Poster of "The Lone Moon".
Directed by Zhang Eating Fish and starring Shen Teng and Ma Li, the science fiction comedy film "LoneLy Moon" was released nationwide on July 29, telling the story of Shen Teng's lonely moon being accidentally landed on the moon by Ma Lanxing, played by Ma Li, who thought that he was the last human in the universe, and released himself on the moon, but was broadcast live by the world.
From taking over the project in February 2018 until the film premiere (July 24, 2022), director Zhang Eating Fish has calculated that it has been 1618 days. The film has a huge amount of special effects, 95% of the shots involved in special effects, especially the kangaroo, and the special effects of one of the shots took nearly a year. But for Zhang Eating Fish, the most difficult thing to do such a science fiction comedy as "Lone Moon" is how to tell a comedy story, science fiction is just a background, as for technical problems, as long as you find an excellent team, they can help you solve.
The subtitle that appears at the end of the film is the romance given by the director
In the original "Lone Moon", a person was landed on the moon, he saw the earth hit by a meteorite on the moon, thinking that he became the only survivor in the universe, in fact, the survivors on the earth were watching his life on the moon through live broadcasting. The hook of this story is very gripping, and the comedy style is particularly in line with the comedy of happy twist, and the director Zhang Eat fish is hit by the story at once.
In the process of adaptation, Zhang Yuyu felt that the most difficult part was how to make trade-offs, keep the good things in the original work, and then develop some story lines.
The kangaroos that appear on the moon in the movie respect the setting of the original work, Zhang Eating Fish himself also likes animals, thinks kangaroos are very likable, and he is confident that the audience will like this role. The relationship line between Shen Teng and Ma Li is developed by the film, how to promote this character relationship line, and let the feelings of the two finally deeply penetrate into the audience's heart, this is a problem that Zhang needs to overcome.
After the release of "Charlotte Troubles", the two leading actors Shen Teng and Ma Li, the famous "Shen Ma" combination, have not cooperated in feature films for 7 years. In "Alone on the Moon", Shen Teng plays the maintenance worker Du Lonely Moon, who has always had a crush on Ma Lanxing, the leader of the Moon Shield Project played by Ma Li, but when filming, there were not many rival scenes between the two.
Shen Teng and Ma Li play dugu yue and Ma Lanxing respectively.
There is a scene at the end of the film, Ma Lanxing and Lone Moon "meet" on the moon, normally speaking, the camera can not shoot Shen Teng, he does not need to go to the scene to play, but Shen Teng still insists on going to the scene, wearing dozens of pounds of spacesuits to help Ma Li with words. Ma Li was particularly touched at that time, "When Tengge really stood there, I burst into tears in an instant, and the emotions of all the characters all came to my heart, and the performance at that time was the most real."
Throughout the creation of "Lone Moon", there are two things that Zhang Eat fish has not changed from beginning to end. The first is the song "Take Me Home, Country Road", when he wrote the script, he immediately determined that when lonely moon was sacrificed, the background music should play this song. Second, the ending setting of the lonely moon sacrifice has not changed. Zhang Yuyu felt that this was the best destination for the lonely moon.
"In terms of character arc, Lone Moon has changed from an ordinary person to an intermediary standing between the earth and the π + (meteorite). From a lonely figure, (to) to the end, gradually all the people of the earth are concerned about him. He was molded into a hero from the beginning to a hero in the end. From the perspective of the character's feelings, from the beginning of his crush on the goddess to the end to be so close to the goddess, this character's life has no regrets." In Zhang's view, the current ending cannot be said to be perfect, but at least it is satisfactory.
There are many bridge sections in the film that the director himself likes very much, such as the kangaroo pulling the car, and the feeling of freedom between people and kangaroos on the moon; The people of the earth are united in their determination to boil for the blood of the lone moon on the moon when the lights are bursting. These are the romance that Zhang Eats Fish gives to the film, but what he really wants to express is the subtitle at the end of the film: "The universe is so big, we will still meet."
Throughout the film's creation process, Zhang Yuyu experienced some parting, his grandmother who brought him up from childhood died, and the cat he had raised for 11 years also left him. For Zhang Eating Fish, "Lone Moon" is not only limited to the love between men and women, it has a richer emotional extension and sustenance.
