Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 236 Changes
Dong Xuan has always been a strong-willed person.

She was born in a small county in the northeast. Her father was a retired soldier and her mother also worked in the system. Although neither of her parents were leaders, her family conditions were pretty good.

At that time, if you worked within the system, you had to respond to the call of the country, so Dong Xuan was an only child.

Her parents had high expectations for her, lived frugally, and tried to let her learn violin, piano and dance since she was a child.

What she likes most and sticks to is dancing.

Everyone says she has a talent for dancing.

She also firmly believes in this and firmly believes that she is the best one.

In 95, the Dance Department of Fengtian Conservatory of Music, which had not recruited students from Heilongjiang Province for ten years, gave Heilongjiang Province a quota. Dong Xuan lived up to everyone's expectations and became the only one.

Therefore, she became more and more confident, and believed more and more that she was the best one.

In school, although everyone is an excellent student admitted from all over the country and has a very good dance foundation, she is still the best one.

The teachers are optimistic about her talent and hard work, and her classmates also envy and admire her... She is like a proud white swan, believing that she will achieve amazing results and succeed in the future.

The year I graduated, the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe came to recruit people.

Without any ripples or surprises, she became the only person in the school to be specially recruited into the group.

You have to know that it’s the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe!
At this moment, she firmly believed that she possessed the best dancing talent and that she would definitely become the lead dancer in the troupe, definitely!

However, after actually entering the dance troupe, the reality was somewhat different from what she had imagined.

This is where?

This is the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe.

The dancers recruited here are all the best of the best, all top students from various schools. She found that she didn't seem to be that "special".

This shook her confidence a little.

In the group, she was no longer the special one, but started as a backup dancer like all the newcomers.

A year later, the situation had not improved. Everyone was doing very well, but she did not stand out because of her extra efforts.

She was depressed and wanted to escape.

Some of her colleagues applied for the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy, and she wondered if she could give it a try.
Just as she was hesitating, her mother came.

Her mother quit her job in the system and came here to take care of her.

The arrival of her mother made her give up applying for the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy. She knew that her mother was also a dancer before, but because she got married and became pregnant, she had to take up a clerical job within the system.

Her mother saw her as an extension of herself in dancing and was extremely strict with her, controlling every detail of her life, including her clothing, diet and even nail clipping, and also strictly restricting her social activities.

Whenever she raised objections, her mother would always say: "I am doing this for your own good, so that you can gain a foothold in the group and make a name for yourself. Is it easy for me?

When I was little, I gave up dancing for you. Now, for you, I quit my job and gave up my career. Why don’t you understand?”

One year, two years, three years, four years...

As time went by, with her mother's constant reminder of "you're not good enough, you're not working hard enough", her self-confidence disappeared little by little, and she almost went from one extreme to another.

On the surface, she seems to be a good girl in the group who is well-behaved, obedient and hardworking.

In fact, she becomes reserved and timid, her emotional expression is limited, she is always in a tense state, and she can't even show her feminine charm naturally. She is often at a loss when encountering things.

She even sometimes becomes confused, forgetful and unable to distinguish reality.

Until this day, Cao Yang, a famous stage director in the troupe, was preparing to re-choreograph a new version of "Swan Lake" and to select a new lead dancer to play the roles of the White Swan and the Black Swan.

And she unexpectedly became the first candidate.

Pressure comes with it.

Her White Swan dance was perfect, but she couldn't find the feeling for the Black Swan. Not to mention the director, she herself felt that she was not good enough.

But she wanted the role so badly!
She wanted to be the lead dancer so badly!

She wants to succeed so badly!

……

After all, Cao Yang was worried about Dong Xuan.

He has his own principles when filming. Generally speaking, nothing will happen with actresses during filming, even if they are close friends like Gao Yuanyuan, Li Xiaoran, Yu Feihong, Pang Bing and Dong Xuan.

But this is no longer the case.

As the heroine of the movie, Dong Xuan stayed in the best rooms in the hotel. These suites were on a separate floor and not on the same floor as other actors.

