Director's Notes

"99 Points Girlfriend" Director Notes
source: https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4524881482105759

The finale of "99 Points Girlfriend" is now available on-demand. A relatively small budget drama has achieved very good results. It is worthy of the expectations of many people during the production. As always, after each drama I have worked on ends its run, I would write a Director's Notes on every bit of this drama creation.

When I accepted this "99 Points Girlfriend" project, I was shooting my 2nd work "To Get Her." At that time, I was shooting martial arts scenes. The producer Mr. He Xiaoting, screenwriter Nan Zhen, and executive producer Chen, manager Mo, we had a meeting at my studio together. We spent a few hours talking about the script and I have read the script of the first three episodes very carefully before. I immediately thought it was a good script. The strength of the script is not random. They said the script has been polished for a year and a half and is purely original. It is really commendable. So we happily confirmed to accept this work.

In May 2019, I wrapped up "To Get Her" filming and spent a month for its editing, then  immediately joined the pre-production of "99 Points Girlfriend."

Me and my directing group completed intensive readings of the script twice, and made a fairly detailed and accurate analysis of the emotional relationships and important events of each CP in the script, marked with different colors, especially Meng Hui and Shen Yi involve too many personalities and they have a previous history. The emotions and handling methods of each scene are different. In order to design the emotional rhythm of this film, we have produced such a tool. I also uses this tool in the post production. I shared this to each actor to let them have a coherent and accurate emotion and attitude in the out-of-order shooting (the shooting is usually in the order of the scene rather than the order of the plot). During the shooting period, I also raised some questions based on the shooting and my own directing's perspective. I had many discussions with Ms. Nan Zhen, Mr. He, Mr. Chen, and Mr. Mo. We had script meetings in Beijing until one or two in the morning.

The most important thing for the preparation is the main creative crew. Since my teamwork with them in the 2nd work (To Get Her) was very smooth and excellent in production, I have invited the art director Ye Wei, the modeling director Li Meng, the combing group leader Qian Hui, and the editing director Zhuo Shaohua and his team to work with me again in this project. There is also the director of photography Lu Yu, whom I work for the first time with. I would like to thank Mr. He for his absolute trust in me and respect my opinions very much in choosing the main creative crew. This is very important for a director, because the pictures in my head need to be realized by all departments in a tacit understanding, and even give something better and better than I thought. The creative chiefs have done great jobs and we have worked together very well. Tacit understanding, and coincidentally, except Ms. Qianhui who is a girl born in 1995, the rest of our main creative crew were born in the late 80s. We are very similar in aesthetics and perspectives, so we have many common languages ​​and tacit understanding.



My few thoughts on this drama, first of all, our picture should be excellent, although we are not a big production, but in the era of nation-wide aesthetics at this stage, just a circle of friends on Weibo may be professional photography level of people, so we can't tolerate a bit of spicy eyes in the composition of the picture, and Mr. Lu used the light and shadow to create a picture for us, many of which look like posters and wallpapers, and have a sense of story. This also directly improves the texture of our drama.



Secondly, it is the beauty and authenticity of the scene. We can't just pursue beauty. The art design of the scene can start from the character and even help the character shaping. I also pay great attention to it. Fortunately, I think they are film-level art: Shen Yi's home, one bedroom and one living room in a worn-out building, added some old newspapers that doesn't need to be thrown away. You can see his "stingy" character at a glance. Then, after Meng Hui moves in, he switched between various states. It's like our story, slowly changes from a strange feeling to a romantic and full of memories. There is also Meng Hui’s home, although it is just a simple bedroom, but the beauty items collection, as well as a photo with A Tao, and various designs of pink and soft colors, let you know Meng Hui's personality immediately. Even if it is the design of the supporting characters, a simple work desk can see the character's personality, energy drinks on the desk of the marketing guy, Xiao Mei who is seeking marriage by fate, the finance staff has all kinds of wealth god like the Lucky Cat, the product manager who loves his son who can't go home after working overtime is in a bad health.

Producer He's positioning of this film is a beauty concept idol drama. For beauty, although I paid attention to many beauty bloggers before the shooting to see what makeup is all about, but for a man, it's still quite stressful. Therefore, Mengmeng and Qianhui have designed so many exquisite styles for this project. The biggest challenge lies in the multiple personalities of Meng Hui, each of them must have differences in style to distinguish the personalities, otherwise the audience will definitely be confused.

