In such a huge magical city, many people got up and prepared for a new busy schedule.
If you stand above the Magic City and overlook the entire city, you will find that the entire city is in motion.
Buses started running and various private cars began to appear on the road.
Lujiazui, the CBD's central business district, naturally attracts countless people and vehicles to gather here.
But the Oriental Pearl TV Tower located in Lujiazui is a different story.
The surrounding area is overgrown with weeds, waist-high weeds can be seen everywhere, as if the TV tower is surrounded.
The ground was also covered with dead leaves. Some of the street trees on the roadside had withered or even collapsed, while others had lush branches and leaves that were as tall as several stories.
It seems that this is not a modern international metropolis, but some dilapidated small town.
However, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower standing in the center, the landmark building of the Magic City, is enough to prove that this is still in the Magic City.
There are also prop cars wrapped with blue screens, various equipment, and two to three hundred crew members busy around, which also indicate that a certain movie is being filmed here.
Starting at one o'clock in the morning, it took three hours and two to three hundred people to set up the scene.
Li Qian is leading the crew in the final preparation process.
"Which side does the morning sun rise from?"
Holding the drawing board in his hand, Li Qian turned to ask the people next to him.
"East side" Wen Muye raised his head and replied.
"...Which direction is east."
Zhang Zhonghua pointed in front of Li Qian, "right in front of you."
"Let's simulate the sunset first. This cannot be done by color adjustment alone."
Throwing the drawing board to Wen Muye, Li Qian came to the lighting master.
The lighting team leader, who was sitting on a chair drinking tea and pointing at his employees from time to time, saw Li Qian coming and quickly handed the tea cup to the apprentice next to him and stood up immediately.
"Director Li."
"Old Wang, how are the preparations going?"
"It's ready and ready to start shooting at any time."
Li Qian glanced at him and nodded, "Let's simulate the sunset first, the sunset around five o'clock in the afternoon."
This scene in the movie takes place in the evening, before the sun sets. If it's summer, it would be around five o'clock, because you have to get back to the base before the sun sets, otherwise the zombies will come out.
As for why it is not noon, but the hero will have a sense of urgency in the evening. Zombies are afraid of the sun, so there is no need to be afraid at noon. In the evening, if the weather changes and it might get dark, then he will be even more nervous.
But there is no way to shoot at five o'clock in the afternoon. If you shoot in a studio, it will take a lot of post-production time.
Li Qian still wanted it to be released during the Lunar New Year period, so everything that could be shot was shot in real time to save time in post-production.
Outdoors, it is still technically difficult to shoot the morning sun into the sunset, and color correction and post-processing alone are definitely not enough.
"Okay Director Li."
In response, the lighting team leader Wang led his men to debug it himself.
Seeing more than ten people in the lighting team working, Li Qian turned his head and asked Xiang Wen Muye, "How much do you know about lighting? Do you know the characteristics of sunset light?"
Wen Muye thought for a while and replied, "I have shot some MVs and commercials. The pictures taken under the sunset are indeed beautiful, but the requirements for MVs are not high, and I have not studied this aspect much."
"You still need to understand more or less every aspect. If you don't say you can do it, at least you need to know how to do it. Lao Zhang, what do you think?" Li Qian asked Zhang Zhonghua again.
The lighting team is the department under the photography. As the director of photography, Zhang Zhonghua has already considered all aspects.
"Use a green filter to make up for the temperature difference, and add a 1/2 CTO orange color gel to make up for the temperature difference of the warm-toned light bulb. The flash will hit the person to produce a highlight..."
"It's about the same. Let's see how they adjust it."
Close-ups and close-ups are still easy to do, but large panoramas are a problem, although the morning sun and sunset look similar.
The lighting team has been busy for a while, and the sun has begun to rise.
First, I measured the light. After measuring the light, I started to try it out again. It just so happened that Liu Ye also tried out the scene.
Looking at the effect in the camera, Li Qian shook his head and put the intercom to his mouth, "Add a full CTO orange color gel, and the height of the sun at dawn is too low, so adjust the angle."
"The contrast is very weak, just right, but the overall brightness is too high."
