Sniper poster.
Directed by Zhang Yimou and Zhang Mo, and with Chen Yu as the original story and screenwriter, the movie "Sniper" has been released nationwide on the first day of the Chinese New Year. Set against the background of the "Cold Gun And Cold Artillery Movement" in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the film tells the story of a sniper squad of the Chinese Volunteer Army engaged in a deadly struggle with the elite sniper squad of the US Military in the situation of the disparity in the armament of the enemy and us.
"Sniper" is Chen Yu's third cooperation as a screenwriter and director Zhang Yimou, the first cooperation is the unaired "Rock Solid", the second cooperation is a project in preparation, when the project is halfway through, Chen Yu received a call from Zhang Yimou, saying that the script he is doing at hand is put down, first make a film to resist the United States and aid Korea, there will be a third cooperation "Sniper".
Stills from Sniper.
Zhang Yimou's requirements for script creation on the phone have only three points: "First, sniper-related films to resist US aggression and aid Korea must grasp the audience's attention every second and not be distracted in the slightest; second, to arouse the audience's strong emotions, which must have a surging force; third, we hope to be able to distinguish them from "Chosin Lake", and the story should be small and large, avoiding grand narratives. "The rest is to play the ability of Chen Yu's original story."
Compared with Zhang Yimou's other films, "Sniper" shows a style of simplifying complexity, carrying out high-information, high-dramatic narratives in a closed time and space, which Chen Yu calls "hardcore narratives". In an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News, Chen Yu also felt the changes in Zhang Yimou's creation in recent years, and he began to return to the ontological attributes of the film, and he liked the charm of "hard-core narrative" more and more.
Examine the vivid details of our "sniper" at that time
At that time, most of the accurate marksmanship in the US army was from the mountain hunters
Before writing the script, Chen Yu did a lot of homework, one is to analyze and digest some of the literature and video materials of the war against the United States and Aid Korea, and the other is to watch war films, especially all movies on the theme of snipers, to see, this kind of film has a specific form, to find its charm, what is the good place, including the sniper's skills, tactics, life form must be further studied.
In addition, Chen Yu also did some interviews, for example, when his uncle was 16 years old, he crossed the Yalu River as the first volunteer army and participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. In order to find out the situation of the soldiers holding guns at that time, in addition to the information obtained from the main history, he would also invite some friends who were engaged in the study of military aspects to understand the personal equipment of the volunteer army from other angles, and provide many verifiable details for the script.
When doing his homework in the early stages, Chen Yu found that in fact, during the period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the concept of "sniper" was not yet mature, and at that time it was called "cold gunner", and there was no formed sniper tactic, nor a set of combat terminology.
Chen Yu also specifically studied that the people in the United States who were very accurate in marksmanship at that time came from some fixed places, at most from the rocky mountains, because these people often went up the mountain to hunt, and the marksmanship was very accurate, becoming an important source of soldiers for later snipers.
In the 2020 film production record announcement, the protagonist of "Sniper" (originally named "The Coldest Gun") is a sniper named Zhang Dagong. When Chen Yu first came into contact with this subject, the name "Zhang Taofang" directly popped up in his mind. In the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Zhang Taofang killed 214 enemies with 436 bullets in 32 days, setting a record for the highest number of cold shots killed by the Chinese Volunteer Army on the Korean battlefield.
Chen Yu had planned to use Zhang Taofang's deeds as a prototype reference. However, in the process of doing homework later, Chen Yu found that in the "cold gun and cold gun movement", in addition to Zhang Taofang, there are many unknown snipers, they have some common characteristics, but also have their own personalities, and finally synthesized the commonalities and characteristics of each sniper, refined a virtual literary character, and did not use the name "Zhang Dagong".
A movie can't make the audience ambiguous three times
The 90-minute film doesn't miss every second of the scene
"Sniper" adopts the dramatic structure of "Trinity", the script requires consistency between time, place and plot, compressing the sniper duel between the Chinese volunteer army and the US army into a narrow time and space, and the length of the film is close to the length of the story.
The dramatic structure of the "Trinity" seems to be very simple, but it is actually particularly complex. Especially for war films, this is a very bold attempt. Chen Yu said that the cognition and methods involved in the level of narrative principles are more complicated. Over the years, he has been doing research on narrative, developing a methodology called narrative dynamics, which can solve many problems and build every link in the story, even every minute and every second, when doing the "Trinity" narrative structure.
When discussing the script, Zhang Yimou's requirements for the script are often accurate to one second. "For every second of the play, what kind of narrative psychological reception state the audience is in, we must anticipate," Chen Yu said, director Zhang Yimou's requirement for himself is that a film cannot be ambiguous to the audience more than three times. Chen Yu gave an example, what happened to this person, what he was doing, this counted once. Why did he kill this man and not kill that person, that's another count. If there are three times in a movie that makes the audience feel bad, then the movie fails.
The narrative rhythm of Sniper is very restrained.
This is actually a break in the narrative, the audience's thoughts will pause for a second and then go down, and Zhang Yimou wants to solve the problem of this second, which means that every second of the 90 minutes of the whole film must be solved. "We often meet for seven or eight hours, which may solve the problem of the audience." Chen Yu said.
