At a café called "Low Sugar" on Wilshire Avenue in Santa Monica, customers are scattered and enjoy the afternoon drinking coffee, chatting, reading newspapers and books.

Ye Wei sat in a quiet corner, he had no intention of tasting coffee, and was looking at the information documents of "The Wedding Date is Coming" with all his attention, turning page after page, not letting go of a single letter.

A lot of the good or bad of these documents is not visible to the layman, but he can, because of the dream college experience.

Cultivating "Fi1m-maker" is the core concept of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and the "film and television production zuò" he studied is its most important and best signature major.

Students must study in a variety of ways, and they must also choose courses according to their personal talents and interests, and only after completing the elementary courses can they further the advanced courses, so as to determine the direction of development.

So it's very common for a lot of people to start school and shout "I want to be a director" and then become a photographer when they graduate, and "I want to be a producer" but become an editor.

In the dream, Ye Wei was determined to fulfill his father's last wish, and he was eager to learn to be a director from the moment he entered the school, and finally became a director.

But he is familiar with production and other affairs, and has practiced it, and has served as a producer in short film production more than once.

Every student is like this, like when you are taking cTpR5o8 to make "our film" in pairs, you need some friends to help them, if you are a screenwriter and director in the first short film production team, the other one has to do cinematography, the first one is cinematography, maybe the next one is production, recording and editing......

In short, students will practice every part of the filmmaking process and understand everything.

Ye Wei also has the experience of working as a production assistant and field assistant for free in an independent film crew outside the school, so he can understand these things in his hands now.

I have to say that Kevin Thomas, an old liar, still has a few hands, and the copywriting in the production is very professional, detailed and rigorous, which can bluff insiders.

He has seen more than half of the production schedule, although there are many places where there is a lot of money to spend and more efficient, but these do not make the producer what to do, because it can be explained that his own production ability is insufficient, and he does not mean to spend more.

On the other hand, on the side of the storyboard, there were not even some insertion shots and main shots, and there were very few materials available for the director's editing, but it can also be said that the director's ability is insufficient, or simply say that this is the director's intention. So none of these mistakes work.

He's going to find a mistake that can leave Kevin Thomas speechless and kill the other person.

But the good news is that it's clear to him that the farther up the production schedule, the less vigilant Kevin Thomas becomes, and the mistakes become more intense......

Time was gradually passing, and the waitress came to see it a few times, but she still hadn't taken half a sip of his cup of coffee. Ye Wei was a little embarrassed, so he drank the cup of coffee in one gulp and asked her to take it to refill the cup, and she was so bitter that she frowned.

His head was also excited, and he turned the page of the detailed list of production expenses, and at this moment, suddenly there seemed to be a flash of inspiration.

"Wait......" Ye Wei flipped the document back to the previous page, and looked at one of the small items: equipment rental fee - Steadicam, $15oo.

This is a filming expenditure on April 8, 2oo3, and there is nothing wrong with it at a cursory glance, however, is it really that much for $15oo?

Steadicam is a camera stabilizer that photographers use to keep their shots balanced, but the rent for a large Steadicam is generally $5oo-$1ooo per day, and independent filmmakers can even find a manufacturer who is willing to provide idle equipment for free, for as little as $15oo!

Ye Wei frowned, feeling that he was very close, but this was an "additional lease", that is, a temporary lease without a prior plan, not from the equipment rental agency "sLV", which the crew mainly cooperated, and did not write clearly which company the 15oo dollars were given to, so it could not be verified immediately.

Didn't sLV have a Steadicam for rent? He was almost certain that it was a false account with a large number of dollars.

It was not a well-planned action, but a moment of greed, greedy for a few hundred dollars of money, Kevin Thomas's mentality was already crazy at that time, probably thinking that even if he made this fake account, no one would show up, and never would be.

Ye Wei chuckled lightly and said to himself: "If God wants to destroy it, he must first make it crazy, Kevin, you have been caught." ”

But he needs exact evidence, such as a lease contract that says $1ooo/day!

