Chapter 31 Filming Starts
Nine .
When Zhou Qiqi left in the car, he even lowered the window and waved goodbye to Xu Kun.
Xu Kun also responded enthusiastically yet reservedly.
Although there were some twists and turns in the process, the result was good. He successfully gained a little fan girl with his "acting skills" and almost exchanged mobile phone numbers with the girl. Unfortunately, he was intercepted by County Magistrate Zhou halfway.
The little girl also said that she would come to visit the crew during the winter vacation - she is in middle school in the provincial capital and took a temporary leave to come here today.
Xu Kun just hoped that when she came, she would not encounter a group of rough men as black as coal balls surrounding the female workers and saying obscene words.
In addition, County Magistrate Zhou also agreed with Li Yang that the county’s real place names and landmark buildings should not appear in the play - the owners of the small coal mines don’t care, but the county wants to save face.
…………
Return to the hotel.
Everyone joined together to denounce Li Yixiang. If Li Yixiang hadn't been lazy and refused to go, with this old class leader of the 92 class of Beijing Film Academy in charge, why would Xu Kun be needed to support the situation with his wild fox Zen?
In the following days, Li Yang did not rush to start filming, but took the actors to the mine to experience life.
Xu Kun went down into the mine with Li Yixiang during the day and rehearsed lines with Baoqiang at night. In between, he also found time to go to the radio station with Li Yang to prepare for an audition for the "employees" of the massage parlor.
As a result, except for a young female host who responded positively, the rest had their own concerns and were not very enthusiastic.
After all, they are playing the role of fallen women. If any rumors spread in this small county town, it will definitely affect their daily lives.
In the end, the female host who had signed up enthusiastically was also stopped because she was the anchor of the evening news and represented the image of the county.
In the end, it was only out of consideration for County Magistrate Zhou that a few young girls were selected from the county drama troupe.
As a result, the crew encountered some problems during this period. After visiting the mine with no safety measures, a prop, a script supervisor, and the actor who played "Tang Zhaoxia" ran away one after another - the character who was killed by Tang and Song as soon as he appeared on the stage, and was suspected to be Yuan Fengming's father.
The common feature of these people is that they need to go down into the mines.
Such a thing happened at the last minute, which made Li Yang very anxious. He had to rush back to the capital overnight and use his connections to find a replacement.
After all the hassles here and there, it was already the middle of the month by the time we turned on the machine.
Of course, there is also good news. For example, Xu Kun and Li Yixiang have completely integrated into the mine. They can mingle with the miners whether walking, sitting or lying down, and there is no sign of anything unusual.
Xu Kun even became good friends with the bodyguard and driver at the mine, and he knew everything from him - according to this buddy's private disclosure, no less than seven or eight people were buried in this small mine alone over the years.
Most of them died in mining accidents, but some did not die in mining accidents.
Xu Kun didn't tell anyone about these things, firstly because he promised to keep it secret; secondly, even if he told them, everyone would still have to go down the well, which would only add to their fear.
December 12th in the Gregorian calendar is a good day to break ground.
At the opening ceremony, Li Yang gritted his teeth and bought three intact animals in order to have a good start. The cow alone cost him several thousand yuan.
But beef soup does boost morale.
The first scene of the official filming was the beginning of the script, where Song Jinming, Tang Zhaoyang and Tang Zhaoxia filed out of the shed and prepared to start working in the mine.
It's not that Li Yang planned to shoot in sequence, the main thing is that this new 'Tang Zhaoxia' was a strong man he forced to recruit from the capital, and he was in a hurry to return to the capital after the shooting.
Compared with the original version, Xu Kun's version made many changes in details. For example, "Tang Zhaoxia" originally came to the mine as a younger brother, but now he has naturally been changed to Tang Chaoyang's "older brother".
For example, after getting the safety helmets and coal mining tools, the shot of the three of them gathered together to smoke was originally started with Tang Chaoyang, with "Tang Zhaoxia" in the middle, and Song Jinming finally snatched it and took a big sip to end it.
Now it was Song Jinming [Li Yixiang]'s turn to draw first, and then casually passed it to Tang Zhaoxia, who greedily took two sips, and when Tang Chaoyang [Xu Kun] snatched it away, some saliva came out of it.
Tang Chaoyang [Xu Kun] showed a look of disgust, rubbed it hard on his sleeve first, then frowned and took two puffs, then threw it on the ground and stomped it out.
"Brother, let's go~"
He greeted lazily, and the three of them boarded the elevator together, sinking into the mine with the shaking camera.
The shot of sinking in the elevator was shot in one take.
But after shooting the scene of coming down from the elevator five or six times, Li Yang was still not satisfied with it. Finally, after discussing with the assistant director and cameraman, he decided to cut this scene.
Then the three of them started working in the mine tunnel like normal miners.
