July 25th was the official start day of "Falcon", and Xu Wangqiu got up from bed at four o'clock in the morning. He was not in a very good mental state due to sleeping too late at night. But thinking that I have been busy for "Falcon" for almost a year, and now that the movie is finally about to officially start, the sleepiness is gone.

When Xu Wangqiu came to the meeting place, the artillery regiment that participated in today's shooting, as well as the infantry battalion that served as a guard, were ready to go. Xu Wangqiu went over to chat with Commander Wu of the howitzer regiment and boarded the crew's bus.

More than ten minutes later, the main creator and staff of the crew were assembled and drove towards the filming location with the troops.

It was more than 30 minutes away from the county seat to the filming location, and Xu Wangqiu wanted to make up for some sleep in this gap, so he closed his eyes. Not only him, but most of the crew members were like this, and soon the snoring in the car was like thunder.

Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye, and the crew arrived on the set. Xu Wangqiu woke up from his sleep, yawned and walked out of the car. He rubbed his face vigorously with his hands, dispelled the sleepiness, and began to direct the crew to set up the scene.

"Falcon" has two war scenes, and both of these scenes have scenes of heavy artillery bombardment of enemy positions. If both scenes are filmed in the daytime, it will appear repetitive, while making a movie is more taboo and repetitive. In order to shoot differently, Xu Wangqiu put these two scenes in different time periods. The war scene at the beginning of the movie is set at 10 a.m. and the end of the movie is set during the day.

In the movie "Garland Under the Mountain", the footage of our army's artillery shelling the enemy's position is a real shot, and in order to shoot the highlight of the war scene, Xie Jin reported to Yang Dezhi, chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, which received strong support from the military. At that time, one infantry division, one howitzer regiment and one tank regiment of the troops of the Southern Yunnan Military Region and the Rongcheng Military Region were mobilized to participate in the exercise. However, although the military supports it, the artillery shells ultimately cost money, and it is impossible to really bomb indiscriminately like a war, and the scenes of shelling enemy positions are filmed repeatedly. For the sake of economy, the scene of "Garland Under the Mountain" is not very large, and the shots of our army's shelling of enemy positions are relatively short.

In the movie "Operation Blitzkrieg", the footage of our army's shelling of the enemy's position is relatively long, the fire is fierce, and the scene is extremely shocking. However, these shots were not shot by "Flash" itself, but used footage from the documentary of the 1981 North China Exercise. The exercise was the largest live-fire exercise in the history of the PLA, involving 110,000 troops and a large amount of weapons and equipment, and at a cost of about 1 billion yuan. Due to the use of documentary footage, the shooting angle is relatively single, and the footage of "Operation Blitzkrieg" shelling enemy troops is not as impactful as "Pictures Under the Mountain".

"Falcon", like "Garland Under the Mountain", was supported by troops, and the shelling of enemy positions was filmed in real time. Howitzer shells are a few hundred pieces a piece, twelve shells are fired in a salvo, and a round is several thousand. It's impossible to shoot a shot and just play a round. In order to save shells, the crew decided to use multi-camera shooting.

When making movies, as long as there are large scenes, multi-camera shooting is often used, and war movies are even more so. This makes it possible to edit images from different cameras together, creating the "illusion" of thousands of troops.

"Falcon" prepared six cameras, and planned to shoot at the same time with six machines, shooting from different angles. If you shoot three scenes in one scene, it will be 18. Editing the eighteen scenes together, assuming that there are 100 people in each picture, and the 18 shots are added together, the audience can feel the effect of 1,800 people when they watch it.

There are two main types of artillery used by our army to shell the positions of the Vietnamese army, one is howitzers and the other is rocket artillery. The visual effect of these two cannons is completely different, and when the rocket launchers are fired, the shells are like fire dragons flying through the air, which has a strong visual impact. Therefore, the filming sequence of "Falcon" is to shoot howitzers first, and then rocket launchers.

The fighters of the artillery regiment quickly pushed the cannon to the set and lined up in three rows, namely 12 152 howitzers, 12 122 cannons, and 18 85 cannons. At the same time, the other staff members of the crew are also doing their own work in an orderly manner. Most of them are people from Xiuying Studio and Nortel, and they are all very professional, so there is no need for Xu Wangqiu to say more.

Since today's scene was shot with natural light, the step of lighting was omitted, and the preparation of the rest of the crew was quickly completed. It was still dark and not suitable for filming. Xu Wangqiu asked everyone to rest and wait for the sky to be bright before shooting.

Half an hour later, the sky began to glow with a faint white light, and the earth was still hazy, like a light veil of silver-gray. At the end of the sky, there is a white cloud, as thin as a cicada's wings, giving the whole sky a sense of layering.

People who know how to take photography know that every day before sunrise and half an hour after sunset, the sky turns dark blue or red, which can clearly reflect the outline of all the scenes on the earth, just like setting up lights from the sky to the ground, and the picture taken has the effect of oil painting and silhouette, which is very beautiful, so it is called "magic moment". Many movies shoot morning scenes and like to shoot at this moment.

Seeing that it was almost time, Zhang Ran shouted with a loudspeaker: "All groups are in place, and we are officially shooting." ”

The crew quickly took place, and filming officially began. The first thing the crew shot was the shot of the cannon shaking. In the movie "Liaoshen Campaign", there was a similar shot when our army bombarded Jinzhou, that is, the cannon of the howitzer position was slowly shaken, giving people a strong visual impact. Xu Wangqiu wanted this kind of thing, and the soldiers shook up the cannon and aimed the muzzle at the enemy.

