Wang Guizhi

Chinese name: Wang Guizhi

Nationality: Chinese

Ethnicity: Han

Birthplace: Shanxi Pingding County, Province

Date of birth: 1921

Occupation: Film studio artist

Representative works: "Universal Front", "Jade Bracelet Pickup" ’s art design

Character profile

Wang Guizhi, an artist at Changchun Film Studio, was born in Pingding County, Shanxi Province in 1921. He has been passionate about painting since he was a child. When he was studying in the Primary School Affiliated to Taiyuan No. 1 Normal University, he often painted portraits of classmates and illustrations for wall posters. After entering junior high school and being admitted to Taiyuan Normal School, I became more interested in painting and often participated in art exhibitions in Taiyuan City. His artistic talent was valued and helped by Mr. Zhao Songchi, an art teacher and traditional Chinese painter at the normal school. Due to the heavy family burden, he did not finish normal school, so he worked as an art teacher at Taiyuan Women's Normal School. At that time, Taiyuan fell into the hands of the Japanese invaders. Filled with grief and indignation, he once led his students to sketch in front of the deserted and ruined ancient city tower at Shuiximen in Taiyuan, educating them to remember the hatred of the country and their family, and stimulating their patriotic enthusiasm.

After the Japanese surrender, he was admitted to the Oil Painting Department of the National Beiping Art College sponsored by Mr. Xu Beihong in the summer of 1946. At that time, there was a long stretch of railway from Shanxi to Peiping that was not accessible. In order to study, he carried his luggage and walked for three months to Peiping. Mr. Xu Beihong was deeply moved and encouraged him to study hard. In school, he received relatively strict art education and guidance from famous painters, and systematically studied painting theory, laying the foundation for future work.

After the liberation of the country, the Art College was changed to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Together with his classmates, he went to the Northeast factories to get a deeper understanding of life, and went to rural areas in the southern suburbs of Beijing to participate in land reform work. He had extensive contact with the workers and peasants, which made him open-minded and made rapid progress.

In 1950, when he was about to graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts, his parents moved their family to Beijing. In order to solve the difficulties in family life, he wanted to use the holidays to find a temporary job, and then return to the Academy of Fine Arts to take the graduation exam after school started. Introduced by Wang Chaowen, the provost of the Academy of Fine Arts, he went to the Beijing Film Studio to participate in the art design work of two films, "Heroes of Luliang" and "The Legend of New Sons and Daughters of Heroes". After the Academy of Fine Arts started, he was left at Beijing Film Academy due to work needs.

In 1952, under the guidance of artist Qin Wei, he participated in the art design work of "Taking Huashan by Wisdom". He and other main creative staff followed in the footsteps of the "Seven Warriors of Huashan" and took great risks to climb the highest peak of Mount Huashan. They personally experienced and felt the mythical and thrilling road, thereby enriching their artistic conception and relatively successfully Completed thrilling and romantic set designs such as "Overpass" and "Tiger's Mouth".

In 1953, he was transferred to Changchun Film Studio as an artist, and worked on "Cosmic Frontier" (1954), "Jade Bracelet Picking Up" (1954), "Dawn of the River" "(1955), "Plain Guerrilla" (1955), "Eagle in the Storm" (1957), "Silent Forest" (1957), "The Shepherd's Son" (1957), "Women's Society" "Long" (1958), "Nothing is Difficult in the World" (1958), "Changing the World" (1959), "Swan Goose" (1960), "Pan Yang's Lawsuit" (1960), "The Case of Mei Mei" (1964), "Three Entering the Mountain City" (1965, co-operated with Sun Shixiang), "Chasing the Report" (1977, co-operated with Gao Tinglun), "The Gunshots of the Secret Bureau" (1979), "Love and Hate the Sea" " (1980), "Xi Shi's Tears" (1982) and art design work for some opera art information films.

Art career

Accurate, distinct, typical, concise, integrated with the film's own style, and rich in artistic imagination - this is the characteristic of Wang Guizhi's art design.

In his art design work, he pays attention to and emphasizes artistic feeling, artistic imagination, artistic expression and character characteristics in character modeling. He uses film art methods to fully render specific typical environments and highlight themes and characters.

