LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 40 – Filming Second
Edited by The Darkest Knight#4796
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After having that conversation with Kana, I didn't forget to practice my line with her, who became a grumble kid after being called a loner by me, which made the comments that came out of Kana's mouth harsher than before. In the end, Kana had more weight as she had more experience with acting than me, at least for now.
I didn't know if my time with Kana improved my acting, but I think it gave me a lot more confidence than doing nothing.
I did all of my scenes, and I didn't get any words or complaints from Taishi even though we were close and had known each other for a long time, which meant that my acting was good to his standard. Especially since Taishi was harsh about this, and I was technically his apprentice. Of course, he was more strict in judging my acting.
Those boosted my confidence that my acting was quite good. It had been a really long time ago, after all. Acting in this movie was also my first time becoming a main character in the film, so it was understandable to feel a bit anxious and nervous.
Either way, the filming took three weeks in total.
"Scene NoXXXX, take one, start!"
My last scene was about me, the protagonist, running in a long-distance running tournament. He did his best to ensure he was always in third place while trailing the second place near in front of him. Then everything he planned worked out until by the end of the fourth place was getting close to him. At some point, the fourth place became the third, and the protagonist went behind, even though he had been working hard to achieve third place.
In sheer desperation, the protagonist runs much faster and throws away all of his plans. The plan became complicated when the race became tight, and anyone could win; he wouldn't get anything if he failed, which made him literally run with all his might without thinking about the plans he had made and only pursuing the third place kid that took his place and the place he wanted, without realizing that the race already became so tight that actually when the protagonist overtake with the third place without knowing that he finished as the winner. At that moment, all he thought was to overtake the third place, which was enough for him.
After that, it all depends on my acting skills. First, I had to show that, even though I was exhausted and sweaty, I had to act and show how I was thrilled to have overtaken the boy who took third place from the protagonist and managed to keep it throughout the race before it was taken away.
People came and celebrated the protagonist's victory. I was very happy for a while before realizing that I was not in third place but first place. In other words, I failed to get the shoes I wanted and slowly cried because of my failure.
The protagonist stayed still as people who were happy and celebrating the victory hugged him and even threw him into the air. I, who played the protagonist, cried like a failure. It contrasted when people around him were happy and celebrated his victory. Still, the protagonist cried in sadness after failing to finish in the third.
Honestly, the last time I watched the movie was long ago, and I might have watched the movie again when I entered junior high school. Even so, I feel like I really clearly remember all the scenes when I was acting. I still remember the protagonist's happiness and sadness as he thought he got third only to find out he won the race. The scene where he cries, while people celebrate his victory is one of the scenes from the movie I watched as a child and remembered until college.
So with the help of those memories, it was straightforward for me to see how the acting was going, like a cheat sheet. I thought I would mimic those acting from my previous life before I felt like making my own acting and used those memories just as a reference.
My scene was over after Taishi screamed, "Cut! Start the check!" The director did the cut and started the check. His face was smiling, and nodded with satisfaction.
"It was awesome! I like it."
Taishi said to me as I came toward him and looked at the monitor. I never had any experience acting in my previous life. Wait, I think I have one. I remember playing in a small drama in junior high school in art class. I remember my teacher praised me since I played well as wolves that get smacked by the main character since it feels natural. At that time, I was happy to be praised like that, but if I thought about it. Isn't that he praised my stunt skill rather than my acting?
It was such an old memory, but I started to remember it very clearly today.
Anyway, it was pretty weird to see my own acting sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't feel enjoyable, but I see my acting as quite excellent and natural. I think it's really joyous and delightful.
"Okay, how about we have a closing party!" The assistant director said that since Taishi wasn't that kind of person, he knew it was important to do this kind of stuff. Mainly to make his crew feel unity.
"Ah, how about you, Aqua? Are you going to join in?" Taishi asked me, but before I answered his question. There was someone nearby who was quite enthusiastic and replied to him.
"We will…" Kana said.
Honestly, it was something else that she answered on my behalf and joined our conversation. I looked at her, and I saw her mouth move with a sentence kind of like this…
'We're friends, right? Please, help me with this one…'
Well, I didn't know what her plan was about this. But I knew she wanted to get close to other staff so she could have another role in the future. What quite hard-working girls…
Taishi looked at me as if he was still waiting for my response.
"Well, I'll ask Miyako first."
"Good! Thanks, Aqua." The one who replied happily was Kana, while Taishi only nodded his head.
Ultimately, I joined the closing party, and somehow, Taishi nominated me for the toast.
"Okay, thanks to you all for participating in the creation of 'Children of Heaven.' Today, please eat and drink as much as you want in celebration of what we have done so far! Grasp your glasses and give cheers. I wish for the success of this move as well as success for everyone else, cheers!!"
"""CHEERS!!"""
After saying those words perfectly, I sat down and had several conversations with the other staff. But to be honest, my attention was always on Kana. I was worried about her after all. What will she do, and what can she do at this kind of event?
And the answer was quite funny but sad.
She wasn't acting like a child and sat down with a beer bottle. As she saw someone had an empty glass, she got beer and poured it into the glass while conversing with that person.
Yeah, it was funny but sad since she acted like a cabaret girl. And I was quite confident about who taught her like this.
"Haaaa…" I sighed as I changed my seat near Taishi, who had just been left alone after he had some conversation too.
"Oh, Aqua. It looks like you became close with Arima Kana." Taishi talked while sipping a cup of sake in his mouth.
"Yeah, we've become friends after all." I replied.
"Friends? Friends, huh… I think that's a good thing for both of you."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It feels like she became much brighter after meeting with you again. She’s like herself in the past."
"Well, that's good if that's true."
"Hahaha, are you not that confident? Geez, there are a lot of bad rumors around Kana's mother, after all."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. Well, most of the story is about how hard she was to work with, and some people said that they'll see her berate Kana if she does something poorly."
"That's… I wonder if there's some way to remove her from the picture."
"Puh… Ugh, that's quite something to hear. Since I feel like you're going to do it for real. I don't know what you will do, but if you want to help her or do something for her… You need to be responsible for it. This stuff isn't that small a matter after all."
I didn't respond to Taishi and this time, only looked at Kana. At this point, I didn't know what really happened at Arima's household. To be honest, there was a big chance that if I helped Kana's career, their parents would be back to normal, but is that really a good thing?
Since I didn't feel like Kana's parents deserved her, I wondered if she would hate me. Still, I felt like it would be good for her to do the same thing as in the manga by separating herself from her parents, retiring them to the countryside.
Yeah, I would make a plan for them to do it. I guess…
But it would be much easier to get help from her.
