China Youth Daily Client News (Shanghai school media reporter Ma Owen, China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Wang Yejie) A student who graduated from the fine arts department of the Beijing Film Academy, if he changes careers to become a director, what difficulties will he encounter? How do you convince investors to invest in his work? A few days ago, in the short video unit exploration class of the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival, young director Ding Sheng used his own story to encourage contemporary young students to "not be afraid of failure".
Ding Sheng graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the Beijing Film Academy in 1994, but returned to the Beijing Film Academy seven years after graduation to study directing for one year. This year, he was 30 years old and decided to change careers to directing. Prior to that, in 2000, he made his first film, "Big Fuss", which was not recognized by the market.
"I was at a loss, so I returned to the Beijing Film Academy in 2001 to take a director's training course." Ding Sheng said that he had "opened up" in this year's time. He tests the reasons for his failure in each class with questions, and increases his confidence by making sketches and short films in the classroom.
After graduating from the refresher course, he became an advertising director who was not looked up to by many science directors. "I just shoot commercials and keep my hands hot." Ding Sheng shot a total of more than 400 ads, at most a month can shoot 9 ads, from creativity to execution to editing are hands-on, "hands can not be idle, this line of technology and aesthetic updates are very fast, the social taste of the audience representatives has also been changing, nourishing the sharpening, the knife is sharpened as fast as possible." ”
No matter how hard and tired this advertising director is, he has always been firm in the direction he confirmed at the age of 30 - to be a film director. He made "story ads" in the same way as movies. In class, he shared his experience of working with Jet Li to shoot an advertisement, although the advertisement was only broadcast on CCTV for 5 seconds, he made it into a "small movie" - there are villain scenes, love scenes, action scenes, drag racing scenes.
After filming this advertisement, Jet Li asked Ding Sheng: "Are you practicing with me?" Since then, through shooting advertisements, he has met actors such as Zhou Runfa, Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, and Jackie Chan. In the end, he cooperated with Jackie Chan and Liu Ye many times, and achieved the "Tough Guy" series, "Police Story 2013", "Hero Nature 2018", "Big Soldier" and other movies that were familiar to audiences later, and the previously released "Railway Flying Tiger" is his recent masterpiece.
The release of "Tough Guy" is a milestone in his personal directing career. In 2006, Ding Sheng met the famous Hong Kong director Wang Jing. The first time he met the "big director", Ding Sheng brought 3 scripts he wrote, which were completely rejected by Wang Jing. "For a week, if you have an idea, tell me, and if you don't have an idea, we'll make friends." Wang Jing said.
A week to recreate a new script, is it possible? Ding Sheng did. He re-"pulled" the details of his life that could become a movie story, using the story of a veteran he knew to write the original script of "Tough Guy". A week later, Wang Jing read the script and gave him a thumbs up: "(This film) I cast."
It is this highly stylized video work with the most personal characteristics that allows Ding Sheng to release the "power of the flood" that Ding Sheng has accumulated for many years. He took this opportunity to encourage young people: "The future opportunities are like this, will not be down-to-earth just in line with your wishes, after precipitation, you must stimulate your potential and force yourself." ”
After "Tough Guy", Ding Sheng quit the advertising circle and concentrated on filmmaking, "Anyone who concentrates on one thing is not necessarily good, if you want to take care of many things at the same time, it will definitely not be good." ”
The story of "Big Soldiers and Little Generals" also comes from a chance. Previously, Ding Sheng had heard Jackie Chan tell a simple story, which Jackie Chan had told many times to different directors and screenwriters, but had never been taken seriously.
Dan Ding Sheng took this story to his mind, spent two months, referring to "Nowhere" and "Midnight Run", and completed the creation of the story of "Big Soldiers and Little Generals" together with Shu Ping, the screenwriter of "The Devil Is Coming". The two "closed" in a room in the Zhongyu Building in Beijing, and began brainstorming by pasting a large piece of brown paper on the wall. On this brown paper, the words "kidnapping, weapons, barbarians, escape, fighting" were written.
Their strange behavior was noticed by the hotel owner. One day, the boss rushed into the room with 8 policemen and asked what was going on with the kraft paper on the wall. Shu Ping had to open the computer, call "Baidu", and finally explained his situation to the police. In 2010, Ding Sheng cooperated with Jackie Chan for the first time to shoot "Big Soldier and Little General".
At that time, Jackie Chan was willing to star in a new director's film, which became a sensational entertainment industry hotspot. It was Ding Sheng's dedication and piety to the film that touched him.
"For young directors, the original impulse is very important, it is the motivation that always inspires you not to give up. Seize the opportunity, don't be afraid to fail, any of your accumulation and efforts are effective. Ding Sheng said.
Source: China Youth Daily client