Chapter 41
Which is more beautiful, a bunch of flowers or a single flower?
While Ji Zhaoying and Jiang Heng were filming outside the parent-teacher conference classroom, Ling Suisui stayed in the rest area of the empty classroom.
Chen Yuening finally understood why she could memorize her lines so well. She has a good memory and never puts the script down. She reads it a few times when she has nothing to do. How could she not be able to recite it by heart?
Seeing that his co-star worked so hard, he didn't dare to be lazy. Chen Yuening sat next to her and recited silently in his mind.
The "empty classroom" refers to the place where filming is taking place, where there are only two actors. In fact, the classroom was full of the crew's equipment. Not only were there special machines for shooting behind-the-scenes footage pointing at their faces, but their assistants were also holding cameras, busy recording business materials.
In such an environment, Ling Suisui and Chen Yuening were still able to remain calm and concentrate on reading the script, which shows how strong a sense of belief is required to be an actor.
The assistant director made a request: "The two actors should interact with each other. It's too boring to just sit there like this."
Okay, Ling Suisui cooperated and put down the script.
Chen Yuening stretched and suggested to her: "Let's play hand slapping?"
This is a small game often used by the crew, which eliminates strangeness and cultivates intimacy through physical contact between actors.
Ling Suisui shook his head: "We are so familiar with each other, and this is not the first time we have worked together, let's try something more advanced."
"Just look into each other's eyes and see who can hold back their laughter first, how about that? The loser will give out red envelopes in the crew group."
Chen Yuening nodded in agreement and asked, "Can I be funny?"
"what ever."
The two turned to face each other, and the behind-the-scenes camera also zoomed in.
A staff member shouted "start", Ling Suisui put aside all distracting thoughts and stared into Chen Yuening's eyes.
She objectively analyzed his facial features - the distance between his eyebrows and eyes was actually quite good, but the best and most prominent part was his nose. Although there are no obvious lines on his face, his facial shape is very smooth and natural, which is very suitable for creating a youthful look.
Ling Suisui watched very seriously, even when Chen Yuening was cross-eyed, she was analyzing the size of his pupils.
The game of holding back laughter is about who has stronger concentration and sense of conviction. Ling Suisui was on the verge of collapse several times, but the string of reason in his mind never broke.
Chen Yuening couldn't hold on. After holding on for twelve seconds, his ears felt hot and he couldn't help laughing.
Seeing that he lost, Ling Sui calmly took out his cell phone.
"Send out the red envelopes. I'm ready to grab them."
Chen Yuening shook his head and sighed: "I shouldn't have agreed to play this with you, I..."
He got stuck in his words and continued, "I've never been good at this kind of game."
Ling Sui smiled and said, probably.
Just now, the system prompted her that she had unlocked a new achievement "Heart pounding". The specific description was that when the hero looked at her, his heartbeat exceeded 150 for a moment.
Hopefully he'd calmed down by now, otherwise she'd have to consider calling a doctor for him.
Ling Sui used up the chance he had just gotten to draw the lucky draw on the roulette wheel, and as expected, he got another guaranteed 10 points.
Forget it. After taking advantage of the system a few times, she is now a big customer with a points balance of over a thousand, so she doesn't care about this little thing anymore.
When she feels that the guaranteed number of draws is a bit too much and it’s time to draw some good stuff, she will go and talk to the system.
Come to think of it, the system had compensated her before.
Ling Sui used full body beauty treatment before taking business photos, but she never used the other "popularity halo buff".
Its functional principle is to "make the user more likely to attract attention from others", which sounds good, but Ling Suisui thought about its other side. Would this also be a card that easily attracts negative attention?
Since a thing exists, it is impossible for people to only see its good side. Based on Ling Sui's experience in the entertainment industry, being too much attention is sometimes not a good thing.
Ling Suisui had doubts about it, so when Fast Seven was broadcast, the system suggested that she use props, but Ling Suisui ignored it.
To be honest, this thing is quite tricky... Ling Sui feels it is inappropriate to use himself or others as guinea pigs.
