Niu Yichen had no intention of greeting anyone. In his current state, all men had a negative opinion of him, and going over to say hello would only make him feel uncomfortable.
After waiting a while, the makeup artist from before reluctantly came over. Niu Yichen waved him away, "Get lost!" Then he pointed to a very young female makeup artist and said, "You do my makeup!"
"What did you say?" the makeup artist said angrily, "That's just a junior assistant, I've already been patient enough..."
"Get lost!" Niu Yichen said again, then beckoned to the female makeup artist and said, "You're the one! Come help me, I'm afraid this bastard will cause trouble for me!"
"You!" The makeup artist was so angry that her face turned red, but she couldn't say a word, as if her secret had been hit.
Makeup artists have a huge chance of messing things up for actors. Take the character Tianshan Tonglao, played by Shu Chang in Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, for example. Making you look ugly is a minor issue; something even more malicious would be using skin-damaging materials to give you a face full of pimples. For an actor, that would be truly devastating.
The female assistant immediately came over happily. She was an assistant, but her skills were not bad either. Moreover, she was a fan of Niu Yichen, a long-time fan. She had practically watched Niu Yichen grow up on screen.
Now that Niu Yichen has been away from the screen for a year, the childishness on his face has faded, and he looks even more handsome. This put my mind at ease, which was originally worried that he would grow up to be ugly. I was overjoyed, so how could I refuse?
Moreover, that makeup artist was so obviously trying to cause trouble; anyone with eyes could see that.
"Fine!" the makeup artist snapped. "I'd like to see what kind of result a mere assistant like you can produce!"
Niu Yichen completely ignored him and instead asked the assistant, "You look unfamiliar. What's your name?"
"My name is Wu Shise, you can just call me Sese!" Wu Shise's face was flushed with excitement as she took the tools she had prepared and started working them on Niu Yichen's face.
"What are you planning to paint for me today?" Niu Yichen asked.
"Of course, it's the handsome young hero!"
Wu Shise was a very lively person. As soon as Niu Yichen asked, she started talking non-stop: "I've seen the scene we're going to perform today. You should be playing the Drunken Sword Immortal. Although the Drunken Sword Immortal in the game is a drunkard, you're playing him when he's young. The Drunken Sword Immortal is so dashing even when he's old. He must have been a handsome guy when he was young!"
"That's right!" Niu Yichen laughed, "Just draw like that with me!"
The makeup artist chimed in, "That wasn't our original design!"
Niu Yichen and Wu Shise ignored him and fell silent, carefully drawing their own pictures.
Niu Yichen has such a great natural look. With just a wig on, he looks like a noble young master without any makeup. The makeup on his face is just for lighting purposes. He would be even more handsome without it.
Sese picked out another set of clothes for him, which were a little too big and were actually the scholar's attire of Jin Yuan.
"Hmph!" The makeup artist snorted sarcastically, but didn't say anything more; he wanted to see a joke.
This outfit does indeed make Niu Yichen look very handsome, but it's the attire of a scholar, and the makeup is too delicate, which doesn't fit the character of the Drunken Sword Immortal at all.
"Alright! That's it!"
Niu Yichen took off the scarf-like thing from around his neck and tied it around his waist like a belt. He frowned slightly and instantly got into character. The scholar-like man suddenly gained a bit of sharpness.
"SeSe! Come with me to see our master!"
This 'master' is, of course, director Li Guoli.
"Okay!" Wu Shise nodded excitedly.
The makeup artist's face darkened. Despite it being just a few simple movements, Niu Yichen really did exude a swordsman's demeanor.
The moment Li Guoli saw Niu Yichen, his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed, "He's dressed like a light bulb!"
This statement is neither a compliment nor an insult; it's simply a description of whether someone's makeup is eye-catching.
In fact, every performance has a prominent theme, and to highlight the theme, you need to highlight a leading actor.
If Niu Yichen were standing next to Li Xiaoyao in this outfit, he would be stealing the show, and Li Guoli would definitely make him redraw it, and make it look worse. But now, it's just the Drunken Sword Immortal and Qing'er, so it doesn't matter how he's drawn.
"This is all thanks to my new makeup artist!" Niu Yichen looked at Se Se and winked at her smugly.
They were so happy they couldn't even see their own eyes.
"Now that the drawing is finished, let's rehearse the scene!" Li Guoli waved his hand, and the production assistant handed the camera to Niu Yichen again.
Niu Yichen took it and looked at it carefully.
Film crews are like small worlds, and you can never be too careful. He was already aware of this when he started acting at the age of 12.
After confirming there were no problems and checking the camera positions, Niu Yichen and Sun Li met.
Sun Li also did not receive any news about starting work ahead of schedule, and she was delayed at Cai Yinong's place for a while, so she arrived even later, but no one told her.
The two exchanged a brief greeting, rehearsed once in the actual location, and then told the director that they were ready.
Li Guoli waved his hand, and filming officially began.
The scene we're filming now is inside the prison. The backstory is: Under Baiyue's coercion, the emperor of Nanzhao has imprisoned Qing'er, the Drunken Sword Immortal, and Li Xiaoyao. The Drunken Sword Immortal and Qing'er are discussing whether or not to leave.
The performers were Qing'er and the Drunken Sword Immortal, while Li Xiaoyao was just a background character with no lines.
Niu Yichen greeted Sun Li and began his performance.
