In the 2019 Sina Entertainment year-end blockbuster project "The Most Beautiful Performance", director Diao Yinan and Hu Ge "South Station Reunion" collaborated to shoot a one-shot short film, with Hu Ge acting as a triangle to recreate the fugitive Zhou Zenong in the film.
Jackson Yee, who rose to prominence in the film industry with the role of "Little North" in "Young You", also came to a "north-south integration" with the "The Wild Goose Lake" crew. Diao Yinan tailor-made a story for him. Qianxi plays a rebellious and lonely teenager who is inextricably linked to Zhou Zenong. Shu Qi also joined this short film as a special surprise.
Both short films are additions to The Wild Goose Lake, written and directed by Diao Yinan.
How are the two stories created? What are some interesting stories on the set? As a Golden Bear Award-winning director, what is Diao Yinan’s understanding of acting?
Late at night, after the remake of Jackson Yee’s short film, we had a serious chat with Diao Yinan.
Creating a script for Jackson Yee
"He is very good at being alone, such a child is rare now"
Sina Entertainment: The director wrote two short films this time. Let’s talk about Qianxi first. How was this story created?
Diao Yinan: This story is based on Qianxi’s age and his current appearance to make a creative foundation. He is a 19-year-old boy, his heart is full of rebellion, and he is more introverted, not very flamboyant, very lonely, very quiet, and he has these temperaments in him.
Therefore, his state may be particularly suitable for what I present to him in this story. His heart is very tolerant and slender, but he is not good at expressing himself. His expression comes from some struggles within.
In this video, you may see that his inner voice is expressed through an expressive dance, or an expressive body.
Later, Shu Qi was introduced, and the script was also changed once in the middle. The relationship between the two of them in the play is very delicate. Both of them are very good actors and complement each other, so the length of the film also exceeded the original expectations.
Sina Entertainment: Although Qianxi’s short film is only a few minutes long, it was actually filmed for a day and a half. What is the reason?
Diao Yinan: Although the film is very short, the most beautiful performance for the actor is to show his different performance states and performance methods in such a short time, including the psychological activities of his lines, body language, body posture, and the scheduling of his inner emotions.
So each of our shots is also to help the actors to better complete the performance. The performance is not just the actor’s own business, the performance is the picture, the lighting, the sound and the opponents. All of these create an atmosphere that will help the performance. So these elements of the film in other departments are also very carefully done.
Sina Entertainment: Regarding this short film, what communication did you have with Qianxi in the early stage?
Diao Yinan: Mainly music, choose music, how to deal with this music, what functions did you undertake in the movie, and did some explanations and communication.
Sina Entertainment: Is it the music during the dance?
Diao Yinan: Strictly speaking, it is not dancing, but rather an externalization of psychological activities.
Sina Entertainment: So is it Qianxi’s suggestion or your choice to use the song "fall"?
Diao Yinan: I chose it.
Sina Entertainment: Have you seen some of Qianxi’s works before? What kind of actor do you think he is?
Diao Yinan: I have seen "Young You". Not bad, very promising, and young people have a promising future.
Sina Entertainment: I worked with him once this time. How did he perform on the set?
Diao Yinan: It is also very quiet on the set, without fighting or making trouble, and without too much contact with others. It is very good to be alone. Such a child is quite rare now. It was only a short two days, so that’s what I observed.
Sina Entertainment: Does he have some improvisation of his own when he performs?
Diao Yinan: Yes, for example, during the dance process, he will add some. I said you try to hit and kick, and he will add it according to this thing and play it by himself.
Sina Entertainment: Did he have any performance that impressed you throughout the cooperation process?
Diao Yinan: Execution, for example, what I ask him to do, he can execute it, no matter what method he uses, he can give it to me, which is very important for actors.
Sina Entertainment: Some actors may rely on scripts to act, others on instinct, and some on sincerity. What do you think they mainly rely on?
Diao Yinan: Maybe it’s based on instinct. Maybe at this stage, he’s a freshman at the Central Academy of Drama. From the perspective of learning acting, he doesn’t necessarily have a lot of skills or experience, so I think he relies more on instinct or talent.
Sina Entertainment: This time Shu Qi also starred in this short film. How does it feel to work with her?
