The filming progress of "Squid Game" can be described as both smooth and not smooth, which is a contradictory statement. The reason why it went smoothly is that all departments and trades in this drama are the best in the industry, and everyone can produce very good things. In addition, this drama was shot in a large number of studios and did not require location shooting, so there were fewer unexpected factors, allowing the coordinator to control the progress very easily. The reason why it was not smooth was that as the filming progressed, everyone gradually began to doubt whether this drama would be a hit. Such doubts arise because... when everyone sees the giant puppet built from the real scene at the shooting site, it exudes a sense of eeriness and fear because of its huge size. The filming of a scene called "One, two, three, freeze" took five full days, and every day I just performed the scene with a group of people - but for many actors, this was not a performance at all, as there was not much to perform in this scene. This filming experience, which was completely different from the past, made the actors feel out of control and uneasy due to the unfamiliarity. Only the director and coordinator repeatedly emphasized that there were no delays in the progress of this play. Lu Yanhe went to the set twice. After seeing the stage design and prop settings on the set, as well as the styling of each character, Lu Yanhe was filled with surprise. It's not about how exquisitely it's made, but about a sense of reality.
Lu Yanhe particularly does not want this battle royale drama to have a thriller feel - there can be one or two thriller shots, but the overall atmosphere should not be scary or eerie. Otherwise, there will definitely be a large number of viewers who are unwilling to watch horror films and will miss this show. He was very determined that from the beginning of the project, the audience should not have any impression that "this play is a bit scary". Lu Yanhe also specifically contacted the actors one by one, asking them not to express similar feelings before the show starts airing. - The crew of "Squid Game" created each scene one-to-one according to the real scene. Because of this kind of scenery, the director likes to shoot big scenes instead of close-ups. However, such big scenes are particularly shocking during the game of "Statue of a Thousand Faces". Especially the shot of machine gun fire, where a large group of people fell down. It is thrilling, unexpected, and makes people's adrenaline soar. How much importance does Northern Lights Video attach to this drama? Extras are all professional actors with excellent acting skills. They have signed contracts with the crew and receive proper remuneration. This way, every person who appears in every shot can be in this situation. After Lu Yanhe arrived at the set, everyone came over to greet him. Those who knew him exchanged a few pleasantries, and those who didn’t know him got to know each other. This is a very large crew with quite a few actors. Lu Yanhe curiously asked Jiang Zixin how much these real scenes cost in total. Jiang Zixin said: "The total cost of renting the six studios alone is over a million." When Lu Yanhe heard this, he was shocked. He didn't expect the rent to be so expensive. Come to think of it, it makes sense. This drama took three months from preparation to completion, and six large studios were rented at once to create the scenery. The rental fee is not outrageously expensive. Lu Yanhe laughed and joked: "Are all six studios filming at the same time?" "Of course not, we didn't even split into Group A and Group B for filming." Jiang Zixin said, "We put a lot of effort into this drama and used the most abundant production funds to produce it." Lu Yanhe: "Since the six studios are not filming at the same time, we can just use the idle scenes to shoot a survival variety show. When "Squid Game" is over, we can immediately start this show and earn back the rent." Jiang Zixin looked surprised.
