After accepting the script assignment from Li Hanxiang, Lin Chaoyang had to pause the novel he was writing because, after all, Party A gave him a lot of money.
Yesterday, he chatted with Li Hanxiang for a long time about the script, understood Li Hanxiang's thoughts, and confirmed that he had watched "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "Behind the Curtain", and he felt very confident.
However, he doesn't know much about Qing history. To truly present an excellent script, he must work hard on the details.
On the second day after returning from the Yanjing Hotel, Lin Chaoyang took advantage of his time at work to search the library and read a lot of information about the late Qing Dynasty, including not only historical materials, but also some literary works about the late Qing Dynasty and Cixi.
"The Thirteen Dynasties of the Qing Dynasty" by Xu Xiaotian, "The Queen Mother of the West" by Hu An, "Historical Romance of the Qing Palace" by Cai Dongfan, "Yu Xiang Piao Miao Lu" by De Ling, "Notes of the Yueman Thatched Cottage" and "History of the Qing Dynasty" by Li Ciming...
Dozens of works were placed in front of him, and just stacking them there gave people a headache. Fortunately, Lin Chaoyang did not want to read through these works, but looked for useful clues and details to supplement his script.
For several days, Lin Chaoyang buried his head in the pile of old papers and finally compiled an outline of the script and sent it to Li Hanxiang.
After reading the script outline sent by Lin Chaoyang, Li Hanxiang remained silent.
After a while, he asked: "You have prepared so many scenes for the burning of the Old Summer Palace. If you start writing, I'm afraid it will be top-heavy, right?"
Later, Li Hanxiang filmed Cixi and made two movies, "Burning the Old Summer Palace" and "The Government Behind the Curtain". In fact, his earliest idea was to make "The Government Behind the Curtain", but when he was writing the script, he didn't stop it. The content was too huge, so he had to divide it into two films.
Made two movies.
"From the perspective of a script, such a structure is definitely inappropriate," Lin Chaoyang said.
Li Hanxiang sensed the unexplained meaning in his words, and there was doubt in his eyes.
Lin Chaoyang did not make people wait any longer and said directly: "I want to write the script into upper and lower parts."
"Upper and lower parts?"
Li Hanxiang was surprised. He never expected that Lin Chaoyang would come up with such an idea.
He looked at Lin Chaoyang with astonishment on his face. He was a little dazed for a moment, as if Lin Chaoyang was the director who was holding the microphone on the set and telling the truth.
"You are the director, I am the director?" Li Hanxiang couldn't help but asked what was in his heart.
After being questioned by him, Lin Chaoyang did not panic at all and said: "I only said that my script was written in an upper and lower structure, and I didn't say that you must shoot it this way. Besides, the plot is coherent, and the scenery, actors, makeup, and props are all different.
There won’t be much extra cost, it’s just that the shooting volume has become larger and some labor costs have increased.”
Li Hanxiang thought about it and it seemed to make sense.
"I'll write it out first. If you think it won't work, the worst case scenario is to remove the part about burning the Old Summer Palace." Lin Chaoyang continued to persuade in a step-by-step manner.
Li Hanxiang flipped through the outline of the script again, and he had to admit that the story with the dual cores of "burning the Old Summer Palace" and "listening to politics behind the curtain" did seem more complete.
"That's alright. Anyway, co-production doesn't happen overnight. Just write according to your current ideas."
According to Lin Chaoyang's thinking, one script is equivalent to the content of two parts. His own workload has increased, and he may not be able to write the script in time before he goes to Haojiang.
Li Hanxiang was already prepared in his heart. At worst, he would take half the cost and show it to Mr. He. Script, script, the foundation of a play, the quality of the script is related to the success or failure of the movie, so it cannot be careless.
But he never expected that less than twenty days later, Lin Chaoyang would appear at the Yanjing Hotel again, bringing with him a nearly 70,000-word movie script.
"Director Li, luckily you have fulfilled your duty and the script is finished!"
Li Hanxiang took the script from Lin Chaoyang with surprise on his face, "You finished it so quickly?"
Listening to Li Hanxiang's tone, Lin Chaoyang said: "You said you were in a hurry, didn't you? I didn't dare to delay a day for more than half a month. I worked hard day and night and kept writing."
