I Only Like Your Made-up Persona

Chapter 68: Filming officially begins

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Except for the first two days after arriving in Wuhan, Xia Xiqing and Zhou Ziheng basically spent the week of preparation before filming started working on the script in the hotel.

This movie has many conflict points and involves many characters, including many long-range flashbacks. In addition, Gao Kun, played by Zhou Ziheng, has a process from the early stages of illness to gradually becoming more serious. All of this means that the actor has to undergo very big changes in his image alone.

"I think you should get earrings." After reading the script for more than 20 minutes without saying a word, Xia Xiqing suddenly looked up and said to Zhou Ziheng, "You should also dye your hair."

Zhou Ziheng scratched his hair, which had grown a little longer for styling. His hair had never been longer than four centimeters before, but now he looked like a real young boy. "Are you serious?"

"Of course." Xia Xiqing picked up his phone and sent a message to the main creative group.

[Xia Xiqing]: Director Kun, I suggest that Gao Kun dye his hair and wear earrings, so that he looks more like a gangster.

There were only four people in the group, two leading actors, a director and a screenwriter. Kuncheng responded to the message quickly.

[Kuncheng]: This is a good idea. Gao Kun is a migrant worker who almost went astray. He has been in society for two or three years. I think it is okay for him to dye his hair.

[Xu Qichen]: Well, Gao Kun’s image is actually quite extroverted and wild, which is meant to form a contrast with Jiang Tong. This image design is acceptable.

[Kuncheng]: Xi Qing is worthy of being a fine arts major. Why don’t you make some concept drawings of the images of the main actors based on the script? Hahaha.

[Kuncheng]: Just kidding.

Xia Xiqing thought about it and it was not a difficult task, but he could only come up with two leading roles at most. He did not take the job directly. He pondered it in his mind. Unexpectedly, Zhou Ziheng, who was sitting next to him, also picked up his phone and replied.

[Zhou Ziheng]: He has a hard time just memorizing the lines. So what color should I dye my hair

Looking at Zhou Ziheng's reply, Xia Xiqing felt warm in his heart. He pushed the job away for him without making a sound, and the topic was changed immediately.

[Kuncheng]: The yellow one, the kind that’s really tacky, hahaha.

[Xu Qichen]: Yeah... I think so too.

Xia Xiqing imagined Zhou Ziheng with a head of yellow hair and thought it was too funny, a weird feeling that didn't match his image. He glanced at Zhou Ziheng who was sitting cross-legged beside him with his head down and sending messages, reached out and turned his face to face him, looked left and right, and took the tablet and electronic pen beside him.

"Will you draw me?"

"Shh..."

Zhou Ziheng lowered his head again, watching the expression. The dialog box said something he had not sent out just now - are you all serious? ? Well, if you really think yellow hair is okay, I will dye it, devoting myself to art.

Glancing at Xia Xiqing who was drawing on a tablet with his head down, Zhou Ziheng deleted what he had just said word by word and edited a new one.

[Zhou Ziheng]: Hair color is a big deal and requires careful consideration. Please give me three minutes to think about it.

[Kuncheng]: You just don’t want to dye it.

[Xu Qichen]: Laughing·jpg

After a while, Xia Xiqing raised his head, tilted his head and looked carefully at the tablet in his hand, made some changes, and finally took a screenshot and sent it to the group.

[Xia Xiqing]: Do you think this image is suitable for Gao Kun

Zhou Ziheng did not click on the picture. He moved in front of Xia Xiqing, resting his chin on Xia Xiqing's shoulder and looking at the tablet in his hand. On the screen was a concept map similar to those often drawn by fashion design majors. It showed a tall man with an unclear face, but a short haircut dyed dark red, a black earring on his right ear, like a mole, a black vest on his upper body, a tattoo on his left arm, a pair of dirty dark blue jeans, a pair of knock-off old sneakers, and a half-smoked cigarette in his hand.

"How is it? Is it okay?" Xia Xiqing turned his head to ask him. Zhou Ziheng raised his eyes and pursed his lips, "I don't think it's okay."

Xia Xiqing frowned, straightened his back and stared at the tablet, "What's wrong with it? I think it's pretty good." After saying that, he straightened his back again, pursed his lips a little, and muttered softly, "I think the Gao Kun in my mind should be like this."

Zhou Ziheng just smiled lightly, got up from his shoulder, reached out and ruffled Xia Xiqing's hair, sat up straight and sent a message.

[Zhou Ziheng]: Brother Kun’s look has been finalized.

[Kuncheng]: Sure, Xiqing, it fits the character very well. I have sent it to the head of the styling team.

[Xu Qichen]: It is indeed Xi Qing, and it is quite consistent with the early image of Gao Kun in my mind.

