tearjerker director

Chapter 1366: Don’t be afraid of old tricks, just be afraid of going around in circles
After watching the project of "Seven Deadly Sins", Zhao Guangming directly expressed his pity.

Of course he knew that the story was a good story and the script was a good one, but it was obviously impossible for a movie like this to pass the review.

It's too dark, depressing, and desperate. The key is that the ending is also the best ending for the movie, but obviously, such an ending will definitely have a negative impact on the audience.

Of course, a movie that can be hailed as a classic must be more than just a plot.

In fact, the design of the characters in "Seven Deadly Sins" is also outstanding.

Of course, it also tests the actor's acting skills and ability to control the role.

First of all, the old policeman, this character can be said to be indispensable in the movie. He is an old man, a homicide expert, scheming, calm and even indifferent. He seems to have seen through all the dark sides of the world, and he just wants to leave his post and retire in seven days. To avoid the negative energy of the world.

When Li Yi himself was studying this movie, he also analyzed these two characters very carefully.

The character of the old policeman, who is he?He is a veteran police detective who has been in the industry for many years. It can be said that this profession itself requires facing countless unimaginable dark sides.

He is not a rookie detective who has just joined the profession. All we can say is that his heart has died and has turned to ashes.For all the unfairness, injustice, undignity, and lack of progress in this society, Samosei is different from other police officers who only regard arresting criminals as their job. He sympathizes with all these, but this compassionate heart is reflected in the entire society. Gradually suffocated in the indifference.His compassion once forced him to resent indifference, but he finally compromised, put away his passion and compassion, hid behind calmness, and showed a negative attitude towards the world - he finally became equally indifferent.

Of course, such a protagonist must have a partner, because if he handles the case alone, then he will most likely postpone the case until he retires, and then hand it over to others.

Sadness is greater than heartbreak. Maybe this old police detective was going to end his career like this. As a result, Mills appeared.

Typical character creation requires a typical environment, and Mills and Summersey can be said to be two extremes.He is young, impulsive, passionate, has a pure insistence on justice, is full of desire to solve major cases, has a beautiful wife who has been in love since high school, and comes here full of vigor.

An important foil for the shaping of the two main characters is the depiction of the city's environment.The New York here is no longer a prosperous city with feasting and entertainment, but more like a dark and chaotic town. It rains every day and is covered with clouds, as if the sun never comes. It doesn't appear until the end like a charity. the sunset.Graffiti and homeless people can be seen everywhere. Such a gray city does not match the impression of "typical" New York, but it matches the gloomy story and the cold-looking old police detective very well.The only bright spot in the story is that Mills is an outsider, a slightly impatient young man who just arrived here and wants to make a difference, which seems to indicate that he will change everything.

Of course, these settings also make these two roles require actors to show very superb acting skills.

Especially the former, it can be said that it must be performed by an old and strong veteran actor. It is really difficult for ordinary actors to perform that kind of flavor.

In fact, in comparison, the young police detective is also brilliant, and unlike the old police detective, he is a newcomer, and the sharp edges and corners of his body have not been smoothed by society, so this is the end of the old police detective, but it is just His starting point.

"Li, you are really amazing. This story is so great. I can't wait to see what he looks like when he appears on the big screen." James Dean said about Li Yi's arrival and The great passion shown in "Seven Deadly Sins".

Of course, this is completely understandable, after all, "Seven Deadly Sins" will not be a super blockbuster, but the box office expectations are not low at all.

Simply put, James Dean knows very well what kind of movies the American audience likes.

The key is that "Seven Deadly Sins" is not "new" at all!
Yes, innovation is not impossible in Hollywood, but innovation means risk. If the investment is not high, it may not be a big deal, but when the investment reaches a certain level, their first choice will definitely not be the so-called innovative script.

As for the story of "Seven Deadly Sins", the routine is really not new.

Serial murders, serial killers, ritualistic crime scenes, etc., these are really not uncommon.

