Zhang Mo believes that the more simple and plain things are, the more they may be able to move people's hearts. The position of director has taught her to be rational, put aside emotions, face problems head-on, and believe in the power of emotions to resonate with the audience. A good story is always expected, and all her growth and experiences are enough to present in the work.
Zhang Mo is a "post-80s", and she still remembers some heroic story fragments that she read in textbooks, and she also remembers the names of Yang Gensi and Huang Jiguang. Born in the Taiping Dynasty, when she talked about the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" in the 1950s, she also felt that she seemed to be some distance away from her current life.
The movie "Sniper" is set in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and when she read the materials, she was a little shocked. The environment of that war was extremely harsh, at that time, the equipment of the Chinese Volunteer Army could not be compared with that of the US army, and the gap in hardware was several equal magnitudes, and finally chose "snipers" as the entry point of the story, precisely because they could play the role of "four or two thousand pounds" in the war. "They can make up for the lack of equipment with their personal technical advantages, and be more dramatic." ”
"Snipers" often take individuals as units, use static braking, always hide in one place, find the enemy's position, and unconsciously kill the other party, often becoming the key to victory in the battle. Zhang Mo believes that the perspective of telling stories should "see the big with the small", although they happen to be in the magnificent era, but they are also ordinary small people with flesh and blood, and when looking for an entry point in them, she sees a lot of spirits that are closely related to reality.
Those fighters who participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea were on average in their twenties at that time, and their lives had just begun, and like modern young people, they were still looking for their own life values and goals. Many of them have taken the initiative to choose to go to the battlefield to defend their homeland, this choice looks simple, especially simple and particularly brave, in the long river of history they seem to be unknown, but they have the power to shock people. ”
She wants to send a message to young audiences that the plainer and more prosaic something is, the more it may move people's hearts.
Rationalization of lens language
The film started on January 6, 2021, after the script had been polished for more than half a year, and it was only handed over to the actors in October 2020, and the whole team has been intensively discussing and revising. Director Zhang Yimou originally planned to shoot the film himself, but it was estimated that the shooting cycle would be more than 90 days, and it would not be completed in time for the snow period of one year, so he let Zhang Mo work as a director together.
"The winter daylight is very short, and the operation of the war theme is very difficult, if he is operated by himself, he cannot complete all the shooting in a snow period." In this way, the schedule of the actors and crew cannot be guaranteed, and the two directors can be carried out together, and the speed can be much faster. ”
Zhang Moguan Zhang Yimou is called "Big Zhang Dao", which has respect for work and affection between relatives. Zhang Yimou is mainly responsible for the Chinese combat scenes, Zhang Mo is responsible for the US military part, before the start of filming, the two constantly discussed the feasibility of refining the script, after the start of filming, because there are two shooting locations, the first thing after the scene every day is to enter the editing room to see the materials they shot and see how to connect.
"Before filming starts the next day, we first have to explain to the script which scenes to shoot, make the whole line through, make some changes according to the actual situation, and sometimes pull the actors together to discuss." When filming, they rested at 1 a.m. every day and got up at 5 a.m. to prepare for the start of work at 6 a.m. "The main creators are like this, but we will ensure that the actors have enough rest, and people are more likely to get tired in the extremely cold state, and we want to ensure their state."
The addition of Zhang Mo has also made many changes to the script. If the warriors' bravery is emphasized from beginning to end, the audience's empathy will not be enough. So we changed the setting of the protagonist to the fact that he was originally a young warrior with a fragile side, and he grew from a boy to a man in war. ”
The U.S. military is the antithesis of the war, but Zhang Mo understands that the audience is reluctant to accept the face-like, label-style character setting. "Our audience has a lot of reading, and they can tell at a glance what is real and what is pretend. My requirements for actors are to act naturally, especially in extreme environments to have normal natural reactions and credibility. She also tries to use details to give the characters more character hints, "at least so that the audience can remember them." For example, I designed a U.S. soldier to chew gum details, the bright pink gum that was popular in the '50s, and the audience will remember, oh, the person who chewed gum. ”
The story takes place in one day, and each character can show only the tip of the iceberg of his life, laying out the causes and consequences of the character's personality in a limited space. "When they talk, they can bring out a lot of background, but what is more effective is to quarrel, and when they quarrel, they can bring out a lot of information directly, so we have a lot of deliberation on the lines in this part."