In Zhang Eating Fish's view, to do such a science fiction comedy as "Lone Moon", the most difficult thing is how to tell a comedy story, as for technical problems, domestic special effects have actually gotten better and better, as long as you find an excellent team, they can help you solve.
A shot of a kangaroo, the special effects were made for nearly a year before passing
"Lone Moon" is Happy Twist's first time involved in science fiction themes, and the amount of special effects is huge. Before the official start of filming, Zhang Yuyu and the special effects team carried out virtual shooting, first capturing the actor's performance through motion capture, putting it in the virtual environment, and then using the virtual camera to shoot the virtual actor in the virtual environment. Sounds a bit tongue-twisting, Zhang eats fish to make an analogy, "In fact, it is almost like wearing VR glasses, I enter a room, my eyes become a camera, and what I see is the perspective of the camera, which can be understood so simply." ”
Zhang Eating Fish took some of the heavy scenes in the movie, such as kangaroos pulling cars, which were virtually filmed, and then edited after filming. Before the actual shooting, Zhang Eating Fish has many shots of these heavy scenes, how the presentation effect has been very clear, and when the real shooting is made, the notice sheet is issued according to the virtual shooting, and shooting on the spot is basically the implementation plan.
"The convenience of virtual shooting is that it gives you one more chance to shoot at a very low cost, and you can keep debugging the scheme during the virtual shooting phase until you are satisfied. If you shoot directly, the amount of shots may need to double, and what kind of effect will be presented after shooting is unknown." Zhang said that this process is very efficient. In the preparatory process, he also went to consult director Guo Fan, who was very successful after the release of "The Wandering Earth", and director Guo Fan gave us great help. In the film, the character played by Huang Cailun also made a comedy baggage for "The Wandering Earth" to use in the lines.
Zhang Saidu said that the biggest difficulty in the special effects of "Lone Moon" is how to vividly present the kangaroo. "To measure the position of a special effects company in the industry, it actually depends on whether its biological special effects are doing well or not." Only when a special effects company does a good job of biology can it show that the special effects technology is excellent." Zhang Yuyu found the domestic first-line special effects company MORE VFX, which has done biological special effects for "Red-haired Ghosts and Black Armor" in "Assassination of a Novelist", "Mozart" in "Mozart in Outer Space", and also participated in the special effects production of "The Wandering Earth".
The kangaroo shot in the film is a test of the level of special effects production.
The reason for choosing a domestic special effects company, Zhang Yuyu said, the fundamental reason is that "Lone Moon" is a comedy, comedy needs a strong local culture, foreign teams may not understand some of the baggage in the film, communication is also more troublesome, some of the subtle expressions of kangaroos need to be adjusted through special effects artists. And, realistically, if you look for Hollywood's top special effects companies, they probably won't put the best talent on a Chinese project. But with MORE VFX, they're going to do everything they can to do it.
Zhang Eating Fish takes a special effects shot as an example. In the film, Lonely Moon dresses up as a "female kangaroo" and comes to the food warehouse. Gangko kangaroo is stuffing a biscuit into his mouth, and when he sees the "mother kangaroo", the background behind it becomes a savannah. "I gave the footage of this shot to the special effects company in August last year, and it wasn't until July 13 of this year that the shot finally passed, and it took almost a year to do it."
The post-production of the entire film took a year and a half, and the whole project took a very long time. Zhang Yuyu said that since the end of 2019, he began to carry out some conceptual design work with the special effects team, in fact, he has invested nearly 3 years to communicate and produce.
"Lone Moon" is the most expensive film produced by Happy Twist, and the number of difficult special effects shots is about 1800. In the interview, Zhang Yuyu has always stressed that special effects are not the most core thing of the film, it is always just the means and background, the most important thing is the story itself, hoping that the audience can get a happy experience after watching it.
Shen Teng performs a one-man show in the air, and must also perform various emotions
Shen Teng has a large number of opponent scenes with Kangaroo Gangzi in the film. The kangaroo in the movie is based on the combination of live-action motion capture and special effects, and the kangaroo is played by the happy twist actor Hao Han, who although he did not show his face in the movie, spent 1 year desperately completing this role. In order to play the Wolverine well, he moved to live near the zoo a year in advance, so that he could learn to imitate the kangaroo movements nearby, and entered the group for intensive training 4 months in advance.
