The film and television city starts from the courtyard

Filming is still ongoing, but Tian Sisi and Xiao Mu are still arguing, which often delays the filming schedule.

Zhao Shucheng was somewhat dissatisfied with this, but while he could force them to film, he couldn't ease the tension between the two. He could only hope that they would think things through on their own.

Xiao Mu could see that Zhao Shucheng was already very dissatisfied, and he was also worried that his sister Yao Menggui's reputation would be affected because of this period, so he decided to take the initiative to talk to Tian Sisi.

However, she was also a little unsure, since she didn't understand the entertainment industry and didn't know if what she was doing was right or wrong, so she went to Song Ci to ask for his opinion.

“I’ve decided to talk to Sisi. After all, a movie isn’t just a promotional film that benefits only one person. We still have so many scenes together, and we can’t let things stay this awkward.”

Song Ci said, "Yao Menggui, I am truly impressed by you."

"why?"

"You're really into the role. These past few days, I've felt more and more like the female lead, Li Rongjing. You're gentle and pure, and even your personality has changed."

"How is it similar?"

Song Ci directly used his hand to brush Xiao Mu's hair aside, looking at her affectionately.

Xiao Mu suddenly felt a little nervous. After all, this was not something that classmates or colleagues could do; it was too intimate. But her sister hadn't told her about her relationship with Song Ci, which left her unsure how to react.

Song Ci felt that the girl in front of him was somewhat unfamiliar. After all, although he admired Yao Menggui now, he preferred the aloof girl from before.

Seeing that Tian Sisi and Xiao Mu were no longer at odds, Zhao Shucheng thought the filming would go smoothly. However, the next day, news broke online that the second female lead in the drama had been dumped by her boyfriend and had cried until her eyes were swollen.

The crew felt that the production team had encountered many misfortunes. So many things had happened before, and they had finally managed to start filming smoothly. Now the second female lead had an accident. Did they have to stop filming again?
Xiao Mu didn't expect the news to break out, and couldn't help but suspect her assistant Chen Mo. After all, when she went to see Tian Sisi yesterday, she overheard Tian Sisi's conversation with Kang Kai and saw Chen Mo secretly taking pictures.

But now she couldn't care less about asking Chen Mo if he was the whistleblower; what she wanted to know was whether Tian Sisi could continue filming on set.

When he saw Tian Sisi being chased and surrounded by reporters, he thought of his own experience a few days ago and felt sorry for her, so he took the initiative to help her.

"She cried because I made her angry. Yesterday at noon, we had a scene together, but because we had different understandings of the scene, we didn't perform very well. Sisi is a drama fanatic, and we almost got into a fight on set. Director Gu scolded us in front of the whole crew. Sisi is stupid; she actually stood outside crying and was photographed by reporters. Then her godbrother's relationship was exposed, and now everyone has twisted the story like that. She has nowhere to express her grievances. I'm telling you all, you can't just make things up like this based on pictures."

"To be honest, I cried yesterday too, but luckily I cried in the car and no one took pictures. Otherwise, people who didn't know better would think that all the women in the crew liked him. Okay, everyone, I've explained everything. We should go back to filming now."

Upon arriving at the film set, Xiao Mu hesitated for a moment, then walked over to Zhao Shucheng and said:

"Director Gu!"

Zhao Shucheng looked up at Xiao Mu and said, "Big Star Yao, are you here to apologize to me after you've finished spreading rumors?"

Xiao Mu looked at Zhao Shucheng apologetically and said, "Director Gu, I'm only doing this for the good of our crew. You've seen the comments online. If we don't clarify things in time, our crew will become the center of gossip."

"So you're just using me as a scapegoat?"

"I had no choice. I couldn't just say that we were having a fight, which would only fuel the paparazzi's speculations. This approach would actually be more effective."

Zhao Shucheng nodded and said, "You make sense. Is there anything else? If not, let's continue filming."

"Um, Director, there really is something. As you can see, Sisi's eyes are red and swollen, and it won't go down anytime soon. This will definitely affect the filming."

"So what do you mean? You want me to change the shooting schedule because of her mess? Don't you know that the daily shooting schedule for the crew is fixed and cannot be changed?"

"Director Gu, of course I know that we can't change the shooting schedule because of you. I was thinking if we could change the plot a little, like Sisi crying, and then continue shooting like that."

