The morning in Peking in July is still relatively cool, the old men carry bird cages and take their beloved birds to stroll in the morning forest, the old ladies practice Tai Chi in the open space of the park, and the young parents are busy arranging their children's breakfast.

At this time, the campus of Beihang University was in full swing, and the staff of the Beihang UAV Research Institute and the workers of the stunt workshop of the Beihang Film Studio were busy installing the cableway photography system.

The ropeway photography system is very simple to say, pulling four ropes in the air, two of which are guide ropes and two tow ropes, which are matched with it, and the ground is equipped with a drive system and a control system. In addition, two fulcrums are set up to pull four ropes into the air, usually using cranes, buildings or rayers.

It may not sound complicated, but it is not. There can be no error at all in the preliminary preparation from the ropeway, ropeway, crane, etc., because it is related to the position and safety of the ropeway shooting. Not to mention anything else, in order to ensure the clarity and stability of the picture, the ropeway car needs harsh conditions during the filming process, and the most important thing is that the track must be fixed firmly and there can be no irregular shaking.

It took three days for Beihang and Beiying workers to set up the cableway camera system on the campus of Beihang University. The entire ropeway system uses two cranes as fulcrums, with a main boom of 25 meters and a jib of 35 meters, and a ropeway length of 357 meters. This parameter is very far from the ropeway system of later generations, which often had a main boom and a jib of 5,60 meters high, and the ropeway could be pulled up to a length of thousands of meters. But now there is only this condition, and it can only be done to this extent.

The staff carefully mounted the camera on the ropeway car, installed a camera on the ropeway car, and connected the optical fiber. When the optical fiber is connected to the receiver and monitor on the ground, the camera can see the image in the monitor.

The monitor came out in the early 70's, mainly in the field of television. In the late 70s, monitors began to be used for film shooting, but the entire film industry was more reluctant to use monitors, and the attitude towards monitors was a bit like the attitude of the film industry towards digital cameras.

In the eyes of many people, adding a monitor will bring a lot of trouble to the camera crew, because it turns out that only the director and photographer know what the picture is like when the movie is taken, and no one else knows if they don't see the sample.

Last year, Zhang Erzan went to the UK with a Chinese film delegation. When communicating with British filmmakers, Zhang Erzan asked about the monitor. The British said to him, "Why are you studying this? This thing is not good for filmmaking, we don't do this anymore, it's a disaster to make movies with this thing!"

Xu Wangqiu was staring at the monitor, and Hu Jian next to him poked his arm: "Wangqiu! Xu Wangqiu looked up and saw that Wang Lanxi and several bigwigs from the film export leading group were walking towards this side with a smile on their faces, and quickly got up to greet them.

Xu Wangqiu has always believed that industrialization is the only way for Chinese films, and it is also the only way out. If Chinese films could not produce shocking light, shadow and sound effects through technical means, they would not be able to resist the impact of TV and VCD in the 90s, and it would be difficult to resist the impact of Hollywood blockbusters after 2000. If the film wants to take the road of industry, it must invest money in technological development. If there is not enough technology to support it, it is a joke to try to make the film industry up.

Now the country is particularly poor, and the concept of "building is better than buying, and buying is better than renting" is particularly popular. Exporting companies engaged in technological development may arouse doubts: Is it necessary for you to spend so much money on technological development?

In order to prove that it is feasible to engage in technology development, after personally verifying that the cableway system can shoot ideal shots, Xu Wangqiu reported the good news to Wang Lanxi, and sent an invitation to the leading group, hoping that all the leaders will come to see this high-tech product with independent intellectual property rights.

After greeting several leaders, Xu Wangqiu pointed to the half-empty track lane: "The trolley is a platform with four axles, which is fixed on the axle of the cableway, and a camera is hung below, which can slide on the cableway, and the staff on the ground control the machines and equipment to shoot, which is the cableway shooting system." When Jiang Qing remade "Southern Expedition and Northern War", he wanted an aerial shot, the camera was close to the ground, and he followed the tank, the tank went downhill, and the camera had to go over the tank and continue to move forward. At that time, the technical conditions were not enough, and that shot was not filmed, but now with the cableway system, it is easy to shoot the kind of shot Jiang Qing wants. The ropeway system can track the subject for thousands of kilometers, and the lens can be rotated 360 degrees, so you can shoot many amazing shots. ”

Zhou Yang of the Propaganda Department asked: "I heard that this system is at the international leading level?"

Xu Wangqiu nodded and said, "Yes, it can be said that it fills the international gap." The Americans took aerial shots, either with helicopters or with model airplanes. Our ropeway system has advantages that they don't have, such as broadcasting a volleyball game, a helicopter can't drive to the stadium to shoot, and a model airplane can't shoot for a long time, only a few minutes, while our cableway system doesn't have these problems and can shoot for hours. Of course, our ropeway system has just been developed and is not yet very mature. When the technology matures, we can promote it overseas, and I believe that this thing is very promising, and our ropeway system can be used for movies, large-scale parties, and sports live broadcasts. ”

Several bigwigs nodded approvingly when they heard that the ropeway system had filled the international gap and had great market prospects.

