Chapter 283 Exoskeleton, Man's Romance

Chapter 283 Exoskeleton, Man's Romance

Chapter 283 Exoskeleton, Man's Romance

The filming of the new "Wolf Warrior" crew in the 5000-square-meter studio gradually began to go smoothly as the crew got used to each other and adapted to the venue.

Correspondingly, the work of director Wang Hao has become even busier.

Unlike conventional domestic film crews that still follow old-school concepts and models, the "Wolf Warrior" crew follows pure film industrialization procedures, with each department and each process having a system to follow.

The entire crew was like a tightly-knit machine, and many tasks had already been designed and planned in the preparation stage before filming began.

In this situation, Wang Hao and his group, who were the first group to go to Hollywood for investigation, once said that the director was purely a tool in the crew and was only responsible for the execution of the work plan.

And the reality is indeed like this. Even Wang Hao rarely expresses personal opinions on the filming site and makes temporary changes.

In this movie, his role as a director is reduced. Rather than being a creator, he is more like a project manager, responsible for coordinating the exchanges and communications among various departments of the entire crew.

But don't underestimate this point and think it is easy and effortless.

Indeed, in Wang Hao’s previous life, many netizens often joked on the Internet that the job of a director can be done by just taking a dog and sitting in front of a monitor.

But that was the assistant director and executive director taking over the director's job. For a new-style film crew that follows the film industrialization system, the position of director is still very important.

Compared to the outdoor shooting in Yunnan, the number of crew members of the "Wolf Warrior" crew who returned to Beijing increased dramatically.

3148!

This is the total number of people involved in the entire crew, from actors to behind the scenes, and it is also the number of people that director Wang Hao needs to manage.

What does it mean to manage 3,000 people?
Generally speaking, this is the number of students in an ordinary middle school. Wang Hao's position is no different from that of a middle school principal.

Moreover, the principal only needs to manage the students and make them study hard.

The filming of a movie is more professional, and as a director, Wang Hao also has to direct them, and make them think and work in one direction to make a good movie together.

So even though he is a director and seems to be the most powerful person in the crew, his daily work is actually not easy.

Pay attention to the shooting situation on site; supervise whether the shooting tasks are completed smoothly, and arrange the shooting tasks for the next day one day in advance; pay attention to whether the art, makeup, lighting, props, photography and other work are qualified; pay attention to whether there are problems with the filmed materials; make a good summary of the work of the day and listen to the reports of various departments...

Of course, the most important thing is to pay attention to the safety of the scene!

This is a red line for those engaged in production work in China. Safety is above all else. Everyone comes out to work to make a living. It is not worth it to risk their lives.

And don’t think that there are no safety risks on a film crew. Not to mention the wire suspension and various dangerous action scenes, which often result in injuries to actors or stand-ins.

The scenery and green screens used in the filming are mostly made of flammable wood, chemical fiber, and cloth, so the requirements for fire prevention on site are extremely high.

In addition, why are the set design, spray painting and processing workshops in the studio equipped with paint collection pools, carbon filtration devices, hazardous materials storage cabinets, washbasins and eyewash stations? Isn’t it because these jobs themselves pose safety hazards?

In this regard, since entering the studio, Wang Hao has repeatedly emphasized to the heads of various departments that safety is no small matter.

Many times, the key points of film industrialization are hidden in these inconspicuous details.

The crew of "Wolf Warrior" has reached more than 3 people, many of whom are new members, and they are not old employees who have followed them to accept the concept of film industrialization from the beginning.

Many people do not have adequate awareness and are careless about these safety issues and do not take them seriously.

If Wang Hao doesn't take care and strengthen the management of the crew, there might really be trouble.

Fortunately, although small problems continued to occur, no major troubles occurred under the careful supervision of Wang Hao and other managers.

The crew is proceeding smoothly according to the project schedule and slowly pushing forward the shooting progress.

