Chapter 105: Seeing the Truth in the Smallest Details
Eight Extreme Fist power in the heel, line in the waist, through the finger tip, so the violent force is very rich in the characteristics of the technical combat. Due to the Eight Extreme Fist action is strong, simple and unadorned, hair force explosion fierce, there is a "shake bladder hit the sky down, stomping feet shocked nine states" of the trend, so there is a "Wen Taiji, martial arts Eight Extremes," the saying.
In terms of fighting style, Chang De Sheng specializes in Xingyi Quan and Baji Quan are somewhat similar, both are hard hitting.
Although and taijiquan, bagua palm belongs to the same internal boxing, but with the gossip of the horizontal walk, taiji in the fixed significant difference is that the shape of boxing short straight into the style is honed from the battlefield, there is no fancy moves, the longest strength is also the fastest. To know that in ancient times, two armies fighting, thousands of troops, there is no place to flash and move, so it can only be straight into the straight line, go also hit, hit also go, a few like the Yellow River's embankment.
Lin Mingyang has been looking forward to seeing the real Xingyi Quan, Chang De Sheng's excuse makes him a little disappointed. Next to him, Wu Yusen was also a bit anxious, he asked immediately afterward, "So is that body of your kung fu still there?"
"I've relied on that body to eat all these years, and my kung fu hasn't fallen off." Chang De Sheng nodded, but in his heart, he was a bit puzzled, if Wu wanted to find a real kung fu master, he should go directly to the mainland side to find one. Most of the martial arts masters on the Hong Kong side were from the pear orchard, and their kung fu training was only for making a living. Chang De Sheng's Xingyi Quan can only be considered as an introduction, but in this group of people in Hong Kong who have done the Dragon and Tiger martial arts masters, it is also considered to be the best.
Wu also did not have the leisure time to catch up with him, directly open the door and said, "I have a job in hand now, are you willing to take it?"
Chang De Sheng eyes lit up, John Woo's hands of work, that is certainly a "big deal". But there are so many martial arts firms in Hong Kong, how come such a good thing is his turn? This point did not understand, Chang De Sheng did not rush to answer, although he really needs a job now.
John Woo further explained, "I have a vampire movie in hand, to start shooting in Europe, now the crew is short of an action director, for the film's final werewolf vs. vampire action design. felix proposed to add kung fu elements to this action scene, but eight-pole boxing is not very suitable for such a film, I thought of shaped-intelligence boxing, and then I thought of you! ."
Chang De Sheng still doesn't quite get it, "There are so many martial arts masters in Hong Kong, I'm not the only one who knows Xingyiquan."
"A fight between a vampire and a werewolf doesn't need any complicated moves, what I want is not the stance, but the straight-in, straight-out feeling of Xingyi Quan."
Chang De Sheng did not hesitate this time, "Since you still look up to me, I'll take this job!"
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Kate was also very surprised to see the new action director in the crew. She and Lin Mingyang had "held hands" in Hong Kong, and Chang De Sheng was the only witness. However, the performance of Chang De Sheng in the crew finally proved that Kate's concern is actually a little redundant. The other party at least is also in the Hong Kong film industry for so many years, Lin Mingyang and Kate relationship between his heart clear, but on the surface but pretend to know nothing.
As soon as Chang De Sheng arrived on the set, he heard about Lin Ming Yang's previous "bad record", even the former director of the movie was over by him, to deal with such a small martial arts director like him, it is not as simple as crushing an ant.
Chang De Sheng knew that he could get the job, in addition to the director John Woo saw the momentum of Xingyi Quan, mostly because of their previous friendship. So he was unambiguous in his work, and cautious in his contact with the rest of the crew.
Joining a Hollywood crew for the first time, Chang De Sheng was definitely a bit uncomfortable at first, and the biggest problem was communication. Born in Hong Kong, Chang De Sheng also understands some simple English, but it is a bit difficult for him to speak.
It's a good thing that Chang De Sheng's job exposure is to the lead actor and the stunts. Starring Kate Beckinsale certainly do not understand Chinese, but she has Lin Mingyang around this free translation; special effects group Chang De Sheng need to direct command is that a few hanging Weiya staff, his general meaning, even said with gestures, the other side basically still be able to understand.
