Text: Liu Dongliang.
On the eve of New Year's Day 2023, in Shanghai, there was no snow, and a person named kerry posted a ** festival announcement on Xiaohongshu. It's New Year's Eve, and there are many people who like ** and lonely people who have nowhere to go, and they want to have a ceremonial New Year's Eve, so they should go by appointment. I belong to both of them, I like folk and rock, and I am lonely. Since then, I have been associated with HUFM.
Kerry was the first person I knew about HUFM and was its initiator.
Hufm, whose full name is Hands Up for Music, is a manifesto that talks less about social affairs and more about the rivers and lakes. I particularly like this sentence because it gives people an emotional outlet, by soothing the hearts of lonely souls and wild ghosts who wander the world. Above the blue star, you and I are all lonely souls, all wild ghosts, with nothing to rely on, only, a cloud of smoke and rain is life, and the glass of turbid wine is free. Throw away all kinds of business documents and materials that make people unable to breathe, turn off DingTalk and WeChat work groups, go to the **, go to freedom, exile the body and mind to the rhythm of the **, to listen, to feel, to draw strength.
I talked to kerry** about some feelings about **, and I was able to talk about it. Although I didn't know much about music theory, it didn't stop me from feeling music.
* is a part of nature, all the matter that occupies space and time, there is**. Even if it is a rock, it has its own sound, whether it is a glimmer of light, or if it is a scorching sun, whether you hear it or not, it is there, thousands of years, ten thousand years. People, who belong to the dust, are no different from the rocks, the rhythm of nature, they can hear each other, thousands of years ago, tens of millions of years in the future, you and I are here. At that time, if the dust and the rock meet, they greet each other. Oh, you're here too.
The avenue is simple, and the avenue is pure.
Later, I talked to Kerry about photography and music video. I asked him, do you have any songs?Let's shoot an MV together, such as a MV for a folk song. Kerry said that let more people hear more people's voices, convey our ideas for the ideal world with **, and let ** empower the people in this city. One word comes to mind, grand narrative. Kerry goes on to describe the music videos he has in mind, such as from tall buildings to lawns to rivers to oceans.
What kind of song should that be?I asked. Kerry said, you wait, I'll find out.
Two months later, Kerry came to me and said that there was a song, called "Listen Closely", a little love song. opened the Netease cloud link he sent and listened to it several times, it is indeed a little love song, a little green, a little sweet. However, this is a bit different from the MV blueprint mentioned by Kerry. Kerry said that this is the work of his little head and his girlfriend Shanshan, and they can use their experiences as clues to shoot the MV. Yes, no problem. At that time, I was being supported by two large companies in Hong Kong and Macau, and I didn't have much money and time. It only took three days for the overall planning and script of "Listen Closely" to be rushed out. Then, Kerry began to pull people to build groups, and the matter was officially put on the agenda. It was also at this time that I met a girl with a WeChat nickname called Yueyue. Kerry said that the New Year's Day "Big Breath ** Festival" was planned by her throughout the whole process. At that time, I thought that Yue Yue must be an employee of a large factory, who could coordinate a large-scale ** festival and had extraordinary ability. Xiaohongshu, Tencent, Alibaba, NetEase's big factory elites, outstanding ability, pleasure should be one of them, must be a while. Later, I learned that she was actually a student at a university that had not yet graduated. This little girl is not simple.
Due to the intermittent wifi signal, coupled with the weak voice of my 15-year-old antique 6s, and my own voice defects, as well as the advice of more than a dozen directors, that online meeting was a disaster. After about half an hour, the meeting ended. I was confused about what was said and what was decided. Later, we joked about it.
Joy proposes to create a new creator group, which can reduce too many distractions and brainstorm ideas. Several main creators, including me, Yueyue, Kerry, Mira and Jiayi, decided to meet offline after discussion. We met for the first time in a café in Global Harbor on an evening of the weekend. A group of people, sitting around a table, began to discuss the script. In the end, the version of the script I made was almost completely destroyed. The reason is that version is not very suitable for small love songs, more like an art film, lacking the taste of youth, haze, and youthfulness. That's true. About a week after the meeting, the new script was led by Jiayi, and it was a text storyboard that could be shot directly.
The storyboard has come out, and the next step is to look at the scene, and everyone has collected a lot of places that fit the plot. Later, based on the consideration of geography and time span, it was found that the scene of Thames Town could basically shoot the entire MV. Then it took about a month for the MV producer to divide the group of people. During this period, the A Cappella part of "Listening Closely" was led by Joy and Brother Bird, and the final recording and synthesis were completed.
The first time I saw the male and female protagonists was in Thames Town. There were a few people who went that day, including Jiayi, Kerry, Yueyue, Teacher Yang, Henry, and the male and female protagonists. A group of people, quite lively, walking around, taking pictures, framing, and chatting.
Thames town, good scenery, European style buildings are very outstanding. On that day, I collected a lot of interesting real-life materials in the corners and corners.
At that time, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the spring was shining.
