Chapter 242: Experience and Finalization

The 17th day of the first lunar month is auspicious for opening a business or getting married, but inauspicious for moving.

The crew of "Room" officially started filming on this auspicious day.

Liu Zhou didn't specifically check the calendar, but it just happened to be a good day, which seemed to indicate that the film would go smoothly.

This is a purely mainland production crew, so there is no worship of gods before the filming starts.

We read the script together yesterday, so we started filming today.

However, the only people who have joined the group so far are Zeng Li, Feng Yuanzheng, Xiao Wu Lei and his parents.

The scenes in the imprisoned cabin were shot in the early stage, so teachers Li Baotian and Li Mingqi who played the heroine's parents did not need to come for the time being.

Because the exterior scenes of the entire movie "Room" were very simple, Liu Zhou directly chose to set up the scene and shoot in the China Film Studio.

This not only makes things convenient for the actors and crew members, but also allows Liu Zhou to go home and rest every day, and even save some accommodation costs.

But Liu Zhou was not stingy. In addition to saving on accommodation expenses, he also arranged for the producer to prepare a more sumptuous meal.

At this time, various departments of the crew were installing and debugging equipment and scenery, and Liu Zhou also came to Xiao Wu Lei.

To be honest, this is Liu Zhou's first time filming a child's role, and this time the child's role is very important.

Everyone in the industry knows that scenes with children are generally difficult to shoot.

Liu Zhou was not worried about other people, but he was a little worried about Wu Lei.

When little Wu Lei's parents saw Liu Zhou coming over, Wu's father stepped forward first and said:

"Director Liu, thank you so much for choosing our Wu Lei."

Liu Zhou smiled and replied:

"Mr. Wu, don't say that. You've already said thank you many times, and we chose Wu Lei because he meets our requirements."

Wu Lei looks more like his father. His father is tall and thin, wearing black-framed sunglasses. He looks very gentle and gives people the feeling of an intellectual.

Liu Zhou glanced at Wu Lei, who greeted Liu Zhou very politely:

"Hello, Director Liu."

"Hello to you too." Liu Zhou smiled and then asked Wu's father, "Will filming now affect his studies?"

"Director Liu, don't worry. Wu Lei is only in the second grade now, and he has been smart since he was young. Taking more than a month off will not have any impact. His mother and I will give him simple tutoring in the evening."

"Will Wu Lei be too tired?"

"We won't make up for too long at night, just half an hour at most."

Liu Zhou nodded after listening and continued:

“Although Wu Lei has experience in acting in TV dramas, acting in movies is still a little different.

So a lot of things that we are used to may need to be broken, and the children may have to suffer a little bit, so they need to be mentally prepared.”

Father Wu smiled and said:

"Director Liu, rest assured. I have already prepared Wu Lei psychologically. Besides, this kid is pretty good and is not afraid of hardship."

Liu Zhou smiled. Whether Wu Lei was afraid of hardship or not, and whether what he said was reliable, he would have to experience it to know.

However, Liu Zhou still had some expectations for Wu Lei. After all, many of the works Wu Lei had starred in as a child in the original time and space were costume dramas, which were more tiring. The most important thing was that he had performed quite well in them.

Liu Zhou squatted down and said to Xiao Wu Lei:
"Xiao Lei, have you memorized all the lines you need to recite today?"

"If I know it by heart, I can recite it to you."

"Okay, then recite it to your uncle."

Liu Zhou certainly didn't want Wu Lei to memorize the lines dryly. Instead, he would patiently explain the play to him based on his lines.

After spending more than half an hour, Liu Zhou finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Xiao Wu Lei nod and explain that he understood. At this time, there was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.

After finishing his explanation to Wu Lei, Liu Zhou went to explain the play to Feng Yuanzhong and Zeng Li.

"Director Liu, I didn't expect you to be so good at training young actors." Feng Yuanzheng said with a smile.

"This is also my first time photographing children, so there's no such thing as being good or not good at it. If something unexpected happens during the filming, I'll have to ask you, my senior, to help guide me."

"No problem. If there is anything I can do to help, I will definitely do it without hesitation." Feng Yuanzheng agreed immediately.

He has been in the industry for more than 20 years and has filmed many scenes with children, so he has some experience in how to guide children in acting.

He has read the complete script of "Room" and thought it was a very good script. He also hopes that a good movie can be made this time.

