Chapter 254: Director Luo, Please Advise

Xu Chujing listened to Luo Mo's words, her whole person slightly stunned, her breathing stalling.

She picked up the hot water Luo Mo had poured, unable to help but take another sip, yet her peripheral vision remained fixed on him.

This complex emotion in her heart left her unable to figure out for a moment what her true thoughts actually were.

She only knew that the gloom in her heart had been swept away in an instant; these words surpassed all the comfort that had come before.

"I, I should probably go," Xu Chujing said.

"Otherwise, I'll affect your recording later," she said, finding an excuse.

After all, with her powerful aura, how could she possibly flee in a panic because of a single sentence from a man?

It was because of work, mainly because of work!!!

Luo Mo smiled, well aware of the importance of knowing when to stop.

He checked the time; it was indeed time to get busy. After all, he would be facing the cameras soon, and he still needed to go change his clothes.

"The show airs next week. If you're free, remember to watch it," Luo Mo said to her.

"Okay," Xu Chujing stood up.

Just as she was about to leave, she felt a bit parched, so she picked up the hot water and took another sip before walking toward the door.

Luo Mo walked this graceful, curvaceous woman all the way to the basement before jogging back to the recording set.

Immediately after, a whole day of busyness began.

……….

……….

The recording for the second episode of *Classics in China* was more efficient than the first.

After all, with more experience, the efficiency naturally increased.

In the end, the results presented by these two episodes were excellent, so good that Ning Dan, the General Director, couldn't help but say: "If it weren't for the time limit, there are many parts I would be reluctant to cut."

A variety show airing on CCTV is certainly different from a Web Variety Show like *Creating Idols*.

The duration of a Web Variety Show doesn't have strict limits, so when you watch one, you'll notice that some episodes are short, while others are exceptionally long.

This is just like many web novel authors writing books; some chapters are long, some are short, with the goal being to write until a suitable cliffhanger before stopping.

Web Variety Shows are very particular about creating suspense, but *Classics in China* must definitely tell a complete story in one episode.

Luo Mo also participated in the editing work.

Then, he witnessed Ning Dan's miraculous editing skills.

This made him feel he had learned a lot and understood why Ning Dan's variety shows could all become hits.

He felt that not only him, but even Guan Fei should come to Ning Dan to learn editing.

Although movies and variety shows are very different, Luo Mo felt her concepts and ideas still grasped the audience's psychology very precisely.

A major shortcoming of *Cat Demon* was its terrible editing, failing to fully transition from the pacing of a television series to that of a movie.

As for the early preparations for *Sword Fairy*, they were finally all completed; thus, Luo Mo officially changed into 【Director Luo】 and 【Brother Xiaoyao】, beginning the filming of his debut film and television work.

Although the film and television team at Xinyu hadn't produced a hit in the last few years, in the process of failing, they had at least all become skilled workers.

The first day of filming was at the Film and Television Base.

Although usually, due to scheduling conflicts and other issues, filming doesn't follow the script exactly, shooting the first episode then the second.

But because it was his own first work, the first scene Luo Mo scheduled was directly the opening content of the first episode; anyway... the lead actor was himself.

At first, Guan Fei was worried that because Luo Mo was young and a Newcomer, he wouldn't be able to hold down the set.

After all, in a film crew, it's impossible for everyone to be from the company; there would also be some "old slickers" hired temporarily for help.

Including those extras, stagehands, lighting technicians, and the like.

Then, Guan Fei soon discovered that this young man had a bit of a "tyrant of the set" vibe.

He wasn't the type to fly into a rage, but he was very decisive and cold in his actions.

When some old slickers started to bluff or make excuses, this young man would remain silent, just watching you talk, watching until you felt uneasy, watching until you shut up.

The most fatal thing was that this young man—whether he had studied up on it himself or really understood the operation of the entire set—knew everything.

When you made excuses in front of him, he seemed to say nothing, but he could always precisely catch your Lying, and when you were Lying, he would stare into your eyes or smile slightly.

This made others immediately realize: "Director Luo is as clear as a mirror; he is absolutely not some clueless novice."

This made his final line, "Are you done?", sound truly panic-inducing.

This made Guan Fei, who was serving as Producer, find it very interesting; every day, besides helping out, he just watched the show.

His "watching the show" was twofold: one was watching how Luo Mo managed the crew, the other was truly watching Luo Mo act.

Although Guan Fei had seen Luo Mo act when he made a cameo in *Cat Demon*, the characters were different after all.

The white-clad swordsman was steady and dashing, while the early Li Xiaoyao in *Sword Fairy* was just a handsome little rascal.

One was already a hero walking the world, the other was just a slick rookie.

Most importantly, Luo Mo's performance in *Cat Demon*... it was short!

Still the same saying—short and small, we are professionals.

Actually, it wasn't just Guan Fei observing Luo Mo's acting; the actors playing the Aunt, the Jiu Jianxian, and others were also paying attention to Luo Mo's performance on set.

They were all professional supporting actors, one could even say gold-medal supporting actors.

