Chapter 4: Starting the Shoot

At the Clear Water Bay Shaw Studios, the entire main cast and crew of The Matrix gathered together.

Besides the previously agreed Wu Yan Zu, Li Meiqi, Gao Xiong, and Yuan De, there was also Zheng Peipei playing the Oracle, Yuan Hua portraying the traitor, Zheng Jiaosheng as one of the crew members, as well as the assistant director, cinematographer, composer, art director, costume designer, prop master, lighting technician, and other staff.

After holding a ceremony to worship the deity statue, the film officially commenced shooting.

Considering that Wu Yan Zu and Li Meiqi had no acting experience, Jiang Heng decided to start with the easier scenes, beginning with relatively simple indoor and dialogue scenes before moving on to the cool action sequences.

On the first day they shot the male lead's indoor scenes, namely the scenes where the male lead appears as a programmer on the surface but secretly works as a hacker.

It must be said, Wu Yan Zu truly deserves to become a star; besides his outstanding looks, his acting talent is also extremely high.

At first he was not yet accustomed, but soon he could present the effect Jiang Heng wanted.

After a day of shooting, the progress was actually not bad.

The next day, they began shooting the scenes where the male lead goes to meet the Oracle.

Zheng Peipei, who played the Oracle, is over fifty; her acting skills are beyond reproach, and she was once the leading lady of Xianggang's film circle, having been crowned the "Martial Arts Film Queen" by Xianggang media.

Playing an Oracle like a godmother posed little difficulty for her.

It's just that the lines are too abstruse, making everyone on set secretly worry, lest they end up filming a movie that no one can understand!

Out of confidentiality needs, nobody on set knew what story Jiang Heng intended to film.

Even the male and female leads Wu Yan Zu and Li Meiqi saw only a fragment, not the full picture of the script.

As for the other cast and crew, they knew even less.

Fortunately, many films in Xianggang are made by directors shooting and writing on the fly, and the actors are accustomed to this workflow; even without a script or understanding the background, relying solely on the director's instructions can still produce decent results.

The crew worked like this every day, progressing rapidly, and soon they had finished most of the indoor scenes.

The remaining parts, Jiang Heng decided to shoot last, because they required shaving the head.

In the film, the male lead first escapes the Matrix world, discovering that humans are actually being farmed by robots; to obtain energy, the robots insert cables into human bodies, confining people in petri dishes, and construct a horrifying "biological farm".

This visual is still quite shocking and terrifying, requiring post-production completion with a Super Microcomputer, but each petri dish still needed to be filmed live.

Especially the male lead inside, with his upper body bare and his head completely bald.

Upon learning he had to shave his head, Wu Yan Zu did not explicitly refuse, but showed a troubled expression.

At this point he was not yet that highly dedicated big star; he was simply taking a tentative attitude toward participating in the film.

Being at an age when he cared about his looks, having him shave a big bald head was too hard to accept.

"Um, could we leave just a little?" Wu Yan Zu gestured with his hand.

Jiang Heng said: "No, this shot—having hair versus no hair gives a completely different feeling!"

Yuan De beside him rubbed his own big bald head and chuckled: "My big bald head is just fine, too bad I can't substitute for him!"

Yuan Hua then said: "How about using a head cap?"

During the prosperous era of Xianggang's film and television industry, popular actors usually had several film contracts, making it basically impossible to shave their heads for a single role.

When filming period dramas, not shaving the head and using a head cap became standard practice.

Wu Yan Zu also had some awareness, subconsciously glancing at Jiang Heng.

"Definitely not!"

"Then, okay!"

Seeing Wu Yan Zu agree rather reluctantly, Jiang Heng thought it over, used a Super Microcomputer to draw a concept sketch of the male lead's first escape from the Matrix, transferred it to his notebook, printed it out, and handed it to Wu Yan Zu.

The latter, knowing the plot outline, saw a bald man soaking in a petri dish with various tubes attached to his body, and felt it was even more shocking than having hair.

"Sorry, Director Jiang, I……"

Jiang Heng laughed and waved his hand: "I understand your thoughts; you didn't refuse me, so there's no need to apologize!"

Actually, even if Jiang Heng didn't explain, he could still achieve the goal just as well.

But he still produced the concept sketch, mainly because he didn't want to, like Xingye, for the sake of better film effects and more colorful roles, make the actors do things they were unwilling to do.

Although his approach benefited many actors for life, he was still labeled a set tyrant.

Jiang Heng wouldn't stay in Xianggang for long, but the Matrix quartet still needed Wu Yan Zu's cooperation for filming, so it was naturally unwise to strain their relationship.

The martial arts instructor and main antagonist Yuan De, seeing the sketch in Wu Yan Zu's hand, was greatly surprised: "How, how was this drawn?"

Jiang Heng said: "With a computer!"

"Good grief, are computers nowadays this powerful?" Yuan De touched his own big bald head, looking quite amazed.

Jiang Heng laughed: "In the future, they'll be even more powerful!"

Yuan De said: "The future world won't really develop like that in the movie, will it?"

Jiang Heng said: "Perhaps we are already living in the Matrix world right now!"

"Then I'd rather keep living in the virtual world than take the red pill!" Yuan De lamented.

"So you're an antivirus program, meant to maintain the Matrix, right?" Wu Yan Zu chuckled.

Yuan De: "With just you wanting to defeat me, you still need to train hard!"

Wu Yan Zu laughed: "Yes, we need to train properly!"

Today's scene, still an indoor one, has upgraded from dialogue to martial arts, filming the original version where Morpheus teaches the male lead combat.

Because there weren't overly flashy shots, the live shooting mainly relied on the two actors' fight and wire work to complete it.

Wu Yan Zu had practiced martial arts in his youth and had once studied at the Shichahai Martial Arts School in Jingcheng, so the combat routines were not difficult for him.

As for Gao Xiong, he is a veteran actor; his portrayal of the great hero Huo Yuanjia in the 1995 TV series Jingwu Gate is extremely classic.

Under Jiang Heng's demands and Yuan De's action design, the male lead's martial arts scenes were also completed smoothly.

After several consecutive days of work, these were quite common filming techniques, and the crew couldn't help but start gossiping.

Claiming that Jiang Heng wanted to shoot a special-effects blockbuster surpassing Haolaiwu was just hype; in the end it was still just wire work, with nothing particularly special to be seen.

As all kinds of gossip spread, even the actors began to doubt.

Yuan De, Yuan Hua, and the others didn't care whether Jiang Heng was filming a special-effects blockbuster; they just took the money and got to work.

Li Meiqi, however, fantasized about becoming famous overnight thanks to this movie, and no longer living the days of before.

Furthermore, being new to the film and television industry, her acting was inexperienced, and many simple scenes kept getting NG.

Jiang Heng had to make time to talk with Li Meiqi to find out what was wrong with her condition.

Upon learning that the entire crew suspected his special-effects blockbuster was just a gimmick, Jiang Heng decided to first put together a classic scene, which could serve as the movie's trailer.

(End of chapter)