Surprise Conversation with Zhang Xiaobei, director of "Star Builder": The greater proportion of making science fiction movies is feelings
When we make science fiction movies, the first thing we do is to make the movie. Based on this principle, we judge whether the story can be used as a science fiction movie. We first judge whether it is possible to be adapted into a commercially successful movie. We are all groping, trying, and we trial and error. Through continuous trial and error, accumulation, we pass it on to the market for verification, then feedback, then pass it on to the following, and then accumulate repeatedly. Maybe this process will take about ten years to be able to touch...
the first phase of the Marvel event is based on the theme of "based on a solid Foundation for the Future of Science Fiction"
sponsored by the Marvel Fantasy Base and the White Feather Fan Film and Television think-tank Alliance. The theme of the first surprise event jointly sponsored by Baiyu Fan Film and Television College and the School of tie Finance is "based on a solid Foundation for the Future of Science Fiction". Three guests were invited to have a dialogue on the development of Chinese sci-fi films, namely, Hou Tao, a partner of Yien, a famous film critic, screenwriter, director Zhang Xiaobei and Daping Mutual Entertainment CEO Hu Yang.
Mr. Hou Tao, partner of Yien, analyzed that the market is really good, but can you make money by doing projects? Draw a big question mark. I read an article today, which said that 80% of the projects lost a larger amount.
in the course of the activity, we asked Xiao Bei and Hu Yang to express their own views. I will also ask relatively more interesting questions. I hope you can get more, and you are welcome to ask more questions.
< strong > Zhang Xiaobei sci-fi movie sharing-pre-development < / strong >
I'm glad to be here today to share with you about sci-fi movies. Actually, there are a lot of things to say about Chinese sci-fi movies. However, we have heard the concept of Chinese science fiction film for the first time since 2015. Every year is the first year of Chinese science fiction film, and this first year is not over yet.
our team, because of good luck, so we walk relatively fast. I just shot a sci-fi movie "Star Pioneers" in March this year. I have finished filming now, and it is now in the post-production stage. With regard to Chinese sci-fi movies, I think every sci-fi film has its own nature, and we are exploring the way forward. What do we mainly do? We beat out the pits and fill them up. When the people at the back see these pits, they can walk through them smoothly and go further. So from this basis, we now do science fiction movies is a bigger emotional thing.
I would like to share my artistic and creative experiences, which may serve as a reference for all of you. That is to say, I walk in front, not to walk fast. I am a pathfinder. I am a sentinel. I draw maps for you and pass them on to more people, so that when you walk behind, you can know that it is not for everyone to follow my route. It's to let people know what mistakes and difficulties I've encountered. Because the road to success is very narrow, and there are thousands of wrong roads, we are telling everyone not to go here.
about science fiction movies, we have two major stages. The first stage is the pre-project development, the second is the late shooting and production, if subdivided, the front development is an early direction choice. Production is divided into shooting and post-production, we first from the early development, how do we choose a science fiction story, and determine that it can be made into a movie. With regard to the judgment of this factor, I believe we all have our own ideas and experiences. What is our experience? A very important point is that when we are making sci-fi movies, we actually still make movies. When we make a sci-fi movie, the first thing we do is to make this movie. Based on this principle, we judge whether this story can be used as a sci-fi movie. We first judge whether it is possible to be adapted into a commercially successful film.
Why is there so much emphasis on commercial success? because there was an interesting question about Zhihu before. some people asked why science fiction movies cost so much money. The problem is that if you want to make sci-fi movies, you have to spend so much money. For sci-fi movies, if we want to make good sci-fi movies, then we have to do well at the visual level. So for the visual level, you need to spend so much money, whether it's late-stage or CG special effects, which costs a lot of money. When it comes to special effects, because we also know that post-production, about computer special effects, is an unavoidable cost.
to judge whether it is an original story or the copyright of a story we buy, and whether a story can be made into a movie, I believe we all have experience, what kind of story can be adapted into a movie? Everyone already has a relatively rich experience. Well, on this basis, we will judge. As far as we are concerned, we think there are several main indicators:
first of all, we should have a novel and unique creativity. This idea is the core theme of science fiction stories;
second, it is best to have a relatively mature and complete worldview;
third, there should be a relatively unique, impressive character;
finally, if the story can provide a rich and interesting story structure, that's the best.
but look at the combination of these four points, we can basically kill 99% of the stories, that is to say, we can't find such a well-integrated story, or find such a good story, and find that its copyright has been sold. At that time, we further reduced the four elements, if there are two consistent, we can make the next step of development. Creativity, worldview, characters and the story itself, of these four elements, random combination, there can be two elements, we can seriously consider moving forward.
because if we can find a mature and experienced screenwriter, then in fact the creative ability of this screenwriter can make up for other defects in this story. For example, novel creativity, complete world outlook, plump characters and unique stories, these four combinations, in Chinese original novels, what can you think of? "Beijing folding" does not count, Beijing folding creativity, it depends on the amount of reading. This idea is unique, almost never, in fact, if the worldview is subdivided, you will find that there is almost no story, or this story is very common. District 9 has no original work and is an original science fiction film. If we say that the ninth district, from the original point of view, it basically conforms to this concept, world outlook, characters, stories.
but please note that you cannot deduce the script from the movie. Because in the process of seeing this film, the final result is perfected one after another, and the story we see is formed. Because I am also a screenwriter, I often tell them that if you learn to write a screenwriter, you must read the original script, not the movie. If you push back from the movie, you will miss a lot of important links. This is a very important principle.
