1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan originally thought that the scene where Chen Feipu and Song Lian first met was very simple, and he thought so during the rehearsal, but during the actual filming, the situation on the scene was much more complicated than he imagined.

In Zhou Yan's eyes, this scene was just one scene, but when filming, he realized that this scene had many different scenes and angles, requiring very complex scheduling and choreography.

The first is a long shot. Songlian walks from the corridor on one side to the door of Chen Feipu's room. This short section needs to be set up with far-view camera positions, and there are more than one.

At this time, because it was a long shot, Zhou Yan's task was very simple, just sit on the window sill and play the flute. Only Songlian was moving in the picture.

But Zhou Yan shot this one shot three times, and he also played the song Ode to the Lotus three times.

Wait until this group of shots is over, and then set up the camera indoors again.

Why not set it up in advance? On the one hand, there are not that many machines, and on the other hand, setting up machine positions in advance will involve the problem of ganging.

When the two of them talked later, Zhou Yan did not say his lines to Gong Li, but to the camera.

This made him uncomfortable, because it was so intermittent that it was easy for him to lose his status. But there is nothing we can do about it. When shooting different shots such as panoramic shots, medium shots, and close-ups, the lighting engineer has to re-do the lighting, and it also involves the issue of penetration.

The light on the scene is not all natural light. In order to be close to the source, artificial light will be used as little as possible on the scene, but no matter how little it is, it will be used.

In this way, such a simple scene was filmed for two and a half days. The filming was completed in the afternoon of the first day when it was almost dark, and then started again in the afternoon of the next day.

During the filming process, it took a long time to wait for Zhou Yan to get into the state. In order to allow the post-editor to have more scenes to cut, the shooting of each shot would be extended a little later to add more material.

Leave one and do it again.

This time Zhou Yan moves a little five or six centimeters toward the door, facing the window a little sideways, so that the light outside shines on your face.

While the light is good, let's take advantage of Chen Feipu's back.

Smiley Face gives you too much, take some away and try again.

This time the smile was a little late, let's do it again.

Zhang Yimou was very strict at the scene and asked Zhou Yan to come back again and again.

On the other hand, Gong Li's performance was very good from beginning to end. Even if she re-shoots, most of them are for better effects or other problems. Gong Li has very few problems herself.

From this comparison, Zhou Yan saw how big the gap was between himself and professional actors.

Before the filming started, although Zhou Yan was a little nervous, he still had confidence. However, during the filming process, the director kept finding faults, and his newly built confidence in acting was knocked away bit by bit.

When the scene ended, Zhou Yan finally had the time to think about the filming process over the past two days, but his main focus was not on acting skills, but on the filming process of the movie.

There is a big difference between the presentation of the movie and the shooting, and it was clearly demonstrated in this scene. Zhou Yan was thinking that if he could study and understand the director's shots in advance, he might be better at acting.

Zhang Yimou had a storyboard with sub-shots, but it was not sent to the actors. This storyboard was used by Zhang Yimou to communicate with other behind-the-scenes teams, and it was mainly for the camera team to see.

Zhou Yan is also thinking about whether he can go to Zhang Yimou in advance and ask for his storyboard to study before the next scene is filmed, so that he can be aware of it and feel more comfortable when acting.

While Zhou Yan was thinking about this, Gong Li ran over and said with a smile, You performed well.

Hey, Sister Li, don't laugh at me. Basically, all the problems lie with me, and you haven't made a few mistakes.

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Gong Li burst out laughing, You kid, you are comparing me to me. How many years have I studied and how many years have I been acting? If you can be like me, then how many years have I not It's all in vain. As a newcomer, you have already performed very well. You can see that Director Zhang has not cursed anyone in the past two days, which proves that he is still satisfied with the progress.

In fact, the reason why Gong Li came here was to comfort Zhou Yan. When she saw that Zhou Yan had frowned and said nothing after finishing work, she thought he was in a bad mood because he was shocked.

She didn't know that although Zhou Yan's confidence had taken a hit, his mood was not that bad. Today's experience gave him a better understanding of the behind-the-scenes production of the movie. None of the scenes he had done in the past half month were as complicated as today's scene. , and today he is in the play himself, so he has learned and realized more.

Zhou Yan also knew that Gong Li was comforting him, so he smiled and said, I know the reason for the gap, and I will definitely perform better in the next scene.

