This director needs to apologize

Chapter 260 Busy Tangcheng

After Qin Zhilei finished filming, the Dunhuang location scenes were completely completed, and the crew moved to another scene.

The extras went back to their respective homes, and most of Mr. Wu's martial artists also dispersed.

Xiaomei and Lu Ping each left a deputy in charge of finishing the Dunhuang side, while the two led most of the crew behind the scenes to Xiangcheng.

Chen Yiming gave Yu Nan a week's holiday to adjust his tired body and mind.

It's not that Chen Yiming is showing mercy, but that it will take some time for the crew to debug the scenes and equipment after settling in Tangcheng.

In addition, the extras recruited locally in Xiangcheng also need time to rehearse in advance.

There are mainly four scenes in the Tangcheng scene.

One is the scene at Wubao at the beginning of the movie, which is the scene before Mulan joins the army.

The second is Chang'an City Gate, where two scenes of entering and leaving the city will be filmed.

The third is the Daming Palace, including the official meeting of the Western Expeditionary Army to offer prisoners, and the private meeting with Wu Zetian with Mulan.

Finally, there is Chang'anfang City, where you can go shopping during the day, watch dances at night, and kill people late at night. The three scenes are all here.

The actors could take a break, but Chen Yiming and the crew behind the scenes didn't get any rest. The next day after arriving in Xiangcheng, they threw themselves into the intense preparations for the start of filming.

The main difficulty in Tangcheng is the two night scene group scenes.

The first scene was a dance scene in a restaurant. Among the bustling guests, the dancer danced a Hu Xuan dance.

This was an interior scene, and Chen Yiming's request to Lin Xiao was that the art style should be in sharp contrast to Wan Qian's Hu Xuanwu in the grassland outdoor scene, and it should have a sense of gorgeous decadence like the people in Chang'an City who were living in revelry.

The scene is crowded with people, and the dance and music are extremely complicated, but Mulan in it seems to die alone at a glance.

Obviously, the actors' performances here are only auxiliary, and the key roles are actually the composition, lighting, camera movement and post-production.

The second scene follows the previous scene. After Mulan and her party leave the restaurant, they are attacked in the alleys of Fangshi. The mastermind behind the scenes is Wang's uncle and nephew who were reprimanded and demoted at the court meeting during the day.

This is the second "showy" martial arts scene in the film after Yu Nan and Qin Zhilei's two-man horse fight. Of course, for the audience, it is actually the first segment.

The fancy is fancy in the action choreography and weapon selection. Chen Yiming asked Wu Yuanrong to let his imagination run wild as much as possible and create more Qimen weapons.

In the first wave of surprise attacks, the attackers used umbrella handles and fan ribs.

After the first attack failed, long-range attacks jumped from the high places on both sides of the alley, and what was thrown at them were chain swords and boomerangs.

As for the highlight of the close-quarters fight, Wu Yuanrong continued to use his imagination.

However, although this scene was played in a variety of ways, the outcome was determined in an instant. Chen Yiming demanded that he could live or die in one round.

Therefore, the whole scene was not very long. Wang's uncle and nephew moved very neatly and walked very suddenly, just in response to the saying that people are cruel and don't say much.

The main force in this scene is naturally Wu Yuanrong's martial arts team, but other behind-the-scenes staff also have to put in a lot of effort.

For example, Mr. Wang, who was lighting the scene, had to make clever use of the few natural light sources in the alleyway to make the fight in the dark environment clearly visible.

Obviously, this is another complex project that integrates multiple behind-the-scenes departments such as photography, lighting, martial arts, and post-production.

There is no other way to think of such a shot, only one word, grind.

Xiangcheng is actually paying close attention to the arrival of the "Mulan" crew, and the local media is following and reporting almost around the clock.

Relevant parties have already arranged a publicity plan, hoping that there will be a concentrated wave when the crew starts filming, and they will use Chen Yiming's name to promote the brand name of Tangcheng Film and Television Base.

It's a pity that "Mulan" is not cooperative. The pre-heating news has been released for more than a week, and the crew is still "preparing", and the start time has been delayed.

The entire crew was already busy and had no interest in cooperating with the local publicity in Xiangcheng.

The early stages of the four main scenes involved a large number of props and costumes. The time was tight and the tasks were heavy. Lu Ping's props team was under great pressure.

The three assistant directors are busy recruiting, training and rehearsing the extras. They have to communicate with hundreds or thousands of extras one by one, which is of course not easy.

The Tangcheng Scenic Spot was the product of a high-speed rush to work. Lin Xiao contacted the construction team on standby almost three or five times a day to rework, and Da Zhuang, who was responsible for the coordination, was mentally and physically exhausted.

Chen Yiming originally planned to shut down the film in the middle of July, but the actual progress was far beyond his expectation. The preparation work was in line with his requirements until late July. Yu Nan and other actors were bored in the hotel for half a month. Long.

On July 7, the filming of "Mulan" in Tangcheng finally started, and this long-distance race has finally reached the sprint stage.

