Generation Z Artists

Chapter 211 The Incredibly Cool Action Concept
As the second male lead, Fang Xinghe only has two major scenes in "Hero".

The first scene is a grand war drama.

The story is set after the fall of the State of Han. Han An (the deposed King of Han) is imprisoned in Chen County by the King of Qin. His son, Han Yu, launches a rebellion in the old capital of Xinzheng in an attempt to rescue his father.

King Zheng of Qin, having heard of his bravery, personally went to Xinzheng and faced off against the former Crown Prince Yu of Han on the battlefield.

The second scene is a martial arts extravaganza.

After his defeat, Prince Yu of Han fled and went into hiding in the State of Zhao. Accompanied by Fei Xue and the Queen of Zhao, Wuming came to him, intending to take his head to gain the trust of the King of Qin.

Prince Han wanted to test the martial arts skills of Wuming and fought him, which became the climax of the film's martial arts battle.

……

The play is simple, but Fang Xinghe's task is anything but.

As the martial arts director, he had to design these two major scenes in a unique and engaging way, making them an integral part of the visual spectacle.

The war scenes mainly consist of several major locations.

First, the Qin crossbow formation.

The overwhelming rain of arrows from the original "Hero" will be transferred here, and the arrows will cripple the Korean rebel infantry as soon as they appear.

Second, cavalry charge.

Prince Han led a hundred cavalrymen, bypassing the Qin army's front line from the flank, and charged straight at the center of the army, launching a desperate attack.

Third, solo adventure.

Prince Han, riding a white horse and wielding a silver spear, single-handedly cut through half of the central army, highlighting his bravery.

Fourth, draw your bow and shoot the king.

Crown Prince Han was caught in the chaos of battle and found it difficult to advance. So, from a distance of 150 paces, he leaped onto his horse and drew his bow to shoot at the royal carriage.

Here, Fang Xinghe designed two arrows.

The first arrow, fired from a low position while seated on horseback, was easily blocked by the shield wall formed by the "Bì Shield Guards".

With the second arrow, he flipped himself onto the horse's back, his left foot on the lower part of the saddle and his right foot on the upper edge of the saddle. At the same time, the horse reared up with a neigh. Prince Han rode the horse, drew his bow, and shot an arrow that pierced through the guard's shield wall!
This arrow did not pierce through the hundred or so shields themselves, but rather found a loophole in the defense. The arrow will be shown in a close-up shot directly at the King of Qin's face.

Of course, it didn't work out.

Fang Xinghe's plan failed because of Meng Yi, who, according to historical records, "was the emperor's attendant when he went out and served him in the emperor's presence when he returned," and was a close protector of Qin Shi Huang, possessing exceptional martial prowess.

The incident happened suddenly, and Meng Yi shielded Qin Shi Huang with his body, raising his hand to block the arrow.

The arrow pierced through the arm guard, arm, shoulder armor, and shoulder, finally wedged into Meng Yi's body, with the arrowhead hovering before the King of Qin's eyes.

This greatly shocked the King of Qin, who exclaimed: "The Crown Prince of Han is so incredibly brave!"
Prince Han is indeed brave.

Despite his failed assassination attempt, he was still able to break out of the central army on horseback and leave triumphantly, thus becoming a major threat to the emperor.

This incident also served as the catalyst for Qin Shi Huang to increase security measures.

Prime Minister Li Si had the inscription "Received the Mandate of Heaven, May Your Reign Be Long and Prosperous" carved in small seal script on the He Shi Bi jade, and then forged the Five Dragons Intertwined Jade Seal for the Son of Heaven. This not only conformed to history, but also laid the groundwork for the final outcome.

However, there were only close-ups of the Emperor's jade seal, without any explanation.

In the shot, the imperial seal emitted a hazy, clear light before being covered by a large hand.

……

There's a little story behind this grand spectacle.

Earlier, before Fang Xinghe broke with Hong Kong and Taiwan, Wei Ping and Zhang Ziyi wanted Jin Chengwu to play Meng Yi.

When shooting blockbusters, piling on celebrities is a common practice.

Many laypeople think that a script is a very rigorous thing, and once it's finalized, it can't be easily changed.

That's completely wrong. The script is actually the least rigorous thing in a project.

