Chen Sicheng: Write "Great Prospects" dedicated to Shanghai

Atlas

The last time Chen Sicheng was interviewed was when the box office of "Detective Chinatown 2" broke 3.3 billion, and in less than a month, the reporter met Chen Sicheng for the second time. This time, director Chen became Chen Supervisor and appeared in the background of the conference of the TV series "Great Prospects". "I don't think movies are superior to TV series, it's like the difference between poetry and fiction." Many people say that it is difficult for a director who has made a movie to go back and do a TV series, but Chen Sicheng is a special case.

The time of the interview was scheduled at eight o'clock in the evening, when Chen Sicheng had already been interviewed by six or seven media after the press conference, looking a little tired. But when facing the camera and talking about "Great Prospects", Chen Sicheng's eyes are still full of expectations, he said, when he created "Beijing Love Story", he decided to dedicate his next work to "Shanghai", "I came to Shanghai from my hometown in Shenyang at the age of 16, and that city gave me a lot of feelings." ”

Loved the old alleys in Shanghai

Created "Great Prospects" because of his yearning for Shanghai in the Republic of China period

"Great Prospects" tells a story about "choice" set in Shanghai in the 1920s. The male protagonist Hong Sanyuan, played by Chen Sicheng, came to Shanghai from the small city of Suzhou and was bent on seeking a great future. Chen Sicheng commented that Hong Sanyuan was like a hot-blooded young man who had beaten chicken blood, recognized his own needs in stumbling and stumbled, and walked to a bright road, which was really similar to Chen Sicheng himself more than a decade ago.

Born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, Chen Sicheng came to Shanghai at the age of 16 and lived there for three full years. Chen Sicheng said that in addition to his hometown, Beijing and Shanghai are by far the two cities that are most closely related to him, for Beijing, Chen Sicheng created "Beijing Love Story", and "Great Prospects" is his "gift" to the metropolis of Shanghai.

"The city of Shanghai has given me too many feelings, I like Shanghai's old alleys, old houses, and yearn for Shanghai in the Republic of China period, so after I created "Beijing Love Story", I decided that the second work should be dedicated to Shanghai, so I wrote such a story, dedicated to Shanghai during the Republic of China..."

He is also a producer, screenwriter and actor

Being a screenwriter is the loneliest and being an actor is most enjoyable

"Great Prospects" is the only one of chen Sicheng's several works created by Chen Sicheng that has not yet fully matured. At that time, shooting during the day and writing at night, Chen Sicheng himself felt that he had pushed himself too tightly and would not do this again in the future.

In addition to the screenwriter and starring, Chen Sicheng is also the executive producer of "Great Prospects", in these three identities, Chen Sicheng frankly said that screenwriting is the most difficult and lonely creative process, and the actor is the most relaxed for him, "Acting is a kind of enjoyment for me." ”

It is indeed difficult to create "Great Prospects", and there are at least forty or fifty characters in the story who can count names, "how to organically structure these tasks and fully reflect the personality of each character, this is the most difficult place." At this time, Chen Sicheng's actor's skills came in handy, "I can go into various roles when writing the script, and when I write this, I will imagine myself as every role in the script, and even imagine myself as a woman when writing women." ”

"Great Prospects" invested more than 350 million yuan, but Chen Sicheng said that all the actors' salaries were very low, "costumes, makeup, props, scenery... We used most of the money on the production, before many people felt that the era drama was shoddily made, we hope to change everyone's inherent bad perception of the period drama this time, many of our scenes are built, many clothes are specially made, I pursue the texture of the era drama, including group performances often eight hundred people, a thousand people, shanghai at that time is the "Paris of the East", is a very developed city in all aspects, as the most important thing to create is to see the most real story of that era at any cost. ”

In Chen Sicheng's view, most of the remuneration of excellent actors is flexible, the actors will be because of the work, roles, production and price reduction, this time "Great Prospects" in the old drama bones that support the shanghai beach storm have given Chen Sicheng enough face, "The first is the script, the second is the trust in our team, these two points let me send them an invitation, everyone cut the price to star and gladly agreed." Talking about the old drama bone artists invited with not very high remuneration, Chen Sicheng sincerely thanked them.

Hong Sanyuan is a "grassroots" who lives in his bones and is rich and handsome.

It's harder to do a TV series well than a movie

The same is the story of the growth of small people in the Republic of China period, which also happened in Shanghai, and as soon as "Great Prospects" was broadcast, some people compared it with "Shanghai Beach". In fact, there are not few works of this genre, but Chen Sicheng has only seen "Shanghai Beach", and the creation of "Great Prospects" has some ideas to make up for the scarcity of this genre market.

But Chen Sicheng also did not mind the audience comparing "Great Prospects" with "Shanghai Beach", he joked that "Brother Fa (Zhou Runfa) was handsome in those years, scarves, top hats, we have Brother Xu Wenqiang, completely different." Chen Sicheng's Hong Sanyuan is a "very angry" figure, he laughed that Hong Sanyuan is completely inferior to Xu Wenqiang's "high rich handsome", "he is a grassroots image, but he lives in his heart gao fushuai, and finally walked to the bright road." ”

In the eyes of many people, the director who has done the film will never go back to the TV series, which is not only the difference between the big screen and the small screen, but also because the input-output ratio of the TV series is far from being comparable to the movie, but after the success of "Detective Chinatown 1", Chen Sicheng chose to go back and shoot the TV series "Great Prospects". "I don't think that movies are higher than TV series, and I never use artistic expression to evaluate the level of art, and the difference between movies and TV series is like poetry, prose and novels, because the narrative volume is different and the requirements are different." TV dramas are more like novels, bigger, and harder to do well. (Yang Guang/Wen)

+1