This director needs to apologize

Chapter 114: Not thinking about the right person

What does the director’s ideas have to do with me, Chen Yiming?
Well, this is just Chen Yiming's inner complaint to relieve his anxious mood.

How could he not be in a hurry?

The director just asked the actors to act over and over again without thinking about it, until the performance was close to the effect of their own inner feelings?

Wang Jiawei can do this without any psychological burden, but Chen Yiming can't, at least not Chen Yiming can do it now.

In fact, after filming the first few key scenes, he noticed the difference between the reality of the movie and his inner imagination.

Although before filming started, he had communicated with the main creator many times to exchange their ideas and reach a consensus.

But as soon as the camera starts rolling and the crew starts operating, the material produced is no longer under his control, but inevitably has "a soul of its own."

Perhaps "1917", which was born out of the European War, is inherently unsuitable to reflect the Peninsular War. Perhaps the anti-war theme is incompatible with the Chinese people's underlying understanding of war. Perhaps actors with military backgrounds cannot escape the subtle influence of their own three views.

In short, nearly half of the filming of "1951" was completed. The finished product that Chen Yiming subjectively spliced ​​in his mind was completely different from his original vision, and it was even more distant from the original "1917".

Now the filming progress is about to start to touch on the key scenes of the male protagonist. It has shifted from restoring the historical environment to portraying the main characters. The filming of the documentary part has been completed and the creation is about to begin.

As a result, Chen Yiming, as the main writer, fell into confusion.

How should the protagonist in his novel go down?he does not know!
In other words, he was not sure whether he, as a director, should firmly implement his own opinions and follow every detail in the previous scenes, or whether he should listen to Duan Yining's advice and allow Liu Dongjun to "create freely".

Chen Yiming himself knew that this was a sign of the director's lack of control.

The basic directing skills he brought from his previous life, as well as his advanced knowledge reserve and experience, allow him to control the shooting of complex scenes with relative ease.

Similarly, his artistic intuition was blunted by a large number of low-quality filming in his previous life. When he was required to guide actors to accurately convey certain character emotions, he was unable to do so.

On the one hand, there is a lack of acting training methods. For example, Lao Zhang’s mental associations cannot be made by just opening his mouth.

On the other hand, he lacks confidence in his own artistic intuition and does not have the deep-rooted artistic paranoia of an auteur director.

You must know that as the main creator, actors have a much stronger sense of belief than directors and screenwriters.

The reason is very simple. If the actor does not believe in the reality of his performance, how can he make the audience believe that the character he performs really exists?
Therefore, it is more than twice as difficult for a director to convince an actor with words as it is for an actor to impress the director with his or her performance.

Why are big-name directors said to be either masters of pyramid schemes or tyrants on set?It is because these two titles clearly reveal the director's two styles of "taming" actors.

One is soft, using words to seduce; the other is hard, using status to intimidate.

Although Chen Yiming doesn't want to admit it, the reality is that he, as a director, is not good at training (XUN) and teaching (FU) actors. Once the character arc is slightly complicated, he will not be able to play.

As for "Holiday", it was an MTV film made by two talented actors, and it is completely incomparable with "1951".

However, Chen Yiming in his previous life had one advantage that would benefit Chen Yiming in this life for the rest of his life, that is, he was shameless.

For a director who can calmly act as a tool for several years, and for an assistant director whose endurance skills are second only to those of a dog leash director, the word "grievance" does not exist in the dictionary.

Chen Yiming doesn't have the luxury of self-esteem at all, and he doesn't care about the so-called artistic paranoia. He has never been stubborn.

So he asked Lin Xiao and Sang Ping for advice sincerely, "Teacher Sang, Brother Lin, what do you think this scene should express?"

Lin Xiao looked surprised and looked Chen Yiming up and down several times.

In his mind, film expression has always been a taboo for directors, and others are not allowed to touch it. Based on his past experience of working with various directors, he has never encountered any exceptions.

It doesn't look like a rhetorical question or a taunt. Could it be that you are really asking us?

After knowing and cooperating for so long, Lin Xiao believed that he would not be mistaken about Chen Yiming's character, so he gave a straightforward answer.

"I have not systematically studied screenwriting, but speaking purely from experience, this is an opportunity for the protagonist to change, from a follower to a leader."

Chen Yiming nodded after hearing this, then turned to Sang Ping and asked, "Teacher Sang, what do you think?"

When Sang Ping saw that Chen Yiming really asked for their opinions, he no longer worried, "Xiao Lin and I have different ideas. The change here is not yet in full swing, or in other words, it has not been pushed to the end.

We always say that things must be reversed when extremes occur, and the same goes for the transformation of characters.First of all, we need to clarify why Mu Xiaolin changed. Was it hatred, fear, anger, or both?
The specific factors depend on what you want to focus on, but no matter what the factors are, they should be exaggerated to the extreme, so that the character's transformation is well-founded and well-founded. "

Sang Ping's words gave Chen Yiming a way of thinking. The change of characters requires an inducement, and the inducements can be artificially sorted.