Doing pure "hardcore narratives" focuses on the confrontation of several people
Weakened local depictions to enhance the emotional drama of "one singing and three sighs"
From the story outline of the script to the first draft, Chen Yu completed it quickly, and it took about three months before and after. The traditional normal script volume of more than 30,000 words and more than 120 scenes, he once wrote 50,000 words.
The script has undergone many revisions since it was finalized in the summer of 2020, but the basic pattern has not changed, there are no major subversive changes, and it is some local adjustments. Chen Yu picks and discards in the continuous creative explosion every day, "I never linger on the tricks I came up with, and the next one I come up with will be better." ”
The original script is much longer than the final version, with three sub-lines, one is a story line for the North Korean boy himself, and the other is about the sniper Dayong and the scout Liangliang, and the original script has a girl they like together and have an emotional line. Chen Yu wrote a lot of entanglements within the US military, including a mental state of the US military, their attitude toward war, and the relationship between comrades-in-arms. Later, during the creative discussion, some technical adjustments were made to weaken these three lines and make the story more pure.
Chen Yu said that normally, writing war themes will involve the background of the war, personal background and many other content, but when he wrote "Sniper", he did not talk about other things, but focused the story on the confrontation of several people, in a narrow and closed time and space, with the situation setting and the development of character relationships as the internal driving force, until the end of the dramatic contradiction, this very pure narrative method, he called it a "hardcore narrative" type of film, he believes that this hardcore narrative has a pure narrative charm. Take it to the extreme.
Sniper focuses the story on a confrontation between several people on both sides.
Chen Yu hopes that the film can return to its most essential narrative function, which is also more in line with Zhang Yimou's creative preferences in recent years. The audience has always had a need for a good narrative, and in the script, Chen Yu puts the charm of the story in the first place, so that the audience can get other functions of the film after watching the story, such as evoking national pride and inspiring young people.
In the early days of creation, Zhang Yimou made it clear to screenwriter Chen Yu that he must arouse the surging emotions of the audience. However, when it comes to specific creation, it is not necessary to be hard-hearted, but to make the emotions resonate with the audience naturally. Chen Yu said that this involves the narrative method, from the structural point of view, the audience is most nervous when there will be no tears, after designing a tense plot, to let the audience relax, to think, emotions naturally grow, "to accurately control the beat, when to let the audience for the fate of the character entangled, forget to breathe, where can make him breathe a little", Chen Yu said, the audience in the process of watching the film, in the acquisition of each piece of information flow, what kind of psychological effect will be produced, There is a set of regular methods as a solution, of course, this is very complicated, depending on how far the creators can do it.
Director Zhang Yimou put forward the idea of "one singing and three sighs" for the creation of emotional dramas.
Chen Yu feels that "Sniper" is a movie that will move the audience. In his opinion, Zhang Yimou's previous films did not like excessive emotional outpouring, which was relatively moderate, but in "Sniper", he did not want to limit himself, and the place that should be moved should be moved by the audience. He even made a point of view, to sing three sighs at once. In the past, he received it before he sang it in the emotional drama, but for this play, not only to sing it, but also to sigh three times, chant three times", Chen Yu said, the most typical is the class leader Liu Wenwu, played by Zhang Yu, singing the paragraph of "Xiong Zhao Zhao, Angry, Across the Yalu River...", making several levels, but also a way of emotional rendering.
Zhang Yimou emphasized the consideration of the rationality of drama
Zhang Mo discussed more about how to show the characteristics of the character
Chen Yu served as the original story and screenwriter of this film, but before he continued to cooperate with Zhang Yimou, he was originally a director, directing well-known online film and television works such as "Egg Fried Rice" and "Starry Sky Diary" starring Huang Bo, "Because I couldn't find a good script, I was forced to become a screenwriter." Chen Yu said. It is precisely because of the instinct of directing work that Chen Yu has his own unique observation and understanding of the realization of a script.
After the script of "Sniper" was basically determined, when it came to the specific shooting link, because the film involved a large number of US military scenes, the crew originally planned to find an agency in Hollywood and invite some well-known actors to shoot in China, but then encountered the epidemic, this operation was basically impossible to achieve, and only some foreigners engaged in film and television work could be found in China, "from hundreds of people who have played the main role, supporting roles and even group performances, and finally selected several major roles", Chen Yu said, these actors in the performance experience, There are some restrictions on his performance ability, director Zhang Yimou wanted to find a director who could understand movies, but also knew Hollywood very well, and the actors had a smoother language communication, to assist him in shooting the scenes of the US military part, and finally found director Zhang Mo.
Because the script itself, the scenes of the volunteer part and the American part can be carried out separately, so the two directors start shooting at almost the same time on the two hills, work separately, and work together every night to make the material, make the next day's shooting plan, and constantly adjust.
Chen Yu, Zhang Mo and Zhang Yimou at the premiere of "Sniper".
