The adjustments discussed during the table read were quickly implemented in the actual filming.
Over the next two days, the crew's filming schedule continued to push forward.
First was the Sonic Murder Case.
In the abandoned village morgue set, the lighting crew lowered the overhead lights, leaving only a cold beam of light filtering through a gap in the window.
The props team repeatedly touched up the makeup on the corpse's chest and skull. Before each of Jiang Yue's blockings, he had to wait for the staff to readjust the corpse's posture.
The clapper loader reminded the actor playing the corpse to get into character, while the makeup artist took advantage of the last few moments to apply a layer of cold sweat to Jiang Yue.
As Lu Ji examined the deceased, his fingers had barely touched the shattered skull when a burning sensation surged within his body.
His face turned pale, and his fingers gripped the edge of the autopsy table. The wooden rim dug red marks into his fingertips, and he almost lost control of himself.
“Cut.”
He Chuan stood up from behind the monitor and first asked, “Jiang Yue, is your hand okay?”
“I'm fine.”
Jiang Yue released his grip and stretched his fingers. Looking down at the red marks on his fingertips, he realized he had actually used real force just now.
Old Hong also walked over and reminded him, “You don't need to actually dig in for this shot. Just showing tension in your fingers is enough. What the camera needs is your emotional state.”
Jiang Yue acknowledged the advice.
Once an actor got into character, their physical reactions would sometimes outrun their conscious mind. It was precisely during times like these that they had to rely on the on-site staff to remind them in a timely manner.
According to the script, at that exact moment, the Zhuo Martial Arts expert sent by Xie Wuheng to scout nearby would sense the aura and immediately send word back to the Grand Tutor's Residence.
After this scene was filmed, Jiang Yue did not leave immediately.
He stood to the side and watched the playback to make sure his state before and after would transition smoothly, before going to change into his next costume.
The crew took this time to adjust the corpse's position in the morgue, preparing to shoot a few close-ups in the afternoon.
After finishing the close-ups for the Sonic Murder Case, the crew moved on to the Mechanism Massacre Case the next day.
This time, the hidden passage inside the mountain was not shot on location but was built as a practical set inside the studio.
The narrow corridor was paved with wooden boards and gravel, and several retractable hidden weapon mechanisms were installed on the walls. The depth of the mountain and the crevices in the distance would be added later in post-production.
The action choreography team first had the stunt doubles run through it twice to confirm the launch angles of the hidden weapons, and Old Hong marked several safe landing spots for Jiang Yue.
Trapped in the hidden passage of mechanisms, Lu Ji continuously calculated the direction of the traps' triggers, barely dodging the hidden weapons as he fled outward.
He reached the exit, but heard someone crying for help from deep within the passage.
A look of struggle flashed across Lu Ji's face. The exit was right before his eyes; with just one more step, he could save his own skin first.
His medicine box had just been knocked down by a mechanism and was wedged on the inner side of the stone steps. To make matters worse, the cries for help continued to echo intermittently from the depths of the passage.
Lu Ji gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath.
The next moment, he turned and rushed back into the hidden passage.
At the critical moment, he anticipated the location of the mechanism's next strike and dragged the trapped person away, dodging a fatal blow.
During the filming process, Jiang Yue rolled repeatedly across the narrow ground.
After every take, the staff would first check his protective gear before collecting and resetting the scattered hidden weapons.
By the end, Jiang Kaiwen was already standing at the exit, holding water and a towel, ready to hand them over the moment Jiang Yue emerged.
“How many more takes do we need for this scene?” Jiang Kaiwen asked Old Hong, who was standing nearby.
Old Hong wasn't sure either.
He could offer advice on the action choreography, but how the shots would ultimately be filmed depended on the director's judgment.
He simply replied, “We'll have to see what Director He says.”
Jiang Kaiwen turned to look toward the monitor. “So, it's still undecided.”
This was the first time Jiang Kaiwen had accompanied a crew for such a large-scale production since becoming Jiang Yue's manager.
He knew that doing many takes didn't mean the actor was performing poorly. Most of the time, it was because the framing and the blocking of the extras needed to be refined, especially in scenes involving mechanisms, which were inherently time-consuming.
