It's not a short video. Interview with members of the judging panel for the short film unit at the Shanghai Film Festival: Good short film shots | short films | units

At 5:20 pm, director Zhang Dalei sat in front of the reporter's camera. My hair was tied into a baseball cap, and the black T-shirt was printed with the words "loser" and "I printed it myself." The gray green cloth pants were paired with a pair of blue cloth shoes, and someone on the field said, "You can go on stage directly at the music festival like this."

Like director Xin Shuang of "The Long Season," Zhang Dalei is a true rock and roll youth who has formed his own band and follows the Grunge style. He said he has recently heard about Grunge again, such as Kurt Cobain from Nirvana, "willing to admit that he is a failure."

In his shots, there are also ordinary people who have failed in life. In 2016, his debut feature film "August" became famous both domestically and internationally, telling the story of ordinary families who had to undergo drastic changes during the reform of state-owned units; The TV series "Moses on the Plain" aired by iQiyi's "Mist Theater" this year quickly gained popularity, focusing on the girl who was changed by an unexpected murder and became a childhood friend of the police.

Zhang Dalei, born in 1982, does not have many works. Even if we include entries like the "10th China Film Directors Association Annual Award", there are only 16 works related to him included on Douban, the vast majority of which are short films. His short film "Half Afternoon" won the Silver Bear Award for Short Film Jury at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival, with some giving it a high rating, "It's light, like the kind without salt."

As a member of the judging panel for the short film segment of this year's Shanghai Film Festival, he candidly stated that good short films are not short videos.

Zhang Dalei, judge of the short film unit at the Shanghai Film Festival

Creators must have something firmly expressed

Faced with the viewpoint that "short videos have a great impact on film and television", Zhang Dalei expressed his views succinctly and clearly with the words "I agree". In his view, the key to such an impact is that short videos "influence people's cognition.".

"If you are short, you need to be eager to explain things clearly and output? It's not like that," said Zhang Dalei. "A good short film is not a short video.". "A short film also needs to have the content and rhythm that a movie should have, and the most crucial thing is to be able to see the author firmly expressing something."

In recent years, many short video platforms have introduced traffic support and incentive mechanisms to encourage high-quality content creation. When asked if "short video platforms can accelerate the production of high-quality creations," Zhang Dalei frowned and patted his chin. "I dare not say," he said. "At least it hasn't helped to produce more good short films yet. After all, the output platforms are different, and short videos may have stronger functionality, which is two different things from short films."

Young actress Wen Qi, who has gained attention for films such as "Carnival" and "Blood Guanyin", is just 20 years old. She brought her first directed and starred short film "She Says" at this year's Shanghai Film Festival. Zhang Dalei has just finished watching this movie. "As the first director's work, the expressive techniques, visual and sound design are very bold." He said that from the perspective of technology, equipment, and other aspects, filming movies is now easier than in the past. The production cost and filming cycle of short films are relatively more controllable, and young filmmakers can use this as an entry point to try, "but what creators firmly express must have something."

It's best not to become a "pattern" in creation

At the beginning of the year, the drama series "Moses on the Plain" directed by Zhang Dalei was released on iQiyi's "Mist Theater", with extremely good reviews. People who love it praise it as "listening to thunder in silence", and argue with others on social media that "don't expect it as a suspense film, this is an art film"; Those who dislike it believe that the pace is extremely slow, the story is not clear enough to be understood, and there is no sense of suspense.

Although this is an online drama, Zhang Dalei "personally values artistry more.". In his view, there must be a "threshold" for literary and artistic films because they are not the storytelling style commonly seen by audiences in film and television works. "But this is normal, and literary films are also normal movies. After watching more, you won't feel that there is a threshold, and you still need more opportunities to watch."

After half a year of airing "Moses on the Plain", Douban's rating quietly rose to 7.7. Regardless of the attitude, the audience's almost unanimous view is that "this series has the quality of a movie.".

Zhang Dalei also hopes that one day this series can enter the cinema. "The cinema effect can better restore the original intention of filming. The viewing information on the platform may be restored by 75%, and on the big screen it can be restored by 85% -90%."

From last year's "Cowardly Ghost", earlier this year's "Moses on the Plain", to the recent "Long Season", some have summarized these high-quality dramas as a "Northeast+Suspense+Destiny Writing" model.

But Zhang Dalei directly denied the notion of "pattern", stating that "pattern" is not appropriate and it is best not to become a pattern. "In his view, such a combination form" opens up some new situations. ". At this Shanghai Film Festival, what impressed him deeply was the rich and diverse forms and techniques of creation: "To break the so-called patterns and create more diverse works."

Short videos are very popular, but they shouldn't be all about them

Reporter's note: A short video style anti short video interview

According to the notice from the organizing committee, the young colleagues had already set up their cameras and waited quietly when they pushed the door into the interview room ten minutes in advance. They listed the problems on the tablet, bowing their heads and repeatedly familiarizing themselves.

As the interviewee Zhang Dalei entered and sat down, a young journalist held a tablet in one hand and pressed down on the earphones connected to the camera in the other. His eyes were fixed on the framing frame, and most of the questions he asked were "whether", "right", "will", and even semi open-ended concluding remarks like "how do you think" were almost non-existent.

However, the director seemed to have no time to expand his thoughts and only answered conclusions such as "yes" and "I personally don't think so". When pausing, he was interrupted by the questioner's "good" sentence.

For example, the relationship between short videos and film and television, with Zhang Dalei saying "I agree" and the questioner answering "okay", ready to ask the next question. I leaned in the corner with suspicion, eager to continue asking "what kind of impact it was and where it came from". Fortunately, Zhang Dalei stubbornly added, "The key is that short videos affect people's cognition.".

A questioner proposed a concept of the internet, but when Zhang Dalei was not clear about the underlying meaning, the questioner said "it's not important" and prepared to move on to the next question.

Several questions were answered by a journalist, but it took less than 5 minutes.

Short video access has a type of product - "quick questions and quick answers" - throwing seemingly sharp questions one by one, then cutting in the simplest and most clear answers from the answerer, occasionally adding one or two "golden sentences". Afterwards, a platform immediately launched a one minute short video, even spelling Grunge into another word.

From Zhang Dalei's answer, it is evident that he has doubts about short videos. In his subsequent thinking and response, he believed that being short does not mean being eager to clarify or output, but rather requires content and rhythm, and creators to express themselves firmly. Short videos are too focused on functionality.

For doubts about short videos, it is a kind of black humor to output them in a short video style interview and then spread them through edited short videos.

We cannot harshly criticize the practices of our young colleagues. Even myself, I have racked my brains trying to incorporate the comments of Zhang Dalei, who is used to collaborating with non professional actors, on professional actors Hai Qing, Zhou Xun, and especially Wang Yibo into the title.

In the era of traffic, who can stand alone?

At the end of the interview, I heard the young man next to me discussing, "It seems that the director hates short videos."

Is it really annoying?

I think many questions are not just about right or wrong answers, but also about the complex situations behind them that need to be clarified. When a viewpoint is disconnected from a specific context and the context is cut off, does it still express its original meaning? We are too eager to obtain an authoritative answer as soon as possible, but we are increasingly unwilling to understand the process of solving.

Comparison is not always about pulling and stepping on, opposition is not always about being a "stick spirit", and dissatisfaction is not all about "leading to war". Can you leave more time to listen to the explanation and reflection behind the viewpoint?

Perhaps this is the significance of the current film festival that gathers masterpieces from all over the world - beyond traffic, our world was originally so rich and colorful.