With the director's "Action!"
Suddenly, Eileen, who had been very casual, became serious and began interacting with Bartley.
Five minutes later, Lenwood called the first "Cut".
All the staff on the scene instantly turned their attention to the pair. After a while, Lenwood said in a somewhat heavy tone, "Bartley, come over here."
Bartley got off the stage with an ugly expression on his face. Lenwood pointed at the image on the monitor, patiently explained to him, and Bartley quickly understood his poor performance, he nodded humbly and accepted the advice.
After a while, Lenwood picked up a megaphone and said, "Alright, let's do it again." Then he said to Eileen, "Eileen, you were in the right state just now. Please try to maintain it. If you can't, it's okay to make some mistakes. We can edit your performance.”
Eileen nodded, understanding the roughness of such low-cost web drama production, which also had lower requirements for actors.
Then they started the second take, but the result was still unsatisfactory, and Bartley was the one who made the mistake again.
Bartley was diligent, hardworking, and tried his best. But as a newcomer, his lack of experience caused him to be easily nervous in front of the camera, creating many problems.
Due to Bartley's mistakes, this shot had to be cut six times. Lenwood didn't expect that such a simple scene between the male and female leads would be delayed for so long. After the seventh take was finally successful, Lenwood himself breathed a sigh of relief.
He was reviewing the previous video when he suddenly felt something was off. Upon closer comparison, he realized that Eileen had maintained the highest standards throughout the previous six takes. This surprised Lenwood. Both were newcomers, but while Bartley disrupted the shooting several times, Eileen displayed such strong stability and emotional control.
However, this was just a simple scene between the male and female leads, so being stable wasn't considered difficult.
"Alright, next scene." Lenwood said.
The next scene was in the same setting, but with Eileen performing with a middle-aged actor.
Finally, the first scene ended, and Bartley came down from the stage looking pale. He was good-looking and had been interacting with the crew and staff for the past two days. A few of the assistants liked him and seeing his despondent state, two of the makeup artists quickly rushed over with drinks to comfort him.
Bartley smiled bitterly, "Sorry for holding everyone back."
One of the makeup artists quickly reassured him, "Not at all, Bartley. You're doing great. It's normal to struggle when it's your first time acting."
Bartley shook his head, "Eileen is also new to acting, but her performance was good."
The two makeup artists fell silent. They had initially thought that Eileen would be the one causing issues due to her seeming lack of focus, but her performance turned out to be consistent and professional. Bartley, despite his hard work, was the one who kept making mistakes, possibly due to nerves.
"Good, cut." The director's voice rang out again.
The makeup artists found an excuse to comfort him, "See, Eileen messed up too."
"Let's use that." As soon as Lenwood confirmed the take, the atmosphere among the three became tense.
The woman was about to be driven mad by Eileen's stare. When she saw Lenwood approaching, she quickly said, "Here comes the director. Ask him yourself!"
Eileen turned to Lenwood, excitedly asking, "Lenwood! Can I eat now? Can I?"
Lenwood looked at her, then said to the woman, "Give her a box. Let her eat first."
The woman handed Eileen a lunchbox.
Eileen immediately said, "I don't want this one. I want that one!" She pointed to another lunchbox.
"Eh? Aren't all these meals the same?" Lenwood asked, frowning.
Eileen scoffed, "How can they be the same? The meat in that one is a fifth more than this one. A whole fifth!"
Lenwood didn't know what to say. In his mind, he thought, “She sure has an eye for detail, why didn't I see her being this thorough when reading the script?'
All Lenwood could do was wave his hand and instruct, "Give her that one."
Eileen, getting the bento with more meat as she wished, sat on a small stool, ready to answer Lenwood's questions.
"Emotional outburst?" Eileen, satisfied after gulping down a big piece of meat, looked up and said, "Yes, I intentionally toned it down, because I saw the other party almost couldn't handle my emotions. I was afraid of messing up the scene, so I pulled back."
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Defying Fate: The Unstoppable Eileen