This director needs to apologize

Chapter 261 It’s okay, I didn’t cry

The rivalry scene between Yu Nan and Song Jia took a day and a half to shoot. The two crazy actors were so addicted that they didn't feel tired at all during the scene.

Chen Yiming also allowed the two of them to let the scene go. After all, it was an interior scene and it did not involve extra actors.

The only one who was affected was probably the little girl Jiang Luxia who was standing aside as a guard.

She also needs to carry the whole scene with her. Although the acting skills are not high, it still involves two or three emotional changes.

Since I have a performance task on my back, I naturally can't concentrate on being an audience member. Standing for a day and a half is exhausting both physically and mentally.

The two actresses knew that this shot was hard to come by, so they made full preparations in advance.

After arriving at the scene and playing the scene several times, I knew that the opponent's strength could fully match my own, so I immediately started to increase the intensity in unison.

A small part of it is a battle of spirits between women, and a large part of it is a rare opportunity to cherish each other.

After all, both of them are old Tsing Yis who have passed their prime, and the road to acting will only become narrower and narrower. The next time they encounter an opportunity to fully display their acting skills, they will wait until they are equally matched opponents. Who knows when it will be.

After all, "Mulan" is a commercial movie, and the acting requirements are only above average. Even for Yu Nan, the starring role, there are only a few scenes that require her to be more intense.

There was a one-man show at the beginning where he made up his mind to join the army, and it was also a casting audition. Yu Nan acted with ease.

One section is a scene where Wan Qian dies in Yu Nan's arms before the decisive battle on the grassland. It is restrained and full of emotions. Although it is difficult, it happens to be a scene that Yu Nan is good at.

The next section is this rivalry scene with Wu Zetian.

The surprise of seeing the queen, the surprise of meeting old acquaintances, the surprise of having a reason, the exclamation of the truth being revealed, and the word "shock" that runs through the whole story has complex connotations.

The person responsible for driving the rhythm is the superior Wu Zetian played by Song Jia.

This is also logical. Although the two people in the play are similar in age and Mulan is a few years older, their growing up environments are completely different.

One is in the army and the other is in the harem. There is no doubt that the latter's character must be more mature and sophisticated.

In terms of status, the Queen is even more superior and has a crushing advantage over Mulan.

Song Jia is very good at playing this kind of big woman. Her appearance has an aggressive and gorgeous temperament, which is slightly neutralized after changing into men's clothing. Standing next to Yu Nan, who is wearing armor, her aura is slightly higher than the previous level. She can be called Just right.

Yu Nan had a hard time coping with it at first, and it was obvious to the naked eye that he was being overshadowed by Song Jia.

The latter is the master who can open a dyeing studio for just three points of color. He can even choke the director directly when he performs well. His reputation as a "drama tyrant" is well-known in the circle.

Unless the director explains, she will never take the initiative to restrain herself from cooperating with her partner. It is her nature to go even harder.

Yu Nan kept stopping the reshooting, and it was not until about two o'clock in the afternoon after dinner that it was finally officially on the road. This made the scene start to show a tit-for-tat meaning.

What she did was to dissipate some of the stubbornness that previously supported the character and amplify the straightforward side of Yu Nan's own temperament.

The background of the character has changed, and the emotional changes above the background are no longer the same. The collision with Song Jia's aura finally began to come and go.

Chen Yiming in front of the monitor could clearly see that Yu Nan's adjustments were very simple, just to strengthen his true performance.

The director's principle of casting is that the actor's characteristics fit the needs of the role. Only on this basis can the actor have room to display his acting skills.

If the actor and the role are completely different from the beginning, for example, if an actor with the temperament of an old gangster plays the emperor in a historical drama, the final result will inevitably be a disaster.

Chen Yiming invited Song Jia to make a cameo because he was attracted by the fierceness in her temperament. Among the beautiful people in Tsing Yi in Hua Kingdom, only she and Zhang Ziyi had this trait.

Jiji Zhang was so skinny that she was incompatible with the Tang Dynasty court. In addition, because of her high status, it was difficult to repay the debt she owed, so Song Jia became Chen Yiming's best choice.

