Tian Zhuangzhuang, one of the representatives of the fifth generation of Chinese directors, his works include "Blue Kite", "Horse Thief", "Wu Qingyuan", etc. He has been shortlisted for international film festivals such as Venice, Berlin, Tokyo, etc.嘤" is in post-production.
Interview with Director Tian Zhuangzhuang
Leaving aside the book, I bring you an interview with Tian Zhuangzhuang.
采访：刘小黛、朱令仪、东SIR
编辑：跑跑
拍摄：七木三、冯帧裕
策划：抛开书本编辑部
田壮壮
刘小黛：多年以后，终于又能看到您导演的作品了, "Bird Singing", what moved you in this work and made you return to the directorship?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: Nothing special. I think being a director is particularly troublesome. I have to trouble a lot of people, people who pay, actors, and then trouble shooting places, and I have to trouble myself to work, which is very hard. If there is an opportunity, there is a suitable one, and if everyone says it is not troublesome, I think it can be done.
I feel that there are actually fewer and fewer topics I want to do, because I am no longer so impulsive. Seeing a new thing, or a new production, or a new director, might interest me more. Then I usually read the script most of the time.
This film is also because I was talking to a few friends by chance, and they said let me shoot something, saying that I am always a producer, planning, art consultant or something, do you want to shoot one yourself? ? I said that I also thought about shooting things.
Because more than ten years ago, I told Acheng that I wanted to do animation, and he told me to try it.
I find it particularly difficult to photograph this thing.
A Cheng wrote "Three Kings" ("The King of Trees", "The King of Chess", "The King of Children"), Maybe "The King of Trees" is the least talked about one, and my favorite is "The King of Trees" .
At that time, I was thinking about how to shoot? When doing animation, Acheng said you can do it, but if I don’t think it’s a real person, the relationship between people and trees is not as enjoyable as I imagined. I think it has to be a real tree and a real person, and you have to see the real thing. Like Acheng's novel, so the cartoon was abandoned. Later, I felt that I still had to do it, and this time I will do it.
Liu Xiaodai: How is the progress of this movie? The next step is how to prepare to distribute ?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: My main concern now is whether this film can complete , because it is still in the post-production stage and review, so I can't talk too much.
Liu Xiaodai: Your director's "Bird Singing" was adapted from A Cheng's novel. For you, what are the joys and challenges of adapting his text?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: There is a lot of pressure, because Acheng is a big mountain. For me, he is a very remarkable writer and historian. It's very difficult to shoot something like this (novel) because I don't want to make it into his novel.
I watched "King of the Child" as a novel. I thought "King of the Child" would have been shot that way at that time, but I don't think it would be done that way now. wanted to make it a little more casual. It's hard, and I don't think the adaptation is ideal.
Liu Xiaodai: In recent years, one of your most popular roles in the film industry is that of an actor, and you have been recognized by some important awards. How do you feel as an actor?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: This is a nonsense. I don't think I'm an actor at all, and then I'm not a good actor. One of the most common sayings is that acting naturally is good, but this is not the case with actors, actors are not required to be natural. Maybe in some places, they will think that my temperament is quite similar to the character they think.
The actor is to create, I don't think I'm creative, I can't do that well to create a character. For example, if you look at things like Jiang Wen , Wang Zhiwen , they all play some very different roles, I can't do it. I can only feel that I can touch people, or things that I can touch, I may be able to express a little appropriately.
I'm not really an actor, I can't ruin an actor's reputation. As an actor, I think this is indeed a job that requires very hard work.
Liu Xiaodai: When it comes to being a producer , the concept of an executive producer comes from your help to the sixth-generation directors, senior , Wang Xiaoshuai , Zhang Ming ... and Directors like Wanma Caidan , Yang Chao and other directors have received your help when they started directing. What are the opportunities and stories to share with us?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: I like to meddle. (laughs) just happened to meet these people who want to make a movie, and then they need some push from various aspects. I felt that when we came out, many people came to support us, such as Guo Baochang , Wu Tianming , and the leader of the Kunming factory . Including teacher Xie Fei, Zheng Tian teacher, Wu Yudong teacher, they have done a lot of similar things. They are already good directors, Why do they help these young people, because I think they may all know that there are actually two types of movies, one is the movies made by young people, full of vitality , full of passion, full of desperation. Those movies may have a lot of stubble and a lot of defects, but their life cannot be stopped.
