This director needs to apologize

Chapter 47: A closer look at the motivation outline is released
Chen Yiming briefly described the "Dunkirk version of the Peninsular War" to the second uncle, and sure enough he found that the latter's brows were furrowed.

It took him a while before he said, "Flying in the sky, running on the ground, your alternative plan is really quite a scene."

Chen Yiming added weakly, "Uncle Ma, you can have some floating on the sea if you want. Our fighter planes will start from the sea. When the time comes, there will be several warships floating on the sea below the aircraft, and the picture will be more textured."

The second uncle waved his hands repeatedly, "Okay, stop it, I understand what you mean. This time is too hasty, so you should start preparing from the one shot to the end.

In this way, I will help you contact the relevant parties as soon as possible. You should seize the time these days to refine your needs and ideas.

The most important thing is that you must think clearly about which characters you want to focus on in your story, what kind of image they have in the movie, and what information and emotions you intend to convey to the audience.

The one-shot format is indeed innovative and topical, but the original intention must not be forgotten, and the main theme of the movie must always be adhered to. "

When he walked out of the villa area where the Ma family was located and stood on the roadside waiting for a taxi, Chen Yiming kept thinking over and over again the second uncle's last words.

The story clues have not been sorted out yet, and in fact it is far from time to consider character creation.

But Chen Yiming knew that the second uncle's point was very important, and it was directly related to whether the film could be successfully approved. It was the primary issue of life and death.

Of course, Chen Yiming can learn from Nolan's approach and visualize the enemy as the opposite side of the war, without showing his face or even appearing on camera at all, thus preventing the audience from falling into a binary opposition of positions.

But our military characters always have to appear on camera, and their images in the camera will also give the audience a certain perception, reflect corresponding judgments, and overflow the attitude of the movie.

And this is the core issue that Shangfeng is most concerned about. How do you plan to present our officers and soldiers?
At first glance, it is just a few character settings in the story, but upon closer inspection, it turns out to be extremely complicated.

If you follow the story line from front to back, you will find that the characters at every level in the movie are not simple.

For example, how should an officer who assigns an order mission to the protagonist conduct mobilization before the mission?
The traditional main theme of the movie is very direct. In a broad sense, it is about protecting the homeland and defending the country. Specifically, it is about rescuing comrades. Accepting this extremely dangerous mission is an honor and an opportunity to make meritorious service and receive awards.

The director assumes that the audience understands and agrees with this reason, and sometimes even directly ignores the task mobilization link.

In "Survival of the World", the military officer bluntly asked the scientist protagonist, "Are you willing to remain anonymous for the sake of the country?"
The scientist answered without hesitation, yes.

"Previous Life" was a movie in 1999. Many young people did not understand the atomic bomb project at all, nor did they understand the special circumstances in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but they could still understand the scientists' choices without any hindrance and were deeply moved by it.

They also stayed in the Gobi desert to work on atomic bombs, but the scientists in "Oppenheimer" had a completely opposite attitude.

Will foreign audiences question scientists as being unpatriotic?of course not!
Therefore, he is just an officer at the beginning of the movie, serving as an introduction. He only has one scene, and his performance and lines are a big problem that cannot be avoided.

Should we add some "humanized" touches to this character?
In the original film "1917", in order to make the protagonist more proactive in completing the mission, the general told him that his brother was among the troops planning to launch an attack tomorrow morning and rush towards the German death trap.

Obviously, the officer (director) believed that comradeship was not enough for the protagonist (audience) to identify with this adventure, so he added another weight called family affection to the scale.

However, when the target was changed to a Chinese audience, this originally just right weight immediately became inappropriate.

How could he risk his life just to save his brother? Do other soldiers deserve to die?

Although the social trend of thought no longer recognizes the perfect person, Chinese people still appreciate altruistic deeds and spurn selfish cowardice.

While I don’t believe in sacrificing myself for others from the bottom of my heart, I also condescend to look down on selfishness.

In other words, use selfishness to compare yourself, and use selflessness to ask others.

So, is it okay to really portray characters who are dedicated to the public good in movies?

