Seeking a different perspective, producer Zhang Yunfan's unique film art
2024-08-16
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Art may be far away from us, but movies are very close to us. It is like a bridge connecting the public and art, allowing us to understand art through watching movies. This is also the effect that producer Zhang Yunfan has always wanted to achieve in "Ordinary King". As a unique youth inspirational film, Zhang Yunfan added fast-paced fighting elements and a female perspective to "Ordinary King", and called on people to pay more attention to and understand the situation of the female group by telling fans about the difficult journey of a female boxer from the bottom of society to the boxing arena. Although the market share of female-oriented movies in the current domestic film and television industry is not high, this is more of an opportunity than a challenge in Zhang Yunfan's view. She hopes that people in the industry can consider the social value and artistic value of movies more, rather than pure commercial value and monetization capabilities, so as to give female-oriented movies a better development opportunity.
Years of studying and working experience abroad have given Zhang Yunfan an eye for discovering high-quality film and television resources.
Reading and reviewing scripts are the basic skills for every producer to join the film and television industry. In order to master this ability, in addition to a huge reserve of professional knowledge, deep experience accumulation is also indispensable. Take Zhang Yunfan, the producer of "Ordinary King", for example. Before she was in charge of this film, she had already held many related jobs in the Chinese and foreign film and television circles, which directly laid the foundation for her career as a producer. Out of her deep love and understanding of movies, Zhang Yunfan's graduation thesis in college in her early years was a film review of director Wes Anderson's film "Isle of Dogs", and explored the qualitative research on the relationship between author theory and cultural others in this film. At the same time, her long-term study abroad life at Wake Forest University, London School of Economics and Political Science, and University of Southern California also laid a certain foundation for her to follow up and discuss the cultural differences between China and foreign countries, the differences in artistic aesthetics, and social issues. During this period, she also worked as a photographer at the University of Southern California Annenberg, a film data analyst for an American film and television company, and joined a collaborative film production class, serving as the director and editor of the crew, shooting and editing a documentary about animal adoption and rescue foundations. From that time on, Zhang Yunfan had the idea of giving voice to the disadvantaged groups in society by publishing and researching film and television works. This is also the main reason why she became the producer of "Ordinary Kings".
Art originates from life but is higher than life. Zhang Yunfan's overseas life has brought her a constant source of artistic inspiration. Through her experience of studying and working abroad, she has personally experienced the various realistic difficulties encountered by members of social minorities and women in society. The original author of the script of "Ordinary King" also had the same experience. When Zhang Yunfan saw the script of "Ordinary King", she was surprised to find that the original author of the script had also worked alone overseas. The same experience quickly made them good friends who could talk about anything, and she bought the entire script at a very fair price. Just like the original author of the script, she created this script to reflect the real situation of the female group she was in. Zhang Yunfan's original intention of buying this script was also to resonate with more female compatriots and inspire them to change their lives through hard work. After that, in order to make "Ordinary King" the best, Zhang Yunfan also paid attention to a large number of film and television classics from a female perspective, such as "Lady Bird", "My Brilliant Friend", "Becoming Jane Austen", "Hot and Spicy", "100 Dollar Love", "Little Women", "Pride and Prejudice", "Agnès on Varda", "Searching for Vivian Maier", "Portrait of a Burning Lady", etc. All of these works have provided great help to her production work. During the production process, she was also very grateful and felt that film and television works related to feminism in recent years are slowly being seen by more people on the domestic stage, which indicates that female-oriented films have increasingly shown their market potential, and it may only be a matter of time before they enter the mainstream film category in the future.
Refusing to compromise on the casting, Zhang Yunfan directly invited well-known actress Li Ran to play Du Juan.
One of the key points of managing a crew is to choose the right people to do the right things. Especially on the issue of actor selection, producer Zhang Yunfan and director Nan Guang encountered the same problem, that is, who is the most suitable person to play the protagonist of the movie. Since the main plot of the movie "Ordinary King" mainly revolves around the growth process of a female boxer. Therefore, the actress who plays Du Juan is required to be able to show the sense of story and have sufficient martial arts skills. Obviously, it is not easy to find candidates who meet both requirements in China. For this reason, she had many discussions with director Nan Guang and producer Long Biyi, and finally the three of them unanimously decided to invite Li Ran, who won the national martial arts championship, to play the protagonist Du Juan. At that time, in order to ensure that Li Ran could participate in the performance in time, Zhang Yunfan also contacted Li Ran's agent as soon as possible and expressed his intention to cooperate. When the agent replied affirmatively, everyone in the crew was very excited, because the participation of the famous actor Li Ran would be a kind of publicity and guarantee for the quality and reputation of the film.
