The people who love each other disappear.
Is Dong Runnian who wrote this kind of story cruel?
No, he is actually very kind compared to his initial brain.
"The earliest inspiration was that the UFO spacecraft took people away. The spacecraft was bigger than the moon and hovered in the air all the time. The cabin was transparent. We could see those captured inside with a telescope. This is a great tragedy. "
watched as the person in love was taken away, what kind of reaction would those who stayed behind? With such thinking, Dong Runnian brewed a story, a story that tested self and love.
Regarding the presentation of the story, Dong Runnian did not only act as a screenwriter as before, but challenged the directorship, the highest coordinator of a movie.
A few days ago, Dong Runnian accepted an interview with reporters with his first directed work "People Caught by Light" (hereinafter referred to as "Being Light"). This senior predecessor in the screenwriting world and a newcomer in the director world has extremely sincerely shared his new film shooting story, the problems encountered by the screenwriter to director and some views on the film market.
writes the story: the process of subtraction
"The light in the film is like a mirror, it sees yourself."
started from the UFO's brain hole, and continued to be released on December 13, preparations for "Being Light" For nearly six years, this process has not been smooth. If
is shot according to Dong Runnian's original idea, the film will be a special effects blockbuster. He tried to write the outline of the story, but while writing, he found that the plot direction deviated from the theme he originally wanted to express, and the cost was too high.
couldn't find the core story line that fits his mind, which caused Dong Runnian to be troubled. Until one morning, his wife Ying Luojia gave him an important suggestion: abstract a little and do subtraction. "She said, try using it all up."
may be the lover's heart, and Ying Luojia's words cleared Dong Runnian's doubts. Love is a light, and people in love see the world shiningly. In addition, a beam of light shining in the sky has a religious connotation. In Dong Runnian's view, it is also a metaphor and fits the theme he wants to express.
In this way, the film finally established the concept of light around 2014, and the plot also changed from UFO dismantling the lovers to letting the light capture the two people in love together. In order to show the faces of all beings under the light, Dong Runnian thought of many stories. However, due to time length and other reasons, he must subtract the essence of the story just like subtracting concepts.
finally left four parallel story lines in "Being Light". Respectively, the trust crisis of a middle-aged couple, the journey of "finding husband" between an urban woman and a third party, the passionate love of a young man and woman, and the self-salvation of a street gangster.
Although each character's personality and life experience are very different, they have all been greatly tested in this light, and they have thought about themselves. This is also the theme of the film: how people should truly find themselves and show the truest side in intimate relationships, without shame and guilt.
revolves around the theme, and the script of the whole film has undergone three major changes. Except for the original UFO setting to light, the remaining two major changes are related to the characters. The first is Wu Wenxue, the leading actor played by Huang Bo, whose original profession was not a teacher.
"Later when I was writing stories and lines, I discovered that this light was actually a test for everyone, which was equivalent to an exam. At the same time, I hope the protagonist is a particularly gentle ordinary person, so I just set it as a teacher. He usually tests others, but now he tests him in life."
is followed by chopsticks played by Bai Ke. This character was only a supporting role in the original story line, but in the process of writing, the chopsticks seemed to have life, and they kept jumping out and beckoning to Dong Runnian: see me, see me!
"The chopsticks seems to suggest to me that he is the most interesting character in the story. So when the final fourth draft comes, I don't want to squeeze, and replace him as the protagonist of that line."
is the director : Everything will come naturally
"I had a dream of a director since I was a kid, and I always wanted to be a director."
actually looked at Dong Runnian's resume and it was easy to find that becoming a director was his inevitable life course. Dong Runnian graduated from the Directing Department of Communication University of China, and obtained a bachelor's degree in film and television director and a master's degree in film.
only when he graduatedThe opportunities for young directors are not as many as they are now. Having said this, Dong Runnian's eyes showed a trace of regret.
"It was around 2003. If it is the cold winter of the film and television industry, then it is equivalent to the ice age. Our classmates who are studying directors can hardly find any opportunities to be directors, and even have few opportunities to go to film and television companies or crews. There are few. Of course, even if I were to shoot at that time, I didn’t think about anything.”
