Chapter 446 Rain Play and Liu Yifei's Collapse

Generally speaking, snow scenes and rain scenes are more difficult to shoot.

Although it usually snows in the north in winter, the weather is quite cold and there are many things to prepare and pay attention to, so the filming cannot take long in a day.

When Liu Zhou was filming "Interstellar" before, he was shooting in winter in Iceland and Mohe. Not only was it freezing cold, but he could only shoot for five or six hours a day at most.

Even shooting snow scenes in summer is not that easy. Although artificial snow is not that troublesome, the subsequent processing is more troublesome because it causes considerable pollution to the environment.

In the previous life of "Assembly", the crew used artificial snow because they couldn't wait for snow to fall, which later led to environmental pollution issues.

The rain scenes might be a little less troublesome. Although rainy days are unpredictable, it is very common to artificially create rain during filming nowadays.

Some crews even prefer artificial rain instead of natural rain for better effects.

Because the time and size of natural rain cannot be controlled, and it is impossible to capture the rain effect without the assistance of lighting.

Therefore, the crew usually uses large-caliber high-pressure water guns to spray water into the air to create the feeling of rain.

However, the rain scene that Liu Zhou wanted to shoot had a wide panoramic view, and the camera would be pulled into the air, so simple artificial rainmaking could not meet the requirements.

After all, the area sprayed by a high-pressure water gun is limited. When the camera is pulled up, it will appear that the rain is only in the foreground, but there is no rain in the background, which will be a mistake.

In order to solve this problem, Liu Zhou could only rely on numbers. He borrowed several cranes and hung a bunch of sprinklers in the air so that the rain could cover a large area.

In order to cooperate with Liu Zhou and his team's filming, Tangshan also specially dispatched four fire trucks to ensure that the filming could proceed smoothly.

The weather was a bit bad today, but the sun came out very early, indicating that it would be a good day today.

However, this is a disadvantage for filming. When shooting rain scenes on a sunny day, you must block the sunlight. Otherwise, if it is raining and sunny at the same time, it will be exposed.

Under normal circumstances, rain scenes are shot on cloudy days.

But the sun coming out is good news for the actors, as the temperature will be higher with sunshine.

Because "Aftershock" was a large crew, there were eight assistant directors and executive directors.

At this time, seven assistant directors were explaining the scenes and positions to the actors and extras. There were several hundred extras this time, and none of them had any filming experience, so it was a little difficult to guide them.

Liu Zhouze and the assistant director who was in charge of another filming crew discussed with the photography team how the camera should move.

Today's rain scene will be shot by two camera crews. Liu Zhou will be responsible for shooting panoramic shots and long motion shots.

The second camera group is responsible for the close-up shots of the extras, which can speed up the shooting and also make the extras suffer less.

Just as Liu Zhou and the others finished their discussion, an executive director came over with a little girl.

This little girl has a close-up shot and is quite important, so Liu Zhou needs to explain the play to her personally.

Liu Zhou first checked some of the little girl's scars. Her eyes were swollen and there were obvious wounds on her face, bleeding. She looked very miserable.

Liu Zhou was quite satisfied with this, and then he squatted down and said to her with a smile:

"When uncle yells 'start' later, just stare at the camera, okay?"

He pointed to the camera on the jib, and when the little girl nodded obediently, he continued:

"Just look at the camera, don't say anything, and don't make any facial expressions.

When we shoot later, it will rain and be quite cold, but you cannot move. If you move, you will have to reshoot. Wait until the camera moves to the side, then you can move. Do you understand?"

"understood."

Being chosen to shoot this relatively important close-up shot, the executive director certainly didn't dare to fool around when selecting the person, and it can also be seen that this little girl is quite smart.

Liu Zhou touched the little girl's head, said a few words of encouragement, and then went to arrange the positions of other extras who had close-up shots and give a general talk about the play.

When it was almost half past nine, the executive director came over to inform us that everything was ready and we could officially start shooting.

Liu Zhou stood up with a solemn expression:

"All teams will be in place soon. We will hurry up and shoot! Everyone, pay attention and try to get it right in one take!"

The faces of the extras, blurred by mud and blood, dropped their quilts, took off their raincoats, and came to the designated locations as required by the crew.

The people who played the corpses lay on the ground, those who were digging for and rescuing people stood on the ruins, and those who were responsible for moving around were also ready.

