To be honest, Zhang Yuanjun never thought that "Buried Alive" would be shortlisted for the main competition. He thought that he would be satisfied if he could go to a special attention unit and walk on the red carpet in a serious manner.
Unexpectedly, the 60-year-old Cannes would be so generous and directly mention "Buried Alive" in the main competition.
Zhang Yuanjun is really not humble. He really feels that being shortlisted is success, and winning the award is unimaginable.
"Buried Alive" is a film that has a relatively novel format and an anti-war core. However, the film does not delve deeply into the emotions of the male protagonist and makes no outstanding breakthroughs and innovations on the theme of anti-war. The performance of the male protagonist Zhang Yuanjun is very poor. Well, it's not like he's a newcomer who just graduated from film school. The director is also a newcomer, so he gave me a nomination as a token of comfort.
Winning the award was a blind thought. Zhang Yuanjun never thought about it, nor did Rodrigo Cortez or the film's main distributor, Summit Entertainment, think about it.
However, they will all go to Cannes in May to promote the film.
The crew in Yunnan Province is in trouble, because according to the shooting plan made early in the morning, "Love Has an Afterlife" will be completed before the rainy season in Yunnan Province in June, and May is the most critical period for filming.
But Yu Feihong still approved Zhang Yuanjun's leave, and asked the producer and assistant director: "Adjust the subsequent announcements and focus on filming A Ming's scenes."
But Yu Feihong could control the crew, but he couldn't control the weather in Yunnan Province.
The weather in the Gaoligong Mountains in March is really unpredictable.
You can encounter many different weather changes in a day, such as sunny days, foggy days, cloudy days, heavy rain, hail, etc.
Gaoligong Mountain is 4,000 meters above sea level. Many people on the crew, including director Yu Feihong himself, suffered from altitude sickness, not to mention the leading actor Zhang Yuanjun, who had a violent horse riding action scene.
Usual fitness exercises are simply not enough to cope with the high altitude sickness at this time. In the first week of filming, the altitude sickness of the entire crew and the unpredictable weather made it almost impossible to carry out the daily shooting work normally. Kankan took five usable shots.
Only after Yu Feihong entered Yunnan did he truly experience how difficult it is to be a director.
There are 10,000 things waiting for her to deal with every day inside and outside the crew. Zhang Yuanjun has also made two movies, "Famous" and "Animal World", so she has experience. Watching the crew spend more than three hours on the road every day, But because of the unpredictable weather and not being able to take a few shots every day, he felt distressed as an actor.
This goes back and forth, shooting and stopping, how much money is wasted.
I heard that Teacher Yu had prepared 40 million yuan to make this film. Zhang Yuanjun grinned after hearing this. The total cost of his two films was just over 40 million yuan, but she dared to spend 40 million yuan on her debut literary film.
Others say that during the preparation period, Teacher Yu sold all his houses because he could not attract investment.
Is the rich lady so careless in everything she does?
This morning, the sky was blue and the wind was gentle, which was a rare good weather.
Yu Feihong quickly organized the crew to start filming: "Hurry up and set up, and shoot a few more scenes. We have shot 2 scenes in the past few days. It is too slow. Hurry up."
Yu Feihong was wearing a hat and down jacket to direct the crew.
It’s still very cold in the mountains in March.
Half an hour later, the crew was ready. Yu Feihong handed the monitor to the executive director, changed his clothes and came to the set.
Zhang Yuanjun also took off his clothes and entered the venue. It was really cold. Because he had to wear braids, Zhang Yuanjun shaved his head. The cold air from the mountains blew on his scalp, making it even colder.
"Get ready," the executive director shouted, "lead the horses."
"alright."
Zhang Yuanjun and Yu Feihong stood at the door of the wooden house.
In this scene, A Ming got a beautiful white horse from his brother and gave it to Ah Jiu, and then A Ming took Ah Jiu to gallop on the mountain.
Zhang and Yu ran down from the door and started filming. They would refinish the interior scenes together later and then rely on editing to put them together.
It's very simple, there's not even any dialogue.
But even in such a simple scene, running out of the door, something unexpected happened.
The children in the extras were disobedient, and the two ran down from the door of the room. The child who was trotting and playing at the door did not avoid Zhang Yuanjun, and Zhang Yuanjun almost bumped into him.
This was just a small problem, and the child didn't cry. Zhang Yuanjun picked him up and teased: "Do you know what filming is?"
The kid shook his head.
"Then do you know what you are doing these days?"
"That uncle asked me to play here." That's not what the assistant director said.
"Is it fun?"
"It's fun, lots of kids come together."
"How old are you this year?"
The child holds out 4 fingers.
"You're four years old. Have you gone to school?"
"No."
After a few words of coaxing, Zhang Yuanjun put the child down: "Go and play, don't run around."
Turning the phone back on, this time the two of them managed to avoid the child when they ran down.
But I escaped the children and not other accidents.
After all, on the mountain, Zhang Yuanjun pulled Yu Feihong down and trotted down. Yu Feihong slipped under his feet and fell down.
Yu Feihong even laughed: "Come again, come again."
Standing up and patting his clothes, Zhang Yuanjun said, "How about I run slower?"
"It's okay, it was my sole that slipped. These old-fashioned cloth shoes are not anti-slip. Try again."
Only after the third time did the impossible scene come to an end smoothly, the two of them stood in front of the horse.
Yu Feihong stretched out his hand to touch the white horse. The horse snorted and probably felt cold. Yu Feihong retracted his hand in fear. Zhang Yuanjun gently grabbed Yu Feihong's hand and said, "Don't be afraid."
Take her with you to stroke the white horse's mane.
Then, Zhang Yuanjun suddenly hugged Feihong's waist and lifted it up without thinking. The two fell to the ground, with Yu Feihong lying on his back and pressing on Zhang Yuanjun.
"Hahahaha!" The whole audience laughed.
The male and female protagonists, especially Zhang Yuanjun, clapped and laughed.
The following scene required Zhang Yuanjun to suddenly carry Yu Feihong onto the horse, then get on the horse himself, and the two of them rode away.
"I'm not heavy either." Yu Feihong got up from the ground, "Can't you hold me?"
"No, it was a sharp blow without any exertion." Zhang Yuanjun explained, "This way, when I hug you later, you can lift it up yourself, which is convenient."
"Okay. Change your clothes and we'll reshoot later." He fell to the ground. The back of Zhang Yuanjun's white robe was dirty and needed to be changed.
After Yu Feihong finished speaking, he went to the director's tent to watch the footage he had just shot.
Zhang Yuanjun changed his clothes, took a sip of water, briefly touched up his makeup, and returned to the set to continue working.
The two of them stood in front of the white horse. Zhang Yuanjun touched the horse and said, "Be good later."
Then he said to Feihong: "Teacher Yu, let's try it twice and see."
"good."
Zhang Yuanjun put his arm around Yu Feihong's waist: "One, two, three, let's go."
Yu Feihong himself also tried to push up, but Zhang Yuanjun's strength was too strong, and Yu Feihong could not mount the horse well.
"Just be gentle, I can reach it."
"Okay. You sit forward, and I will roll up from behind."
The two tried it twice more and successfully completed it.
“Come on, actors, get ready,” the executive director shouted, “start shooting!”
(End of chapter)
