Look at the news Knows reporter Li Ke Lu Xinquan
2022-01-21 03:51
"It's true that there's a shadow of itself, in this story. For the past two years, the lion has been just trying to prove that our team is the best. As our team was about to disband, we were holding our breath and trying to prove that we could make Lion Boy two years. ”
The first time I met Sun Haipeng, the director of "Lion Boy", I didn't feel strange, after all, in the face of an animated film like "Lion Boy", which caused heated discussion and even controversy, the reports about the creator were overwhelming. In response to some of the hot discussions caused by the movie, we talked face to face for two hours. What I didn't expect was that after the interview, I found that the director in front of me looked like a real Juan.
In one or two years, the soon-to-be-disbanded animation team has done wonders
"Male Lion Boy" tells the story of the left-behind teenager Ah Juan and her friends A Cat and Ah Dog who participated in the lion dance competition under the training of retired lion king Salty Fish Qiang, and after a lot of tempering, they changed from "sick cat" to "male lion". Although the plot is old-fashioned, the exquisite picture is really surprising. The lion dance scene realizes the subtlety of details, the lion's head on the big screen is enough to "fake the real", and the streets in the rain and the street scenes in Guangzhou are realistic like a combination of physical objects and animation. Just by virtue of this delicate and exquisite picture texture, the action scene of the clouds and the flowing water, it is not too much to say that it refreshes the ceiling of the national comic.
But Sun Haipeng told me that the production cycle of "Lion Boy" is only two years: "On August 8, 2019, when we proposed this idea to Miao Zong (producer), he said that he could probably only judge a market situation in two years. I felt that we ourselves should finish it as soon as possible, because our first film "Food Adventure" was too long, it took four years, and by the time we finished it in 2018, our subject matter was already lagging behind. ”
Two years to complete an anime movie is indeed an incredible speed. It should be known that "The Return of the Great Sage" took eight years to produce, "Jiang Ziya" was polished in four years, and the production of "Nezha's Demon Boy Descending" also took more than three years. After two years of completing the work, Sun Haipeng has confidence in his team, after all, in order to present the most realistic kapok in the film, the special effects supervisor of "Lion Boy" is willing to bring the mobile power supply, computer host, and workbench to the kapok tree and work on the side of the road.
"We couldn't do this film in a conventional way, because we couldn't finish it according to the regular process. One of the largest rendering farms in China can't afford such a huge amount of computation as we do, and we rely on human flesh to transmit data in the last few days, and every day a colleague flies from Guangzhou to Beijing with a hard disk and copies it, and then flies back the next day, constantly updating the lens to keep up with the workload. "Sun Haipeng told me that these operations can save some workload, as long as the work that the machine can undertake will not waste manpower, such a method will be risky, but have to try."
Test the waters of realism, but reality ≠ completely real
Usually, the domestic animation we often see is always about myths or legends, but "Lion Boy" is refreshing, its story breaks through the mythological theme, based on the real world, focusing on social issues such as left-behind children, non-genetic inheritance, the balance of urban and rural development, the realization of individual value in the process of the times, etc. The story is only ordinary people from beginning to end, even if the lion dance makes Ah Juan usher in a highlight moment, it can only bring him spiritual inspiration, rather than a material and identity leap.
Why tell such a realistic story with animation? After finishing the film, Sun Haipeng found the answer to this question: "The camera may shoot a physical reality, but we use animation to make it, it may be a psychological reality, it is closer to what the mind thinks." For example, the house in the countryside, its walls are not horizontal and vertical, they are all crooked in this way, we may have made the house in the countryside look like in everyone's mind. We can suddenly add some very romantic shots to this realistic story, and then don't let the audience play. For example, so many kapok on the hillside, such as the light in the cracks in the city, we can suddenly present a particularly romantic feeling in a certain picture at a certain moment. Sun Haipeng frankly said that making reality both romantic is the biggest advantage of animation.
