Due to other work arrangements, Shen Qingqing did not stay long either. After she left, Xiao Yan helped Qin Wei with her makeup and then changed her costume.
In the meantime, Qin Wei was looking at the script the whole time. The first scene to be shot today was Zhao Yu bringing Gong Lan to the bamboo house and waiting for her to wake up, only for the two to get into a big fight after she woke up.
This was an important scene in the first half of the movie. Qin Wei had made preparations for it ahead of time. Not only did she learn the moves with the crew's martial arts director, but she also hired a martial arts teacher at her own expense to seriously learn how to use cold weapons.
"Done."
Xiao Yan put down the makeup brush, satisfied as she rested her hands on her waist and looked at Qin Wei in the mirror.
This was no celebrity Qin Wei. In black martial arts clothes with her long hair tied up by a golden hairpiece, her sharp eyebrows and bright eyes made her look just like a handsome young man from a comic.
Since her makeup had long been done, Qin Wei didn't feel it was strange when she looked at herself in the mirror. Zhao Yu, this role, had been hanging around the military camp for a long time with a gang of ragtag friends. It was inevitable she'd lack some of a young lady's gentleness and have more casual easiness and flair of the Jianghu instead. So dressing up more masculinely made perfect sense.
After the makeup was done, Tang came over to knock on the door. With the most set experience on the team, he was fully responsible for liaising between the team's artists and the crew this time.
And like always, Tang was up to it.
"Sis, Director Yuan said to ask you to come over. She wants to go over the scenes again before shooting starts to confirm the filming and blocking."
...
As noon hit, the heat picked up. Li Jing held an umbrella sending Qin Wei to the set where Qiao Sixiao had already arrived earlier and was talking with Director Yuan. Seeing Qin Wei come over, Director Yuan crooked a finger calling her over too.
"The only two of you are in the scenes today. Let me share the mood with you before we start shooting. The two characters have met before, but this is the first time Zhao Yu and Gong Lan are seeing each other after Zhao Yu took Gong Lan out.
I'm planning to shoot two versions today - one version with Gong Lan knowing Zhao Yu is a woman, and one version of her not knowing. We'll shoot both versions today and going forward."
After Director Yuan finished, assistant Xiao Ye finally understood why actors who had worked on Director Yuan's films would sometimes describe plot happenings in interviews that never appeared in the actual movie.
So that was why.
"Why shoot two versions?"
Somehow, Zhou Fang had squeezed herself over.
"To make editing easier for me," Director Yuan answered on her own initiative upon hearing the question.
"This way I don't have to worry about spoilers, not even the main actors know what the plot is."
"Oh..." Zhou Fang seemed to semi understand. When Director Yuan was explaining the scenes to the actors, she asked Ye Jiahe:
"They start fighting as soon as they meet. Don’t you have to explain what happened before?"
Ye Jiahe happened to be free and explained to her classmate:
"Because most TV shows and movies aren't shot in sequence following the plot development, but by scene. And there are scheduling considerations around actor availability, rental periods of shooting locations, and other complex reasons. If you shoot strictly following the plot sequence, and an actor only has three or five scattered scenes, you can't realistically expect to call the actor back to the set that many extra times, right?"
After Ye Jiahe finished, she asked Zhou Fang again:
"Long time no see, what brought you here?"
Zhou Fang hugged a laptop:
"I was bored waiting around at the company. Little Qiao said I could come to the set and hang out with you for a couple days, as long as I don't get in the way of work... Oh, Jia Jia, have you seen our company's peacock? I'll take you to see it when you have time!"
"......"
...
Director Yuan had said all she needed to. Next was for the actors to rehearse together.
Although they had known each other for quite some time and worked together on variety shows with joint appearances on a TV series not long ago, this was still the first time acting opposite each other.
And today was the first scene, no less.
The two stood inside the bamboo house. Qiao pointed at the bed looking at the script and said to Qin Wei:
"I'll lie there later. The camera will be aimed at my face. Then you come over. I suggest you enter the frame from an angle so your face doesn't look too big on camera, and it'll make your facial features look better..."
The two went over the script together, gesturing as they talked. Then they discovered a problem -
Since Gong Lan hadn't woken up yet, Zhao Yu had to carry Gong Lan running for a stretch before entering the bamboo house and placing her on the bed.
They had left the role open for a strong actress to play Zhao Yu, so it remained reserved.
Now Director Yuan was considering deleting this section and just having Zhao Yu help support Gong Lan walking back into the bamboo house instead.
"Can we use a stunt double and shoot from the back? Or just shoot the top half of the bodies?" Qiao Sixiao suggested, considering how questionable it'd seem for Gong Lan to make it back while passed out.
Director Yuan thought about it and shook her head:
"Either walking or carrying. There's a wide landscape shot."
Qiao Sixiao could only compromise:
"Then helping her walk it is. I may not be heavy but she can't handle it either. Let's try supporting each other walking..."
It was then that Qin Wei spoke:
"What do you mean? You two make the decisions? Why am I automatically 'can't handle it'? Isn't it fun to lightly write others off?"
As Qin Wei talked, she bent down, wrapped an arm around Qiao's waist, and used her other hand to support Qiao's legs, picking her up.
"Awesome, Qin Wei!"
Director Yuan clapped her hands, truly not expecting Qin Wei to be so strong. Although Qiao Sixiao wasn't heavy, it was impressive for Qin Wei who was about the same size to be able to pick her up.
After all, even some of the exceptionally rare male artists in the industry, no fingers pointed, couldn't pick up eighty to ninety Jin women.
"Of course."
Qin Wei put her down, still basking a little:
"I just want to play the male lead in an idol drama because I can do the signature princess carry.
But the casting director told me to get real and had me play the rich, nasty second female lead instead.
I thought that was fine too since that was the only normal character throughout the show, but my agent disagreed so that was the end of that.
Today, though, I get to live out my dream of being in an idol drama!"
Director Yuan gleefully clapped her hands:
"Alright, that's great. You two hurry up and go over there now. Pick her up and start running!"
...
Half an hour later.
Director Yuan shouted through a bullhorn:
"Qin Wei, what's wrong with you? You only ran carrying her five times and you're panting already?"
Qin Wei: "......"
Director Yuan: "Why are you shaking? Be careful you drop the star actress. She's delicate and fragile!"
Qin Wei: "......"
With her arms wrapped around Qin Wei's neck, Qiao Sixiao said to her:
"Come on, stop quibbling with Teacher over nonsense. Put me down and rest a minute..."
Qin Wei rolled her eyes at the camera and said to Director Yuan:
"I've got this."
Action—
Zhao Yu had a grave look on her face. She glanced down at the passed out Gong Lan in her arms and then ran towards the depths of the bamboo forest until reaching the bamboo house. She gently placed Gong Lan onto the bed and then held this position waiting for the director to call "cut."
"Cut! Great job everyone! Take five!"
Qin Wei went limp, her limbs heavy as lead, her brain shutting down. She had to consider both stamina and performance at the same time - managing expressions, rhythm, everything. She was dead beat and just flopped over onto the bed.
"Oof!"
Half her body and arms pressed down on her co-star who swore at her trying to shove her off. Although Qiao was the one being carried, these repeated takes were tiring for her as well.
She raised a hand, feeling Qin Wei's back which was already drenched in sweat through the costume.
Ah whatever, she wouldn't fuss over it... Just stay put...