Most of the main actors are concentrated in the part of the Chinese volunteer army, and the intersection with Zhang Mo is not large, but Zhang Yu plays the squad leader of the sniper fifth squad, and needs to communicate with Zhang Mo often about the details of the US military confrontation. Zhang Yu is a very mature actor, who will fully prepare himself and put the whole person into the state of the character before starting the camera, and the theme he and Zhang Mo discuss is how to effectively convert the script language into the lens language of the movie and become controllable.
"We'll figure out what the U.S. military is doing, and if they don't seem smart enough, then the folly of the enemy will drag down our standards." We try to make everything the U.S. military react more rationally, and then we have to think about it, so that the sniper squad can overtake them. "General war scenes can use high-speed movement scenes to strengthen the sense of rhythm, but the performance of snipers is realistically difficult, their combat methods are too independent, too private, and too static, in the ice and snow environment, the picture is more limited."
"You need to rationalize sniper warfare. With no scope and snow all around, how can you hide properly while finding the target location? The film crew also thought of many ways to enrich the angle of performance, such as shooting aerial shots with small drones, or large close-up shots gradually moving from guns to people's eyes. Zhang Mo remembered that they were "trying to move" every day. "But that scene is a trench, that ditch is so narrow, anyway, it is quite difficult to figure out, you can only adjust the shooting angle or background as much as possible, and you are doing various experiments every day."
Face the problem and put aside the emotions
99% of the shots in Sniper use live action. The crew leaves work at 6 a.m. every morning and finishes at 4:30 p.m., which is exactly the same length of time that the story actually takes place. In order to restore the real war environment as much as possible, they went to the snow belt on the border to shoot, where snow began to snow in mid-November in previous years, but until the beginning of January, when filming was ready, the snow was still missing. Zhang Mo and the entire film crew were nervous. "In the end, we simply drove the truck to Changbai Mountain to carry snow."
Location shooting will always encounter an endless situation on the upper floor, and the snow is only the first level. The truck's journey from Changbai Mountain to carry snow is about three or four hours, after which the staff has to cover the ground with snow overnight, not to mention the large area, but also to create a "fluffy feeling". After all, the snow of the artificial paving is thin, and the actors rub it away after touching and rolling, and Zhang Mo still remembers everyone's busy hands and feet at that time. "The actors are wet, and they have to be blown by the cold wind, and no one can stand it, so we bake them dry with electric heaters, and at the same time grasp the snow repair, and the time is very tightly adjusted."
They used a lot of old "antique" equipment, such as a tank, but when they drove into the village, they found that the entrance road was too narrow. "The villagers looked at us with strange eyes. Tanks are still broken, those 50s guns are also, from time to time encounter the problem of bullet jams, originally a shot shot is very good, but also to shout stop. Slowly, they figured out the "temper" of these guns. "In the hands of the gun adjuster, it is good, and once it reaches the hands of our raw people, it will not listen to the call." You can only keep correcting, keep shouting, and keep repeating. ”
During the shooting, Zhang Mo learned to press his anxiety from time to time. The weather will not go according to the shooting plan, such as the scene after the snow, it should not snow in the middle, but there are almost seven days of snow. "It's always like this, you wait for the snow, it doesn't come, you don't need the snow, it just goes down." The snow just stopped, and quickly put the actors together, but as soon as it was in place, it began to go down again, tossing and turning back and forth. ”
She felt tormented by a sense of time urgency and could not put anxiety on her face for fear of affecting the mood of other staff. "Even if I could have calmed my breath, even if my heart turned upside down, I would try to restrain my face, but I was still rational and would tell myself that there was always a solution." The position of director also "forced" her to constantly come up with ways to deal with problems. "The play that you throw off today, find a way to make up for it tomorrow, or you wonder if there is any other way to make it reach the purpose faster." It is to face the problem itself, to put the emotions aside. ”
Physiologically, this shooting also gave her a new experience. She attended university in New York and experienced local snowstorms, but even if the snow piled so high, she was still hot when she walked, and there were subways and buildings to avoid the cold. "Filming is different. You sit there, and the cold is the biting cold, and there's no way to resist it. Pushing herself and others, she was more distressed about the actor's efforts, "We have a shed, or we can put a heater on the side, but the actor really went to the snow like this, and many people's ears are frozen and swollen." The staff is also very hard, and everyone is struggling to grab time. ”