Unlike most of her fellow actors who only focus on acting, Li Ran not only has excellent martial arts qualifications, but also has a good talent for acting. Therefore, she has shined in the domestic film and television industry very early and won great reputation. Before joining the crew of "Ordinary King", she had already participated in many classic works, such as "Military Orders Like Mountains of Yang Family Women Generals", "Emperor Xuanyuan", "King of Games", "Fierce", "Swordsman", "Deadly Express", "Leftover Women's Suicide Squad", and "Female Soldiers Assault". In the subsequent filming of "Ordinary King", Li Ran once again added many surprises to the film with her professional performance. For example, when she played Du Juan as a rural girl, she successfully showed the ignorance and helplessness of a little girl who entered the big city alone. Later, in a series of passionate fights, she showed the strength and toughness that only a female boxer can have. The strong tension between the two different personalities of Du Juan played by Li Ran was also the effect that the crew expected to achieve.
Zhang Yunfan provided valuable suggestions on the film's color grading and camera movements, further improving the quality of the finished film.
In the production process, there are many factors that affect the final quality of a film, including some details in the shooting. During the shooting stage of "Ordinary King", Zhang Yunfan found some problems in the crew's camera movement and color grading. Their camera movement and color grading were too conventional and lacked novelty, resulting in insufficient expressiveness of the pictures. This phenomenon was particularly prominent in the fast-paced fighting scenes. In response, Zhang Yunfan immediately proposed a new camera movement and color grading scheme, and proposed to Director Nan Guang to add more delicate shots and color language to the key scenes of the film. For example, when the protagonist was frustrated in the game, she proposed to move the camera in a narrow perspective in the locker room, with dark tones to reflect Du Juan's inner depression and melancholy. In the revenge battle with the mortal enemy, she proposed to use slow-motion close-ups and bright colors to set off the fierceness and passion of the fight. The new plan was approved by Director Nan Guang as soon as it was proposed. Afterwards, by comparing the two versions of the sample before and after, everyone unanimously agreed that the pictures shot with the new plan were more immersive. Thanks to her valuable suggestions, the quality of the film "The Ordinary King" was further improved.
However, some crew members may not be used to Zhang Yunfan's meticulous management style. But Zhang Yunfan believes that an excellent producer should not only coordinate the overall situation, but also control the details. If a movie starts with a goal of 80 points, it is very likely that the final film will only get less than 60 points and fail because of the failure of various links. Only when we aim at 120 points and strictly control every detail of the film, can we get 100 points. Although Zhang Yunfan is very strict with the crew members in the eyes of the outside world, she is also considerate and promotes the communication and coordination between departments and between the crew and partners in an orderly manner. For example, once an actor failed to pass the shooting of the same scene many times due to his lack of state during the shooting process. Seeing that Director Nan Guang was about to get angry, Zhang Yunfan was also quick to suspend the shooting and communicate with the actor in time. After patiently explaining the actions that the director wanted to express and psychological counseling for the actor, the actor quickly completed the shooting scene that had not been passed before and expressed his sincere gratitude to Zhang Yunfan. As a producer, Zhang Yunfan knows that her work is impossible to be perfect, let alone satisfy everyone, but she still insists on doing her best within her ability. Her unremitting and meticulous work attitude is the key to making the movie "Ordinary King" "extraordinary".
Zhang Yunfan is a film and television producer with a pioneering spirit, and also a working woman who pays attention to the female group. The filming of "Ordinary King" is a bold attempt for her to enter the blue ocean market of female-oriented movies, and it is also a voice and cry for her female compatriots through film and television works. After completing the production of this film, she also hopes to produce more films of the same type in the future, so that more people can understand that the original intention of feminism is actually equal rights, so as to help minority groups make a stronger voice. Zhang Yunfan said that a good movie cannot just stop at the laughter of movie fans, but must further convey a thought to them, so that people can feel and benefit a lot. Only in this way can everyone remember your name while remembering your movie. (Author: Chen Xi)
