Huayu: Hard fight against Zhang Weiping at the beginning

Chapter 372 South Korean copy? (6K chapter)

The banquet was not enjoyable enough and ended early, all because of a word from Zhang Chen.

Zhang Chen is not a boaster. He really means what he says about helping and actually starts looking at the shooting materials.

Sam Hui came back, saying he didn't want to get involved in these matters. Jackie Chan and Benny Chan stayed with him, watching Zhang Chen look here and there, occasionally writing something down in a notebook with a pen.

They knew what Zhang Chen was going to do, but they didn't know how Zhang Chen was going to do it.

"Okay, I think I have an idea. Everyone go back and rest. I'll figure it out myself~"

Since Zhang Chen said so, the group dispersed, and Cheng Long was full of anticipation.

Although the movie they had agreed to collaborate on before has become an unknown again, Zhang Chen's willingness to help makes him full of expectations.

He watched "Taken" many times in a row and was very familiar with the long shot in it.

I have thought about imitating it. Everyone can see how to shoot it. It’s just about blocking objects and transitioning scenes. But how to shoot it well is the real difficulty.

Cheng Long asked himself if he could do it as smoothly as in "Taken", so he simply didn't dare to do it.

But now that Zhang Chen took the initiative to bring it up, it gave him endless room for imagination.

Although the banquet ended early, people actually drank a lot. Under the stimulation of alcohol, Cheng Long became more talkative. After separating from Zhang Chen, he pulled Chen Musheng aside to chat, and they talked until midnight.

Since the eldest brother wanted to chat, of course Chen Musheng had to accompany him, but he did not have Jackie Chan's good physique. After drinking, he felt sleepy. At this moment, he did not want to discuss the movie and just wanted to sleep.

At first Chen was still able to chat, but slowly his eyes began to droop. Cheng Long was talking excitedly, but suddenly there was no response. He turned around and found that the only listener had fallen asleep.

Seeing the other person's flushed face and slight snoring, Cheng Long didn't have the heart to wake him up.

But at this moment, he had a lot of thoughts in his mind and he couldn't help but express them.

Today's drink with Zhang Chen was not in vain. What Zhang Chen said gave him a lot of inspiration.

According to Chen Musheng, this is the flow of inspiration like a spring, but Cheng Long feels that this is not appropriate enough, and it is more appropriate to call it the flow of inspiration like diabetes insipidus.

But no matter whether it was a spring or diabetes insipidus, his mind was now filled with these thoughts, and he wished he could wake everyone up and start working immediately.

This has happened before. When Cheng Long is filming a movie, he is willing to sacrifice his own life, so it is no big deal for others to sacrifice some sleep time.

However, it was the middle of the night, and all his ideas were about daytime scenes. Even if he got the people up now, he couldn't shoot them.

Cheng Long just felt that he had no one to talk to about his thoughts, and his head was about to explode.

After thinking about it, I decided to go talk to Zhang Chen.

The only heroes in the world are Long and Chen.

……

In the room, Zhang Chen was doing radio gymnastics with Da Meiyuan——

After not seeing each other for more than four months, Da Meiyu's body seemed to have changed a little, which gave her a sense of strangeness.

How can this be possible? They are good friends, so they must get to know each other right away.
Then, the real version of the upper and lower hands~
“How does it feel to be filming here?”

"Not very good, they often speak Cantonese, I can't understand~"

"Deliberately isolating you?"

"That's not the case~"

"Did Cheng Long treat you?"

Da Meiyuan shook her head: "He once asked Ying Caier and me to go to his room to drink red wine, but I made an excuse not to go. Then he never asked me again..."

"Then how do you pay it back?"

"I've heard people talk about his affairs. After all, this is his crew, and everyone around is his people. I was afraid he would use force. It just so happened that he called you to wish you a happy new year, so he had no choice but to beg you..."

"Cheng Long, you don't even want to?"

"would you like?"

"Of course I don't want to, so isn't this coming?"

Da Meiyu smiled, looking very satisfied, and wrapped her legs around his waist.

Zhang Chen didn't know what she was satisfied with.

Da Meiyu is very distinctive, which is completely different from Fan Xiaopang.

Fan Xiaopang likes to chat while waiting for the CD, while Da Meiyu's topics are usually work-related, which has a unique charm.

Zhang Chen always had the illusion that he was doing something bad in a serious manner.

Chat continues
"You really helped him make the movie?"

"It's just a few shots. It won't take much effort. Three days at most~"

Just when we were chatting excitedly, the phone started vibrating.

Da Meiyu didn't let him answer the call, but Zhang Chen glanced at the incoming call and saw that it was from abroad, but he still answered it.

"Diane, what's going on?"

It was obvious that Da Meiyu was still not satisfied and rolled her eyes.

