I stayed at home for a few days during the Spring Festival. Apart from occasionally visiting relatives and friends, I just rested at home, watched TV series, and watched a movie by the way.
Also, the Xiangjiang Entertainment Circle Earthquake is being serialized on the Internet and will be updated occasionally.
On February 22, the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, after the Lantern Festival, Li Qian returned to the capital.
After resting for half a month, my family and I also took a period of rest a year ago. My energy has been fully restored and I can continue to devote myself to new work.
In the studio, everyone had returned early and was busy with their own things.
The location of "Jaws: The Revenge" has also been determined, and the crew has been assembled with the help of Guang Xian. The indoor studio has been set up at the Huairou Film and Television Base. In a few days, Qi Yukun will go to Qiongdao to shoot the outdoor scenes first.
As for "127", it depends on how prepared Deng Chao is. After all, this movie is his one-man show. How the whole movie will turn out depends 80% on his performance.
Nothing happened, so Li Qian went into seclusion and wrote his own script.
The movie "Moon" is a science fiction film.
Science fiction films, even if they are based on fantasy, must ensure a certain degree of rigor, so that at least ordinary audiences will not feel any violation when watching them.
And as a commercial movie, dramatic conflicts are also necessary.
Of course, this is not a conflict for the sake of conflict, but a conflict for the sake of box office.
And it is not a literal conflict between people, but all plot arrangements, characters and backgrounds, conflicts between reality and truth, all to better attract the audience.
In Li Qian's understanding, this is the most direct difference between literary and artistic films and commercial films.
In Li Qian's mind, there are two movies of the same type, which can express this difference very intuitively.
"Lost Orphan" and "Dear".
Two movies about child abduction, regardless of which one is better, it is a question of the director's level. The two movies use completely opposite narrative techniques.
It’s not difficult to make touching photos of this kind of subject matter. After all, this is the advantage of the subject matter itself.
However, it is extremely difficult for this subject to be a hit.
"Dear" takes advantage of this subject matter and takes sensationalism to the extreme.
Directors with this skill in China are extremely rare.
If you look at the first half of the movie "Moon", it can easily become a simple niche movie about people, clones, robots, and human nature.
And about two-thirds of the way through, it may start to turn into a science fiction action movie.
After all, for a movie with only one actor, one person plays two clones. If you want to be a hit, you can kill the energy company in the end, or simply activate the remaining dozens of clones to have a big battle, which will be even more popular.
Regardless, if this were the case, the first two-thirds would have to be changed, and the entire movie would no longer be the original one, but would become another movie with the same creative ideas but completely different content.
The core of the movie "Moon" is still emotion.
Loneliness, love, and two clones who shouldn't exist, finally understand each other and help each other.
Because of love, I am lonely. When I am lonely, I firmly believe in love.
However, love is mutual, and the love that clones No. 5 and 6 have for their wives in the movie are all implanted memories that only exist in memory and are one-sided.
It is not easy to let this kind of love that is unilaterally implanted in the memory be displayed in front of the audience in all aspects.
Moreover, their wives appeared in very few scenes in the videotape, and it was just a videotape, with no interaction with the two clones at all.
It’s getting harder and harder.
The plot is very simple, and it would be easy to actually write the script.
However, scripts are not necessary for filming. Li Qian had to think carefully while writing the script. Storyboarding was the key.
Moreover, the original version actually has a lot of places that can make people imagine, and Li Qian also has to think about whether some places should be explained clearly in the movie, or should be left blank.
For example, if you want to have a big twist at the end, you can make the "real person" who originally returned to Earth more than ten years ago, but was actually killed by Clone 1, and he continues to live on Earth in place of the real person.
However, in this case, the original setting of cloning humans having a lifespan of only three years due to genetic defects would have to be changed to a lifespan of only three years due to radiation and other reasons.
Specifically, whether there is radiation on the moon and whether helium-3, the original energy source in the lunar soil, radiates, you need to consult relevant experts.
Li Qian imagined the scene in his mind. Clone 5, whose deadline was approaching, was willing to stay and mislead the people sent by the energy company, while Clone 6 took the opportunity to escape back to Earth and exposed the energy company's conspiracy.
Just when all the truth was revealed, the camera turned, and Clone No. 1, who had replaced the real person, looked at Clone No. 6 on the news, with a charming smile on his lips, and whispered "No. 6."
In this case, the final horror is enough.
However, it doesn't make much sense. It's just scary for the sake of being scary, and it destroys the atmosphere created before.
To make it more classic, Clone 5 died in the end, and Clone 6 was intercepted and killed on the way back to Earth.
So the humans who solved the two minor mistakes continued to wake up the next clone No. 7, allowing the clone to continue working.
This particularly depressing and terrifying ending is like hitting the audience's heart hard with a hammer.
It would help the movie gain a better reputation among professionals, but it would be a failure if it could sell at the box office.
While writing the script, Li Qian also attended the press conference of Qi Yukun's "Jaws: Revenge" at the end of February. After all, he also had the title of producer.
As the sequel to the internet phenomenon "Jaws", and this is Li Qian's previous work, the press conference was much bigger than the original press conference for "Frequency of Life and Death".
However, the protagonist of today's press conference is not director Qi Yukun, but Li Qian himself.
The main question from reporters is why Li Qian doesn't direct it himself and his new movie.
There is no need to reveal the new movie now, and Li Qian doesn't know anything about it.
