1905 movie network feature In 1937, in the final battle of the Battle of Shanghai, Shanghai was about to fall. More than 400 Chinese soldiers were stationed at the four-line warehouse, vowing to resist to the death, and were known to the outside world as "800 strong men".After 83 years, the directorGuan HuIn the movieIt interpreted what he understood as the "Four Elements Warehouse Guard Battle".
3 restarts, 40 revisions, 18 months of live scenes, 1,500 crew members, 7 months of actor military training, 499 days of preparation, 230 days of filming…Every string of numbers in "Eight Hundred" is a sign that domestic war films continue to advance towards industrialization. "The texture of the whole picture and the expression of poetry should not be found in previous Chinese war films." Guan Hu’s wife and chief producerLiang JingSay.
Ten years ago, Liang Jing heard Guan Hu say that he wanted to make "The Eight Hundred". "I said that you like history so much, and there are so many war movies to shoot, why is it" The Eight Hundred "?""He said that this was the only battle with an audience. Although the battle lasted for four days and four nights, as the creator, he really wanted to know what the audience’s mentality was."
Director Guan Hu
The Sixing warehouse is on the north bank of the Suzhou River, and the audience is on the south bank. There are different opinions about the whole history of this period. At the end of the movie, the reporter of "Declaration" evacuated the bridge with the army’s relics, letters and cameras full of footage. On the way, the camera was accidentally damaged by strafing.The camera can restore reality, and the camera can also recreate dreams. Guan Hu called on a group of filmmakers to bravely and adventurously go to this period of history that has not been fully documented.
Hell of war, paradise on earth
After filming, Guan Hu and the art director Lin Mu said that he really wanted to shoot "Eight Hundred", and this project had been in his mind for a long time.The "Eight Hundred" first started preparations in 2013, and the art group was the first department to be established. Lin Mu and his team spent half a year making a sand table model, and initially established the layout of the warehouses on the north and south sides of the Suzhou River and the four lines.
In the middle of the preparations, the project was suspended for some reason, and this sand table model has been placed in Guan Hu’s studio. Guan Hu turned to shoot.In 2016, "800" was restarted, and it took about a year to leave the plane. Lin Mu was inRun between the two ends and "Eight Hundred", help firstHuang BoHe completed his directorial debut.
At that time, the script of "Eight Hundred" had not been refined, and there was only a story outline of about 1,500 words. According to the outline, the newly formed art team continued the setting concept of the previous preparation and determined the overall tone of the main scene."dawnBelow, the whole picture of the two sides of the Suzhou River is displayed. On one side is the hell of war, and on the other side is the paradise on earth. Watching the battle across the river has formed a unique stage relationship in the history of world war. "
"Hell of War", is the four-line warehouse, on the north bank of Suzhou River.The process of redesigning the four-row warehouse was very long. In terms of appearance, the south side of the warehouse was highly restored according to the photos taken by reporters from the south bank at that time. On the north side of the warehouse, Lin Shu decided to be bold and innovative, referring to the buildings of Eastern Europe and Poland during the democratic period, to create a fortress-like shape, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, enhancing the industrial and magical sense of the space.
In history, Chen Shusheng bundled up with grenades and jumped from the west side of the warehouse, sacrificing himself heroically. In this scene in the movie, on the west wall, there is a huge advertisement for Coca-Cola. Lin Mu decided to put this historical symbol on the west wall, "a playful advertisement, a kind of amplified reality."
In the design stage of the internal structure of the warehouse, the art plan was suspended for a while. The interior of the warehouse is empty, the west building and the east building are connected, and the pattern is monotonous, which cannot expand the theatrical space of the movie.
"It’s actually a good thing, but I’m worried that if there is more evidence, I will be tied up and don’t dare to exaggerate it." When the various conceptual graphs of the warehouse were unable to pass, Lin Mu boldly proposed to separate the east and west buildings and open a narrow middle corridor to enhance the visual effect.