I made the movie "Star Pioneers", which we can say is 100% made in China. But internally, we say that because we have no money, we rely on China's local basic capabilities to achieve it. Our domestic budget is almost equivalent to about 10% of that abroad, which is a rather embarrassing situation.
We are all groping, trying, trying and making mistakes. Through constant trial and error, accumulation, transmission to the market for verification and feedback, and then to the following, and then repeated accumulation, this process may take about a decade. In order to find out a set of creative rules of Chinese sci-fi films that are effective in the local market, before this, everyone is exploring the way in the dark, and you don't know whether there is a road or a trench ahead, so there is no way. This is that at this stage, Chinese sci-fi films must have a sense of pathfinder and self-sacrifice.
well, after such a preliminary project development and screening, we now have a relatively reliable script with a controllable cost, and we think that Chinese audiences may accept some of these scripts for filming. At this time, we found that the previous setbacks were only appetizers, and the real test was later. I just shared about the project development in the early stages of sci-fi movies, so do you want to communicate about this link today? When we're done with this, let's start with the rest of the production.
< strong > Project Development < / strong >
< strong > question: I would like to ask if there are any Chinese science fiction works that you are familiar with in your mind. Which one do you think is particularly good? I want to adapt it and make a movie. < / strong >
< strong > Zhang Xiaobei: < / strong > Yes, I think the Hexi teacher's "Foreign Land" in the short story is very suitable for being adapted into a science fiction movie. I bought the rights to it. For example, three-body, I had seen it before it was officially published. that was ten years ago. I communicated with them about this issue. I said that three-body could not make a movie within ten years, and so far I have verified my judgment. My idea is very simple, since we can't make a movie, I don't want to harm others if we don't do this, so I didn't buy it.
< strong > question: the future is a mixed state of culture, so what values does "Star Pioneer" have in the future world? if you imagine a Chinese in a spaceship, what are the traditional Chinese values and what are the more cosmopolitan values? < / strong >
< strong > Zhang Xiaobei: < / strong > this problem is the ultimate problem in Chinese science fiction movies. For me, because Star Pioneer is the first film, we skillfully circumvent this ultimate question, because it is a topic that can be discussed only after the market has matured at a certain stage.
< strong > Post-production < / strong >
Zhang Xiaobei: actually, making a sci-fi movie is no different from making a movie. But there are some interesting places to share. Last year, the Shanghai Film Festival had a word called heavy industry film, but this year we talk about ingenuity. In fact, no matter what, we still have to make a movie seriously. Well, when we make sci-fi movies, there are two very important links, one is art and the other is visual effects, which are much heavier than ordinary movies. For example, we make Star Pioneers, we are small-and medium-budget movies. However, the establishment of our crew is three to four times larger than that of ordinary feature films. as for our film staff, the Prophase staff is about 550, if we count the later crew plus more than 1,000 creators.
most of these extra people are in the link of art and visual effects, that is, how to convert this thing from text to image, and how to effectively control the conversion process? The links of art and visual effects are closely integrated. In other words, the early conceptual design, mirrors, previews, special effects, these links throughout. To put it simply, the special effects company was already working before our movie was started. if we don't do this, a lot of our work can't be done at all. It's not a matter of time, it's a matter of process.
for example, in the visual design of our movie, we call it infinite detail. As long as this thing can't stop at first, you just judge for yourself what is an equilibrium point. We have a spaceship, starting with the shape of the spaceship and then what is the material of the spaceship? What are the superficial details? These details have corresponding functions.
if you want to design something beautiful, you just keep trying and making mistakes, and there is no money in the process. You spend a lot of money and time, finally get a set of procedures and think that OK let's do it, and then you find that the things you build and the drawings will never match. Many friends here know how to decorate at home. I'm sure if someone decorates, you know what I'm talking about. You take a tape measure to check the decoration every day, and there was a time when our team got into the habit of watching all the Hollywood blockbusters without watching stories for the first time. After you finish decorating, you will feel uneven when you look at the wall.
< strong > < / strong >
Hu Yang
my past experience has chosen to invest in some movies and TV series on the Internet platform and video network, and then this year we will set up a company that focuses on genre films. we develop some new types of movies with video websites and cinemas. This is a general development direction of our company, but I am not introducing it today, because the company has projects that deserve to be introduced, so today is to communicate with you, why are there genre movies? What is good for genre movies? How to make Chinese sci-fi films, this is a future worthy of expectation, and it is possible to realize tomorrow. Because not everyone has the ingenuity to eat so much bitterness in Xinjiang like teacher Zhang Xiaobei, bringing us such good films to look forward to.
look forward to more participation in Marvel Exchange activities in the future. See you next time!
< strong > "Marvel Fantasy Base" < / strong >
is independently incubated by the White Feather Fan Film and Television think-tank Alliance. As China's first service platform focusing on genre films, Marvel Fantasy Base focuses on the blue sea of Chinese genre films-science fiction and fantasy films, and activates imagination with geek spirit, so as to promote the display and exchange of fantasy films and talents, and expand the imagination space of Chinese films.
surprise has been held in January 2017. The Film Venture Capital Club will be held from July 1 to 9. The French Fantasy Film Award will be held on August 25.
Edit: mary