If Jin Chengwu is indeed invited to join the cast, then he should be given prominent roles. Meng Yi's screen time will jump to third place, and he may actually have a fight with Wuming at the end of the film.

The script? We'll just change it at the last minute.

However, this idea no longer works when Fang Xinghe makes it into the NBA and breaks with Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Fang Ge is already a unique world-class idol. Regardless of whether he invested in "Hero", just from the perspective of the role's importance, he has to be the absolute focus of the action scenes.

What is meant by "the eye of the action"?
All the previous fight scenes were not as exciting as this one. After this fight, the story was nearing its end, and there were no more new fight scenes.

Even the protagonist, Wuming, is overshadowed by Prince Han.

Wuming's only defeat was against Crown Prince Yu.

From Jet Li's personal perspective, the Kung Fu Emperor didn't want to lose even halfway through the fight; he wanted to fight several more matches, ideally from beginning to end, with everyone else playing supporting roles.

The original version of "Hero" had this structure; it was very flat, with no ups and downs or climaxes.

Unfortunately, he couldn't stop Fang Xinghe.

The status of a Hollywood action star is no more prestigious than that of an NBA superstar. When it comes to status in the American sports and entertainment world, Fang Ge is clearly higher.

Therefore, both climaxes in the new version occur with Fang Xinghe.

For example, in this war scene, the emperor had absolutely no time to do anything.

Fang Xinghe placed it in the middle of the story.

The Queen Zhao's voice was cold: "The head of Fan Lie, the traitor of Qin, is not enough to make the King of Qin trust you."

Anonymous: "Whose head can lead me to the King of Qin?"

"There is only one person in the world, Prince Yu of Han."

Queen Zhao recounts the story of Prince Han in detail, and the scene transitions to the battle where Prince Han assassinated the king.

……

Filming this war scene was extremely difficult.

Large-scale scene coordination is too exhausting, and large-scale action sequences are too demanding.

Prince Han fought on horseback from beginning to end, and in order to achieve the best action effect, he had to practice again and again.

When filming first started, Zhang Yimou was in a panic.

"Xiao Fang, how good are you at riding a horse? Please be careful!"

"Don't worry, I've practiced."

The creators thought he had practiced in his spare time in the United States, but actually, Fang Ge practiced in his dreams.

With over 100 million starlight points invested, his equestrian skills instantly reached 89 points. Then, relying on his coordination and flexibility, he tried high-difficulty maneuvers on horseback every day, and within a few days, he reached 92 points.

His horse is no ordinary horse either.

The production team researched all the horse breeds in the world, from Ferghana to Arabian to Shire, in order to find the perfect special mount for Xinghe. They filmed over 200 videos alone.

For a large project like "Hero", some ups and downs are inevitable.

Ultimately, Fang Xinghe chose a Clydesdale horse from a British noble family, named Tammore.

It cost 50 euros just to rent it, and they even sent a horse breeder and a doctor, and an eight-person team was airlifted over.

All of this is because Fang Xinghe has a lot of influence.

They only agreed to release the horse after they heard that Star River needed it for filming "Hero"; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to borrow it even for a million dollars.

Tammore is a white stallion, 183 cm tall, with shoulders almost level with Fang Xinghe.

Weighing 958 kilograms, with firm muscles, smooth lines, long legs, and white tufts of hair growing on its feet, it lifts its legs very high when walking, and its movements are extremely elegant.

Tammoor is gentle and agile. Its only drawback is that it is not as fast as Akhal-Teke when sprinting, but its advantages outweigh any shortcomings—it is handsome.

The rest of the warhorses in the legion were Mongolian horses. The production team had tried their best to select tall and strong horses, but their average height was still only 160 cm, which made Fang Ge look like a god descended to earth.

Fang Xinghe's armor is also quite formidable.

When the props team consulted him, they asked, "Should we aim for realism or a more ornate style?"

It has to be gorgeous.

At first, Mou Zi had some objections, but Fang Xinghe silenced him with just a few words.

"Hero" is a commercial kung fu blockbuster based on history. The parts that the higher-ups care about must respect history, while the details that the higher-ups don't care about can be made as cool as possible.

