鸿文
张景卖掉房子用三年时间拍了纪录片《寻找手艺》,开始被多家电视台拒绝。他破釜沉舟上网免费展播,一夜之间红了起来,网友好评如潮。随后迎来了鹿晗加盟、央视签约、电影节评选入围等一连串好事。这个过山车般的“起死回生”历程,让张景感慨不已。
目前,第二部已筹备完毕。尤其鹿晗的加盟合作,让张景信心满满。张景表示仍将纪录片的内容价值、真实性和人性的温暖放在第一位,相比专业性和艺术性更重要。
张景是浙江一所高校96级摄影班的学生。在大二时,他骑行中国,发现原来中国其他地方也和自己家乡一样,有很多手艺,梦想毕业以后把这一切都记录下来,做一个成功的纪录片导演。
1999年毕业后离开学校,张景便来到了北京闯荡。2001年,曾到中央电视台《发现之旅》栏目任职。
此后在面临梦想和创业选择时,张景选择了后者。他从央视辞职自己创办了一家拍摄纪录片的文化公司。但拍纪录片方向在哪里?张景想起家乡湖南西部的一个山村,村里唯一需要购买的物资是盐,其他都能自给自足,村民就靠祖传的手艺挣钱买盐。但现在这些手艺很多行将消失,更不用说传给子女这一代了。
对!拍一部寻找中国传统手艺的纪录片,讓下一代能看到,中国不止现代城市文明,在逐渐被遗忘的传统文明里,还藏着另一个世界。
张景这个想法,对于一家国家媒体或者专业影视公司来说,要实现也不是那么容易,这需要一支熟练的专业团队、专业的摄影器材、周密的前期计划、雄厚的专项资金,更重要的是拍出来之后,要有充分的宣传渠道与播放平台以及回报盈利模式。这些缺一不可,否则就无法成功。
张景卖掉一套在燕郊的小房子,又通过亲戚朋友资助,再加上积蓄一共筹备了160多万元。他找了三个喜欢拍片的伙伴:司机何思庚、录音师喻攀、摄影师小蒋。就这样,2014年5月,张景带着这个草根团队出发了。从山西柳林孟门镇的桑皮纸,到甘肃景泰的羊皮筏子;从云南勐海县的纯手工天然原料油纸伞,到四川雅安的荥经砂;从安徽万安的手作罗盘,到安徽泾县的千年宣纸;从湖南荷香桥镇的杆秤,到新疆的英吉沙刀;从新疆和田的“神一样的乐器”巴拉曼,到西藏达孜的锻铜佛像……张景一行辗转23个省市,寻访到199位手艺人,记录了144项行将消失的传统手艺制作全过程,以及手艺人的情怀和背后的故事。
126天后,张景带着这些厚重且有温度的素材回了北京,开始进入后期制作。本来,张景以为3个月就可以完成,然而他没想到,最后这个过程从三个月变成了26个月,光改稿子就改了40多遍,后期配音达10多遍。历时近3年,终于完成了这部片长212分钟的纪录片。
与此同时,张景在豆瓣的个人主页、知乎的问题主页和话题专栏……都用带有个人头像的账号“张景的景”,记录了“三人行”的一些幕后故事,发布了长达18万字的手记。
文字朴实无华,大多像日记一般,记录了一路上的所见所闻,也偶有个人感慨。“现在心里很敞亮,在拍摄过程中,遇到了太多让我感动的人。比如用一整张铜皮手工打造出一尊佛像的锻铜人土旦,价值三四十万元一尊,他每年都会捐赠给贫穷的寺院;比如一辈子专心做油纸伞的坎温老人,他们告诉我赚钱并不是人生唯一的目标。”
通过寻访,张景的内心得到了净化。他情不自禁将自己的感受写在文案里:看到这些手艺人即使陷于没落的境地,也不会为了钱而放弃良心,他们始终坚守祖传手艺的规矩;他们对现状和这个国家没有任何抱怨,只默默地做着自己的事。
成片出来后,张景曾通过全国各地的校友引荐,把片子送到了一些电视台,但被拒绝了。前后花费160多万元拍的纪录片难道就这样全泡汤了,接下去的第二部怎么办?
