I entered Huayu Entertainment in 2016.

Chapter 129 Spielberg-Style Lens

Playing around is fine, but serious filming is no jokes.

As a newcomer, Wang Zian was very humble and eager to learn.

He listened attentively to Lao Li's instructions on the movement route, the boundaries that the camera could capture, and how to control his speed while running so that the focus photographer could keep him in focus.

He listened and nodded, occasionally squatting down to draw a movement mark on the stone floor with chalk that only he could understand.

"【The Red-Haired Girl】Scene 1, Act 1, Shot 1, Action~!"

At Lao Li's command, the camera was pointed at the street.

At the other end of the street, a mob of fleeing people and fleeing soldiers with guns began to pour in, their footsteps and shouts mingling together.

Wang Zian's figure was mixed in with the crowd.

He was hunched over, head down, shoulders slightly hunched, his steps quick but not disorderly, like a swallow flying against the wind in a storm.

You can tell at a glance that this is the main character.

Tian Xiwei and Zhou Ye, who were temporarily pulled in to act as female students, also walked past the camera with their heads down.

Next to the guy holding the microphone stick, a young man was playing gunshots through a speaker to help create the atmosphere.

Following his memory of the requirements, Wang Zian carefully completed the entire course.

He ran to the entrance of the theater, raised his hand and knocked on the door. The wooden door opened a crack, and Liu Haocun's face flashed out through the crack.

Her eyes were filled with panic, but she moved quickly, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him inside, then pressing herself against him to close the door.

Wang Zian fell in following her force, and the wooden door slammed shut behind them, shutting out all the firelight and screams from the outside world.

"Click!"

Old Li shouted loudly, and the tense atmosphere on set instantly dissipated.

Liu Haocun and Wang Zian, who were hiding behind the door, exchanged a glance and laughed at the same time.

Liu Haochun and Wang Zian, who were hiding behind the door, smiled at each other.

"You acted so well!" Liu Haochun said sweetly in encouragement;

"You too!"

"I didn't even show my face, so there was no performance at all!" Liu Haochun laughed as he exposed him.

When the two came out, Zhou Ye and Tian Xiwei were already gathered in front of the screen watching.

"The image quality from this new equipment is so clear, you can even see the dust particles kicked up when you run!" Old Yang exclaimed.

"Nonsense, don't you even know how much it cost? All the cameras and monitors in our entire setup are imported; we just unpacked them yesterday, of course they're good!"

"Play it back quickly!" Tian tide urged.

Old Li dragged the progress bar back, and in the picture, Wang Zi'an was running from the other end of the street. The camera was always focused on his face, and the picture quality was indeed excellent.

In the video, he has a furrowed brow, his eyes are panicked and alert, and his steps are brisk but he takes each step carefully, as if afraid of being spotted by the fleeing soldiers.

Wearing a coarse cloth long gown, he stood out in the crowd. Without any lines, his expressions and posture alone gave him the presence of a protagonist.

After the playback ended, Old Li stroked his chin and objectively commented, "It's alright. It's just that the colors are too bright; it doesn't look like the Republic of China era."

"But this can be solved by reducing the saturation and applying a bluish-gray filter during post-production color grading. How about we keep one take and try a different feel?"

Wang Zian stood still, his gaze still fixed on the monitor, watching his own figure run from one end of the street to the doorway. Then he looked up and surveyed the depth of the street.

"The emotions are a bit too calm; the audience isn't grasping the key points. Let's try a different filming method!"

"What method?" Old Li looked up at him.

"A Spielberg-esque shot!"

···

Everyone returned to their original positions, but this time, the person giving orders from behind the monitor was Wang Zian.

Old Li handed him the walkie-talkie, then stepped aside, crossed his arms, and leaned against the wall, looking at the young man with a gaze that was both scrutinizing and gratified.

He has been in this industry for nearly fifteen years and has seen countless directors sitting in front of a monitor for the first time.

Some people were so nervous that their palms were sweating, some people gave excessive orders to cover up their anxiety, and some people simply pushed all the power to the assistant director and only had a nominal title.

Prince An does not belong to any of these categories.

His fingers were steady as he took the walkie-talkie, his gaze sweeping from the monitor screen to the depths of the street, and then to the photographer carrying the Steadicam stabilizer.

He was confident and thorough in making the arrangements. He didn't say a single unnecessary word throughout the entire process.

He walked up to the photographer and briefly explained the trajectory and rhythm of the camera movement: where to start, what range to control the focus speed, when to zoom from a wide shot to a close-up, and when to give the subject a pause to breathe.

After listening, the photographer lifted the stabilizer strap up half an inch, gave him an OK sign, and grinned.

The Spielberg-style shot is a classic example that has been repeatedly dissected in professional schools, and every photographer present knew how to use it.

Wang Zian also returned to the crowd, waiting for the photographer to adjust the camera position.

The sunlight sank a little lower, bathing the entire street in a thin layer of amber. Dust motes drifted slowly in the slanting sunlight, casting a natural, soft glow on this Republican-era street.

"Act One, Scene One, Second Action!"

This time, the camera didn't directly follow anyone. It started with an empty shot at the street corner, slowly and steadily panning to the left, as if using a silent eye to scan this land licked by war.

In the distance, smoke rose from behind the rooftops, the gray-white plumes of smoke standing out starkly against the twilight sky.

Some of the shop doors on both sides of the street had been smashed, with half of a wooden door hanging crookedly on the frame. Crushed vegetable leaves and an abandoned cloth shoe were scattered on the stone pavement.

The fleeing soldiers ran past the camera in twos and threes. Some were carrying stolen packages in their arms, while others looked back as they ran, their eyes filled not with ferocity, but with fear.

The camera slowly panned across them, finally settling quietly on a group of people fleeing in panic.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Zian suddenly ran into the frame from one side of the crowd.

It's not the kind of running where the camera follows you from a distance and the audience can only see your back.

This time, the camera cut directly to his front, focusing on his face the instant he entered the frame.

His face was full of worry and anxiety.

He hunched over as he made his way through the crowd. A fleeing soldier bumped into him from behind, causing him to stumble half a step. He reached out and grabbed the mottled brick wall beside him before continuing to run forward.

The camera kept following his face; however fast he ran, the camera zoomed in just as fast.

Then he ran to the entrance of the theater and pounded on the door. The wooden door opened a crack, and a hand reached out from inside, grabbed his sleeve, and pulled him in. The door slammed shut behind him.

"Click!"

Old Li practically couldn't wait to walk over from the wall, his face beaming with barely suppressed excitement.

"How did it go this time?" Wang Zian asked Old Li.

Old Li gave a thumbs up, "Even better!"

"The technique involves first slowly panning the background to allow the subject to naturally enter the frame from the edge, pausing for a second, and then suddenly appearing."

"This one-second pause can both enhance the emotional effect and attract the audience's attention; it is also full of drama and makes the audience want to keep watching."

"Since it's good, let's check for any flaws or continuity errors. If not, let's move on to another scene," Wang Zian said.

After carefully checking everything and confirming that there were no problems, Lao Li moved on to the next location.