Huayu: As a child star, I just want to be famous

Chapter 509: Training Little Leo

While Chen Linfeng was having a pleasant conversation with Robert Egger, someone in the back of the theater was quietly discussing the upcoming movie.

"I heard that Disney internally gave the movie an A+ rating. What do you think?" Nathan from Regal Cinemas started the topic.

"I've read the promotional materials for this movie, and I think it will be a very interesting topic."

"Eric, you have been influenced by the propaganda."

Joss shook his head. "I bet this movie will leave audiences scratching their heads. What can you think of regarding the theme of dreams?"

"Dream...Mulholland Drive?"

"Binggou, that's it. I have to say that Chen is a genius. He is very good at directing commercial films, but the problem with geniuses is that they easily overestimate the IQ of the general public, so..."

Jos only said half of it, but everyone understood the unfinished meaning behind it.

"Indeed, this is a problem." Eric was convinced. "Joss, no wonder AMC trusts you so much. You are also a genius, a genius in buying movies."

Joss smiled complacently.

"Actually, there is another possibility." Someone immediately expressed a different opinion.

Jos looked over with a bad look on his face, wanting to see what the person sent by Emperor Cinemas had to say.

Nathan said calmly, "Chen is a true genius. This kind of genius should go a step further and understand the general understanding ability of the audience."

"Haha, I bet you overestimate him."

"Then we'll see."

Just at this moment, the big screen lit up and the screening was about to begin.

The staff on the stage didn't waste any time. After making sure that most people were present, they signaled the staff behind the scenes to start.

Chen Linfeng had watched the movie countless times and had lost interest in it a long time ago.

He was more observing the expressions of others.

When are you most focused, which plots make you distracted, and which place is the most exciting.

In the past two years, he sometimes went to the cinema specifically to observe the audience.

To determine whether your pleasure points, interests, etc. are consistent with those of the general public.

If there are differences, we should try to adjust them to make them closer to the public's aesthetic taste.

As the status of filmmakers gradually improves, their ability in this area is actually gradually being lacking.

However, the importance of the ability to be close to what the public thinks is gradually increasing.

When you think the audience likes to watch something but they find it boring, that’s dangerous.

According to Chen Linfeng's observation, there should be no problem with the plot rhythm of "Inception".

When he watched the show in his previous life, he always felt that the beginning part where he was fighting against the Neon tycoon was a bit too fast and he didn’t quite understand what was going on.

Therefore, Chen Linfeng deliberately left one to two minutes of redundancy this time to make it easier for the audience to understand.

Looking back now, I don’t know if I have a better understanding of it, but at least the added time did not make these viewers feel bored.

Joss felt a little dangerous.

The first third of the film, as part of the plot development, is quite satisfactory and accomplishes the task very well.

At least after watching it, he felt that the plot was easy to understand.

The setting of multi-layered dreams and the way dream stealers design dreams and deceive their targets seem to be understood naturally.

Afterwards, the huge explosion on the streets of Shenhai and the folding of the entire city made him marvel at Chen's imagination.

He was almost certain that this was a good movie worthy of attention.

And when it came to the climax of the movie, he was amazed by the ultimate use of "last-minute rescue".

As expected of Chen, is this a true genius?

At this point, Joss almost forgot that he had the task of judging the value of the film and was basically left to marvel.

The same goes for everyone else.

Eric opened his mouth wide. The 3D effect, coupled with the dream setting, made people feel as if they were in a dream.

Nathan almost couldn't maintain his usual calmness.

In the last scene of the movie, only the gyroscope is spinning.

Nathan suddenly realized that this was the reason. No wonder the website only had a spinning top at the beginning.

The gyroscope seemed to have been spinning for a long time, and just when we were about to confirm whether it would stop, the movie came to an abrupt end.

"Did the spinning top stop?"

"Is it a dream or reality in the end?"

Joss and Eric asked directly, they couldn't suppress their curiosity at all.

By this time, Joss had long forgotten what he had said before the screening.

Nathan and Eric tacitly forgot their previous differences. It is better for adults not to expose the emperor's new clothes, and workers should not make things difficult for workers.

The three of them discussed the plot seriously.

Eric: "I think it should be reality. I think the spinning top looks like it's about to stop."

Nathan: “I think it’s realistic, but we still need to look at some details.”

Jos: “Indeed, one reading is not enough.”

At this point, the three of them looked at each other and suddenly realized something.

It's a movie that you can't help but watch twice, and...

"That spinning top," Eric blurted out, "is a natural marketing trick."

Jos suddenly realized, "Yes, that's what we felt after watching the movie, and it must be the same for others."

"Disney's marketing team has already been making use of the spinning top." Nathan provided new information.

