After arriving at Qingchi and settling down at the hotel, Zhang Ran met with the county leaders, and then accompanied by the county magistrate, headed straight to Laoshupo Village. Laoshupo Village is halfway up the mountain. There is no road and the vehicles cannot drive up, so they can only park at the foot of the mountain. In order to facilitate parking of the crew's vehicles, the county government has specially opened a temporary parking lot at the foot of the mountain.

At the entrance of the parking lot, Zhang Ran saw several reporters who were stopped outside. The person in charge of the county association filming office told Zhang Ran that the county government specially hired dozens of villagers as security guards, and also equipped police and armed police to protect them, so that outsiders would not allow them to perform, and that the filming information of the filming was not leaked. The person in charge also told Zhang Ran that the county government also provided the crew with a group of female staff wearing "cleaning" costumes, transporting various items to the crew and providing cleaning and miscellaneous services.

Zhang Ran and the county leaders walked along the mountain road for more than ten minutes and arrived at Laoshupo Village.

When Zhang Ran arrived in Laoshupo Village a few months ago, the doors and windows of the houses here were blocked with stones, and many of the walls and roofs of the houses were broken. Now the stones that blocked the doors and windows have been removed, and the holes in the walls and roofs have been repaired. Many houses have been renovated, but after the renovation, the art parts have been made old again, and there is no trace of renovation at all.

On the day the filming of "Year, Month, Day" officially started, the crew's buses, as well as large box trucks such as lights, costumes, props, etc., lined up, and drove to Laoshupo Village by police cars.

When Zhang Ran and his friends arrived at the parking lot at the foot of the mountain, they were surrounded by the people on the three floors inside and three floors outside. The villagers nearby rode motorcycles, bicycles, and even drove tractors, all wanting to see how the movie was filmed. In addition, there were a large number of reporters waiting for the report and fans coming from all over the country. However, the police and security guards on duty were very responsible and stopped all of these people outside and did not allow them to enter.

After the crew's vehicles were parked, the staff quickly built a blue tent outside Laoshupo Village as the crew's base camp, and then moved various equipment from the bottom of the mountain to the base camp, and then began to debug the equipment; other departments of the crew were also busy to prepare for the official filming of the movie.

The scene to be filmed today is the first scene of the movie, which is the scene of worshiping the sky. This scene will be filmed from the air, the ground, and different angles, and requires the use of a drone. After arriving at the set, the three drone operators carefully checked the drone, turned on the remote control, let the drone take off slowly, and began to conduct various tests on the aircraft.

The roar of the drone attracted the attention of the onlookers. Everyone saw the "strange things" in the air and started to talk enthusiastically: "Oh, what is that? Is it a flying saucer?"

"No, UFO is an alien thing. How could the crew have UFOs!"

"Yes, it should be a model UFO, a prop for making movies!"

The reporters on the scene didn't know the drone. They had similar views to the onlookers. They thought it was a prop in the movie and thought that Zhang Ran's new film was indeed a science fiction film. So many reporters had formulated the title of the news in their hearts, saying "Zhang Ran's new film Qingchi started shooting, and a mysterious aircraft appeared on the set."

The extra quickly changed his clothes and, under the leadership of Zhou Xiaoxi, came to the altar at the entrance of the village. This time, Zhou Xiaoxi put a lot of effort into the choice of the masses and screened out the villagers of more than a dozen nearby villages. Only a dozen were selected in a village, both young and old, but the ones they chose were thinner and darker.

Deputy Director Guo Fan stood on the altar, holding a trumpet in his hand and shouted: "Everyone, calm down, listen to Director Zhang tell us the play!"

Zhang Ran knew that for these extras who had never performed a show, the most important thing was to relax them and said with a smile: "Our play is about drought. In the past, when a severe drought occurs, we should sacrifice to the sky, or to the Dragon King. We should set up an altar at the entrance of the village, place offerings, place two water tanks, tie a dog between two tanks, let the dog head tilt to the sky and bark wildly towards the sun! Generally speaking, after a few days, it will rain! You will act as the villagers participating in the sacrifice to the sky, and all you have to do is to sacrifice to the sky with Teacher Li Xuejian! Then you just listen to Teacher Li Xuejian's order. He told you to kneel down, and everyone would kneel down! He told everyone to kowtow, and everyone would kowtow!"

Zhang Ran looked at the many extras and said, "This scene is very simple, similar to our usual ancestor worship. Everyone listened to Teacher Li Xuejian's command and followed him to do it! There is a place I would like to remind you that we will use drones for today's shooting!" Speaking of this, Zhang Ran pointed to the drone in the air: "The sound of drones is relatively loud. When the performance is officially performed later, don't go to see the drone. If you see it, you will be in trouble and start over."

Soon, Li Xuejian, who had put on makeup and changed into clothes, rushed over, and the folklore experts also came. There was a special process for offering sacrifices to the sky due to severe drought. Zhang Ran didn't understand this, and no one in the crew understood it. In order to truly reproduce the scene of offering sacrifices to the sky, the crew specially found folklore experts and invited people to the crew to ensure the accuracy of the sacrifice process.

Under the guidance of folklore experts, Li Xuejian led the extras to start rehearsal. Li Xuejian stood in the center of the altar, said the words to sacrifice to heaven, and then took the lead in kneeling and kowtowing...

It was almost half past nine, and the preparations for the shooting were done, leaving only the problem of light.

This is a sacrifice to the sky. It must be filmed under the scorching sun, there must be a bright sun, and there must be very strong light, making the audience feel particularly hot at first sight.

