This director needs to apologize

Chapter 215 Night Show, Corpse Fraud

On the way back to the station at noon, Chen Yiming did not take his own car, but got into the lighting team's car.

Although the two scenes to be filmed in October were all on location, due to the dense fog, a lot of lighting was used. Therefore, the lighting team was assigned to three cars, two large and one large.

Two large trucks carried dozens of large boxes containing various lamps, motors and cables, and the minibus was for Mr. Wang and his dozen or so assistants.

When Chen Yiming got in the car, Wang Lizing was already in the car, leaning on the back of the chair with his eyes closed to relax.

The old man is almost 3 years old. These days, he gets up at 4 o'clock and arrives at the scene at o'clock to direct the lighting. He has been working hard for four or five days in a row. It is very hard.

This was something Chen Yiming had specifically asked Da Zhuang to recruit more than a dozen assistant lighting technicians from the Phantom Factory to ensure that Mr. Wang would only use his words but not his hands.

Seeing the director getting into the car, the lighting assistants who had been chatting in low voices stopped talking. The young man sitting next to Mr. Wang across the aisle was very discerning and quickly got up and walked back.

Chen Yiming sat down. Mr. Wang next to him seemed unaware. Chen Yiming did not speak. As the car staggered on the road, he slowly closed his eyes.

When Chen Yiming was woken up by the driver and opened his eyes, he found that the minibus had stopped at the entrance of the canteen. Looking around, there was no one in the car.

This old naughty boy is quite angry.

Chen Yiming smiled helplessly, stopped talking to Mr. Wang, got up and got out of the car to eat.

The "first appearance" footage of the two young actors has been released. The key is that after Zhang Zifeng is in good condition, Hu Yanglin's scene can be officially launched.

Chen Yiming was not in a hurry and only filmed for 7 and a half hours from 10:2 to a.m. every day.

There were a total of six scenes of the rivalry between Xiao Mulan and Xiao Wu, and Chen Yiming shot it for a week.

Then another day was spent reshooting several transitional shots. Tao Yixi was officially finished filming, and Zhang Zifeng also completed his role in the imperial town.

During this period, Wu Jun also rehearsed in the camp area for a full week.

He doesn't consider himself an A-list star at all. He wears weighted armor and stays with extras every day, practicing tricks in the morning and moves in the afternoon.

The East Turkic Khan who fought against him was a martial arts apprentice of Wu Yuanrong. This was the only scene, and Chen Yiming didn't bother to invite big names to guest star.

Another advantage of using martial arts directly is that Wu Jun, who plays the opposite role, can learn while practicing, and the practice effect will be better.

Hu Yanglin's scene was extended for a week, which is equivalent to Wu Jun practicing for an extra week. It is indeed better in terms of effect.

The disadvantage is not without its disadvantages. This week, there are obviously many more people in Zhouhuang Town. In addition to the reporters who came here looking for the smell, there are also many more melon-eating people passing by from the Shandan Military Racecourse.

On the day when the shooting of Wu Jun's scene officially started, even though it was dark at 8pm, the high hills outside the camp area were still full of people.

It's okay if you just watch the fun. The key is that there are reporters and brave people who take advantage of the night to bypass the security guards and sneak into the camp.

This is terrible. After all, cigarettes are set off during filming. If a spectator who sneaks in is injured, "Mulan" and Chen Yiming can happily accept another round of negative news.

In desperation, Chen Yiming had no choice but to ask Xiaomei to hire dozens more locals in the town to act as security guards and set up a ten-meter-long "warning line" with one person on the outside of the camp.

In fact, it was just a psychological effect. It was not difficult at all to sneak into the camp in the dark and smoke.

This scene was shot completely smoothly, because the armor on the actors' bodies would gradually become dirty and broken as the raid progressed. Filming this scene could save a lot of trouble for the props.

On the evening of October 10st, the filming of the scene where Mulan's father led a team to raid the camp of the East Turkic Khan officially started.

