Donald saw this scene and raised his eyebrows slightly.
Cesare pointed out the first scene to be filmed, and asked Donald and Jiang Se to memorize the positions and rehearse the movements several times. Several scenes with blizzards needed to be filmed before the snow stopped.
Laura's eyes were always looming over Jiang Se, looking at him with ill intent.
Before Jiang Se came out of the set, Mo Anqi had wrapped her tightly in a thick down jacket, and a cashmere scarf covered her mouth and half of her face. But when Jiang Se came out, she was blown by the wind and instinctively staggered back, and she could hardly open her eyes.
The winter temperatures in northern Italian cities are colder than in the capital, and the harsh climate increases the difficulty of filming.
Mo Anqi recalled the previous situation and felt both happy and a little worried:
"That Hollywood sweetheart's behavior should really be shown to her fans. She is so embarrassed." She straightened Jiang Se's scarf, her feet shivering from the cold:
"But will she deliberately make things difficult for you during the subsequent filming?"
Jiang Se smiled and shook her head. Xia Chaoqun stuffed an electric hand warmer into her hands and covered them. "I don't have many scenes. It will only take about a month at most." Even if reshoots are needed later, she won't be with her for long. On the surface, this Hollywood sweetheart is also cautious. So when she was ridiculed by Jiang Se in front of Cesare and Borgia, she swallowed her anger and smiled. With her ability, she could only do some small actions in private:
"Don't worry, just be a little careful."
As for some verbal hostility, Jiang Se didn't take it to heart at all.
During the break on the second day, Jiang Se stayed in the hotel to memorize the script. In terms of spoken pronunciation, she tried her best to follow the invited translator. Her spoken pronunciation tended to imitate the feeling of ancient Latin. She would often recite a simple line over and over again ten times, or even more than ten times, repeating the same thing without any boredom.
The language teacher Jiang Se hired was a very rigorous scholar. He admired Jiang Se's character very much and tried to be strict with him during teaching. Jiang Se was able to communicate in simple Italian in just a few months, and this scholar played an indispensable role in this.
The day passed quickly, and in order to get enough energy for the next day, Jiang Se went to bed early.
The shooting time was after 4pm, but because of makeup and styling, Jiang Se arrived at the set in the morning.
It snowed last night and the staff on the set were checking the equipment. When Jiang Se arrived, the makeup artist had not come yet. Many people were surprised that she came early.
After saying hello, Jiang Se came to the place that Cesare had pointed out earlier. The character she played, Shireen, would walk along this path to the door of the church and collapse due to exhaustion.
The path is now covered with snow, and the snow has not even reached my feet. I can imagine that when we start shooting in the afternoon, the snow will definitely be above my feet.
Jiang Se walked along the path and tried to find the feeling several times.
When Donald's car drove into the set, he saw Jiang Se staggering in the snow from afar. She was like a pedestrian lost in a snowstorm, stumbling in the snow. Her agent, assistant and others stood far away, holding her water bottle, scarf and other things.
As the leading actor of this scene, Donald naturally noticed that the path Jiang Se walked was the direction that Cesare pointed out the day before. She should be practicing, forcing her body to memorize this memory to avoid mistakes in the subsequent filming and affect the progress of the filming.
Not knowing how long she had been there, Donald stood for a while and saw that she had walked back and forth several times. The staff around her were coming in and out, as if they were accustomed to this scene. He squinted his eyes and recalled the dispute between this Chinese girl, who was personally selected by Cesare, and Laura after they met the day before. She behaved neither humble nor arrogant, and he couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth.
After she left the day before, Laura got angry at her assistant and scolded her for a long time. The loss of face in front of Mr. Borgia made this Hollywood sweetheart quite angry. In comparison, the Chinese girl seemed to be unaffected by the dispute that day.
"She's very nice, isn't she?" Cesare's voice rang in Donald's ears. Donald turned around and the two old friends greeted each other. Donald smiled and nodded slightly:
"Yes." He crossed his arms, "In fact, I thought I would be the first one to arrive on the set and rehearse the next scene first, but she obviously got there before me."
