Earning another 3 billion, Ning Hao won hemp

Ning Hao won the bet again.

As of August 23, the box office of the movie "All or Nothing" produced by him exceeded 3 billion. Coupled with more than a dozen films such as "I Am Not the God of Medicine", "Miracle Stupid Child", "Embroidered Spring Dao 2" and "A Good Show" that he participated in the investment shooting, now Ning Hao and the "Bad Monkey" film he founded have received a total of more than 18 billion box office.

From the past "small-cost film director" to the current "behind-the-scenes promoter of explosive models", every step Ning Hao has taken is "surprise" and "thrilling" coexist.

After the birth of "Crazy Stone", the story about Ning Hao was regarded as a "success template", which was repeatedly disassembled and interpreted by the public. Many people tried to replicate his achievements, but no one actually did.

Is Ning Hao really that "god"?

Even though he made a lot of comedy, Ning Hao still felt that he was a very serious person. As people often say, the core of comedy is tragedy, and in his life story, those seemingly interesting story chapters should also have a black background.

When he was a child, Ning Hao's forehead was particularly wide, and his elder relatives praised him for being smart when they saw him, and his parents were proud for many years, until he grew up and went to the hospital for a physical examination and was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, everyone suddenly realized: this is a disease, it must be treated.

The doctor in his hometown diagnosed Ning Hao as ventricular atrophy, the situation is not optimistic, have to go to Beijing again, the family is not lightly frightened, and rushed to Tiantan Hospital, the doctor carefully looked at CT, and then looked at Ning Hao's natural head, and gave two suggestions:

First, the operation "releases water", but it may cause a big change in the patient's temperament; The second is to coexist with "water", the disease has not spread for so many years, and there must be no major problems.

Ning Hao left and right combined, and chose the latter: "Then let it accumulate, don't even know who you are after the operation." ”

Usually in the context, "brain in water" is a particularly impolite sentence, but for Ning Hao at that time, this was the premise of maintaining his self, and disrupting the routine was his talent.

Ning Hao's parents were both employees of the Taiyuan steel mill, and he spent most of his childhood in the steel mill, so the memories of his hometown are always noisy and deep, sniffing hard, and there is a strong smell of engine oil and rust.

When he was a child, Ning Hao especially disliked this feeling of dark eyes, he wanted to escape, but he couldn't escape, and he could only express his dissatisfaction with mischievousness.

He doesn't like to study, he loves fighting, and violent legends of him are everywhere in school. All the way to the third year of junior high school, seeing that he was about to take the middle school entrance examination, his English scores were still stuck in single digits, the teacher thought left and right, and handed him a registration form for Shanxi Film School:

The school has set up a new painting major, although it is a secondary school, but you can try, it is better than being a social idler at a young age.

In order to avoid class, Ning Hao took the exam and didn't want to really take the exam. Because he loved painting since he was a child, he was full of expectations for his upcoming study life, and hurriedly carried the bunk to report, only to learn that this school did not even have a principal, "it is completely a place to herd sheep".

The teaching building is inside the film company, downstairs is the distribution department, and upstairs is where classes are held, with a total of four classrooms, two of which are dormitories. Later, the Cultural Affairs Bureau approved a piece of land for the school, repaired the school building, and the school was busy building houses every day, and classes were suspended at every turn, and the vacation time was more than classes in one semester.

In this way, he was "free-range" for four years, and Ning Hao graduated. The school assigned him to go to the TV station, but he didn't go, because he wanted to engage in artistic creation, so he applied to go to the drama troupe.

Ning Hao's old photo

In 1996, Ning Hao went to the Taiyuan Repertory Theater and was assigned to the stage design department when he joined, but because the troupe's revenue was not good and there were not many performances, his actual work became logistics miscellaneous.

After working for almost half a year, Ning Hao felt that it was boring to mop the floor and install the stage every day, and at that time, the artists all went to Beijing to get together, he thought about it, and felt that he should also go out and see.

When he decided to drift north, Ning Hao was 20 years old, and all his savings did not exceed 2,000 yuan. In order to enter the art school, he took out 1,700 yuan to enroll in the training course, and then removed the money for renting a bed and accommodation, he ended up with dozens of yuan left in his pocket, and if it weren't for the help of friends, he almost went to ask for food.