In the morning scene, Song Jia's strength was partly due to her own characteristics. Her inherent aggressiveness required her co-actors to have food, accommodation and feedback, otherwise the tone of the whole scene would be unbalanced.

At first, out of inertia, Yu Nan continued to use the acting method used to portray Mulan in the past to play opposite Song Jia, so he was not unjustly suppressed.

After all, Yu Nan's previous roles were all rough guys. Her stubborn background is suitable for the military environment and she has enough distinction among many male characters. This treatment is very suitable.

But facing Song Jia, a gorgeous queen dressed in men's clothing, if she continues to respond in the same way as before, her momentum is not enough.

Under stress, Yu Nan almost instinctively chose to perform in her true colors, using her best acting method to amplify her own temperament.

The final result is a hit or miss, with the steely straight man restraining all bells and whistles, and the straightforward Mulan standing firm in front of the ever-changing Queen.

Two actors with outstanding acting skills finally achieved a balance with their true performances, which fully illustrates a truth.

Acting skills are external, temperament is internal, and the outcome is decided at the moment of casting.

Chen Yiming couldn't help but give himself a thumbs up, what does it mean to have a discerning eye?

After seeing off Song Jia, who had finished his addiction, the crew also finished filming in Daming Palace and headed to Chang'anfang City.

This is a 1.5-kilometer-long stone road with various ancient buildings of varying heights lined up on both sides. There are shops facing the street and courtyards in the back.

According to the characteristics of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty, the city is surrounded by a two-meter-high outer wall, enclosing a square group of ancient buildings.

At this time, only the main street running through the city has been completed, and the shops on both sides are all fake. The only restaurant with complete interiors is "Leyouyuan" where the crew shot the scene.

This is the last large ensemble scene in "Mulan". The shopping scene in the afternoon required more than 150 extras, and the restaurant scene in the night required more than people. Both scenes were not easy.

However, the difficulty of filming was still incomparable with the previous battlefield group scenes. After waiting for a day or two and then shooting for a whole day, Chen Yiming obtained enough materials and the walking scenes during the day and night were successfully completed.

The next afternoon, the crew came to "Leyouyuan" again to shoot the interior scenes of the restaurant. The protagonist of today’s scene is Dengye Wang Lizing. The first supporting role is Cui Fang who is carrying the Steadicam. The second supporting role is Qi Yu who controls the second and third cameras. The on-site director is the art director Lin Xiao.

Chen Yiming is only responsible for sitting in front of the monitor as Party A and deciding whether to shout or not.

The restaurant is a spacious rectangular space with a floor height of more than 5 meters. Gorgeous and complicated lighting hangs from the ceiling, making the entire floor not feel empty.

There is wall paneling on one side, and a small door connects the corridor and stairs.

On the other side are transparent bay windows, seven in total, spaced one meter apart.

Outside the window is the brightly lit night view of the city. It is 100% natural and has no post-production beautiful scenery. It is worthy of the huge budget of Xiangcheng.

Since it took a lot of time and effort to build a Tang Dynasty, it was natural that it should be used to the fullest.

Just the lights inside and outside the building, lighting them up for one night, is not a small sum of money, not much cheaper than shooting outdoor scenes in Dunhuang for a day.

Mr. Wang has actually been staying in "Leyouyuan" for more than a month. When the crew was still in Dunhuang, he had already arrived in Xiangcheng.

Before the paint on the facade of "Le Youyuan" was dry, he led his apprentices into the restaurant. He selected the locations and guided the installation of all the lighting in the building.

After getting the natural light, Wang Lizing needed to determine the tone of the lighting according to the requirements of Lin Xiao and the photography team.

The core of the restaurant scene is the second Hu Xuan dance in the movie.

The first part is Wan Qian's solo dance by the campfire at night. It focuses on passion, unrestrainedness, simplicity and sincerity, just like the wild flowers blooming freely on the grassland.

The key word for today's Hu Xuan Dance is glitz, the extremely gorgeous appearance and the extremely empty interior, just like the cosmos that has been carefully raised.

