Caught in Affairs with Superstar

Chapter 514: Chapter 391: Closing Her Eyes in Melancholy (Part 2)

Upon finishing her words, Shi Luoqi turned her gaze towards Zhou Yun.

”Xiao Yun, what do you think?”

”I have some issues here.” Zhou Yun answered directly, ”My main issue is I’ve taken on three more movies later on. If we were to stop filming now, when would we resume?”

Shi Luoqi said, ”Exactly when to resume filming, we can coordinate that later, it won’t be a problem. We can wait for your availability.”

Zhou Yun asked, ”Can you wait for a year too?”

Upon her questioning, everyone fell silent.

...

After Zhou Yun left, other people gradually left too, leaving only Shi Luoqi and Xue Qin in the conference room.

The conference room grew quiet.

After a while, Xue Qin spoke.

”Sister Luo Qi, this is why I didn’t want to use a celebrity in the first place. When things like this happen, they can’t move forward or backward with us.” Xue Qin said with both hands in her pockets, ”They wouldn’t sacrifice their own interests for our movie. In all these years, I’ve seen this happen too many times.”

Shi Luoqi looked at her and said, ”Xiao Qin, we’ve discussed the issue of using or not using celebrities many times before—I’ll spare you the repetition. Regarding the halting of the film, Zhou Yun did not ask for lost earnings, nor did she make other demands; she only mentioned her upcoming schedules with other films and was worried about coordinating them. From my perspective, this is already a very reasonable concern. You cannot expect everyone to drop everything and devote all their time to one film, especially actors like Zhou Yun. Let’s not even talk about celebrities, okay? How many other young actresses in the country can meet your requirements like her? We’ve encountered many actresses, and when you assisted Director Chen, you’ve dealt with many of them. How many are there like her who have acting talent, skill, and fame, and who would allow you to repeatedly request retakes on set without a single complaint?”

Xue Qin said, ”I’m not saying she’s not good. These past few days of collaboration indeed made me feel she’s quite different from what I had imagined, and she performed beyond my expectations. I just mean, as a big star, her schedule is really packed and she has a lot of work, leaving little flexibility. So, what should we do this time? If her schedule is booked for the coming year, we would have to wait for a year if we stop filming.”

Shi Luoqi looked at her, sighed, and said, ”Her agent has already contacted me. I’ll meet with her agent this afternoon, and we’ll discuss everything after our meeting.”

”Her agent is coming?” Xue Qin frowned, ”Wouldn’t that make it even harder to negotiate?”

”Don’t worry, her agent is actually quite reasonable,” Shi Luoqi said, ”I’ve told you many times, Zhou Yun and her team are among the best teams I’ve dealt with in China. Try not to always view them with hostility. If you want to be a major director, not just someone forever making low-budget independent films, you need to learn how to work with celebrities. Don’t treat them as your adversaries. Utilizing these famous actors can also enhance your film, and a good director is not only capable of instructing newcomers.”

Xue Qin pursed her lips and nodded.

”Then I’ll join you in meeting Zhou Yun’s agent this afternoon.”

Shi Luoqi patted Xue Qin on the shoulder, ”Let me talk to her first. You should spend the afternoon sorting things out with them, film whatever scenes you can these days. While Zhou Yun is still in the crew, shoot as much as possible now; we’ll then need less of her time for her scenes later on. Xiao Qin, do you know what’s the most valuable thing about Zhou Yun for you?”

Xue Qin was taken aback.

”Isn’t it always that she doesn’t have the air of a superstar?” she said.

”No,” Shi Luoqi said, ”For you, the most valuable thing about her is that she can truly understand each of your instructions on set and produce a performance even better than you expected.”

Shi Luoqi’s words left Xue Qin in a state of surprise and silence.

Xue Qin left the conference room, heading toward her own office.

In the corridors, she encountered some staff members, all of whom wore uneasy expressions.

News of the film halting had spread, and everyone was somewhat distracted, uncertain about how much longer they could work.

This industry was different from a typical 9-to-5 job with a regular work schedule; here, work depends on the project.

Income followed the projects as well.

With the suspension of the production, the planned project cycle was in jeopardy as was the income, leading everyone to feel upset.

Xue Qin bit her lip, walking expressionlessly into her office.

Was there a way to avoid stopping the production?

Unless someone suitable to play Meng Fanyan could be found immediately or Luo Zhiheng could be discharged from the hospital in a week to join normal filming.

Otherwise, with no filming possible, keeping everyone here would just be a waste of money.

Every day of operations was costly.

Funds were needed for the filming location, staff, actors, and equipment.

The money flowed out like water, and even if Xue Qin wasn’t concerned about the finances, she knew how significant those expenses were.

Halting and then resuming filming later, there was almost no hope of getting back all of the original crew members to 100%.

Not just Zhou Yun had other commitments; the cinematography team, the lighting team, their schedules had already been booked by many projects too.

Xue Qin closed her eyes in disappointment.