Su Yang sized him up. ‘This bald man seems to have a righteous look on his face. However, he looks familiar, I seem to recall seeing him somewhere before. Perhaps he was on the television previously?’
While carrying this doubt, Su Yang walked over and asked, “Hello, are you one of the crew members for “Wolf Warriors”?”
“Yes, that’s right.” The bald man glanced at Su Yang and grinned. “Mr. Su? I’m an actor from the production team, Shao Bin. Director Wu has arranged for me to pick you up.”
He then said enthusiastically, “Come, come, please get in the car. It’s cold outside.”
Su Yang agreed as he got into the car.
After getting into the car, Su Yang asked, “Are you a veteran?”
Shao Bin lowered his head and buckled his seatbelt as he shook his head with a smile. “No, no. Director Wu has made us undergo collective military training for more than three months for the sake of filming “Wolf Warriors”.”
Su Yang nodded, he was impressed.
‘To be able to endure 3 months of training in this modern era where most people would merely turn their heads as they chant out “1, 2, 3, 4, 5”, they truly are very professional at their jobs . It’s almost impossible to see this kind of attitude in the new generation actors.
‘Wu Feng, on the other hand, is rather capable as well. He’s able to make these actors willingly obey his orders and receive military training, turning them into people who seem to have come out from the military within 3 months.’
On the way, Su Yang chatted with Shao Bin for quite a while and found out more about him. Shao Bin was a group performer who used to act as an extra in Hengdian. Later on, when he was filming with Wu Feng, Wu Feng felt that he was very professional in his job, so he left Shao Bin with his contact number.
This time, Wu Feng wanted to film his own movie, so he naturally invited Shao Bin to act as one of the minor roles.
Shao Bin chatted as he drove. Soon, they arrived at the set.
At that moment, the main filming location for the movie was at a forest park in Lingnan. In order to ensure that “Wolf Warriors” could be filmed, Wu Feng had obtained the full support of the military and was prepared to film most of the outdoor scenes there.
When Su Yang arrived, it was as if he had entered the army. Most of the people were wearing field uniforms as they walked with their heads held high.
Su Yang asked Shao Bin curiously, “Are they all from the army?”
Shao Bin shook his head and said with a smile, “These are all people from the production team. Director Wu is an experienced actor and this is a military themed movie. Therefore, when he was making preparations for the production team, the costumes and equipment were made according to the military’s appearance, this will help the actors get into character.”
Then, Shao Bin added softly, “It’s also convenient for the production team to manage.”
As he said that, he sighed. “In any case, in all my years of acting, Director Wu’s production team is the most orderly one I’ve ever seen, it’s also the one with the best atmosphere as well.”
As they chatted, they arrived at where the production team was.
Because the production team was only simulating the military camp, they did not do any checks because it was not really military management.
When Su Yang got out of the car, he saw Wu Feng in his field uniform lecturing someone. “What kind of f*cking acting is that? Spirit! You need to put in more spirit! Understand?”
As he said that, he patted his chest hard and stood up straight like a real soldier.
After personally demonstrating it, he continued to yell, “Even if you’re an extra, you still have to show me your aura as a soldier! This is a movie! Not a television series! It’s going to be on a big screen, so the audience can see you very clearly, do you understand?! Be serious about it!”
The actor who was being lectured had his head lowered and did not dare utter a word.
Seeing this, Wu Feng said to him, “Hold your head up high! Answer me if you understand or not! Loudly!”
The man shivered, but he immediately stood up straight, placed his hands between his pants and shouted, “Yes sir!”
Wu Feng shouted even louder than him, “Louder!”
That person continued shouting, “Yes sir!”
“Good!” Wu Feng patted him on the shoulder and his tone softened. “Keep it that way.”
After he was done lecturing, Wu Feng turned around and saw Su Yang. He was stunned for a moment before he slapped his forehead and hurried over. “Mr. Su, my goodness. I’ve been so busy that I’ve forgotten about you.”
Su Yang smiled and said, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it. It’s normal for the production team to be busy. Furthermore, seeing how dedicated you are, Brother Wu, as an investor, I feel much more at ease in fact.”
After that, Wu Feng chatted with Su Yang for a while before he apologized to Su Yang and continued directing the crew.
That night, Su Yang had a meal with the production team. Wu Feng introduced the main members of the production team to Su Yang. The next day, Wu Feng continued filming while Su Yang began his 4 day life as part of the production team.
During those 4 days, he would be receiving his tank driving lessons for the first 2 days.
The scene Wu Feng arranged for him was very simple, a tank pilot. When the time came, he would appear together with the tank as the other members of “Wolf Warriors” appeared.
The third day was about mannerisms and behaviour. To put it bluntly, it was military bearing training. The purpose of the training was to make Su Yang look like a soldier when he was in front of the camera.
On the fourth day, which was also the last day, they would officially shoot the scene.
In reality, there was only 1 scene for the role of the tank pilot with only a few close up shots of the inside of the tank during the shooting. However, in order to make it seem realistic, Wu Feng requested that all the extras for the tank in that scene be trained accordingly.
