A great director who grew up happily

Chapter 362: Party and Chat

It was not until he went to dinner that he found out that the so-called Junjun was Zhang Junning, the second female lead in the crew, who, like Huo Jianhua, was from Taiwan.

However, unlike other beauties in the entertainment industry, Zhang Junning comes from an educated family. Her father is a doctor of law and her mother is a well-known writer. She herself did not even study acting, but is a serious master of law graduated from Central University in Taiwan.

"I heard that you are a good student, the kind that can get into Peking University or Tsinghua University. Why don't you continue your studies?" Zhang Junning asked curiously.

"It's a waste of educational resources for someone like me to get into Peking University or Tsinghua University," Chen Jinnian said truthfully.

"The Ministry of Education subsidized every student so much money, but I ended up skipping classes. I felt a little guilty about that. Now, I feel comfortable skipping classes. Even though I didn't attend classes for a few days, I still paid the same tuition and accommodation fees."

Zhang Junning covered her mouth and smiled when she heard this. She herself is not very photogenic, and it is difficult for her to present herself perfectly unless she meets a particularly good director of photography. In this respect, she is very similar to Wang Yidi.

Chen Jinnian always has a headache when filming Wang Yidi. He was not very satisfied when filming "Bad Genius" in Thailand. However, being plainer just makes it closer to the character's personality, so he didn't care too much.

When I shoot the next movie, I have to study it carefully and try to make Wang Yidi look more beautiful.

"You and Mimi are a lot like each other. When she was in college, she didn't spend even a few days there. She was always taking acting jobs outside," said Huo Jianhua.

"Yeah, I can tell. The voice, stage, and performance, especially the dialogue, are terrible."

It is said that acting skills are developed through hard work and practice, but this does not apply to Yang Mi. His acting talent appeared when he was young, and he has been relying on his past achievements since then.

"I can't help it. I've been busy with so many projects." As a close friend of Yang Mi's, Huo Jianhua was quite frank. "I want to ask you something. Is this the reason you declined to work with her?"

"You know all this." Chen Jinnian was really surprised. Although the entertainment industry is a sieve, he did not expect that news would spread so quickly.

"Actually, acting is secondary. The main thing is that it's too expensive. I can't pay such a high salary to outsiders. Besides, the heroine of my movie can only be my girlfriend. Unless she doesn't want to act, I won't give it to anyone else."

Wang Jun, who was eating with his head down, looked up at Chen Jinnian. He was an older bachelor, long past the age of romantic love, so he put down his chopsticks and teased, "I didn't expect you to be so loyal. I didn't realize it."

"There's a lot you haven't seen. You can't find a perfect man like me even with a lantern." Chen Jinnian said boastfully, without any embarrassment.

"I don't know if he's a good man, but he's quite thick-skinned." Wang Jun finished joking, then raised his glass and asked, "Would you like a couple of drinks to relax a little?"

"Don't give me that. If you want to drink, drink by yourself. Don't bring my actors with you. If you don't work tomorrow, we still have to go to work." Chen Jinnian refused directly. He came out alone and didn't even bring an assistant. It was absolutely impossible for him to drink outside.

Moreover, Zhang Junning was present, and he didn't know whether the other party could drink, so he simply helped to refuse.

Sure enough, after he said this, Zhang Junning gave him a look of gratitude.

Seeing that neither of them wanted to drink, Wang Jun set his sights on Huo Jianhua. Unexpectedly, the other party's reaction was even more intense. He kept waving his hands and dodging backwards.

"Director Wang, please let me go. Didn't you make me miserable enough during Chinese New Year? First you got me drunk, and then the next day we had to film long monologues. You almost killed me."

"It's really not my fault for what happened that day. Forget it, I'll drink a glass of wine as an apology to you." Wang Jun smiled bitterly and drank the wine in the glass.

"No, no, no, it's not necessary to apologize." Huo Jianhua quickly poured a cup of tea for Wang Jun to let him calm down.

Chen Jinnian was watching from the side and laughed. "If you ask me, you two should be a united front. Why torture each other? I saw it on the first day I joined the crew. The problem is not with Brother Huo. It's useless to keep focusing on his scenes. You won't be able to save the scenes that should be saved."

Wang Jun and Huo Jianhua looked at each other, and everything was said without words.

Zhang Junning reminded quietly, "Brother, you are really bold, especially last night. Everyone was worried that things would get out of control."

"Impossible. People in your circle, especially celebrities, wouldn't dare get involved in this kind of thing. In the early years, the internet wasn't well developed, so dark history was in the past. It was time to cleanse yourself and get out of trouble. But now it's different. The power of public opinion has increased a hundredfold. If nothing goes wrong, it's fine. But if something does, some people will want you dead."

Chen Jinnian didn't take what happened yesterday to heart. He dared to do that because he was sure that the other party would not dare to do that.

Only the proletariat has the courage to fight to the death, and successful actors like Zhou Xun are the most careful about their reputation. They have gained so much that losing even one thing is enough to break their heart.

"According to your logic, it is almost impossible for celebrities to avoid being criticized," said Zhang Junning.

"It's true. Everyone has their day when their reputation falls. You have, I have, and Brother Huo has too. It has nothing to do with who you are in real life. As long as there are problems with your public image and there are points that can be attacked, it is inevitable." Although Chen Jinnian is not famous yet, he has already prepared himself mentally for the problem of his reputation falling.

"By the way, my next movie will be filming in Taiwan. I'll be there to shoot, so don't pretend you don't know me."

"No problem, just contact me in advance." Huo Jianhua promised generously.

After hearing this, Wang Jun couldn't help but complain: "Good fellow, I thought you were stuttering. Have you made such a long filming schedule? Can you handle one movie a year? Don't you want to take a break?"

"Um... one a year, you're overthinking it. I only make low-budget films, so it's not as slow as you think. Two a year is the standard, three is manageable, but four is a bit tight."

The most troublesome things about making a movie are the early preparations and later productions. The higher the cost, the longer the cycle. Chen Jinnian's movies are all below 50 million yuan, with the only exception that has not yet started filming, and he is not sure how long it will take.

Wang Jun counted on his fingers and figured that the production time of Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace from planning to post-production was enough for Chen Jinnian to shoot at least eight movies.

In the past, he always thought he was very productive and could steadily release a drama every year, but compared with Chen Jinnian, he was still too slow.

"Are you planning to keep making commercial films? I don't think there's anything new here. It's the same old stuff over and over again."

"Commercial genre films are pure clichés. Whether they're new or not is unimportant; making money is paramount. For me, film is first and foremost a business, followed by other pursuits. If I didn't have the money right now, I wouldn't be making a film like 'Ballet Revenge,' which is not easily approved by the censors."

Chen Jinnian treats movies as a business. He respects and understands others who want to make them into art. Some people are aiming to win awards, while others are aiming to make money. These are essentially two different paths, and neither is better or worse than the other.

What he hates are those people who are clearly doing business but pretending to be artists, who are both powerful and demanding.