2004, mid-January, Hengdian Film and Television Base, Jinhua, Zhejiang.

"Good luck with the boot!"

Accompanied by thunderous cheers, the crew of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" officially started filming in an atmosphere of loud gongs and drums, firecrackers, waving red flags, and huge crowds of people!
Tangren’s two bosses, Cai Yinong and Li Guoli, were both present.

Director Wu Jingyuan stood in the center of the crowd, with the other actors standing on the left and right.

Except Zhang Yuan, Liu Qianqian, Liu Pinyan, and An Yixuan.

Although Sun Li, the current top actress of Sugar Man, will only make a guest appearance in a few episodes, she was also pulled to the scene to take photos for promotion, which shows how much importance Boss Cai attaches to this drama.

As for the male actors, Wang Lujiang, who played Liu Jinyuan, was also present. Of course, the role he played that left a more impressive impression on everyone was Zhu Erdan in the later drama "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio: Lu Pan".

"We meet again, Teacher Wang."

After taking the photo together, Zhang Yuan walked up to him and greeted him.

In the previous film "A Chinese Ghost Story", Wang Lujiang played the role of Wu Jing's brother Zhuge Wuwei.

However, they didn't have any scenes together, so they hardly communicated with each other.

"Hello."

The old man showed an extraordinary excitement.

He looked around, glanced left, touched things right, as if he had never seen the world before.

Don’t be fooled by his appearance, he is a famous host in Singapore and is very popular among the locals.

"How many costume dramas have you filmed before?" Brother Wang walked up and asked quietly.

"Been photographed..."

Zhang Yuan counted on his fingers and said, "Four films have been made."

Hey!
Wang Lujiang smiled and sighed.

No wonder he can play the leading male role. He looks only in his twenties, but he has so much acting experience.

"I only filmed for a few days on A Chinese Ghost Story." Brother Wang said nervously and excitedly, "This is my first time to a large-scale filming base like Hengdian."

Oh I got it.

No wonder I'm so excited, it's my first time...

"It just so happens that I have never been to Hengdian. How about we go around together and get familiar with the set?" Zhang Yuan immediately made an invitation.

"Okay."

In fact, Zhang Yuan knew that the person Wang Lujiang should thank most for being able to fulfill his wish of coming to Hengdian was not the crew, but Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Yes, you read that right, it’s Shanghai Theatre Academy.

Because the original actor who was scheduled to play the top scholar Liu Jinyuan in Sugar Man was Yuan Hong, who starred in the TV series "Dandelion" with Hu Ge and Sun Li.

Both of them signed sugar man contracts when they were in school, but like professional performing arts schools such as Shanghai Theatre Academy, Central Academy of Drama, and Beijing Film Academy, there are restrictions on students working after leaving school.

The condition for going to the theater at that time was that only one of Hu Ge and Yuan Hong could obtain special approval to leave school to film.

Of course, Boss Cai would choose his own sweetheart.

The Shanghai Theatre Academy actually thought so too. After all, Hu Ge was snatched away from the Central Academy of Drama. In the college entrance examination that year, Hu Ge was admitted to the directing department of the Central Academy of Drama with the second place in his major.

And he got second place, not because someone was better than him, but because the first place winner was directly admitted.

Later, with the retention and favorable conditions of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and the fact that Hu Ge's mother was suffering from breast cancer and had been hospitalized for a long time, he did not want to be too far away from home, so he resolutely chose to study in his hometown.

In this respect, he is similar to Cheng Hao.

Yes, if you are good to your parents and family, you will also be good to your friends, only then can you be like a fish in water in the circle.

So Hu Ge is treated as a treasure by both the school and the company, but Yuan Hong does not have such treatment.

If the play had not taken place, Tang Ren would definitely choose his own family member Yuan Hong instead of him.

"What are you talking about?" This was An Yixuan's first time in mainland China to film a movie and she was unfamiliar with the place.

Among the mainland actors, he is the only one who is close to Zhang Yuan because of his relationship with Wu Dun.

"We are planning to go shopping in Hengdian. Do you want to join us?" Zhang Yuan said, and looked at several fellow villagers behind her.

In addition to An Yixuan, there are also the singing duo Liu Pinyan and Zeng Zhiqiao, and Peng Yuyan who plays Tang Yu Xiaobao in the film.

"How about all together?"

"Great, great!" Liu Pinyan was as excited as Wang Lujiang. These four people from Baodao were all filming a costume drama for the first time, and everything on the set was extremely new to them.

Even the entire Hengdian Film and Television Base is like a large costume amusement park to them.

In fact, Tangren has made substantial changes to the game script of "Legend of Sword and Fairy", the most obvious of which is the setting of the supporting characters.

