CH 40

April 20, 2021kaychandra

Chapter 40: Film Editing

Translated and edited by KChandra

“See you next time.” Gongxi Qiao leaned against the side of the car window and waved his hand at Xi Qing. Then, he walked into the set, amidst the greetings of the staff all the way.

Xi Qing squinted at Gongxi Qiao’s back until he could no longer see it before letting his bodyguard drive away.

Chen Ke sat in his car and watched Xi Qing’s car fade away. He sighed helpless and turned the car around and headed in the direction of the company.

Because the effect of Gongxi Qiao’s endorsement of Ya De Apparel was very good, coupled with the previous interview with Gongxi Qiao in ”He Rui” magazine, the sales of the magazine increased significantly. So now Gongxi Qiao was very popular among fashion magazines. Recently, several of them had offered Gongxi Qiao an interview. Moreover, they were all famous magazines. If he didn’t care about Gongxi Qiao’s health, he would have agreed to all of them.

Every day, he had to politely push away a lot of invitations. Chen Ke was so distressed because when he first brought Cao Zheng out, he went to great lengths to get these opportunities. Now with Gongxi Qiao, he needed to pick and choose among the offers he received, which wasn’t a small difference.

When he thought of Cao Zheng, Chen Ke’s mood wasn’t very good. The company spent a lot of effort to make him their top star, but he turned around and climbed up the ladder, terminating his contract to go to Ringstar. If it was a friendly termination, even if there was some regret, Senhe wouldn’t try to prevent it. However, the result was that he wanted to make things very ugly. He said that Senhe’s conditions were harsh and not conducive to his development, adding vitriol to the story of how aggrieved he was.

Although Senhe wasn’t a big company in the industry, its culture was definitely better than many entertainment companies. They didn’t force artists to be escorts, they didn’t oppress them inhumanely, and their contracts were fair and reasonable. If they were called harsh, then some companies could only be called hell on earth.

Cao Zheng jumped to Ringstar with great enthusiasm, but unfortunately in the last six months he’d had no great works and his popularity began to decline significantly. Now his treatment was worse than when he was at Senhe.

Thinking of this, Chen Ke smiled. The so-called seeking karma was exactly this.

“You’re acting out fighting for your lives right now, not playing war games,” Director Wang pointed to the two small supporting actors in the field, scolding the two tall men with red faces, “start over.”

Gongxi Qiao changed into his costume and came out just in time to see Director Wang throwing a tantrum. To his eyes, the expressions of the two supporting characters were spot on, but the momentum was missing when they were fighting. People who had really seen blood, even if they didn’t wield swords and clubs, would make people feel a murderous aura.

After several consecutive NGs, the shot barely passed. The two actors also suffered enough from the wire work, but Director Wang’s face still didn’t look good.

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“You two big brothers worked hard. Drink some water.” Gongxi Qiao asked He Peng to hand two bottles of water to the two supporting actors, who were selected from veteran extras. It wasn’t easy to get two roles that showed their faces. Now they were hanging from the wires for an hour or two without even a grunt. It was obvious that the two had hardworking personalities.

Originally planning to replace the two, Director Wang’s face eased some and didn’t say anything about replacing them. Instead, he looked at Gongxi Qiao and said, “I saw that you also had a few martial arts scenes in Immortal Mountain Courtyard and you looked good. Have you learned a few moves from someone?”

Gongxi Qiao smiled. “I followed the martial arts director and learned a little, but I was just taking a look.”

“The two of them have a scene with you later, please take care of them.” Director Wang was willing to give Gongxi Qiao face, since they were two small roles with few shots.

The two extras with the mineral water bottles were relieved to hear Director Wang say this. They had been extras for two or three years, and it wasn’t easy to grab a role that showed their faces, let alone in a big production like this. Originally they thought they would be replaced by the director, but they didn’t expect that Director Wang would change his mind after Qiao Shao helped them out with a word.

They looked at Gongxi Qiao with gratitude several times, and both of them made up their minds to perform well and not to drag down Qiao Shao’s performance.

Before the shooting started, Gongxi Qiao said to the two extras standing beside him, “Don’t be nervous, I’ve seen your performance just now, your expressions are spot on, you just have some trouble letting go.”

The two nodded gratefully and took a deep breath in unison.

This was a fight scene in which two gangs disagreed and fought in the hall. The main character, the alliance leader, only needed to drink tea in the chaos and then arrest the two most troublesome people for some “loving education”.

Perhaps because Gongxi Qiao’s ability to lead the scene was good, the shooting went well and Director Wang’s face finally returned to normal.

He called Gongxi Qiao to sit down beside him, “Our movie is already half filmed. The post-production of the ‘National Industry’ crew is all finished and has been sent for review. Your scenes are very compelling, and I don’t expect many of them to be cut.”

The length of a movie release was about 100 minutes, which was the finished product after editing and review, but the actual filmed content was almost twice the length of the broadcast content. So, after the movie was released, there would be actors who found that they had shot more footage than another actor, but weren’t shown as much as that other actor.

Post-editing was an amazing thing, and a good movie couldn’t be made without a good editor.

