In 1985, "Journey to the West" spent 3 million, CCTV sent someone to check the accounts, and the investigators were in tears
When it comes to Chinese classics, many people will think of China's "Four Masterpieces", with the development of the film and television industry, more and more people are focusing on the remake of these masterpieces.
This has also created many classics of film and television dramas, which have not been surpassed so far, not only that, but people even automatically default to these film and television dramas as a true portrayal of the content of famous novels.
This has also created its irreplaceable position in people's hearts, and the remake of the famous book is a big project, in order to restore the story content to a high degree.
Not only do you need to study the content of the famous book, but you also need to select different people to play it, and make props and scenes, all of which cost a lot of money.
Especially in 1985's "Journey to the West", it is said that a total of 3 million was spent in order to make the remake successful, and this huge amount of money also attracted the attention of CCTV, but when the audit was conducted, it attracted tears from the investigators.
Most people may not have read Wu Chengen's "Journey to the West", but when asked if they had read Journey to the West in 1985, almost everyone said that they had read it and were even very familiar with the storyline.
Journey to the West in 1985 is everyone's childhood memories, and as an early remake of film and television dramas, the audience does not know the entire remake process very well.
Most people's description of this "Journey to the West" is that the beginning of the four masters and apprentices, and the reason why they came together to learn the scriptures together, followed by the master and apprentice all the way through the ninety-nine eighty-one difficulties, and finally the West Heaven learned the scriptures and achieved positive results.
However, due to the limitations of filming technology and level at that time, and the lack of personnel funds, the old version of "Journey to the West" in 1985 was only 25 episodes.
There were only 11 episodes in 85, and the next 14 episodes were filmed in the next few years, which can also be seen from this point that the filming of "Journey to the West" did not go well.
The difficulty is also more complicated than imagined, but in our impression, the story of "Journey to the West" is very long, compared to now, it seems that it took a long time to read "Journey to the West" at that time.
And this also has a lot to do with the social background at the time, in the past, our **film and television dramas were watched from TV, and we couldn't adjust the ** duration by ourselves.
It can only be carried out during the time period during which the TV series is broadcast**, and the broadcast time and content of the TV series are limited every day, generally only one to two episodes, and sometimes only once in a few days.
If you finish watching the TV series from beginning to end, it will take a long time, and it will take a long wait in this process, which will give us the illusion that the old version of "Journey to the West" is very long.
Secondly, there is another reason, that is, at that time, there was no advertising placement in each episode of the TV series from beginning to end, and the content was complete, all of which were descriptions of the story.
And in order to ensure the cohesion of each story, the duration of each episode has reached more than an hour, which is equivalent to watching a movie every time.
In this way, it will naturally give the audience the illusion that there is a lot of content in "Journey to the West", and if the content of these 25 episodes is really integrated, there is no advertising insertion, and the plot is indeed very long at that time.
In addition, there is also the arrangement of actors, and the 1985 remake of "Journey to the West" also left a deep impression on us, especially the actor Liu Xiaolingtong of Monkey King.
He is almost the Monkey King himself in our hearts, and in the later remake of "Journey to the West", there are other Monkey King actors, all of whom are based on the six-year-old version of the Monkey King.
And Liu Xiaolingtong himself has become an artist of the older generation because of his superb acting skills and the degree of restoration of famous works.
In short, 1985's "Journey to the West" accompanied each of us in our childhood and is an eternal classic in the hearts of our audiences.
And what makes this TV series particularly outstanding in the film and television industry is its filming time, compared with the current TV series that is a few months short and half a year long, "Journey to the West" took two or three years to complete the filming one after another.
It can be regarded as the first case, according to the director Yang Jie, who filmed "Journey to the West", the reason for such a long interval is, in the final analysis, because the filming process is too difficult.
As a masterpiece, its content is very many and complex, and when filming, the requirements for its degree of restoration are higher than those of other TV series, and it is also more likely to cause controversy.
Therefore, when shooting, you need to be more prepared, and you need to be more careful and cautious in the selection of personnel, which are the reasons for the current interval in the shooting process.
And with these high requirements, and the funds required behind it are also very large, and with the decision to shoot, every day is accompanied by the consumption of funds.
