Becoming a Global Superstar Starting as an Idol Trainee

In early May, a green screen shooting base in the suburbs of Kyoto.

"All departments, please be in place! Photography? Lighting? Mr. Chen, are you ready?"

"I can start anytime here."

"OK, Action!"

Since the shadows are difficult to cutout, in order to make the later cutout easier, all the lights in the green screen studio were turned on.

A young man in a battle uniform slowly walks from a corner of the green screen. The camera backs up slowly on the track, but the focus of the lens always follows him.

The director saw through the monitor that the young man looked solemn and sad. He lowered his head, his eyes were far away, his eyes were empty, as if he was remembering something.

He raised his head, exhaled, and sang: "The old hometown is full of rain, and the vegetation is deep. I heard that you are always alone. The mottled city gate is entangled with old tree roots. What echoes on the stone slabs is, wait a little longer."

Director Hood felt that the filming of this scene was enough, and he shouted decisively: "Cut."

Director Hu Defa waved to Chen Minhao and said, "Come and see."

Chen Minhao watched his performance twice. Director Hu De praised Chen Minhao in terms of expression, movement, demeanor, and positioning, and then discussed the next positioning with the lighting and photography of the crew.

That's right, today I'm filming the MV for Chen Minhao's "Fireworks Are Cold".

At present, the MVs of many singers in China are just shooting some scenery, interspersed with some singing scenes, and Chen Minhao doesn't want to be perfunctory at all for his album.

He hopes that his MV has a movie-like texture. In order to make the audience of the song feel more substituting, he hopes that his MV can create an atmosphere of vicissitudes of history: there are many pagodas, and they turn into empty in an instant, swords and swords, and vicissitudes of life.

After comparing the two methods of live-action shooting and post-production, Chen Minhao finally decided to adopt the method of adding special effects in post-production. Although the cost is higher, the effect will be better.

The reason why Chen Minhao shoots in the green screen studio is to "cutout", which refers to separating actors or objects from ordinary scenes and synthesizing them into scenes required by the plot.

Good post-production special effects are inseparable from the green screen, but even more inseparable from the superb acting skills of the actors-actors need to rely on imagination to perform without physical objects.

The plot of "Fireworks Are Cold" planned by Chen Minhao is not complicated: a young general falls in love with a young woman at first sight, and they make a private decision for life.

When the general came back from the battle, accepted the canonization, and went to find the woman when he took the reward, only then did he know that things were wrong and the world was over: the woman had become a nun, but now she has passed away.

In the end, the general, who was no longer young, stood outside the temple where the woman was married, and the drizzle fell. He recalled the experience of being envious of others, and couldn't help sighing: the beauty in the world is just like fireworks, which are easy to be cold and easy to divide.

Director Hu Defa is the director of "Detective". The editing of "Detective" has been completed, and we are waiting for the publicity release. When Hu Defa heard that Chen Minhao was going to shoot a MV, he volunteered to contact Chen Minhao and help him shoot a MV.

Chen Minhao naturally welcomes Hu Defa's joining. Although Hu Defa has no experience in filming MVs, he has directed several feature films with a box office of over 100 million, and his narrative skills are naturally strong, while Chen Minhao's MVs are mainly narrative.

Chen Minhao, the other staff members of the filming crew, are no strangers, they are all from Hu Defa's team, which means that this MV not only has a film-level director, but also film-level lighting, film-level photography, and film-level editing.

Although Hu Defa is a director of commercial films, he is very good at catching details. The whole MV looks delicate and smooth. A story that is not new makes him enjoy the visual enjoyment and emotional impact.

Chen Minhao was very satisfied after seeing the completed MV of "Fireworks Are Cold", and said with a smile: "Mr. Hu, your filming is so good, it's really overkill for you to shoot the MV."

Hu Defa took a puff of cigarette and said with a smile: "As long as you are satisfied, which song do you plan to shoot for the next MV?"

"Ah, didn't you say that you have limited time and can only help me shoot one MV?"

Hood smiled and said: "There is a little change over there. I coordinated the time myself, and I found that I can help you shoot the MV of two songs."

It is human instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. Hu Defa originally only wanted to help Chen Minhao shoot a MV as a token of gratitude, and Chen Minhao helped him solve the problem in filming the movie—the actor who played the role of Siyuan.

But after Hu Defa listened to Chen Minhao's album "Fireworks Are Cold", he found that Chen Minhao was more talented than he imagined, and according to others, "Fireworks Are Cold" cannot be regarded as the main song in the album. Several other songs are comparable to "Fireworks Are Cold".

Therefore, Hu Defa decided to further invest in Chen Minhao - to spend two weeks helping Chen Minhao finish the MV of another song.

For Hu Defa's offer to help him film the second MV, Chen Minhao did not refuse. One of Chen Minhao's most important life experiences in his past and present lives is: never reject others' kindness to you.

Chen Minhao chose "See You Again" for his second MV. There is no "Fast and Furious" in this world, and naturally there is no unexpected death of Paul Walker. But Chen Minhao believes that the world of music can be figured out. He believes that even if this song does not reach the height of his previous life, it can still deeply touch many people.

It took Hu Defa two weeks to finish the MV. He was solely responsible for the plot design, shooting, and editing of the MV.

The progress of Chen Minhao's album is: the progress of song writing and composing is 6/6, the progress of recording and mixing is 6/6, and the progress of MV is 2/2.

The following album mastering process, finding a manufacturer for production, promotional poster design, and album cover production basically did not require Chen Minhao's direct participation.

Chen Minhao stretched his waist, and said to Kang Hui: "I can finally relax now. I didn't go home for Chinese New Year, and I plan to go back to my hometown next week."

Kang Hui loosened his shoulders and said, "You can go home between the roadshows of "Detective"." After speaking, she handed the following schedule to Chen Minhao.

Chen Minhao looked at the schedule and showed an expression of "Are you kidding me?": "Is this schedule wrong? There are too many roadshow arrangements! I want to travel to 30 cities in 25 days?"

Roadshow was originally the name of the investment field, but I don’t know when the concept of “roadshow” frequently appeared in entertainment news—it is a general term for the online and offline meetings of film creators, stars and media, audiences and fans, and promotion of new films. , that is, an event where stars you have seen in movie theaters or shopping malls promote new films.

Kang Hui twitched his lips and said, "I confirmed with the film crew, there is no problem. The school rehearsals can only be taken off. On the one hand, the contract stipulates that you must participate in the promotional activities of the film. If the box office of a movie exceeds 100 million, you will get 3% of the excess, that is, if the box office is 200 million, you can get 3 million, if it is 300 million, it will be 6 million, and so on. You don’t have to struggle with money.”