After filming the howitzer's muzzle raising and loading the shells, the crew immediately began to move the equipment in preparation for the next shot. At the same time, the fighters removed the 122 cannon and the Type 85 cannon. Because the next shot is the shot of the cannon, and it is not necessary to fire 42 cannons at the same time, only 12 cannons are enough.

At this moment, Regiment Commander Wu came over and said to Xu Wangqiu that the photographer was too close, and the sound of the salvo of twelve howitzers was very loud, and it could be heard more than ten kilometers away. If it's too close, the camera may be stunned and must be farther away.

Xu Wangqiu knew that this kind of thing couldn't be joked, so he immediately asked the photographer to move back with the camera.

Six cameras were quickly set up, four of which were aimed at the howitzer position to film the howitzer firing from four different angles, and the remaining two cameras were aimed at the opposite hillside, ready to film the enemy position being shelled.

After the preparation of each group, Xu Wangqiu took the bullhorn and gave a loud order: "All groups are ready! Let's shoot in real time!" He looked up at Regiment Commander Wu and asked, "Are the cannons ready?"

Captain Wu said, "Ready!"

Xu Wangqiu continued the decree: "The tape recorder is turned on!"

The recording engineer replied, "It's turned on!"

Xu Wangqiu continued: "The camera is on!"

The six photographers replied, "It's on!"

Xu Wangqiu shouted: "Hit the board!"

The six field reporters walked up to the camera with the filled out board and fired the board at the camera.

Xu Wangqiu issued the last command: "Begin!"

As the command to "start" sounded, Regiment Commander Wu shouted at the top of his voice: "Ready!" The twelve commanders next to the twelve howitzers held high the small red flag in their hands at the same time. Commander Wu shouted: "Release!" The small red flag in the hands of the twelve commanders waved down vigorously, and at the same time, the gunners pulled the rope of the howitzer vigorously.

Boom Boom Boom ——!

The silence of the whole world was shattered by the loud sound of the exclamation, and the earth trembled like a frightened child. The shock wave generated at the moment of the cannon firing made the entire artillery position filled with gunsmoke and dust, and there was no human figure visible at all, as if it had been hit by a tornado.

Before the shells were fired, the regiment commander told Xu Wangqiu that the twelve howitzers fired in a salvo, and the sound was so loud that it could deafen the ears and even shock people to death. Therefore, Xu Wangqiu and the others retreated to a hundred meters away.

Xu Wangqiu thought that it should be okay to retreat to this distance, but he didn't expect the sound of the cannon salvo to sound to such an extent, as if someone was holding a gong and knocking it hard in his ear, shaking his eardrum and almost bursting. At the same time, he felt a strong smell of fire smoke coming over his face, and his throat ached. Even though he wasn't sitting on the ground, anyone could tell that his legs were shaking.

Tang Guoqiang, Zhou Lijin and Yuan Heping were not much better, they were all scattered by the loud sound of the cannons, their faces were pale, they were trembling, and they almost didn't scare out the urine. Bao Qijing's legs weakened, and he sat directly on the ground, his body trembling. She grew up in Xiangjiang since she was a child, where has she seen such an amazing scene, and she was really scared silly.

At the same time, the shells fell on the opposite hillside, making a shocking explosion. Xu Wangqiu raised his eyes and saw twelve black mushrooms emerging from the hillside, surging towards the air. In the billowing black smoke, the scarlet flames tumbled like a flaming monster that burst out of the depths of hell, making a heart-pounding scream. The improvised fortifications that the art team had laid out on the hillside were like toilet paper, torn to pieces by the monster.

Looking at the hillside filled with gunsmoke, Xu Wangqiu couldn't help but think to himself, the cannon is really not the king of war, this scene is so shocking! The salvo of twelve howitzers is so shocking, if you shoot "The Great Battle", the shock of the scene is unbelievable!

After a round of shelling, the fighters quickly stepped forward, withdrew the shell casing, and reloaded the shell.

The little red flag in the commander's hand was raised again: "Ready!

The earth-shattering roar rang out again, and twelve black mushrooms exploded again on the opposite hillside. The scarlet monster sprang out of the black mushroom again, rolling and roaring over the black mushroom, making a heart-palpitating cry.

After the second round of shelling, the fighters stopped their movements and remained in place waiting for orders. Xu Wangqiu told them that they would shoot two rounds of salvos, and then stay where they were after the fight.

Xu Wangqiu exhaled softly and shouted at the top of his voice: "Okay!

Hearing Xu Wangqiu shout to stop, Zeng Lianping, Zhang Yimou and the six photographers put down the camera, panting slightly in their mouths, the effect of the unison of the twelve howitzers was too terrifying, and the camera in their hands almost fell to the ground. The recording crew began to pack up their equipment, and the recording engineer began to listen to the recording just now.

Tang Guoqiang covered his chest with his right hand and said in shock: "It's so terrifying, my ears are still buzzing now." ”

Zhou Lijin nodded and said, "I'm a bold person, but now my legs are soft." ”

Yuan Heping saw Bao Qijing sitting on the ground, his body trembling slightly, and hurriedly asked, "Are you okay?"

Bao Qijing looked at Yuan Heping and squeezed out a smile with difficulty: "I'm fine, but I'm weak." I'll just sit on the ground and rest for a while. Then he added, "This thing is really scary, I feel like my soul is being shaken out." ”

Xu Wangqiu looked up at the white sky, knowing that it was impossible to continue shooting, and the footage of the rocket launcher could only be shot tomorrow morning, so he raised his voice and said, "That's all for this morning's shooting." Wait until nine o'clock, and we continue shooting. Let's take out the dry food and eat something! We're going to shoot for a day today, it's very hard!"