Movies, the great reality "plagiarists"
Chen Bin
Since the birth of the first movie "Factory Gate" in 1895, no one can tell how many movies have been produced in the world.
According to rough estimates, in 2007 alone, the global production of films was no less than 4,000.
The film with the highest investment in history is said to be "Avengers 3: Infinite War", which cost $1 billion, while Cameron's "Avatar" won the top box office in film history with $2.727.14 million.
Philip Kemp’s "General History of Movies" selects more than 200 movies and more than 1,400 stills. It adopts a similar chronological structure, from the early film projection technology to the emergence of multi-screen cinemas, to the current online platform, showing the world's movies Important periods, major genres and classic works of the world, and reflect the evolution of society and culture with the rapid development of movies.
Novelty is the only selling point of the movie
It is not so much that film changes the world as technology changes the world. After all, film is the product of the continuous development and progress of science and technology.
The Lumière brothers used their own invented "moving movie machine" to shoot "Factory Gate". Although it was only one minute and five seconds, it showed people who could walk and greatly "inspired and satisfied people's desire for spectacle."
At that time, like the scene described in "Diorama" starring Xia Yu, people were both full of interest in novelty and inexplicably gave birth to a sense of absurd fear of "being taken away".
"Diorama" is also called "La foreign film", and its predecessor is the movie mirror invented by Edison in 1893.
All of this has a common "originator", that is the "Persistence Principle of Visual Image" of the famous Belgian physicist Joseph Prado in 1829-the image seen by the audience is not exactly the same as the real projection.
In this sense, the film was based on "visual deception" from the beginning.
The original movie was like a light and shadow technique variant of street magic performances.
Novelty is its only selling point. Unknown viewers always try to figure out what the moving people are, just like children trying to find real people on the radio.
The original movie was a bit like a documentary now, without performances, just a light and shadow copy of real life.
The ever-evolving film "makes it possible to reproduce the past, reshape the present, and portray the future."
"Remodeling" is a full praise for film technology.
From silent to sound, from mono to multi-channel to surround sound, from black and white to color film, from analog to digital film, from 2D to 3D and then to 4D...... It is precisely under the strong support of science and technology, Movies are advancing with the times, and their expressive methods are becoming more and more abundant, which increasingly tests the brains of the audience.
On the one hand, the continuous development of technology brings people more unexpected audiovisual experiences, such as Hollywood's brainstorming science fiction, war and magic blockbusters.
Without the help of technology, it would be impossible to have countless screen images such as Superman, Harry Potter and Transformers.
In the past, some blockbuster films required huge investment to make props, but now they can achieve realistic effects with the help of computer technology. Guo Fan's "Wandering Earth" is one of the models.
Many scenes in the movie are impossible to find in reality.
On the other hand, technology has spawned a huge entertainment industry chain related to movies.
Everything has advantages and disadvantages, and the continuous development of technology may also take away the jobs of professional actors in the future.
In 2002, New Zealand director Andrew Nicoll launched the comedy "Simeone", which tells the story of a director who was on the verge of desperation because the heroine suddenly left. The new actress Simone could only be replaced by computer virtual synthesis. It became popular and harvested. There are countless fans.
Similarly, with the continuous development of computer technology, it is very likely that in the future, there will be scenes of popular stars like Marilyn Monroe who have disappeared and are performing in the same frame as today's actors across time and space.
There is no end to technology, and no one can predict the future of film technology.
To be sure, although technology is not the decisive factor in the popularity of movies, it is certainly one of the important reasons for the continued vitality of movies.
Reality is the inexhaustible source of film creation
Movies originated from the imitation of life, which can also be said to be "plagiarism" of life.
"The Train Robbery" released in 1903, with only 14 single shots totaling 11 minutes, reproduced the incident of the United Pacific Railroad train being robbed on August 29, 1900.
The later historical blockbusters, without exception, are reappearances of historical events.
Although today's movie themes are luxuriant and many seem to be diverging from real life, such as science fiction and horror movies, tracing the roots, life is still the background color of all movies.
The book uses a considerable amount of space to introduce the beginning of the film-silent film.
In the silent film era, physical performance is the only weight to attract the audience, so it is mainly dominated by cute and laughable comedies.
The biggest feature of physical performance is the exaggerated imitation of life, which is particularly vividly shown in the comedy master Chaplin.
However, when movies have sound, just as black-and-white movies quickly die out due to the emergence of color movies, silent movies inevitably sunset.
Mankind cannot return to the era of silent film, but silent film has undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for film art in terms of explaining life.
The art of film is essentially derived from the reality of film, that is, life, and life itself is an art.
Early films are more like a simple combination of science and technology and real culture. Perhaps people have not really realized the artistic value of imitating real life, so the traces of stage performances are obvious.
In the 1980s, there were many opera works on the Chinese screen that copied stage performances.