Time came to the end of October, and Wu Jing and his team had basically finished filming the gunfights and action scenes related to pure special effects.

Most of the prop models needed in the subsequent shooting process have been completed and towed here from the factory.

The most important of these are the mechanical exoskeleton armor used by Wu Jing and his team, which represents China's advanced individual combat capability, and the other is a small combat unmanned shuttle.

The latter is mainly handled by DJI, which also helps promote this startup company.

As for the former, when the mechanical exoskeleton armor was just delivered, men like Wu Jing and his companions could not wait to surround it.

It is said that men’s hobbies are simple, they just like 18-year-olds…

Bah! Bah! Bah! Wrong!
Yes, I like driving Zaku and mecha.

Although the mechanical exoskeleton cannot be made of metal because it is used for filming, just from the appearance, it is no different from the high-tech equipment in science fiction novels.

Inside the solid metal frame are various lines, pipes, screws and hydraulic linkage rods, and the outside is angular, high-strength engineering plastic armor with a military green paint. Although it is still a bit rough and rigid, its heavy industrial style hits the heart of every man.

"So handsome!"

Wu Jing reached out and touched the outer shell of the mechanical exoskeleton, praising it profusely, with light seeming to come out of his eyes.

"This is the war machine that soldiers should use. Those girly things are useless."

Wang Hao didn't know what Wu Jing meant by "sissy stuff", but he fully agreed with Wu Jing's opinion.

Indeed, this is the romance of men.

However, when Wu Jing actually started using this mechanical exoskeleton in filming, he didn't seem to think so.

Generally speaking, there are three methods for shooting and producing special effects shots for science fiction movies.

One is pure CG special effects, that is, all special effects elements are produced by computer CG. The most commonly used of this type are various monsters in many fantasy movies, such as the famous dragon Smaug in "The Lord of the Rings", which is a product of pure CG special effects.

The second is to use various models and special shooting and editing methods to play with light and shadow to create visual magic. This was done when computer special effects technology was not yet developed. For example, in "Star Wars", there was a floating car. When filming, a long mirror was pasted on the outside to cover the wheels, which produced this effect.

Nowadays, there are still directors who like to use this real-life shooting method. Yes, I’m talking about the real-life shooting maniac Christopher Nolan.

As for the third type, it is the combination of virtual and real shooting method currently adopted by Wang Hao and others. One part uses real props to reflect the real texture, and the other part uses computer CG special effects technology.

So during the subsequent filming process, the protagonist Wu Jing and the other two actors had to wear this mechanical exoskeleton armor as a prop.

Then, hard days began for several people.

You know, their mechanical exoskeleton armor looks high-end, but in fact it is just a showpiece. It does not have the power assistance function required by an exoskeleton, nor does it have an energy device. It is impossible to really perform various flexible movements like in the movies.

Therefore, if they want to control this exoskeleton, they have to rely on Wu Jing and the others themselves.

Of course, in order to facilitate filming, it is impossible for them to drive such a big thing manpowerfully.

The props team specially prepared several types of exoskeleton armor, the most realistic of which were used for Wu Jing and others to pose when shooting static shots.

As for shooting action scenes, they wore the hollowed-out, simplified version, which was made of lighter material.

But even this simplified and lightweight version of the exoskeleton armor weighs one hundred kilograms. Wearing it to shoot action scenes is a huge test for Wu Jing and others.

Moreover, the exoskeleton armor was not very breathable after being put on the outside of the military uniform. During the filming process, several people were even almost fainted from lack of oxygen. Sometimes they had to take a few breaths of oxygen after shooting a shot.

As for taking a break, I would rather lie down than sit, and would rather sit than stand.

The key is that this mechanical exoskeleton armor is very troublesome to wear. Each exoskeleton requires five or six people to operate it for more than half an hour, and some parts even need to be fixed with an electric drill.

So in order to save time and facilitate filming, they had to keep wearing the exoskeleton during the process until their scenes for the day were finished.

