Actor: Thank you.

"kill!"

Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo...

At the Huairou Film Set, hundreds of horses are galloping and yellow dust is rising!
Liu Dehua's handsome old face was covered with black and gray dirt, and his short, hard beard shone silver under the winter light, and protruded from his lips and chin like steel needles.

Don’t be fooled by Brother Hua’s handsome appearance, he is serious when filming.

He performed the entire scene of riding a horse to attack the enemy by himself without using a body double.

Since Liu Dehua attended the event personally, how could others be careless?

The power of example is endless.

"Card!"

The assistant director, who was holding a loud speaker in the distance, shouted "Stop" at Chen Kexin's wave.

Why doesn’t Chen Kexin shout it herself?

Because my voice is hoarse...

"Hey, Ke Xin, this is the third time today."

"If we don't shoot now, the light will be bad again." Cheng Xiaodong stepped forward and said helplessly.

Chen Kexin scratched his head vigorously.

"It's not that I don't want to finish the filming, it's that I haven't met the requirements."

Seeing him say this again, Cheng Xiaodong could only shake his head and step aside.

Hong Kong directors are mostly not so particular when filming, and most of the time their films appear a bit rough.

Especially Wang Jing, he is the kind of person who can do whatever the content of the film is and whatever the performance is in one take in order to catch up with the show.

But Chen Kexin changed the habit of Hong Kong directors.

His habits were a little loose, but he made up for it with his attitude.

This scene depicts Pang Qingyun surrendering to Mr. Chen and borrowing a thousand soldiers.

But the thousand men received the order and just watched the battle from the sidelines to boost morale.

If a real fight were to happen, there would still be only the eight hundred men of the three brothers.

Jiang Wuyang, played by Zhang Yuan, led the infantry to charge with shields to resist the Taiping Army's musket fire and gain a shooting distance of 100 steps for the archers behind him.

When Jiang Wuyang encountered the enemy in close combat, the old brother Zhao Erhu could no longer sit still and led the cavalry to charge and rescue people.

That’s why there was the scene of hundreds of horses galloping just now.

After receiving the order, Brother Hua and other actors had to turn around and return to their original positions.

In order to strive for realism, Chen Kexin adopted the "human eye" perspective to shoot.

This shooting style is very common in European and American films.

His representative work is "The Godfather".

In order to achieve a documentary-like sense of reality, most of the actors were close to the characters during the filming of "The Godfather", at a height of about 180 cm.

When the audience watches the movie, it feels like they are watching the actors and are personally in the scene.

Director Coppola and director of photography Gordon Willis were arguing over the rare rooftop aerial shot in the film.

"Who's on the roof at this hour?"

“Why is there a perspective looking down from the roof?”

The director believes that there is no place for the characters in the plot, and that the camera should not be there.

The shooting of masterpieces is so rigorous.

Director Chen is clearly imitating overseas masters.

But theirs was a gang shootout, ours was a battle involving thousands of people, so we can't imitate them completely.

So Chen Kexin walks on two legs.

He will shoot the "human perspective" shots.

A crane is needed to shoot long shots, while the panoramic scenes are left to Cheng Xiaodong, who is more adept at it.

Brother Hua is still okay, riding a horse.

Li Lianjie was either stationed in the central military camp or launching surprise attacks behind enemy lines.

Zhang Yuan is in trouble!
He was an infantry charge, relying entirely on running on his own two legs.

And each run is several hundred meters.

This is not a school sports day, so you can't wear quick-drying short-sleeved shirts and shorts and sneakers.

He was wearing cotton armor with rivets.

According to historical facts, rivets were used to fix iron sheets into cotton clothes.

This will protect against stray bullets from old-fashioned muskets.

Chen Kexin is still a human being, she is not really pretending to be tough.

But it’s already bad enough.

Wearing armor and holding weapons, he ran hundreds of meters.

The key is the shuttle run.

It was fine at the beginning, we used a car to pull the people back after reshooting.

But Chen Kexin immediately discovered that the soft soil would leave obvious tire marks, which were clearly visible in the close-up shot.

It will be exposed.

The actor can only suffer and bear the blame.

Let the actors return to their positions on their legs.

Hundreds of extras were walking back and forth like this.

Even though Zhang Yuan was strong, he was sweating all over after a few trips.

It was winter again in the suburbs of the north, and the northwest wind was blowing towards the wet clothes.

That's a sour!
He was so tired, let alone the extras.

After three times, he sat on the ground and couldn't move.

Chen Kexin is not a farmer or a bad guy.

He is so exhausted that he cannot be whipped to wake up.

The extras couldn't run anymore, and his solution was simple.

It's just like looking for a hostess when you go to a club to sing.

Poor quality?

Change a batch!
Those who are tired can take over, those who are full of energy can take over, and then just continue shooting.

A budget of several hundred million is no joke!
Zhang Yuan followed the extras to the rest area.

But before I could sit down, Chen Kexin came over.

"You are the leading actor, no one can replace you."

Zhang Yuan: …

That is to say, the extras take turns, and I am the only one who can do it.

I... He wanted to curse, but thought again.

Other extras get 5 or 60 a day.

