The Yamazaki Battalion appeared in the third episode of "Bright Sword", which was also Li Yunlong's second battle after Sakata in the opening scene.
If Sakata's battle was too sudden, and the one shot of the pillar that destroyed the headquarters had a lot of luck, and the scene was short, the audience was not impressed enough with Li Yunlong's character as a "strong general in the army."
Then the independent group completely wiped out the Yamazaki Brigade, and the gangster leader Li Da began to have the aura of the protagonist.
Zuo Le attached great importance to this part of the play. For the extra act of the battle between the two sides alone, he hired six to seven hundred people, and this was the first batch.
Because the early stage is from both sides' perspective, the extras can change their clothes. Today they will play the Japs, and tomorrow they will play the Eighth Route Army. In the later stage, when the independent regiment charges and the Yamazaki Battalion fights hand-to-hand, Zuo Lehui will call in four hundred more extras.
Once the number of people exceeds a thousand, the earth and the sky are covered.
Although this is an exaggeration, a large scene with thousands of people can indeed give people a great visual impact. Several panoramic views are more spectacular than any tragic fighting scene.
When there are more crew members, it will bring endless troubles. Zuo Le was quite aware of this when he was filming "Seven Swords".
However, this time, with the experience accumulated in "Seven Swords", Zuo Le took precautions against related problems early. After the extras were in place, they were quickly sorted out and arranged by the crew. Although there were still flaws, overall it went smoothly.
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This is also related to Zuo Le's rapid rise in status. When "Seven Swords" was filmed, Zuo Le was slightly famous, but because he made his debut in a sitcom, he was somewhat unable to suppress some veteran extras.
Now, Zuo Le has been invincible in the field of TV dramas for three years and has reached the top of the list. His prestige in the TV drama industry is unmatched by anyone.
Not to mention the veteran extravaganza, even Shi Di Shi Hou would not dare to stab him in front of him easily.
Speaking of which, Zuo Le is one of the few great directors with a good reputation in China's ensemble acting scene.
The reason is very simple, Zuo Le gives me a lot of money, and there is no such little dirty thing as the assistant director taking a commission.
For a general crew, the starting price for an ordinary group performance is 120~300. For Zuo Le, the starting price for an ordinary group performance is 200+. If you can join the group, the price will be doubled.
Of course, Zuo Le pays a lot of money and has high requirements for extra performers. Regardless of the level of acting skills, at least you have to be serious about your work. If you want to be perfunctory and make money, you will be asked to leave in one day at most.
The extras are not stupid either, they can clearly tell the difference between true love and falsehood. Zuo Le is very popular in group performances, especially among high-quality group performances, and can respond to thousands of requests.
Otherwise, Jin Province doesn’t have any large-scale film and television bases, so where would it be?
Most of the thousands of professional and high-quality group performances are recruited from other places.
Although the crew of "Bright Sword" provided traveling expenses and subsidies for the group's performance, without Zuo Le's accumulated reputation, it really wasn't that smooth.
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Six to seven hundred people with eight-way extras standing together with guns in hand were really intimidating. Even several of the leading actors were restrained, but Li Youbin was not included.
Comrade Lao Li has seen the world. He made a movie with the main theme, which was specially performed by troops. In it, Li Youbin played the role of a general and gave a speech in front of more than one regiment of soldiers. There were airplanes above his head and cannons next to him.
Zuo Le's battle is awesome compared to other crews, but compared to his glorious experience back then, it's just like a child's play house.
Listening to Li Youbin boasting about his deeds back then, Zuo Le felt very envious. It would be great if one day he could have thousands of soldiers as extras for him.
In fact, when CCTV contacted him last year, they raised this matter, but Zuo Le felt that the war scenes in "Bright Sword" were limited, mostly at the division level, and basically just used group performances.
For a few large scenes at the legion level, he can use special effects to make up for it, but using military support is a bit overkill.
But this time when I heard what Lao Li said, Zuo Le was really itchy. As a man, who doesn't have the dream of commanding thousands of troops?
I'll look back and see if I can get off the line with the Dongshan Military Region. If there's any big scene next time, I'll do it right away.
Give those 7 or 8 people a good slap in the face for acting like an army of more than 100,000 people.
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War scenes are very enjoyable for the audience to watch on TV or in movies. For example, when the audience is watching a charge, the BGM is accompanied by the sound of roaring guns rushing forward, which is very exciting.
However, the actual filming by the crew was very complicated and cumbersome, and almost all of the filming was done in fragments.
One charge from the front, one charge from the side, a close-up of an explosion, a close-up of a hand-to-hand fight, a close-up of the enemy's death, as well as panoramic, medium and close shots.
The footage was actually shot very badly, and the images the audience saw were the final product after post-production and editing.
As mentioned earlier, Zuo Le himself is a director of anti-war dramas and is no stranger to "fighting Japanese".
But at the beginning, the Dongshan Production Center had limited funds, so the war was fought with only a dozen guns on each side, and it was a small fight.
Nowadays, Zuo Le has six to seven hundred people, and soon it will even exceed a thousand. From the platoon level to the deputy regiment directly, the span is quite large, and the difficulty has doubled.
Fortunately, Zuo Le's directing ability is not what it used to be, and he is assisted by the experienced Shanhe crew. After the initial jerkiness, it started to become smoother after two days of grinding.
The climax of the plot of annihilating the Yamazaki Brigade is the final hand-to-hand combat.
Of course, the early trials between the two sides are also very interesting, especially the part where Li Yunlong asks the brigade commander to fight, and there are several famous scenes in "Bright Sword", such as——
[Why don’t you dare to fight with the brigade commander]
[Who the hell is snitching on me?]
[Brigadier, thank you, Brigadier, Brigadier, I kneel down for you]
[This old Li is a dog-faced person, so he can change his mind whenever he wants.]
【…………】
These plots have been filmed previously and will be interspersed with editing during post-production.
On the fourth day of transition shooting, all the thousands of extras arrived, and Zuo Le began the final hand-to-hand combat shooting.
For this scene, Zuo Le arranged more than a dozen cameras alone.
Not to mention mid-range and long-range shots, there are five photographers carrying cameras ready to capture close-ups at any time. There are also four drones above the "battlefield" to shoot in all directions without blind spots.
Take panoramic and distant shots first.
Zuo Le sat on the monitor and gave an order. On the gentle slope, more than a thousand extra performers rushed towards each other with shouts. In the drone footage from high above, it seemed like two streams of khaki and gray people were moving at a rapid speed.
The speed collides together.
It is no exaggeration to say that even if the acting of these people is not so realistic and the so-called murderous look on their faces is still on the surface, when I see thousands of men "fighting" together with swords and guns and guns, I feel very sad in my heart.
Still couldn't help but feel my blood pumping.
It was a thrilling and thrilling feeling. If Zuo Le hadn't been sober, he would have rushed forward by grabbing the bench.
He looked to the side and found that he was not the only one, but most of the people around him, including some girls, looked excited at the "fighting" scene in the distance.
Lu Xun is right, violence is sometimes more exciting than Yellow movies...
