I thought that "I am an actor", "Acting School", "Actors Please Take Place" and other kinds of director competition reality show has come to an end, but I did not expect that Tencent Video recently launched a directorial competitive reality show "Director Please Advise", which invited four industry producers Fang Li, Chen Zhixi, Wang Jing and Hao Lei to sit down, plus 200 public judges and 50 professional film team members on the spot, watching short films shot by 16 new directors and several actors, and during the screening process, short films with a vote of less than 120 points will be suspended.
Producers, directors, film critics, and audiences gathered together with a common love for film and television, but because of the differences in everyone's aesthetics, positions and purposes, there are bound to be different controversies and prejudices, and this kind of insistent and deadlock scene is deliberately amplified in "Director Please Advise".
The four new directors in the first issue are Xiang Guoqiang, Bao Bell, Liang Long and Bi Zhifei, whose names are not unfamiliar to technically speaking. Xiang Guoqiang is a university teacher, a colorist, nominated for the Best Director Award at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards for the movie "Young Babylon"; Bao Bell, a well-known actor with outstanding acting skills, has always had a dream of directing, directing "Sunshine Sister Tao" and "Fat Man Action Team" have received bad reviews; Liang Long, the lead singer of the second-hand Rose Band, whose musical style is a fusion of folk music, duo turn and Beijing monologue rock, directed the movie "Great Destiny", which has not yet been released; Bi Zhifei, a doctor of film and television from Peking University, directed the film "Pure Heart • Dream Showbiz" It received a Douban score of 2.2, such a high score and low energy, which caused another wave of doubts about doctoral education in colleges and universities that year.
The proposition of the first stage of "Director Please Advise" is to adapt the classical IP. Xiang Guoqiang's short film is "Nezha Noisy Sea". Fifteen minutes of film school student homework, generally have to shoot eight to ten days, the program team to give the time limit is two or three days, so the director's script conception, framing, on-site scheduling and facing unexpected situations, are in a state of high tension, the short film is naturally messy, hasty, gunpowder and heavy.
After the play, Hao Lei took the lead in commenting: "There are moving shots, special effects, handheld shooting, editing there are broken cuts and jump cuts, flower work is played too much, it seems that the whole film style, the consciousness is not uniform." Fang Li said: "The biggest problem is that there is no emotion. I don't know what you're talking about? Wang Jing said: "You have at least fifty or sixty Hong Kong movies of this type, and it is not funny to watch when you comedic."
In response to the producer's doubts, Xiang Guoqiang immediately used his profound theoretical knowledge to refute it. Too much work? I've seen too many realist works in recent years, so I want to make something different. No emotion? The focus of my film is not ordinary love, but family affection. Typing? My film reflects the patriarchal repression of Nezha and his rebellion, which you may not have seen.
Xiang Guoqiang's defense attracted some support from the professional film team, and someone asked Fang Li: "How many films you cast can stand the test of time?" Obviously, such remarks gave Xiang Guoqiang confidence, he smiled, Wang Jing was dissatisfied with everyone's love and thin mud, reminding Xiang Guoqiang: "Do you want to make a good movie?" Listen to Fang Li's advice, don't listen to him (professional film critics)."
Before stepping down, Xiang Guoqiang added: My film is actually quite deep, and everyone can look at it again in three or five years.
The second released short film is Bao Bell's "Nezha", two lines parallel to tell the story of a lonely boy who remembered his mother's pregnancy in October before committing suicide and regretted it. The plot is complete, the ending is clever, and the disadvantage is that there is no difference between the two eras.
Hao Lei said that the short film has temperament, Fang Li said that he liked it, and the other two producers gave positive reviews. At this time, Meng Zhong, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy, severely criticized: "This short film has a lot of flaws in technology, have you explained the two lines clearly?" And, I want to ask the four producers, what are your criteria for measuring a movie? Is it technical or emotional? "He is obviously upset with Xiang Guoqiang, and the camera cuts to Xiang Guoqiang, and he said: (Bao Bell) is very flattering.
In the face of the judges' questioning, Bao Bell did not explain too much about his film, but showed weakness step by step, and finally said very slipperily: "Teacher, you are right, I only listened to half of your online classes, if you listen to it all, there is no such problem." "Meng Zhong is not good at being aggressive anymore.