Diao Yinan: Of course, she is very understanding, very good at performing, and very experienced. Many times she is able to control herself and the rhythm of the performance with ease on the scene, and I feel very cooperative.
The South Station party again Hu Ge didn’t have a good time!
"I hope to see a very kaleidoscopic Hu Ge"
Sina Entertainment: In the story of Hu Ge, you asked him to play the triangle alone. What was the creative inspiration at that time?
Diao Yinan: At that time, it was their publicity side. I don’t know who mentioned it. Then I thought it would be very good to use a long shot. The content of the script was written by me. After writing, the shooting process was actually very fast, but it took nearly 8 hours to prepare, which was very interesting.
I hope to see a very diverse Hu Ge, who has gone through a huge performance span in just over three minutes. From a sissy span to a fugitive, and then to a particularly vulnerable and rich traveler, it is he who presents them all very well in these few minutes. This is very difficult. I think Hu Ge has really made great progress now.
Sina Entertainment: I read that the script actually only briefly wrote the identity of a conductor, so is this sissy feeling the creativity of Hu Ge?
Diao Yinan: It’s his idea. Maybe he did some homework in his heart. He also communicated with me in advance, and I said yes, no problem. This kind of performance has a lot of span and tension. In a short period of time, it is like a show, which will let the audience know the ability of an actor to switch between different performance states in an instant.
Sina Entertainment: Which of these three identities do you think he played the best?
Diao Yinan: They are all pretty good, and he is very malleable.
Sina Entertainment: The identity of the fugitive is equivalent to playing Zhou Zenong again. Is Zhou Zenong in the short film in the same vein as in "The Wild Goose Lake", or is there innovation and change?
Diao Yinan: In the same vein, maybe he can’t get out of "South Station", maybe his mastery of fugitives is what I ask of him in the movie, and the other two are his free play.
Sina Entertainment: 8 hours of preparation in the early stage, is it mainly to prepare for the dispatch of one mirror to the end? I would like to ask you to introduce the specific difficulty.
Diao Yinan: All the shots can’t be worse, because there are substitutes to come and go to change positions, and some close-ups can’t be worse, and if there is a slight difference, you will wear a gang. The delicate things of the big full-scale scheduling and close-up are all in this shot, and there are extras in positions, not just Hu Ge, so all departments are required to cooperate, including the people who change clothes should be very fast, and they will wear the gang later.
This series tests the abilities of all departments, including the transformation of lights, the passing of train lights, and this shot is particularly able to demonstrate that film is a collective art genre.
So our work site was very quiet that day, and we found out later that because each department was very nervous, we paid attention to our key nodes. Sometimes our filming site was also very busy, but it still didn’t seem so quiet, which meant that some departments might be able to take a break, but everyone was very nervous that day.
Sina Entertainment: What kind of state is Hu Ge in when everyone is holding their breath?
Diao Yinan: He was very relaxed, he was very cooperative, and there was no tension, so he took a total of four shots.
Sina Entertainment: It means that a total of four shots were successful?
Diao Yinan: I took six or seven shots, and I succeeded in four, and then he played one better than the other. I was also worried that in this situation, the second and third items in the middle might be easy to mobilize emotions, and the fourth item might be tiring, but he also played the fourth item very well.
Sina Entertainment: I heard from Hu Ge that you and he communicated this script in the background of Double 11.
Diao Yinan: I asked him to watch some movies before performing, such as "Outlaw". At that time, he seemed to be abroad, and then he said he would watch it. Then as soon as we met on Double 11, we talked about this, and he immediately told me that the first character should handle it like this.
I thought it was great, he was creating this character, not necessarily according to the script, his own imagination I thought it was okay. Then he also said, it’s really difficult, and he has to test me again. I said that this test is actually fun, so we do it as a fun thing.
Sina Entertainment: Didn’t he use the word torture? Because the last time I interviewed Hu Ge, he said he was going to be tortured again.
Diao Yinan: Not yet this time. When we finally finished, he seemed to say, is this the end? It seems that he still wants to continue filming.
Sina Entertainment: So when you were filming "The Wild Goose Lake", how did you torture him?
Diao Yinan: The water is dire and the pain of all kinds of flesh and blood. Because many of them are in the wind and rain, in the open air, and in countless sleepless nights, they have a great test on the body and mind.
