Chapter 727 Never underestimate the heart of an actor
"Du Lala" is worth 40 million, "Journey" is worth 10 million, and "The Beautiful Era" is worth 30 million. These are the projects that the company is currently investing in and are about to be launched. In addition, there is also the publicity work before the release of "The Wind".
The post-production of "The Piano of Steel" is also in full swing.
"Du Lala" is invested by five parties. As for "Jiang Tu", as an actor-turned-director, no one is optimistic about Baldy Xu. Currently, only Xinhao Media is investing. Baldy Xu is particularly grateful for this.
As for why this guy desperately wants to mix personal things into a comedy, it's entirely because movies are still a sacred thing for filmmakers in this era, so he desperately wants to express himself. After all, no one can guarantee it.
What will happen in the future? Maybe you only have one chance. If you fail, there will be no future.
Of course, there are also people who are self-aware, such as Liu Jiang. After filming "Start Now", he suddenly felt that his life was perfect, and then he devoted himself to tinkering with his TV series.
He Xin is very busy during this period. Many things require his approval and signature, and large sums of money are transferred in and out. As the producer of "The Piano", he still has to keep an eye on Liu Meng's post-production.
It is said that except for a few big names in Hollywood, such as Spielberg and Lucas, who have editing rights, other directors generally do not have final editing rights. They call it a producer-centered system, and the director is
Come to work.
Unlike in China, a movie almost all revolves around the director from script creation to preparation, casting, shooting, post-production, and editing. In a sense, Chinese directors are the happiest because they
The director has the greatest power and can express himself as much as he wants. This is the so-called director-centered system.
Hollywood's producer-centered system is entirely based on a commercial perspective. After the script has been fully discussed and finalized, the director is not allowed to change the play on the spot, let alone the actors to change their lines. Even if they say one less word in the lines, it will not work.
Cutting off the self-expression of the director or actors at the source and adding private goods, it can also control costs very well.
The same is true for editing. A movie often involves shooting a lot of material, and these materials are like their own children to the director. During the editing process, it is inevitable that he will be reluctant to part with this and that, and hesitation often leads to
It will lead to rhythm imbalance.
Zhang Meng obviously made the same mistake, and the rough cut version came out, which lasted for 140 minutes. After the two watched it again in the screening room, Zhang Meng asked slightly uneasily: "Teacher He, hello.
How about it?"
He Xin first smiled and said thoughtfully: "The film is very complete, the picture is exquisite, and the composition is perfect, but..."
It is a characteristic of Chinese language to express first and then suppress, and the meat of the drama often comes after the but. Hearing this but, Zhang Meng felt nervous. To be honest, he didn't feel confident now, especially since He Xin promised that this film would be produced in the future.
Being sent to Berlin to participate in an exhibition made him even more frightened. He desperately wanted to do well but was afraid of not doing well. He was worried about gains and losses.
"However, the length of the film needs to be further compressed. The narrative capacity of our film is not too much or too little. I think the standard capacity of one hundred minutes is more appropriate."
"I'm afraid one hundred minutes is not enough." Zhang Meng looked confused.
As for the 140-minute version in front of him, he still reluctantly cut out many scenes that he thought were very exciting. If it were further compressed to 40 minutes, he would even feel that he would not be able to start.
As the saying goes: The authorities are confused, but those onlookers know clearly. Zhang Meng may have thought it was perfect, but He Xin saw many problems.
He shook his head and said: "I think there are still many things that can be discussed in this version. First of all, there are certain problems with the narrative rhythm. It is loose at the beginning and tight at the back!
The characters appear in the opening chapter, which is a bit wordy, and the second half is a bit too compact, especially the last third of the plot is too compressed. Didn't you find that there are many scenes that are blunt and unreasonable?
"
Zhang Meng opened his mouth, but was unable to refute.
He Xin sighed, crossed his fingers and said: "For example, in one scene, everyone helped catch the fat son-in-law, and then got married. It was just a matter of time, which was a bit clueless. In addition, there was no causal basis for blowing up chimneys and continuing to build pianos."
"Wouldn't this make it longer?"
"Let's decide whether it will last or not. Let me talk about my opinion first, and then we can discuss it."
He Xin waved his hand and continued: "The main plot of our film is to build pianos, and there are two hidden clues buried in it. One is Chen Guilin's ex-wife Xiaoju's fight for the child; the other is the clue that the workers want to save the chimney.
Chen Guilin's ex-wife's fight for the child seems a bit embarrassing now, and it always feels like it was deleted but not added. According to the principle that the hidden lines serve the main line, I think there are only two ways to modify it, or to strengthen this aspect.
description, strengthen the motivation of the characters, and add some difficulties for Chen Guilin to make a piano. Anyway, we have enough material; either omit it, or simply delete it, leaving only the opening of the film where Xiaoju proposes to divorce Chen Guilin and wants to have a child.
