Chapter 16 Clothes Make the Man, Saddles Make the Horse

After seeing the Liu family's mother and son's attitude towards Zhang Yuan, the arrogant Liu Xiaoli became gentle and soft-spoken, and her attitude towards Zhang Yuan became much closer.

More than an hour later, the main cast of the crew arrived and everyone moved together to the opening ceremony.

Zhang Yuan arrived at the "Conquer" crew halfway through the filming and missed the opening ceremony. This was his first time to participate in such an event.

Red carpet, red tablecloth, red ribbons, even the camera was covered with red cloth.

This is a custom passed down from Hong Kong Island. It is said that covering the camera with red cloth can ward off evil spirits.

In the past few decades, camera technology was not well developed and films were often scratched by machine parts and became scrapped. People in Hong Kong are superstitious, so they came up with this ritual.

But since "The Mansion Gate" became the first TV series to set a precedent for using high-definition digital cameras, the mainland film and television industry has gradually abandoned old film cameras.

The crew of "The Golden Age" is rich, so they naturally use digital cameras, so there is no such thing as scratching the film. This ceremony is more for pre-promotion.

After photographers arranged in advance took some photos, the ceremony ended smoothly after the ribbon cutting.

"Next, all the leading actors will put on makeup, try on costumes, and then have a script reading session together." Li Dawei arranged immediately after the ceremony.

The procedures and arrangements of the large crew were obviously much more compact and reasonable, which opened Zhang Yuan's eyes.

The first person to change into his costume was the male lead Chen Kun. As soon as he appeared on the stage, many female staff members exclaimed in surprise.

"So handsome!"

That's right, with sharp eyebrows, bright eyes, distinct forehead, and a masculine air yet a hint of femininity.

Chen Kun raised his eyebrows slightly, and the image of a frivolous playboy immediately came to life, causing half of the women present to have stars in their eyes.

After a while, the heroine Dong Jie finished her makeup and came to the crew and bowed.

In the drama, she plays a female student, and her current look really highlights her pure and lovely temperament, making her look quiet and elegant.

Dong Jie is only 20 years old this year, and she is just right for this kind of role. Don’t look at her young age, she debuted early.

In 96, she played a palace maid in Zhao Lirong's "Working Adventures" and appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage. Then she filmed the movie "Happy Times" with Zhang Yimou.

In addition to her, the film also starred Zhao Benshan, Fu Biao, and Li Xuejian, all of whom are talented actors.

However, what really made her famous nationwide was this movie "The Story of a Noble Family".

This time it was the turn of the male staff to have stars in their eyes, and the women who had been coveting Chen Kun's beauty just now immediately cast contemptuous glances at him.

【Double Standards】

Dong Jie debuted quite early. Liu Qianqian, who also starred in this film, was only 14 at the time.

But if we really want to talk about someone who became a veteran actor at a young age, we have to mention the following person.

Shu Chang, who plays the eighth sister of the Jin family, has two pigtails and smiles shyly at everyone, looking very well behaved.

She starred in a movie at the age of five, hosted "Big Windmill" at the age of ten, and participated in "The Secret History of Xiaozhuang" last year, playing the role of Dong Efei, and acting on the same stage with veteran actors such as Ning Jing, Siqin Gaowa, and He Saifei.

Moreover, she is the same age as Liu Qianqian, and in terms of months, Shu Chang is even younger.

This was Liu Qianqian’s first time acting, but Shu Chang made people feel like she had been working for half her life.

Next, the main characters appeared one by one. The director nodded from time to time, and was very satisfied with the costumes and characters.

Finally it was Zhang Yuan's turn to appear on stage. The character he played, Liu Chunjiang, was also a young master, just like Jin Yanxi, played by Chen Kun.

But Jin Yanxi is a playboy and uneducated, while Liu Chunjiang is academically accomplished, a very capable doctor, and very loyal in relationships.

The two people have the same person but different fates, and their personalities complement each other, just like the characters looking at each other in the mirror.

Zhang Yuan walked in front of the crowd with confident steps. Similar to when Chen Kun appeared on the stage, many female staff members also exclaimed.

“This one is pretty handsome too.”

"I didn't expect Chen Kun to have an opponent!"

"I still prefer Chen Kun. He's more cool and stylish."

"I'm different. I like this one, looking at the sunshine."

At this time, Zhang Yuan was wearing a linen-colored Republic of China-style suit, with a silk handkerchief neatly stuffed in his chest pocket, his tie tied straight, and a pair of black leather shoes so shiny that they could reflect the bottom of a girl's skirt.

