《Journey》Behind-the-scenes filming: straw sandal military training, sub-zero water wading and five transitions

 《Journey》Before filming, the actors first participated in military training at the local stadium. Some wore straw sandals and some trained barefoot.Luo Liqun, who once joined the army and played Li Xiannian in the play, took the initiative to become an instructor and led everyone to practice standing and endurance.Wang Weimin hoped that the actors would adapt to the severe cold of the grassland in advance and their bodies would first enter the same marching situation.

This preparation is not easy.Gao Feng, who plays the role of a squad soldier, pricked his foot during training. After filming a grass wading scene, the wound became infected again.While he was receiving treatment, he continued to complete his role.

Li Jian played Zhu De for the first time and also encountered a difficult wading scene.At that time, the temperature was already below zero degrees Celsius, snow was falling in the sky, and the river was wide and fast flowing.For safety reasons, the film crew did not split the scene into multiple sets of shots.Chief producer Zhou Hao recalled that the next day Li Jian took the initiative to find the director, director of photography and himself and proposed reshoots, hoping to complete the scene better.

Hou Jingjian once again plays Mao Zedong, and Xia Dejun plays Zhou Enlai.The image of the revolutionary leader and the experiences of ordinary soldiers together constitute the character narrative of the whole play.

The first episode of the series begins with the Maogong Reunion on June 12, 1935: the vanguard troops of the Central Red Army and the supporting troops of the Fourth Red Army met in Dawei Town, Xiaojin County, Sichuan today.Under the snow-capped mountains, the two teams first carefully observed each other, then identified each other by their bugles, and finally raised their military flags and ran towards each other.

The story then enters the key historical stage after the rendezvous, focusing on the dispute over the routes to the north and south, telling the process of maintaining the unity of the whole party and the army, and also showing the experience of the Red Army and the ethnic minority people facing difficulties together.Events such as the Lianghekou Conference, the Shawo Conference, the Russian Border Conference, and the Ganzi Reunion are parallel to the stories of ordinary soldiers and the growth of Tibetan and Qiang youths.Chief screenwriter Zhang Qiang said that there are no "cheating" heroes in the play, only a group of people who have faith, face desperate situations, and keep moving forward.

The sound of stepping into mud comes from the filming scene

The photography chose more solemn colors.Cloudy days and high light ratios were used in grasslands, snow-capped mountains, Tibetan villages and high loess slopes; multi-camera hand-held shooting was used extensively in scenes with intense conflicts and action scenes.Rain and snow both come from the natural environment and are also created by the crew according to the needs of the plot.

Sound was also collected on site.The actors' footsteps stepping into the mud of the swamp and the sound of the snow cracking on the snow-capped mountains were all included in the simultaneous recording.The music part is integrated into folk songs, and military and battle passages are composed and orchestrated separately.

In order to shoot in the places where the Long March passed, a filming team of nearly a thousand people went to many places in northwest Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, and completed five large-scale transitions.The environmental conditions that are difficult to provide for shooting in studio scenes and concentrated scenic spots became the reason why the team chose real scenes.

《Journey》 is directed by the State Administration of Radio and Television, produced by China Central Radio and Television, supported by the Sichuan Provincial Radio and Television Bureau and the Propaganda Department of the Chengdu Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, and jointly produced by Chengdu Radio, Film and Television Group, Chengdu Media Group, and Guangdong Radio and Television.

Wang Weimin summed up this creative experience in one sentence: “All coincidences are worse than a truth.”