The movie continues to be set in Hungary, after the reopening of the shooting, all members of the crew's work and rest are back to the United States time. Vampires can't see the sunlight, so all the filming of the movie was put in the night, and the daytime became a natural time for everyone to rest.
John Woo appreciated the somber gothic style of Wiseman's camera, which is why he didn't overthrow the movie and reshoot it after he took over the helm.
In the continuation of the style of the movie at the same time, Wiseman shot that part of the good John Woo only selective retention. At the beginning of the movie, Kate's female vampire warrior Catherine stands on the roof of a building and jumps from eight stories high after discovering that she has to hunt a werewolf target. Wiseman filmed this sequence with a stunt double for Kate for the sequence where she falls from a great height.
For this set of shots, Woo wasn't so happy with it, and he thought Kathryn showed too much ease when she landed. Jumping down from such a high place, she should have to have a very obvious crouching cushioning action, the original footage, although there is also this action, but apparently during the shooting, hanging on the actor's Weiya's speed is put a little slow, the landing did not reflect that sense of gravity.
When reshooting, Chang De Sheng came up with an idea, he suggested that John Woo not repeat the action of Catherine's overall landing in the original footage, and when filming, put the camera down, first filming Catherine's feet touching the ground to land the moment of the footage, and then the camera smoothly pulling it back and upwards. In this way, Kate did not even need a body double during the shooting, she herself only needed to jump down from a one-meter-high platform, complete the cushioning action that Chang De Sheng taught her when she landed, and then slowly stand up. After the final footage was edited, the entire landing movement became as smooth as flowing water.
This detailing made Lin Mingyang change his opinion of Chang De Sheng at the beginning, although this guy was a good gambler, he did have his own unique way of designing movements.
Chang De Sheng to help John Woo deal with the second shot Catherine with a sharp brake to throw off the roof of the car werewolf leader Luxi, and then drove at full power to crash the other side. Being hit, Luxi's body has a tumbling motion in the air. Wiseman's shot was not finished with the final cushioning of the landing, but the werewolf leader's tumbling through the air did not conform to the normal principles of impact.
After being hit by a car, it is not easy to land so easily, Chang De Sheng modified the first reference to the car impact mannequin experiments, the trajectory of the model in the air, and then combined with the aerial twisting martial arts movements, redesigned this set of shots, and finally also achieved good results.
Similar action modifications are many, Chang De Sheng endless ideas to help John Woo save a lot of shooting costs. In the scene where Catherine rescues Michael, who has been captured by a werewolf, Chang also helped Woo to avoid a shot that would have been too much for him. In this scene, Serena shot the chain of Michael's handcuffs with a gun, but in the subsequent shot of Michael breaking free from his bindings, the handcuffs on his wrists were missing.
Because it was shot separately, even Lin Mingyang himself did not notice this problem during the performance, after breaking free of the restraints, the play Michael and Catherine will have a kissing scene, Lin Mingyang and Kate looked at each other, at this moment the two have the intention of "fake drama", but stood aside Chang De Sheng found this obvious loophole, and then approached John Woo's ear and said, "I don't want to see this. And then came to John Woo's ear whispered to him a wake-up call.
Lin Mingyang and Kate's lips just touched together, Wu Yusen a "CUT", scared the two hastily separated, made a big red face not to mention, panic head also hit together.
Standing in the distance, John Woo pointed to his own wrist, Lin Mingyang realized that just now the shots appeared to help, re-shooting, Kate played Catherine directly to the handcuffs shot.
The second time to shoot that section of the kissing scene, Kate has been lips have come up, but Lin Mingyang a little distracted, this three hearted kissing in the eyes of John Woo certainly can not pass, he called a pause once again.
"Felix, what are you looking at me for, you should be looking at Kate at this time!" Wu Yu-Sen was a bit strange, in Lin Ming Yang should not have such a low-level mistake as "lost in thought", especially in the face of such a beautiful woman as Kate, this kind of mistake is simply unforgivable.
