"You're caught in a vicious cycle now, because you care too much about acting skills."
Gao Zhenxia put it succinctly.
"Simply put, you're acting for the sake of acting, not truly embodying the character."
"You care too much about acting skills and the effect of your performance, which makes your performance superficial and fake."
This is actually a common problem for many actors. Some actors may have some talent when they first debut, and they happen to play a role that fits their own image, so their performance is amazing and they receive unanimous praise.
However, once they begin systematic learning, this talent will gradually fade away, especially as they get older and take on roles that are completely different from their original image and personality. This kind of "systematic" exaggerated performance will appear particularly fake, and if they are not careful, they will overdo it and end up with "disorderly expressions" or "stiff performance".
“Your overall temperament and state are already very much in line with the character, so what you should do now is adapt to the character, not adapt to the performance. You should think about how to laugh from the heart, not how to perform a genuine laugh.”
As expected of a professor at a top university, Gao Zhenxia's words were very gentle, yet they struck Xiao He's heart like a heavy hammer, leaving him in a long silence.
Who is Xiao He's acting teacher?
Seeing that Xiao He was deep in thought, Gao Zhenxia did not disturb him, but turned to ask Liu Rulan.
Liu Rulan's face immediately showed embarrassment: "It's Mr. An Chengguang from Shanghai Opera."
“So it was that old guy—” Gao Zhenxia murmured, then shook her head helplessly. “That old man, when he sees a promising talent, he wants to force him to grow faster. He doesn’t even realize that no matter how resilient a person is, he can’t withstand that kind of pressure.”
This almost ruined the perfectly good seedlings.
"I'm sorry, it's partly my fault too. I had vaguely sensed this before and mentioned it to Teacher An in a tactful way, but I didn't expect it to be so serious at the time, so Teacher An probably didn't take it seriously." Liu Rulan said, her heart filled with apology.
She vaguely sensed Xiao He's lack of confidence and anxiety, so she spoke to Teacher An, asking her to praise Xiao He more and ease his tension. But she hadn't expected...
Liu Rulan was filled with remorse.
The main reason was that Xiao He was usually very reliable and his study habits were also very good. Teacher An had also given him positive feedback, so Liu Rulan never expected that Xiao He would have such a problem.
"No, it's actually my own problem." Xiao He also spoke up at this time to explain, "Actually, Teacher An asked me if I wanted to slow down my learning pace, but considering the schedule later, I took the initiative to ask Teacher An to put more pressure on me and teach me more content. I didn't expect that I was too eager to succeed."
Actually, this is no one's fault. Xiao He himself wanted to learn more and catch up with other professionally trained actors, but little did he know that the more anxious he was, the more he regressed.
Haste makes waste; the more he cares about something, the more easily he loses control.
“Actually, Xiao He is very suitable for the experiential learning approach. I have been observing Xiao He’s condition recently, and you have indeed changed a lot. You are now very close to Yin Qi himself. It is no exaggeration to say that you are Yin Qi now.” Gao Zhenxia said again, “So I think what Xiao He should do now is to think about happy things and laugh from the bottom of his heart.”
Simply put, it's a natural performance.
Xiao He had already used psychological suggestion to adjust his temperament and state; he should be Yin Qi now.
Since he is already Yin Qi himself, the smile he performs is a fake smile, while the smile that comes out instinctively is a genuine smile.
Xiao He should just play his "true self" and doesn't need to think about so many complicated issues.
Acting skills, in the end, can return to their essence, which is also a special talent and ability.
Xiao He has already completely merged into the character, so he doesn't need so many acting tricks to confine his role.
So just be yourself.
Xiao He was deeply moved by Gao Zhenxia's words and immediately understood his own problem.
He thanked Gao Zhenxia very sincerely: "I think I understand. Thank you for your guidance, Teacher Gao."
Liu Rulan was also extremely grateful to Gao Zhenxia: "Thank you, Teacher Gao. Thanks to Teacher Gao for pointing out the problem, otherwise we would have been in a dead end."
"It doesn't matter."
Gao Zhenxia waved her hand casually, "Who told me to like Xiao He so much? This kind of highly capable method actor is a rare genius who fits the role perfectly. I'm just trying to mentor him if I can."
Although Xiao He is currently holding back the production schedule, he is actually the one who is holding back the least. The other younger actors are really holding back at a snail's pace. If Zhuang Hongyi hadn't checked the progress and reminded Yan Shaohan about the filming time, they would probably still be stuck on the early scenes.
After Gao Zhenxia left, Liu Rulan patted Xiao He on the shoulder with a sigh: "You're really lucky, kid!"
"Professor Zhuo Jianhua must have mentioned me to Teacher Gao before, and I left a good impression on her," Xiao He said. "Once we're done with this, let's visit them at the Peking Opera Academy."
"No problem." Liu Rulan nodded. "And what about Teacher An—"
"Teacher An is actually all bark and no bite; he didn't put too much pressure on me," Xiao He chuckled. "I was just too eager to learn, which made him work so hard preparing lesson plans for me every day. I'll thank him properly when I get back."
"OK."
Seeing that Xiao He understood, Liu Rulan didn't say anything more.
After a short break, the crew resumed filming, and Xiao He walked onto the set to prepare himself emotionally.
This is a long-lens zoom transition shot.
From the moment Yin Qi killed someone to the moment he turned around, the entire camera focused on his face. Simultaneously, the background scenery shifted with the camera's movement; the previously scattered "corpses" immediately rose and left off-camera. When Yin Lan stood before him, only a bright, harmless smile remained on the boy's face. When the camera zoomed out again, the ground behind him was completely clean, devoid of the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) previous scene of corpses strewn across the ground.
This shot wasn't edited in post-production; it was a single, continuous take. However, judging from the disappearance of the corpses in the foreground and background, the audience knows that the timeline has moved to the later part of the story, and is different from the timeline of Yin Qi's killings.
Such long takes are actually quite rare in TV dramas these days. If there is such a "showy" transition shot in the whole episode, viewers who have watched the show will be amazed and left with a deep impression.
The main problem is that this kind of filming is too exhausting. If Xiao He, who plays Yin Qi, doesn't get the expression right, then the entire transition shot has to be reshot. For a director who loves to shoot close-ups of characters and separate the dialogue between the two characters into separate viewfinders, this is simply a thankless task.
However, for Yan Shaohan, who was just starting out, it was simply a matter of "doing whatever I like," as long as the shots were beautiful, the transitions were reasonable, and the visual language was meaningful.
Despite the staff's painstaking efforts to recreate the scene, everyone had to admit that Yan Shaohan had his own ideas and a certain level of directing ability.
Although he may not be on par with seasoned directors who have been directing films for many years, he is more than qualified to direct this film.
