74 Director's Dilemma

"Rong Qiuchen! Rong Qiuchen!"

A series of rude shouts broke the silence, and when he looks up, Luohua, the master of the Herro Troupe, has entered the hall in a rage.

"What are you waiting for? Do you have to wait for me to come to invite you personally!"

Luohua is already fully dressed in Cui Yingying's make-up and costume, and in the dim light he appeares magnificent, but his eyes are filled with hatred.

Qiuchen gets up and asks politely, "Brother Luohua, what brought you here in such a hurry?"

"Didn't Little Fiver come to you just now? The lords and ladies are waiting outside for the show, and you think you are the master who needs the others to wait?!"

"Qiuchen dares not think this way. I am only a servant serving pens and ink in Yiqiu Hall. I am not fit to go to the Great Hall. Brother Luohua is at the helm of the Heero Troupe and trained the disciples well. I'm not worthy of being in the same troupe and have been neglecting my training these days. I really shouldn't sing any more."

"You don't have to talk to me in such a perfunctory manner. We are brothers trained by the same masters and we all know what level we are at with each other. You, the number one ranked stage flower, say you can't sing? That's called posturing! To be clear, it's not that I can't stage a show without you, it's the Third Lord who insists that you go."

Seeing how aggressive Luohua is, Qiuchen doesn't want to argue, so he just complies with his request without saying anything more.

Luohua ignores him as well, turns around and walks out of the hall, muttering, "Who the hell do you think you are! Ever since you came here you've done nothing but flaunt your body to seduce the lords in this house. You don't even know your place… you're nothing but a bargaining chip for Master Liang to please the Third Lord in exchange for a promotion. You've been sold and you don't even know it. Stupid bitch!"

Qiuchen walks behind him and has heard everything clearly. Although he has expected that coming into the Rong Mansion would cause a lot of unwarranted talk, he did not expect that his former brother in the same troupe would say such nasty things. He looks up into the distance several times before struggling to hold back the tears in his eyes.

… …

***

"Cut!"

Yuan Ge calls off the shoot once again, depressed beyond belief.

He thought that having the two play opposite each other would inspire them both to get into character quickly, but to his dismay, the grudge match between Waylon's Luohua and Yin Fenghua's Qiuchen was a complete disaster.

Waylon is still too young and inexperienced to act. Although he has been warming up on set for a few weeks and has successfully completed filming his scenes with Stephen and Chestnut, he couldn't find his form today in front of the pop idol who is both a senior and behaves like a prima donna. The crew has been unable to find a suitable actor to play Luohua and has to ask Waylon to fill the gap for the time being. The scene was not part of the shooting schedule, it was added on the fly, and his temperament did not quite match the role. Waylon tried a few times, but he was unable to portray Luohua's jealous and bossy attitude in front of Yin Fenghua.

Yin Fenghua, on the other hand, is even worse than Waylon. Even though he is still active in the entertainment industry and maintains a youthful appearance, he is in his thirties already. While he might still be considered beautiful under the cover of the usual beauty filters used by variety shows, he cannot hide his true condition under the lens of a film camera. His skin and his spirit couldn't at all do justice to Qiuchen's breathtaking beauty. More incongruously, the difference between the character and his personality is uncanny, and there is no trace of Rong Qing in his performance.

However, Yin Fenghua doesn't realize that he is responsible for the continuous NGs, and is instead furious with Waylon.

"Can you act or not? It's getting dark, and at this rate we're going to miss dinner today!" He shouts at Waylon.

Looking at Waylon's indignant look, Yuan Ge has to call a halt and let everyone take a break for the time being.

"Director, I really tried my best, but Mr. Yin is ten years older than me, and doesn't at all look like my younger brother. And he hasn't got that delicate and aloof attraction you talked about in the script, so how am I supposed to act?"

Seeing Waylon's frustrated look, Amélie chimes in in a low voice, "I don't think the problem is all on Waylon, it's that the character's temperament doesn't feel right. We didn't choose this male lead, and it doesn't match your Rong Qing's vibe at all."

Yuan Ge watched the replayed clip, he frowns in silence, then he calls over Waylon, walks with him to Yin Fenghua, and says politely, "Mr. Yin, could I ask you to please demonstrate how to play Luohua when we roll the camera again? Waylon is a new actor and inexperienced. I'm afraid he won't get what you mean just by listening to the explanation, maybe after watching you perform once, he will realize what the problem is."

When Yin Fenghua saw that the director has come over in person to ask him for help, he feels rather pleased with himself, lazily standing up, and says, "It's such a bore to train newcomers." He then beckons at Waylon, "Come here, I'll show you once, and you can copy me afterwards. Let's not have any more NGs! I'm telling you, a bad guy like Luohua is the easiest type of character to play …"

As he watched Yin Fenghua change into the role of Luohua to demonstrate the performance to Waylon, Yuan Ge hurriedly asks Du Jinghai to film it in its entirety.

"Old Dude, what do you think?"

The two of them watched the playback on camera together and Du Jinghai already understood what Yuan Ge meant.

"I don't need to say it. He's absolutely a natural. Yin Fenghua is Luohua himself! He doesn't even need to act. He just needs to be himself. Why don't I remove the close-ups and do a little blurring in post-processing, and you can just use his performance for this scene."

Yuan Ge sighs, "I agree. Yin Fenghua is impeccable as Luohua, but the problem is that he's playing Qiuchen!"

When he thought that today is only the first day of shooting, and that Yin Fenghua is playing Rong Qing, the soul of this film, Yuan Ge feels devastated. How on earth can he guide a person with a completely opposite temperament into his Qing Qing? At this rate, can this film really be a masterpiece like he hopes it will be?