Zhang Mo's first project involved in Zhang Yimou was in the movie "Three Guns Shooting Surprise", as an editor, she has always had her own control over the rhythm of the shot. Before the start of filming, they agreed that the rhythm must be tight and the story line must be clear. "Sniper-themed movies are easy to 'stuffy', he crouches in one place and doesn't shoot a shot for half a day. If we want to break through, we have to make the story interesting. ”
"People must first grow and mature"
Zhang's last film was her directorial debut, 28 Years Underage, and in the more than four years between, she became a mother and completed her doctorate. "In addition to the director's identity, the dual identities of wife and mother are also very important to me, and the investment of time and energy can only have a choice during this time." She has also directed musical theater clips for the variety show City of Illusions. "That's a short attempt. I think people must first grow and mature, have their own life experience, in order to have their own works. ”
Before filming "Sniper", she revisited her debut film again, feeling a little childish and a little rare. "After all, after living for five more years and growing up, I will feel that the concept at that time was not bad, but if I shoot now, I will definitely handle it more calmly." She used to be introspective about her work, "The youth at that time was also a record. When I saw some places, I thought, how dare I think at that time? How to say, that is, in the process of maturity, you will unconsciously add many rules to yourself, which is always the process of finding balance. ”
This is her first time to shoot a war-themed work, there is a real historical story, she feels that the first preparation is to let herself settle down, to learn, to feel, to put herself on the role of the volunteer army, to throw herself into such an extreme environment to consider the problem. She admires her father, Zhang Yimou, who is over 70 years old and strives for innovation in every work. "A lot of people may want stability, but since this direction is feasible and the risk of changing tracks is too great, let's do it." I was very touched by this, constantly challenging myself and constantly breaking through what I had done before. ”
Many works are tested for a period of time before the audience can really draw conclusions. Zhang Mo felt that these follow-up parts were better than giving them to time itself, choosing to take over the works, and she only had to care about whether she really had feelings. "'There may be some stories that the audience may not be interested in', I think this is a prejudgment, and it may not be the case. What is presented in my head, you can only shoot it out, others can judge, otherwise no one knows how you will present those ideas. ”
It made her more determined to persevere. She believes in the power of emotion, which is the channel through which she connects with her audience. "There is plenty of room for emotion to share." But this is not a one-way addiction. "Your work can come out, and it's based on the fact that there are producers who give you opportunities and investors who invest money in you." The process of addiction is a node, you must first get the approval of others, before it is possible to achieve. If you think about addiction again, you must also have principles, so that the audience can empathize with it at the same time, and see some unprecedented novelty. ”
Zhang Mo's college major is architecture, in her view, architecture is always thinking about the relationship between characters and space, and the film plus the element of time is essentially consistent. "Equal to the first two of the three I've already trained." She usually can't tell the direction of southeast, south, and northwest, but when she looks at the camera, she will be very sensitive to the details of the space. "For example, if there is an abandoned carriage next to a stone, or even if you change a stone, I can see the difference at a glance."
Although the film is only about two hours long, it integrates various aesthetics, and there is no fixed formula in it, perhaps only described by "feeling" in general. In recent years, short videos have sprung up, but Zhang Mo has not paid special attention to its development and rules. "The most I watch when I watch short videos is to cook recipes for children, which is always practical content. I try not to chase 'pop' too much, but I believe that there must be a story behind a good short video. Whether its form is long or short, whether it is high or cheap, the audience's need for the story is eternal. ”
Now, she wants her life to be as simple as possible. "Life is three points and one line, sometimes the assistant helps me calculate the living expenses, and found that in addition to the necessary expenses of the family, my personal transportation and food expenses a month cost about 400 yuan." She did not open social media accounts such as Weibo, hoping that all her changes and ideas would be reflected in her works. "I'm a little bit conservative, but I still want to stay that way. In fact, the changes in the outside world will not affect you, and in the end, only your works can represent you. ”
Actors section
Producer/Fei Song
Photography / Yin Chao
Planner / Zhang Jingxuan
Co-ordinator / Xue Bingqing BK
Makeup and Hair/Xu Dabao@AndyCreation, Li Song (Special Effects Makeup), Kenji_Yu, Dong Xu
Image/Pig GK
Costume Assistant /Orch Leong, Qian Qian, Ni Xintong
Co-ordination Assistant/Song Tongfang
Directing part
Producer / Song Fei
Photography / Yin Chao
Planning / Ren Bo
Interview & Author / Li Bingqing
Co-ordinator / Evny, Xue Bingqing
Makeup /SHAILEN
Styling / @Pig GK
Costume Assistant / Orchleong, Money, Nini
New Media Editor/Timmy