A few days later, "127 Hours" was also launched, but this movie was much more low-key, and Li Qian did not attend.
It's still too early for release, and the publicity now is too wasteful.
Two movies were launched in succession. Ordinary people didn't know the situation, but insiders knew it all.
There are mixed reactions to Li Qian investing in movies for his two assistants.
Some people feel that it is too risky to waste the reputation of the sequel of "Jaws" and hand it over to a newcomer.
As for "127 Hours", not to mention, "Jaws: The Revenge" has the basis of the first film, and the cost is not high, so it will not lose money no matter what.
"127 Hours" is not a sequel. Even if it is a small-budget movie, and Deng Chao has just become popular, it should not lose money. But just throwing so many millions to an executive and an assistant director also makes people in the industry
He scoffed and treated the director as child's play.
.......
However, Li Qian couldn't hear the discussion about him in the industry. Apart from taking time to attend the press conference of "Jaws: Revenge", he didn't go out.
On March 12, it took Li Qian 20 days to complete the script of "Moon".
There are basically no changes overall, retaining the core elements of the original version.
The loneliness that runs through the whole film, the one-sided love and family affection in the first two-thirds, and the two thirds of the two clones who share the same disease help each other, understand each other, and support each other on this moon hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from the earth.
Help each other, even at the cost of your own life.
Of course, there is also the robot, which is also a character throughout the film. He has the same emotions as humans and can express his emotions through simple expressions such as smiles, frowns, etc.
As a robot programmed by humans, it is powerless to deal with all these problems and can only helplessly hide the truth.
Finally, the robot reminded the clones that it had recorded their actions and it would be dangerous for humans to view them, so it proposed to format itself and shut down, and then automatically restart.
Robots and clones can be self-sacrificial, which can be regarded as an irony, mocking those humans, and adding some high meaning to the movie.
During the Chinese New Year, Lu Entai was hired to dub the robot. He spoke without emotion, but it was a big challenge to dub a robot that could hear emotions.
The robot itself has no emotions, and it does not have a human face. We can know his emotions when he speaks through facial expressions.
This voice should not be cold, but should have some magnetism and a rich voice. Even if this kind of voice is said without emotion, it will have a warm feeling when listening to it.
Lu Entai studied Shakespeare's drama at Oxford. Shakespeare's dramatic language is similar to poetic language and has a strong lyricism.
That’s not to say that you should use lines from Shakespeare’s plays to dub this robot, that would definitely not work, but that style of language and unique lyricism are somewhat helpful for dubbing.
It is necessary to make the audience feel the inner emotional changes of a robot by speaking lines without emotion.
As another aspect of science fiction movies, special effects can never be circumvented.
The special effects in the original version are not troublesome. I don’t know if it’s because of lack of money or why, but the special effects are almost non-existent. They are all simple models.
After all, it is a science fiction film, and it must have a sense of science fiction and technology, and the audience must be immediately involved in the background.
And there are no particularly complex special effects, so even if you do a little good, the cost won't be too high.
Well, the most important thing is the actors.
One person plays two roles, and most of the time the two clones are in the same frame, appearing in the same shot, and there are many shots where the two clones are front-facing.
Although the two clones have the same person's memory implanted in them, they are indeed people with completely different personalities and tempers.
Moreover, their physical conditions are different. One is approaching his end, while the other has just been activated.
Acting was a big problem, and Li Qian didn't have a suitable candidate for a while, so he had to audition.
But don’t be so anxious, there are very few scenes in this movie, so it shouldn’t be a big problem if it can be shot in a month or so. The special effects mainly consist of making some models and post-production rendering.
Moreover, we have to find an executive director, which is not easy without an assistant.
Li Qian asked Guangxian to help him send out a notice recruiting executive directors and find a suitable assistant.
Immediately afterwards, Li Qian flew to Qiongdao to see the filming situation of the "Jaws: Revenge" crew. It seemed that it was not going well.
Also traveling with her was Tong Liya. During this period, Li Qian was busy writing scripts, and the two of them had little time to get along. It was rare that Li Qian was not busy, so he wanted to go together and take a look around Qiongdao.
On the plane, Tong Liya spent some time reading the script of "Moon" and was deeply shocked.
"Li Qian, you also said that this is a lonely movie, which is obviously very touching."
"There is no place where you are not lonely anymore. You can't just watch one or two plots."
"This plot is so well written. At the beginning, Clone 6 took Clone 5 back from the broken-down car. In the end, Clone 5, who was dying, was willing to die in order to confuse human beings. Clone 6
Then he carried Clone 5 from the base back to the breakdown vehicle."
Tong Liya said sadly, "He hugged him back and saved him, but in the end he hugged him to death. It was so touching!"
"Why does something sound wrong when it comes out of your mouth?"
Li Qian didn't feel a chill, "It seems like science fiction."
And they are two identical clones, wouldn't that be...
Tong Liya rolled her eyes at him and said, "Where are you thinking? I just feel very moved. Also, Clone 5 in the car that broke down at the end watched the spacecraft on Clone 6 leave the moon and slowly closed his eyes.
, I will definitely be very touched when I shoot it!”
"This is the final burst of emotion. If it cannot move the audience, it will be in vain."
"Then who are you going to hire to film? One person playing two roles, or two people who look the same but have completely different personalities?" Tong Liya asked.
"There is no suitable candidate. Let's take a look. There is still time."