Coquettish Rebirth

For a director, the cameraman will always be their good partner, and generally speaking, big-name directors will have their own photographers.It's like Zhang Yimou first debuted as a photographer, but later, he also had Gu Changwei as his full-time photographer.Why does the director need to have a dedicated photographer?Because sometimes the effect of the picture that the director wants is difficult to express through language, and it may require a tacit understanding between each other to let the photographer know what kind of machine, lens and lens to use. film to shoot.Even, the photographer will take the initiative to participate in the creative conception of the entire film-for example, discuss with the director what the tone of the entire film should be.Just like when Ang Lee filmed "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", the photographer he chose was Bao Dexi, and before shooting, the two discussed what the film would look like.

Ang Lee pointed out that he didn't want the traditional Hong Kong traditional martial arts drama style picture with too strong light and dark contrast and too bright colors full of stage effect, so Bao Dexi decided to use low-contrast optical fiber and desaturated color.With such a decision, he not only decides what film and lens he will use, but also decides the effect of the overall lighting engineer when he fills in the light!It also determines the color of the art design and costume design!

Then, under the requirements of such unsaturated colors and low-contrast light, the art design and costume design are developed in the direction of "Chinese ink painting". The clothes worn by the actors will not be too bright, and the overall Many of the colors have to be discarded—for example, the red walls, green tiles, and blue sky of the capital city were displayed during shooting.But Ang Lee felt that the blue color of the blue sky was too modern, so Bao Dexi used technical processing to darken the color, and finally eliminated the blue as much as possible.

In addition to this part of the picture effect, the director needs to communicate with the photographer. Another very important thing is that the director often needs to tell the photographer his own ideas. The photographer can be said to be the eyes of the director. What the teacher shoots should be what the director wants!So there are quite a few photographers in the industry who have changed jobs and become directors!So for the director, the cameraman is not just an assistant.Also an apprentice!Then in cooperation.Of course directors tend to work with apprentices and assistants who are familiar with their own style!

After Jia Hongjian and his group arrived in China, they took the special plane of Jia's family to Chang'an, and then began to search for various suitable scenery along the path that Tang Seng walked to learn Buddhist scriptures.In fact, as far as simply picking a scene, no one has ever stipulated that if you want to shoot a scene that has been in history, you must find a scene near the original location!It was like filming the D-Day footage.It might actually have been to Ireland to find the right beach for a shot like this.same.Like a theme like Journey to the West.No one said that when the scene of Tianzhu was filmed, one must go to India. Isn't it even possible to shoot in Tiannan Province?But, Jia Hongjian and his group are not hypocritical or annoying.But there is really no way to do it—why let China have the typical scenery of desert and Gobi on the northwest side?It can't be said that a group of people went to the vicinity of Huaxia Film and Television City in Kunshan to film the trip of the Tang monk, master and apprentice on the Gobi Desert?Even Stephen Chow, when they filmed "A Chinese Journey to the West", they still went to the Northwest!

After coming out of Chang'an, Nolan and Wally were surprised when they saw the ravines everywhere on the Loess Plateau, although they hadn't found a suitable scene yet.In their view, this kind of scene is simply too historical - the gullies on the Loess Plateau are not made of stone like the Grand Canyon of the United States, but are the result of various soil erosion!And there are people everywhere, and there are cave dwellings that they have never seen before!So all of a sudden this kind of peculiar geological landscape and the ubiquitous, abandoned cave dwellings can be seen from time to time, which gives people a special sense of historical vicissitudes!It feels like these gullies are full of historical traces of thousands of years of human life!

Then, all the way to the west film and television city in the northwest.In this barren northwest field, I saw two well-preserved abandoned forts—these two abandoned forts were actually the frontier defense castles that used to be stationed in the Qing Dynasty!There are naturally villages and villagers around the contracting of the troops, but the village has long been dilapidated, and the number of surviving people is very small. In 98, the government moved the last 22 herdsmen in the area, and then started construction. The dilapidated ruins here have been restored according to the concept of cultural relics.So what is actually displayed in front of Jia Hongjian and his group is a quaint fortress and village with civil structures that feel like hundreds or thousands of years ago!

Looking at such a village, to be honest, Jia Hongjian didn't have much feeling - movies like "Red Sorghum" were actually filmed here, and this represents what was common in rural areas many years ago. There are all kinds of scenes. Houses, walls, etc. are all made of earth. At most, there are more earth fortresses, small city walls, etc. What's the point of this?However, in the eyes of Nolan and Wally, this scenery is completely different!