"what?" Lu Yanhe said: "This drama is about a group of people who participate in a game in which they may lose their lives in order to win the final prize. So why not organize a similar game competition and recruit some people to participate in these games? Of course, unlike in the drama, they don't face life and death threats. However, can this make the game more difficult? The difficulty of the game in the drama doesn't need to be so high because one careless move can lead to death, which is tense enough..." Jiang Zixin listened to Lu Yanhe's sudden and long speech, and was shocked. She knew without asking how Zheng Huairen would react if she told him about this idea. There will only be one reaction, do it! Jiang Zixin asked tentatively: "Then this program is a derivative program of this drama, right? Maybe you need authorization." The copyright of "Squid Game" belongs to Lu Yanhe's film and television production company, not Northern Lights Video. Whatever derivative work you want to develop, you need authorization. Lu Yanhe looked at Jiang Zixin with some surprise, "Do you really want to do it?" "It sounds interesting, and everyone should like it." Jiang Zixin said, "Besides, this drama is so popular, and this program should also attract a lot of attention. The scenery of this drama is so expensive, and developing some peripheral products can also make some money back." Jiang Zixin retorted with the joke Lu Yanhe had just made. Lu Yanhe: "Well, if you really think you can do it, then authorize it." - Jiang Zixin immediately went to call Zheng Huairen. Lu Yanhe came to Jiang Jun and Jiang Yuqian. "Teacher Jiang, Sister Yuqian, did everything go smoothly?" Jiang Jun and Jiang Yuqian have both lost a lot of weight. The two people have put a lot of effort into their body shape, making them look more like ordinary people who have been struggling at the bottom of society for many years. This is the first time that Jiang Jun plays the leading male role. There is no doubt how much he cherishes this opportunity. Same as Jiang Yuqian. Even if we put these aside, the professionalism of both of them will not allow them to do things half-heartedly. Jiang Yuqian hesitated to speak. Seeing this, Lu Yanhe didn't expect Jiang Yuqian to really have something to say. "Sister Yuqian, what's wrong? Is there anything wrong?" Jiang Yuqian: "We are all a little uncomfortable with this." "Not quite used to it?" Lu Yanhe asked in surprise, "Not quite used to what?" Jiang Yuqian told Lu Yanhe about the issues they all thought were problematic. "Is it too long to shoot a game?" "Yes, we filmed a lot of scenes. In fact, it was just one page of content in the script, but we filmed a lot of scenes." Jiang Yuqian said, "We also know that these games are actually the highlight of this play, but after filming so many scenes over and over again, sometimes I even felt that although I was acting, there was no camera filming me at all." When Lu Yanhe heard Jiang Yuqian say this, he smiled with relief. "I was shocked. I thought there was something wrong with the filming."
"What's wrong?" Jiang Yuqian asked, "Do you think this is okay?" "The director actually discussed this scene with me before," Lu Yanhe explained. "The reason why he took so long to shoot is because this scene is the first game of the whole play. If the first game cannot set the tone of the shadow of death and the sense of crisis, the story will be difficult to establish. Therefore, he hopes to shoot more wide-angle shots. As for the northern lights, he felt that this drama did not have close-up shots of the actors, so he decided to shoot all the materials he wanted to shoot and then edit them later to see how to edit them for the best effect. That's why this scene took so long to shoot. Don't worry, there will be no such situation in the subsequent scenes." Jiang Yuqian looked at him in surprise and said, "How do you know more than us? The director didn't explain it to us." Lu Yanhe smiled, "He came to win my support. He hopes that this game will use more panoramic shots, and he needs me to support him and convince Northern Lights." "Okay." Jiang Yuqian was somewhat relieved. "If that's the case, I understand." Lu Yanhe: "It took Aurora a long time to select this director. Although he has no famous works before, we all think his directing style is very suitable for Squid Game." Originally, "Squid Game" wanted to find Lian Bei, the director of "The Seventeenth Floor". After several rounds of communication, Lian Bei finally decided to give up because he had to prepare for the second season of "The Seventeenth Floor". Therefore, Northern Lights Video found the current director, Yao Yuanzhi, from among its own cultivated directors. Yao Yuanzhi did not study film and television arts in college, but computer science. He entered this industry by accident. Later, he filmed two low-cost suspense thriller web dramas at Northern Lights Video. Both were "three-no" dramas, with no well-known directors, no well-known actors, and no well-known screenwriters, and not many people have seen them. Originally, because Northern Lights Video attached great importance to this project, they wanted to find a more experienced director. However, because "Squid Game" was hastily filmed ahead of time and they were really pressed for time, this opportunity fell to Yao Yuanzhi. Yao Yuanzhi also knew how rare it was for him to get this opportunity. In fact, he had already started preparing for this drama. In order to convince