Special feature of 1905 film network Before the interview, Huang Jianxin suddenly became interested when he saw the Blu-ray disc of black cannon incident that we brought with us.
"They seem to have sent me a copy by courier, and I haven’t had time to watch it yet. I’ve been really busy recently," he said, leafing through the Blu-ray suit and chatting about the short story behind it. "They even printed the complete Taiwanese version of the film. Look, the closing credits of movies used to be so short, not as long as they are now. Like Frant Gwo, there are thousands of people in their The Wandering Earth crew. At last, they have to roll for 7 or 8 minutes. "
Although Huang makes fun of the increasingly long subtitles at the end of today’s movies, in fact, in his view, this is a symbol of film industrialization. The pursuit of film industrialization is exactly what he is most obsessed with at the moment.
In recent years, when China’s film industry is gradually moving towards "producer-centered system", Huang Jianxin is really busy.
We can always see his name on the posters of different movies. But most of the time, his name is more of a "producer" title. As far as this identity is concerned, he is definitely the most successful and busy producer in China film industry. But it seems that everyone has almost forgotten that he was a director, even the best of the fifth generation directors.
In just September, he brought two films — — As producer of the film My People，My Country and producer and director of the decisive moment.
At the beginning of the dialogue, we used the word "finally" to emphasize his rare position as a director this time. He looked at the staff outside the camera and asked, "Has it been a long time?" Then I answered, "The last time seemed to be beginning of the great revival in 2011! Eight years. "
"beginning of the great revival" shooting scene
Eight years is a long time for film creators. Especially compared with other fifth-generation directors, he is really not a director who makes frequent efforts.
As for Huang Jianxin, many viewers have the same question as us. Why did the director who once made avant-garde works such as black cannon incident and Dislocation suddenly stop the pace of creation at the best time?
Of course, we didn’t throw the question at him from the beginning, but followed the chat before the interview and continued the topic in an attempt to find the answer.
one
In the film My People，My Country, the film "The Eve" directed by Guan Hu was launched on March 24, 2019. As the chief producer of the film, Huang Jianxin took the time to attend the launching ceremony; The next day, he and Haiqiang Ning co-directed The Decisive Moment, which was officially launched.
Huang Jianxin is busier and more tired this year. He needs to deal with two films of this heavyweight at the same time.
Fortunately, from the very beginning, My People，My Country agreed that seven directors would organize their own teams to ensure the independence of their works. He only needs to make a certain control from a macro perspective, thus leaving more time for the decisive moment. Finally, he took the time to find precious materials from Russia, and restored the color picture of founding ceremony and put it into the movie.
In a word, in order to have better quality for both films, he still travels frequently between two sets, even for several days when he is busy, and he can only sleep for two hours every day. "I’m doing the premiere of" The Moment of Victory "today, but actually I was in the editing room last night to do the later stage of My People，My Country."
Fortunately, now that both films are released smoothly, My People，My Country scored 8.2 points on Douban — — I thought he could have a rest for a while, but he told us that the following projects were already waiting.
In fact, it was an accident to be the director of the decisive moment this time. "This project is too short to shoot. Therefore, we must gather everyone’s strength together, otherwise it may not be finished. " More than that, in fact, for many film projects, Huang Jianxin is like a needle in the sea.
Because of the movie bodyguards and assassins, he became attached to director Chen Kexin. At that time, "Everyone’s Movie" was established together with Yu Dong. However, after bodyguards and assassins, "Everyone’s Movie" did not operate any more because of their different ideas.
Even so, Chen Kexin still "depends" on Huang Jianxin, and the two of them made "Martial Arts" and "Dear" in the name of "We Made". Today, the two will still find time to sit down and talk about various subsequent film projects.
two
In fact, at the beginning of the establishment of "Everyone’s Movie", Huang Jianxin hoped to make a good film on the basis of the existing system and talents in the future and form a stable reward system. Although this short experience was not successful, he had gradually explored a road of industrial cooperation.
If we want to trace back to his producer history, the earliest is 1994. At that time, he was still working in Xi ‘an Film Studio, and the crew of China Taiwan Province film "Flying" asked him to be the producer. Finally, the crew was patting and patting, and the crew had no money. He lent his money to the crew and didn’t even make an iou.
In 1998, Huang Jianxin transferred from Western Film to China Film Co-production Company as artistic director. A year later, the co-production company merged the production department with China Film Group to form the fourth production company, and he participated in projects such as With You and Big Shot as a manager. "At that time, the producer was still a big name, mainly to do some preliminary planning and discuss the film structure, not the nature of the overseas film CEO."