Lin Chaoyang's words are of course an exaggeration. In fact, these days, he focuses more on reviewing information and does not have that much time on writing scripts.
After Li Hanxiang was surprised, he didn't worry about how much time it took Lin Chaoyang to write a script equivalent to two movies in such a short period of time. He couldn't help but doubt the quality of the script, so he had to read it first.
The script written by Lin Chaoyang refers to the structure of the original versions of "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Government Behind the Curtain". The character settings and plots of the original movies are very brilliant, the language level of the shots is also very high, and the scenes are grand, which fully reflects the director's scenes.
Scheduling capabilities.
But it is a pity that many plots in the movie are quite different from the real history. If it follows Hong Kong's usual method of shooting historical films, this will of course not be a big problem.
But if you want to make a truly rigorous and epic historical blockbuster, this shortcoming will undoubtedly be fatal.
In this version of Lin Chaoyang's script, what took the most thought was how to better integrate historical facts and drama.
The script written by Lin Chaoyang has a total of 70,000 words and is divided into two parts: "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Government Behind the Curtain".
It would take at least a few days to read such a thick script carefully. Li Hanxiang specially opened a room for Lin Chaoyang and asked him to stay at the Yanjing Hotel for these two days to facilitate his communication with Lin Chaoyang.
It is the responsibility of the screenwriter to communicate with the director about the script. Although Lin Chaoyang does not agree with major changes to the script, necessary communication is indispensable.
He asked the co-production company to ask for leave, went home and told Tao Yushu, and settled into the Yanjing Hotel safely.
The Yanjing Hotel is the hotel with the highest level of hardware in China, and it is definitely more comfortable to stay in than the Yanyingchang Guest House.
Li Hanxiang read the script for more than a day, but never found Lin Chaoyang. He thought he had met a director with a normal routine.
Unexpectedly, the next night, Lin Chaoyang was sleeping soundly when he was awakened by a loud knock on the door.
He opened the door and saw Li Hanxiang's face full of excitement and excitement, "Mr. Lin, let's talk about the script."
"Director Li, it's already two o'clock in the middle of the night." Lin Chaoyang said with a yawn.
"It's already two o'clock? Let's talk quickly and have a good sleep during the day."
Lin Chaoyang:???
Is this what I'm telling you?
Li Hanxiang ignored Lin Chaoyang's opinion, walked into the room, turned over the script and started chatting.
"The script is well written. The two core plots of 'burning the Old Summer Palace' and 'listening to politics behind the curtain' are well established. I think it can be cut into two films."
Li Hanxiang came up and first confirmed Lin Chaoyang's script, and then studied the details in the script.
"I think the previous few folk scenes can be deleted without affecting the direction of the plot." Li Hanxiang said.
"Cannot delete."
"Why?"
"The plot of our first part is "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace." I wrote earlier about how well the Old Summer Palace was built by the skilled craftsmen, how much people's money was spent, and how many people suffered because of it, all to set off this climax.
If these scenes are deleted, the shock of the final "Burning of the Old Summer Palace" will be greatly reduced."
"You can express the beauty and historical significance of the Old Summer Palace in the palace scene in the middle."
"It is wrong to change the perspective like this. You must know that the burning of the Old Summer Palace itself was a heavy blow to the Qing Dynasty, but the Old Summer Palace was built with the people's fat and the people's money. The Manchu ruling class was not aware of the reasons behind this incident.
represents the meaning.
Only when we look at it from the grand perspective of the people and history can we realize the impact of this incident on the entire Chinese nation.
The audience in the movie theater is precisely from this perspective."
Lin Chaoyang's attitude was firm and he did not follow Li Hanxiang's ideas just because he was the director. He made Li Hanxiang speechless with his remarks.
Li Hanxiang thought about it and decided that it didn't matter if there were just a few more scenes, since it was planned to be cut into two parts anyway.
He continued: "Is the emotional scene between Yulan (Cixi) and Xianfeng a little too weak in the part of 'Burning the Old Summer Palace'?"
"You want to strengthen the emotional drama between them? Like Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan?"
Lin Chaoyang's words immediately hit Li Hanxiang's needs, and he said excitedly: "That's right, that's right."