"Don't make the edges of the shadow too blurry, but you can adjust it later, so it's almost the same."
As Li Qian corrected it over and over again, half an hour passed, and the sun's rays also changed from dawn to early morning. There would not be much change within a period of time.
The rising sun looks similar to the setting sun, but it is still clearer, brighter, and has a greater contrast with the surrounding scenery, while the setting sun looks a bit dizzy and gorgeous, blending in with the surrounding scenery, and the sky is orange-yellow.
Of course, for sky shots, you just need to find a place to shoot in the evening, there is nothing you can do about it.
The morning sun has a red background with a bit of white light, and the range of warm colors is relatively small, while the sunset is the opposite, and often half of the sky is shrouded in warm colors.
The clouds are also very different. No matter how you do the post-production, the sky in the early morning seems to be the same as in the evening. Let’s not say whether it is easy to do it or not. It is obviously not as easy as taking a shot of the sky in the afternoon.
"Okay, that's it, let's get started."
After giving the order, Li Qian sat back in front of the monitor.
The lighting team leader Wang also breathed a sigh of relief, luckily he didn't get scolded.
It wouldn't be a shame if you got scolded before filming even started.
However, there was no way he could continue to sit leisurely on a chair, drink tea, and direct his men to work. Even though Li Qian was only a few years older than his son, he didn't care about his age when he scolded him.
After a busy morning, the crew has officially entered the state.
And seeing the veteran crew members suddenly becoming serious and working hard, Wen Muye couldn't help but admire Li Qian.
At such a young age, the crew, who are more than ten or twenty years older than him, are convinced and obey his instructions. It is not only based on the best-selling movies, but also the key point is to be able to speak eloquently on all aspects of business.
It seems that in addition to the major of directing, you still have to learn other aspects of knowledge when you have time. Don't make your own movies and be looked down upon by others.
...
The exposure meter was also measured, and the focal length was also measured. Liu Ye also prepared for more than three hours and tried the positioning. Moreover, the lens was simple, so he started shooting directly.
"Scene 5, one shot at a time!"
"start!"
Wen Muye shouted loudly into the loudspeaker. Although it was his first time doing execution work, when he was working as an assistant director on the crew of "Perfect World", he had imagined it countless times when he looked at Xu Zheng holding a loudspeaker.
This scene.
Looking down into the mirror, the waist-high grass trembled slightly in the breeze. A big head appeared in the monitor, holding a Type 95 rifle in his hand, followed by a sizable black man.
This is borrowed from the police dog base of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. Blackback itself is a very common police dog and can be used for detective, patrol, tracking, drug detection, search and rescue, fighting and other tasks.
Liu Ye walked forward slowly step by step. The black man had already passed him. He kept a warning distance of three or four steps and kept sniffing for something on the ground.
There are no lines, and there can be no lines.
The camera slowly rises, and the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower gradually appears in the camera.
"Okay, passed!"
There is no difficult shot. The core area of the CBD is covered with one-meter-high weeds. The male protagonist is holding a gun and carefully walking ahead of the dog to clear the way for its owner.
At first glance, every scene and shot in the entire movie seems not to be difficult except for the special effects.
The most important thing is that the environment, character status, and story background can be perfectly integrated.
Then I took a shot of deer hunting.
It is not surprising that wild animals appear in a deserted metropolis.
As far as the Magic City is concerned, many relatively large wild animals have been found in the outer areas.
In the past, there were deer deer in the capital, which looked a bit like deer. What's more, there was also a zoo in the capital, so it wasn't unusual for them to escape.
The sudden commotion aroused Liu Ye's alertness, and he was relieved that it was not a zombie since he followed him secretly.
Even if the sun has not set yet, theoretically it is impossible for zombies to come out, but in this environment, the human spirit is very sensitive, which is commonly known as being startled.
Raise the gun and aim.
Suddenly, a female lion suddenly jumped out and accurately bit the deer's neck, causing it to struggle on the ground.
Liu Ye subconsciously wanted to shoot, but a more majestic male lion next to him, with a little lion next to him, interrupted his action.
Obviously, this is a family, and in a pride of lions, the female lion is responsible for hunting.
In these last days, lions are also facing survival problems. The virus not only infects people, but also infects animals.
