From Zhang Ziye : As we all know, a realistic movie like this will definitely pursue a 1:1 restoration of the original scene in terms of setting, so we can see that you have done a very good job of restoring the details of the scene, such as taxis, convenience stores, etc. However, this movie was not shot in Wuhan after all, but in Shenzhen, because we know that different settings will produce different effects, and 1:1 reduction may not fully help the film’s narration. So in the setting design, did you make any special changes? If not, can you explain why? If so, can you give an example?
We tried every efforts to bring in details of Wuhan in each set in order to help the narration. However, Shenzhen will never be Wuhan by the end of the day.
It is crucial to understand that this is NOT a key issue of a film. The key issue is the story. If the audience are in to the story and touch by the performance, they’d forget where the film is shot. The best example is “Beijing meets Seattle” 《北京遇上西雅圖》,in which the love story in between 湯唯 & 吳秀波 was good enough, and no one really care this so-called Seattle was filmed in Vancouver.