Chapter 930 A Long Take!
Action!
Guards and a.s.sa.s.sins changed their clothes and acted out the whole hunting plot fantastically according to the previous demonstration.
In addition, Li Baoguo’s wonderful acting had amazed all the staff. Director Chen Xiaogang was even completely shocked!
Who was he?
He was a famous and top-notch director in Huaxia.
When he made preparations for a movie, he had to ensure that everything was ready before the official filming. He had prepared two shooting tracks on the ground and one robot arm, so he could clearly see the acting from three different cameras in the process.
A long take!
Without any pause, the three different shots on three monitors were all very perfect.
But this put Chen Xiaogang in a dilemma.
Because the scenes shotted by the three cameras were particularly perfect, no matter which one he chose, it was impeccable. However, the point was that Chen Xiaogang cherished all of them. How could he be willing to lose such good scenes?
The only way was to choose the most perfect parts of these three scenes, edit them together and make the whole hunting scene more impeccable!
On the other side, the a.s.sistant director, Zhao Rulong, and a large group of staff in the director team were all shocked.
“Let’s watch it again. Slow down. Let’s watch it again!” Shouted Zhao Rulong.
The a.s.sistant director quickly played it backwards and then watched the scene with a 0.5 playing speed. After watching the whole scene, everyone found that this hunting scene was really flawless. Everyone’s performance could be said to be perfect. The guards and a.s.sa.s.sins fought fiercely, and their moves were excellent. Eye-catching!
Li Baoguo, who played Zhu Yuanzhang, amazed everyone there by his acting.
No wonder he was an experienced senior actor, which was really different from common actors!
The shooting was still going on.
On the spot, it was really silent. Everyone held their breaths as they waited.
Having seen the amazing acting just now, all the staff on the spot applauded for these actors and martial arts actors quietly in their hearts, because this group of people acted really well!
Chen Xiaogang, who was still staring at the monitor, thought to himself, “If every shooting could go smoothly like this, we might be able to finish filming in one month’s time.”
Following the shooting team, it could be seen from the monitor that Zhu Yuanzhang was being hunted all the way to a high mountain.
Running halfway, Zhu Yuanzhang gasped for breath and looked to the mountainside.
The camera followed his eyesight, and a straw hut appeared on the screen.
Yang Yizhi, played by Fang Qiu, was carrying a pack basket full of firewood and holding a firewood chopper, walking down from the mountain.
Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang, Fang Qiu first paused for a while and then quickly found a tree and hid behind it.
But Zhu Yuanzhang had already seen him.
At this deserted mountain, he saw his guards died one by one in front of him with his own eyes. He originally thought that he had encountered a master living in seclusion when he saw the straw hut. But the moment he saw Fang Qiu, his face darkened. It seemed that he had lost his hope completely.
On the other side, the camera began to focus on Fang Qiu.
Sitting in front of the monitor, Director Chen Xiaogang clenched his fists nervously. His heart pounded quickly.
He was afraid that Fang Qiu would make mistakes.
After all, Fang Qiu was not a professional actor. If he wanted to play the protagonist of a movie, he had to have outstanding acting and acted out all the emotions of this person.
Besides acting, Chen Xiaogang’s biggest fear was that Fang Qiu would make mistakes.
Because except for acting, Fang Qiu also needed to remember all the lines, actions, positions, to follow cameras, and so on.
All these points were very difficult for a newcomer in the film industry.
In the camera, Fang Qiu started talking, “Who are you?”
Zhu Yuanzhang, who got injured and had a strange expression, fled all the way here. Seeing him, Yang Yizhi, played by Fang Qiu, first hid to see what was going on, then came out and raised the question with a very proper look and tone.
Having seen Fang Qiu’s look and heard his tone, Director Chen Xiaogang breathed a sigh of relief!
There should be no problem with Fang Qiu’s acting.
“I am a businessman,” Zhu Yuanzhang said to Fang Qiu nervously, “someone wants to kill me. They’re catching up with me. The guards I hired were all killed.”
Fang Qiu stepped out.
He frowned and walked to the straw hut and took off the pack basket which was full of firewood. After that, he turned around, took a look at Zhu Yuanzhang and then looked into the distance.
The camera changed to another scene: a group of men in black killed the last guard, and then rushed all the way to the mountainside carrying a strong smell of blood.
“Go inside. I’ll help you.” Fang Qiu said to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang had mixed feelings.
But in order to live, he had to put this young man in front of a group of cruel a.s.sa.s.sins.
In the end, he went inside the hut.
Fang Qiu closed the door. Then, he held the firewood chopper in his hand, turned to look at the group of men in black running over here. His eyes, which seemed ignorant and innocent, suddenly became sharp. He looked extremely nervous and excited, and even his hands began to tremble unconsciously.
