The film "Fireworks", released on January 13, is very different from the films we have seen in theaters before, whether in genre, form or content.
is a vertical screen movie that the creator salvaged from more than 50,000 Kuaishou short videos, "secondary creation" of more than 800 pieces of video material, and completed it through editing, splicing, and restructure. The so-called vertical screen movie means that most of the time in the movie, the screen is divided into five vertical screens, and several short videos are played at the same time, which looks like a dynamic screen.
These image materials were created by 509 ordinary people. They are female textile workers, construction workers, truck drivers, fishermen, rice farmers, etc. They use their mobile phones to record their work and life, including hardships and laughter. Based on these image materials, the film "Fireworks World" uses the five themes of "food, clothing, housing, and people" as clues to connect the life fragments of different people in different time and space, allowing the audience to re-examine our lives from a broader perspective. world. Understand what kind of group of people support the normal operation of society and people's daily life with their own hands.
Recently, Sun Hong, the director of "Fireworks World", accepted an exclusive interview with China Business News. He talked about his thoughts on the film from creation to release, and also responded to the various controversies faced by the film.
Workers become the protagonists
The creative concept of "Firework World" began in 2018. At that time, short videos were sweeping every corner of Chinese society, and the lives of every ordinary person were affected by this new media technology. In the view of Sun Hong and the creative team, if they can make a movie related to short video users, they may be able to see changes in an era and society from an individual perspective.
If we follow the traditional documentary shooting method, the usual choice is to follow a number of typical users for a long time, and we can also achieve this kind of observation of the changes of the times and form a documentary feature film. In the end, they decided to abandon this conventional approach and choose to create with UGC materials.
Sun Hong agrees with the value of short videos. In her opinion, short videos bring a kind of image liberation power: "Short videos have become the fountain pen of this era. Fountain pens also need the threshold of culture and education, but short videos do not , every ordinary person living in a county, village or town can pick up a mobile phone to watch and take pictures." Unlike most documentary films in the past, the value of short video images is that they are images of self-expression: "They record it themselves Oneself, instead of being expressed, observed, and stared at." Therefore, a large number of user-generated images establish another dimension of reality.
Due to the needs of creation, the main creative team often needs to watch all the videos of a user from beginning to end, and participate in a small part of the user's life in the process. They are no longer a symbol in the virtual world, but real people. .
In the process of "cloud field" processing of tens of thousands of short videos, some images from workers left a deep impression on the creative team, and at the same time gave them a huge sense of shame: "Their daily life has become a This world seems so novel to us because we have never truly entered and understood their lives."
In "Fireworks World", we can see how they live at an extremely close distance. On the roofs of high-rise buildings in the city, there are a group of tower crane drivers, some of whom are women. They need to overcome their fear of heights and climb to a height of 100 meters above the ground to work. Since it was too much trouble to go up there, they had to carry all the food with them for the day. Most of the time, they worked alone and the conditions were difficult. And we can also use the videos they took and see through their eyes the beautiful clouds over the city that are impossible to see on ordinary days. This is also part of her daily life.
We can also see that in the cotton mills with roaring machines, female textile workers work mechanically on the assembly line day after day. The high temperature in the room makes their clothes soaked. At the same time, they also find fun in labor, teasing each other, and there are often stretched smiles on their youthful faces.Their situation was difficult, but in such a difficult environment, they did not forget to look for the joy and beauty in life.
In Sun Hong’s view, these self-photographed images can break through some presuppositions and prejudices from others and reach another dimension of reality. As documentarians, what they can do is observe these complex and diverse realities and bring the revelations they have gained to more people.
When short videos come to the big screen
For viewers, "Firework World" can help them break out of the information cocoon created by the short video platform algorithm, allowing them to see a human world they have never seen before. In the view of film scholar Dai Jinhua, "Fireworks World" is a successful experiment: "We can see the labor of workers... They are playing, laughing, and dancing, living a delicious life, and living so vibrantly. , which is rare in current film and television works."
However, due to the particularity of the form, "Fireworks World" has been facing various criticisms since it premiered at the Pingyao Film Festival in October 2020 and entered theaters today. The focus of the controversy includes: Today, when short videos fill every gap in life, why go to the theater to watch a film with short videos as the main material? Are short videos really qualified or necessary to be on the big screen?
The discussion on whether it is necessary for "Fireworks World" to be released in theaters continues, which also leads to the discussion of what a movie is. In Sun Hong's view, there is no unified standard for movies. Its essence is the reproduction or expression of life: "Life is all-encompassing, and so should movies."
Sun Hong told China Business News that "Fireworks World" is on the big screen Only by showing it on the screen can you get the best presentation effect. Most of the time, the video screen is a horizontal screen composed of five vertical screens spliced together, and each vertical screen contains a large amount of information. "If you watch it on a laptop or mobile phone, it is actually difficult to see the information on each screen clearly. This is a very real problem."
On the big screen, the audience can see five vertical screens, and five ongoing events at the same time. One kind of life, five kinds of reality. The interaction of information on each screen can generate new meanings. For example, in one vertical screen, you can see how construction workers are working hard at high altitudes to build skyscrapers, and in another vertical screen, buildings are blasting and collapsing in an instant: "You can see that Chinese cities are constantly updating. In the process of updating, behind the update is the pouring of the flesh and blood of every construction worker."
Sun Hong always remembers the first time "Fireworks World" was screened in the theater, from the feet to the top of her head, the huge picture brought her a Impact: “When you see a giant vertical screen there and look back at your phone, you will feel that it has undergone a qualitative change. It is no longer a short video on your phone in the traditional sense; A giant self-portrait belonging to contemporary Chinese people." In her view, the big screen offers the possibility of writing ordinary people into myths.
Five years have passed since the film was created until it entered theaters today. Some of the music that was popular at the time seems a bit dated, but the humanity and emotion retained in the film still resonate today.
In "Fireworks World", we see that many stories of ordinary people have been preserved, such as the story of truck driver Ni Wanhui and his wife Li Chan. Ni Wanhui and his wife died due to hypoxia on the plateau while delivering goods to Tibet at the end of 2018. Before his death, the couple registered an account on Kuaishou called "Truck Driving Xiao Huihui" to share their life on long-distance transportation routes, including hardships and the warmth of mutual support. The account attracted hundreds of thousands of followers. After the two were killed, truck drivers across the country rushed to Qinghai from all over the country after hearing the news, completing the delivery and sending the couple back to their hometown.
"In fact, every truck driver takes a lot of risks during transportation. When we see images like this, we will have greater respect for this profession." Sun Hong said, "You can also see that among truck drivers Giving each other strength and help, they spontaneously drove the truck back. When you see so many trucks on the screen, they are no longer trucks, but people walking on the land of China."
This is also one of the original intentions of producing "Fireworks World", to reconnect the relationship between people in the modern consumer society where things are linked. "We are interdependent and closely connected. "Sun Hong said that in our lives, what is seen is often items and commodities: "Many times, we can no longer see the people behind them. Through these images, we can know where a grain of rice comes from and see the living people behind these objects. "
short video technology certainly makes images more diverse, but it also creates a kind of information cocoon: "The logic of push makes it impossible for people to break through their own world, and instead becomes more and more lonely. Movies may be able to make up for this shortcoming and provide the audience with a new understanding of reality with the creator's thinking. "Sun Hong said.
