Chapter 12
Perhaps because he was too tired from traveling during the day and drank too much at night, Xiao Ziyu slept particularly soundly.
The curtains in the room were very thick, and a ray of bright sunlight came in. Xiao Ziyu looked up in a daze, and in a trance he thought he was back to the early morning of the Daliang Dynasty.
The alarm on his cell phone rang, startling him. He turned off the ringtone and gradually became clear-headed. Today he would officially join the team.
After washing himself, Xiao Ziyu left the room.
Yuan Heng was no longer there. Xiao Ziyu walked around the suite. It had two bedrooms and a living room, and the bay window provided good lighting. There aren't many buildings as tall as the Courtyard Marriott nearby. Looking down from the 30th floor, it stands out like a crane among chickens. The entire city is in full view, and it's almost dizzying.
The doorbell rang, Xiao Ziyu opened the door, and saw a waiter pushing a food cart.
"Mr. Yuan asked for breakfast to be brought up," the waiter took the tray into the room and took out a storage basket from under the dining cart, "The clothes have been washed and dried, and the underwear is new."
Xiao Ziyu flipped through the clothes and found that they were the clothes he had changed last night. Yuan Heng must have sent someone to take them away after he fell asleep. "...Thank you."
"Um, where is Mr. Yuan?"
"Mr. Yuan has gone out for something. If you want to go to the crew, you can go to the lobby front desk to call a taxi."
As expected of a five-star hotel with first-class service, the waiter was not curious about the young man who suddenly appeared in the boss's room. He politely left after completing his business affairs and showed no sign of presence at all.
Xiao Ziyu finished her breakfast while appreciating the scenery outside the window, tied up her long hair casually, and arrived at the crew at the appointed time.
The cinema is very large, with different areas having their own functions. The crew next door was also filming a fantasy drama. They had already put on the jib, and the actors were hanging on the wires and slowly rising into the air.
Xiao Ziyu joined the crew and keenly noticed that the people around him were looking at him strangely, with curiosity and inquiry, but without malice.
"Zi Yu is here!" Tang Lin sat behind the camera with his arms and legs spread out, and told the cameraman, "More depth of field." Then he stood up and walked in front of Xiao Zi Yu, "Zi Yu, tell me, how did you do that double jump last night?"
Tang Lin has been a director for most of his life. He is knowledgeable and has a good memory. He can remember even the extras in the crew. He remembered that Xiao Ziyu was the substitute of the Medical Immortal, but he didn't expect that the other party would fly directly onto the screen and almost sober him up.
He has a generous personality and values talent, so he wanted to catch the person and ask him questions on the spot. But Yuan Heng intervened and took Xiao Ziyu away, forcing him to stay there all night.
I have known about the top martial arts masters in the community when I traveled around the country to shoot documentaries before, but this is the first time I have seen one who can jump so agilely.
Xiao Ziyu was caught by him, and he understood the source of the strangeness in everyone's eyes, and covered it up by saying, "I just learned a little bit before.
"How long ago?" Meng Leyu said sarcastically, "Anyway, when the Meng family picked you up, you just... didn't know anything."
He originally wanted to say that you are a fool, but he finally restrained himself in front of the director. It would have been fine if Xiao Ziyu had suddenly come to his senses, but he also became such a sensation and was taken away by Teacher Yuan on the spot. He really had all the good things going for him.
Xiao Ziyu did not refute, and calmly lied: "I suddenly understood it after my mind became clear that day."
"Don't be modest, Xiao Xiao," Tang Lin laughed, "Anyway, I have a martial arts scene to perform today, so we'll know how it looks on camera."
After all, being good at kung fu doesn’t mean you have a good sense of camera. When it comes to filming, the experience you bring to the audience is the most important thing.
Xiao Ziyu had read the script of "Maple Grove Evening" beforehand and had a general understanding of the plot. The male protagonist Deng Feng, played by Lu Yan, was originally a child from a poor family. As a result, all the villagers were killed by the Demon Lord Lin Buwei. After he escaped by chance, he was adopted by a righteous immortal sect and worked as a small errand boy.
While practicing martial arts and doing odd jobs, Deng Feng and Lin Wan, the daughter of a famous family, fell in love with each other. Lin Wan insisted on being with him despite the opposition of the sect and helped Deng Feng build his spirit core. In the end, the two of them joined forces to kill Lin Buwei and bring peace to the world of martial arts.
The content was not new, and it was a script that he could read in the Daliang Dynasty. Although Lin Buwei appears less frequently and is a villain, he is not a completely evil character, so there will probably be some controversy after the show is broadcast.
The character he replaced, Wei Qiao, was a medical genius who grew up with the male protagonist. He was traveling with his master when the incident in the village. When he came back, it was too late. Not only did he fail to find the male protagonist, but he was discovered by Lin Buwei and had to escape from his clutches with great difficulty.