At first, Ning Hao wanted to enter the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (renamed "Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts" in 1999), but his cultural course results did not cross the line and he fell off the list; After that, I went to take the adult college entrance examination, preparing to rush to the Beijing Film Academy, and I didn't want to be tested for weakness during the physical examination.

When he learned the news, Ning Hao's eyes were black, counting the copying painting when he was a child, he had studied painting for at least 10 years, and now he was told that he was weak in color, and he felt that this was no longer absurd, it was!

Ning Hao's student days

Ning Hao was so deeply shocked that he couldn't even eat in bed. But frustration is useless, and life has to go on. Painting doesn't work, so try something else.

Soon after, Ning Hao was admitted to the art department of Beijing Normal University, shifting from still drawings to directing moving images. At that time, his roommate had a camera, Ning Hao thought it was fun, often borrowed to take pictures, and shot 5 rolls of film before and after, he basically figured out the door of portrait photography.

In order to earn some pocket money, he set up a small stall at school, specially to take pictures of others, roommates out of equipment, he out of technology, take a roll of 100 yuan, money to half a point, relying on this business, he lived early without worrying about food and clothing.

One day, a friend invited Ning Hao to eat at the restaurant, and there was Liu Yijun, the first guitarist of the Tang Dynasty band, "Old Fifth" at the dinner table, and when he talked about Ning Hao's ability to take pictures, Old Five asked if he could take a few close-ups of himself? Then shoot. But without equipment, Ning Hao had to run to the commissary and buy a disposable film camera.

After the shooting, Ning Hao was particularly dissatisfied, but Old Five didn't mind, he was playing and playing, and no one was real. A few days later, Lao Wu received the washed photo, opened it, and found that Ning Hao not only edited the picture, but also changed the background and made the cover.

Old Fifth was quite surprised, first regardless of the technology, just rush this attitude of not fooling, Ning Hao is also a talent. On the same day, he called Ning Hao and invited him to shoot the cover of the new album.

After shooting the cover for the Tang Dynasty band, Ning Hao became famous in the music circle. After graduating from Beijing Normal University, Ning Hao was admitted to the photography department of the Beijing Film Academy, and heard that he was a director, and the musicians he had worked with in the past recommended him to make MVs.

In those years, Ning Hao directed and produced more than 100 MVs, and the artists he cooperated with included senior "big brothers" like Tu Honggang, as well as popular idols like Li Yuchun. In 2003, he filmed "Colorful Days" for director Pu Shu, won the Best Music Video Award that year, and finally became famous.

This year, Ning Hao was 26 years old and had not yet graduated from college, so he realized his wish to buy a car and a house in Beijing by shooting MVs.

For Ning Hao at that time, making money was an easy thing, and the material world was greatly satisfied, and he began to ponder satisfying his spiritual world again.

When he was admitted to Nortel, Ning Hao was 24 years old and originally aimed at the directing department, but because there were no enrollment places for the major, he could only retreat to the photography department.

Studying picture photography at the film school, Ning Hao was unwilling, and he planned to save a movie script every day. At that time, he met a friend, a monk, and when the two were chatting casually, Ning Hao heard the other party say that he was raising money to repair the tower recently, which was quite difficult.

Ning Hao thought this story was quite interesting, so he used this as a prototype to write the script of the movie "Incense".

In 2002, a boss asked someone to find Ning Hao, saying that he intended to invest in the film and wanted to ask the director to talk about follow-up cooperation. Ning Hao hurriedly took the script to the appointment, but he never expected that the boss chose the meeting place in "heaven and earth".

After entering the private room, Ning Hao was so nervous that he obviously didn't drink a sip of wine, but his brain was still the same as a fragment. He just remembers that his boss asked a few questions, and then he pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket - just this money, shoot!

The next day, the boss disappeared, coming and going without a trace, as if he was just to throw a movie start-up capital for Ning Hao.

With the tens of thousands of yuan given by the boss, Ning Hao bought equipment and hired actors at his own expense, which took half a month to shoot, and then completed the post-editing with his girlfriend. After all the production of the film was completed, Ning Hao's heart was much more relaxed, thanks to his own complete work.

