Director Sun Haipeng reveals the behind-the-scenes production process in the movie “Lion Boy”
Boy, when you hear a roar in your heart, go be a lion!
Has the “ceiling” of domestic animated films appeared this year?
At the beginning of December, the “Lion Boy” with the theme of the passion for the growth of young people held two rounds of screening activities. After watching it, many media and audiences said that the film was well-made, and it is very likely to be this year’s theater film. Of a dark horse. On the 13th, Douban announced the score of the film, which received a high reputation with a high score of 8.3, and it was officially released on December 17.
“Lion Boy” takes the traditional Chinese folk art “lion dance” as the theme, tells the left-behind teenager A Juan in rural Guangzhou. He was encouraged and inspired by the girl of the same name as him, and made up his mind to form a lion dance with his friends Amao and Agou. The team learned lion dance from scratch under the training of the retired lion king Xian Yuqiang, and then prepared to participate in the lion dance competition. In this process, the young Ajuan has undergone many hardships in life, from weak to strong, becoming a “lion”, just like the line in the film “As long as the drum can be heard in our hearts, we are a lion! We will always be a lion!” Lion!”
Recently, director Sun Haipeng accepted an exclusive interview with Beijing Youth Daily to tell the production story behind the film.
Three-way pawn
“The details of the lion dance are the effects that we produced after collecting the style over and over again”
In August 2019, “Lion Boy” started its project. At that time, Sun Haipeng had no script, only three key words: lion dance, juvenile and passionate blood.
The reason for choosing “lion dance”, a traditional Chinese folk art, as an important element of the film is mainly related to Sun Haipeng’s desire to make a story full of fireworks. According to his movie-watching habits, Sun Haipeng is always moved by the pyrotechnic part of documentaries or movies. He believes that China should also make an animated film full of fireworks.
He had thought about making sports-themed stories, but there are already a lot of movies such as basketball and football, and if you try it again, it will become ordinary. The lion dance is quite different. It comes with fireworks and has a good heritage in Guangzhou. Every opening or celebration in the streets and alleys, there will be lion dance performances. Lion dance, for Sun Haipeng, “is undoubtedly an almost perfect creative direction.” “The shape of lion dance is very beautiful, full of various colors, and the patterns are also very particular. If we can present them, the visual effect will be very impactful. As soon as the lion drum is struck, the lion’s head dances, and there is a feeling of blood. Moreover, if you shoot with real people, you can’t do too exaggerated movements, but we don’t have this limitation when we make animations.”
Once the subject matter is determined, the production team must study lion dance in an all-round way. It is not difficult to find a lion dance team in Guangdong. Sun Haipeng mobilized the animation group, special effects group and music group, divided into three groups to gather style and learn lion dance.
Sun Haipeng learned the lion dance for three days and understood the characteristics of force when dancing a lion head. Performing a lion head dance is not about shaking hands up and down, but rather like punching up and down. “If you don’t understand the characteristics of the force, the lion dance moves we made will feel wrong. Including how they hold the drumsticks when they are playing drums, where they hold them, and what the jewelry and patterns on the lion’s head look like. Yes, we have to study it clearly. Only after we have done these preparations can we begin to draw the storyboard, then design the action, and then the animator will present it step by step.”
At the same time, the special effects team needs to constantly go to the lion head shop to ask the master what kind of material is needed to make the lion head and tail, how to stitch the two together, and to observe the movement of the lion hair when dancing. At first, they made a version of the lion tail and made a stitched structure on a piece of cloth, but the overall effect is always somewhat different from the lion tail that you usually see. Later, when the special effects team did research, it was found that there is a stretchable rubber band in the middle of the lion’s tail, which makes the lion’s tail look elastic. “Although the movement of lion dance is beautiful, it is very complicated to make. After we figured out the structure, we changed the entire project in the software and added a rubber band design to show the effect of lion dance in reality. Many details like this are the result of our repeated collection and experimentation.”
The lion dance must not miss the rhythm of the drums, and the collection of the music group must present the unique tone and texture of the lion drum. They invited percussion masters to cooperate with the drums based on the produced video, and then the music director would digest it and integrate it into the existing music. They selected drums with different timbres from the Lion’s Head Store and moved them to the recording studio. They asked the master to perform them, and then processed them to make the sound of the drums more shocking.
In the end, the production team combined the all-round collection of the three groups to form an effect that fits the real lion dance.
Detail presentation
“We want to feel the changes in the village throughout the year and program the growth pattern of kapok”
Due to the “firework” setting, Sun Haipeng set the film’s main location in the countryside. In September 2019, the preparation work carried out at the same time as the lion dance collection is the production team’s collection of the village.
Sun Haipeng said frankly that before the collection, the village that the team relied solely on imagination to make was like a park, with trees, rivers and houses, but there was no smoke or fire. The process of collecting the scenery in the village is not easy. After they started to visit intensively, they found that most of the villages with a little history have become scenic spots. This means that the village has been renovated and many villagers do not live in it. Not much charm”. Soon after, when he visited Baizhang Village and Beishui Village in Shunde City, Guangzhou, Haipeng Sun finally found the village he was thinking of. It is very rich, and the most important thing is that there are still villagers living in the village. We not only need to be familiar with the environment of the village, but more importantly, feel the details of life in the village.”