Gongxi Qiao heard Director Wang’s words hinting at something else, but he couldn’t show it on his face. He just said with joy, “Really?”

“Mm-hm,” Director Wang nodded, looking at Gongxi Qiao’s smiling face, “but this time, for the overall effect, Liang Yumeng’s footage will be partially cut.”

Liang Yumeng’s footage was cut short?

Gongxi Qiao smile diminished. No matter what, he and Liang Yumeng were still superficially close friends, and if his friend had fewer shots, it would be a bit unkind if he was still cheerful.

“You’re still young, you have to understand that …… Art always requires sacrifice,” Director Wang patted his shoulder, “This kind of big drama dedicated to the country, it can’t be too much about personal glory. Liang Yumeng is a veteran in the circle and should understand this. If he’s not too happy, you should advise him more when you’re free and not let this matter affect your acting career.”

Gongxi Qiao nodded with a dazed look on his face.

Director Wang saw his appearance and helplessly shook his head. Although he was a capable young man, he had seen too little of the darkness of the circle, ah.

Perhaps Gongxi Qiao still didn’t know that the news when he was said to be hugging Liang Yumeng’s thighs was put out by Liang Yumeng.

Thinking of this, Director Wang patted his shoulder once again, “Go prepare for the next scene.”

“Okay, Director Wang,” Gongxi Qiao smiled and took the script and squatted in the corner to look at it.

Liang Yumeng, who was still recovering from his injuries in the hospital, was so angry that he dropped his medicine bottle after hearing that a lot of his scenes had been cut. However, when the head of the National Industry crew called, he still said in a gentle tone that it didn’t matter and that he supported any decision made by the crew.

After hanging up the phone, Liang Yumeng’s face turned gloomy. When he first joined the cast, it was agreed that he would play the role of one of the main actors, but now that the footage was reduced, could he still be considered a main actor?

“Brother Liang, don’t be angry.” The assistant picked up the medicine bottle on the ground and carefully soothed him for a while. Seeing that Liang Yumeng’s face was still not getting better, he didn’t dare to remind him that the time for rehab was coming up.

“How are things going over there?” Liang Yumeng took a deep breath and forced down his anger, “Why has it taken so long for the news to come through?”

“This ……” the assistant looked at Liang Yumeng apprehensively, “Gongxi Xiong simply ignored the people we arranged to go over. Beautiful men and women are useless.” And he also paid a medical fee to Gongxi Xiong for nothing.

“Is he a man?!” Liang Yumeng gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to have a fresh and delicious beauty, but wanted to keep his family’s yellow faced housewife[1]. He wasn’t a wimp who was afraid of his wife, obviously he was rich, but he was still living the life of an honest man – what was wrong with him?

The assistant gave an awkward dry laugh. Putting aside his own position, he felt that Gongxi Xiong was actually a very good man, with a successful career, a harmonious family and a filial son — wasn’t that nice?

But he didn’t dare to say this thought out loud. He knew Brother Liang wanted to get revenge on Gongxi Qiao by creating chaos in the Gongxi family, but unfortunately, the enemy was too determined. They couldn’t just have somebody force themself on him, right?[2]

“What about Qiao Lanfen’s side?” Liang Yumeng didn’t believe that there was no weak point to be found in Gongxi Qiao’s parents.

When Brother Liang mentioned Qiao Lanfen, the assistant shook his head. “Qiao Lanfen isn’t a good bet. The hustler we arranged before didn’t have a chance to make a move. Antiques, superstition, tourism and various other tactics are useless against her. She goes out every morning and evening to dance in the plaza on schedule, manages the supermarket under her name seriously during working hours, goes out for a walk with Gongxi Xiong at night, and has no time to pay attention to those people we sent out.”

Hearing this, Liang Yumeng’s face twisted a bit and he breathed in and out several times before saying, “This family is all f***ing sick in the head!”

The assistant silently hung his head. He thought this kind of family was quite good. No wonder they would raise a child like Qiao Shao. In fact, he didn’t understand why Brother Liang had to have a problem with Qiao Shao. It wasn’t Qiao Shao that made him become like this.

Although his heart thought so, he was the assistant who took Liang Yumeng’s salary. He could only think about it.

“Since they won’t take the bait, let their son take the bait,” Liang Yumeng’s countenance was heavy, “I don’t believe Gongxi Qiao has no weakness.”

The assistant opened his mouth and looked at Liang Yumeng, who was tortured by injuries to the point of wasting away, and had no response.

‘National Industry’ had always been the focus of attention in the circle, and the slightest whisper of it could make the media excited for days. So when the news broke that Liang Yumeng’s footage had been cut out, it was quickly reported by many entertainment newspapers and weekly magazines. In order to avoid getting themselves into trouble, these media did not forget to add the word “rumored” in front of the news.

Liang Yumeng had been in the limelight in recent years and his fan group was huge. After the news was reported, the fans scolded the media for their nonsense, saying that their Yumeng was still the winner of the Thousand Flowers Award film emperor, and was a popular actor, so why should they cut so many scenes of him instead of others?

