Xiao Qian stood up, temporarily replaced Qiu Tang, and explained his point of view.
"The Opium War was the beginning of China's modern history of humiliation. It not only showed the tragic story of the Chinese nation's resistance to foreign humiliation, but it was also inevitable that it was due to the incompetence of the feudal rulers. So in the redesign, we plan to
Yes,
Denouncing the decadence of feudal rulers, it is also necessary to highlight the heart-warming stories of Chinese people resisting foreign aggression. The sublimation of small characters is an important means of commercial film, which will make the audience more interested than elaborating the story from a higher level.
Resonate.”
These principles were already out of date in previous lives.
But in this era, this rule is only popular in Hollywood. Chinese film workers still adhere to the idea of generalizing and adapting to make movies.
Qiu Tang took it and continued: "Following Mr. Xiao's spirit, we plan to strengthen the role of the character He Shanzhi in the play. He is a man who understands both China and the West, has an open mind, and has lofty ideals of patriotism, but his father is also a sinner of opium smuggling.
Such a character has the strong conflict point that is most needed in a drama. In the original script, this person was introduced in a straightforward manner and introduced too much through dialogue, which does not conform to the formula of the movie."
Another copy is presented to everyone.
"In order to introduce the character of He Shanzhi, we plan to design a naval battle. He Shanzhi will add an adventure experience and add drama to him. Using him as the main thread throughout the plot will make the plot richer."
Her thoughts coincided with Xiao Qian's.
"In this case, this role must be played by a popular movie star in order to become the highlight of the film. I want to use Shen Jue, Mr. Xie, Director Long, and Mr. An, what do you think?"
When they heard that Xiao Qian planned to let Shen Juelai play He Shanzhi, the three of them were all surprised.
In the original script, the actors Xie Qi wanted had already been selected. But in Qiu Tang's opinion, Xie Qi's choice was really not good.
In Xie Qi's setting, Lin Zexu is the real leading actor, with the biggest role. However, the actor chosen is Bao Guoan, who is capable but not famous.
Although Cao Cao played by Bao Guoan in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has received numerous accolades, such an actor cannot support the skeleton of a commercial blockbuster.
Therefore, under Xiao Qian's instruction, Qiutang made major changes to the script.
In the new script, the male protagonist has changed from Lin Zexu to He Shanzhi.
The entire magnificent Opium War changed from the original macro perspective to the perspective of a small person.
Through the struggles and ups and downs of small characters in major historical events, it enhances the audience's feelings about that tragic and humiliating history.
Xie Qi frowned, but did not object.
He was thinking about the pros and cons of the two protagonists' settings.
He often watches foreign movies and is no stranger to this typical Hollywood script model.
I just don’t know whether it is feasible to bring this method to China.
As the person in charge of plot writing, Qiu Tang only put forward his own plan regardless of what Xie Qi and others thought.
"In addition, we noticed that there were too few war scenes in the original script and the design was also very crude. So after our adjustments, we increased the proportion of war scenes. The Lin Weixi case was added to it, which was the trigger of the Opium War. It was very
It is necessary. The entire war scene is divided into three scenes: the Battle of Humen, the Battle of Yangcheng and the Battle of Dagukou. Among them, there is no battle scene at Dagukou, it is only to show the aggressiveness of the British army."
When Xie Qi heard that the number of war scenes would be increased to three, he couldn't help but feel heartache in his heart.
But when I thought about it again, the budget for the war scene was a full 40 million, which was much more generous than before, so I had to give it up.
After Qiutang, another young man stood up.
Xiao Qian made an introduction. This person's name was Lin Weizhou, and he was the head of the line writing team.
Xie Qi and others were all in a daze. They had no idea that the scriptwriting of a movie could be so complicated.
Compared with Qiu Tang's workload, Lin Weizhou's was much easier. But what he told made Xie Qi and others ashamed.
"After reading the original script, our line writing team discovered a very serious problem. That is, there are huge errors and omissions in the lines of the Chinese characters in the play. In the play, Lin Zexu, He Shanzhi, the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Governor of Guangdong and others
When facing foreigners, he seems too disadvantaged and seems to be a dwarf."
Long Jinhai explained.
"During the Opium War, we were beaten miserably by the Westerners. It was normal for officials at that time to behave like this."
"wrong!"
Lin Weizhou's newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, and his roar really startled everyone.
