CHAPTER. 36. Injured
Su Shen was taken aback and then withdrew her arm from his grasp and smiled, "I'm going to go change my clothes."
Seeing that Xie Yan didn't say anything, Su Shen then turned around and walked to her dressing room. Liu jie fought for her, and thus, her clothes and cosmetics were of better quality. There were also some planted by advertisers. Generally, the clothes were sent by the advertisers, and they were well-known domestic brands. There were two rows of clothes, at least 40 or 50 sets. She could practically wear one each day. It couldn't be helped, the production team was rich.
The stylist selected a blue chiffon top and a pair of white high-waisted relaxed wide-legged cropped trousers for her. Her makeup was rather light, and her hair was tied into a loose bun. The makeup for modern times was much simpler. Since she had nice skin, she didn't need too much foundation and was done in about half an hour.
"Su jie, your legs are so long." Xiao Zhou looked at her straight and slender legs with admiration.
"Yeah, thanks to Xie Yan for being tall enough, otherwise, you wouldn't even be able to wear high heels." The stylist laughed while choosing a 5 cm thick pinkish heel for her.
When filming, there were some actors who weren't tall enough or there were some actresses who were too tall, so actresses would wear flats when they were in the same frame or have a step stool for the actors. Su Shen was 167 cm and would be around 170 cm when she wore high heels. There was also the addition of hairstyle depending on if it's a historical production. That's why she had to wear flats when she filmed with Luo Han before. However, since Xie Yan was tall enough, she would appear too short without high heels.
"Just focus on filming, I'm going to go first. Li Xiao's participating in a singing show recently, so I won't come over for a bit. Call me if you need anything." Liu jie looked at her watch.
After changing her shoes, Su Shen adjusted her hair in front of the mirror and said, "En."
Seeing this, Liu jie took her bag and walked out of the dressing room. When several women sat together, it was liable to chat about beauty upkeep. As they chatted and chatted, they came to the topic of losing weight. Su Shen liked to listen to those makeup artists discuss whether a certain female artist had plastic surgery or not. There were many procedures able to be done. As she listened, time quickly passed.
It wasn't until a staff member said that it was almost her turn that Su Shen came to her senses. She remembered that she seemed to have forgotten to go over the script with Xie Yan.
When she came to set with her script, the Director had just finished filming the individual parts of each character. It was almost time for her, the cameraman, and the owner of the beauty salon that they had just interviewed to leave the shopping mall when several gangsters rushed in. The production team had really unloaded their capital. It was said that they had even hired a policeman to coach some professional moves.
"Su Shen, you will start walking with your colleague from the door of that store later. Try your best to grasp the intonation of your lines. When you guys are about to turn the corner, someone will rush in. It will basically be one take. Understand?" The Director pointed at the shopping mall in the distance.
Hearing this, Su Shen naturally nodded.
When everything was almost ready, Su Shen stood at the position that the Director said. When he said "action," she started to walk from that position, but the camera panned over from another direction.
"Xiao Jiang, are you hungry? How about we go there and eat something first?" Her colleague in the back asked her with a camera in hand.
Su Shen walked in front, and just at this moment, the camera panned over. She smiled somewhat helplessly, "Let's send the materials back to the news station first. If it's too late, Director Wang will scold us again."
Hearing this, the male colleague in the back could only sigh, "We work to death everyday, and we don't even get a pay increase. I want to resign already."
There were extras coming and going in the surroundings. After all, it was a shopping mall, so it had to appear as if there were a lot of people. When Su Shen heard that, she scratched her head in distress, "If I resign, my mom will beat me to death!"
"Haha, you still…"
"AH!"
Following the screams of the extras, several gangsters with guns suddenly rushed into the scene. Su Shen's eyes widened and froze in place. Just at this moment, the Director also shouted "cut."
The next scene would be when she was driven into a clothing store by the gangsters to be a hostage. The makeup artist came over and retouched her lip gloss. The Director was over there discussing the script with several stuntmen who played as the gangsters.
Over there, Su Shen saw Xie Yan who was chatting with the policeman. He had already changed into his police clothes, but Su Shen recognized him at first glance. Remembering that she had just bailed on him, she walked toward him with her script in hand.
"Yan ge!" Zhao Tong nudged Xie Yan's arm and gave him a meaningful look over there.
Xie Yan turned around, only to see Su Shen walking straight towards him with her script in hand. Perhaps because she was wearing high waisted cropped pants, it made her legs appear to be slender and straight, which immediately attracted the attention of many extras.
He took off his cap, handed his prop gun to Zhao Tong, and then walked towards her with his script in hand.
"Apologies, it slipped my mind. You still have time, do you want to go over the scene?" Su Shen raised the script in her hand.
Later, the male lead would break through the window and have some eye contact with the female lead. Of course, there would also be some action. It was Su Shen's first time filming such a scene, so she was a little afraid of not understanding it properly.
Seeing this, Xie Yan took the script in her hand and brought her to sit down on the two stools by the wall.
"After I come in, you're running away with the rest of the extras, but you must show your face, otherwise the camera won't be able to focus on you." Xie Yan held her script and pointed to a certain place, "Here, when the gangsters come in and a gun is aimed at you, you only have one second of the scene. How do you think you should appear?"
When their eyes met, Su Shen blinked and read the script carefully while sitting on the small stool, "I thought it was fright, just like this."
As she said that, she showed an expression that she thought was of shock and fear.
Xie Yan stared at her quietly for a few seconds before he said, "No, it's panic."
"Panic?"
