Difficult to serve
Ever since the crew of "The Trapped Color" came to this small mountain village in a lively manner, the villagers have been having a lot of fun.
First, the producer came here and rented a large piece of mountain land. As soon as the rent was received, the village chief distributed it to everyone. Then the art team came in to build the exterior scenes, rented houses from the villagers, and provided another rent.
After people from other departments of the crew arrived, the villagers not only rented out all the vacant houses, but also sold all the vegetables in the fields and the poultry they had raised for a long time. Some people who stayed at home for various reasons were able to do some small jobs on the crew.
Now, even children in the village are being asked to be child actors! They can appear on TV and computers!
Under the instructions of their grandparents, about twenty children changed into the costumes provided by the crew, huddled together in a small group regardless of height, and slowly moved into the main shooting scene, pushing and pulling each other.
It is a "library" built with two different artistic styles combining traditional ancient charm and futuristic fantasy. The children are the "librarians" here. After the shooting starts, some older children can even fly on wires, but the younger ones can only rely on CG.
Although the scene was a semi-finished product and many places were surrounded by green screens and required post-production special effects processing, the children had never seen such a new place. Those who were usually brave enough to make a fight kept their mouths shut, and those who were usually full of energy and ran around in the middle of the day and deliberately went to other people's houses to knock on doors, now did not dare to move.
My grandparents said that those people were filming a TV show, and everything they brought was very valuable. They couldn’t afford to pay for it if they broke it.
In fact, if you count them per person, they don't have many roles, just a few more lines than extras. It wouldn't be cost-effective to bring child actors from far away, and the elders of other families would also be worried, so they found children from the village nearby.
But the village elders were worried! Plus, there were a lot of people who loved to join in the fun and came to watch their children's first filming, and the inexperienced children couldn't help but look outside.
The crew finally persuaded the onlookers to leave, but they still couldn't get any usable footage.
Especially in close-up shots, the children wanted to hide when they saw the camera. They were also not used to the glaring lights on the ceiling and surrounding areas. Their constant movement in the shot made their expressions lose their focus. Some of them tried hard to remain calm, but they looked too stiff. There was no choice but to move their scenes to a later time.
This group of staff packed up and left, and then Ji Rongyu came.
He himself had often visited his grandfather's home in the countryside when he was a child, and he had some things in common with them. He sat down on a small stool, gave each of the children some jelly chocolate, and asked softly, "Why are you so nervous? Are you scared?"
The children all looked at the tallest girl. She put her hand holding the chocolate into her pocket and whispered, "A little bit... but we can perform well soon."
"Well, I believe you." Ji Rongyu said, took out his cell phone, and slowly moved closer to the girl's face with the phone in hand: "What's your name?"
The girl just glanced at the black phone curiously, then returned her gaze to Ji Rongyu's face: "My name is Zhao Xiaoye."
"What are you going to do now?"
"I..." Xiao Ye suddenly had an idea and said, "I'm a librarian now! Brother, if you want to read a book, I can fly so high and take the book down from the top of that cabinet for you."
"Thank you," Ji Rongyu pressed the stop button and smiled as he played the close-up video he had just taken of Xiao Ye. "Look, you really acted well."
Xiao Ye was stunned for a moment, then excitedly reached for the phone. Ji Rongyu continued, "When you used your phone to video call your parents, did you also look at their faces like this? Actually, what a camera captures is pretty much the same as what a phone captures, just clearer, so there's no need to be afraid."
Although cameras were far from her life, she was thankfully used to seeing phones. Xiao Ye held up her phone and stared at herself on the screen. Hmm? It didn't look quite like what she usually saw in the mirror. But as she stretched out her arm and then retracted it, the face on the screen grew and shrank, and this sense of control made her tension quickly disappear.
What the older brother said is right. Even if you use a camera to shoot, you are still shooting your own face!
There happened to be a photography assistant named He in the crew, who was also from the mountain village. When the other staff members left, she said hello and stayed, and had been busy with something nearby.
At this moment, she connected the camera to the laptop and showed some of the recorded footage to the children. The children gathered around her and pointed at the screen excitedly, laughing at themselves and their friends who were funnier than them.
There were also some who were interested in the filming. After watching the clips, they chatted softly with Assistant He. She taught them a simple introduction to the equipment. Seeing this, Ji Rongyu simply asked the crew for a batch of spare notebooks and pens, and started teaching the children in this library.
Although the filming was paused, the HMI lights on the ceiling were still on and the octagonal softboxes continued to work overtime, so that they could adapt to the environment as quickly as possible.
Ji Rongyu turned around in the bright light as daylight and couldn't help but calculate the electricity bill in his mind...or maybe just forget it.
Fortunately, the crew was experienced and brought enough solar panels, voltage stabilizers, and silent generators, otherwise the voltage in the village would not be enough.
Those who like to learn about machines took their notebooks and went to learn from Assistant He, while those who didn’t like machines gathered around Ji Rongyu and listened to his temporary open class.
This was a first for Ji Rongyu. He rubbed his nose, went over what he was going to say in his mind, and then spoke: "Look at that camera. Do you know what it's used for?"
