Are you the station manager?


When she's standing outside the TV station asking everybody leaving if they were the station manager, the peoples reactions seemed pretty real. Was this a guerrilla style shoot with unwitting actors? If so, genius idea.

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Yes indeed.

Zhang Yimou was insistent that this "natural" style was used whenever possible in the film. This scene was done with a long lens and several hidden microphones. Its not a new idea (its used briefly in GHOSTBUSTERS!!!) but you would be unlikely to find a more effective use of it.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=32397724

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In the Trivia section, it says that Yimou did indeed use stealth shooting because he wanted to get natural reactions from non-actors. I didn't read that until after I'd seen the movie (loved it!). I noticed that almost every man who stopped to listen to her question asked her to repeat it twice. That seemed strange to me, so I thought perhaps she had a "countrified" accent that was difficult for the city people to understand. But that couldn't be right since no one else she met had a problem understanding her. Those were great reactions, though! Definitely a genius idea. I'm glad I didn't know beforehand.

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