These people knew very well that actors and the show achieve each other.

Actors need good scripts, good directors, and good teams.

And these people, likewise, also need good actors.

As the lead actor and director, if Luo Mo performed terribly on set, then they would just treat it as doing Guan Fei a favor.

These people had good professional ethics and wouldn't just slack off because the show looked like a guaranteed flop; at the very least, they would bring out acting skills above the standard level.

But if they saw even a glimmer of potential for the show to be a hit during the process, their entire performance state would definitely be even better!

Actors also need to feed each other lines; the biggest frustration for many gold-medal supporting actors is that the leads act like a pile of shit, which greatly affects their performance, makes it easy to break character, and makes it hard to get into the zone.

Therefore, for many supporting actors, they might even prefer acting without physical props.

Although no one is feeding them lines this way, at least no one is holding them back!

As it turned out, the first scene Luo Mo performed in person made Xu Min, who played the aunt, give an evaluation in her heart: "He doesn't look like a Newcomer at all!"

There is certainly still a huge gap from that textbook-level acting, but for acting in this type of TV series, it is absolutely more than enough.

Xu Min is a woman who still retains her charm; if she dresses up carefully, she is absolutely the favorite of you Cao Cao-types.

In fact, according to the character setting in "Sword Fairy", when the aunt was young, she was also a woman of peerless elegance in the pugilistic world, making countless people fall for her.

Xu Min only thinks now: "Director Luo is too skilled!"

——He is too good at this!

Yes, Luo Mo is very skilled at acting, and he got into character directly before long.

A person like this is either a genius, or he has long since polished himself in places we cannot see.

At first, she even thought that Luo Mo's performance in "Cat Demon" was taught to him bit by bit by Guan Fei.

After all, these days, many Top Traffic young actors can reach a passing level under the guidance of famous directors, as long as their screen time isn't much.

Now that she sees it, it seems that is not the case at all.

To be precise, when Luo Mo went to guest star in "Cat Demon", Guan Fei only gave him some acting pointers for a while, and only for a few minutes at that; it was all up to Luo Mo to act it out himself.

This caused Xu Min and the others to completely change their mindset.

As time went on, Luo Mo actually made a name for himself throughout the entire Film and Television Base.

"Have you heard? That Top Traffic guy in the neighboring 'Sword Fairy' crew seems to actually know how to act!"

"What do you mean 'seems to'? A sister of mine went there as an extra and said his acting skills kill that group of fresh meat actors right now."

"Can you believe a woman's words? He's so handsome, they'd be infatuated even if he acted casually."

"That's not how it is. Meng Ge also went to their crew to work for two days that day. You know the tone he used when he spoke of Luo Mo before he went. Good grief, now he calls him Director Luo every other sentence."

"No way, he was won over?"

"Shh! I heard he even got scolded."

"Is that for real?"

"Of course it's real! I'm telling you, his nickname from when he participated in the talent show has even started to spread in the Film and Television Base."

"What nickname?"

"'Creating Idols' is so popular, didn't you watch it! It's Instructor Luo!"

"Whoa! What, is he here to give us military training?"

Regardless of what the outside world is discussing, the "Sword Fairy" crew is filming with high efficiency under the combined efforts of Luo Mo and Guan Fei.

It's just that Luo Mo, this male lead and director, occasionally still has to fly to Beijing to be busy with the recording of variety shows.

This point was quite criticized at the beginning.

Splitting time between productions is something many famous directors are particularly sensitive about. Although Luo Mo doesn't strictly count as splitting time, as a pure Newcomer running back and forth like this, wouldn't it be taking filming too lightly?

To use that classic meme from Pan Shu: I'm afraid you won't be able to handle it.

Adjusting the schedule is a very normal thing; after all, there are so many people in the crew, and they all have to be coordinated anyway. Mature actors have long been used to this.

But are you sure it won't affect your performance when you are the male lead?

As it turned out, a miraculous scene occurred.

In the process of running back and forth like this, not only did Luo Mo not affect his performance, on the contrary, he often overturned his previous performances.

Originally, some famous scenes had already been filmed for several takes, and both he and Guan Fei felt they were good.

As a result, as soon as he ran off to record a variety show and came back, he would say he felt he could add another take.

A mature and professional actor wouldn't think adding another take is a big deal; this is part of the job to begin with.

But the weird thing is, you clearly went to be busy with other things, and you come back and say add another take—isn't this just tossing everyone around?

You've been out of the acting state for several days, can you really film it better than before?

——Yes!

And yet, every single time, he ends up producing results!

In the handling of many details, one can see a clear difference.

This caused Xu Min and the others to discuss it in private.

"Director Luo... could he be secretly taking extra lessons?"

……….

……….

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was the day before the first episode of "Classics in China" aired.

Originally, this was just an ordinary and plain Friday.

But as CCTV and the Review Department released a piece of news, the entertainment circle and the cultural circle were directly hit by a major earthquake.

Luo Mo's status as 【National Reading Promotion Ambassador】 has been approved!

(PS: Second update, asking for monthly tickets!)

(End of this chapter)