The camp, which was originally just an empty camp, had now changed its appearance. It was densely packed with soldiers and fierce soldiers, and it was filled with a quiet and solemn atmosphere.

Different from the scene in Populus euphratica, the fog in this scene is only obvious before the battle begins, which is used to imply that Mulan's surprise attack is at the right time.

As for after the fight started, with people shouting and horses neighing and fires everywhere, the fog would naturally fade and disappear, and Luobaohe would no longer need to refill the smoke.

Chen Yiming's old rule is that when shooting big scenes, you need to walk through the scene before shooting.

The part outside the camp was very smooth. Wu Jun has been getting along with the extras day and night these days, and his tacit understanding with each other is already quite high.

He himself is a serious character, and he will take the trouble to teach and correct the movements of any group performers who are in the same frame with him, so that later on, Wu Jun and Cui Fangxin tacitly reached a division of labor in training the group performers.

Wu Jun took care of the extras around him, while Cui Fang concentrated on arranging the movements and positions of the background extras.

After practicing for a week, the extras have become very proficient in their movements. The movements are not as good as those of Hengcheng's veterans, but they are still above the standard and at least they will not make the audience laugh.

Wang Wei picked up the microphone and shouted stop, and what followed was the first real shot.

Actual shooting is much more complicated, because it involves lighting, camera movement and sound recording, and there are many behind-the-scenes personnel in the scene who are not on camera.

The scenes outside the camp were all in one piece when watching the film, but during filming they were actually shot in two parts.

The first part is a medium shot, with Wu Jun as the center, starting from when he ordered the attack and ending with Wu Jun cutting open the camp gate.

The second part is close-up and ultra-close-up shots, such as Wu Jun's hand gesture instructions, close-ups of assassinating sentries, close-ups of our soldiers being hit by arrows, etc.

The difficulty here is that the medium shot is actually a long shot, and the lens has a wider viewing range, which means that it will affect the movement of the camera and the microphone pole.

Even more difficult is lighting.

Because it is a real-life night shot, natural light cannot meet the requirements for sharpness, so fill light is required.

And because it is outdoors, the actual effect of the lighting is particularly lost, and it cannot be as stable and controllable as shooting in a studio.

Therefore, the fog at the beginning of this scene not only restored the true history, but also came from the limitations of the shooting conditions. Chen Yiming had to introduce thick fog, otherwise the lighting would not be possible.

In the past half month, the lighting team has also been working very hard. After finishing the shooting of the Populus euphratica forest scene in the morning, they would catch up on their sleep in the afternoon, and then go out on location in the evening to do experiments with the photography team.

First, we need to design a fill-light solution for mid-range shooting without exposing the light source in the fog.

To put it simply, lamps are set up on both sides of the Wu Jun team’s route, and then the overall lighting effect is achieved by adding or removing light visors.

Of course, when making adjustments, you must adjust and record the camera's filters and parameters simultaneously with the camera.

In addition to the two variables, there is also the third variable of post-production color grading.

This is where the ability and experience of the photographer and lighting engineer are truly tested. The apprentices can only try blindly and blindly, but Qi Yu, Cui Fang and Wang Lizing have something in mind.

They compared the sample photos returned later and spent two or three days to come up with the right shooting plan.

After meeting the requirements for mid-range shooting, the second difficulty came.

That is, the brightness of the close-up and close-up shots, and the mid-shot samples need to be balanced twice.

Because it is a direct-to-face shot, in order for the audience to clearly see the details of the actor's performance, the overall brightness must be increased.

However, the brightness before and after is inconsistent, and the close-up insertion will appear abrupt during post-editing.

The solution is to use technical means to suppress the excessive brightness so that the final effects of the two types of shooting are similar or completely consistent.

After the first two difficulties are solved, there is still the third difficulty, actors.

The sheen of the armor and the makeup on the actor's face are also variables related to the overall brightness.

