Chu Xiaxing wasn't having an easy time on the set of You in My Distant Heart. Directing and acting simultaneously meant she was constantly running back and forth between the camera and the monitor. She had complete faith in Han Chuning's screenwriting abilities and had essentially handed over the script revisions to her. However, the actors' performances were proving to be a real ordeal.
In fact, big-budget projects are not so troublesome because the crews are highly professional and can expertly handle their responsibilities. However, small-budget, makeshift troupes have all kinds of problems and even the actors are quite unprofessional.
"Cut! Cut! Cut! You're like a wooden plank!" Chu Xiaxing frowned repeatedly, watching Cao Yangang on the monitor. She'd given him directions countless times, but he seemed completely clueless, fraying her nerves. Teaching wasn’t her forte. Years ago, a university had invited her to be a professor, but her fiery temper had led her to decline.
Chu Xiaxing wasn't the patient type to teach fundamentals. She’d give lectures and share her expertise with industry professionals, but she doesn't like to repeatedly explain basic concepts.
Cao Yangang, equally apprehensive, looked at Chu Xiaxing's impassive face and apologized again. "Boss, I'm sorry…"
Chu Xiaxing rubbed her temples in frustration. "No, don't apologize. Just tell me, how long have you been studying acting? Which school did you train at?"
Chu Xiaxing: I just want to know which teacher let this guy come for filming. Can this be released for filming?
Cao Yangang replied cautiously, "...Two months."
Chu Xiaxing raised an eyebrow. "Are you still a student at a film and television school?"
Cao Yangang's gaze drifted, and his voice became barely a whisper. "No, I have never studied acting before. The company enrolled me in an acting class. I've been studying for two months…"
Chu Xiaxing: "..."
After a moment of silence, she asked incredulously, "...So, you're basically a complete beginner?"
Cao Yangang: "You can… say that…"
Han Chuning, sitting beside the director's chair, noticed Chu Xiaxing's darkening expression and quickly interjected, "Auntie, Auntie, it's like this nowadays. Many actors aren't trained professionally..."
The actors Chu Xiaxing had worked with in her younger days all came from film studios or acting schools. She occasionally encountered non-professionals, but they were either exceptionally talented, strikingly beautiful, or had powerful connections. Cao Yangang clearly fell into none of these categories.
After Chu Xiaxing became famous, the actors she collaborated with were even more accomplished. She rarely encountered such inexperienced actors. Even the popular idols she cast had some acting skills.
Seeing Chu Xiaxing's silence, Cao Yangang fidgeted nervously. "Boss…are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine…" Chu Xiaxing took a deep breath. She felt that she couldn't get angry with the child, so she patiently said, "Okay, then we'll start from the beginning. There's no other way."
"Stop acting for now. Come here. Watch your own performance." Chu Xiaxing replayed the scene. She played it once with sound, then again without. "Do you notice any difference?"
Cao Yangang watched both replays, completely bewildered. He racked his brain but couldn't find an answer. "...There doesn't seem to be any difference?"
Chu Xiaxing said calmly, "You also know that there is no difference? No matter what lines you say, you have the same expression. I feel that it doesn't matter whether you perform with sound or not, you just have a wooden face anyway."
Cao Yangang blushed, embarrassed, and rubbed his face, unable to argue.
Chu Xiaxing continued, "You're clearly one of those actors spoiled by voice actors. You don't put any effort into your acting, relying entirely on the dubbing for emotion. The entire drama's emotional range rests on the voice actors."
Due to various constraints, many television dramas were dubbed in post-production. Live recording was expensive, so dubbing saved money. But somewhere along the way, actors began relying entirely on dubbing, becoming emotionally vacant, knowing their performance could be salvaged by voice acting later.
"The tone of the lines can indeed convey emotion–joy, sadness, anger… But if your lines don't match your facial expressions, it looks fake. It used to be that the dubbing complemented the actor's performance. Now you're making it easy for the voice actors, giving them a blank canvas to work with." Chu Xiaxing looked at Cao Yangang with a smile, and seeing that he was quite embarrassed, she didn't say anything more extreme.
