Chapter 18 Booting up
Chapter 18 Booting up
A day later, all the crew members held their first meeting in the studio.
Zhang Chen introduced everyone to Che Xiao, Zeng Li, Ning Hao, Xiao Jin...
"Now that everyone has met, let me tell you about the next arrangements..."
Zhang Chen cleared his throat, and after attracting everyone's attention, he continued, "It will take time to make the props for filming, and the crew will start filming in three days. I have sent the script to everyone, so everyone should familiarize themselves with it as soon as possible.
In addition, during these three days, the filming crew tried to familiarize themselves with the venue and equipment, and several actors needed to learn basic rock climbing techniques. I have contacted an outdoor club for everyone, and they will provide help. "
The main character team in the drama "Dark Invasion" is set as cave experts who love outdoor adventures. There are also professional rock climbing movements in the early stage of the play. In order to achieve the desired effect, simple training must be carried out.
You don't have to really do it, but at least the actions should look like they are real.
Moreover, they are good friends in the play, and training together for these three days is just the right way to develop their tacit understanding.
Lao Li, the producer, was also present, but he didn't say anything the whole time.
He is no stranger to film shooting, and he was also in charge of following the crew of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth" which was previously invested by the group.
Compared with the size of the crew of "Heroes of Heaven and Earth", Zhang Chen's team is just a makeshift team, but the makeshift team also has more than 20 people. Zhang Chen is able to manage it in an orderly manner, which makes Lao Li look at him with admiration.
The kid from Old Zhang’s family did not study in vain.
A horn sounded outside. It was the prop company's car. The first batch of props arrived, which were some rock models.
The prop company introduced by Teacher Fu was very helpful. Zhang Chen had said in advance that he needed it urgently, and the other party immediately started working overtime to start production.
In just one day, some of the props were already made.
For this movie, except for the exterior scenes which Zhang Chen planned to shoot at the end, he decided to shoot the rest of the scenes inside the cave completely according to the order of the movie.
Because it is used once in almost every scene, there is no repetition.
The people from the prop company installed the bracket and then fixed the rock model on it before starting to paint it.
After spraying the paint, a kind of powder is sprinkled to imitate the rough surface of the rock. After doing all this, the model looks exactly like real rock.
Old Li witnessed the whole process and marveled at the magic.
In the next three days, the cast trained in rock climbing techniques, the lighting and photography staff familiarized themselves with the scene, discussed the lighting plan, and shot the camera positions.
Zhang Chenze and Xiao Jin were designing the monster's image on the second floor.
Zhang Chen was not planning to innovate. He decided to stick with the monster image from the original movie, but all of this had to be done with special effects makeup to see the effect.
Cao Bingkun had shaved his head and was making a mold. The mold was made of latex, foaming agent and coagulant.
After the mold solidified, Xiao Jin began to carve it according to the requirements provided by Zhang Chen.
"The two ears should be bigger. The monster I designed is actually a human, but they chose a completely different evolutionary direction from us and chose to live underground. After a long time, their eyes degenerated and lost their function, but their hearing and sense of smell have evolved, so the nostrils and ears should be big."
Zhang Chen kept making requests and even provided a sketch of the monster he imagined. Xiao Jin kept making modifications, and after a lot of trouble, it was finally almost right.
Let Cao Bingkun put it on and then color it.
"Because the monster has lived underground for a long time, its skin should be a strange white color, and it should have blood vessel patterns..."
Xiao Jin first used makeup cream to do a base makeup, mainly to protect the skin, and then began to color with PAX pigment glue.
The only thing left on Cao Bingkun's body was a loincloth, which was dyed the same color as his body.
About an hour later, the makeup was finally completed, and Cao Bingkun was no longer recognizable. Contact lenses are an indispensable part of special effects makeup, and this is also the case here.
According to the setting, the monster's eyesight is almost lost, so Cao Bingkun wears special white contact lenses, which, combined with his current image, is very impressive.
Looking at the monster in front of him, Zhang Chen was very satisfied. It couldn't be said to be a one-to-one restoration, but it was not much different from the original.
