Director's explanation of cowhide, cowhide of post-80s movies.

The story lives in a family of three in Beijing, father, mother and daughter. The life of a family depends on a small shop. Parents make handmade leather goods and take them to the store to sell. Business in the store is very bad, and my father doesn't agree to discount! Already poor families are on the verge of collapse.

To my father, discount means no dignity. But if there is no discount, life at home will not go on.

Father's birthday is coming, and the day of paying off debts is still far away. Father is old, but he still has unrealistic fantasies about the future.

This film consists of 23 episodes of everyday life. All the scenes are in their house of less than 50 square meters.

This passage appears in all my manuscripts for cowhide as the outline of its story. People who may see it can't understand anything from it. Compared with the film length of 1 10 minutes, these lines are too short and pale.

I have been studying screenplays in the literature department for nearly six years. I have written many scripts and many story outlines, but I often feel helpless about cowhide. In any case, I can't sum it up with the truth or skill of a story. It is not because cowhide has no stories, or there are endless stories.

Originally, I thought I could look at and describe it objectively after I finished writing, but I was wrong. So far, I can't give a standardized or traditional outline myself. Every time I write a sentence, I feel that there are too many things to write than this sentence. So I still tell the story of cowhide in the shortest way.

There is a year from the idea to the completion of the script and the start of shooting, and the middle process can be described by the word suffering. Many questions need to be understood. Apart from movies, what do I think of my life and what position should I take to make a feature film? All this is not the first time, but it is the first time to come up with a result. After repeated thinking, I also want to understand many life problems. I often feel empty after writing, because there is no standard and comparability in writing such a script. In the process of writing, I also took many detours, and it took me a long time to find that what I wanted was right in front of me. Although the process of finally determining the narrative mode is difficult, it is a process of subtle changes in film concepts. Many specious ideas I thought before have finally been put into practice this time.

motive

I have always emphasized the motivation of movies, which is very important in my opinion. The so-called movie motivation can be simply understood as the initial state of the movie, or as a certain point, that is, the reason and motivation of shooting. But the movie motive I'm talking about is a lasting attitude, not only the starting point of ideas, but also the starting point of ideas.

There is no order in shaping cowhide, and there is no purpose that can be called purpose. The infatuation with life itself, the extreme lens, the persistent anxiety and depression, and the concept that has been changing slowly over the years, both inside and outside the film, are all in the film motivation during this formation process. Finally, the movie itself contains all your movie motives, whether you want to expose it or hide it, whether it is accurate or biased, it will be fully displayed.

At that time, I had a strong idea that I would make a feature film, and I couldn't wait any longer. I make cowhide because I think family life should be preserved. Our house, our anxiety and our bad temper are all meaningful to us at least.

Actually, I want to shoot more than one thing. It should be said that it can be filmed, but this theme will not wait for me. This building was built at 1958. I was born in this small house of 45 square meters. Now all the houses around us have been demolished and new houses are being built. I'm afraid it will be too late to shoot again. If I can only make one movie, that's it. I won't hesitate.

This is my own life, too. I'm not remembering.

Speaking of making movies about your life, there are many such movies. But I want to say, that's my own life, too. I'm not remembering.

Of course, I can also recall and reproduce some things in my memory, but when I see my life, I know that memories are shameful. For myself, the meaning of cowhide is not only to point the camera at myself, but more importantly, I am not recalling, I am by no means recalling. What is being filmed is happening, including the day before and the day after. You can also recall the good life in the future, laugh or cry or tease the past life! But this is too common, this is not my method. It is not difficult to look back, but it is difficult to look now. If the house you live in now is gone, you will lose too much. Every corner of the house represents a lot, which is the history of our family and can't be done. If one day such a life passes and changes, I will never reappear for a while. In my opinion, it is immoral, meaningless and powerless to do so.

shoot

Cowhide is my first feature film, and my attitude is serious.

My parents and I pat cowhide in our own house. From beginning to end, there was no other staff, only the three of us. There are only three characters in the film, parents and their daughter. In fact, the actors are ourselves.

I can't rationally explain why I shoot cowhide in such an extreme way. I can only say that this is our life, and I shot it in a way that matches this life of suppressing anxiety.

In March 2004, I filmed a scene, but I stopped filming because of a fierce quarrel with my parents. Until May, I filmed the remaining 22 scenes. My parents have to work, and I have to study, because there is no staff, and the preparation before each scene is very long. So almost all the plays start at midnight and end in the early morning.

Most of the plays are one-off, and some even take a long time. This is not only because of the tacit understanding between my family, but also because I am not interested in things like perfection, which is not what I want. Some plays are flawed, but it doesn't matter, because they have real feelings. Compared with these, the so-called defects can be completely ignored.

In fact, we are just performing our lives and trying to show the anxiety in life. No need for more, no

Need better, as long as there is no deception.

Feature film or documentary?

Because the details of Cowhide are too real, some people mistakenly think it is a documentary. I have even received invitations from several documentary film festivals, but feature films and documentaries can never be distinguished simply from the "similarity" of the finished products. It has also been suggested that its value lies in the characteristics of feature films or documentaries. But where is the boundary between feature films and documentaries? Is there a clear line between feature films and documentaries? Of course not. There is no clear standard to distinguish them. There are some movies that can be mixed between the two. These films often touch the essence of movies. It is meaningless to abandon the classification of feature films and documentaries if we go deep into the essence of movies. There are no feature films and documentaries, because movies are movies. It's naive to tell the simple truth from the false. I thought of the word "the thinnest thread in the world". What is the thinnest thread in the world? Just between the two colors. You can't see it, but it distinguishes different things. For me, this line is the movie motive, and my movie motive fundamentally determines the characteristics of cowhide. The question is whether your orientation is a feature film or a documentary, which is the essence. Cowhide is of course a feature film, and it is an absolute feature film.

