271: Chapter 271 "The Storm" - Joining the Group

After eating, Lin Chuyan didn't stay with his senior brother and the others for too long; he returned to the hotel quickly.

Since he had promised to catch up on sleep, he needed to rest properly. Otherwise, he wouldn't be in the right state for filming the next day, which would be embarrassing for him and for his senior brother as well.

After getting back, he flipped through the script again. After a while, his eyelids began to fight each other. Summoning the last bit of his energy to send a WeChat to his girlfriend, he fell asleep immediately.

When he woke up the next day, his energy was fully restored. How should he put it? He just felt like he was back in action. To describe it in four words: full of vigor; in one sentence: he could still fight for another three hundred rounds.

He washed up, took a shower, and then rushed to the set, only to find that he had arrived a bit early.

The director had set the time for 7:30 AM, but when he checked the time, it was just 7:00 AM.

Fortunately, Zhang Wentang was already there, though he didn't know what time he had arrived.

"Xiao Yan, over here!" Zhang Wentang called him over for breakfast. "Do you want some rice noodle rolls?"

"Yes! I've been craving this for a long time."

"Hahaha!" Zhang Wentang lowered his voice. "Actually, this chef is just average, but it's still much better than the rice noodle rolls outside of Guangdong Province."

Both of them were from Guangdong Province, so they had a lot in common in this regard.

As Zhang Wentang ate breakfast, he introduced the crew's situation to him: "The filming here is divided into two groups. We usually call them the An Xin unit and the Qiqiang unit, which are basically the protagonist and antagonist storylines. You haven't met the directors yet, have you? Director Xu is mainly responsible for the An Xin unit. As for the Qiqiang unit, it's actually being filmed by another executive director. You should be able to meet him in a while; he probably doesn't know you arrived so early."

"As for the situation in the crew, there are too many unfamiliar faces. Many are newcomers, some have acted in obscure works, and some are even teachers from drama academies or stage actors. In short, for convenience, everyone just calls each other by their character names."

"Understood, brother."

Zhang Wentang laughed when he heard him call him "brother": "That's right, that's it. Calling me brother is correct, and I'll call you A-Sheng."

After breakfast, the other actors from the Qiqiang unit arrived one after another. They had originally intended to come over to greet Zhang Wentang, but they didn't expect to see Lin Chuyan.

Consequently, Lin Chuyan heard an endless stream of "Teacher Lin Chuyan" greetings.

Zhang Wentang introduced them to him from the side, and Lin Chuyan greeted everyone one by one: "Everyone, let's just follow the crew's rules and call me Xiao Sheng."

His brother called him "A-Sheng," and everyone else called him "Xiao Sheng."

It didn't matter if others couldn't tell; it was enough that Lin Chuyan knew it himself.

He was already consciously letting himself enter the character.

That's what he said, but there were still many people chatting around him, and everyone would flatter him a few times during the conversation. Lin Chuyan appeared very humble, but he was slowly getting used to it now. This was how the world worked; things were different now, and it would be strange if he were still ignored.

To put it bluntly, the director had really picked up a bargain. What kind of actors were originally chosen? Apart from An Xin and Meng Yu, the others were either veteran actors, actors with good skills but no fame, or pure newcomers... To summarize in one sentence, they weren't expensive. Even his senior brother wasn't expensive; they were just there to film seriously and didn't play the traffic/celebrity game.

But while they didn't play that game, what if this "traffic" star had good acting skills and wasn't expensive?

In short, with his participation, the biggest change was that while everyone had been filming quietly last month, starting today, many reports from marketing accounts began to appear online.

The show was still filming, but it had already received a lot of attention—having attention was, of course, a good thing. What the director feared most wasn't being criticized, but not making a splash at all.

Soon, Director Xu and another director also came over to find him.

"Teacher Lin Chuyan, you've arrived very early."

"It's not early, Director. It's almost eight o'clock."

This was the truth. Thinking back to the time of "a moment of romance," he used to arrive at the set before 6 AM. It was summer back then, and at 6 o'clock, the sky was just barely brightening.

However, Director Xu felt differently.

Why did these words sound so strange coming from such a young idol... But thinking of this person's reputation, he felt relieved.