But for this kind of prop, she couldn't ask others, saying, "I'll give you a chance to explode, but do you mind taking the risk of getting blacklisted?"
Ling Suisui was thinking about the system. Chen Yuening, who was next to her, put a cooling patch on his neck on the pretext of the hot weather.
He still sat next to Ling Suisui, but he quietly moved a little further away. If you get too close, he'll get hot easily.
The two sat for a while and were called out by the staff to film.
Perhaps because of the bonus of her "heart pounding", Chen Yuening didn't even have to act out the awkwardness when filming the scene where Xue Yuchen came to apologize to her.
When Ling Suisui sat there and raised her head, he dared not look her in the eye, and his tone softened unconsciously when he spoke.
"Zhang Zihan, Sister Zhang, can I call you ancestor? Can you please stop being angry? I really didn't mean it."
He muttered something and wanted to get closer to her, but he hesitated and didn't dare to go over.
"Okay, okay, I have nothing to laugh at you... To be honest with you, I'm not much better than you."
Chen Yuening's tone became low: "My parents are divorced, and my mother went abroad when I was very young. From childhood to adulthood, my father always sat in Xue Yutong's seat when he attended parent-teacher conferences, and my seat was always empty."
"I understand that, because Xue Yutong has better grades, and the teacher likes her more. Anyone would prefer to sit in the first place parent's seat and listen to compliments, rather than take on the last place parent and have other parents laugh at them."
This line is a bit long, and Chen Yuening only took two takes to pass it, one of which was saved.
During the break in filming, Ling Suisui praised him: "Teacher Chen, you are amazing."
Chen Yuening, who started out as a child star, does have some talent in acting.
Rather than being a leading actor, Ling Suisui certainly hopes to meet an opponent actor of similar level. In this way, she can compete with the other party and pursue common progress.
"That's right." Chen Yuening winked at her, "Teacher Ling is so outstanding. I feel so much pressure to act opposite you."
If his level of effort in other crews is 7 points, then he must be at least 9 points next to Ling Suisui, otherwise he can never catch up with her.
Chen Yuening and Ling Suisui have known each other for such a long time that he understands her personality. She may not like something, but she definitely hates anything that holds her back.
Ling Sui kicked him and told him not to flatter her.
The filming continues - after hearing what he just said, Ling Suisui turned his head with some surprise.
Just as she couldn't help but soften her heart and wanted to comfort him, Chen Yuening changed back to his nonchalant tone:
"This parents' meeting is quite interesting. We are sitting at the same table this time, and even the empty seats are neatly arranged."
Ling Sui was so angry that he picked up the exercise book in his hand and hit him. Chen Yuening quickly begged for mercy.
This scene was also passed very quickly. For the director, not only Chen Yuening, but also Ling Sui's acting skills exceeded his expectations.
She handled Zhang Zihan's sensitivity and fragility very well, expressing her hurt mood at the moment while striking the right balance so as not to appear exaggerated or pretentious.
Especially when she was filming Xue Yuchen teasing her again and Zhang Zihan picked up the exercise book in her hand to hit him, although Ling Suisui didn't hit him hard, the message conveyed in her eyes was that she was really angry, and she also carried the grievance of being bullied by him, as if she had temporarily found an outlet at this moment.
Therefore, when Chen Yuening's performance is playful, the scene will not degenerate into simple "flirting". Later, when Xue Yuchen realized that he was wrong and formally apologized to her, it was more logically sound.
For young actors, controlling micro-expressions is often the most difficult. Because they lack social experience and have not been through too many storms, the emotions they can feel are often simple and straightforward, let alone acting them out.
The director thought that Chen Yuening would use his experience to help Ling Suisui, but he didn't expect that Ling Suisui was even better and Chen Yuening was taking over her roles.
"Teacher Tang does have a good eye."
During a break in filming, the director chatted with his assistant: "She is really going there to train talents this time."
The assistant asked: "Do you think she can be the successor to Teacher Tang Bing?"
The director smiled and didn't respond, just gave him a look that said "figure it out yourself".
As a good friend of Tang Bing, he did know her long-term thoughts and plans, but who knew if the environment would change in the future?
