Interview ｜ Enter Berlin Film Festival! What makes Zhou Dongyu and Bo Huang’s new works？

Special feature of 1905 film network The 73rd Berlin International Film Festival officially came to an end, and the French documentary film "Perseverance" won the Golden Bear Award, which recorded the stories of patients and artists in a day care center for adults with mental disorders.

The French director won the best director, while the 8-year-old actress Sophia otero won the best leading role award, becoming the youngest "queen" in the history of Berlin International Film Festival.

The director’s "Light of the White Tower" and the director’s two China films, which were also short-listed in the main competition unit of Berlin International Film Festival, won a good reputation overseas, but ultimately regretted not being able to "catch the bear".

Among them, after six years, Liu Jian was once again shortlisted for the animated film "Art College". This film invited actors including,, and Papi sauce to voice it, and at the same time, there were directors such as,, and so on who jointly voiced it, which brought great attention to the film.

After the world premiere of the film in Berlin, director Liu Jian accepted an exclusive interview with 1905 Film Network to interpret the creative story behind the film.

Better production team and higher creative requirements.

From the quality of Art Academy, it is not difficult to see that Liu Jian’s creative conditions have obviously improved since "Great World" was shortlisted for the "Gold-plated" Berlin Film Festival.

The volume of the film has increased. The length of 118 minutes and more complicated screen characters mean higher production budget. The dubbing cass of this film gathers celebrities from various cultural fields, such as Zhou Dongyu, Jia Zhangke, Bi Gan and so on, which shows the attraction of "Berlin director".

The film’s split mirror and color matching are all in by going up one flight of stairs, which is far from being comparable to "Big World", where there are frame jumps in the film and the background music is hastily shown in the competition before it is finished.

Liu Jian also felt that the last trip to Berlin really improved his investment and help from inside and outside the industry. The creation of "Great World" depends on his own hard work for many years before he managed to have a movie. However, in the period of Art Academy, he had his own animation team, which attracted many high flyers who graduated from animation major, with dozens of personnel.

So at the beginning of the project, he felt that "Art Academy" could be completed within three years. There are also frequent messages in the industry, and director Liu Jian’s new work has to participate in the A-class film festival, but it keeps everyone waiting for nothing every year.

In the interview, Liu Jian said with regret that better creative conditions have also raised his requirements for creation. The work originally planned for three years still took six years. He is very grateful to the Berlin Film Festival for its patience. At the same time, the larger team and more complicated project plan also bring more difficulties to the production of the film.

"In fact, the team has team difficulties. I draw" Big World "by myself. One person can control very good styles, including scenes and character relationships, which can be controlled by one person. However, the team needs to be connected. First of all, the style must be unified. Everyone’s animation feels different and different. With one more line, the feeling of this line is different. " Liu Jian lavishly spent half a year, dedicated to the team members and his own painting style.

In the play, he and his screenwriter partner Lin Shan Ye asked for perfection.A total of 16 drafts have been revised before and after the script of Art College, and every dialogue of each character has been polished constantly. Liu Jian demanded that "there is no nonsense" and every paragraph should be "interesting" and should be echoed before and after.

He said that the more linear narrative of "Art Academy" has disadvantages compared with "The Great World", so he hopes that the script can achieve the ultimate in a limited space. Instead of relying on dramatic design such as inversion, we can attract the audience by relying solely on dialogue, make the characters plump and textured, and reproduce a "temperature" 1990s. "So we kept changing and changing until the day before dubbing."

Recreate the youth age and talk to contemporary youth.

It is not difficult to imagine that Liu Jian, who was born as a painter, told a story that happened to a young student of the Art Institute in the 1990s, and it must be quite autobiographical.

In the interview, director Liu Jian did not deny this. Zhang Xiaojun, Rabbit and Skinny Horse, which are lively and have strong personalities, are all based on the real people in his life. A lot of space in the film describes the students’ feelings about art and creation in campus life.

Liu Jian said with a smile that the young people of our time were like this. Opening their mouths and closing their mouths were the names of all kinds of great artists, and they brainstormed with different artistic theories every day. However, he also stressed that it is really necessary to alert himself when creating. After all, Art Academy is not an autobiography, and he even asked himself to break away from the pattern of autobiographical films.

