This director needs to apologize

Chapter 80 It’s hard to choose a schedule, stick to the middle and be right
Chen Yiming realized that the second uncle did not want to talk more about the seminar, so he changed the topic to the schedule of "1951".

After he knew that the progress of the project would not be hindered, he no longer paid attention to the so-called seminars. He loved whoever he liked, as long as it did not delay him from making movies.

I thought it was a "little thing" that could be solved with just one sentence, but I didn't expect that the second uncle was quite embarrassed.

Obviously Boss Ma is not entangled because he has a special liking for the Venice Golden Lion, or is he hiding something unspeakable?
"Yiming, there is actually a reason why I told you to give up the summer schedule before.

As you know, the film memorandum of understanding signed between China and Nuts clearly stipulates that 2003 to 2008 is a transition period. Starting from 2009, imported films will in principle enjoy the same national treatment as domestic films.

In other words, all foreign films introduced to the country through Emperor Film and Demon Film must be treated the same as domestic films when scheduling, and the release date should be compared with overseas premieres, and there should not be a delay of more than two weeks.

Last year, Han Laosan and I struggled for a year to prepare for "Guandu." During the summer season, we only made two Hollywood movies, and they were not budget-sharing blockbusters, but buy-out films.

This year coincides with the National Day, and "The Founding Ceremony" has reserved a National Day slot. If we reach out for the summer slot again, it will be unjustifiable both emotionally and logically.

It’s not that “1951” can’t be moved to August, but doing so would mean directly competing with Hollywood blockbusters. You should have known which box office bombs Nuts has in reserve this year, right? "

Chen Yiming has certainly done his homework. He murmured to himself, ""Pandora," "Transformers 2," and "Ark."

Mr. Ma clapped his hands and said, "Yes, tell me, which one of "1951" can you hit?"

Chen Yiming retorted harshly, "We can't squeeze all three movies together. Anyway, "Pandora" will definitely not be able to catch up with the summer release."

The second uncle spread his hands and said, "That's okay. Do you want to play "Transformers 2" or "Ark"?"

Chen Yiming is also confused. Both are special effects blockbusters. The former is a childhood memory, and the latter is about the end of the world. Both gimmicks are better than "1951".

He said hesitantly, "Uncle Ma, how about we go there in September? Let's not consider extending the key for now."

As soon as this sentence came out, he felt it was inappropriate.

Based on China's current market situation, in the four weeks of September, even a weekly box office champion can reach a box office of 9 million. An investment of 4 million will not be able to recover the cost at all.

It is too risky to put all profit expectations on overseas operations.

Of course, "1951" has the attribute of a main theme, so making less money or even losing money is not a big problem.

However, Chen Yiming has just made a fortune through "Holiday in Magic City", and the industry is chasing a high valuation for him. If he turns around at this juncture, he will suffer a big loss, and his subsequent formation will definitely cause a lot of twists and turns.

The second uncle patted him on the shoulder and said, "Yiming, it's still early for the schedule. There's no need to rush. Your task is to concentrate on filming the movie and leave the rest to me."

After flying to the imperial capital for a night of rest, Chen Yiming followed the second uncle to visit the General Political Center for Literature and Art again the next day.

Deputy Director Sun attaches great importance to the script of "1951". He belongs to the older generation of literary and art workers. He values ​​literary scripts more than storyboards, especially the plot, characters and lines.

The experts he hired to review the script were naturally from his side.

Chen Yiming saw several acquaintances at the scene, such as Li Jian and Hou Yong from the Military Art Troupe, and Xie Qianli and Wang Shubin from the Bayi Factory.

Teacher Hou smiled and took the initiative to say hello to him. It turned out that Duan Yining and Shi Lei were disliked by Captain Li for "not being serious when taking roles and having a market attitude". They were currently intensifying military training at the Shanxi Province station, so they did not come over.

Wang Shubin is the creative team leader of the Bayi Film Studio. He can both edit and direct. He is a professional on the Long March theme. They formed a friendship last time they drank a lot of wine together.

The few experts I don’t know are mainly from the research laboratory and business department of the General Political Center for Literature and Art.

Deputy Director Sun respected the main creator very much. Although the theme of the meeting was to discuss script modifications, the process was that Chen Yiming first read through the original script and then answered questions from experts.

The implication is that as long as Chen Yiming can respond to the experts' questions with reasonable evidence, then the film can be filmed according to the original script, and the General Secretary will not press his head to force him to accept revised opinions.

"1951", which has been modified by Chen Yiming, is just a skin of "1917", and the core of the movie is completely different.

There has always been an interesting saying in the film industry that a director's life is to repeat his debut film.

In fact, it makes sense, and it makes sense when applied to many famous directors.

Even if Chen Yiming is not a famous director, and the work he does is just for the poor, this conclusion still applies to him.

"Holiday in the Magic City" is Chen Yiming's film debut in two lifetimes. It tells the story of a girl's growth in one day and two nights.

The core of the story of "1951" is actually a repetition of "Holiday in the City", except that the protagonist changes from a girl to a boy.

Chen Yiming also thought carefully about why this happened. What kind of thinking logic did he use to change an anti-war movie like "1917" into "Handsome Boy"?

After much deliberation, he could only attribute it to the fact that he did not have enough accumulation and practice, and the themes he could explore subconsciously did not reach metaphysical levels such as fate, life and death, loneliness, wandering, etc.

All the twists and turns in the story can only be attributed to the relatively simple stage of "growth".

After all, Chen Yiming has the foundation of a drama director.

The memory of his past life allows him to draw on countless famous movies at will, but it cannot give him the thinking behind the movie's creators. Watching behind-the-scenes footage cannot solve the problem of missing ideological core.

