The original text was published in the public account of "GQ Report"
Interviewed and written by Li Yingdi
Edited by Jin Jin
Photography by Xu Chuang
1) Go out of Carey, back to Carey
Bi Gan walked into an old barber shop in a hutong in Beijing and sat down. He leaned against the back of the chair, looking from the side, his black T-shirt stretched his belly and outlined an arc. He is 29 years old and has a pronounced "beer belly" but refuses to reveal any secrets about his weight.
The photographer of "Zhizu GQ" saw that Bi Gan's hair was a little long, and joked with him. After cutting his hair during this shooting, Bi Gan replied, "It's time to cut it, I'm really busy, and I haven't had it for two or three months. Went to the barbershop."
Seven or eight people set up lights, lit lights, and simulated shooting around Bi Gan. They also brought in a few aunties as a group performer. The small barber shop seemed crowded. Bi Gan didn't move, closed his eyes, placed his hands on his legs side by side, and let the makeup artist grab his hair and apply foundation. The photographer asked him to read the dialogue into the camera, and his tone didn't change.
Bi Gan grew up in a barber shop in Kaili, Guizhou. My parents divorced very early, and my mother runs a barber shop alone. Every time he went to and from school, he would stay in the store for a while, sweep the floor, chat with his mother, and sometimes help customers wash their hair directly, until he went to Shanxi to study at university.
After graduation, Bi Gan returned to Kaili. There are mountains in his hometown. "Where there are mountains, there are trees. The trees will sprout, bloom, and then bear fruit." Here he can feel the flow of time, dream, and dream that in the layers of time, people walk from one space to another.
The reality is far from such a dream. He was first introduced by a friend to an advertising studio. The boss always "points fingers" at his works. One day he quarreled with the boss, the boss said to get out, and said, "You are talented, but you are talented. Can you eat it?"
This experience of struggle and struggle has been repeatedly rendered by the media. He then went to film the wedding, took the civil service exam at the passenger station, and began to prepare for the movie by persuading his mother to give him 20,000 yuan. After spending, he went to take the blasting certificate. Bi Gan's teacher learned that he was going to be a blaster, and he gritted his teeth and took out his savings before he could find his relatives and friends. 20 people crowded into two group rental houses. After two months of filming, "Streetside" picnic".
The movie finally became a "surprise", and it also cast countless spotlights on the young people in this small town. "Roadside Picnic" won the Best New Director Award at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, and later won the Golden Horse Award for Best New Director. Chen Yongzhong, the hero of "Roadside Picnic", is also Bi Gan's uncle. He recalled that relatives and friends couldn't accept having a "genius director" around him. , As long as relatives and neighbors saw it, they bought the newspaper and gave it to Bi Gan's grandmother.
Grandma didn't understand movies, she just knew it was a good thing. Another neighbor and relative came to ask, next time Bi Gan wants to make a movie, you can help recommend my child to become an actor. When the words reached Bi Gan, he didn't respond, he just said to have a look, if there is something suitable.
Changes happened quietly in Bi Gan. Bi Gan used to go to her grandmother's house every week, once every two years in two years. Grandma moved this year. Before that, she lived in a closed and concentrated old community with a bridge. Every day, neighbors who knew each other would enjoy the shade and chat. Bi Gan now has to wait until it is dark, and when no one else can see him, he will go to see his grandma.
At that time, Bi Gan had already started Dangmai Films in Shanghai, preparing for the new film "The Last Night of the Earth". He always had to return to Shanghai from Guizhou, write a script at home for a period of time, and then went to Shanghai to talk about actors, confirm funds, and prepare for the early stage. . Bi Gan had to walk out of Kaili, and now, Bi Gan also has to walk out of "Roadside Picnic".
2) From long shot, to long shot
In the eye-catching 40-minute long shot of "Roadside Picnic," Bi Gan stitches time together. The barbershop is a pivotal scene where the protagonist Chen Sheng meets his past. On the wall covered with black mold, there are pictures of former actresses. When Chen Sheng saw his deceased wife Zhang Xi, he put the light of a small flashlight into Zhang Xi's palm, and the skin glowed with a transparent and delicate red light. Said that he seemed to have seen dolphins.
Behind the poetic long takes is a bad filming process. The crew rehearsed for 20 days before and after, dividing the script into seven or eight parts and rehearsing them one by one. Bi Gan asked the photographer and the sound engineer to sit on two motorcycles and follow the set route. They do the processing while filming, and immediately delete anything that doesn't fit in the text. Bi Gan said that the photographers, sound engineers and actors had to coordinate and deal with the project. The project was unimaginably huge, and the funds were very tight.
Bi Gan felt that there were too many regrets for this scene. They shot three times in total, and only the first one worked, but it was shaking badly. The last time he found an old DV on tape and wanted to use an "outdated" machine to shoot the footage, but the DV was too small to handle well.
