Happy Twist , the second film " Donkey Desperate ", produced after " Charlotte Trouble ", was released last Friday. This low-cost film, which has neither a big director nor a star and no special effects, has firmly sat in the box office runner-up and has received constant praise. Some even call it the best domestic feature film this year.
After "Charlotte" and "Donkey Gets Water", more and more film and television companies will definitely target the big pond for drama adaptation of this IP. Recently, Rao Xiaozhi's "Hello, Madman" by just held a scheduled press conference at the Peking University Centennial Lecture Hall; Huang Ying's "French Dinner for Two People" also appeared in the project announcement of the Film Bureau in early October, which is likely to become the third movie produced by Happy Twist; earlier news said that the drama "Treasure Island Village" co-starring Lai Shengchuan and Wang Weizhong will also be remade into a movie.
, known as the "leader of Asian theater directors", and "father of Taiwan variety shows" Wang Weizhong, a collaboration with "Taiwanese Village"
, facing the new wave of drama-adapted movies, we interviewed two directors of "Donkey Deshui", Zhou Shen , Liu Lu , and the screenwriter of Happy Twist drama " Shameful Iron Fist " and "Friends" to talk about the advantages of drama-adapted movies and the easy sufferings.
dramas and movies have become the most familiar stranger
dramas and movies are both time-honored arts, with a duration of about two hours, and the adaptation process is basically presented 1:1. Commercial movies are generally arranged in four-stage layouts, starting, turning point, crisis and ending. The most classic drama is also a four-act drama, so the rhythms of the two are very similar, making it easier to achieve transformation. From this perspective, the difficulty of adapting a drama to a movie is less than that of a literary adapted movie, or even less than the filmization of TV series and online dramas.
The performance system of both is also derived from the same school, and is divided into two factions: one is the experiential school of Stanislavsky in the former Soviet Union, and later the method school was derived in Hollywood, and the other is the performance school of German Brecht . French New Wave movies represented by Godard like to use the "disconnection method" to break the fourth wall to allow actors to perform in front of the camera, which comes from Brecht's expressionism. Therefore, drama adapted movies are also easier to achieve at the performance level.
Happy Twist director and screenwriter Zhang Chiyu
drama works have all gone through the stage. Like Zhang Chiyu, he summarized that the core creative model of Happy Twist is collective creation and rehearsal audition. This is actually the model adopted by most drama groups. At the beginning of a work, the director puts forward a general idea, and then all the actors will improve it together and create collectively. After the script is released, you must go through rehearsal drafts, sorting and revising, and then further improving through internal auditions. Zhang Chiyu believes that the rehearsal draft has a great effect on improving the script. "If a book originally only has four points, it can reach at least six points after rehearsal." After a long period of stage performance, the script is perfected day by day based on the audience's feedback. In this way, works that have been tested by the audience will be brought to the big screen, and the success rate will be higher.
drama adaptation of movies must go beyond more than one hill
Although dramas and movies have natural kinship, making it easy for both to be transformed, they are two completely different art forms after all, and there will be many problems and difficulties in the process of remake.
Some drama themes are not suitable for adaptation into movies. For example, the earliest film project planned to develop by Happy Twist was not "Charlotte", but "Oolong Mountain Earl", but this drama does not conform to the structure of the genre film, and the content involved is relatively sensitive and easy to pass the censorship. For example, the heroine in it is a transgender person, the first half is a man, and the second half is a woman, which is not suitable for adaptation into a movie.
"The Earl of Wulong Mountain" has affected CCTV's
drama emphasizes assumption, and the movie emphasizes more realistic, just as Zhou Shen said: "Some things are real on the stage of the drama, but they are not real in front of the movie's shots."So the stage is more inclusive, and exaggerated burdens and crazy creativity will not make people question it. For example, in "The Shameful Iron Fist", the heroine played by Ma Li and has a scene that comes out of the toilet, which may not be accepted in the movie. Therefore, the second half of the movie "Donkey Gets Water" deletes some almost crazy plots to make it closer to reality. Therefore, assumption is often the primary issue that needs to be overcome in the process of adapting movies of dramas. Movies adapted by
dramas are often weak in terms of cameras and editing, and the "film sense" is not very strong. Like Both "Charlotte" and "Donkey Dessert" have similar problems. They rely too much on fixed shots and scene scheduling, and are relatively immature in the use of shots and editing, and only stay at the narrative level. This all needs to be overcome by the accumulation of director's shooting experience and long-term exploration.
Facts have proved that from drama to movie adaptation, love and hate is in a flash
01
"Donkey Dessert" (2016): Box office 71.3 million
Zhou Shen and Liu Lu graduated from the Central Academy of Drama Professional director, and its main drama works include "If I'm Not Me", "Donkey Gets Water", "The Legend of Van Gogh", etc. "Donkey Gets Water" was originally a film outline created by them in 2010. Because of infringement, in order to meet the audience faster, Zhou Shen and Liu Lu arranged "Donkey Gets Water" into a drama. Unexpectedly, it became a hit in the commercial drama circle, gained a good reputation and box office, and was performed in Chaoyang 9 Theater for five consecutive years.
director and screenwriter Zhou Shen and Liu Lu
Zhou Shen and Liu Lu never gave up on the idea of making "Donkey Deshui" into a movie. They used the script to find many film companies, but they did not make a fortune because of their persistence in their works. The most serious one almost went to court. In the end, they chose to cooperate with Happy Twist because Mahua was very tolerant in creation and had a high tolerance for creators. However, "Donkey Deshui" is too cold compared to Mahua's own IP and has no current popular commercial elements at all. So although Mahua is very confident in it, it does not have high box office expectations and does not expect it to achieve it. The box office results of "Charlotte's Troubles".
