First, young directors are advised to have a reverence for their profession
Tan Fei: We welcome the famous fourth-generation director Mr. Ding Yinnan to "Four Tastes of Poison Uncle", because Ding Dao is my big brother, and we have just spent a long time together in Changchun. In the process, I felt that he was an elderly young man, who had a very, very young mentality and a very deep understanding of movies. So I want to talk to Director Ding about your artistic career today, including some of your views on the film.
Ding Yinnan: Speak freely.
Tan Fei: I would like to ask, now many actors have begun to change careers to become directors, what do you think about this? In your opinion, because you have a special authority to say this, what does a good director need to have?
Ding Yinnan: Now because the threshold is low, it turns out that the director has higher requirements for his technical level, such as film, photography and other aspects, the inspection is very strict.
Tan Fei: Very strict, not ordinary people can fiddle with film.
Ding Yinnan: At that time, it was an elite culture, and we were an elite education.
Tan Fei: Elite education is right, I am very much in favor.
Ding Yinnan: But then because the threshold of technology is low, you can make a movie with a mobile phone, and it becomes written, that is, anyone can use mobile phone images to convey a feeling. There is no problem with this expression itself, but with the reduction of the technical threshold, there will be a problem, if it is really a movie, the film attribute has its own characteristics, in addition to its image expression, it has many strict rules to follow. For example, it is in a prescribed time, 90 minutes, 100 minutes, watching this film in a dark room, how to attract the audience?
Tan Fei: Watching a movie in a theater is a very ritualistic form.
Ding Yinnan: Yes, and it has mystery, it has suspense, it has drama, and many comprehensive factors complete this work. But are the film and television works that the audience sees now still the artistry that art just said? Especially tv, TV shoots that water, that sucks.
Tan Fei: The TV series is very powerful.
Ding Yinnan: In this way, everyone doesn't think there is anything wrong with the movie? So his heart was devoid of a sense of sacredness. I think the biggest problem with kids making movies now is that they don't have a reverence for this profession anymore.
Tan Fei: He has no reverence for movies.
Ding Yinnan: This is a noble cause. At that time, we had to bathe and change clothes when we watched people's movies, although we were very poor at that time, and our clothes were very torn, but we had to keep them clean, and we should not eat garlic when we ate, for fear of affecting others to watch movies, and when the curtain opened, we were appreciating art.
Tan Fei: Actually, watching movies at that time was a big thing, I was going to go to the movies, and I think it was a spiritual entertainment activity that was particularly big in my life. It may seem too light in comparison now.
Ding Yinnan: Now that some of the rules of the past have been thrown away, it is still applauded to watch the drama, and the drama is also applauded. In the past, we looked at the old gentleman, Zhao Dan saw our dean, and the old man stood up when he came from afar, why? This awe. Including when we went to the scene to see the old director filming, Cui Wei and Shui Hua director filmed, and the filming scene was silent, which was sacred. And I tell you, I heard that Zhang Junxiang didn't speak Chinese when filming, because he came back from studying in Hollywood.
Tan Fei: Zhang Junxiang.
Ding Yinnan: Zhang Junxiang speaks in complete English.
Tan Fei: All in English, right.
Ding Yinnan: The lens, this lens shift is all in English, then everyone looks stupid, what is there?
Tan Fei: It's still the kind of a lot of elites or a lot of masters.
Ding Yinnan: Of course, his wife is Bai Yang, he scolded his wife on the spot, and divorced her, just because she arrived a little late, Zhang Junxiang's wife turned out not to be Zhou Xiaoyan, but Bai Yang, a big actor.
Tan Fei: Big star.
Ding Yinnan: As a result, because she was late on the spot, she was scolded on the spot, not only scolding, ignoring her. I've heard about it, I haven't seen it. I would like to agree to this to show that film and television practitioners should have a reverence for their profession. So in this era, I think the sense of sublimity of the movie is gone, because there is no technical content, anyone can get it.
Second, directors must learn to express themselves, not just Hollywood
Tan Fei: In an era when everyone can be a director, what should young directors learn?
Ding Yinnan: In this case, it is necessary to distinguish. Even if I really think of directing as a career, I will also communicate with those young directors, and when I listen to them express their creative experience, I mention that they do not learn From Hollywood, I am very happy. I think young people have finally realized this truth, and Hollywood is not impossible to learn, that is, it cannot be used as a standard.
Tan Fei: Yes, and you can't just learn Hollywood.
Ding Yinnan: That's right.
Tan Fei: Actually, I also made a point, I said, in fact, before Hollywood, can you learn Bollywood? You have to be eclectic.
Ding Yinnan: You can learn.
Tan Fei: You can't just go to one place.
Ding Yinnan: The key is whether you can express it? Because the director is very important to express.
Tan Fei: It is very important for creators to express themselves.
Ding Yinnan: What do you express? To express your views on society, you can express it with black humor, you can express it with the main melody, you can express it with comedy, you must pay attention to it, it is your sincere expression, the expression of the soul.
Tan Fei: Sincerity is the most important. So today you have repeatedly stressed that you can't just learn Hollywood, including your cultivation at that time, which may have nothing to do with Hollywood, and you can also become a good director.
Ding Yinnan: My foundation should be said to be Soviet films. In addition, the key thing that is particularly interesting later is that after the End of the Cultural Revolution, some Western movies will be put on, I watched it at that time, and I didn't translate it at that time, and I also thought it was very interesting to see people shooting like this. The foundation of my epic is there to be mastered.
