In a wonderful grocery store deep in the mountains, four strangers of unknown origin tell their own stories: the girl trapped in the "death cycle" at 4:45, the bar owner who responds to every need, a trash can that can swallow and pass objects.....
The thick suspense atmosphere coupled with the reasoning of careful thinking and extreme fear, coupled with the recommendation of the well-known film critic kol "small pieces say blockbusters", has made the online big movie "Heavenly Strange Talk" hotly discussed on Douban, with a rating of 7.5 higher than 72% suspense films. "After watching it once and watching it completely or incompletely many times, the writers and directors dug more and more interesting. The suspense of the three stories is progressively layered," one netizen commented.
The Chinese version of "World Wonder Story" or the mainland version of "Pawnshop No. 8"? I never expected that this suspense network without half a comedy color was large, and the producer behind it was actually the originator of online content.
Through interviews with producers and directors, online entertainment observation also found that the difficulties behind this small-scale production film that cost less than 2 million yuan were almost driven away: the scene of shooting the cemetery on the football field was almost driven away, the rain scene shot by spending 600 yuan to modify the pesticide sprinkler, and the fake wall that was rushed out in a day and a half.
This trance reminds people of the two-cent five special effects of the original "Never Expected" period. Whether it is a divine drama or a divine film, is it the imagination forced out by poverty?
"I'm going to blow up this 'Chinese version of The Strange Story of the World'!"
Not many people know that Wanhe Tianyi set its sights on the online big movie market as early as 2016. From the thrilling "Horror Story" series to the martial arts-style "I Come Too" series, as well as several independent stories "Miss Bao's Bag", "Five Years Of Simulated Three-Year College Entrance Examination", "Bad Neighborhood", but the effect of multiple attempts does not seem to be pleasing.
"At the beginning, what we did was more realistic, and the ancient costume fantasy theme that is more popular in the current online market is indeed not the direction we are good at." Wanhe Tianyi producer Leng Gang admitted that the company's original intention of doing net university is more to let its young directors and screenwriters accumulate experience in feature film shooting, "The previous project did not lose much, but the rate of return was not high."
Unlike previous projects, "Strange Talk" is composed of three short and pithy stories, with larger brain holes and a stronger sense of suspense, but it is not as shocking as "horror story". Director Zhou Haohui is a well-known writer of suspense novels in China, who has selected Chi Baohua's "4:08, Death", Xiang Wu's "Responding to Needs" and Su Fa's "Complicity" from hundreds of suspense mystery novels for adaptation.
"At that time, there were no plans to do imaging 'The Wonderful Story of the World', 'Black Mirror' or 'Secret Affair No. 9,'" Leng Gang believes. "Our earliest idea is that there is no particularly good film in the Chinese suspense genre, and Teacher Zhou is also the number one god in the suspense industry, he has some stories on hand, and he thinks it is better to transform into a movie."
"Web dramas have large capacity, and they have higher requirements for the cycle and cost of creation and production; the characteristics of net dramas are short and fast, which is more suitable for our works with a little experimentation." He told Entertainment Watch (id: wldygc) that the criteria for screening stories are first of all good,taking into account censorship restrictions and production difficulties. "The three stories selected in the end have their own close-ups, the cycle of the first story, the moral and structure of the second story, and the creativity of the third story to kill people across time and space, I think are all very interesting."
After the adaptation of Zhou Haohui, co-director Fu Yicong and the screenwriter, "Heavenly Strange Talk" nests three unrelated stories in the play-within-a-play of the grocery store scene, and everyone who goes to the store with the baby will tell a strange story, and those who impress the boss will take away the items.
"On the one hand, it will be easier to judge whether the stories are true or false; on the other hand, each story is only twenty or thirty minutes long, the pace is fast, and the tandem through the grocery store will increase the curiosity of the audience, and at the same time lay a stem," Leng Gang explained.