After all the actors arrived, they took photos for the start-of-filming poster. Today's filming was divided into two groups, A and B. Lu Yan's group A filmed Deng Feng's escape after his family was wiped out, while Meng Leyu's group B filmed Wei Qiao's encounter with Lin Buwei, and the first fight between the Little Medical Fairy and the Demon Lord.
Since Yuan Heng only had time to come to the set in the afternoon, he first shot the scene in the morning where Wei Qiao escapes after being beaten by Lin Buwei. This scene requires the actor to do three consecutive jumps while hanging on a wire, which is quite difficult and hard to shoot in one go. Tang Lin originally wanted to arrange it for later, but changed his mind after seeing Xiao Ziyu.
"Come on, quickly put makeup on Ziyu and change his clothes," Tang Lin waved his hand, "The script supervisor should get the clapboard ready, we'll take advantage of this to shoot a few sets of exterior shots."
The crew temporarily rented a three-story building in the film studio as a studio. The costume and makeup artist led Xiao Ziyu into the dressing room on the first floor. The room was full of bottles and jars, and the plasma dyes were dazzling.
There were also women in the Daliang Dynasty who loved to dress up, and there were many men in the opera theater who put on rouge and painted their lips. However, Xiao Ziyu seldom wore makeup, and at most wore a pendant on his forehead as a decoration.
The stand-in actor's face should not be in the picture, so Xiao Ziyu asked, "Does the stand-in also need makeup?"
"Yes." The makeup artist took the brush and gently applied it on his face. "Sometimes the camera will scan the side profile of your face, so you need to modify the facial contour to avoid any mistakes."
In other words, he needs to be made to look more like Meng Leyu.
His chin is round and pointed, and Meng Leyu's face is more angular, with a kind of domineering arrogance. The makeup artist sighed as the brush swept across her jawline, "Your skin is so good, not a bit of powdery at all."
Perhaps because he was quiet and well-behaved, the makeup artist asked again, "You have such good innate conditions, why do you want to be a stand-in for others?"
To put it bluntly, a stand-in is a behind-the-scenes worker. Their hard work and sweat are attributed to someone else. When a drama is filmed, the leading actor, supporting actors, director and screenwriter all have the opportunity to be nominated for awards, but no one cares about the stand-in.
Since Xiao Ziyu chose this industry, he naturally understood the reason: "Every job needs someone to do it. I don't know much about filming, so this is a good opportunity."
The makeup artist nodded without comment. After finishing the retouching, she looked at Xiao Ziyu's face carefully and said, "Your original face shape still looks better, but it will be easy to be exposed if you don't retouch it."
"Thank you." Xiao Ziyu had just stood up when he was pulled to the other side to try on clothes.
The Little Medical Fairy always wears a white robe, and the clothes prepared by the crew are even looser and more flowing. The costume and makeup team conducted special research and imitated the ancient style. Although there are some dramatic elements, the overall style is still familiar to Xiao Ziyu.
Without the help of a costume and makeup teacher, Xiao Ziyu skillfully put on his inner shirt and pants, straightened the front of his clothes, and then wrapped the belt around his waist in circles. It’s just that the half-thin waist is a little bit unsightly, and after tightening the belt, the robe looks like a small puffy skirt.
"Ms. Xiao's waist is too thin," said a staff member of the costume and makeup team, "The hem of this robe looks like the hem of a skirt."
"What do you know? This is called Chu Yao Su Su." Another person laughed.
"Let me take a look." Tang Lin asked Xiao Ziyu and Meng Leyu to stand together and observed them from front to back for a few times. "No, no, this waist area is too obvious. We need to find something to cushion it."
In fact, Meng Leyu's posture is quite symmetrical and good-looking. She even gave up carbohydrates for a month before joining the group in order to adapt to the role, so it's hard to find fault with her.
But Xiao Ziyu's body seemed thinner, and the vertical collar made the empty space inside appear more obvious. He didn't use a wig, but just made a temporary hairstyle, letting his long hair fall naturally, and then putting on the clothes. There were only four words in Tang Lin's mind: just right.
He didn't know where Xiao Ziyu's calm and reserved temperament came from. This expression and posture were definitely not what a fake young master who had been bullied for many years should have.
The request to pad the waist was too unusual, so the costume and makeup team found two pieces of stuff and gave them to Xiao Ziyu: "Try this first."
"What is this?" Xiao Ziyu held the two thin and soft pieces. This thing was the color of flesh, with a certain curvature, and fit the waist very well.
"Breast pads." The staff member said, "See if they fit."
Xiao Ziyu didn't understand what was going on, so he untied his corset and stuffed the two things in. In the process, he suddenly realized that the shape and color were exactly what women used to pad their breasts.
Seeing his face gradually turn red and his movements become hesitant, the costume and makeup teacher smiled and said, "What's there to be embarrassed about? If the actress didn't have a backup, we would have been scolded to death by Director Tang."
Tang Lin is easy to talk to in daily life, but he is very strict during filming. After making sure that the two of them are in the same shape, he said directly: "Let's go and try the wire first."
"Zi Yu has been on wire dance before, right?" he asked.
