After filming "Defiant", producer Wei Junzi watched the first edited version, and the classic line from Feng Xiaogang's character in "Kung Fu" flashed in his mind: Who else is there?
"Who else can spend 8 million yuan like us to achieve the standard of a martial arts movie?" This sentence comes from Wei Junzi's confidence in the quality of the "Defiant" movie.
The martial arts film "Defiant" was very popular among movie fans after it was released on June 3.
"The Defiant", written and directed by Yang Bingji and starring Xie Miao, was launched on iQiyi on June 3. After more than 20 days of word-of-mouth accumulation, the Douban score has stabilized at 7.1 points, making it very popular among movie fans. Welcome, this is really rare for an online movie. The story of the movie
is very simple: because of a sip of wine, the cold-faced and warm-hearted knife catcher (bounty hunter) of Dali Temple became a blind man and decided to seek justice for a weak woman who met by chance. Before the film was released on iQiyi, many people told Mr. Wei that the film was a good film, but it was not easy to sell. In the current market environment, the martial arts genre is indeed not favored, but Wei Junzi said that with 8 million yuan, this risk is still affordable.
This movie allowed Yang Bingjia, who had been working as a screenwriter, to realize his dream of being a director for the first time. It also gave Xie Miao, who plays a blind man, another role that the audience can remember. The Beijing News conducted an exclusive interview with producer Wei Junzi, director Yang Bingjia, and actor Xie Miao, asking them to tell how the team used a shooting cost of 8 million yuan to make a martial arts film that they considered standard.
[Cost]
"8 million yuan, I can still afford to take this risk"
Yang Bingjia has always had a dream to be a director.
His university major was journalism, but he was very interested in movies. He read a lot of movies and movie-related books, wrote scripts, and made some student short films.
As he was about to graduate from college, he happened to see "Journey to Thailand" win the 2012 annual box office championship, becoming the first Chinese film to enter the billion-dollar box office club. Yang Bingjia hopes that he can also become the creator of this kind of commercial film in the future. "I had a very strong idea at the time." After graduating from
, Yang Bingjia submitted his resume to Wei Jun Company to work as a screenwriter. When he met Wei Junzi, he said that his purpose as a screenwriter was to be a director one day. Wei Junzi read the script he wrote and admired it very much, "The things he wrote are very similar to the noir films directed by the Coen brothers. Although he is a screenwriter, he has many director's perspectives, which is very different."
Wei Junzi has cooperated with many directors. Yang Bingjia has also participated in some script work for the works of directors such as Tsui Hark , Yuan Heping , Liu Weiqiang , Chen Musheng , Li Yu, etc., which have been online or screened in theaters. Among his works, the theatrical version of " Qi Men Dun Jia " (2017), the online version of "Qi Men Dun Jia" (2020), and "Northeast Police Story" (2021) all have the screenwriter signature of Yang Bingjia.
Yang Bingjia has successively participated in the screenwriting of the theatrical version of "Qi Men Dun Jia" (2017), the online version of "Qi Men Dun Jia" (2020) and "Northeast Police Story" (2021).
Yang Bingcan became a director, and he benefited a lot from his screenwriting experience in the past few years. He said that he is a content developer. He does not need to wait for others to give him opportunities. He can create opportunities by writing a script first. "This story is at least a stepping stone for Teacher Wei (Junzi Wei) and others to read." Only then can we talk about the next step based on this story." After working with
all the way, the company team also believes in Yang Bingjia’s abilities. Everyone knows that he never compromises or is lazy when writing scripts, and he will definitely be very serious as a director. Wei Junzi said to Yang Bingjia, since you are a screenwriter yourself, there is no need to help you develop it. Just think of a story yourself and we will support you.
So, there was "Condescending".
In fact, in recent years, the genre of martial arts films has not been favored in the market. "With a new director in a martial arts film, if you look for investment from outside, you won't even need to read the script, and it will be killed immediately."Wei Junzi said that fortunately he didn't have much ambition in the market. He just wanted to give young directors a chance to give it a try and explore martial arts films.