Xia Xiqing read the news, raised his head, stretched out his leg and kicked Zhou Ziheng in the waist, "Can't you f*cking say something nice to me?"

"I was just teasing you." Zhou Ziheng grabbed his ankle with a smile and pulled down the legs of Xia Xiqing's sweatpants that had been rolled up to his knees. The air conditioner was turned on too high.

"But it's true, it's a little too handsome." Xia Xiqing was only focused on his concept map. He was not casual about other things, but he was very picky about drawing. "Darken it? Make a scar?" After making some changes, he was still not satisfied, so he took out his anger on Zhou Ziheng, pounced on him and grabbed his face, "It's not my fault. If you want to blame someone, blame you for being too handsome. I'll help you destroy your face and it will be perfect."

Zhou Ziheng was thrown onto his back by the sudden attack, but his hands were still supporting Xia Xiqing's lower back. He let him pull his face without crying out in pain, and only smiled and teased, "Then you destroy it, are you willing to do that?"

He felt a little regretful when he said this, feeling that he took himself too seriously. Seeing Xia Xiqing's hand hesitate for a moment, Zhou Ziheng immediately added, "You just like this face."

"Tsk, you still have a good figure." Xia Xiqing loosened his hand and got off him, "But you've become as skinny as a chicken in the last period."

"And then?" Zhou Ziheng immediately sat up and looked at him, his expression a little unhappy. Xia Xiqing quickly realized that he was unhappy because of this sentence. He squatted down and patted Zhou Ziheng on the head, "It's okay. Artworks are still works of art even if they are broken. The small pieces of porcelain are shining with the glory of humanity." After saying that, he kissed Zhou Ziheng on the lips, "Aesthetic value will not depreciate because of the fading of the canvas."

What a good talker. Zhou Ziheng raised the corner of his mouth and scratched the tip of Xia Xiqing's nose with his hand with great satisfaction.

"I can't argue with you, an artist."

Xia Xiqing was embarrassed by his action. He always tried to cover up his embarrassment by being aggressive. "If you touch my nose again, I will remove this mole." Thinking of what Zhou Ziheng had just said, Xia Xiqing suddenly grinned. His gangster spirit came up and he reached his hand through his collar and touched him randomly. "Yes, I am an artist."

He even emphasized the word "搞". Zhou Ziheng grabbed his hand and said, "No, who is messing with whom?"

"Don't show off, I might be the one to screw you someday."

"Who was the one who didn't have the strength last time? I didn't stop you... Don't cover my mouth. Are you afraid of what people will say?"

"I'm going to fuck you up next time!"

"Please."

The two of them were making a fuss on the floor for a long time, and finally Xiao Luo knocked on the door and came in to deliver the procedure book for the power-on ceremony, thus ending this childish game.

Zhou Zijing, the largest hidden investor, didn't trust anyone else, so after a long time he let his wife be the production director. In the eyes of outsiders, it was just the boss of Zhou Ziheng's agency who was the producer. This situation was quite common in the circle, not to mention that Jiang Yin's films rarely failed, otherwise she wouldn't be called a gold medal producer. But in Xia Xiqing's eyes, it was a bit funny.

"So this play is ultimately your family's work. Your brother invested, your sister-in-law produced, and you acted in it. How funny."

Zhou Ziheng shrugged.

Not only that, the person he likes acts with him, and the friend of the person he likes serves as the screenwriter.

Several actors with smaller roles did not join the crew, so the opening ceremony was kept very simple. The director and several leading actors lit incense and prayed. In order not to reveal the plot, the actors did not do their makeup and hair, and just wore their casual clothes to complete the opening ceremony.

However, Jiang Yin's marketing was very good last time, and the effect is still lingering. The opening ceremony alone attracted countless media to interview. Kuncheng, who has always been making niche independent films, is not very good at dealing with such things. The media meeting lasted only half an hour in total, and it was all focused on Zhou Ziheng and Xia Xiqing. Instead, it was the "outsider" Xia Xiqing who took on most of the tasks of answering media questions.

After the ceremony, several actors started to do their styling without stopping. Xia Xiqing's styling was easier to do, just cutting her hair and changing her clothes. The prototype of Jiang Tong was Xia Xiqing himself, even the pale skin color caused by long-term malnutrition corresponded to her. She didn't even need to put on too much foundation, just cover up the lip color.

But Zhou Ziheng was in trouble. He had to cut his hair, dye it, and apply tattoo stickers and earrings. Xia Xiqing had only one scene on the first day, which was at dusk in the script, and he had to wait for several hours. In this scene, Jiang Tong, who came out of his house, encountered a few thugs who were collecting protection fees. Gao Kun passed by and beat them up for him. This was the first communication between the two after "tracking", which was a very important literary scene.

