Chapter 106 Who says women are inferior to men
The next morning after reporting in, the energetic and motivated actors gathered at the Small White Building of Tangren Company and began action training.
The martial arts director of the TV series "Young Generals of the Yang Family" is the famous Hong Kong martial arts director Chen Weitao.
He has directed many hit movies and TV series, including "The Twins", "Young Justice Bao", and "Kung Fu Soccer".
Cai Yinong invited him because he hoped that Chen Weitao could design some exciting and wonderful action scenes for the TV series.
Although Princess Chai, played by Liu Shishi, did not have any martial arts scenes, she still followed Cai Yinong's request and followed everyone else to honestly accept Chen Weitao's training to lay a solid foundation for action scenes.
Although the Yang family generals are good at using spears, martial arts scenes require more than just training in the use of weapons. The authenticity of the martial arts movements, control of strength, body flexibility and coordination are all very important.
As the saying goes, "Ten minutes on stage, ten years of hard work off stage." Although it is a bit exaggerated, if you want to present a wonderful martial arts scene in front of the camera, the actors need to spend time and energy to train repeatedly until they reach perfection.
Chen Weitao has been practicing martial arts for a long time. His eyes are bright and he looks lean and strong. He is surrounded by a group of actors. He is waving a spear and explaining the key points of spear-wielding movements in Cantonese.
"The force should be reasonable, too much is as bad as too little. The crew only uses props for everyone, so we must be careful not to use too much force, which may cause damage to the props or injuries to the actors. But we must not use too little force, which makes the fighting scenes look weak and powerless."
Chen Weitao glanced at the crowd, and finally his eyes fell on a burly man. He ordered: "He Rundong, come here and cooperate with me in the demonstration."
He Rundong has rich acting experience. He walked calmly to the middle of the training room with a long spear in his hand and stood facing Chen Weitao.
He stood in a horse stance with his legs crossed, holding the spear with both hands, and pointed the cold silver tip of the spear at Chen Weitao, making a very cool move.
Chen Weitao nodded slightly, very satisfied with He Rundong's one-step cooperation. He suddenly exerted force in his hand and thrust the spear forward. The spear hit He Rundong's spear, and a dull collision sound was immediately made.
His hands kept moving, waving the spear repeatedly, demonstrating the movements for everyone, while explaining the key points of the movements:
"Everyone, pay attention to me. Braking at the striking position is a very important technique. That is, using the reverse force to stop the weapon at the preset striking position so that it stays at the striking position. This can protect the actors and props, and also create a strong sense of force when the weapons collide."
Most of the actors present were new to using long weapons, and they only had a vague idea of what was going on. Hu Ge, who still couldn't get the gist of it, asked with a puzzled look on his face, "Director Chen, please demonstrate it again and give us some time to digest it."
An inch longer, an inch stronger. When he was filming "The Chinese Paladin", he only learned a few simple sword dance moves, but they were all superficial and just for show. What Chen Weitao taught at this time were professional skills with real swords and guns, which were indeed profound and difficult to understand.
Chen Weitao demonstrated it several times patiently, then put the gun away and stood upright.
"Talking without practice is just empty talk. Let's practice first. I will provide targeted guidance to each person based on their training situation."
After that, he divided everyone into two groups, male and female, and started practical training.
Although it was Liu Shishi's first time to participate in martial arts training, she picked up the skills very quickly and her talent far surpassed Tong Yao and Lin Jiayu. After a little training, she was able to wield a long spear with ease, attracting the attention of several people around her.
Because Liu Shishi is a dancer, her many years of dancing experience have given her excellent body coordination and flexibility, and she is good at using her waist and hips to generate power.
The dancer's excellent movement foundation allows her to drive the arms through the flexible rotation of her waist and hips, making the whole body coordinated and orderly, improving the coordination and viewing experience of the fighting scenes.
Chen Weitao was delighted to see Liu Shishi's extraordinary talent. He couldn't help but have a little more preference for this martial arts talent and would give her some targeted advice from time to time.
"Xiao Liu, you have to remember one thing. You are just actors. All your actions are performed for the audience. So you must pay attention to controlling your facial expressions when fighting. At the same time, you must learn to use body language to convey the character's psychological state. Only in this way can the fighting scenes be more vivid."
Chen Weitao taught Liu Shishi everything he knew, and she took the director's teachings to heart. She made rapid progress through simulated combat and already had some of the aura of an action star.
Every drop of sweat that fell was accompanied by the ticking of time. Everyone kept repeating the boring training movements, and soon two hours passed without realizing it.
