Caught in Affairs with Superstar

Zhou Yun: "Okay."

Actually, the movie that Zhou Yun and Wen Bing worked on unsurprisingly caught the attention of many film festivals.

Many festivals even extended olive branches to them.

It hasn’t been decided if it will enter the main competition, but they all hope to showcase the film at their festivals.

Zhou Yun and Wen Bing haven’t made a decision yet.

The same goes for Yao Yuanfeng’s side.

They only exchange ideas occasionally, and now is not the time to decide which film festival to attend.

Wen Bing said, "This film doesn’t really give you much room to showcase your acting skills, there’s no way for you to win an award."

"I know," said Zhou Yun, "It’s fine, I didn’t take this film for the awards. I’m quite happy to make films like these with you, they might not win awards, and the box office might not be great, but I like it."

"Haha, in the end, the reviews are average, the box office isn’t high, and everyone says we worked so hard for nothing."

"We obtained the satisfaction of making the film," Zhou Yun said, "If every film we make has to have a definite purpose, it would be too strenuous. Now I care more and more about my own feelings—whether I want to make this film, whether I like this story, if I have the urge to create this character. I care about that."

"Hmm."

The water fish was brought by Wang Zilin from her hometown, not sure if it was wild or home-raised.

But one was made braised, the other stewed clear, and it was absolutely delicious.

Zhou Yun ate heartily, even used the soup base to cook some noodles.

Yu Zhiyang exaggeratedly ate five bowls of rice, shocking Zhou Yun.

Even though she was already aware of Yu Zhiyang’s appetite, she was still repeatedly shocked.

After eating and drinking their fill, the group went back to the hotel for a meeting.

The hotel didn’t have a conference room like big hotels, so they had to meet in one of their rooms.

Some stood, some sat.

Wen Bing directly set up a whiteboard in the workroom, narrating and drawing on it.

Zhou Yun listened carefully to Wen Bing’s filming ideas.

"For some of the extras, I plan to ask the locals to help out. Acting isn’t particularly important in this movie, even though Xiao Yun is also here. I told Xiao Yun that acting isn’t the main focus of this film," Wen Bing said, "I want to focus most of the film on specific activities such as how to tend the vegetable garden, how to cook, and how to do housework. There aren’t any specific plots—it’s best to set up a few cameras and let Xiao Yun live naturally in the house, like a documentary."

The others nodded.

"The only dialogues in the current script are those scenes between Xiao Yun and Little Yu," Wen Bing said, "Of course, the final cut won’t just have picture with no sound for ten minutes. But I haven’t figured out how to handle that yet, so we’ll just shoot and think about it as we go."

Yi Zhe asked, "Should my camera follow or stay fixed?"

Wen Bing: "Use a fixed position indoors, and follow outdoors."

Yi Zhe nodded and said, "In that case, I’ll need to find more spots for setting up indoor equipment tomorrow."

"I want everything to use natural light," Wen Bing added.

Yi Zhe sighed and said, "It’s November now. Using natural light will make the scenes darker."

Wen Bing said, "I’ve especially designed wide windows for the house, and skylights in the roof to let the light in."

Yi Zhe: "But what if the natural light isn’t good that day?"

Wen Bing: "If worst comes to worst, we’ll have to adjust it in post."

Yi Zhe: "I still suggest lighting on set since the effect of adjusting it in post isn’t as good as shooting it correctly on set."

...

Everyone was discussing enthusiastically.

There was really nothing for Zhou Yun to contribute.

But she listened carefully and was engrossed.

Even though these were mostly technical issues, she took them in seriously.

Everything on set is related to the actors.

Zhou Yun never only cared about matters of acting.

The environment of the set is intricately linked to the performance—even if Wen Bing says that acting isn’t the focus of this film.

But for Zhou Yun, acting isn’t just about facial expressions and lines.

...

On the first day of shooting, Zhou Yun woke up very early.

She got up at four in the morning.

Because the first scene was to shoot her getting out of bed, brushing teeth, washing face, tidying up the house, and making breakfast for herself.