Yuze Shi Director
Born in Fushun, Liaoning, graduated from the Film Academy of Shanghai Theatre Academy with a major in Broadcasting and Television Directing.
A film about funeral themes, the art team needs to have a better understanding of relevant customs. Can you talk about the artistic setting of the film?
Yuze Shi：The difficulty of art is indeed considerable. The original plan of the art team was suddenly unable to be executed due to various reasons as filming approached. So my father, who was born and raised here, and my uncle, one of the prototypes of Liu Qinghai’s character, were crowned. They are amateur painting enthusiasts and carving and seal carving enthusiasts, often enjoying working together with brothers to create furniture. It’s like we entrust trust to the source of art.
Coincidentally, the death of my grandfather two months before filming allowed us to just go through a complete funeral. I think this may be a cruel fate? After my grandfather passed away, my mother and uncle renovated my grandmother’s house to a certain extent to prevent her from being affected by the scenery. All the replaced furniture became our scene decoration. Grandpa’s woodworking tools, measuring tools, military badges and carefully preserved New Year paintings, bed sheets, clothing, etc…. We have been using them for a long time to organize relics. A stubborn and even paranoid hardworking and frugal elderly person has collected a variety of items and preservation methods throughout his life that no art can create, and a list that no prop can list.
Of course, there are also disadvantages to this approach. Realism is the first step in creation. After all, we didn’t want the Sigma 95, so we need to consider the issue of visual aesthetics, which still requires professionals to do professional work. It would be best if the two could be combined.
From previous interviews, it has been learned that there was a major change in the creative team before filming. Can you talk about how this team quickly formed and started filming later on?
Yuze Shi：Substitution seems to be an active action, but I have no choice. For various reasons, a few people chose to leave before filming started, and I didn’t have the ability to immediately find a backup. So there’s no such thing as a quick build.
I spent two years accumulating knowledge about this topic and piecing together a picture of the era that I had never even touched in my mind. Think step by step and dive down, the script molts layer by layer. The little boy reflects a confused and hot self, while Liu Qinghai reflects the shadows of my father’s generation who had a difficult life, as well as the late grandfather and grandfather. I know that I have devoted enough effort and emotion to this film, which is enough to help me overcome those problems and allow me to use a sense of mission as a reason to persist in filming. I can no longer expect this film to achieve any good results or enter anyone’s vision. I just want to achieve a mission. So even if the situation can be even worse, we must start filming as scheduled and complete it.
In fact, my problem is not an isolated case, and it is not even a minority in the same type of crew. Just like the recent incident in “Oda to the Mad Dog”, what we have encountered is similar. I was mentally prepared for this before filming started, but even so, it was still difficult to endure when it happened. The agonizing and anxious filming process not only tormented me, but also those who decided to stay and accompany me to finish the shoot. I have never seen such a chaotic crew before, nor have I ever seen such a like-minded one. Due to the personnel dispersal caused by the production explosion, the remaining members were unable to clearly define their positions and work scope. Everyone worked as soon as they saw the work, and when the male protagonist had no role, he went to become an executive director. After recording, he put down the pole and accompanied the executive director to make the next day’s announcement. When the stills were not filmed, he came to do the recording. When the recording was replaced by the stills, he went to help manage the props. I caught the props and acted on them, My grandfather called his colleagues and helped me build walls, spray paint, and nail nails inside the house. There were not enough actors in the crowd, so my aunt ran home and pushed a wheelchair to bring my grandmother. My dad, who was caught working as a producer, and my roommate, who was working as an executive for the first time, almost got into an argument over filming issues. They were so busy that they didn’t know what it meant to be big or small anymore. In other words, everyone has ignited.
On the last day of the film shoot, the lighting teacher thanked everyone on my behalf and said a sentence that I can remember for a lifetime: “Director, thank you all for being present, thank you all for being present.” That’s how we finished filming at that time. It feels quite funny.
There are many scenes in the film that are very difficult to shoot. How are the camera designs for these scenes arranged? Is the final shot consistent with the initial design, or did it show some performance on site later on?
Yuze Shi：I can’t even remember which shots are referred to as high difficulty for a moment. We have always been playing on site. Maybe it’s a group play for the memorial service? Indeed, over a hundred people, all of whom are middle-aged and elderly, with a temperature of around minus 20 degrees Celsius, are required not to gather for more than three hours during the epidemic period, which is quite difficult. Nearly a hundred mass actors were all staff members from various departments who made phone calls on site, acting like telecom scams. More than half of the visitors were elderly men and women who almost had to ride in wheelchairs, while the rest were in their forties and fifties, with an average age of between sixty and seventy. There is no other way, there are not many young people in Northeast China anymore.
It’s also difficult to take some shots without a large arm, so we borrowed an arm lift truck from the street lamp repair department. I feel like our photography teacher has never done this kind of work before. Just as we lifted the two male protagonists onto the roof midway, the boom truck received a case that needed repairs. After filming, the two male protagonists were trapped on the ice and snow covered roof. Later, my father said that his mind was full of thoughts about the possibility of an accident, and we finally put the triangular ladder on the roof of the bus before taking the person down. Actually, thinking about it now is very dangerous. We haven’t done less of such dangerous things.
In fact, there are many scenes of factories, roads, and railways in the short film. How was the filming chosen and communicated?
Yuze Shi：It is a very primitive selection method. The popular word nowadays is city walk, which has lasted for nearly two years since the beginning of preparation. I just drive out and wander around when I have nothing to do, specifically in the old city area. Spending an unknown amount of money on fuel, I wandered through the entire city of Fushun. I just realized how little I know about my hometown.
