The boatman's film evaluation

"Clever" and "Simple" in the choice of people and things.

Facts, contents and themes are the essence of documentaries. The choice of theme determines the basic value coefficient of documentary. A good theme should be not only universal, but also typical and realistic. For documentaries, even the perfect art form must be attached to objective facts to have vitality. The story described in The Boatman happened in the Three Gorges reservoir area from 65438 to 0995 to 2003. The director's creative intention is to reflect the concrete life and living conditions of the Three Gorges people under the historical background that most residents were forced to move during the construction of the Three Gorges Project, and to reflect as much as possible the impact of this huge project on their material life and spiritual life. From this theme, the person who walks into the camera must have the dust of the Three Gorges' heavy history, and it will also carry a memory and image of a submerged history.

The film creator ingeniously chose the simple Tan Bangwu family in the Three Gorges reservoir area as the recording prototype, and the whole film released a strong humanistic care atmosphere from beginning to end. The main target of the film is Tan Bangwu, one of the few local boatmen in his 90s and a native of the Three Gorges. He is a witness and witness to the historical changes of the Three Gorges, and his whole life track has weathered into a living fossil in the long history of the Three Gorges. Living in a big family with four generations living under one roof, Tan Bangwu's second son and grandson, as representatives of the new generation of residents in the Three Gorges, are also recorded in the film. From the handling and cognition of big events and small feelings, we can see the collision of different ideas and behaviors of three generations, and reveal that with the changes of big environment and small environment, three generations have different outlook on life and world.

In the choice of describing the specific events in Tan Bangwu's hometown, the creator of the film did not play cards as usual, and chose trivial matters reflecting the current situation of family life for a simple chain combination. Instead, the two main axes of "shipbuilding" and "inscription" were boldly chosen for arrangement, and a large number of life details were excavated, which together formed a dense narrative network, making the structure of the film more perfect and reasonable and the characters more vivid and rich.

Clever and Simple Narrative Style

As a way of recording and expressing human history, the greatest charm of documentary lies in its presentation of real life. Although documentary must be based on real content, it does not exclude ingenious narrative structure and level. There is a good saying: "A good documentary is worth a thousand words". The reason for this is that documentary is an objective, reappearing and plot narrative way, which sincerely faces reality and truly shows history.

The story of The Boatman itself and the use of lens language are very simple, but this does not mean that the narrative method is simple and bold. It got rid of the inertia thinking and traditional routines of most documentaries in the past, and successfully created its own unique narrative advantage under the unpretentious tone by alternating the three lines of "shipbuilding", "inscription" and "background of the times".

1. The main narrative line-"shipbuilding".

Three Gorges people have been dealing with ships since childhood. The boat is an important means of transportation for them, and all contact with the outside world depends on this small wooden boat. It is conceivable that the Three Gorges people's feelings for this ship. The film takes "shipbuilding" as the main plot line, and records and presents the whole process from the Tan Bangwu family's preparation for shipbuilding in 2002 to the first launch in 2003 in chronological order, and selects several important events in this period to show them in detail. Such as: discussing shipbuilding and design scheme, disagreement, reaching a tacit understanding and being forced to stop work due to lack of funds, the second couple quarreled over money, the old man taught his grandson to sail, and invited the troupe to celebrate after the ship was built. Through the accumulation of these seemingly tedious details of life, it highlights the persistence, tenacity and simplicity of Tan Bangwu's family and even local residents.

2. Narrative sub-line (emotional line)-"Inscription".

"Ming" is the second main line of the film, and it is also the emotional line of the film. The reason for this is that "inscriptions" play an important role in the plot and structure of the film. If Shipbuilding erected a skeleton for the film, Inscription added a lot of fresh flesh and blood to the skeleton.

