Why are the pictures of The Journey to the West and The Journey to the West different? Journey to the West is so vague and even wobbly, but why is it so clear?

1986 version of Journey to the West is the product of a special era. Because the crew was short of money at that time, the whole play was shot with only one camera. Six years of shooting and broadcasting. The Central Committee once asked the director why a TV series takes 4.5 years to shoot, while others in Japan only take a few months. The director said that you would give me five cameras. I can shoot faster than them. Under the extremely limited hardware conditions at that time, they overcame all kinds of difficulties to complete the journey to the west.

After all, it was an era without digital special effects. How can I shoot the scene of goblins fighting in the sky? Let's look back at that history.

1, blue screen keying

At that time, few people in China had heard of the blue screen, let alone seen it. CCTV imported an ADO stunt machine from the United States, and the The Journey to the West crew used it to show the scene where the Monkey King turned into a little monkey and jumped on the table to have a secret talk with the prince in "The Country of Eliminating Demons and Black Chicken". Take a picture of a six-year-old jumping in front of a blue screen, and then combine it with a pre-shot background. It's really not difficult to restore the Monkey King with ADO machine, follow the movement rhythm and serve the table.

But later, the crew found that everyone was like a piece of paper, with no three-dimensional, and did not dare to turn at all. What is this? Several scenes in Counting Pig and Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon are particularly obvious. After repeated attempts, the crew could not find a solution. Later, I learned that because I didn't buy a software, it cost 50 thousand dollars, so I couldn't achieve the three-dimensional effect. There is no time or money to remedy it, so many scenes in Journey to the West are paper men.

Blue screen keying is the most taboo color conflict, and this truth is only known when you shoot it. But people in Journey to the West are all dressed in colorful clothes, and the background curtain can only be made in various colors for replacement and choice. Sometimes the colors are too mixed and need to be synthesized many times. For example, in the last episode, four old turtles and disciples crossed the Tongtian River, which were synthesized by four people respectively. The synthesis work has to be done on the stage, which is invisible at the scene. This is extremely inefficient, and I don't know how the shooting effect is, so many special effects shots are useless, and even if they can barely be used, they have various defects.

2. Hang Weiya

Hanging Weiya is not a new technology. Actually, it was shot in a China movie in the 1930s and 40s. However, because the mainland has not made action movies for a long time, this technology has gradually been abandoned. On the contrary, Hong Kong people have brought Diao Weiya to the extreme. The The Journey to the West crew sent several people to Hong Kong to learn to hang Weiya. At that time, Yong Opera was being filmed. Director Yang Jie and cameraman Wang Chongqiu went to see it and discussed it with the director. But time was limited, so they simply watched it for a few days and didn't learn a key technique of "crossing the river", so they came back to draw a tiger into a cat. At first, there was no special wire, so I found a wire for military skydiving. The technique of "dragon crossing the river" is to guess and practice, and imitate it with pulley principle.

The shooting was interrupted countless times because the bearing capacity of the steel wire was not studied. Pig Bajie and Friar Sand both fell, especially the Monkey King, who once fell unconscious.

Step 3 shoot the background

The crew has no special aerial photography equipment, and the sky and cloud background are discussed with the captain during the flight, so that the cameraman can shoot in the cockpit. In addition, when taking cars, trains, cable cars and other means of transportation, we should pay attention to shooting various backgrounds.

4, fireworks special effects

The fireworks special effect of Journey to the West was made by a smoker in Bayi Factory. But Bayi Factory has experience in making war films, but fairy tales are different. The requirements of mythical scenes are more complex, gorgeous and fancy than those of real war movies, and require higher imagination.

Fogging in Tiangong Opera requires a lot of dry ice, and people will be uncomfortable if they stay in dry ice for a long time. The barefoot Daxian went to Pan Taohui Opera House. After filming, he didn't see anyone at the scene for a long time. Later, he found that he fainted to the ground and rushed to the rescue.

5. Shooting equipment

When both western and Japanese TV stations realized multi-lens TV series shooting, CCTV only provided an old-fashioned 300P camera for Journey to the West, and the focus was often very weak. There is only one tripod, and the angle can only be straight.

There is only one telephoto lens in the whole TV station, and all TV dramas should be reported and queued for use. The episode of Flame Mountain was finally used last time.

No elevator, no moving track, no high platform, no camera stabilizer, nothing.

There is a scene in which the immortal in Zhenyuan ascended to heaven, which needs to be changed from overlooking to looking up. The cameraman was put on a chair, hung to the second floor, and then slid down to shoot. It took seven or eight people to pull the cameraman, but it was difficult to match the rhythm of Zhenyuan Daxian's walking and took a long time.

In the episode of Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon, the Monkey King was read by the Tang Priest, holding his head and spinning around. When shooting, let the Monkey King turn clockwise and let someone lift the cameraman counterclockwise, which has a strong dizzy effect.

6. Failed aerial photography

The Lost Lotus Cave was filmed in Shilin, Yunnan. The crew formed an indissoluble bond with the Kunming Air Force, held a get-together and sent some color films in exchange for the opportunity for the cameraman to board the plane for aerial photography during the plane practice.

When it was time to shoot, everyone put on costumes and saw the plane coming, running and running in the mountains, sweating all over. When photographer Wang Chongqiu came back from the airport, he realized that he didn't shoot.

Because the air force only has a small plane with pesticides, it can't be used for aerial photography at all. They tied the photographer to the door and went out to shoot. As a result, it rained when shooting, and nothing could be seen under the fog. Moreover, the plane didn't dare to fly low or slow down, and the cameraman didn't see anything at last and didn't photograph it.

7.a broken video camera

Journey to the West is really hard to shoot. The crew filmed for several years, which also caused doubts within CCTV. Some people suspect that Yang Jie is taking people around and should stop filming immediately.

The leaders above heard the wind and sent investigators to the crew. The investigators were deeply moved to find that the conditions of the crew were too poor. Instead of reporting, they decided to help apply for an extra camera from their superiors. Just because of the complicated procedures, the crew was useless until the filming was finished.

The camera used by the crew is old and broken, so it can't focus accurately. Yang Jie once communicated with NHK TV station in Japan and was shocked by the advanced studio of his peers. Japanese colleague asked, the flight angle of Journey to the West has changed greatly. How many machines did you use? Yang Jie answered "one", which the Japanese could hardly believe.

This camera has a limited focal length, so many lenses can't be taken. For example, when filming the first 1 1 episode of Huang Paoguai, there was a scene in which the princess rode after the rabbit, and the rabbit ran away as soon as it was released. The cameraman had to chase after him with a machine, followed by a group of assistants carrying monitors, and Yang Jie followed the monitors for this rabbit chase.

Princess Baoxiang chased the rabbit incarnated by Huang Paoguai.

Now The Journey to the West has become the biggest "IP" in the film and television industry, and it can shoot endlessly every year. But can any of them replace the old TV series 1986?

Never!

Why?

Because it was shot by a specific group of people in a specific era. Technology can be surpassed and even the founders can copy it (the sequel to Journey to the West), but that era has passed. The Journey to the West is a classic, largely because it is the Renaissance. As long as the eighties are lofty in people's minds, this TV series will always be lofty.

It is sealed by history and becomes eternal.