At this point, the three of them have made sufficient judgments about the movie.

They didn't say any more and each of them was thinking about how to report to their boss when they got back.

The same goes for other parts of the theater.

For those movie buyers who have watched a huge amount of films and have seen both good and bad ones, "Inception" is definitely a movie that is full of freshness.

After the movie ended, they just casually exchanged a few words with their colleagues and generally confirmed their judgment.

Robert Iger sighed, "What a wonderful movie."

"Chen, you have created a very good work."

"Thank you." Chen Linfeng accepted the praise with a smile.

Robert felt more and more regretful.

Why didn't you stop those idiots earlier?

Chen cannot be represented by an infinite series. His value as a director and screenwriter far exceeds that of an infinite series.

Chen Linfeng did not participate in the subsequent negotiations with the theater chain on the number of screening venues and the scheduling of the films.

It is indeed a bit cumbersome.

And this is the producer's job, and Rob and Meryl Streep will also be keeping an eye on it.

Before the filming of "Joker" started, he once again confirmed the release date for the next summer season.

This year is 2012, and Hollywood has begun to fully enter the era of superhero movies.

This can be seen from several key movies in the summer season.

In early May, a movie called "Avengers".

On July 7, The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in Nolan's Batman trilogy, was released.

In addition, there is "The Amazing Spider-Man", which will premiere in Neon in June.

In Chen Linfeng's impression, these three movies all had good box office results.

The first two films grossed over 10 billion, and the new Spider-Man also grossed over 7 million.

Therefore, these three films must be avoided.

Other non-superhero movies, such as "Men in Black 3", "Ted", "The Expendables 2", "G.I. Joe 2", etc., did not have such strong box office performance.

But you still need to pay a little attention.

Of course, Chen Linfeng has achieved good results in the summer season for two consecutive years, and last year he even crushed "Green Lantern".

Now his new movie is also regarded by other film producers as a big player in the summer market.

The industry generally believes that the reason why "Green Lantern" was so bad was certainly because of its poor quality, but it might also be because it collided with "Infinite World".

Maybe if we change the schedule, it won't be so bad.

This is also why, when discussing cooperation in the second half of the year, Warner was willing to offer such good conditions, including the copyright of the Joker, which was almost half-sold and half-given away, with only the investment ratio required.

If you can't beat it, just join.

Therefore, this year's "Inception" has not announced a release date, but it is rumored in the industry that it will be released in early July.

Many companies automatically adjust the time of their large productions to avoid conflicts as much as possible.

Columbia Pictures originally planned to premiere the film in Japan on June 6 and then release it in North America in early July.

Now the plan has been adjusted directly and it is scheduled to be released on June 6th, two days after the release in Japan.

Thanks to this, Chen Linfeng basically didn’t have to worry about schedule issues this year and simply set the date on July 7th.

There is exactly a 2-week interval between "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Dark Knight Rises".

The summer market in North America is almost over every two weeks.

What needs to be paid attention to is "G.I. Joe 6" which will be released on June 29th.

Chen Linfeng couldn’t quite remember how much the box office of this movie was in his previous life.

It’s just that because this movie has a Korean actor, it seemed to be quite popular in South Korea at the time.

Chen Linfeng had seen this movie before. The knife skills played by the Korean actor were quite impressive.

Apart from that, the other movies are basically just small fry and he doesn't need to pay much attention to them.

Chen Linfeng shifted most of his energy to the movie "Joker".

On May 5, "Joker" officially started filming.

No media was invited, but the combination of Chen Linfeng and Leonardo naturally attracted people's attention.

He just needed to ask the crew members to hold up the camera and record the moment when the crew started filming.

It is then edited by the crew's media operations officer and posted to the official accounts of the "Joker" crew on Twitter, Facebook, Weibo, V Station, YouTube and other platforms.

Times have changed, and the way of publicity is also changing.

The official account will occasionally release some behind-the-scenes footage of the crew, as well as stills, posters and other content.

In the later stage, these accounts alone became small media.

If other big Vs, marketing accounts, etc. repost the content, all kinds of promotional information will be delivered to movie fans.

After the brief opening ceremony, Chen Linfeng said a few words briefly and asked everyone to take their seats. There was nothing fancy.

After being in the film industry for so long, he has all the prestige and experience.

Both the crew members and the actors have a natural trust in the director.

There was no need for him to use any rhetoric to stimulate everyone's enthusiasm.

As usual, the first shot was a very simple one.

It is worth mentioning that "Joker" is a rare 2D movie of this era.

At a time when everyone is pursuing 3D movies, Chen Linfeng's approach is a bit of a step backwards.