Chen Yiming read very quickly, and "1951" itself didn't have a lot of lines. After Duan Yining's "sacrifice", there was one less talkative person, so the movie cherished words even more.

After reading the script, the experts began to speak and ask questions one by one. The plot of "1951" is flat, and there is only one character with a complete arc, Liu Dongjun. The discussion naturally revolves around Liu Dongjun's changes.

The first person to ask the question was war history expert Yu Yufei. He was Professor Sha’s colleague. After Lao Sha and his team settled on location, he took over the task of reviewing the script.

"Director Chen, isn't the protagonist in the opening scene a little too dull?
The Peninsula War did involve some new soldiers, because before the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1950, our army gradually rehabilitated and transferred nearly one-fifth of its soldiers. After the Peninsula War began, a large number of new soldiers were urgently recruited to fill the gap.

However, after recruits join the army, the armed forces departments in various places will organize basic military training for one and a half months. After arriving in the Northeast, there will be another one and a half months of adaptive training. In other words, each recruit must undergo three months of training before joining the Peninsula battlefield.

I read the setting in the script and found that before accepting the mission, the protagonist was stationed in the Tianma Mountain area. According to this calculation, he had experienced military life for at least half a year.

According to our military tradition, the protagonist must have received a considerable degree of military and political education, and his mental outlook should be more positive, optimistic, and proactive. "

After all, he was an expert on war history. The first question came to Chen Yiming's seven inches.

The words he used to fool the host yesterday are definitely not appropriate to continue to use them here.

Literary and artistic works pay attention to capturing the typical characteristics of typical characters.

If it were an ordinary feature film, the protagonist could be profiled in any way, but "1951" is a main theme movie, and the protagonist's profile needs to embody the typical characteristics of our army's recruits.

Is it fair to say that a dull country boy, after three months of training in the military camp, still looks resigned and indifferent?
As a director, how much trust do you have in the people's army?
Chen Yiming can actually use the rhetoric of "strengthening the contrast to highlight the character's arc" to deal with it. This is also the routine he was accustomed to using when filming divine dramas in his previous life.

As the saying goes, the harder you press, the higher you bounce. In order to break the established image of Wei Guangzheng, "Bright Sword" also created a living leader of Hell, which did not prevent the TV series from becoming a classic in the minds of a generation!
However, after repeated consideration, Chen Yiming decided to be more candid. The practice of editing history on the grounds of secondary creation is tantamount to accusing Professor Yu of "you don't know how to make movies." It is simply a rogue behavior.

Famous directors in previous lives had the confidence to treat war history experts as decorations and let their artistic creativity run wild, but Chen Yiming didn't want to do that.

He took a deep breath, adjusted his words one last time, and then answered.

"Dear teachers, I am a new director with superficial ideas and shallow cognition. I think I am only qualified to shoot a young protagonist.

The growth of the protagonist in the script is actually based on my own experience.

I admit that Teacher Yu’s opinion is more in line with the historical reality. The recruits of that era will definitely be transformed after being trained and tempered by the people’s army.

There will definitely be counterexamples, but when scaled up to a group, it must be a high-spirited general trend, because people will be driven by the environment. Otherwise, it cannot explain the great victory we achieved on the peninsula.

However, from the perspective of my duties as a director, I must also tell the truth. The audience that "1951" wants to serve is first of all not the teachers here, but ordinary Chinese audiences, especially young audiences under the age of 30.

They are the mainstream audience for domestic films at this stage.

Against this background, when I put myself into Liu Dongjun in the movie, I couldn't understand the kind of "rebirth" that Teacher Yu meant.

I have never been a soldier or fought in a war, but I have experienced collective life. I believe that most young people are like me. When they take on the role of the protagonist, they empathize through collective life.

For example, it may not be appropriate, but it is relatively close to the memory of young people of my generation.

When I was in school in the Northeast, a relay race around the city for primary and secondary schools was organized every winter, requiring 10 students from each class.

The people who planned the event may be very proud of running outside in minus ten degrees Celsius and having to compare points to rank. But the schools that actually implemented the event, from teachers to students, were full of complaints.

Then how were these 10 contestants selected?
In my class, one is a sports committee member and the other is a member of the school sports team. They both fall into the category of having no excuse.

2-3 of them signed up on their own initiative. As for their motivations, they are all different. Some of the ones I know include chasing girls, being in the limelight, reporting to the teacher, and wanting to be class leaders. Anyway, they have nothing to do with collective honor.

The remaining places will be divided into groups and drawn by lots, whoever is unlucky will get the chance.

My personal feeling is that the so-called collective honor can only touch me during the school sports meeting.

But it’s only when I’m cheering for the cheerleading team. For a person like me who is not always diligent, even if I were asked to run 3000 meters for the honor of the class, I still wouldn’t do it.

A person's three views originate from his cognition. When I conceived the character Liu Dongjun, it was impossible not to incorporate my own three views.

What image did he have in my initial imagination?

It's probably like the beginning of the script, which is moderate and slightly correct.

Because in the collectives I have come into contact with, the character of the members is distributed in this way. Those who are particularly selfless and particularly selfish belong to a very small number, a small part that is indifferent, a part that follows the crowd, and a large part that is generally loving.

If we refine the typical image of contemporary military recruits, they must be more proactive than students, but they must be limited.

After all, no matter how closed a group is, it cannot do without the influence of the social environment.

The fact that the soldiers fought floods and provided disaster relief without fear of hardships or sleepless nights does not mean that they did not complain or complain during breaks in work, nor did it mean that they did not complain in their daily lives.

This is a reality that a director must face. All history is contemporary history, and the creator must make the logic of the story conform to the audience's psychological cognition.

Rather than the other way around, pointing to the movie and telling the audience that real history is like this. If you don’t understand, you are dark, ignorant and shallow in your heart! "

(End of this chapter)