Tan Fei: So your foundation should be Soviet cinema plus Chinese aesthetics.
Ding Yinnan: Right.
Tan Fei: And then after having this foundation, I will learn, such as Japan, the United States, I will look at it and absorb some things.
Ding Yinnan: For example, the sense of ceremony, for example, the sense of ceremony in front of "Deng Xiaoping", is a comprehensive understanding.
Third, most directors lack creativity now
Tan Fei: I see that you have also become a screenwriter and a director, which is equivalent to saying that you have two positions, but in fact, many people may really want to know about screenwriting and directing now, that is, the weight of these two types of work in a movie, because it is actually controversial. Many people think that screenwriting is very important, and even some of our screenwriter friends have said, why do you have to add so-and-so director works, why do you forget our screenwriters, how do you see these two types of work?
Ding Yinnan: I tell you, poetry, drama, literature, literature attributes do not have the attribute of film scripts, what is a film script? Movie scripts are designed for making movies. A film script is not literature, a film script is a script provided for making a movie.
Tan Fei: Literary scripts.
Ding Yinnan: Script, that is, I make a look, I design a diagram for you to do. Now a lot of screenwriters emphasize that this is my original, you original you are also a script, really become a movie, that is not your skill, right?
Tan Fei: So you think it's still the art of directing?
Ding Yinnan: Of course, and there is another problem, I participate in the screenwriting every time, I said, I don't have a name, I don't want money, but I have to participate in the creation, you have to write according to my will, I can't shoot without writing according to my meaning, so I won eight single awards for Sun Yat-sen, and the screenwriter didn't have an award, why? He didn't look at it, and finally said that it wasn't shot according to your script, it was made by the director. Because there was a contradiction with the screenwriter at that time, the screenwriter left, no matter, I rewrote the script, so watching this movie did not give the screenwriter the Golden Rooster Award, why? Just because people look at this picture and the script is too different.
Tan Fei: Picture presentation and text are not the same thing.
Ding Yinnan: "Blood Battle Taierzhuang" is all filmed according to the script, so "Blood Battle Taierzhuang" gave the screenwriter award.
Tan Fei: Then we have also seen a lot of recent fire dramas, its attribution rights will be disputed, for example, just said that the work of so-and-so director may not be screenwritten, or the screenwriter because of his contribution is different, some people do not have the screenwriter's signature, some people have, how do you see some of these, especially some disputes over intellectual property rights? Because there were very few of them in your time.
Ding Yinnan: I didn't have this problem at that time, because at that time everyone knew this, and now I think the key is to see who has the ability, in the end the director is better than the screenwriter or the screenwriter is better than the director?
Tan Fei: I can't say it clearly.
Ding Yinnan: Yes, if the screenwriters strictly put it there, you shoot according to others, then of course, people are powerful. If you take the script, the director creates the scene twice, and all of them are filmed according to the director's will, that is, the director is strong.
Tan Fei: That is, what you mean is who plays the greater role in the presentation of the final work, which may be the best criterion for identification.
Ding Yinnan: Some directors just shoot according to the script, and I tell you frankly that a large number of directors are not creative now.
Fourth, the director's most exciting moment is on the shooting scene
Tan Fei: When is the director really in the wonderful time?
Ding Yinnan: I often say this with my son Ding Zhen, and I say that the director's most pleasant thing is on the spot, not at home, and the preparation is of course very important. But when I arrived at the scene, all the lighting costumes were there, and the actors acted. Well, the creation that was born at this time, I came up with an idea, I thought of an idea, this is the second creation of the director's scene, and the director's most wonderful moment is on the scene. So why didn't the old man move.
Tan Fei: Shooting on the spot is very tiring, which is a painstaking matter.
Ding Yinnan: Right. The director must be excited on the spot, always highly focused and excited for 16 hours, and the schedule must be changed on the spot. Because of this kind of communication between the director and the actors, with the photography and the artist, the scene is a vivid creative scene. Now I feel as if there is no such communication, I watched them shoot a TV series that day, there was none, and the scene was directly covered with a book.
Tan Fei: It's just quietly following the script, and even the director sits in front of the monitor and says very little.
Ding Yinnan: I fell asleep here.
Tan Fei: Let the executive director shout here.
Ding Yinnan: Yes, and I told Ding Zhen, I said what executive director do you want? The director is addicted to shooting on the spot to be interesting, only interested, only to have pleasure, you shoot like this, you don't know what to shoot, what is it?
Tan Fei: Actually, Director Ding's statement is that it feels like some directors are just sitting in front of the monitor to play the director.
Ding Yinnan: And then after he sat here, you can act as an actor. In this way, the problem of the industry now is that everyone can be a director.
Tan Fei: But the real director in your era is the chief director of the scene.
Ding Yinnan: We didn't have an executive director on the spot.
Tan Fei: There is no executive director.
Ding Yinnan: There are pipes below, there are assistant directors, and there are assistant directors of mass scenes. But they all take care of their own share, and they don't direct it in front of the camera.
Tan Fei: So I hope that there will be more opportunities in the future, and we can hear more insights from Ding Lao, because he really loves this industry and loves this art all his life, and I also hope that Ding Daolai will be a frequent guest and hope that he will always be healthy.
Ding Yinnan: Thank you.
Tan Fei: Thank you, thank you Ding Dao.