Perhaps the lion family reminded Liu Ye of his deceased wife and children. In the end, he didn't shoot. He looked at his watch and saw that it was getting late. He watched helplessly as his food was dragged away by the lions.
"Xiao Hei, let's go."
After saying hello, Liu Ye left from another direction.
Of course, both the lion and the deer are fake. How could such an obedient lion come to cooperate in the shooting?
Everything went smoothly on the first day of filming, and there was no difficulty in the performance. There were four shots in one scene, and Liu Ye only had one line, and he said it to dogs.
The Oriental Pearl TV Tower scene took three days to shoot, but luckily it didn't go over time. I packed it up after filming early in the morning, then rushed to the studio of the Magic City Film and Television Park in the morning to shoot some bits and pieces of indoor scenes, and ended the work in the afternoon.
Three days later, still early in the morning, the crew arrived at Nanjing Road Commercial Street.
But today is Saturday, the weekend, and a large group of people with nothing to do came to watch, holding various mobile phones in their hands and taking pictures with their cameras.
"Thank you for your support. Please don't get too close. I hope you can understand."
Facing the enthusiastic melon-eaters, there was nothing they could do except asking the crew to block them with a human wall.
"Director Li, how many more days do you have to shoot in Shanghai? Where do you want to shoot?"
"Director Li, please sign your name for me."
"Why not destroy the Demon City and create the end of the world?"
"Li Qian, do you want to perform as a group? Just bring a lunch box."
"Choose me. I haven't filmed yet. Bring your own dry food."
"You're actually going to war, and you brought your own dry food. I just want a packed lunch too. I really want to taste what the crew's packed lunches taste like."
"Does the lunch box have chicken drumsticks?"
"Ha ha."
.....
As he spoke, the onlookers burst into laughter.
Li Qian's mouth twitched. These people didn't take any rest during the weekend. On Monday, they probably didn't want to go to work anymore and were tired.
After instructing his staff to be careful not to let anyone intrude into the end when filming started, Li Qian came to Liu Ye's side.
"Brother Ye, what do you think of this scene of chatting with the dummy? Do you have any thoughts?"
"There's no problem. It's just that I am more lively and enthusiastic. This character is introverted and not good at words. Every time I try to chat with dogs and dummies, I can't complete the conversation." Liu Ye said.
The most difficult thing about filming is always playing someone completely different from yourself.
It's easy to act yourself.
Li Qian shook his head, "Character is only one aspect, the most important thing is the environment, because no one can talk to you. In reality, even introverts will not be unable to chat, but in this plot in the movie, you are
Knowing that no matter what you say, no one can answer you, not only are you an introvert, you have to show your loneliness.”
The word loneliness appears throughout the film.
When he is the only one left in the empty world, loneliness is not as easy to accept as the alarm clock ticking before dark, and the tension and oppression caused by the night falling on the edge of the city. So the hero searched for other survivors on the radio, and repeated
When I keep saying "You are not alone", I mostly say it to myself to comfort myself.
Liu Yeruo realized something, "Actually, I knew that no matter what I said, I would not get a response, so I had to forcefully talk to the dummy. The reason for the embarrassment of not being able to continue the conversation was not because of my personality, but because I knew that I would not get any response.
Respond and still have to talk."
"That's about right." Li Qian nodded, his words were a bit convoluted, but that's what he meant.
Time was tight and the task was urgent. Li Qian was supposed to do the director's narration for the actors, so he did it.
While the drama was being talked about, the prop team filled the entire Nanjing Road with various prop cars wrapped in blue screens and continued to decorate the scene.
Looking at the blue prop cars at the scene, the melon-eaters onlookers found it a bit novel.
When the props team walked into one of the stores holding clothed dummies and placed two at the door, the onlookers were puzzled.
"What is this for? I think the store inside seems to have been converted into a bookstore or something. What are you doing with a few mannequins?"
"These dummies include men, women, and children."
"Isn't this just using dummies to act as zombies? Some people can't move after becoming zombies?"
"Speaking of which, I still don't know what the zombies in this movie look like. It won't just be like this."
"It's hard to say, Zongju is so urinary that he definitely won't allow it to be too bloody."