At five o'clock in the morning, Cao Yang stood outside Dong Xuan's room, constantly explaining to himself, I just worry about Dong Xuan, nothing will happen if I go in, this is what a responsible man must do.

This does not violate the principle.

Then he took out the room card, swiped it, the door opened, he slipped in and closed the door behind him.

Don’t ask why Cao Yang had the room card of Dong Xuan’s room. The answer is that Dong Xuan forced it on him.

Walking through the living room, Cao Yang came to Dong Xuan's bedroom, put his hand on the door handle, hesitated for a moment, and finally turned it, but did not lock it.

"Who?"

Dong Xuan sat up suddenly from the bed, then pulled the quilt up to cover his chest, and turned on the light.

"Cao...Director Cao?"

Dong Xuan tightened the quilt with both hands and asked nervously: "How did you get in? I haven't thought about it yet, can you give me some more time?"

Ok?
What do you mean?
Cao Yang looked at Dong Xuan carefully, and the nervous expression on his face did not seem to be fake.

This……

His heart skipped a beat.

If it weren't for the role-playing part, things would have gone in a bad direction.

However, according to past experience, even if there are sequelae, won’t they only appear at critical moments?

Also, the heroine in the movie developed a somewhat "evil" second personality, and Dong Xuan was influenced. Shouldn't this happen?

Why does it look a bit like a lovely little white flower now?
"What do you mean?"

Cao Yang asked. His words were ambiguous and he tried to be ambiguous before he made things clear.

Dong Xuan was stunned for a moment, then frowned and whispered to herself: "I, I am Dong Xuan, I am filming "Black Swan", I am the heroine, not a ballerina..."

With a long breath, Dong Xuan threw back the quilt, got off the bed, jumped directly onto Cao Yang, and wrapped his legs around his waist.

Cao Yang held her butt with both hands and also let out a long breath.

"I was so scared. I just had a terrible dream. When I saw you come in, I couldn't tell the difference between the dream and reality for a moment."

Dong Xuan put his arms around Cao Yang's neck, looked at Cao Yang's face, and said with some fear.

"It's okay, I'm here." Cao Yang comforted.

"Uh-huh."

Dong Xuan nodded vigorously, looked at Cao Yang's face, and then said shyly: "I really want to sleep with you now."

After saying that, he held Cao Yang's face with both hands and started kissing him directly.

"Don't...um..."

Cao Yang is a principled man and he really wanted to refuse.

But then he thought about it, Dong Xuan was his woman, not some other actress, so this was not an exception.

Besides, he was still a little worried about Dong Xuan and wanted to stay and watch over her to see if there were any changes.

Cao Yang held Dong Xuan's butt, walked forward a few steps, and put her on the bed.

What was a little strange was that Cao Yang could clearly feel that Dong Xuan seemed a little unfamiliar with kissing, completely different from before, as if he had become a different person.

“Slow down…”

Dong Xuan frowned, as if he was not used to it.

Cao Yang also discovered something unusual.

If it weren't for the shape it would still be the same shape.

If it is not a road, then it is still that road.

If it weren’t for the fact that the physiological reactions were still the same as before.

Cao Yang even thought that someone had been replaced.

Even her singing voice was suppressed, like a little girl who had not experienced much.

Especially when she reached the critical moment, she hugged Cao Yang tightly with both hands, and even if the sound in her throat rushed out, it was restrained.

Her state at this moment is exactly the same as when she first met Cao Yang.

After getting to know Cao Yang better, she was no longer like this and no longer deliberately suppressed her voice.

According to her, singing without making any sound would only give half the pleasure, but now she is not singing completely with her sound.

After a long time, Dong Xuan lay in Cao Yang's arms, talking and laughing. He seemed to have recovered and there was no difference.

Cao Yang sighed in his heart and decided to observe for a while longer.

We continued filming the next day. The bedroom scenes were basically finished, with only one scene left, which was the passionate scene between the two heroines.

However, this has to be filmed later. The filming has just started and the other female lead, Lv Yi, hasn't shot a single scene yet. It's impossible to film her passionate scenes with Dong Xuan right away.

What we are going to shoot today is the scene in the dance studio, where many plots in the movie take place.

