象山農民的電影夢

“我要讀書，我要上大學；我要讀書，我要上大學……”屏幕上，一個身著白襯衣的姑娘跟在媽媽的身后，一直喃喃自語。

這是電影《荷花庵》的開場一幕。2011年11月2日，象山農民章承祖拍攝的電影《荷花庵》剪輯完畢，首次閉門“公映”。

1小時12分鐘的時長里，屏幕上出現一個個畫面：好勝的農村女孩董芳，父親早逝，家境貧困，一心考大學卻落榜，精神嚴重受打擊。母親讓女兒寄住在荷花庵靜養，荷花庵附近有個采藥郎林可珂，初中畢業卻志向高遠，自學中醫中藥知識，把董芳身和心的病都治好了——結局是大團圓。

劇情似乎并沒有什么懸念，章承祖一直微笑著欣賞成果，直到片尾慢慢滾動出一串長長的名單，他的眼眶開始泛紅了。

“寧波火車南站賣地圖的鄭愛云——4萬元；寧波某醫院退休職工管云芬——2萬元；齊齊哈爾某地村民金立梅——3000元……”

“這些都是我的‘投資人’，沒有他們，也就沒有這部電影。”章承祖顯然有些激動。

故事的“入口”，就在這里。

夢想一部公映的電影

章承祖出生在象山大徐鎮一個普通農民家里，他接過父輩的“鋤頭”，本來一輩子就這樣平淡無奇了。

不過，“好事兒”的他，在家務農時，竟萌生了自己寫小說的念頭。1992年至2003年期間，他一共寫了五六個小說本子，《荷花庵》是其中之一。

2006年，象山縣城的一件大事徹底改變了這個僅有初中文化農民的命運。當年，象山影視城迎來了第一個劇組——黃曉明版《神雕俠侶》劇組，劇組在當地廣招群眾演員，一天給幾十元報酬，章承祖有點心動了。

“用現在時髦的話講，那是我第一次‘觸電’，演店小二，一閃而過的那種。”即便如此，電影這種新鮮玩意還是在章承祖的心里扎了根：為什么不把小說改成電影劇本呢？這一大膽的念頭，便衍生出現在的《荷花庵》劇本。

章承祖說，劇本靈感來源于自己年少時的一段美好而懵懂的回憶。“荷花庵在象山確有出處，很多年前我去荷花庵時，就碰到過兩個年紀輕輕、相貌清秀的出家人。我很疑惑，他們為什么要出家？背后是不是有什么故事？后來我再慢慢地吸納當時的一些社會背景，根據自己的想象添加進了一個男主角，把這段愛情故事豐富起來，這才有了現在完整的劇本。”

章承祖把《荷花庵》的劇本給身邊不少人看過，大家都覺得故事不錯。他暗自下決心，要把這拍成電影。

“那時就是一門心思，也不管自己行不行。”章承祖說，為了更快地上手，每次一有劇組來影視城，他總是搶著去當群眾演員。“在周星馳的《長江七號》里，我也露過臉呢，就想學學人家是怎么拍電影的。”

2009年6月，在一家影視公司的幫助下，章承祖的《荷花庵》正式拿到了國家“攝制電影許可證”。章承祖想，拿到許可證就能找到企業家投資，拍攝完成以后，他還要申請公映，把電影搬進影院。

然而，有人告訴他，一部電影從創作到最后上映要翻過三座“大山”：第一座“大山”，是劇本審查立項；第二座，是找到資金投入拍攝；第三座則是發行公映。當光影的夢想一步步投射到這個普通農民的現實生活時，章承祖發現，困難才剛剛開始。

擺地攤老人成“大股東”

寧波火車南站還沒拆建時，70多歲的鄭愛云每天風雨無阻地在門口賣地圖。有時候，她的攤位上還會擺上些報紙和雜志，這樣一天下來，也就賺個幾十元生活費。

誰曾想到，就是這樣一個艱苦過活的老阿婆，竟然是《荷花庵》最大的“投資人”。

在章承祖原先的設想中，為電影《荷花庵》找投資方不會太難。“這個劇本格局很小，所需的資金不多，大概50萬元就夠了。寧波老板這么多，少買一輛車或許就夠我拍成這部電影了。”

但事實卻遠遠不像章承祖想的那樣簡單。拿到“許可證”快兩年了，章承祖始終沒有找到投資人。

“對你的執著和夢想，我們很佩服，資助你一點錢沒問題。但是要投資的話，這錢賺得回來嗎？”這是很多人拋給章承祖的一句話。他找了很多企業、影視公司，甚至也跟一些導演接觸過。他們對劇本很感興趣，但是最終到落實投資階段，全都打了退堂鼓。

“一個農民，從來沒有搞過影視，能拍好電影嗎？”一個巨大的問號，橫亙在章承祖的面前。從劇本立項到審查公映，有兩年的有效期，過了這段時間，“許可證”就要失效了。

章承祖逐夢電影遇阻的消息不脛而走，很多人伸出了溫暖的手。賣地圖的鄭愛云阿婆，送來了辛苦攢下的4萬元；寧波某醫院退休職工管云芬，拿出了2萬元，她曾是章承祖在寧波打工期間的鄰居；還有遠在千里之外的齊齊哈爾人金立梅等等。

于是，這部電影有了11位平民百姓“投資人”。

“這些給我投資的人，自己都不富裕，尤其鄭阿婆的錢，我實在不忍心用。”章承祖最后只收了5000元，把剩下的35000元還給了她。熱心人的捐助，加上又向自己的親戚借了一些，章承祖終于募集到了8萬元資金。

打工仔搭起的“草臺班”