Xiao Ziyu recalled the aerialists he saw when he passed by other crews in the early morning, and nodded hesitantly.
Tang Lin was impatient, but he still found a martial arts instructor to explain it to them. Meng Leyu had heard it eight hundred times and nodded absentmindedly, but Xiao Ziyu was extremely serious. He knew that the wire work was actually using steel ropes to hang people in the air. After completing the performance, the traces of the ropes would be erased later so that the person would look like they were flying.
Modern technology is indeed advanced, but there are fewer people who are loyal to a skill or a craft. There are so many things that technology can accomplish, and no one is willing to spend that time practicing.
Meng Leyu first shot a few ground shots and aerial poses, while the staff on the other side had already put on the wire for Xiao Ziyu. It's hard and a bit uncomfortable, but it's better than the hard work of practicing martial arts.
He tried jumping twice on the spot, but his body became heavy with this thing, and he would need more practice in using it before he could use it properly.
Tang Lin watched the person in the camera dancing with his clothes, and jumped more than half a meter high with a tap of his toes. He said anxiously, "Hey, hey, how come he jumped up before I even said start?"
Wire work requires close cooperation between the staff and the actors, and it is easy to get injured if they can't keep up. The staff was stunned by the shouting and looked at the rope in their hands. It was not them who started it.
Tang Lin gestured to start over. The stage manager hit the board, and Xiao Ziyu listened to the slogan behind him, one, two, three...
After the slogan, he needs to do the toe-touching action, and the staff will tighten the wire and pull him into the air. The iron rope on his chest will pull him forward, and after stepping on the low roof, he will jump again, jumping three times in total until he flies out of the camera.
This was Tang Lin's first time meeting Xiao Ziyu, and he was not very familiar with his acting style: "Ziyu, try the feeling of wirework first. If it doesn't work, you can split this segment into three takes."
"One, two, three!" As soon as the words fell, Xiao Ziyu flew out. The staff who were pulling the rope did not feel the weight on the rope at all, but the speed of walking the rope did not slow down at all. They paused for a moment to react and subconsciously pulled it back.
If he wasn't hanging by a wire, this guy would probably have flown away!
The sun was at its brightest, and Xiao Ziyu's figure was a little blurry in the sunlight. His wide sleeves and robe outlined an ethereal figure. People on the ground could only hear the rustling of his clothes in the wind.
The crew nearby also looked up, thinking that it was an actor who had perfect coordination with the wire work. They thought that this big scene would be successful in one go, and some even cheered in advance.
Tang Lin was also a little confused sitting behind the camera. Generally, it is rare to perform such difficult aerial moves continuously. They had originally planned to rest at the landing points on the eaves before jumping, so that the effect would be the same when spliced together later, but they didn't expect Xiao Ziyu to perform three moves in one go.
"Pass!" he roared and stood up from his seat. The last person who could use wirework so skillfully in his camera was Yuan Heng.
Compared with Yuan Heng, Xiao Ziyu is much lighter.
.
"Wow! There's a living god over there!" The speaker was Luo Li, an intern currently being supervised by Zheng Hong. He was a senior and was about to graduate, but he was very lazy and always thought he could earn a million a year.
Zheng Hong brought him to the crew and wanted him to take a beating and see what thankless work the agents were doing.
After picking up Yuan Heng from the company, the three of them came to the cinema and saw the take-off scene as soon as they entered the door.
Although Luo Li exaggerated, the fleeting figure did attract attention. Some people hung on the wire like they were on an elevator, going straight up and down and very rigid, while others could do it with a flexible posture, as light as a cloud.
This is the first time I’ve seen someone hanging on a wire look the same as if he wasn’t.
Zheng Hong has come into contact with many actors, and for him, being able to float like a cloud is already the limit for wire hanging, but the man's movements just now were so smooth and flowing that he was almost "graceful like a swimming dragon."
"This is really good." He said to Yuan Heng.
Yuan Heng nodded, with a barely perceptible hint of pride in his expression.
Luo Li started speaking again: "Excuse me..."
Zheng Hong pinched his mouth and said, "Then don't say anything."
Luo Li jumped back a few steps. "Why are you still restricting my freedom of speech? Excuse me... the guy's wirework just now was even worse than Teacher Yuan's!"
"That's nothing short of amazing," Zheng Hong cursed in his heart, this unlucky child, have you forgotten who pays you?
Unexpectedly, Yuan Heng nodded in agreement: "Indeed."
Zheng Hong: “…”
The three of them walked into the crew while chatting, and from a distance they saw two figures standing together, wearing the same white clothes and robes, and it was difficult to tell them apart at first.
"This is the actor and his double, right?" Luo Li couldn't help but exclaim, "No wonder the audience couldn't tell them apart. They look exactly alike, and I couldn't tell them apart even when I was at the scene!"
"Do I need you to tell me that?" Zheng Hong glared at him, indicating that he should behave himself when meeting the director.
"There is still a difference," Yuan Heng said arrogantly, "The one on the left is Xiao Ziyu."
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