On Saturday, May 27, 2023, it was cloudy, and the town part of "Listen Closely" officially started filming. At about 10 o'clock, we did a simple boot-up ceremony, pulling banners, burning incense, worshipping heaven and earth, and praying for good luck. The small crew, with tacit understanding, quickly finished filming several sets of scenes such as the riverside, corners, and letter writing. When it came time to move on to the next guitar scene, it was windy and it was raining lightly. A group of people with equipment made a bit of a mess in the wind and rain. At that time, Jiayi also said that there was a rainy day in the lyrics, which was also appropriate. Indeed, "Listen Closely" says: The recent rain has been quiet, and the wind has become pleasant. However, the rain became heavier and heavier, and it was not possible to burn incense to God, so the shooting had to be suspended. Yue Yue proposed, wait for the rain to stop, do a snap shot, how much can be filmed, and this part of the scene must be filmed today, because everyone's time is too difficult to arrange.
Half an hour later, the rain stopped, so the big guys carried the equipment again, went to the scene that they didn't have time to shoot, and continued to shoot until it was getting late.
This was followed by indoor and some outdoor scenes for night shots. The interior scene is a pre-booked guesthouse. The room is quite large, with a two-bedroom and one-hall home layout, and the interior style is relatively fresh and elegant, which is suitable for the plot content. In this way, it was filmed until the middle of the night before the last part of the scene was filmed.
The first part of "Listen Closely" is finished. Then there are the lawns and stage scenes.
On Sunday, June 4th, the lawn scene was sunny. It was the busiest day, with a lot of people in attendance, mostly new faces. All kinds of instruments have been moved, including drum kits, guitars, keyboards, and more. Curious passers-by also asked, is there a ** meeting at night?What time does it start?
On that day, as usual, the ritual of burning incense and worshiping the four directions was done, and although it was a sunny day, I was afraid that it would rain as last time. After the ceremony, the originally cloudy weather became extremely sunny and bright. It's strange to say that the crew's start-up ceremony is very mysterious and effective. If you search the Internet for those strange examples of the crew's boot ceremony, you will definitely find it amazing.
The shooting that afternoon went very smoothly overall, with the only hiccup being the pleasant drone hanging on the tree and not being found for a while. However, there was no danger later, and the drone landed smoothly.
After the filming of the lawn scene was completed, the large army moved to the big world stage scene in the city center. After the audition of "I Am a Singer" at that time, we successfully completed the filming of the stage scene.
Fixing. That night at the gate of the big world, a group of people lit fairy sticks, which was very lively.
After that, it was a long post-production time. Jiayi and I, the two directors each cut a version. Due to the use of different models during shooting, it was difficult to adjust the color grading part in post. In the same scene, two sub-lenses, because the models are different, it is very difficult to match the light color. I've tuned it a dozen times and I'm still not satisfied. Later, we took on a commercial shooting project, and we put the matter of "Listening Closely" on hold for the time being, and this shelving was for several months, because we have been busy with various commercial auctions.
During this period, Jiayi and I fell out because of a commercial project.
In fact, I always thought that Jiayi was a very talented film student and a director, and I still think so. Although the commercial auction project was messed up, fortunately, there was no danger, and I finally got the final payment.
In November, after finishing a series of commercial projects, I finally found some time to re-edit the MV of "Listen Closely". Finally, let's do the overall special effects packaging. In this way, the whole ** is quite passable, although there are still flaws, but it is also helpless, and the range of mobilization is not large.
At the end of November, the MV was finally delivered, and the matter came to an end.
Coincidentally, the big head said that in early December, he and Shanshan had a big day - to get the certificate. The MV will be officially released and launched after receiving the certificate.
Friday, December 1st, fine. Proposed by the big head, happy to save the game, to do a long time to propose a marriage ceremony. A few days before this day, Yue Yue began to gather friends from all walks of life to avoid Shanshan alone, plotting this matter. In those days, several groups were discussing how to keep Shanshan from knowing about it every day, and even Shanshan was still ventilating with each other before entering the venue, making everyone feel like **. For example, the big head should pay close attention to Shanshan's whereabouts that night and report Shanshan's movements to the organization at any time.
Everything went in an orderly manner according to the pleasant plan, and after Shanshan entered the event venue, everyone pretended not to know about it, and they couldn't see it on the surface.
Halfway through the event, the big head knelt on one knee and proposed to Shanshan with a diamond ring in his hand. It was a tearful scene.
The proposal was successful. However, the plot took a 360-degree reversal at this time. After the big head proposed, Shanshan took the microphone in the big head's hand and said, "Wait a minute, do you think this is the end?"Everyone was amazed, and no one knew what Shanshan was going to do next. When Shanshan took out the diamond ring she had prepared, the whole scene was boiling. Twenty or thirty people had been hiding the game she had been doing for several days, but she alone was completely reversed in an instant. Even the big head himself froze, standing there with a blank face, and didn't slow down for a while. This is a perfect Mission Impossible, a game within a game.
On December 2nd, I put the proposal into the end credits of the music video for "Listen Closely".
So far, the MV of "Listen Closely" has come to a perfect end.
On December 5, the twenty-third day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, Shanshan Datou will go to the Civil Affairs Bureau to get a marriage certificate.
"Listen Closely" has lasted nearly a year from the beginning to the present, perhaps just to wait for this special big day.
Conclude with a sentence Shanshan said at the proposal scene.
Everything was arranged for the best.
Sunday, December 3, 2023 in Shanghai.