Su Shen looked down and mulled over the script, but still did not agree with him, "It's already panicking enough to be taken hostage. If I were to panic again at that time, it wouldn't add more to the tension."
"Your first reaction to be pointed at by a gun is shock?" Xie Yan asked.
Hearing this, Su Shen didn't refute any further. She was so absorbed in reading the script that she ignored reality. It was a matter of life or death. A person's first reaction would certainly be panic and fear, and the expression of shock seemed too dull and did not reflect a more emotional feeling.
At that, Su Shen took a pen and made a note on the script while Xie Yan, who was beside her, looked at her quietly.
She wore an orange lip gloss today, and it looked super glossy.
The rest of the crew couldn't help but look over there covertly, only to see the two of them being super close to each other. Their film emperor was staring at her unwaveringly.
Su Shen suddenly looked up as if she remembered something, only to find Xie Yan was looking at her. When their eyes met, she couldn't help but smile, "I remember that Xie laoshi had me go over the script with my assistant the first time around. I had thought you didn't like to go over the script with other people."
Xie Yan: "..."
Why doesn't he remember?
Seeing that his expression remained the same, Su Shen thought she must've gone too far with her joke and immediately apologized, "Apologies, I didn't mean anything."
As she said that, she pointed to another part of the script and said, "When the male lead rescues the female lead, does he push her aside?"
Xie Yan: "No."
"En?" Su Shen looked up curiously.
"I will cover you." Xie Yan looked at her meaningfully.
Hearing this, Su Shen just nodded, and after asking something else, the Director said that filming was about to begin.
For this scene, it was just blocking* and there were no lines. But they had to NG because a few extras made a mistake, but it was much better later.
blocking – in filmmaking, it refers to where actors stand on a set and how they move around over the course of filming, or as some would say choreography
When it was time to film the male lead making his first appearance, Xie Yan was already gone. Later, he and a group of policemen would break through the window. Naturally, the glass was a prop. It looked as if it was real, but it wouldn't actually injure anymore.
When it was almost time, the Director shouted "Action!"
"AH! Don't kill me!"
In the spacious clothing store, the extras crouched in the corner and screamed desperately. Su Shen was amongst them. However, she was the female lead and could not panic like the others, but calmly looked for a way to save herself.
"WHAT ARE Y'ALL SCREAMING FOR? IF Y'ALL CONTINUE, I'LL SHOOT YOU!" One of the gangsters raised his gun fiercely and shot at the floor with a "BANG."
Those extras were even more afraid, but they didn't dare to scream again. They just crouched there trembling.
Su Shen was also amongst the crowd. She seemed to have noticed something outside the window, but before she could take a closer look, that gangster shouted "f**k." Before he could raise his gun, he was shot in the arm all of a sudden.
Just at this moment, a man with a rope smashed through the window, and the prop glass shattered to the floor. The hand-cranked camera was aimed straight at him, and the people behind immediately followed in. Several other gangsters were panicking and were escaping, while shooting toward the window.
The whole store was instantly full of gunshots. The extras fled in disarray, and it was simply a frenzy. Knowing that they were outnumbered, several gangsters took a few hostages while they were escaping.
"AHH! SAVE ME!"
In the midst of the loud screaming from the extras being taken hostage, Su Shen leaned against the wall in a panic and was about to escape when an extra bumped into her, causing her to stumble and come face-to-face with a dark muzzle pointing at her.
Just at this moment, the camera swept over. For only a second, Su Shen stopped breathing, and her mouth slightly parted, while her pupils dilated. With the sound of a gunshot, she was instantly thrown to the floor!
It was not as painful as she had expected. The Director said that she could use a stunt double as there were no protective measures, and thus, she could easily hit her head. However, Su Shen refused as she wanted to act out as much of her role as possible.
When she met that pair of pitch-dark eyes, she saw her own reflection in Xie Yan's eyes and the back of her head seemed to be held by him, and that's why she didn't feel as much pain as expected.
Director: "Cut!"
"Yan ge, are you okay?!" Zhao Tong immediately circled them.
The others also gathered around, afraid that something had happened to him. After all, the action scene just now was quite hefty. After Su Shen got up, she was pushed aside unintentionally. She felt the back of her head and did not say anything. She walked to the side and allowed the makeup artist to retouch her makeup.
Su Shen felt rather thirsty and thus asked Xiao Zhou to bring her a bottle of water.
After touching up on her makeup, the makeup artist then helped straighten the creases on Su Shen's clothes. Just at this moment, Xie Yan came over. Seeing him, the makeup artist immediately walked away. They all have eyes, so what was there to not understand.
"Are you alright?" Xie Yan glanced at her from top to bottom.
Su Shen rubbed her wrist and shook her head while leaning against the wall, "I'm fine, your hand…"
Just now, her head hit his head; from so high, it must've hurt.
"I'm fine." Xie Yan seemed to have seen something and suddenly stared at her knee, "You're injured."
There was indeed a scrape on her fair and smooth knee, which appeared out of sorts with the rest of the surrounding fair skin. Su Shen looked down and smiled nonchalantly, "I'm fine."
"How is that fine? I got a band-aid right here!" Just at this moment, Zhao Tong came over with a small medical box in his arms smiling.
Just as Su Shen was about to say something, she saw Xie Yan take a band-aid and suddenly crouched down in front of her. Facing the furtive gazes of everyone on set, she didn't dare to move.
The medical box in Zhao Tong's arms almost fell.
After tearing off the sticker, Xie Yan put the band-aid on her wound and said earnestly, "Small wounds would leave a scar if they are not treated properly."