Chapter 106 of Volume 1: Demolishing "Nail House"
Since the film crew's application to shoot an "explosion scene" was not approved by the film association and local police station, the crew of Saving Private Rachel had no choice but to temporarily change their shooting schedule or stop production.
But looking at the hundreds of people who had gathered with great difficulty, standing in the icy snow, as a director, Yi Feiyang really couldn't bear it.
Yi Feiyang thought for a moment and decided to call Henry the elephant, after all, he was an investor and a producer, and had the right to know about the progress of the shoot.
Who would have thought that Henry burst out laughing after hearing this, "You're a serious person, how could you understand how to deal with those bastards? Just start shooting right away, I'll take care of this!"
Originally, the top film company under Henry the Elephant used to shoot a lot of small movies and would occasionally have some friction with the film association and the nearby police station. After rubbing against each other for a while, sparks flew, and Henry the Elephant figured out their temperament. With a large sum of money thrown in, everything could be settled immediately.
Now that the results are known, Yi Feiyang finally realized that he had indeed taken a detour. Originally, this matter didn't need his intervention at all. He could have just let that scoundrel Henry the elephant deal with those rascals directly.
Looking back, after settling the filming application, at noon, Yi Feiyang led a large team of actors to the previously arranged outdoor location, where they would film the most spectacular war scenes in the entire movie.
There is a small town on the east side of Los Angeles that is about to be demolished. Americans have always been passionate about building prosperous cities. For this kind of dilapidated town that does not need protection, has no value at all and will only affect the city's appearance, it will soon be demolished to make way for new ones, so that people can see the government's achievements.
This soon-to-be-demolished town is in a state of disrepair, with many old areas requiring blasting before urban construction can proceed.
For example, there is an old steel mill. The smokestacks that reach the clouds absolutely affect the image and environment here. The US urban construction department was preparing to blow it up, but now they don't need to take action because the Easy Flying Yang drama crew took on this task.
The entire town is surrounded by complex terrain, with forests and a small number of hills that were personally selected by Yi Fei Yang. The venue has already been set up.
This is the first shot, which is the largest scene in the entire movie. The main content is to describe the fascist army entering this "town" and starting to burn, kill and loot... Thanks to those anti-Japanese TV movies of the previous life, Yi Feiyang was very familiar with such shots, just short of directly turning Nazi devils into Japanese devils. As soon as they entered the village, they chased after chickens.
A very important scene in the script is when the Nazis encounter American soldiers who resist, and a fierce gun battle unfolds. As the heroine "Rachel", for the first time, she unleashes her power, using her skilled marksmanship to blow off the heads of those ferocious Nazi enemies one by one.
This scene is one of the key points in the whole movie, and Yi Feiyang attaches great importance to it.
In addition to the actors personally recruited by Yifei Yang, he also had Rabbit Bill dress up as a program actor, lead the crowd of actors wearing prepared costumes, holding wooden fake guns, standing in the center of the demolished town waiting for his instructions, while Stormy, who played "Rachel", was fully armed and led people to ambush behind a broken wall.
On the set, Yì Fēi Yáng this time showed off his mighty skills, and in one breath, he installed four cameras. The main camera, which he was responsible for, was placed on top of a broken wall, and a dolly track camera was also added to the jib, allowing for large-scale movement. The chief photographer's rig was positioned right between the two armies, facing the alley where the Nazis were about to emerge. The other two rigs were operated by two temporarily hired photographers, each assigned to one of the troops to capture individual shots.
Time flies second by second.
With everything ready, Yi Feiyang waved his hand and started the countdown.
"Ready, set, shoot!" As soon as the time was up, Yi Feiyang gave the order.
The whole town was silent as a ghost town. Everyone was doing their job, moving according to the preparations made by Yifeng Yang.
The extras playing Nazis and those playing American soldiers charged at each other, shouting.
Gasoline barrels buried in the ground were quickly ignited, spewing out black smoke, and the entire town was suddenly plunged into a turbulent era of war.
The US military was at a disadvantage under the attack of the Nazi army and could no longer hold on, on the verge of defeat.
"Camera one, ready, action!"
With a loud whistle from Easy Company, the wall behind the enemy was breached. Stormi shot one enemy after another, each bullet hitting its mark in the head, and then under her encouragement, the American army charged at the Nazi army from the flank, the scale of war suddenly turned to the originally defeated American army, Stormi's Rachel took the lead alone, the team behind her followed closely, the Nazi army was greatly defeated, and fled in a hurry.
The entire shoot took less than half an hour and was wrapped up quickly.