Screenshot of the movie "Incense"

After the movie was filmed, Ning Hao had no money in his pocket, so he had to go back to shooting the MV. When shooting "Colorful Days" for Pu Shu, photographer Zhang Xi asked him if he made a feature film some time ago? Now that the film festival selectors are in Beijing, they can send them to try their luck.

Anyway, throwing it down is a waste, Ning Hao thought, then take it and try it. The day I watched the film, I happened to meet the filmmakers to catch a flight, everyone was very anxious, the original version of "Incense" was 3 hours long, and it was in dialect, no subtitles, the filmmakers only watched half of it, and urged Ning Hao to tell the plot behind, and after listening to it, he rushed to the airport.

In the following months, the film selector did not come to the news, and Ning Hao also felt that there was no score, and no one mentioned this matter again.

Three months passed, and one night in the middle of the night, Ning Hao suddenly received a call, the film selector called, just connected to the other party, asked with a blank face: "I sent you so many emails, why don't you reply to one?" The film festival is about to start, you can't come! ”

As soon as Ning Hao listened to the music, he didn't go online at all.

With the light of "Incense", Ning Hao got an opportunity to go to Switzerland to participate in the Locarno Film Festival, "is for the purpose of tourism", unexpectedly, he received a lot of praise, and after this won several weighty trophies, Ning Hao successfully entered the "literary circle".

Screenshot of the movie "Incense"

In 2004, he was invited to shoot the film "Green Grass". To this day, the film is still regarded as the "toughest work" of his career.

During the filming of the film, they first encountered the investor withdrawing for no reason, and the capital of 1.5 million became 100,000, and in desperation, Ning Hao could only take out all his personal savings and scrape together 400,000 start-up capital.

After that, the crew came to Inner Mongolia to film, and suffered a collective car accident, although there were no casualties, but under the dual pressure of serious shortage of funds and harsh environment, the original crew of more than 100 people was disbanded on the spot, leaving only 11 people to hold the position.

During the months of filming in the prairie, the yurt where Ning Hao lived was burned because of the stove for heating; The jeep he was driving suddenly stalled and scrapped after driving into the desert. I finally survived until the whole crew was finished, and as soon as I calculated the cost, I overspent more than a hundred thousand...

Years later, Ning Hao recalled this past and sighed: it was simply a nightmare.

Screenshot of the movie "Green Grass"

Like "Incense", Ning Hao took "Green Grass" to participate in various film festivals, although he won several trophies, but the actual number of moviegoers was less than 100.

That was probably when Ning Hao was most confused. In order to shoot this movie, he almost lost his family and almost put his life in it, but the final result only received the attention of a very few people.

If a work is limited to individual carnival, what is the meaning and value of its existence? "Art should not only be passed through narrow mouths".

After that, Ning Hao suddenly wanted to make a commercial movie.

When working in the Taiyuan Repertory Theater, the protagonist of Ning Hao's first and only movie poster was Andy Lau. After painting this poster, the printer was born, and Ning Hao lost his job.

After many years, Ning Hao met Andy Lau again, and fortunately, this time he had a "dream come true" ending.

In 2006, Ning Hao was shortlisted for the "Asian Rising Star Guide Program" initiated by Andy Lau and received an investment of several millions, and Andy Lau's only requirement for him was to shoot whatever he wanted.

Ning Hao, Andy Lau

At first, Ning Hao planned to film the story of a racing driver, but because he was told that the fund changed from 5 million to 3 million before the start-up, he could only temporarily change his mind and shoot the story of "the police catching the thief".

At first, Ning Hao named the work "Big Diamond", which sounded too dull, so he changed the name to "Crazy Stone", and the work that was temporarily shelved before also became the movie "Crazy Racing" a few years later.

Huang Bo still remembers the first time he saw Ning Hao in the crew of "Crazy Stone": Ning Hao was 29 years old that year, looked very young, and his short hair that had not been trimmed stood on his head stunned, and he was doing everything in a storm.

"I feel cheated", this is Huang Bo's first feeling after entering the crew, "everyone seems to have little experience, just like a group of children filming student homework".

Ning Hao (left) "Crazy Stone" crew

When it was officially turned on, the rustiness quickly disappeared.

"Ning Hao is a very thoughtful person", everyone who has worked with him will express the same feelings, so working with him is a painful and happy thing: "Happy" because he always has a way to dissolve suffering and boredom; "Pain" is because this "whimsy" is often thrilling or even impossible.