But in fact, Liang Yumeng was not the only actor in this movie who had won the Thousand Flowers Award. On the contrary, there was no shortage of actors who had won various awards in this movie, and there were even a few veteran artists who had been received by national leaders, a grade that Liang Yumeng couldn’t match.

Therefore, these remarks from fans of Liang caused a lot of discontent. After all, in the eyes of most people, veteran artists were very respectable. If not for the fact that Liang Yumeng was still recovering from his injuries in the hospital, there would have been people who would have cursed.

Unfortunately, it was often the reality that idols paid for their fans’ behavior, and this incident still left many passersby with a bad impression of Liang Yumeng. Especially some older people who didn’t necessarily know who Liang Yumeng was, but were impressed by those veteran artists.

“Very good, cut!”

After Director Wang gave the word, several staff members busily swooped in and fished Gongxi Qiao out of the river. For the sake of filming, Gongxi Qiao really jumped into the river holding a piece of driftwood. If not for the safety rope tied to his body, he might have been swept away by the water.

Gongxi Qiao, with a white face, wrapped himself in a blanket and hopped a few times. Then he smiled at the camera facing him, struck a pose of a martial arts master, and twisted his waist and said, “Oh, who’s this kid, he looks so handsome!”

Director Wang saw that he was a mess and continued to make trouble, so he laughed and said, “Save this for him and put it in the back of the film as an easter egg.”

“Director Wang, please let it go,” Gongxi Qiao looked at Director Wang with a bitter face, “I will lose my popularity if this is released.”

The silent cameraman just honestly filmed the whole thing, and only after he was done did he close the lens cap and smile at Gongxi Qiao’s dull face.

Director Wang saw that Gongxi Qiao was still wearing a wet costume and yelled at him to go change, to good-natured jeers from the rest of the crew.

Because it was a field shoot, they rented a local house. Gongxi Qiao changed out of his costume and then removed his makeup in a small room.

“Qiao Shao, close your eyes,” the make-up artist used make-up remover to remove the make-up from his eyes, and her fingers accidentally touched Gongxi Qiao’s cheeks. She said with some envy, “Qiao Shao’s skin texture is so good, how do you take care of it?”

“Early to bed and early to rise is good for your skin,” said Gongxi Qiao, who felt a little uncomfortable even after changing clothes because he hadn’t showered. “But you guys probably won’t be able to use this method because you work too hard. Sometimes you have to work until midnight to remove makeup for the cast. No matter how good your skin is, no matter how good your maintenance products are, the skin can’t stand such a torment.”

When several makeup artists in the room heard this, their hearts felt like they were drinking honey. The makeup artist who was usually responsible for Gongxi Qiao’s makeup smiled and said, “That can’t be helped. We’re lucky to be in Director Wang’s crew.” They were certainly happy to be recognized for their hard work.

After removing the makeup, several make-up artists also told Gongxi Qiao about their own private maintenance methods, which was an eye-opener for Gongxi Qiao. He turned his head and seriously asked Xiao Yao to write it down for him.

This action again made several makeup artists’ good feelings towards him rise sharply.

After Gongxi Qiao left, several makeup artists sat together and whispered gossip about who in the circle was more sociable.

“The last time I was with a group, Wen Wen was very nice and usually bought everyone water or something,” makeup artist A said as she packed her makeup case, “I feel that the few artists who are close to Qiao Shao are quite nice to get along with.”

“Have you forgotten about Zhao Da Shao?” Makeup artist B sighed helplessly, “That young master isn’t easy to get along with, but his heart isn’t too bad. He’s also dedicated during filming.”

“He’s a young master, a bit of temper is quite normal. Doesn’t he say he has a bad relationship with Qiao Shao?” Makeup artist C didn’t care much and smiled. In this circle, what kind of people had she not encountered? People like Zhao Yikun who were open with their matters were already considered pretty good. “But there are really not many people who get along with others as well as Qiao Shao does.”

Makeup artist A nodded. “You don’t know, every time Qiao Shao looks at me and talks, I don’t dare to look at his eyes. I always feel that his eyes are particularly charming and my heartbeat is going to be abnormal if I look at them a few more times.”

The other two make-up artists smiled and made a few jokes, but it was undeniable that Gongxi Qiao’s eyes were indeed extraordinarily charming, and just by looking into those eyes, one would feel as if one was the whole world in those eyes.

Although everyone knew that was impossible, there was no escaping the charm of those eyes.

Outside the door, Xiao Yao, who accidentally overheard what the makeup artists were discussing, somewhat proudly puffed out her not-so-proud bosom. Their Qiao Shao was definitely a great artist from 360 degrees with no dead angles.

Gongxi Qiao hooked up his lips and smiled, thinking that it was better for him not to go back now to get the things he had accidentally left in the dressing room.

T/N:

1. Yellow faced housewife: An insulting term for housewives that have “let themselves go”. In China, where pale skin is the standard of beauty, a darker/yellower skin tone is considered homely.

2. Force him: the actual phrase here was 霸王硬上弓, “the overlord is hard on the bow,” an idiom that means to force yourself on someone/rape.