Feature Shows Extravaganza - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: I’ll Like Yan Lili Forever

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

The moment Tao Mi walked out of the dressing room in the young fairy’s uniform, Meng Lang was mesmerized.

This girl…

She was much prettier than the Meiqi in the original version!

After circling around the girl, Meng Lang suddenly made a gesture of waving a fairy harp and motioned Tao Mi to imitate him.

“Come on! Follow my moves!”

“Sure, Director Meng!”

Tao Mi looked nervous and batted her eyelashes in bewilderment. She then mimicked Meng Lang’s hand gestures and moved like a real fairy.

“Balala energy!” Meng Lang said loudly.

Tao Mi was baffled a little and looked over her shoulder at her manager. With the encouraging look from the big sister, she repeated loudly. “Balala energy!”

“Salo salo~ Fairy transformation!”

“Salo salo~ Fairy transformation!”

Meng Lang stopped his demonstration and gave the girl an encouraging look, asking, “Can you remember all that?”

“Yes!”

Tao Mi nodded repeatedly.

Meng Lang was satisfied. “Good. Repeat it a few times for me!”

Tao Mi was speechless.

What kind of creepy uncle was this man?

Why would he even make such a request?!

Despite the awkward feeling and the fact that she found the look in the director’s eyes a little creepy, as an actress, Tao Mi didn’t have the choice to say no. She could only repeat the transformation moves a few times as demonstrated by Meng Lang.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

Meng Lang clapped his hands. “That was great! Tao Mi, is it? Go with your manager to the room next door and get your contract from Mr. Wang, our chief art director. If there’s no more questions, you can start tomorrow. Is that okay with her schedule?”

“Yes! No problem!” said the manager immediately. “Mimi can start working tomorrow! Director Meng, don’t worry about that!”

After that, Meng Lang warmly bid them farewell and watched as they entered the CAO’s office next door.

Once Tao Mi and her manager were gone, Meng Lang closed his door in a secretive manner, then dialed an internal number on his landline.

“This is Meng Lang. You have three minutes!”

“Three minutes?”

“I want everything on Tao Mi in three minutes!”

On the other end, Du Fang was speechless.

What was wrong with this man?!

…

Once Tao Mi joined the crew, the shooting was finally back on schedule.

They were a little bit behind the schedule because of the change of the main actress, but it wasn’t a big deal.

They didn’t rent the equipment this time, but had bought brand new ones. All actors and actresses for leading and supportive roles were paid on a per-episode basis. Only the extras charged by day.

Because of that, the delay didn’t cost Meng Lang much money at all.

The only thing was that none of the previous footage would be usable and they had to make some retakes.

“Everyone get ready!”

The stage supervisor shouted into the loudspeaker. Hearing that, the crowd, who had been staying indoors to keep warm, came out with their necks cringed and their hands stuck in their sleeves.

Jiangchuan was already getting cold in November.

Although there was no snow, the temperature outside was still below 20 degrees.

That posed a great challenge on the young actresses, for their costumes, a.k.a. the fairy uniforms after transformation, were all one-pieces made from thin fabrics.

“Tsk, tsk… Shooting this show is so much more fun! Everyone is so much prettier than the boys of Blazing Teens.” Sitting behind the monitor, Meng Lang watched the five pretty girls on the screen and sighed in amazement.

Blue Fairy was played by Yang Yuqing.

There was something very smart about her appearance, although she wasn’t exactly pretty enough for one to fall in love with at first sight. She would score 7 out of 10 at most.

However, she was the type that would become more attractive with time and her face could stand careful appreciation.

Moon Fairy was played by Li Nana.

The characteristic heavy eye makeup of the dark fairy did nothing to help with her looks, but she was a natural beauty herself.

Despite having been set off by that dark fairy look, she still looked really nice…

Yan Lili was played by Lin Xue.

She had short hair, she was proud, and she was a rich girl who wouldn’t smile!

“Wow!” When the prettiest girl of the crew walked into the camera, all male members of the crew cheered up as if they were on drugs.

“I see a lot of potential in this show!” Wang Kui, who was the producer of the show, was seeing the actresses in their colorful costumes for the first time, although he had seen them in their plain clothes before.

As someone who had worked for many years in the TV circle, Wang Kui could tell that this was going to be a promising show the moment he saw the actresses in their costumes.

The difference in their appearances before and after transformation made them look like they had gone through plastic surgery.

Although Meng Lang had been bragging about this show, no one knew how it would turn out to be before they saw the completed work.

But now, Wang Kui wasn’t worried any more.

The transformation was so amazing that all other flaws could be overlooked. After all, it was the biggest selling point of the show.

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

Meng Lang raised an eyebrow at Wang Kui. “I paid a lot of money to hire this miracle-working team from Shangjing! The styling and makeup alone cost me over 3 million!”

“That’s so expensive!” Wang Kui jumped.

Although they said that they would get the makeup and costume right at any price, he had expected that a million or so would be enough.

Over 3 million? Who had they hired?

Seeing that no one was paying attention to the two of them, Meng Lang whispered, “There are two masters in this team. They’re both professors and have worked on costume and props for the New Year’s Eve Gala…”

Wang Kui nodded after hearing that explanation. “That justifies the price. Director Meng, how did you get in touch with them?”

Through a certain influential man, of course!

But Meng Lang couldn’t tell Wang Kui that and he only said ambiguously, “I have a friend. I’ll get their contact information, so that we can hire them for our future work. By the way, let Du Fang do some magic and see if she can have the two masters working for our company…”

Wang Kui took the hint and nodded.

An amazing team like this was bound to have a lot of very capable members. Now that they were finally able to work with one, they had to have the contact information of its members. They would exchange some greetings during festivals from now on and build a relationship from there.

As for making their members jump ship… Well, that would depend on Du Fang’s skills.

While Wang Kui went to get friendly with the styling and makeup team, Meng Lang made himself busy as well. He summoned some actors and actresses, trying to do some retakes when the light was still right.

The shooting site of Balala the Fairies was in a villa in Xicheng District of Jiangchuan.

The villa belonged to a business partner of Old Meng. Meng Lang took that advantage and obtained the right to use the house. The crew was able to use the villa for free during the entire shooting process.

In this show, the house of Meiqi and Meixue was the key location.

It was as important as the training base of the Jianghai Team in Blazing Teens.

Once the actresses were in place, Meng Lang adjusted the camera position and crew started working as well.

The scene they were about to shoot took place after Blue Fairy, Meiqi, and Meixue lost track of Moon Fairy, when the fairy queen arrived at Meiqi and Meixue’s bedroom…

The actresses were all ready. Meng Lang checked his camera position for the last time and nodded to the others.