CSGM - Chapter 126
Chapter 126: The Crew's Savior
Xiao Mei scratched her head again, even more confused.
Who did Sister Zhi need to learn from here?
The extras were a pass. Teacher Zhuang Yuge was just average. Although Sister Xi's acting was also very good, in her heart, she couldn't compare to Sister Zhi... She must be observing Teacher Wen Huixiang's performance style to learn.
After all, as the saying goes, one should draw on the strengths of many and be open to all influences.
Xiao Mei secretly admired Sister Zhi in her heart.
"Cut!"
The take was over, and the director shouted.
All the actors instantly stopped performing and looked toward the director sitting in front of the monitor, waiting for his feedback. But the director just frowned, his jaw tight, and said nothing.
At times like this, whether it was an NG or time for the next take, everyone had to wait for the director's word.
It was also common for the director to feel an actor's performance in the take was lacking and order them to do it again with some guidance.
But the director was hesitating now, staring at the playback, seemingly lost in thought.
With the head director silent, the crew's next steps were on hold. Several high-ranking staff members went over to ask what was wrong. Seeing where they were looking, Ren Zhi also got up and went over to understand the situation.
The director frowned as he watched the playback several times, feeling that something was off.
He looked at the set again, at the interior decor of the brothel, and still felt it wasn't right. Not right at all.
He discussed it with Ren Zhi and the assistant director: "Do you think there's something wrong with the scene?"
After filming and watching the take repeatedly, he always felt like something was missing.
Ren Zhi took a look and did find that the mood was a bit off.
She pondered in a low voice, "What's the time period for this scene? Does the background have any specific requirements..."
Her words suddenly sparked an idea in the director's mind, like a sudden enlightenment!
"Right, right! The timing of this scene is right after the Spring Festival. The atmosphere connects too abruptly with the scenes before and after it!"
The two scenes before and after this one, both exterior shots, had a Spring Festival atmosphere.
As a result, the sudden disappearance of the festive mood in this interior brothel scene felt jarring.
A meticulously crafted script shouldn't be like this.
The director finally realized it. The set manager and the props team were subsequently called out for their mistake and received a couple of criticisms.
Now, they had to add a Spring Festival atmosphere to the set, which made things feel a bit rushed.
With a look of frustration and some anger, the director said:
"This scene must be filmed properly today! We can't delay for a single day! The day after tomorrow, this set has to be turned over to the next production! Hurry up and look outside, see if you can pick up any decorations others have finished with to make do! Props team, figure something out immediately!"
The entire crew immediately got busy arranging the scene.
Although many shops on the streets outside had just finished celebrating the New Year and had plenty of festive decorations left over, very few were suitable for an ancient brothel setting.
The props team bought some peachwood charms, lanterns, and colorful silks. After hanging them up, there was a faint hint of a festive atmosphere.
Strictly speaking, the interior of the brothel still needed the most important decoration: paper-cuttings.
Unfortunately, the props team had scoured all the online and offline shops near Film City as fast as they could. They only found modern-style window decals; no one was selling antique-style paper-cuttings!
To buy something that only old artisans were willing to make, one always needed a bit of luck.
Ren Zhi suggested to the director's team, "Why don't we ask if anyone on set knows how to make paper-cuttings? We have a lot of people, so if we can do it ourselves, it should be quick."
She was thinking that on any given film set, you could probably find at least thirty people from different professional backgrounds-the crew was just that much of a hodgepodge. If there was really someone who had learned paper-cutting, the problem would be solved.
As soon as she finished speaking, a figure in white came running over, their costume swishing.
Looking up, they saw Chu Xi had already reached them, volunteering herself in her snow-white costume.
"I can."
Chu Xi had sharp ears; she could hear conversations others couldn't.
Wasn't it just paper-cutting?
She simulated it in her mind. It was just a symmetrical pattern. Fold it, cut it this way and that, then unfold it, and it's done.
The assistant director looked at her skeptically. "You can...? You've learned this before?"
Isn't this an old craft? Chu Xi learned it too? How skilled could she be?
"I can. Go buy the materials. I'll have learned it in a moment."
Learned it... in a moment?
