Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 43: Chapter 43: The Dedicated Leading Lady

Li Younan’s daily wage went from 300 yuan to 800 yuan directly. For Li Younan, this wasn’t particularly high income, but now he hadn’t had any income for a long time, and this was the first time he earned money apart from his professional skills. With this experimental mindset, it felt strangely like he had stumbled upon 800 yuan.

After negotiating the price, the stunt director started explaining how to shoot the next two shots. Compared to the first shot, the second one seemed the simplest, but was actually the most troublesome.

According to the previous plan, the second shot should be Li Younan flying out from behind the fake mountain, gracefully catching the female lead who fell from the horse.

No need to shoot her falling from the horse, there was a stunt double, just needed to shoot the moment after catching her.

This is when the male lead is supposed to wrap his arm around the female lead’s waist. Initially, there would be some close-ups, like the male and female leads gazing affectionately at each other. This part of the scene can only be reshoots after the male lead arrives on site.

The original plan was for the male lead to wrap his arm around the female lead’s waist and spin around, which was essential. But now the actress was in a fit and adamantly refused to film this intimate scene with a stand-in, giving the stunt director a headache.

At this time, the stunt director and several stunt coordinators grouped together discussing. Without the wrapping and spinning, what move should replace it? This scene is a critical moment for the male and female lead’s emotional peak; without physical contact, the emotions aren’t intense enough; but with physical contact, relying solely on reshot close-ups afterward, the visual tension clearly isn’t strong enough.

As the group discussed their headache, Li Younan stood silently nearby, taking selfies with his phone.

His plan was to record all the interesting experiences of the day. At this time, the lighting guy came up to Li Younan, admiringly saying, ”Buddy, you’re awesome! What you just did was even slicker than our stunt guys.”

Li Younan giggled and asked, ”Can you help me film a video during practice later? I’d like to keep it as a memento.”

The guy said no problem.

Meanwhile, the stunt director and several stunt staff discussed for a long time, concluding: without physical contact, it’s really hard to design this move. Thus, they planned to ask the head director for instructions, then looked at Li Younan and said, ”You also come with us.”

Li Younan quietly followed along.

Actually, the head director was doing some mental work with the actress. Just as Li Younan and the others went over, they saw the actress with her back turned to them resolutely saying, ”If you insist on filming this scene today, then I... Just like the male lead, I will take sick leave!”

The director was utterly distressed, damn it, what era is this, filming feels like playing house, the previous generation was better, the director’s status... He said helplessly, ”Why don’t you want to film with a stand-in actor, it’s just one shot, right?”

The actress was silent, the male lead, at least, was a celebrity; letting a stand-in hold me, what nonsense is that? Unacceptable, unacceptable.

Li Younan’s mouth twitched slightly, please no fuss, today’s work can’t be ruined, right?

Actually, it was the stunt director who was most troubled. He bravely interrupted the actress and head director’s conversation and said, ”Director, we’ve confirmed the stunt double, there’s no problem with the occlusion shot for this guy, he’s got some stunt basics, the effect might be better than our stunt actors.”

Hearing the stunt director’s voice, the actress naturally turned around. Her gaze swept over the stunt director’s rough face, landing on Li Younan.

She blinked, her expression momentarily dumbfounded.

The weather had heated up completely by now, Li Younan squinted and used his fingers to flick the sweat from his forehead, sighing helplessly, filming really was tiring.

He paid no attention to the actress’s gaze.

At this time, the stunt director began complaining to the head director: ”But for the second shot, if there’s no physical contact between the male and female leads, it’s really hard to design the moves.”

While speaking, the stunt director didn’t look at the actress, feeling extremely dissatisfied with her.

”Ah, forget it, forget it, I don’t want to make things difficult for you, so I’ll reluctantly compromise, because I’m dedicated.” Suddenly, the actress said.

The head director was stunned, then overjoyed: ”You’ve thought it through?”

The actress said, ”But only this once, okay!”

The stunt director was also slightly puzzled, good heavens, this first-time female lead newbie, how suddenly she became so easygoing? He glanced at Li Younan, suddenly realizing something, couldn’t help but deeply sigh, indeed, appearance is justice.

Since ancient times, letting attractive people be leads is reasonable.

Drama stems from life, it really is totally true.

Once the most troublesome aspect was settled, the head director asked Li Younan to change his look. Li Younan took his phone for selfies, slightly sighed: ”Who understands, I have to go style again...”

...

In summary, nothing was accomplished this morning. Besides listening to the director talk about the scenes, Li Younan only did two things:

One was getting one makeover, and the other was getting another makeover.

It was already lunchtime, and they hadn’t started filming.

Luckily, the crew provided boxed lunches. The lighting guy he met earlier was already quite familiar with Li Younan, he came over to call Li Younan to get a boxed lunch, the guy said, ”Extras and us, the minor crew, get our boxed lunch over there, while the crew’s director and regular actors eat elsewhere.”

Li Younan understood, after all, professional actors in the crew are commonly called ”stars” and it’s not very fitting to eat with extras. Not to mention, safety has to be considered, of course, the food standards would certainly differ greatly.

Li Younan took out his phone to record: ”I’m going to eat now, let’s show everyone what the extra’s boxed lunch looks like.”

At this time, a short-haired girl wearing glasses ran over saying, ”Hey, hey, hey ... You there...” She pointed at Li Younan, ”You should come eat with us over there.”

The lighting guy was stunned: ”Ah?”

Li Younan was also somewhat puzzled, suspiciously pointed at himself: ”Me?”

He recognized that this girl seemed to be the assistant of the female lead.

The assistant nodded and said: ”Yeah, because we start filming in the afternoon, Yiyi wants to discuss some shooting points with you during lunch.”

Yiyi is the female lead’s name.

Li Younan was greatly shocked, this was the dedication of a star, discussing work during meals.

He said to the camera: ”Sorry, looks like no chance to show you guys the extras’ boxed lunch today.”

Then he smiled, ”But I can show everyone what the stars eat.”