"You have to have confidence in yourself. If you don’t have confidence, you will be bad. Many people will compare this film with the previous (films). I think it’s okay. Just compare it. Anyway, I try my best to surpass it. "
talked about the heated discussions and doubts caused after the release of "Captain China", Liu Weiqiang said, and "confidence" was also a topic he mentioned many times in interviews. With the box office of "Captain China" surpassing 2.6 billion, Liu Weiqiang's total box office of this year's works has exceeded 5 billion (the production of "Heroes of Fire" is 1.689 billion, and "Apostle Walker 2: Operation Spy" is 698 million, becoming the current Chinese of 2019 The film director is number one at the box office. Obviously, this year is a bumper year, and Liu Weiqiang happily replied, "Of course I am very lucky. I think it has been a smooth year for myself, so I am really happy.
has traveled through the wave of the golden age of Hong Kong movies. The mainland market has been ups and downs for more than a decade. Liu Weiqiang, behind the films such as "Infernal Affairs", "Young and Dangerous", "Initial D" and "The Wind and Cloud Dominates the World", has become a Chinese film player. One of the big guys, but Liu Weiqiang, who I met in the Beijing studio during the movie (ID: yiqipaidianying), was barefoot wearing a pair of hotel disposable cotton slippers. He was busy upstairs and downstairs, and said with a bright smile, "I think I He is still in his thirties."
An interesting contrasting cuteness appeared in Liu Weiqiang, and why is he behind "Captain of China"? He is behind the 5 billion movie box office? He is behind many classics and many innovations? Hope we can get answers after this interview.
is good-looking-the basic standard of the movie is also the ultimate requirement
. Before the release of many new films last weekend, "Captain of China" maintained the single-day box office championship for 13 consecutive days. This shows that the film is full of stamina. Speaking of the core of the filming of this film, Liu Weiqiang also frankly said in the vernacular that "the most important thing is to make a good-looking film."
So, how do you make a good-looking shot?
Looking back at the success of "Captain China", one is the breakthrough in genre, which includes the content breakthrough at the script creation level and the use of high-tech techniques in the filming process, and the second is the confidence and persistence of the creative team, from the spirit and spirit. The emotional level supports the completion of the film.
First look at the type breakthrough. As we all know, "Captain China" is adapted from the Sichuan Airlines flight 3U8633. The crew successfully handled the special real events. This is a wonderful true story, a wonderful film script idea, and it is also a flight rarely involved in the field of Chinese movies. Subject matter, but adapting this event into a movie is not simple at all.
is like Liu Weiqiang said: "Many film companies and directors want to shoot this theme. This theme is very interesting and has great challenges. I think it is my honour to have this opportunity. I also tried many ways to make this movie well. "
Liu Weiqiang knows that in the history of Chinese film creation, there are only a handful of flying-themed films, and as a major commercial blockbuster determined to be the 70th anniversary of the motherland, it naturally determines that its size and specifications are by no means ordinary. Small piece. At the same time, from the perspective of the future market situation, the audience’s review threshold for movies adapted from real events has always been higher than that of ordinary movies, because in the real events that have occurred, everyone has fully understood the ins and outs of the story, even the climax and ending. There is no suspense, so naturally there will be higher requirements for movies adapted from the event, so how to grasp the essence and how to use many methods to present the thrilling parts, which shocked the audience. These are all led by Liu Weiqiang. The team needs to think and focus on the creative part.
For example, what is most concerning in real events is the professional ability and calm attitude of the entire crew in dealing with dangerous situations. In "Captain of China", Liu Weiqiang deliberately described the life in the cabin-"Everything in the film Individuals are unique. There are local tyrants, Sichuan couples, veterans, and young people. They are the people beside us. It seems like a small society. Not only is it taking pictures of the crew, but these passengers are also a very important part."
For example, the core process of the real event is only about 34 minutes, and the movie takes at least two hours. In order to expand the content and increase the viewing experience, Liu Weiqiang and his team deliberately designed another climax scene of the plane passing through the clouds. Regarding the content creativity of this part, Liu Weiqiang also said: "I think it is a very powerful design to penetrate the clouds. We have done many interviews.Asked, I thought about a lot of stories and designed these things very carefully. "
Moreover, in the design of this climax scene, Liu Weiqiang also insisted on the "characteristic features" in his work, which is to personify the cloud group. "It is like a monster, (showing) how the captain would fight "This monster", so there is a famous scene in the film where a seemingly small plane confronts a giant cloud.
In fact, Liu Weiqiang knows that the most touching thing is human nature, so everything in the film is different. It is given life, like a monster cloud, and also like a state where the captain and the aircraft are in one. It is the innovative design in these subtleties that makes the film look good and truly moving.
In addition to the content-level design, Liu Weiqiang also led the team to seek breakthroughs in the production methods and methods of the entire film. The most famous incident of "Chinese Captain" is nothing more than 30 million to build a 1:1 frame. Simulating machine and shooting on a five-meter-high sports platform. In addition, the entire crew also maintains a highly tense and united work rhythm and atmosphere, because the film is scheduled to be released on National Day, so the crew’s shooting time is also reserved. It’s even more nervous.
