China Entertainment: Director’s happiness is so simple

Liu Qianqian followed in without thinking and continued to be curious: "What happened?"

"It's not a big deal, but I have to rush over and celebrate your birthday when I get back."

"Okay, are you going to the production base now?"

"I'm going to Hengdian."

"I'll go with you. I have nothing to do these days anyway."

"No, I'll be back the day after tomorrow. I don't dare to take up anyone's lazy time."

"Okay, tell me when you come back."

Liu Qianqian was eventually persuaded to quit.

After the two came to the underground garage, one took the nanny car and the other drove away in a sports car.

Lu Ping'an didn't have much time to think about Liu Qianqian's affairs now. His focus was entirely on the set.

Something happened on the set.

But it's not a big deal.

Instead, it seems like a small thing.

But it seems a little strange to Lu Ping'an.

The "1937" explosion team began testing explosion effects on the set a week ago.

The results were good at first, but just after chatting with Fan Xiaopang at noon today, three misfires occurred.

At first, this situation was not taken seriously, because after all, this kind of thing is not uncommon. It is a misfire and it did not explode. Just deal with it.

At most, the demolition team introduced by Hengdian Lao Xu sighed and nodded three times in a row, making their Hollywood colleagues laugh.

But it's different for Lu Ping'an, who just got the buff skill.

Every time there is a misfire on the set, the buff skill icon in my mind flashes.

No need to guess, this is obviously the buff at work. If there is no buff bonus, it will definitely cause an accident, and it will be an accident causing casualties!

And if a hidden crisis is intervened by chance, three times in a row, then there is a high probability that something is unusual.

So Lu Ping An made a prompt decision and called Hengdian Lao Xu and his own camera R\u0026D center to ask them to cooperate in doing something.

At the same time, people also locked down all relevant personnel of the crew, so as not to alarm them or let them run away.

In addition, he also held a phone in his hand.

The last time he went to a confidential place, Lu Ping'an talked about death threats, and the chief gave him a number.

If something goes wrong, use it. If nothing goes wrong, just treat the number as if it doesn't exist.

Faced with this situation without evidence, Lu Ping An still decided to report it first.

The other party's attitude was quite good. After learning about Lu Ping'an's plans, he gave some suggestions and then said to keep communicating.

Lu Ping'an was reassured. That night, he came to Hengdian, nominally to see the set, and the misfire incident was not involved.

Xiao Xu from Hengdian picked him up at the airport, and the two of them chatted about things on the set.

The studio is set up in Hengdian. In addition to being familiar with the Xu family in Hengdian, it is naturally because the soft and hard conditions here are very mature.

We are well versed in doing anti-war dramas here. We need guns, cannons, cannons, and people. We also have a team that is extremely skilled in the field construction work, and there are also people related to blasting.

The key is that the weather here is good, not too different from the climate in Nanjing, and it rarely snows in winter. It is more suitable for the one-shot requirement than some places in the north, and can greatly reduce the chance of wearing a photo.

We can't take pictures when the time comes. It's snowing. This is much more troublesome than rain and sandstorms.

Hengdian is also very positive about this cooperation.

I received the cooperation request about 9 days ago, and Xiao Xu cleared a more suitable venue the next day.

More than half of it is open space, and more than half of it is ruins, which is very suitable for "Nanjing City".

This means that the setting workload is reduced by at least half.

The remaining half is just tinkering with what the script requires.

The team is currently working on it and it is expected to be completed in about a month and a half.

Progress was rapid, so the blasting team began experimenting with various blasting effects.

Xingchen has little experience in explosion scenes, so it’s right to try more.

As a result, there was a problem with this trial.

In this regard, Lu Pingan continued to remain calm. Except for him, the entire crew currently in Hengdian did not know that the purpose of Lu Pingan's visit this time was actually for a few misfires.

In fact, what Lu Ping An wants to do is already being done.

Work log backup, hidden monitoring equipment installation, personnel background checks, etc.

Xiang Guoqiang doesn't have much experience in this kind of thing, but there are many experienced people on the market.

I don’t know if it can be discovered, but it makes sense to take precautions before they happen.

Afterwards, Lu Pingan and Xiao Xu had dinner, chatted about the movie, and then returned to the hotel, followed by Ning Hao.

"What's the matter, so mysterious?"

Lu Ping'an didn't hide anything: "I suspect someone is causing trouble on the set."

Lu Pingan told the story about the misfire.

