Disaster Artist

When choosing the genre of his first feature-length film, Ji Xu obviously had a lot of thought.

Generally speaking, there are two routes.

One is art films, and then go the film festival route, but for film companies, the return on investment of art films often takes longer; and the company’s executives are also prone to analysis of producers and directors’ ability judgments. Ji Xu may More pressure to face.

One is an experimental commercial film. On the one hand, it can show the ability to control cost, and on the other hand, it can show a certain commercial potential. Even if the box office is not a big explosion, the film company is very happy to see such a producer emerge. , it is also more refreshing when giving investment.

Ji Xu, chose the latter.

Among the different themes of commercial films, thriller films and comedy films have the lowest shooting costs.

Among them, comedy movies are more dependent on scripts and actors, and their presentation of producers is relatively limited. If Ji Xu wants to be appreciated by the talent project of the streamer film industry, thriller movies are undoubtedly a better choice.

The concept of "invisible visitors" is not new, and the camcorder's pseudo-documentary shooting method is even more precious. In both time and space, a large number of pioneers have emerged, telling different stories with similar methods, scaring countless audiences in theaters , has long been familiar to the public.

Of course, Ji Xu's conception of this project is definitely not a simple copy and paste. They also hope to break the framework on the basis of the original type.

It is mainly through the switching of lenses and the use of light to change the perspective effect conveyed by the whole film, to break the usual criticism of pseudo-documentaries that the light is not enough to see clearly, and to create psychological horror and fear in different ways.

However, such a shooting method requires very high creative ability of the director, and at the same time, the requirements for cost control are very strict—

For the use of the entire house space, the adjustment of different lens switching, and the control of different lighting changes, every detail part is the collision of artistic creation and cost control.

Because of this, Ji Xu had many conflicts with the previous director.

It is also precisely because of this that Lu Qian believes that the script needs to be revised.

Cost control is the first reason. If we stick to the original shooting framework, those existing conflicts will not disappear out of thin air. It is still a topic that Ji Xu and Lu Qian need to discuss in depth.

However, this is not the whole reason, not even the main reason—

Difficulty exists, but Lu Qian doesn't think it's impossible.

What Lu Qian is really thinking about is the real problems of the film project.

"Invisible visitors" should have been blocked by Streamer Films with a high probability, which means that they cannot count on scholarship subsidies, nor can they expect Streamer Films to complete follow-up distribution and promotion, so now they bear the brunt of the need The consideration is not only to shoot a good movie, but also to release the movie and its benefits.

That is the rate of return.

Otherwise, if the movie hits the streets, all their funds will be thrown into the water without a splash. What should we do?

Then, it is difficult for a pseudo-documentary thriller film shot with a camcorder to attract a large audience. After all, the narrative method is already very familiar, and it is difficult to break the audience's expected frame and give more things, even if the director's ability is good, the story lacks gimmicks. , it is difficult to turn out a flower.

Therefore, change is imperative.

On the way home, recalling the script of "The Invisible Visitor", Lu Qian thought of a very suitable story, and searched it carefully in his mind to make sure that this story had never appeared in this time and space.

In 2018, a suspenseful film called "The Internet Lost" exploded the word of mouth, and it made a good box office with a small game.

The film is completely shot through a computer camera, and the entire story is narrated entirely on a computer desktop, that is, the audience looks at the big screen, from the beginning to the end, all on the computer desktop, through the computer camera to watch the actions and performances of the characters.

Same thing as a camcorder, but goes a step further, breathing with the characters with a voyeuristic intimacy.

But in fact, this way of expression is not the first. To be precise, the 2014 thriller movie "Unfriending" is.

"Unfriending" tells such a story.

A year ago, Laura, a high school girl, took her own life, causing a stir, but soon regained her calm.

A year later, a couple was chatting through online video, and then invited a group of friends to join the chat, but there was also a mysterious user without an avatar who joined the chat room together. He couldn't be kicked out of their private chat room, which was even more terrifying. The thing is, the other party actually talks to them as Laura.

At first, they thought it was a hacker's prank, or a friend's trick, but they didn't expect that among the friends in the chat room, a beautiful woman who had cursed Laura first ran away, and then suffered an accident.

So, things started to get weird.

This movie, presented on the big screen, is all computer desktops. Like everyone in the chat room, the audience is watching each other and the development of the situation through the computer camera. The vague sense of substitution is even more than portable. The camera has to be real, and the sense of fear created is naturally more impactful.

"Unfriending" has created a new way of pseudo-documentary narrative. UU reading www.uukanshu. com

They are also pseudo-documentaries, but "unfriending" brings not only a sense of freshness, but also a sense of audience participation through computer cameras and computer desktops. deep fear—

In this regard, the later "Internet Lost Tracking" only borrowed from the shooting method, but failed to achieve such a high level. It was purely a switch to a camera recording method, which was obviously inferior.

After "Unfriending" was released, it achieved good box office results. Later, a sequel was filmed, and the reputation was even better than the previous one.

This script seems to fit perfectly with "Invisible Visitors"!

Wait, why did you choose "Unfriend" instead of "Internet Lost Tracking"?

As a result, the spark created by the collision between the story of "unfriending" itself and the novel shooting technique is even more fascinating. The audience can become the eighth participant in the private chat room who cannot make a sound, and participate in the whole process, as if they are the next victim. , the psychological level of fear is even worse.

Second, the stories of "Unfriending" and "Invisible Visitor" have many similarities. Lu Qian can complete the adaptation without drastic adjustments. Saving workload is secondary, and avoiding unnecessary suspicion in Ji Xu. Most importantly - this is obviously a more reasonable adaptation.

However, objectively speaking, the quality of the completion of "Unfriending" is not outstanding, that is, a work of about 60 points, which is one level worse than "Internet Lost" and "Unfriending 2". The core reason for achieving good box office results is the novel narrative method.

What they need now is precisely this "novelty".