"Zhang, I have good news for you. The filming of Hold Your Breath has been completed~"

Diane's tone was full of excitement.

"Great."

"Come over sometime, I'll ask them to cut a version as soon as possible~"

Hollywood film companies attach great importance to editing rights. Even the films Zhang Chen collaborated on with New Line do not have editing rights, so it is even less likely that Alvarez, a new director, would have them.

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't get there in a short time, so you can send me the edited video when the time comes~"

"Painted Skin" is about to start shooting, and he has no time to go to Hollywood. Anyway, "Hold Your Breath" is just a very simple movie with a simple story and it is not complicated to edit.

"Okay, then I'll ask them to hurry up these two days."

After just a few words, Diane hung up.

They communicated in English throughout the conversation. Da Meiyuan couldn't understand what he was saying, but she just felt that Zhang Chen seemed to be in a good mood after hanging up the phone.

Now Da Meiyu is even more satisfied.

Zhang Chen was indeed in a good mood. A low-budget movie like "Hold Your Breath" follows the fast-selling model, with quick production, quick distribution, and quick release.

As for publicity, low-budget horror films have a fixed audience and do not require large-scale publicity at all. Usually, it is enough to just put a poster in the cinema.

Da Meiyu asked again about the long shot tomorrow. In fact, Zhang Chen also had his own considerations for helping to shoot the long shot.

He had promised Cheng Long to cooperate before, but now he is going back on his word. It is true that he is not in the right, but he is also helpless.

It doesn’t matter who helps whom when collaborating with Jackie Chan. His status is there for everyone to see. In the entire Chinese circle, who dares to say that they are more famous than him?

Even if the performance of the recent films is not ideal, it does not affect his status.

Zhang Chen certainly looks forward to the collaboration, but he always feels that if the collaboration between big directors and stars cannot produce an effect where one plus one is greater than two, it would be a waste.

Outside the door, Cheng Long walked to the door with great interest. Just as he was about to knock on the door, he vaguely heard the chanting of a female magician casting a spell from inside.

After filming for nearly two months, he was very familiar with this voice - Zhou Zhiruo from the Emei Sect.

The eldest brother showed a smile on his face that all men understand. He had long suspected that this boy had a relationship with Zhou Zhiruo. Now it seems that the two of them really have a close relationship.

Cheng Long withdrew his hand that was about to knock on the door. He must not disturb the practitioner at this time, otherwise it would likely cause the practitioner to go astray. At that time, even they would be brothers and would have nothing to do with each other.

……

The next morning, Zhang Chen brought Da Meiyuan into the set. This action was enough to declare his sovereignty.

The other people arrived before him and were having breakfast at this time. When they saw Zhang Chen coming, they all smiled at the same time.

Xu Guanwen: "I am old now, I sleep lightly, I can't fall asleep if there is a little noise, I almost didn't sleep last night~"

Cheng Long: "If I had known you liked this tune, next time you go to Hong Kong, remember to look for me. I will take you to taste the local food..."

Even Ying Caier joked: "Yuanyuan, your skin looks great today, just like the soil that has finally been rained after a long drought..."

On the other side, Chen Musheng directly stuffed something into his hand and whispered, "Brother, this is for you. I know you are very strong, but there are times when you are unable to do things. This will be useful to you..."

Zhang Chen lowered his head and found that what he held in his hand was some familiar little blue pills, and he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed.

How come it's as if everyone knows about this? Also, what's the meaning of you giving me the little blue pill? It makes you act like I'm incapable?
Gao Yuanyuan was so excited that her face turned red, and she wished she could find a hole in the ground to crawl into.

Zhang Chen didn't want to be teased any more, so he had to resort to work tactics, "Okay, okay, have you finished eating? After you've finished eating, let's talk about today's filming..."

The work method is really effective, and the vulgar jokes disappeared in an instant.

Zhang Chen redesigned some of the shots last night: "It starts from when our people meet at your house..."

The police, the rich man's men, the thief and the protagonist duo met at the protagonist's house and then a fight broke out.

Originally, this was the highlight of "Baby Project" and it was quite exciting. Zhang Chen redesigned it and just used the camera to make them more coherent.

“Here, the camera follows Uncle Long all the time, making seamless transitions between here and there…”

Zhang Chen took out his own handwritten sketch and explained it in detail to everyone.

The so-called seamless transition is actually the use of editing to make people feel that it is not two spliced ​​shots. To put it simply, the technique is actually very simple.

When shooting, the handheld photographer always gives a close-up. If it is a real long shot, it is necessary to keep shooting, and no one can make mistakes and get it all done in one go.

But pseudo long shots can be shot separately through seamless transitions.

For example, during a fight, the enemy is pushed in front of the camera. At this time, the camera is almost blocked by the enemy, but in fact the shot has already been taken.

The next shot also starts from here, but it is actually two shots.