Ning Hao's first reaction was naturally that Lu Ping'an was a little frightened.

But he still took it to heart, and especially expressed his overwhelming affirmation of Lu Ping'an's question about the camera not leaving his body.

Small handheld stabilized cameras may be said to be small, but they are actually very large. Currently, there is only one like this in Xingxing, even in China, or in the world.

If it was broken and it would take a long time to repair it, he would naturally not let others take care of it.

Lu Ping An is worried that the buff affects human casualties, but equipment casualties are not within the scope.

So the two hit it off.

Then Ning Hao also asked: "Have you really caught some signs?"

"It's hard to say now, but it's definitely right to keep an eye on it."

"That's true."

Ning Hao nodded, and then said worriedly, "If this is really the case, you have to think about the worst case scenario."

Let's not talk about whether there are "enemy agents". Even among ordinary crew members, this kind of thing is not new.

They placed undercover agents, sabotaged things, leaked scripts, and even recently someone poisoned a certain crew, causing about a hundred people from that crew to go to the hospital in the middle of the night.

In the face of interests, anything bad can happen.

Nothing happened for the next two days.

Lu Pingan was still not relaxed. Liu Qianqian asked when he would come back. Lu Pingan was postponed again, which made her a little depressed. However, Lu Pingan didn't care, and even put all the planned talks with the three major European companies in Hengdian.

Hu Qingquan was a little confused at first, but after knowing Lu Ping'an's suspicion, he directly agreed, and then pulled people from the three major universities from the capital to Hengdian.

The next day, Lu Ping'an met filmmakers from the three major film studios in Hengdian. Two of them were relatively familiar. One was director Ken Dalo whom he had seen in both Berlin and Cannes, and the other was the old man from Venice, China. Tong Mark Muller.

When people from the Big Three come over, Hengdian Lao Xu will naturally come out to take advantage of the situation, which is helpful to Hengdian.

Lao Xu also felt that Lu Pingan was very generous, so Lu Pingan happily accepted the offer.

After walking around Hengdian, before the banquet started, everyone sat down and talked about the movie.

Regarding "1937", Hu Qingquan actually did not tell them what kind of film it was shot in.

Because this was a matter of secrecy set in from the very beginning of the death threats.

Since you are going to use technology to win prizes, it is best not to miss out on what technology it is in advance.

There is a time issue involved.

If the filming is almost finished now, or the film is about to be sent for awards, then it’s okay to make it public.

Otherwise, Lu Ping'an is not the only one in this world who can take one shot to the end.

If it is copied by others, the technical advantage will definitely be much smaller.

So in fact, the only people in the company who know about the situation are the heads of each department, Hu Qingquan and a few friends of Lu Ping'an.

To the outside world, I can only say that I will use more long shots to show my artistry. For example, this is what I said to the current three people and Hengdian Lao Xu.

But who knew that Lu Ping'an was really going to play it all.

Even if they know, almost no one thinks you can take good photos.

So when Marco Muller and others came, their attitude was actually not that fanatical, just out of their respect for the new star Lu Ping An.

Last year, "Brokeback Mountain" was the brightest star in international art films. This star landed in Venice, which made the Venice Film Festival very famous. Cannes was a little unconvinced. Berlin was the first to regard Lu Ping'an as his direct descendant. The film festival is also very dark.

So this time Hu Qingquan said that Lu Ping An is going to make another art war movie, and the three natures will show enthusiasm.

What they want is to compete for the right to premiere. If the movie is good, it will be no problem to be shortlisted or even awarded in advance.

The three major companies are also in a competitive relationship, and the competition for ground is fierce in this regard.

There are many movies in film history that have been locked in the three major awards before they were even finished filming.

For example, "Apocalypse Now," directed by Coppola and known as one of the greatest historical war movies, won the Palme d'Or before it was even finished.

Wong Kar-Wai's "2046" was announced as a candidate for Cannes before filming was completed, and then it was not until just before the opening ceremony that the final edited version was sent to the film festival.

There are many more movies like this.

In short, three major awards will always give a lot of privileges to famous artistic directors.

This is probably the case for Lu Pingping now.

Of course, the specifics still depend on the form and content of the movie.

In this regard, after Hu Qingquan signed a confidentiality agreement with the three, he gave the script and talked about the story of the movie.

After hearing this, the faces of the three filmmakers changed slightly, and then Marco Muller was the first to praise: "Wow, a very good story."