In the original novel, Anu was also one of Li Xiaoyao's lovers, while Liu Jinyuan and Tang Yu, played by Wang Lujiang and Peng Yuyan, were both minor characters but were elevated to important supporting roles in the TV series.

After all, the game involves a lot of maze exploration, leveling and monster-killing processes, and the TV series cannot rely on such plots to lengthen the show, so it can only increase the roles of supporting characters to enrich the story.

Although An Yixuan became very famous in later generations, at that point in time, she only had one representative work, "Fighting Fish", and her popularity in mainland China was average.

Miss An's real fame came from the TV series "The Legend of Sword and Fairy".

Zhang Yuan turned his head again and looked at Liu Pinyan, who had chubby cheeks, spoke with great joy, and always looked cheerful, and thought to himself.

Ruan Jingtian, you are such a shameless bastard...

Chu Sanhai is a well-known old scumbag in Taiwan.

His love creed is that he pursues women for the purpose of sleeping with them.

Every time before breaking up, he would ask for a big fight.

And this guy, like Nie Yuan, actually had many experiences of relying on women to get to the top.

As for the time with Liu Pinyan, it was just a standard scenario of playing with an innocent little girl and then throwing her away after sleeping with her.

Actually, it’s nothing. There are many people who do this. Besides, they have the capital in terms of image and temperament.

But it's a bit damaging to your character if you show off this everywhere.

However, the person who actually broke the news was Ruan Jingtian's boss at the time. Because he was going to switch jobs to another company, he leaked the news to the media with the mentality of destroying it if he couldn't get it.

Who would have thought that the whistleblower was fine, Ruan Jingtian was fine, but Liu Pinyan was dead...

It can only be said that the ideas and concepts on the island are still too outdated. If they were placed in the mainland in the future, Liu Pinyan only needed to make a slight move on the Little Red Book. With this punch, Ruan Jingtian, who had accumulated twenty years of skills, would definitely be wiped out, and not even a bone would be left after being rushed by millions of fairies.

Looking at this sunny and cheerful girl, Zhang Yuan sighed and thought...

You can let me suffer a little, and I will bear the blame.

After wandering around Hengdian for a few rounds with several leading actors, the distance between them quickly shortened.

After lunch, in the afternoon, the crew had made all the arrangements and was about to start filming.

"Yinong, what are you looking at?" Li Guoli came to Boss Cai.

"Director Li, look at the actor who plays Tang Yu. She has a very good temperament and appearance." Aunt Cai is a big fan of looks, and she is attracted to both men and women based on their looks.

That is, Peng Yuyan is the most common template for the male protagonist image in online male novels. It’s not a question of whether he is good or not, he has always been used as an adjective.

Just like 20 years after Liu Xixi debuted, there are still people who label themselves as "Little Liu Xixi". They are those who have won the genetic lottery.

Whether he is really handsome or beautiful depends on the public's opinion. Why doesn't anyone call him Xiao Kun Kun?

"Yeah, he's pretty good." Director Li took a closer look and said, "I didn't think he was that handsome when we auditioned him."

"Yes." After hearing this, Boss Cai also reacted: "I didn't think it was anything special at the time."

The two of them pondered for a while, and just in time they saw Zhang Yuan, who was walking with his hands behind his back, muttering to himself, and reciting his lines.

"Oh..." Boss Cai smiled silently.

"Director Li, during the audition, not only were the four from Baodao present, but also Zhang Yuan."

"If the two of them stand together, Peng Yuyan won't seem that special."

"It seems so..." Director Li nodded and thought to himself. Peng Yuyan has it, and Zhang Yuan also has it.

But he may not have what Zhang Yuan has.

"Director Li, if Zhang Yuan was not there and Hu Ge played Li Xiaoyao, would he be able to suppress Peng Yuyan?" Boss Cai suddenly asked.

Li Guoli lowered his head and thought for a while: "It should be possible, but it depends on the plot and the charm of the characters."

"Unlike Zhang Yuan, who can overpower him just by standing there with his aura."

"I think so too." Boss Cai moved his chin and called Hu Ge, who played the supporting role Jiang Ming and had nothing to do because he didn't have many scenes, to his side.

"Ge, don't just wander around when you have nothing to do." Boss Cai rolled his eyes at him and said, "Even if you don't have any roles in the future, come to the crew every day."

"Ah, why?" Hu Ge thought to himself, why not go back to Shanghai and eat two bowls of pork ribs and rice cakes during this time.

"Look, Zhang Yuan, the one who is reciting the lines over there, did you see that?"

"I saw it." Hugo glanced at it, then his mouth drooped, feeling unhappy.

Mr. Cai said every day that he wanted to support me. When I signed the contract, he said that he would give me the opportunity to play the leading male role in the future.

