15 years ago, Yu Baimei was mentioned as a gold medal screenwriter in the sitcom industry, and now, he is more active in the public eye as a mainstream commercial film director.
From a writer, screenwriter, to director, Yu Baimei's artistic creation seems to be full of "accidents". His interest in art showed his creative talent very early, he loved literature since he was a child, began to rehearse and act in sketches in high school, learned computer science by mistake in college, and worked as a "science and engineering man" for a few years, but returned to the creative path after several twists and turns.
In the interview, he repeatedly mentioned the word "fate", "I didn't choose the path of directing until I was 38 years old, and looking back, thinking about so many coincidences combined, everything seems to be predestined."
An accidental car accident became a "turning point in his life".
Because of his excellent grades in science and engineering, Yu Baimei chose to major in computer science when he went to college, but he had no interest in this major, and he relied on watching movies and videos every day to "mess around".
The first face-to-face contact with comedy was in 1994. At that time, Yu Baimei was invited by classmates from Beijing Broadcasting Institute (now Communication University of China) to be an audience member of a sitcom that was being filmed at their school. At the end of a scene, Song Dandan, one of the leading actors, sat in the audience in front of him and took the lead in applauding and laughing. "At that moment, I felt that this profession was too attractive, but at the same time, I was disheartened and felt that my life was too far away from it."
This sitcom that gave Yu Baimei a huge impact is "I Love My Home" directed by the famous actor and director Yingda, and at this time, there are still 6 years before Yu Baimei and Yingda cooperate.
In 1996, Yu Baimei graduated from University and entered the 631st Research Institute of Aviation Industry of China. He felt that his life was "completely broken" at that time, "except for playing basketball or mahjong, going to work is something I don't want to do in my life, and I feel like I can't run out in a time loop."
But the gears of fate always turn silently, and an accidental car accident on December 30, 1997 became Yu Baimei's "turning point in his life". During the months he spent recuperating in the hospital, he completed his first **, and from then on, his enthusiasm for literary creation was uncontrollable. He began to replace his original name Wu Tao with "Yu Baimei", and continued to publish works on "Under the Banyan Tree", one of the earliest gathering places for online writers at that time, the most famous of which is "The Sword of the Internet on the Sword: Cutting Zhou Xingchi".
Yu Baimei's fame gradually rose, and he served as a judge of the "Under the Banyan Tree" online literature contest just over a year after he started writing, and got acquainted with the "idols" in the hearts of fellow judges such as writer Wang Shuo and screenwriter Liu Heng.
In 2000, a friend called** and invited Yu Baimei to write a script for a TV series. Without any hesitation, Yu Baimei and his friends came to Beijing and wrote a script based on himself "Diary of a Net Worm". Through Wang Shuo, the script was sent to Yingda, and fate went round and round, and finally completed the closed loop. (Forward to version 6).
After that, Yu Baimei became a professional screenwriter under Yingda's team, and successively created a series of sitcom scripts such as "Sister Idler", "Northeast Family", "Xi'an Tiger Family", etc. ”
A good director should be like a "hexagonal warrior".
The identity of the TV series screenwriter pushed Yu Baimei to success, but this is far from the end of his creative path.
In 2009, Yu Baimei and his friend and famous actor Deng Chao established a drama team and launched a series of stage plays such as "Breakup Master" and "Villain Angel". Just when the small theater performance was in full swing, Guangguang Media sent an invitation to Yu Baimei: "Do you want to come to make a movie?"The ability to make people laugh can also be transformed into another form. ”
Yu Baimei agreed, "At first, I just wanted to write a script and find a director to direct, but I couldn't find a suitable director. ”
Starting from the comedy movie "Breakup Master" released in 2014, Yu Baimei and Deng Chao, the "hardcore partners", co-wrote and directed many movies such as "Villain Angel" and "Galaxy Cram School", and their fame has risen all the way.