This time, Bi Gan has raised 20 million yuan and is determined to make up for the technical flaws in "Roadside Picnic". "Last Night on Earth" still tells a story that happened in Kaili, Guizhou and the fictional town Dangmai. Luo Hongwu (played by Huang Jue) returned to Kaili after leaving his hometown for many years to deal with his father's funeral. An old photo of him prompted him to start looking for the woman he once loved, Wan Qiwen (Tang Wei).
The highlight is still the one-hour long shot of the second half of the film. Huang Jue shook the coal mine cart and went deep into the dark night twelve years ago, and the 3D part also unfolded. Bi Gan hopes to gain time through continuous play like "Roadside Picnic", "The front part should be a rupture, like a memory, and the latter part should be a particularly charming, born, uninterrupted picture, like Poppy, so I used a 60-minute 3D extended shot."
But this time, the filming encountered difficulties as soon as it was started. Bi Gan announced to the crew that it would be shut down. The director came to him, spending hundreds of thousands a day, and losing hundreds of thousands a day if he didn't start the machine. Bi Gan said, that can't be opened, you have deducted the director's fee. The director returned again, how much the director's fee is, and it's not enough to deduct it. You must know that the pre-production cost of "Roadside Picnic" is only 200,000. One day of shutdown is equivalent to wasting a "Roadside Picnic".
It's not that Bi Gan didn't know the consequences of downtime. The crew suddenly became 200 people, and the gas money from the hotel to the studio every day is unknown. Not to mention that professional actors with more experience than him are all present, Huang Jue, Tang Wei, Zhang Aijia, and Li Hongqi, who have been shut down for more than ten days. How to arrange these people? Can these people be brought back if they are dismissed?
Bi Gan told me that the scene was not ready yet, but the actors’ schedules had already been set. He couldn’t bear to start filming before the scene was complete. Can’t make up for it, keep overspending.”
On the other hand, he also admitted that he is not a professional, "I have absolutely no understanding of the domestic film industry and film production." He continued the habit of "Street Picnic" and often revised the script on the spot. He felt that the story of the script didn't make a lot of sense, the important thing was to capture an emotion, sometimes the atmosphere and feel of the filming location, sometimes just having a new idea.
Huang Jue recalled that the beginning was originally set on an abandoned train, but when the filming started, Bi Gan saw that the train was about to be dismembered. He immediately stuffed two cigarettes for the workers, saying wait for us, and excitedly ran back to change it. The script, changed to a scene revolving around a dismembered train.
There is also a scene where Huang Jue emerges from the pool. Bi Gan told the crew that he wanted Tang Wei to walk on the water, but the art department had no choice but to put things in the water, thinking about how to make it less obvious that day. At night, the water was drained, and the table was padded. In order to prevent slippage, a cloth was added on it. The cloth was sewed in the water, and a nail gun was used to nail it. Huang Jue said, "He must have that energy."
Sometimes people can't digest Bi Gan's creative requirements for a while, and he will "100% insist". The solution is to directly tell them the final aesthetic effect to be achieved. He believes that making a movie is not about presenting a result. "The moment of the film is the moment that exists in the current shooting. For example, as soon as I see the train coming back, eh, I'm going to use a train, and then I'll shoot. That moment is my own movie moment, a There is only one chance, one appearance, for what one wants to do."
When it came to this long shot, the most difficult thing was not the photography, but the lighting. The long lens fell layer by layer in a mine, with a total length of three kilometers. Bi Gan said, "If you want to have a radius of three kilometers, you have to turn on the lights, and the lights have to change to maintain the beauty I want, and the 3D aperture. It has to be above 4, there has to be a lot of light coverage.”
Wong Chi Ming, who used to be Wong Kar Wai's royal lighting engineer, also joined the crew this time. Bi Gan told Huang Zhiming that he wanted a revolving room, and he had to turn it 360 degrees, but he had to cut out the space without using lights. "The average person probably left, and he was still a master. In the end, Mr. Zhiming said yes, let me think about it. He thought about it for a week, and the task was completed."
But persistence also comes with a price. The crew changed the production team three times. The film started in June 2017 and was originally scheduled to end in October. It was delayed until December. The final plan for the long shot has not yet been determined, but the initial funds were spent early. At this time, Bi Gan was still dissatisfied with the final placement of the long-shot script. The creative team suggested that Bi Gan should shoot first while the actors were all there. Bi Gan thought to himself, I have shot long shots, I know what to prepare for, but he finally agreed.
After finishing the preparatory work, Bi Gan said to Huang Jue, Brother Jue, let's go back to the office to talk about the script. After fleeing back to the office, the two of them had no good ideas and did not want to talk anymore. Bi Gan asked Huang Jue, do you have "Glory of the King" on your mobile phone, Huang Jue said that it was deleted before the Spring Festival and stopped playing. Bi Gan asked again, if we don't want to bring it back, let's form a team together. Huang Jue did not fight, and Bi Gan was too embarrassed to play by himself. The two sat awkwardly in the room without speaking.