In the film, the old man Tan Bangwu has a wish, that is, to erect a monument for his dead wife, hoping that he can sleep with his wife after his death. The film records in detail the whole process from crying when the old man and his second son discussed the monument to grinning from ear to ear after it was erected. Born in the mountains, Tan Bangwu is used to the sound of the waves, but he is not good at words. It is difficult for us to fully understand his indomitable character and rich feelings only through his few words in the shipbuilding process, and the emotional line of "carving inscriptions" is only a useful supplement to the main line. In the film, the old man's tears and laughter, looking at his wife's photos with deep affection again and again, and sitting alone behind the mountain in meditation, all the rich and heavy emotions and the helplessness of the vicissitudes of time are released in front of the camera.

Narrative auxiliary line-"background line of the times"

The plot of The Boatman takes place in a special background. Therefore, while recording "shipbuilding" and "inscription" alternately, the creator constantly uses montage editing techniques to transfer time and space, which also produces the third narrative line-"background line of the times". Explained the specific environment, historical reasons, the protagonist's motivation for each choice and so on. Through those yellowed pictures, we can see the situation of 1995 old people's families, 1997 guandu town's overall demolition, 165438+2003 1 8, the first closure of the Three Gorges,1June, the Three Gorges impounded. In the film, this "background line of the times" is skillfully intertwined with the main line "shipbuilding" and the sub-main line "inscription", which completes the expansion and excavation in content, form and meaning, and at the same time makes the audience feel the obvious imprint of the times, thus producing a strong * * * sound.

Third, simple and clever screen design and sound application.

1. The first impression of the boatman's picture is exquisite and simple. It doesn't deliberately make the picture rough and fuzzy, nor does it deliberately shake the lens, as many new scissors creators do now. The editing rhythm of the whole film "The Boatman" is relatively slow, and a large number of fixed positions are used for shooting. The image is simple, friendly and full of dignified texture. This seemingly pure picture actually runs through the creator's strong humanistic care and aesthetic consciousness, which has brought us great visual and emotional impact. For example, in the film, the old man Tan Bangwu sat alone in the sunset. Although we can't see the expression on his face clearly in the silhouette-like picture, we can feel his restless mood in the darkness of the backlight. Another example is the old man sitting next to the erected monument, and the water surface of the Three Gorges is in the distance. It is also good that the creator deliberately uses the combination of before and after the virtual reality in the same picture to convey to the audience the difficulty and pain of history and life choice.

2. Clever use of special symbolic pictures. In The Boatman, there are many photos of Tan Bangwu's wife, modern steamboats, meaningful fiber traces and so on. Every time these symbolic things appear in the film, the creator uses the same light and shadow, angle and scene to combine sound and painting. Take the fiber marks on the ropeway as an example. Every time it appears, the creator uses close-ups or close-ups to try to highlight its heaviness and the deep meaning behind it. What impressed me the most was the fiber trace that was gradually submerged when the dam was impounded. At this moment, the fiber mark has become the epitome of the whole history of the Three Gorges, bearing the life trajectory of countless Three Gorges boatmen. We can imagine Tan Bangwu's attachment and helplessness when he stood by and witnessed the scene that the fiber mark was submerged by water. Here, the fiber trace skillfully sets off the theme and shows the inner emotional world of the protagonist, which can be described as the finishing touch of the film.

3. Sound and actual sound processing. Documentary pays attention to the use of sound and actual sound to restore the real quality of life, so the choice of music needs careful consideration. In The Art of Images, Zhai Del summarized the functions of TV and movie sound as follows: (1) providing main or additional information; (2) Creating emotional appeal and aesthetic energy; (3) Complement the prosodic structure of screen events. On the boatman, these three functions are reflected to varying degrees. In the plot of Meditation and Memories of the Old Man, every appearance of emotional music can be described as accurate and just right. Among them, Song of the Boatman gives people a simple and amiable original ecological feeling, which is an important musical notation in this film, and is sung by Tan Bangwu and his children and grandchildren respectively. Different people's interpretations carry different meanings, but they all embody the spirit of rowing and the inheritance and continuation of a state of life.