Chapter 994: Dragon Gate

Screenwriting is important.

For TV dramas, screenwriters and scripts are the soul, but for movies, they seem to be less important. Everyone says that the director is the soul of a movie. Therefore, many directors are more willing and yearning to make movies, and feel that TV directors are low and film directors are tall.

Scripts and screenwriters are just a part of the movie. Even for many great directors, the script is simply dispensable, because everyone recognizes that movies are a comprehensive art of sound and light, not simply telling a story like TV dramas. ——But in fact, if you study the decades of film history in the world, especially the history of film development in the past 20 to 30 years, you will find that scripts are equally important to films.

Especially for a commercial film, the script is extremely important.

A closer look at the history of film shows that for all commercial films that sell well, regardless of whether they are Chinese or foreign, either the director is very good at telling stories, or the director is a screenwriter, or the director is a person who respects screenwriters very much.

No exception.

In another time and space, during the glorious ten years of Hong Kong movies, almost all of the top-selling directors were senior screenwriters, such as Wang Jing, Tsui Hark, John Woo, and so on.

Spielberg is particularly good at telling and filming stories. James Cameron is an absolute master of storytelling. Although Michael Bay’s stories are full of loopholes, which earned him the nickname “Explosive Bay”, in fact, he It is very clear what the audience likes to watch, and the rhythm of the story is quite well grasped, and then to the awesome Nolan brothers, and so on.

Focusing on the country, most of the films praised by everyone in the early days of Guoshi were adapted from the original works, and even if they were adapted from the original works, they must be written by professional screenwriters, and they cannot be filmed as the director says. Simple, there were no commercial film companies at that time. If you wanted to make a film, you had to go through the process of film studios in various places. There were screenwriters in the film studios. If you didn’t use screenwriters, wouldn’t it mean stealing other people’s jobs? This is not allowed by the system.

And to be honest, even though "Red Sorghum" won an award in Berlin and became famous for a while, within the system, he was just a cutting-edge director, and he didn't have such a big name to do whatever he wanted.

Therefore, "Red Sorghum", "Raise the Red Lantern", and "To Live" are all really well shot. Although those movies may not have brought much economic benefit to the national teacher, they really laid a solid foundation for him as a national teacher and became the biggest source of money for him to make money over and over again in the later period.

Later, when the business started, the national teacher was highly sought after, and the power in his hands was unlimited, so he could shoot whatever he wanted - because everyone thought that it was Zhang Guoshi! He's such a dick, how can I, a layman, intervene?

Then, he really started to do whatever he wanted, so his films became unwatchable in terms of storytelling!

No matter how much you are a master, no matter how good the camera aesthetics, color aesthetics, and storytelling are so scumbag, how can I give you a score of more than two stars? I give you two stars, one of which is for "Alive"!

Because "Alive" is almost worth six stars.

Far away!

In the present time and space, the problem is almost exactly the same.

Once the great directors reached a certain height, they really felt a little arrogant. From Qin Wei to Du Weiyun to Liu Chengzhang, they all showed off their skills, and then they pounced.

On the other hand, Li Qian, from his debut in the TV series "Legend of the White Snake", to the immature grasp of the camera in "My Sassy Girl", to the maturity of "Once Upon a Time", the outbreak of "Red Sorghum", and then to "The Matrix" His ability to express other films besides storytelling has been steadily improving, but the box office of his films has always been the top in the country under the market environment at that time.

Why? Why is "My Sassy Girl" so immature and so popular? Let him, a rookie director who is just getting started, become famous as a film director in one fell swoop?

But when it came to "The Matrix", it actually soared like this?

To put it bluntly, there is only one reason, he always insists that the story is the core of a commercial film!

No matter how powerful the technical means and no matter how talented the director is, they must be used to serve the story in order to create an excellent and good-looking commercial film. Otherwise, once the focus deviates from the story, whether it focuses on art, humanistic connotation, or dazzling special effects, it will inevitably face failure of one kind or another.

For example, Sunglasses King, who has been making literary and artistic films for a hundred years and lived by winning awards, finally managed to tell a story seriously. In fact, the story is not very good, but while maintaining the original style and not losing Under the premise, the box office exploded immediately!