"He's a Virgo, type A blood, so he's especially torturous." Every time Ning Hao's directing style was mentioned, Huang Bo thought he was deeply harmed.

When filming "Crazy Racing", Ning Hao once asked Huang Bo to lie in the rainstorm and be "beaten" for 4 hours, smashed 8 beer bottles with his head, and the final clip cut was only 40 seconds; Later, in an action scene, Ning Hao asked Huang Bo to "parkour" on the high bridge, without a stand-in throughout the process.

Huang Bo's "Crazy Racing" tidbit

For movies, Ning Hao is the ultimate, so in addition to matter, he needs a tacit understanding of "same frequency resonance". This is a kind of understanding and trust between people, and it is also a consensus reached by a group of people on the matter of "making movies".

When shooting movies in the early days, Ning Hao was extremely lucky to have this tacit understanding, so whatever he did in those years was exceptionally smooth:

"Crazy Stone" made him famous in one battle;

"Crazy Racing" helped him become the fourth mainland director to enter the 100 million yuan club after Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang;

"Heart Flower Road Fang" won 1.2 billion box office at a cost of 35 million, setting a 1:33 investment return ratio "myth" that year...

After "crazy", Ning Hao occasionally missed, but did not fail, because he always had a way to win back a game, until "Crazy Alien" appeared, Ning Hao "failed".

Shen Teng, Ning Hao, Huang Bo "Crazy Alien" behind the scenes

That tacit understanding of "if there is divine help" disappeared. Recalling the filming process of "Crazy Alien", Ning Hao often felt powerless.

First of all, the script. The film is adapted from Liu Cixin's science fiction novel "Village Teacher", when creating the script, Ning Hao's biggest goal is to write a "story that foreigners can't make", but the first few versions of the story always have the shadow of Hollywood. In order to eliminate this feeling of "Western world", Ning Hao and the team changed drafts several times, and it took 9 years to determine the plot direction.

Ning Hao, Liu Cixin

Then there's technology. In "Crazy Alien", Ning Hao challenged to try the world's most difficult biological special effects. In order to complete this work, he used a multi-national special effects team, and he wanted to reproduce the charm of "extreme" with technology, but unfortunately, fewer and fewer people understood him.

"Foreigners can't understand Chinese sentiment, so the cost of working with them is huge." Ning Hao said: "Their thinking is linear, either happy or threatening, what is 'hiding a knife in laughter'? They simply don't understand. ”

Questions such as these happen every day: What is the expression of "skin laughing flesh does not smile"? Can mental activity really be expressed with eyes? Once Ning Hao used a video of a street fight to show the special effects artist what "madness" is, and he didn't want the other party to watch it seriously more than a dozen times, and then asked Ning Hao: "What's wrong with them?" ”

Behind the scenes of Ning Hao's "Crazy Alien"

There are also people who are just as limited to templates as technology. The market environment of "box office theory" gradually returns the ideal to reality, and fewer and fewer people are eager to tell a good story, replaced by the calculation of costs and benefits:

"Discussing the box office is an interference with creation, the film has become product management, and it is quite boring to shoot for the sake of shooting."

Ning Hao knew that the story about "madness" had ushered in the final chapter.

In 2019, "Crazy Alien" was released, the box office soared, and the reputation was polarized. Some people say that this is Ning Hao's most failed and unfunny work, and Ning Hao does not care about it.

No matter what the outside world evaluates, in his opinion, "Crazy Alien" has always been his "one of the best films". He, as before, worked hard to accomplish the impossible, and as for the result, leave it to fate.

Shen Teng, Huang Bo "Crazy Alien"

After "Crazy Alien", Ning Hao temporarily put aside his identity as a director and played a "bad monkey" with his heart.

In 2012, Ning Hao officially established "Bad Monkey" Pictures, and like the "Asian New Star Guide Program" many years ago, he also began to try to discover and support new directors.

Shortly after the establishment of the company, Xu Zheng was invited to participate in the FIRST Film Festival, where he saw the best short film selected by the film festival, and the director of the work was Wen Muye.

A few days later, Wen Muye met Ning Hao in a hot pot restaurant, the two had a meal together, briefly chatted about movie creation, and asked Wen Muye before dispersing: "I have a story here, saying that leukemia patients can't afford medicine, are you interested?" "—hence "I Am Not the God of Medicine".