The east building is directly set up as a bank: the first floor is a bank hall with the classical style of the Republic of China, which is also a temporary residence and a rest area for the troops; the second floor is Xie Jinyuan’s headquarters, which matches the downstairs through the patio.There is also a semi-underground waterway for unloading goods inside the warehouse, which is connected to the Suzhou River. This is where the Dragon Boat Festival, the escape of the old abacus, and the sneak attack of the Japanese sneak in.
"Paradise on Earth," a public concession on the south bank of the Suzhou River, Guan Hu said, the scene was to be made "Shanghai as the epitome of the Paris of the East."The art team spent two months collecting relevant information on the buildings of the Concession of the Republic of China and sorted out more than 200Gb of data photos. In the complex historical materials, they found that the streets of the South Bank were mostly low-rise houses, which were not rich and layered enough, and could not form a strong contrast with the dilapidated scene of the four-row warehouses on the North Bank.
Therefore, the art team decided to rebuild the South Bank Concession and built more than 30 houses, including dance halls, bars, old Shanghai’s raw fried bun stalls, and Sino-foreign joint casinos."Shanghai people and foreigners coexist, war and prosperity coexist, barrenness and fashion coexist, loss and hope coexist. This period of time and space is intertwined."
In the design of props on the north and south shores, they strive to restore historical authenticity.Many "anti-Japanese dramas" did not use the Type 96 light machine guns that were in service with the Japanese army in 1937 when they showed the battles before 1937. Because the number was small and it was easy to jam, most of them replaced them with the Type 99 light machine gun that appeared in 1939. Even if the specific style of the machine gun could not be seen in the Japanese shooting scene, the art team insisted on respecting the historical facts and let the Japanese use the Type 96 light machine gun.
Lin Mu also dedicated a team of military fans who were looking for tank models to restore two "small potato tanks" used by the Japanese army at that time, namely the Type 94 light armored vehicle."Although it is a minor correction, I hope that many historical details will not be missing. After many years, I hope to give people a reference to explore the truth of history."
Compared to the North Shore, the South Shore still has many prop designs that cannot be fully depicted on the screen.The South Bank not only has car waterMa LongThe exterior scenes of feasting and feasting, the art team also built 29 interior scenes, such as a watch shop, insidefurnishingsAll of them are the collections provided by the century-old Yuchang Watch Store, because none of the interior scenes have been fully filmed, and these treasures can only be flashed in the foreground of the street window.
"There are so few shots, these productions are actually very large." Lin Mu and the art team he led tried to restore the historical facts with one hand, so that they could be well documented, and with the other hand, they used their imagination on the basis of historical materials to create a second creation."Eight Hundred" is Lin Mu’s longest, most challenging and most stressful film so far.
A project, a dream
One by one, a Suzhou River was dug through, and a four-row warehouse was built to create a "Paris of the East" in the Shanghai Concession."I can’t find the land," said Liang Jing, the chief producer, as the number one problem they faced. "I couldn’t find this land in 2013 until I found it in 2015."
Huayi Brothers Real Scene Entertainment built a movie city in Suzhou, providing the possibility of setting the scene for "800". It was a 200-acre piece of land on the edge of Yangcheng Lake, where the river was dug and the steel and concrete were leveled, and a huge project was started."Director, Photographer, ArtTiantianThey all stayed there like the foreman. A vacant lot was hard to dig out a river, and a one-to-one warehouse and more than 60 buildings were built. "
This is Liang Jing’s first time as a producer. She said that the pressure is very high. Fortunately, there is another old helper, producer Zhu Wenjiu, who leads three production teams and has followed Guan Hu for many years., "Killing Life", "Old Pao’er", used to take turns in the group. This time, because the production volume is very large, the three production teams gathered for the first time, "very experienced".
The actual construction of the film is not a real estate project, the cycle is tight, and there are many sunk costs. The art team provides the conceptual plan of the architectural design, which is evaluated by the design institute and implemented by the civil engineering team.The art team did the math, and they finally signed a stack of more than 700 pages of construction maps.
