On February 8, accompanied by the magical third jump, Gu Ailing reversed the competition at a critical moment and won the gold medal in the freestyle ski jump at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which also made the eyes of the world lock on this smiling Beijing girl. On the same day, the first episode of the documentary "Gu Ailing: I, 18", jointly produced by Tencent Sports and Extreme Players, was officially launched. At present, the film has been played 54.84 million times, the total interaction has reached 11 million, and 85 hot searches have been harvested on the whole network. The documentary consists of 4 episodes, each 25 minutes long, focusing on the growth experience of the talented girl Gu Ailing, and exclusively reveals the multi-faceted life of this Gen Z girl. On February 9, Feng Ji, the producer and general director of the film, accepted an exclusive interview with this reporter and talked about the story behind the shooting.
Gu Ailing and Feng Ji
In 2015, he began to contact Gu Ailing
As the general director of the series of outdoor sports documentaries "Extreme Player", Feng Ji's focus before 2015 was almost all non-professional athletes, they all have their own normal occupations, while engaged in outdoor activities and extreme sports, he hopes to show such people, to "lead the fashion lifestyle and share diverse values." ”
In 2015, after the successful bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics, he took a documentary to the Milan International Film Festival in Italy and won the "Golden Wreath" award. At that time, the exhibition "Ice and Snow World in Light and Shadow" was held at the film festival. Feng Ji remembers that there are not many video works about ice and snow sports in this exhibition, mainly pictures. At that time, he made up his mind to use good video works to contribute to China's ice and snow sports.
Gu Ailing climbed trees in his yard
With the help of CCTV Documentary Channel, Feng Ji's team began preparing to shoot ice and snow sports documentaries in 2015, and he set the names of three series, namely "Snow Glory China", "The End of the Snowboard" and "Top of ice and snow". These shows have been broadcast since 2018, and most of the skiing footage that can be seen on major platforms now comes from these shows. Filming Gu Ailing is one of the contents of "Top of ice and snow".
Feng Ji first met Gu Ailing in 2015, when the protagonist of his film was a 60-year-old volkswagen ski representative who was struggling to find a good show partner, at this time, someone recommended 11-year-old Gu Ailing. But unfortunately, at the end of 2015, Gu Ailing broke his collarbone in a competition at the Nanshan Ski Resort, and finally did not shoot it.
In the summer of 2016, Feng Ji saw Gu Ailing again. He remembered that at that time, although Gu Ailing could speak a Beijing film, but some of the Chinese words were not well understood, and when he was doing math problems, he also asked the program director to let him read it to her. The chat with Gu Yan during the period gave Feng Ji a great touch. Gu Yan's educational philosophy and ideas for Gu Ailing made Feng Ji feel very fresh, "She did not take the Winter Olympic Champion as the goal of cultivating children, she hopes to cultivate children to develop healthily and harmoniously, establish a good lifestyle, and sports is one of the means." ”
Feng Ji confessed that although he did not fully understand at that time, he was deeply touched, and he was ready to shoot the life of this mother and daughter.
Lived in Gu Ailing's home in the United States to shoot
On January 1, 2017, Feng Ji flew to San Francisco with a 5-person shooting team to photograph Gu Ailing's sports life in the United States.
Gu Yan is approachable and hospitable, and she warmly invites Feng Ji's team to live in her home and photograph Gu Ailing's training and daily life at close range.
The first episode of "Gu Ailing: I, 18", "Born Strong", was edited based on the 20-day shooting content in the United States, in which Gu Ailing's first participation in the adult professional competition was completely recorded.
From the age of 3 to 13, Gu Yan would drive Gu Ailing to the Lake Tahoe Ski Resort every week to participate in training, a round trip of 8 hours. Feng Ji's team followed the whole journey, it was around 5 o'clock in the afternoon from home, but the day was blizzard, the road was very slippery, during which they were stopped by the police, asked to install a non-slip chain, and finally arrived at the destination, it was already 1 a.m. the next day, "It is easy to insist on a day, but insist on sending children to participate in training every weekend for 10 years, you need a lot of perseverance." ”
The team filmed at Gu Ailing's home
Adopted stray cat super "eye-catching"
In "Born Strong", a yellow cat is held in the arms of Gu Ailing, which is very eye-catching. Feng Ji told reporters that this cat is actually a stray cat, once when Gu Ailing was skateboarding on the Shanghai road, this stray cat jumped on her skateboard and did not want to leave, Gu Ailing also fell in love with this kitten at first sight, so she adopted it. Later, the cat traveled to Shanghai, Beijing, and finally crossed the ocean to San Francisco, where it is now kept in its home in San Francisco.
Going out, Gu Ailing is also very worried about this cat, she named this kitten "Kebo", which means "skateboard". Even at the moment of climbing the Great Wall, her mind would be thinking of the kitten at home.
During the filming in the United States, Feng Ji also cooked himself, although they were all home-cooked dishes such as scrambled eggs with tomatoes and braised prawns in oil, but Gu Ailing's family ate with relish.
Gu Ailing's adopted stray cat KEBO
Feng Ji found that in terms of self-discipline, Gu Ailing did a perfect job. Every night at 9 o'clock, Gu Ailing must go to sleep, and he cannot delay for a moment. Gu Yan, who studied biology, believes that ensuring adequate sleep can completely repair her body after high-intensity training.
In Gu Ailing's life, she either quietly reads books or does various sports, "She does not have naughty moments, and she is very serious about life, which is very related to her good family education." ”
Gu Yan's biggest feeling to Feng Ji is that she has never given Gu Ailing external pressure, such as winning the championship or the like, "She is more to stimulate her daughter's inner shining point, guide her how to solve problems when she encounters difficulties, so that she can develop healthily." ”
In 2017, the Preparatory Office of the General Administration of Sport of the People's Republic of China will make some short films related to ice and snow sports and select some good sports seedlings. Feng Ji made several films, one of which was Gu Ailing, and this short film was titled "Other People's Children".
"At that time, Gu Ailing had a wish to come to Beijing to participate in the Winter Olympics." The comrades of the Preparatory Office of the State General Administration of Sport were very excited after watching Gu Ailing's film. On June 6, 2019, Gu Ailing officially announced that he had joined the Chinese national team.
This is a very good Chinese story
Since 2017, Feng Ji's team has followed Paigu Ailing all the way, from Beijing and Shanghai to the United States, New Zealand, Switzerland, Austria and other countries, of which the United States alone has been to 5 times.
The documentary "Gu Ailing: I, 18" was specially produced by Feng Ji's team for the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the remaining three episodes will be broadcast on February 11, 14 and 18, with the last two days being the final day of Gu Ailing's other two competitions at the Beijing Winter Olympics.
"The moment Gu Ailing won the championship on February 8, I was really happy and proud of her, after such a long period of companionship and shooting, Gu Ailing was already a champion in my heart." Feng Ji said so.
As the documentary team that has been filming Gu Ailing for the earliest time and the longest span, Feng Ji frankly said: "Gu Yan and Gu Ailing mother and daughter represent a very international story. Her mother went abroad to study in the United States in the 1980s, but her next generation now chooses to return to China to compete. We hope that through this documentary, while recording the development process of ice and snow sports in China, we can also closely observe and record the changes in the lives of globalized and cross-cultural generations, which is a very good Chinese story. At the same time, I also hope that the record of ice and snow sports will lead the change of the lifestyle of the young generation in China, so that sports can return to the original intention of culture and education, and to a certain extent, the personality shaping of Chinese in the context of modernization" will be completed.
Source: Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Wang Jinyue
Process Edit: U065
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