Zhang Saidu said that when filming the scenes of Shen Teng and kangaroos, first shoot a scene of Shen Teng and Hao Han, then shoot a scene of Shen Teng acting against the air, and finally through the post-synthesis of Shen Teng and kangaroo interaction shots.
Zhang Eating Fish's requirement for Shen Teng is that he can come up with the best state when performing against the air. Because when choosing the material, he will give preference to the one that is played against the air, which can reduce the workload of post-special effects. If you choose the one that you play with Hao Han, you still need to "erase" Hao Han in the later stage, increasing the workload.
Therefore, most of the time in the whole film is Shen Teng's one-man show, and he is performing against the air. "There are a lot of emotions in the film, and the mood and sorrow in the air must have a strong sense of faith." Zhang said eating fish.
There is a scene in the film where during a fight with a kangaroo, the kangaroo touches the wire with its tail, causing some sonic reactions on the monitor. Lonely Moon thought that a colleague on Earth had contacted him, facing the monitor, revealing very mixed emotions. Shen Teng said that this scene was particularly difficult, and it was filmed three times in total, the last time was on the day of the killing.
Shen Teng also did not expect that filming "Lone Moon" would be so exhausting.
Shen Teng, dressed in a heavy spacesuit, was on the set.
In the film, Shen Teng has a lot of walking and running on the moon, the gravitational force of the moon is only 1/6 of the gravitational force of the earth, in order to show the weightlessness on the moon, it is necessary to rely on the assistance of Weiya, wear the Weiya suit inside, tighten the whole person, and then wear the spacesuit outside. Shen Teng's spacesuit and helmet weigh more than 40 pounds, and after putting it on, he will force his neck to lean forward. Zhang Yuyu said that when the shooting was taken, the doctor had suggested that it was necessary to stop to avoid the possibility of injury to the cervical spine, but Shen Teng still insisted on finishing the shooting.
In order to shoot weightlessness, Shen Teng is actually the most guilty, Zhang Yuyu said with some guilt, the domestic science fiction movies are still too few, resulting in the production of spacesuit props are not so exquisite, will not consider the principle of ergonomics to make the actors comfortable to wear, "but I believe that the domestic film industry will slowly improve, no matter who shoots again in the future, it will definitely be able to take a step forward than we can now."
A lot of comedy baggage, "collective intelligence" from the scene
In Zhang's view, comedy is very tested by improvisational performances and cannot be read from the script. For the actors who are happy and twisted, years of polishing on the stage have cultivated a strong adaptability, and improvisation is even more handy.
"Teng Ge (Shen Teng) has reached the level of pure fire in improvisation," Zhang said, saying that in many cases, he just told Shen Teng an emotion, a situation, and the rest was just to watch him play. For example, the scene of blowing up the door, the original setting is very normal, with a hand to press the remote control, the bomb on the door detonated. But Shen Teng put the remote control under his feet, and his big toes cocked up and pressed down. This is all the classic baggage that Shen Teng improvised on the spot.
Huang Cailun (who plays Hulu Si'er) is also an actor who makes Zhang Eat Fish full of surprises, sometimes the director talks to him about this line, and when he says it, it is other lines that come out.
Hulu Silk, played by Huang Cailun, has contributed a lot of comedy baggage.
In the film, Lonely Moon wanders the moon alone, and Hulu Si'er explains in the live broadcast: "This reminds me of a work by Wu Jing, "Kill the Wolf 2". "Like the meme of "Kill the Wolf 2", I don't think there is a second person who can come up with such a baggage except Huang Cailun." Zhang Yuyu said that there are many plans for this scene, we want to try several possibilities on the spot, so that the actors can say whatever they want, and as a result, Huang Cailun said such a burden on the spot. At the beginning, the director himself felt that this baggage was not a little too flying, it was a burden in the industry, in fact, it was turned over a layer, even a little nonsensical, but the final editing effect was quite good.
A lot of the comedy baggage in the film is actually collided on the spot, including Hulu Si'er said that she wanted to sing a song "All Blame Me" to everyone, nor was the script written, it was the second creation carried out after several main creators on the scene walked through the play, in Zhang Eating Fish's view, "This is actually the collective wisdom of the scene.".
