Creating a different kind of film art, Fennie Yuen is committed to the perfect fusion of art and film and television
2024-08-16
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Although the essence of art is abstract, its forms are diverse. In terms of how to interpret art in an image, film and television producer Fennie Yuen has her own unique insights, which are fully reflected in her new work "The Ordinary King". As a unique youth inspirational film, Fennie Yuen not only achieved a perfect fusion of art and film and television in "The Ordinary King", but also reflected the difficulties and challenges faced by this group in real society from a female perspective, and further extended the depth of the film's plot and philosophical connotation. In this regard, she said that movies are a collection of commodities and artworks, and they will eventually return to life. Her original intention of making movies is to let everyone touch art, feel art through movies, and taste life through art.
Before getting the script of "Ordinary King", Fennie Yuen had always longed to make a film for females.
Every good movie often originates from a good script, so how to select and review scripts has become a basic skill for producers to enter the film and television industry. The reason why Fennie Yuen was able to quickly discover "The Ordinary King" among a large number of scripts and foresee the potential market value of this script after it was adapted into a movie was not only because of her solid "selection" skills, but also because of an ideal hidden in her mind. As early as when she was studying abroad, Fennie Yuen deeply felt the difficulty of a single woman studying, living and working abroad, which gave her, an art student, the idea of making a film from a female perspective to encourage her female compatriots to work hard. During her years of further study at Michigan State University, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and Laboratory Sales Planning School in New York, she not only had a very deep understanding of the differences in Chinese and Western history and culture and artistic aesthetics, but also had a further understanding of the real situation faced by women in society. After graduating and returning to China, Fennie Yuen became active in the domestic film and television industry as a film and television producer, and had a chance encounter with the script of "The Ordinary King".
In Fennie Yuen's opinion, the script of "The Ordinary King" is very good and can be adapted into a good youth inspirational movie. This is also the script she has always dreamed of, which is enough to help her achieve her small goal in her career as a producer. But the problem is that she was found to be the producer of this script at the same time. However, since female-oriented movies are still a niche in China, the copyright transfer fees offered to the original author are generally not high, so the deal has not been reached. Later, in the preliminary negotiations with the original author of "The Ordinary King", Fennie Yuen learned that the original author was also an overseas student who worked alone in the workplace as a woman, and wrote this script from a female perspective. Just as she wrote this script in order to make the society pay attention to the female group, Fennie Yuen sincerely bought this script in order to achieve the same effect in the form of film art. The above-mentioned similar overseas experience made the two people quickly become besties who can talk about anything, and also allowed Fennie Yuen to get this script at a very fair price. Fennie Yuen believes that the reason why she was able to successfully get the script was not because she offered a high price, but because the original author of the script would rather entrust his carefully crafted work to someone who truly understands and loves the script.
Between artistry and commerciality, producer Fennie Yuen placed more emphasis on the artistry of the film in "Ordinary King".
Movies are both a commodity and a work of art, and how to achieve a balance between these two attributes is the first thing every producer should consider. On this issue, Fennie Yuen decisively stood on the side of art. But the direct result of doing so is the realistic financing problem. In fact, female-oriented movies are a niche and niche in the film and television industry. Their development in the domestic market is also very slow compared to mainstream movies, and has not yet reached a certain scale, which makes investors generally not optimistic about the commercial value and monetization ability of such movies. However, faced with this situation, Fennie Yuen did not choose to compromise with reality by increasing the commerciality of the film. After formulating a preliminary financing plan, she found Director Nan Guang and discussed with him the most feasible domestic and foreign parallel financing plan. The implementation of this plan includes two aspects. On the one hand, Director Nan Guang raised funds through his influence and connections in the domestic film and television industry. On the other hand, Fennie Yuen relied on foreign film and television investors she met during her study and work abroad to fill the funding gap. The plan achieved good results once it was implemented. Fennie Yuen's correct financing route also laid a solid foundation for the subsequent team building and filming of "Ordinary King".
