America 1987

Chapter 93 Duration

Producers generally keep the length of a movie to around two hours, which is based on some scientific evidence.

The average person can maintain a high level of concentration for about two hours. This is enough time to tell a story with a three-act structure without causing the audience to get tired quickly.

Of course, most importantly, a 2-hour film can be shown 6-7 times a day in a single theater, which can greatly improve the turnover efficiency of cinemas and bring higher box office revenue compared to feature films.

"It's not a question of whether I'm confident or not," David thought for a moment and explained, "but rather that our film has a very slow pace, and the best way to make the audience feel that it's worth the ticket price is to immerse them in the world of 'Dances with Wolves' as much as possible."

"So you're planning to edit a three-hour movie?"

"Yes, this length will at least give the audience a relatively full audiovisual experience."

David raised his glass and drew an analogy, saying, "When audiences watch movies, it's sometimes like when we drink alcohol; they're not necessarily looking for the taste of the drink, but rather..."

"Atmosphere, right?" Naomi gave this answer after a moment's thought.

"Bingo!" David snapped his fingers and clinked glasses with the other man's. "Congratulations, you got it right."

Whether a movie is good or not is sometimes determined not only by its story, but also by its audiovisual experience.

He watched Nolan's "Dunkirk" twice, once in the theater and once on streaming media, and the two viewing experiences were completely different.

The former, because Nolan used 70% of IMAX film for actual shooting, allows the big screen to fully present the details of the waves and fighter jets. Hans Zimmer's score can also directly convey the continuous tension to the audience through the theater's surround sound and vibrating seats. Therefore, when he watched it for the first time, he was able to fully immerse himself in the suffocating feeling of the battlefield, which was very enjoyable.

When I watched it on streaming media, it felt rather ordinary and lacked excitement; it wasn't as thrilling as "Wolf Warrior 2".

"But I think the story of 'Ghost' is quite good. Did you make this movie to change your image?"

"Transformation?" David paused for a moment, but quickly recovered and smiled, "You can understand it that way."

He doesn't think too much about making movies; he just makes whichever one comes to mind. There's no such thing as a career transition.

However, it seems that Nolan's "Dunkirk" does indeed represent a certain shift in direction.

Director Yu Yi (Nolan's nickname)'s early films were mostly high-concept films with strong settings. His works mostly relied on fictional science fiction/suspense settings such as amnesia, multiple dream layers, and time travel as the core selling points of the films.

Building on this foundation, the protagonist is given a strong personal obsession (such as revenge in Memento or guilt towards his deceased wife in Inception) as the core driving force. Popular themes of family and love are used to reduce the understanding threshold of complex narratives, allowing the audience to gain strong emotional resonance while solving the mystery.

This is also the main reason why his films are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful among ordinary audiences—using non-linear narratives and suspenseful settings to give the audience a sense of intellectual superiority while watching the film, and at the same time using popular themes to lower the viewing threshold and expand the film's audience as much as possible.

"But it's not just about transformation,"

David added, "Making a film in the style of a documentary easily earns academic praise."

"Don't they like works that are too dramatic?" Naomi asked curiously. "Is it because they're too contrived and not realistic enough?"

"No, as long as it's based on real life, the dramatic elements don't matter," David corrected the other person. "Completely fictional stories rarely gain mainstream acceptance."

David himself is quite in favor of the Oscar selection criteria, since stories that are adapted from reality tend to have a stronger sense of authenticity and logic than purely fictional ones.

However, when adapting and artistically processing real-life stories, one is often criticized for distorting history or glorifying or vilifying certain figures, especially when dealing with highly sensitive real-life topics, which can easily cause huge controversy.

The 20-year global box office champion, "The Eight Hundred," is a prime example.

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Putting aside all external factors, if we only look at the quality of the film itself, it is actually quite remarkable, especially in terms of its commercial success. Otherwise, it would not have been able to achieve such high box office returns at that particular time.

However, you can't completely ignore external factors when watching a movie, especially this kind of movie. Whenever a movie of this kind is released in the Eastern Continent, the level of discussion is bound to be high. It seems that only one movie, "Nanjing Photo Studio", can be both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.

The director first stirred up trouble in the publicity and distribution, which aroused dissatisfaction among many netizens, and the film accumulated negative public opinion before its official release.

In addition, he added a lot of his own personal touches to the movie—linking the achievements of Sihang Warehouse to the historical figure "Sun Paopao," making the whitewashing too deliberate and getting caught.

As for deliberately portraying the Hubei Security Regiment, which actually participated in the defense, as "weaklings" who were easily wiped out by a dozen Japanese cavalrymen, and portraying the citizens of Shanghai as apathetic onlookers, those are even more egregious.

While it could be explained as a consideration for the dramatic effect of the film, given that he made this kind of film, he's bound to be labeled as distorting true history and engaging in historical nihilism.

I wonder if Nolan considered this factor when he made Dunkirk, which is why the story was so bland and lacked the suspense and excitement of films like Inception and Interstellar.

"You mean, it's based on a true story?" Naomi asked. "But your 'Dances with Wolves' doesn't feature real people either?"

"Based on real life, but not necessarily adapted from true stories. As long as the events are real, that's fine; people can be fictional."

"Can events be fabricated?"

Naomi held a wine glass in one hand, resting it on her right knee. "The characters and events are all fictional. Are there any movies with this kind of realistic subject matter?"

"It's possible, but it's quite difficult."

David did not answer the other person's second question.

He had indeed seen some realistic films with fictional characters and events, but his film viewing experience was limited; most of the films he watched were set in the future, and the majority were domestically produced.

He became interested in watching "Xiao Wu," the film starring Qingdi and directed by Director Jia, after reading an entertainment novel; he watched "Dog Thirteen" because of its intriguing title and the fact that it had been shelved for five years.

"Directors can make reasonable fictions based on the logic of reality. As long as the details are real and the emotions are sincere, and the audience can resonate with reality, it meets the creative requirements of this subject matter."

"Hmm? Why did you stop talking?"

"I suspect you're doing this on purpose," David said irritably. "Did Nicole tell you?"

The two have returned to their hotel room.

Naomi sat casually in a wooden-framed armchair, her upper body upright, one elbow resting lightly on the armrest, the other hand resting naturally on the gauze skirt beside her leg, looking at him with a relaxed smile, her overall posture languid and relaxed.

"Did you practice your posture when you were a model?"

"I've practiced a little, but not much," Naomi said, not bothering to hide it when the other person pointed it out. Instead, she teased, "I thought of this last night. What do you think? How many points would you give me?"

David examined the pose closely and realized that it had indeed been carefully designed.