Looking at some other information at the moment, he knew that the crew of "The Wedding is Coming" was filming in Orange County that day, which undoubtedly made it more difficult to verify, there are too many film shooting equipment rental and sales manufacturers in the greater Los Angeles area.

"The stupid way is the best way. Ye Wei took a sip of coffee and already had an idea.

There is a principle for equipment rental: rent it nearby! This is even more important than cheap, because transportation is also expensive, and it is impossible to shoot in Orange County and rent equipment in New York. So the most likely manufacturer is the one closest to Orange County, and it has to be rented by Steadicam.

If you ask each of these manufacturers, you can get a result even if there are 1,000 stores.

"Waiter!" Ye Wei called the waitress and asked, "Do you have the Yellow Pages here in the greater Los Angeles area? ”

"There are yellow pages, but ...... on the Internet," the waitress was a little embarrassed, "you have to ask the boss." ”

There is no Internet service in the low-sugar café, only there is a computer at the counter, but it is not for the customer, but the owner's personal computer. Ye Wei repeatedly asked, and it happened that the boss was also Chinese, so he agreed to use it for a while.

Through the Internet, Ye Wei found the directory of many related manufacturers and wrote down their contact numbers.

When he left the computer, it had been nearly an hour, and when he returned to his seat, he looked up the yellow pages for a while, and began to type one number after another: "Hello, is it a full photography company? Well, I want to ask you if you rent a Steadicam, how much does it cost a day?"

"We have a rent, a large 8oo block a day, a small 1oo a day, if the rental days are more than half a month, the price is negotiable. ”

Ye Wei said OK, and then asked, "Is it possible for you to rent out a large set of Steadicam for 15oo yuan a day?"

"No way, we won't rent it so expensive, just charge a fair price. ”

"In this case, our company may have cooperated with your company before, can you inquire about the specific contract status at that time? This involves some financial issues of our company, I sincerely ask you to help. ”

"As long as you give us detailed information, including date, company, project and tenant, we can check it for you. ”

"Trouble, April 8, 2oo3, only more images, the film project "The Wedding is Coming", tenant Kevin Thomas, a set of large Steadicam. ”

After a short while, Ye Wei got a reply: "I'm sorry, we don't have a record here." He said, "Okay, thanks, excuse me." He hung up the call and continued to call the next manufacturer.

Just like that, phone call after call, one after another, Ye Wei asked more than a dozen manufacturers, and it was getting farther and farther away from Orange County, which made him full of anger, there are so many nearby manufacturers who don't rent, but they go so far to rent, what, is the transportation cost expensive?

Of the 2oo production costs, I really don't know how much was wasted by the mongrel Kevin Thomas!

These wasted costs add up to a lot of money, which is my father's hard-earned money and my family's money!

Ye Wei exhaled, temporarily suppressed his anger, and continued to investigate. If that slut had colluded with a certain manufacturer at the time and didn't keep a record, this fake account would be useless, I hope not, and now I can only try my luck.

There were several manufacturers, almost to the confines of Los Angeles County, when he got through a small company called "Ed Photographic Equipment" and asked the same few questions, but finally got different answers!

"Yes, I found it, there are records here. ”

"Really!" Ye Wei suddenly shouted, causing other customers to cast displeased eyes, his face flushed with excitement, and asked repeatedly, "How much?"

"Our library record is $6oo a day, which is our usual price. ”

"Are you sure?" Ye Wei asked this question again and again, making the other party a little helpless, sure! He slammed his fist on the table, slammed, and asked again: "If I need it here, can you provide proof of the contract that was valid at that time?"

"Yes, we have a record. ”

"Thank you, thank you! Ye Wei's heartbeat became very fast, and he couldn't help laughing, but his eyes flashed with a fierce light, with this sharp weapon, Kevin Thomas is dead this time, General!

It is certain that the 18o million blood dollars voted for "The Wedding is Coming" will be lost, but now, you can get some back.

He looked at the time, it was almost five o'clock in the afternoon, it was not early, and he had to rush home immediately.

After settling the account and tipping at the moment, Ye Wei's wallet was barely a penny, so he could only take the bus and leave.

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