This director needs to apologize

Chapter 69 The three setters are cold

Chen Yiming left his mobile phone number for the young lady and said he would call when the movie was released, hoping that the young lady could take Mr. Li to watch it.

He was so congested that he didn't want to talk to anyone. After leaving the sanatorium, there was a branch road about 3 kilometers away. There were few people and cars, and Chen Yiming could just take a walk.

Li Yucheng's memories of the Battle of Tianma Mountain today undoubtedly provided great help to the filming of "1951", especially his narration of the battle on the last day, which is exactly what Chen Yiming wants to know most.

He talked in too much detail, down to everyone's death, so detailed that Chen Yiming couldn't bear to listen.

After listening to the end, Chen Yiming even began to doubt himself whether he was really capable of recreating that extraordinary heaviness and conveying Li Yucheng's mood at the time to the audience.

It turns out that there is really only a thin line between accepting death as home and dying early.

Li Yucheng is calm and calm. He never wastes his life. Fighting until the last moment, he is still trying his best to attack the enemy and delay time.

But he also looked down upon death. He violated the principles of combat not once or twice. The lack of sacrifice was just his luck.

Chen Yiming put aside subjective feelings as much as possible and allowed himself to return to the director's perspective.

At this time, he suddenly realized that if he did not make any changes, he would strictly follow Mr. Li's description of filming the last day of the Tianma Mountain main position.

Every move of those nine warriors was not even the slightest bit inconsistent, and the development of the plot was so natural and logical.

It's so weird.

He had seen the same behavior in previous movies with the main theme, but it only gave him a strong taste of propaganda.

Whether it was the deputy instructor stuffing glory bombs into two seriously wounded soldiers.

It was still helped by a few wounded people who had difficulty moving and rushed to the front of the line of fire.

Or maybe Lao Li's "stupid" behavior exposed most of his body several times.

In the past, he would have definitely thought that the film's creators were "pretending to be sensational" again.

Chen Yiming pulled himself away from the gloomy atmosphere facing Lao Li and went over the last day's battle in his mind again.

He couldn't guarantee whether he would be able to do the same thing as Zhao Shi and others if he was one of the lightly wounded.

But he could indeed understand that Zhao Shi and the others would definitely follow Wang and Li and rush out of the cave without hesitation.

Even if you know that if you go up this time, you will never come back.

As a director, Chen Yiming certainly knows the reason for the weirdness.

According to the lingo of filmmaking, "when the emotion comes, the scene will come."

The actors, scenes and plot have reached a certain chemical reaction, creating a logical and self-consistent world that the audience can't help but fall into.

So the question is, how did Mr. Li get him into that kind of mood?

What should he do so that the audience can experience the same feeling that he has experienced?
The more Chen Yiming thought about it, the less confident he became, and he once fell into some kind of self-doubt. Can he really be a good "setter"?

……

In the next few days, Chen Yiming was either on the plane or on the way to catch the plane.

Although he broke down the entire project and assigned it, there were still too many matters that required him to make decisions, and he had no chance to calm down and think carefully while he was busy.

He did not return to the Magic City the next day, but continued to visit other veterans who had experienced the Peninsular War.

After flying over half of China for a whole week, Chen Yiming felt that he had almost collected the materials, so he headed to the imperial capital to visit the Bayi Factory.

This time, he made a special trip to meet with Mr. Sang Ping to communicate face-to-face about the staff arrangement and specific division of labor of the photography team.

And more importantly, discuss the lens language of "1951".

The camera language of "Holiday in the Magic City" is very plain. Xiangrui directs the camera to shoot how Lao Gu and Lily play.

The few long shots that involve camera movements are all straightforward, without any theme or deep meaning.

The use of digital cameras to present a naturalistic style is considered the only breakthrough in photography.

However, the protagonists in achieving the balance of light and shadow are art director Lin Xiao and Deng Ye Wang Lizing, and have nothing to do with Chen Yiming, Xiangrui and a few guys from the Documentary Channel.

"1951" is much more complicated.

Based on the general tone of the movie, Chen Yiming decided that the camera should reflect the word "cold" throughout.

The color tone should be cold, the camera movement should be cold, and the interaction should be cold.

Sang Ping understood the first two points immediately.The old man has been filming for decades and has worked with more directors than actors Chen Yiming has ever seen.

The cold tones may sound classy, ​​but in fact it’s not complicated at all.