"Take pictures of people!" a little boy answered quickly, then thought for a moment and said, "Sometimes I take pictures even when there's no one around."
"Yes, it will take pictures of the scenery when there is no one around. Your home is in a place with beautiful scenery, but there are some scenes that you don't have here, so we usually make one ourselves according to the needs."
Ji Rongyu brought a glass water tank to the table, which he had borrowed from the props team in advance. He then poured the prepared salt into a small bucket filled with water, and asked the children to stir it until it could not melt anymore, and then poured the saturated salt water into the water tank.
Finally, slowly pour a bucket of fresh water along the inner wall of the glass, and a "cloud water tank" is ready.
There is no visible difference between fresh water and salt water in the glass tank with the naked eye, but the salt water has a higher density and will form a layer with the fresh water in the glass tank. Then milk is slowly poured in. After the white liquid hits the invisible dividing line, it gradually diffuses in the water and forms a flowing white smoke. Because this diffusion always remains above the dividing line, it looks very much like clouds floating in the clear sky.
Ji Rongyu half-knelt down and approached the glass water tank. Just as he was about to explain this phenomenon more clearly, he saw a figure walking towards him from behind the cloud. It was Lu Xinyang, who had just finished filming his scene and came here covered in sweat.
The weather has been fluctuating between hot and cold recently, and today was one of them. This made Lu Xinyang miss the days when he could eat ice cream as much as he wanted while filming.
As soon as Ji Rongyu saw him, he waved to him: "Are you here to help?"
The first thing Lu Xinyang said was, "What is this? I want to play too."
Oh no, I'm here to make things worse. Ji Rongyu stuffed a glass of water into his hand and told him to stand aside and drink it, then turned around with a stern face and continued teaching.
He tilted his head back and drank the water in one gulp. He put the cup down and shamelessly followed, sticking close to Ji Rongyu: "Hello, kids. I'm here to teach you too. My last name is Lu, so you should call me Teacher Lu."
"Hello, Teacher Lu." The children called out obediently.
Teacher Lu was very satisfied with being called. He immediately borrowed a lamp from Assistant He and added some light to the side of the water tank to make the layers and patterns in the clouds clearer and more natural.
"Hehe," he smiled, meeting Ji Rongyu's gaze and said, "This makes it more like her, right?"
"...Okay, let's continue. Right now we're seeing the effect of milk, but if we put in other liquids, like oil, or a layer of salt water, a layer of fresh water, and then a layer of salt water, we can more intuitively see the added liquid being driven by the density difference in the water tank, creating a natural flow effect. As long as it's operated properly, this basic principle can be used to meet a wide range of shooting needs."
Ji Rongyu explained the principle while slowly operating it, not surprisingly hearing the wow sound of one piece after another: "If you want more color, you can add some paint or ink. If you want more variety, you can stir it with something or blow on it."
As he spoke, he dipped the straw into the water and blew a breath, causing the mist to flow more gracefully. Lu Xinyang was standing next to him, fanning the children vigorously with a sunshade. With the two of them working together, there really was a sense of floating in the air.
Several children were so engrossed in the performance that they closed their eyes, with exaggerated expressions of enjoyment on their faces. Ji Rongyu found it funny and glanced at them a few more times. He accidentally used too much force with his hand and dispersed the beautiful mist in the water tank.
"Ahem," Ji Rongyu pretended to withdraw his hand naturally, turning the practical class back into an oral class. "To design a perfect cloud effect, the key is to understand the density and viscosity differences of different liquids. We've already talked about density, but what about viscosity? Do you know of any relatively viscous liquids?"
"Is millet porridge okay?" Xiaoye raised her hand and said, "I used to put freshly cooked porridge into water to cool it down quickly. Sometimes I accidentally dripped porridge into the water, but I saw that the porridge didn't melt."
"You can give it a try," Ji Rongyu said, "maybe it will have unexpected effects."
"And paint! I've touched the paint my dad uses, and it's so hard to wash off, even water can't wash it off. It's so sticky!"
"Well, if you have any ideas, you can go back and discuss them with your classmates. There is an empty glass water tank here today. You can use the basic materials we prepared to experience it yourself." Lu Xinyang said as he quickly brought up the new water tank and let them toy with it.
The children discussed it using hammer, paper, scissors, and finally decided to adopt a conservative strategy and try the method taught by Teacher Ji first.
They replaced the milk with paint, and then poured in salt water of different concentrations alternately, stirring, blowing, and beating it, and the final result... was no result. The whole tank of water was a mess, but the children were so happy that they showed their true colors. They no longer felt that there was any distance between them and these people. They all wanted to pounce on them and hang on them.
"Teacher, if there is no ink, can we make our own ink?"
"We have goji berries here. When you soak them, they produce red water. Can we use this?"
"Teacher, teacher, can we use chicken blood? When we kill chickens at home, so much blood bleeds out, it's like a river!" The child stretched out his short arms and gestured to draw a river over a meter long. "We can use it as red ink, and we'll never run out!"
Ji Rongyu was stunned for a moment and asked, "How big are your chickens?"
