After the release of "On the Cliff", screenwriter Quan Yongxian was writing a novella about a mixed-race Child born in Harbin who was Jewish and Chinese, who went to the Soviet Union to find his biological father, but was involved in the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union.
"The Jews are a very special group in human history, and for nearly a hundred years they, like the troubled Chinese, have suffered unimaginable hardships in the great political whirlpool." Quan Yongxian paid special attention to that period of history, saying that the motivation for the creation was because there was something that he strongly wanted to convey to the reader.
Having written poems, novels, and tv drama and film scripts, Quan Yongxian believes that no one in different types of writing is more advanced than anyone else, "A good poet or a good screenwriter is amazing, Shakespeare may have written TV dramas if he lived to this day, but can you say that he is not great?" ”
As the final judge of this year's FIRST Youth Film Festival Film Market Venture Capital, Quan Yong first read the scripts of 18 film projects, listened to the statements of young film creators on the spot, and found that this is a group that is very young, but has a lot of enthusiasm and imagination for movies. "Making movies is a particularly difficult thing, it is very rare to accept a lot of difficulties, to study all your life, and to be able to maintain a passion for movies." Quan Yong said first.
Poison Eye interviewed Quan Yongxian during the FIRST Film Festival, and the following is the interview transcript.
Poison Eye: In your observation, what are the young filmmakers who come to FIRST Ventures?
Quan Yongxian: Their script has some paragraphs and plots that reveal something completely different from those of our creators. They are highly educated, have a broad vision, and have a very contemporary concept, but the main problem may lie in insufficient skills. The ability to narrate is not strong, the writing is often not compact enough, and it lacks the sense of rhythm that the script should have. The whole is still in a stage that needs to be learned and polished. But this is quite normal. I have participated in many film exhibitions and found that young people are energetic, enthusiastic, and imaginative, but there are also many childish and jerky places. They want to get rid of some things they take for granted and learn more from life.
The most important thing is to maintain the enthusiasm for movies, and it is rare for today's young people to have such a deep affection for movies and have such a strong desire to express them. We should encourage them more. Let them also know clearly that making a good movie and writing a good script is particularly difficult, and you are committed to this industry, to accept this difficulty, but also to be mentally prepared to accept all kinds of setbacks. No one who makes movies can say "I climbed Mount Everest". Good filmmakers are learning, all their lives.
Poison Eye: You've written poems, novels, and TV dramas and film scripts, which kind of writing do you enjoy?
Quan Yongxian: Different types of creation, as long as the heart, as long as there is a feeling, there is an impulse in it. This impulse is often accompanied by annoyance and happiness. Faulkner said that writers are professions that make a living from human suffering and troubles. So it's not easy to use a word like "enjoy." For me, there is no particularly obvious difference between these forms, I don't think which writing is more advanced, which is more inferior, a good poet or a good screenwriter is amazing, Shakespeare may have lived to write TV dramas, but can you say that he is not great?
Writing a good script, writing a good poem, and writing a good novel, that feeling is also different. Writing poetry is freer, more egotistical, more metaphysical, more imaginative. Not limited to that specific description, it is as illusory but beautiful as music; the novel should be more concrete, more close to the feeling of reality; if you write a script, you must think with sound and picture, and you must externalize everything. Try talking to the director, to the actors, to the audience, to all the people. Although it is only a literary script, there are still many things to consider. Including the characters, the scenes, and all the factors related to the sound and picture, a good screenwriter is to consider all the elements of the film.
When writing, there will be things that you want to communicate with readers and a strong desire to express, which is the driving force and foundation of creation. There are some things that I don't touch, idol dramas I can't write, costume dramas I don't touch, because I don't know what ancient people do every day, there is no sense of substitution. In addition, when I think of the heroes and good men in ancient times, no matter how high the heavens and the earth, they will kneel when they see the emperor, which makes me a little overwhelmed. The subject matter of emperors and generals, talented people, is not attractive to me. Women fighting for favors and men for power seem ridiculous and tedious in my opinion, and I can't praise some people who have no thinking and no dignity. Whatever you write, use progressive ideas and aesthetics that are in line with modern values. Before I solve these puzzles, or find a more human, more valuable entry point, I want to avoid the shortcomings, and I will not touch it if I don't understand and have no interest in it.
Poison Eye: When writing Cliff, what was the point you most wanted to communicate with your readers?
Quan Yongxian: In fact, I convey my understanding of that era and those characters to the audience, and restore the era and human nature as much as possible. Writers must first be moved by themselves before they can convey this kind of feeling to the audience; they must have insights and attitudes, which is the most fundamental thing for creators. If what you write has nothing to do with your own emotions, you don't like it, and you write it for the sake of the reader, this logic is not right, and the result will not be good.
