Entertainment tycoon since 83

Chapter 16 Let’s Do It
"What's your name?" Huang Ze pointed and asked casually.

"I?"

"Yes, just you, come out."

"Wang Zhiwen." Wang Zhiwen now speaks very standard Mandarin. He deserves to be the ceiling of domestic actors' lines in the future. He has great talent!

"Try to play a bad guy, a stubborn one."

"Uh." Wang Zhiwen tried to act with his eyes slightly squinted, and it was okay. Huang Ze asked him to smooth his hair up again and imagined what he would look like with a bald head.

Um, quite tasty.

He doesn't even need to act, just restrain himself and he's already a bad guy.

Nodding slightly, Huang Ze said, "We have a movie in Shanghai Film Studio and need you to play a supporting role. We need you to cut your hair short or shave your head. Do you want to act? One dollar a day."

"No problem! I just want to learn acting."

Wang Zhiwen quickly agreed, and then said a little embarrassedly, "But I have to go to Chengdu after the Chinese New Year to take the exam for the Performance Department of Beijing Film Academy. Will there be a conflict in time?"

"If there is no conflict, the filming will start in March at the latest."

And he doesn't need to prepare for this role too far in advance.

He had no part in the chorus.

He was put in solitary confinement almost every day.

He doesn't have many lines, and he's a ruthless man who doesn't talk much.

"Then don't forget it! Leave your phone number and I'll call you before the shooting starts."

"Okay." Wang Zhiwen's face suddenly lit up with joy.

He can finally make money!

Although it’s not much, at least it can supplement the family’s income.

His father was run over and killed by a truck when he was thirteen, and the burden of the family fell entirely on his mother.

I also want to go to Chengdu to apply for acting school, and the travel expenses alone are not a small amount.

It would be great if I could make some money.

"Well, let's put it this way then."

"I'll take a picture and keep it!"

"No, wait, I need a haircut." Wang Zhiwen asked for leave from the drama teacher and went outside. After a while, he came back with a shiny bald head. He smiled and touched his head, "It's quite convenient, but it's a little cold."

"Hahaha."

Huang Ze laughed loudly, and after letting Wang Zhiwen control his expression, he took two photos. Then he smiled and patted Wang Zhiwen on the shoulder, "Brother, you performed well. If you are interested, you can also think about it in advance. You play a gangster who seems to be a little bit mentally unstable, but not the kind of gangster. You are the kind of person who is commonly known as a greenhorn. Do you understand?"

"clear."

Wang Zhiwen thought about it and thought there seemed to be a guy like this nearby, wandering around the streets all day long. He would observe him carefully later.

"Well, have a good New Year."

"correct."

"how?"

"Nothing." Huang Ze remembered that in his previous life, Wang Zhiwen had a car accident before the college entrance examination and went to the examination venue lying down. He originally wanted to remind him to be careful with cars in the future.

But when the words came to my lips, I remembered that his father died in a car accident. If you say something without context, people might think you are deliberately bullying him. So I simply stopped talking, nodded to the teacher of the drama troupe, and handed him a box of cigarettes. "Thank you! It's just a token of my appreciation."

"Hey, you're welcome."

After finalizing the role of Meng Dan, Huang Ze went to the primary school that was to be used as the filming location.

We carefully selected dozens of children from grades 4 to 6 who could speak English reasonably well and prepared to have them act as extras.

Their homes are nearby and the filming will take place at their school, so you can save a lot of money. Otherwise, you will have to pick them up and drop them off every day. How much will it cost?
And who knows, someone might quit because it affects their studies, and you won’t be able to do anything about it then.

They changed three Tang monks in the film Journey to the West. Is that a joke to you? After all, it was his own script, and Huang Ze didn't want this to happen.

……

The only child actor left is the most important talented young man Morang.

But because he still had to record an album at China Record Corporation, Huang Ze was not in a hurry to look for one. Instead, he found a music class at the elementary school where the filming took place and started teaching students chorus.

Chinese chorus is easy to say, it’s our mother tongue.

For English songs, you have to practice them in advance.

“one day.”

“one day.”

“sometimes I lay the moon and thank god i am breathing…”

Huang Ze prepared three English songs for this film.

One is a song sung solo by Moran, showing off his vocal talent.

One is the theme song of the original film. It is fine to change it into an English version. After all, the lyrics are about leading lost children onto the right path. It fits the content of the film so well that it cannot be changed at all.

The other one is this one.

An anti-war song suitable for chorus: "One Day".

The great famine in Africa will reach its peak next year, and famine is always inseparable from war. No one will starve to death quietly.

Besides, war is always inevitable and there is no need to worry about its absence in the future.

Being anti-war and against unjust wars definitely fits the simple thoughts of most people in the world.

If we make a song of this type, maybe we can take advantage of the global situation and become popular?

And it is not difficult to integrate it into the film in a reasonable way.

Huang Ze had already set it up in the script. The main character's ideology in "The Spring of the Underachiever" is left-leaning, and he added such a scene during filming.

The protagonist saw in the newspaper that a certain woman, Xipi, blatantly tore up a certain agreement, started an attack, and provoked a civil war. Then he made this anti-war song and taught it to the children.

This addition doesn’t seem out of place at all!
This teaching will take ten days!

The children were almost able to pass the exam, and Huang Ze and Zhong Chang’s album was also completed.

The album's name is just to attract attention, it's called "Tomorrow Will Be Better"!
Huang Ze collected dozens of plates and left a lot for his family. The next day, he also distributed some to people he was familiar with in the same crew.

"My new album, go back and listen to it."

"Look at you!" Zhang Jianya picked it up and took a look. The cover was of Huang Ze and Mao Amin. Huang Ze was wearing a suit and sunglasses on his hair. With that face, Zhang Jianya, who was a bit bald, felt jealous. "Once you put on a suit, your temperament is completely different!"

“Even more handsome now?”

"Even poorer." Zhang Jianya rolled his eyes.

"Don't pay me back."

"Yes, who said no." Zhang Jianya put the album away. "It costs a lot of money, why not refuse it? Besides, Lao Huang, your singing is really good, it's good for my ears!"

"Speaking of singing, you have been teaching the children these days. Where is our talented boy? Have you found him? Or is he among those children?"

"Some of those kids have good voices, but their English is terrible! They're OK for chorus singing, but for solo singing, they just have to pay attention to pronunciation."

"Who can do it? You keep saying there's a candidate, but you don't go looking for one."

"We'll go find it tomorrow. You and I will come together. Remember to wear something thicker. Take out the thickest clothes in the house. Don't complain about the cold when you go."

"Oh my god, where are you going?" Zhang Jianya's eyes widened, and he made a gesture of hugging himself and shivering with cold, "Northeast China?"

"The northernmost provincial capital, Harbin."

Huang Ze laughed and pointed to the north, "You'll have to deal with Harbin in December. Be careful or you'll freeze into an ice sculpture."

(End of this chapter)