1990: Starting from Baojia Street

When Zhou Yan first searched for short films in his mind, the first thing that came to mind was a movie that was mainly performed by two people, with scenes consisting of close-ups and close-ups, with simple movements and high artistic content.

But later he felt that two people were too many, and thought of a movie that only one person could act in - Antfly.

Antfly is the early work of the great director Christopher Nolan. Like many people when they first started, Nolan's time was not long. The length of this short film is less than three minutes.

Nolan has many excellent films, but the one that impressed Zhou Yan the most was this early work Antfly. He believes that this short film is more like a condensation of Nolan's film works.

Also, this short film is short, so it doesn’t take long to watch it many times.

If he had to use one word to summarize this movie, Zhou Yan thought matryoshka is pretty good. The things the movie talks about are layered within each other.

In the black-and-white short film, a man appears in a dark apartment. He is holding a shoe in his hand, looking for and tapping something mysterious in a panic.

The man looked restless, as if he hadn't slept for a long time, and what was bothering him was probably the thing he was about to slap.

Soon, he found the target. Under a piece of clothing, the mysterious thing moved quickly on the floor with the clothes on it. It looked like a mouse.

The man chased after him and opened his clothes. There was a little man who looked exactly like him. He lifted up his leather shoes and took a photo, but he missed the shot.

Later, after a chase, the man stopped the villain. At this time, the villain was lying on the ground, raised his right hand high, and smashed it down hard, as if he was also beating something. Immediately afterwards, the man also raised his right hand and hit it hard. Gao Gao raised his right hand and hit the villain.

Just when the man was happy that he had captured the villain, a huge figure suddenly appeared behind him. A man who looked exactly like him raised his right hand fiercely...

The last scene of the short film is the black leather shoe shot on the ground. It is obvious that whether it is the villain, the giant or the protagonist himself, they are all the same person. They are all doing the same thing, slapping a small thing that looks the same as themselves. .

It's just that when they slap their smaller selves, they are about to be slapped by their bigger selves.

When Zhou Yan saw this short film for the first time, the first thing that came to his mind was the face-to-face mirror in the barber's room. When a person stands in the middle, he will see countless versions of himself in the mirror, layer by layer, forever. end.

This is a imaginative short film with a simple story, but there are quite a lot of details. If you want to create a sense of tension and mystery in the film, you really need to put some effort into it.

Zhou Yan decided to write the script of Antfly first, and then draw the scenes based on the written script.

When writing the script, Zhou Yan did not start writing as he had done with the novels The River Wet by Rain. He first divided the movie into segments, and then summarized the story of each segment into short words.

The short film Antfly can be divided into three parts. The first part is What is a man looking for, the second part is A man finds a little person who looks like himself, and the third part is Slap yourself to death with a shoe .

These three paragraphs can be divided into many small paragraphs. For example, in the first paragraph, a person's eyes first appear, then the man is taking pictures of something with his shoes, and then he falls to the ground...

Because Zhou Yan had not read the script of Antfly, he could only pull the film in his mind first, draw out the general plot of the short film, and then fill in the specific content.

However, because he does not have a complete, high-definition movie in his mind, he can only pull a rough idea, and many details can only be enriched by himself.

Zhou Yan wrote the script very clearly, but he didn't work very quickly. After one night, only one-third of the script was completed. You know, this is just a script for a short film of more than two minutes, and there is not much content.

But Zhou Yan was not in a hurry. He was mainly doing it for training. It was normal to be slow at the beginning, and he could also expect that he would be even slower when drawing storyboards later.

…

Until December 10th, the snow in Qixian County had not yet come. All the scenes other than the snow scenes had been filmed, and the crew had been shut down for more than half a month.

At the beginning of the shutdown, the staff of each group felt that they were finally able to have a good rest and felt that it was pretty good. They just waited. They usually spent time playing cards in the crew, and occasionally they would have dinner and find a few drinking buddies. Drink and drink.

