Economic Observer Network reporter Xie Chuchu On April 1, the directors of " Galaxy Writer " Shan Dandan and Li Kuo returned to Beijing after completing road shows across the country. The next day, they accepted 9 interviews. The small-budget comedy film "Galaxy Writer", which won two awards at the First Youth Film Festival, is a story about two screenwriters pursuing their dreams. It was released on the big screen on March 30. This is the first directorial work of Shan Dandan and Li Kuo after working as screenwriters for ten years.
Although it is a comedy movie that also focuses on the reality and dreams of ordinary people, "Galaxy Writer" did not receive the dark horse box office predicted by the industry.
html In an interview with Economic Observer Network on April 2, Shan Dandan and Li Kuo explained the innovative ideas in the movie and analyzed and reviewed the reasons why the market performance was not as good as expected.Economic Observer Network: How to understand the "anti-routine" label of "Galaxy Writer"?
Shan Dandan and Li Kuo: There is a new attempt in movies, and many plots are anti-routine.
Movies need to have lows and highs, but the climax of "Galaxy Writer" doesn't seem obvious. Normally, the climax must at least suddenly appear with a storyline that the protagonist recognizes, or work together to make a successful twist in the script and make the character stand up. However, the protagonist in this movie almost gave up on Beidiao in the end.
In the movie, the producer requires the screenwriter to write a script with logic, but this is different from real life. We may deal with this matter today, but suddenly have new matters to deal with tomorrow. The plot of the movie seems a bit scattered, because we want to try to restore life to a state of illogical disorder.
This story tells the story of two less talented screenwriters who encountered a dilemma that all screenwriters encounter when writing a script, that is, all characters and actions in the script must be reasonable, including falling in love. Explain it clearly. In real life, falling in love may only happen in an instant.
As screenwriters, their dilemma is that movies must be logical, but many things in reality are illogical. If there is no logic, the audience may feel that this movie is not lifelike. A good screenwriter can make the rationality very comfortable, and a mature screenwriter will make the audience not feel that he is influencing the characters, but the young screenwriter cannot give the reasonableness required by the producer, so they quarrel with the management and don't know how to solve the problem. good.
Commercial movies must show the audience that the protagonist gets what he wants, and what we do is that the protagonist does not give up what he wants. Movies always talk about character growth and character arcs, but the subtitle in "Galaxy Writer" is, "Characters don't grow." This is also a kind of growth.
Economic Observer Network: Do you regret not following the normal business routine to complete this story ?
Shan Dandan and Li Kuo: doesn’t regret it, but regrets that some of the scenes were not done better.
Directors of different ages should produce different works. In the future, I will definitely make big commercial movies with happy endings that everyone prefers to watch. But I will continue to express it. Of course, the box office has confirmed that this attempt was unsuccessful.
Many well-known foreign directors tried their own directorial approach in their early works to differentiate themselves from the expressions of mature directors. Last year we participated in the First Youth Film Festival, and I really liked its slogan - Be bold. If young people don’t hit the wall, who will? Although I am definitely banging my head now, it is better than failing later when I take on a larger investment.
Economic Observer Network: The movie chose the group of screenwriters as the protagonists. Will the audience be limited by this?
Shan Dandan and Li Kuo: I really didn’t think too much about at the time. It’s not that I deliberately targeted the market. I originally thought that screenwriters are the job type farthest from the entertainment industry in the film and television industry, so they are closest to the audience. The screenwriter writes the script at home and rarely appears on the set. I remember the first time I went to visit the crew. Someone stared at me for a long time after knowing that I was the screenwriter. The other person said that it was the first time he met the screenwriter on the set.
There is a short video by "Galaxy Writer" on Douyin with over a million views. The content is about roommates sharing utility bills. Young people will pay attention to plots related to their own lives. But we found that these life plots were not big enough for the audience to buy a movie ticket to watch. If this content is a drama, I believe the number of clicks should be relatively high.
Economic Observer Network: Before it was released, you also asked Jiang Wen and Stephen Chow about the movie. What suggestions did they give to the movie?
Shan Dandan and Li Kuo: The reason why we went to meet Jiang Wen was because he was mentioned in the movie. Out of respect for him, we asked him for advice through Li Zi, the founder of first. Jiang Wen has always been very individual, and he responded, "It's pretty good, just be yourself." He also said: "Don't release it during the cold season." When we asked him what needs to be changed, he replied: "No need to change, just shoot something different. If you are barefoot and not afraid of wearing shoes, there is nothing to be afraid of." "That's the attitude he taught us.
went to see Stephen Chow because he wanted to seek advice from seniors in the industry. Li Ziwei suggested that he should look for the best, and later he actually contacted Stephen Chow. At that time, we sent the movie online to Stephen Chow, but due to network lag, he finished watching the movie in two days. We went to Hong Kong to chat with him for an hour. He said that if the movie lags, he would not watch it, but he has finished watching "Galaxy Writer" and has always said that the movie "has a chance."
Economic Observer Network: This video has strong commercial attributes, but the current market performance does not seem to meet expectations. The main difficulty is what is ?
Shan Dandan and Li Kuo: It is indeed very difficult to promote movies. It requires very professional and sensitive people to operate, especially for movies like ours. In fact, I still don’t know who the audience of this movie is, and I feel like I’m fishing for the audience in a big sea.
Making a movie is harder than I thought. Although in the eyes of many people, we have succeeded: new directors have independently produced, moved to the big screen, and some people have extended an olive branch to us, but the more we enter this industry, the more we are in awe. Scripts are difficult, and making movies is also difficult. .
I have always thought that "Galaxy Writer" is a commercial film, but after it went to the market, I found that it is neither a commercial film nor an artistic film. I found that commercial films still need to emphasize genre. For example, action films have to fly out of airplanes and jump from tall buildings. Crime films have to be very "criminal". If they are comedies, they have to make the audience laugh. Although "Galaxy Writer" is a comedy, it also has the bitterness and self-deprecation of the film's author. It is said to be commercial, but it seems to also have literary and artistic expressions.