The flashy dance must be matched with flashy light and shadow. Mr. Wang's lighting can be said to have done his best.

When Chen Yiming arrived at the scene in the afternoon, the lighting of the scene was already coming to an end.

The walls on three sides and the top of the window on one side are layered with large and small light-shielding panels, as if the restaurant is covered with layers of spider webs.

Behind the lens and in the depth of the long shot, a screen that doubles as a light-transmitting plate was prepared in advance. After the long shot lens was pulled out, it was placed up for secondary fill-in light.

The wall panel near the stairs is also designed to be detachable. After the medium and close shots are taken, space can be made available for three fill lights for close-ups.

Due to the light limitations of the scene, the shots of this scene were broken up into pieces, and the front and back were not close to each other at all.

The actors can only repeat the performance over and over again until enough material is captured under each lighting scheme.

The extras and Yu Nan are pretty good, because they are all in the atmosphere group and they only need to give correct reactions based on the timeline.

The one who really put in the effort was Diliza who was in charge of dancing.

Diliza, born in 1992, is a junior at the Shanghai Theater Academy, a good talent picked out by Xiaomei.

Chen Yiming's magic circle background is deep-rooted. Students of magic dramas are first-come-first-served, and Platinum Jue will receive preferential treatment every time he is cast.

This time Chen Yiming needed a fresh-faced young female dancer. After Xiaomei took over the task, the first person she contacted was the Shanghai Theater Academy.

Students who are good at dancing have been promoted to the performance class of Magic Theater for four academic years. Diliza was undoubtedly shortlisted because of her background as an ethnic minority in Xinjiang Province, her 7-year professional background in folk dance, and her outstanding exotic appearance. Group.

After meeting Chen Yiming, he also felt that it was very suitable. Di Liza has a large figure that is rare among Chinese actresses and can hold up heavy dance clothes.

In the previous solo dance on the grassland, due to Wan Qian's "skinny" figure, she could only follow an elegant and light route.

Di Liza's thick face and plump appearance are just different from Wan Qian, and they fit well with the background setting of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty.

There is nothing much to say about the actual shooting. Hu Xuanwu’s dance steps are not complicated, and Diliza can control them very easily.

The real trouble is actually the debugging process of light and shadow. Due to the complexity of on-site lighting, materials from the same scene with different camera positions and depths of field will show very large differences.

What the crew had to do was to adjust while filming until it was close to the feeling Chen Yiming and Lin Xiao needed, and then work backwards to make the entire scene present a unified style by adjusting the lighting.

This is obviously very difficult, because the amount of light used in the three types of shots, namely long shot, medium close shot, and close-up, is inherently different.

Fortunately, what Chen Yiming wants is not exactly the same as before and after. This is a play that progresses from objective presentation to subjective expression. It starts with a noisy panorama. As Diliza dances, the focal length of the photography will become more and more obvious. Yu Nan and Diliza form an intentional effect of blurring the local highlight background.

The gradual focus of the audience's attention naturally provides more redundancy for the on-site lighting, making it possible to achieve light balance under different amounts of light.

After the style and balance were achieved, the last hurdle was those shots related to the natural light outside the window.

This is considered a semi-location scene, which is more troublesome than a full exterior scene or a full interior scene.

The trouble is that natural light is uncontrollable, not to mention that Chen Yiming has to overcome difficulties without practicing martial arts. In addition to the lights of the city outside the window, gorgeous fireworks will rise in the air from time to time.

When fireworks explode, they will cause drastic changes in the amount of light. Even if they are filtered by translucent window paper, they will still have an impact on the final effect.

Mr. Wang's apprentices, as well as a dozen assistants from the photography team, were tortured to the point of ecstasy.

The little girl Diliza was sweating through her clothes and exhausted. She started dancing as soon as it got dark and continued dancing until about two o'clock in the middle of the night. Putting aside rest and supper time, she danced for a full five hours.

When the crew finished work, Diliza could no longer walk, so Xiaomei and her assistant carried her into the car.

Chen Yiming observed secretly with a hard heart, it was okay, he didn't cry.

(End of this chapter)