20 days after the broadcast of "Flowers", Bao Dexi, the visual director of the show, accepted an exclusive interview with the Photography Department of Beijing Film Academy, and comprehensively and in-depth analysis of the behind-the-scenes creation of "Flowers".
Judging from the entire interview, Bao Dexi has worked hard and gained, but also regrets and dissatisfaction. Normally, this kind of interview should be completed and launched when the TV series is on the air, so that it is a good publicity for both the TV series and Bao Dexi himself. He waited so long after the TV series aired to be interviewed, and according to Bao Dexi's own words, this was his "first and last official visit" about "Flowers", in large part because in the interview, in addition to unveiling the mystery of the gorgeous and exquisite picture, he also expressed his disappointment with the TV series.
The whole interview is very long, and there are a lot of terms and equipment and techniques in the field of photography, this article helps readers to make a "dehydrated" version, pick up the key points that everyone is interested in to analyze.
Talking about texture: It's about making movies
"Flowers" has attracted audiences from the beginning of the broadcast, thanks to the movie-level picture texture, which is very outstanding in the ranks of TV dramas. Therefore, the first thing that the interview talked about was the cinematic image quality.
Bao Dexi said that he and Wong Kar-wai have worked a lot, but neither of them has filmed a TV series. The implication is that both of them are relatively unfamiliar with the filming process and efficiency of TV dramas in the industry, so neither of them thought of making "Flowers" into a TV series, but to make it into a "movie with a longer story", and at the same time there are no constraints in the visual tone setting.
At the same time, in terms of image style, the two also discussed that film should be used to reproduce Shanghai in the 90s, but the TV series is too long, and Wong Kar-wai usually shoots a lot of films, so the huge cost of using film is really unbearable, so they have to use digital cameras to get as close to the film style as possible. And the most important light, Bao Dexi also bluntly criticized the current TV series (my personal understanding is mainly sweet pet dramas and ancient puppet dramas), which often fully ** and brighten up all the actors, Bao Dexi believes that this is just an insurance practice, and it has no effect on the artistic level. In short, the cinematic photography, composition and lighting of "Flowers" are because he and Wong Kar-wai are shooting completely according to the logic of the film, and they both follow their previous creative habits and methods.
Talking about photography: In response to Ma Yili's doubts
In the previous seminar, the lead actor Ma Yili shared her experience in filming "Flowers", she said that there are often many mirrors on the set, Wong Kar-wai likes to shoot her through the mirror, and she usually doesn't know where the camera is, so there is no pressure to act, it is more natural.
In this interview to share the filming experience, Bao Dexi answered these two points by Ma Yili by the way.
The first is the choice of equipment, "Flowers" uses a Z Cam 6K camera, this niche and unpopular brand, far less mature than mainstream brands such as Arley, Red, Sony, etc., and they are not as famous. "Flowers" is basically a small scene, and the light is too dark, so he needs to use a camera with high sensitivity and strong light sensitivity and small size, so the dual-native ISO 2500 Z Cam is very suitable for him.
Ma Yili couldn't find the camera, also because the real space of the shooting scene is often very small (recall that most of the scenes in the play are closed and cramped environments such as hotel rooms, restaurant private rooms, foreign trade company offices, pantries and restaurants), Bao Dexi and Wong Kar-wai gave up wide-angle shooting in order to avoid lens distortion, so in order to leave as much space as possible for the actors to move, most of the pictures were shot with telephoto lenses above 70mm, so that the camera could be far enough away from the actors to leave more space, This is different from shooting with a conventional focal length lens in the past, so Ma Yili doesn't know where the camera is.
As for the mirror, they are all very special designs, many shots in the play appear through the mirror, and there is no picture information outside the mirror, but as the mirror moves, the characters slowly appear in the mirror, realizing from scratch, which can add to the mystery of the TV series and appear more moving.
