Chapter 7 – Brothers On Screen Together

Fang Hua, who was at present Rong SiQi’s manager, was one of Total Entertainment’s most powerful managers.

She can be considered an elder of Total Entertainment. When Total Entertainment was founded, she was one of the first people they had dug over. Other than her there were two other famous and resource-filled managers: Qi Ming and Li HuangDe. It was them that helped Total Entertainment expand and lay down its roots. Right now Fang Hua had also been promoted to Total Entertainment’s vice president, and was considered a small boss under big boss Qiu.

In his past life Bai Lang never had this kind of opportunity in the beginning to get close with this kind of high-ranking company employee. When doing his contractual activities, he was simply given the next manager in line.

It wasn’t until the incident with the yacht filming that Bai Lang had the chance to encounter Fang Hua. After all that yacht really belonged to the Qiu family’s businesses. That day it was Qiu Qian’s birthday party. Seeing that he still owed Qiu Qian so much money, Bai Lang had consented to attend. In the events that followed after, during the crucial time, Fang Hua actually didn’t help him much. However Bai Lang had come to know her during this time.

She had her customary efficient short hair and pantsuit. Her features were very handsome. Perhaps because of this reason, Fang Hua always liked to wear very red lipstick. In her earlobes shone shiny earrings. It was impossible to mistake her for anyone else.

She appeared together with Hong Hong by Bai Lang’s side. Fang Hua saw Bai Lang turn around and made a generous greeting. “Mr Bai, nice to meet you for the first time. My name is Fang Hua.” After speaking she reached out her hand and shook hands with Bai Lang.

Bai Lang was also very polite. “Vice president, I’ve admired you for a long time. Thank you for taking care of me this time.”

“Just call me Sister Fang.” Fang Hua smiled. “Also I don’t dare be called “taking care of you”. I was just wondering how come I saw Er Hong, turns out he is your assistant now, scared me to death. With his care, you definitely won’t need me ah.”

These series of words expressed to him a lot of things but at the same time didn’t say anything.

The person who thought too much would definitely find it ugly to hear, but the person who didn’t think much would only hear the words on the surface.

Thus Bai Lang remained calm. He only smiled and replied, “It’s all thanks to Brother Qiu’s care. Brother Hong’s help is my good luck.” Since Hong Hong and Fang Hua were acquainted, there was no point hiding anything from her.

Fang Hua’s eyes flashed with surprise but it quickly passed. “It seems like all the new people in the company have such bright futures. Mr Bai’s drama is becoming more and more popular. As the vice president, I feel as though I can retire early to enjoy my life.”

“Sister Fang is too polite. Mr Rong is the one who is the most talented.” Bai Lang replied.

At the same time, the photographer on the set cried out loudly. “Not good!! Once again!!!”

The sweater in one set of clothing had been designated a fifteen minute shoot, but Rong SiQi had already used up forty minutes.

A helpless expression floated onto Fang Hua’s face. “Do you really mean that, or are you only trying to comfort me?”

***

Bai Lang waited until people’s notice had been transferred to the photographer.

At this time Rong SiQi’s expression was slightly pale. On his forehead there was some sweat. Underneath the strong lights, the set was really somewhat hot. Seeing the dried sweat on his hairline, the dissatisfied photographer asked people to come and fix Rong SiQi’s make up.

Once Rong SiQi stepped off the set, his originally frozen expression indeed showed some obvious frustration. His lips were pressed together tightly in an annoyed line. Thus Fang Hua said goodbye to them and hurried over to help him adjust his emotions.

In order to save time, at this time they switched to Bai Lang to film. At this time the photographer’s was sighing and his face was filled with impatience.

The him of ten years ago probably would have felt some emotional pressure but the Bai Lang of right now had some confidence.

In his previous life, Bai Lang only had one movie role which was “Sunset”, the rest were all TV roles. The reason for this was mostly because of Bai Lang’s bad fortune, but the other reason was because Bai Lang had been enlightened very late. As for the reason that Bai Lang had finally been able to break through and progress his acting ability from TV standard to a new level, was because of the MV he had filmed just prior to his role in “Sunset”.

Bai Lang had learned a lot from the old director Zhu Kuan of that MV. From on screen presence to how to utilise light and shadows, Zhu Kuan had pretty much re-taught Bai Lang everything from the beginning once again. The reason was because he said he had never met anyone as unlucky as Bai Lang. Most people if they weren’t going to be famous never got famous; someone like Bai Lang who got famous twice but was then dragged down again, was really among the few that was extremely misfortunate.