Recorder on! "

"Camera on!"

"Give me rain, give me rain!"

Watching the sprinklers in the air spraying out countless raindrops, which made crackling sounds when they fell on the ground, the area within a thousand meters was suddenly covered by heavy rain.

Liu Zhou took a deep breath and then shouted:
"start!"

After the command sounded, the extras began to move around, and their wailing and crying echoed throughout the entire filming scene.

The photographer of the second crew wore a raincoat and held the camera, slowly moving the lens in the rain, and then aimed the lens at a woman who was crying while holding the body of her child.

Director of photography Lui Lok did not move. He still sat on the jib with the camera on his shoulder, pointing the camera lens steadily at the little girl's face.

The rain hit the little girl, washing away the mud and blood on her body, leaving traces. Her wounds continued to ooze red blood, which looked very real.

She looked at the camera blankly without any expression, but as the rain hit her body, she felt a little cold, and coupled with the wailing and crying at the scene, she subconsciously wanted to cry.

But then the little girl thought about how her uncle had repeatedly told her not to cry, so she held her tears back, which looked even more heartbreaking.

The camera stayed on the little girl's face for five seconds, then slowly pulled up and rotated 360 degrees around the little girl. Finally, the camera was aimed at the street in the center of the ruins, and the entire shot changed from a close-up to a panoramic view.

Under the panoramic lens, there are all kinds of people on the street, some are in pain, some are digging desperately, and some are staggering like sleepwalkers.

"Ka! The rain has stopped, the rain has stopped, everyone wipe yourself first, there is hot ginger soup over there, everyone drink some to warm up your body."

After finishing speaking, Liu Zhou sat back in front of the monitor and adjusted the previous footage to watch it again carefully.

The shots were all good, but Liu Zhou always felt like something was missing.

At this time, the director in charge of the second filming crew also came over. He shot two shots. One shot was a middle-aged man quietly wiping the dust off his dead daughter's face, and the other shot was a mother holding her dead child and crying heart-wrenchingly.

The shots were all very touching, and Liu Zhou nodded with satisfaction, indicating that there was no problem. However, when he thought about the shots he had taken, although they looked fine, his intuition told him that something was still wrong, but he couldn't figure out where he could improve it.

In the end, Liu Zhou chose to trust his own instincts and arranged for the assistant director to notify the cast to shoot it again, leaving the actors to suffer again.

At this moment, an old man came over and said:
"Director, I want to give you a suggestion."

This old man was a survivor of the earthquake and was invited by the crew to nitpick. Liu Zhou also asked him a lot of questions, such as whether the set had a 70s feel and whether there were any bloopers in the props.

Hearing that the old man was here to give advice, Liu Zhou smiled and said:

"If you have any opinions, just tell me directly."

"The crowd cried so much in the scene just now. At that time, everyone was just thinking about how to survive. They rushed to save people who were still alive. There were relatively few people crying. In that scene, there were too many people crying. It was a bit unreal!"

After hearing the old man's words, Liu Zhou suddenly felt as if something had suddenly dawned on him. He finally understood what was wrong with the shot he had just taken, which was that there were too many crying scenes on the scene.

Many people lost their loved ones in the earthquake. The huge grief was like a mountain, weighing heavily on people's hearts, making it impossible to cry.

Although crying scenes can directly express everyone's sadness at the time, this kind of silence can hit people's hearts more directly in this situation and make people feel the grief more.

If Feng Kuazi were to direct this scene, he would definitely be very satisfied with the effect, and the audience would also be more receptive to it.

In the original film "Aftershock" he filmed, the scene where Xu Fan cried out at the top of his lungs "Oh God, you bastard", and the scene where he knelt in front of Zhang Jingchu at the end, made many viewers cry, and many people felt particularly moved.

But Liu Zhou felt that this was too sensational, especially for such a heavy subject matter, where sensationalism could easily become superficial.

He felt that a calm style like that of "The Pianist" was obviously more suitable for this situation.

Now it seems that Liu Zhou's intuition was correct and the actual situation is indeed like this.

"Uncle, your suggestion is very good. I will arrange for them to shoot again."

Seeing that his opinion was accepted, the old man smiled and said:

“As long as it’s useful for the filming of the movie.”

Liu Zhou then gave his new suggestions. An hour later, the actors, lighting, photography and recording crews were all ready to start filming.