Obviously, the story seems a bit simpler.

There is artistic sublimation, but not much. There are metaphors, but they are not powerful enough, and this aspect is also very sensitive. If the metaphor is too strong, it will touch some things. After all, this is the theme of China during World War II.

So the first impression of the three of them was: I am afraid that this time they will be in vain.

However, when Hu Qingquan talked about the filming format of the movie.

The three people shouted: Impossible!

There are actually quite a few movies that have one shot to the end and are over 60 minutes long.

For example, Hitchcock's "Rope" in 1948, "The Time Code" in 2000, "Russian Ark" in 2002, and "Nine Lives" in 2005, which was composed of nine short films.

There is also the Italian drama film "No Cut" released in 2003, also known as "The Day of the Little Brother".

The quality of these one-shot movies may be high or low, but the world's film industry is actually no stranger to this expressive language.

But "1917" also has its own strengths.

First of all, it is a war movie. The biggest difference between this kind of movie and a "talkative one-shot" movie is the difficulty.

Most of the chatty movies are literary dramas, with a few people in a room, chatting and talking, and the problem is solved.

Of course, war movies are indispensable for big scenes. Big scenes + a large number of people plus one shot to the end. Thinking about this kind of difficulty makes your scalp numb.

This is also the reason why before digital photography came out, almost no one took a shot of such a big scene.

It’s too difficult and too expensive!

Not only that, digital photography has editing advantages that film photography does not have.

In addition, with the development of science and technology, various late-stage technologies have become more mature.

Therefore, after 2008, when digital cameras and other technologies began to slowly become popular and developed, there were more and more movies with one shot to the end, or "pseudo one shot to the end", and many blockbuster films emerged, such as the 2014 "Birdman" won four Oscars including Best Picture.

So now, when the three people knew about the filming method of "1917", they all shook their heads and shouted that it was impossible.

Of course, they didn’t really think it was impossible to shoot, but they thought it wouldn’t be very good.

Because Hu Qingquan said that this time we will also combine various light and shadow arts, and we must perfectly combine artistry and drama.

They knew the plot and had just read the script.

It's simple, but this is from a general movie perspective.

But to perfectly combine artistry?

How can the artistic effects of light, shadow, sound, and painting presented by lens language, soundtrack, editing, lighting, etc. be reflected in one shot to the end?

Everyone is a filmmaker and knows how difficult it is.

The advantage of one shot to the end is that it is extremely immersive, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, it is easy for the movie to enter a boring stage at a certain moment.

Generally, movies use other shots to supplement and transition scenes.

But for a one-shot movie, you really have to consider the effort.

So the more the three of them thought about it, the faster they shook their heads. They felt that if they came by themselves, they would definitely not be able to find any decent solution in such a short time.

However, the interest of the three people is also getting higher and higher.

It’s a movie, it’s a dream.

Lu Ping'an is also a capable person.

If this dream can really be created by him, and the effect is as good as Hu Qingquan said, then it goes without saying that he will definitely not let go of such a seemingly impossible movie.

So there are only two questions next.

The first is when it will be filmed.

The second is where to send it.

Let’s not talk about the first point, the main point is the second point.

In fact, the current preferences of the three companies are already obvious.

The Berlin Film Festival, which regards Lu Ping An as a direct descendant, is in high demand.

Kendalo said that if "1937" is really good after being filmed, then the artistry will be there, and the political preferences brought by the subject matter will also be there, which will be very suitable for the Berlin Film Festival.

The deadline for submitting films to next year's Berlin Film Festival is late November for others, but for others it can be put to the end of December. If the film is not finished by then, you can watch the film first and put it to January. It won't matter if you send more films.

This is the advantage of direct lineage of great directors.

Venice is also very interested. A mirror represents the avant-garde. If the artistic performance is guaranteed, it will naturally be a professional counterpart.

Moreover, Marco Muller also gave time privileges, saying that for ordinary people, it is May, and if the road is safe, it will be fine as late as July.

Cannes is the least interested among the three.

The main reason is that in 2002, Cannes awarded the award to "Russian Ark", a film with one shot, which is a bit repetitive.

Of course, if "1937" is shot well, it doesn't mean it can't win a big award. After all, the lower limit for this movie is very high.

But there is no privilege in terms of time, unless the film is really good.

Everyone chatted for a while, and it didn't end until dinner time.

Then we had dinner together in the evening, and Hu Qingquan and Lu Pingan sat down and chatted at night.