director of the millennium

For a grand battle scene, the official footage in the movie should only be about 15 minutes, or 20 minutes at most, but the actual shooting took Wu Yuan nearly a week.

Because this scene involves the most complete actors, from the two big names Gong Li and Cheng Long to all the male protagonists in the main group, they all have their own parts in this scene.

After all, this is equivalent to the scene of the final battle against the purple sweet potato spirit in "Avengers 4", so of course everyone has to be present.

For Wu Yuan, shooting such a large-scale scene is also a test of his directing skills.

As I said, over the years, Wu Yuan has not had many opportunities to shoot big scenes. The movies he has shot are mainly feature films centered around a few leading actors. Sometimes, in extreme cases, only 1-2 leading actors plus two or three minor supporting roles are enough.

However, after all these years, he is not completely without experience. The National Day tribute film "Ride the Wind" and "Ready Player One" have helped him hone his experience in shooting large scenes.

Especially "Ride the Wind", because "Ride the Wind" is originally the story of the Ji Zhong Cavalry Regiment, and there are many scenes of the cavalry regiment charging, so for him, he still has a lot of experience in shooting this kind of horse battle scenes.

It just so happens that there are a lot of horse battles in "Mulan" this time, after all, it is a battle with nomadic people.

It was just a change from using hot weapons to using cold weapons. In terms of capturing the camera, Wu Yuan was still a little unfamiliar at the beginning of filming, but after adjusting for a day or two, he quickly got the hang of it.

The actors were very cooperative. Even though it was winter, they all had frozen faces and fought again and again on the Hulunbuir grassland in the cold winter, simulating a classical cold weapon war from thousands of years ago.

Just like that, after a week of shooting, this scene, which was considered the most difficult one in the whole film, was successfully shot.

Many extras got frostbite during the filming and had a lot of chilblains on their bodies. For this reason, the crew not only hired a medical team specializing in treating frostbite, but also paid these extras double the pay, which was barely enough to appease them.

Finally, Wu Yuan couldn't bear it anymore. He saw several extras lying in a corner of the set licking their frostbitten skin with saliva, and he even gave these injured extras injury subsidies.

Even the leading actor Zhang Hanyu got frostbite during the filming, Hu Ge's lips were scratched, and Zhu Yilong's legs were so frozen that he had no feeling at all.

Finally. On the day when the filming was completed, Hu Ge and Zhu Yilong almost threw their weapons away. I guess they were more excited and happy than on the day of the final shooting.

It was really a torture to shoot the brutal war scenes in such cold weather. The leading actors already felt it was a rare opportunity, but in fact it was even harder for the extras, because sometimes they had to lie on the ground for several hours, waiting for the leading actors to repeatedly shoot the fighting scenes, and they were just the fallen soldiers in the background.

Wu Yuan also had to give all the crew members a three-day holiday, allowing them to return to the city to have a good rest, have a massage and take a bath, and soothe their bodies and minds.

He also moved into the most luxurious five-star hotel in the city with his wife, and personally applied frostbite ointment to his wife.

Yes, the main actors were all frostbitten to varying degrees, so there was no reason why Liu Yifei, the absolute heroine, would be fine.

In fact, because she had the most scenes and the filming time was the longest every day, even though we tried our best to keep her warm, her hands and face were always exposed during the filming for the sake of the filming effect, so she inevitably got frostbite and developed a lot of chilblains.

But it just so happens that this kind of "natural" frostbite is very suitable for the characters in the movie. After all, it is impossible to fight in the winter in ancient times without being cold and frostbitten. This image is more in line with reality, and Mulan's character is also more resolute.

It’s a pity for the heroine Liu Yifei.

Wu Yuan is sure that although she also had a hard time filming the original version of "Mulan", she must have never suffered such hardships, and her face would not be frozen red. After all, it doesn't snow on the prairie in New Zealand.

But this life is different. The winter in Hulunbuir is really torturous, a torture that even Wu Yuan could not imagine.

After all, when Wu Yuan came to scout the scene, he felt Hulunbuir in the summer, which was so beautiful, cool and refreshing.

As for Hulunbuir in winter, he had only seen the photos he brought at that time, but photos cannot convey warmth. Just looking at the photos will only make you feel that Hulunbuir in winter is also very beautiful, and even has a kind of beauty that shocks the soul, but you cannot experience the cruelty of Hulunbuir in winter.

So when deciding on the filming location, Wu Yuan thought of it as a vacation, and thought that the young foreigners would definitely be very happy to come here.

But when the real shooting started, he realized that this was not a vacation at all, but a journey to a winter hell. Except for the first three days when the foreigners felt that the place was really beautiful, they complained every day after that, and it became more and more unbearable!

That's why he had to give everyone three days off after completing a big scene shoot, otherwise he was really afraid that the crew members wouldn't be able to hold on.

"Does it hurt?" Holding the frostbite ointment, Wu Yuan carefully applied it on the red base of Liu Yifei's right hand, blowing on it as he applied it.

Liu Yifei looked at her husband who was applying ointment to her with tender eyes, and said with a slight smile: "It hurts a little now."

"But I didn't feel any pain during the shoot, and I didn't even feel cold."

"That's because you were too focused during the filming." Wu Yuan frowned and said with some dissatisfaction, "Other actors knew it hurt, but you didn't, and you were the only one who was stupid enough to shout that this take was not good and asked to try another one."

To be honest, it was only because Liu Yifei was the director's wife, otherwise, if she had changed directors, in such a cruel shooting environment, if she had taken the initiative to ask for another take and try again, she would definitely have been hated by other actors in the same group!
Isn't this a fool!

"No way." Liu Yifei pouted. She was obviously a young woman in her thirties, but she still looked very young. Just when she was about to retort, Wu Yuan's cell phone suddenly rang. He had to stop chatting temporarily, picked up the phone, took a look, and answered the call.

"Hey."

"Uh, uh, oh."

"I see."

"Are you sure it will be released during the Spring Festival?"

"I have no objection. Anyway, I have no right to interfere in this matter. I hope it will be released smoothly and sell well at the box office."

After a few simple words, Wu Yuan hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Liu Yifei asked curiously after listening to the whole process.

"Bruce Lee will be released in mainland China." Wu Yuan said with a vague meaning: "I didn't expect that after all the twists and turns, Disney still didn't give up on releasing it in domestic theaters!" (End of this chapter)