Less than 2 million cost to shoot out, in today's network field is also a small cost of production, the choice of network distribution when the platform rating is not dominant; and the publicity budget is also pitiful, so the number of plays after the launch of Mango TV is not high, but whether it is in the station or Douban comments are a piece of applause, "finished most of the domestic suspense films," some netizens commented.
In addition to "tap water", another assist came from the recommendation of the film critics v "Small Film Talk Blockbuster", spoilers for the first story of "Heavenly Strange Talk" in just a few minutes, attracting many fans to come and watch. "Piece (Lu Gang) is our former colleague," Leng Gang said with a smile. "I know he's disciplined in judging the film, so I told him to take a look at the film." He read it twice, and then replied to me, I'm going to blow up this 'Chinese version of the wonderful story of the world'. ”
"The film has a relatively large influence, and his audience is also a fan of similar themes, so a recommendation has caused a good effect, Douban scores more, every day when I watch Weibo in real time, I am praising this one."
Now that the film is on fire, will you regret the exclusive release of Mango TV, which does not have a dominant membership number? In Leng Gang's view, Mango TV, which is backed by Hunan Radio and Television, has made efforts to make network movies this year and given more resource discounts to the content side; at the same time, their self-made variety show "Star Detective" is also the main suspense reasoning, which is in line with the tone of "Heavenly Strange Talk", "Many people say that chong members are watching "Star Detective", and it turns out that there is such a film is not bad (laughs). ”
"I'm a treasure of feng shui, you're going to shoot me a cemetery?!"
Many viewers who have watched the movie will feel that the texture of the film is good, especially some details are designed carefully. Leng Gang admitted that in fact, in order to save money, the crew even used chopsticks as props. Everyone in the film to see the familiar actors like Xiao Ai, Ge Bu, etc., are also normal payments, "but the actor in the budget, should also account for 1/7 of it."
Zhou Haohui revealed that the shooting cycle of "Heavenly Strange Talk" is 15 days, but "the later stage has been delayed for a little half a year, and there are also reasons for the shortage of funds." Especially in the soundtrack, because we don't have the money to ask someone to compose, so many of the soundtracks are slowly cut out by Fu Director (co-director Fu Yicong) himself in the copyright library. ”
The main scene of the "cemetery" in the first story is actually a remote football field on the outskirts of Chengdu, which was bought by the local boss for pension purposes. "We signed the contract and paid to shoot it, and they didn't know what we were going to shoot and didn't ask." Leng Gang recalled that the crew put the tombstone made of wood on it, and the white line on the field was covered with hay, but at this time, the security guard came to intervene and called the boss.
I'm a feng shui treasure, you're going to get me this? The owner yelled at the end of the phone.
What to do? "When he came looking for it, our big empty mirror had already been shot, and only close-up and special scenes were left." Can take a close-up view of the tombstone, and then the crew thought of a way: remove the "tablet" from the base and leave only the upper part, and insert a chopstick in the back, so that the group performer who plays the mourner holds up an umbrella in one hand and the chopsticks in the other, so that the camera sweeps to the waist, just to see the tombstone.
"It was hard to finish the scene, put a few strings of whips on the scene, sent red envelopes to the security guards, and went to apologize to the big boss, saying that we are nothing, it is a movie."
Not only that, but Tiangong is not beautiful. The first story requires a full rain scene, "we finally decided to shoot in Chengdu also considering that the winter in Chengdu rarely sees sunshine," Zhou Haohui admitted. But it's very strange that the days we shoot the first story, Chengdu opens the sun every day, because of the cost and cycle limitations, it can only be the scalp. Attentive viewers may find that there are several rain scenes with sunlight, and there is really no way to shoot, can't wait. ”
The crew did not have a ready-made sprinkler or rain-making equipment, and the on-site producer got a water gun that used pesticides and drilled dozens of holes in the iron rod to make the "rain" very even. "We got a total of three such devices, which cost more than 600 yuan, which is also a small invention, which is very interesting."