For example, when he designed the "Psychological Testing Room" scene in "Silent Forest", he used the principles of electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms and other scientific instruments based on specific plots and psychological effects, plus imagination to design some bizarre instruments. Instruments are densely packed in a strange-shaped room, with various flickering lights and indicators installed in all directions, mixed with various bizarre lights and shadows and weird sounds, creating an eerie and creepy atmosphere. , which better brings out the bravery and heroism of our scouts.

He pays attention to using scenes to express emotions, creating an environment and atmosphere that blends scenes, and pays attention to the finishing touch of some small details. When he designed the mine environment after the gas explosion in "The Change of World", he deliberately added details of water droplets falling from the top of the pit next to the dying miners, so that the intermittent dripping of water intertwined and merged with the miners' faint gasps. Together, it highlighted the tragic fate of the miners before liberation and caused a strong resonance in the audience.

He is also good at seizing the things that best express the characteristics of the era and environment, making the set design accurate, concise, focused and distinctive. When he was the art designer of "Gunshots from the Security Bureau", he designed a set of Nanjing Road in Shanghai in the 1940s in the studio. He uses a large number of colorful neon lights, various posters and trademarks, Chinese and foreign product advertisements and movie posters that represent the characteristics of the era and the region, etc. to express the environmental characteristics of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial old Shanghai in the 1940s, allowing the audience to understand the film's historical background at a glance. See clearly.

Professional Qualities

He always makes a film only after he is completely familiar with the content of the script, fully grasps the director's artistic conception and vision, and has comprehensively considered the art work of the entire film. Started doing art design. Therefore, he is often able to come up with solutions that are faster, cheaper and more cost-effective. When filming "Dawn of the Meng River", according to the content of the film, it was necessary to set up the Badang Mountain scenery. After repeatedly studying the script, he built the eight scenes into one scene and shot from different heights and angles. He also achieved the effect of the eight scenes, saved the cost of setting up the scene, and shortened the production cycle. When filming "Guerrillas of the Plains", since the tunnels in the real scene could not be filmed, he proposed a plan to set up outdoor scenes. After reasonable design and clever arrangement, using adobe as raw material, a "Lizhuang" scene was built in the long cinema, so that more than 250 shots in the film, including tunnel battles, street battles, explosions and other scenes, are all in This situation was solved, and the production cycle was shortened by nearly three months.

Wang Guizhi has a serious attitude towards work. Every time he receives a task, he always collects and studies a large amount of information without missing any details. When designing the urban environment of Taipei in "Love and Hate the Sea", he also tried every means to collect accurate information about street phone booths, postal booths, watchtowers, the styles and numbers of various car license plates, and the content of movie and drama posters, etc. Proper handling.

Personal Habits

He has also formed a habit: no matter what design he designs, he must always go to the site to see it in person. The more dangerous and difficult the environment is, the more he has to find a way to see it. He believes that only in this way can falseness and speciousness in design be avoided. When filming "Dawn on the Meng River", in order to accurately design the clothing and utensils of the Tibetan chieftains, he walked from the Triangle Dam in Sichuan, over the snowy mountains, for three days and three nights, to the Maerkang area at the junction of Sichuan and Tibet to borrow some Toast clothing and utensils. While filming "Changing Worlds", he went to an abandoned mine called "The Hall of Hell" in Fushun Coal Mine for on-the-spot observation. This mine, where the bones of countless miners were buried before liberation, has been strictly prohibited for anyone to enter after liberation. But he risked his life and got inside. I saw sewage water up to my waist, the pit pillars were rotten and crooked, the boulders on the top of the pit had big cracks and could fall down at any time, and the air was filled with carbon monoxide. Forgetting the danger, he made dozens of sketches inside. Relying on such living materials, he designed an extremely realistic "Hall of Hell" environment for the film.

Wang Guizhi likes thrilling and lyrical films, as well as films with historical and mythological themes.

He believes that China has thousands of years of civilized history and splendid cultural and artistic treasures, so historical-themed films provide a vast world for film and art workers; there are a large number of beautiful folklore and myths from various ethnic groups and regions in China. Films with this type of theme can give full play to the imagination and creativity of film art workers, opening up endless worlds of exploration for film art workers. He hopes to complete the art design work for several historical and mythological films in the coming days.