“It may take 15 hours to fly to LA. Once I just flew over, held a three-hour meeting, determined a lot of things, and then flew back immediately.” In Liu Weiqiang’s memory, filming this movie The movie is like a plane in and out of the scene. Every day I sit on the set and shoot with a simulator. When I get out of the set, I fly around in a plane to deal with various things. After all,
is getting old, and sometimes my family still I can’t help but worry. Sometimes my wife will ask him, "Can you really hold on? "
Looking at it now, Liu Weiqiang has survived, not only through those hard working days, but more importantly, withstanding the pressure and anxiety to complete the filming task, and handed in a good answer sheet. "Chinese Captain" has once again become Bona’s National Day counterattack work.
must have confidence-Make things happen young students
When "The Founding of the Army" was released in 2017, he directed the first two parts of "The Founding of the Country" Huang Jianxin retired from the position of director and became a producer. Liu Weiqiang got the guide. Some media asked Huang Jianxin why he was looking for Liu Weiqiang. Huang Jianxin bluntly said, "Look for him to shoot because he is better than us!" ID: yiqipaidianying) In an interview with Bona Pictures President Yu Dongshi, Yu Dong’s evaluation of Liu Weiqiang is "I trust him very much, and Liu Weiqiang is a director who can help you in the battle at the critical moment." With such support and trust, Liu Weiqiang has become This time, the director of "Captain of China".
And while Liu Weiqiang took over the filming task of "Captain of China", he also served as the producer of "Heroes of Fire" and "Apostle Walker 2: Operation Spy", both The work can also be regarded as a blockbuster project of this year's summer archive. Among them, "Heroes of Fire" is also adapted from real events. It is also the first domestic film to directly face the firefighters group. In order to relieve Chen Guohui from the production pressure, Yu Dong invited Liu Weiqiang to serve Producer to escort the escort; another "Apostle Walker 2: Operation Spy" was in preparation for two years, and Liu Weiqiang also "monitored" the progress of the project. Coincidentally, these three films were released in three months. The good results achieved one by one led to Liu Weiqiang’s producer and director’s film box office data soaring in 2019.
As mentioned earlier, "Chinese Captain" is not easy to shoot. As the director, Liu Weiqiang naturally knows this better. Describe my shooting status at that time: "I close my eyes every day and think about how to shoot the next scene. Every day I think about how to make it look better. The pressure I put on myself is slowly coming. "
During the entire filming process, Liu Weiqiang basically only slept for five or six hours a day. He got up at 5 or 6 in the morning and arrived at the scene to communicate with the staff to confirm the shooting arrangements for the day. Work was finished at around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and everyone stayed together. Meeting on the set, playing the rough cut content shot the day before, and discussing, modifying, and necessary re-shooting issues. After that, Liu Weiqiang went back to eat, sleep, and went to bed until about two o'clock in the morning to read the script and review the content of the script and the shooting plan. To make changes, the reason why he got up to work at this time, he said "because it is the quietest at this time". After this part of the work is completed, he will uniformly send the changes to the assistant directors, and then go back to sleep for an hour or two, and then Get up and start the next day's work.
▲On-site work photo
When recalling, Liu Weiqiang also said that he was tired every day, but he was more motivated when he was under pressure. Liu Weiqiang led the team to figure out the method of filming "Captain of China". .
For the Chinese-language film market, "Captain China" is new. It fills the gaps in history in terms of genre creation and application of techniques, and the "new" naturally has to face more attention and doubts. After the film was released during the National Day, many plots in the film also caused controversy on the Internet. Many netizens said that many parts of the film did not conform to common sense or were unreasonable. Some netizens expressed dissatisfaction with the personality of some characters. The American movie "Captain Sally", which is also adapted from real special events, is compared.
Faced with these voices, Liu Weiqiang naturally saw them, and he also said frankly: "You have to have confidence in yourself. If you don't have confidence, you will be bad. Many people will take this film and the previous (referring to " "Captain Sally"), I think it’s okay. Just compare it. Anyway, I tried my best to surpass it, because "Captain Sally" was also a movie many years ago. There are many things in my movie. I have never filmed before, and I have invented a lot of lenses, sound effects, and shooting techniques."
As for the design content in the film, this is normal in Liu Weiqiang's view-"Many things are artistic processing, this is a movie, we We are not making news films. We are often very objective in watching movies, but making movies is very subjective."
is like Liu Weiqiang said, "Be confident in yourself." When he faced sir and responded to these doubts, he also It also shows great confidence, and this kind of confidence is not beyond the experience and practice of time-tested. Regarding the profession of director, Liu Weiqiang said in the interview that he thought it was wonderful to shoot sir.
"It’s hard to make a movie. It’s even harder to make a movie if it’s good at the box office and word-of-mouth. This is the case in this movie circle. Sometimes people say, "You are a good director." It may also be embarrassing. You have to understand this game. What is it like? When you succeed, don’t exaggerate. Don’t be discouraged if you fail. It’s okay to be discouraged for a week, and then do a better job in the next one.
I have been shooting movies for so many years, and every movie will encounter this situation. , You have to use a learning attitude, otherwise you will die (be eliminated). Some people say you don’t understand, don’t understand how, I’m going to learn. So sometimes I listen to music and go out for a walk Let’s go, don’t care what others talk about." It’s easy to say
, but it’s really hard to do it. Liu Weiqiang, who will be 60 years old next year, used half a lifetime to come up with more than 100 works. After filming sir, it seems to understand why the important task of filming "Captain of China" was assigned to Liu Weiqiang's shoulders. He said that it was worthwhile to make this film, and filming sir also felt that let him do it. It's worth it. There is a memorable little detail in
. On the day of the interview, Liu Weiqiang wore a black sweater with a sentence-Make things happen on his chest, which seemed to be a line in his life.
In Liu Weiqiang’s directorial career, what he is best at is Make things happen, and he is a different story with different characters. The changeable style is the evaluation of him by the outside world, and he also said: "I am born with a very curious heart. , Innocent, I feel very young when I am so old."
Sometimes, youth is not a state but a state of mind. Shoot sir and ask him, how old is his heart to position himself?
He thought for a moment, and said with a smile: "I think I am still in my thirties." What a wonderful answer from
, what a wonderful life, I also look forward to Liu Weiqiang, who is in his thirties, and the next film will be more Wonderful world.