After the shooting, Yi Feiyang gathered everyone together to check the quality of the work. Tu Zibei and others were amazed by Yi Feiyang's use of four cameras for just one scene. Controlling so many cameras at once with ease, he was indeed a "genius director" worthy of praise!
Yi Feiyang felt secretly ashamed of the praise and admiration from everyone.
To know that this method of using four cameras to shoot comprehensively, Yi Feiyang completely learned from Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan".
It's worth noting that when filming a large-scale war scene, four cameras are used to shoot simultaneously. Not only can this comprehensively showcase various aspects of the war and deeply portray characters and the situation at the time, but more importantly, it can save funds to the greatest extent possible. As a result, using four cameras for one battle is even better than using one camera to film four battles. This way of saving money and achieving good results is something that Yi Feiyang should learn from Spielberg.
In short, the shooting is going smoothly.
The next shot was the biggest explosion scene in the whole play, which was to blow up that high chimney inserted into the clouds.
Before filming, Yiyang had already studied with the blaster responsible for the explosion how to make the chimney collapse instantly and fill with smoke.
How much explosives are needed, where they need to be placed, and in what direction should the camera be positioned for the best shot...
Everything is ready, just waiting for the camera to start rolling.
Yi Feiyang was full of confidence and ready to give orders, but just then Rabbit Bill stopped him, saying: "Not good, boss, look!"
Yi Feiyang looked in the direction that Rabbit Bill was pointing, and saw on the chimney... actually climbing a person!
To be exact, on the ladder of that high chimney with clouds and smoke, there was a person standing, waving a bright American flag in his hand, seemingly shouting loudly.
"Protest against violent demolition, return our factory's justice!"
In an instant, Yi Fei Yang became extremely depressed.
What the heck is going on here?
I actually met the legendary "nail household"!
……
Yi Feiyang had always thought that only a harmonious China would produce "nail households" as a byproduct of demolition, but today he finally understood that as long as demolition exists, there will be protesters in both China and the United States.
Demolition and relocation
It seems like a replacement of old with new on the surface, but in reality it is enriching those in power and impoverishing the common people.
The US, which originally claimed to be democratic and free, would be better off, but now Yifeng realizes that all crows are black under the sky, whether it's the US or China.
Something must be done about it. You can't just sit there and watch this guy waving the American flag, like "Spiderman", doing nothing.
This kind of thing can't be solved by the film crew, and they need to call the nearby police station.
No kidding, American police really get things done quickly.
Less than ten minutes after receiving a call from the film crew, two police cars arrived with sirens blaring.
A big fat black cop got out of the police car, took off his cap and scratched his head, then looked at the poor guy crawling on the chimney doing "Spiderman" and said contemptuously: "Give him a shout, he has three minutes to climb down, otherwise we'll take him down for 'obstructing public affairs'!"
American police are still ruthless. Before this nail household had a chance to explode, shouting something like "democracy" and "freedom", they directly went up and pulled him down.
Yi Feiyang "admires to the utmost" and is highly suspicious that these police are in cahoots with those real estate developers... too damn mutually supportive!
……
Anyway, Yi Feiyang still wants to thank these American police officers. With their help, that guy who climbed up the chimney and pretended to be Spiderman was pulled down, and filming can finally proceed normally.
In full preparation under camera.
Yi Feiyang gave a loud order, the blaster exerted himself to press the button, and then saw that chimney, crashing down with a loud noise!
Yi Feiyang estimated that he would never forget the magnificent scene, like an earthquake and tsunami causing damage, the chimney collapsed from bottom to top, just like a layer of broken wooden blocks, one by one, in the smoke-filled air, instantly becoming a large pile of ruins!
Watching such a magnificent scene, Yi Feiyang was speechless for a long time.
Although he didn't quite understand what the protester had said earlier, he somewhat understood his intention.
It was not an old chimney that blew up, but a piece of history!
Although it is said that this piece of history will eventually be submerged by new history!
……
The shooting that day, under the host of Yì Fēi Yáng, was still "smooth", yes, it can only be said to be "smooth" rather than "very smooth". The occasional grasshoppers jumping out had no impact on Yì Fēi Yáng's control over this play.
At night, Yi Feiyang had to attend the annual celebration banquet of Shimeng Film and Television, which was also a Christmas party. The task of taking pictures at night was handed over to Rabbit Bill... Of course, Yi Feiyang was still not very trusting of Rabbit Bill, so he called Jack Black from Meng Huan Film and Television to help him with the shooting work at night.
As for this, Bunny Bill had no opinion at all. Anyway, this job didn't pay a salary, so the more people who came to help him, the better.
With the help of Fat Jack, Yi Feiyang was more confident in filming with Rabbit Bill and could wholeheartedly devote himself to the party at Shimeng Film.