It's just that the two shots were cut together during editing. From the audience's perspective, the shot was just blocked for a moment by the enemy that crashed into it. There was no change in the angle and smoothness, so it was thought to be shot from one shot.

The advantage of doing this is that it reduces the difficulty of shooting long shots and makes the entire scene richer.

As for the downside, there is no downside~
After Zhang Chen explained everything in detail to everyone, he began to simulate shooting with the members of the Cheng family team.

Even though the pseudo-telephoto lens has reduced the difficulty, it is still not something that everyone can do.

Even though Zhang Chen and Chen Musheng explained it clearly, Chen Musheng still felt it was quite difficult.

It just so happened that Zhang Chen had a handheld game console, which was a rare learning opportunity.

This long shot modified by Zhang Chen has a total of seventeen scenes, and the first scene is at Cheng Long's house.

The four groups of people met and the fight began. Zhang Chen personally acted as the photographer, following the protagonists around the scene.

Fortunately, this scene had been filmed before and everyone was familiar with it, so Zhang Chen only made some minor changes.

The first transition, the second transition, the third transition...

Each scene transition is actually a close-up of the protagonist, sometimes from the side, sometimes from the front, and sometimes above the head. It is very close, so the sense of immersion is very strong.

Then came the fourth transition, with Zhang Chen following Cheng Long out of the window, while Cheng Long jumped onto the air conditioner unit and fell all the way down.

This time it's not the occlusion that's transitioning, but the light that's transitioning.

As the name suggests, the transition is completed by using the moment when the light shines on the lens and cannot be seen clearly. When the picture is restored, it is already the second shot.

After landing, the assistant who had been prepared on the ground unfastened the safety buckle on Zhang Chen, and Zhang Chen ran after Cheng Long.

Just the timing of opening the safety buckle requires repeated rehearsal. If it is too fast, Zhang Chen will be in danger, and if it is too slow, it will affect the smoothness of the shot.

The baby carriage was taken away by the armored car. Cheng Long and Gu Tianle robbed a car. Here Zhang Chen made another change of scene.

This time the transition is almost the same as in "Taken". The two protagonists sit in the front seat of the car, while Zhang Chen, the cameraman, enters directly from the rear window with a camera and leans against the back of the chair.

This is also a transition with an obstruction. The next shot will be shot directly from the back seat of the car. What the audience will see is that the camera follows the two protagonists all the way into the back seat of the car, and then the car starts, and the camera in the back seat keeps observing the front seat and the surroundings.

This kind of shot is very immersive, and the audience will feel like they are the third person besides the protagonist, escaping into the car and sitting in the back seat.

A total of seventeen shots like this were taken, which took two days to complete.

Then, while Cheng Long and the others continued to shoot other shots, Zhang Chen hid away and started editing.

It’s actually very simple to edit, just pay attention to the smoothness and make sure people don’t see any traces of editing.

Half a day later, when Cheng Long and his team came back from filming at night, Zhang Chen showed them his results.

"Amazing~"

"Zhang, you are really a genius~"

No matter how well Zhang Chen described it to them, it was not as shocking as the moment they actually saw the footage.

Frankly speaking, in terms of the brilliance of the shots, this is definitely not as good as "Taken", but compared with Jackie Chan's original version, it is more than one level better.

The key is that Zhang Chen continued the style of the movie.

"Baby Project" is a light-hearted and funny film. Although Zhang Chen's shots are very smooth and fluent, they do retain the original funny style.

After watching the edited footage, Cheng Long immediately gave him a hug, with an excited look on his face: "Brother, you're right, this is the footage I want~"

Cheng Long used a lot of strength, probably because he was a little excited. He knew that the filming here was not good enough, but he still didn't know how to make it better.

Now that I can see this long lens intuitively, I know immediately that this is what I want. In fact, it is better than I expected.

"Okay, I'll hand the camera over to you. If you are not satisfied with anything, you can modify it yourself. I will be going back tomorrow..."

Zhang Chen has received calls from Dong Jianqiang over the past two days, saying that everything is ready for "Painted Skin" and they are just waiting for him to join the crew.

“No, no, no, brother Zhang Chen, don’t be in a hurry to leave, help me shoot for a few more days…”

Cheng Long hurriedly tried to persuade him to stay. Before this shot, he didn't have any special feelings.

I think the success of Zhang Chen’s consecutive films is more due to the fact that he found the right subject matter.

But after personal contact, my opinion changed immediately.

He deserves to be the director who knows the most about commercial films in China. He is really good at making films.
"Uncle Long, this is really not possible. My filming of Painted Skin is about to start in the next two days..."

Seeing that he couldn't persuade her to stay, Cheng Long had to let her go: "Okay, I'll send a car to take you to the airport tomorrow. We won't go home until we're drunk tonight~"

Of course, we drank a lot at night, and of course, drunken sex was inevitable.