Use more blue, green, and purple and less yellow, orange, and red, and the picture will naturally become "cooler".

If you want to take the word "jun" a step further, use purple less often.

In addition to filter selection, you also need to use some tips to make the characters and background look "distant" and "empty".

This involves specific scene design. Sang Ping was also present when setting up the scene. The framing and movement of each shot in each scene must be designed in advance.

Chen Yiming felt very sorry for the 70-year-old Mr. Sang who was working in the ravine for six years, but Mr. Sang didn't take it seriously. He also said that he hadn't been in the army for some years and he just happened to run a little while his body was still strong.

As for the coldness of moving the mirror, it is a term that has only become popular in recent years.

In previous movies, the movement of the camera must conform to the rules of human eyesight and the logic of real life.

Everyone shoots like this, and as time goes by, there will naturally be "pioneers" who challenge this rule.

For example, to challenge the relative relationship between actors within the scene, there is an "off-axis" shooting method.

This is a kind of lens language that uses the confusion of relative relationships to hint at the seeming incompatibility between characters.

Another example is to challenge the speed of camera movement. The panning is no longer smooth, but suddenly stops.

This is also a lens language that deliberately breaks the previous rhythm and makes the audience anxious together.

"1951" is a long-shot follow-up movie. Since it is a movie, it can't just follow the record. That way the shooting will really become a documentary or a third-person game.

Because it is a long follow-up shot, the camera movements must be carefully designed and dynamically changed to prevent the audience from becoming dizzy and bored after watching for a long time.

Lenglie is a general expression of the principle of camera movement, including a complete set of methods for controlling camera movement.

For example, when the characters are talking, the camera is pushed over the shoulders, giving the audience a sense of distance through isolation.

There are also panning frames when the characters turn around, driving the audience into nervous emotions with rapid changes.

It is now 2010, and the skills of mirror manipulation have been highly refined, summarized and popularized. Therefore, Chen Yiming only needs to say the word "Leng Lie" and Sang Ping can immediately grasp Chen Yiming's train of thought.

As for the third one Chen Yiming said was cold and the interaction was cold, Sang Ping had some different opinions.

The interaction here does not refer to the dialogue between actors in the camera, but the relationship between the camera and the actors.

To give a common example, interrogation scenes in police movies.

The camera is half a meter away from the actor, facing the actor's eyes. This is an interaction.

The camera is two meters away from the actor and faces the actor's forehead diagonally. This is the second kind of interaction.

The camera is five meters away from the actor and faces the actor's face sideways. This is the third type of interaction.

As far as the interrogation scene is concerned, the first interaction is gaze, the second interaction is suspicion, and the third interaction is recording.

There are also more classic ones, such as the appearance of Professor Hannibal. The camera does not move and the actor approaches step by step, and a sense of aggression and oppression is felt.

This is the inverse of the first type of interaction, where the observed looks at the observer.

Chen Yiming hopes that the scenes in the movie that follow the messenger duo will follow the second or third interaction and always remain calm and restrained.

Sang Ping believes that "1951" is a theme film that should reflect the official attitude.

The color tone can be cold, and the camera movement can be cold. After all, these two are more technical aspects, but the interaction should not only not be cold, but should be hot and warm.

How can we photograph our soldiers from the perspective of looking at strangers?
This is a follow-up film. The camera not only interacts with the first and second protagonists, but also records the interactions between the two protagonists and other actors. How does the cold attitude reflect the comradeship?
Chen Yiming insists on his opinion and must be cold, even indifferent to a certain extent.

Because interaction is not only the interaction between the camera and the actors, but also the interaction between the protagonist and the supporting characters recorded by the camera. The camera also guides the audience and allows the audience to interact with the actors.

Chen Yiming does not want to use any photography techniques to influence the audience and deliberately guide them to have a perception of our soldiers in "1951", whether this perception is good or bad.

As the saying goes, love is determined at first glance, and it is difficult to change a person's first impression. This is especially true for movies because of their short time.

As the main creator, we must face the fact that the contemporary audience is very far away from that battlefield, and the foundation of empathy is too weak.

Not to mention that overseas audiences and judges not only have no basis for empathy with our soldiers, but also have an innate dislike due to the long-term distorted propaganda of foreign media.

Therefore, Stranger is a starting point suitable for both Chinese and foreign audiences. The more they hope to immerse the audience, the more the creators must exercise restraint.

(End of this chapter)