Author | Huang Conghao
The Spring Festival stalls have always been the main battlefield for cinema movies to catch and fight, especially this year: the box office of the Spring Festival stalls exceeded 4 billion in four days, and "Detective Chinatown 2" became the champion of the Spring Festival stalls with a box office of 1.89 billion. Compared with the popularity of cinema movies, the past Internet University was a little silent during the Spring Festival, on the one hand, due to the policy of suspending the Spring Festival files on major platforms, and on the other hand, because the audience was attracted by cinema movies, and the Spring Festival files became the traffic trough of major platforms.
But in the Spring Festival of 2018, the Internet University's "Upper Position 2" stood out, relying on the continuation of the well-known IP "Upper Position", director Guan Xiaojie's golden signboard and strong word-of-mouth accumulation, and the number of broadcasts exceeded 10 million in three days. Judging from the audience coverage alone, the audience number of "Upper 2" has even caught up with some theater movies.
Why can "Upper Position 2" break the "Spring Festival Curse" of the Internet University? Yu Yingjun tries to analyze it here, in order to provide some different insights for other Internet University practitioners.
Off-site force:
The record of the shooting cycle of the Internet University escorts the quality of the film
The shooting cycle of online movies is very short, generally between one week and half a month. This is determined by the characteristics of the online movie itself: the investment cost is not high, the turnover of personnel is large, and the shooting site is relatively messy.
Of all the costs, the largest part of the cost is the actor's salary, which is usually paid on a daily basis. This means that unlike the props that have already been invested, each additional day of filming will cost the actor a lot more. This is also the reason why there were a lot of goofs in the past Internet University: the crew could no longer afford to pay for reshooting.
To Yu Yingjun's surprise, the filming cycle of "Upper Position 2" reached 65 days, setting a record for the longest filming cycle of the Internet University! The shooting cycle of more than two months not only increased the cost, but also gave the film more time to polish. The careful polishing of the plot will be analyzed later, and Yu Yingjun focuses on the improvement of the shooting environment here:
At the same time, the crew used clear signs to divide the rest area, dining area, clothing area, etc., so that the shooting scene was orderly.
In addition, the film was shot in Hengdian Film and Television City, but it had to show the customs of Japan. In this regard, the crew put a lot of effort into it, not only did most of the actors have to speak Japanese, but all the scenes were built in line with the local Japanese to present the best texture. Among them, the scenes of the conflict of the yakuza, the scene of Kabukicho, and the scene of the ninja fight can be said to be fake.
(Gangster Clash)
(Kabukicho)
(Ninja Scene)
Director Guan Xiaojie once said in a previous interview that in addition to improving the industry standard in the content of the film, he should also set an example for the "standardization" of the industry and ensure that "a little progress is made every day". Judging from the efforts of "Upper 2", director Guan Xiaojie has fulfilled his promise and laid a good foundation for the success of "Upper 2" in the Spring Festival.
Intentions in the field:
A wonderful combination of various elements helps the content of the film to innovate
"Upper 2" is the sequel to the representative work "Upper Position" of Guan Xiaojie, the godfather director of the Internet University, and it can be regarded as a well-known IP in the field of the Internet University. For sequels to such successful works, most of the industry's approach is to seek stability: make minor repairs to the plot on the basis of using the original cast, as long as it meets the audience's minimum requirements for the film. It may not be great, but it certainly can't be wrong.
(Boldly enable the newcomer heroine Li Zhenan)
But "Upper 2" did not choose to seek stability, but boldly innovated, used a new heroine, and chose a new angle to boldly upgrade the movie after 4 years. Among them, the most worth mentioning is the heroine Li Zhen'an: graduated from the Film School of Tongji University, she is known as the "Tongji School Flower", and she was nominated for Best Actress at the 2nd Asian New Media Film Festival for her first time as the heroine in the movie "The Royal Favorite Concubine", and then filmed "Bad Policewoman 2" also performed well, which can be said to be a high-quality idol with strength and appearance in the field of Internet University. The heroine of the big IP "Upper 2" this time is naturally familiar to her, and the story of "Shanghai Tongji School Flower Reveals the Dark Inside Story of the Japanese Showbiz" presented in the movie also made Yu Yingjun pleasantly surprised during the movie.
"Upper Rank 1" mainly tells the history of the struggle of the little people, exposing and criticizing social reality, while "Upper Rank 2" integrates more commercial elements on this basis: Japanese gangster fighting, Five Elements Ninja fighting, power schemes, sisterhood, etc.
Japanese gangster fights, five elements of ninja fighting, these elements are all necessary elements of a successful film, but with so many elements mixed and matched, it is easy to make the movie fall into the dilemma of "losing the watermelon and picking up the sesame seeds". The team of "Upper 2" is naturally well aware of this, and has made arrangements to promote strengths and avoid weaknesses, which not only does not make the audience feel unreal, but also makes the quality of the movie to a higher level.
Experience the Truth: Gangster Rush,
The only way to solve the ninja fight scenes
What is said to be truth in the field of film and literature is a relatively complex concept. If only whether things conform to their own appearance is the only criterion for judging, then fantasy novels and fantasy movies can be regarded as unrealistic. In Yu Yingjun's view, judging whether a film and television work has a sense of reality mainly depends on whether the work provides experience reality or emotional truth, and the truth required by different themes is different.
For themes such as gangster fights and ninja fights, what the audience needs is naturally to experience reality. It is necessary to make the audience feel that such a thing is real, and such an experience is real, so that the audience will not have the feeling of "jumping the scene". When presenting this kind of theme, "Upper 2" focuses on the creation of special effects and scenes, which makes people feel that the real situation should be like that, and the attraction of this type of theme is naturally reflected.
Of course, if you want to present such a grand scene in an all-round way, the cost must not be low. The Spring Festival file "Red Sea Operation" cooperated with the Chinese Navy, and the cost cost was nearly 500 million, even if only a part of it was spent on it, it was a large volume. "Upper 2" added such elements this time, but did not focus on such elements, and achieved a high degree of completion on a lower budget, which is a very wise behavior.
Emotional Reality: Little People Struggle,
The magic weapon of sisterhood
Compared with gangster fights, ninja fights, and other themes that the general public may not be able to touch and experience in their lifetime, the struggle of small people is something that everyone has to face at some stage of life. The specific predicament may be different, but the sense of powerlessness in the face of society is the same. What the movie needs to do is to arouse the audience's emotional resonance, so as to be emotionally real and not make people feel very "fake".
"Upper Position 2" tells the story of three "drifting" actresses who went out for their dreams, and because they were unwilling to succumb to the unspoken rules of the entertainment industry, they went to Japan to get involved in the local underworld disputes, and a series of love and hatred stories. Such a theme happens to cater to the mood of people who leave home after the festival and go to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places to struggle. At the same time, the presentation of the sisterhood between the three actresses in the film is rare in the Internet University, and while it attracts a regular male audience, it also activates many female audiences, making them empathize.
Experiencing authenticity can make the audience praise the content presented in the film for a short time, while emotional authenticity can keep the audience in mind for a long time the universal values conveyed by the film. The two are indispensable, and what "Upper 2" does is undoubtedly satisfying.
It has been nearly five years since the last myth-creating "Upper Position", and "Upper Position 2" has flourished at the beginning of 2018, breaking the "Spring Festival Curse" of the Internet University, which also makes people look forward to the Internet market in 2018: Which movies will set new records? and which movies will be remembered by the audience?