During the preparation process for the filming, Song Jixing discovered that the makeup artists were not the only impressive ones.
The centuries-old mansion that Shi Fei had rented was an authentic ancient building made of stone, but the various pieces of furniture arranged inside were not original.
Where the original furniture had gone after hundreds of years was anybody's guess. After the town's development, the yard was filled with items purchased by the local tourism bureau.
Although they looked similar, there were still differences.
In pursuit of authenticity, Shi Fei directly had the props master replace all the furniture to restore the Republican era setting completely.
All the furniture was custom made, precisely replicated one-to-one based on data from museums and various visual materials.
This was not even the most extravagant part. What surprised Song Jixing was that before the first scene was shot, the props master specifically reminded her about certain props.
"Ms. Song, be careful, this teacup is from the late Qing dynasty. The lid and cup are a set, costing thousands of RMB per piece. We only brought a few pieces this time. It would be troublesome if one broke."
A cup costing thousands of RMB was fine, she could still compensate if she broke one.
"...Pay attention to the vase by your feet. Director Shi bought it back from an auction. It's worth hundreds of thousands."
"...This painting is an authentic work by Zhou Da, and is quite valuable..."
As the props master explained piece by piece, telling Song Jixing to be more careful - if she damaged something, compensation would be secondary. The main issue was that all the scenes involving those props would need to be reshot for continuity with the female lead's appearances.
Song Jixing nodded seriously, surveying the studio surroundings where everything had its own price tag. Accidentally bumping into a couple items could mean not only working for free on this drama, but even needing to pay out of her own pocket.
Aside from the strict requirements around props, the costumes were also impressive.
Song Jixing had several qi pao embroidered dresses from the Republican era, with each embroidered stitch by stitch by masters of the craft. Tailor made to fit, one dress per person.
The original female lead had received the same treatment, unfortunately she had left before completing filming.
Her costume and props masters did not reuse any of her outfits for Song Jixing, instead they custom ordered all new ones.
Of course, if Song Jixing were to leave before finishing either, the costs of those dresses would be counted towards her penalty fees.
By now, Song Jixing understood why Shi Fei had such strict requirements towards actors initially, wanting reputable actors with strong acting skills.
What was impressive was not the costumes, props or actors, but purchasing power.
The female lead had been switched out near the end of filming, so the scenes left to shoot were only the female lead's, all revolving around Song Jixing.
Even if the female lead's shots accounted for a relatively small proportion of the entire movie, they still needed to work overtime nonstop, with Song Jixing involved throughout.
In other crews, the main actors could take breaks to film side characters or empty scenes after long shoots, allowing the main cast some rest to prepare for the next scene.
But that was not possible here, Song Jixing had to keep powering through, finishing one scene after another, all involving her.
This tested not only her acting skills, but also endurance.
Shooting continuously for a week, Song Jixing still maintained a decent state on camera without any visible fatigue.
There were basically no flawed takes, her control of expressions was very much on point, resulting in smooth filming.
Shi Fei constantly praised her from behind the camera, "Little Song! Now I know why Director Zhang had you play the second male lead - he struck gold!" As he got increasingly familiar with Song Jixing, Shi Fei's address towards her became more intimate.
"I want to book you in advance for my next project already!"
Song Jixing simply smiled without responding.
Although current progress was still decent, her days consisted solely of eating, sleeping and filming when not doing those three things. Sometimes shooting through the night till daybreak, then taking a short rest and continuing. Applying makeup while napping, eating and drinking every second available.
The other actors could rest when exhausted, but she could not. The workload and pressure were extremely intense, going even more nonstop than 007, at times needing to split her psyche to play another person.
From a long term perspective, it was an extremely unsuitable lifestyle for a lazybones like her.
Therefore no matter how high the pay for the next project, she would not take it! Song Jixing thought it through clearly in her mind, yet still did not dare slack off one bit when it came to the work at hand.
There was a very classic horror element in this tale spanning past and present lives – a black cat.
The cats in the old town consistently showed up at the filming location every day without fail to watch and check in while Song Jixing was shooting, occasionally even running into the frame to harass the female lead.
At first, to ensure normal filming proceedings, Shi Fei had assigned two staff members to shoo away the cats. One was responsible for pulling the cats down from the enclosing walls, while the other one was in charge of luring them away with treats, diverting the cats' attention to play elsewhere instead of pestering the actress.
Yet despite this, the furballs still boldly came to bother the female star.
Only then did Shi Fei realize that it was not his crew the cats were fond of, but Song Jixing.
How perfectly convenient!
Shi Fei promptly discussed an idea with Song Jixing, "Little Song, are you good with taming cats? Or should I get a cat for you to domesticate?"
Song Jixing: ???
"Xiao Yang and the others feed the cats every day, but when they don't have treats in hand, the cats don't even bother glancing their way. But you're different, look how they all gather around when you pet them, meaning you have an exceptional attractiveness to cats!" said Shi Fei.
"There's a black cat written into our script, I was planning to have the CG artists handle it originally. Since you can train cats, why don't we just have a real cat appear on camera?"
As lifelike as special effects could be, one look could tell it was a fake cat, far inferior to the real thing. If they used an actual black cat for filming, the quality of the shots would instantly increase by several levels.
Just the thought made Shi Fei feel it would look amazing!
Song Jixing: "I can try!"
Shi Fei instantly had someone bring over a black cat in peak physical condition for Song Jixing to bond with.
Yet the results were not that great.
The moment that black cat exited its cage, it took off running about wildly. Not only was it not intimate with Song Jixing, it even zipped all around the yard chaotically with the staff unable to catch it at all.
Until the local town cats couldn't stand watching any further and beat it up, only then did it despondently return back to its cage.
Shi Fei was utterly puzzled: "How come this cat won't do?"
The other staff explained: "It's likely because the local town cats have been raised freely outdoors since young, totally unafraid of people and fond of Sister Song, so they all ran over to get close to her. But this cat was kept caged since childhood, the large crowd makes it stressed."
Shi Fei could reluctantly accept that reasoning, but could his idea truly fail?
Ultimately Shi Fei chose to compromise, having his crew assist in checking if there were any suitable black cats among the town strays that might potentially warm up to Song Jixing.
In half a day's time, someone discovered a black cat.
Although it wasn't pure black all over, sporting a white fur ring around its chin and some greying hairs on its tail, the issues weren't major.
As long as it was black enough, it would be an outstanding black cat!
This very friendly cat allowed every single crew member to pet it.
Yet Shi Fei still wasn't fully satisfied, since this cat was too fat!
Shi Fei stroked his chin, seeming slightly troubled. "Can we put this cat on a diet to slim it down?"
It was commonplace for directors to have actors lose weight, but putting a cat on a diet appeared to be a task nigh impossible to accomplish.
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