How many steps does a movie take from production to release?
Even senior movie fans may not be able to answer accurately. In publicity reports about movies, most of the attention is on actors or directors. Many people behind the scenes, such as photographers, onboarders, special effects teams, artists, voice actors, etc., are rarely mentioned. They are more unknown in the subtitles that are flashed after the beginning of a movie or the end of a movie.
Film has always been the product of collective creation, and obscurity does not mean that it is not important. The documentary "I'm Making Movies in China" aimed the camera behind the heroes of Chinese cinema-7 outstanding filmmakers representing the standards of today's Chinese film industry: Ye Jintian (Art), Cao Yu (Photography), Zhao Nan (Sound Effect) , Ajie (voice), Ding Yanlai (special effects), Wei Ming (special effects), and Zhou Yifu (special effects). Through their narrative, the audience is presented with the inside story of the industry, and the audience can clearly see how a movie was born. Therefore, "I Make Movies in China" is not only a love letter for filmmakers, but also a valuable film teaching lesson.
The subject of "I Make Movies in China" is "I", one after another "movie people". This statement may be reminiscent of the explosive documentary "I am repairing cultural relics in the Forbidden City." The two not only have similar sentence patterns, but also convey a similar spirit of craftsmanship.
If the audience was confused before, why some movies are beautiful and some are rough and straightforward; why are some movies sound immersive, and some movies sound "playing", then, in the documentary Of these industry leaders will let you find the answer.
The difference lies in the artisan spirit. Cao Yu recalled that when he was the photographer of "The Legend of the Demon Cat", in order to restore the effect of Yang Guifei's "looking back and smiling", they lit dozens of candles around the actor's face and used LED light strips to highlight the facial gloss. In addition, a lamp called Dedolight (Tetuli) is hit on the eye part, and a layered light effect is produced by the cooperation of multiple light sources. Even if this is not enough, the photographer also manually controlled the electronic dimmer to let the light flow in order to "Bai Meisheng" 's brilliance. In the film "Shadow" where Zhao Nan worked as a sound engineer, the rain runs through. Collected thousands of raining materials. In order to produce onomatopoeia with swords piercing the lungs, the team carefully analyzed the physiological structure and used fish stings to imitate the lungs to achieve the final effect; the whole picture of Beijing City, which often appeared in the movie "Evil Is Not Compressed," was produced by special effects. , The direction of each road and the height of each tower are accurately restored ... excellence in the details that these audiences may not pay much attention to is the indispensable "realism" and "persuasiveness" of an excellent film section. Classics are inseparable from the efforts of countless artisans.
In a way, the "artisan spirit" in "I Make Movies in China" calls for the industrialization of Chinese movies. "Films are not only artistic works with unique aesthetics, but also high-standard, high-tech, and high-standard industrial products. Industrialization is thus regarded as the only way for China to move from a big film country to a strong film country."
Attention to all aspects of film production, ensuring that each link is professional, standardized, and large-scale, so that each finished product can reach the basic level of qualification, is the embodiment of industrial thinking. The director of the movie "Wandering Earth" Guo Fan once mentioned that if you want to mass-produce, you must first understand the underlying logic of industrialization, that is, to be standardized, quantifiable, and then can be assigned, assigned to the division of labor, and the division of labor can improve effectiveness.
A threshold on the road to the industrialization of Chinese film is the lack of specialized talents. Prior to this, Feng Xiaogang, Jackie Chan, and Zhang Guoli jointly called for the establishment of the "Blue Xiang Technical School" of the Chinese film and television industry. Many of the behind-the-scenes staff in the film and television production crew are of non-scientific origin. They may be from the same village, the same township, one by one to enter the industry, and sometimes they understand and implement the behind-the-scenes work as "physical work". Someone once said that many Chinese photographers can shoot a bright light, but they can't shoot an "ambiguous" light. The former only regards photography as the work of holding a camera, while the latter is an aesthetic and creative creation. For example, Cao Yu said that he would integrate the paintings and music he admired into photography, making the lens not only aesthetic but also thoughtful. Filmmakers with different divisions of labor can thoroughly express their professional research and express their behind-the-scenes work professionally with "ingenuity" in order to make the expression of film art more comprehensive.
"I Make Movies in China" pays attention to the behind-the-scenes heroes behind the film, and pays attention to the operating laws of each process, such as photography, onomatopoeia, special effects, art, dubbing, etc. It is also a concrete representation of the film's industrialized thinking, and is behind the scenes of Chinese film Set some kind of benchmark.
Cong Yi