A cafe called "Low Sugar" next to Wilshire Avenue in Santa Monica, with customers scattered and scattered, drinking coffee, chatting, reading newspapers and reading books, enjoying the leisure time in the afternoon.

Ye Wei sat in a quiet corner. He was unwilling to taste coffee and was focusing on the information documents of "The Marriage is Coming", turning page after page, without letting go of a letter.

Many of these documents are not visible to the layman, but he can do it because of his dream college experience.

Cultivating "Film-Maker" is the core concept of the School of Film Arts of the University of Southern California, and the "film and television production" he studied is its most important and best signature major. He learned almost everything in the early stages. As long as it is related to the film production process, he can find his figure in the preliminary course.

Students must study in many aspects, and choose courses based on their personal talents and interests. Only after completing the preliminary course can they further study advanced courses and determine the direction of development.

So a very common situation is that when many people first entered school, they shouted "I want to be a director", but when they graduated, they became photographers; when they shouted "I want to be a producer", but they became editors.

In his dream, Ye Wei was determined to fulfill his father's last wish. He went to school to learn from the director, and finally became a director.

But he knew everything about production and other matters, and had practical operations, and he served as a producer in short film production more than once.

Every student is like this. For example, when taking CTPR508 production class, two people make "our movies" in a group, and they also need some friends to help them. If you are a screenwriter and director in the production team of the first short film, the other one has to do photography; if you do photography in the first film, maybe the next one is production, recording and editing...

In short, the student union has practiced every part of the filmmaking process and knows a little about everything.

Ye Wei also had the experience of working as a production assistant, a venue assistant, etc. on an independent film crew outside the school for free, so he can understand these things in his hands now.

I have to say that Kevin Thomas, an old liar, has a few tricks, and his copywriting in the production is very professional, detailed and rigorous, which can fool experts.

He has watched more than half of the production schedule. Although there are many places where he spends extra money and can be more efficient, these cannot do anything about the producer, because it can be explained by his lack of production capabilities and does not mean to spend more.

On the other hand, in the storyboard script, there was not even some insertion shots and main shots, which resulted in very little material available during editing, but it can also be said that the director's ability is insufficient. Or maybe I simply say that this is the director's intention. So none of these mistakes can work.

He wants to find a mistake that can be called Kevin Thomas, who can kill the other party.

But the good news is that he clearly saw that the further the production schedule went, Kevin Thomas's vigilance became lower and the mistakes became denser...

Time passed, and the waitress came to see him a few times, but she saw that he had not taken half a sip of the cup of coffee. Ye Wei was a little embarrassed to see him, so she drank the cup of coffee in one sip and asked her to take it to refill it. She was so bitter that she frowned.

His head was also trembling, and he turned over another page of the production expenditure details. At this moment, a sudden flash of inspiration seemed to flash by.

"Wait..." Ye Wei turned the document back to the previous page and looked at one of the small items: Equipment rental fee - Stenikon, $1,500.

This is a filming expense on April 8, 2003. At a rough look, there is no problem. However, is it really going to cost $1,500 that much?

Steinicam is a camera stabilizer, a device used by photographers to maintain balance in shooting actions, but the rent for large Steinicams is generally between 500 and 1,000 US dollars per day. If independent filmmakers work hard to find it, they can even find manufacturers who are willing to provide idle equipment for free, which rarely costs 1,500 US dollars!

Ye Wei frowned and felt that he was very close, but this was an "extra lease", which was a temporary lease without any prior plans. It was not rented from the equipment rental agency "SLV", which the crew mainly cooperated with. It did not clearly state which company the $1,500 was given, and it could not verify immediately.

Is there no Stenikon for rent in SLV? He is basically sure that this is a fake account that reports large numbers.

It was not a well-planned action, but a greedy moment, and a few hundred dollars in a row. Kevin Thomas' mentality was already crazy at that time. Perhaps he thought that even if he did this fake account, no one would find out, and he would never.

Ye Wei chuckled and said to himself: "If God wants to destroy it, he must first make it crazy. Kevin, you have been caught."

But he needs exact evidence, such as a lease contract that says $1,000/day!

