Recently, director Sam Mendes said at the New York Comic-Con that the World War I film "1917" directed by him will be shot in a "one-shot" way, "the original design of this film is a shot". Mendes called the film the "most technically difficult thing" he's accomplished so far, but also the most enjoyable.
The reason why the whole film uses only one long shot is related to the story of the movie. During World War I, two young British soldiers were assigned on a seemingly impossible mission: they had to race against time and venture into enemy territory to deliver an important piece of intelligence that would save the lives of 1,600 soldiers. Mendes said that "one shot to the end" can make the audience immersive and more immersive. The film was filmed mainly in the UK, with director Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins spending 9 months preparing. Since it is mainly a location shooting, it is greatly affected by the weather, and it can only be shot with natural light, so that the shooting work has become a seemingly impossible task. The Beijing News reporter exclusively revealed how the film challenged the "one shot to the end" shooting.
Story Inspiration The director's grandfather was a World War I veteran
The film is set during World War I, on a day in the spring of 1917, when the Germans retreated from the battlefield to the "Hindenburg Line", where mines and snipers were set as traps. After a long stalemate with the Germans, the British army looked for an opportunity to eliminate the opponent and planned to attack Hindenburg, only to realize at the last moment that this was a trap for the German army. Two young British soldiers, Blake and Schofield, were ordered to go to the front line to deliver orders, race against time, venture into enemy territory to demand an end to the attacks on the Germans, not only to save 1,600 British soldiers, but also to save Blake's brother on the front line.
Director Mendes said the story was inspired by his own grandfather, "The first time I understood that any form of war was what my grandfather told me." Mendes's grandfather fought in World War I and, like the characters in the film, delivered messages during the war, but it wasn't about his grandfather's story, it was just that the spirit of sacrifice conveyed in the film was similar.
While doing historical research for the characters, The British actor Who plays Blake in the film, Dean Charles Chapman, read a book called The Diary of the Western Front, a collection of soldier diaries recorded during World War I, and was surprised to find that his great-grandfather's diary was also in it. His great-grandfather, a cavalryman, suffered a gunshot wound during the war, survived 4 days lying in no man's land, and worked on a farm after the war until his death. The book somehow inspired Chapman to finish the film.
Director Mendes communicates with the cinematographer Deakins (the white-haired man in the picture).
One shot to the end Oscar for Best Cinematography
"From the very beginning I wanted to make this film in real time, with the audience on the journey together, breathing in sync with the characters, and 'one shot to the end' is the best way to tell this story." For director Mendes, the concept of the film takes place in a sequence and is real-time, which is at the heart of the project.
Although big-name stars such as Colin Feith and Benedict Cumberbatch appear in the film, the focus of the story is still on two young British soldiers, and the camera never leaves the two protagonists. Mendes said that long shots can immerse the audience in the experience of the film's protagonists, making it feel as if they are in the trenches and fighting alongside them.
In order to challenge "one shot to the end", director Mendes invited Roger Deakins, a cinematographer who has collaborated on "007: The GreatEst Breaking", "Revolutionary Road" and "Pot Lid", to take the lead of the film, Deakins previously won the Oscar for Best Cinematography with "Blade Runner 2049", and had previously been nominated for the Oscar for Best Cinematography 13 times, making him a veritable gold-medal cinematographer in Hollywood. In fact, before receiving the script of the film, Deakins did not know that the director should adopt a "one-shot to the end" shooting method, and after receiving the script, the first page of the script read: "This is a long shot."
Deakins says that "one shot to the end" is not only for cool, but also for immersive people. He also revealed that the longest shooting time may be 8 and a half minutes, the actors are performing, and everything has to be synchronized. This also means that the film should use the same "pseudo-long shot" approach as "Birdman", not to really shoot a single long shot on the spot, but to use technical means to connect multiple "longer shots" to make the whole film look like a shot.
Shooting difficulty Exterior-oriented, greatly affected by the weather
The screenwriter Christie Wilson Keynes, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mendes, found it difficult to "build a good story that happened in two hours," but she added, "It's nothing compared to shooting, after all, I don't have a camera."
The difficulties were largely left to photographer Deakins. For Deakins, the biggest challenge was figuring out where to put the camera to create the scene, "and every day I wish I didn't mess it up, because then it would go back to where it was." "The film basically uses handheld photography, which is in motion at all times, no scene is repetitive, and it is necessary to constantly travel through the field and maintain the coherence of the shots. Sometimes a steel cable is used to lift the photographer and camera and shoot a wide scene. After untying the cable, the photographer also has to run to the car with the equipment, cross 400 yards, and then get out of the car to continue shooting.
What is more challenging is that the film rarely has indoor scenes, the vast majority of which are exterior scenes, and the light and weather have a particularly large impact on the shooting, and it is impossible to light at all, and can only be shot with natural light. If the actor runs into the trench, the camera goes around in a circle and there is no space for the lamp. The whole film is a long shot, it must be shot in chronological order, for the sake of the scene, it must be filmed on a cloudy day, and if it encounters a fierce sun, the crew will stop work and change to rehearsal. During rehearsals, crew members would look up at the sky to see when the clouds would cover the sun. When the clouds came, the crew raced against the clock for about 5 minutes of shooting. Director Mendes said it was a veritable "resignation to fate."
The actors had intense training and six months of rehearsals before filming. Actor George McKay said: "Every shooting is like a stage play, you can't stop at the beginning. ”
■ "One Shot to the End" movie
Soul Reaper (1948)
Director Hitchcock's first color film, also a pseudo-"one shot to the end", lasts 80 minutes, the entire story takes place in a house, a total of six cuts, most of which rely on the actor's back shadow black screen transition to create the illusion of visual coherence of the audience.
Ark of Russia (2002)
Russian director Sokolov shot, 100 minutes long, is a real-life shooting, with a lens to show more than 200 years of Russian history, a total of 4 times to shoot successfully.
"Large Airport 2013" (2013)
Directed by Japanese director Yuki Mitani, it was 100 minutes and shot for 6 days. Photographed by photographer Hideo Yamamoto alone, he wears a modified 20-kilogram device on his body, moving by a mixture of cart and walking, and he will collapse directly after each shooting.
Birdman (2014)
The film is a pseudo-"one-shot to the end", consisting of more than 10 long shots seamlessly connected, with a duration of 119 minutes. The film won four awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director.
Victoria (2015)
The whole film is 138 minutes, the real scene is shot to the end, and the shooting is completed in one day, and the film does not weaken the dramatic plot because of one shot, and the ending is very shocking. The film was nominated for the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival.
Beijing News reporter Teng Chao