Humans are complex animals, some people are naturally good at coping with multiple tasks, and some people are good at focusing on one thing.
Zhang Yimou is a well-known director in China, and at the beginning of 2018, when he was preparing to shoot the movie "One Second", he was 68 years old, and at this time he was also presiding over eight or nine different big projects. His daily state is to work more than ten hours a day, walk 5 kilometers, and eat only one meal.
Rush to the suburbs at 7:00 a.m. to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the 8-minute PyeongChang Winter Olympics; rush back to the recording studio at 10:00 a.m. to record the post-recording of the movie "Shadow"; rush to report on the preparations for the Winter Olympics at 11:00 p.m.; open the art conference of the movie "One Second" at 2:00 p.m.; start the planning meeting for the Qingdao SCO Summit performance at 4:00 p.m.; direct the rehearsal of two large-scale performances at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.; and have three planning meetings after 10 o'clock in the evening.
The whole day's work did not end until 3 a.m. the next day, so Zhang Yimou worked for a full 20 hours, and the daily life behind it was also very full. It can be said that Zhang Yimou's working state is to constantly switch task modes and wander between different affairs.
So what are the benefits of doing so?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > Zhang Yimou's multithreading</h1>
Being a director is not the same as a painter and a writer. Starting from the investment, we have to deal with all kinds of people, and after entering the group, we must coordinate the crew and deal with the size of the problem, and we must always meet. Artists who work independently don't like to have meetings.
The projects handled by Zhang Yimou are all decided between compromise and trade-off. When he is faced with all kinds of opinions, when he asks the other party "what to do", the other party often has no words, and the director is lonely at this time.
Zhang Yimou said that his way to fight aging is to keep moving and busy, calling himself "oblique rod old age". His directing business covers films, large-scale galas, operas, etc., almost all of which are key projects at the national level, with deadlines and hard requirements, and cannot be shirked.
For example, the 8-minute appearance of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the performance of the Qingdao SCO Summit, the drama of "Dialogue fable 2047" and so on. In the cracks of these times, Zhang Yimou also dragged the crew to Dunhuang to shoot the movie "One Second", why did he have to make this movie?
Zhang Yimou said that when he joined the team in Shanxi in the 1960s and 1970s, even the murderers were reluctant to spoil everyone watching movies. As soon as the projector is turned on, the obsession and enthusiasm of the audience will make the director feel proud. This "One Second" is his love letter to the film era.
Lead actor Zhang Yi found that when the older generation of filmmakers talk about film, they have a supreme glory. This film is not only Zhang Yimou's personal emotion, but also the collective memory of a generation of Chinese. Zhang Yimou said that this is a film about movies, and he feels that he wants to maintain his original enthusiasm.
For example, the first shot of the whole drama is in the desert, according to the original design, Zhang Jiusheng, played by Zhang Yi, walks quickly under the hot sun, who knows that as soon as the camera is turned on, there will be a sandstorm in the sky, and the machine will have to stop. Zhang Yimou considered for a moment, decided not to wait, and replaced the beginning of this scene with walking in a sandstorm. Zhang Yi took a few shots, and it seems that the effect is not bad.
If you continue to wait that day, it is still useless, because after the sandstorm stops, it will start to rain hail, or it will not use the sun. This kind of unexpected adjustment is carried out at any time when directing a large-scale party.
However, for the director, it is also possible to choose to shoot again on another day, why did Zhang Yimou choose this way?
Zhang Yimou's judgment of details is the same, important details can not be accommodated, like the crew filming in the desert, after shooting a shot to change the place, because there are too many footprints on the dunes, flat is not natural.
However, the shot like the movie "On the Cliff" was filmed in Datong, Shanxi, although the snow scene is different from the northeast, but Zhang Yimou did not require the ultimate restoration.
This is Zhang Yimou's working principle, often to switch the task process with high frequency, at this time, completion is more important than perfection.
In many cases, conditions do not support consumption in detail, and the more complex the cooperation, the easier it is to get out of control for some reason. But as long as you are in it, take over the work, even if the situation is bad, you must accept this result and accompany everyone to go on, this is the basic professional attitude.
For decades, Zhang Yimou's films and large-scale evenings have been many, and he has not been scolded. But Zhang Yimou is still happy to work tirelessly, which cannot make people dare not move.
At the launching ceremony of the movie "One Second", Zhang Yimou said that he and his team would finish the film in a short period of time, how quickly and economically, which was very simple.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="31" > Hou Xiaoxian's focus</h1>
In contrast, another director, Hou Xiaoxian, a representative of the Taiwan Film Festival, is a different style.
When Hou Xiaoxian made a movie, a beam of light, a cloud, and a gust of wind had to wait. To shoot a fight scene in the woods, the usual practice is to use an electric fan to blow the wind, but Hou Xiaoxian wants everyone to sit and wait, he feels that the natural wind cannot be simulated, and the fog on the mountain in the movie is not simulated.
Is this extreme pursuit necessary? Necessary for Hou Xiaoxian. The first thing he gives the audience is the reality of the environment, Hou Xiaoxian's set has no rehearsal, each time it is a real shooting on a machine, which is to capture the subtle nature.
Therefore, Hou Xiaoxian's filmmaking is very expensive, which is a considerable expense. Generally, the demotion criterion for directors is the coherence of the plot, but Hou Xiaoxian's requirement is that every frame of the picture from the light, structure to the character expression action must be perfect, without a single flaw, must reach the 100 points in his heart.
Hou Xiaoxian said that every technology in Hollywood is very strong, and Taiwan cannot be so professional in industry, only to carefully craft the details and constantly adjust with sensibility.
Hou Xiaoxian's film does not seem to have a big scene, but it is quite extravagant, mainly reflected in the time, and he spent a total of four years shooting "Assassin Nie Yinniang". The film had a great influence in France and Japan, and Hou Xiaoxian won the best director at the Cannes Film Festival.
Hou Xiaoxian said that he pursued the perfection of the picture, giving up many coherent plot paragraphs in the middle. When Hou Xiaoxian received the award in Cannes, he said that it was not easy to make a movie, it needed a lot of money, and he made a movie that year, he sold his family's house, and the distributor took part of the risk.
If Zhang Yimou is multi-threaded pragmatic and efficient, Hou Xiaoxian is extremely focused, their working principles and rhythms are almost opposite, and they have also produced completely different good movies. The styles are different, but it does not prevent these big directors from making good works.