tearjerker director

Chapter 1379: The original intention is sympathy, but the core is scars

After Li Yi briefly told the story of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".

Everyone was silent.

"This story is really true." Chen Wen didn't know what words to use to describe it.

"Yes, it seems ordinary, but why does it give people a very special feeling?" Chu Xuexiang also said.

"However, this time span is really long. If you want to shoot it, the cost will not be low!" Tang Lu then said.

Li Yi nodded. Although the movie "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" doesn't seem to have any special big scenes, this kind of movie spans an extremely long time and involves many different scenes. The buildings, scenes, etc. of different eras, etc., etc., the cost of producing such a movie will indeed not be low.

In fact, the production cost of the original film was not low, exceeding $[-] million.

Although compared to those blockbusters that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, the cost does not seem to be particularly high, but don’t forget that this is a feature film. Although it has a fantasy color, it still has no commercial elements. Rich movie.

There is a sense of curiosity, but most of it is a dull life. This kind of movie is actually not popular with those in the film industry.

However, for Li Yi, it is not a problem. Problems that can be solved with money are really not a problem.

But if he really wants to film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", it is also a big challenge for Li Yi.

Because the story of the movie itself tells the story of an American, and the social background is also from the American side.

After all, Li Yi is from China. He really doesn’t know much about many things in the United States, such as history. So if he wants to shoot, he must do a lot of preparation work.

"Actually, why not adapt it into a Hong Kong version or a mainland version?" Tang Lu couldn't help but ask.

Others were also a little surprised when they heard this.

Li Yi smiled bitterly and shook his head: "First of all, you know, the story I envisioned spanned nearly a century. Such a time span is actually not suitable for localization. Why? Because the nursing home where Benjamin Button lives has always been It is in a relatively stable environment, compared to if it were placed in China."

Everyone was a little stunned when they heard this.

Indeed, if such a story, especially one that spans nearly a century, is really changed to a domestic story, many places will have to be drastically changed.

Moreover, if it is really to be made into a domestic version, then the stories of many periods will undergo huge changes, especially some special eras, war years, etc. If these are not shown, it will inevitably make the movie less popular. The era background is distorted!

One thing that has always existed in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a stable environment.

Although the movie downplays the economic logic, it actually introduces the fact that Benjamin Button's biological father is a rich man, which will allow him to maintain a good and reasonable logic in the nursing home and the nursing home.

In fact, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is not the kind of movie that pleases the audience and entertains the public. This movie should be regarded as a scar movie. The scars mentioned here include not only the feelings of the actors after the performance, but also the feelings of the audience while watching. The faint sadness left in my heart at the end.

"Why did you think of this story? I mean, what did you think about filming this story?" Chen Wen asked suddenly.

Li Yi always couldn't answer this question. This is a golden finger. It's not that I can shoot whatever I want, but that I can shoot whatever I have.

"I'm also curious, if you make this movie, what kind of posture or method will you use to shoot it? This kind of movie is not easy to make!" Tang Lu is also a director himself, so he asked The question is more directed towards the director.

In some movies, the director may indeed be just a tool, but for a director at Li Yi's level, it can be said that his ideas are the soul of the movie.

And as Tang Lu said, a movie like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" can be said to be one of the most difficult movies to make. The first problem is that there is no reference object.

For actors, the role of Benjamin Button is difficult to interpret, because we usually live, grow old, get sick, and die, from young to old, from infant to old, but here it is the other way around, so the problem becomes coming.

The protagonist of the story, Benjamin Button, has been surrounded by aging people throughout his childhood. He often faces death, but he can deal with it very appropriately. This is a psychological challenge, even though his psychological maturity is very low. Just a newborn baby.But just think about it, if we were faced with a large group of 85-year-old people when we were just born, what kind of experience would we have?
It is really difficult for an actor to act with this kind of experience, because no one has such experience, so there is no one to refer to. At this time, the director is very critical.

The actors don't know what kind of feeling they need to perform, and it's difficult to paint a picture out of thin air. At this time, the director must have his own clear ideas and tell the actors what they imagine.

It needs to be pointed in at least one direction.

Then there is the core idea of ​​the movie, which is obviously crucial to the movie.

Do you need this movie to show, just tell this story?

This is indeed possible, but why do different directors usually give people completely different feelings about the same story?
It's because different people have different understandings of the same thing, and for Li Yi's movies, he naturally needs to give the movie his own theme.

What is the theme of the movie?
dark?Or is it bleak?Or is it also a little twisted at the same time?
"My thoughts? I think the key is to determine the real reason for sympathy for Benjamin, whether it is because of his illness, his 'curse', or something else. This may be the basis of the entire film. I believe that as long as we stick to With this foundation, we can explain why in the film he goes to the places he should go to, finds the people he should find, and does what he should do." Li Yi thought for a while and said.

"Sympathy?" Everyone was a little surprised. They didn't expect that Li Yi would give such an answer.

"Yes, shouldn't we sympathize? As parents, they gave birth to a "freak" like Benjamin, and they abandoned him. He was already pitiful enough. He was a "freak" since he was born, but he was still abandoned by his parents. Isn’t it worthy of sympathy?
As normal bystanders, bystanders, or viewers, when they see Benjamin and know about Benjamin, I believe that their first reaction must be sympathy, sympathy for his tragic experience and tragic life experience!So, I think the actors should also have this mentality when filming the movie.