But "giving it a try" is indeed risky. Wei Junzi didn't want investors to lose money, so he reduced the cost to 8 million yuan. Wei Junzi has great confidence in the team. He has worked with screenwriter Yang Bingjia, actor Xie Miao, action director Qin Pengfei, etc. for many years. He knows how high the team's filming standards can be. Although the cost is very low, as an online movie, the market recovery pressure is not as great as that of a theatrical movie. "Even if I don't make money, I won't lose much. I can still afford to take this risk," Wei Junzi told a reporter from the Beijing News.
[Script]
After switching from contemporary martial arts to ancient costume martial arts, his temperament has not changed.
Yang Bingjia likes martial arts movies. " New Dragon Inn " (1992) produced and written by Tsui Hark was the first martial arts film he watched. , had a greater impact on him. He personally also likes some Hollywood action films, such as the "Avenger" series, which he calls "contemporary martial arts films" and "something with a clear sense of martial arts."
"Defiant" was originally a "contemporary martial arts film". The background is a crime story that took place in a contemporary city. The general plot line of the story is the same as that of the current costume version. The names of the two protagonists Cheng Xiazi and Ni Yan are Not even touched.
At that time, Yang Bingjia had already written three drafts of the script. Producer Wei Junzi thought it was pretty good after watching it, but due to various reasons, contemporary dramas are not easy to operate. After much deliberation, everyone changed the background of the story to ancient times and turned it into a pure ancient costume martial arts film. According to martial arts It was shot in a different way, but it is essentially consistent with the temperament of Yang Bingjia’s previous crime films.
From a producer's point of view, Wei Junzi believes that if the story is set in contemporary times compared to the ancient costume setting, the production difficulty will be slightly lower. After all, the cost of costume art will be less. But from a practical point of view, it is difficult to make a "contemporary martial arts film". You may have to go to the border or Southeast Asia to shoot. This story is relatively easy to establish. Many other online movies also do this.
Yang Bingjia had this setting in one draft of his script, but Wei Junzi felt that the texture would not be very good, and the characters in it might not be Chinese, so he would feel that Thais, can also be filmed, and Koreans It can also be photographed, but this is not the kind of temperament he likes.
"Defiant" has the quality of a Chinese martial arts film. After the story background of
script changed to ancient costume, director Yang Bingjia wrote 8 drafts of the script, and Wei Junzi would mention some of his ideas in each draft. The identity of the blind knife-catcher in the film was mentioned in another story he told the director before, and was used by the director in "Defiant". When
decided to shoot, Wei Junzi set a budget of 8 million yuan for the film. "Eight million is not a small amount of money in online movies. Can we make a martial arts movie? It can definitely be made, but we have high requirements and want to make a martial arts movie that we consider to be a standard. This amount of money is not enough at all." Wei Junzi said that this means that the shooting cycle can only be about 20 days.
"How to shoot a standard martial arts movie in 20 days with 8 million yuan?" Wei Junzi said that the entire team's filming and creation of "Defiant" and the later revision of the script basically revolved around this issue.
[Rhythm]
74 minutes long, with blank spaces for literary, opera, martial arts and singing
"The Defiant" is only 74 minutes long, which is a bit short compared to the average 90-minute length of online movies. In fact, this has something to do with the film’s cost control. In the
film, Cheng Xiazi decided to avenge Ni Yan. After killing the little boss, he stayed in Luoyang City. , the director omitted a lot of the part before he entered Yuwen Mansion for revenge.
In the previous draft of the script, there were several battle scenes between the Yuwen family and Cheng Xiazi, including the role of Qin Niang. She actually did a lot of things for Cheng Xiazi, and it was not just "Qianli" as some netizens said Give away the head."Wei Junzi said that if told according to a 90-minute story, this part in drama creation belongs to the end of the second act and the beginning of the third act. Before the climax of the blind man going to Yuwen's house for revenge, there should be some fighting between the two sides. play.
Mr. Wei remembers that in one version of the script, when the villain Yu Wenying knew Cheng Blind’s true identity, he invited Cheng Blind’s former comrades, and there might be other knife hunters among them, to entertain him at Mingyue Tower to talk about friendship and reminisce about the past. , trying to buy him off with favors and persuade him to stop meddling in the Yuwen family's affairs. But the blind man was unmoved. He just wanted to seek justice, and eventually the two sides fought. There were several scenes like this in scripts before
. But this kind of action scene requires some time and cost. The problem is that the crew doesn't have the time or money to afford it.
