The Paper's reporter Wang Yi
On April 19, the Chinese premiere of the well-known Hollywood action film director Michael Bay's new work "Outlaw Ambulance" was held in Beijing.
The scene of the premiere
Affected by the epidemic, before the film was screened, the main creative team on the other side of the ocean greeted the Chinese audience through video "as usual". Different from the domestic film premiere in recent years, often concentrated in a group of industry peers to watch movies, speak of the help routine, this time "Death Ambulance" in the film promotion can be described as ingenious.
Director Michael Bay video appeared at the Chinese premiere.
The two male lead actors greeted the Chinese audience.
"Outlaw Ambulance" is based on the 2005 Danish film of the same name: Veteran Will Sharp (actor Yahya Abdul-Maiddin) is desperate to raise money for his seriously ill son, and has to ask his adoptive parents' brother Danny (Jack Gyllenhaal) for help. The latter is a "suit thug" who gives the desperate Sharp a trick to "do one big vote" — the largest bank robbery in Los Angeles history. When the brother robbers successfully robbed an ambulance and escaped, they found that there was also a female medical worker, Cam (played by Elsa Gonzalez) and a critically ill patient, and the situation became uncontrollable...
Director Michael Bay and three starring actors on set.
Corresponding to the unexpected plot reversal in the movie, the Chinese premiere of "Outlaw Ambulance" was actually hosted by a domestic auto media person?! Street graffiti artist Xu Kaimeng, Attending Physician of the Emergency Department of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital Liu Geng, and China's front-line aerial photographers gathered at the scene at a high rate. The four folk masters started from the special vehicle structure that appeared in the film, the iconic Los Angeles graffiti, how to rescue patients in the ambulance, and the large number of aerial shots that appeared in the film.
The scene of the premiere
Graffiti culture corresponds to plot development
Director Michael Bay, born in 1965, is one of the leading commercial filmmakers in Hollywood's "Mesozoic" films. Chinese mainland fans' familiarity with him stemmed from the era of "blockbuster introduction" that began in the 1990s, and the films directed by him, "Jedi X-Men", "Daredevil Island", "The End of the World", and "Pearl Harbor", almost shaped the audience's conceptual cognition of Hollywood blockbusters at that time. In the past decade, his name has been firmly bound to the "Transformers" series of movies, and he enjoys the nickname of "Exploding Shell" among the fan community.
"Outlaw Ambulance", a project that Michael Bay took over in 2020, is said to have invested only $40 million compared to its hundreds of millions of dollars in the past. Looking at the plot introduction, many viewers will think of the 1994 movie "Life and Death Speed" and the 1995 "Jedi X-Men" directed by him. Not long after the opening, the two patrolmen in the film jumped out of a line when chatting, "The loser always says that he has tried his best, and the winner can make love to the Queen of Spades." The film immediately explained that this was Sean Connery's line in "Brave Island", which obviously had the flavor of the director's self-greeting.
Yahya Abdul-Meiding as Veteran Sharp
Jack Gyllenhaal as "Suit Thug" Danny
In the view of graffiti artist Xu Kaimeng, this time the director is quite ingenious in order to show the multiculturalism of Los Angeles, where the story takes place. "Graffiti art originated from the street gang culture in the United States, which is actually the use of symbols to divide the territory. The bank robbery at the beginning of the film takes place in the Upper Town, where large areas of graffiti cannot be seen, but graffiti symbols can still be glimpsed in small public spaces. As ambulances drive into midtown, viewers will see large-scale graffiti murals begin to appear in the cityscape, but they still look a bit 'decent'. At the end of the film, the firefight in the downtown area can be seen in the slums, and the Pop characters everywhere symbolize the chaos and danger here. It can be said that this time only through the identification of graffiti, it can correspond to the beginning and end of the plot. ”
Since the title of the film is called "Outlaw Ambulance", the first aid scene in the ambulance is naturally the right thing to do. Liu Geng, attending physician of the emergency department, said that in general, only one emergency medical staff and one patient are carried in the ambulance. "The purpose of this is to put as much rescue equipment as possible."
