Individual emotions are the bridge to the world [Oscar director Ke Wensi taught me in the master class]
The famous British director Cowens has been nominated for four Oscars, including two Oscars. In addition, he has won 16 Emmy Awards and many other honors. He has created a documentary film aesthetics with "authenticity, comfort and resonance" as the core feature.
For more than 40 years in the creation of documentaries and feature films, Ke Wensi used the lens to record the extraordinary life of ordinary people, showing stories that sparkle with the brilliance of human nature and the spirit of the times.
The director, who has traveled to more than 80 countries and regions in the world, has chosen to settle in Shanghai in recent years.
Because in his opinion, "If one desires to see the future, then one should travel to China."
The 12th Beijing International Film Festival ended not long ago, and Ke Wensi served as a judge of the Beijing Film Festival Tiantan Award Jury and held a master class.
On the day of the master class, it rained heavily in Beijing. Ke Wensi did not expect that the scene was still hot, and there would be so many people coming in the rain.
Seeing the eager eyes of young Chinese filmmakers, Ke Wensi, who says he is a film and television "veteran", also spent his money to communicate.
In Ke Wensi's view, today's China is undoubtedly a treasure mine of film and television creation, where countless exciting stories are staged.
He encouraged Chinese documentary creators earnestly: "The work you do can affect many people and change the way people view a country, so your energy is very powerful. I hope you can shoot stronger and more humane. China needs you to tell stories, break down the barriers between us, and connect with the world.”
First visit to China in 1981
That is, looking forward to the opportunity to make a documentary for China
Covings started his career as a media personality with the BBC in 1972 and rose to prominence for his documentary film The Life and Death of Steven Biko, which won the 1978 Monte Carlo Film Festival Grand Prix. Invited to New York to produce and direct films for ABC's "Features" documentary division.
In 1989, Cowens won the Best Documentary Short at the 61st Academy Awards for "You Don't Have to Die".
In 2003, he directed and produced the film "Prisoner of Heaven", which was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
In 2014, Cowens' short documentary "The Woman Living in Apartment 6" won him a second Oscar.
In addition to documentaries, Ke Wensi has also worked as a "script doctor" in Hollywood for more than ten years, and participated in the production of many classic drama films such as "Doomsday", "Bodyguard" and "Tears of the Sun".
The fate of Ke Wensi and China began in 1981.
Living in the Beijing Hotel, he heard the clear bicycle bell on Chang'an Street early in the morning. "There are almost no cars on the street, and thousands of people ride bicycles to work." Ke Wensi has been in China for nearly nine years. In a month, I traveled more than half of China. "In remote mountain villages in Sichuan and Yunnan, along the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, I was deeply moved by the industrious, tenacious and optimistic nature of the Chinese people. I communicated with people from all walks of life, and I have Sleeping in a guest house, in the homes of farmers and small traders, on the deck of a barge on the Yangtze River... It was an unforgettable journey, I was able to get a glimpse of this extraordinary civilization with a long history, and I also developed a strong interest in China and the Chinese people. I Think I'll come back one day to make a documentary for the great Chinese people that tells their story."
This wait is 38 years.
In 2019, entrusted by the "Interpretation of China" studio of China Foreign Publishing Administration, Ke Wensi came to China to create the documentary "On the Rice, Oil and Salt".
Coming to China again, Ke Wensi was shocked by the amazing changes in this land, and also saw the vigorous vitality and huge potential contained in China.
For Ke Wensi, "China is not only a creative paradise", but China's rise and revival is "the biggest and continuous news story in the 21st century", always full of vitality and surprises.
Because of this, since 2015, China has become the focus of Ke Wensi's creation and life.
He visited various cities on the spot, listened to and explored the joys, sorrows and joys in the lives of ordinary people, and let the world see the stories of this land and people through his works.
In "On Firewood, Rice, Oil and Salt", Ke Wensi focuses on the ordinary people: the village party secretary who goes door-to-door to persuade the villagers to get out of the mountains, the female truck driver who is less than 1.6 meters tall, the acrobat who started to learn to climb poles after 30 years old, the founder of Ordinary people in express delivery companies... These ordinary people write their own destiny through struggle, and this kind of introverted personal struggle has injected vitality into the development of Chinese society.
Ke Wensi said frankly that one of the major problems of his documentary filming in China is the language barrier, which is very difficult in his opinion. "Building trust through communication", the key magic weapon for documentary filming, is ineffective for him. .
