duet

"Pei Xun?" Zhou Nian asked after a pause.

"Ah."

"He...can draw?"

"He knows a lot." Bai Hua said.He turned back to the original page and pointed to one of the scenes: "I'm going to change this, and add a close-up for you. I'll pay attention to it later."

That scene was originally a vista.A young student carrying a drawing board and collecting wind in the mountains and forests accidentally discovered the villagers sneaking into the mountains. They didn't know what they were going to do, and they didn't dare to disturb them, so they secretly hid behind a bush.On the storyboard draft, Pei Xun outlined the outline of the distant mountains with a few strokes, dotted with a few human figures sporadically.In the next scene, he drew a pair of eyes hidden among the leaves, peeking out cautiously, both nervous and curious.

"Here, the camera will stop on your face for two more seconds." Bai said, "At the last moment, you need to suddenly look directly at the camera, understand?"

Zhou Nian nodded.This is also a common technique in film shooting.The protagonist in the dark turns his eyes without warning, and the audience outside the screen will be caught off guard.In the already depressing and low atmosphere, it can add a bit of suspense and horror, which makes people's hearts skip a beat.

"Then let's start." Bai Hua said.

Zhou Nian walked into the camera.Under the background in the distance, a group of group performers came slowly.They all carried agricultural tools such as iron plows in their early years, and walked into the forest along the path under the cover of twilight.The leading village woman is the heroine of this film, Chen Anru.With a serious expression on her face, she glanced around from time to time, alert to every sign of trouble.

"Sister Ru played really well." Li Jin stood beside Song Yuzhen and whispered.

Both of them stood outside the field, watching the two groups of people who were silently confronting each other on the field from afar.The panic-stricken villagers, who saw the secret student, were silently confronting each other across the forest.After a while, Song Yuzhen finally said "hmm".

"Brother Nian is also very good." She murmured again.

Zhou Nian has entered the play.After an afternoon of sketching, the student he plays is a little tired. When he stands up straight, the first thing he does is to stretch his body and move his head and neck.Xu Shi was quite satisfied with his paintings today. When packing up the paints and drawing boards, his brows were always raised, and the corners of his mouth were slightly smiling.There was no excessive expression on his face, but others could feel his joyful mood from the subtle changes in his expression, it was brisk and bright, as if he was humming a song in his heart.

He got up and took two steps outside the forest.At first, the footsteps were natural and slow, but the moment they saw the movement of the villagers, they immediately slowed down.He maintained the same posture as before, only slightly rolling his eyes.The distance was too far to clearly hear such a subtle sound, but Li Jin felt that at that moment, he should have held his breath.

At the same time, Chen Anru seemed to have noticed him, and glanced over him sharply.Zhou Nian immediately lowered his body, under the shade of the branches and leaves, only showing a pair of nervous eyes.

His movements and demeanor perfectly reproduced Pei Xun's description on the storyboard.

Filming continues.Along the laid track, the camera machine slowly approached him.Li Jin quietly went around behind Bai Hua and looked at him from the monitor: Zhou Nian was watching the sneaky mountain people for a moment, but in an instant, several ever-changing emotions appeared in those eyes.She was fascinated and stared at him equally nervously, only to see him give him a sudden glance——

"Ah." She exclaimed softly, then covered her mouth tightly.

At the same time, many people who were watching Zhou Nian had similar reactions.Fortunately, this film is not a live broadcast, so it will not cause any loss.But Bai Hua still stood up and called out "ka".

"Did we affect the shooting?" Li Jin asked in a low voice.

At some point, Song Yuzhen stood beside her again.He also looked at the field seriously, with a very rare serious expression on his face: "No."

"Why is that? Is the acting not good enough?"

"It can be better."

