Chapter 485 Superb Text Analysis

Zhou Yan didn’t tell them too much about theory because it was too boring and people without basic knowledge would be confused.

Soon he started to use some clips from “No Name” as examples to illustrate the role of turn-taking and distribution.

"There is a section in the middle of the third act. The background of the conversation is that a cow in the village has disappeared. The villagers gather together to discuss the whereabouts of the cow. I roughly estimated that there are a total of 24 turns in this section, and the number of speakers is five. Among them, the village chief has the most turns, with ten turns, followed by the protagonist, with eight turns, and the other three have two turns. Moreover, the average length of the village chief and the protagonist is obviously longer than the other three, which should be more than 30."

"In addition, the protagonist's eight turns are all late, and none of them speak or interrupt."

"The handling here is very good. Although the village chief has never said from beginning to end that he suspects that the protagonist is related to the disappearance of the cow, this section of the turn shows that he has some doubts about the protagonist, but this suspicion cannot be stated clearly."

"Under normal circumstances, the protagonist's turn will not account for such a large proportion, and there are many who speak and interrupt. The data of the turn changes so much this time, which explains the problem."

After hearing Zhou Yan say this, Wang Qianyuan looked at Xin Baiqing next to him with a shocked face, and the latter's expression was also very surprised.

They spent a long time revising this scene, and it was the one they were most satisfied with.

But they never thought about turns, what was first and last, they just put themselves into the role, and then revised it bit by bit based on their feelings.

Now they have listened to Zhou Yan's analysis and found that he knows this play better than they do.

Yes, that's it.

The protagonist's turns of speaking have obviously increased here, and they are all last.

At this moment, Wang Qianyuan felt that Zhou Yan was like a butcher, who dissected the cow clearly with a few cuts.

At the same time, he was also thinking, if they knew these theoretical knowledge before, would it be much easier to revise the play? He has now thought of some places in the script that can be revised according to this theory.

Tian Youliang and other class teachers were also very surprised. They were not only surprised that Zhou Yan knew so much about text analysis, but also surprised at Zhou Yan's memory ability.

Zhou Yan saw this play for the first time today, and he could actually remember how many characters there were in one of the conversations and how many rounds each character said. Is this the memory that a normal person can have?

Could it be that Zhou Yan had already thought about giving his students a talk about conversation analysis when he was watching the play? So he wrote down a section of it?

Gao Jinwen was not very surprised, because he knew Zhou Yan better than Tian Youliang and the others.

Why did Gao Jinwen want Zhou Yan to talk about the play of his students? It was because he knew that Zhou Yan was particularly good at text analysis.

When he was in Qiao Family Courtyard, Zhou Yan was just a music assistant. He did a lot of text analysis on Raise the Red Lantern, even more than the screenwriter Ni Zhen did.

And Zhou Yan's memory has always been very good. He memorized lines faster than ordinary people back then.

But compared with Zhou Yan's other specialties, his good memory is not very noticeable. Gao Jinwen has seen many people with good memory, but it is rare to see someone like Zhou Yan who can achieve great results in one field.

Some people are also quite versatile, but they have not achieved such great success in various fields.

Of course, let alone achieving the same success as Zhou Yan in every line, even if we pick out one of Zhou Yan's achievements, very few people can achieve it.

Zhou Yan talked about the better aspects of the conversation structure of "No Name", and of course he also talked about the poor aspects.

Then he gave another example, "There is a scene in the back of the third act. The background of the conversation is that Xiao Mantou, the son of Zhang Mantou, stole half a bag of rice from Li Laoguai's house and was caught on the spot. Li Laoguai and his wife took Xiao Mantou to Zhang's house to ask for an explanation, and happened to be met by the protagonist. There are very few turns in this section, only seven in total, only Li Laoguai and the protagonist. The protagonist has three turns, and Li Laoguai has four turns."