"The Warlords" has a lot of money, and those who are good at ancient costume dramas can be given nearly a hundred yuan.

What about yourself?
According to the schedule, the pay is about 10 yuan a day...

It's a bit unreasonable that I get paid a thousand times more than others and still act like a boss.

Since he was taking money from others and helping them to avoid disasters, he had no choice but to muster up the energy and continue working.

It was the first time he felt so tired on the set that he wanted to vomit.

And that’s not the end yet!
Because there are night scenes.

There are several big scenes in the film, in addition to this direct battle with the Taiping Army, there are two other big ones.

One was to attack Gusu, and the other was to attack Nanzhili.

Among them, the scenes of attacking Nanzhili included a large number of night scenes.

Therefore, the daily routines of Zhang Yuan, Hua Ge and Li Lianjie were disrupted and readjusted.

I go to sleep after work in the afternoon, and then get woken up again at night to shoot a late-night scene.

This went on for almost three weeks.

“It’s fucking cold!”

Even Brother Hua used foul language.

At this time, the temperature outside Huairou has exceeded minus 20 degrees Celsius.

"I asked Director Chen today, and he said that the locals said it wasn't that cold in previous years."

"This won't work!"

Zhang Yuan couldn't stand it anymore.

According to the plan that Chen Kexin told them.

All the fighting scenes were shot in relays between him and Cheng Xiaodong, which took a total of one month.

But now more than half of a month has passed, and there is no end in sight for the progress of this war drama!
"You're not going to shoot so long that you can't go home for the New Year, are you?"

Lao Li and Brother Hua also showed worried expressions.

Three actors who were paid tens of millions of yuan for their roles, like the extras, were hiding in the dug trenches.

Even during breaks they were too lazy to go to the rest area.

It's freezing cold today. Just climbing out of the trench will take some time to catch your breath. It's better to sit down with your clothes on. That's it.

Zhang Yuan looked at the interconnected earth pits.

This trench was also the part that made countless viewers spit in the face after the movie was released.

"In ancient wars, there were no trenches!"

"You thought it was World War I or World War II!"

"Trenches are something foreigners play with."

Many viewers said so.

Criticizing the crew and Chen Kexin for having no common sense.

There are also criticisms that his war dramas are Chinese in appearance but Western in nature.

Chen Kexin deliberately added the element of trenches to the war scenes of attacking Gusu and Nanzhili, which was indeed out of selfish motives.

He was born into a film family, so he was exposed to film works very early.

Among them, All Quiet on the Western Front, a classic war film adapted from the 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, left a very deep impression on the young him.

Later, the TV series "All Quiet in Peking" directed by Kong Sheng and starred by Liu Ye and Chen Baoguo was written by Liu Heping, who was also the scriptwriter of "The Ming Dynasty 1566". When he named his work, he paid tribute to this classic work.

This novel has been adapted into four versions of movies and TV series, the latest one being the Netflix version in 22.

The version Chen Kexin saw was the classic version from 79.

It won a lot of awards that year, including the Emmy Award and the Golden Globe Award.

The background of this film is World War I in Germany.

A lot of trench warfare was involved. The Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Verdun, these terrifying soldier meat grinders, were all on the Western Front.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" tells the story of the demise of personal heroism and the cruelty of war.

It can be said that part of Chen Kexin's motivation for filming "The Warlords" came from this film which had deeply shocked him when he was young.

He was paying tribute to his masters and idols.

This is also part of the reason why he repeatedly requested that the battlefield and fighting scenes be realistic.

The First World War was the pinnacle of human trench warfare.

So Chen Kexin also moved the trenches into the film.

But adaptation is not random editing, and parody is not nonsense!

In fact, Chen Kexin did nothing wrong, it was the audience who scolded him who were wrong!

When the Taiping Rebellion was suppressed, a mature trench system was already in place.

Moreover, Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army was notorious as "ground rats" and "digging brigades", and people jokingly said that they could not fight without digging trenches.

The Hunan Army is composed of part-time engineers...

When attacking Anqing, the capital of Anhui during the Qing Dynasty, Zeng Guofan adopted the strategy of surrounding three sides and leaving one side open.

Three city gates were blocked, and two layers of trenches were dug outside the remaining one.

The Taiping Army had no choice but to charge the trench, and eventually the trench was almost filled with corpses.

Therefore, those who say that trenches should not appear in the film have no historical knowledge and are underestimating the Hunan Army.

Even the creation of the "three-dimensional fire trench" has always been controversial. One theory is that it was invented by Ye Zhichao, a general of the Huai Army and later the Governor-General of Zhili.

But we must never underestimate the Chinese people's war wisdom and war-crazy genes.

The Battle of Verdun killed 70 people, breaking the backbone of France.

The population loss caused by the Taiping Rebellion was greater than the total loss caused by World War II.

Then there was the warlord melee in the Republic of China.

The Anti-Japanese War, the Civil War, and the Korean Republic...

When it comes to fighting for one's life, the Chinese are no less capable than anyone else.

I can recover again and again, as if nothing happened.

This is called not knowing how to fight a war. No one knows how to fight a war.