Then the props team used hard plastic to create a set of dazzling silver armor, with a coating and engravings, making it flashy and like a silver Saint.

Some rigid officials always believe that cultural dissemination should be authentic, grand, and win with its inner meaning, and that all means of attracting attention are heretical.

This statement is both right and wrong.

Serious matters should never be treated lightly; one must maintain a proper attitude.

For commercially and entertainment-oriented content, being visually appealing is the most important thing.

Most ordinary people struggle just to survive; they only want to have fun, so let them have fun. There's no need to force profound values ​​onto them.

Cool and stylish but superficial things have a wide audience in communication studies.

Is the Korean wave real or fake?
If you remove their makeup and costumes, they're all as ugly as flounders.

Is the Korean Wave superficial or not?
The music is formulaic, the lyrics are repetitive, the dance moves are borderline, and the film and television plots are either overly dramatic or dark and brutal.

However, the Korean wave has swept through China for more than a decade and is well-known worldwide, contributing a huge amount of GDP to their tourism and cultural industries.

Fang Xinghe dislikes the Korean wave and once applauded the ban on Korean entertainment.

Now that he is in that position, he still dislikes the Korean wave, but has begun to take it as a lesson.

Huayu Entertainment is in its infancy. Right now, reaching a wider audience is paramount. You need to spread your message first and establish sufficient familiarity with the world before you can slowly consider deepening your image.

Therefore, the design of Prince Han should prioritize being cool and stylish, without affecting the plot.

Human nature is universal. When we watch Hollywood blockbusters, we like to see big-breasted beauties, and foreign girls like to see dashing handsome men when watching kung fu movies.

"Everything they film looks glamorous, but when we film, we have to be down-to-earth and realistic. Lao Zhang, have you gone crazy making art films? Don't you even know what a commercial blockbuster is?"

Mou Zi was quite obedient and reluctantly endured Fang Xinghe's full set of silver-white armor.

As a result, the costumes in the new version of "Heroes" have also undergone tremendous changes. The Warring States period robes worn by characters like Wuming and Feixue were originally designed to respect historical facts as much as possible, mainly made of cotton and linen, and were wrinkled and not very textured.

Now, the style of clothing remains the same, but the materials used are much better; they are flowing where they should be, and crisp where they should be.

Feixue was dressed in pure white, while Zhao Hou wore a bright red robe; both were breathtakingly beautiful.

Li Lianjie's samurai outfit hasn't changed—he's an assassin, and wearing expensive clothes wouldn't fit his character. Let him stay dressed in his usual drab attire.
Old Li stood on the sidelines of the film set, his eyes red with envy.

"Why should he? He charged into battle alone on a white horse with a silver spear, doing all the coolest and most awesome things by himself. And I'm going to let him beat me up later..."

Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi laughed non-stop and joked with each other.

"Xiao Fang is indeed handsome."

"They can pull off this setup, but you might not be able to."

Xiao Zhang dared not act rashly, but Sister Gong didn't care and directly insulted the Hollywood star until he was defeated.

"Alright, you've forgotten your older brother now that you have a younger brother. Goodbye!"

"Hey, don't go! Everyone says today's fight scene is amazing, don't you want to see it?"

“I’m not watching anymore.” Li Lianjie shook his head. “Watching horseback kung fu scenes is pointless; it’s not the same genre.”

Zhang Ziyi didn't understand the methods, but exclaimed in amazement, "How exactly did Director Fang train? How can he do everything and know everything?"

"Talent, I suppose."

Li Lianjie's eyes were filled with complex emotions as he sighed softly, "When I was his age, I was just beginning to understand the routines..."

Gong Li asked curiously, "What's the difference between what you two practice?"

Li Lianjie didn't mince words, stating frankly: "I practice martial arts performance routines, I come from a sports school, while he practices traditional martial arts forms, he comes from a Taoist school. In short, everything I practice is for performance, while his training method is progressive and leads to actual combat. Our directions are different, and so are our training methods."

Zhang Ziyi's eyes widened: "Xiao Fang can really play professionally?"

Li Lianjie shook his head: "I don't know what level Xiao Fang is at in unarmed combat, but if you give him a real weapon, whether it's a sword or a gun, he can kill Tyson in a few seconds."