The feeling that the two directors gave Chen Yu was that Zhang Yimou was very strict about the meticulousness of the script, paying more attention to the consideration of the rationality of the play and discovering interesting plots. Director Zhang Mo pays attention to and discusses more questions about how to show the characteristics of the character, such as why this person says this sentence, what is the background of the character, and what is the psychological state, which is another way of thinking of the director.
When the script was first written, the names of the US military characters in the film were casually given by Chen Yu, such as Jack, Tom, and director Zhang Mo, after entering the group, a detailed analysis of the names of the US military characters was carried out, in fact, each name is an abbreviation of a more complex name behind it, with different family origins. Also, "You listen carefully to the lines of the actors in the film, and they all have accents." Chen Yu said.
In the Sniper Squad of the Chinese Volunteer Army, the names of characters such as Dayong, Mi Lao'er, Fat Dun, Wang Zhongyi, and Sun Xi basically followed the settings in Chen Yu's script. Names are actually very important, names are people, so there are three roll call scenes in the film, that is, to make them all concrete people. Chen Yu said that it is a headache for screenwriters to name characters, "to consider the role of the role's age, identity, region and other functions in the middle of the play", some screenwriters often use the names of relatives and friends, and he sometimes does such things.
Having the character speak in tongues allows the audience to quickly "recognize people"
Choosing Sichuan dialect is more interesting for everyone to understand
When writing the script, Chen Yu felt that although he was writing the development of a story, the core was still writing people. He did not want to simply classify volunteer soldiers as "the loveliest people", and he did not want to conceptualize and obscure this group.
"I want to see a group of people in the vivid appearance, they have their own thinking, desires, ideals", write a play, to write about specific people, this is the basis of Chen Yu's creation, otherwise he can't go through this hurdle. He must find the basis of cognition of the individual in order to write about his actions, so it is too important where the individual comes from. Chen Yu let the character use dialect in the film, which can clarify the region from which the character comes from and the way of speaking, which is a good way to help the audience quickly establish a cognition of the individual and "recognize people".
Zhang Yu played the squad leader Liu Wenwu in "Sniper".
At that time, the volunteers to resist US aggression and aid Korea came from all over the motherland, including the northeast, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Sichuan, etc. Chen Yu first considered this dialect that the people of the whole country could understand without reading subtitles, so that Cantonese and dialects in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were excluded. Because the Northeast dialect is used more in many sketches and film and television works, Chen Yu wants to make some different attempts, and the Northeast dialect is not considered, and finally chose the Sichuan dialect, one is that the audience can understand, and the other is that the Sichuan dialect has unique cultural characteristics, with a humorous temperament, full of life wisdom and fun.
When selecting actors, the director initially required that all must be Sichuanese, so that the scope was suddenly shrunk to a very small size, and it was a headache to find actors, and finally relaxed to Guizhou, because Guizhou dialect and Sichuan dialect are very similar, and Zhang Yu, who plays the class leader Liu Wenwu, is a Guizhou native. Judging from the final effect, Chen Yu is satisfied with the use of the Sichuan dialect, "the dialect is more interesting, more emotionally expressive than standard Mandarin."
In the war film mixed with youth films about spiritual inheritance
The protagonist becomes stronger in crying is an important growth
The volunteer soldiers who participated in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea were very young. In the early stage of creation, Chen Yu made a clear idea with director Zhang Yimou, and mixed elements of youth films into the genre of war films.
From a plot point of view, "Sniper" tells the story of the squad leader Liu Wenwu who led a group of young soldiers to complete a combat mission. From another point of view, it is the growth of a group of young people who have completed a spiritual inheritance of the heroes of their predecessors. Chen Yu said that he wanted to complete the important growth of the protagonist in 96 minutes.
Chen Yu designed a crying detail for the character of Dayong in the film. In Chen Yu's view, this is to create a contrast, "what you want to write, in fact, you can't write along the line."
Chen Yongsheng played Da Yong in "Sniper".
In the early years, when Chen Yu was training in acting classes at the Beijing Film Academy, the teacher asked a question: "Now there is a radiator in the middle of the stage, which is very hot, and the students want to perform without physical objects, how to show the existence of the radiator?" The students began to perform, and everyone avoided the "radiator", felt hot, and walked around it. The teacher shook his head, personally demonstrated it, walked over loudly, poof, sat on the "radiator" without noticing, and then he groaned and jumped straight up.
To show that the radiator is hot, it is not to say that it is around it, but to sit on it first and feel it directly. In the same way, if you want to write about the strength and fortitude of a volunteer soldier, you can write about his fortitude and fortitude by writing about his moments of weakness. Every man is a separate individual, with his own passions and passions, weakness and fear, and when the warriors rush forward on the battlefield with their guns, it is certainly false not to be afraid, but there must be something more important than his fear, which drives him forward.
"You can't erase his seven passions and six desires, you must implement the emotions of ordinary people", Chen Yu said, the protagonist Dayong wants to be strong, he must first cry, and finally the bottom of the character's psychology has changed, and it has grown, which is more conducive to the expression of the film's theme.
Beijing News reporter Teng Chao
Edited by Huang Jialing Proofreader Liu Yue