"This is obviously a bit unreasonable. In the previous scenes, Li Laoguai had few turns, and basically interrupted, without controlling the turn. On the contrary, Li Laoguai's wife had a medium to high number of turns, and often controlled the turn. In this section, Li Laoguai's wife should have more turns. In addition, as an outsider, the protagonist should show enough curiosity about the matter, so he should have more turns, at least the same as Li Laoguai, and he should also speak more. Putting aside this small background, in the big background, the protagonist should also have more turns."

Hearing this, the students in the audience were completely convinced, not only the 93rd grade, but also the 96th grade students were greatly shocked.

When they were in drama class, the teacher also gave them some text analysis, but it seemed that they were not as professional as Zhou Yan.

The key point is that the teacher prepared for the class for a long time, while Zhou Yan just watched the play "No Name" for the first time and improvised.

It takes a deep text research skill to be so powerful.

Seeing the students' dull expressions, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I'm done."

Only then did everyone react and applauded.

They actually thought that Zhou Yan would say more, because according to Zhou Yan's analysis angle, there is a lot to say about this play.

Tian Youliang spoke first, "Thank you, Director Zhou, for providing us with such a good idea. You should all remember it well and use Director Zhou's method to analyze the script again."

Of course, he knew that the script was so long that Zhou Yan could not analyze it from beginning to end for them. It was very good to be able to say so much.

Chang Li also applauded and said to the students in their class, "You are very lucky today to hear such a valuable class. Remember these well, and you will be able to analyze better and faster when facing new texts in the future."

She was a little glad that Gao Jinwen was able to bring the students here. Gao Jinwen's class could be taken any day, but Zhou Yan's class was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

She had never heard anyone in the directing department talk about these things Zhou Yan said.

In fact, regarding the analysis of texts, whether it is their Central Academy of Drama or Yan'an Film Academy, they are definitely not as good as the Chinese Department of Yan University and Yan Normal University.

The Chinese Department of Yan University and Yan Normal University is really good at studying texts. Sometimes Chang Li also wondered whether she could learn from the Chinese Department of these schools, maybe it would improve their teaching ability.

Zhou Yan heard what Tian Youliang and Chang Li said, and waved his hands with a smile, "Everyone, just listen to what I just said and have an impression in your mind. Or, when you get a new script in the future and want to quickly analyze the script, you can try to use it. But when acting or even writing a script, these things are useless."

"Why?" Wang Qianyuan asked curiously, "I think this analysis method is very good. After listening to this method, I feel that there are many places in the script that can be modified. I believe that it will definitely become better after the modification."

"This is to make some modifications based on the script you have already written. If you use these analysis techniques at the beginning of the creation, you will find that you can't write anything. How can a creator always think about turn allocation in his mind when creating? Text analysis is more used in academic research and theoretical inheritance, and it is not useful when creating. Otherwise, the most famous writers in the country should all come from those Chinese departments."

Chang Li's expression froze. She didn't expect Zhou Yan to directly deny her previous idea.

But what Zhou Yan said was indeed right. Although the Chinese departments of Yanda and Yanshi University are indeed powerful, they are all engaged in academic research, and there is nothing special in creation.

And the main pursuit of their Central Academy of Drama and Yanshi University is not academic research, but creation and practice.

At this time, Mei Ting suddenly raised her hand and said, "Director Zhou, you are not only an excellent director, but also a well-known writer. I have read your "Tree Hole" and "Death of the Mayor" and benefited a lot. So, when you were creating, did you not use these analytical techniques?"

When Mei Ting said this, she had a Jinling accent. I don't know if she spoke with an accent or because she knew Zhou Yan was from Jinling, she deliberately added an accent to get closer.

Zhou Yan smiled and replied, "When my mind is full of various analytical techniques, it means that my writing has reached a bottleneck, because only when I lack creative inspiration will I think of using these things. I can't judge whether the theoretical knowledge I have learned has a huge impact on my writing, but I can at least tell you that if you want to become a writer, these theoretical knowledge are completely unnecessary."