After James Dean got Li Yi's script, he actually held an internal meeting as soon as possible to go through the process.

According to several other executives and producers at Dean Pictures, the advantages of "Seven Deadly Sins" are very obvious.

First of all, the opening plot is cliche!

Yes, this is an advantage, not a disadvantage!

Why is it an advantage?
Because this allows the audience to easily understand what kind of story the movie is telling.

It can greatly lower the audience's threshold for watching movies. Compared with movies like "The Invisible Guest", "Seven Deadly Sins" is more straightforward.

The opening chapter is about the case, without much pretense of suspense, just the discovery of the body, the discovery of the crime scene, the police detectives arriving to investigate, etc.

These can make the film reach a wider audience.

Secondly, although it is cliché, it is highly watchable and suspenseful.

The suspense is that these people were killed, and there was a very strong sense of ritual at the scene.

In addition, the murderer did not directly kill the victim, and extended the religious teachings of the "Seven Deadly Sins", which gave the audience a very clear context for the case.

Here is the innovative part again. After the fifth case, the murderer appeared, but he directly surrendered himself. It can be said that it directly interrupted all the speculations of all the viewers.

It also overturned all the audience's conjectures.

Finally, there is the ending, where there is another twist, and the key is, the murderer won the final victory!

Yes, this may be the most difficult key to review in China, but in the United States, this ending is the favorite of countless viewers.

But "Seven Deadly Sins" is not a complete "ending movie".

Therefore, it can almost be said that Dean Pictures is collectively optimistic about the new project "Seven Deadly Sins".

After all, this is not the first time we have collaborated, so the relevant terms of the cooperation were quickly negotiated, and then we entered the film preparation stage.

Regarding the construction of shooting scenes, for Dean Films, no, it should be said that for Hollywood, it is really too easy to build a street scene from the past.

The second is to arrange those crime scenes with a strong sense of ritual.

These, Hollywood also has dedicated people to do this kind of thing, yes, the industrialization of movies, this is where the awesomeness lies.

They can be subdivided into many professions, each of which performs its own duties.

Many people may think that the crime scenes and corpses of the victims in "Seven Deadly Sins" are all decorated by makeup artists and prop artists.But it's not!

Different movies and movies with different themes require different scenes, but here in Hollywood, they can all have "reference objects"!
Because in the industrialization of Hollywood, experience is accumulated and routines are formed. In fact, after watching more, you will find that all princess movies have a similar story structure. This is the premise that they have clearly defined the main audience and meaning from the beginning. Next, in the process of making each movie, experts in various fields of labor have accumulated valuable experience. The special effects personnel and designers know how to make a new princess, and the marketers and soundtrack engineers know how to make a princess again. With supporting work, these people become experts in the field of princesses.Each of their successes lays the foundation for the success of the next one. Different film companies have their own areas of expertise, because they almost allocate this genre into many different parts like a machine, and professional people Do the professional thing and then assemble it.

Of course, this does not mean that directors are unimportant. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

Because of Hollywood's industrialized system, they can make the scenes and props you want, but it requires a lot of imagination, such as "Seven Deadly Sins"!
What each victim in the Seven Deadly Sins will look like in the end requires Li Yi to draw a concept map, and then they can follow the map to find out.

Then there is the crucial part, the actor part.

"Seven Deadly Sins" actually does not involve many main actors.

In addition to the first five victims, there are actually three remaining protagonists, the two male protagonists, the murderer, and of course the heroine who does not have much role.

The most important thing is naturally the two male protagonists and the murderer.

Li Yi also needs to abide by Hollywood's political correctness.

Therefore, in "Seven Deadly Sins", the same male protagonist Li Yi will also follow the plot of the original version. Of course, when the original version was released, it was not so exaggerated at that time.

But one black and one white can be said to be standard configuration.

Another serial killer, it can’t be a black man!

In fact, this is also an unspoken rule of Hollywood. There are almost no black serial killers.

Li Yi occasionally has random thoughts, what should I say?