"Okay, let's follow this style."
It took nearly six hours to finally finalize the image of the monster. Xiao Jin picked up the camera and took pictures of Cao Bingkun from all angles as a backup. The appearance of other monsters and subsequent makeup were all based on this standard.
……
Three days later, it was officially launched.
Before the Hong Kong crew entered the mainland, there were not so many complicated details when starting filming in the mainland. Zhang Chen did not plan to make the opening ceremony too complicated, just cover it with a red cloth as a gesture.
The pace of "Darkness" was a bit slow at the beginning, and the monster first appeared at 45 minutes.
The first ten minutes or so explain the background. Shara is depressed because of the death of her husband, so her friends decide to take her to explore the cave to change her mood.
There is also casual chatting in the cabin to show the relationships among everyone. Xia La and Juno are good friends, Xia La and Yang Xiaoyue are also good friends, but the relationship between Yang Xiaoyue and Juno is very ordinary.
Riding the zodiac suggests that these girls are adventurous, and encountering the dead reindeer carcasses suggests that there are more terrifying predators nearby.
But Zhang Chen thinks these are totally unnecessary. What he wants is for the audience to get into the mood quickly.
So he cut out all these scenes, leaving only the scene of two off-road vehicles traveling through the mountains and a group of people chatting through walkie-talkies in the car. This also achieves the purpose of promoting emotions and pointing out that everyone loves adventure.
As for the fact that Xia La's husband died in an accident, Zhang Chen felt that there was no need to shoot an outdoor scene. It could be pointed out indirectly, such as by mentioning it a few times during a conversation.
So the story became like this:
Xia La has two good friends, Juno and Yang Xiaoyue. Xia La's husband died in a car accident, and Xia La was devastated. In order to cure Xia La, Juno organized an expedition and chose an unknown cave near the China-Myanmar border.
Everyone agreed to give the naming rights of this unknown cave to Xia La to make her happy.
A few days later, the group drove to the cave and entered it. At first, everything went smoothly, but soon the cave entrance collapsed, blocking the way back. The six people had to look for other exits, but He Li accidentally fell off a cliff and broke her leg.
The cave monster appeared at this time.
These monsters are creatures that look like humans and move quickly. He Li was the first one to be bitten to death by the monsters because of her mobility problems.
While the others were running away, only Juno fought the monster and tried to take back He Li's body. In a panic, he mistakenly pierced Yang Xiaoyue's neck with a mountaineering pick. When Yang Xiaoyue was dying, she begged Juno not to abandon her, but Juno left because of fear.
Xia La, who was lost, found Yang Xiaoyue. On her deathbed, Yang Xiaoyue told Xia La not to trust Juno, because Juno not only abandoned her when she was injured, but also had an extramarital affair with his ex-boyfriend.
Afterwards, Yang Xiaoyue gave Xia La the love necklace between Juno and Xia La's boyfriend. Xia La fell into a pool of blood in sadness and despair. She slowly floated up from the blood, full of murderous intent, as if she had become a different person.
Juno met Guan Yue and Huang Ying. Juno insisted on waiting for Sarah to leave together. Huang Ying tried to leave alone, but was bitten to death by a monster while climbing the rope. Guan Yue's screams at this time attracted the monsters, and they also skinned and ate her alive.
At this point, only Shara and Juno survived.
When they met again, Xia La pretended not to know and asked Juno about Yang Xiaoyue's whereabouts, but Juno lied.
The two continued looking for an exit until they saw a ray of light. That was the road leading to the outside world, but there were several man-eating monsters waiting there.
The two killed the monster and were about to leave when Shara suddenly showed Juno a love necklace with the words "love each day" printed on it, and then injured Juno's leg with a mountaineering pick. New monsters appeared, Shara left, and Juno was overwhelmed by the monsters.
At the end, Xia La climbed towards the cave entrance with red eyes, finally climbed to the ground, ran all the way, and was immediately rescued by a passing vehicle.
(End of this chapter)