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I just caught some documentary on CCTV, I can't believe they show stuff that are non-propaganda too... It was some documentary on film extras and body doubles...
Imagine watching a some epic war film. Without extras, the fighting scenes would all look extremely corny!! Imagine watching 'The Banquet' w/o body doubles, those 'colourful' uncles won't get to see Zhang Ziyi, oops i meant, Ziyi Zhang's curvacious back, cos it ain't her back really!! And imagine watching 'Kung Fu Hustle' w/o the stuntmen, there ain't gonna be the slick moves cos they actors are either too old to do the real thing or those pretty faces ain't gonna risk it...
The documentary shed some light on how badly treated some of these extras are... I think the film producers really expect them to live up to their titles, as extras... As if having their trust in stuntmen misplaced, directors often choose to detonate explosives earlier than what was told to the them, or even worse, choose not to tell them about explosives altogether... They may even cut the ropes off stuntmen to make them fall more 'realistically'... Many stuntmen have suffered paralysis for life or even died from filming as a result of their jobs, with or w/o producers treating them badly...
Body doubles and many other film extras are often not given credits at the end of the film as to not reveal that the lead actors didn't do take some scenes on their own...
Heck, even (the so-called Taiwan's no.1) Lin Chi-Ling's advertisements require more than one body double!! One for her hands, one for her legs, one for her back view... Hur hur... Ridiculous, ain't it??
But one thing is for sure, all of them must have known what they were in for... They risk their lives, they will not be accredited for the production as much as the pretty faces will be, and their names may not even be on the credit roll!! So, why do it? I believe it's cos of their passion for film-making and acting... It doesn't take a Lee Ang to realise that most of these extras act better than local artistes... They are committed to the success of the production, the success of the crew, the success of the producers and directors!!
Humph... I wonder if there's anything I'm doing that is actually for the sake of getting noticed... Am i committed to the success of whoever's my superior??
