"You look good." After all, he is a well-informed director. Zhao Xin glanced at Tao Mu and was satisfied, but he didn't comment: "I heard from Ke Ping that you are a stunt double and you know kung fu. In this case, go and communicate with the martial arts instructor first, and then do a set of moves during the audition."
Tao Mu nodded and went to find the martial arts instructor.
The martial arts team of "The Legend of Heroes" is Zhao Xin's exclusive team. Chief martial arts director Duan Yufeng has been with Zhao Xin since he filmed his first movie, so they can be said to be an old partner. After seeing Tao Mu, he smiled and said, "I've also seen your performance in Zixiao, it's really good. I hope you can maintain this state in Heroes."
As he said this, he handed over the killer Wuming's weapon.
This green snake soft sword was specially made by the crew based on the description in "The Legend of Heroes". The material is a resin material imitating jade, with a flawless emerald green appearance and crystal clearness. The sword body is carved to imitate snake scales and is lifelike. The hilt is a snake's tail and the tip of the sword is a ferocious snake's head. When it is wrapped around the arm, the head and tail are linked together. When the sun shines on it, it sparkles in green and looks particularly beautiful.
The martial arts instructor first buckled the Green Snake Soft Sword on his arm, then skillfully pulled it out and waved it a few times, explaining to Tao Mu: "Because it is a soft sword, we referred more to the Tai Chi Sword and the Nine-Section Whip when designing martial arts movements. By the way, can you play with a whip?"
Tao Mu: "Does the cracking of whips used by the elderly during morning exercises count?"
The martial arts instructor immediately laughed: "That's fine. As long as you can swing it."
Then he put the Green Snake Soft Sword on Tao Mu's arm: "Try it first and get a feel for it."
The emerald green jade-like green snake soft sword was buckled on Tao Mu's arm, like a strange ornament, which made Tao Mu's skin look even whiter and his bones even more symmetrical. Tao Mu put his other hand on the hilt of the sword, and with a light touch of his slender fingers, the Green Snake Soft Sword was drawn out. Tao Mu recalled the whip-playing movements when he accompanied Old Man Song for morning exercises in his previous life. With a turn of his wrist, the Green Snake Soft Sword flipped lightly in front of him.
The martial arts instructor's eyes lit up and he smiled happily, "That's interesting."
After a pause, he said, "When we actually shoot, we can get a close-up of this action. It's pretty." The martial arts instructor said, and then took another look at Tao Mu's hands - his skin was fair, like a jade carving, his bones were symmetrical, his joints were distinct, and his fingers were slender. There is no need for post-production to create momentum. With just a simple flick of the whip, people who understand the camera can immediately appreciate the meaning.
This kind of mysterious feeling, in the jargon of their martial arts industry, is called "style", but the key is that even experienced professional martial artists who often shoot action scenes find it difficult to grasp this style, let alone a newcomer like Tao Mu who has not been in front of the camera many times.
So...it's really a gift from God!
Duan Yufeng's heart moved slightly, and he said with a smile: "That's the feeling. Keep it up, you will definitely be famous after this play is released." The subtext of this sentence seems that Tao Mu has passed the audition and entered the filming stage.
Tao Mu smiled and said, "Thank you for your good words."
The martial arts instructor's eyes lit up and he thought to himself that this young man was really good-looking. Even though that half of her face was horribly damaged by the makeup artist, the way she smiled just now actually gave people a stunning look that made even the sunlight seem brighter.
He is a promising young talent with all the potential for acting.
Tao Mu practiced with the martial arts instructor for about an hour before officially starting the audition.
Zhao Xin sat in front of the monitor, watching Tao Mu who had already walked into the set. The cameras around have been set up, and the lights and light shields are in place. The actors and extras who have no scenes to perform for the time being gathered outside, all wanting to see the excitement.
Zhao Xin didn't waste any words and said directly: "Just perform what Lao Duan taught you just now. Pay attention to the camera position."
