"Good morning, good morning, come on, have a steamed bun."
Qin Zhen handed Ji Yan and He Qing each a bag of steamed buns. The food for the "Youthful Love Poems" crew has been much better recently than when they first arrived. The crew negotiated with the village, and the village sent a chef to prepare meals for the actors every day.
It's getting cold, and I can't live on boxed lunches anymore.
"Good morning." Zhu Shuguang was a little late today. He yawned lazily. "It's only October, why is it so cold in the mountains?"
The filming of "Young Love Poems" is progressing faster than Zhu Shuguang expected. The actors are very cooperative, and nothing messy has happened during filming. Zhu Shuguang is in a pretty good mood now that filming has started.
"Cheer up and hang in there for a few more days." Zhu Shuguang glanced at Ji Yan. "There's plenty of time. Don't put too much pressure on yourself."
Zhu Shuguang had already prepared for the filming to be postponed, but Ji Yan's outstanding performance boosted the atmosphere of the entire crew. Ji Yan is not only talented, but also very eager to learn. It's hard for directors not to appreciate such an actor.
Zhu Shuguang understood why Li Xiang chose Ji Yan to play the role in "I, Nameless".
...
After finishing his makeup, the crew members were all in place. Ji Yan skillfully stood in front of the camera, and as soon as Zhu Shuguang announced the start of filming, he quickly got into character.
This is a scene that everyone in the "Young Love Poems" crew is quite familiar with.
Over the past three months, Ji Yan has gained more and more filming experience. When he gets into character, it's hard to believe that this is only his second film.
It happened to be a cloudy day. In the shot, thick clouds drifted across the sky. Gu Shan was at home wiping photos. A photo of his wife and daughter was placed on the table. Next to the photo were stacks of information and photos of stars, all of which he treasured and kept.
After his wife left, time seemed to stretch on endlessly for Gu Shan. He could only look at information about the stars more and more frequently, immersing himself completely in the observation of the stars.
This day seemed no different from any other.
The camera focused on Ji Yan.
From the monitor footage, Gu Shan remained silent, but he smiled less and less, and his eyes always showed a sense of emptiness—only when looking at the stars would his eyes occasionally sparkle.
This is also what shocked everyone on the set.
The longer the filming went on, the better Ji Yan was able to control the character's emotions. Just like now, even though he was still portraying Gu Shan, this Gu Shan was different from the previous Gu Shan, and all of this could be shown through his subtle expressions.
"If I were a judge for the Changkong Award, I would gladly award it to Ji Yan," Lu Yu whispered to Qin Zhen.
He was not optimistic about the film "Young Love Poems". Not to mention that this type of film is not popular in the market, it is not easy to find an actor who is young enough and can perfectly portray the character of Gu Shan.
But they just happened to run into each other.
Ji Yan is currently filming "Young Love Poems," and Lu Yu is keeping an eye out for him. Whenever they happen to be eating or drinking together and the production crew is looking for actors, Lu Yu always makes sure to give Ji Yan a few words of encouragement.
Ji Yan himself may not be willing to film more movies, but Lu Yu does not want his rare talent to be wasted.
The daytime scene can be seen as a reflection of Gu Shan's lifestyle, while at night, when he looks at the stars, Gu Shan finally shows a bit of human vitality.
However, in the eyes of others, this eccentric guy is getting weirder and weirder.
This scene tonight is the highlight of the production team, and it's also Ji Yan's last scene with the "Youthful Love Poems" crew. The actors quickly took their positions, and Ji Yan also tried his best to adjust his state.
"Go for it, Teacher Ji!"
"No problem." Ji Yan clenched his fist. "I will fight to the very end."
Filming begins.
On this day, Gu Shan was looking at the stars in the courtyard. It was a cloudy day with few stars, and the night wind was cool. Gu Shan sat wrapped in his coat, looking even thinner than before.
Suddenly, firelight was reflected in his pupils.
The firelight seemed to be coming from his most treasured room, spreading from outside into the room. A look of panic flashed in Gu Shan's eyes, and he rushed inside.
Thick smoke filled the air, and there were dense trees and a haystack outside. The fire was getting fiercer and fiercer. Gu Shan quickly grabbed a photo of his wife and daughter and rushed out with a large stack of documents. But at this moment, he saw an even more intense fire - it turned out that the fire did not come from his house, but from his friend's house next door.
The child's cries reached his ears faintly.
He clutched the information about the stars in his hand, then placed the photos of his wife and daughter to his chest, and walked towards the direction from which the crying was coming from.
Gu Shan had never had such a serious expression in his entire life.
He always appeared silent or lost in thought, seemingly oblivious. But at this moment, his steps quickened and became more determined. The fire grew larger, yet he showed no sign of backing down. His face became increasingly blurred, and his entire body was almost swallowed by the sea of fire.
Finally, Gu Shan hugged the crying child tightly.
He wasn't actually good at close contact with people, and even when he was with his daughter, he was very cautious and rarely hugged her or showed his fatherly love like other fathers. But at this moment, his aloofness seemed to have disappeared. After picking up the child, he started to rush out, but the fire grew bigger and bigger and more intense, and his body slowly became as blurry as his face.