For example, Benjamin's "mother" in the story must have sympathized with the child first and then anything else. "

"All of us will experience the death of our parents, the growth and maturity of our children, and our own aging. So I hope this movie can enable people to use a good way to resolve the sadness that follows in life; at the same time, I also hope that this film can resonate with young people, and I hope that I can have a dialogue with them through the film, so that they can understand the true meaning of the passage of time and the loss of youth, although this may not be a problem they have to face at the moment. Okay, I won’t say much more. Actually, I just want to take a photo and see how everyone reacts?" Li Yi couldn't help but smile a little as he said it.

"However, when it comes to changing from old age to youth, it seems that the child's "old age" is not so easy to photograph, right?" At this time, Lin Yunbin suddenly asked.

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then they all became a little stunned.That's true!

For other movies, if you shoot a child in infancy, just use a baby to shoot it.

But the Benjamin in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" looked like an old man when he was born. The key is this. Li Yi couldn't really find a baby to play the role, because it was not a "baby" at all, but an octogenarian. baby.

The key is that this kind of baby must look like the male protagonist. The baby will undergo great changes as he grows up. It is impossible to judge with the naked eye, but from old to young, it is definitely impossible to use this method.

"This is nothing. Today's special effects can do it. Use electronic imaging to capture the face of the male protagonist, and then place it on other people's bodies." Li Yi didn't pay much attention to this.

Because it sounds difficult, but in fact, in terms of special effects technology in these days, this is really not a particularly complicated technology.

Of course, Li Yi will definitely strive for excellence in this kind of special effects.

"According to our idea, this composite body must be made seamless. What appears in front of the audience is a whole, and it cannot be seen as a composite body at all. The difficulty lies in the facial performance of the male protagonist. Since it is electronic imaging, it must be performed The face of the actor is dynamically captured to ensure its authenticity. The biggest challenge for me is that no matter what kind of special effects are done, the audience must recognize that it is the male protagonist at the first time." Li Yi also said.

This is indeed a problem.

This is completely different from cutting out pictures or changing faces with AI.

It is impossible to completely achieve that effect by cutting out pictures or changing faces with AI, because neither cutting out pictures nor changing faces with AI can truly show an accurate and natural "performance"!
So, there will definitely be some wear and tear by then.

Of course, more specific details need to be discussed by Li Yi and the special effects team at that time. Maybe there is a better way now.

In fact, from this aspect, this movie may require a lot of special effects.

Of course, they are all relatively subtle special effects, not the kind that completely pursue visual effects.

However, it is unlikely that this movie will be shot as quickly as Li Yi's other previous movies.

After all, a movie like this requires a lot of preparatory work.

There is a lot of preparatory work that needs to be done before filming starts.

First, we need to find scenes such as "nursing homes" and then build them to restore street scenes, interiors, etc. of different eras.

These not only require a lot of manpower and material resources, but also require attention to detail.

In fact, it would be more convenient to shoot in Hollywood, because although the theme of the story of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is not nostalgia, however, depending on the era in which your movie is set, it must have the characteristics of that era.

If it were just a simple era, then it would be easier to say, but the key problem is that this movie spans nearly a century. Such a time span will naturally accompany the changes of the times, and many things will change.

In fact, in Li Yi's opinion, the original version has largely weakened the environmental changes caused by the changing times.

Generally speaking, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" does not focus on this aspect.

But it is still relatively consistent.

However, it does not give a unique representative symbol of a certain era.

Of course, this is also because in that century, America's internal environment was relatively stable overall, there was no war, and it was only limited to a small place like a nursing home, so the changes were not too big.

But if we look at it in China, from the early 21th century to the [-]st century, there are too many nodes of change.

However, the filming of the movie must show the sense of the times and the nodes of time. In the original version, Li Yi did not do a good job in this regard, because generally speaking, it only showed the body and face of Benjamin Button himself. Changes and more.

In other aspects, it feels like the changes are not that big.

But how could it be possible that there has been no change in a few decades?

The architecture will gradually begin to have a sense of history, and people's clothing will inevitably change due to different times, etc., etc.

Fortunately, Li Yi was not in a hurry. In the following time, he would only spend some time every day to write scripts, write movie plans, and mark his specific and detailed requirements in them.

At the same time, he also needs to understand some relevant historical nodes, clothing in different eras, environment, etc.

Although Li Yi didn't need to do things like setting, he couldn't help but understand that the so-called experts and professionals might be able to restore it well in general, but Li Yi had to pay attention to every detail, otherwise If some low-level bugs appear in the movie, it will suddenly lower the quality of the entire movie.

Preparations for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" have already begun under Li Yi's remote command.

I have to say that Hollywood is indeed much more convenient in this regard. As long as you give specific requirements, they will have a professional team to help you find and fulfill them.

Of course, it may not be perfect, and it may not be possible to meet Li Yi's requirements at once, but in general there will be no problem. All Li Yi needs to do is make adjustments in the details.

This will save Li Yi a lot of time and energy.

(End of this chapter)