Lin Mingyang is actually worried about Wu Jusen once again destroy their "good things", shooting towards the director side of the two eyes, did not expect such details or Wu Jusen found. The third reshoots, Lin Mingyang no worries, he and Kate naturally kissed together, but with the experience of the last two times, Kate this time the shell teeth tightly locked, simply do not give Lin Mingyang's tongue any opportunity to enter.
The small movements between the two were not noticed by anyone else, it was when Wu felt that the shot was almost ready that the lighting system on the set suddenly cut out, and the surroundings became out of reach all of a sudden. The darkness threw the crew into a short period of confusion, and everyone could only grope their way along by feel, and in addition to bumping into people, they would also knock something over from time to time.
Chang De Sheng suddenly shouted in the darkness, "It's fixed, the power will come on soon!"
He used Chinese, and the people around him didn't understand, but Lin Mingyang reacted. He hurriedly let go of Kate, and the crew's lighting system returned to normal.
The entire power outage lasted no more than 5 minutes, Lin Ming Yang and Kate were still standing in a face-to-face position at this point, he inclined his head to look at John Woo, "Do we need to do it again?"
The footage that had just been filmed in the camera was not lost, Wu Yusen shook his head, "Inform the field manager, we'll move on to the next scene."
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Chang De Sheng didn't realize that he had inadvertently done Lin Ming Yang a big favor, in fact he didn't have time to think about anything more, all of his energy was now invested in the design of the action scene at the end of the film where the vampire and the werewolf had a big showdown.
In Wiseman's original plan, this final fight scene was no more than 5 minutes, but John Woo thought that this should be the climax of the movie, and that there had to be a very colorful action scene that couldn't simply end, and he asked Chang De Sheng to design a fight scene that would last at least more than 8 minutes.
When designing the action of the vampire Victor, Chang De Sheng incorporated the style of Xingyi Quan, which is straight forward, fierce, fast and vicious, while the fighting action of the werewolf teenager Michael, Chang De Sheng referred to the Eagle Claw Boxing. Because after Michael transformed into a werewolf, his hands became claws, and the Eagle Claw Fist, which was changed from the Flipping Zi Quan, is a kung fu that specializes in finger grasping power. This kind of boxing imitates the action of the eagle's claw grasping and snapping, requiring the outgoing hand to collapse and strike, and the returning hand to grasp and take, the whole routine is violent and vicious, fast and intensive.
On the basis of the Eagle Claw Fist, Chang De Sheng incorporated some movement postures when the wolf attacked, and all the movements were fist-to-flesh actual strikes. He drew action sketches according to his own ideas, and John Woo was so impressed that he immediately decided to shoot the whole fight scene according to his ideas.
These actions that Chang De Sheng designed on the sketches were not too difficult for Lin Ming Yang, but British actor Bill Nye, who played the vampire leader, was a bit overwhelmed. Not only was he the oldest actor in this movie, but his makeup was also one of the most complicated.
From the beginning, John Woo did not intend to use the computerized CG technology that is common in most films, believing that while CG certainly has its merits, it is inevitably a bit overwhelming when it comes to creating creatures with hair. The audience for "Legend of the Night" is a generation that has grown up watching Hollywood monster movies, and he demanded that the movie must have something tangible that people could feel within their reach. So in the movie from sleeping zombies to awakening vampires, this process is all done by makeup artists. Most of Bill Nye's time on the set was spent applying and removing makeup.
Lin Mingyang, because of his martial arts training, had no difficulty in accomplishing those movements designed by Chang De Sheng and meeting the director's requirements. But Bill Nye had never been exposed to similar performances, and his age was also a problem that could not be ignored. In his fifties, he did not have the same physical strength as Lin Mingyang, all of which made the filming of the movie quite difficult.
For this reason, Chang De Sheng once again modified his action design, the whole fight Lin Ming Yang's role is obviously aggravated. Considering the difficulty of Bill Nye's performance, Lin Mingyang has to take up the role of active offense, and he will have a lot of aerial grabs in the camera. While Bill Nye's movements during the shooting will be relatively conservative.
Even so, this scene is still back and forth shooting a week, every action in the camera, Chang De Sheng have to personally go down to the scene for Bill Nye demonstration once, and then in the shooting of the continuous correction, so that only shot to make John Woo satisfied with the effect.