Zhang Zian received notice from the crew that today there would be scenes with fully-grown dogs in them, and he needed to be there to guide the crew.
To be honest, upon the moment of receiving the notice, he was quite excited. After all, this was his first official appearance on the crew, even though it was a crew with all males and there was no one for him to anticipate having a romantic relationship with.
Early that morning, he instructed Lu Yiyun to give him a call if she encountered any difficult customers, then he lead Famous and left the shop.
He took a taxi to Binhai Studios. When he arrived, Zhang Zian went straight to the previous white and gray courtyard which was being rented by the crew of Dog Warrior as a work area. Some scenes would be shot here.
At the gate of the courtyard was a shelter with a canopy, but no one was on guard in the sentry post because it was not yet time to film. On the door of the courtyard hung a sign that read: Xin'an City Police Dog Training Base.
Xin'an City was a fictional city on the western border in the Dog Warrior movie. Some of the scenes that included Lightning, who would be played by Famous, and other young police dogs would occur here. After shooting the storyline, the crew would capture the outdoor scenes of the western snow land, which was the setting in Binhai Studio, and post-production, the crew would combine the scenes to create the real snow-covered landscape on the western border.
"Brother Zhang!"
Someone called to Zhang Zian. He looked in the direction of the sound. It was Xiao Liu who was at the audition with him a few days ago.
Xiao Liu was wearing a police uniform, holding Red Dragon and Prince, and waiting for Zhang Zian. He and Xiao Wang were worried about the safety of their dogs if they simply left them here, so he preferred to come here when the shooting began and leave with them when the shooting ended for the day. But since they had no access to the crew, Xiao Liu met up with Zhang Zian here and handed the two police dogs over to him.
He handed the leashes to Zhang Zian and said, "Brother Zhang, please take care of Red Dragon and Prince!"
He thought their beloved dogs could be in danger from the film crew. Whether the danger came from the filming itself or was from the intentional inflict of someone, it would deeply upset him if either of the dogs got hurt.
During the filming of movies, even human actors could be unexpectedly injured, and news such as a celebrity falling off a horse was heard frequently, not to mention that it was almost inevitable for animal actors in a crew to get hurt. In some foreign animal films, there would be notices at the beginning or end that specifically stated, "No animals were injured in the filming process," and this gesture could be deemed as the ultimate humanistic concern for animals. But the crew of Dog Warrior was not able to do this, because even during the auditions, some dogs had gotten injured.
"Rest assured, I will try my best to take care of them," Zhang Zian comforted him. "From today forward, they will need to be on set almost every day. So that you don’t need to run back and forth, I will take them back to my pet shop after filming each day, and I won’t let them suffer any grievances."
Xiao Liu nodded, "Well, I believe you, Brother Zhang, because Captain Sheng told me about you. Well, I’m going back to the base now."
He turned to look back at Red Dragon and Prince after every step, as if he would never see them again.
After Xiao Liu got in a taxi and disappeared from view, Zhang Zian held the three German Shepherds and went into the courtyard.
Red Dragon and Prince were very obedient to Famous, and they did everything as Famous did. Although they were three fully-grown dogs, Zhang Zian didn’t feel it was difficult at all to pull them.
There were people coming and going in the courtyard. Some of them looked very familiar to Zhang Zian — they were probably crew members. Zhang Zian looked around to find someone to check him in.
"Mr. Zhang, over here!" Feng Xuan's assistant saw him from far away and called him over.
Zhang Zian led Famous and walked towards him.
"Mr. Zhang, have you read the script for what is being filmed today?" The assistant instructed him to follow him to the backyard as he spoke.
"Of course, I’ve read it several times! I can even recite it. Today we will shoot the scenes where Lightning is being trained in the training base, right?" Zhang Zian confirmed with him.
"Yes, today's scenes are not difficult, Mr. Zhang. Although this is your first time participating in a film, you should be fine… Oh, and this is your pass. You must wear it from now on." The assistant handed him a name tag with his photo and his position in the crew on it.