Dong Runnian found that since he didn’t have any chance to be a director or other career opportunities after graduating from college, he should just write an original script with his friends. After graduating from a bachelor's degree, he and his friends and classmates wrote a costume drama script "Ching Ming Restaurant", and this script was quickly appreciated by film and television companies and was filmed.
From this, Dong Runnian entered the trade of screenwriting. He gradually discovered that there are many famous scriptwriters and many things to learn. He kept writing. After ten years of writing, he stood on the front line of domestic screenwriters. At the same time, his idea of being a director remained firm and never stopped.
In order to realize the dream, it is good to jump out of the comfort zone. By 2014, Dong Runnian believed that the time was ripe and he should become a director.
"Based on my internship accumulation in drama, including the accumulation of various resources and contacts, I naturally wanted to be a director. During this process, I made web dramas and short films. I have been looking for suitable opportunities for feature films. I am not a particularly anxious person. I hope that things will come naturally. So another four years have passed. By 2018, I feel that the time has come and I can make a feature film." For Dong Runnian,
is the biggest shift from screenwriter to director. Difficulty is a matter of work habits. As a screenwriter, I originally just created a story in the text, as long as I figured it out, I just wrote it down. Screenwriter is a self-reliant and self-sufficient position at work,
, but as a director, you need to express what you think, and you need to realize it through various departments. This requires communication, management, promotion and encouragement of other people's work and creativity, but at the same time, we must stick to our own ideas and ensure that everyone has the same understanding of the film. The transformation of
is not easy, but fortunately, Dong Runnian, who served as the director for the first time, is not alone. He has received a lot of support. Behind him, there are the best people in the entire industry, including the famous director Ning Hao, Jiang Wen's queen photography director Xie Zhengyu, Ning Hao's crazy trilogy art director Zhang Xiaobing, Chinese recording master Du Duzhi and so on.
Selected actors: The protagonist is destined to be Huang Bo
. "The overall shooting process is very smooth, with luck, but I think the most important thing is the professionalism of these leading actors and creators, which makes all creation and crew operations become Smooth.”
is not only the main creative behind the scenes, but also in front of the stage, especially the first starring actor Huang Bo. According to Dong Runnian, when the actors were selected for "People Caught by Light", he did not dare to invite Huang Bo.
At that time, he didn't dare to think of big actors, he thought that he could make the movie, and the casting requirements were appropriate. But when he started investigating Chinese actors, he found that Huang Bo was an inevitable existence. Coincidentally, the character of the protagonist in the film is indeed very similar to Huang Bo himself. He is attentive, gentle and delicate, making people feel safe and very different from what everyone sees on the screen.
He started to think about the possibility of Huang Bo, and later thought that since he felt it was appropriate, he should not dare to try because of the actor's reputation.
Later, Dong Runnian gave the script to Huang Bo. Huang Bo liked the script and the characters very much, but Huang Bo did not have the right time at that time. But he and Dong Runnian said: Although I don't have time to act, I can talk to you and help you come up with ideas. For the idea of
, Huang Bo gave his performance experience, director experience, script ideas, filming rhythm, scene construction, character excavation, etc. all his experience. He became more and more speculative with Dong Runnian, and finally he was lucky. Huang Bo had a free schedule, so the two hit it off.
In this way, through "The Man Caught by Light", the audience saw the other side of Huang Bo. In addition, actors including Wang Luodan, Tan Zhuo, Bai Ke, Huang Lu, etc. also showed a completely different image in the film.
Postscript
"What I am most grateful for when I made this film is that when I chose a different type of innovation from the past, from the investment company to the leading actor, everyone supportedHold me. Innovation requires a certain spirit of adventure, but in this cold winter of film and television, the more you want to spend the winter, the more you should innovate, because only in this way is it possible to make a way out. So I think everyone talks about the cold winter of capital, but the cold winter of creation is the most terrifying. "
At the end of the interview, Dong Runnian talked to us about his ideas for future creation. He said that he has no fixed genre preferences. The projects under development include comedy commercial films, police action films, and low-cost literary films. "I He is a very curious person, does not set limits on himself, and is full of love for many subjects. But in the end, when I shoot, it depends on which subject matter is developed. ”