During this period, some art projects did not meet the safety standards, and the design institute and engineering team did not want to affect the creative concept too much. Lin Mu said that for about a year, the three parties repeatedly communicated and revised, and often fell into quarrels. "It is quite torturous, and it has completely exceeded the fun of creation. It is a part of mathematically and physically to ensure safe production."
"I remember the last time we quarreled after the civil construction was over. Soon after, everyone sat together to miss those intense days. When the art team finished finishing, they sorted out the construction adjustment contact list in the computer.
The movie opens with the security team from Hubei entering a tragic post-war ruin, which was not built in the Suzhou Film City, but in a group of demolition buildings in a community in Ningbo City. The Ningbo municipal government was very supportive at the time, delaying the demolition plan, "and finally the art team will plan how to demolish it."
"If you really build a battlefield ruin like Hollywood, it’s okay, but this scene is a formality at the beginning. Considering that this can save a lot of financial resources, material resources and time, the effect is not bad."This should be the first time in China that a real estate was demolished into a movie ruin. "We completed this battlefield in a demolition community."
"Hell of war, heaven on earth", the core concept in the script is translated into the photography language of the photography director Cao Yu, which is "the darkest night, the brightest light", which is from the movie.Cao Yu said in his photographic notes that he did not want a realistic photographic style, but rather contrast and abstraction, and he described "Yaobai" as "a visual poem."
This poem is microscopic and grand, and the lens language should be close-up and panoramic, rather than a central scene; this poem is a freehand brushwork of light and shadow, rather than copying the handheld records and film graininess of traditional war films; it should be close to the effect of modern scrolls, like the early paintings of Munch and Picasso, transparent and delicate; it should reduce color saturation, cold and modern, just like.
"The Hundred" is the first commercial film in Asia to be shot with IMAX cameras in its entirety. There are only more than 60 units in the world, and "The Hundred" was filmed with two units."The difficulty, the challenge is that we use a lot of light. When shooting at night, we used more than 2,000 lamps, and the wires added up to more than 50 kilometers."
Cao Yu arranged nine dimming tables in the main control room, and the lights in all areas of the four-line warehouse must be connected to the dimming table for unified control. Guan Hu said, "Especially there is a shooting, all relying on that dimming, combined with the sound of gunshots, it’s a bit like a DJ."The "base light" in the inner area of the warehouse is illuminated from the top down. When shooting the second floor, the third floor must be covered with lights. There are nearly 200 holes in the four floors, which are densely packed.
Outside the warehouse, Cao Yu proposed that the neon lights of the South Bank streetscape be mapped to the south side of the warehouse. The art team referred to the Shanghai night scene materials of the Republic of China and organized the production of more than 400 light signs and 3-kilometer-long building-shaped light bulbs.There were at least three types of light bulbs on each sign. The wiring was too complicated and the installation price was expensive. Cao Yu thought about it and finally switched to LED lamps with adjustable voltage.
Guan Hu said: "After filming, I feel that Cao Yu and I are ten years older, and even men’s endocrine is dysregulated."
"Supreme Glory"
In early 2017, the southern rainy season saw continuous spring rains.The 200 mu of land next to Yangcheng Lake is all "spring soil", the soil is soft, and the four-row warehouse that is about to be built can bear 400 kilograms per square meter.It rained non-stop, and the foundation sank a little, "It must stop!" Liang Jing said that all the actors and time had been negotiated at that time, and if they didn’t turn on the camera, they would have to change the actors. In the end, for safety, "all changed".
The construction period was postponed, and the construction project underwent a rigorous renovation, allowing the movie to resume again. It was September 9, 2017, and "800" finally started.
The four-row warehouse on the north bank turned into a "stage", and the concession on the south bank became an "audience seat". A "war performance" mixed with the blood and tears of soldiers, a ray of light related to the awakening of national consciousness shot out and the curtain was opened.
Because of the cast change, Ou Hao caught up. He first saw the actor recruitment news on Weibo. "If I have the opportunity to play a very small role in this movie, even for a day or two, it will be an honor." During that time, Ou Hao called Guan Hu every day to talk about the script and the role.
Liang Jing asked Guan Hu: "Has he ever acted? Can he?" Guan Hu was very firm: "This child is very good, attentive and hard-working", and finally decided to play the Dragon Boat Festival.
From the cowardly soldiers of the Hubei Security Regiment to the bloody, masculine soldiers who took the initiative to fight, Ou Hao wanted to interpret the growth and changes of the Dragon Boat Festival in just a few days in the movie.He said he didn’t expect it to be so difficult, and the role often made him feel depressed, especiallyLi ChenIn that scene, he couldn’t sleep that night, "When you’re in this role, you’re actually uncomfortable."
"Because all the scenes are very immersive, and it is easy to enter emotions. Slowly, these emotions are installed in my heart, and the whole eyes will become different and complicated."
Ou Hao raised his gun at Zhang Yi, the "old abacus" who was about to escape. Zhang Yi knelt and begged. Ou Hao was torn and his tears flowed down.Cao Yu was carrying more than 60 catties of IMAX cameras alone, kneeling on the ground to take close-up shots, with three assistants behind him supporting him, trembling. At this moment, Cao Yu said, "the picture and the actors are matched, and there is an emotional tremor."
Du Chun and Yu Haoming play the anti-Japanese war heroes Xie Jinyuan and Shangguan Zhibiao who participated in this battle, respectively. In order to get close to the characters, physical and military movement training courses are essential. They must learn history and imitate the accent of the prototype as a southerner speaking Mandarin. They strive to find the outstanding personality of their respective characters in the regular military image.
Yu Haoming described his state on the set as "loose on the outside and tight on the inside." As a relatively young actor in the film, he was under pressure to minimize his mistakes during filming.
The South Bank sang "Changban Slope", and the North Bank warehouse was also the configuration of a big play."Sheep crutches"Wang QianyuanMaverick, ruthless, not much talk, "Lao Tie"Jiang WuRude and reckless, love to brag, "old abacus" Zhang Yi judges the situation, smart and cunning, these characters all have some kind of animal instinct, facing the choice of "survival or destruction" of life. Seemingly facelike, behind them one by one corresponds to the martial arts, flower faces and Wen Chou in the opera industry, with a rather consistent dramatic context.
Jiang Wu said that the difference between "800" and his previous war films is "advanced". He specially learned Dandong dialect for the character and lost 12.5 kilograms of weight. Wang QianYuan said that every time they took a picture, they would show a different feeling. Everyone walked together, and they enjoyed filming it as a whole, which was happy and happy.
Conceived ten years ago, it took seven years to prepare, produce, and complete. "800" has gone through a long and unknown adventure. In the end, how does it lead us into this history?Not in a hyper-realistic way, but in a highly tightly choreographed, four-day, four-night campaign, from reorganizing defenses, three-hour resistance, flag-raising and flag-guarding to evacuating across bridges, with cameras moving back and forth between warehouse defenders and spectators on both sides of the Suzhou River.
Compared with the anti-Japanese soldiers who charged into battle and looked at death, the film focuses more on ordinary people, focusing on those unconscious interlopers and viewers.From the fear of war to the generous stragglers, from watching the fire from the sidelines to the common people who share the same hatred, the group images of different social hierarchies are dots, and finally, with a point, line and surface structure, they converge into the spiritual inspiration of the feelings of the country and the national righteousness.
As in the final scene of the movie, the crowd inside the fence extends their hands, a clenched fist, to greet the surging heroes and build a true patriotic passion.
"We saw a different kind of war, which was completed by everyone’s wisdom. This feeling is what Guan Hu said about’supreme glory ‘, and we carefully crafted a gift to dedicate to the former martyrs." The first time she saw the finished film of "Eight Hundred", Liang Jing said that at that moment she had a sense of accomplishment.
On August 21, "800" was officially released, and Guan Hu’s new film was also shot. It was still the team of "800". They continued to enter the historical adventure and continue to create the next dream.
Note: The art materials of "800" are exclusively authorized by the art director Lin Mu.