Millennium director

(Don’t click on it yet)

"Hello Mr. Tree" is a movie that will soon be hailed as a masterpiece.

The scene of Wang Baoqiang's chic smoking in the movie was cut into an animated picture and became popular all over the Internet. He once became the representative of the "Moutai-less" BGM.

But in fact, from the birth to the release of this movie, it did not cause any splash in the industry.

In 2009, Jia Zhangke announced on behalf of his company Xihe Xinghui at the Busan Film Festival that it had raised 100 million in funds, which will be used to invest in the productions of young directors.

Xihe Xinghui named this 100 million yuan investment project "Additional Wings Project" and will prepare and produce five films in the first phase.

"Hello Mr. Tree" is the second work of the "Additional Wings Project".

This Wings program is the same as Andy Lau's new Asian star director and the Young Director Support Program of the Light and Film Era, which are dedicated to supporting new directors.

Among them, "Hello Mr. Tree" is Jia Zhangke's most promising movie in the Wings Project.

He admired the film's screenwriter and director Han Jie very much and personally served as the producer of the film.

This is not the kind of producer who gets an extra salary in name. He is really a nanny for Han Jie.

The photographer of "Hello! Mr. Tree", Li Yaohui, is the official photographer of Sunglasses King, and Jia Zhangke helped find him.

The composer of the film, Lin Qiang, is a Taiwanese musician. He has starred in Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Dream of Life" and "Goodbye Southland, Southland" and other films. He has also served as the soundtrack for many of Hou Hsiao-hsien's films. With the film "Goodbye Southland, Southland" and "Thousands "Mambo" and "The Beginning of the Year" won the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Score three times.

It was also Jia Zhangke who found him.

Recording engineer Zhang Yang has served as the sound recording engineer for many films such as Jia Zhangke's "The World", "Three Gorges" and "Tale of 24 Cities".

No need to ask, it was Jia Zhangke who found him.

Jia Zhangke is a true love-maker.

When the preparations for "Hello Mr. Tree" began, Jia Zhangke also helped to audition actors together, but after searching all over, they couldn't find a suitable actor, or they couldn't find an actor who suited their liking.

Then Jia Zhangke mobilized his network and began to contact major domestic directors to ask them if they had any actors they could recommend.

The call came to Wu Yuan. After hearing the outline of the movie described by Jia Zhangke, he immediately knew which movie it was, and of course recommended Wang Baoqiang to Jia Zhangke.

Brother Bao Qiang did a really good job in this movie.

At first, Jia Zhangke thought Wu Yuan's recommendation was a bit outrageous.

There is still a big contrast between Wang Baoqiang's screen image and "Mr. Tree". Before this, most of Wang Baoqiang's images were of migrant workers, simple teenagers, and rural boys.

Silly, naive, but full of sunshine, not "village guard" at all.

As a result, Jia Zhangke dubiously called Wang Baoqiang to audition.

Hey, awesome!

It's him!

"Baoqiang is really good." Jia Zhangke recalled: "Baoqiang never smokes or drinks. He has a healthy image."

"But this time, in order to make Mr. Shu more realistic and close to life, he must learn to smoke, sometimes even up to three packs of cigarettes a day."

"A few months before the filming started, he started to learn to smoke, because he had to look like an "old smoker". Sometimes this kind of thing is unnatural in the performance."

"Wang Baoqiang, who is not a good drinker, also started to drink every day, because the "Shu" in the play is a person who loves to drink. He hopes that he can find the dizzy state of people who love alcoholism, so almost every day Drink some liquor with every meal."

"Later during filming, in order to better fit the character, he even drank while the camera was on and acted in a tipsy state. The effect was really good."

"It's rare to find an actor who thinks about his role so seriously."

"Baoqiang is indeed good." Wu Yuan also nodded with emotion, "He is an actor from Yeluzi. He was one of the earliest batch of Beijing drifters. He came to the capital with a dream of being an actor. .”

"He really loves acting, so he will give 120% effort to complete every work."

"Of course, he is also very lucky. With so many people in Beijing, he and Huang Bo are the only ones who can really make a name for themselves."

"Both of them are the essence left after the big waves, and they are both rare and good actors."

Wu Yuan really admires Wang Baoqiang, but unfortunately, he has never had the opportunity to cooperate with Wang Baoqiang. His movies have never been suitable for Wang Baoqiang's role.

It's a pity that "Hello Mr. Tree" will not do very well at the box office this time.

Due to the unpopular subject matter and the small audience, the film ultimately only achieved a sluggish box office of 2 million.

However, it failed at the box office, but its reputation has blossomed, and as time goes by, the movie's reputation will get better and better, and it was eventually canonized and became the masterpiece of Wang Baoqiang's acting skills.

"Brother, today's literary and artistic films are really bad." Wu Yuan sighed and said: "The script of "Hello Mr. Tree" is really good, but it is destined not to have a good box office. This movie must be calm. Go read it, you even have to read it several times before you can fully understand it."

"But today's market is impetuous and fast-paced, and there is no room for "Mr. Hello Tree" to exist."

Jia Zhangke shook his head and looked directly into Wu Yuan's eyes: "But someone has to make a movie like this."

"Is not it?"

After the opening red carpet, the film week of this Venice International Film Festival officially began.

In the next ten days, more than 200 film works will have premieres, media screenings, promotions, etc. on Lido Island.

More than two thousand media people and film critics from all over the world will also start their movie feast, hanging out in various cinemas on Lido Island every day, eagerly watching art blockbusters.

Naturally, the jury for the main competition unit of this year's Venice International Film Festival, headed by Wu Yuan, has no way to stay idle.

As many as 23 films shortlisted for this year's main competition unit will have their premieres in Venice in the next 10 days. All judges will be present to watch these films, give their own evaluations in their hearts, and then compete with other films. The judges meet continuously to discuss and select the final winners of each award.

This is undoubtedly a time-consuming and labor-intensive matter.

Wu Yuan has been busy since September 1st. He usually watches a film shortlisted for the main competition in the morning, and then discusses the film's pros and cons with other judges at lunch. Argue, then put aside the argument, watch another movie in the afternoon, and continue the discussion and argument in the evening.

In a lot of debates, the final winners of each award were gradually determined after weighing and compromising.

It was also at this time that Wu Yuan really felt how important the chairman of the jury was. He could really decide who would win the final award.

Because almost every award has more than two popular candidates, the six judges other than him often support a movie each, often resulting in a 2V2V2 or 3V3 situation.

At this time, Wu Yuan has the final say. Whoever he chooses to support in the end will determine who the award will be awarded to.

Of course, this is all strictly confidential.

The judges, including Wu Yuan, no matter how fierce the arguments were in the conference room or how excited they were about shouting for a certain movie, as soon as they left the conference room, they all remained silent and did not mention anything about the shortlisted actors. The thing about films in competition.

Silence is the impression these judges left on all film critics and the media at the scene.

It was also in this silence that the 10-day film week passed quickly. After countless quarrels, the final list of winners was confirmed by Wu Yuan personally and delivered to the hands of the film festival organizing committee.

The much-anticipated closing ceremony is about to begin. (End of chapter)