After staying in New York for nearly a week, Wang Yang took the plane back to Los Angeles, and Tom Welling also followed, he got the actor of "Youth Musical" as he wished, and has officially signed a contract with a salary of 300,000, although he is the leading actor, but he has never starred in any film and television works, and he is not famous, so he belongs to the treatment of a pure newcomer. When he came to Los Angeles, he also needed to take singing and dancing training classes.

There was also Michael Pitt, who was penniless and so hungry that he wanted to grab bread, so naturally he had no money to fly, Wang Yang helped him pay this fee in advance, and he will pay it back later.

After the group returned to Los Angeles, Flame Films took a few photos of Tom Welling, and uploaded them to the official website of "Youth Musical", announcing that "Troy Burton" would be played by Tom Welling. Although Tom Welling Sunshine is handsome, there are still some fans who are disappointed, they have speculated which big star will join, but they didn't expect it to be a little-known model, of course, some female fans expressed their expectations and approvals, they are already going to become fans of this pure sunny handsome guy.

Needless to say, the reaction of the media is still very cold, the heroine Jessica Alba also has a few works, barely famous, but this Tom Welling is a complete newcomer, not a child star, not from an academy, just a costume model, can he act?

So, when the cast of "Youth Musical" was basically determined, if three out of ten people were optimistic before, now there is not even one tenth.

The entertainment section of the Chicago Sun commented: "We seem to be able to foresee the fall of a new director, and this film, which has not yet started filming, already has all the potential for bad movies." An unflattering song and dance film theme, an inexperienced director, an inexperienced male and female lead, an inexperienced supporting role, and a production company that was on the verge of bankruptcy before. Looking at their ages and experiences, I'm curious to see how rotten this movie will be in the end."

An insider also revealed to the media that the heroine of Columbia's new film "Idle Hands" originally chose Jessica Alba, but she ended up signing with "Youth Musical", which made director Rodman Fried feel very sorry. Of course, the insider should be someone from the Columbia company, increasing the topic and exposure, this is just a means of publicity.

Andrew Richard, the producer of "Idle Hands", confirmed the incident to the media, saying: "I think the girl is crazy, she made an extremely stupid decision and she will pay for her self-righteousness. No, I'm not saying that "Youth Musical" is definitely not good, but there is no comparison. Thankfully, we have Eliza now, she's doing really well and she's going to be a shining star. ”

And Eliza Dushku said: "I don't mind that I am the second choice, I cherish this opportunity, Rodman Fried is a very talented director, the script of "Idle Hands" is also very interesting, it is an honor to be able to star in this film. Jessica Alba: I'm friends with her and I wish her the best of luck. ”

Anyway, the few media who paid attention to this film poured cold water on it, and God seemed to have said to them that ""Youth Musical" will definitely fail", so they scrambled to show their "foresight".

Wang Yang has no awareness of this situation, but Mark Slant is very anxious, he said to Wang Yang: "My boss, if there is any news of "Youth Musical" and the media says that it is a bad movie, then after a long time, the audience will feel that it is really a bad movie, and they will be arrogant and prejudiced, and disdain to watch this movie." ”

Wang Yang thinks it makes sense, but he only knows a little about the packaging and promotion of the movie, and he can't think of a solution. Mark Slunt was prepared, and he suggested working with a PR agency, or setting up a PR department directly to improve the company's PR capabilities, such as getting acquainted with a few media outlets, asking them to help say good things, and dealing with the jury of various film awards.

Wang Yang felt that his head was big when he heard these things, and when he saw that Mark Slent's plan was detailed and reasonable, he simply agreed to inject a new 1 million into the company's account and set up a public relations department.

One million is a lot, but Wang Yang can still afford it now, because his account will soon hit a huge sum of money, and the overseas box office share of "Ghost Shadow". This "first DV movie in history", "the scariest horror film", and "160 million box office in North America" movies have been released in Europe for several weeks in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France and other places, and its performance has not disappointed the distributors, and now the total overseas box office has reached more than 80 million, and with it about to be released in Australia, Japan and other places, there is no problem with the total overseas box office exceeding 100 million.

However, in overseas distribution, Lionsgate has to cooperate with the distribution company of that country, and there is one more person to share, and several layers of taxes have to be deducted, so in the end, it may be less than 10 million in Wang Yang's hands, of course, this number is a lot. And the DVD of "Ghost Shadow" is also on the market in North America, and the sales are not bad, with total sales reaching more than 30 million US dollars, but in terms of DVD, Wang Yang's profit share is only 15%, and he can only get a very small share, and 10 million can only get about 700,000.

But all this money has given Wang Yang the opportunity to show his strengths, he can increase the investment amount of "Singing and Dancing Youth", looking for a better shooting team, in fact, this work flame company has been going on for a long time, and now the main actors are basically in place, as long as the crew is completed, and then the equipment and venue are rented, the film can officially start filming.

