"Sherlock on the Plain" (hereafter referred to as "Sherlock") was released on November 29. As of press time, the film had a score of 7.8 on the Douban website. The actors in this film are all non-professional actors. The three starring uncles are farmers in Hebei. They have no high IQ protagonist aura, high-tech equipment, and modern detection methods. They can only use the most clumsy way to step by step to explore what happened to friends. The truth about the car accident. "Sherlock" is directed by the new director Xu Lei and won the FIRST Youth Film Festival for the best film text award. A 100-minute movie has too many interesting details. For example, the hero is the director’s father, the story of shooting in the deep state, the friendship between the rural brothers... The Beijing News reporter exclusively interviewed the film director Xu Lei and listened to him talk about "Sherlock" Behind the scenes of the production. The creation of
changed from screenwriter to screen, bringing personal experience to the screen.
The "Detective Sherlock" in the film is an ordinary old man from a rural village in Shenzhou, Hebei, Chaoying. When he was renovating a new house, friends from the same village came to help. , But Shuhe was admitted to the hospital by accident. In order to seek justice for Shuhe and to make up for the huge amount of medical expenses, Chaoying took his brother "Watson" to occupy the righteousness, locked three so-called suspects, and rode an electric tricycle to towns in the North China Plain. In the countryside, embark on a journey of searching for the escapees. The awkwardness and embarrassment they encountered when investigating the case, and the various coincidences they encountered, have become the jokes in the story. But in fact, this seemingly not-so-real plot is based on Xu Lei’s personal experience. There were relatives who were hit in his hometown, and they were worried that once the police could not find the perpetrator, they would not be able to reimburse the medical expenses, so everyone decided unanimously. Go chasing and solving the crime. Last year was when Xu Lei was very confused. At that time, he was working as a screenwriter. "The work is done, but the late stage of the film is very long and it is too late to be released. No one knows that I am the screenwriter of that film, so no one is looking for me. Continuing to write the movie script, it turns out that the clients for those commercials have also been cut off. I saw that I saved some money, so I said that I can shoot one by myself. It is not difficult to decide this."
casts a full amateur lineup, The director's mother persuaded his father to star in
Xu Lei to invest with her own money. She started to write the script in April. After nearly 5 months, she led a team of more than 30 people to complete the preliminary filming. The filming location of the film is Xu Lei's hometown of Hengshui, Hebei, and the actor boldly uses a full-fledged lineup. The protagonist, Chaoying, is the director's father Xu Chaoying. During the filming process, Xu Lei discovered that no matter how he acted, professional actors could not get rid of the performance traces. So he simply modified the script to allow ordinary people without professional training to play the leading role. “It’s not that I didn’t think that this movie would be played by a professional actor, but after the filming, I felt that I didn’t do that. Since I couldn’t find a particularly suitable one, at least I had to find someone I would like to shoot. Compared with those people, I still want to shoot my dad. I let him act in this play, and he can leave a work.” Xu Lei recalled, when he first invited his father to play, the other party refused, “He said he was not free. Because I set up a small engineering team with a few friends and took care of some tasks every day. Later, my mother persuaded him to participate. My mother had a big heart, and said that it’s okay if you can’t sell this movie. Take a picture for your dad. He can watch the movie when he gets old. Later, my dad decided to act and he was silent. It was the kind of "If you let me shoot, I will do it, and if you let me act, I will do it." He has been answering all kinds of phone calls, and then arranging who goes to the construction site to do what, who gets the sand, and so on. In short, he arranges his own work after filming the scene." The father of director
starred in the film’s protagonist Chaoying.
Shooting non-professional actors often reveals
’s transfer of non-professional actors. Xu Lei said that creative sparks may occur at any time. For example, several actors have strong talents and have a full sense of the rhythm of the play. Some directors told them how to perform, but the truth that they revealed was strong enough. For example, the most impressive Zhanyi spitting was punished, and the funny and simple performances came from Zhanyi himself; for example, the filming of donkey meat During the play, Zhanyi often NG, and the creators complained about "deliberately bad acting" because the donkey meat was expensive and wanted to eat a few more mouthfuls; Zhanyi also fought back at the scene where Shuhe was lying in bed because he wanted to smoke. In one afternoon, I almost smoked 17 cigarettes... cows, horses, farmers, cottages, adobes, straw hats, cornfields, electric tricycles, plastic film raincoats,Shirtless men, simple street shops, simple and comfortable clothes that don't pay attention to beauty, etc., all give the film a very down-to-earth rural texture. Xu Lei said that many elements in the film come from observations in rural areas. "I particularly appreciate the rashness of farmers, such as being convenient in sunflower fields. I heard that some people have done this in such a beautiful place. I think these The details are quite interesting."
tidbits
(the following content was dictated by Xu Lei)
was originally called "Dust Flying"
I originally wanted to film rural events in China, and I wanted the word "土" in the name. , Which happened to be a story of two people running around and tired, with the feeling of being a servant. Later, I felt that the name was too literary and did not fit the local tone, so I wanted to change it to a more fun name. "Sherlock on the Plain" is a bit of a joke. For example, when we ridicule a person, we often say that he is the wife Mu Cong of Chaoyang District, and playing football will say that this is Messi, Andingmen, so we renamed Sherlock on the Plain. The fate of
movies is almost not the director’s expectation that
could be sold to movie channels, but later I learned that they do not accept dialect movies. In fact, I never thought that this movie could be shown in theaters. I thought that I might go to some film festivals. It's another thing to win the prize. In fact, I always think in the worst direction when doing things. The worst is to practice hands, so I don't think this is something to be desperate, nor is it to sell a house to lose money to make this movie.
The "pay" for moving bricks a day will be as much as
I have less funds, so it can be cheaper to shoot in my hometown. In addition to the male starring my father, there are many relatives, friends, and brothers to help, like my mother, who also appeared in Shuhe’s younger sister, they also have a salary, but they will give it a symbolic amount, which is actually based on the local salary. To settle accounts, for example, how much money was earned by moving bricks for one day in the past, and how much money was given for acting (laughs). Several amateur protagonists in the
film performed very grounded.
My father has always been very stable in acting.
My father has always been very stable in acting. It's the kind of "you let me do it." In fact, he didn't think the movie is so sacred. Some time ago I told him that there was a magazine that I wanted Photographing him is a fashion magazine that many stars want to be included. He said he hadn't heard of it, but asked him to take a photo. He didn't think it was difficult and holy to make a movie. In fact, his stability surprised me. He has his own sense of rhythm in acting, which is what he looks like in life. When he enters the movie, he has a sense of being calm, unhurried, and not at all frustrated with the camera.
Don’t let the producer lose money
I don’t think there is anything to be corrected when the film is finished, and I don’t want to shoot it again. Because of your shooting cycle and funding constraints, you can only shoot one set of plans. That’s why I envy Wong Kar-wai. He can cut a movie of a star even after the filming is finished. It’s too capricious (laughs). In addition, my expectation for the market is not to let the producers lose money. I think they are very grateful for their willingness to gamble on a movie without a star.
Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan
