In the dead of night, the silence was broken by the sound of wheels rolling over a stone-paved road.
A carriage pulled by four Griffins raced down Chrysanthemum Street.
The driver was a bald man with brownish-red skin, his head nodding unconsciously as he dozed off.
The fog was so thick that even the Griffins couldn't see the road clearly.
Suddenly, a dark red object appeared ahead. The Griffins couldn't avoid it in time and crashed right into it.
"THUD!"
The carriage rolled over the thing, its wheels slamming hard onto the ground. The vehicle had what could generously be called no suspension system, and the violent jolt startled the driver awake. He hastily grabbed the reins.
He first glanced around nervously. Seeing no one else on the street, he breathed a sigh of relief, then picked up the oil lamp from the carriage to check what he had just hit.
He clutched a club in his hand just in case, edged step by step toward the site of the collision, and illuminated it with his lamp. It was a red Sub-Dragon. He poked it with the club. No reaction.
He quickly returned to the carriage and drove away.
The street returned to silence.
The fog grew even thicker.
Suddenly, the Sub-Dragon lying on the ground began to twitch. The convulsions grew more and more violent until it rose to its feet in a contorted posture.
Its eyes were a ghastly white, its veins bulged, and it bared its fangs.
"Cut!" Elsa shouted through a megaphone.
The on-set Lighting Technique activated, and Furin dispelled the smoke on set and the Illusion on Zog.
The bald man with brownish-red skin—Soron, of course—trotted back, leading his Griffins.
He spoke with an excited tone, "Director, how was it? I feel my performance was still lacking. I had a new insight on the way back. How about we shoot it again..."
In the distance, Toto, the production assistant, whispered to Yuno, "Isn't he a Legendary Mage? How did you guys trick him into filming this?"
"We didn't trick him," Yuno replied while directing the Ghost Cameras. "We just told him he could run over Zog. He showed up after that, super eager. He brought his own carriage, and I hear those Griffins were a gift from the Royal Family. He's usually too protective of them to even use them as mounts."
Toto was speechless. Ever since she was recruited by Zog, her understanding of the world of the powerful had been repeatedly shattered.
She originally thought these powerful figures were all serious and cold, but an Ancient Dragon and a Legendary Mage had worn away most of her reverence for them.
That Legendary Illusionist she'd never seen before wasn't very normal either.
He carried a small notebook and would start drawing in it whenever he had a free moment. She couldn't understand his drawings at all; they were either a jumbled mess of lines or just random ink splatters he flicked onto the page.
The world, it seemed, was just one big amateur troupe.
In the end, they filmed another take of the scene.
It wasn't to satisfy Soron's desire to run over a Dragon, but mainly because Zog was dissatisfied with his own performance.
He hadn't expected acting to be so exhausting.
The original plan was to just run over some ordinary animal, enough to show the audience that a plot crisis could erupt at any moment.
There were no animal rights organizations here. If an animal died on set, it died. It would just be an extra meal for the crew.
However, Zog insisted on killing himself off in the story, calling it an "easter egg" and a tribute to a director he greatly admired.
After some discussion, everyone agreed to place his scene here.
This was also the last scene that needed to be filmed in Twin Tower City. Afterward, everyone would be heading to this world's first film production base—Shudian.
The other actors had already gone to the island a week ago for some basic training: learning how to use the various tools needed for filming and getting used to being around a horde of Undead attached to cameras.
Zog had brought the entire Mixed Giant Beast Corps with him. Aside from a few main actors, the rest served as extras and handled various odd jobs.
Also doing odd jobs were the students from the academy's magical dodgeball club. Their scenes could have been finished in a day, but they all chose to hang around on the island and work. They didn't want any pay; all they asked for was an internship certificate.
"Holy Mountain Journey, Crystal Stone 7, Scene 35, Shot 12, Take 6. Action."
As Toto clapped the slate, the entire crew sprang into action.
This scene was the first part of the male lead—a Half-Beastman and dodgeball player—rushing to the rescue after learning his family was trapped by zombies in a train car lavatory.
It was a very difficult scene to shoot. It used dozens of actors, and unlike a simple zombie chase, this required them to fight the main characters. The blocking was demanding, and the camera needed to capture a sense of motion.
The Half-Beastman took the lead, launching a flying kick at the first zombie in front of him.
"Stop."
He had only just completed the first move when the filming was halted.
"The fight choreography looks too fake."
Zog was getting annoyed. This was already the sixth take of the same shot.
Unlike simple dialogue scenes, restarting this scene required a lot of prep work each time.
Still, it was understandable that the Half-Beastman actor was being tentative. After all, the zombie actors were actual patients, and no one wanted them to get hurt during filming.
What could be done?
He could change the choreography, making the movements smaller and easier to control.
But that would seriously diminish the tension, making it look even more like "play-acting."
There was a workaround: add a lot of quick cuts to compensate for the lack of power in the movements. Hollywood often did this when filming action scenes with actors who lacked fundamental skills. It looked impressive at first glance but didn't hold up to close scrutiny.
If only he had an action director from the Cheng Family Class or the Zhen Family Class right about now.
While he was hesitating, the actor who was supposed to be kicked down found Elsa and pleaded, "Just tell the Half-Beastman gentleman to use his full strength. I can take it, no problem."
From his expression, it was clear he thought he was the one delaying the shoot and felt guilty about it, afraid he might lose his job.
People with low self-esteem always tend to blame themselves, offering unnecessary apologies.
"Actually, you could ask Soron, or even one of his students," Furin said, seeing Zog's dilemma. "Your plans never seem to start from a magical perspective. If you're worried about the actors getting hurt, why not just cast Protective Magic on them?"
"Er..."
Zog thought about it. That actually made sense. It was his own lack of magical knowledge to blame.
Back when he was a Juvenile Dragon, he had been slower than the other Dragons at learning how to breathe fire. He'd even tried storing flammable liquid in his stomach and holding a flint in his mouth to achieve chemical-based flame-breathing.
Why Zog could only manage two puffs of fire was once one of the great unsolved mysteries among the Juvenile Dragons.
Of course, he still had to act tough in front of Furin.
"I actually thought of that ages ago. I was just testing you."
Two hours later, one of Soron's students, who was in desperate need of course credit, arrived at Shudian.
After a transparent Shield was cast on every actor who had a close-up of being hit, the results were immediate and dramatic.
This type of Shield completely covered the body, even preserving the physical deformation caused by a blow, but it prevented any actual damage.
Visually, every punch looked like it landed with solid impact. This was a level of performance that even Earth's mature film industry couldn't achieve.
It wasn't very scientific, but it was very magical. Zog suspected that everyone in this world actually had a hidden health bar; as long as the Shield wasn't broken, attacks would register but deal no damage.
At the same time, the student also brought another great tool: sound-recording magic. Its audio capture quality blew all of Earth's on-location sound equipment out of the water.
Apparently, due to the increased demand for eavesdropping during the war, sound-recording Magic began to iterate like crazy. Now it was being used to film Shadows of Evil—a classic case of military technology being converted for civilian use in this Otherworld.
With the help of the defensive Magic, efficiency skyrocketed. In less than a month, filming was already entering its final stages.