Hearing that a retake was going to be done, Zhou Nian didn't react at all, and walked back to his original position as usual, ready to start over.In the previous youth drama crews, as long as Bai Wei didn't appear to be too much of a drama, it was mostly a fault to have him in the scene.But when it comes to Baihua, it is quite normal to shoot a scene a dozen times.With Pei Xun at the back, Bai Hua's crew never worried about funding, and they didn't have to worry about the budget like other directors or producers.Most of the actors who participated in his films have to spare nearly twice the time for shooting other films, so there will be no time conflicts with the actors.

After Bai Hua won the award abroad, she has been interviewed by many magazines, and a metaphor has been widely circulated in the circle: "Actors are like knives, and directors are the ones who sharpen knives."Only by constantly demanding, can an actor be forced to look his best.For this reason, a lot of time and resources were lost, and the same shots were reshot over and over again, just for the final screen effect.

"Director Bai knows how to measure and what he can do." Song Yuzhen said, "He knows where Zhou Nian's problem is. He also knows how to improve it."

"What is it?" Li Jin asked.

"Desire to express." Song Yuzhen replied.He stared at Zhou Nian, thoughtful: "His personality is introverted, and it is not easy to let go in front of others. Even after years of training, there is not much stagnation left, but on certain occasions—such as At the moment when he looked directly at the camera like that just now, the director with vicious eyes will find this problem."

"What should I do?"

"I can only practice repeatedly." Song Yuzhen said, "Director Bai modified the storyboard...Maybe it was because he discovered his weakness before and deliberately wanted to hone him."

"...Is that so." Li Jin said.There was still some hesitation on her face: "I think... Brother Nian has acted very well."

"Just wait." Song Yuzhen smiled.

Over there, Bai Hua called "Card" again, and Zhou Nian walked back to the beginning again, waiting for the next instruction.Song Yuzhen looked at him. On that young face, there was no guilt or confusion. He stood there quietly, but his eyes were bright. What do you want.

Every time he does it, he gets better.

Song Yuzhen looked away.He looked at the solemn Bai Hua behind the monitor, and then looked at Chen Anru who was in the distant view but did not relax at all.Everyone is a serious filmmaker and is doing their best for this movie.

"This guy will be very powerful in the future." He laughed, his eyes filled with excitement, "Someone's taste...is really good."

One and a half months after "Mountain Ghost" started filming, "Seven Degrees of Youth" was also finished.Xu Li called and told Zhou Nian that the show had been bought by two TV stations and was expected to be broadcast soon.After all, Bai Wei is a popular actress with high traffic. The original work of this drama is also a so-called classic IP, and the audience's expectations are quite high.If there is no accident, it will be broadcast on the prime time at [-]:[-] every Friday.

What followed was the promotional work on the play.According to what Xu Li said, in the contract signed at the beginning, most of the publicity was focused on Bai Wei, and Zhou Nian only needed to attend a meeting and repost a few Weibo online.The exposure rate brought by this is naturally low, but there is nothing to do. After all, his popularity was mediocre back then, and he couldn't bring any effect to the ratings.

However, a few months later, the studio changed its tone.The propagandist who communicated with Xu Li expressed the hope that Zhou Nian could participate in more offline activities with Bai Wei, and also suggested that he record a few small videos to warm up in advance.The publicity period before the broadcast of a new play is often one of the periods when an artist receives the most attention, Xu Li naturally does not allow him to miss such an opportunity.After Bai Hua found out about the situation, she didn't make any comments, and rushed to film his part, so she granted him three days off.

Zhou Nian followed Bai Wei and traveled to five cities in two days to stand for the new drama.Although he hasn't received any high-quality new dramas for a long time, many fans he has gathered during his debut are quite long-lasting, and there are actually some decent support activities.After two days, with the release of the first trailer, "Seven Degrees of Youth" has repeatedly appeared on the hot search list, and the attention he has gained has also increased, and the number of new fans increased by tens of thousands every day.

Going on like this almost gave him the illusion of "rejuvenation".

And just the next night, he received an invitation to a charity dinner from a fashion magazine.