This director needs to apologize

Chapter 45 Tailor Impulse
Chen Yiming found a noodle restaurant near the library to fill his stomach, and then returned to the reading room to continue eating.

After deciding on the movie topic, the next step is to consider the specific presentation method.

This seems a bit counter-intuitive. Shouldn't we write the script first and then move from words to pictures? How come it's the other way around?

In fact, this is not a contradiction. Most directors cannot resist the urge to tailor the plot according to the visual effects. After all, movies are first and foremost visual art, and the first impression of the audience is always the visuals.

Rather than saying that the director creates a movie based on the script, it is better to say that the director creates a storyboard based on the script, and then continuously makes subtractions in the actual shooting according to the storyboard that the director has in mind.

The only difference is that some directors' storyboards are more detailed and less subtractive, such as Tsui Hark.

Some directors have rough storyboards and do a lot of subtractions, but occasionally they can make additions when inspiration strikes, such as Jiang Wen.

Or maybe you don’t draw at all, there are too many to list in this category.

Anyway, regardless of the level of storyboarding, what the director shoots is not the script, but the scenes imagined in his mind.

There is a famous saying in the film critic circle that a director's life is spent constantly repeating his debut film.

Because the debut film intuitively reflects a director's way of thinking, no matter how he innovates and changes in various aspects such as technology, form, theme, etc., the underlying way of thinking is deeply rooted and difficult to change.

As for Chen Yiming, his reference-based creation does not involve any metaphysical thinking. He is just a big tailor.

Whichever movie in his previous life he felt was more suitable, he would just copy it and learn from it.

He doesn't know what the original director was thinking when he made the film. He can only see the final product.

So when Chen Yiming decided to make his second movie about the Peninsula War, his thinking logic was this.

Recall the war movies you have watched in your previous life one by one, choose which one best meets your current needs as the "base", and then "magically modify" it on the basis of this movie.

At this moment, Chen Yiming was scribbling on the paper with a pen, and his mind was actually racing, "exposing" the war movies he had watched in recent years.

"Saving Private Ryan", the adventures of the small team, the core is to sacrifice the individual to achieve the greater.

In the same genre, "The Raid" was filmed in China, and Da Mao filmed "The Star Force".

The problem is that the definition of the so-called "big self" must be based on value judgments, and there must be cultural barriers.

The furthest distance between people is the incompatibility of their three views.

There's no chance of this, let's get over it!

"Hacksaw Ridge", a biography of Superman's paramedic, the key point is "this hero doesn't touch a gun".

The core of the movie is actually rooted in Western religious views. Chinese people can't understand this, pass!

"Black Hawk Down", urban street fighting, the highlight is the torture of why we fight.

The answer given by the movie is "brothers", which is comradeship.

At first glance, it seems to be very universal, but in essence it is very similar to traditional theme movies, both of which are binary and opposing values.

The opposite of love is hate. The more you love your comrades, the more you hate your enemies.

Ridley Scott can certainly lead movie fans around the world to hate Uncle Black, since there are no box office movies in the Horn of East Africa anyway.

This won’t work either, let’s get over it!
"Dunkirk", three-line narrative, time and space interlacing, cross-editing, Nolan's time concept movie.

The enemies are all outside the camera and appear as a crisis backdrop.

It's not so much a war movie as it is an escape movie.

Put aside the discussion of core and values, and go straight to show off the technology. Does this approach seem to have a head start?
Chen Yiming suddenly got inspiration and continued to extend in this direction.

time!Time is the most precious and fair resource in war!
Transform the confrontation between people into the confrontation between people and time, overcome many difficulties within a limited time, and finally achieve the predetermined goal.

Yes, although all war movies are anti-war movies, why do they have to focus on enemies, weapons, killing, explosions, gore and other elements?

Have you ever seen similar war movies with few guns and artillery?

"Song of the Soldier", the masterpiece of Maoist director G. Chukhlay, created the hybrid genre of war road movie, telling the story of what an ordinary soldier saw and heard during a six-day family vacation. "6", the work of British director Sam Mendes, is an 1917-hour fantastic adventure of two messengers. It is more technical than the plot, and it achieves a pseudo "one shot to the end" through clever editing.

There are too many scenes in "Dunkirk" by Master Nuo, and the preparation time cannot be shortened. Chen Yiming will definitely not be able to hold it.

"Song of the Soldier" involves many scenes, and restoring domestic scenes from the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China would be too expensive and not very feasible.

Therefore, "1917" is more appropriate.

