In " White Snake: Floating Life ", Xu Xian and White Snake blend into the market; "Falling into the World" retells the story of "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl", presenting the concept of the Twenty-Eight Constellations on the screen for the first time; " Safety from the 21st Century" "Evacuate " uses the sci-fi setting of "traveling back and forth twenty years in one sneeze" and the comedy style of advanced mental states that are impressive; the movie " reverses " uses Peking Opera as a unique entry point, combining youthful vitality and ancient art The collision sparked... This summer, a number of excellent new films have emerged. Although the new directors of the above four films are directing feature films for the first time, they have brought surprises to the film market. This shows the rapid development of the youth power of Chinese films. growing up.
Summer has become a box-office blessing for new directors
This year's summer movies continue to be "new", with rich genres and diverse themes, presenting a grand occasion of a hundred flowers blooming. According to real-time data from the Beacon Professional Edition, as of 19:00 on August 14, the total box office (including pre-sales) for the 2024 summer season has exceeded 9.5 billion. Chinese directors continue to explore through their works and find creative paths that can enter the hearts of the audience. If Chinese films want to expand their market space and let more audiences build trust and love for genre films and mainstream commercial films, they must have a new generation of creators to take over.
In recent years, summer movies targeting young audiences have become a box office blessing for new directors. Dumpling's "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World", "She Disappeared" directed by Cui Rui and Liu Xiang, "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles" directed by Xie Junwei and Zou Jing and other works are all in the summer season. After becoming famous in one battle, the summer season has become a blessed place for young directors.
In this summer's release, Zhong Ding, the director of " Falling into the Mortal World ", Li Yang, the director of "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century", Chen Jianxi and Li Jiaqi, the directors of "White Snake: The Floating Life", and Zhang Yudi, the director of "Reverse Position", are all This is their first time directing a feature film. As new directors, they have injected vitality into this summer's schedule and allowed the audience to see their future possibilities.
In order to polish their first feature film, several new directors have accumulated a lot of experience and continued to learn and grow during the creative process. The movie "Falling into the World" was born out of the graduation project of the students of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, which was very popular on Bilibili in 2020. After five years of creation, "Falling into the World" was released on July 12 this year. For director Zhong Ding, the creation of the movie "Falling World" enabled him to complete the transformation from an animation professional teacher to an animation director. "The 13 students who participated in the graduation project at that time went their separate ways after graduation, and 3 of them went their separate ways. "Three students chose to stay in the project and inherited the 'DNA' of Falling into the World, and I seemed to be going to college again in the process of trying, exploring, overturning, and starting over with the students."
As the highlight of this year's Chinese Valentine's Day, "White Snake: The Floating Life" has a box office of 230 million as of August 14. The film director Chen Jianxi served as the animation team leader of " White Snake: The Origin of " in 2019, and " White Snake 2" : The animation director of "Green Snake Robbery " is already very familiar with the "White Snake" series. Another director, Li Jiakai, was originally a loyal fan of "White Snake: The Origin", but later joined Light Chaser Animation and participated in the productions of "White Snake 2: The Green Snake Rises", " New God List: Yang Jian " and "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Miles". Storyboard creation, both of them jumped out of the professional field and took on the creative responsibility of the entire film. The
movie "Reverse Position" won the first venture capital award at the 15th First Youth Film Festival and the winning project of the "Chinese Good Story" at the 34th China Film Golden Rooster Film Venture Capital Conference.The film will be released on August 24. Director Zhang Yudi first thought of this story in 2017. The inspiration came from a chat with Xue Ying, a college classmate and screenwriter of the film. At that time, she had just graduated from Fudan University and went to A graduate student at the Southern California Film School, "After we had the inspiration for the story, we really started writing the script from 2018 to 2021. In the meantime, we shot another short film, and then from the short film to the feature film, we never Stop discussing this story, and your imagination about it continues. "
Injecting new ideas into traditional culture and focusing on the collision of culture and the times
The changing tastes of audiences have also prompted film works to pay attention to the collision of culture and the times, which several directors strive to achieve. Inject new ideas into the works, highlight individuality, and at the same time form emotional resonance with the current audience. The novelty of the
movie "Falling into the Mortal World" is to extend the legend of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and all creative elements revolve around the emotional core. Zhong Ding said: "In the film, the brother and sister Jin Feng Yulu not only trace their mother's identity, It also highlights the theme of family love in the film. In addition, the image of Weaver Girl has also been innovatively adapted. She is no longer the image of passive waiting for love in the traditional story, but has become a woman with a heart for the common people. "Visually in the film. Aesthetically, a new national style design was tried.