Stills from "Outlaw Ambulance"
In his view, the function of the ambulance in the film must have exaggerated elements, but it does not violate the medical principles, "In the world's popular ambulance system, there are two very important principles: one is beneficial to the patient, because the ambulance is hijacked by bandits in the film can not be stopped, the medical staff on the car must treat him in real time, which is related to the development of the plot step by step; the other is the principle of no harm, which is very professional performance of Cam played by Aisha Gonzalez. A qualified ambulance provider must not only have professional skills, but also the ability to empathize with care. The audience will see that she is not a 'vase', but has formed a very strong check and balance relationship with the other two male protagonists. ”
Elsa Gonzalez as Cam, a female ambulance nurse.
Traversal Defines Image Narrative "New Grammar"
Aerial photographer Gao Has participated in the aerial shooting of domestic blockbusters such as "Evil Does Not Pressure Justice" and "The Wandering Earth". He said that aerial photography has become more and more close to the conventional means of shooting, "aerial photography is generally divided into helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (English abbreviation UAV), and crossing machines (English abbreviation FPV Drone) three forms. In the past, when we watched movies, Leng Buding had a helicopter aerial shot, which would immediately bring the audience a different sense of space. It's like the 'God perspective' is looking down, and you will feel that this is what a blockbuster movie should look like. During the filming of "Death Ambulance", these three aerial shooting methods have appeared. ”
Helicopter aerial photography operation is not easy, you need to remove the cabin door in advance, the photographer should hang a safety rope, and operate the photographic equipment to shoot from a high altitude. When the helicopter is flying in the air, the fuselage is shaking at high frequencies at all times. In order to get a stable and clear image picture, it is necessary to install a military-grade gyroscope to get a stable viewing angle. Such a labor force moves the masses, and naturally costs a lot of money. In the view of high rate, it is the sudden arrival of the drone era, which quickly opened the "civilianization" of aerial photography.
"Drones are 'flying cameras' in their own right. Thanks to the advancement of wireless remote control technology and the iteration of imaging equipment, the cameras that used to be very large and bulky can now be integrated into a very small body, and they can shoot 4K, 8K, and even higher resolution image quality images. The high rate of introduction said that unlike helicopters that take aerial photography at high altitudes, UAV aerial photography can just complement the former, "The height of UAV aerial photography is actually in a more air position closer to the ground." In the past, to shoot such a high overhead angle, it was generally achieved by swinging arms and ropeways. With drones, we can easily find this commanding height. ”
The biggest visual highlight of "Outlaw Ambulance" is the large number of interventions in the shooting of the crossing machine. Similar to playing the first perspective game of "what you see is what you get", the first perspective that the traverser can provide can shoot more unique angles and shots. It is understood that during the filming, Michael Bay even spared no expense to invite Alex Vanover, a 19-year-old genius teenager and world champion of the Drone Racing League, to serve as the first perspective cross-aircraft pilot on the set.
"The speed of the traverser can reach 100 to 200 kilometers per hour, which is very fast, so it can do more actions in the spatial dimension." And its shooting environment can be large or small, both outdoor high-speed climbing, and then swooping down, shooting the visual effects scene of the vertical downhill along the building after rushing into the sky. At the same time, you can also complete the movement in a small space, such as indoors, a click, drill under the table, and quickly pass through the door and so on. High rate said.
In order to get an impactful picture of 1 second or even less than 1 second, the pilot even had to put the crossing machine at the limit of approaching "suicide", "precisely because the scene scheduling is extremely complicated, Michael Bay is extremely demanding of the photographer on the set." At the moment when all the pictures are in the same frame, the action with zero error must be completed. In the high-rate view, this time Michael Bay has created a new era of FPV first-view traversal shooting, "high-altitude falls, through the basement, drilling bridge holes, etc., are presented in an incredible perspective." Viewers may wish to pay a little attention when watching the movie - once there is a crossover machine, there will often be a big event in the plot at this time. This is almost a symbol of the whole film, and it is also a new grammar for the director to involve the action visual effects in the narrative of the film. ”
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Shi Gong