This is Gu Shan's last scene on the set of "Young Love Poems".
Throughout the entire filming process, Zhu Shuguang maintained a solemn expression but never called for a pause. From the moment Ji Yan began filming until the very end, he remained silent, allowing the filming to continue.
As the final scene ended, Zhu Shuguang clapped his hands sharply: "Very good!"
In this scene, Ji Yan once again performed to his expected standard. He accurately captured Gu Shan's emotions at that moment. No matter how irresponsible Gu Shan was as a father or how obsessed he was with stars, he was first and foremost a human being.
Between the starry sky and the real world, he chose the starry sky, but when something more precious than the stars appears in his eyes, he will make a new choice.
...
Ji Yan let out a long sigh of relief. He hadn't felt it while filming, but when filming finally ended, he felt completely exhausted.
Not only am I physically exhausted, but I'm also mentally exhausted.
The filming period for "Young Love Poems" was longer than the time it took for "Wings" to prepare an album. The character Gu Shan was also unconventional and much more difficult to play than He Tang. Ji Yan originally thought that he might collapse while filming, but he still persevered.
"Very good, go and rest." Zhu Shuguang patted his back. "You've worked hard for so long."
"As long as the character is portrayed well, that's fine."
"That's good."
After Ji Yan finished filming his scenes, Zhu Shuguang's attitude softened considerably: "Stay a few more days, and I'll see if there are any scenes that need to be reshot."
Ji Yan nodded in agreement.
There are only one or two scenes left in the entire film "Young Love Poems," and he estimates that filming should be completed before November, which is much faster than Ji Yan had planned. This is his first starring film, and the plot spans the entire life of the character Gu Shan—although Gu Shan's life was not long.
But the tension and exhaustion he felt during filming... Ji Yan felt that he didn't want to be involved in any movies or TV series for at least six months.
He went straight to sleep when he got home, and slept until noon the next day, when he felt a little better.
Zhu Shuguang did have one or two more shots that needed to be reshot, but there wasn't much content, so it wasn't too difficult to film, and Ji Yan quickly got it done.
There was no wrap party because the crew simply couldn't afford it. However, Zhu Shuguang promised that once they returned to City A, he would invite the entire crew for a big meal.
Ji Yan felt that the director's description of the grand meal was too vague, so she directly asked what the standard for the grand meal was per person.
"I want the expensive one!" Ji Yan said righteously, "to make up for the suffering I've endured these past few months without food or internet."
Zhu Shuguang glanced at him and said, "I haven't seen you lose weight either."
...That's mainly because of eating instant noodles, hot and sour rice noodles, snail rice noodles, and self-heating hot pot.
“You’ve lost weight.” Ji Yan held up five fingers, his expression serious. “A whole 0.5 pounds.”
Zhu Shuguang: "..."
In short, Ji Yan's suggestion received a positive response from everyone in the "Youthful Love Poems" crew. It was a rare opportunity to extort Zhu Shuguang, so they couldn't pass up this meal.
Therefore, the director said that the producer would treat them to the meal.
Lu Yu shot him a chilling gaze. He felt that Zhu Shuguang's film didn't need a producer; it would be better to change the title to "sucker."
Ji Yan silently gave him a thumbs up.
...
After filming his scenes for "Youthful Love Poems" was completed, Ji Yan returned to City A from City N. Shortly after leaving the film set, Ji Yan noticed that the temperature had risen a few degrees. When he arrived in City A, he took off the thick coat he was wearing.
Having not seen the bustling city for several months, Ji Yan had a strong feeling of a country bumpkin coming to the city.
After his phone gained internet access, Ji Yan opened Weibo, and messages flooded in. There were tens of thousands of comments and private messages, some about the album "At 23" and others about the movie "Youthful Love Poems." In just over three months, there was a ton of gossip on Weibo, which Ji Yan thoroughly enjoyed.
He felt deep regret for missing out on these melons.
He didn't need to go out of his way to find it. Many fans had tagged him in the gossip about Ji Ruan and the "Super Flying Man" crew. Ji Yan took a look and saw that Raymond Dasseau was still arguing with Ji Ruan. His resentment seemed to run deep.
Ji Yan watched for a while and then lost interest in following along. After all, Fang Yu had already described the whole process to him, and it was really... indescribable.
As long as he's happy.
Ji Yan started browsing the news from the past few days again. He didn't know much about the entertainment industry, and he didn't recognize many of the celebrities who had been involved in scandals in the past few months; he only remembered their names. After browsing for a while, a few songs on the Weibo music chart caught Ji Yan's attention.
Number one on the list, in blue, is "Reverse Time".
Second on the list, in blue, is "Thorn Jungle".
"Blue released a new album, and you guys didn't even tell me!!!! @Thank you @Fang Datou @Your whole family withered."
"Oh, Teacher Ji, you're back from the deep mountains and forests?"
"Ha, the first thing you do when you get back isn't to greet your dear teammates. I've seen through you."
“Heartless Mr. Ji, since this is your attitude, I won’t give you the extra albums I bought.”
Ji Yan: "I love you all, sending you love. I love you the most in the whole world."
Others: "...Greasy."
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