The entire casting process took a month or so. I was very satisfied when the final list was finalized. All along, my criteria for choosing actors are: looks, acting skills, comedy sense, idol sense, which is quite difficult! But Li Jiaqi, Zhao Yiqin, Fan Zhixin, He Meixuan, Pu Tao, Su Zelin, Cheng Muxuan, they are all really good. When they joined to read the script, they slowly immersed into their roles, and they worked hard for 79 days of the filming, rehearsing the scenes again and again to the filming, so after this filming, we all became close friends, even though we have wrapped up more than 8 months so far, it's still fresh in our memory. We often miss each other when I think about it.




Then I want to share a few highlight scenes.

1 Wei Lei vs Meng Hui Dressing Room War
When I was reading the script for this scene, the music of tango unconsciously played in my head, and I always wanted to shoot it with a rhythm of dance. Therefore, when we shot this, we did a very precise choreography of the actors’ moves and pace. For rhythm requirements, Shen Yi's office chair was specially designed for it. Meng Hui's spraying in circle was to create a hazy feeling, for this a few minutes scene, we filmed for seven hours. This scene was in the early stage of shooting, and its good result gave the whole group confidence. We are creating a very good quality work.



2 Meng Hui and Shen Yi Moving In Together Scene
The scene was very long. From conversation about penguin and polar bear in the car, until the Arctic light shone on the ceiling of the bedroom, but it was full of energy, and it didn't fall for a second. Of course, the high quality of the script, an animal moving from the South Pole to the North Pole, two cold elements actually made me feel warm. On the clothing, I specifically told Mengmeng that even if it was unreasonable, I wanted to turn Shen Yi into a polar bear, and Meng Hui into a penguin, and then let Jia Qi and Xiao Zhao complete the ten-minute scene. Not to bring down the inner excitement and expectation even for a second. They did it all very well. When the audience thinks that the plot that everyone is expecting is about to happen, the boy on the lower bunk present aurora lights to the "roommate" on the upper bunk in a posture imitating Nobita.

3 Intradermal Injection
WeiSui CP's intradermal injection scene. In fact, the script wrote that Sui An decided not to give the injection. I felt that it was not too good to present such a medical practice in a scene. However, when I was shooting, the executive director who often shares a lot of creative ideas. He told me that intradermal injection has to be shot. It is a scene where Wei Lei completely trust her face to Sui An. I watched a real video of intradermal injection, consulted the process of the injection to a real cosmetic surgeon on the set, and decided to put the focus of this scene on the intradermal injection. I told Meixuan, can you give me a tear? Meixuan said that she will try. So, a scene that belonged to only the two of them was beautifully born. Wei Lei focused on Sui An and shed a drop of tear, not sure whether it was love or pain, but I knew there was nothing wrong with this decision.



4 Rainy Bus Station
This scene showcases the skill of Ms. Nanzhen's script. A long list of words but none of them are redundant, and Meng Hui cried her bitterness for the first time. Shen Yi’s crying was more complicated. He couldn’t let Meng Hui know, so he could only stand up, and in the place where Meng Hui couldn't see, there was no movement and expression except the tears. Zhao Yiqin is a friend of mine for many years, and we have very tacit understanding. We met early in our career. When we just started shooting, he was very excited to tell me that he is now very experienced in crying, I shared my thoughts with him. I think that men crying is actually more touching. I don’t want others to know that I’m crying. This experience comes from before we start shooting. Because I had to separate from my daughter for a while, I packed up the day before. I cried at the time, but I was afraid of disturbing my family, so I could only cry in silence. Tears fell down without expression. I shared this experience with Xiao Zhao, and then I watched some senior performances with him, like Zhang Manyu’s famous crying scene. In fact, the best texture of the crying scene is to cover up, not to show the audience tears. In the end, Xiao Zhao's crying in this scene was so beautiful that I think he should be proud of himself. Then there was Xiao Li’s line. This line of Jiaqi was too touching. The DOP and I cried. The phrase "I'm too tired", felt like I really want everyone to hug her. Actually, Jia Qi and I met two years ago. She said that I was the first director she met. She was also the first actor to audition for Meng Hui. After seeing her, I was struck by her innocent and eccentric personality, even if she is bitter and tired, she never show it on the set. She is really Meng Hui herself.