The grocery store scene and the home of the third story were filmed in the studio, but the space in the studio was limited, and the previous story was about to be demolished and rebuilt immediately after shooting, and the 6-person art team spent a day and a half sleepless to rush to work. The opening locomotive man looking for the exterior of the grocery store in the wilderness ridge is actually a "wall" that has been built now, "The back is empty, propped up with wooden sticks." As soon as you push the door in, you switch to the view inside the shed. ”
But not everything can be saved. When filming the second story, there was a female star conference, and after the first shooting, Zhou Haohui felt that the effect was not very good, "The script set her as a very big star, maybe there are not enough reporters, it seems a little shabby." During the second shoot, the crew traveled to colleges and universities in Chengdu and borrowed more than 30 cameras and camcorders, resulting in budget overruns, but the final effect was achieved.
The road to the Internet
Give the "King Sledgehammers" a chance
If "Heavenly Difference" is a test of the large market space of suspense networks, in the future, wanhe Tianyi and Zhou Haohui team also have plans to create mini-series with similar themes.
"Both the Internet University and the web drama are possible," Zhou Haohui told the Online Entertainment Observation, "I still value the story itself, and the form and carrier are all for the story." I will find the most suitable way to present the story I want to shoot. ”
"Teacher Zhou is an absolute authority in the screening and control of the story, and can judge whether the story is novel enough," Leng Gang believes. "But the story should be filmed, on the one hand, Teacher Zhou will cooperate with the professional screenwriting team to complete the adaptation, on the other hand, the Chinese audience that likes suspense is relatively niche, how to let more audiences enter this field, we are still thinking of a more appropriate model."
Previously, Wanhe Tianyi's attempt in the direction of the network was not successful, leng Gang also summarized the reasons, on the one hand, the company to train new people as the main purpose, the series of network shooting standards are uneven, and the thriller theme is too vertical; on the other hand, this year's overall market environment has led to a decreasing number of networks, resources to the head of the big production tilt.
"More than half of the production companies or teams of the big network have gradually left the market, and as the network is becoming more and more mature and the level of industrialization is getting higher and higher, some small companies and small teams have gradually lost their competitiveness." Relatively large-scale and films with the blessing of the card division will reduce the risk, because it is indeed the head, the resources given by the platform are good, below this amount, the risk is quite large. "
"At present, the company's online film business unit is still there, but it has not been doing network big, and episodes and short video programs are under development." Leng Gang admitted that when he was busy earlier, he shot 7 nets a year, and this year's budget was reduced, and he basically did not start much.
But he is still optimistic about the market development of The Internet. "For the creative team and the company, the cinema film is not something that anyone can do, 90% of them are losing money, and they will also hope to go online through small-scale, small-cost projects, and the rate of return is not bad, at least it will not lose." The platform itself also has demand, although it is not as strong as the momentum in 2015 and 2016, but it has entered a relatively virtuous circle of rhythm, and large-scale and high-quality are inevitable trends. ”
Zhou Haohui feels that the online film market still has unlimited development potential, but good content creators and mature audience groups need to bring each other in, which will have a process of fermentation over time. "The online film market in 2018 is still in the process of this fermentation, and I hope that "Heavenly Talk" can play a little role as a catalyst."
What makes Leng Gang even more pleased is that the online movie has indeed trained the company's newcomers. "One of our previous internet directors, his own script passed the second trial on Xu Zheng's side."
"I am not a medicine god" director Wen Muye impressed him with his acceptance speech at this year's Golden Horse Awards, and he made 5 short films at a cost of less than 10,000 yuan. "How to practice is not practice?" Wen Muye felt, "You can't wait until you have money to shoot, which is more important, time and money?" ”
Like the short film, the University of Net-University carries part of the function of cultivating new talents, and many young people get more opportunities through this platform.
"NetDa may be looked down upon by many people in the industry, and that's because they're already in that position." But for the newcomer, he needs such an opportunity. Use this opportunity to find your own shortcomings and then work on new projects, and you will find that they have grown a lot. ”