Behind the scenes ｜ How to perform ＂Wang Xingren＂？ Revealing the small coup of film and television dog training

Special feature of 1905 film network From "Loyal Dog Eight Men" to "Goodbye, Li Kele" and then to "Dog God", there are many movies with dogs as actors on the big screen this year. Dogs have conquered the audience with sincere and exquisite acting skills. We can’t help wondering, compared with human actors, how do dog actors complete their performances?

Especially in Goodbye, Li Cola, the role of "Coke" has gone through three stages: childhood, middle age and old age. How to train puppies at different stages? Is it difficult to train dogs to film?

In this issue of Behind the scenes, we came to the studio of Li Mingqing, the dog trainer of Goodbye, Li Kele, and listened to his wonderful stories about dogs before and after the stage.

Lovely "Little Coke"

From the first season of the TV series "Dog Seven" to the movie "Goodbye, Li Cola", Li Mingqing’s partner director Wang Xiaolie participated in the creation of many film and television works, and he is a very experienced dog training guide.

According to reports, the selection of dog actors mainly depends on whether the puppy has power to drive. "Food or toys, with these as motivation, actors can take it away."

Unlike the daily family dog-raising club that trains dogs not to eat strangers’ food, the habit of not eating strange food must not be trained for dogs participating in film and television shooting. If the dog is not interested in the actor’s food, the actor can’t take it away, and he will only follow the dog training instructions.

Nowadays, the one-year-old "Little Coke" filmed "Goodbye, Li Cola" for just over two months, which was a particularly naughty time.

In the first half of the film, there is a scene in which it "unlocks and escapes" from the pet store. In retrospect, Li Mingqing admitted that it was not difficult to make the dog escape from the pet shop. At that time, he stayed outside the pet store to guide the puppy to break the glass, which was quickly completed.

The difficulty of the whole scene is that when Seven and NI YAN walk outside the glass, "Little Coke" has to look after them all the time.

Because the actor is going to pass by the pet shop, he can’t stay where he is to guide the puppy, otherwise there will be a goof shot. At that time, there was a rail car under the window of the shooting scene, and the dog trainer stayed near the rail car to take things to attract dogs. Sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, while cooperating with the actor’s route, while constantly attracting the attention of "Little Coke".

In Li Mingqing’s view, this kind of scene is not easy to shoot. Fortunately, director Wang Xiaolie is especially good at filming "Dog Show", and Seven himself has a dog. In "Goodbye, Li Kele", everyone cooperated very well.

Naughty "Chinese coke"

"There are many scenes and the director is demanding. In Goodbye, Li Cola, the most difficult thing to train is’ Chinese Coke’. " Li Mingqing said.

"China Cola" was less than three years old when it was filmed. Being active by nature, it is very easy to get excited, but there are many scenes that need to be quiet. The director has repeatedly asked it to shut up and walk slowly. Li Mingqing bluntly said that "China Cola" has a lively personality, and the atmosphere at the shooting scene is high, which makes it very difficult to complete the conversion from excitement to silence.

"How to make it shut up quickly when it is excited?"

Attract it with food and arouse its curiosity, and it will shut up for a few seconds. At this time, the camera needs to quickly capture its quiet state. Li Mingqing added that the method of arousing the curiosity of dogs can’t be commonly used. When its curiosity disappears, it has no effect.

So at that time, the dog trainers also worked overtime to train the concentration of "China Cola". Close its mouth, keep it stable, and then slowly release it. This is actually a command to shut up, and it will understand after learning.

There should be no influence or interference on the shooting scene. When it is necessary to take a quiet picture of the dog, Li Mingqing will hold his chin slightly to make him understand the instructions and keep quiet, and then quietly leave the scene and exit the picture, so as to keep the shooting going smoothly.

"Coke in China" accidentally poured coke into hot pot, which became a big "famous scene" of the film.How is this done?"Put the food under the bottle. When it goes to get food, it just knocks over the coke. "

At first, Li Mingqing specially trained the skills of "Chinese coke" jumping on the stove for this scene. Later, when I arrived at the scene, I found that the scene setting had changed. So he played a simple food game with the dog, and it completed the task well.

Old Coke "Xiao Qi" and body double "Xiao Wu"

The dog who plays "Old Coke" is called "Xiaoqi". He is eleven years old this year, which is equivalent to more than seventy years old of human beings. In Li Mingqing’s eyes, it is a "star" with rich experience in filming.

Xiaoqi not only participated in the series Goodbye, Li Ke Le and Shenquan Xiaoqi, but also appeared in Dogs in China and Spicy Metamorphosis, and also owned the imperial body double Xiaowu.

From the beginning of "Shenquan Xiaoqi", "Xiaowu" became a "high imitation version of Xiaoqi".

Talking about the reasons why dog actors also have body double, Li Mingqing explained that body double’s role is to assist in dimming. When "Xiaoqi" has a scene, it will let "Xiaoqi" assist in the adjustment first, and then let it play after the team adjusts the light to avoid consuming the energy and state of "Xiaoqi" in advance. Secondly, when a scene is divided into two groups of AB scenes, the distant shot can be shot by body double, thus improving the creative efficiency.

Li Mingqing said frankly that for Xiaoqi, the most difficult part of this film is the picture of her meeting with Seven.

"Old Coke" took the initiative to remind Li Heng that it was not an ordinary puppy, and it had the shadow of Sinan’s father.

Unlike people who can easily get their responses when they meet dogs, it is not a simple matter to train dogs to meet humans.

Li Mingqing introduced that the first step is to train the dog to learn to sit, and after he learns to sit, he has to add a little thoughtfulness. For example, with the help of the illusion of sight, some food is hidden in the actor’s clothes where the dog can see but the audience can’t, and "tempt" the dog to meet the actor when he gets the food.

Despite the tight schedule of actors and the tight shooting plan, the director has always stressed the need to ensure that dogs can have a full rest during the creation of Goodbye, Li Kele. Dogs have a lot of scenes, and the director can always arrange them properly. When he shoots the penultimate and third scenes every day, he will intimately let them go back to rest in advance. Li Mingqing bluntly said that this warm care made him particularly moved.

Like Seven and NI YAN in Goodbye, Li Cola, Li Mingqing, who deals with hundreds of puppies every day, has already regarded every cute little guy around him as his closest family.