Shadow of Chinese Entertainment

Chapter 194 "Qi Ao"

"Qi Ao" comes from the Book of Songs. The original lyrics are: "Look at the bend of the Qi River, the green bamboos are luxuriant. There is a noble gentleman, as if cut and polished, as if carved and refined. So dignified and majestic, so bright and shining. Such a noble gentleman, I can never forget him..."

This poem was originally written to praise Duke Wu of Wei. It uses green bamboo as a starting point to create the image of a gentleman who is learned and virtuous.

The poem consists of three chapters, each with nine lines. It uses the technique of using an image to evoke a feeling, with each chapter beginning with "green bamboo" to praise the noble character of a gentleman by describing the bamboo's uprightness, verdant greenness, and dense growth.

Although Hu Xiaobei did not change the lyrics, he carefully arranged the melody and background music.

When Xiaolongnu plays and sings "Qi Ao," she needs to indirectly convey Lin Chaoying's deep affection and regret for Wang Chongyang, but she also needs to strike a good balance.

Of course, the music hasn't started production yet; it's all just theory. Right now, An Xiaoqian is just playing the piano and singing softly to create the atmosphere for later production.

Xiaolongnu's voice is clear and ethereal, and together with the adapted melody, she slowly sings out Lin Chaoying's deep and helpless feelings for Wang Chongyang.

Every note seemed to flow from the depths of the heart, carrying a faint sadness and longing.

In her portrayal, Lin Chaoying's deep affection and regret were presented in a rather hollow and bewildering way, because Xiaolongnu does not understand these emotional matters at this time.

Even so, Yang Guo couldn't help but immerse himself in it, as if he had traveled through time and space to see that unforgettable love story.

Of course, in post-production, we will show Xiaolongnu's bewildered side, and we will also use background music and editing to express the emotions of the poem.

After all, Xiaolongnu's voice is dubbed, but the song will be An Xiaoxi's own voice.

After a brief silence, soft applause broke out when the music ended.

Hu Xiaobei nodded in satisfaction, highly approving of An Xiaoqian's performance; all that practice had been worthwhile.

He stepped forward and praised An Xiaoqian, "Xiaoqian, you did a great job just now. Your emotional control was excellent. Keep it up."

An Xiaoqian smiled and nodded. Although she was shivering a little from the cold wind, she felt warm inside after receiving the "director's" affirmation.

In the subsequent filming, An Xiaoqian and Huang Xiaoming worked together seamlessly, bringing the storyline in the ancient tomb to life.

Especially in the scene where Xiaolongnu is injured and their love blossoms, the two actors, through their delicate performances, movingly portray the pure yet profound feelings between Yang Guo and Xiaolongnu, yet with subtle differences.

Hu Xiaobei watched intently from behind the monitor, occasionally calling out "Cut!" to provide guidance and adjustments to certain details.

As filming progressed, the scenes set in the ancient tomb gradually came to an end.

Although many difficulties were encountered during the filming process, such as the cold weather and complex scene setup.

But with Hu Xiaobei’s careful guidance and the joint efforts of all the staff, everything went very smoothly.

The adapted ancient-style song "Qi Ao" will be the finishing touch to this part of the story, adding a strong emotional touch to the whole story.

Hu Xiaobei is known for his fast shooting speed... He filmed quickly, and even though there were some delays due to actor scheduling issues, he still managed to finish filming the tomb scenes within five days.

At this point, only a few large-scale scenes and group scenes remained unfilmed for An Xiaoqian's role in The Return of the Condor Heroes.

Although these shots only add up to a few minutes, for An Xiaoqian, it was a waste of time to wait.

This process may take half a month, or it may take more than a month.

Just then, Yu Minjie, the chief director, fell ill from overwork while filming The Return of the Condor Heroes and had to temporarily suspend his filming duties, lying in bed receiving intravenous fluids.

As the saying goes, illness comes like a landslide and goes like pulling silk. Even if you are bedridden due to fatigue, it is difficult to recover without three to seven days of rest.

In the original timeline, Yu Minjie also fell ill around this time, but back then he was the only director, and he had to film many scenes himself. Now it's different. Not only is there the more experienced Zhou Xiaowen, but there's also Hu Xiaobei, who just finished filming the tomb scenes and has nothing to do.

Given the financial pressure, Big Beard naturally wouldn't wait for Yu Minjie to recover before filming the relevant scenes.

Yu Minjie's photography and directing skills are quite good, especially photography, which is his forte.

However, he was indeed far inferior to Zhou Xiaowen in terms of managing the crew and overall planning, let alone compared to Hu Xiaobei.

During Yu Minjie's management, the crew encountered numerous problems, such as actors' schedules not being coordinated or props malfunctioning.

Big Beard knew Yu Minjie's strengths and weaknesses, but since he was one of their own, he would try his best to let Yu Minjie film some rare opportunities.

Take the three large group scenes for example, Hu Xiaobei didn't even get a chance to participate.

At this time, Yu Minjie fell ill, and he was also facing a shortage of funds from investors. If he continued to drag things out like this, it really wouldn't work.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the bearded man handed over the filming of the large group scenes to Zhou Xiaowen.

Uh... which means it was indirectly handed over to Hu Xiaobei for filming.

Given this opportunity, Hu Xiaobei naturally prioritized filming the large group scenes featuring Xiaolongnu before considering anything else.

Speaking of filming large ensemble scenes, the original timeline was nearly a month later.

Filming of the drill ground scenes didn't begin until early March, and filming of the smaller-scale Battle of Xiangyang scenes didn't start until mid-March.

From then until around mid-April, the main crew of The Return of the Condor Heroes was stuck filming the Battle of Xiangyang.

Only some actors, whose scenes had already been filmed, went to Peach Blossom Island in separate groups to film other scenes.

It is said that this play employed 300 students from Taizhou Martial Arts School and more than 500 local extras to jointly depict the grand ancient war scene of "the Mongol army besieging Xiangyang, Guo Jing leading the people to resist the enemy, and the Song and Mongol armies clashing".

However, this claim is somewhat exaggerated; the actual number of participants may only be four or five hundred at most.

The fact that only a little over a hundred students from the martial arts school attended is corroborated by a news report about a brawl at the time.

In the original timeline, at noon on March 25th, more than one hundred students from the martial arts academy were tasked with playing the role of a defeated Mongol army.

Because the characters were portrayed as defeated soldiers, the director asked the makeup artists to apply black mud to their faces to create a more realistic filming effect.

During the makeup process, a student extra asked the makeup artist not to apply too much black mud.

However, the makeup artist, who was used to being high and mighty on set, had no interest in paying attention to a mere extra, so he ignored her.

This small conflict instantly ignited the discontent of the extras, leading to friction between the two sides and mutual dislike.

The two then clashed, and the conflict quickly escalated into a brawl, with the situation spiraling out of control.

The fight lasted for more than ten minutes until the martial arts academy teachers arrived at the scene, and the chaos was finally brought under control.

The conflict resulted in the makeup artist's chin being swollen and her forehead bleeding. Even the photography assistant and lighting assistant who were nearby were involved and suffered minor injuries.

This shows that although the students were angry, they still had a certain degree of restraint when they acted.

Fortunately, the incident did not lead to more serious consequences, and the two parties eventually reached a settlement, thus ending the matter.

(End of this chapter)