The same process, the actors are in place, the machines start, it rains, and the extras begin their performance.

I have to say that the local people from Tangshan were very hard-working when they came to act as extras. Not only did the little girl perform perfectly, but an older man also accidentally lost his balance while running and fell heavily to the ground.

He really fell, his arms and legs were scratched by the rocks, and blood was flowing out, but he didn't care at all. He stood up and continued to run towards the ruins.

This accident undoubtedly made the shot more realistic, but it was a pity for the uncle.

"Cut! Very good, this shot passed!" Liu Zhou shouted.

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but cheer.

But everyone’s happiness didn’t last long. After this shot was completed, the next one to be filmed was still the rain scene, just with a different shooting angle, and the main cast team also had to go on stage.

After shooting the scenes of the extras, we shot the scenes of Liu Yifei and Dou Xiao in the afternoon.

This scene is about the building where Liu Yifei and Dou Xiao live, which has not collapsed. Because they haven't eaten for the whole day, the two want to go to the house to get some pots and pans to cook.

However, Dou Xiao was worried that the building was not safe, so he asked Liu Yifei to stay downstairs and he went upstairs alone to get the things, but at this time a 7.1-magnitude aftershock came.

Dou Xiao struggled to jump out of the window, but at this moment, a prefabricated board hit his back heavily and then fell heavily to the ground.

The scene that needs to be filmed is the scene where Liu Yifei hugs Dou Xiao tightly after he dies with blood spurting out of his mouth.

This scene will be a big test for Liu Yifei's acting skills.

Liu Yifei was also fully prepared for this. She is also a strong-willed person. She has always wanted to prove that her professional ability is strong enough and that she is not only so popular because of her beauty.

So after Liu Zhou shouted "start", Liu Yifei quickly got into the mood, hugged Dou Xiao tightly, and fell into grief, unable to extricate herself, and burst into tears.

Liu Yifei cried very hard, with tears and snot all over her face, even snot bubbles came out, and her snot rubbed onto Dou Xiao's clothes.

However, Liu Zhou called a halt and asked them to do it again.

Dou Xiao heard this and immediately got up, while saying to Liu Yifei with some disdain:

"Sister Yifei, you are so disgusting. My clothes are all covered with your snot."

Liu Yifei was also a little embarrassed, especially because of the snot bubble just now, which made her feel a little ashamed. Fortunately, the director called for a stop, otherwise if this shot appeared in the movie, she felt that her image would definitely be ruined.

"I was really crying, not putting in eye drops, so of course I have a runny nose!"

Dou Xiao wasn't really talking about the other person, he was just joking. Although the two were not familiar with each other before, they were going to play opposite each other after all, so they came into contact frequently while preparing for the film, and their relationship has improved a lot, and they can even joke around.

Liu Yifei originally thought that it was her own snot that caused the problem, but she cried more than ten times in a row, each time more passionately and sadly than the last, but she just couldn't get over it.

She felt that she interpreted the role very well, but Liu Zhou kept calling for a stop.

What puzzled her even more was that Liu Zhou didn't say what the problem was. She had asked him once before, and the answer she got was, "Think about it carefully yourself."

This made her very confused, depressed and helpless.

Liu Yifei came to the rest area and drank half a bottle of mineral water. She had cried for more than ten times and felt that her tears were almost dry. If she didn't replenish some water, she felt that she really couldn't cry anymore.

After putting on her makeup, Liu Yifei was halfway through crying when she heard Liu Zhou's ruthless shout "Cut" again.

The entire shot was shot over 20 times. Liu Yifei also tried to perform in many ways, such as heart-wrenching, crying silently, sobbing bitterly, etc., but none of them worked. She cried so hard that she almost fainted.

If Liu Yifei didn't know that Liu Zhou attached great importance to the film and was also her boss, she would have thought that she was deliberately making trouble for her.

Dou Xiao, who was standing by, saw Liu Yifei looking dejected, so he walked up to her and said:

"Sister Yifei, since you can't get through, why don't you go ask Director Liu."

"I asked, but he told me to figure it out."

"Go ask him now, otherwise it's useless for you to keep acting like a fool. He should talk to you now."

Liu Yifei felt that what Dou Xiao said made sense, so she immediately stood up and walked towards Liu Zhou.

(End of this chapter)