Restrepo's behind-the-scenes production

Before restrepo, sebastian junger and Tim Hetherington had nothing to do with directors. Sebastian junger is an experienced journalist and writer. His most famous work is The Perfect Storm, which was put on the screen in 2000. On the other hand, Tim Hetherington is a journalist and photographer, and he has rich experience in covering the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Talking about the original intention of going to Afghanistan to create such a documentary, Tim Hetherington said, "Generally speaking, this is a gradual process. Sebastian has a camera and has a good relationship with ABC news, so he naturally has the idea of making a documentary. I didn't take his idea too seriously at first. " Sebastian himself even said that he just had an idea at first and didn't take it too seriously. But then, the idea gradually became the embryonic form of a documentary, and Tim Hetherington went on to say, "You know, I have done film photography before, so I began to think,' This can't really happen', and we all work for Vanity Fair. I am a photographer and he is a writer. I later thought,' Come on, let's make a short film as a work for Vanity Fair', which was a very important decision. After I made a short film, I was shocked by the experience in this process, and he (Sebastian) also came to the scene to work with me. We looked at each other and finally decided,' OK, let's make a movie, a real movie'. " In 2007, they decided to follow a platoon deployed in the Krungar Valley of Afghanistan as a whole and follow this group of soldiers in the most dangerous battlefield in Afghanistan. They went to the station 10 times and filmed more than 150 hours. No, during the filming process, although they were often in a state of fighting, sebastian junger didn't care much about the difficulties encountered in the process. Generally speaking, there are not many difficulties, mainly because the light often fails to meet the best shooting conditions and the lens is often covered with dust. Tim Hetherington also said that the difficulty is mainly physical, and patrolling with soldiers and running in battle are great challenges to physical strength.

Their lives are always in danger when filming a battlefield documentary. During the filming, there was no special soldier protection. As the director said, it is absurd to let a soldier stay away from the battle site to protect two journalists at the moment of fierce fighting on the battlefield. So they often shoot in an area about 400 meters away from the place where the fighting took place. At the same time, they are unarmed and only have cameras in their hands. Both directors have more than 10 years of experience in battlefield reporting. Although they don't have much experience in combat skills, they are even more experienced than some soldiers in the field platoon, especially the recruits aged 18. As for the argument about the relationship between the recorder and the recorded person that often happens in documentary shooting, in this film, two directors are integrated into the team as direct participants. So when they are in armored vehicles, if there is a battle, they should also pass the ammunition to the gunner. Otherwise, if you just want to be an observer, you will not be allowed to enter the armored vehicle to occupy a position. The two directors are deeply touched by this. They are deeply embedded in the war machine, eat soldiers' meals, rest in the place where soldiers sleep, and become part of this platoon. They are not equipped with weapons, and they don't really want to stand guard, but they need to wake up on time like soldiers and take pictures of them. During the filming process, the filmmakers also kept close contact with the soldiers and forged a profound friendship. If "hurt locker" shows the danger and fear of frontline soldiers in a realistic way, then "restrepo" goes further, because it is reality, and it truly records everything that happens on the battlefield. In this film, you can hear the conversations of these soldiers and watch their dangerous patrols. You can understand that they are forced to do their best to complete the task with limited resources. It is no longer an overwhelming military advantage in the face of large-scale combat. Underequipped and exhausted, they are in dangerous isolation and ambush. Here, you can feel the cruelty of the real war and the fear and helplessness of the participants, just as the directors expressed sympathy for the soldiers in the camera. They witnessed their best friends die in front of them and were always worried about being killed by the cold camera. The director went deep into soldiers' lives and showed the details of battlefield life in all directions. It is this battlefield situation that may have a deep sense of substitution for the audience and make people feel its taste personally. Maybe after reading it, you will have a new experience and a new understanding of the war.