"White Snake: The Floating Life" follows the main line of love in the folk "Legend of the White Snake", allowing young audiences to see the charm of traditional stories, but it also adds ancient and vivid elements of life-oriented comedy to strengthen the tension and possibility of the narrative. sex. The classic characters in the film have been given new vitality. Director Li Jiakai said that Xu Xian's emotional shaping is richer, and Fahai, the "villain", has also become more humane.
The "White Snake" series is the representative work of the "New Legend" series of light-chasing animations. In the view of director Chen Jianxi, "New Legend" is to tell traditional stories to everyone in a new way, a new way of telling, and a new angle. "The creation of "White Snake: The Floating Life" draws nutrients from traditional Chinese culture, not only It vividly presents the elegance of the Song Dynasty for thousands of years, and uses the festival as a time node for the story, perfectly integrating the quintessence of Chinese opera elements into the film. "
"Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century" carries Director Li Yang's consistent imaginative style. The magical narration and highly stylized images, rich and strange imagination, unconventional narrative logic and emotionally resonant themes bring a rich viewing experience from different angles to the film, combining science fiction, comedy, youth and other aspects. The elements are cleverly blended to make the film both entertaining and philosophical. In the
movie "Reversal", the growth of young people collides with the quintessence of Peking Opera. All the anxiety and confusion are concentrated in the moment of transformation of "reverse", making the youth story exciting. Director Zhang Yudi uses real youth and real growth methods to construct the protagonist, showing the integration of Peking Opera and young people's lives. Peking opera elements are not only an embellishment of ancient culture, but also deeply penetrated into the plot, character creation and theme expression, becoming the soul of the entire film.
It can be said that young film directors not only pursue artistic depth, but also have insight into the market pulse; they not only capture the subtleties of real society, but also boldly explore the infinite possibilities of imagination. With their diverse perspectives and distinctive personalities, they add a bright color to the colorful picture of Chinese movies.
focuses on the collision of culture and the times to create a unique aesthetic style.
There is a natural tacit understanding between new film forces and new technologies. We will focus on the collision of culture and the times to create a unique aesthetic style. The two directors of "White Snake: The Floating Life" have a deep understanding of this. They said that it took five years from the first "White Snake: Origin" to the third "White Snake: The Floating Life". During these five years, the progress of Chinese animation technology brought a qualitative leap to the film. Li Jiakai said: " The most intuitive thing is that the hair is thinner than before."
With the support of new technologies, from the delicacy of the character's skin to the realistic expression of the hair, to the natural presentation of elasticity, it can help the team better shape the characters. "If it were five years ago, these characters' exaggerated movements and Expressions are something we dare not try, but now, technological leaps have allowed our creativity to be fully unleashed. "
"Falling into the Mortal World" carries the dreams and innovative exploration spirit of a group of young animators. The film attempts a brand-new national style design in visual aesthetics. Zhong Ding said: "We want to create a different temperament for the God Realm. It's all white cloth and black roof, a particularly elegant and extreme presentation. In order to achieve this effect, we have to keep trying and iterate for the best effect. "In terms of world view setting, "Down to Earth" uses fabric as the core visual element to weave together the two worlds of gods and mortals. The golden thread in Jinfeng's hand is agile and precise. It is not only a weapon for fighting, but also a tool for sewing, and a way to express one's heart. The medium of the world. Every fluctuation of the golden thread is like an artist spreading freely on the canvas, allowing the audience to marvel at its beauty and also feel its hidden power.
In "Safe Evacuation from the 21st Century", Li Yang cleverly combines animation style with live-action performance to create a unique visual feast. The clever embedding of animation elements not only adds a dreamy color to the film, but also expands the boundaries of the audience's imagination in editing and lensing. The use and color matching show innovative artistic charm. The editing is tight, the rhythm is strong, and the camera movement is full of tension, giving the film unlimited vitality. The clever application of close-ups and slow motion allows the audience to gain a deeper insight into the characters.
Young directors use passion and imagination as the source to open up the future for Chinese films together with mature directors. As these emerging forces grow, Chinese films will usher in a broader stage and contribute to the dream of becoming a powerful film nation. Injecting a steady stream of power
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yang
Editor/Qiao Ying