5 Shen Yi's Proposal
The rooftop proposal is a night scene. We arrived in the afternoon and saw the dream-like art creation for the proposal scene. My heart was touched. It was perfect. I ran the scene with Xiao Zhao and Xiao Li. I remember playing music with Xiao Zhao and we were kneeling in front of Jia Qi together. I just wanted to show the positions to DOP. I didn't expect Jia Qi to cry. I quickly wanted to contain her precious tears, fearing that she can't cry during the real shot. In private, I shared my own experience of proposing to my wife with Zhao Yiqin. In my understanding, this kind of oath must not be properly spoken. The boys will be embarrassed on this important day. It's precious and real. Zhao Yiqin performed very well. His breathing was short. He held his words for so long and could only say a few lines of words, and he was so overwhelmed, so I looked at the monitor and I cried like Meng Hui.

6 The Circle of Love
Episode 18 after Shen Yi's proposal, the hand cream creates an embarrassing scene, the script was written like this.

【The two looked at each other and smiled, the atmosphere was just right.
【Shen Yi slowly walked over and kissed Meng Hui.
【Their hands clasped tightly, but they did not go further, and soon separated.

But in fact, I'm looking forward to shooting this scene for too long, it gives me a lot of emotions, and this scene was shot just a few days before wrap-up, so I actually think about it from the time I read the script, to the day of shooting, on how to shoot this scene. That morning, on the way from the hotel to the set, I wrote down the movements in my brain with words on my script and wrote a few hundred words. When I went to the scene, I explained to the actors about circle of love. The actors were dumbfounded, isn't the script says they are soon separated? I said, no, you have to mess up this house to have a FEEL. In the end, there were messing up the house, dolls are caught, funny and romantic, I am very satisfied with this scene.



7 TaoJiang Kiss
"Who doesn't want to shoot A Tao?" This is what I often say on the set. Haha, I am always full of affection for this character, and indeed, the interpretation of A Tao can be salty, sweet, ace and sexy. This kiss scene in Episode 18 was filmed in the first eight days of the shooting period, and neither of the actors had previously filmed a kiss scene before. In fact, I have always tried to convey the theme of affirmative rights in my dramas. I think this scene is very affirmative. Women bravely pursued their own love and presented a very courageous and independent female image. This video achieved 200k likes over night on Tiktok, which also shows that the audience really likes such independent women.



8 Messy and Beautiful Wedding
The finale is a wedding, making it messy and beautiful is my task. Before shooting, I decided with the art team everything that could fly, cotton pillow, party poppers, etc., so we can reach the climax of this scene. Assisting Meng Hui and Shen Yi, of course including assisting Xu Xingyao, she and Wei Lei performed a sense of drama with the pillow fight, Xu Xingyao's actress Cheng Muxuan is also my good friend for many years. She did a very good job in acting, but also so beautiful, it is really rare! Before the chaotic scene, Shen Yi and Meng Hui's wedding process was the most beautiful wedding in the drama I've ever filmed. Similarly, I told the actor and actress all of my journey in my own wedding. I said, at the wedding, the two looked at each other with silent tacit agreement, one eye and one nod to give each other a psychological support to jointly face a ceremony that wanted to be formal but there may be many mistakes. Shen Yi and Meng Hui need not be afraid of petals. It doesn't look good on the head, but you can help each other to remove it, and smile together. I like Jia Qi's voice when she said "I do" because it feels that she has been crying for so long. Finally, she said "I do" with the last tone before crying, which was so touching.

As I recalled the highlight scenes and the making moments, I felt that the shooting of this drama was really smooth. Not only did I feel that way, but the various departments and actors in the crew feel the same. Maybe in this creative atmosphere, everyone is very happy. It is indispensable that the chief producer He Xiaoting has control over everything in the process, and it is all due to the contributions of all the people on the media. Of course, Youku's producers Taohua sister, Carrie, and Laobai. The trust and support of "99 Points Girlfriend" was able to become a good quality drama as everyone expected. As a director, it is very lucky and happy to meet a group of creative collaborators, thank you!

All along, my idea of ​​filming is that I want to accompany some people in the weeks when it is online. The warmth and humor of "99 Points Girlfriend" is very valuable to me. I am very honored to be able to create this work with you. Now, I am shooting my new idol romance drama "Please Feel at Ease Mr. Ling." I hope that everyone will like it too.

Finally, thank you to my family for their tolerance, especially my wife Tang Xiaoqi, and my lovely daughter Kiwi, you are my princesses, I love you two!