The crew left London and came to Tangier, Morocco, located in a coastal country in northwest Africa. The weather in Morocco immediately made the crew of "Inception" feel a different temperature.
Zhao Fei fanned his hat and couldn't help but complain.
Tangier is located at the northern tip of Morocco at the entrance from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. The urban area is spread out on the seaside hillsides, and the beach stretches for more than 10 kilometers. It has beautiful scenery and a mild and pleasant climate.
Because Morocco is an Arab country, there are many Arab buildings in the old city, including the Grand Soco Square, the Kasbah Castle, the Sultan's Palace, etc.
The plot filmed here is mainly about the plot where dream builder Chen Daoxuan finds the pretender Duan Yihong and the pharmacist Liu Yunlong, which also includes a chase scene for Chen Daoxuan.
Wu Jianye smiled and said to Zhao Fei: "Stop complaining. Shooting here is a test for you. Are there any problems?"
Regarding the scene where Chen Daoxuan quickly escapes, a variety of shooting methods such as hand-held Steadicam, wide-angle shooting, and walking shooting will be used. It is indeed a test for Zhao Fei.
Usually, photographers can use rail cars and crane arms to reduce camera shake when shooting on the move.
But Steadicam has great flexibility and convenience.
It can shoot longer shots than a crane, and while tracks require flat ground, Steadicam can adapt to more environments such as mountains and steps, and can complete more complex moving lens shots.
This is their difference and the characteristic of Steadicam.
The Steadicam is a device that highly integrates humans and machines. Not everyone can achieve ideal results by wearing it. The Steadicam needs to be adjusted to the walking posture, the angle of the waist and shoulders, the ease of the arms, the distribution of the fingers, and the three-axis movement of the machine. Special training and calibration are required in several aspects such as matching. In fact, Steadicam is a specialized type of work in the professional field.
Nowadays, very few people in China use this technology, and more are only used by Hollywood film companies, because if you want to use this technology well, you must carry out scientific practice and professional calibration.
The use of Steadicam technology has already appeared in the 1970s.
In 1976, Stallone's "Rocky" was one of the first feature films to use Steadicam. In the film, photographer Garrett Brown climbed the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to show people Stallone's heroic appearance, and everyone was fascinated.
This shot is one of the most memorable in the film, a shot that would have been unattainable before the invention of the Steadicam.
In "The Shining" in 1980, director Stanley Kubrick used a Steadicam to show the corridors of a haunted house, and another shot showed Jack Nicholson walking through a snowy hedgerow.
Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson and many other directors have used extremely complex Steadicam shots to show the inner world and scenes of their characters.
In the 1990 film "The Good Guys," Scorsese used a Steadicam to take the audience into a bustling restaurant on Copacabana Beach.
In a five-minute sequence, viewers watch as Leliotta walks from the back door through the kitchen, up the stairs to the bar area, and finally stops to greet customers. It's one of the most riveting shots in the movie.
At the same time, Steadicam is also used in special effects shots.
In 1983's "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi", the high-speed car chase scene was successfully captured by photographer Garrett Brown walking slowly with his camera in several places in Redwood National Park in California.
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The special effects staff fast-forwarded these shots and spliced them with blue screen shots of the actors on the automatic cars to get such an exciting set of car chase shots.
Without a Steadicam, these shots would shake when fast forwarding.
In order to shoot the scenes in Tangier, Wu Jianye specially hired a photographer from Phantom Pictures to provide one-on-one tutoring to Zhao Fei. Now it is time to see the results of Zhao Fei's learning.
Zhao Fei smiled and said: "Don't worry, I have been learning this technique a few years ago, and with this special training, I guarantee there will be no problems!"
Wu Jianye smiled. He was very relieved about Zhao Fei. There was no pretending to understand between the two. As long as Zhao Fei said there was no problem, Wu Jianye believed that there was no problem with him.
When shooting in Tangier, not only was the shooting technique a challenge, but also the crowd during the chase scene was a very difficult scene to control. After all, a crowded crowd could easily cause collisions between people and some unprofessional people if not careful.
Performance appears.
At the same time, this also means that the crew needs to invest more manpower and material resources to help the guest actors, who are not just extras, but local people.
After the crew checked into the hotel, Wu Jianye found Chen Daoxuan.
The scene here is Chen Daohuan's top priority. After all, in everyone's impression, Chen Daohuan has never filmed such an action scene, although before this, Chen Daohuan had received action training and also starred in "Eternal Night"
this movie.
But the martial arts scenes in "Eternal Night" and the action scenes in "Inception" are two different concepts.
However, Chen Daohuan did not find this scene too difficult, and instead comforted Wu Jianye.
Wu Jianye smiled and said: "Although you are confident, you can't be too careless about this kind of thing. After all, this filming is different from "Eternal Night". Tomorrow the crew will shoot other scenes first, and Tan Yang will take you
Familiarize yourself with the situation on site first, and do some training in advance so that there won’t be any unexpected problems when shooting!”
Although the crew has taken various protective measures at the beginning of preparations in order to avoid accidents during filming, especially for some action movies, if an accident occurs, it will be necessary for the entire crew to shoot the movie.
This is a very uncomfortable thing, and there is always the possibility of postponing the filming.
In another time and space, in Tsui Hark's "New Dragon Gate Inn", Lin Qingxia's eye was almost pierced, and she had to step in as a substitute to help complete the rest of the filming.
During the filming of "Once Upon a Time", Li Lianjie was also injured, and the rest of the filming could only be staged.
The most serious thing was that at the beginning of Cheng Long's "Dragon Brothers and Tiger Brothers", he almost died when he fell from a tree. If it hadn't happened that the best doctor was giving a lecture locally, Cheng Long's consequences would have been disastrous.
