Journal No.3337 on December 22, 2022
2022 is the ninth year of online movies. Different from the short drama industry, this year’s online movies have further shrunk in market scale under the dual effects of upgrading and reducing the quality of the industry and reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of the platform. At the same time, however, there are still a number of high-quality online movies that stand out in the field of online content because of their commercial considerations and artistic standards.
Among them, Ashton Chen directed and led the movie, Zou Zhaolong played a special role, Hao Shaowen played a friendly role, and Liu Tianzuo, Huang Qiao, Zhang Haoyu, Wen Qing, Xu Shaoqiang, Zhongwei Jiang and others co-starred in the online movie "Skipping School Detective" for five days, which broke the box office of 10 million yuan, winning the full-platform box office for six consecutive times and the full-platform audience for five times the next day. For Ashton Chen, who first directed the tube, it really made people shine at the moment.
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Detective Truant tells the story that Chen Hu, the first police captain in Shanghai, received a murder case, and the deceased He Manjun was the son of a senior official of the military and political department of the Shanghai government and a student of St. Martin’s High School. In order to get the first-hand information about solving crimes, Chen Hu had to pretend to be a student and mix into the school. Chen Hu, who is not good at studying in high school, is miserable and has repeatedly become a laughing stock; At the same time, while investigating the case, he launched a contest with various forces.
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From the perspective of theme types, The Detective Skipping School takes suspense stories as the main line, and skillfully integrates action and comedy elements, which is the key to the integration of multiple themes and commercial elements or its ability to quickly attract audiences and open up the market to obtain high box office.
What kind of innovation and exploration is hidden behind the film? To this end, we invited Ashton Chen to talk about the creative path of this project.
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The four stages of drama are well-defined
Around 2018, Ashton Chen, who had never met his favorite script, came up with the idea of making his own. Until the end of 2019, Ashton Chen team found writers Qiu Mingjia and Gao Bing, formed a small-scale production team, and started script creation.
Although it is the first time to be a director, everything on the set is no stranger to Ashton Chen, who has been on the set since childhood. In addition to the well-known identity of "actor", his experience as an "action director" in many plays also made him adapt to his new identity in advance.
As the core of the team, Ashton Chen participated in every creative link of "Skipping School Detective". "Because this is the first play made by our company, I will share my long-standing experience with you. Regarding some bridges of the script, including what I like or dislike, our director group, production group and screenwriter group will meet and discuss together. In fact, what you see now is left behind by our layers of screening. "
As for the positioning of the works, Ashton Chen thinks that regardless of the final quality of the films, it is easy to find his own position if he blindly targets or "confronts" the cinema films. Therefore, from the very beginning, Detective Truant has designed an image that is more suitable for this port according to the special work form of online movies.
"We consider that the audience on the online platform is too young. Although the story is set in the Republic of China, we still hope to show it to you from a new perspective from various aspects such as art, clothing, music, light and shadow, and lens. For example, in clothing, we hope that the audience can think that girls are beautiful and boys are handsome. "
In terms of the proportion of literary drama and martial arts drama, Ashton Chen revealed that he did not deliberately set when there must be a play, and the settings of the scenes were all done in one go. "We respect the writer’s idea, and I also think that as a good writer, we can certainly achieve this. There are about four important scenes in the film now. I think this ratio is just right. If it is too much, it will cause visual fatigue. If it is less, the audience may feel that it is not enough. "
It is not difficult to find that the four stages of drama are relaxed and distinct. The opening play in the warehouse, whether it’s flying tail wagging or close combat, quickly makes the audience adrenaline soar; The second paragraph took place in a nightclub, playing with joy; The third part of the group drama happened on campus, playing a cool feeling; In the fourth paragraph, the ultimate confrontation in the instrument room is the realism from boxing to meat.
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In the film, the action team "Longmen Interpreter" set up by Ashton Chen in 2010 is responsible for the action realization. Team members are carefully selected by Ashton Chen from his father’s martial arts school, and taught by him personally.
"I came out of my dad’s martial arts school at the earliest. There are about 10,000 children studying in the martial arts school, and some of them want to be engaged in the film and television industry like me. I hope that’ Longmen Buddhism’ can give them some opportunities to understand what an action movie is and what a crew is. On the other hand, there is also a long-term plan to make my own action movies better, so I need a professional team to help me improve them. "
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The suspense line is exquisitely laid out and reversed layer by layer.
Action drama is the strength of Ashton Chen’s team, so when filming "Skipping School Detective", the team did not particularly worry about the part of martial arts drama, but put more thoughts on polishing the literary drama.
"To be honest, we didn’t spend a lot of time on action drama, but focused on grasping the script and adjusting the rhythm. We hope that the part of solving the case will satisfy everyone, because the suspense line of the case is not good. "
In a limited time, it is also the biggest challenge for the crew to make a delicate layout of the suspense line of the film. "In fact, our time is a little sufficient, but the amount of plays and cases we play is very large, which may be at least one third more than other plays, so time is very tight."
The story of Skipping School Detective originated from a bizarre rickshaw murder case. The deceased He Manjun was the son of a senior official in Shanghai and a student of St. Martin’s High School. Therefore, Chen Hu disguised himself as a student and mixed into the school to investigate. And as the truth gradually approaches, the reversal continues. Chen Hu locked the mayor’s son Wu Zhen according to a cuff link left at the crime scene; With the investigation, Yu Meizhen, a female student who had been violated by He Manjun, also had a motive for committing crimes. Li Jinhu, an instructor who was caught by He Manjun selling opium, seems to be involved. ……
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A mystery, many reversals. In Ashton Chen’s view, good stories are still scarce, which is also the key for film and television works to stand out. At the same time, it is the ultimate meaning that Ashton Chen wants to express through the film to show the public’s resistance and struggle against the dark forces of the Republic of China.
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Hao Shaowen is more than just a "feeling card"
What surprised the audience most was that Ashton Chen and Hao Shaowen, the pair of "cp", reunited in "Skipping School Detective" after 25 years.
At that time, Ashton Chen and Hao Shaowen, who were still in their infancy, made a deep impression on the audience by co-starring in many films such as shaolin popey, shaolin popey ii messy temple, Ten Brothers and Legend of Heaven. After many years, the voice calling for the two to cooperate again is endless.
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"A few years ago, there were also some opportunities to invite the two of us to participate together, but after reading the script, I felt that it was still a little less interesting."
When he decided to shoot "Skipping School Detective", Ashton Chen admitted that at first he was a little exclusive about the cooperation between the two. "Later, I thought this role was actually quite interesting, not for Hao Shaowen to deal with. In this play, he has his own performance space." In the film, Hao Shaowen is a well-deserved comedian, and his appearance has created many hilarious scenes that are fresh in the audience’s memory.
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Talking about their cooperation again after 25 years, Ashton Chen said that it was wonderful. "We are all more sensible than before. When I was a child, everyone led us to film. Now I am leading everyone to work at the scene. We respect the feeling of creating together at the scene. Although we didn’t meet each other for many years after we were separated, we met again. It was a strange feeling, but we were familiar with each other and knew each other’s thoughts. "
From filming for the first time to directing for the first time, Hao Shaowen witnessed every change in Ashton Chen. For Ashton Chen, who is the first director, his steps have not stopped. In the future, he will try various types such as police themes and fashion kung fu movies. "For actors, kung fu movies can’t be left behind. I hope to present good works to everyone and develop some different IPS through action movies."