In this way, it is impossible to sit down and rest while wearing this thing, and as for lying down, forget it.

Fortunately, Wang Hao still has the memories of his previous life and has watched the promotional footage of the movie "The Wandering Earth". He ordered a matching frame in advance that can hang up the two leading actors wearing exoskeleton armor so that they can rest better.

But apart from the problem of resting, eating and going to the toilet were also extremely troublesome for them.

Actually, eating is not a big deal, the key is going to the toilet.

At the beginning, the crew of "Wolf Warrior" actually equipped them with adult diapers, but out of male dignity, Wu Jing and others strongly refused, and would rather hold it in than use this thing.

There was no other way. Considering that there were not many people who had exoskeleton scenes, they were finally asked to stagger their filming.

That is, Wu Jing would shoot for an hour or two first, then Richie Jen, and then switch to the next one.

In this way, when taking a photo of one person, the others can take the opportunity to come out of the exoskeleton to go to the toilet and relax.

As for the shots where multiple exoskeletons appear at the same time, in addition to showing their faces at the same time, they can also be solved by using a stand-in.

In addition to the painful filming process, there was another department that also had a very hard time during this stage of filming, and that was the props department of "Wolf Warrior".

Although when making these exoskeleton armors, the props department had already considered the issues of wear and tear and maintenance in advance.

But after all, it is a prop for filming. In order to reduce the weight of the exoskeleton and reduce the burden on the actors, those lightweight exoskeletons are mostly made of panels and foamed polyurethane materials.

The exoskeleton made in this way is naturally fragile. During the filming process, these lightweight exoskeleton props were damaged in less than three days.

This situation continued to occur repeatedly during filming. Fortunately, there was a prop processing workshop next to the studio, and several members of the prop team worked overtime every day after filming to repair the damaged exoskeleton props.

Wang Hao noticed all of this and specifically instructed that they should be given additional night shift subsidies.

It is precisely because of the efforts of everyone in the entire crew from top to bottom that the filming of "Wolf Warrior", a cross-era Chinese science fiction military film, can go on smoothly.

However, during the filming process at the end of October, Wang Hao also gave the crew half a day off so that everyone could have a good rest.

As for why he wanted to take a holiday, it was because October 2009, 10 was the day when Huayi Brothers went public.

As one of the shareholders of Huayi Brothers, Wang Hao naturally received an invitation from the two brothers on such an important day.

It just so happened that the crew of "Wolf Warrior" had been filming continuously for more than a month. The crew members' spirits were already tense to the extreme and their morale was relatively low. Even Wu Jing, who called himself a tough guy, could not bear it.

So Wang Hao took this opportunity to give everyone half a day off, and then he went to attend the listing reception held by Huayi today.

Not only were all of Huayi's celebrity shareholders present at this cocktail party, but the capital tycoons behind the company were also invited to participate in this grand event.

Wang Hao, who was invited, did not arrive early, nor did he arrive late on purpose. He just drove to the luxury hotel where the cocktail party was held at around four o'clock in the afternoon after arranging the crew's work tasks for tomorrow.

At this time, there were already quite a few people in the venue, holding wine glasses in groups of three or four and chatting in low voices.

Seeing Wang Hao walk in, some of them stopped talking and turned their attention to this young man.

However, more people immediately came forward and greeted him enthusiastically.

"Director Wang, you are finally here!"

As the hosts, the two brothers of the Wang family had been paying attention to the situation at the door and were standing nearby, so they were the first to greet Wang Hao.

Then came Feng Xiaogang, who was accompanying the two Wang brothers. He also nodded at Wang Hao and greeted him with a smile.

After these three Huayi bosses had shown their presence, other more famous actors, such as Huang Xiaoming, Li Binbin, Hu Ke, Zhang Hanyu and others, came over one by one with wine glasses in hand.

Of course, there are some people who are proud of their status and remain unmoved, such as a white-bearded producer named Zhang.

(End of this chapter)