Zhang Zian put the name tag on his chest.
When they came to the backyard, Zhang Zian found that it was completely different from the day of the audition. When he first came here, it was bumpy with puddles and craters everywhere. Now, all the holes had been filled and the venue was flattened. There were a lot of dog training props such as bars, low walls, concrete pipes, balance beams, and rings of flames that had not yet been ignited on the ground.
There were already a dozen dogs waiting there, each led by a different dog trainer.
Feng Xuan was sitting in a soft chair. In front of him was a small coffee table with a monitor on it. He was holding a loudspeaker to instruct several actors how to act in the movie.
There were several cameras in the venue that were controlled by different videographers who were going to shoot from multiple angles.
As for other staff members responsible for the lights, setting, and sound effects, they were all in place, ready to shoot.
Zhang Zian looked around and did not see Guan Biao. After all, there were no explosion scenes today, so Guan Biao probably did not need to come in.
The assistant motioned him to the other direction and said, "The director is busy. Let me take you to see the leading actor, Lin Feng, and let your dog become familiar with him to avoid accidents during shooting."
He probably feared that Famous would bite Lin Feng in the filming process, but Zhang Zian did not worry about this. However, since Li Kun wanted to get an autographed picture of Lin Feng to gift to his mother, he might take this opportunity to get one for him.
The assistant led him to the temporary dressing trailers and smiled, "Fortunately, this is an all-male crew, so the makeup is much simpler. If there was a big-name actress in this film, the makeup process alone would take up to three hours."
There were two dressing trailers, a large one and a small one. The large one was shared publicly, and the small one was used exclusively by the few stars in the movie.
The assistant knocked on the door and did not open the door until he heard someone yell from inside, "Please come in!"
The dressing shed was very warm from the electric heater. An actor around 30 years old was sitting in front of the mirror, and a female make-up artist was applying products to his face. The two of them were conversing and smiled from time to time.
"Brother Lin, let me introduce you to Zhang Zian. He is the chief dog trainer hired by the crew, and this is his dog Famous, who will play the fully-grown Lightning in the movie. The other two dogs are Lightning’s costars," the assistant introduced passionately.
"Hello! Welcome to the crew! Sorry, I’m in the process of applying makeup, so I can’t really shake hands with you." Lin Feng did not have the pretentious attitude of a movie star. He was sizing up Zhang Zian and Famous through the cosmetic mirror.
"Hello, my name is Zhang Zian, and I’m the new dog trainer." Zhang Zian casually looked around the dressing trailer. It was messy and smelled of various cosmetics. There were some plastic heads wearing wigs, and the makeup artists would practice different makeup styles on their faces.
After measuring for a moment, Lin Feng curiously asked, "I heard what happened on that day of your audition. That was alarmingly dangerous… hey, let me ask you, how did your dog find the abnormality? The news has spread throughout the crew."
The assistant was also curious, waiting for Zhang Zian’s answer.
Zhang Zian expected that someone in the crew would have doubts, so he gave the answer he had prepared in advance: "You have heard that in subways, airports and concerts, there are special dogs to search for dangerous explosives. And my Famous has been trained to search for explosives. It smelled the explosives and detected the danger."
"Isn’t that amazing?" The female makeup artist paused what she was doing and began to look at Famous with interest, "How did the training work?"
"Sorry, that’s a business secret," replied Zhang Zian. "I will starve before I reveal it."
Famous was obediently squatting on the ground, as were Red Dragon and Prince.
When taking this movie opportunity, Lin Feng was concerned about being bit by dogs, but seeing that these three dogs were not aggressive, his mind was more or less at ease.
"This dog won’t bite people, right?" he asked in a half-joking manner.
"In the filming process, if it is required to bite something, it will bite. Apart from that, it will not bite people, please rest assured." Zhang Zian found that this minor celebrity was very approachable, and he also relaxed.