Chapter 420: Pyrotechnician
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Most of the films that Feng Xuan used to make were about the Anti-Japanese War, as well as a few urban police versus gangster films, but he had never shot films featuring animals.
Since he decided to take over the film, he had to shoot it well, so he sent his assistant to collect some good movies and dramas about animals in recent years, and one of them was the movie of Wolf Totem, which was also his important reference source.
The wolf was an animal that cannot be tamed—the theme of Wolf Totem was nonsense. Wolves were the most easily tamable animals and had been domesticated by different ethnic groups around the world as early as 15,000 years ago, or else where did so many different kinds of dogs come from? Compared to the desert wildcats that were tamed by the Egyptians between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago, the domestication of wolves was much easier.
Dogs and wolves had many similarities, for example, they were both gregarious animals, and within their social groups there were a strict hierarchy system, and both animals had high IQ and so on and so forth. Living in groups represented that they knew how to cooperate with each other to hunt and fend off their enemies; the hierarchy system allowed them to obey the powerhouse; their high IQ made them easier to understand the orders from humans…all of which had become the bases for their easy domestication.
Feng Xuan had not only watched the film of Wolf Totem for several times, but also through his friends in the film and television industry he had attained the materials behind the scene to conduct a thorough and systematic analysis of the shooting of the film.
During the analysis, he paid attention to one person in particular. This man was called Andrew Simpson, a professional wolf trainer from Britain, who had played an indispensable role in the filming of the Wolf Totem.
Feng Xuan again checked at Andrew Simpson’s resume, which was really incredible!
Not only was he a professional wolf trainer hired by the Wolf Totem crew, but also he had taken his wolves to the filming of Game of Thrones and The Revenant. Even in the movie of Operating Mekong, the eye-catching police dog Xiao Tian was instructed and trained by him.
In the early stage of preparing for the movie Dog Warrior, Feng Xuan also considered calling Mr. Simpson to train police dogs for the crew, however, there were two problems preventing him from doing so—first of all, the schedule issue. Andrew Simpson was currently in another crew and was not available. Secondly, asking him to train the dogs will take some time, and the shooting cycle for Dog Warrior was already very short, and there was no extra tutoring time, so Feng Xuan was more inclined to find a dog that was able to put into work instantly.
Feng Xuan once again looked at Famous. He had held great expectations on this dog because of its impeccable abilities in understanding, execution and acting. The perfect performance of playing dead was so natural that it almost seemed like it was truly dead. Even Nie Yuan had nothing to say—the better the dog’s acting skills were, the lesser money will be spent on post-editing and special effects, thus saving money for the producers.
The only thing that Feng Xuan wasn’t sure was the gut of this dog. No matter how outstanding its acting skill was, if it fled when seeing flames and hearing explosion, it cannot become the protagonist of this action movie. Of course, it can play in the warm hearted family films. If later he heard any director intend to shoot family drama with dogs, he would certainly strongly recommend Famous.
Feng Xuan’s eyes fell on Zhang Zian.
Compared to Famous, he was actually more interested in Zhang Zian who was able to train Famous so well. After all, if he can train Famous, it meant he can train more dogs. He silently looked at the back of this young man, with inexplicable thoughts emerging in his mind—this young man can not only train dogs but also cats, if he was willing to pursue long-term development in the film and television industry, the sky will be his limit!
He sincerely hoped that Zhang Zian would be the Andrew Simpson of his crew and also become China’s Andrew Simpson.
“Director Feng, should we start now?” The assistant walked beside him and whispered.
“Hm.” Feng Xuan answered. He turned around and looked around, but did not find the person he was looking for.
“Guan Biao! Where is Guan Biao?” He asked, frowning.
“Perhaps in the restroom?” The assistant did not see Guan Biao either, and he quickly shouted, “Guan Biao! Master Guan! Where are you?”
Only when the assistant shouted the third time did he see Guan Biao appear from a corner taking shelter from the wind.
“Coming!” Guan Biao ran over with his face glowing.
At nearly forty years old, Guan Biao had a beer belly, but his movements were quite flexible. He used to work in mine blasting, and due to an accidental opportunity, he got to know Feng Xuan. He can be regarded as one of the regular team member of Feng Xuan. Whenever there were explosive scenes in the movies, Feng Xuan will always call him, and there’s no exception this time.
Having said that, Feng Xuan did not really like Guan Biao, because he was lazy and was covetous of small gains, and especially because he would drink too much on occasion. As a pyrotechnician, overdrinking was an unbearable behavior. Luckily, he did not drink during filming, although Feng Xuan did not like him, he still took Guan Biao with him.
In fact, Feng Xuan had no choice. Pyroteching was a high-risk occupation that earned little money yet was accompanied by great danger. Fewer and fewer young people in China were willing to engage in this occupation, many crews were even hiring pyrotechnics from the United States with high salary. At least Guan Biao was more reliable than other pyrotechnicians he did not know of.
“Master Guan, what are you doing? You keep the participants waiting here.” Feng Xuan said severely, feeling embarrassed after he heard the dialogue between Sheng Ke and the two young police officers.
“Director Feng, don’t blame me!” Guan Biao argued, “The Studio has the regulations that if we need to use the blasting, burning, flame spurting and other props, we must report to the Studio three days in advance. I made the report at 11 a.m. And it’s not 11 a.m. yet, is it? I was just taking shelter from the wind.”
What Guan Biao said seemed reasonable and Feng Xuan can’t refute him. He had to hold back the other reproaches and told him, “Then go quickly prepare the set. It’s almost 11 a.m. These are the last group of dogs in the audition. When this is finished, you can rest for a few days. “
“Okay!” Guan Biao swung his beer belly around and ran away, carrying out the final preparations before the blasting.
At this moment, Feng Xuan noticed that another person came out from the corner where Guan Biao was previously hiding. He knew this man, Yuan Fei, who was the chief dog trainer sent by the Star Group.
With a cigarette between his fingers, Yuan Fei leisurely walked back to cage No.1, inadvertently looking at Feng Xuan’s way, and then turned away his gaze. Inside cage No.1 was Neptune, the German Shepherd sent by the Star Group. Neptune was tall and mighty, purebred, and had displayed extremely high comprehensive quality, and before the emergence of Famous, Neptune was the most promising candidate for the protagonist in the eyes of Feng Xuan and Nie Yuan.
An uncomfortable feeling grasped Feng Xuan. What were Guan Biao and Yuan Fei talking about in that secluded corner? What had they done?