Through the global live broadcast, the film allows survivors on earth to see the life of lone moon on the moon, and see how he sacrificed himself, saved the earth, and became a hero. Huang Zitao plays a first-line artist in the film, who hides underground after the earth is hit, and becomes a subway "line one artist".
Director Zhang Yuyu wants to create an idol in a post-apocalyptic environment, so that he can show an unknown side, because it is a comedy, he wants to show it in a self-destructive way. Zhang Eating Fish had seen some of the variety shows in which Huang Zitao participated before, and felt that when he spoke Qingdao dialect, he had a sense of comedy and a lot of comedic talent, so he thought of Huang Zitao at the beginning, but after handing over the script, he was also ready to be rejected, prepared plan B, and if he didn't work, he would find another actor, and he didn't expect Huang Zitao to agree to be particularly happy.
Wang Chengsi, who played "Xiu Nian" in "Shy Iron Fist", played Huang Zitao's agent in "Lone Moon", and basically all his scenes were completed with Huang Zitao. When the two first met in the crew, Huang Zitao said, "I'll give you a surprise in a moment." When the styling began to shoot, Huang Zitao's hood was taken off, and the top of his head was almost bald. For this "baldness", Wang Chengsi couldn't laugh at that time, and he didn't expect Huang Zitao to be so open.
Huang Zitao (first from left) and Wang Chengsi (the one with glasses on the right) play artists and agents respectively in the film.
"He really surprised me, not only the comedy part, but also the emotional scenes in the back, he acted very well, very unexpectedly." Zhang Yuyu praised Huang Zitao's performance.
Science fiction is just the background, and it comes down to comedy
In the process of creating "Lone Moon", the crew invited some scientific consultants and aviation consultants to check the film at the professional level. Zhang Yayu said that the film's worldview is constantly structured with the promotion of the script, sometimes he may first launch the script, the story needs such a bridge section, and then reverse the launch of the worldview, such a story needs to have what kind of worldview to support. At this time, it is necessary for the scientific consultant to judge whether the setting of this worldview is in line with scientific principles.
"One of the things that they (the scientific advisors) are particularly good at is that they have a very good grasp of that degree, on the one hand, they meet our specific needs and help us find out as many problems as possible that have hard injuries." On the other hand, they also know that you are not making a science documentary, and you cannot design it exactly according to all the principles of science. For example, kangaroos pulling carts, how kangaroos can fly on the moon, everyone knows, it is certainly impossible, but they will feel that this is a very romantic expression. ”
In Zhang Eating Fish's view, "Alone Moon" is still a comedy in the final analysis, and unlike Happy Twist's previous works, this time the story is moved to the moon, and nothing else is special.
In fact, when he first took over the project, Zhang Yuyu also worried about whether the comedy baggage would dissolve the feeling of science fiction and height; The coldness of science fiction will not dissolve the joy of baggage. From the beginning, Zhang Yuyu has sought a balance between science fiction and comedy.
Zhang Eat fish said that in fact, science fiction is just a film background, and what is in it is actually up to us to decide. For example, a bowl looks very futuristic, but the rice it contains is what everyone can eat every day. Many of the bridges in the film are designed according to this line of thinking. The same is true of the design of a moon ring action between Lone Moon and Kangaroo in "Lone Moon", the audience only needs to understand that Lone Moon wants to go from place A to place B on the moon, as for how to go, that is a science fiction setting.
The environment in the film is mostly cool, while the characters use warm colors such as yellow.
At the beginning of the film, Du Lonely Moon, played by Shen Teng, went to interview the technical staff of the Moon Shield Program and asked the interviewer: "My previous social security was in Qiqihar, after going to the moon, where should the social security be paid?" Zhang eats fish said that in fact, from the beginning of this sentence, the plot is considering how to combine science fiction and comedy. Until the final color grading, director Zhang Yayu and director of photography Du Jie and the colorist were pondering whether the film picture should be warm or cool, and finally reached an agreement: the picture presented belongs to the environment, it is a cool color, and the character is a warm color.
In fact, at the beginning of the creation of this story, Zhang Yuyu always had a picture in his mind: on the gray moon, there was a minion strolling. He tried to use a warm color to bring hope and joy to people. "When I can't find the direction, I keep thinking about the picture, and then I can gradually see what the last work I want is like."
Beijing News reporter Teng Chao
Edited by Huang Jialing
Proofreading By Chen Diyan