Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 310 321 [If you don’t want the chance you’re given, let Hollywood teach you]

Inside a small theater in Tom's Theater, there has been a major makeover. There are no fancy carpets or fancy lighting, and the layout is like Broadway in the 30s.

"Crack! The lighting is wrong."

Li Yishu turned back to look at the lighting engineer and angrily asked, "What's going on? Why does the light on Cindy's face look so dark?"

black?
Assistant director Mars looked at the stage in confusion. From his perspective, Cindy Crawford's face was not dark and the lighting was just right.

The lighting engineer quickly came over and said, "I'm sorry, Director. I used normal lighting and I think there's nothing wrong with it."

Li Yishu asked back, “Are you sure?”

"I……"

The lighting engineer hesitated. He was unsure. He looked up and glanced at Cindy on the stage. He felt that there was nothing wrong.

"Dion!"

Li Yishu did not continue to trouble the lighting technician, but waved to the photographer Dion Mark, and when he came over, she asked, "Is there any problem with the lens?"

Dion Mark shook his head: "Sorry, director, I don't understand what you mean. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with the lens."

"you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it!"

The other party's solemn words made Li Yishu laugh out loud: "Dion, you are fired."

"what?!"

Dion Mark was shocked, and then immediately retorted: "Director, what did I do wrong? Why did you fire me?"

Li Yishu said coldly: "I am the director, I will fire you if I say so!"

"I signed a contract. If you can fire me, you have to pay me three times the compensation!"

Dion Mark also knew that one of the main investors of this film was Lee Yi-su, so when he saw that the other party wanted to fire him for no apparent reason, he naturally had to fight for the greatest benefit for himself and get the termination fee.

Hearing this, Li Yishu was too lazy to talk to him. She turned around and said to Assistant Director Mars, "Go inform Harvey and ask him to come over within half an hour!"

This photographer was arranged by Harvey, and he was too lazy to tell him, so he let Harvey talk.

"Okay, director." Mars nodded repeatedly, then turned around and went out to call Harvey.

"It's the same if Harvey comes. If you want to fire me, you have to compensate me!" Dion raised his chin stubbornly, as if he didn't think he had made any mistakes at work.

At this time, Cindy also put on a thin coat and walked down from the stage. The dancers were also looking at this scene with gossipy expressions.

"Director, what's going on?"

Today was Cindy's main scene, and she felt she danced very well, but suddenly the director shouted "cut" and started arguing with the photographer, leaving her a little confused about what was going on.

"No, this is not your problem, Cindy. You dance very well and your expressions are OK. You have a talent for acting."

Li Yishu grinned at her, then ignored her and took out her phone to call Amy, "Amy, contact Zhao Fei and ask him to fly to the United States immediately."

"Ah? Boss, now?"

"Yes, find a way to contact him and get him on the earliest flight. If that doesn't work, charter a plane for him. I want to change photographers. What kind of photographers does that rubbish Harvey hire?"

Originally, Zhao Fei was almost always the cinematographer when Li Yishu was making movies. However, when directing two movies in North America, Zhao Fei was not chosen. It was not because of his inability, but because the crew was a whole, and Zhao Fei's English was not good, which made communication difficult, so it was better to find someone else.

Amy naturally had no objection when she heard that they were going to change the photographer. However, she thought that Zhao Fei did not understand English and it would be difficult to find a full-time translator during the shoot, so she said, "Boss, how about contacting Du Kefeng?"

"Isn't he working as a photographer for Director Guan Jingpeng?"

Li Yishu frowned. He had long had his eyes on Du Kefeng. When he went to visit Gong Li on the set of "Chungking Express" a few months ago, he confirmed with Wang Jiawei that the other party would have no filming in the second half of the year.

But who would have thought that when Li Yishu went to see Du Kefeng again, he had already signed a contract with director Guan Jingpeng to serve as the cinematographer of his new film.

With no other options, Li Yishu had to ask Harvey to find an experienced photographer. Who would have thought that this photographer would be so unreliable.