At this moment, Director Chen Xiaogang quickly stood up and shouted “Cut!” Using a loudspeaker.
The first scene, a long take, was completely finished.
Applause.
Looking at the actors, Director Chen Xiaogang was very excited, and led off the applause.
Not only him, but also everyone at the scene felt that all the actors had acted really well. Even Fang Qiu’s acting was not bad at all. He had already pa.s.sed the cut-off score.
One should know that acting was not the same as one’s usual expressions and reactions in daily life. It needed to be exaggerated to a certain extent. But because movies were filmed for people to watch, it couldn’t be too exaggerated. This needed actors to act by heart and by eyes.
Obviously, Director Chen Xiaogang did not expect that Fang Qiu could pa.s.s the cutting-off score in his first performance.
This kind of capability was really something!
The other staff and actors also clapped their hands.
Today they really broadened their horizons.
In the past, the films were shot scene by scene. A short scene within one minute could be shot repeatedly, like three times, five times or even more than ten times.
But today, the filming was simply too smooth.
After all, in the plan of these professional film crew, it should have taken several days to finish the first scene of today.
But now, it was completed in only one take.
Filming at this speed, how long would it take to finish a movie?
After the first scene was finished, all the actors gathered around the director. Chen Xiaogang played the scene shot just now on the monitor and watched it together with the actors and other staff again and again.
He hadn’t found any flaws after watching repeatedly.
“Wonderful.”
The more Chen Xiaogang watched, the more excited and surprised he became. He applauded, “Good acting! Good martial arts!”
Everyone laughed happily.
Li Baoguo, who played Zhu Yuanzhang, also smiled with satisfaction.
He didn’t expect that the first scene would come out so well.
Fifteen minutes later, when the actors had rested enough and their makeup was done, Director Chen Xiaogang picked up the loudspeaker and shouted, “Everyone, get ready for the second scene!”
Scene Two: Young Yang Yizhi fought eighteen a.s.sa.s.sins and Zhu Yuanzhang took the opportunity to escape!
The plot of the second scene was written very clearly on the clapperboard so that everyone could understand it easily.
This time, the main setting moved to the straw hut which was at the mountainside.
The director team and all the instruments were moved here within fifteen minutes.
This scene was mainly about Fang Qiu, so everyone paid special attention, including those who didn’t need to act in this scene. They all gathered here and prepared to take a good look at Fang Qiu’s performance and to see whether he could be the eligible protagonist or not.
At the scene, under He Gaoming’s instruction, Li Boqing came to Fang Qiu, a.n.a.lyzed all the moves of Yang Yizhi’s fight with eighteen a.s.sa.s.sins one by one for him. He also told Fang Qiu about what points he should pay attention to and to what extent he should achieve when doing these moves thoroughly.
Fang Qiu also remembered quickly.
“Get ready,” shouted Chen Xiaogang, telling everyone to be prepared.
Then he walked to Fang Qiu, said to him, “This scene is not easy.”
Looking at Fang Qiu, Director Chen Xiaogang said, “There are some flying scenes. Although these stuntmen don’t need wires, you are different from them and you must use wires. How about we try shooting a short part first?”
Because this was a fierce and long fight, Chen Xiaogang was afraid that Fang Qiu would not remember all these moves.
“It’s okay. We don’t have to,” Fang Qiu shook his head confidently, then pointed at his head and said, “I’ve remembered all the moves. I am smart!”
What he just said made everyone roast him immediately.
“So you are a straight-A student, what’s the big deal?” He Gaoming toasted him with a smile. Everyone else started to laugh too.
“Then, okay!” Chen Xiaogang took a deep breath and said, “Shall we get started directly?”
“Sure.” Fang Qiu nodded.
Then hearing the director’s request, all the people were in their places immediately.
The scene was back to the end of the first scene.
The action of the second scene officially began.
Everyone’s eyes had been fixed on Fang Qiu.
It turned out that Fang Qiu did very well in this one take. There was no flaw in his cooperation with wires, the emotions in his eyes, or the fierce actions, and so on. An ordinary firewood chopper was acted properly in his hand. Whether in close shot or in long shot, every scene was perfect!
Soon, the second scene was finished.
After the director shouted “Cut”, everyone applauded to show their recognition of Fang Qiu.
In front of the monitor, the heavy burden on Chen Xiaogang’s heart was finally eased a little.
In this scene, Fang Qiu’s acting did pa.s.s. The most important thing was that Fang Qiu didn’t have a stunt double in this scene. Just like the previous scene, this was a long take. This was quite rare and professional.
However, the next scene was different. Although there were not so many actions in the next scene, this had a specially higher demand in acting. Especially when facing an experienced senior actor, Fang Qiu, as a newcomer, would be suppressed easily.