At first, no one understood what she meant until Chu Xi took the phone Jin Yuan handed her, searched for "ancient paper-cutting patterns" online, looked at them for a moment, then turned back to them and said, "I've got it."
Only then did they realize-she was going to learn on the spot and put it to use immediately?
Even the director's mouth twitched.
"This..."
Isn't this a bit too ridiculous?
Chu Xi noticed the hesitation on his face and said with disdain:
"Aren't we in a hurry? Go buy them. Do you know nothing about me?"
"Ahem, cough..."
Ren Zhi coughed lightly and touched her finger to her lips.
Chu Xi held back and rephrased her words:
"Just buy the raw materials, Director. I'm very capable. I can learn it with just one look."
Unfortunately, there was no other solution for the time being, so the director had no choice but to send someone to buy the materials first.
It was a last-ditch effort. They might as well give it a try.
Besides, there were a lot of people on set, and everyone had just expressed their willingness to help out.
He knew Chu Xi had a high IQ, but paper-cutting was different; it was a craft.
Could something that relied on craftsmanship and practical skill be compared to the techniques used for solving problems in one's head?
Just as a math genius might not know how to embroider, and a Go master might not understand lockpicking, craftsmanship and brainpower were two different things.
But soon, as the paper-cutting materials were on their way, the director's heart settled by half.
A sound technician from the post-production team, in his forties, volunteered himself, stating that he had attended a vocational school and studied the craft of paper-cutting. Although many years had passed since graduation, he still remembered some of what he had learned.
The director invited the sound technician to his side, asking him to share his professional insights.
The sound technician recalled his long-ago lessons and said, "I did learn about ancient paper-cutting techniques back then. They mainly involved cutting dragons, phoenixes, figures, ghosts, and gods, which is much more difficult than modern paper-cutting."
As he spoke, a troubled expression appeared on his face. "If you want to replicate the antique style of paper-cutting, Director, it might be quite difficult. Whether it's the characters or the background patterns, ancient paper-cuttings are different from our modern style. The patterns are much more complex."
This was one of the reasons why it was impossible to buy antique-style paper-cuttings in ordinary shops.
The director's team unanimously agreed that they had to be rigorous with this drama. Whatever style of paper-cutting was appropriate, that's what they would use. The tone of a drama could not be broken.
To be honest, they were hoping to win an award for this drama this year.
Every single detail had to be perfect.
The director's expression was now even more polite as he looked at the sound technician. "Besides the different patterns, is there anything else we need to pay attention to?"
The sound technician thought for a moment. "We can use red paper for the material, but the ones pasted on windows are called window flowers, while the ones hung on door lintels and beams are called door hangings. Door hangings are more difficult than window flowers because window flowers can also feature patterns of flowers and plants, but for door hangings, the ancients would typically carve dragon and phoenix motifs."
The director and many other members of the directing team listened intently as the sound technician explained. Chu Xi, propping her chin on her hand in an inconspicuous spot in the back, listened half-heartedly.
At the same time, she flipped through images of ancient paper-cuttings. Some of the cuttings featuring dragons, phoenixes, and immortal figures looked to have several times more lines than the modern "Fu" character window flowers.
But no matter how things change, the essence remains the same. Weren't all paper-cutting methods basically the same?
In essence, they were all pictures composed of lines.
It was just a matter of folding first, then imagining the positive and negative lines. As long as you constructed the perspective of the unfolded image on the folded plane in advance and cut along the lines you envisioned, you would get the target pattern when you unfolded it.
Since she was being left to the side anyway, she might as well use this time to look at a few patterns.
Hearing the sound technician's articulate and professional explanation, the director's team began to look at him as if he were their savior.
The director looked around the two-story brothel interior set-at the doors and windows of each corridor, the pillars, and the carved railings between the floors-and estimated they would need about sixty paper-cuttings in total.
After hearing this, the sound technician thought for a moment and said, "Then everyone will have to work together. But constructing the paper-cutting patterns is too difficult for those who haven't learned. How about this: I'll draw the patterns, and then, Director, you can find some people to cut along the lines I've drawn. I'll give everyone a quick lesson on how to distinguish and cut the positive and negative lines."