But I had just starred in a movie called "Dandelion", and when it came to "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", which was obviously also a film produced by the company, I was only given a small supporting role.

As the saying goes, a lady who doesn’t want to be an oiran is not a good internet celebrity, and an actor who doesn’t want to be a leading actor is not a good artist.

It is normal for Hu Ge to have complaints about the company.

Boss Cai saw his dissatisfaction and persuaded him: "You are still young, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future."

“The most important thing now is learning.”

"In the next few days, you will secretly follow Zhang Yuan and see how he does it."

"Learn everything he knows and can do. Do you understand?"

Hu Ge nodded, not quite understanding.

Half an hour later, the crew officially started filming.

The first scene is about Zhang Yuan.

Now, he has begun to get used to the role of the protagonist. When he was a supporting actor before, he spent more time waiting than acting, but now it is completely the opposite.

The content of this scene is the daily life of the "gangster" Li Xiaoyao at the beginning of the story.

Under the instruction of Li Guoli, the screenwriters designed the character of Li Xiaoyao to be more down-to-earth than in the game.

The reason for doing this is to replace the monster-killing and leveling-up in the game with the character's personality and emotional upgrades.

Li Xiaoyao had to gradually transform from a little scumbag who played with cats and dogs to a great hero who was loyal in love.

Therefore, in order to create a contrast, we have to strengthen the gangster temperament in the early stage.

In front of a shop, an antique shop, two young girls in plain clothes with light-colored floral patterns were squatting obediently behind several boxes of vegetables.

Both of them are actors from Taiwan, one of them is Liu Pinyan’s partner, Joanne Tseng.

Although they are in the same group, she can only play a small role with only a few shots because her appearance is not as good as that of Liu Pinyan.

The entertainment industry is a place where looks matter, and no one is immune to it.

Although her acting career was not so good, her love life was much smoother than that of Liu Pinyan. Many years later, she married Calvin Chen from Fahrenheit and lived a happy life.

The other one is also a newcomer from Taiwan, named Zhang Xinyu.

As soon as the camera turned on, it was Zhang Yuan's turn, who had already finished putting on makeup, to step forward.

According to the setting, Li Xiaoyao is a girl killer in his hometown town, the kind who kills people indiscriminately among the flowers.

This scene is about two girls being jealous of each other, and Li Xiaoyao resolves the situation with just a few words.

"Alright, alright." Zhang Yuan squatted down between the two of them, and said with a clever smirk, "Don't be angry, both of you."

As he spoke, his hands were not idle.

First, he placed it on the shoulders of the two girls.

The left hand gently touched the girl's face on the left.

The teenage girl's face was as soft as a peeled egg, and it felt very elastic when the fingers touched it.

His right hand lightly tapped the earlobe of the girl on the right.

"Hehehe..."

These two small actions made the two girls lower their heads involuntarily and chuckle softly.

"From now on, I will make you my concubine."

"I'll confer you the title of my slave."

Listen to this line...it's so despicable.

Director Wu Jingyuan was watching behind the monitor and thought to himself that this guy was really talented.

Provocative but not obscene.

Although there was physical contact, the hands and feet were very honest, much more disciplined than those greasy middle-aged male actors who would take advantage of any opportunity.

He was also worried that the two girls from Taiwan would not be able to act and would fail in the first scene, requiring repeated reshoots.

"Ah, no wife?"

"Well, I'll go find a wife first, and then I'll come find you guys?"

"Why don't you marry me!"

"The fortune teller said I have good luck in marrying a good husband!"

The two girls turned to look at him and started arguing.

"Hey, getting rich and then having your wife die, this is the greatest happiness for a man."

"I just don't want you two to die."

"Cut!" Director Wu showed a satisfied smile: "Take a break and do it again later."

Zhang Yuan ran to the monitor to watch the replay.

"Wow, Zhang Yuan, you played this shameless and dissolute look so well." Director Wu praised.

"You don't have a life, do you?"

hiss!
Zhang Yuan suddenly felt a chill down his spine. He turned around and found Liu Qianqian squinting at him.

"Director, you can't speak nonsense!"

"Be careful or I'll sue you for defamation."

"He slandered me..."

Zhang Yuan kept shaking his fingers, pointing at Director Wu, and defending himself.

"I, I was just acting."

An Yixuan, Liu Pinyan, and the two girls from before all shook their heads in unison.

"Not like."

Zhang Yuan: …

In the corner, Hugo followed his boss' instructions and hid far away with a small notebook.

Seeing this scene, he understood what was meant and started to write it down.

"If you want to play a scumbag, you have to be a scumbag first."

"Boss Cai, I'm a failure!" (End of this chapter)