We must not be self-deprecating and think that anything related to modern warfare was played by Westerners.

This is a kind of military worship of foreign things.

It seems that the only way Chinese people fight is to use big knives to hack each other passionately, just like the fights among young and gangsters.

"No." After hearing what he said, Li Lianjie also felt that it was not right.

Zhang Yuan and Hua Ge are relatively okay. They are not bachelors, but they have no children.

Old Li has a daughter at home.

He couldn't even go home for the New Year, the more he thought about it, the more he felt it was impossible!
"I need to talk to Chen Kexin. We can't shoot like this."

"It ruined everyone."

He is indeed miserable.

A few days ago, Director Chen took him to a nearby field and asked him to stand on the frozen lake to shoot.

It’s the one about “I’ve been walking on thin ice all my life, can I ever make it to the other side?”

The ice is said to be very thick, so it’s okay to run.

But Chen Kexin walked again and again, trying to express Pang Qingyun's loneliness by using the emptiness of the environment.

So he walked further towards the center of the lake.

After moving a few times, Lao Li heard a cracking sound under his feet.

The ice cracked!

He quickly lay on the ice like a giant turtle and crawled towards the shore using his hands and feet.

Almost fell into the river.

He didn't know whether Pang Qingyun could reach the other side.

But he certainly couldn't reach the other side by himself.

There are two most painful scenes that Zhang Yuan has ever filmed.

One is "The Untold Story", which is dangerous.

One is "The Return of the Condor Heroes", which treats people like donkeys.

The Warlords is different. He treats people like donkeys in dangerous situations...

He also called Liu Xixi.

"Don't talk nonsense next time."

"What?" Xiao Longnu was puzzled.

She said that after filming The Return of the Condor Heroes, she would never encounter such a tiring role again.

The little mouth opened...

Well, I saw it today!
So when he saw Li Lianjie was going to take the lead in talking to the director, Zhang Yuan immediately stood up from the trench.

"I support you!"

"Well done."

"Be more alert!"

Li Lianjie shook the braid on his wig, sniffed, and walked forward with a swagger.

"Brother Hua, let's go too!"

"Let's go, let's go." Liu Dehua also joined in the fun.

Arriving at the small shed where the director rested and worked, the three were about to go forward when they heard a man sobbing in front of them.

“I can’t finish filming. I can’t finish filming at all!”

"too tired."

"so hard!"

"There's sand in my nose every day."

"There was no time to sleep. I couldn't get a single shot done."

“I don’t want to shoot anymore.”

"Why don't we ask the management to replace him?"

“I can’t handle the pressure anymore.”

Chen Kexin was complaining to his wife, Junru Wu, on the phone.

What the hell!

The director is running!

The three of them exchanged glances and hurried forward together.

"Director Chen, what's the matter?"

"You are the backbone of the crew, you can't fall down!"

"But I can't take any more photos." Chen Kexin waved her hand: "You are all so tired."

"Are we tired?" Li Lianjie winked at the two of them.

"Not tired, that's great." Brother Hua replied.

"Yes, I also think the working hours are too short." Zhang Yuan quickly responded.

The director is the backbone of the crew. If he fails, we're all doomed.

Hurry up and coax him.

“But the progress is not keeping up.”

"It's okay. You are striving for perfection."

"Good works need to be polished. We support you." Zhang Yuan replied quickly.

"Yes, this is the most rigorous crew I have ever been a part of. We must work together to make a good film." Brother Hua said in Mandarin with a slight Hong Kong accent.

“We are with you!”

"Thank you!" Chen Kexin shook hands with the three of them one by one: "With your support, I feel much better."

"Don't worry, we absolutely support you."

After chatting for a while and holding a "united front meeting", the three of them waved goodbye to the director and prepared to go to work in front of the camera.

Just as several people were about to jump into the trench, Zhang Yuan shouted.

"and many more!"

Then the three of them stopped.

"We were looking for the director just now, what are we here for?"

Li Lianjie: ...

Liu Dehua: …

Only then did they react.

Brothers are connected with you in heart, but you are playing tricks with your brothers!
What an advanced PUA method in the workplace!

Chen Kexin is playing the game of retreat in order to advance.

We were so foolish that we tried to persuade him...

But all the words were said.

We must stand together through thick and thin, support the filming, and not be tired…

Zhang Yuan was very suspicious that this was Wu Junru's idea.

Director Chen almost lost his temper when filming just started. It was only after Wu Junru came that he and everyone else calmed down.

I hate my sister-in-law...

A man needs a face, and a tree needs its bark.

Even if he is shameless and eats and vomits, those two movie kings still have some dignity.

How to do?
Of course I choose to forgive him.

Just go ahead and act.

"We signed an all-inclusive contract. They don't pay extra for overtime..." Zhang Yuan muttered as he jumped off the trench, turned around and supported the two old brothers.

"what?"

“You signed for an all-inclusive package.”

"Aren't you?"

"We all signed half packages, and the overtime will be paid on a daily basis." Brother Hua patted him on the shoulder.

Zhang Yuan: …

Isn’t this bullying honest people?

This was the first time he felt that taking 1200 million yuan for the film was a huge loss. (End of this chapter)