Jiang Yue patted him on the shoulder without saying anything.
He knew Jiang Kaiwen wasn't unable to understand the filming process; it was just that watching him roll out of the hidden passage over and over made it hard for Jiang Kaiwen to remain completely calm.
Jiang Yue understood that the crew had to worry about the schedule, but what Jiang Kaiwen focused on was never whether the shot passed, but whether Jiang Yue would get hurt or exhausted.
Hearing this kind of worry too much could sometimes sound like nagging, but once on set, Jiang Yue couldn't just ignore it.
In the following plot, Xie Wuheng was in no hurry to make a move. He only had his shadow guards record all of Lu Ji's reactions, from entering the hidden passage, to turning back to save the person, to his escape.
After filming, He Chuan spliced the shots together to confirm if the rhythm of the mechanisms and the character's emotional state aligned.
With the two investigation arcs filmed, Lu Ji, the rogue physician from the streets, was pushed deeper into the vortex.
The Changle Ward murder case was merely the trigger. With the Sonic Murder Case and the Mechanism Massacre Case occurring one after another, Lu Ji also gradually figured out his Xuan Pivot power during his repeated escapes from pursuers.
He combined his Xuan Pivot energy with autopsy and bone examination, gradually forming a unique style of medical-martial combat.
This style of combat was not suited for direct confrontations.
Lu Ji first had to identify where his opponent's force was directed, then utilize the terrain, bones, mechanisms, or sudden bursts of energy to carve out a path to survival.
He still hadn't truly learned a complete martial art, but he began to possess his own means of survival.
Once Xie Wuheng confirmed Lu Ji's value, his gaze finally fell upon this originally unremarkable rogue physician.
For Jiang Yue, the difficulty of his performance increased accordingly.
What they were going to film this afternoon was a major scene where Lu Ji was pursued by a Zhuo Martial Arts expert in the wilderness and fought back on horseback.
The previous forest scene was a pure escape, but in this scene, he had to fight while riding a horse. He needed to control his center of gravity while executing weapon movements. This scene was designed to show the audience the growth of Lu Ji's combat prowess.
The equestrian instructor and the stuntmen had already traversed the dirt road several times.
Any gravel on the ground that could trip the horses had been cleared away, and marker poles were placed at several turnings.
The props team had prepared weapons of several different weights to make it easier to adjust based on the actor's movements and the horse's condition.
“Jiang Yue, the equestrian instructor and the stuntmen have already run through this scene a few times.”
He Chuan pointed to the dirt road in the distance with his walkie-talkie.
“You'll do the first half and the close-ups where we can see your face. Once we get to the large-scale combat movements on horseback, we'll swap in a stunt double. The risks of fighting on horseback are too high; there's no need to take chances with wide shots.”
Jiang Yue looked at the dirt road, his brow twitching slightly.
He had practiced horse riding before joining the cast, but it was only basic training. There was a whole set of center-of-gravity shifts between riding a horse and fighting on horseback.
If even a single link went wrong, the horse's movements would completely throw off the actor's rhythm.
He didn't reject the use of stunt doubles, nor did he intend to make a joke of safety.
Showing off sounded passionate and brave, but if he actually fell, the entire crew's call sheet would have to be rescheduled, and that wouldn't be passionate at all.
However, many dramas nowadays had editing issues due to the use of stunt doubles during action scenes.
A close-up would show the lead actor's face, but when it cut to a wide shot, the double's build, shoulder width, and even hairline wouldn't match.
Jiang Yue could already visualize the scenes once the finished drama aired.
The audience wouldn't care how difficult the choreography of the scene was; they would just screenshot that specific frame, add arrows and red circles, and repeatedly ask: “Who is this?”
Once such continuity errors were noticed by the audience, they would ultimately become “hilarious viral moments” repeatedly screenshotted by netizens, which would also damage the overall quality of the production.
What he truly minded was that parts which could clearly be completed within a controllable range would end up being edited into fragmented, spliced-together footage.
Yet the current quality of 《The Pivot Bone》 was clearly excellent.
Jiang Yue lowered his gaze to look at the marker poles on the ground, then turned to look at the horse that the equestrian instructor had already led to the starting point.
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