Chapter 26 Biography
Early the next morning.
Xu Kun and Bao Qiang packed up everything. Before leaving, Xu Kun took a special look next door. Seeing that the civil engineer was still sleeping soundly, he left with peace of mind.
With the civil engineer's current financial strength, he would most likely not live here after breaking up with his girlfriend, so Xu Kun considered contacting the landlord in advance and renting this house as well.
But thinking about the trip to Shanxi to film, it will take at least two or three months, and if things don't go well, it may take four or five months.
If I pay the rent at this time, wouldn't it be just a waste of money?
The address Li Yang gave last night was an urban village on the South Fourth Ring Road. The environment was similar to that of Beishatan, but Li Yixiang lived in a private house with its own courtyard.
Xu Kun knocked on the door knocker a few times, and someone inside answered loudly.
Soon the courtyard door was half opened, and a sleepy man poked his head out, scratching his messy hair. He looked at Xu Kun and then at Bao Qiang. He seemed to have confirmed the identities of the two people, and stepped aside to make way, saying, "Xiao Xu and Bao Qiang, right? Come on, come in and talk."
I thought it was a large courtyard with a separate entrance, but when I went in I found there was a wall in the middle, dividing the four tiled houses into two small courtyards.
Li Yixiang occupied the two rooms on the east side.
After entering the living room, Li Yixiang yawned and greeted Xu Kun and Bao Qiang, "When you go to Shanxi, you'll have to be careful. We'll be friends for life in the future, so be casual and treat it as your own home."
As he spoke, he swept the scattered books and dirty clothes on the sofa into the corner, and then collapsed on it like a sleeping person.
Seeing that Li Yixiang was not very particular about details, Xu Kun also crossed his legs and sat on the chair next to him. However, Baoqiang felt a little at a loss and sat upright, carefully supporting his knees.
The room was a mess, filled mostly with books and notebooks. The open notebooks were filled with words, and many places were outlined and circled with watercolor pens.
It seems that although this person is not famous and does not put on airs, he is a real talent - at least his theoretical knowledge is far better than Baoqiang and himself.
Xu Kun thought about this and took the initiative to ask, "Brother Li, when will our director come over?"
Although I don’t know how old Li Yixiang is, he must be around 30 years old, so it’s not wrong to call him brother.
When Xu Kun asked about Li Yang, Li Yixiang waved his hands and said weakly, "It was tough this morning. He spent the whole night talking to me about the script yesterday. You are really capable. He spent more than a year working on this script, but you just overturned it with just a few words."
"hey-hey."
Xu Kun chuckled and said, "Brother, I really want to improve myself. If I don't try my best to convince Director Li, I won't get this role."
As he spoke, he bowed and said in a rather chivalrous manner: "Brother Li, we both started out as group performers. We have only enrolled in a few training courses. We will inevitably need your advice when the time comes. Please bear with us."
"Easy to say."
Li Yixiang also bowed back and smiled, "I started out as an extra. I worked as a mechanic after graduating from technical secondary school. Later, I happened to be a minor character in a film crew for half a month. I found this to be much more interesting than screwing in screws, so I gritted my teeth and took the Beijing Film Academy exam."
As he spoke, he took out a notebook from the coffee table and threw it to Xu Kun, saying, "I made a sample biography of the characters when I was free. The paper and pen are ready. You can start by copying the script. I really can't stand it anymore. I'll go back to the room and take a nap. When the director comes, the four of us can chat together."
He yawned and stood up, walking towards the bedroom. When he reached the door, he suddenly stopped and turned back to Xu Kun and said, "By the way, I understand your saying 'old hands make you timid'. If I were at my age now, I might not dare to quit my job and apply for Beijing Film Academy."
After saying this, he lifted the door curtain and entered the inner room.
Xu Kun and Bao Qiang looked at each other, then sat side by side on the sofa in tacit understanding and began to look through the "Biography".
The first content is a role script - that is, it is centered on a certain character, first summarizing the character's plot context, and then giving specific scenes and lines in the form of paragraphs.