Jiang Se is very hardworking and diligent. Although Cesare knows that she has a good personality, after actually working with her, he feels quite surprised.
The environment on the set was not good, but Cesare believed that such a real environment would give the audience a much more realistic feeling than the performed expressions and post-production, so he insisted on shooting on location for several scenes. Even the meeting between Shireen and Andre was filmed in a northern city in Italy, and a snowy winter season was deliberately chosen.
The cold climate can make people feel a little uncomfortable. When many extras hadn't arrived yet, Jiang Se was able to arrive on the set long before and practice in the wind and snow, which made Cesare admire him even more.
"I think I understand why you insisted on using her in this play and did not hesitate to argue with Borgia." Donald had also seen Jiang Se's audition footage. She was very flexible in front of the camera, with good acting skills, and was obedient. Cesare asked her to practice fighting for half a year to enhance the persuasiveness of the character = Shireen, and she really followed the coach to train honestly. She was talented and hardworking.
When Cesare's movie was going to use Chinese actors, the investment company and many of Cesare's fans expressed confusion, but now Donald felt that he could understand why Cesare admired her.
There are many people with acting skills, like Laura Brown who plays Lanny. She has performed well in several Hollywood blockbusters. There are people who are suitable for the role of Shireen, but in addition to acting skills, Jiang Se also has the character and personality that Cesare likes.
Cesare laughed and patted him on the shoulder. When the two came over, Jiang Se had already practiced for quite a while. She walked this short route repeatedly to make her body form a memory. In this way, when the filming officially started, even if she spent more time on her expression and thoughts, her body would remember the feeling of walking at this time, which would further enhance the real feeling of Shireen falling injured at the door of the church after suppressing the heretics in "God's Redemption".
This scene needs to be shot before the afternoon, as the scenes with Laura and the other two will be shot in the early morning of tomorrow.
Jiang Se walked back and forth in the snow for more than an hour. As soon as Donald arrived, she put on her makeup first.
Shilin is a loyal believer of the temple. The crew prepared a set of soft leather armor for Jiang Se. The crew consulted professionals and sewed this leather armor according to Jiang Se's figure. It is very light and thin, and can highlight the figure, but the only drawback at this time is that it cannot withstand the severe ice and snow in cold weather.
Before putting on the leather armor, Mo Anqi tore off the heating pads and stuck them on Jiang Se's lower abdomen, vest, etc.
I didn't dare to stick too many on it, for fear that it would affect the wearing of the leather armor later.
It was so cold in the dressing room that even the makeup artist and others who were wearing thick down jackets still had cold fingers. After Jiang Se put on her leather armor, she couldn't sit down to put on her makeup because of the special nature of the outfit, so the makeup artist had to let her stand.
Two hours later, Jiang Se appeared in front of Cesare as a heroic female knight holding a long sword.
Judging from her appearance, she now looked very much like Shireen as imagined by Cesare, with a slender, flexible and strong figure and a thin and tight waist. Her similarity with Shireen in Cesare's manuscript reached more than 90%.
What pleased Cesare was her expression.
The makeup artist did not use exaggerated techniques to outline her eyebrows and eyes, retaining her own characteristics. She has a cool temperament, and her eyebrows are slightly modified to show a strong shape.
Perhaps because of the cold, her skin was as white as snow, but the bloodstains and scars on her face could not hide her pair of clear black and white eyes. Her expression was firm and her eyes were fanatical. The image of a fanatical believer who was willing to sacrifice herself for the Holy See appeared in front of Cesare.
"OK."
Cesare made a gesture, and after Jiang Se's makeup was passed, Donald's was also completed. Compared to Jiang Se's slightly complicated look, Donald's was much simpler. His changes were not big. He changed into a bishop's robe. The changes in his hairstyle and makeup made him look gentle and harmless, but with a bit of timidity and cowardice, and a feeling of frustration.
This was the windiest and snowiest day in Modena since the beginning of winter. Jiang Se staggered all the way through the snow.
