Chapter 645: Chapter 645

She hadn’t even called out yet when Cheng Xiaohua, standing by her side, already shouted, "That’s too high, lower it a bit, I can’t even hold the vase!"

The staff slowly lowered the vase again for He Jinxia to hold.

However, because the vase was heavy and the rope was long, the staff couldn’t control their strength properly, and the timing of their force application was off, which led the shooting into a deadlock.

It was only when He Jinxia was squinting into the sun, shielding her forehead with her hand and looking up, that a flash of inspiration struck.

This time, Cheng Xiaohua couldn’t play the messenger, so He Jinxia directly asked, "Why do we have to use such a heavy vase? Why don’t we just make the vase out of plastic and then cover it with mud? That way it wouldn’t be so heavy, right?"

The suggestion was an eye-opener!

The props team’s staff all had a moment of realization—how had they not thought of this method?

Although "Xiao Xiangyu’s Many Sorrows" was a classical, fantasy drama with a completely fictional setting, where costumes and props could be freely created from imagination, to build a more complete world, they had created a whole set of unique elements for it.

These unique elements were integrated into the actors’ costumes, surrounding buildings, and the carving and painting of everyday items.

Due to a long time of striving for perfection, the props team’s staff hadn’t considered cutting corners and using "plastic."

In other production teams, this method would probably have been thought of sooner. It was just that "Xiao Xiangyu’s Many Sorrows" had abundant resources and didn’t lack money for shooting; the budget allocated to the props team was generous, so they aimed for high-quality props in everything they made.

Aiming for high-quality was indeed good, but it also limited their thinking; they were always pursuing realism, which was why this option hadn’t occurred to them.

Thanks to He Jinxia’s suggestion, the production quickly found a plastic replacement vase.

The vase had a completely different pattern, but its overall silhouette was the same. After being coated with a thick layer of mud, it looked identical, so the halted production could continue filming.

With the switch to the plastic vase, the weight was significantly reduced, making it much easier to handle; the staff made the vase tremble in He Jinxia’s arms very realistically with just a few quick adjustments.

He Jinxia entered her performance mode, her brows tightly knitted as she stared at the trembling vase in her arms, trying hard to hold it firmly against her.

In post-production, her inner thoughts would be matched to her facial expressions—

How strange, why is the vase shaking so violently!

No good, I must hurry to find Bai Ze!

Xiao Hua, holding the trembling vase, quickly started running.

She hadn’t run far when the vase abruptly flew into the air, which was really just the staff exerting force and suspending the vase midair.

Director Liu shouted, and He Jinxia immediately pretended to be shocked by a great force, falling to the ground, looking anxiously at the sky.

"Ah!" Because she accidentally hit stones on the ground when she fell, He Jinxia couldn’t help but cry out.

Director Liu called a halt, and the staff hurried over to see.

He Jinxia looked down at her knee, cautiously patting out the small stones embedded in it.

Cheng Xiaohua also rushed over, unable to help herself from saying, "How could you be so careless?"

He Jinxia’s face showed a hint of helplessness, "I didn’t mean to, I wasn’t paying attention when I fell. As soon as the director shouted for me to fall, I just instinctively did, only then noticing there was a small stone on the ground.

The staff member said, "It’s just some scratches without bleeding. Just disinfect with hydrogen peroxide, and you’ll be fine."

Director Liu also looked over, shaking his head, "Your posture when falling was too fierce. You’re wearing a long dress, how could your knee still hit the stone?"

He Jinxia felt gloomy inside, "It was my own carelessness. I’ll pay more attention in the future."

Fortunately, the injury wasn’t serious and didn’t affect leg movement. After a simple treatment, He Jinxia continued filming.

This time, she only needed to shoot the scene of her looking up at the vase in the air, then falling down as the director called for it. Get full chapters from novel•fire.net

The action of falling would, in post-production, become Xiao Xiangyu being struck with a force from the vase, causing her to fall to the ground due to the impact.

He Jinxia’s falling posture was wrong just now. Logically, she should have fallen backwards, but upon hearing the director’s shout, she instinctively fell forwards.

Now, doing it over again, He Jinxia immediately corrected her posture.

Director Liu: "Fall down!"

He Jinxia promptly acted out being struck by a forceful blow, falling backwards to the ground.

Director Liu watched and felt it was not aesthetically pleasing enough, so he had He Jinxia fall several more times, each time with a different posture, choosing only the most beautiful one before being satisfied.

As soon as the falling action was done, the props team immediately switched out the prop, turning the vase hanging in the air into a green longsword!

Cough cough, don’t overthink it, the sword’s green not because it’s some "forgiveness" sword, but because it will later be modified in post-production. Intricate patterns will be added, and the sword will be surrounded by the power of thunder and lightning, looking particularly impressive.

Xiao Xiangyu lay where she had fallen, staring at the sword that had appeared, her pupils contracting as she murmured, "Is this... the power of thunder and lightning?"

After that line, it was Qiu Zhenze’s turn, playing Emperor Bai Ze, to enter the scene.

For the morning shoot, Qiu Zhenze’s scenes were not many compared to He Jinxia’s. Unlike her, he seemed to be there just as a small side act, quite leisurely.

It couldn’t be helped, this was the downside of a female-centric show. With the female lead’s growth as the main storyline, everything had to revolve around her, making the male lead nothing more than a foil.

Some directors in the industry, when shooting TV dramas to stretch out the number of episodes for more profit, would deliberately increase the male supporting character’s screen time.

This is because male and female leads are generally paid per episode, while less famous male supporting actors are paid in bulk for the entire show. So, increasing the male supporting actor’s screen time is a standard tactic for directors to stretch out the drama.

After all, the male supporting actor’s salary is fixed, whether they shoot more or less. So, why not shoot more to extend the number of episodes, thereby earning more money?

After the TV series is produced, it will be sold to TV stations and online broadcasters. Their valuation of the show will be based on the fame of the male and female leads, the series’ plot, and the number of episodes, with a certain price per episode.

Since He Jinxia transformed into a movie leading lady as soon as she changed her career, even if she takes on supporting roles in TV dramas, she faces stringent directors who don’t cut corners. Therefore, He Jinxia has not yet experienced being "cheaply exploited" by a director.

Qiu Zhenze was quite accustomed to these practices. However, since the crew had only just begun filming not long ago, he couldn’t discern Director Liu’s intentions. At least for now, it seemed that He Jinxia’s lead role was secured.

At this moment, Bai Ze appeared, dressed as a man, solemnly looking up at the sword hanging in the sky, frowning as he said, "A sword related to thunder and lightning..."