Whenever the heroine is sitting or curled up in the practice room, a bird's-eye view is used to imply the heroine's repressed living space and mental constraints.

The shots of the heroine practicing dancing almost always have the camera slowly zooming in on her face or limbs, amplifying the audience's perception of the character's psychological alienation through the gradually approaching sense of oppression.

In the practice room, there are many rival scenes between Huang Xiaoming and Dong Xuan.

Yesterday, Huang Xiaoming felt relieved after seeing that Dong Xuan’s performance was quite good.

He has a characteristic when filming, he needs an opponent to inspire himself.

The better the co-actor performs, the more it stimulates his competitive spirit, and the better he can perform.

The worse the acting of his co-star was, the more he tried to “pull” him over, but sometimes he ended up using too much force.

The latter point was not realized by him himself, but was reminded by Cui Ma, his class teacher at Beijing Film Academy.

However, although Huang Xiaoming respected Cui Ma very much, he disagreed with this point. He did not think that he was overdoing it. Instead, he felt that it was a manifestation of full commitment and could move people more.

Of course, this has been verified in practice.

Sometimes, if his co-actor performs poorly, he can easily be led into the “ditch” if he doesn’t work hard. On the contrary, if he devotes himself wholeheartedly, he may even be able to pull his opponent over.

Nothing bad.

Huang Xiaoming thought that with Dong Xuan's acting skills, he still needed to work a little harder, as she probably couldn't compare to him.

Considering that this is a movie directed by Cao, the leading actress’ acting skills are excellent.

He thought that Dong Xuan's acting skills had not yet been fully utilized, but this is a process of adaptation. It is impossible for a person's acting skills to be just okay yesterday and suddenly become amazing today.

Huang Xiaoming is full of confidence. If Dong Xuan's acting skills will improve, won't his own improve too?

Director Cao has been teaching acting for such a long time that I have already memorized the core and plot of the movie. As long as I get used to it, I don’t believe that I can be worse than Dong Xuan!
After all, he is the male lead, although he does not have as many scenes as Dong Xuan, but as long as he performs well, he might be able to win a big award.

More importantly, I must let Director Cao see my potential, and it would be best if I could become Director Cao's favorite actor.

Come on, Huang Xiaoming, you can do it.

Then, reality gave the confident Huang Xiaoming a slap in the face.

"Crack!"

Cao Yang waved his hand, motioning Huang Xiaoming to come over.

"You are the stage director who holds the initiative, not her little follower. You have to act out the director's aura, understand?"

This is the fourth time that Huang Xiaoming has been suppressed in a role.

"I'm sorry, Director Cao, it's my fault. Give me ten... twenty minutes and I'll adjust myself." Huang Xiaoming raised his hand, indicating that it was all his fault.

"Don't follow Dong Xuan's rhythm."

Cao Yang thought for a moment and said, "You can add some invisible little movements to break up the rhythm and avoid being led by the other party."

Huang Xiaoming thought about it, then quickly said with a smile: "Okay, Director Cao, I understand. Thank you, thank you."

Then, he clasped his hands together and said to the staff around him, "I'm sorry, everyone. I'm sorry for causing you all trouble."

He walked to his resting place and sighed. He had performed very well, but the opponent was too powerful. What should he do?
Clearly, everyone was at the same level yesterday, so why is it like this today? What went wrong?
Director Cao really lives up to his reputation, he is very good at training actors, especially actresses!

Huang Xiaoming couldn't describe the feeling of acting opposite Dong Xuan today. It seemed that the pressure was much greater than acting with famous acting duos like Chen Daoming and Wang Gang.

When acting with powerful actors like Chen Daoming and Wang Gang, at least there are traces to follow. As long as he finds the rhythm, he can keep up.

But what about Dong Xuan?
It's like she is playing herself, there is no trace to be found, her acting is so natural that it feels like there is no trace of acting at all, yet you can still feel that this is the right way to act.

It didn't seem like she was acting, it seemed like the character in the movie was acting out her own joys and sorrows!
"Invisible little movements?"

In other words, the added small movements cannot affect the plot or divide the plot.