And Zhu Kuan was always reminding Bai Lang that good actors were able to immerse themselves in their roles, however after immersing then you would have many brimming emotions that you wanted to express, however if you couldn’t let convey it to your audience, then it was just wasted.

Other than emotions, the ability to show and express was the most important part of an actor’s ability.

Of course there was another school of thought, and that was that when an actor was truly immersed then his every action and movement would permeate with the requisite qualities of the role. Zhu Kuan also agreed with this but he told Bai Lang to wait until he had been acting until he was 60 years old to use this technique.

So Zhu Kuan told Bai Lang he needed to discipline himself. He needed to turn off the movie sound and subtitles and look purely at the actor’s expressions and movements. He had to watch how they expressed themselves and used their facial and body language to show what they wanted. This was completely like returning to a very old school form of acting, when he first started doing this Bai Lang pretty much fell asleep every time.

However if he watched it once and didn’t understand then he could watch it twice, three times. Once he watched it more then without the interruption of the plot and sound, Bai Lang really came to experience it. The pictures that Zhu Kuan picked for him were all classics from a past age, every movement of the actors head and every blink of an eye had its own meaning. The more Bai Lang looked, the more he understood how to suitably express things.

And when Bai Lang finally understood things to this level, Zhu Kuan then sent him to get familiar with himself. Just like learning to dance, seeing someone else doing it may appear easy and understandable but when doing it oneself it was a completely different matter. One’s movements in the beginning would be ugly and unable to be looked at, however one could only practice repeatedly.

Acting in a movie was also this way. Some people looked as though they simply threw their hands to one side in a cool manner, and raised their eyebrows carelessly. However Zhu Kuan wanted Bai Lang to practice all these things. And not only in his mind, but in real life to show the effect on different mediums and angles. This was similar to many famous actors who taped their performances so they could carefully review it over and over again. In Zhu Kuan’s opinion all grand and moving performances came from the actor’s own self reflection.

The fortunate thing was, Zhu Kuan really felt that Bai Lang had natural talent in terms of acting. So in his early days even though his knowledge and ability was shallow, when doing those kind of easy-to-please roles, his natural talent was able to ameliorate his defects. However if hard work and discipline was added on top of that natural talent, then Bai Lang’s performance would be even more dazzling.

As for the reborn Bai Lang, he didn’t forget these things. How he was before he died, was how Bai Lang was now.

The difference was that in this life, he had more time to experience more opportunities.

Zhu Kuan had given Bai Lang his enlightenment and really opened Bai Lang’s eyes as to what the art of acting was.

Right now he was supposed to be a sunny and open young person? Bai Lang sat down on the only prop which was a chair, and sat astride while hugging the back of the chair…

The sound of [ka-cha-ka-cha] quickly filled the room.

After spending only ten minutes, Bai Lang had successfully completed the shoot for the first set of clothes.

After it was finished, the Fang Hua who had come to the side to watch, unexpectedly gave a compliment. Your performance was not bad.

However the easy atmosphere of the set quickly changed when Rong SiQi’s second, then third attempt became very charged. The photographer yelled god knows how many times, and his face fell so heavily that UNI’s team leader ran to discuss things with Fang Hua. Bai Lang also followed them.

Bai Lang knew that it wasn’t appropriate for him to open his mouth in this situation but if he was able to help Rong SiQi then perhaps Fang Hua would stand on his side. Anyway if it didn’t work out and even he got replaced, then there was still Qiu Qian’s promise of “if it falls through, then I’ll just find you a bigger endorsement”, wasn’t there?

So after Bai Lang silently listened to a bout of discussion, he finally opened his mouth.

“How about I switch roles with Mr Rong?”

Bai Lang waited until there was a pause in the discussion to interject this sentence.

Fang Hua glanced at him in an unexpected manner. As for UNI’s team leader, she was a woman called Lin Qin.

Lin Qin looked at him in an impatient manner. “What did you say!? It’s not a simple matter of changing the clothes, there is a lot of behind the scenes planning and design! There’s a lot of things at stake, how can you say change and just change!”

Bai Lang maintained his gentle tone of voice. “I know it is a big production however if after the change the effect is better, trying it is easier than changing the model. Also, the fact that the company asked me to film with Mr Rong, there must have been other considerations and agreements. If you just simply change him out, what about the initial agreement?”

Lin Qin heard this and felt unhappy. She laughed coldly. “It seems like Mr Bai has a very high opinion of himself. Since it’s like this, then why don’t you tell me, just how we should change things!?”

Bai Lang completely ignored Lin Qin’s animosity. He smiled and said, “Let Mr Rong try on my outfit. Although he might not look as sunny, however he can definitely demonstrate the youthful aspect without any problem. Mr Rong is serious when it comes to music and his hard work won’t lose to anyone. This kind of hard work when combined with his age and his pure-hearted dedication, it’s not unfitting for the image.”

