When the film gets too real
Thanks to my editor kenjisato. Also, to LanguageTool. Combined, they put me right. Any problems left all belong to me.
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The latest film for the Nigkala series is 'Vengeance At Last'. It is about her need for vengeance when her father is killed, and I got hired not only for the lead, but also as the Assistant Producer. We would shoot on location near the ancient city of Kish. I arrived three months early to help out with everything. The largest issues were a local dispute over women's rights causing crowds of protesters, and a related problem of securing locations to shoot everything.
As a western woman with a prominent position of authority over men, I was often the target of protests by men against changing the way things are. I was likewise held up as an example of the power a woman can hold. A few days after I arrived, I was invited to eat dinner with the owner of a building we wanted to use. He told me to meet him at a local restaurant. As I moved to enter, a large man stepped in front of me.
He said, in the local language, "You are not welcome here."
Replying, I said, "I have been invited. Please stand aside."
"No. Now leave."
"Again, please stand aside. I am expected."
"Bitch, I said leave," he then rushed me, thinking to push me to the ground. While he was a big man, I am a bigger woman. I also expected something like this and had augmented my weight. His push got nowhere. He stood up to gather his wits.
"So, you wish to use force. Very well." I then shot a hand out and grabbed his clothes and lifted him off his feet. "Allow me to place you out of my way." I then turned around and released him two feet off the ground behind me. I then turned back and headed in. He got up, gathered himself, pulled out a knife and charged me. I whirled so fast, he had no chance. My kick hit him in the head, sending him flying almost twenty feet into a wall, and then he fell to the ground. As I saw him try to shake it off, I whammied him and said, "Stay down." He just gave up then. There was utter silence on the street as those who saw, were stunned. I just calmly walked in, and asked to be taken to the man I was meeting.
We had been served, and were in the middle of eating when the large man came into the restaurant with two more large men. They headed our way, and the restaurant got quiet to see what was about to happen. I gave no visible indication I paid them any attention, but I did harden my skin in case they chose to use weapons. They stopped at our table, and broke into our conversation.
"Bitch. Time to leave. You can walk out or be thrown out, and I hope you choose to resist." I ignored him, and continued talking to the man I was with. "Okay guys, bring her." They laid hands on me, and tried to lift me, but I added sufficient weight to counter their strength without breaking the chair.
"Uh, boss, we can't lift her."
"Then hit her first. Knock her out, and she'll come easily enough."
They tried, but after a few hits, I told my companion, "Excuse me a moment." Then stood up slowly and turned around. Shooting out both hands, I grabbed their clothes and lifted them both off their feet. "Gentlemen, you are causing a disturbance. You do not belong here. Now leave." As I said that, I used An's authority on them. "The door is over there. Go." I then let them go, and they fell two feet to the ground. One landed on his feet, the other did not. Both left hastily. Again, with An's authority, I pointed to the large man, and said, "Come here," and waited.
It was clear he didn't want to obey, but I just pushed An's authority. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, he started to approach. It was hesitant, and sporadic, but he came. Eventually, he was in front of me.
"Bow to this gentleman, and beg his forgiveness for interrupting our peaceful conversation." In addition to An's authority, I laid a hand on his shoulder, and used my extra weight to push him down. He didn't want to, but as I applied more weight, his back began to bend, as did his knees. Even when he was fully bent, he tried to resist, so I whammied him, "Beg for his forgiveness, now. And be polite about it."
A few seconds later, he said, "Sir, I have disturbed you. Please forgive me," then he looked at me. I looked to my companion.
He just said, "It is clear you acted without thought. I will forgive you, this time. Do not do it again."
"You heard him. Now depart, and don't let us see you again tonight." I released him, and he slowly got up, and left, fear clearly on his face. I again sat back down, and soon conversations resumed, but centered on me.
"I am sorry about that. He seems to be under the impression I don't belong here, even though you invited me."
"How did you do that? Those men were as large as you."
"You know, I play the character Nigkala. Well, I rarely have a stunt double, as finding someone to be my double is quite difficult. Also, the fights are real, even if scripted. When I lift an opponent, it is not a special effect. I am that strong. Usually I need two hands to do it, but the standard attire here makes it easy to use one hand. I figure doing it one-handed carries more impact."
"It does, believe me, it does. And you kept so calm, even when they started hitting you."
"They acted like thugs. I am a warrior, a professional. They think they have power because they are big. I know I am powerful because I know I could easily kill them, even with three against one. I did not feel they were a significant threat."
"Wow. You are that dangerous?"
"Yes. I teach unarmed fighting at the highest levels. I know a number of weapons, and am able to kill easily if I want to. Back home, the police know this, and I made sure the local police also know it. They also know I am quite peaceable. It is because I can easily kill that I am so calm. I have no desire for trouble. If I ignore slights, things go along more smoothly. But at times, as you just saw, some cannot let things go."
"I see. I mean, I did see."
"Enough about them. They are not important. Let's get back to our meal, and discussion about using your property." We returned to our discussion, and he finally agreed to let us use his property. He also said he would encourage others to allow us to film. When we finished, I insisted on paying the bill, as it was a business meeting where I was seeking something from him. He finally allowed me to. We parted at the door.
