HuaYu97: Starting as a Singer

Chapter 153 [153] Du Qifeng: Holy crap, this young man, I'd even dare to dream of winning a Golden Horse Award.
The opening ceremony for "The Mission" was very simple.

The crew brought over a chicken, and director Du Qifeng led everyone in a prayer ceremony and burning incense, and that was the end of it.

The ritual of offering prayers at the start of filming was brought to the mainland by Hong Kong film crews when they went north.

As the lead actor, Qi Yuan followed closely behind Du Qifeng, held the incense sticks, bowed three times, and then inserted the incense sticks into the incense burner.

While Du Qifeng was discussing the plot with the screenwriter.

Qi Yuan got to know the other main actors.

Everyone treated Qi Yuan with great courtesy, after all, Qi Yuan was a big shot.

Last year, Qi Yuan was the best-selling artist in Hong Kong, even surpassing the strong newcomer Xie Tingfeng and Zhang Xueyou.

Qi Yuan is already a household name in Hong Kong.

"Brother Dahua."

Simon Yam smiled and nodded. He had a cold and aloof appearance, really like a gangster boss, but in reality, he was a humble and polite person, and quite low-key.

"Brother Cod".

"I wish you well, Brother."

When Lin Xue shook hands with Qi Yuan, he used both hands. He wasn't as fat as he would have been later. He was quite humorous and swore all the time.

"Brother Song Xian".

"Brother Yuan."

Qi Yuan was quite interested in Lu Songxian and wanted to learn from him.

Lu Songxian's portrayal of Linghu Chong is widely recognized as the best performance.

After the conversation, Qi Yuan felt a little regretful. He realized that Lu Songxian was able to play Linghu Chong well because his own personality was similar to Linghu Chong's, which could be understood as a natural performance.

"Brother Crow".

When Qi Yuan first arrived at the film crew, the first person to talk to her was Zhang Yaoyang, the Crow of Tung Sing.

Despite his domineering and ruthless character in the movie, the real-life Crow is a humorous and talkative guy.

So Qi Yuan directly calls him Brother Crow, while he addresses Qi Yuan as 'Brother Yuan'.

The other lead actor, Huang Qiusheng, was also very polite to Qi Yuan.

No one would bother offending a popular person whose career is at its peak, at least not on the surface.

Qi Yuan had a so-so impression of Huang Qiusheng; she only gave him a brief greeting, and then they didn't have any further interaction.

“Brother Yuan, the character you’re playing, A Lai, is someone who’s been on the streets for many years. You’ve never handled a gun before, so I’ll teach you how to hold a gun and what shooting motions should look like.”

Brother Crow was very enthusiastic and personally demonstrated to Qi Yuan how an experienced hoodlum would handle a gun.

Qi Yuan benefited greatly from the training and learned a lot from Brother Crow.

Although the crew of "Gunfire" was poor, Du Qifeng paid great attention to details.

Crow's Amai is the best shot among the five gunmen; his shooting posture and gun-holding movements are the most standard.

Next are Ah Lai and Ah Gui (Huang Qiusheng), and at the very end are Ah Fei (Lin Xue) and Ah Xin (Lu Songxian).

In the storyline, Ashin is Ah Lai's underling. He's new to the workforce and the least professional of the five.

Such attention to detail extends to every aspect.

The first scene.

The five gunmen meet for the first time.

Du Qifeng asked everyone to memorize the lines on the spot.

The script was written just ten minutes ago, and it's already this ridiculous!
Fortunately, the film has relatively few lines. Du Qifeng's original words were that the dialogue should be as few as possible, and the story should be told through visuals so that foreigners who do not understand Chinese can also understand the film.

Scene: Conference room.

The first scene has officially begun filming.

Ah Fei arrived first. He was eating peanuts with his legs crossed, making a mess of the table.

Then Ashin appeared, led by his female secretary. This female secretary was played by Li Xue in a cameo role. The production team was on a tight budget, and Du Qifeng noticed that Qi Yuan had a beautiful female assistant, so he had someone change clothes and fill in for her.

Ashin respectfully introduced himself to Fatty: "I'm with Brother Lai."

Fatty across from him didn't even glance at Ashin.

When Ah Gui appeared, Ah Fei's attitude immediately changed, and he stood up to greet him.

“I’m with Brother Lai.”

Ashin once again introduced himself to Ghost with utmost respect, but Ghost ignored him again.

After Ah Lai entered, he sat next to Ah Xin.

The last person to appear in the frame was Ah Mai, who was sitting at the very top. Because he wasn't familiar with either group of people, he offered Ah Lai and Ah Gui cigarettes, but they politely declined.

This scene, which lasts only a few dozen seconds in the main film and has very few lines of dialogue, clearly conveys the relationship between the five people when they first meet through the visuals.

Du Qifeng is a skilled director.

"Yuanzai, you acted quite well," Du Qifeng praised.

Of all the actors, he was most worried about Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan is a professionally trained actor, but he has never acted before. It will be a big challenge for him to start making movies right away.

Every second in a movie is precious. Actors need to get into character in a short time, and details such as micro-expressions and changes in eyes are very important.

If the acting is not good enough, the character will seem flat.

Qi Yuan's first scene was handled quite well, far exceeding Du Qifeng's expectations.

Ah Lai has a distinct personality. He is arrogant, impulsive, easily angered, loyal, and at the same time very meticulous. He is the most insightful of the five.

When Qi Yuan, who plays A Lai, appears on screen, his eyes are sharp and his expression is fierce, perfectly capturing the feeling that Du Qifeng wanted.

Du Qifeng also noticed that Qi Yuan had a strong sense of camera presence.

Qi Yuan seemed to know the position and direction of the camera, and always managed to keep himself in the best position in the center of the shot.

A natural-born actor! That's what you call talent!

Du Qifeng asked in surprise, "Is the teaching quality at Beijing Film Academy really that high?"

Qi Yuan debuted after studying for just over a year, and she has such a strong sense of camera presence and her acting skills are also quite good.

If you finish four years of study, wouldn't you easily win the Best Actor award?
Qi Yuan glanced at his masterful acting skills and 'ultimate visuals' and smiled without saying a word.

Having acquired the ultimate visual experience, he has gained a very deep understanding of film visuals, composition, aesthetics, and artistic conception.

He understands how a particular scene is filmed and how the camera moves, which is why he has such a strong sense of camera presence.

All I can say is that the characteristics revealed by Brother Kai are simply awesome.

Hong Kong actors such as Lu Songxian and Brother Crow were equally stunned by Qi Yuan's performance.

Originally, everyone thought that Qi Yuan was the worst among them. Du Qifeng secretly gave them a heads-up, telling them to try to get it right in one take and leave all the NG opportunities for Qi Yuan.

To everyone's surprise, Qi Yuan did not hold back and performed very well.

Du Qifeng was slapped in the face.

He recalled his last trip to Thailand and the White Dragon King's evaluation of Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan's fortunes are on the rise, and using Qi Yuan as the protagonist will help his career.

It really came true.

Du Qifeng was quite excited.

He made the right decision to ask Qi to make this movie.

Qi Yuan has already surprised him since filming just started, and there might be even bigger surprises to come.

With Qi Yuan's popularity so high, the movie might actually be a box office hit after its release.

If Qi Yuan can maintain his previous level of performance, he dares to dream of winning the Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Awards next year.

(End of this chapter)