In the first scene, Wu Jun Laorou and Zhang Zifeng returned to the crew to reshoot the scene of Mulan's father and little Mulan returning home. This is actually a narration transition scene, explaining the background of the story in a concise and straightforward way, and quickly transitioning to the main part of the film where Mulan appears.

As soon as Zhang Zifeng entered the set, he looked like he was facing a formidable enemy. He was obviously still frightened by Chen Yiming's "torture in all kinds of ways" before.

However, all her mental construction was in vain. Chen Yiming shouted and shouted very smoothly. He walked out of the scene once, tried it once, and shot it for real. In the end, he kept one line. In less than thirty minutes, the senior and the junior were finished and left the group. .

This neatness made Zhang Zifeng feel like he was in a dream, and also made the half-month stay in the hotel seem particularly nonsensical.

To be honest, Chen Yiming did not lower his standards, because the camerawork in this scene was to start with a close shot and then pull the camera to a long shot. The actor who appeared in the scene was not the protagonist, but the Mid-Levels Wubao and the sad BGM in the background were the protagonists.

The first filming started smoothly, and the crew continued to shoot the scenes inside the Wubao.

This is a two-minute long follow-up shot. Under the leadership of Yu Nan, the audience appreciates the rural life in the early Tang Dynasty.

The distant view of Wubao under the camera, and then the closer look, Zhang Zifeng's little Mulan is already Yu Nan's big Mulan.

Wearing an underskirt and carrying a basket, Yu Nan walked up the stairs from the main entrance of Wubao to the Mulan family mansion at the innermost level of Wubao.

A long shot of more than one minute, with a total of 7 groups of extras on camera, of which groups have dialogue. There can be no mistakes in every interaction.

It was not easy for Cui Fang, who operated the Steadicam throughout the whole process. He needed to make as many as double-digit position changes.

This may be a "difficult" task for other crews, and it is not unusual for rehearsals and filming to take ten and a half days.

However, for Chen Yiming, it can only be regarded as "slightly difficult". After all, it has the foundation of the previous work "1951".

I think all the seven or eight minutes of the long shot were taken down. It was still a fight-and-run war scene. Now this two-minute scene is just a daily walk. It really is not that difficult.

Wang Wei led the group actors to rehearse for half a week, followed by test shooting in the morning and actual shooting in the afternoon. Before 4 o'clock that day, Chen Yiming announced that it was done.

The next day, the interior scene of Mulan's house was also successfully completed.

The scene at Wubao gave the filming on location in Tangcheng a good start.

The entrance drama at the Chang'an City Gate and the audience drama in the square in front of the Daming Palace were both large group dramas with hundreds of groups performing in them. There were minor problems but they were all within expectations, and they passed smoothly without any danger.

Inside the Daming Palace, Song Jia, who was invited to guest star as the adult Wu Zetian, finally had a chance to perform.

In the previous audience scene, she dressed up and stood next to her husband Gaozong as a background throughout the whole process. She was beautiful, but there was not much room for performance.

Of course, Deng Chao, who guest-starred as Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, also had little room for development. His lines only had two or four words.

One sentence is "flatten one's body", one sentence is "declaration of decree".

The one with the most lines in this scene is actually Mr. Li Jianyi, who guest-starred as the eunuch who announced the edict, and was dubbed later.

But at night, Song Jia, the crazy actor, comes into play.

In this scene, Wu Zetian wears men's clothing and a futou, and Jiang Luxia, dressed as a military general, stands by her side, meeting Mulan in the inner hall of the Daming Palace.

The plot has advanced to this point. Mulan has just killed Wang Wendu's uncle and nephew in Chang'anfang City. When she thought she was going to pay with her life, she was brought to Queen Wu.

After Da Wu repaid Xiao Mulan's life-saving grace, he did not ask for anything in return.

The coming of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu was only a staged victory. Wu Zetian still faced fierce backlash from the established factions, and her position was not stable.

Empress Wu captured Wang Wendu, the representative of the clan in the Western Army, which meant that she had to bear the burden of Zhengzhi who would win in another battle.

Asking Mulan to "dedicate her crime and perform meritorious service" was also to increase the chance of winning in the Western Expedition to Ashina Horud.

Song Jia needs to wear a men's costume to perform the majestic aura of a generation of empresses. In her movements, there is the joy of reuniting with old friends and reminiscing about childhood innocence, the magnanimity of a superior who is both kind and powerful, and the complacency that hints at Mulan spying on Su Dingfang.

In short, in just one scene, Song Jia's temperament changed many times, leaving ample room for interpretation.

Yu Nan's performance was also very difficult. In addition to holding Song Jia free, her performance also had to connect with her previous scene of keeping quiet in the busy city of Chang'anfang.

This scene is an important turning point in Mulan's growth line. At the end of the film, Mulan defends Western Xinjiang and refuses to get involved in the political struggle. It is at this moment that the foreshadowing is laid.

Song Jia and Yu Nan are the best in Hua Guo Qingyi, and they don't need Chen Yiming's "guidance" to perform well.

So Chen Yiming once again resorted to "spectating" mode and granted the two actresses the full rights to shout.

(End of this chapter)