8萬元，能拍成電影嗎？

“拍一部成本最低的電影，最少需要三四十萬，即便我們學校有這么多專業設備和制作班底，也未必能把成本壓到8萬元。”這是浙江工商職業技術學院影視動畫專業老師的專業意見。不過，章承祖不認輸。

“沒錢請演員，就咱村民自己演，導演、場記……凡是能干的活，我都自己來。”在章承祖的劇組里，大部分演員都是主動請纓并經過章承祖挑選的志愿者。演男主角的，是在寧波打工的湖南小伙子宋利，演女主角的，則是安徽籍外來工董林琳。章承祖掰著手指算算，整個劇組里，只有攝影師沈建明有拍攝經驗，11名演員都是首次“觸電”，有時候一個場面要NG個上百次，不過每個人都很刻苦認真。

那段時間，在鄞州五龍潭風景區內總能看到這樣的畫面：一臺簡易陳舊的DV錄影機前，一群“草臺班子”認真地演繹著每一幕劇情。DV機的后面，三五個人目不轉睛地看著只有手機大小的顯示屏，不時交頭耳語……

沒有收音器，為了不出現雜音，用一根竹竿連著話筒來收音。沒有搖臂，要拍攝長鏡頭，用幾根木棍拼接，中間加個滑輪來模擬搖臂效果。雖然設備條件簡陋，但大家都想方設法克服困難，盡量拍攝到最好效果。“因為資金有限，演員和不少劇組成員都是義務參加拍攝，我能為他們提供的，只有拍攝期間的食宿。”章承祖有些內疚地說。

電影后期制作交給了浙江工商職業技術學院“169影視工作室”，這算是電影里唯一的專業“操刀手”。工作室共12個學生，以3個學生為骨干，對影片進行后期制作，配音、剪輯、校色等整整花了一個多月時間。

“他們是用陳舊的小高清機拍的，現在很多新出的數碼相機的錄影的畫面都比這要好，這對后期制作要求很高。”“169影視工作室”的負責人徐健民老師感動于章承祖的堅持，決定免費幫他實現這個“電影夢”。

章承祖充滿期待。目前，電影《荷花庵》正在進行最后的配音完善和轉換格式。

拍攝條件雖然簡陋，但場記卻一絲不茍。

Though the set is simple and crude， artists work hard and seriously.

演職人員在看DV錄影機中已拍的鏡頭。

The crew and actors play back the footage on a digital camera they just created.

拍戲之余，章承祖吹起了樹葉哨。

Zhang Chengzu plays a leaf as the flute during a break.

演員正在揣摩劇本中的情節。 Actors study the script.

《荷花庵》正在拍攝中。

The filming of Lotus Temple is under way.

A Villager’s Filmmaking Dream Comes True

By Chen Guangshu， Ding Hua

Zhang Chengzu looks ordinary， just like his fellow residents in Daxu， a rural town in Xiangshan， a county in the seaboard of Zhejiang Province. Yet he is different from his fellows. He dreamed of making a film of his own for years and now he has made a feature film. He is waiting for the completion of the final touches to the film and a government license to screen it to the public.

Before he dreamed of making a film， he wrote five stories from 1992 to 2003. The stories would have stayed in a drawer forever if he had not been employed as an extra in a big-investment television series at a filmmaking location in Xiangshan in 2006. The opportunity enabled him to earn some money and see for the first time in his life how people filmed a drama. This eye-opening experience changed his life forever.

He wondered whether one of his stories could be filmed too. The idea fascinated him. He chose a story， turned it into a script and called it “Lotus Monastery.” The inspiration was based in his boyhood-year memory. He ran into two young monks when he was visiting a monastery in Xiangshan. The boy wondered why the two had chosen to be monks. He tried to figure the puzzle out in the story. The romance is about a girl suffering from a serious illness. The family sends the girl away to stay at a local monastery. A young monk there happens to be versed in traditional Chinese medicine. The monk cures the girl of the disease and they fall in love.

Zhang showed his script to many people and those who read it agreed it was good. Zhang determined to make a film on the script. He was determined. Whenever it was possible， he tried to grab jobs at the filmmaking location so that he could see how professionals made films.

In June 2009， he acquired a filmmaking permit from the government through the help of a professional filmmaking business. With the permit， Zhang tried to find investment. He thought he needed 500，000 to make the film. His efforts went fruitless and investors turned him down. Those big investors said politely that they admired Zhang’s dream and tenacity and that they had money， but could the film make money?

The permit was valid for only two years and time was running out. Zhang’s friends and acquaintances came to his help. Zheng Aiyun， a granny who is a street vendor selling city maps to tourists at Ningbo Railway Station， gave Zhang 40，000 yuan. A retired hospital staffer named Guan Yunfen invested 20，000 yuan. Finally， 11 investors chipped in and Zhang had 80，000. All these investors are ordinary people. Zhang did not take the offer of 40，000 from the map vendor. He took only 5，000 yuan from her.

A teacher at Zhejiang College of Industrial and Commercial Technology said that the lowest budget for making a film would be 300，000. Zhang chose the cheapest way to make the film. Most actors were volunteers. Zhang paid food and accommodation. None of the eleven actors had had any experience of acting. Sometimes a scene needed filming more than 100 times before it was okay. The crew used a single and simple digital camera. They also made-do some devices. The postproduction was handled by three students at a film production studio of Zhejiang College of Industrial and Commercial Technology. They spent more than a month polishing and adding finishing touches. The postproduction gave the three young editors a lot of trouble. The video quality was worse than that of many cell-phone cameras. Of course， they did not charge a cent for the work.

“Lotus Monastery” has been screened to a limited number of people. Zhang has watched it. The first time he watched the film， what made him weep was not the story， but the credits showing the names of the 11 investor-benefactors who made his dream come true. The film will soon be submitted for a screening permit.