Go about 100 meters along Changshu Road, and turn left to Wuyuan Road.

Cheng Er is familiar with this road and has been here a few times in the last year. I remember that the weather was still hot at that time, and the air was filled with a quiet and lazy atmosphere, and even the footsteps became gentle, and I knew that I was crying out for summer. The green dome is arched by the dense French plane trees on both sides, lining the road far and deep, and there is no end in sight.

The leaves have long since fallen this season, and the bare branches add to the depression, but you can see the British-style buildings on both sides of the road, with double-pitched roofs, dormer windows, towering brick chimneys, and a façade of clear water red bricks.

There are many shops scattered on both sides of the road, including cafes, clothing stores, boutiques, barber shops, restaurants, etc., and they are full of fireworks.

According to the agreed address, Cheng Er came to a snack bar, and there were fried fried and small dumplings in the window at the door. There was a team of more than a dozen people on the sidewalk outside, and you could tell that business was good at a glance.

Walking into the store, Cheng Er found that it was not so much a breakfast shop as a place to drink morning tea. The hall is clean, the dark tables are covered with white cloths, and people are leisurely drinking tea, chatting, and eating snacks.

There is no hustle and bustle of breakfast shops here, and most of the people speak softly, and occasionally you can hear a few crisp sounds of bowls colliding.

Cheng Er glanced around, and found the person he was looking for at a table against the wall, but it was a little different from the image in his impression, there was no slippery parted hair, no suit and leather shoes, but instead of a neat short hair and a black half-turtleneck sweater, he looked younger and more energetic.

Li ...... Mr. Li Tang! ”

Cheng Er walked over, he was not very good at words, and wanted to call Mr. Li, but the other party was obviously young, so he had to call Mr. by name and surname.

Li Tang hurriedly stood up, looked at the young man in front of him with a pair of attractive ears, a suit and leather shoes, and black-framed glasses, but he was slightly cramped, and stretched out his hand with a smile: "You are Director Cheng Er, right?" Hello, Director Cheng! ”

Cheng Er nodded a little shyly, shook hands with Li Tang and said, "Just call me Cheng Er." ”

"Okay, Cheng Er! Sit down, I'm really sorry, the time is so early. Li Tang greeted warmly.

The two talked on the phone last night, Xu had been waiting for this call for too long, and it had been two months since he saw the script of "Criminals" to receive Cheng Er's call, so he had a whim and asked the other party to have morning tea the next day.

"It's okay."

Cheng Er sat down restrainedly.

"I've taken this notebook." Li Tang poured him a cup of tea and got straight to the point.

"Thank you, ...... Lee Uh, Mr. Lee. ”

In just a few words of greeting, Li Tang could see that Cheng Er in front of him was not very good, or not very good at talking, no wonder he could "talk very well" with Lou Ye.

He smiled and waved his hand: "Just like you, just call me Li Tang, don't be polite." ”

"Okay, Lee...... Brother Li. ”

Cheng Er was finally a little more flexible.

At this point, the waiter brought the menu.

Li Tang motioned to give the menu to Cheng Er, who was sitting opposite: "Order what you want to eat." ”

I didn't look at the menu and ordered directly from the waiter: "I want a bowl of small wontons and a guest fried steamed buns...... Oh, and another steamed pork ribs. ”

Cheng Er looked at the menu a little strangely, because there were not only local breakfast varieties in Shanghai, but also many Cantonese-style snacks, such as the steamed pork ribs that Li Tang had just ordered, and the menu was written "steamed pork ribs with tempeh", a classic Cantonese side dish.

It's just that when he saw Li Tang finish ordering, he hurriedly pointed to the menu and said, "I want a salted soy milk and a cage of small cages." ”

"That's all?" The waiter asked.

"Well, that's enough."

Li Tang was slightly surprised to see that Cheng Er actually ordered a bowl of salted soy milk. Salted soy milk is a product of the Yangtze River Delta, and outsiders rarely drink salted soy milk.