Do you really think that so many viewers across the country are rushing to the King of Sunglasses?

To put it bluntly, first of all, read the story.

And back in 2004 in the current time and space, the story of "Dragon Inn" is absolutely top-notch-in fact, regardless of which time and space, this story is quite a good story.

Although Jin Han is still a profound literary director in his bones, he is also a person who has filmed youth idol dramas such as "Meteor Garden" and "Full House". He knows how to tell stories.

To tell the story smoothly, but at the same time ensure that it is not clichéd, and that it can always show a little bit of the artistic director's grasp of the language of the lens, that kind of beauty... is his biggest pursuit of this movie.

…………

After the interview and interaction session, the shock of the "estimated box office of 600 million" among the guests and reporters has not dissipated, and the movie has already started.

But Li Qian has already watched three versions of this movie.

He even watched the current release version over and over again, five or six times within a week—Jin Han is the director, Fang Baijin is the producer, but he, Li Qian, is the first producer. How to shoot this movie is a matter for Jin Han and Fang Baijin. What kind of cut will be presented to the audience, and finally Li Qian will be in charge of making the decision. So he had to watch it over and over again.

And so... no matter how good the movie is, after watching it so many times, plus watching it countless times in another time and space, there is really no addiction.

Of course, in his opinion, this version is better than Xu Xiake's version!

In terms of art skills, it is hard to say that Tsui Hark is better than Fang Baijin. In terms of camera control ability, he has no advantage in front of technical madmen like academic bull Jin Han.

The only thing is, I don’t know if it’s a preconceived relationship, the proprietress in Tsui Hark’s version, in Li Qian’s opinion, is really too successful, and the impression of that role on Li Qian is really too deep , so much so that, even though He Yingyu absolutely performed exceptionally well in this edition, the proprietress's performance is absolutely outstanding. Even in Li Qian's opinion, just for this role, she can already help this girl book a show at the end of this year. Best Actress, but...not as good as the original.

This is really impossible.

Of course, he is the only one in this world who has seen Maggie Cheung's version of "New Dragon Inn".

For all audiences in this time and space, He Yingyu's version of the proprietress and Jin Han's version of "Dragon Inn" are their first impressions of this story and this movie.

They will also be preconceived.

…………

Regardless of whether it is for publicity or not, Jin Han is very happy to describe Li Qian, the producer and screenwriter, as the main creator of "Dragon Inn".

In fact, now that he is just getting involved in commercial film production, he certainly doesn't have much confidence, so he is of course more willing to win some favorable factors that will make the film a big hit at the box office.

La He Yingyu's inclusion in the group as the proprietress Jin Xiangyu, and the mention of Li Qian in every interview are just part of this strategy.

But in fact, this film is really a unique "King Han style".

The long shots of the desert are majestic and majestic, yet delicate and soft. Many of the shots are shot with extraordinary attention to light and shadow, light and shade, depth, and characters, and the pictures are very poetic.

To be honest, he has never been ashamed of his background in Suncheon Film Academy.

Moreover, he took He Yingyu and Cheng Suping's pictures very beautifully. He was chosen to shoot MVs for Liao Liao and He Runqing, and later he was asked to direct several idol dramas for Minghu Culture. It was because of this, because He is very good at capturing the most beautiful angles of actresses through his own training and capture.

Simply put, this film has an epic quality.

But Li Qian looked at it lazily.

He didn't sit in the front row like Jin Han and He Yingyu. Except for publicity needs, he has been working hard to downplay his influence on the film despite the ubiquitous control.

He hoped that this would cultivate Kim Han's confidence in directing this type of commercial film.

After the movie was shown for more than ten minutes, he sat in the fourth row and quietly turned his head to look back. The guests, audience, film critics and reporters all watched with great concentration.

Bai Yujing suddenly leaned over and whispered to him, "It feels like a great shot!"

Li Qian also bit back, "Old Jin is very powerful."

Bai Yujing nodded.

After watching for another five minutes, she leaned over again, "You've been busy lately? I heard that you stay in the company every day, either writing in a daze, or picking up girls. Why don't you ask me for a drink?"

Li Qian turned his head and glanced at her, thinking to himself, why am I looking for you!