"Everyone, please note that our history of humiliation in China began after the Opium War, but not before the war. In fact, before the outbreak of the war and during the war, the rulers and people of that period still had the Celestial Empire.
The idea of going to China is to look down on the West in my heart.
After checking the historical data, we found that even after the signing of the treaty, the official language at that time had a derogatory meaning towards Westerners. Therefore, our opinion is to comprehensively revise the lines of Lin Zexu and other major figures, and
This blind arrogance is on display."
Xie Qi, Long Jinhai, An Junxi and others looked at each other and suddenly realized that these young people were very professional.
If the correction of lines made Xie Qi and others feel professional, when Gao Haisheng, the leader of the special effects screenwriting team, stepped forward, they were completely confused.
As soon as Gao Haisheng came up, he made a list on the projector.
"Mr. Xiao, Director Xie, Director Long, Mr. An, this is the list of the British expeditionary fleet during the Opium War, which is divided into battleships, cruisers, light cruisers, troopships, armed steamships, transport ships, etc.
, a total of forty-eight ships. Among them, the drawings of the main battleships and cruisers are missing.
We are planning to leave for the UK tomorrow to borrow materials from the British Ship Museum and restore the scene. In addition, there are no drawings of the Burke-type front-loading smoothbore flintlock gun and the Brunturwick-type front-loading flintlock gun in China.
I plan to go to the UK to obtain information. And..."
Gao Haisheng glanced at Xie Qi and others, and decided to tell the truth.
"Our research found that the British artillery depicted in the original script was inconsistent with historical facts and was a complete copy of the Qing artillery."
Xie Qi and others were sitting on pins and needles, their bodies were covered with shame.
They thought they were very well prepared, but they didn't expect so many mistakes to be discovered.
Long Jinhai murmured: "Is...is it necessary to do it so carefully?"
Gao Haisheng said righteously: "This is respect for history and can better reflect the harsh conditions faced by the Chinese military and civilians at that time when resisting foreign aggression."
After answering Long Jinhai, Gao Haisheng looked at Xiao Qian again.
"Mr. Xiao, we found that the original script adopted the explosive method of laying gunpowder in the design of the battle scene. However, our research found that during the Opium War, the British army's artillery ammunition was mostly solid bullets and blooming bullets. This kind of
When the ammunition hits the target, it will not emit the black and red smoke clouds caused by the explosion of gunpowder. The special effects team said that this technical problem cannot be solved for the time being and that you need to find a solution."
If you are an ordinary leader, you will definitely get angry if you hear people below you doing this.
Xiao Qian waved her hand and took over the matter.
"Leave this to me."
Gao Haisheng was very responsible and kindly reminded: "We cannot completely restore the entire British fleet. In that case, the current funds are completely insufficient. But if computer special effects are used, the current domestic technology cannot do it."
In the original version of "The Opium War", there was no panoramic shot of the British fleet at all. It only showed one or two ships coming in, and that was it.
If Xiao Qian wants to create a commercial blockbuster, it is obviously necessary to shoot magnificent war scenes.
Of course it is impossible to build all British warships in kind, which would cost billions.
We can only follow the Hollywood method, build one or two ship models, and then copy the others through computer special effects.
Unfortunately, the technical conditions are not currently available in China.
Xiao Qian has already thought about this issue.
"I will set off to the United States to find a special effects studio to cooperate with."
The plot writing team, the line writing team and the special effects writing team took turns to analyze the entire script and completely suppressed Xie Qi and others.
They had no choice but to discover that Starlight Film and Television’s shooting concepts were hardly from the same era as theirs.
But thinking about the visual effects presented in "The Grandmaster of Tai Chi", they had to admit that if it were shot according to Starlight Film and Television's ideas, the movie would definitely look countless times better.
"Mr. Xiao, your staff is really full of talents."
An Junxi's old face was all smiles.
Among the three, he was the happiest one.
Originally, Golden Harvest spent 15 million US dollars, intending to sell well so that the film could be promoted to the mainland in the future, and they were prepared to lose money.
An Junxi knew that for a movie with a theme like "The Opium War", the mainland would organize various departments and public officials to watch it, and the box office would not be too bad. But if it were shot according to the way Xie Qi and others filmed it, this movie would be a big hit in Hong Kong.
I hope it will do well at the box office.
But after Xiao Qian did this, he suddenly realized that, let alone Xiangjiang, it was not even a dream to sell it overseas.
The business that was originally losing money had the hope of making huge profits, and he, the person in charge, was naturally very happy.