The crew has a variety of duties, some of which can be directly held by the employees of Flame Films, such as finance, whose work includes budgeting, counting expenditures, settling salaries, etc., and some chores, such as contacting the venue, closing roads, clearing the venue, and handling the accommodation and food of the crew. However, for some professional positions, it is necessary to hire others to join, such as set designers and prop masters, who handle the scene effects and props used during shooting, costume designers and makeup artists, who are responsible for turning the actors into beautiful ones, and also need an art director to grasp the overall "aesthetics".

These professionals are not difficult to find, "Youth Musical" is just a campus film, and it does not need special scenes that are detached from reality, nor does it need costumes that are detached from reality, so the work is very simple. During the casting period, according to Wang Yang's requirements and opinions, Flame Film Company has already found personnel in this area, and even the contract has been signed, and it can start work at any time.

At present, there are no positions that have been solved, except for editors and soundtracks who are only needed in the later stage, and there are only camera teams, dance directors, and arrangers left. The later personnel are looking for later, and the choreographers and arrangers don't have to worry, the singing and dancing scenes in the movie are concentrated at the end and then filmed, firstly, the actors need time to take training classes, and secondly, the choreography and arrangement also need time, Flame Movies has sent invitations to some famous composers, hoping to buy some youthful pop songs with bright melodies.

It can be said that the most important thing now is the formation of the photography team, including photographers, lighting engineers, sound recorders, etc., and among them, photographers are the most important and need to be carefully selected.

If the director is the designer of the film, imagining and conceiving the scenes, groups of shots, then the cinematographer is the one who realizes these pictures. The director is like a costume designer, specifying what size and shape a piece of cloth will be cut, and the photographer is the tailor who cuts the cloth. Without them, the cloth would still be a piece of cloth, and it would not be a garment.

For Wang Yang, he has to consider a photographer, to see the photography technique, composition ability, and most importantly, temper and tacit understanding. The director is the brain, and the photographer is the hands and feet, the tacit understanding between the two sides is very important, whether there is a storyboard or not, the photographer must fully understand the director's intention, and the effect that the director wants, and he must be interested and agree, not a yang or mechanical work, otherwise the whole movie will be mediocre.

Whether the cinematographer and the director get along or not directly affects the shooting effect of the film and the process of the work.

"When I do photography, the most fearful thing is to work with a half-bucket director, or a rookie director. They have a lot of ideas, always like this and that, but they don't express it clearly, or I think it sucks, and I say yes in my mouth, but I think, 'Oh my God, I don't want to shoot like that,' and of course it turns out badly, I don't have a good time, and those shots are terrible. When he was a student at USC, Wang Yang once heard the teacher in the photography class say this.

At that time, he asked with some curiosity: "Why don't you give your opinion to the director?"

Then, the teacher shrugged his shoulders very indifferently and replied with a smile: "I will not go against them, directors are very stubborn animals." In the crew, they are like God, whether it is the actors, the photographers, all the staff are for the director. Normally, they're going to get pissed off from the producers, and you go and give your opinion, and that's fine, and they hit the muzzle of the gun, and they're going to yell at you, 'Shoot whatever I say, fiddle with your camera!' and then I say to myself, 'Okay, let's shoot a bunch of shit.' ’”

There was a lot of laughter in the class, Wang Yang remembered that he was also laughing loudly, and the teacher smiled again and said: "So the students who are going to be directors, I have to tell you, man, be careful in the future! Cinematographers are two-faced guys, remember not to provoke us, we will deliberately smash it, waste your film, increase your cost budget, and let you be scolded by the producer, haha!" and the laughter in the class was even louder.

Thinking of this, Wang Yang, who was sitting in front of the computer, couldn't help but wonder, he definitely couldn't work with such a photographer, although there was no producer to scold him, but it was because he was the investor, and he paid for the film.

So if the director and the cinematographer get along, they will generally cooperate for a long time, but the problem now is that he has no connections in this area, and he doesn't even know a photographer, let alone a "royal photographer". Fortunately, now is not the time to make "Ghost Record", he has a company and a team, and at this time in the computer, there is a list of photographers, they are all recommended by Mark Slent and Sandy Pikes.

Wang Yang looked at the current time, it was more than eight o'clock in the morning, today was Rachel's birthday, so he, the "boss", approved a day off, no training, and a group of people were ready to come to him for a day to celebrate Rachel's birthday. Look at the time, they should be almost there. Wang Yang opened the list of photographers and shouted loudly to the rattan sofa not far away: "Michael, Michael! Get up quickly, my friends are coming!"

Michael Pitt also lives in this apartment for the time being, sleeping on the couch. In the past few days, Wang Yang has asked Michael Pitt to go out to do whatever he wants to buy, anyway, he is the "nanny" of the field affairs and the crew, and this is his job.

