The good news of the resumption of work on July 20 has made the industry and the audience feel the different commemorative significance of this summer. The epidemic has undoubtedly put forward a test for how the film and television industry develops, and has also shown some obvious trends and achievements.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >1, shooting mode: space from limited to unlimited</h1>
The trend that personnel cannot be intensively contacted has made many film and television dramas shift from the outfield to the interior, from multiple people to single-person shooting, which has promoted some creators to follow the trend of innovative thinking.
For example, the British drama "Stage Play", starring David Tennant and Mike Sheen, both of whom are big names in the British theater industry and powerful actors. Last year, they starred in 6 episodes of the fantasy comedy "Good Omens", which had a Douban score of 8.7 and co-produced by the BBC and Amazon, playing a pair of angels and demons who spent thousands of years on earth and cultivated friendship, and went to work together to touch fish and cover each other to send their bosses, cute and rotten, super loving.
Stills from "Good Omens", angels and demons love ice cream
This year's "Stage Drama" is a small short drama that was changed to indoor shooting under the epidemic, telling the story of the two people who had to discuss the plot and rehearse the script in the form of an online meeting at home.
The two continued the CP style of gags and love and killing each other in "Good Omens", the unkempt home attire, the lazy tone, the childish position dispute, and the appearance of taking the baby to the Internet class, all like us who worked from home at the beginning of the epidemic and were tortured by divine beasts.
"Stage Drama" online conference style shooting screen, cute "childish ghost"
They also integrated the current situation of life in a special period into another work of the two of them this year, the sequel to "Good Omens: Isolation". Angels and demons no longer meet, but instead call online.
The devil complains that he must stay at home during the epidemic, and he can't bear to go out and do bad things, and it is boring at home; the angel bakes a room of cakes at home, which he really has to give to the thieves who come to steal books. Is it the same as our painting style of "shouting boredom and learning crafts" during the epidemic?
Closely related to the creation of the times and the recent situation of human life, this short film has won the general praise of Douban score of 9.3.
Good Omens: Quarantine poster
The BBC reboot of "Talking Heads" starring Judy Comer in "Kill Eve", "Peanut" Martin Freeman in "Sherlock", and Ameda Stanton, the teacher in "Harry Potter", has also premiered in the UK on June 23.
Each episode is 40 minutes long, a total of 12 episodes of a small short film, each episode has a lead actor, all completed indoors, just like the title, only the actors themselves "chatter" in front of the camera to tell their stories.
Talking Heads poster and stills
Of course, we also know that many film themes cannot be completely put indoors like the production of TV series, but under the objective impact of the epidemic, film shooting is indeed facing a great test.
For example, the movie "Jurassic World 3" has previously announced that it will resume filming in the UK on July 6, becoming the earliest return to work in Hollywood blockbusters that have been suspended due to the epidemic. But several crew members tested positive for COVID-19 on the first day of returning to work, and although the infected members did not include actors, it put both filmmaking and management at risk.
Obviously, the regulations on the viewing time within 2 hours of the special period, the spatial choice of film shooting, the shooting method, the theme thinking, the shooting creation, the editing expression, etc., all have to face some compromises and adjustments.
For example, director Jia Zhangke, who has been speaking out for the Chinese film industry on the platform, filmed a small short film "Visit" completed by 3 people in the room and 3 minutes and 58 seconds for the epidemic, and the whole film took only one day and a mobile phone to shoot.
The short film was shot in response to the call of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece, a short film project with the theme of "restrictions" and the global epidemic as the background. There are also many well-known directors around the world who have been invited to create the film, which is about 3 minutes long and must be shot indoors.
As director Jia Zhangke said in an interview with The New York Times:
"The completion of this set of short films marks the triumph of life. They show that no matter what the difficult situation, the human mind can still breathe freely through cinema... Years later, we can say that there are two other kinds of directors in this world: those who have experienced the new crown pneumonia epidemic, and those who have not experienced it. This pandemic will surely make us think long and reshape our film culture. ”
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >2, broadcast mode: cooperation from offline to online</h1>
Under the epidemic, the global film industry has been affected. Domestically, at the beginning of the year, director Xu Zheng sold the copyright of "囧Mom" to ByteDance for 630 million yuan, allowing users to watch it for free; on March 20, the movie "Big Winner" also began to be broadcast for free on toutiao and other platforms.
"囧Mom" poster
For Shanghai film fans like Godot, the Shanghai International Film Festival, which was postponed due to the epidemic, was finally officially announced to be held from July 25 to August 2, 2020, which also made this July very different.
In fact, on July 5th, Godot made a micro-headline in today's headlines, sharing the "scheduling table" deleted by the official website of the Shanghai Film Festival, which impressively wrote the "online screening area" of Migu and Youku. At that time, I had already made a certain psychological preparation for the screening form of this year's Shanghai International Film Festival.
Sure enough, the official announcement indicated that this year's Shanghai International Film Festival will hold three forms of "theater screening, open-air screening and online screening", which is more than the way I originally expected, there is a very nostalgic "open-air screening" model, which is really rubbing hands and looking forward to it. However, it is conceivable that this year's theater viewing tickets are more difficult to buy.
