Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 53 Shooting

Regarding the action in "Arrogant", Li Qiutang's first requirement is of course that the fight must look good, and the second is that it must hurt!
He wants the audience to feel the pain when watching the fighting scenes in "No One", and such a requirement is not difficult for the two action directors from Hong Kong.

Li Qiutang fully respected the professional opinions of professionals and gave them full authority in the shooting of fight scenes. He would shoot the scenes the way the martial arts director said.

In fact, many people don’t know that a martial arts director needs to participate in the shot design and the specific shooting. It is not enough to just design the movements and teach the actors and then call it a day.

During filming, the director mostly cooperates with the martial arts director.

Otherwise, why would Yu Min pair up with Zhao Jian? Zhao Jian is responsible for the action scenes.

90% of the action scenes in "No One" are performed by Zhao Wenzhuo. He has been training since he received the script. Even after filming started, he still insists on training every day to ensure that he is in the best condition at all times.

But adequate training does not guarantee a foolproof shooting on the set.

Is it called action filming if you don’t get hurt?
Yuwen Ying was rejected by General Guo for his engagement, and in a rage, he killed Qin Niang and threw her body into the river. He then sent people to hunt down Cheng the Blind. Li Qiutang arranged the first chase scene in a residential area. He hoped to present a wonderful street fight to the audience. Cheng the Blind used the terrain advantage to defeat the enemies one by one.

When filming one of the scenes, the wire was not pulled properly and Zhao Wenzhuo's back hit the wall hard, and the actor screamed at the time.

Li Qiutang quickly called a halt.

"It's okay, it's okay." Zhao Wenzhuo climbed up with the knife in his hand and waved, "Director, let's do it again."

"Are you really okay?" Li Qiutang asked.

"It's okay, just a bump."

"Okay, let's get ready and do it again." Li Qiutang said on the intercom.

For action scenes, once you have the moves figured out and rehearsed them a few times, it’s actually pretty quick to shoot.

Of course, large-scale war scenes are not included; the preparation for a play like this would take months.

For the scene where a blind man fights a group of thieves in the street, Li Qiutang had previously thought of using a long overhead shot, and the inspiration came from "John Wick 4".

But this plan was later abandoned for two main reasons. There was no problem shooting the gunfight scene this way, just raise your hand and shoot one shot to kill one, but "No One" was a cold weapon fight with some punches and kicks, and shooting from a low angle would lose all the action details. The second reason was more realistic. The crew of "No One" didn't have the money to tear off all the roofs of those houses, let alone rebuild the set for this scene.

For this street fighting scene, the martial arts director added some parkour elements, which reduced the number of high-flying and wall-climbing movements. This plan was accepted by Li Qiutang.

This street fight was the first big action scene shot by the crew. It took Li Qiutang five days to shoot it. As soon as he called out, Zhao Wenzhuo smiled and said, "Director, you have to compensate me. I put on five plasters in five days."

Li Qiutang waved his hand and said, "I'll pay for the plaster."

Everyone around him laughed at Li Qiutang: "The director is so stingy."

After this scene, the next day, Cheng Xiazi took the initiative to come to the door and chose the play of Yu Wen family's technical academy alone.

This is an indoor fight scene, in which Cheng the Blind has to fight with a group of beautiful women with light or heavy makeup and some are plump and some are thin - this scene is a benefit for the audience.

"Come on, let's shoot the fighting scenes first, and then we'll do the entrance scenes later."

"Ready, 3-2-1, go."

This scene took longer than the street fight and was shot in a week, and another two days were spent on completing the literary scenes.

It was already mid-May.

Zhao Wenzhuo has been fighting for the past half month. In order to let him relax a little, today, the crew went to the outskirts of Hengdian to shoot a scene in which a blind man was injured, rescued, and lay down to recuperate.

Li Qiutang said, "If you are tired from fighting, I will let you lie down for two days."

Zhao Wenzhuo didn't buy his idea and said, "You want to make it convenient for us to shoot the fighting scenes in the bamboo forest in a few days."

The thatched hut where Cheng Xiazi recuperated was built in the bamboo forest. After filming, he didn't need to change the scene at all. The camera could just move a few steps to film Fan Bingbing. Fan Bingbing also returned to the crew two days ago and is now undergoing intensive training in action.

The crew had been hesitant about whether to add the bamboo forest fight scene for Qin Niang, but when it was confirmed that Fan Bingbing would play the role, Li Qiutang added the scene without hesitation!
We must make full use of Fan Bingbing. It is certainly not enough for her to just play the role of a singing girl or a vase. We must also give her some highlights!

Of course Fan Bingbing was happy that the crew would give her more scenes, and if she didn’t know how to do fighting scenes, she would just practice.

"Come on, let's speed up the preparations." Li Qiutang was also helping to arrange the props in the thatched cottage.

"Director, the set visitors are here." His assistant said suddenly.

"Visiting the set? How come I didn't know?" No one informed him in advance.

The assistant was also confused. No one informed the director about the visit? He thought Li Qiutang knew about it.

No matter who came, Li Qiutang didn't really want to see him, because he didn't have any visitors on his schedule today because he had to film.

When I turned around, I saw that the people who came were none other than Liu Xiaoli and Liu Yifei, mother and daughter.

The assistant was moving drinks from the car.

Li Qiutang smiled and said, "Aren't you going to work today?"

"We are filming the fight scene between Zou Zhaolong and Jie Ge today, so I won't work." Liu Yifei said as she and her mother distributed drinks to the crew of "The Unruly".

"Brother Zhuo, you can't drink Coke." Li Qiutang stopped Zhao Wenzhuo, "If you burp while lying on the bed later, the whole show will be ruined."

After hearing this, Zhao Wenzhuo stopped drinking carbonated drinks and switched to mineral water.

Liu Xiaoli thought to herself, she didn't expect this young director to be so authoritative in the crew that he even controls everything like drinking water, and the actors listen to him.

Then, Li Qiutang picked a bottle of Coke for herself.

"Hey, you!" Liu Yifei said.

"I'm not acting, so it's okay for me to have hiccups." Li Qiutang unscrewed the bottle cap and drank it.

He also told others: "A bottle of Coke is 2 yuan, and the first sip is worth 5 yuan."

There were many people in the crew who were fans of Liu Yifei. They drank her water and wanted to take photos with her, and she agreed to all of them.

It's not that Li Qiutang wants to think of people as utilitarian, but that's the atmosphere in this circle. Liu Xiaoli brought her daughter to visit the set, and she must have come to make friends. Why did she want to make friends? Because she is a relatively good young director, and making friends with such a director is what all actors in the circle are willing to do.

Li Qiutang didn't think there was anything wrong with this. If you are successful, you will naturally attract others to make friends with you. He also needs Huayi to arrange investment and distribution for him. This is a very normal thing.

Li Qiutang is very calm.

After a few minutes, Li Qiutang announced the start of filming, and the mother and daughter sat behind Li Qiutang in the director's studio to watch him filming.

"Come on, get ready, start."

"Cut!" Li Qiutang called a halt and said to the studio using the intercom, "Teacher, try to look older. You are an old miracle doctor. Your lines and actions just now were so healthy." The actor who played the doctor was a famous actor in Hengdian, who was in his fifties.

"Good director."

"Okay, clear the area," Li Qiutang ordered, "Hurry up and leave. Get ready, start."

Liu Yifei was watching from behind and thought that classmate Li was quite professional when filming!

(End of this chapter)