When shooting this scene, it is not enough to be too early, and the light is not strong enough; it is not enough to be too late. If it is 11:30, it is the time to reach the light. The sun is above your head, so you can't take pictures of the sun. The ideal shooting time is the time period from 10:00 to 11:00, and from 2:30 to 3:00 pm. If it is not for this time period, the effect will be worse.

In the studio, the crew can arrange light according to the plot needs, but there is no way to shoot a real scene, so movies often rely on the weather for their meals.

Zhang Ran, Zhang Jingchu, and Zhao Fei and others were sitting in the crew's "base camp" chatting. Yang Ying hurried in and said excitedly: "Director, Minister Wang of the Provincial Propaganda Department is here to visit the set!"

When Zhang Ran heard the provincial propaganda minister coming to visit the set, he shook his head helplessly. Filming in the local area is always inevitable and it is a waste of time, but you must see him. After all, the crew also needs the support of government departments.

Zhang Ran came out of the tent and didn't walk far away and saw a group of people who looked like officials walking here. Some of them had seen were leaders of the city and county. The group of officials also saw Zhang Ran and walked over with a smile on his face.

"Minister Wang, I'll introduce you." Seeing Zhang Ran coming, the Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee smiled and introduced to the officials around him: "This is the internationally renowned director Zhang Ran!" He also introduced to Zhang Ran: "Director Zhang, this is Comrade Wang Jianguo, the Minister of the Provincial Propaganda Department."

Seeing Zhang Ran, Wang Jianguo stretched out his hand with a smile and said enthusiastically: "Hello, Director Zhang! I'm very happy to see you. I'm your loyal fan! I'm here this time, hoping that I won't disturb your shooting work!"

Seeing that the other party was so polite, Zhang Ran smiled and said, "Minister Wang, are you polite! The crew's preparations for filming are almost done. They are waiting for the sun now. It takes about 10 o'clock to start filming. They are all idle now."

The two sides had a brief exchange and said a cliché. Wang Jianguo said that Zhang Ran's movie could be filmed in Qingchi, and the best publicity for Qingchi and Luoyang to enhance their popularity and influence to the outside world; and asked the city and county to cooperate fully and provide good services. Zhang Ran naturally expressed his gratitude to the government departments for their support for the movie, and said that he and the Peak of the Century will definitely come here to film, contributing to the local cultural industry.

After saying the cliché, Wang Jianguo called the staff who accompanied him over, first handed a box of local specialties to Zhang Ran, and then handed a box of mineral water to Zhang Ran. He told Zhang Ran that he knew that the crew was working hard for filming, so he brought some local specialties and mineral water to everyone. Zhang Ran expressed his gratitude to Wang Jianguo, and then asked the crew staff to distribute the gifts to everyone.

Zhang Ran took Wang Jianguo and his party to visit the set, and then took them to the "base camp". Zhang Ran briefly introduced the process of 3D shooting, then called Li Xuejian, Wang Luodan and several other actors to the tent, and gave a brief introduction, and then introduced the content and shooting requirements of the drama "Year, Month and Day".

It was only at this time that Wang Jianguo realized that Zhang Ran was not filming a science fiction film, but a "Chinese version of the Old Man and the Sea". Of course, as long as it is Zhang Ran's movie, no matter what the subject it is, the attention of the media and audience at home and abroad will not be less.

It was soon 10 o'clock, and the ideal shooting time was up. All departments of the crew took their place and began to make the final preparations before the shooting. More than a dozen fireworksmen used equipment that had been prepared long ago to set off cigarettes on the spot.

Smoke is a tool commonly used in movies. Using the smoke effect well can not only create an atmosphere, but also better reflect the beam and dyeing effect of the light, enhance the layering of the light, and enhance the perspective relationship of the shot. Kurosawa Akira is a master who uses smoke and especially loves to use smoke to create atmosphere.

Influenced by Kurosawa Akira, Zhang Ran also likes to use smoke, and smoke is always indispensable in his movies; and "Year, Month and Day" is the movie he uses the most with smoke.

"Year, Month and Day" mainly requires two considerations. One is that the movie uses 60 frames to shoot, and 60 frames will make the movie's picture smoother and the 3D effect is better, but it also brings a problem. If the picture is too clear, it will lose the texture of the movie. Peter Jackson took 48 frames to shoot "The Hobbit", but many viewers reacted like TV series rather than movies. Releasing smoke on the scene will increase particles in the air, soften the picture, and increase the texture of the movie.

Another reason is that the movie is about drought. To make the audience feel the burning feeling brought by drought, in addition to using a lot of backlight, another way is to arrange a faint smoke effect. Usually people describe the sunshine as strong, and the ground is smoked by the sun. Lay out the light smoke on the set, and combined with the violent sunshine, it gives people the feeling that the ground is smoked by the sun, and the scorching atmosphere comes out in an instant!

Wang Jianguo smelled the smoke released by the fireworks master with a faint aroma of coffee and was a little curious: "I have visited other crews before and have seen smoke coming out. The smoke from other crews is quite unpleasant. Your smoke is actually fragrant, and it smells of coffee!"

Zhang Jingchu explained: "The smoke we put out is evaporated from coffee beans mixed with cooking oil. Domestic crews usually use tobacco cakes, which smells bad. The actors will feel their throats hurt after smelling it for a long time. Zhang Ran is more considerate of the actors. Using coffee beans and cooking oil will not cause harm to the actors' bodies, but the cost is relatively high, and the cost per hour is several thousand yuan."

When the smoke gradually faded and could only see it vaguely, Zhang Ran picked up the walkie-talkie and said loudly: "Each group is ready, let's start the real shot!"
Chapter completed!