"Boss Huang!"
"Mr. Huang!"
"Mr. Huang!"
Seeing Huang He appear, the entire cast and crew gathered around him, causing a bit of chaos and halting all work.
Huang He, smiling broadly, asked everyone to return to their work, promising to treat the entire crew to dinner that evening. Then, he retreated to the side to quietly observe the filming.
Perhaps wanting to impress their boss, everyone was filming with great effort. Soon, they reached the classic scene where Yamato held Li Yunlong's wife, Yang Xiuqin, hostage, forcing Li Yunlong to retreat. The two characters were shouting at each other from the city walls.
"Huh! Gao Xiaoqin!" Huang He exclaimed softly when he clearly saw Yang Xiuqin, Li Yunlong's wife.
"No, her name isn't Gao Xiaoqin, it's Yang Xiuqin," Chen Li, who was beside him, explained with a smile.
Chen Li was the new president of Tangren. This position was originally held by director Li Guoli. However, Huang He's plan to produce ten television dramas required Li Guoli's full attention, making it difficult for him to manage the company's operations.
So, he voluntarily gave up the presidential position. With Huang He's approval, he handed it over to Chen Li, one of Tangren's founders who was previously in charge of the agent team, specifically focusing on managing artists.
Chen Li then went on to prepare for "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio," as this drama was scheduled to begin filming the following month. Since "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" would feature almost exclusively Tangren's own actors, Li Guoli was very invested in it.
The twenty male and female actors Tangren had signed from film schools across the country would all appear in "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio."
After all, this drama comprised six different short stories, each with different main and supporting male and female leads. The total number of major roles exceeded thirty, which wasn't enough even for all twenty of Tangren's signed newcomers. They even signed separate contracts with other young actors who would join later.
For example, Lin Zhiying, Huang Xiaoming, Li Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming, Yang Mi, Lin Zhiying, Huo Siyan, Hu Ke, Yuan Hong, Rainie Yang, Tang Ning, and Jiang Xin – all these individuals were chosen by Chen Li to be part of the drama's cast.
At the time, seeing these names, Huang He was stunned, exclaiming how incredible Chen Li was for discovering all these people. This was practically half of the future entertainment industry's trending topics!
Huang He had even considered signing all of them, which would have made Tangren's future look terrifying. However, most of these individuals already had their own agencies, making it impossible to sign them. Moreover, Huang He himself disliked some of them, so signing was out of the question.
However, a few were still uncontracted, such as Yang Mi, Yuan Hong, and Jiang Xin. Huang He asked Chen Li to tentatively inquire about them.
The result was that Yang Mi and Jiang Xin directly refused. The industry was well aware of Tangren's triple contract terms, and many found such contracts ridiculous. Once they had some work under their belt, they wouldn't agree to sign.
Yang Mi and Jiang Xin, who had been accepting acting jobs since they were ten years old, were naturally unwilling to be tied down to Tangren. Therefore, they refused outright.
The only one who happily signed was Yuan Hong.
Ahem, these are all digressions. Chen Li was supposed to be in Shanghai managing the company's operations. However, when Huang He told her he was going to visit the "Liang Jian" crew, she dropped everything and flew over, surprising Huang He. Was Chen Li that loyal?
"Oh! I misremembered!" Huang He chuckled. Indeed, Gao Xiaoqin wouldn't appear for another decade. This actress was currently playing Yang Xiuqin!
Historically, the actress who played Yang Xiuqin was someone Huang He couldn't recall. Although she acted very well, her appearance was quite ordinary, and Huang He had no memory of her.
However, the actress playing Yang Xiuqin at this moment, Huang He recognized immediately. It was none other than Hu Jing, who would later excel in her role as Gao Xiaoqin.
Little did Huang He know that his butterfly effect had changed the actress playing Yang Xiuqin to Hu Jing.
Historically, Hu Jing had just graduated around this time and hadn't played any particularly important roles. In fact, throughout her entire acting career, apart from the role of Gao Xiaoqin, there weren't any other roles that left a deep impression on the audience.
But for Huang He, the first role that made him remember Hu Jing wasn't Gao Xiaoqin years later, nor was it "The Young Zhang Sanfeng," which Huang He hadn't watched at all. It was Ling Xueyan in "The Young Zhang Sanfeng."
Speaking of which, "The Young Zhang Sanfeng" back then had gathered a host of beauties, including Li Bingbing, Wang Yan, Li Xiaolu, and Niu Mengmeng. But the one who most astonished Huang He was Ling Xueyan when she appeared. Hu Jing at that time was so incredibly beautiful that the Huang Boss in another world dreamed about her at night.
Later, Huang Boss even thought about getting some Ling Xueyan merchandise, like stickers or pencil cases. However, Ling Xueyan was a minor character, and Huang He only managed to buy one poster, which was a group poster of the actresses from "The Young Zhang Sanfeng." Ling Xueyan's position was at the very back.