The same is true for TV dramas that are closely related to the development of movies. The 1986 version of "Journey to the West" was a great success. It not only benefited from the dazzling special effects, but also obviously has traditional factors that people are deeply attached to stage performances in the drama.
Hollywood’s existing musicals are obviously inextricably linked with the American Broadway stage.
Life is not a monochromatic board.
When life completely opened the door to movies, genres spewed out.
The genre films of the big book and special book in the book are essentially the crystallization of film industrialization.
When a movie is loved by the audience, it often attracts the frantic pursuit of capital, and then forms a huge torrent, so mass production is a matter of course.
Back then, "Shaolin Temple" became popular, and domestic martial arts movies blossomed overnight. Today, many movies still use tricks to take care of martial arts fans.
Due to excessive excesses, some genres encountered crisis.
The western film, once known as the box office harvester in the United States, has a lack of successors, but it is Italy that launched a masterpiece like "Once Upon a Time in the West".
Industrialization emphasizes strict division of labor and cooperation, and Hollywood is at the forefront of the global film industry in this regard.
From script to filming, Hollywood has abandoned the “one-to-one” routine. A movie can be divided into many sections, such as medicine, aerospace, finance, law, etc., and professional dramas are handed over to professionals. This is a bridge. Naturally more grounded.
This is also an important reason why Hollywood movies maintain high professional standards.
The book specifically points out that Hollywood is not a traditional film center.
If there is no "World War II", the film center is likely to still linger in Europe, especially France and Britain.
It is worth thinking about that after the war, Paris, which once created the fashion center, returned to the fashion capital, but the film center, which was highly dependent on technology, failed to return to France.
Hitchcock, the master of French suspense films, later came to Hollywood.
The group of French New Wave directors who have had amazing performances obviously cannot stop the crushing of the Hollywood industrial machinery.
Unlike fashion, movies are obviously more dependent on technology, a strong film industry, and capital. These are the fundamental guarantees for Hollywood's strength.
Almost every region has excellent directors and high-quality works.
This book pays close attention to the rise of Japanese movies.
In recent years, Indian and Korean films have also made eye-catching performances.
India’s Bollywood has a high output and has produced many popular and popular films. In recent years, many films have won higher box office in China than in China.
However, due to cultural barriers, it is difficult for Indian films to knock on the European and American doors.
Innovation makes movies full of infinite possibilities
Many films in the book come from international film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, as well as famous film awards such as Oscars.
These stages are the symbols of the highest halls of world film art.
Many directors began to enter their artistic spring after winning awards at these film festivals.
No matter who it is, the result of sticking to the rules can only be trapped in the quagmire of mediocrity. Innovation is the magic weapon for filmmakers to keep moving forward.
From silent films to today's 4D movies, the journey has not been smooth sailing.
At least after the appearance of television, the film has suffered the biggest crisis since its birth.
In addition to innovation, the rescue method of filmmakers is innovation.
Innovation includes not only technology, especially special effects and photography, but also new light and shadow portraying of characters' expressions, behaviors and psychology.
In "Jaws" directed by the great director Spielberg, the mechanical sharks are quite realistic, and "Jurassic Park" is the ultimate in the production of special effects and props.
In terms of human character portrayal, Schindler was never sloppy. To portray the "evil characteristics" of the Nazi SS officers in "Schindler's List", actor Ralph Fiennes drank 13 kilograms of wine.
In "Saving Private Ryan", Steinstein's extensive use of portable cameras and sports shooting brings audiences an unprecedented combat experience.
It is not difficult to see that the rise of fame of every director is the result of continuous efforts and innovation without exception.
Innovation has become a special internal logic in the film industry.
The birth of the IP model has effectively promoted the high-quality continuation of a certain screen image under the necessary protection, and Marvel and DC series works have set a model.
The heroes such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman introduced by DC have achieved a perfect match from the previous stand-alone fights.
Even special images such as demons, zombies, and aliens that have never existed, under the impetus of the IP model, have gradually formed an internal order with certain logical laws.
Relying on strong box office and commercial promoters, Hollywood is undoubtedly the most eye-catching movie center in the world today.
But the book does not favor Hollywood, but strives to tap its extraterritorial highlights, such as independent films.
The value of independent films is that they are not tempted by the Hollywood model, and they have the spirit of "do their own way", just like a clear stream in the film industry era.
The Coen brothers, known for their independent films, have won many Cannes and Oscar awards for their works once overwhelming Hollywood directors and big investments.
Innovation makes movies full of infinite possibilities. Movies without innovation will only be gradually forgotten in the mediocrity. What's more, today's movies rely on the audience to vote with their feet.
Thinking of the last sentence of the "Introduction" of the book, if "makes readers interested in movies, filmmakers, film types, or film studios in a certain country that they have previously ignored, then the purpose of writing this book will be achieved."
I believe that many readers, like the author, will come up with a list of "good films with appointments" while reading.