Chapter 38: The Importance of Persona

Dong Xuan, Wen Zhengrong, and Che Xiao, although in different grades, because they were all current students at Beijing Film Academy, were assigned to the same room and naturally formed a small group in the crew.

Old Tian's "entering the game in person" really scared them. This immediately broke all the previous rumors.

In the evening, after eating, the few of them stayed in the dorm and chatted about today's events.

"Oh my god, I was scared to death today. Cao Dao is so fierce. That's Director Tian, and he scolded him in front of so many people without giving him any face," Che Xiao exclaimed.

Dong Xuan seemed a bit happy. She replied: "I guessed before that the last film was shot by Cao Dao. Now it seems it's true. Look, he dared to scold Director Tian directly."

Wen Zhengrong nodded, still lingering in fear as she whispered: "This is really unexpected. I had something to do and came to the crew a day late, and I asked Director Tian for leave; I didn't tell Cao Dao at all. Do you think Cao Dao will be angry because of this?"

Che Xiao raised her hand and said weakly: "Two days ago, I went out with a few seniors who came to the school for internships, and I also asked Director Tian for leave."

Wen Zhengrong and Che Xiao looked at each other, both starting to worry about whether Cao Yang would make things difficult for them.

Dong Xuan comforted them: "It should be fine. I see Cao Dao is quite gentle usually; maybe he only loses his temper when filming. Let's be careful in the future and don't do stupid things again."

"Mm-hmm."

Wen Zhengrong and Che Xiao both nodded quickly.

The next day, the crew started filming again. Cao Yang could feel that the crew's mental state was completely different from yesterday. The most obvious thing was that everyone had awe for him, especially those who had just joined the crew.

Cao Yang still didn't add an "immersion experience" for Liu Ye and Yu Feihong; he wanted to test the waters to see to what extent their acting skills could reach.

At the same time, he also wanted to show the rest of the crew, so they wouldn't think he just got lucky and found two people with god-tier acting skills.

This time, the filming wasn't done in the order of the film's plot. Although this film wasn't too complex, there were quite a few locations, so filming in order would be too much of a hassle.

All shots in the same location, including events happening in different plots, were filmed together.

This was also the filming method for most films, which had to be reasonably arranged according to factors such as actors' schedules, venue requirements, weather, budget, etc.

There were exceptions.

Chen Kaige's *Farewell My Concubine* was shot in the order of the plot, and many of Hitchcock's films were shot in the order of the plot.

Cao Yang gained some insight today: Yu Feihong's acting... was relatively hollow, with almost no emotional ups and downs.

To put it nicely, this natural, unpretentious sense of relaxation, when encountering a suitable role—that is, a cold persona—was truly acted very naturally, with an extremely outstanding performance, worthy of the title of "fairy."

Therefore, as long as she only took roles with this persona, she would almost never fail, and she could constantly attract fans of her appearance.

"Cut! Passed."

Cao Yang scratched his head. It was truly unexpected; the scenes for the female lead here were actually perfectly interpreted by Yu Feihong. Well, it should be called a "true-to-self" performance.

The female lead is beaten black and blue by her husband and is sadly grieving alone in a small room. She actually saw the male lead sneak in long ago, but she didn't show any reaction.

Her emotion here should be complete despair, heart as still as water, eyes hollow—the "I don't care about anything" type.

It reached a perfect fit with Yu Feihong's unpretentious acting!

In this plot, the male lead thinks no one is home, so he enters and treats it like his own home, doing laundry, cooking, repairing the scale, and then going to bed. He doesn't know the female lead has locked herself in a small room.

In the original plot here, Jin Laoguai also had a perverted hobby: the male lead is masturbating on the bed while looking at the female lead's photo album, and the female lead opens the door and looks at him expressionlessly...

Cao Yang understood Jin Laoguai's meaning a bit; he wanted to express that the female lead had already collapsed and was in despair, no longer caring or concerned about anything—including the male lead's behavior at this moment.

But actually, it was fine not to include this part; there were many, many details revealing the heroine's collapse and despair.

Cao Yang changed the male lead's masturbation to flipping through the heroine's photo album. Not changing it wasn't a plus point, and it might even be cut when released domestically, so why do something unnecessary? Here, from the audience's perspective, it's the heroine looking at the male lead on the bed.

But when filming, it's actually the heroine looking at the camera, and then the camera shoots the male lead, which means the camera becomes the eyes of the heroine and the audience.

Yu Feihong wore makeup that made her look black and blue, and those eyes had no emotional ripples, large and lifeless, extremely fitting the heroine's state at this time.

One take, perfect!

This shows the importance of persona. If you are an actor without spirit who acts the same way in everything, if you specifically create a script that fits your persona, it's really possible to be praised for your acting.

Of course, Yu Feihong's perfect performance was limited to when she first met the male lead. The later plot required her to have a process of emotional change, which was probably a bit difficult for her.

In this plot, it was Liu Ye who had problems.

Liu Ye was half-lying on the bed, his upper body bare, holding the photo album, his expression a bit... shy!

You're a grown man, what are you being shy about!

"Cut! Rest for five minutes, shoot again."

"Liu Ye, you're looking at the heroine at the door. Surprise, shock, even fear are all fine. What kind of reaction is that?"

"What are you being shy about? What are you embarrassed about? You've already run into someone else's house, sleeping in someone else's bed, you weren't caught in the act of adultery!"

There was one more sentence Cao Yang didn't say: you aren't a woman; even if you were caught in the act, you'd be scared, not shy and coy!

Still not out of character, influenced by the emotions of the previous film, *Lan Yu*.

"Sorry, Director, my fault, I'll adjust." Liu Ye said hurriedly.

!

After shooting a few more times, it finally met Cao Yang's requirements.

The next thing to shoot was still happening in this villa, but in terms of plot, it was the final segment of the film: the male lead returns after achieving enlightenment, wanting to be invisible, so he is invisible. If he doesn't want people to see him, no one can see him.

Now what needed to be shot was what happened at the dining table: the heroine and her abusive husband are eating face-to-face, and Liu Ye is standing behind the abuser, also eating from a bowl.

Yu Feihong is smiling somewhat unnaturally, her eyes have no emotional fluctuations, and she pushes the plate. Here, there needs to be a close-up of her face, a small-angle overhead shot, especially the eyes; that's the key.

"Cut!"

"Sister Hong, you can have a slight smile here. Your eyes can't be empty. You have 'come alive.' The male lead you've been waiting for has returned, right behind your husband. You can have a triumphant smile, you can have a disdainful smile, but you can't have a stiff smile."

"Cut!"

"Sister Hong, eyes, eyes."

"Cut!"

"I... Sister Hong, if you saw someone you liked return from outside, what expression would you have?"

"He returns, so he returns. What other expression could I have?" Yu Feihong muttered softly.

"What?"

"Alright, Director, I'll adjust."

"Cut!"

Cao Yang took a deep breath, making a final attempt: "Sister Hong, you've seen horror movies, right? That kind of smile from the heroine or supporting actress—it can be a bit eerie. Just smile like that."

"Cut!"

Cao Yang sat powerlessly in the director's chair and gave up. She couldn't act out that sense of layering; lowering the requirements didn't work either; she couldn't even act out a sense of horror.

"Change scene, shoot these shots tomorrow."

Why make things difficult for himself? There's no time to grind acting skills here. Pull stunts!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 39 =====