In the next few days, Lance and others divided into two groups. Lance and Donald began to have a head-on contact with the forces of the City of God, while Percy, Albert and Hayden stayed in the hotel to recruit actors.

Unexpectedly, Lance's negotiations went very smoothly, but instead encountered obstacles in recruiting actors.

Due to Donald's good preparation, the big guys welcomed Lance's arrival. Because these big guys generally have low education levels and their impression of Hollywood has always been at the stage of big screens of the movies, the negotiations have been smooth. Within less than three days, Lance met with all four forces, paid a visit to the hill, obtained filming permission, and obtained their verbal promise to protect them.

But on the other hand, recruiting actors is far from meeting expectations. They had already sent small advertisements in the slums, saying that there was a short-term opportunity to work here, but three days later, less than a hundred people came to sign up, which was really unexpected.

So, Lance and others had to start coming to the streets near the slums, looking for suitable non-professional actors in person, and then directly convinced them to join the short-term project.

In order to avoid these non-professional actors being affected by "movie shooting" and affecting the authenticity of the movie shooting, Lance and others did not inform them that this was casting for a movie, but just said that it was a short-term job opportunity. Despite this, the casting after taking to the streets was obviously much smoother.

For slum children, as long as they can make money, they are willing to do any job. Many children don’t even have the heart to ask about the content and nature of the work. After hearing that “you can get fifty dollars by conducting three trainings within a week”, they nodded and agreed directly. Only a very small number of children, after confirming that they were not drug trafficking, smuggling, or trafficking, they nodded and agreed.

There is almost no rejection.

Only then did they realize that the reason why the short advertisements were not effective before was actually... most people were illiterate.

In less than three days, they found more than 400 children, between the ages of twelve and nineteen, and then began to audition and some simple physical training, all of which were recorded and recorded. Then, two hundred suitable candidates were selected from them, and according to age and personality differences were divided into eight groups, and they received a two-week professional actor training course.

In a blink of an eye, they had been in Rio de Janeiro for more than three weeks, and the remaining five members of the crew also came to meet one after another, and began to prepare for the upcoming filming. Today is the time to officially select the actors in the play. They need to select 110 of the two hundred candidates.

Although Lance hopes to maintain the "non-professional" nature of these non-professional actors, on-site improvisation will add a lot of color to the reality of the movie. However, there are still basic requirements for filming.

As an actor, you not only need to understand the basic shooting rules of the movie, such as how to not be awkward or awkward in the camera lens, or how to learn to move naturally during the shooting track; at the same time, you also need to be able to cooperate with the director's needs when necessary and show certain performance abilities.

So, they must further screen this group of children.

At this time, all the children also knew that they had the opportunity to become an actor and make more money, which made everyone excited, and they were all ready to prove their abilities immediately.

Lance finished his work and came back from outside. The selection of actors for a few adult roles in the movie has been successfully completed. Unlike child actors, Lance prefers actors with certain performance experience but unknown. However, since the Brazilian actors' union cannot help at all, the time spent a little longer than expected. In the end, with the help of Donald, the casting work was completed.

When I returned to the hotel, the audition work was only one-third. In the hotel courtyard, the children gathered together in a bustling manner and talked uneasyly. The impetuous smiles, impetuous voices, and impetuous actions collided in the air, showing their true emotions.

Lance found this scene interesting because this small space is full of countless uncertainties. He didn't know what impact it would have on the future of these children, and it might not bring any changes. After the filming of the movie, they continued their slum life; perhaps some people would become movie actors or even international superstars because of this - this is a typical Hollywood script route.

But what Lance is even more curious about is whether anyone has come into contact with a new world because of this movie, developed his own independent thoughts, and opened up a life of his own? Maybe it is not to become an actor, but to just pursue his dreams, leave the City of God, become one of the millions of ordinary residents of Rio de Janeiro, and do an ordinary job, nothing special, just to leave the City of God.

In the crowd, Lance saw a thin boy leaning behind the pillars of the courtyard, quietly hiding behind, quietly and calmly watching the various sentient beings in the courtyard. Some people were dreaming of getting rich, some people thought that they should buy a pair of sports shoes after getting paid, and some people thought that they would show off this rare job to their friends... But the boy did not join, nor was he moved, but just stood quietly, a little timid, curious, a little longing, and a little alienated.

It was the boy who was in the refuge house of the City of God that day.

Lance quietly walked behind the boy and sat down at the stone railing beside him, "So, are you here?"

The boy suddenly turned his head, as if he was frightened. After seeing it clearly, it was Lance, he did not completely relax. He just looked at Lance with a warning against the pillars on his back.

Lance didn't mind the boy's reaction, but turned to look at the courtyard, "Why don't you join them? Your age is about the same, and your living environment is similar... Are you not the topic they are passionate about now?" The boy did not answer, but just shook his head, "Or, your personality is not used to talking to others?" The boy shook his head again, which made Lance laugh.

"Aren't you excited? Maybe you can become an actor. At least, shooting this movie can make you earn a lot of money." Lance didn't mind and continued to say, asking the other person, but more of it was talking to himself. The boy shook his head again, but Lance didn't know what he was denying, "It seems that you are not interested."

Lance's smile calmed down, and then he did not continue to speak, but just looked at the still restless children in the courtyard.

He thought of his childhood. In the dark world, it seemed that he would never see the future. He never told anyone that the foster family was also his "city of God". He was a tiny existence in the siege city, and he was a tiny existence in the struggle of life. Looking at the children in front of him, Lance seemed to see his childhood self. Fortunately, he seized the last hint of hope and escaped from the sky.

Reims is selfish in adapting and filming "City of God", but he does not intend to tell anyone about this secret.

"Videographer." The child suddenly spoke, and his honest voice pulled Lance out of his memory and turned to look over.

Lance didn't hear it clearly for the first time, so he had to raise his eyebrows and asked in confusion, "What?"

The child pursed his lips tightly, and after a while, he spoke, "I hope to be a reporter." He paused, "I have no interest in actors."

"Why?" Lance cast a curious look.

The child shrugged, then shook his head, and hesitated, "I don't know... because the photos published in the newspaper look cool." After that, the child seemed to think his answer was too bad, and he seemed to think his dream was too small. He lowered his head in embarrassment and held the pillar one after another.

"What's your name?" Lance's voice rang again. The child raised his head and looked at Lance in confusion, which forced Lance to repeat his question again. The child then came to his senses and replied, "Alexandre-Rodrigues."

"Alexander, I think the character Apao is suitable for you in the movie. You can try and try to see it. Maybe, this will become an opportunity." Lance's words confused Alexander and couldn't understand at all, but Lance didn't mind and chuckled, "At least, you can get a considerable salary."

After saying that, Lance stood up and turned away. But after taking two steps, Lance stopped and turned around, "Also, don't forget that dream." This time, Lance left straight away without any pauses, leaving Alexander standing there in the same place with a look of understanding.

For him, the world is too complicated and too difficult to understand.

The casting of the actors was completed before the sun set, and the crew successfully completed the casting task and selected 110 non-professional actors. However, this was just the beginning.

In the next two months, Lance personally took action, regained his previous career - the acting teacher, and conducted basic performance training for these children. During the training, all the children were divided into three groups and lived in different collective dormitories, cultivating their close interactions, tempering the most realistic and lifelike black street language and fighting experience, allowing them to truly integrate into the life of the City of God.

This was a long and arduous task, but Lance completely calmed down and was not impatient. Even though Diorama Film successfully reached a cooperation agreement with Focus Pictures and joined forces to shoot the news of "Lost Tokyo", he did not mess up, but just devoted himself to the performance training work.
Chapter completed!