Northern Lights that he could be a good director of this drama, when he was first considered, he drew a storyboard based on the script fragments he got. After that, Yao Yuanzhi continued to expand his ideas and had a clear idea of how he would shoot the drama. It can be said that this was also an important reason why he was able to get this opportunity in the end - he had a very clear idea of how to shoot the entire drama, and his storyboards showed this. "Sister Yuqian, Teacher Jiang, although I am not very familiar with this director, he has always maintained very close communication with me. As a screenwriter, I think his understanding and ideas about this play are first-class." Lu Yanhe said, "You can try not to think of him as an ordinary director without representative works, but to trust him and understand every decision he makes." Jiang Yuqian was a little surprised and asked, "You are filming with a new director. Can you trust them unconditionally like this?" Lu Yanhe nodded. "I trust any director very much in any crew. However, that's because I already recognized the director before I accepted the role. Your situation is different from mine. After all, the director was chosen after you signed the contract with Squid Game. So please believe me. I really think he is very suitable to be the director of this play. If you can trust him, I think the play will be better." Jiang Yuqian pursed her lips and fell into deep thought. - It is common for a famous actor to be distrustful when facing a new director. This has nothing to do with good or bad, right or wrong, because most of the time, new directors lack experience or even talent. They just have pure... talent in their mouths, while the experience of an actor can help him ensure that his performance is not bad in a bad movie. However, Lu Yanhe has a concept that no matter what, it is best for a play to have only one voice. Even if it really fails in the end, it is better than making it a mess. Moreover, Lu Yanhe will leave all the nitpicking and scrutiny before joining the crew. After joining the crew, he will trust the director. Because of this, he was able to make "Late Spring" and "Friends". When he was making these two movies, the directors were not well-known directors, and their names were not as big as his. If he didn't want to listen to the director and wanted to do it his own way, the director could do nothing. Lu Yanhe came here to express this meaning, which made Jiang Yuqian, Liu Zefan and other actors start to think seriously about this matter. After all, Lu Yanhe said so. - "Lu Yanhe said that the show 'China in Culture' has the potential to be a hit, so you guys should stop being so stingy." At a department meeting, Zheng Huairen expressed dissatisfaction with the rating of the program "China in Culture". This show only got a B grade, not even an A grade. "This show doesn't have any celebrity artists, so it's hard to give it an A no matter how you look at it," others said. Zheng Huairen: "Really? What would you say if this show really becomes popular?" Others were duds. "You can't say that. Any show could become a dark horse." "Well, but every project of Lu Yanhe is a dark horse and he has never failed. Now, a new horse is about to run out of his stable. Why don't you bet a little more, or just buy the minimum amount?" Zheng Huairen felt that what he said had shaken the hearts of these people. "There's one more thing. Jiang Zixin contacted me again just now, and Lu Yanhe came up with another idea."
"Why does he have so many ideas?" "I'm curious, how come the ideas of so many of us combined are not as good as the idea of one person?" Zheng Huairen immediately retorted. The other party shut up. "A spin-off of Squid Game is a level-breaking show based on the world view of Squid Game. It gathers a group of people to challenge the levels, and the winner will receive a cash reward." Zheng Huairen said, "The scenery and props are all ready. We can start recording the show as soon as the show is finished. According to the schedule, it can be completed in two to three days. It is another show with almost no cost investment but can make a lot of money relying on the popularity of the show itself." He put the pen in his hand on the table. "Sometimes I really want to know, every time you come to complain to me that I allocated too much production funds to Lu Yanhe's project, why don't you reflect on yourselves and why you can't come up with such an idea?" Zheng Huairen sneered, "When we said we wanted to make real scenes for "Squid Game", you all said no, saying that real scenes are too expensive and that such investment is a complete waste and unnecessary. Why is it that when Lu Yanhe heard that real scenes are expensive today, he can immediately come up with an idea and use this idea to easily recover the money spent? Every time he comes up with these ideas, he takes us to make money like doing charity. He can completely not take us to play and do it himself. What qualifications do you have to keep complaining here?" Zheng Huairen's sudden barrage of sarcasm and sarcasm hammered the English word "idea" firmly into everyone's heads. Lu Yanhe naturally didn't know that the idea he casually mentioned was used as a weapon by Zheng Huairen, who fired a machine gun at everyone in the department, shooting many people's dissatisfaction and unhappiness into a sieve. This is Northern Lights Video, not Beijing and Taiwan. Performance speaks for itself here. (End of this chapter)