"What about directors? Didn't you learn theoretical knowledge in the process of becoming a director?"

"Of course you need to know theoretical knowledge, but even if it is the same theoretical knowledge, there are still differences. If you want to become a director, I still think you don't need to learn those academic research knowledge, you just need to know how to shoot what you want in your heart."

"I understand, Director Zhou."

Zhou Yan nodded and turned to look at Gao Jinwen, "Director Gao, are you satisfied now?"

Gao Jinwen laughed, "Satisfied, satisfied, of course satisfied, it's getting late now, don't leave in a hurry, let's have dinner together tonight, I'll be the host."

Zhou Yan waved his hand and declined his kindness, "Forget about it today, I have to go back to the studio to make arrangements later. When you go there tomorrow, we will have a good gathering."

Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Gao Jinwen did not force him to stay, and nodded, "In that case, let's talk about it when we meet tomorrow. Anyway, I don't dare to go to other people, I will definitely go there tomorrow. Speaking of which, I haven't been to the studio for some time."

"The studio has changed recently, you will know when you go there." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"Okay, let's go check it out tomorrow. You guys can go back today."

...

When they came out of the Central Academy of Drama, Huo Jianqi asked Xiao Can, "Old Xiao, have you seen any good talents here?"

"There are definitely good talents. The overall quality of the 93 batch of students is good. You know Naiwen, he has solid basic skills. Wang Qianyuan and Xin Baiqing in the same class are not worse than him."

Huo Jianqi nodded, "Well, Xin Baiqing is really good and impressed me deeply. It's a pity that I only met the students of the other two classes briefly, and I don't know how strong they are."

"The 96 class has just been enrolled for a few months, so they must be worse."

"But the appearance of the 96 class is more outstanding."

"Well, that's true."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "We'll know the details after the audition. Don't be idle during this period. Hurry up and set up the director team, and then set up the entire behind-the-scenes team."

"Well, I'll list the names in the next two days." Xiao Can nodded and asked Zhou Yan, "Director Zhou, can I ask Director Zhao to come to our crew?"

The Director Zhao Xiao Can mentioned is Zhao Fei, Zhou Yan's exclusive photographer. Since Zhou Yan debuted, whether it is a short film or a feature film, Zhao Fei has been the photographer. The two of them are almost tied together.

Someone asked Zhou Yan before whether he should try other photographers, such as Gu Changwei, Lu Le and other photographers.

However, Zhou Yan has never changed, because he feels that he and Zhao Fei are compatible, and there has been no problem in their cooperation over the years.

Perhaps Gu Changwei and Lu Le are better than Zhao Fei, but Zhou Yan believes that it is very important to have a compatible aura. If the aura is not compatible, the stronger the photographer, the worse it is for the director.

Unless one day Zhou Yan finds that he and Zhao Fei are no longer on the same page, he will consider changing a partner.

In order to better cooperate with Zhao Fei, Zhou Yan Studio has signed a contract with Zhao Fei, and the two sides will have deeper cooperation in the future.

"Of course I have no objection, but this matter still needs Mr. Zhao's consent. Let's do this, I will go back and tell Mr. Zhao about this."

"Thank you, Director Zhao."

"Don't thank me, whether you can convince him depends on you. Although he looks easy to talk to, he has very high requirements. You have worked with him twice, and you should have some understanding of his personality."

In fact, Xiao Can and Zhao Fei have a good relationship. After all, they have worked together on two dramas, one as the main photographer and the other as the assistant director, and they communicate a lot in normal times.

However, whether they can cooperate successfully depends on whether Zhao Fei can appreciate Xiao Can's script and Xiao Can himself.

Of course, if it weren't for this relationship, Xiao Can would basically have no chance of asking Zhao Fei to help him shoot.

In Zhao Fei's current situation, he basically takes on some big jobs and cooperates with some well-known directors.

Those who came to him for cooperation were all big directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, and even some well-known foreign directors. (End of this chapter)