Nearly a month has passed since "Sword Out of Huashan", the first martial arts movie of "The Swordsman", was officially launched in Ningshan Film and Television City, but the filming work was not going smoothly.
At least it has not reached the planned progress, and it is basically certain that it will not be released in domestic theaters during the summer vacation.
This made the morale of the crew a bit low.
You must know that for this big movie, Chenfei Media has been preparing for nearly a year. The preparations in all aspects can be said to be quite sufficient. However, during the actual shooting process, many problems were still encountered.
These problems mainly focus on martial arts.
"Click!"
Chen Guozhi put down the microphone in his hand, shook his sore legs and feet, stood up, clapped his hands and said, "That's it for today, and we'll continue tomorrow."
On the set, both the actors and crew members breathed a sigh of relief.
Today's filming was extremely tiring, both literary and martial arts. The two directors Chen Guozhi and Lu Chen were personally in charge, and they paid extraordinary attention to it. Naturally, everyone worked hard and did not dare to slack off in the slightest.
The filming started at around 7 o'clock in the morning, and now it is already around 9 o'clock in the evening. Everyone's nerves are tense, and they are very tired both physically and mentally. Now they have finally persisted until the end.
However, after putting in so much effort and sweat, there are not many qualified shots. Tomorrow we have to reshoot and reshoot, which will be a new round of suffering.
Lu Chen stood up and said, "Everyone, go to bed early and don't stay up late..."
Of course he could see that everyone's mood was not high, but that's how making movies is, and it would never be an easy and simple thing to make a real masterpiece.
Behind success, there are often too many unknown hardships. The excitement and enjoyment that the audience sees in the theater requires people like them to work hard in obscurity.
Lu Chen could only find a way to make up for it, and he would never relax his demands because of this. In fact, many of the shots taken today were excellent in the eyes of insiders, but they did not fully realize what he wanted.
the effect to be achieved.
The crew members are under a lot of pressure, which is understandable.
At this time, Chen Guozhi said to him: "Xiao Lu, let's go back to the hotel and have a chat?"
Lu Chen was slightly startled and quickly replied: "Okay."
When we got back to the hotel, it was already 10pm.
The place where Chen Guozhi and Lu Chen talked was not in the room, but in the small restaurant. Also present were Filia Chen, the producer, the cameraman, the stage manager, and Chen Guozhi's assistant, who was considered the real assistant of the great director.
confidant.
In fact, similar small meetings have been held several times during the filming process.
It's already so late, and the hotel restaurant must have closed long ago, but the "Swordsman" crew stationed here are not ordinary guests. The service provided by the hotel is extremely considerate, and there is no problem if you want to order a meal no matter how late it is.
, late night snacks are naturally no exception.
Chen Guozhi was getting older, and he didn't have such a good appetite because he paid attention to health. He felt full after eating a bowl of mushroom noodle soup, then poured a cup of Longjing tea and sipped it slowly.
Lu Chen and others knew that he had something to say, so they all ate something to fill their stomachs and asked the waiter to remove the plates and drink tea with him.
After drinking a cup of tea, Chen Guozhi said in a thoughtful tone: "Xiao Lu, our current shooting progress is quite behind. Have you considered speeding up?"
The filming progress is lagging behind, mainly in the area that Lu Chen is responsible for.
In addition to playing the leading role, Lu Chen also serves as the action director of "The Swordsman". Action directors have appeared very early in the domestic and foreign film industry. They are mainly responsible for the design and guidance of the fights in the film, and are in charge of all action scenes.
The leader in shooting, scheduling and editing.
But Lu Chen's action director is different from other colleagues. According to his definition, the action director of a martial arts film is based on the subjective and objective conditions such as script, director, actor, and scene environment in the creation of martial arts action films.
The person in charge of the design, training, arrangement, scheduling, shooting, editing and other artistic creation activities of action scenes is not as important as the director.
There are fundamental differences between "The Swordsman" and other action movies, including ghost movies. It is precisely to deepen this difference that Lu Chen has extremely strict requirements when it comes to shooting action scenes.
As a true martial arts movie, "The Swordsman" has many martial arts scenes. Lu Chen pursues authenticity in action and fighting, aiming to achieve an artistic sense of reality through the processing of art and technology.
Therefore, he must balance the relationship between truth and falsehood, and strive to reasonably "embed" the martial arts actions into the characters and plots in the logical relationship of the storyline, so as to make all the martial arts actions in the film occur as naturally and dazzlingly as possible.
.
To realize his goal and meet his requirements is undoubtedly a huge pressure for the actor!
"The Swordsman" is not "A Chinese Ghost Story". The background of the film is grand, involving Shaolin, Wudang, the Five Mountains Sword Sect, the Sun Moon God Sect and many other sects. There are many actors, but most of them lack the skills in this aspect.
experience.
There is no doubt that a large part of the problems can be solved with the help of martial arts, but it is impossible to perform martial arts from beginning to end, and it also requires corresponding training and cooperation. In addition, many group performers also have to learn basic routines.
As a result, there were really not enough people in Lu's class. Many times, Lu Chen had to go out to demonstrate in person and help the actors make repeated corrections. It was weird that the filming progress did not fall behind!
Fortunately, all digital photography now does not require film. In the past, I would have squandered so many disks, and the cost was prohibitive.
Delayed progress is a problem, but the bigger problem is the psychological pressure on the actors and crew.
Chen Guozhi's tone was not serious, but there was still a hint of questioning, which made the atmosphere in the small restaurant quietly become solemn - was he expressing dissatisfaction?
Lu Chen felt the pressure from the great director. He thought for a while and replied in a deep voice: "Director Chen, based on the current situation, it is difficult for us to speed up our progress. I think we must first ensure the quality and effect...
"
“We’re not on schedule!”
It's similar, Lu Chen told reporters before, but now he's answering to Chen Guozhi.
Chen Guozhi is the director of "The Swordsman", and Lu Chen's words are inevitably suspected of challenging his authority.
Several important members of the crew present couldn't help but panic. If the two of them had a conflict at work, could the film continue like this?
Lu Chen's answer was too direct, couldn't he be more tactful? Or wouldn't it be better to compromise?