张景的眼前晃动着被寻访手艺人的身影、他们的热情和忧伤的眼神。他突然醒悟了:自己拍摄的这部纪录片价值在哪里?不就是为了寻找、抢救行将消失的中国传统手艺,展现其历史文化价值,这才是这部纪录片最重要的价值所在。他决定破釜沉舟,是骡子是马,拉上网去遛遛。
张景以最真实最真诚的方式向网友展示拍摄的整个过程,包括背后的故事以及拍摄的个性化情绪等内容。与此同时,把这些本来发生在影片背后的故事,全然事无巨细地像讲故事一样告知了观众,既显得标新立异,又让人感觉毫无掩饰。所有这一切都与央视、BBC纪录片的严谨宏大的叙事背景和场面截然不同,与那些知名纪录片《舌尖上的中国》《地球脉动》《第三极》更是无法相比,后者哪一部没有庞大而专业的摄制团队?哪一部不是知名配音做解说?哪一部的解说文案不是辞藻华丽、立意高远?
但正是张景这种带有一种“随意性”的拍摄,拉近了与网友的距离,让人备感亲近真实。《寻找手艺》采用平民化视角,在手艺的寻找和制作过程中,可以看到意外、失落、惊喜等情绪,这种不期而遇的寻找,在细枝末节处向观众阐释全片的一个事实:寻找的不仅是手艺,更重要的是寻找手艺人,展现传统文化的价值。张景把片子分成五集,放在视频分享平台哔哩哔哩(下称 B 站)、豆瓣等人气较高、90后聚集的网站上。
反响出乎意料,满屏弹幕、疯狂打 CALL。B站一天一万多点击量,一周内点击破7万、弹幕达5万条,而豆瓣评分8.8,负面评价不足1%,很多人看完后又重看,并迅速转发。
《尋找手艺》迅速得到了众多自媒体的转发。张景发现了这么一个现象——喜欢这部片子的都是年轻人。有朋友将片子推荐给一个班主任老师,老师觉得很不错,拿到班上放,结果发现孩子们都很喜欢。他们说,通过片子真的看到了传统手艺的温暖。
这部纪录片迅速走红网络,成为一部点播量达到400多万次的网红纪录片,当下颇受年轻人欢迎的纪录片。随即,传统媒体电视台和北京青年报等主流媒体也开始追访张景,对他的事迹进行了报道。
上海电视台纪实频道找到张景,双方签约,11月1日《寻找手艺》正式开播。
2017年11月20日,鹿晗工作室通过微博找到张景,加盟《寻找手艺》进行合作。很快,点播量立马飙升到了3000多万。12月1日,央视科教频道与张景签约,将开播《寻找手艺》。
好事一件接着一件,中国电视艺术协会给予《寻找手艺》一等奖。该纪录片先后入围2017嘉峪关国际短片电影展、2017广州纪录片节、2017深圳青年影像节最佳纪录片等。北京市广电局向国家广电总局推荐,在广州纪录片节上,国家广电总局推荐该作品入围,导演张景作为指定嘉宾上台发言,畅谈拍摄纪录片《寻找手艺》感想,现场引起强烈反响。
《寻找手艺》火了之后,接连几个月,张景的生活都被见投资方、见合作方和见媒体等填满。这对张景来说是件好事,因为接下来他要拍第二部也正需要大量资金并继续扩大影响。
张景说,《寻找手艺》第二部正在筹备,启动资金已经自筹到位。团队还是原来的团队。因为通过这个片子,本来搞 IT 的何思庚彻底转行,进了摄像圈,什么时候开拍,他马上就位;本来在香格里拉做客栈的喻攀虽说继续做客栈,也时刻准备着下一次的寻找手艺之旅;还有小蒋已进了央视,有了一个更好的开始。拍摄的手法和思路还是延续第一部。
张景说,与高大上的纪录大片相比,自己就是要走另一条路,用接地气的平民视角,用尊重手艺人的仰视眼光来拍摄纪录,那是再真实不过了,寻找行将消失的手艺的历史价值,给予人性的温暖。正如他在11月24日的北京纪实影像周纪录片论坛上所说的,“对手艺人发自内心的自信和尊重,是《寻找手艺》成功的基石。”在创作过程中,用仰视的眼光看待每一位“偶像”一般的手艺人;在技法上,不说教、不唱高调、不做任何定义;在内容整合上,将对手艺人的敬仰和手艺人对自己的自信融入其中。
尤其鹿晗的加盟合作,让张景信心爆棚。2017年11月20日,鹿晗的“M 鹿 M”、“鹿晗工作室”等微博发动了名下4891万多粉丝参与,“寻找更多身边的手艺人,传递温暖,记录美好”“为《寻找手艺》第二部选题助力”成为“鹿晗愿望季”的主推活动。
张景很清楚,《寻找手艺》之所以能成为网红,成为90后00后喜爱的纪录片,主要原因在于这个片子有传统的温度,有对这个国家的情感。90后、00后身上前所未有的文化自信,与片子里拍出的这些流传许久的民间手艺带给手艺人心中的自信,产生了共鸣。
(本文照片由作者提供)
In 2017, Zhang Jings filmmaking career saw a booming takeoff after three years of hard work and numerous turndowns and dismissals from mainstream media. Right now he is a star documentary filmmaker in the national spotlight.