As long as it is gold, it will shine. This is the creed that Fennie Yuen has always believed in. Although the market share of female-oriented movies is not very high at this stage, in her opinion, it is like a piece of gold waiting to be mined, giving her a precious window period to open up this blue ocean market. As long as this new world can be successfully opened up, the phenomenon of involution in the mainstream film market, where homogeneity is becoming increasingly serious and marginal returns are decreasing, can be avoided to the greatest extent. In order to turn "The Ordinary King" into a bridgehead for seizing new markets in the film and television industry, Fennie Yuen also made a lot of efforts in the selection and shooting of the film. She first invited the well-known domestic actress Li Ran to play the heroine Du Juan in the film, and then put forward many valuable suggestions in the film's camera movement and color grading. It is precisely because of her precise control of many details that the quality of the film has been qualitatively improved. In this regard, Fennie Yuen said that although it is not possible to do everything in every link of the production, she still strives to do her best on the basis of doing what she can. As long as these efforts can be reflected in the quality of the film, then her efforts are worth it.
In order to achieve the desired audio-visual effects, producer Fennie Yuen personally participated in the crew's selection and color grading work.
In the usual sense, the producer is a management position, who is mainly responsible for the initiation of film projects and the coordination of various parts of the crew. But as an excellent producer, Yuan Jiewen is more like a team leader, leading the entire crew towards this goal while setting production standards. But this path is destined to be full of ups and downs and challenges. For example, in the selection of actors for "Ordinary King", since this film mainly revolves around the story of a female boxer entering the boxing finals, there are many fast-paced fighting scenes, which requires the actor who plays Du Juan to have enough appearance and temperament, and must also have a certain martial arts foundation. In the subsequent actor auditions and selections, she soon discovered that there were not many actors who could meet these two points at the same time. In this regard, Director Nan Guang also suggested that professional fighting movements could be handed over to stand-ins alone, so as to minimize the difficulty of selecting people. But the disadvantage of doing so is that it increases the cost of actors and limits some camera angles. In the end, after discussing with Director Nan Guang, she directly made the decision to invite the well-known actress Li Ran to participate. As a former national martial arts champion, Li Ran has a "martial arts cell". She is handsome in her beauty and generous in her gentleness, which matches Du Juan's personality very well. In addition, before signing with Fennie Yuen, she had already demonstrated her excellent acting skills in classic film and television works such as "Female Soldiers Assault" and "Sniper", which further strengthened Fennie Yuen's determination to sign with her. After that, Li Ran lived up to expectations and quickly responded to the crew's expectations in the official filming, and even completed many uncut wonderful fighting scenes with the well-known martial arts actor Long Biyi.
Color is also a language, and sometimes this invisible language is more powerful than the tangible lines between characters. Obviously, producer Fennie Yuen has a deep understanding of how to use color and lens language. In the early stage of the crew's filming process, she discovered the problem of lack of color and camera elements in the lens, and proposed a series of improvement plans. For example, there was a clip in the movie where the heroine Du Juan was at a professional low point. In order to reflect the character's inner depression and repression, Fennie Yuen proposed to use the narrow scene and dim tones of the locker room to set off her complex inner activities. In the later revenge battle between Du Juan and her boxing opponent, she also proposed to use brighter tones and slow-motion close-ups to show the fierceness of the fight. After everyone compared the two versions of the sample film according to Fennie Yuen's opinions, the crew unanimously determined that the new version of the shooting plan was more delicate and immersive. In the end, Fennie Yuen used her professional opinions and the craftsman spirit of striving for excellence in work to successfully raise the quality of the film to a new level. Some team members may think that her requirements are too strict, but Fennie Yuen said that if the film lowers the standard and loses points from the first scene, the final film will most likely fail. Only when all crew members make 120% effort from the beginning to the end of the filming can they achieve 100% satisfactory results.
Fennie Yuen is a film and television producer with strong professional ability, and also a working woman who constantly breaks through difficulties through her own efforts. While the heroine Du Juan of "Ordinary King" fights for her own world with her fists, Fennie Yuen beside the camera is also writing a very inspiring story of a female producer through her unremitting efforts. After completing the filming of "Ordinary King", she said that she will continue to fight on the front line of the film and television industry as a producer, and pay more attention to some vulnerable groups in society in the future, using the film to reflect the current social status they are facing, bringing an audio-visual feast to movie fans while triggering their deep thinking about real problems. True art should come from life, be higher than life, and eventually return to life, and her goal is to make a profound movie that meets this requirement, so that all audiences can feel it. (Author: Chen Xi)