Bi Gan felt that "Honor of Kings" was not worth playing, "but it was indeed a little pressure in my heart, there was no way". Huang Jue found out later that Bi Gan was asking him for help.
After taking the long shot, Bi Gan saw the material and felt that it could not be used. The investor said that he would go back and think about it. Bi Gan thought to himself, it's over, I don't have a chance to shoot. What if in the end others think it's okay this time? He didn't know what to do. In the past, he could just make his own decisions. Now he is pulling a large group of people into the water, and they overspend so much. Others are still playing with him like children.
During the month or two waiting for the investor's response, Bi Gan stayed at home every day. In private, he diluted his company's equity in the film little by little in exchange for new investment. Mother heard some things from the side, and asked Bi Gan if I would sell you Carey's house, and you continue to shoot. Bi Ganhui, your suite is only a few hundred thousand, how many days can it last? You must not do it.
He didn't think he was a person who would panic, and this time the pressure was not relieved, so he put it on the top of his head. He suffered from folliculitis, a large lump grew on the back of his head, filled with pus, and he took antibiotics and rubbed medicine every day, but it didn't help. Back on the set, Bi Gan had to put a napkin on the back of his head, otherwise the pus would make his hair stick together. Once Bi Gan wanted Chen Yongzhong to play his play again. When Bi Gan was filming, he said to Chen Yongzhong that he is in a better condition today, don't make mistakes, just fight for a few, don't make me suffer here.
As the Chinese New Year is approaching, news comes from investors that they can take long shots again. A few days before the 30th year, Bi Gan remembered that all the actors had only the last schedule left. The crew rehearsed for two days and filmed for two days. The first day was abolished, and the second day the first one was abandoned. There were only two chances, and the fifth one finally succeeded.
The moment Bi Gan said "enough", he showed a relieved expression. Later, Bi Gan and Chen Yongzhong went out to drink together, and Bi Gan always talked back to "Roadside Picnic". Chen Yongzhong said that "Picnic" is like playing with everyone, "Earth" carries too many things, it has to be worthy of investors, and it has to consider the follow-up release, film festival, too complicated.
3) No compromise, or no compromise
A stranger followed "Roadside Picnic" until he found the barber shop opened by Bi Gan's mother. Bi Gan greeted his mother a long time ago. In this situation, he said that he was not there, and his mother responded accordingly, but still invited young people to come in and have dinner together. As a result, Bi Gan happened to be in the barber shop.
When Bi Gan asked, he found out that the young man was studying film. He thought to himself that this person wanted some kind of spiritual support. After "Picnic", this kind of thing happened more than once. Bi Gan also heard that someone quit their job because of "Picnic" and switched to filming. "They changed their minds because of 'Picnic', they got some strength, and their lives changed because of that, and that movie was no longer a particularly personal thing."
"If even I'm almost there, or if I try my best to do this, will those people who care about my movies feel bad?" He paused, "because movies are too easy to compromise."
In May, the Cannes Film Festival sent a message that "Last Night on Earth" was shortlisted for the "Un Certain Regard Unit".
Bi Gan went to Cannes with the main creator of the film and the investors. The day after the media premiere, the team learned that "Earth" had "exploded", and multiple media predicted that this was the top seed of the "Un Certain Regard" award. "The Hollywood Reporter" said, "Bi Gan uses "The Last Night on Earth" to take us through memory, sadness, and his unique film and television magic." "Desist Film" said, "Under his lens, film is a dream, And in a dream, no matter how ordinary the story is, it must be dreamy and colorful." The second screening the next day was hard to come by.
On May 19, Cannes announced the winners. At that time, Chen Yongzhong was walking around the street with his agent and received news that "Earth" did not win a single award. Chen Yongzhong asked the agent, is this a joke? The agent replied that it was true. They hurried back to the apartment and saw everyone sitting there, not speaking. Bi Gan still turned on the computer and played Teresa Teng's song.
I asked Bi Gan what he thought about participating in Cannes, and he said that it doesn't matter if he wins or not, but if he wins, he can at least have an explanation. Bi Gan has no confidence in the box office of "Earth". He said that the final cost of the film was as high as 40 to 50 million yuan. "I think it's just a small loss for everyone."
When Cannes was over, Bi Gan returned to Carey, and a single aunt who had watched him grow up saw him and said, the artist is back.
"I have always rejected the word 'artist'. I don't want to be an artist, I just want to make good movies, right?" But Bi Gan said that from that moment on, he recognized the word "artist" title.
"I don't approve of any awards or appraisals. But people like that aunt say I'm an artist, so I am. She doesn't understand this field, but she understands beyond her cognition and proves me What she is doing now can be seen by her."
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