The 2022 program is led by director and casting director Stéphane Batut, director of photography Philippe Bottiglione, production and visual effects director Christian Rajaud, and international film planner and producer Liu Ying (LIU Ying). The French tutor group offline training camp for the top-notch postgraduate talents experimental class will conduct joint practical teaching at our school’s Haidian campus from June 1 to June 5, 2023.
Figure 1 : Group photo of teachers and students at the French tutoring group offline training camp
Figure 2 : Preparation before shooting
The overall design idea of this workshop is “Experience progress in adaptation and imitation shooting”: within five days, the French tutor group learned from the various functions of short film production such as directing, dramatization, photography, performance, production, art, and post-production. The direction focused on leading the students to conduct a coherent full-process short film creation exercise, and gave students film shooting demonstrations in the real-life creation of imitation shooting, helping students from different majors to supplement and accumulate different film shooting and production skills from all aspects of film creation. experience.
Figure 3 : Group photo at the opening ceremony
On the morning of June 2, Qian Jun, Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Film Academy, Zhi Hongwei, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Sun Lijun, Vice President, and Wang Haizhou, Dean of the Graduate School, visited the opening ceremony. Secretary Qian Jun thanked the French film industry expert group for coming to our school to teach. He hoped that the two sides would have more in-depth cooperation in cultivating film professionals in the future, and wished this offline training camp a smooth success.
Figure 4 : Training videos: “About Us”, “Marriage Story”
The on-site shooting on June 2nd and June 3rd is the most important teaching part of this training camp. The tutor group selected classic clips from the French movies “About Us” and “Marriage Story” as models for imitation filming. At the same time, they led the students to take the initiative and adapted the script to a certain extent based on the on-site conditions. For example, in the film “About Us”, the original rivalry between father and daughter was changed to a rivalry between mother, daughter and sisters. The change made the characters closer to the age and campus life of the actors, making it easier to promote on-site creation efficiently.
Figure 5 : Vice President Sun Lijun communicates with Philippe Bottiglione , instructor of the photography team
The two-day shooting day was divided into four sections, morning and afternoon, which were divided into directing team, actor team, photography team, production team, art team, and the film crew composed of these combinations. Photography practice. In this offline training camp, the director group is divided into director, executive director, scene recorder, second assistant director and third assistant director. During on-site shooting, the director team is not only responsible for creation, but also takes into account the coordination of various departments on site to a certain extent. During on-site shooting, each assistant director performs his or her own duties, allowing the director to more freely control creation, which may be a more efficient execution method.
Figure 6 : Shooting practice highlights
Director Chen Jialuo served as the director of the morning group on June 2. Regarding how to guide actors in multi-lingual situations, the French instructor replied, “In the early homework, the director is already very familiar with the script, so even if he cannot fully understand the actor’s lines, it does not hinder him.” Emotional perception. During rehearsals and filming, we pay more attention to the actor’s state and emotional mobilization. Even if the performance rhythm may not be as good as normal due to language differences during filming, the common emotions in the performance can still be felt by the creators.”
On the afternoon of June 2, Han Liang, director of the directing team, served as the director. He said, “The teacher explained that the French crew and directing team have heavier responsibilities and a wider scope of work. The script should record the rise and fall of each line with a camera to ensure that the scene is picked up and edited. Point. The most important thing in shooting is the actor’s performance, and editing is also about editing the performance. In addition, if the movement of the camera affects the audience’s attention, it is disturbing the audience.”
Figure 7 : Shooting practice footage
“Hectic and busy” and “interesting” are the adjectives of the director team Ke Zhijie on the morning of June 3rd. “Several French tutors were very serious and responsible. They came into the group with us in advance to arrange the arrangements, and also chose a more suitable classroom according to local conditions. As a shooting location. Although there are only three shots, the instructors have a clear shot scheduling design, and I am deeply impressed by their ability to capture the character’s state and coordinate their movements. Everyone on the scene performed their duties, and although there were minor situations, everything was always There will be solutions. I also benefited a lot from the mentor’s emphasis on group collaboration and various work details.”