Amy said: "I'll contact them again and ask. If it doesn't work, I'll ask Zhao Fei to come over."

"Okay!" Li Yishu thought about it and nodded in agreement.

It would be best if Du Kefeng could come.

Du Kefeng is Australian and English is his native language, so communicating with the Americans in the crew was naturally not a problem.

Moreover, Christopher Doyle's photography style is really suitable for "Chicago". If he is the photographer, Li Yishu can be 100% sure that the visual effects of the movie will be absolutely great.

"Days of Being Wild", "Chungking Express", "Happy Together"... The visual and color matching effects of these movies are very eye-catching.

The crew stopped filming just two days after it started, which was something no one expected.

Moreover, there was a conflict between the director and the photographer, and everyone in the crew was talking about it.

Li Yishu sat in a chair, discussing the next role with Cindy while waiting for Amy's call back and Harvey.

Photographer Dion Mark has given up at this point. He doesn't think there was any mistake in his work. It's just that the director is just looking for trouble.

Anyway, the other party is just a Chinese director, not a Hollywood director. A little fame will not prevent Dion Mark from continuing to serve as the crew's photographer in the future. He might as well take this opportunity to ask for triple compensation.

"Jingle Bell……"

Twenty minutes later, Li Yishu did not wait for Harvey first, but received a call from Amy first.

"Boss, Du Kefeng has taken care of it!"

Amy said excitedly: "Director Guan has almost finished filming. I talked to him and he immediately agreed to let Du Kefeng come."

"That's great!" Li Yishu was delighted. He had always wanted to work with Du Kefeng. Now that his wish had come true, he was very happy.

He smiled and said, "Please call Director Guan and thank him for me. I will treat him to a meal in Hong Kong later."

"Okay, boss! I've also contacted Du Kefeng, and he's already asking people to buy the earliest flight to New York."

"Well, no rush, just come within two days." After hanging up the phone, Li Yishu smiled. When she was about to continue talking to Cindy about her subsequent plot, Harvey rushed over in a hurry.

"Xavi, this is your man, you deal with him!"

Li Yishu briefly explained what had just happened and then threw the question to Harvey.

Hearing this, Harvey looked at Dion.

Dion retorted: "Mr. Harvey, I do not agree with the director's accusation. I have been working hard and have not failed in any way."

He could ignore Li Yishu because he is an American and there are many crews he can join, but Harvey is different. He has Disney Studios as his backer, and the company he founded is a leader among North American independent production companies.

Harvey didn't know who was right or wrong, but he definitely supported Li Yishu and said directly, "Dion, you are fired. Li is the director and the soul of the entire crew."

Dion gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, but I want triple the compensation."

"I'll have someone follow you..."

Before Harvey could finish his words, Li Yishu interrupted him and asked, "Dion, are you sure you want triple the compensation?"

"This is what I deserve!" Dion actually wanted to say something harsh, but considering that Harvey was here, he didn't say it out loud.

Hearing this, Li Yishu glanced at the staff around her and saw that most of them agreed with Dion's words. She knew that if she didn't say something practical, it would be difficult to manage the crew in the future, so she immediately said, "Harvey, have someone go and develop the film right now."

Then he said to the rest of the crew, "Everyone, I'm not a domineering person. The reason I fired Dion is because he didn't do his job well and was still making trouble for me!"

Harvey didn't understand what was going on, but seeing Li Yishu's confident look, he immediately asked someone to send the film in the camera for development as soon as possible.

Dion's heart skipped a beat. He tried to think carefully whether there was anything wrong when he was taking the photo just now, but after thinking it over, he found that there was no problem. He immediately straightened his chest and prepared to fight Li Yishu to the end.

The crew's affairs were soon known to several other leading actors, and they all rushed over.

Tom Hanks asked curiously, "Hey, Lee, are you sure there's something wrong with that photographer?"

He is the only big name in the crew, and now he has become a global hot topic with "Forrest Gump". That means Lee Yi-su signed him to play the leading role a long time ago, otherwise it would be impossible to invite him with only 1500 million US dollars in salary.

