Chapter 65 - An Awkward Angle

The gathered producers and directors simultaneously raised their heads and glanced in her way. 

"Why do you think so? Is something wrong with the camera angle?" Director Lan came forward and took the spot right beside Ran Xueyi. He looked into the monitor closely and replayed the scene to observe it once more. 

After a while, he became silent and rubbed the spot under his chin as he contemplated. 

Seeing the young director being so deeply in thought, everyone also thought that something might be wrong and they all went forward to watch the scene again. Seeing that everyone was thrusting themselves forward as if they were so eager and excited to watch a boxing rematch or NBA all stars game, the actors who were also there to gain favor and appear in a good light in front of the directors looked on confusedly.

Was something really wrong with the angle?

Some actors couldn't do anything and decided to stand in the corner. On the other hand, a few handful actors felt sour at how these directors and producers acted. 

Qiao Ya, another actress, looked at the situation, lowered her voice and whispered to Mao Hualing, "Look at them, if other people were to see this, wouldn't you think that someone important came to look at the filming and pointed out the mistakes of the directors?"

Mao Hualing didn't reply. She didn't think that it was like this at all. 

Having received no reaction from Mao Hualing, Qiao Ya was disappointed, but she didn't stop.

"It's really too bad that you didn't get the second female role, Sister Mao. Although I think that Ran Xueyi's acting is great, it's been a while since she has acted in front of a camera. Can she even act well without feeling scared at all?" Qiao Ya took a look at Ran Xueyi's figure that was slightly blocked by the directors.

Mao Hualing smiled gratefully at Qiao Ya, turned to look at Ran Xueyi and replied, "Thank you, Sister Qiao for worrying about me. However, I really think that the third lead I got is fated with me just as Sister Xueyi was fated with the second female lead. Don't you think so?"

Qiao Ya didn't expect that Mao Hualing would disagree with her after thanking her. And what is this? Why was Mao Hualing calling Ran Xueyi 'sister'? Were they this close before?

Seeing that she wasn't getting any result from provoking Mao Hualing by using Ran Xueyi and watching a drama between the two actresses might not happen, Qiao Ya could only give up the topic. She said a few more words with Mao Hualing before turning around, walking away from the crowd.

Clueless with what happened between them, Ran Xueyi listened to the directors as they discussed the scenes played by the two main leads.

"Should we call in the cameramen? I think what Xiao Xueyi said just now was right. The angle is really awkward," said Director Chi towards the other directors.

Producer Yao nodded in agreement and said, "I think so too. This scene, it looked like Princess Tian Lan was much taller than Chief eunuch Wei Yuan. If this was released in the movie, I'm sure the fans will target all of us and boycott the movie."

The fans of the novel "The Great Empress' Love" were not only super fans, but die-hard fans of the novel. They even created a poll on who they agreed to become the casts of the movie and some even tried to rally outside the streets, shouting their demand to not let any production crew and director taint the novel by adapting it into a movie.

Thankfully, the author Miss Peng Qingling had come forward and posted her support to the movie adaptation. Even though there were some fans who still disagreed with her, they were a minority and more fans went along with the original author's idea. And so, the fans finally calmed down and no longer planned to protest against the movie.

Nonetheless, this only proved that the movie needed to be meticulous towards the scenes and acting that will be shown in the movie. Forget the fact that the directors and media company made a very bold move by picking actresses ahead by using other means, now everyone was standing on their tiptoes to be sure that there were no more mistakes.

Director Chi made a move first, raising his hand to call on his assistant to call over the cameramen to properly shoot the scenes.

Ran Xueyi saw that Director Chi had already made a decision, however, she couldn't help but think that this was not it. There was something else that was wrong here and not the cameramen who took the shot.

"Wait." Director Lan held up his hand to stop the assistant from calling over the cameramen.

"Did you think of something else?" Director Chi asked him.

Director Lan nodded and said, "The cameramen already did great on their positioning. I think what we must fix is the positions of the actors instead."

Meng Chen, who had just finished her first scene with Jiang Ping, the male lead, saw that there was a gathering behind the director's monitor and approached them. "What's happening here?" asked Meng Chen.

"I think they're planning something and left us out, Sister Meng," Jiang Ping, who was walking beside her, joked.

Meng Chen went along with him and pouted: "Is that what's happening here?"

Director Chi chuckled happily: "Yes, yes. We're planning on how we should make you two pay for tonight's dinner party."

The three laughed together, but soon, they went back to the serious matter.

Director Chi explained to them what happened and Jiang Ping and Meng Chen looked surprised and watched their scene. After watching, they went silent and nodded together.

"What do you think?" Director Chi asked both of them.

Meng Chen was the first to reply, "I agree with Sister Xueyi. The angle made me look taller. Too bad, if we can only use this, I could brag about this to my friend."

Jiang Ping laughed and said, "That's right, Meng Chen.. You can finally be taller than me."