Like the most basic, asking actors to play needs to pay actors, due to the different popularity of actors, the salary is also high and low, in order to meet the setting of the characters in the book, you need to find actors with a high degree of compliance, and you can only give some actors a higher salary.
Secondly, the other group performances of the crew, as well as the filming staff and other staff, also need to give a reasonable ** for recruitment, as well as the props, costumes, and venue layout used.
It can be said that money is needed in all aspects, and as the theme of a mythological story, it is seriously detached from reality, and the costumes and scenes of the characters in it require additional design and preparation.
Coupled with the fact that there was no similar shooting experience before, every step was a new attempt, and Yang Jie, as a director, was undoubtedly the most exhausted in this process.
It is not only necessary to supervise and arrange the overall shooting tasks, but also to pay attention to the consumption and control of the crew's shooting funds, which is a huge challenge for the entire crew.
However, even so, it still cost a huge amount of filming costs, and all the 3 million funds prepared at that time were spent, which may be just an actor's salary now.
But in the situation at that time, especially more than 30 years ago, 3 million could be regarded as a huge amount of money, and the flow of funds was also closely watched by the outside world.
After learning that all the 3 million yuan was spent, it also attracted the suspicion of CCTV, so after the filming of "Journey to the West" was completed, CCTV sent investigators to the crew of "Journey to the West".
conducted a rigorous audit to investigate the specific whereabouts of the 3 million, but as the investigation progressed, the investigators indirectly saw the hardships of the entire filming process and couldn't help but cry.
As for the reason why CCTV came to investigate, it was also caused by the long shooting time, and it turned out that in order to restore the true degree of the eighty-one difficulties of learning scriptures from the west, it was necessary to go to different places for filming.
Due to the constant change of the story, the shooting scenes also need to follow the changes, in order to select more scenes, director Yang Jie decided to take the crew to all parts of the country to collect.
In this way, it takes a lot of time just on the road, so everywhere, whether it is a natural scenic spot or a scenic spot, there is a "Journey to the West" crew.
Many people also know about the filming of "Journey to the West", and this kind of life has lasted for several years, which naturally attracted great attention and caused a lot of rumors.
Many people reported that the crew of "Journey to the West" was filming, and they were clearly traveling around, and they also questioned the specific location of the 3 million funds.
With the reaction of more and more people, it naturally attracted the attention of CCTV, which led to the investigators' tears in their eyes during the investigation.
And what happened made the investigators have such a big reaction, it turned out that the investigators received the task at that time and quickly rushed to the crew.
However, as soon as I arrived at the crew, I was stunned on the spot, not only was it not as exaggerated as the audience described, but I even looked a little sad, it turned out that the actors of the crew were sitting there eating steamed buns and pickles together.
This kind of food is not even up to the normal level, and many people have to get up in a hurry to move on to the next shooting task before they finish eating.
At this time, the investigators briefly introduced their identities and the purpose of coming to the crew, and Director Yang Jie was also happy to accept the investigation, and the other staff continued to carry out various filming work.
Although they saw the scene of the meal just now, it was not the whole story, and the investigators decided to look at some other expenses.
Then he asked to check the relevant remuneration of the actors, but after checking and flipping through, it was found that the actors' salaries did not reach a sky-high price as reflected by the masses, on the contrary, some actors also got very low because of insufficient funds.
Seeing this, the investigators were even more curious about how the 3 million funds were spent, so they stayed in the crew, and the daily shooting of the entire team was spent.
After observation, the investigators found that the shooting was much more complicated and difficult than they imagined, whether it was props, actors' makeup, and scene layout, these were very expensive, and the funds were indeed spent in these places.
And in order to achieve better shooting results, the actors themselves and the director also need to save from themselves, so that the funds can be spent in more useful places, and the investigators also saw the determination and meticulous attitude of the entire crew in the process, and they couldn't help but cry.
From the whole process of filming to the broadcast of "Journey to the West", it can also be seen that in the past era, whether it was director Yang Jie or actors like Liu Xiaolingtong.
In today's era, there is not much spirit of creating art alone, so we must always learn from the spirit of these old artists in the past.