At this point Fang Hua seemed to gain some interest. She asked, “Then what about your part?”

“The fact that I was called here is because the company looked well upon my image in “Partners”.” Bai Lang gave Fang Hua a grateful glance. He continued to say, “So in contrast I can portray someone who is stylish and has urban elegance, but at the same time is working hard. Although the outside may appear bright but it is because of one’s own hard work. This isn’t in opposition and will more display a down-to-earth realistic image.”

Fang Hua frowned.

After speaking this much Bai Lang paused slightly. “In terms of the the concept, I can be Mr Rong’s older brother. An older brother is like a father, this can connect to my image in “Partners”. It will make the images more emotional. Right now in the clips we’ve shot, there haven’t been any with us together. This seems a little bit too simple. If we change the setting then the clip will have more of a story and can allow two brothers to be placed together…”

An experienced actor needed to know more than a little about directing. Right now Bai Lang could see in his mind’s eye how the images would look as well as how to adjust them.

After Bai Lang finished speaking, even Lin Qin’s face changed a lot.

After all the last sentence he had spoken really spoke to the crux of the matter they had just been discussing.

Right now the process of the shoot was like this: first they would select the people, then consider their performance. This was the normal process of things. With this in mind, the concept people reached a difficulty. Although both Rong SiQi and Bai Lang both had their good points when it came to shoot, however they were unable to find a story with which to connect them together.

Because Bai Lang looked taller than Rong SiQi. A simply dressed sunny youth standing next to a shorter, elegant city man…. No matter what, this image seemed strange. Thus because of this, the images were shot separately and they didn’t have any scenes were they put these two people together. However if they followed Bai Lang’s recommendations then this difficulty could be overcome.

However, it was not as though in the beginning they had never considered something like what Bai Lang was proposing. These two people exchanged glances.

According to the news that they’d gathered, Rong SiQi’s circumstances was something they had rarely encountered {T/N: As in his lack of facial expression…}. But seeing as it was a newly rising young star, they thought they could overcome it. As for Bai Lang, according to the reports he was a newcomer who was not very good at getting into his role. Thus they could only give him a role which was not too different from his actual personality. They felt that Bai Lang’s experience was too far away from urban elegance. Right now if one of them was lacking, then at least the other was okay. However if they switched, what if both couldn’t be used and then their problems would become even larger?

However according to Bai Lang’s words just now, he didn’t seem as though he matched the reports about him. Li Qin quickly adjusted her emotions and said decisively, “Okay. Let’s try it the way you proposed. But the premise being that you’re able to hold down the new role. Otherwise I’ll definitely change you out!”

Bai Lang smiled. “If you don’t try how will you know?”

***

At the end of the day, the most successful photograph was that of Bai Lang and Rong SiQi together.

In the photograph, Bai Lang was wearing a dark purple sweater. He was lying lazily on the couch. He had just thrown aside a suit jacket which was casually draped on the back of the chair. It was clear he had just finished work. On the floor beside the couch, there sat the frowning Rong SiQi. He was wearing a cream coloured sweater and jeans. His legs were crossed and he stared fixedly at the assorted musical instruments strewn around the floor.

Bai Lang was the older brother. He looked slightly helplessly at his younger brother. He was reaching out to straighten a few strands of Rong SiQi’s shiny hair, as though trying to remind his younger brother to talk to him. The image was filled with warmth and tenderness, and immediately made ones heart feel warm.

As  for the real circumstances of the shoot it was not much different.

When the days work was wrapped up, it was not only the crew that had become more intimate with Bai Lang, even Fang Hua brought Rong SiQi to come to thank him. Not only because of Bai Lang’s changing of the concept, but in the following shoot, Bai Lang was like a senior and helped Rong SiQi with many things.

Even though Rong SiQi had a cold personality, however he let down his guard slightly and said sincerely, “Brother Lang, thank you.”

Bai Lang lightly and jokingly rubbed Rong SiQi’s head. “Today I took advantage of you, and you still want to thank me.” {T/N: Referring to the fact that he got to pat RSQ’s head.}

Rong SiQi didn’t duck away. Instead he gave a genuine smile. “In the future you’ll still be my Brother Lang.”

Bai Lang stilled. He thought about the brilliant Rong SiQi of the future. At that time they had no relationship.

Bai Lang suddenly thought that his previous thinking had been too narrow-minded.

A new life. A new friendship. So many opportunities to treasure. Why should he be shackled down by the past?