Chapter 191 – Accident in the Shooting
Leisure is leisure and work is work. Lu Chen made a clear distinction between the two.
No matter how beautiful the scenery of Jinling was or how moving the Qinhuai River, with the wind and moonlight shining down, was, none of it could let him forget about and neglect his work.
The second day after arriving in Jinling, Lu Chen got up early in the morning.
Li Feiyu was still sleeping soundly. He left the hotel quietly and went out to exercise.
After coming back, Lu Chen woke up Li Feiyu, and the two went to the hotel’s restaurant to have breakfast.
After eating breakfast, Lu Ze came just in time.
Today was the day they were going to shoot the commercial. According to the arrangement of Silver Horse Advertisement Company, if the shooting could be successfully completed in the morning, then he would go to Senqi headquarters to take photos for the posters in the afternoon, and then he would be able to return to Beijing in the evening.
Of course, this was the most ideal condition.
Film and television shooting work was never simple. Even the simplest commercials couldn’t guarantee that there wouldn’t be any accidents or setbacks, such as wrong costume or props, actors being in poor condition and so on, which would affect the shooting process.
Led by Lu Ze, Lu Chen first met with the shooting team of Silver Horse Advertising Company.
Although they were only shooting a commercial, there were a lot of people on the shooting team, including directors, cameraman, assistant cameraman, log keeper, fine arts, lighting technicians, lighting assistants, props artists, makeup artists… plus the more than a dozen field workers, who were in charge of chores, pushing tracks, and transportation.
This also showed the strength of Silver Horse Advertising Company. If it was a kind of grass-roots company, maybe it would just be a director plus a few photographers. It wouldn’t be able to arrange such a big line up.
In addition, it could also be seen that Senqi attached attention and investment in this advertisement.
The shooting location was in Xiangjiang Road of Jinling Film and Television City.
Jinling Film and Television City was built in cooperation between the government and enterprises. Tens of billions of yuan have been invested on it. it has already become one of the famous tourist attractions in Jinling.
This Xiangjiang Road was modelled on the Kowloon Commercial Street in Xiangjiang. It was surrounded by high-rise shops, and there were commuter trams and real subway stations, which was no different from the real thing.
Many domestic movies and TVs were filmed here. Interestingly, it was said that even Xiangjiang’s film and television companies have made Xiangjiang-flavored films in Xiangjiang Road.
When Lu Chen arrived, the shooting team had just moved to their position.
According to the plan, the commercial would first shoot the outdoor part. After that was done, the indoor part will be shot next. The plot wasn’t complicated.
The storyline of the commercial was that the male lead played by Lu Chen and the female lead, who were living together, have overslept, and the latter rushed to attend an important company meeting and accidentally left the documents at home.
After the male lead found out, he immediately put on his Senqi sportswear and Senqi sneakers and ran out to catch up, only to find that the female lead had taken a taxi and left.
So, the male lead ran all the way down the street, and along the way, there was a process of jumping over many obstacles. When the female lead came to the conference room but found that she didn’t bring the documents, the male lead, covered with sweat, descended like a divine soldier!
The moved female lead sent him a fragrant kiss on the spot. It drew applause from everyone in the company.
Finally, the camera focuses on Senqi’s logo.
Lu Chen has already seen the script for the commercial, and has already memorized several lines.
His role didn’t need to have high acting skills. The only difficulty was that in the process of running, in order to show the sports characteristics of the brand, there were several scenes involving parkour.
Silver Horse Advertising Company was prepared to use a double, that is, a professional parkour enthusiast.
Lu Chen came a little early. Under the introduction of Lu Ze, he chatted with the director of the shooting team and listened to the latter explain the main points of the shooting. After all, the main shot of this commercial was on Lu Chen.
The director also introduced Lu Chen’s double.
The double was a professional fitness coach surnamed Wang, nearly 30 years old.
He was a little shorter than Lu Chen, but he looked very strong with muscle lines all over his body. He was a little shy when he speaks, and obviously belongs to the straightforward type.
The director told Lu Chen that the fitness coach was born in the military and usually liked parkour very much. He once won the fifth place in the national parkour competition.
After understanding the director’s intention, Lu Chen thought about it and asked, “Director, can we not use a double? How about we let Coach Wang demonstrate those parkour moves to me first, and then I’ll do it myself.”
“Not use double?”
The director was startled and looked at Lu Chen incredulously: “You will do it yourself?”
The nearby photographer, lighting technician, makeup artist… Including Coach Wang’s expression was a bit strange.
Professional things of course need to be done by professional personnel, although using a double was more troublesome. Post editing and modification were needed to avoid overlapping, and it greatly increased the difficulty of shooting.
But it was better than Lu Chen taking the risk!
One of the scenes in the commercial required the male lead to jump flexibly over a railing and then leap over a flower bed with a width of 3 meters. Without enough jumping ability, it was impossible to complete it. Without knowing the techniques, there might even be injuries.
The director felt that Lu Chen didn’t know the complexity of things. Of course, he concealed his disdain very well.
