Chapter 9: The Revised Script

  Tao Qu's focus on directing and He Mu's dedication to acting allowed them to work efficiently, completing the scenes in the basement before 10 pm.

  The last scene is the protagonist hearing a knock on the door before clicking publish, hesitantly putting down the mouse, and walking to the door with suspicion, the camera showing through the peephole a girl shrouded in darkness, quietly smiling.

  "Snap!" The girl was the weird girlfriend written by the male lead, played by Zhang Jiani, Tao Qu's girlfriend. Nini is a sweet and lovely girl, only 18 years old this year, who has studied acting in the performance department of the film academy for three years, with a solid professional foundation. However, after all, it was her first time formally shooting a movie, and previously, amateur He Mu's performance had won everyone's recognition on set, which made her, as a professional performer, feel under pressure. So although she had already acted once before and had passed Tao Qu's test with difficulty, this time she became nervous again, and it took four "snaps" from her boyfriend to pass.

  "This is the last shot, everyone cheer up, think about the midnight snack later and you will be full of energy!" Seeing that everyone was a bit tired, Director Tao took out the midnight snack to entice them.

  The film was originally designed to end with the female lead's eerie smile, but the post was not sent out. However, last night Wang Mingfei's friend Zuo Jun called him and said something that changed his mind, so he decided to add a shot.

  The camera moves slowly with Zhang Jiani's footsteps, she comes to the computer desk, holds the mouse and clicks "Publish", finally the camera freezes on her back, as for where the male lead went, who cares!

  "It's time to get off work, let's have a midnight snack!" Someone shouted, and everyone cheered. There were shouts of "shark fin soup" and "bird's nest soup", which scared Director Tao so much that he almost ran away.

  "First, let Xiao He remove her makeup, and everyone else clean up the scene. You guys will definitely be treated to a midnight snack." Tao Qu thought he'd be more generous today, so he took out 100... no, 90 yuan as the midnight snack fee.

  This house is rented for just one day, and several crew members will pack up the things belonging to the crew and take them away. He Mu will remove his makeup with the help of a makeup artist, as this makeup is only needed for tonight's scene, after which he can look more handsome and spirited again.

  While everyone was busy, Tao Qudu took over He Mu's script. "Little He, the script needs some local adjustments, I'll modify it and return it to you before I leave."

  "It's okay." He Miao didn't think much of it. Adjusting the script during filming was a common occurrence. There was no perfect script, only better ones.

  But why was Tao Yu adjusting the script while Zhang Jiani's cheeks were flushed as she patted him, and the two of them sat shoulder to shoulder, looking suspicious?

  In the end, shark fin soup and bird's nest soup are just fantasies, while mixed grills and skewers are reality. Even with such affordable midnight snacks, Tao still loudly complains that it hurts his heart, these two hundred yuan can't even stop him!

  ……

  Today's filming is very meaningful, in a sense, He Mu's entry into the film and television industry, officially becoming an actor started from this day, and this performance also established his confidence.

  He Mu cherished this hard-won performance opportunity, so he performed every scene very seriously, without any laughter or technical mistakes. Years later, when He Mu became famous and looked back, it seemed that his best and most serious performance was indeed this one.

  After returning home, He Mu went to the public bathhouse for a shower. When he came back, Li Bao was flipping through his script. Tonight, Li Wen Hua purely wanted to broaden his horizons, and this experience sparked some interest in film, even planning to buy a DV camera to play around with it.

  No, he was drawing inspiration from Tao's script and might even come up with one of his own and film a short. When He Mu returned wiping his wet hair, Li Wen Hua, holding the script, couldn't help but burst into loud laughter.

  "What's with the Coke?" He Mu didn't understand.

  Li Baoqiang suppressed his smile and said, "Hey, have you read the revised script of Tao Qiumo?"

  "Not yet, wait and see." He Mu said casually, in fact he had only carefully read the part to be filmed tonight, and just roughly scanned the back, without having time to look at it carefully, after all, from when he received the script to the official start of filming was a very short period of time.

  "Then take a look at this, guaranteed to make you laugh and cry." Li Chubby flipped open a page, which was relatively towards the back.

  "Huh," He Mu took it over and found that many contents on that page were crossed out with a black watercolor pen, originally a full page was left with only two or three lines, "Why did you delete so much?"

  "Take a closer look at what's been deleted." Li Pang said with an evil grin.

  He Mu continued reading from the previous page, where the content described the male protagonist mentioning his girlfriend's skin as white and tender, like a newborn baby. Then it shifted to the reminiscing part, which was scratched out by Tao Yu Duo. He Mu tried hard to make out the words, roughly understanding that it was about the first night the female protagonist spent at the male protagonist's home. The female lead went to take a bath first, then wore a sleep dress to seduce the male lead, who eventually gave in to temptation, and the two ended up rolling in bed together.

  The scene is quite large in scale, with a lot of dialogue and action, as well as psychological descriptions. It involves multiple instances of verbal teasing, kissing, physical intimacy, and partial nudity. However, from the perspective of Taoist fun, this doesn't count as anything out of the ordinary. At that time, the male lead was him, and taking advantage of filming to get intimate with his girlfriend was just having a good time. As for the nude scenes, it was only him topless, and his girlfriend wouldn't be at a disadvantage.

  But now the situation has changed, and the one acting opposite his girlfriend is He Mu. As the highest authority of this department, the only person who can make decisions, how could he possibly watch as He Mu takes advantage of him? So Director Tao boldly cut out parts of the scene, leaving behind a very "innocent" version. To summarize it in one sentence: He Mu lies properly dressed on the bed, Zhang Jiani wears conservative pajamas and leans against his side, revealing a snow-white and tender shoulder.

  That's it! Nothing more, no irresponsible imagination accepted.

  Although he felt that this treatment was too hasty, He Mu didn't care about it. This small part did not affect the excellence of the whole play, at most it just lacked some attractive and curious eyes. Moreover, even if he really let him act in a large-scale drama, he might not be able to perform well, as he had some psychological shadows about this kind of drama.

  Accompanying Li Pang to kill time, writing a diary, reading the script while listening to the noisy rock music outside, He Mu slept very sweetly tonight.

  ……

  The filming of "Female Scheming" is proceeding rapidly, and the second day's shooting completed the part where the male and female protagonists get to know and fall in love with each other. Tao Qu's role has almost been played out up to this point, and unexpectedly, nearly a third of the scenes have been completed within two days. Director Tao is now full of confidence, it seems he no longer worries about the progress issue.

  However, as the plot developed, there were more scenes to be shot and some of them required a large number of extras, which involved coordination in many aspects. Most of this work was done by Director Tao Quan Du himself, so the shooting progress slowed down.

  Four days later, the short film completed two-thirds of its shooting, and the plot development also came to the scene where Tao Youduo had a lot of cuts...

  The Buddha said: Today is the third watch, the first watch, seeking recommendation votes support!