But this was normal, as Ling Xueyan only appeared in the latter half of the drama. She wasn't paired with Zhang Weijian's Young Zhang Sanfeng, but with his eldest disciple, Song Yuanqiao.
If that were the case, then her son would be the famous Song Qingshu. That's truly tragic.
Speaking of Zhang Sanfeng, Huang He still had some regrets. He had originally wanted to get the script for "The Young Zhang Sanfeng" to film it himself, so he could change the name of the female lead, Qin Sirong, played by Li Bingbing, to Guo Xiang.
After all, "The Young Zhang Sanfeng" was essentially a prequel to "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber." Yin Susu and others also appeared in the drama. And Qin Sirong, who later founded the Emei Sect, was clearly meant to be Guo Xiang, but copyright issues prevented it.
If it were our Boss Huang, things would be different. He would have domineeringly bought the authorization from the great master Jin Yong and directly brought Guo Xiang into existence.
It was a pity that by the time Boss Huang transmigrated, "The Young Zhang Sanfeng" had already started filming, and he missed his chance.
Huang He's mind wandered through a jumble of thoughts. In Chen Li's view, he was completely captivated by the role of Yang Xiuqin. Of course, it was impossible to be attracted to a country bumpkin like Yang Xiuqin. Therefore, the most likely scenario was that he was attracted to Hu Jing, the actress playing Yang Xiuqin, as even Chen Li, who was accustomed to seeing beauties, was amazed by the beauty emanating from this young woman.
"It seems necessary to have a talk with this Hu Jing!" Chen Li mused.
"Prepare, we're about to fire the cannon!" Suddenly, the director shouted into the microphone, bringing Huang He back to reality. He then realized that they were about to film the classic cannon scene.
"Wait!" Huang He suddenly yelled, startling everyone. Director Chen Jian hurried over, respectfully yet with a hint of concern, and asked, "Boss, do you think something is wrong?"
"No, your filming is excellent. I just had an idea. Can I be the one to fire the cannon?" Huang He asked with a smile.
"Ah!" Chen Jian was surprised, then said, "Of course, that's possible. But Boss, if you wanted to cameo in a role, you could have chosen one with more screen time. There's really no need to cameo in such a minor role!"
"This role only has one shot in the entire drama, less than two seconds in total, and you have to get covered in dirt and have soot smeared on your face. Isn't that really inappropriate!"
"No, I think it's very fitting. I just want to fire that cannon!" Huang He said decisively. As someone who had been inundated with various meme content related to Italian cannons in his previous life, Huang He naturally didn't want to miss this opportunity to fire one.
In fact, Huang He had another thought. In his previous world, both Huang He and the Italian cannon were famous internet memes. If these two memes were brought together, with Huang He firing the Italian cannon, wouldn't that create an astonishing meme fusion?
Even though such a meme was completely meaningless, and in the future, only Huang He would understand its meaning, it didn't matter. As long as Huang He felt satisfied, that was enough!
"Alright, I'll have the makeup artist come over to prepare you right away!" Seeing Huang He's determination, Chen Jian could only comply. Three makeup artists immediately began working on Huang He, and the crew took an extra ten minutes of rest.
Soon, Huang He, dressed in an Eighth Route Army uniform and with his face covered in soot, stood among the extras. Without a keen eye, it would be impossible to recognize Huang He.
However, Huang He excitedly ran to the back of the Italian cannon. Chen Jian personally came to tell Huang He that when the camera turned and he called out "fire," Huang He only needed to firmly pull the firing pin. The entire process was very simple and could be performed well by any beginner.
Huang He nodded vigorously. Then, the director returned to his position to continue directing this final crucial scene. Huang He noticed an extra looking at him with a wronged expression.
"Did I steal your scene?" Huang He asked.
"Mhm!" The other party nodded aggrievedly. He had been with the crew for a month and had only gotten scenes with extensive screen time. This cannon firing was his only chance for a close-up shot, and now it was snatched by Huang He, who appeared out of nowhere. He was unhappy about it!
"It's okay, I'll talk to the director later and ask him to give you a speaking minor role!" Huang He said with a smile. The other party's face immediately lit up.
Finally, as the filming progressed, Li Yunlong, with an extremely complex mood, shouted the command "Fire"… and then shouted it again… and again…
Ahem, because the director wanted to portray Li Yunlong's extremely complex emotions at this moment, a scene lasting just one second had to be shot repeatedly more than ten times, using five or six different camera angles to showcase Li Yunlong's feelings. Therefore, Li Yunlong shouted "Fire" more than twenty times. Finally, Zhang Jian signaled the camera to focus on Huang He and called out "Fire."
Huang He, with great determination, pulled the firing pin. Then, a loud bang was heard, and the Italian cannon roared.
Of course, it was a blank cartridge, only for sound effects. No projectile was fired.