Wei Junzi said that Yang Bingjia's entire script is very complete. With his creative power, he is fully capable of delivering a more perfect answer sheet. But as a director for the first time, he first had to ensure that he could shoot the scenes well under limited conditions, and he used smarter methods to handle many scenes.
For example, in the scene where Cheng Xiazi goes to Mingyue Tower to find General Guo, General Guo’s soldiers and Cheng Xiazi start a fight. After Cheng Xiazi beats one person, the camera switches to another narrative - Yu Wenying tortures Qin Niang. , and then the camera came back, and General Guo's men had all been defeated, and the action scenes in the middle were simply omitted.
In the Battle of Suiyang , the blind man killed countless enemies, but he was not blind at that time.
This scene left a lot of blank space, and another layer of narrative was told from the mouth of Qin Niang. During the Battle of Suiyang during the Anshi Rebellion, Cheng Blind appeared on the battlefield as the image of the murderous plague god. There was an action scene, and his aura was already there. It’s very powerful, so there was no need to film both the fighting scenes in Mingyue Tower. After processing with blank space, it leaves room for imagination, which makes it more advanced.
There is also an interrogation scene in which a blind man strangles the neck of He Qiufeng, the head of the Yuwen family, with a piano string. This is actually a literary drama, but many viewers regarded it as an action scene. "Actually, there are not many fighting scenes in the film, but the audience feels that they are fighting all the time. In fact, we are performing arts, acting, martial arts and singing. We use many of these methods to solve our cost problem and meet the audience's expectations for the film's rhythm, visuals and other aspects. ". Wei Junzi said that because the 20-day shooting period is very short, the shooting must be carried out strictly according to the plan. Fortunately, director Yang Bingjia is also a screenwriter, and has already thought of many things in advance. He is relatively well prepared, and there are no overruns and delays in production. It is a process that is very in line with industrial standards.
[Character]
Rescue someone who has nothing to do with you, this is called a "hero"
The story of "Confident" is very simple: because of a sip of wine, a blind man decided to seek justice for a woman he met by chance.
Some netizens said that this is a 4-page script.
Wei Junzi admitted that the story is simple, but every scene, every character setting, and every line in the story has been repeatedly refined by the director. For example, Mr. Gao in the film, when he appears, he is helping people repair their houses that were damaged by heavy rain. At least he is not a completely cold-blooded bad guy. As a knife catcher, the blind man sent the suspect to the government and paid him the reward that Master Gao should give him. He went to the scene of the crime after listening to a blind man's report that "a family in the west of the city was treated like a dog and slaughtered." After seeing the scene, he told Ni Yan, the owner of the crime, to forget about it. He knew that Ni Yan, a weak woman, could not stand up to the big family behind those villains, but he actually wanted to protect her. Wei Junzi said that every character in the film is actually very rich. After
actor Xie Miao read the script, he felt that the character setting of the blind man was very well written and vivid. He could picture this character in his mind just by reading the text. Director Yang Bingjia has watched many of Xie Miao's previous plays. When he wrote the role of a blind man this time, he wanted to "encourage" Xie Miao.
Xie Miao has heard feedback from some netizens, saying that the plot is too ridiculous, and that a blind man wants to avenge someone after taking a sip of wine. Xie Miao feels that it is precisely because of this that he is called "Xia".Many people take the relationship of cause and effect very seriously. You saved my life today, and I will return your life tomorrow. This matter has become a matter of course, and the pattern has become smaller. "What we have to do is to have no reason, just take a sip of your wine. Seeing that this matter is unfair, I will take care of it. This is very handsome." Xie Miao said.
In order to make a pure martial arts film, director Yang Bingjia did not let any emotional scenes happen between Cheng Xiazi and Ni Yan. "I never thought about it from the beginning." Yang Bingjia felt that this was not in line with his values and his view of " According to the understanding of "Xia", "Xia" should save someone who has nothing to do with him, rather than saving her because he has feelings for himself.
The film does not involve any emotional drama between Cheng Xiazi and Ni Yan. It is a very pure martial arts film.
"Defiant" currently has a stable Douban score of 7.1, which is already a very high score for an online movie. Wei Junzi said that ordinary users have a very good impression of this movie, and the ratings and reputation are helped by everyone to raise the flames. On the contrary, some friends who know more about movies are more picky about this movie.