The director of a commercial was not a film and television director. The difference in position between the two was too wide and he couldn’t afford to offend star artists.
So, he could only explain: “That’s too dangerous. We can’t take such a risk. Please understand.”
Lu Chen smiled and didn’t insist to his own ideas and chose to respect the director’s arrangement: “All right…”
The director secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He has made a lot of commercials and knows how difficult some star artists are!
Lu Chen was obviously not that kind of person. He was easy to talk to.
After appeasing Lu Chen, the director raised his wrist and looked at his watch and frowned.
He turned around, pointed to his watch and asked his assistant, “Look what time it is now. Why hasn’t Ms. Sun Shan come yet? You call and urge her again, what are you doing here?”
The assistant shrank his head when he was scolded. He quickly pulled out his cell phone to contact her.
The director then said to Lu Chen, “Mr. Lu Chen, I’m so sorry. Please wait a little longer. Ms. Sun Shan may have encountered something on her side. Would you like to sit here first?”
Lu Chen said with a smile, “It doesn’t matter. I’ll wait a little longer.”
Sun Shan was Lu Chen’s partner, the female lead in this commercial, a third or fourth rate film and television starlet.
Lu Chen searched the other party’s information on the Internet and learned that the other party had appeared in several movies and TV series, although they were all supporting roles. She was quite popular on the Internet. It was said that she was very good at hyping and won one or two unknown awards.
Sun Shan was very beautiful, but the rumors about her were not very good.
Of course, Lu Chen didn’t care about the other party’s personality. Anyway, it was just a commercial.
But he soon knew that he was thinking too simply!
After finishing the call, the assistant timidly came over and said, “Director, Ms. Sun Shan is still in the hotel and says she will be here in an hour or so. What do you think?”
“Another hour?”
The director was so angry and his eyes were wide open: “So many people are waiting for her…”
He actually suppressed his temper and didn’t lost his temper. He waved his hand and said, “Forget it, we’ll not wait. Let’s shoot the part of the leading actor first. Everyone, get ready quickly!”
As soon as the director gave the order, the shooting team immediately got busy.
The photographer set up the camera stand, the makeup artist rushed over to put make-up on Lu Chen, and the lighting assistant ran around holding the reflector.
The log keeper took the field workers to isolate the curious tourists who came to watch the fun, so as not to interfere with the shooting work.
The first one to be filmed was not Lu Chen, but his double.
Coach Wang changed into a full set of sportswear and sneakers. After a warm-up, he began his first shooting work, mainly an action of overcoming obstacles.
This professional coach was very capable. After running up more than a dozen steps, he suddenly jumped up, jumping easily over several boxes stacked by the side of the road. His movement was very vigorous and smooth.
A camera installed on a guide track followed in his footsteps and filmed the whole process completely.
The first take was very smooth.
The director was very satisfied and after seeing the replay, he passed it directly.
Then the second parkour scene, the difficulty was much higher. It needed the double to jump over a railing and then jump over the flower bed and land on the grass. Because the jump distance was relatively long, there was a certain degree of danger.
When the double was attempting the stunt, Lu Chen received a phone call.
A phone call that surprised him.
“Sister Fei?”
The person who called him was Chen Fei’er: “Lu Chen, where are you?”
Lu Chen wondered, “I’m shooting a commercial in Jinling. Sister Fei, is there anything I can do for you?”
Chen Fei’er said with a chuckle, “Can’t I call you if there’s nothing?”
Lu Chen: “Er…”
Chen Fei’er said with a smile, “I’ll stop joking with you. Are you filming in Jinling Film and Television City?”
Lu Chen said, “Yes, I’m on Xiangjiang Road now.”
Chen Fei’er said, “I’ve done a scene there. I’m more familiar with the place than you. Then I’ll hang up first.”
Lu Chen was dumbfounded: “Oh, goodbye, Sister Fei.”
At the end of the call with Chen Fei’er, Lu Chen felt a little baffled.
“Ah!”
He was thinking when suddenly there was a painful scream came in front of him.
Lu Chen was startled and rushed over with several on-site staff.
Then he found out that his double, that is, Coach Wang, had an accident!
It turned out that when shooting the scene of jumping over the flower bed, Coach Wang didn’t handle it properly when he landed on the ground. As a result, he twisted his foot and couldn’t stand up because of the pain.
Everyone helped him up and brought him to the bench.
When they took off his sneakers, Coach Wang’s ankles began to swell!
Although the situation of his bones was unknown, with him looking like that, it was definitely impossible to continue shooting.
Moreover, the previous shot was taken in vain.
Because they have to change people.
The problem was where to find a temporary replacement now. It should be known that these actions were a bit difficult. Not anyone could do them casually.
The director’s sadness was about to turn into a river against the current![1]
___________
[1] This is the explanation I got from the internet: This means that sadness is like a river that can’t be caught. The sorrow rushes into the heart. Sadness is more than death. Tears flow back in my heart. In short, the director is really, really sad.
TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: Here.
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