There is another kind of movie that was shot by older people, like the current shot by Zhang Yimou , it is a work. The vitality of its own has become another kind. It is not an independent kind, not a kind of thing that has a special resonance and commonality with traditional movies, but it is a very personal thing.
These two kinds of movies I prefer to watch young people's movies, I think young people's movies will make you interested to live a few more years.
I think for me, since I like movies so much, I was born in the fate of movies, I have to do things according to my ideas, it is impossible to do anything else, it must be done for the family of movies, I think that might be the reason. Then I have been doing it, and I am still doing it now. Sometimes I really do my own business, that is, sometimes feel powerless to make up for the sky, but I still have to do it.
Someone has to do it, and there are a lot of people doing it now. Then I hope that all these people who do it can really help these young people to implement the most specific and most needed places, possibly the best and most important.
Liu Xiaodai: You have not only worked as a director, screenwriter , actor, producer, and producer in the film industry, you seem to have done music in "Kid King", art in directed by Meng Jinghui , and Yang Fan's director's "Jiyuantai No. 7" has done dubbing, and it seems that he has done editing. He came from a film family. What do you think of the current domestic film and film market?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: The market is a management thing, not a filmmaker's thing. A system such as movie management and movie review, including which movies to let people see, these things are actually quite complicated.
You can see that many products in our life are inspected or have various systems, such as how to make wine, how to make and sell food, it has a very clear system. How to do meat, how to do seafood, it is systematic. Clothing, buildings, housing, etc.
So I think the movie is also an ideological thing, it is a little imaginary, but in fact it is still a market thing, after all, it is still related to the market.
I think it is still a word from the chairman: is popularized and improved.
I think the popularity is very strong now, and the improvement is very poor. Improvement is because we don’t know what to improve, so now popularization is mainly about selling money. is mainly because of more money, or in line with the current publicity requirements. These things may sound unpleasant to the government and managers, but in fact it is a very real problem.
Year after year, there will be an irreversible inertia. One day, many people will regret it and say: Alas, how could this happen at that time! It may even become a hindrance to the normal development of this society.
For example, let's talk about this takeout . Some young people tell them that they have not eaten out for a few months, but they are taking out every day.
Is this a particularly good way to live?
This is how people are now. This takeaway is really convenient, but some people have reached this level, and they are dead, and they can't do anything. So I think we have found an inert thing in this unhealthy operation, and when we find one, we feel unable to extricate ourselves, as if we are addicted. I think this is actually quite scary. The same is true for
movies, that is, if you eat too much takeout, there will be a problem.In turn, what types of movies are take-out and what types are not? Is there anyone to guide, for example, young people, children, middle school students, elementary school students, and even college students how to watch movies and how to think about these things? I think this is a subtle education.
But in China, the most serious thing is that everyone will go to the side.
For example, we always say "children lose at the starting line", all parents will spend all kinds of energy, spend all kinds of money, and find all kinds of relationships to nurture their children.
In fact, the establishment of an industrial chain does not help children at all. ,000 piano players, your child is not good at playing or not, and he will not be able to play well without you asking him to find a talented teacher.
Therefore, parents, teachers, and society are all responsible for making everyone come and go to find their own way of life and their own growth. We don't hear any other voices right now, it's all one voice - either buying or playing.
just doesn't have all kinds of discussions, and it doesn't allow others to discuss or talk about it, that's it.
Nowadays, especially on the Internet, when a message comes out, it is either liked or scolded. I think the least kind of education and etiquette are gone. I think this is pretty serious.
Liu Xiaodai: You are also a teacher of and of Beijing Film Academy. You have the opportunity to meet many young people who love movies and are interested in movies. In fact, there are more young people who love movies and are interested in movies. , but they didn't have the luck to enter Nortel and listen to your teachings, what do you think is the most important quality in filmmaking?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: Film itself is a profession, it will have many types of people to do this work, and creation is another category. The work requires you to pay, you have the attitude, you work hard and work hard, you can get the job and you can do it well. The creation of
is different. Creation requires a certain degree of approval and then finds a certain amount of capital to complete what you have created. This process is very difficult.
Many people think this process is a dream, and now movies are very easy, just take a camera and shoot anything, this dream is especially easy for others to do. In addition, there are many things in this industry now, who earn hundreds of millions, how much are these people's appearance fees, and more and more speculation in this industry seems to feel that this industry is a place for gold rush.
