Director Warren ignored her grievance: "Stop talking nonsense, hurry up and bring them the prop guns. We're about to start shooting, what are you all dawdling for?"

Little Grace pouted, reluctantly ran over and brought four prop guns. They were the kind of bayonet AKs commonly seen in anti-Japanese dramas. Henry Clark didn't know much about firearms, so he had no idea what these guns were called—he just thought they looked cool and impressive. But since they were props, made of plastic, they felt light and insubstantial in his hands.

Upgrading from a bird gun to a cannon, Henry Clark felt he must look absolutely awesome now.

At that moment, another chubby guy walked over and barked at Henry Clark and the other three: "Hurry up and go stand over there." He pointed to the exit of a Western-style house.

When they got to the door, the chubby guy had disappeared again, leaving the four of them standing there awkwardly, not knowing what they were supposed to do.

"Aren't we supposed to be playing the guards on duty?" guessed one of the extras who had been playing cards earlier.

"Damn, standing guard is the most exhausting job," another card-playing extra groaned.

Sure enough, just as the two finished complaining, Director Warren walked over: "Stand properly on both sides of the door, and stand up straight." He then personally came over to adjust their positions, and even pounded on the waists of Henry Clark and the others. "Stand up straight, don't hunch your backs."

After a few minutes, the now ramrod-straight Henry Clark saw several people pushing a jib about 3 meters long to the street across from the Western-style house. At the top of the jib was a gimbal, and mounted on the gimbal was a camera with a red light flashing.

Staring intently at the camera lens, Henry Clark's heart surged with excitement.

"Whew, finally about to be on camera!"

Chapter 008 The First Acting Scene

Jibs and gimbals are common props for filming movies and TV shows. A 3-meter jib is considered a small one, but for Henry Clark, who was participating in filming for the first time, this kind of equipment—a combination of jib, gimbal, and camera—felt incredibly high-end and impressive.

The cameraman, wearing headphones, stood at the control box at the base of the jib, remotely controlling the jib and gimbal through the box, constantly adjusting the camera's position and angle.

Seeing the red light in front of the camera lens, Henry Clark's body instantly tensed up. The moment the red light came on, it meant filming had started. But what puzzled him was that he didn't see any actors coming over.

"Could it be they're giving us four Nationalist Party guards a close-up?"

If that were the case, it would be a huge win—giving extras a special close-up like this was a rare opportunity. Just imagining the scene, Henry Clark wished he could puff out his rib-like chest into a 36D to highlight his outstanding presence among the crowd. Standing next to Henry Clark, Simon King seemed to have the same idea, holding his head high and chest out, even trying to stand on tiptoe to surpass Henry Clark's height.

Henry Clark was 1.75 meters tall, while he was just over 1.73 meters, so the difference wasn't very noticeable.

The four extras stood like four stalks of foxtail grass, swaying in the wind, doing their best to exude charm in front of the camera. The cameraman was quite accommodating, maneuvering the camera to constantly adjust the angle on the four of them. At one point, the jib even lowered, and the camera lens, via the gimbal, was brought to within less than a meter of their faces.

This nearly drove Henry Clark and the others wild with excitement. Such close-up filming was the kind of treatment usually reserved for main characters—a facial close-up!

The red signal light trembled in front of Henry Clark, making him so excited that he broke out in goosebumps.

It was as if he could already see the day, not far off, when audiences across the country watched "潜伏在黎明之前" and suddenly noticed his heroic figure, becoming infatuated with his irresistibly handsome and imposing presence, all turning into die-hard fans, and then witnessing a supporting character's rise to stardom.

His heart was pounding, and just as he was lost in his pleasant fantasy, his face suddenly started to itch.

He wanted to scratch it, but couldn't, since he had to maintain his posture. Henry Clark could only try to distract himself with other thoughts, but for some reason, the more he tried to shift his attention, the itchier his face became. In fact, within a few seconds, even his crotch started to itch.

"Illusion, illusion, it's all in your head, don't get nervous!"

Henry Clark didn't have any skin conditions, so he knew the itching was all psychological. People are just strange like that—especially when they're nervous, their adrenaline and other hormones go out of whack, and their whole body feels uncomfortable.

Itching is a common symptom.

In the midst of the itching, Henry Clark felt time was dragging on endlessly, and all his wild fantasies were no match for his nerves. He had completely given up on the idea of becoming famous; he just wanted the cameraman to move the lens away from him, to stop giving him close-ups, so he could at least scratch his itch.

Just as Henry Clark was caught in this dilemma, the camera's indicator light, which had been on, suddenly went out.

The cameraman took off his headphones and called out, "Check the script. I took a look at the camera positions, and it's about right. Director, we can get ready to start shooting."

"What?!"

Henry Clark and the other three extras were dumbfounded. So all that time they'd been strutting around like show-off roosters was for nothing. The cameraman was just checking the camera angles, not actually filming—let alone giving them close-ups.

Their beautiful dreams were instantly shattered to pieces.