However, this character is obviously not an important one, because there are only a hundred-word summary and seven or eight scene lines.
The focus is on the character analysis that follows, as well as the character biographies that are outlined through the analysis.
Three months ago, when Xu Kun had just entered the industry, he had no idea what this thing was, but now he can barely figure out something.
Bao Qiang was overjoyed. At first, it was Xu Kun who was turning the pages, but later he just held the book in his hand and refused to let go. He had to chew it over several times before he was willing to turn to the next page.
In the past, the teacher mentioned character biographies in the training class, but the descriptions were so vague that Xu Kun and Bao Qiang thought that character biographies were just background stories for the characters. It was not until they saw the sample made by Li Yixiang that they realized that it was very different from what they imagined.
Li Yixiang's biography does not focus on making up a story for the character, but tries to find the core and supporting points of the character by analyzing the scenes and lines.
Simply put, it is to set a tone for the character first. He can be great and glorious, profit-seeking, cold-blooded, or a fence-sitter.
In short, we first determine a general character. This part can be called the proto-nucleus, even if it is the unpolished core.
Then take this original core and match it with the script lines and scenes one by one to see if there are any inconsistencies or disharmony.
The thing that can be smoothly inserted is the supporting point of this pronucleus.
If it doesn't fit, or if it's not coordinated, then work backwards to see what problems exist in the prokaryote you set, and whether it needs to be modified or fine-tuned, or you have to start over.
After the modification, see if it will conflict with other lines. If there is a conflict, re-polish and modify the core while maintaining compatibility with the original fulcrum.
In this way, through continuous reverse reasoning, until all the dialogue paragraphs become the supporting points of the core, the most basic character analysis is completed.
Next, I will follow the script from beginning to end step by step, using the repeatedly polished core to fill in the gaps between paragraphs.
For example, if the character encounters something in this section, the polished core can be used as a benchmark to infer what kind of thoughts, emotions, and reactions he will have.
Then take these emotions, thoughts, and reactions into the next paragraph and see if they make sense and make sense logically.
If you can't, try to figure out the crux of the problem and add some small plot paragraphs between the two paragraphs that are consistent with the character's personality and do not conflict with the script.
Of course, if the time span is too long and the characters change dramatically, then you have to consider whether you need to deduce a new kernel or add more entries to the old kernel.
Eventually, all the dialogue paragraphs are strung together into a complete, flesh-and-blood story, which is the character's biography.
After reading it, Xu Kun was shocked. Although he had guessed before that Li Yixiang was a good person, it now seems that he is more than just a good person, but clearly a person several stories high!
Both of them gained a lot, so they exchanged their thoughts and then struck while the iron was hot, comparing the script they had read yesterday and writing their own character biographies.
time flies.
After an unknown amount of time, Xu Kun, who was busy revising his work, suddenly heard someone say, "Although this method is good, you must not blindly copy it."
Xu Kun looked up and found that Li Yang had arrived and was sitting on the chair he had sat on before.
He quickly reached out and patted Baoqiang, who was still immersed in the character's biography, and greeted him with a smile: "Director Li, why didn't you tell me you were here?"
"I just arrived too."
Li Yang seemed very satisfied with the two's performance, so he kindly pointed out: "This method was developed by Yixiang based on the theoretical experience of his predecessors. It is good and very helpful for performances, but it is too script-oriented. If you encounter a messy and illogical script, you will only be asking for trouble if you insist on using this method."
Baoqiang had just come to his senses and was still a little confused.
Xu Kun's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Director Li, if you say so, then wouldn't all the scripts that can be successfully adapted in this way be good scripts?!"
"It's not that simple."
Li Yang laughed and shook his head: "A script that conforms to the character's logic may not necessarily look good when filmed. In addition to logic and the actors' performances, drama, conflict, and camera language are also very important."
Xu Kun was immediately disappointed. He originally thought that he had got the golden finger to choose a good script.
At this time, Li Yang added: "But if you can't fit it in no matter what, then it's probably a rubbish script."
(End of this chapter)