What puzzles some people is its details. In fact, all things that look real, all actions and dialogues that look natural, no matter how subtle, are planned in advance, with detailed scripts and strict rehearsals, and the random component is less than 5%. Everything is fixed. This is my working method. I don't like random things.

train

When you see this movie, you will keep hearing the sound of the train. Our home is close to the railway. When the train passes by, the water in the cup will tremble.

The sound of a train passing by often appears at the right time. I didn't arrange it on purpose, and those voices didn't come later. The sound of trains has been with me for 23 years, and I think they are helping us in their own way.

There is a scene where my father is working at the window and a white train passes by. Now I can't see the window anymore. A week ago, when they were arguing, they broke the window.

technical matters

I don't want to talk about technical problems, because all the problems that should be solved will eventually be solved. But I still want to talk about technology, because it is not only related to technology, but also a part of this movie.

Someone told me that the voice was unclear, sometimes it was too small to hear clearly, sometimes it was too loud to scare people, and sometimes it was ugly. I'll tell you why, because I need two microphones, but I don't have enough money to rent two good quality microphones. All the bad sounds come from that cheap microphone.

Someone told me that the picture is too dark and looks hard. Why is it so dark? I know, maybe you think what you see is not clear enough, but this is my life. The light in my house is so dim that I have never lived in a bright place. What you can't see clearly, I can't see clearly.

Someone also asked me if you were not skilled. In fact, when shooting, the light at the scene was bright enough, but I deliberately made it the brightness now. I also hesitated to fix some problems. The answer is "no".

All the technical problems, all the problems brought by poverty, are part of this film. It is my attitude to reserve and admit these problems and let them exist forever as facts.

Just as I am not ashamed of poverty, I will not feel the slightest shame and apology for the existence of these problems.

Never compromise

Now I haven't seen any difficulties that can make me compromise, and nothing can make me pessimistic. I seldom complain. Many people complain about the difficulty of making movies, too little money, no grading, too strict censorship and so on. I have never complained. In my opinion, these are not problems. Movies are neither noble nor cheap. They don't ask you to have money. How much investment does it take to make a movie? The film does not require this, nor does it stipulate this. These rules are imposed.

Movies are my experience, thinking and reflection on life. This is my view on movies. Its root lies in the relationship between movies and life, and life is supreme. I'm alive, so I make movies. Movies are part of my life. From liking, to liking, to entering the film academy, and now, I started making movies. I really threw myself into this movie. For me, movies have changed from a simple hobby to a serious ideal. Now it has become a part of my life, because my enthusiasm for it has reached this level.

Cowhide is the movie I want to make. I have made it, completely according to my own wishes, without any compromise or hesitation. What I see now, good and bad, is only related to me.

Many people say that you can only listen to yourself now, because the movie you want to make only needs a little money, so you don't have to worry about money or compromise for it. What about the future? Will you be like this forever? You can't do this forever, so you are bound to compromise.

I think this is a kind of logic, and it is indeed a part of the fact, but it is not my logic.

I never worry about the future, investment and distribution, because I always believe that everything will come naturally. Since these are not difficult for me, I have nothing to compromise. I never think that money is a problem, I never think that investment is a problem, and I never think that making a movie requires a lot of money to make a good movie. As for investment, there are many rich people, and I never worry about missing anything.

I make movies for myself, and I won't change myself for anyone or anything. Just like a magnet, what it needs to do is to magnetize itself instead of looking for nails elsewhere.

final

Frankly speaking, until now, my family is still heavily in debt, and my parents have been using all their money to support me through the difficulties, although they are also living in difficulties. Just like the subtitles at the beginning of the film, this film is dedicated to my parents. My parents are the real authors of cowhide.

Editor in Charge: Jian Xu

appendix

Jiayin Liu

1981Born in Beijing on August 20th.

In 2006, he graduated from the Literature Department of Beijing Film Academy with a master's degree in film drama.

Now she is a young teacher in the literature department of Beijing Film Academy.

Main works:

In 2002, in my third year of college, I filmed the short film "Train" for 17 minutes for the first time, and won the best director award in the video competition professional group of Beijing University Student Film Festival.

In 2004, the first feature film Cowhide was filmed. The screenwriter, director, photography and editing of this film were all completed by Jiayin Liu. This feature film, with a length of 1 10 minutes, was shot in two narrow and dark huts in Jiayin Liu's home in the southern suburbs of Beijing. The whole movie is based on her life with her parents.

In the film, my father runs a leather goods store, and my mother is responsible for the design and production of leather bags in the factory. They put all their efforts into this business, but the sales situation is not satisfactory. They just maintain their own business. The pressure of life from inside and outside makes the life of a family always difficult and cramped.

Cowhide * * * 23 beats, the longest 15 minutes. The dull and lengthy lens rejected many impatient viewers. However, this film won the Fipresci Award of the Youth Forum of the 55th Berlin Film Festival and the 20-year Cali-Gary Award jointly awarded by the German non-profit film organization composed of 160 cinemas to reward directors with innovative film forms and stories. The first winner is a French director. Landsman).

The world-renowned Berlin International Film Festival "Youth Forum" has been established for 32 years, and it focuses on films with unique perspectives. Quentin? The works of directors such as Talentino, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kaige and Jia all went to the world from here. Cowhide was appraised by German media as "the most humble but confident film in Berlin China".