Wang Lanxi looked at Xu Wangqiu and said: "You are talking about this thing in a big way, I want to see if it is as magical as you say, and show us the effect of this cableway photography system." ”

Xu Wangqiu saluted with a smile, and then called Zhang Fengyi and two students from Beihang University over to get them ready, and then the shooting started immediately. After the construction of the cableway system was completed yesterday, there were several test shots, Zhang Fengyi and they are already familiar with the road, so don't make too many preparations.

After Zhang Fengyi and them were in place, Xu Wangqiu picked up the horn and shouted loudly: "Everyone is ready, start shooting now!"

With Xu Wangqiu's order, Zhang Fengyi began to perform. He came out of the boys' dormitory and rode his bicycle slowly. At the same time, the ropeway car in the air slowly moved forward under the control of the staff. The funicular was controlled by a teacher from Beihang University, who won the national championship in the National Games in the 60s. Controlling the rail car was a piece of cake for him.

Half an hour later, Xu Wangqiu asked the staff to take down the camera from the cableway, take the tape out of the camera, and then take Wang Lanxi and them to the screening room of Beihang University to show them the footage just shot.

The shot Xu Wangqiu took just now was very simple, that is, Zhang Fengyi came out of the boys' dormitory and rode a bicycle to the street. He hadn't ridden far when he saw his girlfriend talking to her fellow countryman. Zhang Fengyi was very angry, quarreled with his girlfriend, and then rode out of the school gate.

This scene was filmed three times, and these three times were shot from different angles.

The first time I used to shoot from above, it is usually called God's perspective. This kind of shot is very common in later films, but it is relatively rare in this era, especially in domestic films, where such a shot has never appeared. Shooting from the top is called God's perspective, and shooting from this perspective gives the impression of looking down on the world, as if God is standing in mid-air, looking at everything that is happening on earth.

The second time was a low-altitude follow-up shot, and the camera followed Zhang Fengyi behind him, not giving him a frontal shot. Zhang Fengyi goes, the camera goes, Zhang Fengyi stops, the camera stops. This kind of shot is particularly common in later Hollywood action movies, such as aerial shots of police arresting people, most of which will be followed up.

The third time was a lateral flight, shot from Zhang Fengyi's side. When shooting, the photographer changed to a wide-angle lens, so that the scene has a greater sense of depth, and the buildings and scenery will appear taller. Zhang Fengyi rode his bicycle through the school, and there was a feeling of walking through the urban forest.

The angles of these three shots are different, and the feeling is completely different, but at the end of the shot, the camera will stop, and then gradually lift up, watching Zhang Fengyi slowly move away, and finally disappear into the depths of the shot. At the beginning of these three shots, some of the vision is limited, and the picture seen is limited. However, when the camera raised its head, the entire Beiping City was in full view, which made people feel suddenly enlightened and gave people an unprecedented visual impact.

Before filming, Xu Wangqiu told Wang Lanxi that they could shoot a lot of amazing shots with the cableway system, but they didn't know much about it and didn't know what the effect would be. When shooting, they saw the captured picture through the monitor, but what they saw was taken by the camera, and the picture was relatively blurry, not particularly clear, and they were not shocked. Now after watching the pictures taken by the camera, Wang Lanxi and they were all deeply shocked.

Wang Lanxi couldn't help but say, "I finally understand why you're doing this." The effect is truly amazing. Especially when the camera is raised at the end, the entire Beiping City is in front of you, which feels particularly shocking. This is still on the TV, and if it is shown in the cinema, the effect will be a hundred times stronger!"

Chen Huangmei of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles praised from the bottom of her heart: "This ropeway system is a good thing. I used to see low-altitude aerial shots in American movies and thought it was amazing, but I didn't expect that we could do it too, and our effect was even better than theirs. ”

Zhou Yang of the Propaganda Department also nodded and said: "I like the first shot the most, it feels like I am overlooking life, and there is a special wonderful feeling." He looked at Xu Wangqiu and said: "Aren't you going to make a movie that reflects the self-defense counterattack recently, you can make a few such shots when filming war scenes, and when the time comes, you will watch it on the big screen, and the effect will be very good." ”

Xu Wangqiu said with a smile: "My new film is called "Falcon", and there are two war scenes at the beginning and end of the movie, and the scene is particularly big. We built the ropeway system in the hope of making these two war scenes more shocking. I don't dare to say that Vietnamese people will raise their hands in surrender after watching "Falcon", and they will kneel on the ground and call Dad, but after watching it, they are terrified and can't sleep, they should be able to do it. ”

Several bigwigs laughed when they heard this, thinking that this kid was very interesting.

Zhou Yang asked with a smile: "How is "Falcon" prepared, when will it be started?"

Xu Wangqiu grinned: "It's almost ready." Originally, it was planned to start on the 15th, but due to problems with the ropeway photography system, it had to be delayed for a few days, and it was about the 25th. ”