Chapter 944: Filming Experience

The man who was hugging Xia Xiaolou was the producer. Not only did the two kiss each other affectionately, the producer's hands were even rubbing against her waist and back. Tao Yueyue felt nauseous from seeing this and she pulled Lin Dongxue’s hand to leave.

Tao Yueyue asked, "Is this the unspoken rule of the legends?"

"Maybe it's true love." Lin Dongxue said, but she didn't want to believe it.

"She actually plays a variety of girls and she’s also playing my character."

Of course, they didn't want the group photo anymore. The two quietly avoided the awkward scene.

The screenwriter found the two of them and asked with a smile, "Where did you go for a stroll? It’s about to start."

The crew and others brought the equipment, went downstairs, and got in a few SUVs. Lin Dongxue drove her own car. The screenwriter also sat inside and looked at the people outside. Lin Dongxue asked, "Will the female protagonist not come?"

"There’s no scenes for her today. She just came over to participate in the opening ceremony."

Tao Yueyue said, "But there are a lot of night scenes in the script!"

"Haha, night scenes aren’t necessarily shot at night. If they’re indoors, it’ll be filmed during the day, and if it’s outdoors, they will pick an early morning or evening outdoors."

Lin Dongxue said, "I just saw Xia Xiaolou and a certain person…"

"Haha, I know what you saw. It's no secret. After all, they’re both young people. It's normal to have feelings in and out of the scenes."

Lin Dongxue was shocked. "Is he considered a youngster too?"

"Thirty or so isn’t that old… Who did you see? Wasn't it Little Ai?"

Lin Dongxue and Tao Yueyue exchanged a surprised look with each other. Lin Dongxue said, "It was indeed Little Ai. I was just saying that Xia Xiaolou wouldn’t be considered young."

"She is well maintained. Although she’s in her forties, she still looks like she is in her early twenties. I’m also in my forties. Standing next to her, we look like we’re from different generations, haha!"

It turned out that what they had witnessed unintentionally was still something private.

Passing through the buildings of different dynasties, they got to an abandoned factory on the edge of the film and television city. This place used to be a grain-processing factory. It was transformed into a filming scene according to local conditions. The director ran out of the car excitedly. "The light is just right. Hurry up and start."

The staff held up the hanging microphone and set up the cameras. Cai Zhengkai and Little Ai had already put on their makeup in the car. Cai Zhengkai wore a wig and an outfit of shabby denim with dirt and blood stains on his face. He had a decaying look to him.

Little Ai was wearing police uniform pants and a blue shirt.

Cai Zhengkai moved his body around over and over again, reciting lines eloquently in his mouth, rubbing at his cheeks. Meanwhile, Little Ai was sitting on a folding chair playing with his mobile phone with his legs propped up.

In this scene, the two people would be fighting each other in an abandoned factory. The role of Little Ai was a police officer who grew up with Zhou Xiao. The two later parted ways. Little Ai later found that Cai Zhengkai had strayed toward evil ways. Little Ai was very angry and desperately wanted him arrested and brought to justice.

In fact, the plot was designed forcefully. A large number of police chased Zhou Xiao. After a series of crashes and explosions, only Little Ai and Zhou Xiao arrived at this place where even the birds wouldn’t sh*t in. The rest of the police wouldn’t catch up until after they finished the fight.

Everyone went to the second floor of the factory. There was a platform outside the window with a Simmons mattress underneath. After the videographer and sound recorder were in place, a staff member took the clapperboard and clicked it in front of the camera. They saw the two people fighting and holding on each other’s clothes as they fell from the window onto the mattress.

"Change the angle and do it again!" said the director.

The action of this falling scene was repeated three times as the screenwriter explained, "They will add a special effect of broken glass in the later stages."

"Filming turns out to be so troublesome." Tao Yueyue sighed empathetically.

"Isn't it? It takes a long time just to shoot a line of words in the script."

After that, the makeup artist went forward to touch up the makeup while the props person removed the mattress, sprinkling some shards of breakaway glass1 on the ground to film the scuffle after the two fell down.

Cai Zhengkai pressed Little Ai under his body and beat him fiercely. Of course, he took advantage of the angle. It looked like he was hitting Little Ai in the face, but he didn't actually touch him at all.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Tao Yueyue thought to herself that this scene might be full of enthusiasm in the movie, but it feels funny when it was disassembled into isolated shots.

Then, they changed to another angle. Little Ai retired first. The props person put a dummy of the same height as Little Ai on the ground, wearing the same clothes. The dummy was made of rubber, which looked similar to the real person at first glance.

"Action!"

"Zhou Xiao" grabbed the dummy and said viciously, "You have not suffered what I have. What right do you have to interfere with me?!"

Then, with a punch on the dummy's face, Cai Zhengkai suddenly screamed and grabbed his fist with his left hand.

When they realized something was wrong, everyone rushed over and asked what was wrong, only to see Cai Zhengkai's right hand was bleeding. It turned out that a needle had been inserted and hidden in the dummy's head. The impact of his fist hitting the dummy caused the needle to be exposed.

"Asshole, who did it?!" the agent shouted angrily, looking around at everyone.

The props person said innocently, "I checked this morning and it was okay!"

While everyone was discussing, Tao Yueyue found Little Ai hiding in a corner smoking a cigarette with a weird smile on his face.

The agent said, "Zhengkai is injured, so we won't shoot today."

Cai Zhengkai said, "It doesn't matter since it’s a small injury. Let's go on shooting, it will be dark soon."

The director “cared” symbolically, "Zhengkai, are you sure you’re alright? Don't force yourself."

"It's okay. Let’s hurry."

The filming work was interrupted by a sudden heavy rain. Around 5:00PM in the afternoon, everyone hurriedly packed their things up and hurried back.

On the way back, Tao Yueyue asked, "Does this kind of competitive scheming happen often in the crew?"

"It's not competitive scheming. Someone’s obviously doing a bad thing." The screenwriter said, "Cai Zhengkai is a star after all. There’s a world of difference in pay between him filming for a day and others filming for a day. It’s inevitable that some people will be jealous of him… but hiding needles in the props? This really is a bit too much. It’s only the first time I’ve witnessed such a thing."

Lin Dongxue asked, "There wouldn't be anything on the needle, right?"

"His agent has taken him away for an inspection."

Lin Dongxue looked at the rain outside the window. It seemed that she could only spend the night here tonight. She said, "When the rain stops tomorrow morning, I will take Tao Yueyue home."

"Don't you want to play for a few more days?" the screenwriter asked.

"No. I thought we had something to do when Tao Yueyue was invited over. It turns out that we’re just idlers who are visiting everywhere, so we won't bother you guys here. You guys even have to pay for our meals and accommodation."

"Hehe, the money is given by the investor and you don't need to save for them. If you want to stay, you can stay for a few more days. After all, if we didn't have Yueyue’s experience, we wouldn't have had this movie. It's a rare experience to visit the crew."

Tao Yueyue said, "I think I’ve watched enough this day. I feel a little homesick when idling around outside. I want to go back soon."

"That’s okay. Find me when you get up tomorrow morning. I will take you guys to check out… Will we have dinner together tonight?"

"Yueyue, what do you think?" Lin Dongxue asked.

Tao Yueyue thought for a while. "I want to eat at the television grounds."

The screenwriter said, "Then you can drop me off at the hotel and go by yourselves. I still have to work at night."

"Thank you for taking care of us all day."

"It’s something I should naturally do. It’s only natural"

1. Sugar glass, a brittle, transparent form of sugar that’s used as fake glass in action movies and TV shows.