"The world is rattling, and you are the only antidote." Directed by Song Haolin, written by Miao Qian and Song Haolin, and starring Yu Shi and Wang Yinglu, the fantasy romance movie "Welcome to Me" was released nationwide on July 5.
The film is another big-screen work by director Song Haolin after "Five Boys Splashing in the Water", and it is also the first love movie released this summer. This time, the director sets his sights on ordinary men and women in the metropolis, showing the emotional contradictions in intimate relationships through imaginative settings and plot conflicts. Recently, Song Haolin and Miao Qian were interviewed by "Variety" and talked about the behind-the-scenes creation story of the film. Song Haolin revealed that the title "Welcome to Me" means "gratitude and cherishing everyone who passes by us". He also humorously compared, "This movie is like a chilled lemonade in summer, or bubble tea in winter, everyone is welcome to come and taste it." ”
"Little Yellow Duck" haunts
The story setting is novel and interesting
The film revolves around the love story of Chen Xiaozhou (played by Yu Shi) and Feng Jiannan (played by Wang Yinglu). Chen Xiaozhou encountered an accident, which led to strange "visual hallucinations", and he often saw a large group of "quacking" rubber ducks, until he met Feng Jianan, who could alleviate his "visual hallucinations", and a romantic journey with laughter and tears began...... After the movie was released, the audience commented that it was "crazy, sweet and moving", "there is no industrial saccharin, decompression, relaxation, and sincerity".
Miao Qian, the director of the film, Song Haolin, and the screenwriter Miao Qian, both graduated from the Central Academy of Drama, and the two have collaborated on many works such as "Five Teenagers Splashing in the Water" and "The Summer of the Pig and the Wolf". Talking about the creative background of "Welcome to Me", Miao Qian recalled, "The story has been developed for a long time, and at some stage in the middle, I feel that the script is dull. It wasn't until a meeting that Song Haolin proposed a bold idea: let Chen Xiaozhou suffer from "visual hallucinations", and when a certain mechanism is triggered, the people he sees will become ducks. "The setting immediately caught the team's eye and everyone was excited." After the meeting, Miao Qian specially found a psychologist for consultation. The doctor replied: "After trauma, people may indeed experience symptoms such as visual and auditory hallucinations. In Song Haolin's view, the clever use of "visual hallucinations", when Chen Xiaozhou's whole world is a quacking duck, only Feng Jiannan is his only "antidote" - this setting interprets the romance of love.
Song Haolin went from the concept to the big screen, and the image of the little yellow duck has undergone repeated scrutiny and adjustment, and the CG production time is as long as one and a half years. "The design team made many different versions of the duck, including big eyes, small eyes, squinting eyes, etc., and in the end, everyone thought that the little bean eye was the most interesting." Song Haolin introduced that in terms of the interaction between the little yellow duck and the actors, the team initially considered using puppets, but in view of the significant difference between the movements of humans and ducks, they finally adopted 3D animation. The size of the little yellow duck has also been tested and deduced many times, "the duck is too big, it will be too abrupt and even terrifying; If it is too small, the sense of toy will be stronger, and the sense of reality will be reduced. The art style of the film is also heavily influenced by the little yellow duck. Song Haolin explained, "Yellow is the origin of the aesthetics of this film, but it is too strong, and the main creative team has made a lot of attempts and adjustments in color matching, striving to create a real and warm atmosphere while maintaining the color of a fairy tale." ”
Yu Shi and Wang Yinglu interpret a couple with a sense of contrast
Chen Xiaozhou, played by Yu Shi, is a staff member in the marketing department of an automobile company, and Feng Jianan, played by Wang Yinglu, is a food blogger on the video platform. The two are moving and quiet, and their personalities are very different. In Miao Qian's view, "Xiaozhou is cheerful, lively, and loved by everyone, like a little sun; Jia Nan has a calming power, she is free and independent, and she closes herself a little before she meets Xiaozhou. Song Haolin said that the two complement each other's personalities, and when they take each other to appreciate their respective worlds, they will find more of the beauty of the world.
"When we first met Yu Shishi, several of his masterpieces were not released, and we had no idea what his future would look like." In Song Haolin's view, when choosing a role, the actor's own characteristics and the fit of the project are very important. The first time I saw Yu Shi, Song Haolin was attracted by his vividness and vitality. In order to deepen their understanding, the team arranged a script kill and a small theater performance exercise. During the interaction, Song Haolin was deeply impressed by Yu Shi's sense of humor and improvisational ability. After joining the group, Song Haolin also gave Yu Shi a lot of freedom to play, "On the spot, I will shoot many times, without shouting to stop, to see if he has any new ideas, because improvisation is the most vivid." "Wang Yinglu and Jia Nan are very similar, they are both very sassy and have a kind of coolness." Song Haolin said that Wang Yinglu's performance style is completely different from Yu Shi's, and she needs to understand the director's ideas and then interpret them accurately and powerfully. There is a scene in the film where Jia Nan recalls her emotional story with Xiaozhou in a café, and Wang Yinglu uses a quiet performance to convey a strong emotional power, "That scene made all the on-site staff cry. ”
Fantasy as a shell
Focus on the emotional core
Xiaozhou and Jiannan in love are like two hedgehogs, snuggling up to each other for warmth, but getting too close will inevitably pierce each other. They quarrel and break up over trivial things in life, but when they look back, they find that the other party is still the destined person. Talking about the original intention of the film, Miao Qian shared, "The shell of the film is a fantasy story, but the core is close to reality. "When creating, she did not set up strong conflicts such as life and death, but chose scenes of life flow," The passages where couples quarrel in the film may make many viewers feel a sense of déjà vu. ”
Regarding the theme expression, Miao Qian said, "People are always easy to ignore the beauty around them, and ignore the shining points in someone when they fall in love." But when a relationship comes to an end, those forgotten flashes resurface. She hopes that through the story of the film, she will remind the audience to cherish every relationship and interpret "love each other well and leave no regrets" in healing. Song Haolin sighed, "We have learned a lot of things since we were young, but few people taught us how to deal with emotional problems. Learning to fall in love often requires us to practice it, but the error tolerance rate in this matter is very low. Maybe when you understand something, the price you pay is missing someone. I hope that after watching this movie, you will be more tolerant and patient to your lover, and don't ignore many beautiful moments because of habit, because eternity is made up of one moment after another. ”
Image: Douban, etc
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