director of the millennium

Despite Wu Yuan's firm refusal, Marvel chose to maintain its original plan. Preparations for "Doctor Strange" would not begin until the summer of 2015, and filming would start in the fourth quarter.

Wu Yuan could also breathe a sigh of relief, at least he could take a break after finishing filming "Riding the Wind".

In fact, I can't rest for too long. I have to do the post-production work of this movie, and then I have to continue to take care of the post-production of "Ready Player One".

However, when he is not shooting, just focusing on post-production is already very relaxing compared to the intensity of his work in the past one or two years.

As long as he doesn't have to start filming new movies non-stop, he will be satisfied enough.

With this thought in mind, Wu Yuan spent a relatively "relaxed" half month, shooting only half a day a day, and even had time to flirt with Liu Yifei.

It was not until half a month later that Wu Jing, who had recovered, returned and the crew began filming a large number of circus and war scenes again.

"Riding the Wind" is the film Wu Yuan has ever shot that uses the most extras.

Although he has filmed many big-budget movies before, they generally do not require too many extras. Both "Gravity" and "The Martian" are space movies, and a single digit number of actors is enough.

As for other feature films and art films, there are no big scenes. The biggest scenes are provided by special effects, such as the meteorite landing in "Your Name".

The only series that uses a lot of extras is the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, but the number of extras used in this series is only about one or two hundred people, and the biggest scene is just a melee involving one or two hundred people. After all, this is a pirate movie, and most of the plot takes place on a ship.

This time in "Ride the Wind", Wu Yuan really felt what a big scene is.

In the war scenes, he used nearly a thousand extras to perform the biggest scenes, including more than 500 cavalrymen.

Don’t think that this number is small. In fact, when nearly a thousand people are spread across the screen, it is already very crowded, giving people a feeling of being a sea of ​​thousands of people.

It was especially imposing when more than 500 cavalrymen charged together.

After filming this scene, Wu Yuan couldn't help but sigh with Liu Yifei who was watching the show together: "When I read those historical materials before, there were always large-scale battles involving tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. It felt like they were just numbers."

"But when you actually see it on the scene, even if it's fake, a war involving a few hundred people is already oppressive enough. The charge of more than 500 cavalry just now made people feel suffocated when watching it through the camera."

Because the main camera is completely in front of the cavalry charge route, the feeling of facing the cavalry charge directly is indeed very shocking.

“That’s only a few hundred people.”

"If it really was like those classical wars in history books, with thousands or even tens of thousands of cavalry charging, I don't know how terrifying the scene would be."

"I completely understand why soldiers on the battlefield have to endure pressure that ordinary people cannot bear. Some may even be scared to death on the battlefield."

Wu Yuan felt that he got the pleasure of shooting such a grand war scene.

It really makes people's blood boil!
"Maybe if I have the chance in the future, I should also make a costume war movie and let that damn "Red Cliff" go to hell!" Wu Yuan murmured.

Hearing this, Liu Yifei rolled her eyes to the sky: "Do you still remember Wu Baige?"

"It's been so many years, does Red Cliff still haunt you?"

"I dare not forget it!" Wu Yuan gritted his teeth and said, "In my life, I have only been suppressed and bullied by Wu Baige. How can I forget it?" "His Red Cliff is really bad. Among the few Chinese-language costume war films, it is even worse."

"It breaks my heart to think that young people in the future will only be able to watch Chinese-language period war films like Red Cliff when they want to watch them."

"The Three Kingdoms was played out by Wu Baige, I can also play the entire Battle of Hulao Pass."

"Li Shimin used only 3500 elite soldiers in black armor as the vanguard to reinforce Hulao Pass, and ended up defeating Dou Jiande's army of more than . It's unacceptable that such a heroic battle is much less famous than the Battle of Chibi!"

"The Battle of Hulao Pass, which established the territory of the Tang Dynasty and won Li Shimin the title of General of Heavenly Strategy, is definitely better than the Battle of Red Cliff, which only established the division of the world into three parts, right?"

"It's a pity that the Battle of Red Cliffs became widely known because of the popularity of Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

"Come on." Liu Yifei slapped Wu Yuan's junior in annoyance. She didn't know much about the Battle of Red Cliffs or General Tian Ce. You can't expect a returnee who studied in junior high and high school in the United States and returned to China to receive education at an art college to know much about Chinese history.

But she knew something else.

"You're already busy enough with the work at hand, and there are other movies waiting for you later. Why are you still thinking about making a war movie?"

"You really only care about food and not about punishment. Who was the one who complained to me a few days ago about having too much work, no rest, and being exhausted?"

Wu Yuan, who was originally very excited, frowned and sighed: "Alas, ideals are full of hope, but reality is very skinny."

“I have a lot of movies I want to make, but I just can’t keep up with the work.”

When Liu Yifei said this, Wu Yuan remembered the "Bruce Lee" movie he had wanted to shoot for a long time. This movie has not been put on the agenda yet, let alone other new movies.

"Forget it, I can only think about it casually." Wu Yuan shook his head, cleared his mind, picked up the intercom and shouted: "It's almost time for everyone to rest, one more!"

"Everyone get ready!"

In early January 2015, after 1 days of filming, "Riding the Wind" was finally successfully completed in Beijing.

It was the same as usual. After taking a wrap-up photo with all the crew members present and having a wrap-up banquet, the crew disbanded on the spot. Those who needed to go to school went to school, and those who needed to go to other crews went to other crews.

Wu Yuan also brought all the materials of "Riding the Wind" back to the headquarters of Light and Shadow Times, where an editor who had been prepared in advance was waiting for him.

As a famous director, Wu Yuan no longer edits films himself. He just tells the editors what effect he wants the film to have and asks them to cut it. After the cutting, Wu Yuan will make the final check and revise any parts he is not satisfied with until he gets a version that he is satisfied with and then sends it for review.

This kind of post-production editing method is undoubtedly much easier than what Wu Yuan did himself back then, but this kind of behavior can generally only be used in commercial films. If it is an art film, Wu Yuan still prefers to edit it himself.

After all, sometimes a single shot in an art film can contain a lot of emotions and profound meanings, and some shots are deliberately taken. In the eyes of people with low "artistic aesthetics", this shot may just be an ordinary empty shot or a misfocused shot, but combined with the previous and subsequent plots, it may be a stroke of genius.

Only the creators themselves know this best.

Fortunately, "Riding the Wind" is just a commercial film, although it is a tribute film, so Wu Yuan handed it over to the editor with confidence.

And he himself finally had a short break. (End of this chapter)