Almost all members of the village’s wind collection work are dispatched. According to Sun Haipeng, the artists need to draw a concept map based on the wind collection information. When the production staff takes over, they must restore the village on the basis of the concept map. Only the production staff at each step have reached a unified village. The impression of the same frequency is formed, and the scene made is a more comfortable state. Therefore, from the director to the artist to the design and production staff, it is necessary to go to the village over and over again.
Since the time span of the story in the film is about one year, the production team needs to feel the changes of the village throughout the year, especially in different seasons, the state of the vegetation is different. Sun Haipeng wants to fully present this detail until 2020 They only ended the work of collecting the wind in August of 2008.
Kapok, also known as the “hero flower”, plays an important role in the film. When Sun Haipeng started making kapok, he noticed that he had never watched it carefully before. Even living in Guangzhou, which was full of kapok, he did not pay attention to the specific time of flowering. The beginning of the film’s story happened during the Spring Festival. Sun Haipeng asked, will kapok bloom during the Spring Festival?
“After careful observation, we know that kapok may be open during the Spring Festival, and then safely and boldly set the beginning of this story at the Spring Festival.” Not only that, Sun Haipeng also paid special attention to the state of Kapok: “Before We can only feel the beauty of kapok, but we have not paid attention to what it looks like. Later, we noticed that the branches of kapok are very special. Its growth method is to grow upwards, and it will hang down slightly when it grows up. In order to make kapok and some trees, the director will directly move our work computer under the tree, on the street, under the tree, and operate on the plants, and program their growth rules. We must ensure that they are on the computer. The effect presented here is as close to the reality as possible.”
Emphasize the truth
The form of water is very complicated, we need to simulate it physically, not an artistic effect
Although “The Lion Boy” is an animated film, the words “real” and “landing” are often heard in the director’s narration.
When Sun Haipeng recalled the production process, he thought that the most difficult part was the last paragraph in the film, the “Lion Dance Final”. He clearly remembered that 130 lion dances appeared in one shot in the final part of the finals. There were more than 1,800 spectators in the stands, and there were countless people on the roadside and on the bridge.
“Each lion head has a different shape, and each character also has hair and actions. It cannot make the audience look exactly the same at a glance. Therefore, we need to make a lot of material, especially the action material of many passers-by, and we must randomize them. Placed in each scene. Although there are many lion dances, you can copy a lion dance through the engineering program and then make adjustments. Of course, this is just one of the solutions. There are many shots that cannot be used in engineering. The materials need to be designed separately, which is a huge workload.” He explained.
Sun Haipeng also specifically mentioned the “water” design in the final. In the final, there was a rule of the game that when many lion dances cross the trestle bridge, the lion dance team that fell into the water would be eliminated, and many lions fell into the water in the process. How to present the various forms of water is an algorithmic test experienced by the production team.
“Our production requires procedural algorithms, and a computer is needed to produce the shape of the water. But in fact, the shape of the water seems simple, but it is complicated. It has a water substrate and splashes or splashes on a lion dance. …And we need to simulate it very physically, rather than an artistic effect. It is more of a science, or a program. Therefore, we have to make a lot of algorithms, and it takes a long time for the server to Calculate one frame of the picture. It means that if we find that we have made a mistake, the cost of modification is extremely high. Therefore, the shape of the water plus the hair and movement design of the people and the lion dance, the production of this final is It’s very complicated, and it’s also a scene that particularly tests comprehensive ability.”
Even if it is difficult to make, he must ensure that the characters and scenes are “real” and “landing.” Not only that, Sun Haipeng hopes that the lens movement of the film should also be consistent with the story of ordinary people in the film. He once again mentioned the term “landing”. For ordinary people’s stories, I want to make the lens more plain. Subconsciously, I try to make the lens movement more physical. The picture looks like a driving track or a rocker shot, so the movement of the picture will be more grounded.”
Adjust the rhythm
“I want to make the story simple and add rich emotions to the simple story”
It now appears that Sun Haipeng is very satisfied with the handling of the “Lion Dance Final”. He is not only satisfied with the production level, but also very satisfied with the ending drama level.
“In the final, the mood of the protagonist, A Juan, was just like he was walking up the mountain in a lion dance. It was constantly advancing and going all the way up. A Juan went from reminiscing to the tension when passing the pegs, and then to the drums and cheering for the audience. At the end, I took out the family photos and when I jumped out, there will be kapok petals falling, and Ajuan also transforms into a real lion. I want to use this fantasy setting to keep my emotions higher.” Haipeng Sun said. road. Adding fantasy elements to the ending is a design he thought of from the beginning. He believes that it is not uncommon for a fantasy film to end with such a fantasy element, but there are one or two fantasy shots in a realistic story that will show unique power and rich visual presentation.