"Wow……"

"It's true, he practices the Six Harmonies Spear, pure and genuine kung fu."

Li Lianjie couldn't help but grin as he watched Fang Xinghe dragging his gun along.

"I can't even lift a 3.5-meter-long lance."

In the viewfinder, Fang Xinghe mounted his horse, gripped the end of the spear with his right hand, and held the spear horizontally with one hand, slowly making a half-circle motion.

"Gentlemen, follow me to kill the enemy!"

The camera, mounted on a large crane, moved from following to shooting overhead, prompting Zhang Yimou to exclaim in admiration: "Awesome! Great shot!"

There is a chronic problem with domestic martial arts films—aside from a very few real action stars like Jet Li and Zhao Wenzhuo, most of the stars can't even hold a sword steadily.

The prop sword, weighing about one pound, trembled as if he had Parkinson's disease when he pointed it at someone.

This makes it impossible to shoot close-ups or convey the murderous intent.

His kung fu skills were superb, but he only relied on his words.

Chow Yun-fat's action scenes in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were terrible, but fortunately, Western audiences were just watching for entertainment and couldn't tell the difference between good and bad.

Fang Xinghe's ambition for "Hero" is not just to provide the audience with a spectacle; he wants to completely crush all previous action films.

Although raising the gun is just a small detail, in close-up shots, his movements are as steady as a mountain, completely controlled, and naturally rhythmic.

That was the grand demeanor of a master, as profound as a deep pool and as majestic as a mountain.

The audience may not understand the difficulty involved, but they will certainly be able to feel the extraordinary nature of it, and thus deeply believe in Prince Yu's strength.

Although this special posing gun is made of a custom carbon fiber tube, it still requires nearly 20 units of torque. Even with Fang Xinghe's freakish physique, he still had to add 2 units of force to ensure the stability of the pose.

At this point, he had no more star power left. All his hard work in building up his popularity in the NBA had been for naught.

But... it's worth it.

Such extreme moves, so powerful and so cool, who wouldn't exclaim "Holy crap!" after seeing them?!

There are too few tricks to play in horseback riding; the details must be perfect.

But he was still not satisfied, and even the way he mounted the horse was designed to be exceptionally arrogant.

With his right hand dragging the spear, he strode forward, and without stepping into the stirrups, he easily jumped up. While in mid-air, he grabbed the back edge of the saddle with his left hand, seemingly using it for leverage but not quite, and then straddled the horse's back high with his left leg, settling firmly in the saddle.

With a saddle height of 1.85 meters, getting on it feels like getting into a bed.

On set, everyone was confused; they all slurped up three tons of cold noodles together.

If the foreplay was this good, the main course must be even more extraordinary.

Fang Xinghe's approach to mounted combat was "great force creates miracles," emphasizing an explosive action.

He never leaves his horse's back, and his basic attack moves consist of only a thrust and a flick—simple and unadorned, yet his immense strength makes killing as easy as mowing grass.

Once deep within enemy lines, they would rely on shuffling and shaking to break through the soldiers in front of them and struggle forward.

The spearhead was like a poisonous dragon, whirling wildly among the enemy, each shot capable of knocking away at least one fully armored soldier.

To convey the impact, the soldiers appearing in close-up shots were played by stuntmen, wearing special armor with cushioning pads inside. When Fang Xinghe slashed them with his spear, the armor shattered and the soldiers flew through the air.

The flying stunts did not use the traditional Chinese wire harness technique, but rather the later Hollywood wire harness combined with motion capture to control the actor's body.

In traditional Chinese martial arts films of this era, when depicting the action of a person being knocked away, the method was to first suspend the person in the air and then use human force to pull them back, making the flying action very floaty and exaggerated.

Later Hollywood superhero movies featured more realistic action sequences where people were smashed into the air, as if they were actually hit by a dump truck.

For example, in "The Witch 1", the villain is sent flying with a single punch, and the human body crashes into the wall like a cannonball, creating a very violent and realistic visual effect.

How was it achieved?
The wire harness is worn on the upper body of the motion capture actor, with the wires fixed at several points on the back. If the point of impact is the chest, then the point of traction is the corresponding position on the back.