But that’s how feature films are, 2D is still smoother and can be shot faster.

The first shot was Arthur banging his head against the wall, and it was shot without much effort.

That pretty much ends the morning.

At noon, Chen Linfeng called Leonardo and Lu Yang to have lunch together. "Leo, I see you don't look very happy?"

"I'm trying to understand Arthur's feelings. I think he's usually like this."

"Uh, okay."

"This is an experience," Cheng Er said in surprise, "Isn't Leonardo an expressionist?"

Chen Linfeng spread his hands and said, "How can the distinction between acting be so clear? Sometimes you just use whichever method works best."

"Too."

Leonardo ate in silence and did not participate in the discussion.

In the afternoon, the story begins with the scene where Arthur receives psychological counseling.

During the breaks in filming, Leonardo would suddenly laugh from time to time, as if no one was around, which surprised everyone.

Chen Linfeng was a little suspicious, wondering if this guy was really into the role.

After more than two months of preparation, especially in the second half of the month, after changing his perspective, Leonardo became a little obsessed.

Chen Linfeng also received Arthur's diary.

Corresponding props were originally prepared specifically for the film.

However, after reading it, he felt that there was no need to prepare at all.

This is what Leo wrote.

Chen Linfeng didn't know whether he should go over and persuade him. After thinking about it, he decided to go and take a look.

Leonardo simply waved at him, "Director, I'm fine."

"Really?" Chen Linfeng asked worriedly.

He was a little suspicious that something went wrong because of the change of protagonist.

Leonardo smiled but said nothing.

"..."

Chen Linfeng felt more and more creepy.

He couldn't help but become serious, "Leo, the complete experience-based approach is a heresy and can't improve acting skills in essence. Just because the audience thinks a character is real doesn't mean that the character is actually the real person. It's really like that."

"I know, a certain amount of acting, plus some empathy, I understand, Chen."

Leonardo seemed to sober up a little and said calmly.

"Well, I hope you can grasp it."

As the filming progressed, Chen Linfeng discovered that the Joker played by Leonardo was different from those played by Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix.

There is no need to mention Heath Ledger, that was the complete Joker, so he is not suitable for comparison.

Compared to the loneliness and fragility shown by Joaquin, Leonardo has a more neurotic temperament.

At the beginning, that is, during the indoor scenes, Leonardo performed better, and compared with normal people, the weirdness became more prominent.

But when the scene changes to outdoors, something seems a little off.

"Leo, you do too many little tricks." Chen Linfeng interrupted.

"Okay director, I'll adjust it."

"Kacha, Leo, you're walking in the wrong way."

"No, it's still not right."

Leonardo couldn't help feeling a little anxious after being repeatedly yelled at.

After being failed to walk for more than a dozen times, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and even broke out of the gloomy state of the clown.

"Chen, where exactly did I go wrong?"

"It doesn't feel right. The way you walk now doesn't make me feel the pressure of life."

"But the script doesn't focus on this. Arthur can afford to treat illnesses, and..."

"That's right. It's not particularly emphasized in the script, but it should be reflected in various details." Chen Linfeng interrupted him directly.

"What's the reason for doing this?"

"The Joker and Batman are opposites."

"Yes, everyone knows this," Leonardo stopped talking halfway, "Chen, you don't mean to..."

"All-round opposition, but you have me in you, just like the opposing semicircles in Tai Chi. This is perfect enough."

Chen Linfeng said patiently, "You focus too much on the clown's neurotic side. Yes, that's right. That's the first and most important impression the clown gives people."

He stared at the other person, "But this is the origin of the Joker. Becoming a Joker requires a process. You need to perfectly show the audience how Arthur became the Joker step by step."

“Without this, you won’t be able to convince the audience and judges.”

Leonardo thought about it carefully and finally nodded in agreement.

Chen Linfeng rolled up his sleeves and said, "Come and take a look at my demonstration. You don't have to follow mine, but I can give you some reference."

The other actors and behind-the-scenes staff were stunned.

The director is going to take action himself! ?

Originally, they were a little worried when they saw the two big guys in the crew arguing.

Unexpectedly, after Chen Linfeng convinced Leonardo, he actually wanted to do the demonstration himself.

This is really rare.

In fact, Chen Linfeng didn't want to do it, but there was nothing he could do. Leonardo had high hopes for this movie and wanted to win an Oscar.

He himself has some ideas about the Berlin Golden Bear.

They were both in similar situations, both facing some kind of scrutiny from the judges.

If you don't break through that threshold and truly shock people, you won't be able to win the award.

In Chen Linfeng's previous two award-winning works, the highlights were on Li Xuejian, You Benchang and Lu Zhong.

There is no need to say much about Li Xuejian's acting skills.

