Chapter 856 Movie Shooting Site
Xiao Peng stood beside Fabian, dumbfounded: "So this is how you shoot scenes at sea?"
A scene was being filmed downstairs, and it looked like the shot of the people on the boat when Xiao Peng was rescuing people at sea. The characters in it should be Walter and his friends. They were sitting on a mechanical rack, and the metal rack was swinging up and down under the action of the jib. Several actors were speaking the lines there with excitement on their faces.
Fabian rolled his eyes at him. "Look at you, you're so surprised. What era is this? Can they really send the 'Calypso' out to sea to create a storm for this movie? They just rented our ship for a few exterior shots! The rest is all green screen. The main cost of film production these days is computer production. Can your country really go to an alien planet to shoot 'The Wandering Earth'?"
Xiao Peng nodded. "I know that. Whether it's 'The Wandering Earth,' 'The Great Wall,' or 'Pacific Rim 2,' they were all filmed in Qingdao. I originally thought that such a film would at least be as good as 'Pirates of the Caribbean.'"
When filming the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" film, a large sailing ship 170 feet long and 34 feet wide was built for filming.
But Fabian said, "They only built a large ship in the first film. With the advancement of technology, why would we need something like that? We can just use a computer to do it!"
Xiao Peng whistled and muttered, "No wonder film schools are all learning 'non-proprietary performances'. It seems these schools have been anticipating this day for a long time..."
As technology advances, film shooting technology becomes more advanced, and it is unclear whether this is good or bad for the development of the film industry.
For example, the famous "Avengers" series of movies were basically shot in the studio and there was no need for any outdoor locations. The backgrounds, big scenes, etc. were all computer-generated. This is also the reason why Marvel movies can do a good job of keeping secrets: those reporters can't get into the studio.
Due to the limited technology used in filming back then, it was impossible to simulate special effects. So filming at that time was a real thing.
At that time, the famous American movie "Cleopatra" was released, and Elizabeth Taylor's role as Cleopatra VII was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In order to shoot the grand scenes in this movie, the filming crew almost rebuilt a Roman city according to the architectural style!
But compared with the former Soviet Union, this is really child's play.
When the US and Italy collaborated on Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece "War and Peace," Audrey Hepburn captivated countless audiences with her portrayal. This angered the former Soviet Union: Leo Tolstoy was, after all, a Soviet, and "War and Peace" was a masterpiece of our country, so how could the Americans take it? So they began remaking it.
This remake also created an unsurpassed existence in film history.
The Soviet version of "War and Peace," which depicts the Battle of Borodino during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, employed nearly 130,000 troops and 35,000 horses. Even more impressive, every actor had their own costumes and props! The American version, on the other hand, only required 15,000 troops and 2,400 custom-made uniforms to film this scene.
That's how many men Napoleon fought at the Battle of Borodino! A Soviet director recreated the battle! Sergei Bondarchuk, presumably a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder, prepared 695 French Napoleonic-era cannons and 587 Russian cannons from the same period for this film. In addition to new cannons built for the film, a significant number were antiques hauled straight from museums...
Re-fighting the Battle of Borodino was not Sergei's most "desperate" act. The craziest thing he did was to copy Moscow!
When filming War and Peace, Moscow had already been modernized, and it was very different from the original novel. So Sergei simply went to the northeastern suburbs of Moscow and rebuilt a fake Moscow covering over 100,000 square meters. In addition to residential buildings and government offices, they also rebuilt a Kremlin...
And this was not his most "crazy" behavior. The most "crazy" thing was: in order to shoot the scene of the Moscow fire in the film, he burned down the "Moscow" he built!
Unlike the American version of "War and Peace," which was full of romantic drama, the Soviet version of "War and Peace" is a true epic film with its solid war scenes. This film has become a miracle in film history.
This film was released during the height of the Cold War, when cultural exchange between the Soviet Union and the United States was virtually nonexistent. Yet, it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and became a worldwide sensation. In Japan alone, the film grossed a staggering $250 million! This was in 1969! A re-release in 1971 was even more of a box office success, with scalpers unable to get tickets.
Nowadays, when movie fans see the scene of the Avengers fighting Thanos in "Avengers 4", they shout "epic battle". But if they really want to watch the Soviet version of "War and Peace" shot entirely with real people, they will know which one is better after comparing the two.
To be honest, even a pornographic film in those days had to be a big production!
For example, PS, which is known as one of the "Top Ten Forbidden Films in the World", a total of 3,592 costumes were designed for the filming of that movie, 5,000 pairs of handmade shoes were worn out, and more than 2,500 people participated in the film production.
What if it were now? There's definitely no need for so many people. A computer, a green screen, and actors performing without props would do the job. This is a boon for film and television production, significantly reducing production costs and headcount. However, there's also a downside: it's leading to some actors becoming less dedicated. This is especially true in China, where people use stand-ins throughout filming, forget their lines, use reverse film, or even cutouts. Since everything can be done on a computer later, actors don't need to be on set. That's pretty impressive!
Xiao Peng was still there watching the actors reciting their lines as they moved up and down the machine stand. He had to say that he admired these actors very much. They didn't feel embarrassed at all in such a funny scene.
He felt a little bored after watching for a while. Just when he was about to ask Fabian to go out for a cigarette and some fresh air, he suddenly heard a woman's voice behind him: "Is this Mr. Xiao?"
Xiao Peng looked back and saw two women standing behind him, but he almost swore at the first sight of them.
What does "legs from the neck down" mean? The older of the two women has legs so long they're practically unreliable. Even photoshoppers wouldn't dare to make them look this long—aren't they too long?
Xiao Peng was a little uncertain: "Are you... Miss Orman?"
P.S. Calling "The Roman Empire" a pornographic film is pure sarcasm. It's more of a historical film, based on extensive historical documentation. However, roughly half of the 150-minute film is devoted to sex. It's either men with men or men with women, men with sisters or brothers with their wives... In reality, that was pretty much the norm in the Roman Empire back then. Don't ask Lao Yang for the source material; I don't have any! Lao Yang has indeed seen this film, but I did so to understand Roman history! I approached it from a perspective of intellectual curiosity!
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