If that doesn't work, you can apply to the director and go to a town or even a county town to have some fun.

Two days a day is the happiest, two days and three days are okay, but after a week passes, most people start to feel anxious.

If the snow doesn't come, the movie can't be filmed. We can't have so many people stuck in the mud in Qiao's courtyard. Moreover, actors like He Saifei and others are seconded from the troupe, and they all have their own characteristics. Their own affairs, no one wants to waste time here.

In the entire crew, the one with the best mentality is probably Zhou Yan and his friends in the dormitory. Zhou Yan spends his days playing cards with the crew, chatting about the mountains, and then studying the script of Antfly. Whenever he encounters a problem that he doesn't understand, he runs there Ask Zhang Yimou and other great masters.

If the crew really finished filming, it wouldn't be as convenient for him to ask questions as it is now.

As for He Wuming, he has been so idle every day since the filming of the film. Only occasionally when He Saifei has a singing role, he will come forward to provide guidance.

Sister Feng told Zhou Yan before that He Wuming was the mainstay of the Yanjing Peking Opera Troupe and studied under a famous Peking Opera master that Zhou Yan had never heard of.

Zhou Yan expressed doubts about the idea that He Wuming was the mainstay of the Peking Opera troupe. He felt that Sister Feng was exaggerating. Whose mainstay was away from the troupe every day and would go to the crew to stay?

In the evening of the 10th, Zhou Yan was tinkering with the shots of Antfly inside the house when he heard a loud noise coming from outside.

Put these bags on the second floor.

There should be enough in the fourth courtyard, and we can move a few bags into the second courtyard.

Don't drive in a hurry yet.

…

The yard hadn't been so lively for a few days. Zhou Yan got up and was about to go out to see what was going on. As soon as he opened the door, a pungent smell hit his face.

In the corridor, Jiang Mengfei used a trolley to push several bags of compound fertilizer toward the second courtyard. He was wearing a mask, but he still tilted his head, looking like he was quite choked by the smoke.

Seeing Zhou Yan push open the door and come out, Jiang Mengfei's face showed a look of joy, Old Zhou, hurry up...

Zhou Yan seemed to know what Jiang Mengfei was going to say. Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Yan suddenly took a step back and closed the door tightly.

boom!

Jiang Mengfei cursed and yelled, Zhou Yan, what did you promise to share the joys and sorrows? Just wait, I will pile more at your door later!

No matter what Jiang Mengfei said outside, Zhou Yan pretended not to hear.

He can help with other things, but he really can't do anything about moving fertilizer.

He Wuming saw that he had just opened the door and then closed it. Hearing Jiang Mengfei's words, he asked, What did he say he wanted to pile up at our door?

Something that helps crops grow.

He Wuming raised his eyebrows and said in surprise, Feces?

Zhou Yan twitched the corner of his mouth and thought to himself, it must be you, Teacher He.

It's fertilizer.

Hearing that it was chemical fertilizer, He Wuming suddenly said, You can't wait for snow, so you use chemical fertilizer instead of snow, right?

Yeah. Zhou Yan nodded, and then lamented, I heard Jiang Mengfei means that he will start spreading fertilizer tonight. The smell... I won't have a good time tonight.

He Wuming didn't take it seriously, It feels okay, and I don't smell anything. Besides, it's through the door.

Zhou Yan smiled and said nothing.

…

Three hours later, He Wuming sat on the bed, covering his nose with a towel dipped in water, and looked at the door in pain, Zhou Yan, is our door broken somewhere?

It's not broken, it's fine.

Then why does it smell so strong? How did the smell get in?

Whose door doesn't have a crack?

Zhou Yan, is the window leaking? Should we get some paper to plug the crack in the door?

It can't be blocked. If it's really blocked, we won't be able to survive.

Zhou Yan...

Teacher He, please accept your magical powers.

…

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