Apple released the New Year movie “A Nian”, this time is a thriller?
Apple's annual "New Year Movie" is here again.
But this year, the style of painting seems to be a little different- family, fantasy, suspense, and horror ?
This new year's short film is called "A Nian". Wang Ziyi is the director of the short film. Her work "Don't Tell Her" was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film last year. You can see from that movie. A unique perspective on Chinese family relations.
And "A Nian" also tells a story about a little girl and her family around the Chinese New Year animal.
A fantasy movie about the new "year"
A Nian is a mythical monster in the film: Nian Beast.
In Chinese folklore, Nian Beast is also called "Xi". At midnight at the end of the year, the Nian Beast will attack the village and slaughter the children, so the family starts to set off firecrackers and stick red couplets. The candles are bright in every household and keep watch for the new year, just to scare away the Nian beast and dispel demons. The term "New Year" and "New Year's Eve" also came from this.
I believe that when we were young, everyone had heard about the Nian Beast. Back then, our parents always pretended to scare us:
Nian Beast is coming to catch the child, go and set off firecrackers!
The parents in the film also wanted to protect their child A Ting, fearing that she would encounter danger in the mountains, and they also told the story of the young beast eating the child in the mountain.
Before Nian Beast reveals his full face, the film has been in a state of suspense and horror. For example, Nian Beast’s sharp claws faintly protrude from behind the girl, and Nian Beast’s roar suddenly appears in the dark cave…
When it did appear, it looked almost as expected: huge and ferocious, with long horns, eyes like bronze bells, and blue-faced fangs.
However, its heart is very pure-don't want to eat children, just want to eat rice cakes.
The little girl handed rice cakes. Later, she and Nian Beast became mysterious mountain friends, and they also played and grew up with Nian Beast from childhood.
It is not easy to take a good picture of the traditional stories deep in the Chinese people's memory, but Wang Ziyi chose to create a new way to completely subvert the image of Nian Beast .
Behind the Nian Beast, what alluded to was the fear of the unknown in the hearts of the previous generation and the worry about their children going out, but in reality, the reality may be an adventure, full of infinite new possibilities.
When the film reached its climax, on New Year's Eve, firecrackers exploded in the village and fireworks filled the sky.
Ating came to the village with the courageous A-Nian, but in the end, A-Nian was frightened by the sound of firecrackers and turned around and fled.
At this point, the iPhone's night scene shooting capabilities have also begun to bombard output, from shooting people, shooting scenes, to tracking anti-shake, and various dark details.
Although A Ting was finally taken home by her parents and separated after receiving a family education, the parents gradually understood their daughter's thoughts during the conversation with each other:
If we are afraid to do nothing, we will miss the unexpected in life.
When the last three members of the film went up the mountain together and smiled and knocked on the lunch box containing the rice cake to greet the Nian Beast, they also reached a reconciliation at this moment.
After watching this year’s film, it seems that it is not as touching and warm as Apple’s previous New Year short films. The most direct impression is that it is a little interesting.
To expand, it is a little fresh, a little interesting, and a little special.
The reason for this perception is not only the theme, fantasy style, and reversal content of the Nian Beast, but also the many perspectives, light and dark scenes, and interesting gameplay shot by the iPhone.
Of course, this is also after watching the behind-the-scenes analysis of the film, only to discover that the mobile phone can still "play" so many tricks.
How to "play movies" with iPhone 12 Pro Max?
Last year, Apple’s New Year short film was only shot on the iPhone, giving up any "plug-ins."
The same is true this year. Most of the scenes are bare metal with a mobile phone stabilizer, just start shooting, for ordinary users, this is almost equivalent to no threshold.
The variety of pictures in the movie comes from the shooting skills behind it.
For example, if you put your phone in a pool, the screen will start to overflow with waves;
Putting the mobile phone in the mouth of the Nian Beast makes the viewer feel like being in it;
Fix the mobile phone on the chopsticks, as if you are holding the chopsticks to summon the Nian Beast;
Tie a mobile phone to the waist of the Nian Beast and run, which can create a sense of panic when the Nian Beast escapes;
Putting the hand frame on the rim of the wheelchair, pushing the wheelchair, the girl and the young animal are rolling in the grass and looking at each other.
These creative shooting methods all reflect the flexibility of mobile photography.
Wang Ziyi is also experiencing the joy of getting rid of large traditional cameras-as long as you find a new place where you can put your phone, you can get a new perspective of shooting.
This can also encourage more ordinary people to take up their mobile phones to make movies and make more movies that do not take the usual path.
In addition, this short film, as a masterpiece of iPhone 12 Pro Max showing muscles, will naturally not let go of its main "photographic power."
iPhone 12 Pro Max For ordinary users, the most intuitive experience may be the power of night photography .