As the saying goes, clothes make the man, and saddles make the horse, Zhang Yuan was shocked when he looked in the mirror after putting on makeup and changing into a decent outfit. Liu Xiaoli in the crowd was also stunned.

The reason why she thought Zhang Yuan was a laborer before was because he was dressed shabbily.

But now that he had changed his clothes, even someone like her who had seen all that before felt vaguely that Zhang Yuan looked like a young master from some wealthy family.

Not only the women, but also the male staff were whispering and praising from time to time.

Chen Kun's handsomeness is somewhat charming. He is the type of man that men are indifferent to or even disgusted by, but women particularly like.

Zhang Yuan is the sunny and cheerful type, the type that men want to be like and women want to get close to.

Director Li Dawei gave Zhang Yuan a thumbs up and praised him silently with a smile.

"Okay, now let's read the script together. Everyone can express their opinions. Feel free to bring up any ideas you have." After the costumes were displayed, it was time to study the script. The purpose of having everyone read together was to quickly get the actors in the same crew familiar with each other.

"Director Li, after reading the script, I feel that the character of Jin Yanxi is too bad. He is so cruel to his wife and is simply not a human being. Can you change it for the better?" Chen Kun spoke first.

The character image may affect the actor's commercial value, so it is normal for Chen Kun to have such concerns.

Kun Kun, that’s not right. Brother Ji, that’s not right either. Factory Manager, that seems even more wrong... Zhang Yuan thought for a long time before speaking.

"Brother Kun, actually Jin Yanxi in the original novel is several times worse than in the script. This is already a conservative description."

"Zhang Yuan is right." Director Li agreed. Chen Kun stopped talking after hearing what the director said.

"Director Li, the makeup for our character Xixi is a bit too mature. I think it would look better if she made it look purer."

Liu Xiaoli is almost always by her daughter's side. The film and television industry is very chaotic, but it cannot be said that there is anything wrong with her doing so. After all, the girl is still young and is a piece of meat if she falls into a pack of wolves.

"Actually, I think Miss Xixi's makeup isn't too heavy." Zhang Yuan raised an objection.

Seeing this, Liu Xiaoli thought to herself, could it be that this guy is deliberately going against me in order to avenge me for treating him like a laborer before?

But before she could refute, Director Li spoke up: "Zhang Yuan, please explain your reasons in detail."

"It's written in Eileen Chang's Red Rose and White Rose." Zhang Yuan looked at Liu Xiaoli and Liu Xixi, mother and daughter, and thought that what his aunt said was right. At Xixi's age, she should wear a floral dress, a thick ponytail, light makeup, and lightly draw her eyebrows. When the sun shines on her face, some fine hair can be seen on her face. This is her most beautiful look.

But the character is not me!
"Perhaps every man has had two such women, at least two."

"If you marry a red rose, over time, the red will become a smear of mosquito blood on the wall, and the white will still be "the bright moonlight in front of the bed"; if you marry a white rose, the white will be a grain of rice stuck on your clothes, and the red will be a cinnabar mole on your heart."

"The white moonlight, cinnabar mole, rice stickiness and mosquito blood here just happen to bring out the character changes of the two heroines, Leng Qingqiu and Bai Xiuzhu."

"In the early stage, Leng Qingqiu was the white moonlight, and Bai Xiuzhu was the mosquito blood."

"And later on, when Jin Yanxi married Leng Qingqiu, she became a stickler for food, while the beauty Bai Xiuzhu became a cinnabar mole!"

"Makeup is for the character, so in the early stage, Bai Xiuzhu's makeup should not only be thick, but also her lip color and eye shadow should be dark red to highlight her character."

After Zhang Yuan finished speaking, all the actors present looked at him blankly.

Who is this young man? He can talk about a small thing like makeup so clearly, citing classics, and combining it with the script and the characters, making it impossible for people to have the slightest desire to refute.

Including Chen Kun, Dong Jie, Xu Lu and others all became interested in Zhang Yuan, an actor they had never met before. Even Liu Qianqian raised her head and looked at him.

Zhang Yuan really likes what classmate Xixi said.

"what?"

The little girl didn't understand at all.

"What Zhang Yuan said makes sense!" Director Li immediately called the makeup artist to confirm the matter.

The following reading session almost became Zhang Yuan's home court.

Director Li seemed to be possessed by Zhang Fei and Li Kui, and only said two sentences in total.

"Me too."

"Brother is right."

After the first day of crew life ended, all the main actors returned to their rooms and thought about a question.

"Who exactly is this Zhang Yuan?"

(End of this chapter)