At 7:00 a.m. on October 10, there was a long queue at the entrance of the Spring Hall of the Small Town of Pingyao Film Palace.
This group of enthusiastic people are all here for the fifth generation director Tian Zhuangzhuang. Because after 4 and a half hours, there will be a Tian Zhuang Zhuang Division Class event here.
For the sake of epidemic prevention and control, this master class followed the relevant requirements and only arranged 75% of the seats, but this did not dissuade everyone's enthusiasm. It can be seen that fans are full of infinite interest in the power of movies.
Interestingly, the venue deliberately chose its namesake in honor of Director Faymu's work "Spring in a Small Town". On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the birth of this film, director Tian Zhuangzhuang also remade this classic film "Spring in a Small Town".
This time, Tian Zhuangzhuang shared with everyone the behind-the-scenes stories of works such as "Wu Qingyuan", "Spring in a Small Town", "Wolf Disaster" and other works, and also revealed the recent situation of the new work "Birdsong" that was filmed, "currently in post-special effects".
He also modestly said that he was almost 70 years old and was getting farther and farther away from the movie. "I don't dare to make movies now, it's too expensive to make movies, and I have to take care of the market and the audience, I will hesitate, and I will be a little overwhelmed when creating."
In fact, coming from a film family, he has never left the film, although his mother Yu Lan ridiculed his nose for not being suitable for being an actor, but in the end, he was mistakenly admitted to the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy. In recent years, he has frequently appeared in movies as an actor, and has been nominated for many actor awards, but he still said, "I am not an actor." ”
So, the story of today's masterclass begins with his directing work.
Xiao Dianjun specially selected and sorted out a transcript, the content is detailed, full of dry goods, come and read it!
(The following is Tian Zhuangzhuang's self-description)
01
Talking about "Spring in a Small Town"
There is a sense of sadness in the millennium
It was between 1999 and 2000, and screenwriter Ah Cheng said that it would take about 1 to 1 and a half years to prepare the script for "Wu Qingyuan".
At that time, I had nothing to do, so I suddenly took out the works of Chinese directors in the 30s. When I saw "Spring in a Small Town" for the fourth time, I was suddenly very sad. I was amazed at why I was so uncomfortable, so I started to comb through myself, and then I thought it might be the impact of the millennium on me— just one thing that everyone in the world paid attention to for two years.
I think people actually want to use one thing to have a communication and communication with each other, especially under the development of modernization, the sense of alienation between people and people is getting stronger and stronger. I think it may be for this reason that after watching "Spring in a Small Town", I was touched by the emotion of the movie that stops at the courtesy.
Therefore, I went to Acheng and said that "Spring in a Small Town" has been 30 years, and it is possible to remake it.
2002 Edition of Spring in a Small Town
He thought it was done, so we started working on the script. I think the voiceover of "Spring in a Small Town" is fantastic, we don't want it, the rest will be up to you. He took over the project and went back to the United States for the New Year, and when he came back, he handed me a small script, and I thought it was great after reading it.
I immediately showed it to Li Shaohong, and she asked me if I had any plans to shoot "Wu Qingyuan"? But I think this movie is so good, I want to paint it red. And I haven't made a movie in ten years, which is very important to me, and I want to make a movie quietly first.
Therefore, Li Shaohong and Jiang Zhiqiang funded and began the filming of "Spring in a Small Town".
02
Talking about "Wu Qingyuan"
Li Shaohong helped to facilitate it
I hadn't made a movie for 10 years, and I didn't want to make it anymore, and I felt that I was a bit out of place with the big film market, so I helped Lu Xuechang and others make movies at that time.
At that time, I played chess with Zou Jing every day, and at that time, someone introduced him to me, and there was a person who was very good at writing things and wanted to write movies. As a result, we talked and became very good friends, and then the two of us played chess together.
When we play chess, we see a book called "There is a Sky Outside the Sky". In fact, this book is "Friends of Yiwen" written by teacher Wu Qingyuan when he retired at the age of 70. Then I took a stupid breath and asked if the old man was alive? Zou Jingzhi said that he was alive. I thought we should shoot him.
So I went to find director Li Shaohong. At that time, she kept asking me if I still wanted to make a movie, so I would go and make a TV series for her. I was still reading the script, and there were more than 40 people in it, and I couldn't remember it. She asked me what I could shoot. I said, "Wu Qingyuan."
Later, after director Li Shaohong learned who was Wu Qingyuan, he felt that it was very good, so he helped me contact Wu Qingyuan. I went to Japan with the screenwriter Ah Cheng, met Teacher Wu, and got the script authorization. At that time, millions of texts about Wu Qingyuan were also recovered from Japan.
I have always felt that making "Wu Qingyuan" is a thing of Go and faith, although the faith is not seen by everyone, but I think it is quite interesting to make a movie.
03
Talking about "Wolf Plague"
After 10 years of preparation, Hou Xiaoxian recommended the script
At that time, I met director Hou Xiaoxian, who had just finished filming "City of Sorrows" and sold very well. Once when we met in Beijing, he said to me, "I bought a script, and I wanted to shoot it myself, but it was very suitable for you to shoot, called "The Wolf Plague", which was written by the Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue. ”
At that time, there was almost no Japanese literature in China, and even so, director Hou Xiaoxian sent me two translated versions of the novel and $1,000. He told me to use the money to develop the script.
Then I used half of the money and found a friend to adapt. As a result, I didn't look at it, not the feeling I wanted, so I used the rest of the money to find another friend to get it, and as a result, this change was changed for three years. At that time, they all asked me, what do I really want? Want to shoot wolves?
