How can a director be a gigolo?

Chapter 24 Editing

Cheng Dawei gave him an appreciative look: "The script is good! Did you write it yourself?"

Wang Xiaohao humbly said, "I've been writing this for several years, but I never had the opportunity to film it. This time, with Mr. Huang's support, we finally managed to make the film!"

Cheng Dawei laughed and said, "I don't really understand young people's love stories, but I think this is a pretty good romance film. If it's well-made, it should have a certain social impact!"

Wang Xiaohao was speechless, never expecting that Cheng Dawei could accept such a plot.

Suddenly, for the first time, I realized that I had underestimated people!

Cheng Dawei said to Huang Anzhong, "Mr. Huang, I'll take this job. Just have Director Wang bring his things and come to the editing room at the factory tomorrow."

It's getting late, so I won't stay any longer!

Huang Anzhong hurriedly said, "Uncle Chen, I'm sorry to trouble you to come out here. How can you go back like this?"

Tonight, I'm treating Uncle Chen and Director Wang to a meal together!

You absolutely must do me this favor today!

He was overjoyed to find that Cheng Dawei had actually addressed Wang Xiaohao as "Director Wang," which clearly indicated that he had acknowledged Wang Xiaohao's abilities.

It seems that this movie, which he didn't initially have high hopes for, might actually be a huge surprise for him!

Although he was prepared that even if the movie lost a fortune, he would still have earned tens of millions of dollars.

But if the movie is really good, wouldn't his behavior be much more acceptable? It would be easier to explain to those investors who lost money.

Plus, you get a movie director for free—where else can you find such a good deal?

Huang Anzhong was naturally excited and happy, and wanted to invite the two of them to dinner.

Since Cheng Dawei had already agreed to take on the job, he naturally wouldn't refuse.

He smiled and said to Wang Xiaohao, "Director Wang, then we'll have to exchange ideas more often in the future!"

Cheng Dawei is a very old-fashioned person, and old-fashioned people follow the rules.

The old rule in the film industry was that the director was the most powerful person on set, and everyone else was there to assist the director.

Therefore, he respects Wang Xiaohao very much!

His words also implied that the editing of this film should respect the wishes of director Wang Xiaohao.

In the past, the director was the core of the production team, and everyone had to follow that rule.

Yeah, if you're unhappy, then go make your own movie!

In his past life, Old Jiang was nagging and complaining in the Imperial Advisor's film crew, and was eventually kicked out to make his own movies.

By the way, when the director himself was working as a cinematographer on the set of "Poet Chen," he seemed to have given "Poet Chen" a lot of suggestions. As a result, the director himself quickly left to make his own movies and become a director!

It's like a reader giving feedback to an author of an online novel, only to be met with the author's response: "If you have so many opinions, why don't you write it yourself? What are you doing, spouting nonsense to me?"

And so many online novel readers became authors!

At this moment, Wang Xiaohao also sensed Cheng Dawei's respect and quickly said, "Senior Chen, you're too kind. You are very experienced, and I still have a lot to learn from you!"

In the following days, the editing work for the movie "My Sassy Girl" began.

And unsurprisingly, the film was handed over to Cangnan Film Studio for editing, even though Cangnan Film Studio is now a group company.

However, most people still habitually refer to it as Cangnan Factory.

Although this factory hasn't officially filmed a movie in many years, it must be said that as a government-run enterprise, all its equipment is top-notch.

Although they haven't made movies for many years, their shooting and editing equipment is all fully digital equipment that was only recently upgraded.

From this perspective, Wang Xiaohao's claim that Cheng Dawei's technology is outdated is nothing but slander!

At least they're good at editing in the digital age.

To be fair, although Cangnan Film Studio hasn't produced any serious films in recent years, it still produces some documentaries and educational films.

All of these were edited inside the factory.

Film editing is a rather complex undertaking.

The editor needs to thoroughly understand the script and then piece together various materials according to the plot to form a complete film.

Given the typical style of domestic directors who are in charge of everything, most directors wouldn't trust their films to be edited by the editor and would prefer to supervise them from the sidelines.

Here's a joke: Why don't domestic films release a director's cut? Because China has a director-centric system, so the version shown in theaters is actually the director's cut!

In fact, editing is a very magical job.

Different people can use the same material to edit two completely different movies.

For example, many people have watched short videos.

I've seen Bruce Lee movies, and if you change the background music and slow down the action, the originally exciting scene of him about to take off his clothes and fight suddenly becomes full of ambiguous pink feelings!

Of course, you could say that this is thanks to the background music and has little to do with the editing.

This single example demonstrates just how powerful the later stages can be!

If you, as the director, don't keep an eye on things, who knows what kind of mess the post-production team might make of your film?

If you don't keep an eye on things and let the editor do whatever they want, they might just turn your suspense film into a romance!

Although such extreme examples are rare, there was a very famous and tragic case in the past – Kingdom of Heaven.

The movie that was shown in theaters was a complete flop, but later the director released a director's cut videotape, and people realized, wow, it was originally a masterpiece!

So if you, as the director, don't keep a close eye on things and let the editor do whatever they want, you really don't know what kind of movie the editor will end up with.

Before Cameron became famous, he was afraid that the editors would ruin his movies. So he smashed down the door and stole all the movie footage, then found a place to edit it himself.

Wang Xiaohao's entire life's success and failure pressure rested on this film, so of course he was unwilling to hand over the entire film to Cheng Dawei for editing while he went to sleep.

He was genuinely worried that the old man would edit his film beyond recognition.

For example, if he thinks that the female lead's teasing of the male lead is indecent, he might just cut it all out... Then Wang Xiaohao would be devastated!

So during this period, Wang Xiaohao spent all his time in the editing room with Cheng Dawei, watching almost the entire film from beginning to end.

Perhaps some hot-blooded young or established editors will be very dissatisfied with this.

However, Cheng Dawei happened to be an old-school editor, the kind who respected the director's authority. So he wasn't very dissatisfied; on the contrary, he greatly appreciated Wang Xiaohao's work attitude.

I was just wondering to myself, how did a promising young director like Wang Xiaohao end up associating with someone like Huang Anzhong?

Cheng Dawei had heard some of Huang Anzhong's petty theft and thievery over the years.

For an old-fashioned person like him, there was something he couldn't stand about it!

So he was actually quite regretful, feeling that Wang Xiaohao shouldn't have associated with people like Huang Anzhong.

Of course, although Cheng Dawei thought this way, he wouldn't say it out loud!