Chen Weitao patrolled the field, paying attention to everyone's training status. Seeing that the actors looked tired, he clapped his hands and announced, "Everyone take a half-hour break."
Upon hearing this, everyone felt like a deflated ball. They hugged each other and took the time to relax and rest.
Tong Yao was exhausted and sat motionless on the ground. It took her a long time to come back to her senses. This was also her first time to participate in martial arts training, but her performance was far worse than that of Liu Shishi.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he gasped for help because his whole body was sore and weak, "Shishi, give me a hand, give me a hand."
Although Liu Shishi was sweating profusely and breathing rapidly, she was in much better condition than Tong Yao and Lin Jiayu. Upon hearing what was said, she reached out and pulled Tong Yao up, and helped them walk to the bench in the corner to sit down and rest.
Tong Yao's fingers were sore from holding the gun for a long time. She took a lot of effort to unscrew a bottle of mineral water. She didn't care about her ladylike image and gulped down a big gulp. She exhaled a breath of foul air and finally regained some energy.
Lin Jiayu standing by was even more unbearable. She was the daughter of a wealthy family in Taiwan and was usually spoiled. She had never experienced such hardship before.
At this time, his arms were sore and numb, and he had no strength at all. In addition, his palms were slippery with sweat, so he couldn't even open the bottle cap. He could only look at Liu Shishi pitifully.
Liu Shishi first helped Lin Jiayu unscrew a bottle of water in one go, then opened another bottle and took a few sips to replenish the missing water, and started chatting with the two delicate beauties on her left and right.
Thinking of Liu Shishi's moving and heroic figure during the training just now, Lin Jiayu instantly turned into a little fan girl, and was full of admiration: "Shishi, you are so amazing, the whole set of movements was done in one go, and Director Chen kept praising you."
Tong Yao also echoed and praised Liu Shishi, as if Liu Shishi was a peerless female knight with agile skills and heroic appearance.
Liu Shishi felt a little embarrassed by the praise from the two people. She blushed and said modestly, "How can it be so exaggerated? I have only practiced dancing and barely have some basics. I am far behind seniors like Teacher He Rundong."
Lin Jiayu was not convinced: "That's different. After all, Mr. He is a veteran who has been through a lot of training. He may not be as good as you when he first started training.
Alas, there is no hope for me to act in action scenes. I am clumsy and have no talent for this. I guess I can only act in modern dramas in the future."
Seeing her friend looking dejected, Liu Shishi held her hand and encouraged her, "Jiayu, this is only the first day of training, don't be discouraged. Director Chen is very experienced. As long as we train hard according to his requirements, we can perform beautiful action scenes."
Lin Jiayu knew that he was afraid of difficulties, and sighed: "Well, I'm mainly afraid that I can't hold on."
"It's okay. I'll encourage you. And Sister Yao, let's cheer together." When Liu Shishi was cheering for Lin Jiayu, she did not forget to bring the nursery rhymes.
Although Cai Yinong told her about Tong Yao yesterday and reminded her to be careful when interacting with Tong Yao, she was not interested in other people's private affairs, especially memories that could be considered as scars.
When they first met yesterday, Tong Yao left a very good impression on Liu Shishi. Her gentle and warm manner towards others made Miss Liu feel good about her and she was willing to get close to her during the filming period.
When the girls encouraged each other and decided to work together, Hu Ge pulled Yuan Hong to the three of them.
When reporting in yesterday morning, He Rundong's inappropriate joke ended up in an awkward situation for several people. Liu Shishi has not spoken to me until now and did not attend the party last night.
Hu Ge wanted to come over to greet and care for his junior sister in order to ease the relationship, but he was worried that Liu Shishi was still angry, so he specifically asked Yuan Hong to smooth things over.
Hu Ge glanced meaningfully at Tong Yao, who was smiling and chatting passionately with Liu Shishi. "Teacher Lin, Teacher Tong."
After nodding and greeting the two, he smiled at Master Liu who was sitting in the middle and said, "Master, how do you feel about the training?"
In fact, Liu Shishi didn't take yesterday's incident to heart. She was not an unreasonable person. It was not Hu Ge's problem in the first place, so why would she be upset with him?
Yesterday, a group of actors gathered at a bar. Now she follows her husband's lead and, like Song Ci, does not like to attend such gatherings.
Instead of spending this time chatting with your boyfriend, you might as well go about it. You’re in Hengdian now, and I’m sure some vixen will get restless again.
Seeing the two brothers coming, Hu Ge responded gently: "Fortunately, I can keep up with Director Chen's pace."