Zhao Shucheng frowned as he looked at Xiao Mu and asked, "So you want to change the script?"

"No, no, no, what I mean is that Sisi came in with red eyes, which means she had already cried at home. Because she is a strong person, even though Li Rongjing is her best friend, she doesn't want the other person to see her vulnerability."

Zhao Shucheng said, "So she had to cry like this, with her eyes swollen like peaches, to see Li Rongjing? Is that how she shows she's strong?"

Xiao Mu knew that his explanation was far-fetched and didn't know how to get Zhao Shucheng to agree.

"Don't give me that. I don't care if she's in love or heartbroken, we can't let an actor's personal issues affect filming."

Zhao Shucheng frowned as he looked at Xiao Mu, who was still standing there, and said, "I can adjust the shooting order first, and move the morning's scenes to the afternoon, but this is a one-time thing, and it will not be allowed to happen again. If this situation occurs again, no matter who you are, you are out. At worst, the crew will select new actors and start shooting again."

"Okay, director."

"Also, the media is visiting the set today. I don't care if you've really made up or not, you all need to act like the crew is on good terms. If anyone messes up, they can get out of the crew."

As he spoke, Zhao Shucheng glanced at the third female lead in the distance. She was the biggest unstable factor, but since the investment had already been finalized, he couldn't let her leave before the investment was withdrawn. He could only hope that she would be sensible.

"Okay, thank you, director."

Tian Sisi used the opportunity of acting to vent her inner emotions. After calming down, she decided to give up on the previous relationship completely, but she did not want to expose the other party's scumbag behavior. She hoped that they would both be well.

Seeing the other person's genuine emotions, Zhao Shucheng nodded, agreeing that a genuine expression of feelings—from what one truly hears, sees, and experiences—is indeed the most touching.

After filming ended, Zhao Shucheng looked at Xiao Mu and said, "Yao Menggui, come here for a moment."

"Director Gu, what's wrong? Did I act it wrong somewhere?"

Zhao Shucheng said, "No, it's because the later plot requires you to recite Kahlil Gibran. I don't know what your English was like before, but this is a period drama, so your pronunciation needs to match the plot as closely as possible. Therefore, it would be best to find a teacher to study properly, preferably an experienced teacher rather than a current academic."

Xiao Mu was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then she realized that there really was such a scene in the plot. She couldn't help but feel a little scared. If Zhao Shucheng hadn't reminded her, wouldn't she have really been exposed?

You know, she doesn't know a thing about English. If she suddenly has to perform, she can't just blurt out words one by one, or even not be able to speak at all, right? Yao Menggui, on the other hand, was admitted to university through proper channels, and even went abroad to participate in a fashion show, where she spoke fluent English the whole time.

"Okay, director, I will try my best."

"You don't need to try so hard. What you're going to do is feel it, you know?"

Xiao Mu looked at Zhao Shucheng, paused for a moment, and asked, "Um, Director, what kind of feeling are you referring to?"

Zhao Shucheng said, "It's hard to say, but my opinion is that although Li Rongjing was very eager to learn, English was unfamiliar to most people in that era, and even their accents weren't very standard. So, if she wanted to learn well, without a recording device, she must have used rudimentary methods, like memorizing Chinese pinyin. But when she read aloud, she still had to adopt a certain..."

Xiao Mu nodded after hearing this and said, "Director, I understand. I will try my best."

Seeing Xiao Mu's expression, Zhao Shucheng nodded, thinking there shouldn't be any problems, and let her leave while he continued filming the other people's scenes.

But when Zhao Shucheng saw the performance of Li Jin, the third female lead, he couldn't help but frown. This was the downside of actors who brought their own funding to the production. Even if they had a lot of complaints, he couldn't replace them. He could only reshoot the scenes again and again to let her gradually get used to the rhythm.

The crew members could naturally see that Zhao Shucheng was very dissatisfied with Li Jin, but as the saying goes, "He who takes a man's money is bound to do his bidding," and since Li Jin had brought food and milk tea for everyone on the crew before, they couldn't say anything and could only silently cooperate with the work.

the next day.

The production crew needed to film a scene where the female lead recites an English poem. Xiao Mu, thanks to Zhao Shucheng's reminder, memorized English words overnight. However, since she had no prior knowledge of English, her recitation was delivered with a somewhat rustic accent.

