Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 183 Different Demands

Cao Yang gathered the actors and said he wanted to explain the play to them.

This time, not only the leading actor, but also the supporting actors with more important roles were called together.

For a movie with a slightly more complicated plot, it is not enough for the main character to perform well. The supporting actors’ acting skills must also keep up, so that the movie can be more expressive.

Cao Yang thought that people in Hollywood would have some resistance, or that the agency would at least ask why.

But when I called, the other party's agency repeatedly assured me that they would urge the actor to report on time.

As a result, not only did Depp, who won the Oscar for Best Actor, come early happily, but even Ian McKellen and Samuel L. Jackson also came early.

No one made any comments and no one asked why.

Well, this is definitely related to the fact that after Cao Yang won three international film queens, he helped Depp win the Best Actor award and Mark Ruffalo win the Best Supporting Actor award at the Oscars.

A great director who is good at training actors says he wants to explain the play to the actors. I believe that as long as no one is stupid, no one will be stupid enough to ask the reason or refuse.

This is Cao Yang’s current influence.

Cao Yang explained the play to them mainly to make them understand, apart from the surface content of the script, what the connotation of the movie is and what the movie is alluding to.

Essentially, understanding the allusions and connotations of a movie may help them understand the plot, but it won't have much effect on the performance.

But it doesn’t matter. At least when some of them are interviewed in the future, they can talk about the content of the movie, which will improve the quality of the movie.

In addition, perhaps if you understand the connotation of the movie and experience it through immersion, you can make a commercial art film better and more artistic.

While explaining the play to them, Cao Yang also followed up on the progress of props and modeling. As soon as they were almost finished, they could officially start shooting.

For visual effects, Columbia chose Industrial Light & Magic, founded by George Lucas, out of caution.

If all the alien shrimps in this movie were made with CG, the cost would be estimated to be $100 million, which is why Industrial Light & Magic was chosen.

Industrial Light & Magic is better at combining with real scenes rather than full CG.

After discussions with Columbia, Cao Yang decided that most of the special effects in the film would be limited to the shrimp people, with no full-scene special effects rendering, and they were still combined with real objects and scenes.

This saves a lot of costs and shortens the time it takes to create visual effects.

In addition, after on-site inspections and pictures sent by the external relations and assistant director, Johannesburg, South Africa is definitely an excellent place to shoot this film.

When racial segregation was implemented there, large areas of buildings were still there, but now they are slums. Shooting there is more realistic and more cost-effective than spending a lot of money to build a corresponding studio.

At the same time, former South African President Mandela called Cao Yang through Charlize Theron, and he enthusiastically invited Cao Yang to go to South Africa for filming.

And he repeatedly assured that today's South Africa is a new South Africa and should not be viewed with the old perspective of the past.

South Africa is definitely one of the happiest countries in the world, and it is also the safest country. He personally guarantees that there will be no safety issues when filming in South Africa...

Even my personal name was provided as guarantee.

Why was Mandela so passionate?
Cao Yang felt that just being an internationally renowned director would not be enough to make a former head of state so enthusiastic.

Charlize Theron told Cao Yang that Mandela once asked her what kind of movie it was.

When Mandela learned that this was a film that reflected racial discrimination and apartheid, he was very excited and repeatedly expressed his full support for Cao Yang's filming in South Africa and his determination to satisfy Director Cao.

Then Theron went on to say that South Africa's apartheid system was abolished after Mandela was elected president.

Oh, oh, I see. That's it.

No wonder Mandela was so enthusiastic. As the abolisher of the apartheid system, how could Cao Yang, an internationally renowned director, not be active and enthusiastic about making a movie on this subject?

It seems that the safety and convenience of filming in South Africa are absolutely guaranteed.

On June 2004, 6, after such a long period of preparation, the props needed for the film were finally completed and everything was ready. "District 1" chose this day and announced the start of filming in Beijing.

Cao Yang originally didn't want to hold a press conference. It was held in the past to promote the movie and draw attention, but this form of promotion is no longer necessary.

But Mr. Han felt that there had never been a co-production with such a large investment before, so he had to show it off... No, he wanted to let people know that the filming had started, so he held a press conference with an unusually grand scale.

As one of the producers, Mr. Han naturally sat next to Cao Yang.

The reporters were also very interesting. Except for Cao Yang, most of the people who were called upon by the host to ask questions were asking questions to President Han.

How is it possible to say that there is no trick involved?

Take a look at the questions asked to Mr. Han.

"Boss Han, this is your first time making a co-production with an investment of 500 million yuan. Do you feel any pressure?"

"Mr. Han, as the vice chairman of China Film, how do you view this cooperation with Columbia on such a large scale?"

"Mr. Han, as one of the producers, what are your expectations for this epoch-making co-production?"

……

Well, just like the question the reporter asked, although Mr. Han, as the deputy general manager and deputy chairman of China Film, is in charge of the work of China Film, as long as the word "deputy" is removed, something unexpected may happen.

Therefore, President Han also needs political achievements. In this era, it is a rare opportunity to cooperate with a Hollywood superstar of the level of an Oscar winner.

Of course, Mr. Han must seize the opportunity.

As long as a co-production like this one, which claims to have an investment of 70 million US dollars, is successful, President Han's position will be more secure.

After the press conference, the filming of the movie officially started.

The shots shot at Qingying Studio were mostly indoor scenes, such as offices, laboratories, homes, basements, inside spacecrafts, inside gangs, etc.

This requires the use of a lot of foreigners as extras, after all, the North American box office accounts for the majority of the revenue.

But this is actually not difficult. There are so many universities in Beijing. If you want to find some foreigners to act as extras, they will be happy to do so as long as the money is right.

Speaking of which, even though the salaries of these foreign extras are much higher than those of ordinary extras, compared with Hollywood, they are really much cheaper.

In Hollywood, even if you want to find extras, you have to go through the union.

There is a minimum standard for wages. Extras are paid on an hourly basis, which is $8 per hour. Generally, they are paid for 8 hours a day. Even if they only shoot for 1 hour, they will still be paid for 8 hours.

Once it exceeds 8 hours, it will be counted as overtime and the salary is US$12 per hour.

This is an extra, the kind without lines. If there were lines, even just one sentence, the fee would be high.

Once there are talking shots, for some low-budget films, the starting price for talking shots might be $500 a day, but most of the time the starting price is $850 a day.

These are the problems Cao Yang encountered when filming "Despicable Milk".

(End of this chapter)