Controversy has also ensued. Yu Baimei has been groping for the direction of progress in the experience gained from creation and the evaluation of the audience, and now she is very calm about this: "Before that, all my knowledge was about the script, and the knowledge about the director was really not perfect. ”
As a professional screenwriter, Yu Baimei believes that her advantage is that she has work experience in different genres. "The genre itself is a joint effort between the creator of the film and the audience. The road of genre films that China has taken in the past ten years is actually that we are constantly interacting with the audience, constantly getting new views and new knowledge from the audience, and these things have promoted the development of today's films in a new direction. Movies are destined to be an adventure, and it won't be set in stone. ”
After becoming a director, Yu Baimei gradually developed a new understanding of the script. When he first entered the industry and followed Liu Heng to learn to write scripts, Liu Heng praised him for "being born consciously writing scripts with vision", but after he became a director, he went through the self-writing and self-directing of several works before he really realized it. "Film is an audiovisual art, and if the screenwriter is responsible for conveying ideas and constructing the texture of the story in the creation, then the director is the final chief engineer who has to present these contents. ”
In Yu Baimei's view, it is very important to master psychology as a director, "The same screenwriter gives the same scene, and a good director can make the scene completely grasp the psychology of the audience, and a bad director may only be able to tell the whole story." In Yu Baimei's heart, a good director should be like a "hexagonal warrior": not only must have some understanding of **, painting, drama performance, and editing, but also know the rhythm, and at the same time be well versed in the subtleties of human nature, in addition to this, he should also understand management: a crew of as few as a few hundred people, as many as a thousand people, how to add everyone's intelligence together to form a new height, is also an important ability of the director.
From the beginning of the decision to write the script, and then to the transformation into a director, Yu Baimei lamented that he "seems to have been pushed all along". "If it wasn't for a car accident, I wouldn't have written a script, and if it wasn't for that friend's **, I wouldn't know how to get into the industry. It's just that compared with others, Yu Baimei thinks that she is more interested, committed and focused on the work she does, and this is true as a screenwriter and a director.
I want to make a work that can stay in time.
At the beginning of 2023, "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" will be released, which is the fourth film directed by Yu Baimei, and for him, this is also an important step on his road to directing.
In the past, most of the time I was 'stir-frying' on the spot, but this is the first time I feel that I have my own control over the camera. Yu Baimei, who was not born in a professional class, relied on continuous learning and the accumulation of experience to clarify his direction as a director.
Compared with the previous works, Yu Baimei gave the highest score for "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back", "The theme of this play is first of all what I am convinced of, and the elaboration of the theme, including the completeness of the whole play, has made a significant improvement compared with before." ”
In Yu Baimei's view, although "Chinese Ping Pong: The Jedi Strikes Back" tells a story that is relatively far away from today's life, the theme of "facing setbacks and fighting bravely" conveyed by it is inseparable from the current era. "The world is changing, the theme of creation must change, and the best creation can always be in tune with the pulse of this era. What should we do in the face of these uncertain times?I'm going to be focusing on this in the next few plays, and it's a question that needs to be constantly thought about. ”
When asked what he expects from today's young creators, Yu Baimei quoted a well-known foreign director who said: You should think about why Chinese are anxious, why Chinese are suffering, and why are Chinese happy?This passage once brought great touch to Yu Baimei, "'Chinese' sounds like a particularly macro concept, but each of us is in it, and everyone has a sense of touch. If creators want to create something that the public will love and resonate with, they should think about these questions. Yu Baimei said, "Art creators should work hard to help this era and help us in the ethnic veins of the land, and strive to perceive their voices." ”
What kind of work do you want to make as a creator?Regarding this problem, Yu Baimei, who is in her 20s, had a very simple idea when she first entered the industry: to be able to make a best-selling product at that time every two years is success. Now, at the age of 48, Yu Baimei will answer: "I want to shoot works that can stay in time." ”
*: China Youth Daily client.