Millennium director

"Extra performers, gather here!"

"Hurry up, it's about to turn on!"

An assistant director, holding a big loudspeaker, stood in the square of the main hall of the Qin Palace and shouted.

The "Actors Please Take Your Place" contestants, wearing the style of the Warring States Period-style chambermaids and maid uniforms, took small steps one by one and filed out of the side hall next to them.

They can't take long steps, so there's nothing they can do about it. This kind of clothing is relatively tight on the lower body, and only allows them to walk quickly in small steps.

After finally standing together in the square, the casting director responsible for managing these extras continued: "Your task today is very simple."

"Just play your roles as maid and chamberlain!"

How to act?

Very simple.

More than a dozen stage managers came forward and quickly guided the contestants to their respective stations.

There are both inside and outside the temple.

Their only task is to stand still and do the job that the attendants should do.

The scene that the crew of "Warring States" will shoot today is the scene where King Qin goes to court.

In this play, there are about 20 scenes involving court meetings. The crew concentrated on them in five days and planned to shoot them all in one go.

There are five or six shows scheduled for today, starting at 8 a.m. and continuing until 5 p.m., when the sun begins to set.

In other words, these guest actors will have to stand guard for eight hours except for one hour during lunch!

There is no need to do anything, just stand where you should be and watch the leading actors, the experimental minister and the prince, "act".

Then, a special actor who specializes in playing eunuchs kneels down when prompted with lines such as "Go to court" and "Kneel down", and that's it.

Lines?

No.

Lens?

It is estimated that when filming the starring role, I can occasionally show half of a certain contestant's face.

This is a simple and unpretentious day's shooting task for ordinary extras in Hengdian.

At the beginning, the contestants of "Actors Please Take Your Place" were still a little expectant. After all, it was the first time for many of them to experience the work of a crew.

However, they stood there blankly for half an hour, watching the third-tier actor who played the leading role standing in the hall arguing with the emperor back and forth with "righteous indignation", turning on the phone, NGing, and turning on again, and so on. After playing it several times, the contestants who found it interesting at first began to feel bored.

It's really boring to watch these actors play the same scene over and over again.

"Hey, brother."

"Is this usually what extras do, standing here like this for a whole day?"

Standing outside the main hall door, Marco, who was responsible for playing the role of the eunuch guarding the gate, chatted a little boredly with the guard standing next to him, wearing armor and holding a long sword in his hand.

This guard is a real extra. The crew hired him for 4,000 yuan a month to act as an extra, specifically responsible for playing non-speaking roles such as guards, attendants, and subordinates.

"What else?" The extra actor named Li Jiu didn't look sideways, but opened his mouth slightly, and whispered to Marco: "If you can stand still for a whole day, it is already a relatively easy role."

"It's very tiring to play a passerby. We have to walk back and forth on the street all the time. Every time the director shouts, we sit down and rest directly. Otherwise, we will be too tired to walk after walking for a long time. "

"The easiest thing is playing a dead person."

"Is it easy to play a dead person?" Marco asked curiously.

"Of course it's easy!"

"Especially for anti-war films, sometimes you have to shoot battlefield scenes all day long. To play a dead person, you only need to put on makeup, find a trap, and lie down for the whole day."

"I know a buddy who is very good. Even if the sound of gunfire on the set is non-stop, he can still sleep."

"He was specifically looking for dead actors to act in such anti-war films. Every time he got one, he would go to an Internet cafe and stay up all night. He would gather at six o'clock in the morning and go to the set. After burying two blood bags in his chest, he would fall to the ground. sleep."

"When I woke up, I made money."

Listening to Li Jiu's sharing, Marco was stunned. This was very different from the "actor" he heard from the teacher in school.

"Really?" he asked in disbelief.

"Of course I'm teasing you." Li Jiu couldn't help but laugh. He felt that these actors, who he heard were top students selected from universities such as Nortel, China Theater, and Shanghai Opera, were just like that, silly, connecting the dots. I don’t even know common sense.

"How could the crew really let you sleep all day long?"

"But I'm not lying to you either. My friend is indeed very powerful. He was able to fall asleep on the "battlefield". He was caught by the assistant director several times and was often scolded."

"Oh." Marco nodded blankly.

At this time, their chat finally attracted the attention of the on-site assistant director. The assistant director with a mustache immediately picked up the loudspeaker and cursed: "Those two extras standing outside the hall!"

"We are filming, what are we talking about?"

As soon as he interrupted, the scene being filmed was considered scrapped and had to be reposted.

Several actors who were speaking their lines had a look of dissatisfaction on their faces and turned to look outside the hall.

Suddenly being stared at by all the "ministers", Marco panicked and quickly bent down to apologize: "I'm sorry, sorry, sorry."

In other words, he is a contestant in "Actors Please Take Their Place" and is not really a group actor. Otherwise, everyone from the assistant director to the group leader would have to give him a hard education.

"This will never happen again!"

"A new one!"

"Prepare!"

In a side hall of Qin Palace.

At this moment, the side hall has already been converted into a "studio", and more than a dozen monitors display real-time footage taken by more than a dozen cameramen on site.

The chat between Marco and his extras was naturally faithfully filmed.

Seeing the clear and stupid Marco, Wu Yuan shook his head and laughed, "This part can't be cut."

"This extra act is quite interesting, he is a joker!"

"Marco is using his words to help the audience understand the working conditions of the extras."

Being an extra performer is really not an easy job.

Playing a dead person is not as easy as Li Jiu said.

Although being a dead person is indeed easier than roles such as passers-by and guards, as there is no need to stand for hours or walk back and forth to expend physical energy, but to play a dead person, especially in a battlefield scene, you must wear death makeup.

That is to say, a lot of blood bags must be stuffed on the body, then the blood bags must be broken, and a lot of dirt must be smeared on the face.

Lying on the ground all day with such a dirty and smelly thing is not a comfortable thing.

Especially for some crews with strict requirements, in order to prevent cheating, you "die" in this position. Generally, during these scenes, you cannot move. You must stay in this position and wait for all the scenes related to this scene. You can't move until the scene is finished.

It's also because playing a dead person has more restrictions on group performances, so they can get an extra fifty yuan a day.

"Everyone says that the entertainment industry is good, and they are vying to enter the entertainment industry, become an actor, and come to Hengdian to make a living."

"But there are not so many good things in the world."

"Being an extra in Hengdian, unless you really have no other job options, is really not a good thing. It can only be said to be a waste of youth."

Wu Yuan, who has worked as the assistant director of the crew in Dream for more than ten years, knows very well how difficult it is to perform as a group, and how hopeless and futureless it is.

"I hope that after our program is broadcast, the reality of the life and work conditions of these extras will be able to cool down the current overheated situation of some young people who regard Baoqiang as their idol and desperately want to come to Hengdian to work as extras. "(End of chapter)