"Five or six pounds!"
"Oh...that's a lot," he said. "You should use it sparingly, or I'm afraid your grandparents will beat you."
The child nodded seriously: "Yes! I will save it and give the unused parts to the teacher in the evening."
“…You don’t have to be so polite.”
When Ji Rongyu announced the end of get out of class, the children finally stopped chattering around him. Instead, they combined work and rest and played the role of librarians, which they had not played well before. They also seriously hired themselves positions such as history book group leader, comic book group leader, and magic bookshelf leader.
However, it was clear that not all the children knew what they were supposed to do. One little girl was still standing there. She looked around a bit confusedly, and then seemed to have chosen Lu Xinyang as her target. Without saying a word, she walked over and held his hand: "Uncle, can you call me sister? I don't have any brothers or sisters, so you can play my sister."
Lu Xinyang pointed at himself, then at Ji Rongyu and asked, "Then what do you call him?"
"Of course I call you teacher." The little girl answered crisply.
"Then I'm your teacher too," Lu Xinyang also held her chubby little hand and argued, "Why do you only allow me to call you sister?"
"Okay, I get it. You don't want to call me sister," the little girl said dejectedly, "Then you can call me teacher sister. You'll be willing to do that, right?"
Ji Rongyu said: "Ah???"
Lu Xinyang looked up, his eyes flashing with a cunning look, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Ji Rongyu covered it.
Lu Xinyang struggled and spoke quickly, "Don't worry, I won't call you sister! You're not a girl, how could I call you sister? It's so inappropriate. I must call you brother!"
When he said this, Ji Rongyu covered his mouth again, and this time he covered it with all his strength, as if he wanted to stuff that mouth back into his stomach.
The little girl looked at Lu Xinyang, then at Ji Rongyu, and pulled her hand away from Lu Xinyang. She said with a bit of disgust, "Why are you like this? Sigh, you don't even want to call me Teacher Sister. You're really hard to please."
"Did you hear that?" Ji Rongyu glared at him fiercely. Lu Xinyang said, "I heard it. You don't even want to be called brother. You're really hard to please."
Ji Rongyu pressed his head and pushed him backwards, then looked around and found that no one was paying attention to the little girl, and her parents didn't seem to be with her either.
Isn't that a bit too reassuring?
Ji Rongyu squatted down and compared his height with the little girl, then asked uncertainly, "How big do you think she is?"
Lu Xinyang bent down, picked her up, and weighed her: "More than 30 kilograms."
Ji Rongyu: "...I'm asking you how old she is."
Lu Xinyang lifted the little girl a little higher and asked her, "How old are you?"
The little girl shook her short legs and pouted her red lips as she answered, "Four... four and a half years old."
"Four and a half years old." Lu Xinyang put her down after saying that, and she looked up at Lu Xinyang's arms, as if she wanted a hug.
Ji Rongyu thought about it and felt that they couldn't just take care of the little girl by themselves. It would be better to find an older girl to look after her first, and then ask the staff to help contact her family.
It is definitely better to have older children who are familiar to the village take care of younger children than adults from outside.
There is actually a ready-made candidate here, Xiaoye. All the other friends have gone out to play, but she is still sitting there organizing her notes.
Ji Rongyu had glanced at her notebook during class just now. The words written by other children were in big and small circles, but hers were neat and tidy. The experimental procedures and precautions seemed to be exactly the same, so she remembered them all over the paper.
Ji Rongyu was thinking about buying some more paper and pens for them. He walked over to her and asked, "Xiao Ye, can you help the teacher look around? Do you know her?"
Xiao Ye looked up and nodded: "I know him."
"Then can you help us keep her here for a while? We need to go look for her family."
"Sure." Xiao Ye didn't ask any more questions, probably because he knew the girl's family situation very well.
She handed her notebook to Ji Rongyu: "By the way, teacher, do I have to hand this in as a homework book?"
"Of course not. If I give it to you, it's yours."
Ji Rongyu glanced down and saw that Xiaoye's notes were more rigorous than he had imagined. She had written down all of his demonstrations and explanations, as well as the process of them doing it themselves, and had also written down several ideas that she had not had time to try.
However, the rigorous record was interspersed with a few lines of redundant text from time to time. Upon closer inspection, the contents included: Teacher Lu blocked Teacher Ji's way, Teacher Ji hit Teacher Lu on the head (Xiaodan said it was not a hit, but a touch), Teacher Lu followed Teacher Ji wherever he went, Teacher Lu played with Teacher Ji's hat, Teacher Lu was still looking at Teacher Ji, Teacher Ji turned around...
Ji Rongyu almost dropped the notebook in his hand. There was a long, sticky paragraph behind the two names, but he didn't dare to read any further.
"What's wrong, teacher? Don't I remember well?"
Turning his head to meet Xiaoye's innocent gaze, Ji Rongyu covered the long paragraph of black and white writing that looked like evidence with a stiff expression, and said with forced calmness: "Very good, I remember the first part very well, but you don't need to remember the rest."
"Why?"
"No reason," Ji Rongyu said, looking very weak, word by word, "because this way... um... saves paper..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