Mr. Wei understands this situation very well. Because he is also a film critic, he once watched the fire from across the bank and stood by the river and shouted. Now he is deeply involved in film production and knows what it is like to make a film. "Let's go back to the reality that we only have a cost of 8 million yuan. With 8 million yuan, you can't cover everything. You must make some 'sacrifice'."
Wei Junzi said that under these conditions, it is impossible for us to tell a particularly complex story, and the length of the film cannot be 90 minutes, so we have to make subtractions in production and use some smart methods in shooting to meet our standards. I believe that martial arts movies can meet the standards of most martial arts fans and make the audience believe that martial arts movies are not "dead" yet.
After filming "Defiant" was completed, after Wei Junzi read the first edited version, the classic line played by Feng Xiaogang in "Kung Fu" flashed in his mind: Who else? "Who else can spend 8 million yuan like us to achieve the standards of a martial arts movie?" Wei Junzi said confidently.
[Action]
Semyon has to squint his eyes to fight, and the "Fire Knife" is a real shot.
As for the blind man in the film, should he open or close his eyes to show his blindness? Xie Miao discussed this issue with the creative team for a long time.
Xie Miao personally prefers to play this role with his eyes open, and wears contact lenses during the performance. However, he works 16 hours a day on the set and wears contact lenses for a long time. He needs to order high-quality lenses, which are very expensive. He later thought that he might as well endure it, wear a pair of ordinary quality contact lenses, and take them off when not filming, but then another problem would arise, that is, as soon as a person opens his eyes, there will be some subconscious movements. If it is completely abandoned, it will need to be polished slowly, which will cost money and time, which the crew cannot afford. In the end, I chose to play this role without opening my eyes. One month before
joined the group, Xie Miao bought a blind cane and walked around the house for 15 minutes with his eyes closed every day. You may feel insecure at first, but after practicing for a while, you won’t have much trouble with how to eat, how to hold things, and how to move your hands and feet.
When Xie Miao shot action scenes in the film, he often squinted his eyes. In domestic and foreign movies before
, there were also many movies about blind characters. Xie Miao has watched the Japanese samurai film " Zatoichi " series, etc. The protagonist is also blind. But he spends more time watching documentaries about blind people. “Documentaries are more helpful to me. After all, the blind people in them are real.” Xie Miao said.
In Xie Miao's opinion, to play a blind person, you must first abandon the audience's inherent understanding of blind people. While watching the documentary, he discovered that blind people are not as cautious as everyone thinks. In fact, they are very casual in life. When walking on the road, the blind cane does not explore the path bit by bit, but stretches across a large area in front of it. Therefore, when Xie Miao acted as a blind man, he was not very deliberate in his movements.
For Xie Miao, the biggest challenge for him in "Defiant" is the action scenes.
"When shooting action scenes, you can't close your eyes completely, you have to squint." Xie Miao said that when filming action scenes with squinted eyes, you can only control your own balance and sense of direction. It is difficult for him to judge what moves others are making and where they are by squinting his eyes. Therefore, the error tolerance becomes very low.
In order to prevent the camera from being missed, everyone needs to be more cooperative and precise than when shooting other action scenes. This also requires higher quality for martial arts personnel than other dramas. Xie Miao said that some of the martial arts in "Defiant" may have been performed by assistant martial arts instructors in other movies, but in this movie they still have to be moved because these actions require very experienced people to do them. good.
What impressed Xie Miao most deeply was the action scene at Yu Wenying's house at the end. First of all, you have to squint your eyes and fight a group of people alone, which is already quite difficult. Secondly, it is still a fight in the snow. artificial snow and make the ground extremely slippery. When squinting, the artificial snow may accidentally get into your eyes.
The high-gloss "fire knife" shot in the action scene at the end of the film was shot in real time.
Cheng Blind once killed countless enemies on the battlefield with "a pair of bone-shattering hands, a wind-listening knife, and a move called Loulan Slash". Xie Miao said that in the final scene, everyone wanted to express the blind man's final move of Loulan Slash, and thought it would be best to combine it with the previous plot, so he thought of Ni Yan's wine. Use a knife to cut the wine gourd . After the knife is dipped in wine, sparks will appear and it will become a fire knife. This scene was shot in real life. Xie Miao said that he had thought about using special effects before. Firstly, the funds were limited, and secondly, it was fake. During the filming, he wrapped the knife body with gasoline, then lit it on fire and started shooting. In the end, it ended with a The very handsome action of swinging the knife to put out the fire ended. Xie Miao was deeply impressed. I filmed that action many times. Sometimes the fire was put out early, but sometimes it couldn't be put out in the end. "Anyway, we used a lot of stupid methods to shoot this scene." Xie Miao said.