In the monitor, another rehearsal ended. Chen Yiming took the walkie-talkie and called a timeout for Xiangrui, and at the same time called Liu Dongjun over.

Classmate Xiao Liu ran over with sweat all over his face, and there was an obvious black mark across the bridge of his nose. A wet towel was tied to his face with dirt, and it became wet and dry again until it became wet.After asking Liu Dongjun to sit down and throwing him a bottle of water, Chen Yiming waited for him to catch his breath before asking, "Mu Mu, what were you thinking when you were acting?"

Liu Dongjun didn't understand what he heard and answered vaguely, "I didn't think about it, I feel the same as the previous days. I crawled when I was told and ran when I was told."

Chen Yiming asked, "Your master helped you design how to perform this scene, right?"

Liu Dongjun answered this question very quickly, "That's for sure. I don't know how to cross the poisonous gas zone. Those actions were all demonstrated by the master."

Chen Yiming deliberately speeded up the pace of his questioning to shorten Liu Dongjun's thinking time, "Has your master ever told you why he designed the movements this way?"

"That's not true. At first he said he was just giving me a demonstration and asked me not to imitate him when filming. But after I thought about it myself, I felt that the master's performance was the most reasonable, so I copied it."

"After the guidance from Xiangrui and Teacher Zhang just now, didn't you make the changes very quickly? Didn't you think of it when you were thinking about it by yourself before?"

"I had a little feeling about it, but I didn't think clearly about it. In the end, I thought it would be better to act like my master."

"Then what if I ask you to put aside your master's acting method and act completely according to your own ideas?"

"I don't know. It's too difficult. I can't figure out how to act."

Chen Yiming slowed down and tried to give him some inspiration, "Mumu, think back to the state of life when you were experiencing it. If you were not on the battlefield, but in the ravines of your hometown, how did you get home after dark. "

Liu Dongjun sat there blankly with his mouth half open, playing with the mineral water bottle subconsciously in his hand.

Chen Yiming didn't rush him, and continued to ponder what Sang Ping had just said.

As a director, what does he hope to express through this scene of traveling through a poisonous gas zone?

Chen Yiming originally thought that he could avoid the ideological issue of "why we fight". Facts have proved that as long as it is a war movie, this core issue will eventually have to be faced.

Since he hopes to describe Mu Xiaolin's character arc in depth and reflect the protagonist's growth in the movie, he must give his own answer to the character's motivations.

Why?Why?
The audience definitely doesn't want to see a confused protagonist who has no conviction and just goes with the flow.

Struggle to live is of course great, but struggle just to live is difficult to sublimate.

Chen Yiming began to sort out his thoughts from scratch.

He clearly remembered that when he first met Uncle Gao, he asked him what he wanted to express by filming Peninsula War.

His answer at that time was that he had not thought of what to express. He just wanted to ask a question: What were the soldiers who stood in the hell of artillery fire thinking at that time.

Chen Yiming asked himself, nearly half a year has passed, has he decided what to express now?
It seems that there is still nothing. Compared with that time, there are only a few more vivid images in his heart.

Duan Yining, who is optimistic but cold, Li Mingliang, who sneers at Nut's artillery fire, Zhang Yi, who knowingly exposes his heavy firepower, Maodou, who has an eternal friendship, and Zhang Yu's team who takes the initiative to divert the artillery fire.

These images have nothing to do with his original intention of expression, because they are all fictitious Taoist characters for the ultimate goal. Their actions have nothing to do with Li Yucheng, the prototype of the Tianma Mountain Battle.

But things are different now. In Chen Yiming's mind, these images are as important as Li Yucheng's counterpart Shi Lei in the play.

Chen Yiming looked at Liu Dongjun who was thinking hard. Because it was a rehearsal with makeup, he was neatly dressed and had a lot of bits and pieces.

On the left side of his waist was the kettle handed to him by Li Mingliang. Now there were several obvious holes on it.

There were biscuits given to him by Zhang Yi in his satchel, and he exchanged one of the packages for two potatoes with Fu Ting from Zhang Yu's team.

Hanging on the side of his satchel was the bugle Maodou left for him, which was also chipped by shrapnel.

Duan Yining's Thompson submachine gun rested on the leg of the chair. So far, it had not fired a single shot.

Only then did Chen Yiming suddenly realize that under his own arrangement, Mu Xiaolin had already brought the shadow of every Taoist person.

When I first wrote the script, how did I think about these interactions, and why did I have no impression of them at all?
Chen Yiming and Liu Dongjun sat across from each other in a daze. Xiangrui couldn't wait for the actor to come back, so he ran over to urge him.

As a result, before she could shout, Mr. Sang raised his hand and stopped her in time.

"Xiaoxiang, let's arrange for everyone to have lunch first, don't disturb them."

Xiangrui muttered softly, "Teacher Sang, it's only 10:[-], lunch is too early."

(End of this chapter)