The making of Master Swordsman Lu Xiaofeng

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Making a television serial is hard work and the arduous process can be really long. More so if the series happens to be a mega production with stellar stars and laden with major problems. Eastciti speaks with the people behind the scenes as they recount the laborious process of the making of Master Swordsman Lu Xiaofeng.

[Eastciti.com, November 04] What do you think it would be like to film for three months non-stop on a no man's land in China? How would it feel to work for 12 hours a day for three consecutive months thousands of miles away from the comforts of home? Can't imagine yourself doing it? Well, that was what the crewmembers of the filming entourage of Master Swordsman Lu Xiaofeng did.

"It was really tough but it was exciting at the same time. For example, there was this time when during filming, we accidentally slit open the stomach of this horse and blood came gushing out. We tried our best to keep all the intestines in the stomach but in the end, the horse still died and we had to compensate the owner for it," said the crewmember who smiled slightly while recalling those exciting escapades.

China: Filming Problems
But interesting experiences aside, filming in China for Master Swordsman was really not all that smooth sailing. Despite managing to get a stellar stable of foreign stars which include Jimmy Lin, Fang Jiwei, Theresa Lee and Max Mok to grace the silver screen for the show, there were problems in getting a permit to film in China and as a result, the filming schedule was delayed. And the troubles did not stop there.

When MediaCorp Studios finally received a go-ahead for filming, the permit only allowed them to film the first 20 episodes of the series which was planned to be a 40-parter. Still, mindful of scheduling and budgeting, the production crew went ahead with the filming as they keep their fingers crossed that the permit for the latter 20 episodes will arrive by the time they finish their filming in three months time. Alas, when filming finally wrapped up at the end of three months, no permit came. The production crew and cast hung around for some time before they were slowly flown back to Singapore and began their long wait for filming to continue in Singapore.

Singapore: More Filming Problems
Back in Singapore, more problems cropped up. As the production was a collaboration with a production company in Taiwan and the Taiwanese production film has made prior arrangements with broadcasting stations in China and Hong Kong to hand over the series to them by a certain dateline, the lack of permit meant that MediaCorp Studios could not continue with filming and that both MediaCorp Studios and their Taiwanese partner could not hand in their work in time.

"We were then urged to carry on filming without the permit but that was illegal so we decided to hold to our stand and wait patiently for the permit," says MediaCorp Studios's Vice President, Mr Victor Lau. This incurred the wrath of the Taiwanese production company which then stopped sending funds over. And the ugly turn of events eventually turned into a potential court affair.

Even the artistes were not spared from all these bad luck. Poor Christopher Lee almost had his career put on hold. "Well, we took a few months to complete the filming. But because we were not sure when the permit will arrive and when I would be needed to complete the second part of the show thus, I could not accept any new roles," says Christopher who as a result of this turn of events had to give up the chance of acting in any serial for a whole year.

Also, Jimmy Lin, who plays Lu Xiaofeng in the serial could not commit for the filming of the second part of the series since he had not expected the delay and had already accepted other projects for the coming months. Thomas Ong who played Hua Manlou in Part 1 quit and there was also a problem of replacing both stars.

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