In terms of communication, it is actually a very Northeastern way of communication. Most of the scenes are already abandoned old factories, under the jurisdiction of the local government’s State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. There are also unclear property rights and even disputes. We once thought of buying two packs of cigarettes to bribe security guards to sneak in and take photos, but it’s okay to take a look, but filming is not. Later, my father found someone to recommend me, and I brought the script to the Federation of Trade Unions. With the support of the Federation of Trade Unions Propaganda Department, I contacted various factories. Whether official or private, there was almost no one who did not support us throughout the entire process, and everyone wanted to do something for this theme.
Is there anything interesting during the filming process that you can share?
Yuze Shi：A few times during the filming process, I felt like it was a plot from a play. Because it is an era drama, it requires a lot of era props. One day during filming, we saw a bystander riding an authentic 28 bar bike, so we discussed borrowing the bike with him. The situation of borrowing props from passersby happens almost every day, because some elderly people still maintain a very primitive lifestyle, which always inspires us. The most exaggerated thing is that one day we fell in love with a stranger’s coat and hoped to borrow it for the male protagonist to wear. After listening, the old man and his mother took us downstairs to his house, and from the balcony on the third floor, they threw a pile of clothes like a fairy scattering flowers. They shouted, “Feel free to use, there are plenty.” We stood downstairs, applauding and cheering. At that moment, I was very emotional about the cuteness of Northeastern people.
During the preliminary preparation, I went to a place similar to the Mohe Dance Hall with Wang Hanyang for research. I wanted to observe it in a low-key manner, but found that you couldn’t keep a low profile when you fell into the territory of Northeasterners. Soon, without any resistance, we were caught dancing together.
Also, it was the group play. My grandmother is blind and I don’t even know what she’s doing, but there’s a scene where Liu Qinghai goes to shake hands with her. In reality, my male lead is thanking my grandmother and other group actors for their efforts, but I’ve included it in the main film.
My feeling about making this movie is similar to preparing for a funeral. I just feel that this kind of thing can only be done once, and what can be achieved depends on people’s hearts. The funeral in the story was finally completed, and we also finished filming it. We say that we are like playing a “steel piano”, and there are not many moments in life that ignite inexplicably. There was one time when we were 22 years old.
Do you have any regrets about the final film? What did you learn throughout the entire process?
Yuze Shi：From a film perspective, there are too many regrets. There are both subjective and objective factors, and I have no way to summarize them. We can’t do this in filming. We don’t have any experience to learn from, all the lessons we can learn from. But in terms of both the process and the final result, it has exceeded my expectations by a lot. And because it has been quite some time now, I hope to make up for the regret in future works.
The density of what I have learned is too high, and I am still digesting it until now. I have a very talented teacher – Teacher Wei Dongxiao, who taught me how to make the plot and characters solid. In my freshman year, Teacher Wei asked a classmate who had always loved writing murder cases to personally kill an eel, experience the texture of killing, and record it. He came back to report his feelings. After the classmate killed her, the teacher said that she could kill anyone in the story as she pleased, but she no longer persisted in writing about murder. Later, I dared to become roommates with her, and then she became the executive director of our group. It’s been a long time since this happened, but even now I still have a deep impression.
Later on, during the script writing stage, Teacher Wei would endlessly ask me about the details of all my characters, including those who appeared, those who did not appear, those who should have existed but were no longer there, and even the past and present lives of insignificant characters, from kindergarten to work, meticulously to whether Liu Qinghai’s father beat him when he was young, whether he beat him every day or occasionally, all of which had to be done with logical consistency, Interlocked in a loop. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to curse. In fact, I wanted to ask if I could also kill an eel to solve the problem, but he said that my problem is not about killing eels.
Are there any projects that are being prepared or filmed recently?
Yuze Shi：Of course there is. I may always have something to express about my hometown Fushun. As a city with typical Northeastern characteristics, it once held numerous honors as the first industrial city in the Republic. Few young people know that it was once the 18th largest city in the Republic, with the treatment of a planned separate city (directly under the central government). The interweaving of past glory and current decline is truly lamentable, as it contains enormous dramatic conflicts. But if you can stay in Fushun for a while, you will find that the indomitable and unwilling nature of Fushun people, the boundless nostalgia for the lost glory, and the optimistic and positive attitude towards life despite being in a low tide will deeply infect you. This is a part of human nature. This is also the source of most of my creative passion and inspiration at this stage.
Fushun also has a more magical focus, which is the birthplace of the Lei Feng spirit. When an elderly and former eldest son, an elder who holds high collectivism and the banner of the Lei Feng spirit era, quietly falls, it cannot help but feel desolate. However, with the persistence of his adopted grandson (specifically avoiding blood ties, referring to the younger generation), his son (the second generation) regains confidence and faith, Starting anew with a sense of relief and hope is an important point that I want to express in “The Cold Spring”, although my exploration is very superficial.
Correspondingly, the spirit of Lei Feng also has a new interpretation and expansion in the new situation, which can be explored in the form of film and television works. For Northeasterners, especially those from Fushun, how to inherit and carry forward the spirit of Lei Feng, and how to create the city’s business card as the birthplace of Lei Feng spirit, is an important issue in the period of urban transformation and industrial upgrading. Exploring this topic may have some practical significance. So next, I “delude” to explore the inheritance and persistence of Lei Feng’s spirit by the sinking Northeast and its people. The topic of Lei Feng’s spirit is highly sensitive, and it is difficult to grasp the scale of in-depth exploration. To be honest, at present, my age and qualifications make it very difficult to handle this topic. However, before filming “Autumn Cold”, almost no one believed that I had the ability to explore this content, fearing that I would “deviate”. Now it seems that there is always a solution, but it will take time.