quarreled with his roommate over the rent ratio, argued with Party A for repeated revisions, was sad for his girlfriend and said goodbye, and anxious because the script could not be filmed...... The popular comedy film "Galaxy Writer" depicts the struggle of two young screenwriters living in Changying in Chaoyang District to realize their dreams in Beijing. A few days ago, the reporter of this newspaper contacted three young screenwriters who also came to Beijing to work hard for their dreams in real life, and their stories are more vivid and exciting than "Galaxy Writer".
Xu An:
The results may be late, but they will definitely come
Xu An, a girl with personality and daring to do. She grew up in a city in the north and first came to Beijing for her dream of being a screenwriter, during the summer vacation of her junior year, just looking for an internship.
When she was just in junior high school, Xu An tried to write things by herself, although she didn't know where to publish it, and she didn't even think that she could publish it, but she still wrote tens of thousands of words freely. The first time she made a video of what she wrote was when she was in her junior year of college, the class organized the shooting of a short film, and she wrote and directed a short film called "Fork in the Road", which tells the story of a girl who chooses two different lives when she graduates from college: one is to marry her beloved boyfriend and have children to live a stable life, and the other is to overcome all difficulties and drift north without regrets to pursue her dreams. Looking back, this short film also seems to foreshadow Xu An's next life path.
After graduation, most of Xu An's classmates chose industries that have nothing to do with film and television, but she didn't think about changing careers, in the first few years of coming to Beijing, she has done many programs such as Phoenix Satellite TV, Heilongjiang Satellite TV, Shanxi Satellite TV, Zhejiang Satellite TV, etc., from planning to post-production, from recording to business, in a few years, Xu An has gone from a director, editor-in-chief to an executive producer, although the project and income are relatively stable, but Xu An still feels the urge to express herself, she wants to write stories.
In 2017, just like the short film "Fork in the Road" that year, Xu An was once again faced with a life choice, whether to choose the existing stable life to prepare for starting a family, or to follow his heart and start again?
The two screenwriters in "Galaxy Writer" defend their creative ideals and try their best to reject unreasonable script opinions, while compromising and retreating just so that the project can be successful, and Xu An admits that he is the same. She said that the relationship between A and B is not antagonistic, there will be differences, and the key lies in the determination to solve the problem together. Xu An is creating a film for Xi'an Film Studio, from the filmmaker to the director and screenwriter are all working together to create a good work, when there is a question about the script, even if Xu An herself thinks it is okay, she will first think, can there be a better solution? When a better version appears, the previous problem will be solved.
In 2020, Xu An joined the online drama and film project of a famous domestic female director, and finished writing the first draft of the film in 2021, which is still being filmed after continuous polishing.
Xu An has been creating non-stop over the years, although she told herself to enrich the present without asking about the future, but sometimes it is inevitable to fall into internal friction, and calming down to create is a good way for Xu An to stabilize his mentality and fight against internal friction. Xu An is currently concentrating on the creation of the realistic film "The Dark War" and the suspense web series "Down the North and Up to the South", the former tells the plight of a woman, which has a portrayal of herself, and the latter is a suspense drama that she has been conceiving and creating since the first day of being a screenwriter, both of which are stories she really wants to write, and she hopes that she can calm down and write the script as soon as possible to her satisfaction.
With the increase of experience, Xu An has become more and more in awe of writing, which makes Xu An feel relieved that the screenwriting industry is not a youth meal, and there is still a long way to go, "When I am anxious and question myself, I will tell myself very rationally that as long as I insist on improving myself, the result may be late, but it will definitely come." ”
Yin Hang:
Beijing has made my life after the age of 22
"My life before the age of 22 was given by my original family, and my life after the age of 22 was given by Beijing. Talking about the life of "North Drift" over the years, 36-year-old screenwriter Yin Hang summed it up like this.
Yin Hang is a native of Dalian, and he has been seriously biased since he was a child, and he can get full marks in his composition almost every time, but his math, physics and chemistry grades are a mess. In 2008, Sichuan Conservatory of Music went to the Northeast to recruit students, Yin Hang applied for the exam, although many people around him objected, but his father supported him, and finally he was admitted to the school's drama, film and television literature major.
In 2012, under the leadership of a teacher, Yin Hang came to Beijing with 4 classmates to start the "North Drift" life. At that time, they lived in a semi-underground loft in Wukesong, with a room area of only 40 square meters, his bed was made of two square sofas, and the window was surrounded by an iron fence, so that he could not see the sun. What he couldn't stand the most was the "gurgling" sound of the wheels crushing the ground when the pedestrian pulled the box by, which made his mood irritable, but at the same time made him make up his mind that he must mix up in Beijing, "If I leave Beijing one day, I must have obtained everything I wanted and proved myself." ”
In those years, Yin Hang only slept 4 hours a day, had to do 7 jobs a day, and wrote 30,000 words a day, which was very busy. His monthly salary is only 3,000 yuan, and he keeps 1,000 yuan for himself, and sends the rest to his family.
