Millennium director

"Hey, Jack! You're a gangster!"

"You should put the sword on Orlando's right shoulder!"

In the "Port Royal" built on a small island in the Caribbean, Wu Yuan was holding a walkie-talkie and shouting dissatisfiedly.

The Jack here does not refer to Jack Sparrow in the movie, but Jack Davenport who plays Brigadier General Norrington.

The first shot went well, but when taking the second close-up, the careless Jack mistook the position of his sword.

Jack apologized immediately after being stopped. After re-selecting the position and angle, the camera started shooting again.

"Five mirrors 3 times!"

"Action!"

Wu Yuan stared at the monitor with furrowed brows. If Jack made another mistake this time, he would really curse!

The filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean" was not going well.

Perhaps it was because Wu Yuan was in charge of such a large crew for the first time, and since it was an industrial blockbuster in the Hollywood style, he did not take many aspects into consideration.

The crew had several accidents one after another.

First, just a few days after filming started, one of the studios set up by the crew in Los Angeles accidentally caught fire.

Although filming was not taking place at the time of the fire and no one was injured, it caused an additional economic loss of US$350,000 to the crew.

Then, in late November, when the crew moved to the Caribbean for filming, while completing a night scene shooting, the boat Keira Knightley was on accidentally ran aground and sank on the way back.

Although the rescue was timely and no one was injured, Wu Yuan, who was frightened, still had a serious discussion with several producers and decided to shoot the remaining night scenes in a studio instead of taking any more risks.

The sea at night really deserves enough respect.

Of course, the biggest headache for Wu Yuan was that many cast and crew members became seasick during the filming of the film!

From Keira, the 17-year-old British rose, to the many camera, lighting, and sound masters on the crew, they all suffered from severe seasickness during the filming.

In "Pirates of the Caribbean 1", there are a lot of sailing scenes on ships. Whether it is shot in a studio or in the port, everyone has to get on the ship!

In order to allow these cast and crew members to adapt and relieve their symptoms of seasickness, Wu Yuan's filming progress could only be slowed down.

Even so, the manpower that was originally more than enough actually turned out to be somewhat insufficient when the filming progress slowed down.

The Chinese cameramen, lighting engineers, etc. who are here purely to learn, occasionally have to make guest appearances as the main mirror and main light!

This also greatly increased Wu Yuan's coordination work.

Even if he is not a director like Spielberg who grasps every detail, his level of fatigue has been getting higher and higher day by day recently.

In order to give Keira more time to adapt to life on the ship, Wu Yuan had to focus on filming the Port Royal part first.

The large number of ground plots did a good job of alleviating the seasickness of the entire crew.

Brigadier General Jack Norrington also lived up to Wu Yuan's expectations. He would only make any mistakes once, and he would immediately regain his form the second time.

"Very good, this is over. Let's rest for ten minutes!"

After finally finishing filming this scene, Wu Yuan reached out and rubbed the root of his nose, giving the crew and himself some rest time.

Jerry, who had been watching the filming situation, immediately came to Wu Yuan and asked, "Daniel, are you sure you want to return to China on the 13th?"

"Yes!" Wu Yuan glanced at him and affirmed.

"Hero" will have its premiere at the Great Hall of the People on December 14. When he went to the Berlin Film Festival, Wu Yuan promised director Yimou to attend the premiere of "Hero". Naturally, he couldn't break his promise. .

If you miss the premiere of other movies, you will miss it, but "Hero" is different!

This is the first movie to have its premiere in the Great Hall of the People!

And it’s also China’s first blockbuster to benchmark international standards!

How grand is this premiere?

First of all, in order to be in line with international film events, Chinese and foreign reporters attending the event must enter in suits and ties.

Moreover, regardless of whether they are domestic or foreign media, all reporters participating in this interview must hold valid credentials.

Secondly, because the guest reporters alone invited thousands of people, even the Great Hall of the People was not large enough to host the premiere of "Heroes".

In view of the influence of "Hero" at home and abroad, even relevant national leaders may attend the premiere.

Therefore, in addition to some leaders of China Film Group, the investor and distributor of "Heroes", and representatives of foreign distributors.

In order to reserve a spot, only Zhang Yimou and the five leading actors Li Lianjie, Liang Chaowei, Zhang Manyu, Chen Daoming and Zhang Ziyi attended the premiere.

Even the internationally renowned martial arts director Cheng Xiaodong, cinematographer Du Kefeng, costume designer Wada Emi and other important crew members did not have a place to attend the premiere.

None of the important creators had a spot to attend the premiere. This must be the first time for a domestic film premiere.

I don’t know whether I should exaggerate Weiping’s ability to create hype, or scold him for being shameless for such a stunt.

Anyway, Wu Yuan received a very formal invitation to the premiere of "Hero".

Even though he was the best director in Berlin, he was qualified to attend the premiere of "Hero", and Zhang Weiping was eager for him to go.

For the sake of director Yimou, and considering that the movie "Hero" itself is an epoch-making work in the history of Chinese film, Wu Yuan decided to return to China to participate.

In order not to affect the filming progress of "Pirates of the Caribbean" as much as possible, Wu Yuan could only choose to take two days off, take a red-eye flight back to China on the same day, and then fly back to the crew after attending the premiere night of "Heroes".

The main idea is to use the plane as a hotel.

Jerry was not so unkind that he refused to grant him two days off. He came to ask Wu Yuan mainly because he was afraid that he would be too rushed by arranging his itinerary.

"Daniel, why don't I give you three days and leave one day to rest." He said with some worry.

But Wu Yuan shook his head and refused: "Forget it, I am the director. If I take one more day off, the crew will have to stop working for one more day. The filming was not going well in the first place, so there is no need to waste more time."

Perhaps Wu Yuan took many shortcuts on the road of directing, and perhaps his success was largely due to luck, but he always had a respectful heart for the job of director.

As long as he is in this position, he will definitely be conscientious and abide by his duties, and he is not willing to delay the progress of the crew because of his personal affairs.

Even if the crew hired him to do part-time work.

"Okay." Jerry shrugged: "You are the director, you have the final say on the filming of the crew."

After a ten-minute break, shooting continued.

In the next few days, the filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean" gradually became smoother.

Perhaps it is because the crew has adjusted well, or perhaps because problems such as seasickness have been gradually overcome, every cast and crew member has returned to their best condition, and the filming of the movie has finally entered the fast lane.

Wu Yuan, who was slightly relieved, cheered up and gave the crew a two-day holiday before boarding the flight back home.