The next day, I was scheduled to speak with a local union that we wanted to hire as set construction workers. I chose to walk there, and did my best to keep a low profile. Even so, several recognized me. When I got there, several were talking about the upcoming work. I gathered their attention, and began discussions. I took extensive notes of what they wanted, and I gave them an estimate of what we were ready to give. We talked back and forth a bit, but by the end of the day, we came to an agreement. I think the food delivery I arranged for lunch might have made them more amenable to working with me.
Every few days, I seemed to encounter men who chose to publicly disrespect me. I ignored what I could, and tried to peaceably deal with the rest. I made use of An's authority, and my whammie to get my way, while trying to be as fair as I could. A few times, I was 'invited' to speak with the cops. They were never able to make anything stick, because they never had any proof that I started anything. And admitting I was being charged for defending myself would have been even worse. They generally let me go with the warning that they were watching me. So the next time they talked to me, I asked what they saw while they watched me during whatever incident caused my presence there. They never liked answering that question.
As the weeks went by, everything was coming together. The director was casting all the extras, including an older man intended to play Nigkala's father. I chose to spend some time with him to help us get chemistry. I also spent time with others that I would be working with. I did caution everyone that being active in the protests could interfere in the film. I especially told the old man playing my father, as I knew he was an activist. I urged him to stay low-key until the filming was done.
Eventually, we had to hire some people to keep the protesters away from the shoot. We also recorded them during the shoot so that we could use the sound to cancel the sound that carried to the set. The protesters often pointed to me as an example of change. Some wanted it, some hated it. I just tried to stay out of it. One worry I had was the escalating violence happening on both sides.
The day before shooting was scheduled to begin, there was an explosion at one of the nearby protests. I issued orders to tighten security, and I requested the producer to get more security to handle the troubled situation. I personally vetted the security team to ensure they had no hidden agendas.
We shot the outdoor scenes first, so we could make use of the locations before too many protesters showed up to disturb things. We even did a few fight scenes in the street. However, twice I was handed a real weapon rather than one blunted or trick weapon. It was only my habit to verify my weapon with my rock sense that I caught the solid and sharp metal rather than the blunt, rubber, or spring-loaded tip. I had to reprimand the grip each time. I also passed the word to the other fighters to verify their props before using them.
Next, we did the sex scenes, where I had various encounters. We chose to film my street sex scenes on a closed section of the street, blocked off from view of everyone, and relatively quiet. We planned to add better sounds in post-production rather than risk the sensibilities here. The inside scenes were a lot easier to control, and could have full sound from us.
The last day of shooting was the big party sex fight scene. We were using a large warehouse decked out as a mansion with a wide-open layout. Even though the party was in six rooms, everyone could see anyone in any of the rooms through open arches, sometimes with low walls making the arch into a window to the next room. Most of the ladies looked like the locals, but were of western culture, and thus had fewer hang-ups about open sex. Halfway through, a fight would break out, catching me with my pants down, so to speak.
We shot the bad guys breaking into the western side, while I was on the eastern side. While I was nude, under a man, I pushed him off, and grabbed my weapons from the armor lying beside me. Running up to the fight, I joined in.
My 'Father' screamed, "Don't kill me!" and then cowered beneath a large man with a sword.
Then we switched to the camera looking over my shoulder. I turned to see him and cried out, "No!" I then threw my trick dagger at the large guy, timing it, so it would get to where he was just after another bad guy fell into him, knocking him out of the way. The script had my knife pierce my father in the heart, and lots of blood would spill. That's not what happened. For some reason, the guy coming from off camera waved his arm and my knife was deflected and missed. But the actor playing my father screamed, and there was a dagger in his chest, with real blood.
I knew it wasn't my knife, as I could see it on the ground nearby, leaking fake blood. I shouted, "Medic! Man down!" and rushed over to him. I could see his life draining before me. So without thinking, I laid him down and pulled the dagger out. Then I pressed my hand over the wound to keep the blood in. Quickly, I scanned him with Inanna's healing and realized the blade had pierced the heart. He would be dead in seconds if I didn't do anything. So I fed him chi, even as I instinctively pushed Inanna's healing to close the wound in the heart, without the usual 'perfect' image.
I took another look, and realized he was hovering on the edge of death, and my chi was helping to keep him on this side. I pushed half again as much chi to sustain him, then focused on Inanna's healing to fix his heart and move a lot of the blood spilled within his chest back into his veins and arteries. When the image came, I pushed hard, supplying a lot of my chi to power it, rather than use up his. While this worked, it also shocked his system so much, his heart stopped. I did the only thing I could think of - I sent a tiny spark into his heart to restart it. When I realized it was beating, and more than half the spilled blood was back where it belonged, I pulled my focus back.
That is when I found the medic there trying to get me to move, so they could attend him. "Uh... Oh. Sorry. I was too focused on him. Just say when."
They positioned everything, and then said, "Go," so I backed off. I stayed near, so I could supply chi. As they got him patched up, I lessened the chi slowly down to nothing just before they were going to take him off to the hospital.
The director decided to halt the shoot for the day, and try to finish it tomorrow. Even as we were getting dressed, some police came up to me to arrest me for the attempted murder of the activist that played my father. I yelled to the director, "Finish the shoot without me. I'll be okay. Send the lawyers for me."
"Shut up!" The police said, as they were handcuffing me. I went quietly.