Although the action scenes in the movie "Inception" are not too dangerous, but not being too dangerous does not mean that there is no danger.
We are now halfway through the filming of the entire movie. If Chen Daoxuan is injured at this time, the entire crew will have to stop and wait for Chen Daoxuan to recover.
It was precisely because of this issue that Wu Jianye became even more careful.
Chen Daoxuan has no objection to Wu Jianye's arrangements. Although Chen Daoxuan is confident in his acting skills, the more such an actor is, the more he will protect himself, because they all know clearly that movies are never a safe shooting
process.
Any accident can happen, and the more inconspicuous the place, the easier it is to get injured.
On the second day, Wu Jianye actually shot other people's shots first and asked Tan Yang to take Chen Daohuan to get familiar with the venue.
Before arriving in Tangier, the leading team of the crew had already arrived and contacted the local government of Tangier. The other party was also very supportive of Wu Jianye being able to shoot here.
They also provided great help, with local officials following the crew and helping them with all communications.
Tourism is a very important industry for Tangier. They also know Wu Jianye's global influence and hope to use Wu Jianye's movies to advertise for their local area.
Although Chinese tour groups have not yet become an important contributor to the international tourism industry at this time, Wu Jianye's influence has never been limited to China. Starting from "The Last Emperor", Wu Jianye has had a certain influence around the world.
After "Jurassic Park" is released, its influence will become even greater.
To give a simple example, after Wu Jianye's movie "The World of Chu Xing" was released, although the real estate bubble occurred in Qiong Province, the filming location of "The World of Chu Xing" became a tourist attraction.
Many tourists will visit here because of its reputation.
There are countless such examples in later generations, such as Feng Pants' "If You Are the One" series. The two "If You Are the One" series made RB's Hokkaido and China's Hainan popular!
Later, Chen Sicheng's "Detective Chinatown" series also made Savadika popular...
These are actually the magic of movies. At that time, Chinese movies no longer only brought benefits to the movies or peripheral products. An excellent movie might even drive tourism at the filming location.
But that was China twenty years later.
During this period, among Chinese filmmakers, only Wu Jianye had such influence!
What the Tangier city government values now is not the China behind Wu Jianye, but Wu Jianye’s influence around the world, especially in Europe and the United States.
"Director Wu, you are very welcome to shoot your new movie here. During the filming, I will be responsible for everything your crew does here. If you need anything, just tell me!"
Officials sent by the Tangier government talked to Wu Jianye with a smile through a translator.
Morocco is an Arab country, and Arabic is the official language, but its common language is French, so this official also spoke French.
Wu Jianye does not understand French...
Through the translator, Wu Jianye expressed his gratitude to the other party.
In fact, the filming process here was indeed very smooth due to the presence of the other party. This was especially highlighted when filming Chen Daoxuan's scenes in the following days.
Because the local customs are different from those in China, problems may arise when shooting outside due to these seemingly unimportant things.
For example, Wu Jianye's first movie "The Peacock Princess" was filmed in Yunnan Province, where many customs are different from those of the Han people. If there were not those teachers watching, there might really be problems.
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The same goes for filming in Tangier.
At the same time, because they were accompanied by local officials, communication with local people went much more smoothly.
At least after Wu Jianye made the request, the other party was able to help Wu Jianye solve it.
But even so, because those ordinary people are not professional actors, they will often look at the camera inadvertently during filming. It is this kind of performance that made Chen Daohuan's scene take five days to film.
time.
Every night when I go back, I can see Chen Daohuan who is paralyzed by exhaustion.
However, Chen Daoxuan never spoke about these difficulties.
Later, it was Zhao Fei who suggested finding a local masseur to help Chen Daoxuan regain his strength. Otherwise, Chen Daoxuan would probably have to lie down from exhaustion after the five-day shooting!
After the filming of this scene was completed, Chen Daohuan couldn't help but said: "Why do I feel that shooting this scene is more tiring than shooting "Eternal Night"!"
Jiang Xiu laughed and said: ""Eternal Night" was filmed in China, and the actors who costar you are all professional actors, so it is naturally easier to get through. This time is different, this time the actors are all professional actors.
The people here have no shooting experience at all. Your own performance is fine, but they are not."
In fact, Chen Daohuan himself is aware of the issues mentioned by Jiang Qian. He is just complaining now that the filming is over.
Wu Jianye laughed from the side and said: "It's a little early to say we are tired. We have just completed less than half of the plot. We still have several tough battles to fight in the future!"
Chen Daohuan sat up straight at this time and said: "Don't worry, Director Wu, I just casually said that we will do whatever we want to do for the next shooting, there will be no problem!"
Wu Jianye naturally believed in Chen Daohuan's expertise and said with a smile: "Don't worry, I won't let you go so easily until the movie is finished!"
Everyone also smiled after hearing this.
For people like them, in fact, they don't take the difficulties and fatigue encountered during filming too seriously. They don't think about future generations of actors. They are so expensive and just scratching their hands is a huge sign of their dedication.
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For them, the most important thing in their hearts is always the film, and they have their own respect for their work!
Why in later generations, when filming "Looking for the Gun", Jiang Yun was so strong in the middle and late stages, it was because he found that the director did not have enough ability to control this movie...
If the director is capable enough, they won't have any more ideas and will just finish filming their scenes seriously!
Directors and actors achieve each other. A good director can stimulate the potential of actors, and a good actor can also promote the director's ability.
Of course, if a director is Kuchiki, it will be useless no matter how good the actor is. In the end, he can only guarantee that his acting skills will be very good in bad movies!