The photographer holding a camera followed along the track and could clearly see that the blood plasma from the props hanging on her body oozed out at an extremely slow rate after being cut, and then solidified very quickly at the edge of her leather armor. In the cold weather, it turned to freezing point before it could drip down.
The filming of this section was not smooth. In the low temperature, problems occurred frequently. After several 'NG's, Cesare's expression was a little ugly, his brows were furrowed, and the atmosphere on the scene became solemn.
Jiang Se retreated once again. Her face was much paler than before, and the fatigue on her face was revealed in her brows. She gasped for breath, and her breath turned into white mist, which was clearly visible under the camera.
Her eyelashes were stained with frost and the tip of her nose was red from the cold. She held the sword tightly in her hand. Even when she felt it was extremely difficult to walk, she did not let go of the sword. Instead, she held it tighter, vividly presenting the image of a knight who had returned from an expedition, exhausted but determined.
The Holy See had received news earlier that heretics were gathering in the north, and she went there to eradicate them under the order of the temple.
Shireen joined the church when she was young. She was determined and a staunch believer of the Holy See, determined to give everything for God.
She succeeded, but because the heretics this time were not simple cultists, most of the knights who traveled with her died for the Church in that battle. Shireen is now the only survivor. From the process of eradicating the heretics this time, she learned an oracle, which the heretics called God's salvation.
When the prayer recites this oracle, the gods will appear in the world, bless everyone who calls him and fulfill his wishes.
Such news was so important that she dared not waste even a moment and wanted to rush back to the Vatican to inform the Pope.
But her injuries were also serious. After forcing herself to walk for so many days, she was no longer physically strong.
She had been walking for a long time in the wind and snow, and when she was exhausted, she looked up and saw the sign of a church in the small town.
This is a great encouragement to Shilin.
This strange town is located on the edge of the empire and is sparsely populated. The church stands alone in a corner of the town and looks a bit shabby.
Her footsteps were originally very heavy, and every time she put them down, people worried that she would not be able to lift them up again. Her body was shaking slightly, and the cold was driving away the little vitality and warmth in her body. She seemed to be frozen to death.
But when the old church appeared before her eyes, her distracted eyes gradually began to shine again. At this moment, Shireen's cheeks began to gain color at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In an instant, her withered body seemed to be injected with new vitality. Her hunched back even straightened up again. She also subconsciously tidied up her appearance. Her desire to face the church in the best condition was reflected in every subtle movement.
There is no long narrative, and no need for Cesare to explain repeatedly. At this moment, Shireen, played by Jiang Se, has revealed her beliefs and character in every detail of her performance, which is better than any words.
"Very good!" This segment was filmed smoothly, and Cesare raised his hand and made a gesture of praise. The smooth filming of this segment and Jiang Se's performance made Cesare forget the unhappiness caused by various delays before.
Mo Anqi ran up with a thick down jacket and draped it over Jiang Se's shoulders. Xia Chaoqun took the prop sword from her hand and handed her some ginger tea to ward off the cold. Jiang Se came close to Cesare and watched his previous performance to find his own shortcomings.
The next scene to be filmed was the meeting between Andre and Shilin. Jiang Se took a short break, warmed his hands, and got back into the mood.
The door of the church was open, which meant that God would not close the door to every believer. There should not be many believers in this church. When Shireen stumbled over, she first knelt down devoutly to kiss the threshold and the ground, and then knelt down to pray, thanking God for giving her a blessed place to shelter from the wind and rain in this snowstorm.
Andre heard the noise outside and when he came out he happened to see this poor and downtrodden knight.
Because the weather was too cold, two cameras malfunctioned in this scene, and the filming lasted until after two in the morning. When Cesare finally said it was okay, Jiang Se almost lost the feeling in his feet.
Laura and others who had a grudge against Jiang Se also came. They still had scenes to film in the early morning, but because Jiang Se and Donald's scene was not going well, their scenes were also delayed. This Hollywood sweetheart looked unhappy and turned to complain to her agent from time to time, looking at Jiang Se with disgust. (To be continued)