Filming "My Own Swordsman"

Little did he know that My Own Swordsman was planned for eighty episodes on a total budget of ten million yuan.

By comparison, the thirty-episode Legend of the White Snake, produced around the same time, had a budget that had soared to twenty million.

And My Own Swordsman had to build its filming facilities from scratch: two soundstages of over a thousand square meters each, an inn, and all the sets. Its upfront costs alone were two or three times those of an ordinary studio drama.

Every yuan had to count, so naturally they had to save on the actors' pay.

"Cut. More natural, you two. You grew up together. You're kindred spirits, brothers..." Shang Jing couldn't bear to watch any longer. "Shen Qi, you need more confidence. After all, you had two constables on your tail and still pulled off a job on the side. You're damn good at what you do."

Sitcoms allowed for the occasional mistake. Depending on the scene, even a fit of laughter could be kept in.

But right now, Shen Qi wasn't acting like a brother. He was acting like a lackey.

"You're a thief with dreams and ambitions. Be more assertive!"

Shen Qi realized what he was doing wrong, too.

He had fallen into a common trap for extras: instinctively making himself part of the background.

His part might not be as big as Sha Yi's, but Ji Wuming and Bai Zhantang had grown up as equals. There was no pecking order between them.

If there had been, Bai Zhantang could simply have ordered him to give up crime.

He wouldn't have needed to send his "Little Ji" to prison.

Once Shen Qi adjusted his mindset, his lines flowed much better.

Shang Jing also discovered that his delivery was unexpectedly solid. Sitcoms recorded sound on set, so the demands on dialogue were exacting.

Without post-production dubbing to cover for them, every line an actor spoke, every shift in tone, would be captured.

Shen Qi's delivery pleased the director, and Shang Jing grew much more patient with him. During rehearsals, he often stopped to explain the scene to him step by step.

"Go where? You're just going to leave those huge chests of dowry behind?" Ji Wuming gave his accomplice a disdainful look. "I thought you'd already got your hands on them!"

"I'm telling you, we'd better not touch that money!"

Sha Yi had clearly got the rhythm of sitcom acting down. Most of his shots were done in one take.

"Why not?"

Shen Qi's eyes went wide, full of guileless stupidity.

"Didn't we agree? No weddings, no funerals..."

As Sha Yi spoke the line, he suddenly realized something was off.

But he didn't stop filming.

The crew was so poor they wished they could use both sides of the film. If they could avoid another take, they had to.

Only after they finished the scene did Sha Yi quietly approach the director.

"Hang on. I was the one who suggested this job. I had my eye on Shopkeeper Tong's luminous pearl, and she was still in her wedding dress with her veil on. So why does this line make me sound..."

"Like a hypocrite?"

The director saw it too.

"Exactly!"

Sha Yi scratched his head.

If you'd cast someone ugly and sleazy as my childhood friend, I could kill him off without a second thought.

But you brought in this good-looking, polite guy, and now I can't quite bring myself to do it.

Shang Jing spread his hands and smiled helplessly.

"It's not the first little plot hole. Haven't you seen how much hair the writer's lost? To hit the episode count the investors wanted, and to pay the mortgage, they stretched a forty-episode script to eighty. It hasn't been easy."

Sha Yi sighed along with him. "And then there's Shopkeeper Tong's thunder bomb. I was supposed to throw it behind me, but I picked it up and hurled it at my brother instead."

Perhaps feeling a little guilty, Sha Yi made a point of putting some food in Shen Qi's bowl at lunch.

Shen Qi finally understood why they hadn't filmed the eating scene that morning.

The props for that scene were their packed lunches.

If they filmed it early, what would everyone eat?

He had to admire a crew like this. They squeezed every last drop out of every yuan.

"This is Yu Entai, and this is Yao Chen. This is Shen Qi, who's playing Little Ji."

Sha Yi introduced Shen Qi to the two actors who had just arrived.

Yu Entai nodded casually.

It wasn't that he was arrogant.

Actors came and went from the crew all the time. New faces showed up every few days, worked for a while, then left. He was used to brief introductions like this.

Yao Chen, on the other hand, looked Shen Qi over several times.

Wei Jianguo had said Shen Qi was a natural-born king of male escorts, fatally attractive to women.

It would have been stranger if she hadn't looked.

Of course, she only dared steal a few glances. Yao Chen had a family, after all.

Her husband's family had considerable connections in the industry.

Her mother-in-law worked at Xi'an Film Studio as both a director and a screenwriter, while her husband's grandfather was a veteran cinematographer there. It was a film family through and through.

Yao Chen's first television drama, The Magic Whip, had come about through her future mother-in-law's connections.

Yao Chen had also been placed on the cast of Urban Men and Women.

And the director of Urban Men and Women was Shang Jing—the same man now directing My Own Swordsman.

Shen Qi's scene with Yu Entai was simple.

He tricked Yu Entai into the back courtyard, knocked him out, and disguised himself as an inn worker.

Just then, Yao Chen arrived looking for a room.

He hadn't intended to let her stay, but she was far too generous.

She handed over two silver ingots in one go!

Yao Chen might have had connections, but her acting was genuinely good. She made Guo Furong come vividly alive.

Shen Qi had a hard time keeping up with her.

Fortunately, Shang Jing had a good temper.

He was the kind of director who would demonstrate a scene for an actor himself.

Take this scene, for example.

"After Yao Chen says, 'Hey, wait. Don't tell anyone I was here,' give her a dismissive look and reply, 'Like I know who you are.' Got it?"

"Got it, got it. Oh—'Like I know who you are'?"

After that, the scene went smoothly.

Shen Qi had been a sports student, but he had taken the university entrance exam in Shandong and earned a place in a popular program at Beijing Sport University. He was hardly all brawn and no brains.

His grasp of the material and his ability to follow directions were both excellent, which made coaching him rewarding for Shang Jing.

When Sha Yi entered, Shen Qi was hauling Yu Entai up and stuffing him into a well.

He looked downright ruthless!

The two brothers argued again, but ultimately agreed not to kill anyone.

Next, Yao Chen came downstairs looking for food. Sha Yi immobilized her with a touch to her pressure point, and Shen Qi hoisted her onto his shoulder and dumped her in the kitchen.

There was nothing romantic about it.

She wasn't pretty, her figure was nothing special, and she was as skinny as kindling.

By the time they finished filming those scenes, it was past ten at night. The day's shoot was finally over.

A staff member took Shen Qi to the dormitory.

The place might have been tucked away in the mountains, but the rooms were spacious. At last, he had a room to himself.

He was still unpacking when someone suddenly started pounding on the door.

Sha Yi poked his head in. "Come on, let's go take a bath!"

Jiang Chao, Xiao Jian, and Fan Ming were behind him.

All of them were actors.

Though Shen Qi only had a small part, he had been included in the actors' bath group.

"Take a bath where?" Shen Qi asked, stunned.

Isn't this a film crew? Aren't you all stars? What's with making plans to bathe together?

A few buddies crammed into a tiny bathroom, scrubbing one another's backs?

That's an image I never want to see!