Ning Hao, Wen Muye, Xu Zheng "I am not the God of Medicine" behind the scenes

From the establishment of the project in 2015 to the official start of filming in 2017, Wen Muye spent 2 years revising the script. At that time, he would meet Ning Hao every once in a while with the written script, but except for some necessary direction guidance, Ning Hao would hardly give him any specific advice.

In the process, Wen Muye once walked into a "dead end", completely leading the story to the opposite of the original theme, "it is simply a gangster story". After seeing the script, Ning Hao asked Wen Muye:

"Is this what you want? If yes, I can put money in you; If not, I think you can hold on a little longer, and the story has the potential to become 'great'. ”

"He is really like a mirror" Wen Muye said, Ning Hao never interfered with creation, he just knew everyone's desires and limits very clearly.

Ning Hao, Wen Muye

Ning Hao's judgment and Wen Muye's insistence were both right.

In 2018, "I Am Not the God of Medicine" was released, which won 3.1 billion box office while also winning countless praises. Talking about the creation process of the film, public opinion has repeatedly discussed "how to create a box office miracle?" ", Ke Ninghao said, if everyone only sees the box office, it will be too boring.

Wang Chuanjun "I am not the God of Medicine" stills

The "Bad Monkey 72 Change Film Project" initiated by Ning Hao signed a total of 10 directors, including the lucky one who started with "King Fried" like Wen Muye; There are also ordinary newcomers who have been diligent for many years like the Olympic bid, but they are always "a little worse".

In 2016, when the Olympic bid officially joined the "bad monkey", Ning Hao asked him what he wanted to shoot, and he said that he wanted to go abroad to shoot a question about cheating in the exam. Ning Hao said, no problem, screenwriters and actors are on hand to do it.

Just like this and wrote for a year, the Thai film "Genius Gunman" was introduced into China, and I almost cried when I saw the Olympic bid: How is this exactly the same as the script I thought?

"Substitute exam" can not continue to write, the Olympic bid flipped through the mobile phone memorandum and selected a topic of "killing his wife and cheating on insurance", and this is the prototype story of the movie "Beneficiary".

Olympic bid, Ning Hao's "Beneficiary" roadshow scene

"The Beneficiary" is the first self-written and directed film in the Olympic bid, and in his opinion, Ning Hao is teaching him almost hand-in-hand how to become a director.

By the time of "All or Nothing", the two worked together more and more tacitly. When creating the script, Shen Ao initially wanted to adopt a multi-line narrative structure, which was precisely Ning Hao's best technique in the early days.

However, today, Ning Hao is no longer optimistic about such a complex narrative. He told the Olympic bid that a generation has a generation's aesthetics, and what the director wants to shoot should be what the audience wants to see.

It turned out that Ning Hao had chosen the right one time again.

As the biggest "dark horse" in the summer, the box office of "All or Nothing" has exceeded 3 billion, and various topics derived from the film have also caused phenomenal discussions several times, which almost completely replicates the victory of "I Am Not the God of Medicine".

As of August 23, the cumulative box office of films invested and shot by Ning Hao has exceeded 18 billion, and this number will continue to rise in the future.

Ning Hao's "All or Nothing" roadshow scene

From a successful director to a successful producer, Ning Hao has taken every step of the way.

When the "blockbuster era" came, he chose to make a small-budget film; When the "crazy" series was in full swing, he turned around and made a "No Man's Land" to smash his comedy signboard, and then plunged into the field of science fiction that everyone was afraid of, and finally ended the "crazy" series with an imperfect ending.

Ning Hao seems to have been "destroying" the expectations and presuppositions of the outside world, so "surprise" and "disappointment" always appear alternately in his body.

In the context of everyone's "seeking stability", such a "big ups and downs" character is too adventurous, but Ning Hao enjoys this stimulation very much, exploring and destroying boundaries is his instinct, the basis and driving force of his creation.

It's like going to the zoo as a kid. He does not worship lions and tigers that seem to be powerful, nor does he like elephants and cheetahs, which represent strength and speed.

He loves monkeys, bad monkeys.

Compared to those behemoths, it is free, flexible and individual, even when locked in a cage.

It seems to be trapped, but the reality is that it has never been tamed.