Okay, I'm looking forward to your performance.

Seeing that Zhou Yan was in good condition, Gong Li didn't say anything more and left with a smile.

…

After dinner, Zhou Yan ran to Zhang Yimou and his dormitory. Zhang Yimou and Hou Xiaoxian were both there.

Director Zhang, you are busy.

When Zhang Yimou saw Zhou Yan coming, he smiled and said, It's okay, what do you want from me?

Zhou Yan rubbed his hands and said, Director Zhang, I would like to ask if you can show me your storyboard. I was thinking during the past two days of filming that if I could see the storyboard in advance, I would be able to If you perform better, you will be less hindered.

Zhang Yimou waved his hand, No holding back, you performed well in this scene. When I first started filming, I was not as good as you. As for the storyboard... I haven't written the other two scenes of yours, but I can give you a rough look. storyboard.

With that said, Zhang Yimou started rummaging through the drawer.

Zhou Yan was quite surprised. He didn't expect it to go so smoothly. Zhang Yimou seemed to be very happy to show his storyboards to others.

Hou Xiaoxian said with a smile beside him, Zhou Yan, are you interested in these?

I just want to know it well. I feel that the storyboards and storyboards are like instructions. After reading them, I can understand the director's ideas in advance.

Your idea is right. Hou Xiaoxian nodded and said.

At this time, Zhang Yimou also found the storyboard of Zhou Yan's scene behind him, Hey, take a look.

Zhou Yan took the manuscript, and there were several pieces. It was divided into small pieces, just like a comic book. However, the drawings on it were very rough, and the annotations next to them were also very scrawled. This is probably why Zhang Yimou said it was a rough draft. .

Although the manuscript was very simple, the content was sufficient. Looking at the sub-shots above, Zhou Yan quickly understood what scenes he needed to shoot and what lens he needed to face.

Halfway through, he couldn't help but ask, Director Zhang, here and here, these two places use one camera position, and here, do we need to use a mobile camera position?

The previous questions were all quite normal, but at the end, Zhou Yan pointed to one of the lenses and said, Director Zhang, here we need to use a telephoto lens to get a close-up of Songlian's face from a distance to show her expectations... Is this easy to achieve? The rooms in the fourth courtyard are not that big.

When they heard this, both Zhang Yimou and Hou Xiaoxian were a little surprised.

It's not that Zhou Yan's question is very sharp, it's just that this question is beyond the scope of Zhou Yan as an actor, which shows that Zhou Yan has understood this thing before.

Hou Xiaoxian smiled and said, Zhou Yan, you usually pay attention to the details of film shooting.

I just like to figure things out. Mainly because I don't understand a lot of things, and I feel embarrassed in my heart.

I have specifically measured the distance between this room and asked Zhao Fei to check it out. No problem, we can achieve this shot. Zhang Yimou first answered Zhou Yan's question, and then said, If you are interested in these things , you can come and discuss more with us in your free time.”

Zhou Yan said with a smile, Then I will definitely bother you more in the future.

…

After Zhou Yan left, Zhang Yimou put away the script of the scenes. Hou Xiaoxian beside him joked: Zhou Yan, the composer, not only wants to steal the actor's job, but now he also wants to steal our director's job.

The enthusiasm is quite good, but I'm afraid it's just a temporary fad. He majored in composition, and his talent in music is obvious to all. He will definitely continue to pursue the path of composition in the future.

Zhang Yimou put it more euphemistically. If I put it more bluntly, it means that whether you are an actor or a director, your social status is different from that of a composer, at least in China this is the situation.

Zhou Yan studied under Shi Wanchun and won the favor of Zhao Jiping. His future development in music will definitely be good, and he will write symphonies.

As for movies, you can play them for a while. If you say that Zhou Yan will do this in the future, Zhang Yimou will definitely not believe it.

Hou Xiaoxian knew what Zhang Yimou meant, and he said with a smile, Times are developing. Didn't Chaplin make soundtracks for his own plays? Maybe Zhou Yan can really do it. You can see how quickly he picks up acting.

Zhang Yimou smiled. If Chaplin had a music education, there is a high probability that there would not be those classic movies in the future.

Of course, although Zhang Yimou didn't think Zhou Yan's enthusiasm would last long, he would not deliberately discourage Zhou Yan's enthusiasm. He was still willing to see young people learn.