Everyone's friends are full, and the friendship degree is 100+, but each other agrees that it is not suitable to go further, so even if I drink, I won't look for you, I will go to Miss Cheng Suping, who will drink and sleep with you, the key It's because she doesn't drink too much. After the two of them drank two bottles of red wine, the young lady's skin all over her body was ruddy. She doesn't look like you, an old alcoholic. What's the point of not getting drunk after a thousand glasses!

Of course, this must not be said in this way, so Li Qian said: "I'm recording a song recently, so I don't drink alcohol!"

Bai Yujing secretly raised his middle finger at Li Qian.

It's a pure excuse to record a song. Have you ever heard of a singer smoking a pipe and cigar every day during the recording period? Of course wine should be drinkable too!

Then she asked again: "How many songs have you recorded? When will the recording be finished?"

Li Qian didn't think much about it, so he said: "I have recorded six songs, but don't worry, I want to go out for a few days recently, it's a vacation."

Bai Yujing said without hesitation: "Where are you going? Take me with you?"

Li Qian was a little embarrassed for a moment, he groaned for a while, then leaned over, and said in a low voice: "Xiaobing has just finished working for a while, and has been pestering me. She has to go out for a vacation. I'm going out with her."

Bai Yujing rolled his eyes, not very happy.

Obviously, Li Qian is going to take Xie Bing out for a vacation. She is so tender and affectionate, so of course she is not suitable to be a light bulb.

Li Qian had no choice but to say: "Turn back, turn back! Turn back and wait, let's find a place and go together!"

…………

The movie is good to watch, but Bai Yujing is a little depressed.

After the screening of the film, a group of main creators were very excited, a group of reporters and audience were also very excited, the applause was extraordinarily enthusiastic, and as soon as the applause fell, many reporters tried to ask questions.

Seeing many reporters staring at He Yingyu and Jin Han eagerly, like hungry wolves staring at meat, the premiere ceremony temporarily decided to add an interview segment.

Anyway, when the movie is released, the more publicity it is, the better.

In fact, the Jinhan version of "Dragon Inn" debuted in this time and space for the first time, and the movie-watching experience it brought to the two hundred or so viewers was absolutely shocking.

It does not focus on chivalry, or to highlight the magnificence of chivalrous characters like traditional martial arts films, but condenses the grand era background and complex character struggles into a small frontier inn Inside, it is like a textbook-like small scene writing big feelings.

And the three protagonists in the movie are all exceptionally brilliant.

Zhou Zhiyu's Zhou Huaian, Cheng Suping's Qiu Moyan, of course, the most eye-catching is definitely the inn proprietress Jin Xiangyu played by He Yingyu.

Every move is coquettish.

The key is that this character can stand upright—what does it mean to be able to stand upright? From the perspective of storytelling, a person has his own unique personality, identity, status, hobbies and other basic personality settings, which cannot be regarded as standing. What this character does, every move he takes, must completely follow his own personality.

In the story of "Dragon Inn", the three characters all stood still.

Especially the gold inlaid jade of the proprietress, not only stood still, but also extremely fresh!

Therefore, at the beginning of the additional interviews, everyone first focused their questions on He Yingyu.

With the global box office explosion of "The Matrix", all fools know that He Yingyu has become famous all over the world. She can even be regarded as the most recognizable and popular Chinese actress in the world besides Liao Liao. female.

But now, after the invited reporters and film critics watched the premiere of "Dragon Inn", everyone's intuition conveyed a message without hesitation: this movie He Yingyu is going to explode again!

This acting is simply explosive!

It is definitely the pinnacle since her debut and fame!

It is completely scheduled for the end of this year, the rhythm of the two major domestic film award winners!

Then you can imagine, of course, you have to interview a few more words quickly, and after the movie is released, there will be something to write!

Of course, these matters have nothing to do with Bai Yujing.

After the movie ended there, and the organizer temporarily decided to add another interview session, Lao Bai was not interested in staying, so he came out with many people who decided to leave after watching the movie.

When she got back to her car, she called her assistant directly and asked her to book a plane ticket to France—anyway, she had nothing to do in China for the time being, and she didn't want to take the show, so she continued to stare at the wine. Let's go to Zhuang's negotiations!