Just take it away. The audience will understand it at a glance.
As for the clue of the chimney, the current connection between the chimney's absence and the main plot is too loose. In fact, the relationship between the chimney's absence and the presence of the chimney should be strengthened to touch the hearts of the characters in the film. Your original expression in the script was that the chimney fell down, and the characters
Then he continued to make pianos.
However, because it was too compact and insufficiently laid out, at least in my opinion, there was a lack of recognition of this emotion. It would be better to say that they originally wanted to build a piano, but then they suddenly felt that it was more important to save the chimney. Then the chimney collapsed, and they continued to build the piano after being sad.
Only in this way can the emotions and mentality of the characters be reflected.”
"No, Teacher He, I understand everything you said, but to control the length of the film, some plots need to be simplified." Zhang Meng said with a look of dissatisfaction and helplessness.
Seeing that he was still trying to get into trouble, He Xin couldn't help but sigh and said: "So, this is the problem. You have too much foreshadowing for the character's appearance, which takes up time for the development later. I know your intention, it should be
I want to explain the different abilities and character traits of Chen Guilin's poor buddies, make a group of people come alive, and then the Eight Immortals cross the sea to show their magical powers. But the problem is, if you introduce the characters one by one, don't you find the overlap between the roles of these groups?
? Their respective abilities and personality traits can be demonstrated and reversed in the process of making pianos.
To put it simply, the scrap collector Ji Ge, the thief Kuaishou who was sent to a labor camp, and the cowardly second brother-in-law. Their loyalty, brutality, and cowardice should be their respective characteristics, but these are only in the words of Chen Guilin and others.
Positioning is not enough. It needs to be shown to the audience through the plot. How to show it? It is still in the process of building a piano.
In addition, the scenes of other supporting characters are also insufficiently explained. The most important thing is that the plots of those supporting characters have nothing to do with the main plot, making them seem cumbersome in the film. If they are deleted, the film will be thin. Therefore, branch plots and main plots should be added.
There is some connection between them, for example, they captured the fat son-in-law and forced the boy to make a piano, so you can understand it at a glance..."
He Xin talked to Zhang Meng in detail. Zhang Meng gradually changed from being unconvinced at the beginning to thinking deeply. Finally, he simply took a piece of paper and started taking notes.
Until He Xin's mouth went dry and he had to stop, he kept asking: "Teacher He, do you have any more questions?"
"Director Zhang, Brother Zhang! You are the director, and you are responsible for the post-production. As a producer, I can only help you find faults. It depends on you how to edit the film. Oh, by the way, I said something ugly up front, this film has arrived
Whether it can be sent to Berlin when the time comes, and whether it can be shortlisted after being sent to Berlin, in the final analysis, it has to rely on quality, otherwise you won't be able to pass the test here, so let's just not send it, I can't afford to lose this person."
In the end, He Xin even resorted to threats.
Zhang Meng was a thin-skinned person, and his face immediately turned red. However, because he was not good at speaking, even though he just nodded, he must have been holding back a lot of energy in his heart.
When He Xin walked out of the editing room of Beijing Film Studio, night had fallen before he knew it. Nowadays, digital photography has become popular in China very quickly, and post-production only needs to be completed on the computer. However, Zhang Meng of "The Piano of Steel" insisted
For film shooting, we had to use the equipment of Beijing Film Studio in the later stage.
He Xin looked back at Zhang Meng who was still busy in the room. He didn't look like he wanted to rest for a meal at all, so he had to ask Shen Ming to help buy some food and send it over. Alas, there is no Meituan these days, so are you hungry?
It's not even convenient to order takeout.
To be honest, although he raised a lot of issues with Zhang Meng just now, the film itself is as he said at the beginning, with a high degree of completion, and Zhou Shuhao, the Wanwan cinematographer, did have a few tricks up his sleeve, whether it was the composition of the static images.
The various moving shots that fill the film make the composition itself full of beauty, and it should be said that it is quite delicate.
In fact, from the very beginning when He Xin was planning to send this film to Berlin for exhibition, he subconsciously had an expectation to win an award. If time is shortened, the film "The Piano" can definitely make it to the Venice Film Festival.
, but the reason why I chose Berlin is because the theme of this film is consistent with the Berlin Film Festival's style of focusing on politics and social reality.
In addition, he has a vague impression in his memory that after entering the 10s, Chinese films won several awards at the three major European festivals, all of which seemed to be the Berlin Film Festival.
In addition to hoping that the film will win awards and earn more overseas sales, he also hopes that he can personally receive recognition from awards. Even though he often says he doesn't care about personal awards, he is always eager in his heart.
Just like there is often a saying in basketball novels "Never underestimate the heart of a championship," as an actor, you should also never underestimate the heart of a movie star.