Zhao Shucheng nodded repeatedly, feeling that Xiao Mu had met his requirements and had not delayed the filming of the production crew.

"Great, this is exactly the effect I wanted, especially the corny English, it's the perfect finishing touch."

Xiao Mu looked at Zhao Shucheng somewhat embarrassed and said, "I have to thank the director for his guidance yesterday; otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to speak such English."

"It's because you worked hard enough. If it were an ordinary person, even if they were told what to do, they wouldn't be able to act so realistically. But you can't be complacent. You have to keep working hard. The upcoming acting will really test an actor's expressiveness."

"Okay, director, I will do my best."

Just then, someone said, "Sister Min came to visit the set and brought milk tea for everyone!"

The others were curious when they heard this, since the name "Sister Xiao Min" was unfamiliar to them, not to mention that the crew members were not familiar with her and did not know who she was visiting.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Shucheng looked into the distance and, sure enough, it was Mo Xiaomin.

"Xiao Min!"

Upon seeing Zhao Shucheng, Mo Xiaomin's face immediately lit up with a smile. She excitedly ran straight to Zhao Shucheng and exclaimed, "Xiaobai!"

Zhao Shucheng asked, "Why did you suddenly decide to visit me on set?"

"You said you haven't been home for days while you've been filming on set? If you don't go home, I have no choice but to come to the set to see you."

"Really, you just miss me?"

Mo Xiaomin smiled and said, "It's not just that. My filming recently wrapped up, and I don't have much other work, so my agent told me that if I want to gain popularity, I need to seize opportunities myself. That's why I came to you."

After saying that, Mo Xiaomin looked at Zhao Shucheng nervously and asked, "Xiaobai, you're not upset, are you?"

Zhao Shucheng said, "How could that be? I'm overjoyed you're coming. But your agent actually agreed to your visit to the set?"

"How could I refuse? Your production team is so popular right now, and we've even worked together before, so it's not surprising that I'm here to see you."

Mo Xiaomin looked at the crew as she spoke and said, "But speaking of which, Xiaobai, your crew is really full of talent. There's Song Ci, Yao Menggui, child star Tian Sisi, Miss Li Jin, and many veteran actors. It's much better than the previous crews."

Zhao Shucheng said with a smile, "It's true that we have a lot of talented people, but it's also true that there's a lot of trouble. You've probably seen the recent news, right?"

Mo Xiaomin chuckled and said, "Who can you blame? You had to become the director, so you have to bear the consequences yourself."

"I'm not going to waste my breath on you. I still have to film. Either you stay here with me and see how filming is done, or I can have my assistant take you back to your hotel."

"Fine, I'll stay with you!"

Xiao Mu and the rest of the crew watched Zhao Shucheng with curiosity. After all, female celebrities and directors were a perennial topic in the entertainment industry. However, the fact that Mo Xiaomin was with Zhao Shucheng was still somewhat unexpected.

Of course, they had no intention of getting to know Mo Xiaomin better. After all, most of the actors in the crew were from academies, while Mo Xiaomin had entered the entertainment industry through advertising and was not from their circle.

Of course, if they went to other film crews, since they were all from Shanghai, they would still need to look out for each other, so they exchanged contact information.

As Mo Xiaomin watched Zhao Shucheng filming, he was scolding the staff and actors one by one. Thinking back to the time when Zhao Shucheng reprimanded her during filming, she felt that he had been lenient with her back then.

"Xiaobai, why are you getting more and more irritable?"

Zhao Shucheng sighed and said, "I have to be irritable. Look at these people. Even if you talk to them nicely, they won't listen. Some of them even have their own ideas, but I don't like their own ideas because this is my crew, and everything should be done according to my requirements."

"You must be working too hard."

"Of course it's tough. If I had known, I would have signed a new contract with the company for a film rather than being dragged into this mess. I used to build my own crew, and we worked together seamlessly and were able to give each other orders. Now I have to keep adjusting and working things out. It's a complete waste of my life."

"Oh, it'll only happen this once. Besides, it's not all bad. Your crew is getting so much attention, and you're quite well-known now. It'll be easier for you to form your own crew in the future, won't it?"

Zhao Shucheng nodded and said, "If it weren't for these benefits, do you think I would have come?" (End of Chapter)