"Oh......" There was a lifeless voice from the rattan sofa, this guy has been suffering from narcolepsy since he came to Los Angeles, and he can't get out of bed every day, and he falls asleep whenever he has free time.

"Now!" Wang Yang shouted again, then ignored him, opened the list of photographers and looked at it, these photographers are not very famous, this is not surprising, famous photographers generally have their own long-term partners, and there will be no shortage of film appointments. Wang Yang flipped through these materials, there were no surprises, they were all ordinary photographers, and suddenly, a name stopped him, Valey Pfister?

Wang Yang frowned, looking up the details of this photographer, Valey Pfister, now 37 years old, he is the photographer of many **R-rated films, including "**Blurred Night", "Animal Instinct", "**Game" series, the predecessor of Flame Film Company, A-Pix's "**Game 3", that is, he acts as the photographer, he is very familiar with Sandy Pikes, and it is an old relationship.

"**Game 3"?" Wang Yang shook his head with a smile, no, the familiarity must have come from somewhere else, so he searched in his mind, and immediately got the answer, and couldn't help but say in surprise: "No!? What are you kidding!"

It turns out that if he follows the path of the future, he will become famous in 2000 as the photographer of "Fragments of Memory", and then he became Christopher Nolan's royal photographer, and they shot blockbusters such as "Batman - Time to War", "Batman - The Dark Knight", and "Foundation".

He and Nolan are a perfect match, playing with the color style of classical films, sometimes obscure and gray, sometimes bright and dazzling, creating an unparalleled "texture".

Of course, the tone of "Singing and Dancing Youth" can't play with those chiaroscuro, what this movie needs is the tone and lighting of youth and sunshine, but this is not a problem, when the light is enlarged and the post-color processing is processed, the picture is required to be bright and bright, which can never stump a "best photography", the key is to look at his photography skills, composition ability, and understanding and grasp of the lens.

Although Valley Pfister is currently only a third-rate photographer specializing in R-rated films, Wang Yang believes that his photographic ability should be enough to be the cinematographer of "Youth Musical". Wang Yang happily picked up his mobile phone, called Sandy Pikes, and said with a smile: "Hi, Sandy, do you have a good relationship with Valey Pfister? Well, I want to meet him, is he in Los Angeles? Okay, contact him......"

At this moment, the doorbell of the apartment rang, and Wang Yang said "Wait" to Sandy Pikes, turned his head and shouted, "Michael, go open the door!" and then he continued to say to his phone: "Okay, Sandy, you just say that I have seen his movie and it was a great shot...... Which one?"**Blurred Night" or "**Game", hey, whatever......"

Listening to the screeching doorbell, Michael Pitt slumped up from the rattan couch and walked to the door top-heavy, opening the door.

"Hi, Jan!" Jessica smiled sweetly, but as the door was fully opened, she was stunned, only to see a blonde man wearing only sweat clothes and shorts standing behind the door, sleepy-eyed, it was not Wang Yang at all! She glared and swept the two hairy thighs, and suddenly screamed: "Oh, oh my God!" She took a few steps back, frowned tightly, and asked, "Who are you?" Where is Jan!?"

At this time, Joshua, Rachel, Zachary, and Jessica's good friend Erin Iris also arrived, and they also opened their mouths in unison and looked at Michael Pitt in surprise.

Michael Pitt was still confused, wiping his eyes and saying, "Oh, hello, I'm Michael Pitt......"

Hearing Jessica's scream from the door, Wang Yang reflexively looked at the door, and saw Michael Pitt's solo show, he scolded helplessly: "Hell! This bastard just got up?!" He said goodbye to Sandy Pikes, ran over, and greeted his friends outside the door with a smile: "Hi, everyone! Good morning." He looked at Rachel again and smiled, "Happy birthday, Rachel." ”

Rachel smiled, "Thanks, Jan." Is he?" she looked at Michael Pitt.

"Michael Pitt, I should have told you that I knew a 'Leonardo' in New York, he would play a small role in 'High School Musical', and he didn't have a place to live for the time being, so he lived with me first. Wang Yang explained quickly and simply, glared back at Michael Pett, and said, "Hey, man, aren't you going to get dressed?" Michael Pitt nodded "oh" and walked in with a yawn.

Michael Pitt still has clothes on, not all over, they are surprised how Wang Yang's apartment could suddenly appear such a person. Now that they heard the explanation, everyone suddenly came over, and Jessica also remembered that she had heard Wang Yang talk about this person, and said with a smile: "I'm scared to death! Yang, I'm used to you opening the door." When I saw Michael Pitt just now, I thought it was some kind of pervert. ”

Wang Yang snorted, quickly threw a punch, and said, "Don't worry about this, you know, I can knock him down with one punch." Everyone laughed, and he made a gesture of please, and said with a smile, "Come in." ”