Then, instead of being pulled by human force, it uses mechanical power to instantly pull itself up, with high speed and strong force.

At the same time, motion capture actors need to completely relax their limbs. If the upper body is being hit, then the lower body should be relaxed to create a realistic posture of the upper body collapsing and the legs dragging in front.

Until it hits the intended target, its limbs spread out and swing back due to inertia, showing expressions as needed, and spitting blood as required.

At this point, the entire performance in the green screen was over, and all that remained was the work of creating special effects.

To achieve this effect, Fang Xinghe not only improved the wire harness system but also acquired two cranes.

Pulled by the pulley system, the boom swung and pulled the stuntman out of the way.

However, even in the shed, with cotton pads and cushioning boards everywhere, no stuntman could perfectly achieve the effect Fang Xinghe wanted.

The main problem is that people of this era don't know what motion capture is, let alone have trained in it, so their limb control in an out-of-control state is far from up to standard.

Finally, Brother Fang waved his hand and took the stage himself.

The flying object knocked several soldiers off their feet, their backs hitting the ground as they tumbled and rolled like bowling balls, tumbling seven or eight meters and leaving a trail of blood in their wake.

Fang Xinghe filmed six similar special effects in a row, including collisions with people, collisions with shields, and three or four soldiers carrying the shield together. In short, he tried his best to achieve a variety of effects.

After filming this batch of action sequences, the entire crew was completely impressed by Fang Xinghe.

"Awesome! Absolutely awesome!"

"Director Fang is a real man!"

"He thinks what others dare not think, and accomplishes what others cannot..."

The scene sounds simple, but in reality, each time you're dragged more than ten meters by the machine, rolling and tumbling along the way, and you have to pay attention to controlling your body. You can judge for yourselves how difficult it is.

Even though there were sponge pads everywhere under the green screen, Fang Xinghe still managed to hurt himself all over, applying liniment to his bruises every day.

The level of danger was so high that everyone was on tenterhooks.

Wei Ping was so frightened that she screamed and shouted several times, "I'm not filming anymore! I'm not filming anymore!"

How could we not take pictures?

It wouldn't work if someone else took the photos.

Aside from Fang Xinghe, who can handle such an out-of-control roll with his 99% coordination and 99% flexibility, the probability of accidents for other martial arts performers is far too high.

Because of this incident, Fang Xinghe earned the genuine respect of the entire crew.

"Everyone praises Brother Hendrik Willem Van Loon for his dedication to filming, and Director Fong is just as good. He's really amazing, and he truly embodies the spirit of putting the best film above all else!"

"Don't waste your time, hurry up and wash it, cut it, so I can take it to the promotional materials!"

Wei Ping decided to compile the relevant footage into behind-the-scenes footage and release it for publicity.

Fang Xinghe chuckled and had him film a few shots of her covered in bruises—it's time for the fans to really feel sorry for Giegie.

The war scenes continued to unfold, one after another.

The scene where he stands on horseback drawing his bow went more smoothly than expected, and was completed in one take.

The main reason is that Tammore's back is wide enough that it's uncomfortable to ride, but incredibly stable when standing.

Fang Xinghe didn't use any wires to help him maintain his balance; he mastered the technique after just a few practice sessions.

At the trainer's command, Tammore reared up, Fang Xinghe planted his hind foot firmly on the bottom edge of the saddle, and his front foot was loosely bent and wedged against the top edge of the saddle. With his strong core control, he easily stabilized his body and drew his bow.

Once Tammoor landed, the horse trainer immediately led it away, while Fang Xinghe was slowly lowered to the ground by wires, and the whole audience burst into enthusiastic applause.

"Absolutely amazing! This shot will definitely go down in film history!"

Mou Zi was so excited, he felt like he had stepped in dog poop. He didn't know how he won, but he was completely numb with excitement.

This isn't a post-production special effect; it's a real shot taken with a wide-angle lens, incredibly realistic in detail, and breathtakingly beautiful in composition.

Anyone with even a little experience in production can predict how many viewers this scene will move.

But Brother Fang thinks it's just so-so.

To be truly entertaining, a one-man show is definitely not enough; you still need someone to complement it.

Right, Jay?
　It's time to get my immunization shot again; I need to adjust my biological clock.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)