There was no press conference to mark the start of filming for Youth Here ".
Director Zhou's meaning was very clear: no fancy displays, no extravagance, just focus the money on production.
He has been acting for over a decade and has seen too many projects that make a lot of noise but amount to nothing, with grand opening press conferences followed by quiet broadcasts.
He didn't want to take that road.
But producer Producer Fang doesn't think so.
In today's TV drama market, even the best products need marketing.
If you don't expose it, the audience won't know what you're filming.
If you don't keep making appearances, the hype will have died down by the time the show airs.
So Producer Fang came up with a compromise: instead of holding press conferences, he would have "reporters" come to the set every now and then to "sneak" a few behind-the-scenes photos and post them online.
The "secret filming" was, of course, pre-arranged.
The photographer was from the film crew's publicity team; the angles were carefully chosen, and the photos were edited.
The only "real" part is that the actors were actually filming.
Qin Lie sat in his hotel room, looking at the leaked photos on his phone, his temples throbbing again.
In the Cheng Che is wearing a school uniform and standing in the corridor, his profile facing the camera, the lighting just right.
The composition is perfect, and the retouching is barely noticeable; it's clear that someone knowledgeable took the photo.
Qin Lie slammed his phone on the table and said to Chen Wei on the other end of the line:
"Tell Producer Fang, could you please not make the candid shots so obvious next time? That angle, that lighting, fans can tell it's staged at a glance."
Chen Wei paused for a moment on the other end of the phone before speaking.
" Brother Qin, Brother Cheng didn't stage the photo."
Qin Lie was taken aback. "What do you mean?"
" Producer Fang did arrange for candid filming, and the cinematographer did set up the camera position in advance. But Teacher Cheng had no idea they were filming him. He was just walking around the set normally, reading the script, or spacing out, and then the cinematographer would just snap a picture at random, and that's the kind of effect that comes out."
Chen Wei paused for a moment, also finding it unbelievable.
" Producer Fang later said that he originally only intended to take a few photos as a token gesture, but after seeing the original footage, he couldn't bear to delete them. Every single one looked like it had been professionally retouched. So those later 'candid' photos were actually genuine candid shots. It's just that they looked so unrealistic that they appeared staged."
Qin Lie held his phone in silence.
"You mean, this wasn't a staged photo, but just a random shot that turned out like this?"
"Right."
Qin Lie took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.
"Fine," he said, "I don't care what you said."
He hung up the phone, leaned back in his chair, stared at the ceiling, and suddenly realized that his outburst of anger was somewhat ridiculous.
However, the average age of the crew of " The Youth Here " is less than thirty, from the director to the production assistants.
Although Director Zhou has directed several well-received dramas, they were all low-budget productions, and he has never managed a large-scale project.
Producer Fang is an investor by trade, with only a superficial understanding of the production process, but he is very enthusiastic about marketing.
The team was highly motivated, but lacked experience.
Qin Lie accepted this project for three reasons:
The script was indeed excellent; Cheng Che himself liked it, and the pay was also reasonable.
But the "young" approach of the production team made him, an old agent, feel really uncomfortable.
He sent Cheng Che a message: "This lousy production crew doesn't even hold a press conference for the start of filming, so unprofessional."
Cheng Che replied quickly, "It's fine."
Qin Lie stared at those three words, thinking he had misread them.
Cheng Che posted another message:
"I've been in the spotlight too much lately. I've been constantly trending on social media. It'll be good for me to disappear for a while and let things settle down."
Qin Lie thought for a moment, then said nothing more.
Cheng Che was telling the truth.
His popularity is too high right now, to the point of being somewhat dangerous.
Frequently trending on social media and being discussed is a good thing in the short term, but it's a drain on your energy in the long run.
Fans will get tired of it, and casual viewers will be disgusted.
At this point, proactively cooling down the temperature is actually the smart thing to do.
But when Qin Lie saw the amazing pictures in the supertopic, the excited discussions among fans, and the ever-present "[ Cheng Che ]" on the trending topics, he couldn't help but smile wryly and say, "Settle down? How can you settle down with your looks?"
Cheng Che was unaware of what was happening online; he hadn't been online for a while.
He has his own things to do lately.
He plans to unlock all intelligence-related talents after his intelligence reaches 80, and use his long-treasured [ Scratch Paper ] to prove a hypothesis.
[ Integer-Coefficient Polynomial Root Distribution Conjectures ].
It was proposed in 1965 by Poland number theorist Andrzej Schinzel and Germany mathematician Hans Zassenhaus.
In essence, this means that for a polynomial with integer coefficients, not all of its roots can lie near the unit circle; at least one root must be far away from it.
It sounds simple, but proving it requires traversing three branches: p-advanced number theory, complex analytic potential theory, and algebraic number height theory.
He chose this conjecture not because it was the simplest, but because it carried weight and was within his current capabilities.
He can't touch someone of Goldbach's caliber.
But he felt he had hope in this one.
If this can be proven, it might be possible to complete the five stages of the [national-level academic award] process simultaneously.
However, he didn't tell anyone these things.
On set, when Cheng Che wasn't filming, he would sit in the corner of the last row of the classroom.
A thick textbook lay open in front of him, a pen in his hand, occasionally jotting down a few lines in his notebook.
The book had a dark blue cover with English letters printed on it, but passersby couldn't understand what they meant.
There were two more books stacked next to it, each one thicker than the last, with words on the covers that were longer than the last.
After filming the first scene, Cheng Che didn't rush back to the dressing room.
He stayed on set, and when the lighting was being set up for the next scene, he sat there reading.
People were coming and going all around, setting up lights, adjusting sound effects, and moving props; it was quite noisy.
But he seemed to be shrouded in mystery, sitting there quietly, turning pages and taking notes.
Once he activates [ Total Concentration ], no one can disturb him.
Zhao Yiming walked by, glanced down at the book cover, didn't understand it, and walked away.
Li Siyuan glanced at it too, recognized a few words, paused for a moment, but didn't dare to ask.
What truly drew attention to this matter was a reporter who came to visit the set.
After the "secret filming" arranged by Producer Fang ended, the reporter did not leave immediately, but instead wandered around the set.
I saw an actor reading an English book in a corner and thought it was good material, so I went over and asked, "Excuse me, what are you reading?"
Cheng Che looked up and smiled politely.
"Math."
"What mathematics?"
"Some content in algebraic number theory," Cheng Che said, "Mainly concerning the distribution of roots of polynomials with integer coefficients."
The reporter blinked.
"What?"
Cheng Che didn't explain further.
He simply flipped to the page, pointed to a few lines of formulas, and said, "I'm currently studying this part."
The reporter glanced at the symbols on the page, as if it were gibberish. He chuckled awkwardly, "Um... excuse me."
Then he turned and left.
This conversation was overheard by several actors nearby.
They looked at each other, and neither of them spoke.
A young extra whispered to her colleague, "Did you understand the words he just said?"
"I didn't understand a single one."
"Isn't he just a freshman? How come he's already self-studying graduate-level material?"
"You're asking me? Who should I ask?"
That evening, someone in the crew's work group was spreading the news.
Did you know that Cheng Che was reading an English math book on set, something about number theory?
What is number theory?
"I don't know, but it's very high-end."
"Hasn't he only been studying at Peking University for four months? How come he's already looking at graduate-level material?"
"Can you really say that top Zhuangyuan have the same brains?"
No wonder he was able to take time off to film.
"I don't understand the world of top students."