He would not make big promises for Tang Bing. Even if he wanted to say something, he would wait until Tang Bing felt the time was right and then she would bring it up herself.
In the next scene, Zhang Zihan and Xue Yuchen were sitting motionless on a bench. Xue Yutong and Peng Haoran passed by in front of them one after another. Seeing that the two had strange expressions, they chased after them.
Ling Suisui and Chen Yuening stayed in place, watching the other two reshoot the scene over and over again.
They could even have some snacks - Chen Yuening took an orange from his pocket, peeled it and gave half to Ling Suisui.
Chen Yuening whispered, "It seems that Director Zhang is obsessed with details. He kept saying that their positioning was wrong and which action was wrong."
Ling Suisui nodded while eating: "Our subject matter is more down-to-earth, and it is important to give the audience a sense of immersion."
So even though they are in the panoramic shot, they can still eat.
According to the character's status, they were just chatting, and the director did not restrict them from doing anything specific. As long as it did not violate the character's setting, the more natural the performance, the better.
Ji Zhaoying and Jiang Heng took more than ten shots before they were finally able to walk past them smoothly.
Chen Yuening called her: "Xue Yutong, why are you walking so fast!"
He stood up and followed, not forgetting to tell Ling Suisui, "I'll go find her."
Ling Sui sat there hesitating for a moment, and when he saw Jiang Heng following behind him breathlessly, he slowly moved forward.
In this scene, she actually just plays a supporting role. When Ling Suisui walked to the designated position, he was only responsible for watching the show from the side, and by the way, he helped Jiang Heng who was pushed back by Ji Zhaoying.
As Ling Suisui found his position and stood properly, the dynamic scenes were finished, and the next step was the fixed-point quarrel.
Chen Yuening stood behind Ji Zhaoying, preventing her from going forward. Jiang Heng stood opposite the direction Ji Zhaoying was turning, and Ling Suisui was on his right.
The stage manager clapped the clapboard, and Ji Zhaoying still had tears in her eyes from the previous scene.
She turned to Jiang Heng and asked him, "Peng Haoran, have you known about this for a long time?"
Jiang Heng almost opened his mouth, but in the end all that came out was a faint "hmm".
"No, what's going on between you two?" Chen Yuening asked anxiously, "I'm just confused. You guys are usually on good terms, so why are you suddenly arguing like that?"
"Who has a good relationship with him! I don't even want to know him, let alone have anything to do with him!"
Ji Zhaoying yelled, but the director stopped her.
Director: "The emotions are not exciting enough, try again."
"The lines are not clearly pronounced and the lip movements are messed up. Let's start over."
"You should talk to Xue Yuchen first, then turn around and look at Peng Haoran, and start over."
…
After Ji Zhaoying had done five consecutive NGs, the director paused the filming and went up to explain the scene to Ji Zhaoying alone.
He went forward to explain the play to Ji Zhaoying, and the other actors stepped aside to give her enough space.
Ling Suisui rested his chin on his hand: "I now understand why the crew arranged this kind of emotional outburst scene for her on the first day of filming."
To be honest, this arrangement is not very reasonable.
Although actors should not choose which day to shoot which scene, when it comes to interpreting the same role, the later they act, the better they will get and the more they fit the role.
If there is a version where you can upgrade and develop slowly, who would want to challenge the big boss in the novice village?
However, there was a senior actor who was making a guest appearance and he had to come over to mediate the fight, so this scene had to be filmed continuously.
Ji Zhaoying had to perform well, but she couldn't let the teachers wait in the waiting area for too long, so the pressure increased exponentially.
But even in this situation, Ji Zhaoying's emotional outburst remained stable, which made Ling Suisui realize how powerful she was.
Generally speaking, an actor is in the best condition during his first few outbursts. Because the further you go on filming, the lower your physical and mental energy will become, and it is very likely that the effect will be worse than at the beginning.
But Ji Zhaoying is different. She seems to have endless energy. No matter how many times she shoots, as long as the director has requirements, her mental state will always improve.
Perhaps this has something to do with her highly extroverted personality.