"With what Teacher Feng said, I can rest assured."

After discussing the play with the two, the preparations of all departments were completed.

The first scene shot was when the heroine looked up and stared at the only window in the room with a somewhat dull expression.

This scene is relatively simple, it just needs to show the heroine's numbness.

Zeng Li completed it very smoothly and passed it in one go.

What follows is Zeng Li's one-man show. The heroine tries various methods to escape, but all fail.

After that, Feng Yuanzhong came into the scene and briefly explained how he tricked the heroine into a small room and then raped her.

Of course, the scene where Gong Subao played a violent role was just briefly mentioned.

The tone of this movie is redemption and healing, so the neighbors' violence against the heroine is glossed over.

However, this would place higher demands on Feng Yuanzheng's acting skills.

In simple shots, the character's perversion and cruelty should be reflected.

As a pillar of Beijing People's Art Theatre, Feng Yuanzhong was not troubled by this at all. He NGed once and passed it the second time.

To be honest, when Liu Zhou watched Feng Yuanzheng's performance on the monitor, especially the close-up shots of his eyes, he felt goosebumps.

Feng Yuanzheng is indeed a good actor. He can not only play the brutal and perverted An Jiahe in "Don't Talk to Strangers", but also the sissy robber in "A World Without Thieves".

Can be salty or sweet, perverted or funny.

After filming these scenes, the whole morning was gone.

After lunch, little Wu Lei also had his turn.

Liu Zhou decided to shoot the simple scenes first to allow him to adapt.

There are no lines, just him lying on the floor, also looking up at the window, and then there are some shots of him playing in the room.

At this time, little Wu Lei had already put on makeup and had long hair that reached her back. Combined with Wu Lei's pretty face, she looked very much like a little girl.

Liu Zhou feels that when Wu Lei grows up and becomes famous, this still photo of him will definitely be circulated crazily by his fans.

But there was no way. There were no sharp weapons in the room where the heroine was imprisoned, so her son had never had his hair cut since he was born.

Although I had explained everything very clearly to Wu Lei beforehand, there were still some surprises during the filming.

He either couldn't help looking at the camera, or his expression wasn't quite right, or he would look towards his parents or Liu Zhou.

Liu Zhou also knew that Wu Lei would be a little nervous at the beginning of the filming, so he was not impatient at all and worked with him to slowly polish these simple shots, which took more than two hours to complete.

Afterwards, Liu Zhou also let Xiao Wu Lei take a rest and continued filming Feng Yuanzheng and Zeng Li's scenes.

Feng Yuanzhong imprisoned Zeng Li for seven years, but he would come every day to bring her food and vent his animal desires.

So every night, Zeng Li would coax her son to sleep and then put him in the closet, while she would wait in fear and numbness for the doorbell to ring like the devil's whisper.

But this time the son woke up, and he was very curious about the man who came to deliver things to them every day.

So I walked to the bed and wanted to see what the man looked like, but I had to wait until Wu Lei had rested enough to shoot these shots.

Feng Yuanzheng wanted to touch his son's face, but Zeng Li misunderstood and excitedly opened his hand.

But in the end, he was severely beaten by Feng Yuanzheng and almost suffocated to death by him.

After this, Zeng Li, who had already accepted her fate, made up her mind to escape from here.

It just so happened that in order to punish Zeng Li for her resistance last night, Feng Yuanzheng cut off the power in the room the next day, making the room start to become cold, which also gave the heroine an idea of ​​escaping.

But because her son has grown up in this small room since birth, Zeng Li has always created a fairy-tale world for him.

My son always thinks that this room is the whole world.

So when the heroine told her son about the outside world, her son didn't believe it at all and thought his mother was lying.

But gradually the son began to believe his mother's words and planned to escape with her.

At first, he pretended to be sick. The heroine kept applying a hot towel to his forehead and face, making Feng Yuanzheng think that his son had a fever due to the cold, so he took him to the hospital.

But Feng Yuanzheng did not agree and only sold him antipyretic medicine.

Seeing this, the heroine came up with another idea. She simply rolled up her son with a straw mat and made him pretend to be dead.

In the end, the heroine successfully deceived Feng Yuanzheng, and he had to take his son's body out to bury it.

The son followed his mother's instructions, escaped successfully, and then rescued his mother with the help of the police.

Liu Zhou spent a whole month shooting these scenes in the China Film Studio.