Is this discrimination?
For example, you can usually say that serial killers are mentally ill or extremists, but it is undeniable that they are very smart.

But serial killers rarely have black characters. Why is this?
Does this count as discrimination?

But on the other hand, if you really want to use black people, then maybe they will say that you are discriminating.

So, it's embarrassing.

Fortunately, Li Yi didn't think so much at all!

The first is the choice of the role of the old police detective. In fact, Li Yi really doesn’t have many choices.

Because this role, as mentioned earlier, is an old and strong old police detective. He is cold but not lacking in wisdom. This kind of actor is also black, so many ordinary actors have been eliminated from PASS.

What you must look for is the kind of Hollywood gold medal green leaves.

Fortunately, for this kind of actor, although there are not many choices, the goal is very clear.

In the end, Li Yi directly selected Daniel Moore, a veteran black actor in Hollywood who has won multiple Oscars for Best Supporting Actor.

After the audition, Li Yi expressed great satisfaction.

Because this person can really be said to be Hollywood’s golden green leaf!

Of course, the other party's salary is not low, but for Li Yi, it's not a problem at all.

He doesn't need to care about this thing, and after all, it's just an old green leaf, so how high can it be?
As for the male protagonist, it is actually not that difficult to choose, because the role of the male protagonist is young and impulsive, has a sense of justice, and is ambitious at the same time. This kind of role does not mean that acting is not required, but in comparison, actors of this age are in Not to mention that Hollywood abounds, but at least there are many options.

In the end, after auditioning several candidates, Li Yi chose Hollywood's first-line male star, Pyle Bock!
Nothing else, purely because of the high cost performance.

As for actors in Hollywood, it can be said that they are all acting talents, but at least there is no so-called "traffic niche".

Of course, once the actors are selected, it doesn’t mean that filming can begin immediately.

Even Daniel Moore needs to do a lot of preparation work after getting the role, such as getting in touch with the prototypes of this type of character, understanding how they usually handle cases, their tone of voice, and how they treat cases. thoughts etc.

Hollywood's tentacles have long been involved in all walks of life, so this is also not difficult.

Secondly, it’s this movie. Although Li Yi has the original version as a reference, he can definitely reproduce it. But again, if you don’t understand the social background and these things in the movie, then even if you reproduce it, it will be useless. Soul.

Therefore, the crew deliberately hired a retired police detective and a retired FBI.

Such people are not difficult to find in Hollywood. In fact, their profession is actually very popular in Hollywood. Hiring such people as consultants will indeed save the crew a lot of things.

Of course, Li Yi also has things to do. He must pay attention to the scenery and shooting locations at all times, as well as draw the director's shots, arrange the shooting plan, etc.

Of course, script reading is also essential.

"Seven Deadly Sins" is a relatively special Hollywood movie, but if you look carefully, you will find that this movie still strictly follows the Hollywood commercial film model.

The first 30 minutes or so of the movie propose a main conflict - a serial murder case with 7 crimes; then show various events under this conflict - the killer keeps committing crimes, the police detective gets closer to the truth little by little; and finally resolves this conflict ——The situation took a turn for the worse, and the murderer actually surrendered.What on earth does he want to do? .In this structure, what kind of content is most represented?There is no doubt that what is most represented in this movie is "sin".And this "crime" is not only the crime of serial murders, but also the "crime" of various deformities and pathologies in modern society.

In other words, the bright lines represent murders, and the dark lines represent social ills.The movie makes these two points very clear, not obscure, and requires no guessing at all.Thirdly, "Seven Deadly Sins" has no such design as "the real murderer behind the scenes".Any mature dramatist would not do such superfluous things.One taboo in commercial movie scripts is too many plot twists that make people dizzy, the second taboo is inconsistency and self-defeating, and the third taboo is being too obscure and unclear in direction.Therefore, "Seven Deadly Sins" does not deviate from the rules of the commercial film production system at all.

This is a dark Hollywood commercial movie!

(End of this chapter)