On May 20, 2022, Zuo Le, who had finished his confinement, announced in a low-key manner that "Latent" would start filming, and then the whole team entered the Changqing Film and Television Base to start filming.
Since little Zuo Xuan was just born here, Zuo Le, a father, cannot focus on the crew all the time.
Therefore, Zuo Le rarely chose to delegate power to the crew and appointed two executive directors to assist him in the filming of "Latent".
Zuo Le watched the important scenes and the protagonist's scenes personally, while other less important scenes were handed over to the two executive directors.
In fact, this is what Zuo Le did before, otherwise he wouldn't be able to see a single person in a large crew. It's normal for his subordinates to coordinate five or six assistant directors to help.
However, in the past, Zuo Le asked these assistant directors to shoot minor and slightly more important scenes. Even if Zuo Le did not personally direct the scenes, he would still have to watch the monitors.
This time, it was almost a hands-off approach. Apart from watching the playback and checking afterwards and letting the unqualified footage go back and rework it, the two executive directors barely interfered in the filming.
This is the first time in Zuo Le's career as a director that he has delegated power this way, except for "Family with Children", which deliberately tested Gao Xinjian.
Of course, "Family with Children" is almost entirely led by Gao Xinjian, with Zuo Le only playing a supervisory role.
As for "Latent", many of the protagonist scenes and highlights had to be shot by Zuo Le himself.
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Quancheng, Changqing Film and Television Base
The drama "Insidious" does not have many scenes, and more than 80% of them are indoor scenes.
Basically, the studio and the street scenes of the Republic of China built at the Changqing base are enough to meet most of the shooting needs of this drama, and no transitions are needed.
This greatly reduced the filming difficulty for the crew. At the same time, there was no need for frequent scene transitions, and the plot was relatively focused. Zuo Le simply arranged the early stage shooting according to the script.
This is also to make it easier for the actors to enter the role and to stimulate their performance status as soon as possible.
Especially for Sun Lei, if he starts from the beginning of the plot and works his way down bit by bit, it will definitely be of great benefit to him in mastering the role of Yu Zecheng.
Of course, there are pros and cons. Although doing this will improve the shooting effect, it can also easily waste time and may cause schedule conflicts with other actors.
However, these two points are not a big problem for "Latent". Zuo Le's name is so important here that no actor dares to take his role, and the leading actors are almost with the cast throughout the whole process.
If you think he is wasting your schedule, then leave quickly, there will be a lot of people behind you who are anxious to take your place...
However, Zuo Le is not an unreasonable person. In the early stage, he was thinking about the actor and making it easier for him to handle personal matters.
When the crew got on track and everything was settled at home, Zuo Le concentrated on filming whatever he wanted.
By then, the actors have straightened out their characters, and the crew will be able to shoot more smoothly in post-production, maybe even faster than regular shooting...
"Latent" crew shooting scene
Several makeup artists are applying make-up to Sun Lei.
Sun Lei wears a black Chinese tunic suit and round-rimmed glasses. His hair, which is half-length but not short, is deliberately not slicked back like other characters. Instead, it is simply combed, turning Sun Lei's originally "not a good face" into a friendly and friendly one.
Wan Qian, who played Zuo Lan, was dressed as a lady, sitting elegantly on the chair next to her, holding a script book and familiarizing herself with the lines.
In 1945, the defeat of the Axis Powers was determined, and it was only a matter of time before the Japanese left. The foreign enemies left, and the two domestic forces began a new round of competition.
The male protagonist, Yu Zecheng, appears to be an engineer, but secretly he is a field agent of the Kuomintang Military Command Bureau, responsible for surveillance work.
Yu Zecheng's position is not high in military rank, but his qualifications are very old. He joined the industry in 1937 and participated in the first Qingpu class of military reunification organized by Boss Dai. It has been eight years now. He is considered a well-established spy within the military reunification.
This background is not simply designed. The Guo Party attaches great importance to factions, and Yu Zecheng's background allowed him to play a very important role in the subsequent spy war plot.
There is even a reason why Yu Zecheng was promoted so quickly in the drama, from a small field officer to lieutenant colonel and deputy station chief within three years.
However, although Yu Zecheng had a good starting point, he was not very motivated. All he thought about was falling in love with his girlfriend Zuo Lan. After joining the military for eight years, he never made any significant progress.
As a result, Boss Dai was shocked when he saw Yu Zecheng's information. He was shocked that there was such a "Buddhist sage" within the military system.
The plot of "Latent" begins with a military traitor named Li Haifeng.
This man is also a talented person. He defected to the Japanese in 1945 and lived like a joke...
However, this guy, who was personally rated as "idiot" by Boss Dai, is a rare cryptography expert in the military, and he has countless military secrets in his mind.
So after he defected, Boss Dai immediately arranged for people to prepare to kill the traitor.
Yu Zecheng is one of them.
Because Li Haifeng had been in the military for many years and had many contacts, if his old acquaintances were used, his whereabouts might be exposed. If anyone else was used, the military would not trust him.
Therefore, Yu Zecheng, an old man who had been in charge of the military for eight years but was unknown, became the most suitable candidate.
In addition, Yu Zecheng accidentally discovered that his girlfriend was an underground gang member. Out of emotion, he helped cover it up, but he accidentally exposed his flaws.
Fortunately, Yu's boss, Lao Lu, was also a member of our party. He took the opportunity to send Yu Zecheng out on a mission to help him avoid the limelight.
This trip to Nanjing was a great stimulus to Yu Zecheng, who had been calm and cautious for eight years——
His boss Lao Lu, who took good care of him but had doubts about his identity, was beaten to death in front of him.
He completed the mission single-handedly and received a commendation from his superiors. He was promoted to major as an exception and was appointed as the director of the confidential office of the newly built Jinmen Station.
During the mission, he was accidentally rescued by our party, and at the same time he also met his missing lover Zuo Lan.
Because of this woman, and because Yu Zecheng was determined to fight within the party because of Lao Lu's death, he was resolutely developed into an underground party, and came to our party base for training on the pretext of returning to his hometown.
The story of "Latent" also begins...
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From a low-key civil servant, he was forced to get involved in the conflicts of the times and grew up step by step.
This is the main line of "Latent" and the journey of the character Yu Zecheng. He is an out-and-out growth-oriented protagonist.
From the rookie agent who was nervous about shooting and killing people at the beginning, to the director Yu who was at ease at Jinmen Station/the up-and-coming [Emei Feng], and finally became the wily Deputy Station Director Yu/our party's ace undercover agent [Deep Sea].
See things from small to big, from nothing to something.
This is a good test for an actor's skills. Fortunately, Sun Lei has a solid foundation and superb acting skills.
The crew of "Latent" started filming for a few days, and Zuo Le hardly had to worry about it. He performed Yu Zecheng's "rookie state" just right when he appeared on the show.
Zuo Le sat in front of the monitor, watching the scene with Wan Qian. Sun Lei smiled innocently, and his small eyes were full of doting and love. He couldn't connect with the gangster in his mind who asked if the watermelon was ripe. Not together.
"What an actor."
Zuo Le touched the mobile phone in his trouser pocket, thinking that he would have to ask Teacher Huang for a good massage later and thank him for recommending the leading actor to him.