The reason he was so strict was not only because he had high expectations for actors, but also because that scene would be the first time the formation for “Wolf Warriors” would make its debut. Hence, Wu Feng hoped that the scene would become a classic!
When he arrived at the meeting room of the production team, he saw a serious-looking man in a military uniform standing there. With just one glance, Su Yang could tell that he was a soldier.
That righteousness, that pride of protecting his country from the bottom of his bones was something that normal actors could not do.
When he saw Su Yang, the person nodded slightly and pointed to the middle seat in the first row. “Sit.”
After a night of adaptation, Su Yang had also gotten used to the slightly militarized management of “Wolf Warriors” as he saluted. “Yes sir!”
He sat down in the first row, and the other extras and supporting actors arrived one after another.
The man directed them to sit down one by one. When they were all seated, he looked at his watch and said, “Hello, everyone. I will be your instructor to teach you how to drive a tank. You can call me Instructor Liu!”
The actors answered in unison, “Hello, Instructor Liu!”
“Alright.” Instructor Liu walked around the conference room with his hands behind his back. As he walked, he introduced some basic knowledge about tank driving. “Actually, at least 2 people are required to drive a tank where normally, it will be a 3 man team. A tank driver, a gunner and a leader.”
“The gunner is in charge of shooting, while the tank driver holds the joystick and drives the tank while the leader is the soul of a tank. Not only does he have to give the commands of the route to take and the targets to attack, he also has to convey his battle strategy to both his superiors and subordinates to search for the target on the battlefield!”
“With that said, your role is to be the leader.”
Then, he looked at Su Yang. “And you’re the pilot.”
Su Yang was speechless.
‘Why do I suddenly feel like I’m ranked lower?’
Following that, Instructor Liu began to explain the structure of the tank, how the tank is driven and operated. All in all, there were no details left out.
However, perhaps because the lecture was too detailed, after a morning of theory class, the actors began to express…’This seems very simple.’
That was because the way to drive the tank was not that much different from driving their own car. There was a pedal and a brake beneath one’s feet and a gearbox beside. The only difference was that the steering wheel had become two joysticks, pulling 1 joystick down would maneuver the tank to the left while pulling down the other would maneuver the tank to the right…
‘This feels like something even a dummy would be able to operate.
‘It doesn’t seem to be difficult at all.’
Therefore, after the lecture, even though the actors were still sitting up straight, the expressions on their faces showed that they had become more relaxed.
Instructor Liu watched the actors’ changes coldly without saying a word.
Other than him, Su Yang, who had [Basic Tank Driving Ability], also knew that things were not as simple as it seemed…
Very soon, it was time for the afternoon simulation. Instructor Liu carried the simulator that was used for tank driving to the camp so that the students could give it a try.
‘I seem to remember using a similar tank simulator as well. The various operations of this simulator are all done based on a real tank. It’s no different from driving an actual tank if a newbie uses this, It will also be very difficult to operate.
‘The actors have only listened to one theory lesson about tank driving and they are now going to drive it for real. This is obviously a show of strength that Instructor Liu wanted to give the actors to correct their attitude.
‘After all, forget driving a tank, even if it was just driving a car, there aren’t many people who could drive a car steadily with just 1 morning session’s worth of learning how to drive based on writings on the blackboard.’
As he led the actors to the room where the tank simulator was placed. Instructor Liu asked the actors to line up, then he paced before the simulator. “This morning, I saw that all of you seemed to have learned enough! Each and every one of you seem to be very excited, thinking that driving a tank is very simple! Alright then! I’ll be giving all of you a chance now, let’s simulate an operation!”
Although the actors did think that way, they were not fools. Despite Instructor Liu having said that they thought it was simple, neither of them dared to openly admit it, so the actors quickly denied Instructor Liu’s statement.
“Instructor Liu, you’re mistaken. We think it’s very difficult to drive a tank.”
“That’s right. We’re happy because we’re able to drive a tank. Don’t misunderstand us.”
“Yes, Instructor Liu. We have utmost respect for tank driving.”
Because they were all actors, other than saying that, each and every one of them had a sincere expression on their faces. Furthermore, all of them stood up straight and looked extremely serious.
Instructor Liu sneered when he saw the actors’ expressions.
‘I’ve seen many ignorant new recruits who don’t know how badly they’ve underestimated the seriousness of the situation, yet these few actually have the nerve to be acting in front of me?
‘Ignorant fools!
‘Do they really think that driving a tank will be a walk in the park!?
‘Fine, let’s see them try!
‘After all, if they don’t try it themselves, they won’t believe me no matter how much I tell them otherwise. It’s the same as how those who have never experienced war wouldn’t be able to empathize with a veteran of the severity of war. However, one would know how precious life is after experiencing it once.’
After looking around at the actors who were still acting, Instructor Liu snorted. ‘Perhaps they wouldn’t even need to experience it themselves. Just by looking at how the others sloppily operate would probably be sufficient for them to understand the difficulty of such an operation!’
At the thought of this, Instructor Liu surveyed the group of actors. His gaze landed on Su Yang, who was standing at the front. He waved his hand. “Su Yang! Step out!”