Poison Eye: There are reports that the script of the movie "On the Cliff" was written and you wrote two drafts and gave it to the director?
Quan Yongxian: I will publish the original script of "On the Cliff" next month, which is a single book and has not been changed. In the foreword of the book, I wrote that there must be a difference in thinking between the director and the screenwriter. Generally speaking, screenwriters emphasize literature, logic, and realism, pay attention to laying the groundwork, pay attention to subtlety, and restraint. The director pays more attention to audiovisual effects, pursues drama, emphasizes conflict, impact, and requires straight to the point, and the knife is bloody... There must be conflict and tacit understanding.
I had a great time working with director Zhang Yimou, and although there were different ideas, we were very frank and straightforward when we met. He has a great affinity and a passion for film forever.
Poison Eye: Why did you decide to be a screenwriter at that time?
Quan Yongxian: In order to make a living, because writing poetry cannot support himself. When I traveled from Heilongjiang to Beijing in 2001, my parents were sick and paralyzed in bed. The family's financial situation is also not good. It turned out that I was working as a political and legal reporter in a newspaper, and coming to Beijing was a big risk, which was equivalent to quitting my job and becoming a person who lived entirely on the payment of writing. At that time, I was in my thirties, and I was not young, I came here with my sick parents, doing film and television in order to survive, writing novels at that time, selling thousands of copies, and paying ten or twenty thousand, and I couldn't survive at all.
Poison Eye: Are you still used to this kind of career change?
Quan Yongxian: I am not unaccustomed to it, and there is no obstacle to this switch here. When writing film and television scripts, there are many constraints, and you have to punch the lying bull. Novels, poems and screenplays are completely different forms of expression, and you just have to adapt to them. Just like you drive, ride a motorcycle, or ride a bicycle, each has its own driving method. You have to be paranoid about the fact that the bike doesn't have throttle, that's your own problem. Think of this logic and don't kidnap yourself with your own habits.
Movies are actually the art form I've always liked, and now I'm a bit biased toward writing movies (scripts), I can't write TV series, dozens of episodes, one writes for several years, it's too hard, there are a lot of things, and there is not enough energy.
Poison Eye: Have you summarized what kind of story or genre audiences want to see on the big screen today?
Quan Yongxian: In fact, creators want to use their own works to influence and impress the audience, rather than blindly pandering. Especially those filmmakers who have achieved fame should guide young people, rather than blindly investing in what they like, and shoot what you like to show you, so that the industry will go lower and lower. After all, the creators of spiritual products still have to have their own artistic persistence, to guide the public to accept good things, to believe in the audience, they will also grow, and they will become more and more discerning.
Some people create something that is oriented to the public, and some people are relatively niche, which can be done, but first of all, they must make good things, not that it is not good to face the public, it is good to face a small number of elites, and I don't think so. The most fundamental thing is that no matter what, you must write well and shoot well. Although the public's appreciation ability is not so good, it is not so bad, and you can't do something perfunctory because you always feel that "the audience can't understand".
Can't be "low", can't be cheap, easy to sell, people still have to go up. Practitioners have the responsibility to pull the audience's taste higher, or what to do without making a movie, isn't it better to do short videos?
Poison Eye: Have you been writing lately?
Quan Yongxian: I was writing a novel recently, and because I have been very busy, I have only written a beginning. It is a novella about a Jewish and Chinese teenager in Harbin who goes to the Soviet Union to find his missing biological father, and after suffering, just in time for the outbreak of World War II, he also adopted a cat on the battlefield, and many stories have happened.
Over the past hundred years, the Jews have become one of the most special groups in human history. Their particular experiences are tragically linked to changes in the world landscape. Like the Chinese of modern times, they have suffered unimaginable hardships in the great political whirlpool.
Poison Eyes: What kind of literary nourishment does the land in the northeast of your hometown give you?
Quan Yongxian: Shanghainese have the way Shanghainese handle things, Northeasterners have northeasterners handle things, people across the country are different, and literary creation is ultimately to write about people.
You asked me to write about Hainan Island, psychologically I may be more cramped, I have not lived there all year round, the identity of tourists is a completely different experience there, and heilongjiang this land, I grew up there, I grew up there, I am familiar with every corner of it, I know how people there live, how they think, how to deal with things and interactions? Writing in a familiar environment is, of course, my comfort zone, I will be more relaxed, I will be more comfortable.
Text | Zhang Ying