Tao Mu stood in the middle of the set, ready to wait for the script supervisor to shout "action". He put his slender fingers on his wrist, and a touch of emerald green flashed before everyone's eyes. Tao Mu turned his sword-holding wrist, and the Green Snake Soft Sword made a sword flower lightly in his hand. Then Tao Mu did a side flip as the sword flower spun - a bit like the somersault in classical dance, less gentle and more fierce, and the soft sword in his hand came out in response. In an instant, whip winds blew and danced in the air.
Although there were no special effects, no wirework, and no post-production repairs, in the eyes of everyone, Tao Mu on the set was tall and slender, with a light figure, like a crane dancing in the wind, and all his movements were clean and neat without any drag. Especially when he was swinging the soft sword and doing various side flips, somersaults and rotations, he seemed to want to fly into the air. His super air-staying ability, solid martial arts skills and the martial arts moves carefully honed by Duan Yufeng combined together made everyone on the set feel the pleasing visual impact.
So much so that when the audition was over, many people surrounding the set couldn't help but applaud and cheer, making Tao Mu look like a street performer.
The male protagonist of "The Legend of Heroes" also stood in the crowd, looking at Tao Mu with a faint expression. The actor who played the second male lead chuckled and turned his head to say, "You're quite the scene-stealer. I remember Zhao Keping is your Xia Xing's agent, right? They specially found someone like him to play Wuming. Are they deliberately trying to suppress you?"
Anyone with a discerning eye could see how aggressive Tao Mu's face looked in the camera. What’s more important is that this guy not only has a good look, his martial arts moves are also smooth and pleasing to the eye. Although he is a newcomer, his acting sense is actually pretty good. In addition, the character of the killer Wuming always has rival scenes with the male protagonist every time he appears. The actor who plays the second male lead can conclude without hesitation that if such a person is really chosen to play Wuming, the impact on the male protagonist after the series is broadcast may not be very good.
"From what I heard, Zhao Keping seems to be very optimistic about him. This guy has clearly stated that he will not sign with any agency within two years, but Zhao Keping still took the trouble to arrange an audition for him. He is being praised and protected even before he is signed. When Zhao Keping really signs him, I guess you will have no chance of becoming the next number one star in Xiaxing Entertainment."
The male protagonist glanced at the male second coldly: "You know a lot."
The second male lead sneered: "Who made the entertainment industry so small? Whether you want to know or not, you can always hear something."
"But then again, no matter what I heard, it was just a casual remark. At best, it was just a good show. You are different." The second male lead said, pointing his chin in Tao Mu's direction: "Stand out from the crowd."
Ning Yuan, who played the male lead, had a gloomy face and turned away without saying a word.
On the other hand, Zhao Xin was also quite satisfied with Tao Mu's audition performance. After Tao Mu stopped and stood still, taking a few deep breaths, he said bluntly, "Sign the contract. Join the group tomorrow morning."
Tao Mu hesitated for a moment: "I have a play in Zixiao tomorrow morning."
Zhao Xin frowned. No matter which director it is, they will not have a good impression of actors who overlap in other roles. What's more, Tao Mu was just a stuntman before this - not even an actor.
Zhao Keping immediately explained, "He only has three days left in Purple Sky. And there's only one scene tomorrow morning."
Zhao Xin, for the sake of his old classmate, said: "Then come over after you finish filming. You are filming action scenes in "Heroes of Legends" anyway, so there is no need to worry about overlapping with other projects."
Tao Mu couldn't tell whether Zhao Xin's words were serious or sarcastic. However, he does not have many literary scenes in "The Legend of Heroes". According to Bai Xiaosheng's setting, the killer Wuming is a taciturn person with an expressionless face that shows no emotions. The number of lines in the entire film can be counted on one hand, and almost none of them have more than four words. So there are no requirements in terms of acting skills.
Zhao Xin's only request to Tao Mu was not to make any expression in front of the camera. Anyway, it's just a minor supporting role that only appears for a few minutes, so Zhao Xin is too lazy to dig into the character's inner thoughts.