In my opinion, "Wolf Plague" must have wolves, and there can be no wolves.
In the process, I myself read a lot of Yasushi Inoue's novels, and "The Wolf Plague" is a very difficult work to make, because it is a reflection on the war and his own nation from his point of view after the defeat of Japan.
If we shoot, I see more of a fate. Maybe people now read novels and think that it is not a strange thing for people to become wolves, but at that time, no one may be able to become wolves, which is a story in the Western Regions and the author's imagination. So in my opinion, turning into a wolf for love is a very remarkable, very romantic story.
At that time, there may have been some problems in the promotion of the movie, and many people thought that it was a suspenseful story, but it was not. I think it tells two fatalistic stories: one is the story of the person who teaches the murderer to be killed by the person he teaches, and the other is the story of encountering a love, but this love is not conventional, not that it can live together and produce offspring, but to become another species. So how did he choose? You may not have a choice, you will become like this.
In fact, for me, after filming "Wolf Plague", it is a very important thing.
I really thought about this project for a long time, until I met Jiang Zhiqiang once and told him that I wanted to make a movie. He suggested that I make "Wolf Plague", no matter how difficult it is. Not many people may have seen this movie now, and even fewer people have actually understood it.
04
Talking about the new work "Birdsong"
I thought about doing animation and am currently doing special effects in post
I have known Ah Cheng for many years, and he has the "Three Kings " ("Child King", "Chess King", "Tree King") that are very familiar to the public, and the others have been filmed by others, and then "Tree King" is more peculiar.
We talked to him for more than a decade, and I was obsessed with cartoons for a while, so I asked him if he could make cartoons. He agreed, and I started talking to a lot of people about the project, such as how to do this, how to do this tree king. Chatting and chatting, I suddenly felt that cartoons are not addictive, this is real people and real trees together, the power of this movie is enough, I think it is still necessary to wait until there are special effects to do it.
This idea from ten years ago has also become my seed.
But since Wolf Plague, I've never wanted to make a movie. I've been helping people as executive producers, and they've been asking me when I'm shooting. I actually don't think there's anything to shoot, but he keeps asking and saying to help me zhang luo.
I thought of "The Tree King", but I don't know how to shoot it, maybe it can be made. The machine was shut down in January this year, and now the film has been cut, but I don't know what will happen to the future film, but it is actually quite laborious to shoot this film.
"Tree King" is about Yunnan, and the land and the people on it are strange to us, and then we slowly come into contact with them, which leads to harmony and conflict, which is particularly interesting.
The movie "Birdsong" will involve a lot of tree cutting plots, so I am still doing special effects in these places, and everyone will have to wait for a while.
05 Talk about young directors
Now young directors sometimes make me hesitate
I once thought that there are actually two types of movies, one is made by young people, it may be very rough, a lot of imperfections, but that kind of creativity, especially rare, especially personality, including the works you (Jia Zhangke) made in the past, this is called study work; the other is that we are all mature, and the films we make are also very sophisticated.
I prefer that kind of work. At that time, someone recommended director Wang Xiaoshuai to me, saying that he shot "Winter and Spring Days" and shot it very well. So, I brought him, Lou Ye and others. At that time they wrote the script together, but it never worked out.
The Story of Winter and Spring
Later, Han Sanping asked me to go to the North Film Studio to help, and I always felt that I owed Xiao Shuai a favor, and I said that I wanted to be a young director. We went back and forth a few times and decided we were going to do it well.
So, I brought the Nortel 85-grade children and asked them to bring what they had written. At that time, I saw Lu Xuechang's first script, called "Su Sha Zen Dress". If that thing had been filmed, maybe Crazy Stone wouldn't have had a chance to be "crazy.". But I felt that the script still had to be changed, so I asked him what script he could do.
He brought me the script "How Steel is Made", which was later "Grown Up"; Wang Xiaoshuai also brought a script, which was later "Flat Shoulder Girl". The good news is that these works are not bad.
"Grow Up"
So now think about it, Han Sanping can take out 300,000 factory standards to make these movies, and may not even earn 300,000 in the end, which is very powerful. So, overall, the rise of the sixth generation of directors has nothing to do with me.
The aesthetic path of this generation of directors is very clear, but when it comes to this group of young directors, it seems that I feel a little worse, but it is not bad. I think it may be that the demand for the film market has increased in recent years, and young film directors will have some hesitation in creation.
I'm also doing the promotion of young directors now, and I discuss some scripts every week, and I always feel that these things are a little weaker now, and I still hope to see some more pure creations.
06
Talk about the path of the actor
I'm not an actor
I don't think I'm an actor myself, I may have some experiences, but in fact everyone can play a role, at least a role close to their own. Actors are still different, actors are still very difficult, because he has to create a lot of roles.
In fact, I think there are three kinds of actors: there is an actor who is always the same as him, of course, all the plays want him to be like this; there is an actor who is what he plays, you can't recognize, and finally find out that he played; there is also an actor that says, you know it's him, but you can also accept him, and all his plays are quite radiant.
In fact, these things have a lot to do with the actor's temperament and image and the director he meets.
I think that these three forms of actors, there is no distinction between good or bad or right or wrong, this is caused by their own conditions. Every actor will find a position, and if you can't find such a position, there may not be too many scenes.
As a director, I want to pay attention to two aspects, one is whether the temperament is consistent with the character you want to shoot this play, and the other is that you and the director do not trust each other enough.
As for the angle of my question as an actor, I may still have to ask the directors who came to me to shoot. (Written by / Qingguo)
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