So in the next half week, Lu Ping and Mao Weiping also became a night shift group.

Director Chen Yiming was an outsider throughout the whole process, and he couldn't get into the details at all, and it was beyond his ability. For this short one-minute scene, Mr. Wang drew more than thirty lighting pictures. Cui Fang’s camera movement plan was changed fifteen or six times. Wu Jun’s makeup was also adjusted more than ten times. The Magic Shadow Factory The colorists are divided into two groups and are on duty 1 hours a day.

As free as Chen Yiming, the only one who was responsible for making the armor was the prop master. Considering the consistency of the plot, the armor should not be changed after the makeup was set, so Chen Yiming removed this variable.

Chen Yiming made a gesture, and Wang Wei picked up the loudspeaker and shouted, "Attention all departments, clear the place."

Five minutes later, Wang Wei shouted again, "Pyrotechnics team, seal the smoke."

On the open grassland, the smoke spreads very quickly, so as soon as the smoke mixed, Wang Wei started shooting.

"The second shot of the first scene of "Mulan", the first shooting. Start!"

There was a vast white mist inside the monitor, but rustling footsteps came from the monitoring earphones.

Suddenly, a heavily armed general hurried to the middle of the viewfinder and squatted, revealing his tense profile.

Soon, behind him, more sergeants in similar uniforms imitated his movements, stopping and squatting, filling the viewfinder on both sides of him.

The general raised his right hand and waved forward. The two sergeants stood up and stepped forward quickly out of the frame. After a pause, the general's raised right hand suddenly fell down.

The general stood up and rushed forward immediately. The sergeants on both sides strode forward to protect the general behind him.

The team approached the Juma area. The sergeants on both sides of the horizontal line moved forward quickly and smoothly turned into a column. They passed through the gap between the Juma and passed two corpses wearing sheepskin jackets.

The team crossed the Juma and turned into a horizontal team again, continuing to advance forward in the thick fog.

"Ding!" A slight ringing sound came from the earphones, and then a sergeant on the monitor suddenly fell forward with an arrow in his chest.

"Enemy attack!", accompanied by screams in mid-air, another arrow hit the general's helmet and bounced out.

The sergeant next to Sergeant Zhongjian knelt down on one knee, raised his hand crossbow and fired it with a "taut" sound.

The sound of "enemy attack" suddenly stopped.

The horizontal team continued to move forward, pulling the viewfinder frame. From time to time, at the edge of the camera, a sergeant fell to the ground or fell into a pit after being hit by an arrow.

Through the fog, dots of firelight appeared in front, and the general led the team to rush to the camp gate.

There were four corpses lying on the ground. Two of them were armored corpses. One had an arrow in the neck and a gun in the abdomen. The other two were Turkic soldiers wearing leather armor.

The general drew his sword with his right hand and raised it high. He shouted and slashed down. The sergeants on both sides moved forward and opened the camp door.

The general shouted loudly, "Today is the day to make great achievements. Follow me and charge in to capture Jie Li alive!"

The sergeants shouted in agreement, "Capture Jieli alive!"

"Crack!"

After finishing the scene, Chen Yiming and Lin Xiao checked the material frame by frame. Without any instructions, Wang Wei directed all departments and actors to reset and prepare for the second shooting.

Obviously, except for the ignorant extras, everyone in the crew knew that the one just now was definitely not up to standard.

This is a one-minute long shot with up to 7 changes in large-angle camera movements.

The opening shot is a 90-degree side shot. Wu Jun stands up and pans to follow the camera. When the team changes from horizontal to vertical, the camera speeds up and moves forward, cutting directly in front of the team, from parallel to the team to perpendicular to the team.

In the Juma area, the team moved forward in a zigzag pattern, and the lens also changed accordingly, always placing Wu Jun in the center of the viewfinder.

There are many obstacles here and the people are densely packed. The camera and pusher need to work closely with the group performers to ensure that the team's movement and camera movement are always smooth.