The most beautiful performance is to use different methods to meet the requirements of different directors
"Acting requires the writers, the whole film and all departments to help"
Sina Entertainment: What do you think is the most beautiful performance?
Diao Yinan: I think the most beautiful performance is that this actor is a professional actor, and he can cooperate with each director in different ways to fit the performance style required by the director. It is not necessarily that this actor will only follow one acting method to fight all over the world, which is also impossible, because every director has a different film style, and may have different requirements for film performance.
Then the most beautiful performance is the performance that best fits the style and characters of the movie. As long as you are accurate, he is the most beautiful performance.
Even if he is quiet and taciturn, at this moment, he is very powerful in the movie, he is the most beautiful. He doesn’t have to use very complicated techniques, he has to read the script, to understand what he is like at the moment when there is a chemical reaction between his performance and the plot.
Sometimes he can step out of himself and watch from the sidelines; sometimes he has to completely immerse his body and mind in the character and live completely in the character; sometimes he is even required to split a bit to integrate reason and emotion well.
Sina Entertainment: In the film and television works you have seen, what is the most memorable moment of the most beautiful performance?
Diao Yinan: There are too many. I like Ma Long Brando’s performances very much. For example, he played "The Wharf", directed by Ilya Kazan. He created a methodological performance in it, including some characters such as the godfather he created later. I am very impressed. There is also an Italian actor named Marcelo Maschoanni. There are many, but I will not give examples one by one.
But Ma Long – Brando, I think as an actor, he has completed countless works in his life, and the output of his works is very high. There are also bad and poor films here, so his performance will also decline; there are also many films that have entered the history of film, and his image is particularly brilliant.
So sometimes an actor’s reading of the movie, the choice of the script, and the control of the subject matter will also bear the height of his performance. I don’t mean that an actor only accepts such a very good movie, I mean that sometimes acting requires the help of the screenwriter, the whole film and the whole department.
Sina Entertainment: When it comes to the development of Hu Ge, he first became very popular as a costume idol drama, and at the age of 35, he encountered a script and film team like "The Wild Goose Lake" when he needed to transition. Why did you think of letting him play Zhou Zenong?
Diao Yinan: He has a face that particularly moved me, or a certain moment of his appearance that moved me. Then this face can only be given to me by him. Others, no matter how good your acting skills are, but your appearance and your face are useless. So sometimes I look for actors, and I first decide whether he fits the role based on his temperament and his face. Hu Ge broke into the role, so to speak, so the role fits with him.
Sina Entertainment: Do you think Hu Ge’s current transformation has been successful?
Diao Yinan: I think of course it was a success. He gave a completely different performance from his previous performance, which is beyond doubt. Then he gained a different experience from previous performances.
Sina Entertainment: In your opinion, is it necessary for male actors to transition between the ages of 30 and 35? Many people may not receive good projects, and they themselves are very worried.
Diao Yinan: I believe that many actors want to create characters that can be remembered for a lifetime, but if they can receive such films every day, I don’t think it is possible. For the current film market, for the requirements of movies and the tastes of audiences, they also need to allocate their performance energy and wait for some opportunities.
Sina Entertainment: Some time ago, Hu Ge’s fans helped him raise funds to support the box office of "The Wild Goose Lake", but he himself has said that he hopes fans will not do such a thing. As a director, what do you think of the phenomenon that many fans are now raising funds to support idols?
Diao Yinan: Fans are purely a kind of passion, but Hu Ge may be a person with self-esteem, and he is not willing to take advantage of fans in this regard, even if it is a small amount of money, he is not willing. He has to rely on his own strength to speak, and he is very confident in his heart. He also welcomes all kinds of comments about him, and he is ready to welcome all kinds of comments. I think he has done it right.
Sina Entertainment: In the short film of our most beautiful performance, we collaborated with Hu Ge again. Do you think he has changed since he first made "The Wild Goose Lake"?
Diao Yinan: Yes, I think he is different from the day we just arrived in Wuhan and just entered the crew for fitting. On the day of fitting, he was still a little scared and a little dazed, but now I think he is very comfortable, and I think only he knows how to get this freedom. Of course, it is not necessarily given by "Southern Station", or "Southern Station" is just the beginning. He has embarked on a path to make himself comfortable, and he has found a way.
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