Unexpectedly, Lin Chaoyang shook his head again, "Director Li, you have to think carefully whether you want male love and female love, or whether you want the weight of a historical blockbuster. Writing about Xianfeng and Cixi's boudoir secrets will certainly attract the audience's attention.
, but it will undoubtedly greatly reduce the style and heaviness of the movie."
Li Hanxiang’s status in Chinese film history goes without saying. Since the 1950s when he filmed Huangmei Tiao movies in Hong Kong, he has become famous in Southeast Asia and became the mainstay of the Hong Kong film industry at that time;
In the 1960s, he went to Bay Island to establish Guolian Company, pioneering the film industry in Bay Island, and stirring up the film scene in Bay Island at that time;
In the 1970s, he returned to Hong Kong and made many scam films and romance films, becoming the initiator of many Chinese film genres. His whimsical ideas and artistic creativity in film shooting are astonishing.
But no matter how powerful a director is, he has his own limitations. Lin Chaoyang has seen many of Li Hanxiang's works and knows that Li Hanxiang's directing style is actually more suitable for making literary films with a strong humanistic atmosphere and luxurious scenes.
This time he wanted to make a historical blockbuster with rich cultural heritage, so the first thing he had to do was to abandon some of the usual thinking of making romance films and palace films in the past.
"...So, the emotional scenes between Xianfeng and Cixi can be included, but they must not be shot too aesthetically, nor can they use too many subjective shots.
If it were shot like this, it would be no different from those romantic movies you made before.
You told me that you wanted to make a breakthrough, that you wanted to reflect the political corruption of the Manchu dynasty and the stupidity of those in power, and that you wanted to film that painful history. This is not the right way of thinking now."
Lin Chaoyang bluntly pointed out Li Hanxiang's self-paradox in his shooting ideas, and his tone was even more rude because he was picked up from the bed in the middle of the night.
As the saying goes, good advice is hard on the ears. Li Hanxiang naturally felt uncomfortable after hearing Lin Chaoyang's words, but he had to admit that Lin Chaoyang's statement made some sense.
But he couldn't help but argue: "But if it were written like this, the movie would lose one of its highlights."
"Isn't 'Burning the Old Summer Palace' interesting enough? These five words are the key to the first half of the script. Too many emotional scenes will distract the audience's emotions."
After the two argued, no one could convince the other.
Previously, Li Hanxiangguang was thinking about finding a good screenwriter for the movie, and felt that Lin Chaoyang was qualified to be the screenwriter for the movie.
Looking at it now, he is indeed qualified for the job of screenwriter. But his presence is so strong that even I, the director, can't talk about him.
"After talking for a long time, I can't change a word of your script?" Li Hanxiang said dissatisfied.
"I'm not asking you to change it, but what you have to change is the place, and you can't change it randomly!"
Lin Chaoyang's words almost made Li Hanxiang vomit blood.
I have been a director for more than 30 years, how can I change the script?
"This is my movie!" Li Hanxiang said angrily.
"But I wrote the script!"
Lin Chaoyang's tone was calm and showed no anger at all, but the more he behaved like this, the angrier Li Hanxiang became.
Li Hanxiang was so angry that he couldn't sit still and turned around, unable to vent the anger in his heart.
"Director Li, why don't you sit down for a while and let's discuss it slowly?"
Li Hanxiang had just completed heart surgery, and Lin Chaoyang was afraid of making him angry, otherwise it might lead to a WJ accident.
"Sit down!" Li Hanxiang pointed angrily at Lin Chaoyang with his hand, "I want to fire you! Fire you!"
Lin Chaoyang's expression remained normal, "It's OK to fire me, but the royalties have to be paid first."
His words were like a knife thrust straight into Li Hanxiang's heart. Li Hanxiang covered his chest with a look of pain on his face.
Lin Chaoyang was startled. Why was he getting more and more worried about something? He quickly stood up and supported Li Hanxiang.
Seeing Li Hanxiang pointing at the coffee table, he quickly went over to take the medicine bottle from the coffee table and fed him the medicine.
After dozens of seconds, the painful expression on Li Hanxiang's face finally calmed down. He looked at Lin Chaoyang and said feebly: "What evil have I done to hire a screenwriter like you?"
Chapter completed!