The first two directors, Xiang Guoqiang is a typical theoretical school, on paper, fans of self-confidence, he believes that the audience has not experienced their own creative connotations, good movies are misunderstood, and Take Jiang Wen's "The Sun Also Rises" as an example, so stubbornly insist. Bao Bell is a typical practitioner, immersed in the set for many years, although the aesthetic needs to be improved, he knows how to shoot movies, how to please the audience, and is good at flexibility. The questions surrounding them are about the balance between film judging criteria, film theory vs practice, self-expression vs. empathy, audience perception vs director cognition.
Their story tells us a truth, when defending the thesis, in the face of the tutor, do not do so much defense, otherwise it will usher in more fierce artillery fire. ×× died of many words, and it was a universal sentence.
The third is Liang Long's experimental short film "Crazy Alien", black and white texture, mime performance, slow pace, style, just half of the audience has pressed the exit button, Liang Long's work is less than 120 votes, was stopped. Liang Long looked arrogant and sad, and said: "This short film is not finished, so I have nothing to say." Some producers and professional film critics at the scene complained about him, and Hao Lei said: "This short film has a strange taste, I like it." "Let the Bullets Fly" screenwriter Wei Xiao appealed: "This variety show is a laboratory to see the director's creative process and creative results and discuss the creative results, and everyone should have more patience or curiosity to communicate with the director on an equal footing, rather than immediately judging the team."
The suspension of "Crazy Alien" is a deliberate conflict in the format of the program group, and it also reflects the gap of opinion between the audience and the film critics. The former believes that this kind of film is pretending to be sophisticated, that is, pretending. The latter believes that the duty of professional film critics is to analyze the subtleties and methodology of the film for the audience, tear open the entrance to peeping, otherwise you can't understand it and pretend, and if you understand it too well, you can say low. The former disagrees, saying that we don't need it at all, we know what we like, and is it interesting to chew sugar cane that others have chewed?
The last short film is Bi Zhifei's "Spring in a New Town", he said: "I know a lot of people pay attention to me because of that movie (bad film), but I want to be a good director." The first level That Bi Zhifei encountered was not the producer, but no actor was willing to work with him. Digging Niu Junfeng corner is not successful, he found actress Lu Xingchen, before the start of filming, Bi Zhifei is completely unfamiliar with the script, the reading meeting let the actors think for themselves, the business ability is not good, the low posture has not won the respect of the real actors, they have questioned the director, Bi Zhifei can only turn over and say: "Better than I thought", "Special", "Let's go to the position". The actor was not convinced: "There is no need to go, you don't watch anyway." They also didn't expect anything from the director, and discussed privately: "I think the three of us should keep our own performances." After the shooting, Bi Zhifei calmly whitewashed: "There is a misunderstanding between people, although there are many bumps between us, but thank them."
Spring in a Small Town is director Faimour's masterpiece, a 1948 film often seen as a model of oriental aesthetics... Bi Zhifei painted a tiger with a cat, "Spring in a New Small Town", from the fine art photography performance is useless, everyone almost looked at him with surprise, and the producer Chen Zhixi asked: "Where do you think the original film pioneer is"? Bi Zhifei said the above paragraph, and his amateur theoretical knowledge immediately found the bombardment of the professional film critics present, and since then Bi Zhifei seems to have pierced the fake charlatan and been criticized by everyone. Fang Li asked, "Spring in a New Town?" Where's new? I didn't find any innovation." Li Chengru could not hide his indignation: "You have all forgotten a question, is this his work?" He was just opportunistic, and he wasn't sure which master would give him the idea"...
The scene was very funny at one point. In fact, the originality of Bi Zhifei's work is doubtful not only that he completely copied the original film scene, but also how much he participated in the guidance of photography, art and performance, combined with his previous hype behavior, it is difficult to convince people.
As a director's competitive variety show, the first issue of "Director Please Advise" focuses on creating a multi-party point of view through editing, showing the prejudice of today's film and television industry, the topic is hot, but the lack of detailed display of the director's work process, the requirements for the level of the script are not as good as the "Annual Comedy Competition", such a noisy and impetuous environment, short and tense shooting, flashing evaluation can hatch an excellent new director? Wouldn't it consume a filmmaker's love of the industry? That's all I can't worry about.