Huang Xiaoming thought carefully about what he should do so that he would not follow the other person's rhythm and get out of her rhythm.

Fortunately, there is only one Dong Xuan, and others certainly don’t have her acting skills.

"here we go again!"

While Huang Xiaoming was thinking, Ning Hao and Lao Gu sat together quietly looking at the sky.

This kind of acting style, which is extremely natural and completely integrated into the role, is shocking no matter how many times you watch it.

How long has it been since we saw this phenomenon?

Lao Gu thought about it and realized that since Director Cao started shooting experimental films, there have been no such "shocking" scenes.

If you want to see Director Cao demonstrate his true ability in coaching actors, you’d better watch a pure art film.

"you lose."

Lao Gu said in a calm tone.

"I lost."

Ning Hao's tone was also calm.

"Haven't you and Lao Tian been studying Director Cao's method of training actors? Didn't you also shoot Crazy Stone? Have you put it into practice? How was the effect?"

Lao Gu asked suddenly. He didn't ask whether the effect would be the same as Director Cao, because there was only one Director Cao in the world, and now countless people were learning from Director Cao. As far as he knew, the small cannon had already been used.

My old classmate Zhang Yimou also deliberately strengthened the script reading sessions before filming began, extending the time from about two weeks to six weeks.

The great poet Chen did not learn from his junior fellow apprentice, but when he was filming "The Promise", he would take the trouble to explain the scenes to the actors.

Before the filming of "Crazy Stone" began, Ning Hao and Lao Tian took turns explaining the play to the crew members for two months.

When Ning Hao heard Lao Gu mention this, he grinned.

"The effect is OK. There is a young actor named Huang Bo who has a unique understanding and performs very distinctively."

"Compared to this guy..."

Old Gu nodded in the direction of Dong Xuan and asked.

Ning Hao's grinning mouth twitched and he glared at Lao Gu fiercely.

This old guy can't stand others being better than him. He is really not a human being.

How does this compare?
Ning Hao is certain that Director Cao has put so much effort into training Dong Xuan's acting skills because he is obviously aiming for one of the three major European film queens. There is no comparison at all.

After twenty minutes of adjustment, shooting started again.

After some consideration, Huang Xiaoming came up with a good idea, which can be considered an invisible little trick. Before speaking each time, he would count to three silently in his mind and then say the lines.

The advantage of doing this is that after counting, you can get out of the other person's emotions and no longer be led by the rhythm.

The three numbers are the result of Huang Xiaoming's careful consideration. If there are too few, it will not be possible to fully express them, and if there are too many, the plot will seem fragmented.

This time the rivalry is obviously much better, at least it doesn't follow Dong Xuan's rhythm, but it's not without problems either, because after counting to three in his mind, it sometimes leads to incoherent emotions and his acting seems to be inconsistent.

Cao Yang felt sorry for him.

Especially in the practice room, I not only acted with Dong Xuan, but also with Lu Yi.

Huang Xiaoming originally thought that Lu Yi could be easier to deal with, but he didn't expect that he would be outshone again!

Lu Yi is a person who is very confident when dancing, and Cao Yang gave her two more acting experiences, which made it even more amazing. Even if she didn't dance, just standing there, she could make people feel her confidence and feminine charm.

Huang Xiaoming had no choice but to resort to counting again to deal with it.

Everyone could see that he was acting in pain.

Cao Yang couldn't stand it anymore, so he decided to give him a play experience in the evening.

In the afternoon, Cao Yang received a call from Hou Keming, asking him if he wanted to attend the Beijing University Student Awards Ceremony to be held on the 14th.

His "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox" was sent to the Beijing University Student Film Festival under the name of Beijing Film Academy.

Cao Yang originally refused, but soon after he received another call.

This time it was the former leader of Beijing Film Academy who called. He has now been transferred to Beijing Normal University, which is one of the founders and organizers of the Beijing University Student Film Festival.

The old leader directly said that his work was not going well and he needed Director Cao’s support.

There is no way, I have to give this face.

A few days ago, Lao Gu and Huang Xiaoming asked for leave, saying they wanted to attend.

That’s great, let’s go together then.

(End of this chapter)