Humans are complex animals. Some are naturally good at dealing with multiple tasks, and some are good at concentrating on one thing.
Zhang Yimou is a well-known director in China. At the beginning of 2018, he was 68 years old when he was planning to make the movie " One Second ". At this time, he was also hosting eight or nine different big projects. His daily state is that he works more than ten hours a day, walks 5 kilometers, and eats only one meal.
rushed to the suburbs at 7 am to participate in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics 8-minute swearing ceremony; hurried back to the recording studio at 10 am to record the post-recording of the film "Shadow"; rushed to report on the preparations for the Winter Olympics at 11:00; open at 2 pm The film "One Second" art conference; a planning meeting for the Qingdao SCO Summit performance at 4 o'clock; two large-scale performance rehearsals at 6 and 9 o'clock in the evening; and three planning meetings after 10 o'clock in the evening. The full-day work of
did not end until 3 o'clock in the morning of the next day. So far, Zhang Yimou has worked for a full 20 hours, and the rest of the day is also very full. It can be said that Zhang Yimou's work status is constantly switching task modes and wandering between different tasks.
What are the benefits of doing this?
Zhang Yimou’s multi-threaded
director is different from painters and writers. From the beginning of the investment, we have to deal with all kinds of people, and after joining the team, we must coordinate the crew and deal with issues large and small, and we have to hold meetings all the time. Artists engaged in independent creation don't like meetings.
Zhang Yimou's projects are all about making a decision between compromise and trade-off. When he faced all kinds of opinions and asked the other party "what to do", the other party would often have no words. At this time, the director was lonely.
Zhang Yimou said that his way to fight aging is to stay active and busy, claiming to be "inclined old age". His directing business covers movies, large-scale evening parties, operas, etc., almost all of which are national-level key projects, with deadlines and hard requirements, and they cannot be shied away.
such as the 8-minute appearance at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the performance at the Qingdao Shanghai Cooperation Summit, the " Dialogue·Fable 2047" drama and so on. In the cracks of these times, Zhang Yimou still took the crew to Dunhuang to make the movie "One Second". Why did he have to make this movie?
Zhang Yimou said that when he jumped in line in Shanxi in the 1960s and 1970s, even the murderers were not willing to spoil everyone's watching movies. As long as the projector is turned on, the obsession and enthusiasm of the audience will make the director feel proud. This "One Second" is his love letter dedicated to the film era.
starring Zhang Yi found that when the older generation of filmmakers talk about film, they have a kind of supreme glory. This movie is not only Zhang Yimou's personal emotions, but also the collective memory of a generation of Chinese. Zhang Yimou said that this is a movie about a movie.
For example, the first scene of the whole play is in the desert. According to the original design, Zhang Jiusheng, played by Zhang Yi, walks quickly under the scorching sun. Who knows that as soon as the machine is turned on, a sandstorm blows in the sky and the machine has to stop. Zhang Yimou considered for a moment, decided not to wait, and changed the beginning of this scene to walking in the sandstorm. Zhang Yi took a few shots, and it seems that the effect is not bad.
If you continue to wait that day, it is still useless, because after the sandstorm stops, hail starts to fall, and the sun is still useless. This kind of unexpected adjustment is carried out at any time when directing a large-scale party.
However, for the director, it is okay to choose to shoot another day. Why did Zhang Yimou choose this way?
Zhang Yimou's judgment on details is the same. Important details can't be accommodated. Like a crew filming in the desert, they have to change places after shooting because there are too many footprints on the sand dunes, and the leveling is unnatural.
But like the film " on the cliff ", the scene was shot in Datong, Shanxi. Although the snow scene is different from the northeast, Zhang Yimou did not ask for the ultimate restoration.
This is the principle of Zhang Yimou's work. It is often necessary to switch task processes at a high frequency. At this time, completion is more important than perfection.
In many cases, the conditions do not support the consumption of details. The more complex the cooperation, the easier it is for some reasons to lose control. But as long as you are in it and take over the job, no matter how bad the situation is, you have to accept the result and accompany everyone along. This is the basic professional attitude.
For decades, Zhang Yimou has made many movies and large-scale parties, and he has not been scolded less. However, Zhang Yimou is still working tirelessly, which can't make people afraid to move.
At the opening ceremony of the movie "One Second", Zhang Yimou said that he and his team would finish the film in a short time and in a very simple way.
Hou Xiaoxian 's focus
In contrast, another director, Hou Xiaoxian, a representative of the Taiwan Film Festival, has a different style.
When Hou Xiaoxian made a movie, he waited for a ray of light, a cloud, and a gust of wind. To shoot a fight scene in the woods, the usual way is to use an electric fan to blow the air, but Hou Xiaoxian just asks everyone to sit and wait. He feels that natural wind cannot be simulated, and the fog on the mountain in the movie is not simulated either. Is
necessary for this extreme pursuit? It is necessary for Hou Xiaoxian. He first gave the audience a kind of environmental reality. Hou Xiaoxian’s set did not have rehearsals, and every time he was shot with a machine, it was to capture the subtle nature.
So Hou Hsiao-hsien's filming costs a lot of film, which is a considerable expense. The general director’s downgrade standard is the plot coherence, but Hou Hsiao-hsien requires that every frame of the picture, from the light, the structure, to the expressions of the characters, must be perfect, without any flaws, and must reach the 100 points in his mind.
Hou Hsiao-hsien said that every technology in Hollywood is very strong, and Taiwan cannot be so professional in industry. Only careful attention to details and constant adjustments with sensibility.
Hou Xiaoxian’s movie does not seem to have a big scene, but it is quite extravagant, mainly reflected in the time. He spent a total of four years shooting " assassin Nie Yinniang ". This film has a great influence in France and Japan, and Hou Hsiao-hsien also won the best director at the Cannes Film Festival.
Hou Xiaoxian said that he pursued the perfect picture and gave up many coherent plot paragraphs. When Hou Xiaoxian received the award in Cannes, he said that making a movie is not easy and requires a lot of funds. He sold his house when he made a movie, and he and the distributor each took part of the risk.
If Zhang Yimou is multi-threaded, pragmatic and efficient, Hou Xiaoxian is extremely focused. Their working principles and rhythms are almost opposite, and they have produced completely different good movies. The style here is different, but it does not prevent these big directors from making a good work.
