Liu Zhou encounters a problem that can be solved, he helps others solve it.

Several actors actually raised issues, and Liu Zhou wrote them all down and prepared to inform the production logistics staff later.

Liu Zhou's move further increased the favorability of several people.

The crew didn't finish work until it was almost dark.

Liu Zhou also walked towards Zhang Yimou at this time. At this time, he was watching the replay with Huang Xiaoming.

When the two suddenly saw Liu Zhou coming, they both showed a look of surprise.

"Director Zhang, Brother Xiao Ming, how was the filming? Did you pass this scene?"

"Director Zhang said there are still some problems and we need to shoot again tomorrow. By the way, Liu Zhou, when did you come over?"

"I've been here for two or three hours, but since I saw you were filming, I didn't disturb you."

At this time Zhang Yimou said:
"Liu Zhou, why are you here so early? Didn't you say you can't join the group until early June?"

"I was originally planning to finish filming at the end of May and join the crew in early June, but I didn't expect the crew in Hong Kong to be so efficient that they finished filming more than half a month ahead of schedule, so I came here now."

"Just come over here, so I can relax a little."

"Director Zhang, I'm here to be an actor."

"Aren't you still the general producer of the crew? You have to share more of the work. I am the director, but I am not just responsible for making movies."

"Well, it looks like I won't be able to rest for a moment."

"Haha, Liu Zhou, you are a capable person and should do more work. But unfortunately, we don't have any scenes together. I haven't seen you act yet."

Liu Zhou also smiled and replied:

"Brother Xiao Ming, there is no chance for you to play opposite me, but there is still a chance for you to watch me act."

The three of them didn't chat for long. After packing up simply, they prepared to go back to the hotel to rest.

However, Zhang Yimou could not rest, he had to go to the literary drama group.

They have a night scene tonight, and Zhang Yimou needs to go over to take a look, and also take a look at the material Huang Jianxin shot today.

Liu Zhou knew that Zhang Yimou was full of energy, so he didn't stop him, but went back to the hotel with Huang Xiaoming.

Huang Xiaoming shot martial arts scenes all day today, but he still looked energetic and not tired at all.

On the way, Huang Xiaoming kept telling Liu Zhou about some things about the crew and his experience in filming.

Liu Zhou also listened with great interest. From some of the things Huang Xiaoming said, he was able to roughly guess the situation of the crew.

When we were almost at the hotel, Huang Xiaoming suddenly said:
"Liu Zhou, thank you this time."

"Why are you so polite all of a sudden? You're my friend and now you're also an artist in my company. Isn't it my duty to help you get this role?"

"Not only that, but thank you for helping me deal with Huayi. In fact, when I saw Wang Jinghua leaving, I was already prepared for Huayi's attack.

But I didn't expect it to be so peaceful and nothing happened. Huayi didn't bother me at all. I guess it was you who did it."

Unexpectedly, Huang Xiaoming also misunderstood like Fan Xiaopang, but Liu Zhou still smiled and said:
"Don't be so sour. No matter what the reason is, I can't let you bear Huayi's revenge alone. You should have a good rest tonight. You still have to ride a horse all day tomorrow."

After saying that, Liu Zhou took the lead and walked into the hotel.

Huang Xiaoming looked at Liu Zhou's back, and found that he looked taller than when he was in college.

At this moment, he felt more and more that his decision to join Liu Zhou Company was the right one.

(End of this chapter)