The magician's chanting in Da Meiyuan and Ying Caier's room lasted all night~
……

It was only after returning to Beijing that I learned that "Kowloon Walled City" had passed review a few days ago.

China's film censorship system is a mystery. Sometimes it is extremely strict, and sometimes it is extremely loose.

Director Tian Zhuangzhuang helped to put a word in, and "Kowloon Walled City" was approved.

Zhang Chen watched the version submitted for review. It was not bloody, but there was still some violence. At least it was more violent than the original "SPL", after all, it was modeled after "The Raid".

But the strange thing is that it passed the review.

Also passed the review was "SPL".

In the original time and space, "SPL" was not approved for review because it was too violent, and was not released in mainland China.

I don’t know if it’s because the Film Bureau didn’t want to be accused of discriminating against the two films this time, but both films passed review.

Coincidentally, both "SPL" and "Kowloon Walled City" have set their premiere dates on the same day - March 3rd.

It's obvious that he wants to arm wrestle.

Just at this time, Zhang Chen received another call from abroad, but this time it was not Diane, but Pete.

"Zhang, first of all, I wish you a smooth start of your new movie~"

"Thank you, Pete. How's 'I Saw the Devil' going?"

"It has already started filming. The Alexander you introduced is good. So far, his performance in all aspects is great. Everything is going smoothly in the filming of the movie..."

Judging from Pitt's tone, New Line should be quite satisfied with Alexander Aja.

Zhang Chen felt relieved when he heard this. It was he who introduced Alexander Aja. If he was not suitable, it would affect his project. You know, although New Line was responsible for the production of the "I Saw the Devil" project, Cube was also one of the investors...

"Oh, I called you today to talk about "I Saw the Devil"..."

Peter paused and continued, "South Korea's CJ Entertainment has taken a fancy to the script of "I Saw the Devil" and wants to buy the rights to remake it. By the way, they are also our partner in Asia. They are the Korean distributor of "A Quiet Place"..."

Zhang Chen understood immediately, "You want me to sell it to them?"

"No, I don't. It's not in New Line's interest."

Generally speaking, when a region purchases the remake rights of a certain movie, it means that the movie cannot enter the local market, which is undoubtedly a loss for "I Saw the Devil."

More than 100 Hollywood films are introduced to South Korea every year, and the Korean film market is completely a private territory for Hollywood films.

The remake rights have nothing to do with New Line. The copyright is in Zhang Chen's hands. Even if the remake rights are sold, the money will not go to New Line. On the contrary, "I Saw the Devil" cannot be released in South Korea, which is a big loss for New Line.

"Okay, I understand. Please give them my contact information and ask them to contact me directly. I will carefully consider the interests between myself and New Line."

Zhang Chen did not say anything definite. He understood what Pete meant. He wanted him to reject CJ Entertainment, but this would most likely harm Zhang Chen's interests.

If Zhang Chen directly sold the remake rights to CJ Entertainment, the profits he would get might be greater than what he would get from the release of "I Saw the Devil" in South Korea.

The remake rights of "I Saw the Devil" was just a small episode and Zhang Chen didn't take it seriously at all.

The focus of these two days is on "Painted Skin" and "Kowloon Walled City".

"Kowloon Walled City" is about to be released, and related publicity work has already been launched.

These past two days, I've been surfing the Internet and have seen news about "Kowloon Walled City" everywhere.

The first trailer was released and received a certain amount of attention.

The trailer begins with a bird's-eye view of the walled city from the sky, with a few large characters next to it - Kowloon Walled City.

Then the camera turned to the door, where the police and the gangsters were facing each other at the door of the walled city. The gangsters sneered and said arrogantly: "As long as they can get out of that building, I will let them go~"

In the next shot, the police team is fighting and fleeing inside the building, and behind them are countless vicious criminals holding various weapons.

Then came the scene of a fight between the two sides. Billy Chow, who played the criminal, hit a policeman with a baseball bat, causing him to spit blood. A large word flashed by - Police vs. Criminals.

Then there was a scene where Xie Miao repeatedly punched the criminal Wu Yijiang in the face, and the words "Every punch hits the flesh" also flashed in large letters.

Then there is a series of rapid cuts -

Xie Miao kicked the man into the air~
Xie Miao was beaten to his knees by Uncle Gou~
Xie Miao broke Huang Ziyang's arm~
Xie Miao was blocked in the bathroom by a group of people~
The flash mob was accompanied by heavy drum beats, getting faster and faster. In the last shot, with a "crash", a person broke through the glass and flew out.
Before anyone could see who it was, a row of big words appeared: March 3, "Kowloon Walled City", fight to the death, see you there~
(I will post big chapters in the future, one chapter a day. I hope you will continue to subscribe and support me.)

(End of this chapter)