"Come, let me introduce you." Director Xu pointed to a man around 50 years old next to him. "This is Director Chen, who is responsible for the filming of the Qiqiang unit. You will mainly be dealing with him in the future. By the way, he is from Hong Kong and was also an executive director for the 'Infernal Affairs' trilogy."

Lin Chuyan's eyes lit up. This was a hidden big shot!

Director Chen shook hands with him and only said one sentence: "I am an old acquaintance of Director Du Qiyu, and he mentioned you to me this time."

"Oh? Director Du Qiyu wouldn't be bad-mouthing me behind my back, would he?"

"...Hahaha, he said he watched that video of you at the Shanghai International Circuit and really wanted you to go back and reshoot."

This was, of course, a joke, as the film had already been edited. Besides, "a moment of romance" wasn't a racing movie, so there was no need for that.

The two chatted for a few more minutes, and Lin Chuyan realized that when Director Chen said he was an "old acquaintance" of Director Du Qiyu, he really meant it. Director Chen had been the executive director for several of Director Du Qiyu's previous films, such as "Election."

Seeing them getting acquainted, Director Xu planned to leave: "Alright, I'm off to get busy. Xiao Yan, you two chat well. If there's anything, just find Director Chen."

"Alright, take care, Director Xu."

Soon everyone else went to do their own things, leaving only Director Chen talking to him. The other party got straight to the point: "Xiao Yan, you will be asking for leave this month, right?"

"I suppose so."

Lin Chuyan didn't feel embarrassed; this had all been clearly stated in the contract beforehand.

He was a very busy man now, and that was on the premise that he basically didn't take any music-related commercial activities. If he were to take on a few more gigs, it would really be like what Brother Yue said—flying on a plane every day, without his feet ever touching the ground.

"I will ask for leave in advance, Director Chen, so it won't affect your filming schedule. I'll ask my agent later. As far as I know, it's highly likely I'll need to take leave twice. Once to attend the Golden Maple Leaf Award, and another time, coincidentally, to go to Hong Kong to see Director Du Qiyu to dub for 'a moment of romance,' and then Director Du Qiyu might help me film a short clip."

Director Chen raised an eyebrow, showing some interest: "Film a clip?"

"It's just a few-minute commercial, hahaha. Don't worry, it should be done in a day or two."

"Alright, now that you've said that, I have an idea." Director Chen thought for a moment. "How about this, there's no rush for filming. You go find the stylists first, and let's settle on the various looks for Gao Qisheng in the film, and then we'll discuss the next steps."

"No problem."

The stylists were already waiting in the room.

From hairstyle to makeup to clothing, they would completely transform Lin Chuyan.

However, before that, Lin Chuyan first shared his thoughts about the glasses with them.

The styling teachers discussed it and felt it was indeed a good idea. After talking it over among themselves, they also had some ideas.

"Teacher Lin Chuyan, since you want to show the character's changes and personality, the simplest way is to find differences. For example, black-rimmed glasses and rimless glasses, combined with different hairstyles and clothing, can easily create completely different temperaments. Our suggestion is to save the rimless glasses for the very end, and use black frames for the earlier parts, and then make distinctions within the black frames."

"How to distinguish?"

"Black frames also come in round and square shapes. Round ones look more obedient. Later, when we do your styling, you can compare them. In short, for the first period, we definitely recommend black-rimmed glasses. Round is better; it looks more honest and weak, which fits the initial image better."

The stylists simply took out all the glasses, with various styles, for him to choose from.

Lin Chuyan thought for a moment and finally made the decision:

"For the first period, let's go with round black frames. A college student—weak, pitiful, and confused. The frames and edges represent that Gao Qisheng had a sense of proportion at that time and knew the bottom line."

"For the second period, let's go with square black frames. The 'Little Smart' phone period—self-reliant, numb, and cold. At this time, Gao Qisheng had a career, so it's a transition."

"As for the third period..." Lin Chuyan asked again, "The later parts should basically all be suit looks, right?"

The stylists nodded.

"Very good." Lin Chuyan tapped the table lightly with his finger and picked one out from the glasses. "Let's go with rimless. Suits go better with rimless glasses. Rimless glasses won't block the eyes, right? This period is arrogant, empty, and vicious, which makes it easier for me to show my gaze. Of course, rimless also indicates that Gao Qisheng's inner self is expanding, and he is becoming unscrupulous and lawless in his actions."