At the end of September 2019, the first draft of the movie script was completed, and the basic story was determined. After several revisions, the final script that the audience now sees was officially completed in August of this year. However, Sun Haipeng does not have too many requirements for the drama. He believes that the plot of the youth growth theme is basically a routine, and “Lion Boy” is no exception. “It takes time and luck to delve into the story routines, so I hope to make the story simple and add rich emotions to the simple story, such as the doubts about the growth of teenagers, their joys, anger, sorrow, and Master Xianyuqiang. The feelings of the middle-aged man with his wife…Try to fill the story frame with multiple aspects of feelings.”
However, simple stories have to undergo constant polishing. In July of this year, the production of the film was basically completed, and the team organized a trial screening. This screening revealed many problems in the film. At that time, the recruited audience emphatically raised the issue of the film’s rhythm. They believed that the rhythm of the first half of the film was too slow, there were several shortcomings such as procrastination in the plot, and unclear information.
Sun Haipeng made concentrated changes to the first half of the film based on the feedback from the audience, compressing the time, deleting the scenes, and adjusting the rhythm. “In addition, we also found that in that screening, the audience did not respond well to the scene when the drummer Agou was first searched in the movie. Originally, our setting was that Agou was eating sugar cane, and A Juan and Amao fooled him to participate in the lion dance. The audience thinks this plot is far-fetched. We are entangled because if the scene is scrapped, we need to make a new version. After discussion, we changed the setting of Agou to play fish balls in the fish ball shop, because The movements of the fish balls and the drums are similar, so it becomes more reasonable to find Agou to play the drums. I think it is worthwhile to re-adjust the scene.”
The story of “The Lion Boy” took place in Guangzhou more than ten years ago. The setting of this time and space directly gave Sun Haipeng a sense of nostalgia. This is the golden age of Hong Kong films in his memory. Sun Haipeng pays tribute to classic Hong Kong movies in many settings and details, such as the action design when A Juan was chased by Xiaoqiang, causing them to hit the passing glass, paying tribute to Jackie Chan’s early movie plot. He also designed nonsensical plots in many plots, adding comedy elements.
The lion goes down the mountain
“The lion dance competition cannot change his life trajectory, but it can make him stronger”
The story is set in 2005, and it was Sun Haipeng deliberately.
“2005 is a relatively representative year. At that time, there were mobile phones, but also some nostalgic elements, such as street phone booths, canteens calling, etc. The connection between people is not as close as it is now, and it is still more or less You need to call to find someone, instead of just picking up your mobile phone and you can communicate now.” In addition, Sun Haipeng wants to set the starting point of the protagonist, Ajuan, to a lower level, so that the character will step towards his highlight moments in the subsequent plot. , There will be more dramatic tension. “As a left-behind child, Ajuan may be bullied in life. When faced with some troubles and difficulties, then he will have a stronger power to move upwards.”
As the line in the movie said: “In this life, a person is like a lion dance, going up and down the mountain, A Juan has his own way.” The “Lion Going Up the Mountain” in the lion dance performance is just like the action track of the protagonist A Juan. In the scene design, Sun Haipeng also made many changes to the shape of the surrounding mountains according to A Juan’s life situation.
“In the beginning of the movie, we made the mountains around A Juan’s village into short, flat-looking mountains. Then, as the plot developed and A Juan’s family changed, we made the mountains around him higher. It represented that his fate was beginning to be rough. After Ajuan moved from the countryside to the city, we made the buildings in the city look like mountains. In the final finals, the Optimus Prime with the lion dance also represented an inevitable one. High mountains, we made the surrounding buildings higher again.” Sun Haipeng explained.
In the film, after A Juan went to work in the city, the only time she wore a lion head lion dance was on the rooftop in the middle of the night and danced until dawn. The sun was rising, and the sun shone through the gaps between the tall buildings and shone on A Juan. He opened his arms and faced the mountains-like tall buildings. In front of the buildings were small and dilapidated residential buildings before reaching the rooftop where he was standing. The strong contrast between the building and the little boy left a deep impression on many viewers.
Sun Haipeng can often see scenes like this in Guangzhou. “Different from Beijing’s broad urban perception, Guangzhou’s urban structure is relatively dense. Sometimes there is only a small gap between houses. We really see sunlight can penetrate in. Set up such a scene.” For this scene, Sun Haipeng prefers the scene of A Juan’s lion dance in the middle of the night before dawn. “We specially created a dreamy feeling for A Juan. The late night rooftop after the rain, foggy Enriched, the humidity is floating in the air, and the lights on the roof melt in it, making it more hazy.”
At the end, “Lion Boy” once again seizes the word “landing”, which is different from the mythic theme of “My fate is involuntary” in the previous National Comics, allowing Ajuan to return to reality again and continue working and living. Sun Haipeng said frankly that they set up this way because the lion dance competition is not a martial arts competition, let alone a sports competition. If this changes the destiny of life, it is unrealistic.
“Actually, it does not matter whether the trajectory of destiny is changed. What is important is that he changed himself through the lion dance. He is no longer an ignorant boy before, and he is no longer confused. I believe that even if he still went to Shanghai, even if He is still doing some physical work, but he is likely to get better and better. Although the lion dance competition cannot change his life trajectory, it can make his heart stronger.” Sun Haipeng said.
By Han Shirong, our reporter
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