Ling Suisui looked at Ji Zhaoying with eyes full of admiration. She even wrote this down in her notebook, planning to ask her for advice after the show to see if she had any tips to teach her in this regard.
Chen Yuening came over and whispered to her, "Ji Zhaoying's acting is pretty good."
"Yes." Ling Suisui nodded in agreement and asked him, "It's obviously a compliment, why do you sound sneaky when you say it?"
Chen Yuening: …
Chen Yuening explained: "I want to ask you if you have a sense of crisis. In fact, you are already very good."
After all, Ji Zhaoying is only one year older than Ling Sui, and their positioning in the market may be similar.
Ling Sui glanced at him and felt that this guy must have misunderstood her expression just now.
She did not answer his question, but pointed to the flower bed in the corner and asked:
"Do you think that a bunch of flowers over there are pretty, or just one flower?"
Hearing her say this, Chen Yuening felt a little embarrassed.
He said ashamedly: "Well, my vision is too narrow. I am not as cheerful and open-minded as Teacher Ling."
Ling Suisui rarely responded politely, but nodded modestly.
After Ji Zhaoying adjusted her state, she shot this scene five or six more times and finally got it right.
Later, the parents came to mediate, but because Li Yuhua didn't come, Zhang Zihan's level of participation was still not high. She comforted Peng Haoran, who was being scolded, and said that Xue Yutong was just too excited and asked him not to take it to heart.
By noon, the scene was finished.
Ling Suisui and Ji Zhaoying shared an RV. Ling Suisui, who returned home a little late, saw that Ji Zhaoying didn't even have time to eat and collapsed directly on the bed.
"Thank you for your hard work, baby." Ling Suisui went over and patted her head. "Where's your assistant?"
Ji Zhaoying replied: "I didn't have any filming this afternoon, so I asked her to buy me some milk tea."
"Do you want to drink? I still have time to ask her to buy another cup now."
"No." Ling Suisui declined. "I only have two cups of milk tea quota per month, and unfortunately I have used it up this month."
Ji Zhaoying admired her calmness and self-discipline, but she really couldn't learn it.
When Ling Suisui asked her how she maintained her continuous emotional outbursts, Ji Zhaoying looked at her strangely.
She said: "Why can't it be continuous? Just... just keep thinking about it and keep stirring up your emotions."
"Oh, maybe I'm the type who's overdrawn. Are you as tired as I am after filming an emotional outburst scene?"
This time it was Ling Suisui's turn to be surprised: "So you were lying in bed because you were really too tired to get up, not just because you were lazy?"
Ji Zhaoying: ...
Ji Zhaoying said weakly: "Is this the image of me in your mind? Put on a steam eye mask for me, I can fall asleep in a minute."
Ling Sui probably understood. Ji Zhaoying's emotional outburst is like a sprinter's sprint. She doesn't consider how many times she has the energy left to make a run, but just uses all her strength every time she is needed to make a run.
Just like when she drinks milk tea, she drinks it whenever she wants and doesn’t worry about controlling the sugar intake until she’s finished.
Ling Suisui thought to herself that if compared with Ji Zhaoying, she had more actual filming experience than her, but her performance was more reckless like a newcomer, and it would not be easy for her to become a "professional".
So... maybe an actor should still have an aggressive side in his character?
Well, she can learn from Ji Zhaoying in other aspects, but let it go as she drinks milk tea without restraint.
"You still have to eat." Ling Suisui said, "We don't have any show this afternoon, what do you want to do?"
"I don't want to think about anything. I want to sleep."
Hearing her answer, it seemed like she had lost interest in life.
It seemed that Ji Zhaoying was really tired. Ling Suisui left the resting area for her and asked Kang Le to carry the lunch box to Chen Yuening and Jiang Heng's car.
Except for the first day of filming, when a major scene was scheduled due to the schedule of a senior actor, the schedule for the next few days was quite light.
Ling Suisui noticed that the roles of several young actors were arranged as much as possible according to the chronological order of the script, while the roles of teachers such as Tang Bing and Feng Guang were all scattered.
