Chapter 38: Shooting Starts

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Just past seven, Lu Ze timely arrived before the gates of the film city. Following the crew of “My Regiment”, he arrived at the shooting site.

On the site, a group of extras were already doing physical tasks while heavily panting. Seeing Lu Ze, they greeted him one after another.

“Morning, Big Brother Lu.”

“Good morning, Big Brother Lu.”

Lu Ze was not aloof and replied to them with a smile. However, he did not exchange any words with them, nor did he go to help them. He had already grown into the habit of not doing miscellaneous tasks around the set.

At half past seven, the main leads had all arrived together. They all were staying at the same hotel and commuted through their own bus. One could see the prowess of Gu Mindge from the fact that not a single person was late. To make these powerful actors behave obediently — this was not something a newbie director could accomplish.

Ten minutes later, Gu Mingde arrived with the assistant director. The former brought a steel tea kettle with him. He directly sat on his chair and poured himself a cup. Litting up a cigarette, he surveyed the set without speaking.

Lu Ze noticed that everybody had already started on their own. There was no need for a word from the director. Every person inspected their tools several times before inspecting the props that would be used later.

 “Lu Ze.”

“I’m here, Director. What’s the matter?”

Gu Mindge sat with legs folded over. He gave Lu Ze a sideway glance and said, “You’ve been here for so long, why haven’t you changed into your costume yet? Are you waiting for me to help you change?”

Lu Ze looked around and saw that all the lead roles had changed into costumes and were inspecting the problems in them from yesterday except him.

‘I’ll change right away!”

There was no reason to look for an excuse at this point. Just admit your mistake and immediately make it right. Otherwise, eating a kick would be getting off lightly. Looking for an excuse and not knowing the workings of the crew? Who would care about such nonsense?

“Hold on. Are you afraid of the dark? Do you have any issues like claustrophobia?”

Lu Ze thought for a moment. He had never had such experiences, could not tell. Moreover, the first scene was quite important and was quite important for him so he chose to deny it.

“Go. This is my first warning to you regarding your changing into costume. Don’t look for trouble. You’ve got five minutes to change. If you’re early and other members of the crew haven’t arrived yet, you still can’t be an idler. My crew has no idlers. I don’t want a second time to happen, understand?”

“I understand, Director Guo.”

He dashed off and arrived at the costume collection. Finding his costume, he hurriedly took off his clothes. At this moment, there was nobody to sort out his clothes, so he simply threw them to the ground and changed. In the end, he casually bundled up his clothes and bag and threw into a corner, then ran back.

“Prop team, has the metal barrel been welded? Make it extra secure. There are two minefields laid down over at the demolition expert’s side. Make sure they’re inspected properly before two o’clock at noon. Makeup team, hurry up a bit! We’ll start in ten minutes. Video team, check the camera movements and feedback.”

“The makeup team needs five minutes to get the extras ready.”

“Video team’s inspection done. No problem in the camera arm movements, and all four cameras are installed. Webcam in the barrel installed. All equipment are working fine.”

“Prop team’s inspection is complete. Everything’s fine.”

Clear and methodical replies came back from Gu Mingde’s walkie-talkie one after another. Such a high efficiency made Lu Ze sigh in admiration. This was the first time he witnessed a production crew being operating so cleanly without any fooling around. The shooting basically started the moment the director arrived. He did not have to care about anything aside from the actual shooting. This was too awesome.

“Chen Zhizun, prepare all the people in the scene. You have fifteen minutes to prepare them.”

The actor playing Long Wenzhang led the main leads, supporting cast, and extras before quickly going over the dialogues. Lu Ze had already practised for this scene for a long time. It was impossible for him to have any issues.

“Director Guo, it’s done. We can begin.”

After waiting for everybody to assume their position, Gu Mingde commanded through walkie talkie to sound the clapperboard. Lu Ze’s first scene officially began.

“My Commander, My Regiment- Hengdian, scene seventeen, act first, start!”

A light breeze blew through the set. Yu Xiaoqing, Tangfu Shizuo, and Long Wenzhang were standing above, looking down at the soldiers forming a few rows. As Zhang Lixian, he was standing behind Meng Fan and Bula. Hearing the click sound, the two began the first dialogues.

“Why do we have to work with these bastards?”

A register flew over and struck on Meng Fan’s helmet. Perhaps due to the power behind the throw being a bit excessive, it flew past Lu Ze’s face. Then, Meng Fan hobbled and brought the register back.

Gu Mingde stroked his beard in satisfaction. Just now, the book was thrown a bit too forcefully, causing it to almost bounce off and hit Lu Ze’s face. However, Lu Ze did not show the slightest of movement and only blinked his eyes. This determination saved the scene. Otherwise, they would have to start over.

Then came Yu Xiaoqing and Tangfu Shizhuo’s exchange, followed by He Shuguang breaking his zither to enter the squad.

The camera rapidly moved from one character’s face to another. Gu Mingde was quite satisfied with every character’s expression. Especially the sudden kick from Lu Ze to He Shuguang. The latter had slightly jumped in surprise and let out a light shout unconsciously. It was a small highlight in the scene.

This scene did not have any dialogues of Lu Ze. He only had a few camera shots. The exchange between Yu Xiaoqing and Long Wenzhang marked the end of the scene.

After a five minute rest, the shooting continued. And this scene contained the hardest scene Lu Ze had to do in the entire series — to tunnel through the metal barrel.

The second scene began and Long Wenzhang began to arrange the people who would be drilling through the metal barrel. In other words, Lu Ze’s first dialogue was just around the corner.

A cold snort rang out as he looked at the sky with contempt and a sneer on his face. At this point, Zheng Yi, who was playing Meng Fan, displayed a brilliant performance and arrived with his rifle on his back as if he had been greatly provoked.

“Me first means me being first.”

An ordinary actor would not have been able to stop a trace of artificiality leaking into his performance in this circumstance, but he did it. Thereupon, Long Wenzhang requested Lu Ze to go second.

Lu Ze spoke his first dialogue.

“A battalion commander is no battalion commander here. This is a suicide squad, nothing else.”

He stretched out his neck a little while the sneer and disdain never left his face.

After everybody completed arrangements on their end, they officially began the crawl inside this long, welder metal barrel which was buried in the soil. Meng Fan was the first to enter, and Lu Ze closely followed after him.

When he just began, he did not feel anything as well. However, after moving three to four steps, a sense terror arose and assaulted him directly at the heart.

It was a metal barrel completely devoid of light and could only allow one to crawl forward. One could not even turn their head. The sounds of breathing inside the tunnel also begun to louden. Lu Ze immediately broke out into a cold sweat, despite there being people before and after him.

This had nothing to do with being claustrophobic, but the mental fright that every person experienced. If Lu Ze really had this illness, he would have probably already lost consciousness due to fright. However, he did not expect that Zhang Yi would be the one to have it!

“Move!”

“Don’t poke me!”

He sounded as if a pig was being butchered, causing Lu Ze to jump in fright and almost letting out an apology. However, he fortunately remembered that they were still shooting so he merely grit his teeth and continued to crawl forward.

“…”