While looking at the data, the story structure is revealed
For filmmaking, Huang Jianxin has always been full of enthusiasm, but he only hates repetition. The film "Decisive Moment" was labeled as another "Founding Of the People's Republic" at the beginning of the project, at the beginning, when the project appeared in front of Huang Jianxin, he felt that these historical events had been filmed, and there were many movies and TV series about the Liberation War to the founding ceremony, how to make new ideas and find a new path of history was what he valued most. Although it has been ten years since the release of "The Great Undertaking of the Founding of the People's Republic", Huang Jianxin wants to get rid of such stereotypical ideas and insists on shooting different main theme historical stories, so the main creative team found a screenwriter He Jiping who is good at writing characters (the screenwriter's representative works include the film "New Dragon Gate Inn", "Cast Name", "When is the Bright Moon", the TV series "The Legend of the New White Lady", etc.).
Poster for Decisive Moments.
In November 2018, He Jiping received a call from producer Zhang Heping and asked her to take over the script for "Decisive Moment". At that time, He Jiping was still in Hong Kong, and the time pressure was the biggest problem in the production of this film, although she had not written the main theme of such major historical themes, and most of the characters involved in the script had died, and it was impossible to collect information in face-to-face interviews, "I looked at a large number of realistic materials, as far as possible to find some people who had experienced the year to interview, fortunately, this time there are many creative materials, all-round, all angles, such as the entire Library in Beijing is open to me, you can consult at any time." After about two weeks of reading the material, this kind of huge database that can be reached gives her more confidence in writing, "One of the principles I insist on is that what I haven't seen must be seen, because there is no time, I have to look at it and imagine, while coming up with the story structure." In the end, He Jiping only took about 14 days to complete the outline of the script. And Huang Jianxin also described this cooperation as "war-style", He Jiping wrote on the side, he shot here, the whole connection is very dense, very full, the left side of the scene with notes, the right side with the computer, the process of shooting paused for a few minutes to improvise, although it is busy, Huang Jianxin said that in the later stage, everyone enjoyed the creative process, it seems to stimulate the superpower of everyone present.
There is no full script before booting
The screenwriter needs to eliminate all the pressure in the tense cycle before he can enter the creative state to ensure the high quality of the main theme film. Zhang Yi, a screenwriter who has created the "Encounter" part of "Win the Championship" and "My Motherland and Me", also has a new experience this year, saying that "Arriving Home at One Point" is the most intense and shortest time creation he has ever experienced, which is the product of a specific time environment, before which his creation generally took more than a year. Because the difference between movies and movies is still very large, for example, Wong Kar-wai's films are not fast, and plays like "Alone on the Stage" (formerly known as "Li Na") cannot be written in two or three months. But "Arriving Home at One Point" is not the same as the time requirements of the plays of these films, and the shooting of each film is also different, no matter what the length of time, do a good job, and find the motivation is the unchangeable essence of creating a good work.
Stills from "Home at One O'Clock".
At the end of last year, Chen Kexin and Zhang Ji received a task to shoot a movie on the theme of poverty alleviation, they considered the cities of Yunnan, Guizhou and Zhejiang in the chat, and suddenly found that the story point of Pu'er coffee not only has the conflict between local and globalization, the difference between Chinese and Western cultures, but also the combination of rural and e-commerce, plus the struggle of three aspiring young people, they feel that this story is feasible. In the tense stage of script creation, "Home at One Point" decided to be released within the year, because of the new crown epidemic, when the creators held a network teleconference in the north and south, some in Hong Kong, some in Beijing, some stranded in their hometowns, fortunately, they can explore the scenery and cast in the clouds. Zhang Ji recalled that at that time, they were really busy, and even did not have a complete script before starting, until they gradually sorted out the relationship between the characters and the story framework, and then relaxed their minds slightly: "Before the start of shooting, we had a complete character background and story outline, story direction, so as to meet the requirements of the start of shooting, but the later script in the hands of director Xu Hongyu will be adjusted according to his style and aesthetics." The relationship between the three characters, their motivations and personalities also need to construct a basic general framework, for example, the amount of information in the original play is still a lot of trade-offs, and the scenes about the village flowers have been deleted, but we all need to cooperate with the director as much as possible, the screenwriter gives his own cognition, and more needs to support the director's expression. ”
Create for more focused emotions
Stills from "Encounter" from "My Motherland and Me".
In addition to "Arriving Home at One O'Clock", Zhang Ji also created the "Encounter" section of "My Motherland and Me", when Zhang Yibai and Chen Kaige and others continued to meet, one afternoon, everyone finalized the concept of "historical moments colliding head-on with the memory of the whole people, and everyone decided to take the axis of time to gather the gifts of excellent domestic directors to recall and record the key memories of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China." "'My Motherland and Me' is a collection film, Zhang Yibai said, there are 7 directors to join a feature film, half an hour of long content with the first half of the production cycle, is still relatively abundant. However, until the end of December 2018, he had not yet decided what historical time he wanted to shoot, and the general director Chen Kaige suggested that he shoot a story against the background of the atomic bomb explosion. "Even if I were asked to make a tribute film with a main theme, I would have to shoot more emotional attention, not necessarily focusing on the atomic bombing itself, but on the communication with the specific fate of the individual in the context of history." Therefore, Zhang Yibai and screenwriter Zhang Ji created a piece of "Encounter" about the regret of reuniting love on the bus for a long time, and after the first draft of the script was completed, they were engaged in intense shooting.
Race against time with a 400-word synopsis
Speaking of Chinese speed, Zhao Ningyu frankly said that "King Kong Chuan" can be said to be one of the fastest scripts in the history of Chinese cinema.
On the first day of the task, when the script had not yet been written, Zhao Ningyu drew the first atmosphere map of the whole film.
At noon the next day after receiving the "King Kong Chuan" project, Guan Hu wrote a 400-word synopsis, and he and Zhao Ningyu and other screenwriters calculated a general plot trend and decided to tell the story of the volunteer army in the Battle of Jincheng to arrive in Jincheng before 5 a.m. with three perspectives and three directors. On the afternoon of the passage of the synopsis, Guan Hu's Seven Impressions Company held a production conference, and at the same time, everyone began to race against time, and Guan Hu continued to lead Zhao Ningyu and other screenwriting teams to write scripts. Zhao Ningyu himself is very interested in the history of confrontation with the United States and aid to Korea, and has also created some film and television works on the theme of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and he almost turned his back on the history of each period of the Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, so Zhao Ningyu did not feel too anxious about the script creation of "King Kong Chuan". On June 27, the team received the task of creating, and then, on July 10, the first draft of the script was produced. Guo Fan remembers the three directors meeting with the screenwriting team, a stack of manuscripts on the table, Guo Fan patted zhao Ningyu and asked, "That's it?" Zhao Ningyu nodded, and Guo Fan couldn't help but give a thumbs up and say"
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan
Edited by Huang Jialing Proofreader Li Xiangling