"But you can't deal with it like this. It's too exaggerated to have a few dummies pretending to be zombies."
...
The filming scene was noisy, and even though everyone was told not to make any noise, there was still noise from time to time.
It was unrealistic to record the sound, so we had to dub it later, but fortunately there were not even two lines.
Clear everything within the shot range and start shooting when you're ready.
In broad daylight, Liu Ye was walking leisurely on the most prosperous commercial street in this magical city. There was still no one on the road, only scrapped cars, and the streets on both sides were all quiet.
I walked along the way and stopped in front of a video store.
He took out the key and opened the lock while greeting the two dummies at the door.
"Good morning, you're here so early. Is there any movie you want to watch today?"
Of course the dummy ignored him. As soon as the door opened, Hei Bei ran in first.
"Then I'll go in first."
Smiling at the two dummies, Liu Ye held the gun on the armrest and stepped into the video store.
He was chatting and joking to himself with his family, which made the onlookers stunned for a while, as they didn't understand what was being performed.
But of course Li Qian didn't care what they thought. After shooting one scene, he shot it in a store.
This was originally a clothing store, and the owner was also a movie fan. He agreed to lend it to Li Qian for free for filming, and he also emptied the store first.
In fact, there are several bookstores and video stores on Nanjing East Road, but there are none on the first floor. If you want to shoot upstairs, you don’t need to shoot in person, you can just shoot in a studio.
And you can only feel it on the first floor. Once you go upstairs, it becomes a semi-enclosed space.
There is no Internet or TV, and only DVDs can be used to watch movies and TV series. Moreover, the male protagonist has the key to this place and opens the door with ease as soon as he arrives. He is obviously a regular visitor.
"Morning."
Naturally, he said hello to the dummy boss sitting at the counter, and then went about selecting CDs. When he met other dummies in the store, he would also say hello and chat for a while, and some even picked up some for them.
name.
"My birthday is in two days. Please remember to come to my house to get together. I have prepared a big dinner."
"It's settled, I have to come."
"Okay, then I'll be waiting for your treasured 61-year-old Patus. This time I'm in for a treat."
After inviting the dummies in the store one by one, Liu Ye continued to select the CDs of movies and songs he wanted on the shelves with a smile on his face.
Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of a female dummy in the corner. The back was quite cute. I felt a little embarrassed. I wanted to strike up a conversation but was hesitant.
I peeked a few times, hesitated to say anything, finally smiled to myself, didn't dare to strike up a conversation, and went to the front desk to check out with my chosen plate.
Liu Ye raised the plate in his hand and smiled at the dummy boss, "I finished watching Zhou Xingchi's movies last time. I'm going to buy some Cheng Long's this time."
As he said that, he took out his wallet from his pocket. While taking the money, he glanced at the back of the female dummy, leaned on the front desk, and asked in a low voice, "Hey, who is that girl? Do you know her?"
Of course, the dummy boss couldn't respond to him. Liu Ye took out a few bills from his wallet and put them on the counter, and finally sighed.
"Why."
I come to this video store often, and I specially put some dummies here. I do this every time I come, pretending to be someone, and find topics to chat with them.
However, after so many years, even if they pretend that they are human beings, they can no longer pretend.
This feeling of loneliness is so tiring.
He walked out of the door, locked it, and looked at the two dummies at the door.
"I've finished picking. See you next time."
...
One scene takes three hours to shoot.
Fortunately, the audience outside didn't see the indoor part of this scene, otherwise it would have been even weirder.
Even the rest of the crew had a particularly weird feeling.
"After filming so many times, I feel something is wrong all over my body." Liu Ye also felt very uncomfortable after the filming.
"It feels like filming a ghost movie."
Wen Muye also felt the same way, "If it were shot at night, it would feel so right."
"You won't have time to chat with the dummies at night, the zombies will entertain you."
Li Qian interrupted their chat and smiled, "Okay, Brother Ye, bring your dummy friend and transition. Come back tomorrow morning."
It's almost nine o'clock, and other businesses on the street have to open, and they have to go to the next scene to shoot the scene where the zombie boss uses this dummy to ambush Liu Ye.