Filming was progressing well, and all of the changes Alex wanted to implement were getting done. The director and producer were obviously happy with the sets and props, and they never had problems with the team having the wrong props for the actors. The team had seemed a little unsure when Alex first showed up, but after working with him for a few weeks, they had decided that he was more than capable and deserving of the job.
On Trevor's side, his day started early with makeup, hair, costuming, and practicing choreography for the fights. The only days that felt difficult was after nights when he had bottomed for Alex. His back was always a little sore afterward, but by the time he made it to the set, it looked like to the others that he had everything under control, though he was teased a few times for needing ibuprofen after a scene.
They made sure that Trevor didn't bottom right before they were filming the biggest fight scene, wanting him at his best. They filmed the first part, where they were on more even ground, first. That part was before they would be adding blood onto the clothes, so they wanted to make sure that scene was done first.
"Cut," the director called after they did as close to a perfect take as they could. "Alright, bloody them up for me."
When they came back into the set, this time with blood put in places where they were supposed to be injured, they were on a set that would include jumping around. It was split into three layers of large, grand steps, with enough of a jump that Trevor was a little nervous.
"You have the choreography down, you'll be fine," their fighting instructor told Trevor. Trevor gave a nod and glanced over at where Alex was having his team get any props they needed ready. Alex could see the nerves in Trevor's eyes. He considered asking the director to skip the shot, but Alex realized he didn't have that kind of authority on this set, nor did he have the relationship with this director that he had enjoyed on the set of Extracurricular. Alex smiled encouragingly, inwardly worried for Trevor's safety.
Once the actors were on set, the director called for action, and Trevor and Leander were in motion. Trevor took the first jump away from Leander alright, landing solidly and running to the edge before he turned around. There was dialogue here and there, which they hit perfectly.
They were fighting with swords, and while their rehearsals were all with wooden or blunted ones, they had sharp ones now. They just had to be careful to hit their parts right because they could easily cut each other. Leander accidentally hit too hard when he threw Trevor's sword from his hand, leaving a cut along his arm behind. Trevor winced but stayed in character, turning to look at where his sword had fallen behind him on the lowest floor.
Small injuries like this could happen on set, and Trevor didn't want to stop filming just to handle it.
Leander had backed up, and Trevor ran toward him, making Leander's character look a little startled because he hadn't been expecting it. Instead of attacking though, Trevor went down, sliding across the stone floor and under Leander's legs. Once he was past Leander, he turned his body so he finished the slide on his knees and got back up. They shot this scene a few times, making sure Trevor's slide was smooth. He had padding on his knees to make sure they could handle this part.
Once the director was sure they had that down, he told them they'd shoot the jump, and called action. Trevor backed up and took a running jump off the edge to the final floor, running past Leander before launching himself off the ledge, sailing through the air as the cameras followed him.
This was a farther drop, and he had more speed behind him. When he landed, his knee gave out. Trevor realized what was happening, as the pain that spread through his knee, as well as the weakness, was apparent to him pretty quickly, so he went down into a roll instead. It wasn't perfectly smooth, but it was believable for the character. Everyone on set was tense as they watched, because the roll wasn't part of the choreography they had been practicing, and everyone knew it. Most of the crew, including Alex, had seen the choreography being shown to the actors and them practicing the best they could.
Trevor stepped back up, finally back on his feet, and he staggered over to his sword. He scooped it up and turned to look up at where Leander was, holding the sword steady as he held it up. Leander jumped off from where he was, landing easily and coming towards Trevor. They went back into the sword fighting choreography, and Trevor seemed to be stable on his feet again as they finished up the scene.
It was only once the director called cut that Trevor's face showed the pain he was in. Alex resisted the urge to rush to Trevor's side and focused on getting his crew moving on resetting the scene once the actors cleared off, in Trevor's chase limping. The director gave directions for moving the cameras to get a different angle and told Alex the next scene so his set crew could bring up the necessary props and staging.
Trevor, meanwhile, was taken to the medic to look over his knee. It hurt and he figured he sprained it a bit. After talking over his medical upkeep, the medic called their orthopedic doctor to look it over.
"It's definitely sprained," the doctor said. "Let me do some stuff to help your pain level, and you'll need to go easy the next week or so."
The doctor gave him a shot of Toradol, and gave him a script for a muscle relaxer. Then he did a shot into the joint to relieve the pain. It would be sore for a day, but the hope was it would heal faster and easier this way. They put ice on his knee for twenty minutes and then took it off, telling him to come back after a little bit to do another twenty minutes with ice on.
Trevor had a brace put on and then went back onto set. He gave an almost imperceptible nod to Alex to show he was okay, and then went over to talk to the director about what they wanted to do. They ended up doing the jump from a different angle, but this time with a ton of padding for him to land on. He made sure he landed on his good leg and rolled, and then they moved onto the final scene of the day, which was the final climactic scene of the first movie.
Trevor did the choreography here fine, and his performance even on set left some of the crew and cast with tears. The movie was supposed to end with it questioning whether his and Leander's characters were still alive. Of course, he had read the books and had signed a contract for three movies, so he knew his character was alive, but it was fun to see audience reactions.
The director asked Alex and his crew to break down and reset for the next day while Trevor went back to ice his knee again. Alex consulted the published set list and got the crew to work preparing for the next shooting day. When the sets were ready to Alex's satisfaction, he dismissed the crew and knocked on Trevor's trailer door to let him know he was ready to take them back to the hotel.
Trevor grabbed his stuff and hobbled up to the trailer door. He still had his makeup on, but was wearing his own clothes by then. He followed Alex to the van and groaned as he sat down in the front passenger seat, putting the seat back as far as it would go so he could stretch out his knee. Keeping it bent made it ache more.