In this case, a good producer needs to do the job on behalf of the director.
Ke Wensi praised Han Yi as a producer for bringing him a lot of help, "She and her team can create a scene for me to direct the documentary, because they can find such characters, conduct research on the characters, so that they can be more Accept the camera well and accept the faces of foreign workers."
In addition, Ke Wensi found that Chinese people are generally slow, so the interviewees need to open themselves slowly, "The documentary team eats, lives, and lives together with the interviewees. Intimacy can also be observed from below the surface of some deeper emotions, and these are shown in the film is powerful."
As a foreigner, the advantage of filming in China is that Ke Wensi has a different perspective, "As a foreigner, my way of looking at things is very different from everyone else's, and I can view people's lifestyles from a Western perspective. Interpretation and analysis of many details, I can isolate the things that people turn a blind eye to."
Making documentaries is much harder than making fictional films
How to define a documentary has always been the focus of debate. Compared with a feature film, the discussion of which is more important is even more divided.
The Ke Wensi master class started with the topic of "non-fiction and fiction". Producer Han Yi said that he prefers to describe documentaries as "non-fiction films", "In my opinion, they are all films, but It’s two adjectives that are different. Instead of completely distinguishing documentary from film, it’s better to define it in terms of non-fiction, so that you can see the essence of documentary more clearly.”
Ke Wensi believes that the boundary between documentaries and feature films is not absolute. The genre and subject matter are only artificially delimited categories. The content that is more profound, more worthy of discussion, and more world significance is always waiting for filmmakers to explore on the other side of reality.
Cowens said frankly that making a documentary is much more difficult than a fictional film. He believes that the relationship with the person being filmed is the key to distinguishing a fictional film from a non-fictional film.
Fictional movies have actors, and the shooting time and location are relatively fixed. "The relationship between the director and the actors is a professional partnership. The director communicates with the actors, pays the actors' salaries, and the actors play their roles. They come to the scene every day for rehearsal and play their respective roles. role, and finally got paid and left, that's the whole process."
The filming of a documentary is different. The responsibilities of the photographer are much more complicated, because the collaborators are not actors who make a living by acting, but real people. "The characters in the documentaries are real people. , they have their own emotions, emotions and preferences. It is not easy to win their trust. They have their own opinions and ideals. They don't want to get paid for their performances. They want to be able to Expressing persuasion through documentaries.” Therefore, in order to allow the subjects to express themselves more freely, communication has become one of the most important tasks of a documentary filmmaker. Share and express their opinions, they don’t want to be used by others. As documentary directors, our job is to build a sense of security and mutual trust with the people being filmed, which is something to do before filming.”
Picking the right subject is half the battle
Ke Wensi believes that making a documentary is like falling in love. The director needs to devote himself to his emotions and establish a relationship of mutual trust with the subject.
In his opinion, "casting" is the first and most important step in filming a documentary. "It's about everything. If you choose the right subject, the film is half the battle."
Cowens believes that if a suitable subject can be found, who can have an open dialogue and discuss his own life, then the filming of the documentary will be much smoother.
In fact, this point is not only applicable to documentaries, Cowens said: "All movies, whether it is a feature film or a documentary, must find your protagonist. If you find this person, you will basically get twice the result with half the effort. It will also be efficient, so the casting process depends on the whole team and the team casting process.”
Due to language problems, the documentary filmed by Ke Wensi in China needs the producer Han Yi to help Ke Wensi complete the selection of the documentary. Han Yi said: "The film selection has to audition, and I need to know their ability and whether the role can meet the requirements. My standard is the same for documentaries, except that the casting process is not an audition, but a constant search for the characters who can best embody the film.”
Han Yi said that in the process of casting roles, there are usually two situations. One is accidental. For example, the protagonist of the first episode of the documentary "Chai Rice, Oil and Salt" co-operated with Ke Wensi met by chance. , in the process of getting along with each other, they feel that the degree of trust and openness are more consistent, and they hit it off.
In another situation, you need to persevere and keep looking. "Three or four years ago, in a film I made, the director said that to tell the story well, we need a girl like this, what she is like and what she has experienced. Situation, what might be done... The director is making up a character, we give the request to the researcher, go door-to-door, knocking on the door one by one. The researcher was very stressed at first, with so many rules and regulations, and the time was very tight , we thought we couldn't find it, but in the end we found a character with a very close similarity, and then the story was really good."