In 2016, Yin Hang created the script of "Demon Master Don't Kiss Me", which was broadcast on Tencent Video in 2017 and had as many as 3 billion views, and was even considered the originator of "sweet pet web drama". Yin Hang appeared in the list of screenwriters under the name of "Zi Buyu", but everyone in the circle knows that his other identity is the chief planner of the show. Yin Hang regarded the show as the most important work in his screenwriting career, which allowed him to gain a foothold in the industry.
In 2017, Yin Hang served as the chief screenwriter of the online drama "Oh! My Emperor Majesty", which allowed the talents of young actors such as Gu Jiacheng, Xiao Zhan, and Zhao Lusi to be fully brought into full play and displayed, and also brought Yin Hang's career to a higher level.
The two years after 2018 were the most prosperous period for the development of online dramas, and as his fame grew, he earned a lot of money in his life, not only helping his family pay off all debts, but also buying a house in Tianjin. At that time, he recalled, "people were a little floating".
In 2020, he left Beijing and lived in Hengdian for two years, he had doubts about his previous life status, he wanted to experience the beauty of love, so he quickly devoted himself to a relationship, but this relationship only lasted 4 months. He moved to Hengdian, in addition to "healing", he also wanted to give himself a long vacation. In just two years, he spent all his savings in anger.
At the beginning of 2023, Yin Hang's father, who had suffered from heart disease for a long time, died, and he rushed back to his hometown to see his father for the last time, and the last words left by the old man were to remind him to "sleep more". Yin Hang said that his father's death had taught him the most valuable lesson in his life. Yin Hang is back in Beijing, which is still the place where his dream can be realized, and he likes Beijing's openness and tolerance, "Here you don't look at your background, you don't look at your education, as long as you have the ability, it's the same starting line." ”
Time is like water, 12 years have passed since graduating from university, and only Yin Hang and another classmate who was a director were still struggling to persist in the class. Every year, he and this classmate go to Lama Temple and Tiananmen Square, and what he wants to feel most is the "fireworks" of the city, and he hopes that his works can be close to life.
Yin Hang likes Chen Shisan, the screenwriter of "I Have a Date with a Zombie", "Wulin Gaiden" written by Ning Caishen, and "Lighting Store" by Korean cartoonist Jiang Cao. He does not reject classic narrative structures such as "three-act structure" and "fifteen metronomes", he says that he is a realistic screenwriter, but he will remain flexible in the creative process and will try to meet the requirements of investors, but he has a scale in his heart and knows what a good story is.
In addition to being a screenwriter, he also serves as the producer of the project, which is the goal he has always pursued, "Be a producer yourself, write your own screenplay, organize your own best team, and shoot the most popular works." ”
Screenwriter Juice:
For the sake of ideals, they will persist for ten to fifteen years
The most touching point of the movie "Galaxy Writer" for screenwriter Juice (pseudonym) is the process of the two young screenwriters constantly "revising" under the supervision of Party A, because she has also had a similar experience.
Growing up in a northern city, Juice was admitted to a university in Beijing in 2018 and is currently a second-year graduate student. She has loved literature and art since she was a child, and she had a dream of becoming a screenwriter when she was in junior high school. She likes life TV dramas, such as "Friends" and "The Big Bang Theory".
Juice's first time as a screenwriter was in 2021, when she was invited to create a short play, but after writing it, it was quickly rejected by Party A. The other party's attitude was very rude, not only criticizing the script for nothing, but also personally attacking her. This embarrassing experience extinguished her excitement and apprehension, and made her realize the cruelty of the screenwriting industry.
Juice is a smart girl who understands that as a student, she doesn't have any say in herself, which is the path most screenwriters have to go through when they get into the industry. In the following time, she consciously reduced her workload and focused on getting a project done. After all, she has not yet stepped into society, and she does not need to face the pressure of survival, she cherishes this time in school, and hopes to have a work of her own before stepping out of school.
Graduates majoring in juice generally have two paths after graduation: one is to go to some film and television companies as planners and do projects, and the other is to take the road of professional screenwriters, which is also a difficult road. Juice's current idea is the former, and she feels that solving the problem of survival is more important for herself.
Although it is still far from becoming a famous screenwriter, Juice wants to speak out through the media, hoping that "every screenwriter can be treated with dignity". She called on her peers to be able to maintain the bottom line and not to compete viciously, "If you desperately squeeze yourself in order to pursue your dreams, you will eventually lose your dignity." ”
One of the works that Juice recently created is a love costume drama, which is in the preparation stage, and if it goes well, it should be able to start shooting soon. For the future, she is both sober and pragmatic, hoping to adopt the method of "saving the country with a curve" and finally make herself a professional screenwriter, "I hope to spend ten to fifteen years to realize my dream of screenwriting." Juice said that if the development of the screenwriting career does not go well at that time, she will consider returning to her hometown to find a job and become a professional woman.