Zeng Li and Feng Yuanzheng are okay, it’s mainly Wu Lei’s performance.

The requirements of this play were indeed quite high for him, so in order to shoot the required shots, Liu Zhou could only guide and shoot patiently.

But the good news is that after a month of filming, Wu Lei seems to have gotten into the groove and no longer needs to keep sharpening the lens like he did at the beginning.

"Teacher Feng, congratulations on finishing the film!"

"Thank you. It was a lot of fun to film Director Liu's drama. I hope we can have the opportunity to work together in the future."

"There will definitely be a chance. Your play is so good. I hope we can work together again in the future."

Feng Yuanzhong's scenes were completed here.

After the heroine was rescued, Feng Yuanzhong was also quickly caught, but this news was only mentioned on TV.

Feng Yuanzheng said hello to the other members of the crew and left.

Liu Zhou originally planned to hold a wrap party for him, but he refused, saying that he could just be invited over when the film was finished.

After Feng Yuan-zheng finished filming and left, teachers Li Bao-tian and Li Ming-qi also officially joined the crew.

Up to now, only half of the plot has been filmed.

The first half of the movie "Room" mainly tells the story of the heroine and her son escaping from the room that imprisoned them.

The second half is about the heroine's liberation. With the help of her son, her spirit escapes from that "room". She finally lets go of the past and starts a new life.

However, the heroine who had just escaped realized that the outside world was not as good as she had imagined.

She was imprisoned for seven years. From a 24-year-old girl to a -year-old mother of a child, the best years of a person's youth were gone just like that.

Now she is completely out of touch with society, and because of her disappearance, her parents are divorced.

What made her even more sad was that although her father loved her very much, he was very cold to his own son.

This put more and more pressure on the heroine, and her emotions became more and more broken.

Fortunately, my son's grandmother and step-grandfather were very kind to him and slowly guided him to start talking to other people.

With the patient help of these two elderly people, my son finally stopped suffering from social anxiety and gradually became cheerful.

Later, when her son was playing with his mobile phone in the living room, the noise disturbed the heroine. She was already on the verge of collapse and immediately exploded.

This scene is the most challenging for Zeng Li's acting skills.

The heroine's emotions changed multiple times in just a few seconds, from angry to sad, to furious, and finally to collapse.

Although Zeng Li prepared for this scene for a long time, it still took seven or eight takes to satisfy Liu Zhou.

Zeng Li may have exhausted all her energy for the outburst in this scene. After Liu Zhou shouted, she felt a little weak and looked very tired.

Then there is a scene where Zeng Li commits suicide by taking sleeping pills, but she is discovered by Wu Lei, sent to the hospital in time and rescued.

At this point, the filming of the movie has come to an end, with only the scene where the heroine is interviewed remaining.

The filming has been going on for a month and a half now, and teachers Li Mingqi and Li Baotian have already finished filming and left.

This final interview scene is the highlight of the entire play.

This is the most controversial area in Western commentary.

Because in this scene, in addition to constantly exposing the heroine's scars, the reporter also brought up a topic that has been hotly debated in the West, which is whether freedom or family affection is more important.

In the Western concept, freedom is above all else.

Therefore, the reporter thinks that after giving birth to her son, the heroine should be sent outside to enjoy freedom instead of being imprisoned in a small room.

But the heroine's behavior clearly shows that she thinks her son should stay with his mother.

However, Liu Zhou certainly cannot discuss this topic when filming for his own people. In China, there are many things more important than freedom.

So here Liu Zhou changed it to a discussion of maternal love, was it because she wanted to give her son a better environment and reluctantly let him leave her side?
Although the environment was difficult, she still raised her son by her side and let him enjoy the motherly love.

However, Liu Zhou did not abandon the original ending of the movie, in order to use it for overseas exhibitions.

The foreigners really like this.

Liu Zhou took two days to finish filming this last scene.

The drama "Room" was officially completed after one and a half months.

This may be the easiest drama Liu Zhou has ever filmed, but it is also the most difficult drama Zeng Li has ever filmed.

It's not that I'm physically tired, but I'm mentally exhausted.

As an experientialist, Zeng Li unconsciously immersed herself in the role while filming.

So now that the filming has wrapped, Zeng Li still seems a little listless.

Liu Zhou also handed over the finishing work of the crew to the producer, and then took Zeng Li home directly.

(End of this chapter)