On the one hand, he thinks that there are many problems in autobiographical films, and it is easy for creators to make some narcissistic mistakes and put many things that are very important to themselves but have no feelings for the audience on the screen without restraint. He believes that all the details he emphasized and the repeated plots in Art Academy are required and necessary by the script, and they have a strong real texture.

Even so, it is still not an easy task for contemporary audiences to walk into the cinema and watch a group of young people paint for two hours in the form of debate, find the balance between money and art, and explore the necessity of art for life — — Even in Berlin, where a billboard can hit ten artists when it falls.

The audience of the film festival eagerly discussed the Academy of Art and the 1990s that people all over the world miss, but it was exactly the opposite of what Director Liu Jian hoped. In his communication with reporters, he emphasized that "Art Academy" is definitely not a nostalgic film.

He filmed his own growing experience because he contrasted contemporary college students and inspired their ideas.

Being a teacher in colleges and universities, Liu Jian usually has many opportunities to get along with young people. He has been thinking about whether the problems faced by young people now can be explained, digested and dealt with by art, just like they were then. Maybe there are other ways. Perhaps "Art Academy" describes the cultural splendor in the 1990s with great colors, which means "Renaissance", trying to bring art back to the dialogue of contemporary young people, and even return to the core position of the dialogue.

When the reporter asked if Liu Jian had communicated with the young audience, the director used the young people in his team as an example: in the creative process, intergenerational differences and cultural differences really made young co-creators have many questions. Liu Jian’s coping style is to tell his own story, bring young people back to the context of that year, and let them experience — — Just like what Art College did.

Liu Jian said with deep affection that the specific year of 1994 was chosen because it was an era when art broke out, and there were too many excellent works in movies, art and music. Shooting such a film is also a tribute to the artists of that year.

Finally, Liu Jian’s young friends expressed their approval — — Yes, when I heard the ending song "Let me scatter some wild things in this snow" by Cui Jian, who is not surging with emotion and who can resist?

starJoin the platform, no audition, hit it off.

As mentioned above, director Liu Jian presented a dreamy dubbing card to the audience in Art College.

Liu Jian said with a smile in the interview that there is really no role tailored for anyone, and everyone is looking for a voice according to the role. He didn’t start acting as a voice actor until the second half of his creation. At the beginning, he discussed with the producers. Both of them agreed with the idea of finding people from different industries to voice and show the different temperament of artists.

At first, Liu Jian listed several options for each role, and then listened to the voices of these people repeatedly in various video materials to find his favorite one. When he was sure, he went to contact the cooperation. No one can refuse director Liu Jian, who has been stamped by Berlin Film Festival. Everyone is very interested in joining Art Academy. However, Liu Jian also joked that he really didn’t dare to let anyone "audition", and they all hit it off. The voice actors of the main roles, such as Dong Zijian and Zhou Dongyu, all showed their professionalism in acting and stood ready for battle.

When the reporter asked what it was like to direct the dubbing of famous directors, Liu Jian said that directors would be nervous and stressed. "Jia Zhangke is also the first time." After all, there will be many unexpected problems in dubbing, but everyone involved will communicate very smoothly. Everyone attaches great importance to dubbing, takes time out of his busy schedule, studies the role seriously, and discusses with the director how to understand the characters and context. Liu Jian proudly revealed that almost all the guest dubbing work was completed by everyone within half a day.

He is very satisfied with the sound effect of the current Art Academy, and thinks that everyone’s voice is as good as his imagination, which is very suitable for the role. "PeopleSoft is very happy", "Zhou Dongyu’s voice is a good girl".

Although "Academy of Art" didn’t win the prize in the end, after the film was shown in Berlin, it was praised by many film critics and audiences.

Director Liu Jian shared in the interview that this film was made for young people now, people who were once young, and people who may look old but are still young at heart.

He has fulfilled this wish, someone will always be young, someone will always have an innocent age, and someone will always love art and not be sad.