Now looking at some other information, he learned that the crew of "The Wedding Time is Coming" was filming in Orange County that day, which undoubtedly made the verification even more difficult. There are too many film shooting equipment rental manufacturers in Greater Los Angeles.

"The stupid method is the best way." Ye Wei took a sip of coffee and had an idea.

There is a principle for equipment rental: rent it nearby! This is even more important than cheaper, because transportation costs money, and it is impossible to shoot in Orange County, but rent equipment in New York. Therefore, the most likely manufacturer is the manufacturer closest to Orange County, and it is necessary to rent it with Stenikon.

As long as you ask those manufacturers one by one, even if there are a thousand stores, you can get the results.

"Suspense!" Ye Wei called the waitress and asked, "Do you have yellow pages in the Greater Los Angeles area here? Can you provide internet access? I want to check something, it will be very soon."

"There are yellow pages, but online..." The waitress was a little embarrassed, "You have to ask the boss."

The low-sugar cafe does not have Internet service, only there is a computer at the counter, but it is not for customers, but the boss's private computer. Ye Wei asked again and again, and it happened that the boss was also a Chinese, so he agreed to use it for a while.

Through the Internet, Ye Wei checked the list of many related manufacturers and recorded their contact numbers.

It had been nearly an hour since he left the computer. After he returned to his seat, he checked the yellow pages for a while and started typing numbers one by one: "Hello, is it a full-speed photography company? Well, I want to ask if you rent a Stenikon, how much does it cost to rent a day?"

"We have rented a large one, 800 yuan a day, and a small one, 100 yuan a day. If the rental days exceed half a month, the price will be negotiated separately."

Ye Wei said OK and asked again: "Is it possible for you to rent a large Stenickang for 1,500 yuan a day?"

"It's impossible. We won't rent something so expensive, we only charge a fair price."

"In this way, our company may have cooperated with your company before. Can we check the specific contract status at that time? This involves some financial issues of our company. I would like to ask you for help."

"As long as you provide detailed information, including date, company, project and leaseholder, we can check it for you."

"I'm in trouble. On April 8, 2003, Weiduo Image, the film project "Wedding Time is Coming", leaseholder Kevin Thomas, a large set of Stenikons."

After a while, Ye Wei received a reply: "Sorry, we have no records here." He said, "Okay, thank you, I'm disturbing." Then he hung up the call and continued to call the next manufacturer.

Just like that, he followed the phone call, one after another, Ye Wei asked more than a dozen manufacturers, and was getting farther and farther away from Orange County, which made him angry. There were so many nearby manufacturers who did not rent, but went so far to rent. What to do? Is the transportation cost expensive? Is the shooting time less?

Of the 2 million production cost, I really don’t know how much was wasted by Kevin Thomas, a bastard!

These wasteful costs add up to a lot of money, which is my father’s hard-earned money and his own family’s money!

Ye Wei let out a sigh, temporarily suppressed his anger and continued to investigate. If the bitch had colluded with a manufacturer at that time and did not record it, the fake account would be useless. I hope not, and now I can only try my luck.

There were several more manufacturers, almost reaching the scope of Los Angeles County. When he opened up a small company called "Aid Photography Equipment" and asked the same questions, he finally got different answers!

"Yes, I found it, there is a record here."

"Really!" Ye Wei shouted suddenly, causing other customers to look at him displeasedly. His face turned red with excitement and asked repeatedly: "How much?"

"Our database record is $600 a day, which is our usual price."

"Are you sure?" Ye Wei asked this question again and again, which made the other party a little helpless. Confirm! He punched the table and asked again with a bang: "If I need it, can you provide a valid contract proof at that time?"

"Yes, we have a record."

"Thank you, thank you! Then let's contact again." Ye Wei's heartbeat became very fast, and he couldn't help laughing, but his eyes were flashing with fierce light. With this weapon, Kevin Thomas is dead this time, General!

It is certain that the 1.8 million yuan investment for "The Wedding Time is Coming", but now, I can get some back.

He looked at the time and it was almost five o'clock in the afternoon. It was getting late, so he had to rush home immediately.
Chapter completed!