The afternoon show on June 3 was still shot outdoors in the bright weather. The director team He Yintianxiao adapted the character settings based on the characteristics of the actors to find more reasonable motivations for the characters’ dialogue. He said in the director’s explanation: “ This is a play about the relationship between sisters. The two people still have a close relationship, but they hide something from each other. In the play, the sister first breaks the window paper and proposes a plan to move away, and after a fierce but honest argument , the sisters get back together. I hope to unfold the story relatively objectively from the sister’s point of view before the sister proposes the plan. Then I switch the point of view to the sister through a long lens, trying to capture her external reaction and reaction to this. Psychological state, thereby constructing a dynamic proactive changing relationship, and making a long dialogue scene as rich and interesting as possible through scheduling.”
Figure 8 : Highlights of editing practice
Figure 9 : Highlights of editing practice
The cooperation between the director and the editor is often related to the final effect of the film. On June 4th, the intense and orderly shooting practice ended, and the training camp entered the post-production stage. After the editor makes a rough cut, the instructor guides the students to make a fine cut together. The French instructor led the students to find the most suitable one from different materials - the actor’s performance, the rhythm of the screen movement and whether the sound is connected to the scene are all factors that need to be considered. The rhythm between the front and back shots, the repetition of shots and lines, and the lengthy lines in the performance can all be discarded.
But editing is not a puppet show. Experienced editors will provide unique opinions and insights based on the director’s requirements.
Figure 10 : Screening and on-site Q&A
On the morning of June 5, the training camp screened the edited film in Lecture Hall C-423, Haidian Campus, and conducted exchanges and summaries around the training camp:
Stéphane Batut, instructor of the directing team, summarized the work content of the training camp, praised the students who actively participated in the production, directing, photography, art, actors and other working groups, and shared his experience in the early preparation, mid-term shooting and post-production of the film in France. Valuable experience in making.
Christian Rajaud, the mentor of the production team, emphasized in his summary that producers are very important in film creation, whether it is an author’s film or a commercial film. However, there are still some differences in the position of the producer in various countries. The United States is a producer-centered system, China is a director-centered system, and France is somewhere in between, with the status of the producer and director being equally important.
Figure 11 : Screening and on-site Q&A
In addition, two creative clips from the French film “Married Life” by François Truffaut and “About Us” by Maurice Pialat are specially designed to be screened in the summary of the camp. After the students collectively practiced the creation, they watched and compared the original works. They were filled with emotions and deep impressions, thus forming a unique experience in film creation and practical exercises.
Figure 12 : Research and recruitment site
In the afternoon of that day, the French tutor group offline training camp teaching seminar and French tutor appointment ceremony of the Top Talent Experimental Class were held in the K417 conference room of the Graduate School. Sun Lijun, deputy dean of the Beijing Film Academy, Wang Haizhou, dean of the graduate school, a group of French tutors, teachers from the graduate school and top-notch classes discussed “how to discover talents through creative support and how to integrate talent training with international standards” and “how to integrate film education resources in universities “Feasible ways to integrate with the practical field” were fully communicated and discussed. Vice President Sun Lijun said that inviting French tutors to conduct offline shooting training camps for our school’s graduate students is a new attempt to practice the training model. In the future, he hopes to create various learning platforms for outstanding students in top-notch classes and assist students in creating more Excellent work expressing the times.
At the meeting, the French tutor group gave excellent comments on the seriousness of the students in the top class. They pointed out that the biggest purpose of the training camp is to provide students with an opportunity to conduct real-life shooting exercises to discover various problems, so as to help them create new works in the future. Avoid it in time. Liu Ying, an international film planner and producer, also said that the overall creative talents of the top class students are surprising, and she hopes to continue in-depth exchanges and cooperation in the future and help students take their works to a broader international stage.
The Experimental Class for Top-notch Postgraduate Talents is a special training program launched by our school for current postgraduate students. It aims to build a broad platform, gather teachers from inside and outside the school to jointly teach, and take enriching shooting practice as the teaching orientation. Based on the valuable teaching experience in talent cultivation of the top graduate classes of 2019 and 2021, the top class of 2022 focuses on expanding international teaching resources. This offline training camp for the French tutor group is the key international teacher practical teaching project this semester. After the camp is closed, the French tutors will continue to communicate with the experimental class team, providing a valuable international perspective for more efficient operation of the graduate top-notch class talent training experimental teaching project in the future.
Copywriter: Zhang Xuechen, Song Yifei
Pictures: Yin Qiying, Wang Yanyu, Xu Xu, Zhang Yuan, Chen Lin
Video: Liu Xinyao
Editors: Gao Mengqiong, Zhang Miao
Reviewer: Wang Haizhou