I think maybe you have to think first, do you really want to do this thing, there are many places to make money, if you don't want to do this thing, you just take it as a job, I don't think it's a problem.
If you want to participate in the creation, then you have to work hard to make a lot of accumulation and a lot of literacy for your creation, and then you can create it. Sometimes you may have an idea one day that will be good, but you may not have this idea every day. When you are exhausted one day, you will not know what to do. So I still feel that I have to be careful in doing this.
Of course, if you study film, you apply to this school , and enter this major, I think it is good to learn this thing.
The young director Tian Zhuangzhuang was on the set
I always tell those students who take the exam, if I say your parents don’t think you will be a director in your life, right? You spent 4 years studying directing, what if it wasn't for directing? I said why don't you study a history and a literature? You may be a director in the future and you will have more knowledge.
Then you have to say, I just put myself in this blind spot when I study photography. This is the most specific example, such as learning mathematics and applied mathematics, which one is the most suitable?
The subject is sometimes a very specific thing, and sometimes you don't know if you are suitable, you have completely put it in (this subject), and you will never be able to change it in the future.
I think that when parents and children choose careers and subjects, should choose a broader subject, which will be richer.
In fact, a 16- or 17-year-old child still doesn't know what a movie is or what a director is, which is very difficult. I think like watching movies and making movies are really two different things. There are too many differences. I think there is almost one film academy in every province now, and I also think it is quite scary, that is, how many directors does China need?
Tens of thousands of directors come out every year, how many movies can they make?
Liu Xiaodai: Now children will have some film and television related courses. Do you have any suggestions?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: Movie is like a window through which you can see things outside of your life, you may see a story, a person, an emotion, a music, a scene, these things are you You can't see it in your own windows.
If you say that you can give the children some inspiration and make their imagination bigger, you will not plant a particularly important seed for them. The seed of does not necessarily mean that he is going to study movies, not necessarily going to Making movies, but it must be a person who is responsible, who can give, who can give, and who is responsible. I think this is very important.
Liu Xiaodai: Your work "Horse Thief" has already released a 4K remastered version. How would you rate this remastered version?Now that the technology of film is developing faster and faster, you may still study film film. Now it is all digital. How far do you think the presentation quality of digital film is from film film? Also with the development of society, more and more movies are put on streaming media on the Internet. The epidemic since last year has contributed to this trend. What do you think of future movies?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: I think technology and art have always been a pair of twin brothers. Technology will provide imagination for a creation of art, such as sound movies, color movies, montage , montage is because the film does not last that long and is broken , Take a look at these films one by one and find it very interesting. In fact, these things all come from the unconscious, so when these things are always fed back to the film, the creation of the film will be enriched.
At that time, many people would worry about digitizing , there is no film, but film is a kind of record, a record of an era, a medium, it is not the most essential thing, the most essential thing is that you shoot this movie what is, what is the content. After changed the numbers, the things that can be recorded are richer, deeper, and broader. I don't think this is a bad thing.
The movie itself has a history of more than 100 years, and it will have many good works left. If can sort out these good works, it is actually like a good book, it can be preserved, and it can become a movie library.
Then you can look up information, such as looking up the clothing in World War I, you can look up the language at that time, you can look up the buildings at that time, and the appliances at that time, these are the simplest, and it is viewable , it is vivid, it is alive.
You can also see such a record, including the record of people's thoughts, the record of the development of the film, this is a track, which is quite meaningful.
This kind of thing is used well, it is really helpful to the movie. For example, when we were doing repairs, I specifically looked for Hou Yong . I said that neither the director nor the cameraman would go to repair it again, and the repaired things might not look good. Because these people who restore do not understand technology, do not understand creation and film imaging technology.
Then Hou Yong really took his original sub-photographer, and the two of them went to repair it together, and then the sub-photographer stared at the repair. I think it was indeed repaired well.
Regrettably, there is indeed a problem with the sound repair, because its sound is like a machine, so it will lose a lot of time after a long time, and it is impossible to stay.
may be fixed better in the future.
If we have a richer understanding of film restoration, the sound may be better.
This (repair) is a good thing, there are many movies, such as "Confucius" by Fei Mu , I was shocked when I saw it, I think it is really an extraordinary movie.
Then when you watch that movie, you will think about what Fei Mu was thinking and what he was going to do.
You can only see it because of the repair. If you can't see it, you won't have this attitude towards Fei Mu's movie.