The roles in "Sunset" are naturally suitable for both teachers You and Lu.

Their acting skills are good to begin with and they act in a true-to-life manner, so they don't need much guidance from him.

This time is different. Leo's level is not low, but he has never won an award. It's not just because of the judges.

He really hasn't reached the level where his acting skills can conquer people.

Therefore, Chen Linfeng had no choice but to intervene.

Under the gaze of everyone, Chen Linfeng adjusted his sleeves, then asked the stagehands to find two pins for him to adjust the length of his pants so that it would not be too short.

It looks a bit similar to Leonardo's current outfit.

Then he adjusted his position so that his back was facing Leo.

From Leonardo's perspective, he knew that Chen was showing Arthur's back in the camera.

Then he saw that Chen's back suddenly became hunched and his head slightly lowered, as if something was pressing on his back.

After taking a few steps forward, it inexplicably felt like he was having difficulty walking.

Leonardo had a complicated expression on his face, he had never played such a role at the bottom of society, truly the bottom of society.

He is not the poor painter in "Titanic" nor the ordinary middle school student who is quitting drug use like in "Diary of the Edge".

Combining the story in the script, his understanding of the script seemed to suddenly become deeper.

Chen Linfeng walked a few steps and then stopped, turning around to look at Little Leo.

"Well, you understand?"

"understood."

Leonardo couldn't help but ask, "So in your eyes, the Joker is the representative of the lower class that is opposed to Batman?"

"They are the chaotic lower class people," Chen Linfeng corrected, "This is just a special perspective, it does not represent the truth, just like the "She" I wrote before, you can't generalize."

“But you can let the audience understand it that way, right?”

"That's right," Chen Linfeng smiled, "It seems you really understand."

Then, the filming process became smoother.

As usual, Chen Linfeng was extremely strict and would repeat something a dozen times.

But after Leonardo understood the director's core idea, he became obviously different.

After the director points out the problem, he can keep adjusting towards the goal until he achieves the best.

The core scenes in "Joker" are Arthur's dance, which represents the node where the Joker is unsealed.

In the first few times, Leonardo was a little at a loss, and Chen Linfeng even had to demonstrate again at the beginning.

However, as his condition improved, he entered more and more into Arthur's world.

It was as if there was another person inside me, laughing madly.

It came to the most crucial scene, the dancing on the stairs.

Standing on the high stairs and looking down, the crew members downstairs looked like garbage.

He closed his eyes and adjusted himself quietly.

With a "start" sound.

Leonardo was suddenly enlightened and for the first time truly experienced that kind of wanton and decadent mentality.

Nothing matters anymore, I don't care anymore, the world is just one big joke.

Why not dance!

Leonardo was so immersed in it that he didn't even care about the stairs under his feet. He just felt that he had achieved true freedom.

I don't know when, when he finished dancing in ecstasy.

He found that everyone was looking at him stupidly.

"Okay, well done, let's do it again." Chen Linfeng's voice sounded calm but not without joy.

Even if you are possessed by a clown, you have to protect me.

However, the subsequent times were far from perfect as this time.

In Chen Linfeng's opinion, even the best of them, which was almost as good as his previous performance, did not have the unbridled abandon of Leonardo's first dance.

Since then, Leonardo's performance has become more and more handy, and even the number of NGs has been significantly reduced.

At the end of June, when Guo Fan and Lu Yang came to take over the shift, he was almost shocked when he saw Leonardo's performance.

"What's going on? When did Leo become so good at acting?"

As a director, no matter how the performance is, you must have good eyesight.

In Guo Fan's opinion, Leo's acting skills were pretty good before, but definitely not to this extent.

"It was our director who taught me."

Lu Yang was full of amazement. He felt that he had learned the essence.

After practicing and integrating it, maybe you can call yourself the senior brother of the Chen family.

"Oh, what luck I have." Guo Fan began to regret.

If I had known that he could speed up and finish filming "Time Traveler" earlier, he could have come here to listen to the teacher's teachings.

Who would have thought that the teacher's true abilities would be revealed during the time when he was away.

Seeing his expression, Lu Yang couldn't help but curse inwardly, "Director Chen is not here now, who are you performing for?"

He finally realized that Guo Fan was the biggest threat and was most likely to compete with him for the position of the eldest senior brother.

"You've come at the perfect time. Inception is about to be released, and Director Chen and Leonardo DiCaprio will both be participating in the promotion. You can take over a Hollywood crew on your own."

Guo Fan complained, "The main characters are gone, so there is no room for me to perform."

"It's good enough to give you some scraps. What are you thinking? When you become a big director one day, come and ask Leonardo to film with you."

(End of this chapter)