In fact, Director Zhao has been filming for many years, and what he hates most is adding more scenes to supporting roles. In Director Zhao's opinion, the original work is already a classic. If you always want to add more scenes, make changes, or sew something up, why don't you just shoot the original work so that you don't get criticized for not doing a good job.
It is precisely because of this idea that Director Zhao's films have always been known for respecting the original works, and thus are widely welcomed by authors and book fans. Of course, there are also some people who think that Zhao Xin is too literal and the films he made are just mediocre and without any breakthroughs. Moreover, it follows the style of the original work too much and has no characteristics of its own.
Perhaps because he was questioned too many times, Zhao Xin began to think about making an original film to prove himself in the past two years. Director Zhao is also very ambitious. This time he doesn't want to make a TV series, but wants to make a splash on the big screen.
However, because it was an original script written by Zhao Xin himself and it was outside the familiar field of TV dramas, many investors were not optimistic about it. As a result, Zhao Xin has been trying for two years but has not yet fooled any reliable producers or financiers. Not to mention the distribution aspect.
This time, Zhao Xin signed Tao Mu into the group for Zhao Keping's sake, and also hoped that Zhao Keping could help him fool a few investors - after all, as a domestic gold medal agent, Zhao Keping has more connections and resources than Zhao Xin.
Without further ado. With the help of Zhao Keping, Tao Mu signed a contract with the crew of "The Legend of Heroes". His salary was only 20,000 yuan, which was not as much as he earned as a stand-in for Shen Yu in "Purple Sky". However, the killer Wuming does not appear very often in "The Legend of Heroes", and this is a role that only shows his face after all. For a pure newcomer like Tao Mu who has no screen experience at all, it is still good. Tao Mu also cherishes this opportunity.
In order to express his gratitude for Zhao Keping's help, Tao Mu invited Zhao Keping to dinner after the audition and gave him 10,000 yuan at the dinner table.
Zhao Keping insisted not to take it, Tao Mu smiled and said: "Even if it's a 50-50 split between the company and the artist, it should be 50-50. You helped me find this audition opportunity. I saw that Director Zhao didn't make things difficult for me during the audition, and it was all for your sake. This amount of money is definitely not much, it's just a token of gratitude."
Zhao Keping smiled and said, "Don't be modest. Director Zhao chose you because your performance is really great and your appearance is suitable for the role. If you can't do it yourself, it will be useless no matter how much I beg Director Zhao. If you really want to thank me, then let me sign you."
Tao Mu also smiled: "If you can wait until my junior year, I will sign it for you."
Tao Mu really thought so. Although he had no comment on some of Zhao Keping's methods, judging from his work ability alone, Zhao Keping was indeed a very powerful agent. Moreover, Xiaxing Entertainment will have good development prospects in the next ten years. In order to attract artists under its banner, it took the lead in setting up studios for artists a few years later. No matter how Tao Mu thought about it, he felt that Zhao Keping was really suitable for him.
Zhao Keping just smiled and said nothing, thinking that the situation in the entertainment industry is ever-changing, and if he waited two years, the opportunity would probably be gone. I'm not the type to just wait passively.
Tao Mu didn't know what Zhao Keping was thinking. The news of his successful audition for "The Legend of Heroes" had spread, and familiar stunt doubles and "Purple Sky" staff came running over to congratulate him. Gou Rixin and his gang urged Tao Mu to treat them. Tao Mu was not stingy either. After work in the evening, he took a group of people to the barbecue stall opposite the film and television city for a midnight snack. About fifty people spent more than three thousand yuan on the meal. Tao Mu's recent salary of 20,000 yuan was reduced to 7,000 yuan.
Da Mao and Xiao Pang were both drunk. When they went to rent a house, they hugged Tao Mu and imagined the future: "... I hope Brother Mu will become famous overnight... become a big star... we will make our own movie... and choose the heroine..."
Tao Mu finally stuffed the two drunken childhood friends who still didn't forget to talk nonsense into the bed, took a shower, insisted on writing down his diary and future events, and then went to bed.
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