What really made Huang Jianxin understand the function of producer was the movie Kill Bill 2.
"At that time, the crew went to Shanghai Film Studio, but in the end, we pulled him to Beijing. As a Chinese producer, I assisted in filming China’s play. There was a producer named Bennett Walsh in that play. I always asked him for advice, and he told me some experiences and methods. At that time, I realized that the producer system in the United States is completely different from that in China, and the system will be more complicated. "
Kill Bill 2
In this series of experiences, he has accumulated a lot of experience in financing management and business management. At the same time, let him know that as a producer, he should be involved from the beginning of the script. "So I became a producer later and almost stayed on the set."
Huang Jianxin emphasized to us that through the filming practice of "Taking Tiger Mountain by Outwit", "operation mekong" and "The Story of Wukong", it is hoped that more China filmmakers can work together to promote the establishment of an industrial system for China films, and only in this way can China films develop steadily. In his view,"Explosions need to be studied, but explosions can never support the entire film industry. They can only be counted as exceptions."
Without the support of the huge film industry, it would be very difficult to complete many films. "My People，My Country involves obtaining information from all walks of life. "Escort" directed by Muye Wen, without the support of the air force and the necessary conditions of the film industry, it is difficult to take a picture of a female pilot driving a fighter jet to lead the follow-up flight echelon for review. "
three
This year is 40 years since Huang Jianxin started his career. When he just graduated, he was recommended to Xi ‘an Film Studio by his teacher because he liked movies. At first, his job was to read scripts in the literature room. One day, a director saw him and thought why he was sitting here because he was so young, so he took him to take notes.
Later, he found that the director was the most decisive person in the crew, and he set his ambition to be a director. Halfway through, he was also sent to the 83-level director training class of Beijing Film Academy by Xiying Factory for a year and a half.
After returning from further study, he met the "best time" of the West Film Factory. At that time, there were two choices before him, one was to co-direct a commercial film with others, and the other was to adapt the novel of writer Zhang Xianliang. Huang Jianxin was fascinated by Zhang Xianliang’s new novel "The Romantic Black Cannon", so he wrote to the author, conveying his fascination with the content of the novel and asking the other party to let him adapt the novel at will.
After obtaining the author’s permission, he took the script to the factory director Wu Tianming. Unexpectedly, without saying anything, Director Wu let him do it himself, or even let him direct it independently. You know, there used to be an old rule in film studios that the first three works of the new director should be jointly directed. Finally, black cannon incident was born.
Later, he immediately made a "Pioneer Trilogy" including Dislocation and Samsara. At the same time, the works of Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and others, both of whom are Western Film Studio, have caused a sensation at home and abroad. At this time, Huang Jianxin did not continue to publish his works, but went overseas as a visiting scholar.
Two years later, when he returned to China, he found that great changes had taken place in China society, and the film market also accelerated. However, at this time, we are faced with a contradictory situation. Overseas markets prefer to see films such as Red Sorghum, while audiences expect more entertaining works, which is a shock to the fifth generation directors.
In this context, Huang Jianxin’s urban trilogy was born: Stand up straight, don’t get down, Back to Back, Face to Face, and Stop at the red light and go at the green light.
The 1990s can be said to be the peak of his creation, which almost kept the output of one film a year. This creative impulse has continued until the "psychological trilogy" at the turn of the century: Tell your secret, Who says I don’t care and Please praise me.
But since then, his creative desire has stopped. Until 2008, Huang Jianxin was invited by Han Sanping, then chairman of China Film Group, to co-direct the film The Founding of the People’s Republic of China, which showed the founding process of New China, and then he started his "Founding of the People’s Republic Trilogy" — — The Great Cause of Founding the People’s Republic of China, beginning of the great revival and the Great Cause of Building the Army. These three works are mainstream films made with the thinking of commercial films, which set a benchmark for subsequent films of the same type.
In fact, for Huang Jianxin, the so-called creative desire comes from his own curiosity.
At the end of the interview, he told us half jokingly, "I’m a Gemini, and I’m curious. My interest in anything didn’t last that long, and I soon changed. Now I don’t want to express my desire. When I wanted to express it before, I could create three films in two years, but when I didn’t, I didn’t even have to be a producer. " That’s true, but he repeatedly stressed that movies are just a profession for him and a part of creation. "I can only do this, and I can’t do anything else."
Maybe at the moment, we still don’t know how to stimulate Huang Jianxin’s desire to express himself. Maybe the answer will be found in future movies with his name printed on them.