In the shooting just now, there was a flaw here. The camera got stuck when it crossed with the extras.

Further forward in the open space, Wu Jun needs to move in tacit understanding with the group of actors who are hit by arrows, shoot crossbows, and fall into pits, so that the cameras surrounding Wu Jun's movements can "grab" the corresponding moments sooner or later.

When Chen Yiming designed this clip, he drew on Jackie Chan's experience in group fights in his previous life.

In Jackie Chan's fight scenes, there will never be any group actors standing still. Even if it is a one-on-one, three-on-four group fight scene, the camera movement and positioning will give the audience the impression that "everyone is busy." "The sense of immersion.

Specific to this scene, Wu Jun kept moving forward, but the camera did not always maintain the same angle, but moved in a semicircle around Wu Jun.

When the first group performance was knocked down by an arrow, Wu Jun had to instruct the camera to make an indicative change in movement, paving the way for a close-up to be inserted in later editing, and also paving the way for the camera to move to the next close-up of the sergeant.

By analogy, the second group performer squats down to lift the crossbow, and then the third group performer falls into the trap.

The sergeants who had "accidented" appeared in the frame one after another like a relay race, "escorting" Wu Jun all the way to the camp gate.

In this way, only five or six group performers are "hit" in the camera, but in the minds of the audience, it can simulate a magnificent scene of hundreds or thousands of people carrying out a large-scale attack despite casualties.

For every group performer with a close-up, the position where the action is performed is fixed. As long as you reach the designated position and perform the prescribed action, you can do it.

The one who really stood the test of positioning accuracy was Wu Jun.

His pace and micro-movements must be perfectly timed to guide the camera to the right group of actors at the right time.

In the filming just now, Wu Jun had two slight collisions with the pusher. The scene that was supposed to be taken was obtained, but there was still some lack of accuracy.

As for the scenes of slashing the camp gate with swords and shouting for fierce battle, it was no problem for Wu Jun, a seasoned actor.

Half an hour later, the scene was restored. Wu Jun did not immediately signal to start filming. Instead, he invited the close-up extras and the camera crew to walk twice more in the area behind the horse.

After confirming that it was correct, Luo Baohe sealed the smoke and started the second shooting.

This time something went wrong right from the beginning, but it was not a problem with the extras, but a problem with the operator. He was working under the dark lights, and the camera movement was not in place.

After clicking it again, something went wrong again during the third filming of the group performance. When changing the horizontal and vertical lines, the two groups bumped into each other.

The fourth time, the group performance made a mistake again. The group performance on other paths walked to the trap path. Those who should not have fallen into the trap fell into the trap, and those who should have fallen into the trap had no trap to fall into.

The fifth time, when passing through Juma District, an extra actor accidentally stepped on the extra performer who was lying on the ground and died.

Chen Yiming stopped filming and invited everyone back to the camp for midnight snacks.

This group of extras are all locals, not skilled workers from Hengcheng. It is inevitable that the body will become stiff and the mentality will collapse after continuous mistakes, so they must stop and repair.

At nearly 11:, everyone returned to the outside of the camp for the last shooting of the night.

After eating and drinking, the extras relaxed a lot, and the effect was immediate.

The sixth filming finally went through the entire process smoothly. When Wang Wei shouted "Ka", the extras even cheered on the spot.

Well, they are laymen after all, and they don’t know whether “ka” means “pass”. This is just a so-so backup material that can be used as a backup material. It is still far from reaching the standard in Chen Yiming’s mind.

Chen Yiming stood up and came to the camp gate. The torches on both sides reflected the shadow of Wu Jun in front of the door. You could clearly see the wry smile on the latter's face.

Chen Yiming also shook his head. At this time, he couldn't help but regret that he shouldn't have hired local extras to save trouble. At least those big names should have hired professional actors.

　Two in one

　　

　

(End of this chapter)