This article is from WeChat public account: Internet and entertainment strange group (ID: TMTphantom) , author: Pei Pei
Hello everyone, this special Spring Festival is almost over, but for the people of the country, especially the people of Wuhan, the difficult period has not passed. No matter how long we have to persist, no matter how much darkness there is before dawn, we believe that the dawn is not far. After the storm, a purer, better, and stronger land will stand in the sun until the generations to come.
Maybe many people do n’t know yet. The head of this strange bandit is also an independent film producer. Since 2018, he has been preparing a literary film called “Smoke Wave”; most of the production team They are from Hubei, some live in Wuhan. Because the location of “Smoky Waves” is in Hubei, many staff members, including directors and directors of photography, plan to use this Spring Festival holiday to do some field-viewing work-and then be caught by the sudden outbreak.
Xie Dan, our photography director, is the most sad. Although he is from Hubei, he usually lives in Zhejiang. This time, he was caught in an epidemic as soon as he returned to Wuhan, and has spent two weeks alone in the center of the storm! However, this did not stop his creative passion and love of life. He wears a mask, rides a bicycle, holds an iPhone X, walks through empty streets, and shoots familiar and unfamiliar street scenes, as well as those who live tenaciously in the epidemic and wait for tomorrow.
Art always comes from life. I never thought that relying on ordinary iPhones and natural light, without any on-site assistance, I could shoot such beautiful, authentic and poetic material. We spent one night in post-production without adding any artificial material-we believe that reality is the life of the work.
The following are the creative comments of Xie Dan, the actual photographer of this short film and our photography director:
Hello everyone, I would like to wish you a happy new year, and I wish you all a healthy year.
My name is Xie Dan. I am a cinematographer and have been in the film and television industry for more than ten years. This time, I originally planned to talk to my good friend, the director of the “Smog Wave” crew Lan Bo, in Wuhan to prepare our next movie, “Smoky Wave”. Until the New Year, I went back to my hometown of Enshi, Hubei to take pictures, and spent the New Year at home. However, due to the rapid development of the epidemic, the original plan could only lag behind, so I chose to stay in Wuhan alone to watch. As a result, on the 23rd, when I woke up in the morning, I was clearly notified of “forbidden to leave the city.”
The epidemic was almost “suddenly” serious, and all the citizens were overwhelmed. Masks were all snatched out overnight. Various supermarkets were also swept away. I did n’t know what to do, but I feel that due to the professional nature, I always think that I can use the video to leave something and record something. In this way, I think about it. From the morning of the 23rd, I have been thinking about cycling every day to see what I can do for everyone in this city. Record something.
Because I ca n’t find transportation, I ca n’t even call a taxi, and because I ’m stranded in Wuhan alone, I do n’t have any equipment, so I can only use the Iphone X at my hand and find two more. Cycling, wearing a mask and water bag, began to walk through the streets of Hankou and Wuhan,
Because there are few people walking on the street and wearing a mask, I am not too worried about being infected by the virus. Even so, I only dare to shoot empty mirrors in the city and do not dare to interview passersby. Because the only mask I had at the moment was given by a friend. Fortunately, it was an N95. Every day I returned to the place where I lived after shooting, I could only remove the mask, wash it, and bake it on an electric heater. Prepare for use the next day. To this day, I still rely on this mask to maintain, our crew entrusted a friend to me to express the mask, I did not receive it.
From January 23 to January 31, this shooting continued this week. Because I can’t go too far by riding a bicycle, I can only take pictures of the city of Wuhan along the Yangtze River. It is a bustling landmark in Wuhan—the most prosperous Jianghan Road and Chuhehan Street. All of them suddenly become empty. In the pedestrian street, bicycles that are not normally allowed to ride in are no longer in charge at this moment, and the whole city seems to lose its voice.
There will be a car passing on the whole street for a long time. When the night falls around six o’clock, the city will become more empty and quiet. The quiet makes me feel terrible. I really fear that. A few citizens who came out to ventilate and purchase were in a hurry, staring nervously at the road ahead, and passing by each other, they only nodded each other across masks, making everyone feel kind and sad. And every time an ambulance screams on the empty street, everyone’s heart will tighten.As soon as I wrote this paragraph, I already heard two ambulances whistling past.
This year’s Spring Festival is bound to be a special New Year, both for me and Wuhan.
Even in such a severe situation, in my lens, there will still be elderly people fishing on the riverside, friends who exercise alone, sanitation workers who shine for the whole city, and lovers with masks who are still working together. Or the people in the alley who couldn’t help chanting “My Motherland” loudly outside the window. Whenever this time, I was thinking, what a brave and calm city this is, recording their presence The figure of this era is my pleasure.
Warm up in Wuhan, refuel in your hometown, refuel in your motherland.
The documentary “Watching the empty city: Wuhan under the lens of a photographer”
Director & Photographer & Postman: Xie Dan
Producer: Pei Pei (Head of the Strange Thief Group)
Supervisor: Ripple
Promotion: Zhang Tao
Producer: “Smoky Waves” film crew
This article is from WeChat public account: Internet and entertainment strange group (ID: TMTphantom) , author: Pei Pei