A graduate of Zhejiang Media Academy in 1999, Zhang went to Beijing for career development and opportunities upon graduation. He worked for a CCTV program for a few years before he resigned and set up his own filmmaking studio.
Zhang had long since wanted to make documentaries. In his college years, he once embarked upon a bike tour across the country. This experience planted a seed in his heart to document folk crafts. Part of the inspiration also came from his home village in the west of Hunan, a province in central China. In his childhood memory, the traditional life of the village was almost wholly self-sufficient. There were all kinds of craftsmen in the village. The only commodity the village needed from the outside world was salt. The villagers sold their handmade goods and bought salt. Such a life went on for centuries.
To raise funds for his first documentary project, he sold an apartment in Beijing. His friends and relatives also chipped in. He raised 1.6 million yuan. Three friends joined him: a driver, a sound recorder, and a cameraman. The driver was to move the team around and across the country. The three were to make the documentary.
In May 2014, the team set out to produce the documentary. In 126 days, they traveled through 23 provinces and municipalities, visited 199 craftsmen, and documented complete production procedures of 144 crafts that were vanishing.
About four months later, Zhang and his team came back to Beijing. Zhang had thought the postproduction period would take about three months. But it took much longer. In 26 months, he rewrote the screenplay over 40 times and did the voiceover and other voice tracks more than 10 times. The final documentary is over 212 minutes long.
While busying himself with the postproduction, Zhang did not forget to promote his first documentary on social media. He wrote and posted short essays and blogs about the three filmmakers efforts and interesting things that happened in their documentary filming journey across the country. Altogether, these texts added up to 180,000 words.
With the documentary ready, Zhang tried to find a mainstream media to present his work to the national audience. At first he tried his old-boy network. Many of his schoolmates were working in mainstream media including television studios. However, the documentary was turned down without exception.
He was not ready to accept the failure. He reorganized the documentary into five episodes and shared them at BiliBili, a website, extremely popular with the Millennials where videos are shared freely. He also shared the episodes at Douban, an online community whose film and television ranking system is looked up across the nation as an authoritative weather vane of the entertainment market.
The documentary went viral. It spread like wild fire. Many people shared it with their friends. Some recommended it to school teachers and teachers showed the documentary to their students. The phenomenal documentary at last caught the eye of some mainstream media. Interviews were published in newspapers and broadcast in television programs. Zhangs story was made known to the general public for the first time. The documentary channel of Shanghai Television gave him an offer. On November 1, was screened by Shanghai TV.
Zhangs career took an abrupt upward turn on November 20, 2017 when Lu Han, a star entertainer with a fanbase of 20 million, contacted Zhang Jing for further cooperation. If the documentary received over 4 million hits before the two studios signed a partnership, after the day, the hits skyrocketed to 30 million. On November 1, CCTV, the nations biggest television network, signed a contract with Zhang. His documentary was scheduled to be screened on Science and Education Channel.
The documentary was presented at various documentary festivals across the country toward the end of 2017. And investors have flooded in.
Zhang Jing is ready to start making a new documentary. The same team is ready. Zhang Jing knows why is so successful. The Millennials love watching documentaries. The first documentary he made highlights the tradition and the love for the nation, which the young born in the 1990s and in the 21st century embrace.