Talking about saving money: the careful machine that can be seen
"Flowers" built a group of restaurants on both sides of the Yellow River Road in the film and television city, and the neon signs flashed at night, which was the "heavy money" dropped for the filming of this drama. But this street alone is not enough to complete the filming of the TV series, and there is no way to fully present the development of the times.
So there are a lot of visible ingenuity in the TV series, such as the scene is concentrated on the Yellow River Road and indoors as much as possible, which is convenient for the crew to control the scheduling, and also tries to save the cost of setting up scenes and props.
For example, most of the scenes are night scenes, which can facilitate Wong Kar-wai and Bao Dexi's well-designed lighting, recall that there are very few outdoor day scenes in "Flowers", Miss Wang is busy at the dock, and it is a more representative one when it rains and clouds, and Bao Dexi also arranged several lights to light up the actors, playing the three-dimensional outline of the actors, so that the picture looks as good as possible.
At night on the Yellow River Road, the signboard neon lights actually bring a lot of trouble to the shooting, because the contrast is too great, if the normal ** face is presented during the shooting, the neon lights will be overexposed, and the color will be distorted, so you can only use a larger light to light from top to bottom.
As for the bus and the panorama of Nanjing Road (the scene of Bao Zong and Xuezhi's recollections), I can only make a fuss about the shooting angle, and Xuezhi only sees the roof when shooting at a low angle, and will not wear a goof if I don't shoot pedestrians, while the bus is filmed in the scene set up in the studio.
Talking about regrets: I am disappointed in the later stage
Here it is necessary to talk about Bao Dexi's "status in the rivers and lakes". He is one of the most senior cinematographers in Hong Kong, China, and his representative works include "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Lame Hao", "Wu Ji", "Confucius", etc., and won the Best Cinematography Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, Golden Horse Awards and Academy Awards. Bao Dexi did not participate in "Changjin Lake", but he helped shoot the scene where the rocky beach was randomly strafed by enemy planes, which became the most classic scene in the movie.
Bao Dexi, who originally focused on movies, may not take over the TV series if someone else is looking for him. What he meant in the interview was that he had cooperated a lot with Wong Kar-wai, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was Wong Kar-wai's introduction to his work, so "Flowers" can be regarded as a feedback to Wong Kar-wai.
In addition, it may also be because Wong Kar-wai gave him enough attention and power to let him "be promoted two levels in a row".
According to Bao Dexi's status today, he should normally be the title of director of photography in a crew. To put it simply, a DP is the person who is qualified to sit behind a monitor with the director, and tell the camera assistant and handheld camera over the intercom while looking at the monitor.
Above the director of photography is the director of photography, but the title given to Bao Dexi by Wong Kar-wai in "Flowers" is "visual director", which is equivalent to Bao Dexi not only in charge of photography, but also in charge of the entire TV series and any department related to the picture, including photography, art, lighting, props, etc.!
However, if Bao Dexi has anything to say, he will not be very polite to Wong Kar-wai. When it comes to scene design, Bao Dexi revealed Wong Kar-wai's weakness of insecurity about large spaces, which is simply understood that large spaces and large scenes are difficult to control, and there are too many imperfect things, but small spaces are different, and each place can be carefully designed with a special mood. For example, in the pantry of the Foreign Trade Building, the classic scene where Miss Wang gets stamps is basically filmed through glass windows, rather than using conventional ways to open doors or tear down walls.
As for the overall production of "Flowers", Bao Dexi also expressed dissatisfaction and disappointment. On the one hand, he revealed that the later stage of "Flowers" is very rushed, and he has to complete 30 episodes in 30 days (maybe it is in a hurry?). And the whole project was sent to Thailand to complete post-production, due to the sudden schedule, he couldn't shoot the new film with post-grading, so Bao Dexi said, "I'm very disappointed with the current grading, I didn't bring out the best color tone." "It's like a chef who has prepared a big dish with his heart, but the people below him serve it without setting the plate, which is really regrettable.
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