Therefore, in the crew, Li Yishu still gave the other party face. After all, if the other party quit, it would be a big loss. Now the starting price for Tom Hanks is 2000 million US dollars + 10% of the box office share.

Of course, this is also divided by the crew and the director. For big-name crews and big-name directors, the price will definitely be much lower, but box office sharing is inevitable.

Li Yishu explained: "Tom, you have been in the industry for so many years, you should know that there is a difference between the images captured by the camera and the images shown on the screen, right?"

"Of course!" Tom Hanks nodded in agreement: "I still remember the first time I went to the cinema to watch a movie I shot. I felt that the person on the screen was completely different from the real me."

"There are very few daytime scenes in Chicago. They are all stage scenes, so lighting becomes the key. Once the lighting is not good, the pictures taken will appear very dark when the movie is shown."

Li Yishu glanced at Dion not far away and shook his head, saying, "A good photographer cannot just look at the images in the camera, but also learn to imagine the images when they are projected. It is obvious that he is not qualified."

Li Yishu is very sensitive to colors, and he was used to using digital cameras in his previous life, so he discovered this problem when he first started directing "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog".

That is, there is a color deviation between the photographic image and the projected image.

In fact, it is easy to understand. When you play TV on a mobile phone, the picture quality is clear. However, when you project it onto a screen or wall through a projector, there will be deviations in color and picture quality, unless you use very professional projection equipment.

It is obvious that today we cannot compare with later generations in terms of projection equipment technology, so Li Yishu has always been very strict with photographers. At the same time, when the crew is shooting, he often automatically dims the on-site lights, including the lights on the actors' faces.

This is also why he was able to spot the problem immediately when filming Cindy's performance.

What Li Yishu said made sense and Harvey, Hanks, Cindy and Naomi all agreed with her.

Soon, about an hour later, the person arranged by Harvey came back, bringing not only the developed film copies, but also the projection equipment.

A screen was set up on the scene, ready to play the footage Dion had just filmed.

The crew members, including the dancers, all came running over, ready to watch the show.

Dion kept praying in his heart that there would be no problems, no problems.

But obviously God did not favor Dion, and his business ability was indeed not top-notch.

After the picture was projected, it was obvious that Cindy's face was always dark, especially during the performance, her face was not always facing the light, which caused the whole face to be dark.

"damn it!"

Harvey stood up suddenly and roared at Dion angrily: "You loser, you caused the crew to shut down and made the director furious, and you still want triple compensation? You have to compensate the crew for their losses, or I will notify everyone in the industry that from now on no crew will hire you as a photographer!"

Dion's face turned pale and he began to tremble with fear. He knew very well that if an industry tycoon like Harvey banned him, it wouldn't be an absolute decision, but there would definitely be many crews that would respond, not to mention that his professional skills were not up to par.

Li Yishu frowned and was about to say something when she suddenly noticed that most of the crew members around her had an indifferent attitude.

He thought about it and decided not to stand up.

The way of thinking in Hollywood and in the mainland is different.

There is no such thing as the death of a rabbit causing grief for the fox, nor is there any need to leave a way out for others so that they can meet again in the future.

In the eyes of other staff members, Dion's mistake wasted several hours of their time and efforts, and he deserved the punishment he received.

In comparison, the crew was still very harmonious when filming "The Sixth Sense"!

It seems that this is the real Hollywood, most people only get one chance!
Li Yishu has already given the other party a chance, but it was of no use. He can only let Hollywood teach him.

"me……"

Dion was so scared that he was speechless. There is never a shortage of excellent photographers in Hollywood, because there are so many excellent photographers from all over the world chasing their dreams here.

"Okay, you can get out of here now!"

Harvey waved his hand and had Dion taken out. He then turned around and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Li. It's my negligence. I'll arrange a new photographer right now. I guarantee he'll be the best..."

"no need!"

Li Yishu interrupted, “I found an excellent photographer who once won the Golden Photography Award at the Cannes Film Festival.”

(End of this chapter)