The normal procedure should have been to kick the cell a couple of times, and then Qing'er would say, "Don't do this, we can't get away!" But perhaps the Hengdian prison was too crudely made, because Niu Yichen kicked two 'cell pillars' as thick as bowls right in the middle.
After that crisp 'click' sound, Li Guoli and the crew looked at him in surprise, and even Niu Yichen paused for a moment.
However, Niu Yichen quickly realized what was happening, skipped over a paragraph, pointed to the gap, and said to Qing'er, "With my martial arts and your magic, what in this world can control this? Let's not worry about these things anymore, let's leave together, okay?"
Qing'er looked at the gaping hole created by the kick and said softly, "You're still stuck in the mindset of a mediocre person, so you simply don't understand that we can't escape! That's..."
Before Qing'er could finish speaking, the Drunken Sword Immortal interrupted her, "Don't talk to me about your so-called Dao! I don't understand it, and I'm happy to be that kind of mediocre person!"
After speaking, seemingly realizing that his tone had been too harsh, the Drunken Sword Immortal walked to her side and solemnly said, "I only want to take my most beloved person away from the disaster! I don't care about anything else!"
"I don't feel like I'm in the midst of a disaster!"
Looking at the Sword Immortal, a smile appeared on Qing'er's face, but her eyes flashed before she turned her head away, saying just as seriously, "But I have never been your lover either!"
The Sword Immortal's lips moved, as if he had a thousand words to say, but in the end, he only said one sentence, "Qing'er! What exactly do you want? A dead end awaits you ahead! We can clearly change all of this! Why don't we do it?"
After delivering that line, Li Guoli shouted, "Cut! Excellent! That's a wrap!"
The filming of TV dramas is so fragmented, so it's not unreasonable to say that every actor is a bit crazy. Facing the director, production assistants, lighting technicians, cameras, and so on, performing the emotions you want is really not as simple as you think.
However, Li Guoli was genuinely satisfied with this scene. Although it was short and involved a slight mishap, the mishap turned out to be surprisingly good, since anyone with a brain could have come up with it.
How could a sword immortal who flies in the sky possibly be unable to deal with this mere wooden prison?
Moreover, the interaction between Niu Yichen and Sun Li was so good. The performances of the two actors completely exceeded Li Guoli's expectations. The subtle atmosphere was enough to make a movie.
This is only Niu Yichen and Sun Li's first collaboration!
Li Guoli really didn't expect that Niu Yichen and Sun Li had already rehearsed several times.
Besides that, what surprised him even more was Niu Yichen's performance. Just as I told him yesterday, it really didn't disappoint him.
Niu Yichen has an amazing sense of camera presence. He always manages to present his best performance perfectly on camera, and he hardly needs to move the camera even when the camera is fixed in position.
This is an effect that only seasoned actors can achieve. For Niu Yichen, a 17-year-old boy, to be able to do this, even if he entered the industry at the age of 12, is truly astonishing.
The next scene is also set in prison. There aren't many scenes here, so we can finish them all in one go.
...
Qing'er said, "I just need you to remember that no matter what, I will never give up my love for all people!"
The Sword Immortal looked directly at her and said, "I am also a person of this world. Shouldn't you love me too?"
Qing'er paused, seemingly turning her head away in fear.
"You should leave!" Li Xiaoyao, masked, uttered his only line, rescuing Qing'er from the brief chaos.
And that concludes today's filming.
After the performance, Sun Li didn't say a word to Niu Yichen before taking her assistant to her dressing room.
Niu Yichen felt a little uncomfortable. Their performance today was very well coordinated, but apart from the performance, Sun Li didn't say a word to him. She even seemed to be avoiding him intentionally or unintentionally. Even when they were together, there was always an unfamiliar third party by his side, making it inconvenient for him to do anything. It was the same now.
"You did a fantastic job today!" Li Guoli patted the script in his hand and couldn't help but say to Niu Yichen, "I've seen many veteran actors, and your level is top-notch, even among them. And the coordination between the two of you is amazing. It's your first time performing together, and you've managed to work so well together. It's truly astonishing. You must often go over the script together!"
"No, Sun Li and I only met recently. Maybe some people are just naturally compatible, it's related to their acting styles!"
Niu Yichen smiled, his eyes darting around, and asked, "But don't you think Sister Sun Li is acting a little strange today? She's completely different from usual!"
"Something is a bit off." Li Guoli didn't think much of it and said, "It's not just her, you're a bit off too. This is a good thing, you're both immersed in your roles, this kind of state is very rare!"
At this point, Li Guoli said with a regretful expression, "What a pity, your scenes together are over!"
"It's over?" Niu Yichen said in shock, "It's only been one day, how could it be over like this?"
Li Guoli said helplessly, "What can we do? Sun Li was basically just making a cameo appearance to mentor newcomers!"
"Yes…" Niu Yichen had also thought of this problem, and couldn't help but look regretful. Upon closer inspection, according to the script provided by Tangren, all of their scenes together had indeed been filmed. They only needed to film some scattered shots later, and perhaps they wouldn't even need to meet each other.
After a brief exchange, Li Guoli asked, seemingly casually, "By the way, you were the one who picked up Ms. Cai and the others last night, weren't you?"
"Yes!" Niu Yichen said to Li Guoli, "I was wondering the same thing. There are so many of you, why didn't any of you see them off?"
Li Guoli nodded without explaining anything.
Just as Niu Yichen was about to ask more questions, Wu Shise came to find him and was about to remove his makeup.