Rebirth of Chinese Entertainment, the Diary of a 95 Flower

"Three! Two! One! Okay, extras, move out! Action!"

The entire street was decorated to resemble a border town.

As the executive director finished speaking through the megaphone.

The extras quickly got into character.

An extra playing a peddler carries a load on his shoulder, shakes a drum, and shouts, "Candied hawthorns, sweet candied hawthorns!"

The woman playing the role of the cloth shop owner tiptoes to hang the dyed red cloth on a bamboo pole.

Several child actors chased each other, their faces beaming with smiles.

Bai Lu was so immersed in her role that her eyes became even redder.

Her brother once said that after the war, he would take her to the market to buy sugar figurines, show her the latest patterns from the fabric shops, and take her home.

But now, his brother is gone, and even his name hasn't been recorded in the list of the dead.

She walked up to a sugar painting stall where an actor playing an old craftsman was drawing the image of a general on a stone slab with melted sugar.

Of course, it wasn't actually drawn.

I don't have that level of skill.

First, shoot the scene where the outline is being drawn, then a panoramic shot, and finally a shot of the entire pond water being drawn.

The golden sugar threads outlined the shape of the spear, drawing exclamations of admiration from the onlookers.

Bai Lu stared at the sugar painting when she suddenly heard two villagers nearby discussing, "We heard that our general has won another battle. He's truly our guardian angel!"

"That's right, it's just a pity for those soldiers who died in battle. Sigh, I wonder how many of them didn't even leave their names behind..."

The rest of her words were left unsaid, but they pierced through Bai Lu's suppressed emotions like a needle.

She gripped the jade pendant tighter, her knuckles turning white, and tears finally welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

She wanted to rush forward and tell everyone, "My brother also died in battle! He practiced shooting late into the night, his hands were covered in calluses, he saved his military pay to give to the family, he said he would take me home after the war! He was no nobody!"

But when she got to the point of speaking, she seemed to be choked up by the question she had been asked about joining the army: "What else can you do besides hold us back?"

Throat tightness.

He couldn't even make a sound.

She recalled the embarrassment she felt in front of the military tent.

He tried to argue but was interrupted.

I want to talk, but there's no one to listen.

That feeling of helplessness surged up again, making her almost want to squat down and bury her face in her knees, just like she did in the storage room on set.

"Okay, okay, very good!"

Guo Jianyong sat in front of the monitor, his legs tense.

So far in the filming, Bai Lu's condition is very good.

The other actors' roles were actually less demanding, because the camera was focused on Bai Lu, and many extras' expressions were even blurred in post-production.

However, there are many close-up shots of Bailu.

Micro-expressions are quite important, as they allow the audience to feel the character's emotions.

So far, Bai Lu's performance has been extremely convincing, so perfect that it doesn't seem like acting.

"Brother Dao, it's time to go. The wind is picking up now, and the old craftsman's sugar painting of the general needs to be stopped at this time." Guo Jianyong held the walkie-talkie and whispered a reminder.

The prop master suddenly realized what was happening.

I was so engrossed in watching it just now.

He held a blower off-camera and created the effect of wind.

The wind howled.

The banners of the sugar painting stall fluttered, and the sugar painting that the old craftsman had just finished was bumped, breaking off a corner of the general's spear.

The old craftsman sighed and shook his head: "Alas, this wind has ruined another thing."

Bai Lu looked at the sugar painting with a broken corner.

Remembering the marks his brother made on the gun barrel when he practiced shooting, he always said that if he practiced a few more times, he would be able to protect the people he wanted to protect.

The audience can see the imagined scene.

These scenes, filmed with another extra who played the older brother, enriched the storyline of this minor character.

Bai Lu's reminiscing expressions will be interspersed in post-production using a montage effect, in conjunction with previously filmed content.

Those fragmented memories, like a warm current, slowly washed away the chill in her heart. She took a deep breath, wiped away her tears, and said in a trembling voice, "My brother, he's not a good-for-nothing."

The surrounding extras were waiting for this line.

stunned for a moment.

They all turned to look at her.

The peddler stopped playing his rattle, the cloth shop owner stopped what she was doing, and even the children stopped and stared at Bailu with curiosity.

The extras acted very deliberately, even to the point of being stiff.

But it's okay.

Because there were no close-up shots of them.

All we need to do is create an effect where Bailu is the center of everyone's attention.

She clutched the jade pendant, the coldness on her fingertips gradually dissipating. She raised her voice, this time without trembling, her tone slightly strained with a hint of stubbornness, yet each word was clear: "My brother is not a good-for-nothing, nor am I! My brother has a bright future, and so do I!"

This sentence was like a pebble thrown into a bustling street, instantly silencing everything.

The peddler looked at her with a hint of pity.

The cloth shop owner sighed softly.

The old craftsman stopped using his sugar spoon, looked at her, and his eyes showed a hint of approval.

Bai Lu stood in the center of the crowd, the wind lifting the hem of her dress.

She suddenly realized why she could never truly immerse herself in the character when she said that line before.

Because she had previously felt that she shouldn't have said that.

Because nobody will believe it.

I spent half an hour with Liu Haochun in that temporary storage room.

Come out again.

Bai Lu's thoughts have changed.

Understand the character's thought process and motivations.

Even if no one believes me, even if my brother's injustice cannot be redressed for the time being, I must still say these words.

Just like when she was a child, her classmates would jokingly mock her, saying that it was impossible for her not to get into a good school.

She took it seriously and silently said to herself, "I can do it."

Just like when a trainee is rejected by the judges, she says to herself in the mirror, "I will not give up!"

Just like when she was criticized by Guo Jianyong on set not long ago, she silently told herself, "I can act well."

The encouragement she gave herself during her low points, the perseverance she showed when she wasn't recognized, and the stubbornness she had to prove she wasn't useless—all of these were embodied in the line spoken by the character she was playing.

Even though she knew at the time that she couldn't get into a good school, knew she couldn't become a trainee, and knew she couldn't play the role well.

Even if the character being played knows that he is about to die and has no future, there is no future for him.

I must say this.

"Alright, now's the time! Those soldiers at the city gate, charge! Kill them!"

The executive director, holding a megaphone, was in charge of managing the event.

Below the city gate, a line of soldiers in armor, who had been waiting for a long time, were led by a special actor into the marketplace.

The shouts of killing came and went.

The extras behind them, wielding bloodstained knives, hacked and slashed their way through.

The enemy has broken in.

The actors in the market fled in disarray.

Bai Lu clutched the jade pendant in her hand; it was her brother's keepsake.

My parents are dead, and my older brother is gone.

She was all alone at home.

The only thought that kept him going was to write his brother's name on the list of the dead.

Is it possible for her to achieve this simply by making meritorious contributions in battle?

The old craftsman at the sugar painting stall next door had already run away.

Bai Lu grabbed the broken sugar painting, gripped the stick inside, and used it as a weapon. She rushed forward with unsteady steps, first whispering, then shouting, "I'm not useless! I'm not a burden!!!" (End of Chapter)