[Perspective]
The team has a better understanding and will continue to explore action films
Before making "Defiant", Wei Junzi also participated in the production of online movies such as "Qi Men Dun Jia" and "Northeast Police Story" as a producer, and both won It has gained good reputation and box office. Among them, "Qi Men Dun Jia" took in a split box office of 56.41 million yuan, currently ranking second in the box office list of online movies based on the split split model. For
to achieve such results, in Wei Junzi’s view, the team is very important. In 2019, Qishu Youyu Company approached Wei Junzi to collaborate on "Qi Men Dun Jia". At that time, Wei Junzi had no idea about online movies, and his impression of online movies was still in the crude stage. This was not what Wei Junzi wanted, so he made a request that the script should be checked by himself, and Yang Bingjia should be responsible for the screenplay and he should be the producer. Qishu Youyu hired brothers Xiang Qiuliang and Xiang Hesheng as directors. "I found that and Xiang Brothers are really great and unique in the field of costume fantasy." Wei Junzi said that this cooperation is mainly about learning and seeing how others can complete high-standard shooting at a limited cost.
's participation in the production of "Qi Men Dun Jia" really taught Wei Junzi something. It was precisely because of this cooperation that he had the idea of forming a team. In 2020, he partnered with Xie Miao, Yang Bingjia, Qin Pengfei, Liu Wenpu and others to establish Qingdao Kuaima Pictures. The five people are distributed in various aspects of the film industry, including producers, actors, screenwriters, directors, and post-production special effects.
"Five people can make a movie sitting together," Wei Junzi said, and then "Northeast Police Story" was born. At that time, "Qi Men Dun Jia" was doing well at the box office, and many people said that costume fantasy films were the most profitable. Some management also advised Wei Junzi to make more fantasy films, as there was no market for police and gangster films. But Wei Junzi never thought about market issues, he just wanted to explore the genre of police and gangster action movies. As a result, after the film was released, the reputation was very good, especially the two action scenes in the hospital and on the bus, which were very amazing.
"We are very pure when we are together. Everyone is here for creation and will not consider the market. I just ask them, what do you want to shoot?" Wei Junzi provided the team with great freedom in creation. Later, Yang Bingjia became the director for the first time with the martial arts film "The Defiant One".
"Defiant" producer Wei Junzi revealed that the film is expected to be followed by a sequel. While
gave the team creative freedom, Wei Junzi also put pressure on them accordingly. In order to be accountable to the investors and avoid certain investment risks, the shooting costs are very low. However, what surprised Wei Junzi was that the more cost restrictions were imposed on the team, the more they were able to stimulate their creative ability and motivation, and instead produced beautiful things.
"The more money you give, the more you will rely on special effects or other means, which may not necessarily reach the level that the audience sees now. So I never think that cost is an absolute factor that affects creation. It still depends on the love for movies. An effort to create.” Wei Junzi is very lucky to have met this young, energetic and talented team. Whether it is "Defiant" or "Northeast Police Story", it is not the success of Yang Bingjia, nor is it the success of Xie Miao or Qin Pengfei Success, but the success of a team. The director of photography for these two dramas is Zhao Xiaofeng. For each drama, he will write a photography description, how to shoot, and how to cooperate with the director.
Wei Junzi said that Qingdao Kuaima Pictures will continue to explore action-type films. " Northeast Police Story 2" created by the original team of "Northeast Police Story" has just finished production. With several previous cooperations, the team As we work together more closely, the production will reach a higher level than the previous one. I hope it can be released this year.
As the reputation of "Defiant" continues to grow, platforms, investors, audiences, etc. are all asking whether there are plans to make a second part. Wei Junzi said that there must be, and he had thought about it during the later stages of "Defiant", but the specifics of how to film it and how the story will develop are still under discussion.
Beijing News reporter Teng Chao
editor Huang Jialing
proofreader Li Lijun
