“You can never guarantee what the next hand is… you can’t pin your hopes on every card.”
文 | 李卓彦;Editor | Zhang Wei
The “Great Creator” is a business person column dedicated to finding activists who promote the process of new business civilization, telling about all the adventures and evolution behind innovation.
In this issue, we talked with Cao Dun, the director of Changan Twelve Hours, about the birth of a word-of-mouth drama that was quietly broadcast but captured half a summer eye. Under the trend of large-scale return of net dramas to small costs, strengthening the plot and weakly making, this finely crafted 600 million big production is like a strange animal. But for the 47-year-old director Cao Dun, the cultivation of this strange animal is not surprising. Using the most traditional method of creation, ignoring all the so-called director’s personal style, all of which are really for the plot and the characters, to the storyline, so that each frame is not wasted. His choice is to be right. The hunger experienced in the past has made him feel awkward. Every scene he shoots is to solve problems and potential crises that may occur in the future. “You can never guarantee what the next hand is… you can’t pin your hopes on every hand,” he said. After all, he wants to stay on the arena where capital is a word of mouth and reputation.
A different animal.
The use of these four words to describe “Chang’an Twelve Hours” is by no means excessive.
Under the trend of large-scale return of small-scale online dramas, strengthening the plot and weakly making, this finely crafted, large-scale production of 600 million is tantamount to a behemoth. 
This beast is also a record. It has been a month since the broadcast, and it is about to close, but on the Douban it is still No.1 of the “Weekly Chinese Word List”, and the score base of over 200,000 people has not lowered its score, 8.6. Even the original novels have sold more than eight times in this month.
The exquisite and highly reductive clothing and film-like images first frame the audience, followed by character acting and plot settings. So director Cao Dun began to appear frequently in the media. They talked over and over again. They set up more than 70 acres of scenery in Xiangshan, analyzed the architectural pattern and street width of Chang’an City; collected a large number of patterns for making clothes and going to Japan and other places. In order to accurately show the changes of twelve hours, black and white is reversed to shoot, and the lighting scene is used to adjust the light and shadow.
But for the 47-year-old middle-aged director Cao Dun, the development of this strange animal is not surprising. In his recognitionIn the knowledge, within the control of funds and time, each process is done well enough, just a traditional method of creation.
And more importantly, after taking it seriously, someone will come to him to continue the tour and follow his 20-year team to get a job. All this is for a chance to continue working. “To survive. How unstable our industry is, you don’t have any income when you don’t play, there is income immediately after a movie, and then people will forget you soon, we have forgotten how many people.” After the child’s dilemma, this sense of crisis of survival and hunger for creation has been entrenched in Cao Dun.
This made him feel awkward. Every scene he shoots is to solve problems and potential crises that may occur in the future. “Like playing cards, you pick up the cards and everyone wants to get a good hand, but as long as you play at this table, you can never guarantee what the next hand is, you can only watch the cards, you can’t Put your hopes on every card is good, in that case, you stay at the table soon,” he said.
He even thought it would be better to have a bad card. Shuang is in the process, “analysis, fighting and fighting, this is interesting.”
In his opinion, “Chang’an Twelve Hours” is a medium-up card. He is vividly immersed in the story of how to solve the short board of this card. For example, the time is too short, and the action scene is Too many, Zhang Xiaojing’s chasing the carriage in Chang’an City is so rare that he is going crazy. But regarding the hot broadcast of the drama, he simply used a line of Zhang Xiaojing’s words, “all are surprises.”
Cao Dun will at least not worry about the next shot, but this sudden explosion has also brought him a lot of trouble. A wave of media came and went from his studio. He answered each other’s questions with a tiny voice that was completely inconsistent with the northwestern man’s “coarse mine” label. The smoke fell from the left hand to the right hand. The right hand moved back to the left hand, never interrupted, I do not know whether to ease the inner anxiety or dissipate the afternoon sleepiness.
This was the main reason why he didn’t want to be a director. Compared with talking to the crowd, hiding behind the machine and dealing with lights and scenery is the most comfortable thing for Cao Dun. But “everyone is so difficult to survive, I also hope that everyone can support us more, for the team, I have to do it, I am better to speak.”
The team was handed over to Teng Huatao after he finished the “Floating and Sinking” many years ago. Before that, he had been working as a photographer with Teng Huatao, but after filming “Thirty-three days of lovelorn”, Teng Huatao gradually turned to the film. The film has a long development cycle. They are afraid of running the hungry team underneath, so Cao Dun took the TV series with everyone.
Cao Dun especially values this responsibility, so this simple northwestern man pursues the most realistic survival needs. He makes every shot as much as possible, creating possibilities for the next job opportunity, so that he and his team can live in this industry.
“My pursuit is to shoot, as long as I can keep shooting.”
The following is Cao Dun’s dictation.
01
I pushed about a dozen movies for this movie, but I didn’t grasp it when I was trying to direct the instructions. I didn’t think they (the employers) wanted to use me. It’s been more than a month before they I was told that we were talking about the contract and I knew that I was selected. There are a lot of directors who want to shoot this movie, and they are very capable, otherwise they can’t be so entangled.
Why do I want to make this play? On the one hand, it tells me about my hometown. Everyone has emotions about their hometown. Also, I saw that the novel was filming “The Sea of the Clouds” at that time. At that time, there were a lot of dramas in our country, including those that were being prepared and came to me. Many of them were tens of millions of big IP.
A large class is magic, and a large class is court tactics. There are too many things, and the audience may want to see different things. This market must have a variety of products better, it is unfair to the audience to shoot the same type, and there is no choice. I also don’t want to repeat this kind of thing, although it may be stable.
Second, I feel that I should take a relatively landed thing. “Chang’an Twelve Hours” is good. He wrote a group of ordinary people. The fireworks are extremely heavy. I can experience him. He has A little practical significance reflects many of our ordinary people’s small wishes, longing for emotions and longing for persistence. Zhang Xiaojing is not a superhuman hero. He has his own entanglements, his own problems and choices, and emotions intertwined in him, but he The spirit of perseverance finally made him a hero. This kind of play makes it easier to capture the true feelings. Not those who are high above, I can’t reach it, I don’t know how he lives. I remembered that when I was filming “Song Long Song”, I was particularly resistant. I felt that he was very far away from me. After all, they were concerned about things above the temple. I was concerned about the people.
We have been preparing for this year and two months. Currently, I have the longest preparation time, including the service road and script. It is a very large workload to make your own clothes, and it is a very large workload, but it is necessary and very traditional to create ideas for the plot and characters. There has never been a drama in the past, because the previous Tang costume theme did not show the living conditions of the people in such a large extent. What I want to do in this play is more real, so the audience noticed that the people were dressed like this, and the interest they generated on this was different.
You don’t really do the quality, the audience will not pay more and more. There used to be a certain period of time that everyone thought it could be opportunistic, for example