Regarding casting, Ke Wensi talked about his trouble shooting a documentary in China, "Many people in China tend to shy away from talking about themselves. Generally speaking, I wouldn't say they are shy. The best word I can find is, they We will pay more attention to ourselves." Han Yi also added: "Chinese people are very introverted, they rarely laugh or cry, and our emotions are drawn inward. It is easier to express emotions in drama films, and there are many actors. Skills can be performed, but in real life, life, old age, sickness and death, joys, sorrows and sorrows really depend on luck, no one can laugh when they want to laugh, it must come from the heart, the difficulty in non-fiction lies in this."
Do solid preliminary research and find good stories
After the characters are selected, finding a good story is also the key point. Ke Wensi shared that the secret to finding a good story is to do solid preliminary research, "Many people think that I have a month or two months to prepare. Or go to a place to find a person, but it’s not that simple.” After researching and preparing the story, Ke Wensi said that he must go to meet the subject, “You must knock on the door, see this person, and see How does he look on camera. To convince the subject, we have to give ourselves over and build a real emotional connection with them and gain trust.”
As for good stories, Ke Wensi believes that as a "foreigner", everything he sees is fresh and interesting, but for Chinese filmmakers, many things may have been taken for granted, "You have taken many things for granted, but there are still many things in China. Something worth telling the world. The power of movies is often underestimated. In fact, the power of movies is huge. This is soft power, but soft power is still power. I don’t think you can change the world with movies, but you can change through movies People's opinions and prejudices. Young filmmakers and documentarians should cherish soft power, show the world a real China through the power of words and images, and change the prejudiced and preconceived impression of China in the hearts of Westerners ."
The way of telling a story is also a criterion for judging the level of a documentary filmmaker. Ke Wensi said that his principle is that he must try very hard to express the story with lenses and images, instead of conveying the story through explanation and words.
“The narrative of a story depends on images, and a shot can convey a lot of emotions and more information. If there is no way to convey a story with images, then it is better to choose words to express it. Movies are like bricks and bricks. There is concrete connection in the middle, the text is like concrete cement, the visual things are the protagonists, how to edit them together requires interaction and cooperation and the corresponding primary and secondary clarity. Be sure to remind yourself that this is a visual art, although language Powerful, but only use words when needed, most of the time with images to interpret and describe.”
make movies through emotion
Ke Wensi believes that a documentary filmmaker is an observer of society. In the past few years of creating in China, he has gained a very important experience that the Chinese people have a sense of historical mission.
Ke Wensi said: "The memory of the Chinese has a page of humiliation and suffering in modern times. The Chinese are working hard now, and China is undergoing a great transformation. In the past 30 or 40 years, China has undergone many changes, but at the same time everyone We know that there may be many uncertainties in the future, but what we can be sure of is that China will have a very bright future, which is beyond doubt."
In Ke Wensi's view, China is a creative paradise, and there is no shortage of good stories. He hopes to express his understanding of China through his films and contribute his strength to building a bridge of mutual understanding between China and the West.
"I hope to use the film to record the self-esteem and self-confidence of the Chinese nation, as well as the enthusiasm and optimism of the Chinese people for life. We shoot the joys, sorrows and sorrows of ordinary Chinese people, and use the camera to show the way of survival of the Chinese people. Heroes are among the people, Ordinary people also have flash points. My task is to use images to record their flash moments."
How to spread Chinese stories to the world, Ke Wensi, who has traveled to more than 80 countries and regions in the world, obviously has some experience. He believes that documentaries can be favored by the international community, and individual emotions are the bridge to the world.
"I'm always talking about how to go out with the story of China. In fact, I often look for the common life, old age, sickness and death, joys, sorrows and sorrows. We have more than 1.4 billion individuals. During the casting process, I prefer to focus on individuals. Because it is easy for individuals to talk about birth, old age, sickness and death, joy, anger, sorrow, and joy, and the ultimate goal is emotion. The works that have touched the audience are nothing more than making people cry, make people laugh, make people feel moved, and make people think deeply. Emotions are not Data is not boring.”
Cowens said that he did not shoot newsreels, but documentaries with emotions: "I do movies through emotions. I have said this many times, and I also firmly believe that when you watch a movie When you make a movie that moves you, it touches your heart and you remember it for the rest of your life.”
Text / reporter Zhang Jia