Although the fate of the characters of Ah Juan, Ah Cat, and Ah Dog is real, the film does not always restore the real landscape. For example, in the opening scene, the elevated green, two lions in a posture that surpasses mortals, ignores the laws of physics and the human body structure and flies up and down. The insurmountable Optimus Prime also does not exist in the real lion dance. Realistic films present this "unrealistic" temperament, which is not contradictory in Sun Haipeng's view: "We are a commercial film, the framework of a commercial film, and we must take into account entertainment." In commercial films, it is emotionally reasonable, and I think it can be considered, even if it conflicts with reality. ”
"I can proudly tell my child that this is a movie made by your father."
The traditional folk art of lion dance can be revived in animation, not only because the thrill of lion dance is excellent animation material, but also because the director believes that the combination of lion dance and youth can double the power of blood. Sun Haipeng admitted that he had a "lion dance complex", the most impressive one was in foreign countries, he was on vacation when he happened to encounter a shopping mall in a lion dance performance, in a foreign country to see The traditional Chinese culture, he felt particularly shocked: "When he drumming sounded, and then his lion head shook up, I first burst into tears for a moment, as if there was some kind of touching point or pride in my bones. The reason why this movie is made is actually more of an emotion, I just want this emotion to be expressed, just like the moment I saw the lion dance abroad, that energy, that emotion. ”
"Not recognizing" seems to be the soul of "The Lion Boy". In the animation, the Optimus Prime, erected in front of the high pile, is a mountain that the lion dancers can never climb, and Ah Juan "does not recognize". In reality, animation is inseparable from mythology? Animated characters can always change their lives against the sky to become heroes? The character image should have big eyes? Sun Haipeng did not recognize: "The development of animation in the past ten years and twenty years, it is more of a learning stage, constantly learning from foreign excellent animation production and their creativity." Sometimes when we do animation, we will involuntarily follow the established template, which is done according to the Hollywood routine. So when doing "The Lion Boy", I deliberately avoided this point, don't follow this routine first, think about whether this routine does not conform to the common sense of our Chinese, and the culture we Chinese. We Chinese everyday feelings. ”
Some viewers said that the character image of "Lion Boy" is not beautiful, Sun Haipeng can fully understand, but he also has his own persistence: "We hope to be able to do some breakthroughs, not to say that big eyes are not good or how, I think big eyes are actually quite beautiful, it is suitable for a certain type of story." According to our story, these three teenagers should be very ordinary when they appear, even a little ugly and funny. On the contrary, if you make it a little beautiful, it is not appropriate to put it in, I have to leave a space for growth, at first it was very weak, and then in the back his eyes became very firm, his eyebrows changed, and his silhouette changed. I think he's handsome. ”
All along, the cool handsomeness of American comics and the cuteness of Japanese comics have subtly affected the aesthetics of Chinese audiences. However, it is obviously unreasonable to judge whether a work has malicious intent simply by looking at a "skin bag". After all, after watching the story in the movie in its entirety, you can feel that the image changes with the growth of the characters, and the evaluation of whether the character image is handsome is also based on the story content as a reference coordinate.
Whether you adapt to the characters in "The Lion Boy" or not, you hope to see the creator's exploration of different aesthetics through this movie. They may have sparked controversy, but the courage to break the already homogenized anime aesthetic and explore a style that fits the story setting deserves applause.
Perhaps "The Lion Boy" did not achieve great commercial success, but this exploration has no regrets for Sun Haipeng: "No matter what the box office is, I think it is still worth it anyway." In fact, you say how perfect it is, I think not, including the picture it is not perfect, but I think this movie may be irreplaceable in my entire creative career, I think I can really proudly follow the family to see it, and then very proudly tell the child that this is your father's movie. ”
A mountain is higher than a mountain, "Lion Boy" took me to see the persistence of ordinary people, and the courage that love brings to animators, just as the lion dance gives Ah Juan the courage, although dreams cannot change the trajectory of his life, but can make him grow up tenaciously.
The road ahead is nine consecutive mountains, eighteen bends, up the mountain and down the mountain, walk slowly.
(Look at the news Knows reporter: Li Ke Lv Xinquan Camera: Lv Xinquan Intern Editor: Qin Yujia)