Because 'Tang Zhaoxia' was a temporary conscript, his movements were obviously unfamiliar and stiff compared to Xu Kun and Li Yixiang, so the main shots were of the latter two.
About a quarter of an hour later, Li Yang, who had collected enough materials, called out "click". Then came the most important plot in the early stage.
Seeing other miners delivering a cart of coal, Tang Zhaoxia, with sweat dripping down his neck, took the initiative to invite the two miners to take a break.
The three of them squatted down in a relatively flat tunnel. Tang Zhaoyang [Xu Kun] grabbed the water bottle first and took a few gulps. Then he stuffed it into his nominal brother Tang Zhaoxia and said, "Look at how tired you are, with all the sweat on your forehead."
As he spoke, Tang Zhaoyang [Xu Kun] took off Tang Zhaoxia's helmet and wiped the sweat off his forehead with a towel.
Tang Zhaoxia held the kettle and said honestly, "I'm not tired, I just miss my baby a little bit."
"What's there to miss, baby? I think you're thinking about your wife."
Song Jinming [Li Yixiang] joked and quietly put a short pickaxe behind his back.
Tang Zhaoyang [Xu Kun] also picked up a pickaxe, held it in his arms with both hands, and listened with a smile as Song Jinming joked about Tang Zhaoxia's wife.
Seeing that the teasing was almost over, Tang Chaoyang [Xu Kun] suddenly said: "Brother, I will send you home today, what do you think?"
Tang Zhaoxia looked at him in confusion, then looked at Song Jinming [Li Yixiang], and asked curiously, "What day is it today? We haven't paid yet, how can we leave?"
"That's easy. Let me tell you if my method works."
When it came to the word "中", Song Jinming [Li Yixiang] hit "Tang Zhaoxia" on the head with his pickaxe.
'Tang Zhaoxia' had a simple and honest but confused expression on his face, which froze for a moment. Seeing that he did not fall, Tang Chaoyang [Xu Kun] immediately hit him hard with the pickaxe again.
Under the continuous blows, 'Tang Zhaoxia', who never revealed his real name, fell down like a rotten wooden stake.
The two men struck him a few more times fiercely, and Song Jinming [Li Yixiang] reached out to feel Tang Zhaoxia's breath, then stood up and tried to drag him deeper into the mine.
"and many more."
Tang Zhaoyang [Xu Kun] stopped him, then spat viciously in Tang Zhaoxia's face.
At this moment, the camera pulled over to give a close-up of his face. His eyes, which were opened to the point of three whites, revealed the ferocity and satisfaction of a wolf under the miner's lamp.
Seeing how vindictive he was, Song Jinming [Li Yixiang] shook his head in disapproval and pretended to drag Tang Zhaoxia's corpse again.
"Ka~ Good, very good!"
Li Yang called for a stop in time. The mine was uneven and if they just dragged it like this, "Tang Zhaoxia" would probably die, so they had to use a dummy as a replacement.
Xu Kun also hurriedly bent down and used his sleeve to wipe the saliva off the face of the actor who played Tang Zhaoxia, while apologizing continuously.
"It's okay, it's all for filming."
The actor turned over and sat up, saying in a careless manner: "Even if I have to bear grudge, I'll bear grudge against Lao Li."
"Didn't I promise to treat you to a drink when I get back?"
Li Yang, who was watching the footage playback on an IVS, retorted in the midst of his busy schedule, and clapped his hands after a moment, saying, "Everyone performed well just now, especially Xiao Xu. The close-up at the end was very impactful!"
Hearing Li Yang's praise, Xu Kun breathed a sigh of relief.
In order not to hold back Bao Qiang, who was about to take off, he put a lot of effort into figuring out the role of Tang Chaoyang, and also designed many details based on the modified character's personality.
For example, in the original version, "Tang Zhaoxia" took off his helmet by himself. In this version, at the suggestion of Xu Kun, it was changed to Tang Chaoyang pretending to wipe his sweat and taking off his helmet on his own initiative.
The spit from the cigarette before going down to the mine, and the revengeful action of spitting on Tang Chaoyang's face at the end, were all thought up by Xu Kun himself.
All these changes are to highlight Tang Chaoyang's ruthlessness, initiative, and vindictiveness.
Now it seems that the effect is not bad.
"Save one, save one more!"
However, despite all the praise, Li Yang still decided to shoot another one. After all, this was the most exciting part in the early stage, and it could not be overemphasized.
However, this one guarantee exposed Xu Kun's current shortcomings.
Li Yixiang made some adjustments to his performance based on what had just happened, but Xu Kun could only copy the original performance because his performance level would drop significantly once he deviated from the routine that had been rehearsed repeatedly.
Fortunately, Xu Kun was acting half-true to himself this time, and basically understood the character of Tang Chaoyang thoroughly. Otherwise, if something went wrong in the rehearsal, he would not be able to adapt in a short time.
(End of this chapter)