After the replay, Chu Xiaxing walked to the camera. "Alright, watch me perform it once on the monitor, and then try to imitate it. We're on a tight schedule, so I have to spoon-feed you."
Learning to act was a gradual process. Ideally, it involved extensive foundational training. But every day of filming was expensive, and Chu Xiaxing couldn't halt production for Cao Yangang. She could only offer this crash course, hoping he could at least manage a passing grade.
Cao Yangang's awkwardness and clumsiness occasionally pushed Chu Xiaxing to the brink. She would yell at him, silencing the entire crew, who wouldn't dare breathe.
For days, Cao Yangang was nearly driven to despair by the constant scolding. Thankfully, he was resilient, enduring the criticism without complaint and eventually showed some improvement.
After a while, even Han Chuning couldn't bear to watch. She spoke up for him privately. "Auntie, he's actually not bad. He's better than many idol drama actors. Don't be so harsh…"
Chu Xiaxing nodded. "Well, if you lower your standards enough, anyone can seem decent."
Han Chuning: "...I'm serious. He has improved."
Chu Xiaxing raised her head upon hearing this. She looked at Han Chuning seriously and said earnestly, "Ningning, he is different from you. He doesn't have your natural talent or your connections. If he wants to make it in this industry, he needs to be prepared to bleed for it. Otherwise, he shouldn't be in this line of work…"
"Just improving isn't enough. He needs to make greater progress and make continuous progress. I started with nothing, so I understand this very well. Either push yourself to the limit, or give up. There's no middle ground."
Chu Xiaxing was never naive. The industry was cruel and unforgiving. If someone couldn't handle the pressure, they were better off changing careers.
Han Chuning listened, only partially understanding. She couldn't argue further. Born under Chu Xiaxing's wing, her career had been smooth sailing. She couldn't grasp the deeper meaning of her aunt's words.
Since most of the You in My Distant Heart script had been rewritten, countless new pages were being generated daily, putting a strain on the crew's coordination. The production manager had to plan the shooting content for the next few days, concentrate on shooting the repeated scenes, and regularly update Chu Xiaxing on the call sheets.
The production manager handed Chu Xiaxing the new call sheet. "By the way, Cao Yangang also asked for the future call sheets, saying he wanted to prepare in advance."
Chu Xiaxing was surprised. "How can he prepare in advance when we're constantly writing flying pages? The scenes are always subject to change."
The flying pages were newly written scenes for immediate shooting. Production couldn't be stopped, so they were writing as they filmed, meaning call sheets were constantly in flux.
The production manager said, "That's what I told him, but he still insisted, so I gave them to him."
In the makeup room, Cao Yangang was shoveling food into his mouth while reading the script. He reached out to mark a passage when a calm female voice came from behind him. "Don't bother. We're not shooting that scene tomorrow. The call sheet just changed."
When Cao Yangang just heard Chu Xiaxing's voice, he was so scared that he almost choked and started coughing violently. "Cough, cough… Boss, you scared me!"
Chu Xiaxing glanced at his densely marked-up script and said helplessly. "The call sheet changes constantly depending on various factors. The scenes you prepare for might not be used, especially when we're shooting flying pages."
Cao Yangang scratched his head, and smiled innocently again, saying good-temperedly. "It's okay. I'll treat it as pre-studying. I'm not as talented as you, so I don't want to hold everyone up on set…"
Cao Yangang wasted other people's time preparing on the set, and he felt embarrassed over time, so he simply practiced in advance. He thought that preparing in advance and spending more time in private might help him get better, even if it was a clumsy approach.
Chu Xiaxing paused for a few seconds. "Actually, I don't have much talent either."
Cao Yangang was shocked and said, "Nonsense! You act much better than me!"
Chu Xiaxing looked down. "Really? That's just a misunderstanding of me by outsiders. In fact, when I came to Beijing to study, I wasn't even a regular student. I was just an auditor in the class…"
Chu Xiaxing was a director who achieved fame at a young age, leading people to believe she was naturally gifted. Few knew about her early struggles. She was the last student in the director class when she entered school. The parents of other students were either famous directors or worked in related artistic fields. Most of them stayed in Beijing after graduation, while she was assigned to a position outside the city.