Although they were limited by the scene and various factors, they couldn't shoot from front to back 100%, but they were able to do it roughly step by step, which was enough to prove that the crew put a lot of effort in the arrangement.
Ling Sui went to ask Tang Bing, and the teacher confirmed her guess.
"It was me and the producer who proposed it." Tang Bing said in a relaxed tone, "Old Feng and I can shoot it anytime. The main thing is to make you kids more immersed in the play. This play is called Jinbangtiming. If the students can't act well, wouldn't it be a waste?"
Ling Suisui was very moved and deeply shocked.
Many veteran actors say they care for newcomers, but they actually love to act like tyrants on the set; Teacher Tang Bing is very nice to every student she has taught, and even Li Yuanqing, who graduated several years ago, still respects her very much, but she has never used this point for marketing.
Even the way the crew arranged the scenes, the teacher didn't even mention this in front of them. It was only when she discovered it and asked her that the teacher told her.
Ling Suisui was full of admiration for Tang Bing. She asked herself, if she had the same connections and status as Tang Bing, she might not have such a broad mind as her teacher.
She said sincerely: "You have really done so much for me and for us."
"It's nothing. I just talked a lot. The whole crew cooperated."
Tang Bing said this, and she did not forget to point out her: "I know that you are ambitious, talented, and capable. You will definitely become famous in the future."
"As your teacher, I hope you remember that no matter how famous you become in the future, no matter how much your peers and fans praise you, don't forget that the success of a drama or a movie is the result of the joint efforts of the entire crew. No one person can carry it alone."
Ling Suisui nodded solemnly.
In fact, this kind of "formal talk" is often said by many actors, but when Tang Bing said it, she felt her soul was cleansed.
Although Ling Sui didn’t know which popular star’s behavior had upset teacher Tang Bing recently, causing her to have such feelings...but it didn’t matter, she had to listen to the teacher’s heartfelt words at all times.
Tang Bing also noticed Ling Suisui's reaction, and the more she looked at Ling Suisui, the more satisfied she became.
Tang Bing asked her: "How is your physical fitness?"
Ling Suisui was stunned for a moment, then said: "I'm... okay, every time I go for a physical examination, there is no problem."
Tang Bing asked her to turn around in front of him and pinched her arms and thighs.
It’s okay, not all the skin is delicate and tender, it seems that she exercises regularly.
Come to think of it, it makes sense. After all, Ling Suisui is the one who can carry Zhong Yao in a princess hug at the Fast 7 show. She just has a small frame and looks fragile, but she is actually quite strong.
She then asked: "If you were asked to work out for a role, how much would you be willing to work out?"
What, there is a new role waiting for her?
Teacher Tang, Jinbangtiming has just been launched not long ago, your schedule is too full!
Ling Suisui's eyes lit up as he answered firmly, "I will practice to whatever level the role requires."
Tang Bing laughed: "What if I ask you to train your body to be full of tendons? That won't be pretty anymore."
Um? It seems that this character has something.
Ling Suisui said seriously: "Actors serve their roles, and the standard for measuring female beauty should not be white, young and thin."
"I keep this body shape just to fit most roles on the market. But if there is a good script that requires me to change my body shape, whether it is getting bigger or thinner, I will do my best."
As for the next movie which may require me to lose weight, I can just gain weight back to normal.
Tang Bing was very satisfied with her attitude, but she changed the subject: "I'm just asking, whether this project can be launched is still unknown, you don't have to rush to change your body shape, and don't tell anyone."
She added: "Also, you don't have to be full of muscle."
Ling Sui responded obediently. The environment in the film and television industry is ever-changing, but she still understands the principle of making a fortune in silence.
Even though Tang Bing is her biological teacher, anything can happen before the contract is officially signed, and some things are beyond her control.
After leaving Tang Bing's room, Ling Suisui was still very happy.
Well, in her heart, it doesn’t matter whether Tang Bing’s project can be finalized or whether she will be invited to act. What she cares more about is that the teacher thinks of her first when something happens.
This means that although she has no background in the circle at the beginning, she will be a lucky person who has "connections" in the future.
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