The movie adaptation of "Donkey Gets Water" should be considered relatively successful. The second half of the drama is a bit long, and the entire stage is almost out of control, becoming more and more crazy and darker, which makes the audience feel so depressed. These problems have been solved in the movie, and the media transformation of the original drama actors was also well completed, although the film's photography and editing still need to be strengthened.
02
"Charlotte's Troubles" (2015): Box office of 1.441 billion
Happy Mahua was founded in 2003. The first work was " Want to Eat Mahua and Twist ", starring He Jiong and Xie Na . Until 2011's "Earl of Wulong Mountain", Mahua gradually formed its own comedy style and brand. Mahua launches New Year's comedy at the end of each year. Their works are between traditional dramas and movies: they do not abide by the classic "three laws", frequent shady scenes, and change scenes, which are a bit similar to the transitions and editing of movies. This makes them The works are more suitable for adapting movies.
"Charlotte's Troubles" director Yan Fei , Peng Damo
Yan Fei and Peng Damo first created "Charlotte" to make movies. Unexpectedly, it became the most successful drama of Mahua. It has been performed in Beijing to the 33rd round, and it has also toured in many cities across the country. Although last year's movie version of "Charlotte" emerged and won a great victory, its shortcomings are also very obvious. Most viewers who have watched the drama believe that The film version is not as good as the drama version. The main reason is that the film has simplified many details, which makes the plot of the second half of the film not coherent enough, and looks a bit like a sketch.
03
"Glorious Office Workers" (2015): Box office 47.32 million
"Glorious Office Workers" released last year is adapted from the musical "Glorious Office Workers' Life and Survival" by Lin Yihua . Lin Yihua is the most famous drama director in Hong Kong, and his main works are adapted from the four masterpieces.The movie version is directed by Johnnie To , starring Zhang Aijia , Zhou Runfa , Eason Chan, Tang Wei and others. Zhang Shuping contributed gorgeous stage design and costumes, and Luo Dayou is responsible for original music. However, the luxurious lineup and investment of hundreds of millions of yuan have only won less than 50 million yuan in box office.
The main reason is that the film does not handle the relationship between the assumption of the stage and the realistic nature of the film. The "workplace" is very realistic and suitable for adapting into a movie theme, but it is processed by the director into a stage-based musical drama, symbolic characters, ritualized songs and dances, conceptual scenes, and there is no real scene at all. It is all shot in the studio, and coupled with the performances of the actors' occasional dubbing and lip-singing, it is really difficult for people to feel substituted, and it is simply teased in minutes.
04
"Twelve Citizens" (2015): Box office 13.91 million
"Twelve Citizens" had many previous versions, including movie versions and drama versions. Now the Shanghai Drama Art Center is still performing the stage version of "12 Personal ". The director of "Twelve Citizens" Xu Ang is the director of the People's Art Theater. His representative work is the drama "Her Sadness of Comedy " starring Chen Daoming and He Bing . This film also absorbs a number of veteran actors on the drama stage, such as He Bing, Han Tongsheng , Qian Bo , etc., are all very excellent drama actors.
The story of "Twelve Citizens" is actually very suitable for the drama stage, because it has its complex "three-in-one" and the time, place and plot are highly unified. It tells the story of twelve jurors discussing the case in a room for two hours. Therefore, it is very difficult to adapt a movie into this story, and the fixed scenes and characters are likely to make the movie audience tired. But the completion of the film is still very good. First of all, it completed the localization of the script well, making the story neutral in the context of contemporary Chinese society. Secondly, the director took advantage of photography to highlight some details, which laid a lot of thought-provoking preparations for how to use the Band-Aid on the Ice Head, the sweat behind Gao Dongping, etc.
05
" Breakup Master " "Villain Angel" (2014 and 2015): Box offices were 660 million and 649 million
Deng Chao and Dyu Baimei Both movies directed by Yu Baimei Studio are adapted from the drama of the same name. Deng Chao met Yu Baimei through his senior year graduation work " Cuihua , Sauerkraut". Later, the two became good friends and also played dramas together. Nowadays, public opinion generally believes that the two movies they direct are 100% bad movies.
In fact, these two works on the drama stage were typical farces, but this does not prevent them from being loved by the audience. Although the style is not high, it is very vivid and funny. Because the drama stage is more inclusive, their exaggerated and funny techniques are easily accepted by the audience. But after being moved to the movie screen, it was different. Their exaggeration was further expanded, which eventually led to the audience's disgust.
In short, although dramas have rich IP resources, drama adapted movies also have many convenient conditions. However, the transformation from one art form to another is not simply copying and pasting. It requires deep digging of the core and spiritual connotation of the story based on the characteristics of different media and breaking the boundaries of different art forms. Only in this way can we create well-known and well-known works, and we also hope that the works of drama-adapted movies will get better and better in the future.
Written by/Kiki Edited by/Mainland