On the film festival poster, the sense of futurism and technology are intertwined, so that the city ushered in the dawn
Abroad, the impact of the epidemic should not be underestimated. For example, the World War II war film "Greyhound", which was originally scheduled to be released in North American theaters in June, starred and wrote by Tom Hanks, and produced by Sony, also sold the film rights to Apple for $70 million.
According to foreign media reports, this is the largest film copyright acquisition in history made by Apple for apple TV+ services, beating Netflix, which also has the intention of purchasing rights.
But Netflix's "counterattack" also came quickly, Tom Hanks's "Greyhound" and goddess Charlize Theron's "Eternal Guard", which landed on Apple TV+ and Netflix on July 10, respectively, and the Oscar emperor and the Oscar queen online showdown, full of smoke.
Left: Greyhound poster; right: Immortal Guard poster
The significance of "Greyhound" may also lie in the fact that this is the first big production to be broadcast online during the NEW CROWN epidemic in the United States, and For the first time, Tom Hanks has abandoned the traditional way of adapting his self-written and self-acting works to the big screen and instead broadcast them on streaming platforms.
Fortunately, the Douban score of 8.3 also proves that although this movie cannot let fans feel the thrilling naval battle in the cinema, it is also one of the rare Hollywood films in the special period.
Although the score of "Guardian of Eternal Life" is not high, Netflix, as the head of global streaming media, has benefited from the epidemic this year, with a surge of 15.8 million subscribers in the first quarter, an increase of 10.09 million subscribers in the second quarter, and a total of more than 193 million global subscribers.
It seems that the cooperation between movies and streaming media has become a trend, earlier in today's headlines of the micro headlines, Godot also shared a blockbuster news with everyone, that is, the movie version of the musical "Hamilton" was also launched on Disney+ on July 3.
Hamilton poster
This is a musical that can be watched in the cinema, not a common dramatized movie, but a kind of movie that is filmed on the scene of the musical theater performance and played, commonly known as "official shooting", official shooting. Because of the musical performance site, the audience is not allowed to take pictures and videos during the whole process.
The film was originally scheduled to be released in North American theaters on October 15, 2021, but due to the long-term consideration of the impact of the epidemic, a strategic change was made, and Disney bought the distribution rights of the film for $75 million, and it was launched to Disney+ early on July 3.
As the world's leading winner in the film and television entertainment industry, Disney's profit model is also worth learning.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >3, win-win model: profit from single line to long line</h1>
Under the epidemic situation, a solemn test has been put forward for the win-win situation of the capital, the film side, the cinema line, the ordinary audience, the senior film fans, etc.
Disney, the world's leading player in the film and television entertainment industry, has completed the transformation of "works - products - commodities", film and television fixed IP, peripheral derivatives, park economy, etc., and has done a good job
Disneyland
Hollywood movie IP can also maintain stable content creation, continuous output updates, thus gaining a large number of loyal fans of all ages, coupled with offline licensing, Universal Studios and other long-term operations of park business, but also a steady stream of income.
Universal Studios
It can be seen that film IP, stable content creation, continuous high-quality output, derivative development, etc., can make the works branded, thereby promoting long-term operation.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
July 20, 2020 is really a day recorded in the history of Chinese films, and the digital harmonic sound seems to be saying "love you love you love you". Revisiting the cinema with this emotion is irreplaceable for the film itself, for ordinary audiences and fans.
Poster for one of the first finalized films, The First Parting, on July 20
For movies, "3D/4K/120 frames" and other special film formats tailored for the big screen, immersive film soundtracks, etc., are far from being comparable to mobile phones and computer viewing experiences; the continuous evolution of film formats and viewing experiences has also left important era inscriptions for the innovation of movies in different periods, which is the footsteps left by human civilization.
For film fans, whether it is the ease of one person, the sweetness of two people, the reunion of small partners, the growth of children, or the festival of a family, the carnival of a group of film fans, all make the space of "cinema" carry the commemorative meaning of simple movie watching. Who doesn't have a few movie ticket stubs of special significance hidden in their hands?
However, the uncertain future and the test of the film and television industry cannot be ignored. Whether it is a shooting mode, a broadcast model or a profit model, it is necessary to change the mindset and explore ways that have not been paid attention to or completely reborn, so that the pressure resistance of the film and television industry in the face of unexpected situations becomes stronger.
An epidemic has made us re-aware of the specific meaning and real impact of the "community of destiny", reshaping film culture, movie-watching culture, and looking for the light of hope together, which may be a common discussion that will occur in the "global village" for a long time in the future.
As for the provisions of the special period, of course, choose to understand. After all, in 2020, I believe that many people have put down the "small goal of 100 million", and now the idea is two words - to live.
Holding on means everything, and being able to gradually open up is hope, Godot reminds: Watch movies and wear masks to protect them, and bless China's film and television industry together!
What do you think about the resumption of theaters? Which movie would you most like to see in the cinema? Let's share it! I'm Godot, continuous drama critic film review, intermittent gossip on the new, @ human drama multi-movie, looking forward to your attention! (The picture is from the network, this article is original, and the infringement must be investigated!) ）