On October 12, Tang An came to Casablanca on the Pacific coast of western Morocco.
This historic city, Morocco's economic center and transportation hub, known as the "Bride of the Atlantic", has welcomed a large group of Chinese filmmakers in the past few days.
After the crew arrived, they and another group of people who stayed in the local area completed all the preliminary work, and all aspects including the Moroccan government and military were coordinated.
After a long flight, Tang An did not immediately start filming. He took a day off and met with the local government and the embassy.
There was no social interaction, everything was arranged by the diplomatic department, and Morocco is a country in Africa that is relatively close to China.
Most of the scenes will be shot in Casablanca, and according to the plan, the scenes in the desert will be shot first.
Arriving at the shooting location by car, Tang An smiled and said, "Only when I got here did I remember that I was in Africa." Looking at the Gobi Desert, the high mountains and ravines, and the sky full of yellow sand.
Zhang Yi, who was getting off the car from behind, followed up and echoed behind Tang An, "Director Tang, when I first arrived in Casablanca, I thought I was in Europe. It's not like an African city at all."
Next to her, Wan Qian asked with a smile, "What do African cities look like?"
Zhang Yi was stunned for a moment and thought about it but didn't know how to describe it.
“The people do not have enough to eat, there are many wars, unrest, poverty, backwardness, and filth.”
Tang An answered for him, and added at the end, "Plow Casablanca with cannonballs, and that's probably what it will look like."
Zhang Yi rubbed his head in embarrassment, "After returning from Nanjiang last month, I went to Venice with the crew of "Dear". Casablanca felt more like a European city."
"This used to be a French colony, so the buildings are naturally French-style. Most countries in Europe look similar, so there's nothing strange about it."
"Africa also has international metropolises. Cairo is ranked among the top 100 cities in the world. Cities like Casablanca are almost equivalent to second-tier cities in China and will not lag behind."
After chatting for a while, everyone went to prepare their own things.
Actors' makeup, equipment, vehicles, bombs, etc. used for filming must be inspected one by one.
Everyone was busy with their own things, and Tang An called the leaders of each group over.
Every movie has its own different style, and different styles affect many aspects such as photography, lighting, picture color, editing, and soundtrack.
Tang An has talked with them many times about the movie "Operation Red Sea", trying his best to let them understand his ideas and know what type of military movie he wants to make.
Movies are the director's art, but there are hundreds of people on the crew, and each person has a different division of labor. The director can only direct others to do it, and cannot do everything himself.
Even if I have so much time and energy, I still don’t have the ability.
Some directors study photography, and some study art, but no director can master all the tasks of the crew.
Of course, different movies have different requirements. A movie like "Shark Beach" does not have high requirements for color, photography angles, lighting, etc.
Although the stories of the films directed by directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige are not very good, in terms of professionalism, they are definitely inferior to the current blockbuster directors.
The environment of the times was different. There were no feature films when they were young, and the movies at that time were not for telling stories.
Affected by the general environment, directors of that generation were not very good at telling stories.
Feng Xiaogang is an exception, but he is precisely rejected by that circle.
"Lao Ye, Lao Zhang, I discussed the overall tone with you half a year ago. This is a war movie, and the dark yellow tone should be throughout the film.
The previous scenes were all shot in the desert, and the color of the desert itself is a dull yellow. You have to handle it well. I need to give the audience a real feeling of facing war, and a "painful" color!"
In "Operation Red Sea", the color tone is always dark yellow, the smoke of war is endless, there are no extra colors to set it off, there is no time to shed tears, and the eyes cannot be blurred.
There are many different types of war movies. Although some battles are brutal and people around the protagonist die one after another, the whole process makes the audience passionate and adrenaline surges without excessive sadness.
"Operation Red Sea" is not such a movie. A real war must make the audience "painful"!
There are no extra colors in war, every color is pain!
As for how to show "pain", that is the business of the art director and lighting engineer.
They are all top talents in their respective fields, and they naturally know what to do.
After two and a half hours of preparation, as it approached ten o'clock, Tang An confirmed to all departments that everything was ready.
Tang An picked up the water glass and took a big gulp, poured some more on his hand, and patted his dry face.
Although it is already mid-October, in the desert of Africa, you can still feel the heat in the air, and a wave of heat covers every exposed skin.
However, the little moisture soon added to the hair, and my face was still dry and uncomfortable.
There was nothing we could do, filming in the desert was like this, we couldn't find a few air conditioners to blow on Tang An.
Not to mention, there will be crews that do this in the future. When some young actors were filming costume dramas in the summer, the crews were equipped with several air conditioners to blow the air in the open air.
He didn't get used to the climate here, and he was still in the desert, so Tang An felt a little hot again.
I drank another bottle of ice-cold drink. Just like the sentence in the advertisement, "the heart is cool and the heart is soaring." It's so refreshing.
After feeling a little more comfortable, Tang An picked up the loudspeaker and announced the start.
"Scene 41, one shot, one shot!"
"start!"
Following Tang An's order, a large motorcade came towards the other end of a road pressed out by wheels in the desert.
This scene is about the Jiaolong Special Forces and the local government troops protecting civilians and heading to the port.
Trucks, buses, and armored vehicles brought up dust all over the sky along the way.
The footage from the drone aerial photography went from near to far, first giving Zhang Yi and Wan Qian a close-up shot, then slowly lengthening, rising, and moving to the side.
Tang An stared at this shot closely in front of the monitor. Although it was not difficult, it was a very ordinary shot.
Immediately afterwards, the screen captured the peaks on both sides of the road. In the long shot, the peaks were not big, just like small hills.
But it's very dense, like a maze with murderous intentions hidden inside.
Moreover, the lens is at an angle of 135 degrees to the sunlight, and the sun is shining obliquely. Coupled with the dust in the sky, the entire lens picture is not very clear, and it feels a bit illusory.
The motorcade stopped, and the first shot ended, once and for all.
No time to celebrate, continue with the second shot.
The leaders of the government forces said they had just received a notice that they were heading to a dangerous area and they had to change their route.
However, taking a detour would definitely waste a lot of time, so Zhang Yi quickly contacted Kunming.
"Okay, the demolition team is ready!"
Tang An shouted stop, and an explosion scene followed.
The dense mountain peaks in front, through the light, angle and dust, look perilous, and there is some danger inside.
Every shot in the movie has a purpose, and the audience may not notice it, but its presence or absence can indirectly affect the audience, but the audience themselves are not aware of it.
The scenery hinted at the scene before, but the danger will come immediately next.
Zhang Yigang was about to contact the Kunmin, but before he could get through, a nearby mortar hidden in the mountain fired shells one after another.
"call out"
"boom!!"
The truck next to Zhang Yi was hit by a shell, and his whole body was knocked to the ground by the huge air wave.