Compared with previous generations of iPhone, the shooting of the new machine in low light is significantly brighter, clearer and more stable. Therefore, almost half of the scenes in "A Nian" were shot at night or in dim light, and the light came from the real light source.
At the same time, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is also the first mobile phone in the history of the iPhone that can use Dolby Vision to shoot. It makes short films more stable and more textured in color, light and shadow, and dynamic range, which is what we often say "Film Texture."
A more realistic sense of substitution will also make the audience more immersed.
That's why the director released a variety of light and shadow scenes in the movie, including the dim light of the Nianju Cave, the lights of the late night room, the fireworks blooming in the sky, and the forests covered with different colors under different fireworks.
In addition, compared with before, this New Year short film also has a lot of chasing and slapstick scenes, and it also uses a coherent long lens to shoot, showing the anti-shake ability of the new iPhone on the side.
Of course, if there is no famous guide and an international professional team behind it, for ordinary people, the final result of making movies with iPhone may still be——
Knowing a lot of truth, but still not good at making a film.
But at least, we can already have more and more confidence in recording life movies at any time.
If you have more interesting ideas, this matter may not be so difficult. As Wang Ziyi said:
Don't think too much, shoot what you think.
Mobile phone manufacturers also grab the "Spring Festival", but the most important thing is still the story
It is not uncommon for mobile phone manufacturers to make short movies.
The first domestic manufacturer to make movies with mobile phones is probably HTC. In 2012, they shot the prequel short film of "Chill": "The Only Choice".
HTC mobile phones not only made movie props, but also made movie shooting tools.
After the launch of the Mate30 series, Huawei launched the "Future Image Project" and launched a series of high-quality short films. In 2019, it also co-organized the "New Image · Mobile Video" unit with the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival.
Vivo is also unwilling to set up the "Ultra Short Film Unit Exhibition" for the first time in 2020 and the FIRST Youth Film Festival.
Mobile phone manufacturers have entered the ranks of short films, but the taste of commercial marketing is inevitable.
Naturally, they will not let go of the Spring Festival, a festival that involves the love, hatred and distress of all Chinese people .
So OPPO this week released the Spring Festival blockbuster "2021 with sugar and ice" shot with OPPO mobile phones. OnePlus only released the Spring Festival short film "Thirty Years Later I Miss You". Song Jia and Niu Chao talked about a futuristic science fiction in it. Family story, this is also the first time that OnePlus has released a Spring Festival short film.
The crowds are competing and diverse.
Whether from the perspective of brand communication or product marketing, the "Spring Festival" is a boost period that mobile phone manufacturers should not miss.
So Apple has persisted in this tradition for four consecutive years.
As early as 2018, Apple started shooting New Year's "New Year's Movies" with iPhone.
Back then, when the "Three Minutes" directed by Chen Kexin was released, the screen started to be swiped . It tells the story of a conductor's mother who had to be on duty on the train during the Chinese New Year, and could not go home with her son for the New Year, and could only get together with her three minutes after the train stopped. .
Departure and arrival, family responsibilities and personal eagerness, in just three minutes, outlined a picture of family separation and reunion that was constantly staged during the Spring Festival.
The year before last, director Jia Zhangke's "A Bucket" told the story of a young man who worked hard in the city returning for the Spring Festival. His mother filled a bucket of fine sand with her own eggs.
The most common daily concern, but when away from home, becomes particularly touching.
Last year, Apple's New Year short film was called "Daughter" , which was filmed by Oscar-nominated film director Theodore Melfi and starred in Chinese-language actress Zhou Xun, which also set off a hot spread.
A single mother driving a taxi had been separated from her mother for many years, and finally met her mother in a taxi during the Spring Festival. When Zhou Xun said the phrase "Mom, I'm hungry" in the car, we knew that home is not a fixed house. As long as the family is together, the taxi is also a home.
It can be found that the Spring Festival short films that have been spread more in the circle of friends in recent years are not about their shooting skills, how rich the shooting funds, and how advanced mobile phones are used.
Externally, they are all auxiliary, but the core is still: do they tell a good story .
The plot is solid, the content is touching, and the resonance is inspiring, and it is the most able to cause the screen on the special date of the Spring Festival.
"What is Page" is the best example of a successful advertisement for the Spring Festival.
At that time, it didn't matter what Page was, the time had come, the story was stable, and the emotions came.
When the parents’ voice on the phone rang, "When are you going home for the New Year?", when you got on the high-speed rail and airplane carrying a big box, the scene of setting off firecrackers, lighting fireworks, and sending congratulations from door to door began to appear——
All the stories about home make people miss everything in an instant.
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