It was unrealistic for everyone to gather around and learn. People's eyesight was limited, and there was only one sound technician to teach.
So the director called over some young assistants to learn. Young people learned quickly. After the first group learned, they could split up and teach the rest of the crew.
Watching the sound technician draw an unrecognizable shape on a piece of paper folded into a triangle and then teach everyone how to distinguish the positive lines that could be cut from the negative lines that couldn't, he demonstrated by cutting it. When the paper was unfolded, a round flower pattern appeared!
Chu Xi glanced at the pattern she had already imagined in her mind, unsurprised.
A four-sided symmetrical pattern was actually very simple, and a single image only had a dozen or so lines. Drawing it was a piece of cake.
If they were only making these, and she was the one drawing, the entire crew could finish in half an hour.
But this was completely inadequate for the standard of door hangings.
When the director's team saw the round flower appear, they were incredibly impressed with the sound technician! A folk master was right here among them; they never expected to have such an artisan on the crew!
"Teacher Lei, we'll be counting on you later. Thank you for your trouble this time. I never knew you had such a skill, Teacher Lei!" The director smiled, shook the sound technician's hand, and expressed his gratitude.
Chu Xi's lips twitched slightly. What kind of skill is this? Isn't this something you can figure out just by thinking about it?
She tugged at the corner of her mouth with a speechless expression. Ren Zhi looked at her and quietly pressed a forefinger to her lips.
Chu Xi nodded and said to her in a voice only she could hear:
"I can do that too."
Ren Zhi nodded, showing that she believed her.
So Chu Xi noted down a pattern of a dragon and phoenix with intertwined necks on her phone, closed her eyes, and began to simulate a virtual piece of paper in her mind.
The lines of the pattern quickly grew on the paper, and she performed the first fold.
After the first fold, she memorized the lines remaining in the rectangle.
She continued with the second, third, fourth... multiple folds, observing what the lines looked like after each fold.
The symmetry of this pattern was not singular. She had to mentally rehearse the appearance of the paper after being folded several times, memorizing the changes in the lines each time.
Finally, she worked backward to confirm it, slowly unfolding from a small triangle to a larger triangle, a square, a rectangle, a large square, a large rectangle... until it returned to the original shape of the paper.
The pattern that emerged on the paper was still the intertwined dragon and phoenix. A total of three hundred and eighty-six lines, all perfectly preserved. There were no errors.
With one pattern memorized, Chu Xi moved on to the next, a pattern of a Pipa-playing lady, imagining and folding it in her mind.
She sat perfectly still, as if she had fallen asleep.
The first batch of assistants who had learned to cut along the lines had already gone to teach more people on the crew.
It didn't matter if they had mastered it or not. It was a last-minute effort. Anyone who could use their hands was pulled in to try. After all, following a pattern wasn't that difficult.
The hardest part of paper-cutting was the design, and thankfully, the sound technician, who had professional experience, had that covered.
The director was still here, peppering the sound technician with questions.
"So what about those patterns of ghosts and gods you mentioned, and the dragons and phoenixes? Are they easy to make? How long would it take?"
The sound technician's expression became a bit strained, and he spoke with more difficulty.
"Those are all very hard. Even when we were learning, we couldn't necessarily make them. Their line designs are the most complex, especially the ancient dragon and phoenix door hangings. The difficulty in making them isn't just the number of lines, but the fact that their symmetry is very mixed. It's not just four-corner and two-sided symmetry; more detailed figures can have five or six-sided symmetrical patterns. This means they can't be made just by drawing a single folded pattern." The sound technician confessed, "It's a huge test of observation and imagination, and it's time-consuming and laborious."
The director asked eagerly, "So in two hours, what are your chances of making them?"
The sound technician looked at the director, this layman, and the muscles at the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.
Two hours... Are you kidding me?
He might not be able to make them even if he secluded himself for two months! The director wanted him to materialize the most difficult door hanging patterns in just two hours? As expected of an unrealistic client!
But the sound technician had his pride to consider. Who would admit they couldn't do it?
He thought for a moment and said, "If we don't aim for fine details and make a cruder version of the door hangings, I'm still about fifty percent confident."
The director patted his arm. "Good, good, then we're counting on you today!"
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