Chessboard Workplace, Laughing Through Life - Dong Runnian in Dialogue on Johnny Keep Walking!
“One of the most important sources of comedy is the natural conflict of every comedy character. In the process of this conflict, we just need to let them naturally rub against each other and establish connections with each other, and I think a lot of comedies will appear naturally.” On the evening of April 20, the 15th Beijing International Film Festival, at Langyuan Station's Sunken Basketball Court Outdoor Cinema, director and screenwriter Dong Runnian of the movie Johnny Keep Walking! attended the post-screening.
The workplace is something that most people will have personal experience with. And the director needs to make this most ordinary life scene interesting. When talking about the challenges faced in the early stages of creating workplace comedy works, Dong Runnian said, “This is an opportunity, because there were few works of this kind before, and this is also a subject that deserves to be seen and discussed.”
Langyuan Station Sunken Basketball Court Outdoor Cinema Event Site
“The workplace is a very interesting environment. The only limit is your imagination - anything can happen.” When talking about how to express the absurdity of dramatic art and reflect the reality of workplace life in the film, Dong Runnian said frankly, “All kinds of strange and incredible things will happen in the workplace, but movies require a lot of logic. In real life, many strange things are illogical.” But comedy is precisely a genre that particularly requires logic. Johnny Keep Walking! starts from reality, selects exaggerated and representative events, analyzes everyone's motivational behavior and motivational psychology, rationalizes them within the plot, and then advances step by step according to logic.
Dong Runnian, director and screenwriter of Johnny Keep Walking!
“I think creation is a process that particularly requires the pursuit of 'truth'. First, our story characters and our entire story situation need to be 'truthful'; second, the creators themselves need to maintain a true perception and true judgment when facing their own creative content.”
Post-screening talk by Dong Runnian, director and screenwriter of Johnny Keep Walking!
Talking about the shooting plan for subsequent workplace comedy works, Dong Runnian revealed that the new script is still in the process of creation. “We will still focus on the enterprise, and use the enterprise to explore the relationship between people, the various interferences we face in work, or how a person can realize his own value. We will also try to touch on other corners of social topics.”
Photo session of guests and audience at the Outdoor Cinema