No, no!
too fake!Untrue!

In a divided society, human nature is also divided!
Chen Yiming sat down on the curb, searching through war movies in his memory, looking for "relatively appropriate" reasons for mobilization.

So much so that I missed one taxi after another with the green light showing no passengers.

The biggest reason is still relying on the discipline of the army. Just like General Gu's famous line, the first priority is for soldiers to obey.There are also those that rely solely on luck. For example, frontline soldiers, combat patrols, etc., no one takes the initiative to volunteer for dangerous missions?Then draw lots!
On the premise of passing the trial, the second option will be abandoned directly, while the first option can be considered.

All armies in the world have strict requirements for discipline. Even ordinary viewers who have never served in the military can understand that fighting means superiors order subordinates to "face danger and death."

Then simply downplay the "mobilization" color and create a cold-faced professional officer, just like the mission NPC in the Call of Duty game, using absolutely neutral language to accurately order the protagonist to complete the mission.

A soldier who faces hundreds of thousands of his men dead or wounded every day has no reason to pay extra attention to a retreat mission.

After sorting out the first question, Chen Yiming patted his butt and stood up, focusing half of his attention on taking a taxi.

When he got into the car, he considered whether he could add the role of a political commissar to temper the general's "cold-bloodedness".

When he walked into the house, he overturned this idea. It was difficult for foreign audiences to understand and it was too extraneous.

After washing and lying on the bed, he thought about adding a mid-level officer to deliver such an important order. A two-person team was obviously more reasonable than a single person.

That night, Chen Yiming tossed and turned in bed, baking pancakes for half the night, until his brain finally stopped moving, and he fell asleep exhausted.

……

From the next few days until the weekend, Chen Yiming turned off his mobile phone and stayed in his rented house concentrating on the outline of the script.

Referring to "1917", there should be at least the following main characters.

The protagonist group needs to be at least two people, otherwise many scenes will not even have dialogue and the movie will be too dull.

The first protagonist is a new recruit who has just joined the army. Because he has been to the front line, he is assigned the task of delivering orders and guides.

The second protagonist is set as the communications staff of the regiment, the real executor of the retreat order, the protagonist’s convener and half-master.

The task publisher, Chen Yiming, is set as a team leader.

Because in the positional defense stage of the Peninsular War, our army generally uses divisions as aspect units and regiments as tactical units. The regiment commander is the lowest level with the authority to issue retreat orders.

Leader [-], related to the first crisis of the protagonist group, is set as a company-level commander in the reserve position.

In the Peninsula War, our corps-level defensive positions generally have three layers. From the outside inward, they are outpost warning positions, first-line positions, and reserve positions. From the command post to the first-line position, the first thing to pass is the reserve position.

The main task of this role is to explain the situation in the fire blockade area to the protagonist group.

Guide [-], the second crisis related to the protagonist group, is set as a patrol member.

The battle lines in the Peninsular War were not as closely connected as the trenches in World War I. Instead, they supported each other with the hills as fulcrums, and the cols and ridges between the hills were filled with patrol teams.

The patrol members are responsible for explaining the enemy situation around the front-line position to the protagonist group, paving the way for the protagonist group to choose a detour next.

Leader Three, the third crisis related to the protagonist group, is set as a four-person investigation team.

The terrain of the peninsula is not all continuous hills. There are occasionally small flats or hills between the mountains. Since it is not conducive to defense, large troops will not appear here. Instead, small-scale reconnaissance units will break out here. .

In order to save time and pass quickly, the protagonist team had to take the initiative to get involved in the battle of the reconnaissance team. This is also the only battle scene in the movie.

Finally, there is the mission objective, which is related to the biggest crisis of the protagonist. What appears is the remnant of the defenders who were ordered to retreat. It is set as a squad cluster of less than 8 people.

This is the main defensive position on the front line, a big stage for equipment display, and the biggest change compared to "1917". The prototype and scene still need to be determined by consulting historical data.

All told, there are about [-] or [-] actors who appear in the front-facing scenes. Except for the first protagonist, all of them need to undergo military training.

(End of this chapter)