In their view, the surrounding vast and barren plain scene, the occasional forest, and these centuries-old ancient buildings all of a sudden gave them a particularly vicissitudes and grandeur—not what they saw in front of them. What an architectural grandeur, but a sense of historic grandeur!It's like seeing a city built by human beings with your own eyes, and then watching such a city slowly fall into disrepair!The sense of history and the vicissitudes of life are simply the favorites of young literary and artistic youths!

Then, when Jia Hongjian and the others went all the way to the frontier province to collect scenery, and finally organized a special "expedition team" to arrive at the legendary ancient city of Loulan together, these young artists looked at the huge ancient city of Loulan. Looking at the ruins, there are even a few intact streets and even houses, and then I heard Jia Hongjian introduce that the ancient city of Loulan existed since the Han Dynasty, that is, Rome, and then continued until the Tang Dynasty—— That is, in the era of Tang Seng and the others, it was still an important border town in China, but it gradually disappeared slowly and inexplicably...

To be honest, at this time, when businessmen like Jia Hongjian looked at such ruins, they felt that "China's history is too long and great, and a ruin in any place contains a history that foreigners can't imagine." "It's time to hurry up!"Not to mention those literary youths around him!At this time, those literary and artistic youths were taking pictures with their family cameras, and then stopped when they were shooting, and looked at the surrounding ruins with their eyes wide open and their mouths full of admiration and disbelief!

Originally, Jia Hongjian thought that this journey was a purely scenic journey.That is to say, such a trip for everyone should be purely to see in advance which places are suitable for being selected as the background real scene shooting in the movie.Then everyone went on a tour in the Northwest. Although we haven’t decided which scene to use yet, we have already shot the video, so you can choose slowly when you go back.But who would have thought that after watching the ancient city of Loulan here, on the way back to the city, Jia Hongjian suddenly heard Nolan say: "Mr. Jia... I suddenly want to change the style of the script..."

"En? Change? How?" Jia Hongjian was taken aback.I thought to myself, didn't I come out to collect scenery today?Why did you say you want to change the script again?Could it be that they wanted to photograph the restored ancient city of Loulan?Just when he was guessing, he just heard Nolan say: "I think these scenery are too heavy with history, so, should we highlight a kind of... a kind of scenery that follows Tang Seng's whole journey?" The scenery has always had a sense of history? In our script, we want Tang Seng to be a good person to deceive the audience in the first story, so I think that highlighting the sense of history is like a very grand perspective. The rise and fall of history...not right...It should be a bit like a documentary about the earth and Africa. It is a kind of standing at a very high altitude, flying over the African savannah in a helicopter, watching the sun rise from the horizon , and then the feeling of the great migration of millions of animals... is an epic feeling! Yes, it is a kind of praise, a kind of exclamation, a kind of unconscious admiration for seeing the most magnificent historical facts a feeling of!"

When Nolan said this, Jia Hongjian didn't quite understand what he meant. Didn't he mean to change the script?But he said such a thing, such as the grandeur of the filming, isn't it not much different from the script?Isn't it also a way to enhance Tang Seng's kindness?What changed?Just when Jia Hongjian didn't quite understand it, Nolan's little friend Wali did understand it—"You mean that when shooting with the camera, we only use more aerial photography." The lens highlights Tang Seng’s sense of history and grandeur in the process of learning Buddhist scriptures? It’s as if we are standing in the air, immortal, and then watching humans evolve from apes to humans, and then develop technology a little bit. In the end, the heavy feeling of what it looks like today? At the same time, the positioning of Tang Seng is more like a Chinese version of Moses? A Chinese Moses and a person's Exodus?"

Shit, no wonder the photographer can understand the director's words!Jia Hongjian didn't quite understand what Nolan said just now, but now after Wali's explanation, Jia Hongjian has figured out a little bit of meaning—feeling means that Nolan suddenly has an inspiration, and he wants to use Tang Seng's story in the script along the way. Positioning and image slightly modified?That is to say, if the former Tang Seng was a stereotyped person who made people think he was incompetent and a bit annoying, but he was indeed a good person, it became like a religion that embarked on a journey of practice alone with the hopes of all mankind The rush of a hero?All in all, it is to elevate Tang Seng's identity from a series of angles such as the camera, music, role positioning, and even dialogue, and portray him as if he is a saint, just like Christ Jesus suffered for mankind. That kind of rush?Then finally, through the magical ending, such an image will be punctured all at once?wipe!This sounds like a sense of hearing ah! (To be continued..)