Han Chuning enjoyed the aura of Director Chu when she was born, but Chu Xiaxing herself had no director relatives when she was a student. She was a nobody, yet she fought her way to the top in the cutthroat world of entertainment.
Cao Yangang stared blankly for a moment, stunned. "But I think you're already amazing."
Chu Xiaxing shook off the memories of her youth. She picked up the script from the table, marked some key passages with a pen, and handed it to Cao Yangang. "Focus on practicing these scenes. As long as you perform well in a few scenes, the audience will remember you."
Cao Yangang took the script, thanking her profusely. "Okay, okay, thank you, Boss!"
Looking at the colorful highlighter marks on the script, Chu Xiaxing's expression softened with nostalgia. "Keep at it. You won't regret it."
She felt like her youthful body was reminding her of many things. At least she didn't regret it now and she was still making films.
Cao Yangang watched Chu Xiaxing leave with a thoughtful expression on his face. He looked down at the marked-up script, a surge of courage filling him. He felt revitalized, determined to work hard and live up to the director's expectations.
Cao Yangang: I feel like I can do this! I'm the hardworking rising star!
However, the ambitious Cao Yangang was once again scolded into a daze that afternoon. His head spun every day on set, always feeling disoriented under Chu Xiaxing's relentless training.
Chu Xiaxing wanted to push Cao Yangang, so she was naturally more disappointed with him. She turned stern and said angrily. "Look at your performance! How many times have I taught you? I could get a monkey to do better! Do you really think you're the Monkey King, preparing to play Sun Wukong!? You're like a stone, with no expression at all!"
Cao Yangang, who had been full of energy, now cowered, wanting nothing more than to beg for mercy and kowtow to the director.
Cao Yangang: …Stop scolding me, stop scolding me. I seem to be unable to do it again.
Chu Xiaxing couldn't teach Cao Yangang for his whole life, so she had to make the most of the filming period, pushing him to learn as much as possible. Her teaching style was strict, leaving no room for coddling. Fortunately, Cao Yangang was steadily improving, getting scolded less often, and seemed to be using his brain, finding his own techniques instead of blindly imitating.
Filming progressed smoothly. However, after finishing most of the flying pages with Han Chuning, Chu Xiaxing discovered a lingering problem while reviewing the footage, encountering a new hurdle.
Staring at the early footage, Chu Xiaxing felt a headache coming on. She was speechless. What is this? It's completely unusable!
You in My Distant Heart had undergone a director change mid-production, from Director Wang to Director Chu. Naturally, there was existing footage shot by Director Wang. Chu Xiaxing assumed there would be something usable amongst the numerous takes, but it turned out Director Wang had made some serious errors, rendering a significant chunk of crucial scenes unusable.
The on-set editor said awkwardly, "Actually, I mentioned it to Director Wang at the time, but he said it was fine, so I…"
This was the danger of an unprofessional director. Once the director approved a shot, who would question it?
Han Chuning, looking at the problematic footage, blinked. "We'll have to reshoot."
Chu Xiaxing sighed. "Reshoots cost money. We'll have to cut from other areas." She didn't expect that the part shot by Director Wang would be so flawed. This was an unexpected expense.
Han Chuning said honestly, "You can take it from my screenwriting fee. I think it should be enough."
You in My Distant Heart was a low-budget production. Given Han Chuning's status, her screenwriting fee was relatively high compared to other departments, and it could indeed cover the reshoots.
Chu Xiaxing immediately refused. "Nonsense. I have never owed money to a child. How can I ask my subordinates to make up the money?"
Han Chuning's script deserved its price. How could it be bargained down just because of their relationship?
Suddenly, Chu Xiaxing had an idea. A mischievous smile spread across her face. "Oh, this is nothing! If we need money, we just go to the professionals. Isn't that what producers are for?"
"Let's get ready. We'll warmly invite Mr. Song and Mr. Xia to visit the set and inspect our progress!"