If the Peninsula War is used as the background, is it possible to play "one shot to the end"?

Two low-level soldiers were sent to the forward position to deliver the "offensive cancellation" order.

It doesn’t seem to be in line with the characteristics of the Peninsula War. After entering the tug-of-war phase, the positions of both sides are overhead, with a distance of only tens or hundreds of meters. The large no-man’s land similar to that in "1917" has never appeared.

During the mobile warfare stage, there was a move by Nuts to retreat and lengthen China's supply line. However, China's offensive troops were used to fighting in and out and did not rely on orders from their superiors at the rear.

In short, asking two new recruits to inform the frontline troops to cancel the attack is too childish in the Chinese army.

So, if you think about it differently, instead of giving a notice to cancel the attack, what if you give a notice to retreat in advance?
There seems to be a way!

Chen Yiming moved through "The Complete Records of the Peninsular War History" and focused on the two stages of tug-of-war and stalemate.

Similar to the previous life, in the Peninsula War in this time and space, between the mobile warfare stage and the positional warfare stage, there is also a short period of time for the enemy to advance and we to retreat.

Those months were the most difficult period for the Chinese army.

After N strikes, as both sides continued to increase their troops, the narrow peninsula battlefield became airtight, and the intersecting offensive operations that China was good at at the beginning of the war could no longer be fought.

Our side was trapped by poor logistics and was unable to attack, and there was no time to build strong fortifications when attacking and defending. The soldiers could only use light weapons and flesh and blood to fight against the opponent's massive aircraft, heavy artillery and tanks.

Because of the heroic fighting of the soldiers, the overall retreat of the front was not large. It was basically a few kilometers to more than ten kilometers, and resistance continued around the continuous hills.

As logistical problems were gradually solved, supporting artillery was gradually put in place, and tunnel tactics were gradually improved, we were able to reverse the situation and even switch from defensive to offensive in some areas. Since then, there have been no major changes in the front line.

Therefore, during a specific period of time when the enemy is advancing and we are retreating, it makes perfect sense logically for our communications troops to pass through the fire blockade and reach the forward position, and notify the defenders on a certain hilltop on the front line to retreat in advance.

During the Peninsular War, the Nut side was indeed accustomed to taking advantage of its firepower, firing artillery at the reinforcement channels of our positions day and night, and artificially creating blockade zones.

This plot has been shown in many previous films, such as "Shangganling", "Li Yannian", "Huang Jiguang", etc.

After sorting through this, he suddenly found that the plot summary recorded on the paper looked familiar.

Isn't this just a reverse version of "Assembly"?

In "Assembly", the company led by the protagonist was ordered to cut off the rear and block the attack. However, they never heard the assembly call that the regiment leader promised to allow them to retreat. In the end, the entire company was wiped out and only the company commander survived.

In the history of the Peninsular War that Chen Yiming read, during those difficult blocking years, all the Chinese soldiers stationed on the hills had no expectation of retreat, but only the choice to persevere.

Either hold on until backup arrives and postpone the time of sacrifice, or hold on until all ammunition and food are exhausted and die with the enemy, or hold on until the enemy's will is shaken and find another breakthrough, or hold on until the significance of blocking is reduced and the superior orders the retreat.

In those battles that were code-named with the name of the mountain or even the elevation of the mountain, most of them were heroic and heroic in which the first two results were combined into one. Even if there were very few of the latter two results, the survival rate of officers and soldiers was astonishingly low.

After several months of blocking fighting, facing the indiscriminate bombings of the coalition forces, one company after another was like moths fluttering into the flames, all annihilated in the black soil ground into powder by steel and gunpowder.

Faced with the superior firepower of Nuts, in order to reduce casualties, each hilltop position can only be occupied by one company at most. The defenders must face a siege with several times or even ten times the strength.

The blockade is not half a day, but three days, five days, eight days and ten days, because the second-line positions also need time to build fortifications, otherwise the continuous resistance will directly evolve into a rout of thousands of miles.

There is no "Assembly"-style deception here. Every company stationed on the mountain knows exactly what it is going to face.

Chen Yiming recorded each battle, number and name on paper. This would be a valuable clue for him to follow the map.

There was an impulse in his heart, and he must take this opportunity to talk face to face with those veterans who had spent their remaining lives fighting.

Explore a question that has been lingering in his heart.

When their comrades are falling one after another around them, when the battle is endless and death is everywhere, what are those soldiers who still insist on fighting, what are they thinking?

(End of this chapter)