Their styling studio was in a house they rented in Hua'anli. After finishing her styling, Xia Xiqing left the dressing room and came to the styling room. At the door, she met a boy with wheat-colored skin and narrow eyes. He was about 1.75 meters tall and looked very energetic. He came up and took the initiative to greet Xia Xiqing, "Hello, hello."

After being held and shaken by the boy for a long time, Xia Xiqing suddenly felt that he looked familiar. He might have acted in some TV series, but he didn't watch TV. Maybe he had seen him on Weibo. He shouldn't be a popular actor like Zhou Ziheng. Xia Xiqing habitually showed a gentle smile, "Hello, I'm Xia Xiqing."

"I know. I love watching A Way Out!" The boy chuckled twice, then realized that he was a little too familiar. He loosened his grip on his hand and scratched his hair shyly. "My name is Yang Bo. Um, I play A-Long in this movie."

Xia Xiqing quickly realized that A'long was a supporting role in the play, and was a blood dealer who indirectly caused Gao Kun to contract AIDS. "Oh, hello, hello. The first scene today is yours. Are you nervous?"

“A little bit.” Yang Bo’s expression was vivid. Although he was not handsome, it was obvious that he was born to do this job.

Su Jie, the makeup artist who had just finished applying makeup to Xia Xiqing, came over carrying a lot of bags. Seeing the two standing at the door of the styling room chatting, she bumped into Xia Xiqing's arm and said, "Why are you talking at the door? Come in, there's room to sit."

"Yeah." Yang Bo's northeastern accent suddenly popped out, and Xia Xiqing also smiled, "Then let's go in."

As soon as Xia Xiqing pushed the door open, she saw Zhou Ziheng sitting in front of the makeup mirror. His head was covered with a heating cap, and he was probably dyeing his hair. A man was pressing a tattoo sticker on his left arm. Zhou Ziheng was originally looking at his arm with his head tilted. When he heard the sound of the door opening, he raised his head and found Xia Xiqing and another boy walking in. His heart and eyes were full of Xia Xiqing, and he shouted at him in the mirror, "Xiqing!"

When the two of them were together, Zhou Ziheng rarely called him by his name, so Xia Xiqing was a little uncomfortable. He smiled at Zhou Ziheng. Yang Bo didn't notice his gaze shifting and asked, "So after you finish filming, will you go back to film the reality show?"

Xia Xiqing retracted his gaze and said, "We won't be filming for now. The production team has found another artist."

Zhou Ziheng was unhappy that he didn't get the attention he deserved, but there were so many people in the room that he couldn't get angry and could only bear it for the time being.

"Don't get wet, Ziheng. Wait for it to dry." The tattoo artist hired by the styling team took out a small fan and fanned him. The scene was a bit weird. A tough guy with tattoos from his fingers to his neck and a shaved head was half-kneeling in front of him, waving a small pink fan.

"Brother, how many copies of this did you make?" Zhou Ziheng felt embarrassed and took the fan to fan himself. The pattern on the tattoo was very complicated, with flames and entwined branches. If you look closely, you can see the face of an old woman hidden inside. That is Gao Kun's grandmother.

Gao Kun is a left-behind child. His mother ran away with someone else when he was born. His father works in Guangzhou. He has been dependent on his grandmother. His grandmother is the most important relative to Gao Kun in the play.

"About a hundred copies. Don't worry, we'll print more later if they're not enough."

Zhou Ziheng was a little lost in thought as he stared at the tattoo on his body. He spread out his hands and took a look, then asked blankly, "Brother, if it's really a tattoo, it shouldn't take that long, right?"

"That depends on the complexity of the pattern and the area." The tattoo guy smiled and said, "Why, do you want to get a tattoo?"

"No, I just asked." Zhou Ziheng shook his head. "People in our profession can't just get tattoos casually, and my dad wouldn't agree to it."

"Yeah, it has to be mosaiced when it's on TV."

After finishing the tattoo, Zhou Ziheng's hair was almost dyed. Stylist Ajie took him over to rinse his hair carefully, for fear of ruining the fake tattoo.

Xia Xiqing and Yang Bo were sitting on the sofa discussing the script with each other. Yang Bo was from Harbin, and he exuded the boldness of a northerner. He held Xia Xiqing's hand like a close friend, and after discussing the script, they began to discuss the styling.

Xia Xiqing grabbed a strand of Yang Bo's yellow hair and said with a smile, "Initially the director wanted Zhou Ziheng to dye his hair yellow."

"Really?" Yang Bo chuckled twice, "He is definitely more handsome than me. By the way, you two starred in the reality show and this drama, so your relationship should be pretty good, right?"

Xia Xiqing suddenly felt a little embarrassed when he asked this. He glanced to the side and said, "Not bad."

I feel guilty saying this. It's obviously a "negative distance" relationship.