I remember the first time I took my ex-girlfriend to drink salted soy milk, and my ex-girlfriend was surprised when she saw that soy sauce, rice vinegar, chopped green onions, seaweed, minced mustard and fried dough sticks were added to the soy milk, because in her cognition, soy milk is sweet, and tofu brain is salty.

"Cheng Er, how long have you been in Shanghai?"

"It's been more than half a year, and I came to Shanghai Film Studio for an internship in July last year."

Oh, it's been more than half a year, I should be used to it.

"That's really unfortunate, if it had been half a year earlier, we might have had a chance to work together." Li Tang said with a smile.

Cheng Er nodded and said, "I have read "Shanghai Chronicle". ”

"The finished film has come out, how does it feel?" Li Tang hurriedly asked.

His first work, he has always been looking forward to it.

Cheng Er pushed his glasses and said seriously: "The movie is very good, both the photography and composition are excellent, the lens is very modern, Brother Li, you and the actress named Yuan Quan are very exciting, it's just ......"

Speaking of this, he hesitated for a moment and said: "It's just that I personally think that the movie covers too many events, which leads to the characters covered by the incident, and the core emotional power embodied in the characters is insufficient." ”

"Uh......"

Li Tang didn't expect Cheng Er to be so outspoken.

You must know that the director of this movie is a senior in their Nortel directing department, a top student of the New York Film Academy. Under normal circumstances, it is a sedan chair carried by everyone, even if there are obvious flaws, selectively ignore or try to be tactful.

He, a fledgling fourth-year student in the directing department, dared to criticize his predecessors so bluntly, does Director Peng Xiaolian know?

At the same time, Li Tang was faintly disappointed, after all, it was his first work that was so criticized, although this problem was not necessarily due to the actors, but he was always uncomfortable.

"Let's talk about the script. The story is very well written, it feels very real, I like it very much, and the character of Hu Tian ......"

Listen, Li Tang speaks so well, three special in a row. It's just that before he finished speaking, he saw Cheng Er take out a handful of manuscripts from his bag, hand it over and say, "Brother Li, you take a look first." ”

"Uh, okay."

Li Tang took it.

The first is a character relationship diagram, and there are not many characters in the script, including gangsters and policemen, and there are only more than ten in total. But on this character diagram, all the characters, including the connections between the characters, are clearly marked.

The second is the structure of the film, and although it is only a short film, it still strictly follows the three-act plot structure.

The next dozen or so are the character relationships and plot details of each scene. There are both text descriptions and graphical displays, which make people see it at a glance and have a great sense of picture.

Finally, there are storyboards of some important scenes.

Li Tang only flipped through it roughly, and was shocked, he didn't expect Cheng Er's preparations to be so sufficient.

When cooperating with director Peng Xiaolian, Director Peng emphasized more brainstorming, emphasizing more on technology and performance details, and strictly implemented it when it was finally decided.

And Lou Ye is the other extreme, mysterious and imaginative, "flying paper" is commonplace, and the actors are not allowed to prepare too much and find inspiration in the shooting.

As for "Returning the Pearl II", the TV series is not about creation, it is simply an industrialized account.

But on Cheng Er's side, the preparation is so meticulous, obviously emphasizing the art of the director and controlling the actors in specific situations. At the same time, he does not regard the actor as a marionette to realize his directing art, but gives the actor enough room to play in a specific situation.

The reason why Li Tang came to a conclusion so quickly was because it was very simple, just by looking at the chart.

Originally, he was going to talk to the director about the script, but now it seems that there is no need for this, and the preparation has already been done.

At this time, the ordered things were served one after another, Li Tang flipped through the storyboard sketches while eating, just looking at the painters, of course, they were far worse than Lou Ye, and they were not as whimsical and irregular as Lou Ye. From the perspective of storyboard composition, there are more medium and close shots, most of the pictures adopt a symmetrical pattern, and the colors also use a lot of warm colors, and some of them are gray and dark, which is roughly due to the plot.

In general, it reflects the level of a very positive academic director.

Of course, these are all sincerity that Cheng Er showed to Li Tang, and he needs Li Tang to give back his trust in the director.