listen to the "behind-the-scenes heroes" tell the unknown stories between light and shadow
2024-09-03
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changchun has the first film studio in new china, which has produced many popular works and cultivated a large number of outstanding film talents for new china. among them are many well-known directors and actors, and there are also a large number of film workers who silently dedicate themselves behind the screen, such as photographers, makeup artists, stuntmen, dubbing actors...
on august 28, the 19th china changchun film festival officially opened. at this special moment, when countless spotlights are shining on the current popular filmmakers, let us also listen to the unknown stories of the older generation of "behind-the-scenes heroes", review the past together, and pay tribute to the classics!
“magic hands” skillfully shapes screen image
"what's the point of dealing with bottles and jars every day and drawing eyebrows and mouths on an area as big as a human face?" wang yunrui, 91 years old this year, was the chief makeup artist of changchun film studio (hereinafter referred to as changchun film studio) before her retirement. she entered the makeup training class of the art department at the age of 15, but after the initial novelty wore off, she felt a little bored.
at this time, changchun film studio decided to shoot its first color feature film, "a full moon over flowers", and gave the makeup work to wang yunrui. how to use makeup to highlight the character's personality? wang yunrui wanted to express herself, but she felt that her technical level was limited. fortunately, with the help of soviet experts, she successfully completed the task.
since then, she has persisted in practicing basic skills for more than 10 years. not only has she mastered various makeup techniques, but she has also explored new techniques for character modeling that combine the images of actors, and gradually grown into an outstanding stylist.
in 1983, changchun film studio started filming "li bing". the background of the film is the qin dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. there are hundreds of characters, big and small, and the makeup and styling task is quite arduous. in order to highly restore history, wang yunrui and his colleagues visited libraries and archaeological institutes.
"take the jewelry worn by women for example. it best represents the characteristics of the times and is not something that can be simply inserted as an ornament. for example, many operas use the tassel-shaped buyao that hangs down, but i found in the information that the buyao in the qin dynasty was in the shape of flower branches and pointed upwards. but how can you make it sway as you walk? i thought of using springs, rolling up the gold and silver threads like springs, and inlaying small beads in the middle, so that the effect is achieved." wang yunrui recalled.
wang yunrui also spent a lot of effort on the protagonist's appearance: "li bing is intelligent, tenacious, and patriotic. for such a character, i want to design him to be dignified and steady. the actor's mouth corners are downward, so i use the drooping upper beard to press down the bottom of the mouth corners; his eyebrows are very close to his eyes, so i shaved his lower eyebrows, and then wove a small wisp of eyebrows and glued them on, so that the real and fake eyebrows are perfectly combined..."
at the end of 1983, li bing was released nationwide and received rave reviews, winning the best art award, best makeup award, and best prop award at the 4th china film golden rooster awards. the award citation said that the makeup artist collected and verified a large amount of historical data, carefully designed many character models, and accumulated useful experience for the makeup creation of historical films.
perform classics with ever-changing voices
over the past 75 years, changchun film studio has translated 2,666 films from more than 50 countries, including "roman holiday", "tora-san's story", "despicable me", "ready player one", etc. generations of voice actors have performed countless classics, and pan shulan is one of them.
in 1957, pan shulan graduated from high school and worked as a nurse in a dental hospital. the following year, changchun film studio recruited students for its first actor training class, and pan shulan, who loved literature and art, signed up. in 1964, after starring in many films such as "red plum blossoms", she was transferred to changchun film studio and quickly mastered dubbing skills under the guidance of her teacher.
with her wide vocal range and strong language expression, pan shulan has participated in the dubbing of various characters.
how did a woman dub for a little boy? "in order to grasp the rhythm of the boy's language and his inner world, i often played with him and watched him speak." when 86-year-old pan shulan demonstrated to reporters, her lifelike voice was amazing.
"we used magnetic tapes to record at that time, and one magnetic tape could only be used for three or four recordings. all the actors had to practice their lines thoroughly before entering the recording studio. it's not like now, when they can re-record if they make mistakes." pan shulan said that there were more than a dozen people recording on the same stage back then, and if your lines were wrong, it would affect others, so except for sleeping, walking, and cooking, she was basically memorizing lines.
with her hard work and talent, pan shulan won industry awards for dubbing many film roles. after retirement, pan shulan was hired by a film and television company in beijing and worked there for more than ten years. during that time, she got the opportunity to dub the elderly ruth in titanic.
today, pan shulan, who is in her octogenarian, is still very serious once she gets into work mode and can instantly integrate into the role. the infectiousness of her voice makes people applaud and cheer.
different times, different lights and shadows
with a digital camera in hand, everyone can take photos however they want. in areas that cannot be covered by handheld cameras, drones can be used. chen changan, a national first-class photographer, is very envious: "if we had such equipment back then, how lucky we would be!"
chen changan's photography journey began in 1958. at the age of 18, chen changan was hired by changchun film studio and started as the third assistant photographer, then the second assistant, the chief assistant, the stagehand, the assistant photographer, and the photographer. he said: "the cameras at that time were relatively heavy. there were 6 people in the filming crew, and each person had a different job. however, when encountering complex filming locations, the manpower was still not enough."
"when filming in the countryside, i live with the villagers, and when filming in the army, i live in the barracks." the difficulties in food and accommodation are easy to overcome. what makes chen changan most uncomfortable is that many times he has put in a lot of effort but still cannot achieve the most ideal effect.
in the boundless reed marsh, a faint white mist looms - this is a panoramic shot in "crane flying". there were no drones back then, so in order to capture the white mist floating from afar, chen changan, who is afraid of heights, had to sit on an 8-meter-high crane. fortunately, when the machine started, he was so focused that he forgot about it.
"in order to present the smoke diffusion effect, personnel were required to release smoke 1 kilometer upwind. there were no walkie-talkies or mobile phones at that time, so we could only agree to release the smoke on a clock. but after shooting this shot, when our team was retreating, we discovered that the smoke diffusion effect was the best at this time. unfortunately, the sun was about to set and the film was very precious, so we couldn't reshoot it." chen changan still regrets this.
"colleagues in various departments had to overcome many difficulties," chen changan said. for example, lighting technicians often had to run back and forth on a platform several meters high to adjust the lights. once, during three days and three nights of continuous shooting, a lighting technician fell off the platform due to sleepiness. "the sensitivity of the machines in those days was only 12 or 24 degrees, not 200 degrees like today. without strong light, the photos were not clear at all. the strong light often made people unable to open their eyes."
despite the difficult shooting conditions at the time, chen changan still shot 25 classic films including "flying cranes", "crystal heart", "moon in the gobi desert", and "damage in the sky" before retiring in 1999, and trained famous photographers such as li li and wang jian.
"different times, different light and shadow," said chen changan. he hopes that the new generation can inherit the professionalism and high standards of the older generation of filmmakers under difficult conditions and dedicate more and better films to the audience.
reporter peng bing liu shanshan correspondent sun lingwei meng shaodong
source: workers daily