The implementer of "negative distance" kept staring at Xia Xiqing's little corner intentionally or unintentionally while blowing his hair. Seeing him touching other people's hair and chatting with others, his anger grew bigger and bigger.

"Okay." Stylist Ajie put his hands on Zhou Ziheng's shoulders, "Ziheng, this hair color suits you quite well."

When Zhou Ziheng looked in the mirror, he was surprised to find that his red hair looked just like the fire in his heart. What a perfect image.

No. Zhou Ziheng glanced at that small corner.

Green is more suitable.

In fact, Xia Xiqing would occasionally look sideways at Zhou Ziheng. This time, he looked up and saw that his hairstyle was done. The short dark red hair was almost the same as he had imagined. He immediately sat up from the small sofa and walked over to Zhou Ziheng, praising him sincerely, "It looks good."

"Just looks good?" Zhou Ziheng turned his head and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Handsome." Xia Xiqing stretched out her hand and wanted to pinch his face directly, but suddenly realized that this was too intimate in the group, so she retracted her hand, "Really handsome."

Zhou Ziheng's usually neatly trimmed eyebrows were left free for the filming of this drama, and grew into his own wild eyebrows. With deep eye sockets and three-dimensional brow bones, this facial contour exudes a unique and resilient hormone.

Zhou Ziheng had a kind of righteousness that could not be thrown away. He had the face of a peerless alpha scumbag, but he was gentle and kind in his heart. Now that this little gangster has been dressed up, it is just like what Xu Qichen said, a wild man.

Looking at his newly pierced ear with a black earring hanging on it, Xia Xiqing gently touched his earlobe with his fingers, "You will be the most handsome guy on this street in the future."

After hearing Xia Xiqing's praise, Zhou Ziheng could hardly conceal his joy. He first raised the corners of his mouth proudly, and then pursed his lips slightly.

Ajie, who was standing behind the chair, also started joking, "The director didn't even pair our Kunzi with a pretty female lead. The prettiest boy should be paired with the prettiest girl."

No, no, no, the most handsome guy should pick up the most handsome guy on another street, Zhou Ziheng retorted in his heart.

However, when he looked so closely, he found that Xia Xiqing's hair had been cut a lot. Originally, his hair was almost reaching his shoulders, but now it was trimmed just to his chin, and it looked about the same length as when he first met Xia Xiqing.

"That's a nice haircut."

"Of course not. The hairstylist is a professional." Xia Xiqing put his hand on Zhou Ziheng's shoulder naturally, appearing familiar but not too intimate. "Unlike you, I've already told you, if you don't cut my hair bald, I won't let you go."

Xia Xiqing was talking about a scene in the script where Gao Kun cuts Jiang Tong's hair. This scene was only included in the final draft and was probably added in later by Xu Qichen.

"It's okay, a bald head won't affect your beauty." Zhou Ziheng joked while holding back his laughter.

"Get lost."

The assistant director pushed the door open and came in. He wiped the sweat off his bald head with the back of his hand and spoke in standard Beijing dialect, half biting his tongue. "Are you ready? Shall we go over there and shoot?"

This bald man came at the right time. This time, Xia Xiqing and Zhou Ziheng both laughed, and they were like two little kids, which made the assistant director feel puzzled and he touched his light bulb-like head again.

The first scene was with Zhou Ziheng and Yang Bo. Yang Bo played the role of A'long, a blood dealer who lived in a shabby rental house in Hua'anli, just like Jiang Tong, played by Xia Xiqing. However, he did not have many scenes as the crew only rented the rental house for one day, so they had to shoot his scenes in the rental house first.

This scene actually shows Gao Kun, who just found out that he had AIDS, coming to find A Long in anger, thinking that A Long had harmed him. The two of them had a very fierce conflict across the iron gate.

The first scene when filming started was a conflict scene, which actually required a lot from the actors, but Zhou Ziheng had been used to it after so many years of acting. What Kuncheng was even more worried about was Yang Bo.

"Just try to perform a scene first. It's okay. It's not dark yet. There's still time."

When it was almost dark, it was time for Zhou Ziheng and Xia Xiqing to act against each other. The director had to shoot this conflict scene in just two or three hours, and time was a big challenge. Xia Xiqing was completely new to acting, and although he had no scenes to act during this time, he still stood on the set and watched, absorbing and learning in the fastest way possible.

After the actors were in place, the stage manager walked to the camera with a black and white clapperboard, glanced at the cameraman's gesture, and said, "'Tracking' first scene, first shot, first time, action!"

The author has something to say: I am writing a script today (I am fearless in updating without any preparation), and I feel like I really enjoy writing scripts and storyboards.

Let me give you little groundhogs a heads up first. The script is a little bit cruel, but it's still pretty sweet outside the play~