Lin Jiayu, however, looked very proud of it. He held his head high and praised proudly: "Shishi is amazing. Teacher Hu and Teacher Yuan, you don't know that Director Chen said that she is extremely talented and can endure hardships. She completes all the movements meticulously."
Hu Ge immediately looked at Liu Shishi with admiration. She never expected that such a weak little girl actually had such talent and the perseverance to continue training. It seemed that Sister K really had a good eye for talent.
Yuan Hong was a little skeptical, thinking that the girls were just flattering each other, "Today is only the first day, and there are still problems like falling off the wire to come, don't cry because you can't hold on."
"Teacher Yuan, you underestimate us girls. Who says women are inferior to men? The story of the female generals of the Yang family has been passed down through the ages. Although we are not as good as the female heroes of ancient times, we can still handle a martial arts training."
Tong Yao replied with a smile, her words were eloquent and powerful.
After being refuted, Yuan Hong immediately kept silent. A good man does not fight with a woman. The man who retorted to her was a ruthless person.
Even after being beaten up like that by her ex-boyfriend, she was able to laugh it off and forget the grudge. She even changed her testimony in court. She was full of shrewd calculations. An honest man like me could not beat her and dared not offend her.
Hu Ge is obviously not as naive as Yuan Hong, and follows the words of the nursery rhyme, deliberately praising her. "That's a pity, there are very few fighting scenes between the master and the master in this play, and the audience can't feast their eyes on it, which is a pity."
"Lay a good foundation, it will definitely be useful when filming in the future." Liu Shishi doesn't mind that she doesn't have many fighting scenes in this drama. It's always good to have a skill. Not to mention the future, Sister K promised her that there will be a lot of fighting scenes in the next "The Legend of the Condor Heroes".
A few people chatted for a while, and half an hour passed quickly. Chen Weitao called everyone together again to continue training. Master Liu pulled the reluctant Lin Jiayu up from his seat and picked up the spear again.
Seeing this, Hu Ge and Yuan Hong returned to the boys' group and re-engaged in intensive training. The girls were serious and hardworking, so how could a tall and strong man like him lose to the girls?
Several days of training passed in a flash, and it was already December 9th. As the first rays of morning sunshine fell on Hengdian, the shooting scene of "Young Generals of the Yang Family" was decorated solemnly and festively.
A red carpet stretched from the entrance to the front of the stage, with flowers and balloons placed on both sides, creating a warm and festive atmosphere.
After more than a week of careful preparation, the crew of "Young Generals of the Yang Family" officially started filming at the Hengdian Film and Television Base today.
In the center of the stage, a huge backdrop is particularly eye-catching. On it are written in large golden letters: "Good luck to the start of filming of "Young Generals of the Yang Family"," which shines brightly in the morning light.
There is a square altar in the middle of the stage, on which is placed a majestic statue of Guan Gong. There are also tribute fruit plates piled around it, which is full of traditional mystery.
The film and television industry in Hong Kong and Taiwan is deeply influenced by traditional drama. There has always been a custom of offering sacrifices to gods before filming begins, hoping to ensure smooth filming and the safety of all personnel by praying for the gods' protection.
The main creative team of "Young Generals of the Yang Family" all come from Hong Kong and Taiwan, so they will hold a grand worship ceremony before filming begins.
At 8:18 in the morning, at the auspicious time chosen by the crew, Cai Yinong, along with the director, actors and crew members, walked onto the stage to officially hold the opening ceremony.
Cai Yinong held three incense sticks in his hands with a serious expression as he stood in the center facing the statue of Guan Gong. On his left and right were directors Wei Hantao and Liang Shengquan, followed by several leading actors and staff members who lined up in order. The atmosphere was solemn and dignified.
After reciting auspicious blessings, he led everyone to bow three times to the statue of Guan Gong, then with a pious face and holding incense sticks, he slowly walked forward and inserted three incense sticks into the bronze incense burner in front of the statue.
Suddenly, smoke from the stove rose up, interweaving with the lingering morning mist to form a hazy and sacred picture.
Afterwards, several directors came forward one after another to burn incense and worship the gods. Wei Hantao even clasped his hands together, closed his eyes and prayed silently. Hong Kong directors are indeed more superstitious and attach great importance to the opening ceremony.
As the incense burned, a faint fragrance spread, which was the smell of ancient wood and spices.
It makes people feel relaxed and happy when they smell it, as if all the worries and sorrows are blown away with the wisp of green smoke. Everyone present hopes that the crew will start filming smoothly and that "Young Generals of the Yang Family" will have great viewership.
(End of this chapter)
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