Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 243 Completion of Graduation Project
Cao Yang’s graduation was actually very simple.

As a pure art film, "Black Swan" can definitely be used as a graduation work.

Whether it is Hou Yuan or Lao Tian, ​​and even Xie Xiaojing, who is also the director of Qingying Studio, they are all looking forward to "Black Swan" as Cao Yang's graduation work.

Everyone knows that this is not Cao Yang's experimental film, but a pure art film.

In fact, they didn't dare to think about the highest awards in Europe. They just thought that it would be great if they could win an award at the three major European film festivals.

It is a huge achievement for art schools that students' graduation works can win three major awards in Europe.

Especially for the three new officials, they like this more.

What? That was Cao Yang's graduation project. It's not surprising that he won an award?
Oh, don't talk about these useless things. I'm just asking you if he is a student who is about to graduate? Is this his graduation project?

When the time comes, I’ll put it in the report and it will be the graduation work of our students, and it will win some big award…

They don't know yet that this movie was made at the invitation of the president of the Venice Film Festival, Lao Ma. It will definitely participate in the Venice Film Festival. If it wins the highest award, the school will have something to brag about again.

As for the thesis, it is even simpler.

Just write something like "On the Importance of Script Reading in Preparation for Film Shooting".

Just write something casually and put in examples like Li Xiaoran, Yu Feihong, Gao Yuanyuan, Depp and the like, and the persuasiveness will be maximized. Is there any film paper with higher value than this?
Once you see that this method has produced the Berlin Film Festival Best Actress, Venice Film Festival Best Actress, Cannes Film Festival Best Actress, Oscar Best Actor and so on, you will have no way to refute it.

Cao Yang went to the school to talk to Dean Tian Hehou. As the film had just been finished and the post-production had not yet begun, there was no time to write the thesis, and he would not be able to make it to the defense in June, so it would have to be postponed to September.

For the post-production of "Black Swan", the editor was still Yang Qian from Qingdao Film Studio. He has collaborated with Cao Yang on several films and is considered an editor who has made his mark under Cao Yang. He is now very famous in the industry.

Of course, no matter how famous he was, when he worked with Cao Yang, he completely followed Cao Yang's ideas and was very obedient. He did not get angry or quarrel with the director because of the director's instructions.

This is actually the reason why Cao Yang is willing to cooperate with the "old man", which saves the time of adjustment and unnecessary disputes.

The film's soundtrack was also composed by an old employee from Qingying Studio, who had worked with Cao Yang on a film before. He has a pretty good foundation and is not the kind of person who just works there to make a living.

Since it is a movie about ballet, the musical elements must be combined with the classic ballet "Swan Lake", plus a little music to create a tense atmosphere.

After all, "Black Swan" has a suspenseful plot, and some parts require quick editing to create tension, so it must be accompanied by exciting music.

Even though he had worked with Cao Yang many times, Yang Qian was still shocked.

Since his collaboration with Cao Yang, his fame has soared, and many directors have sought him out for collaboration, some of whom are well-known domestic directors.

But no matter which director you work with, disputes between the editor and the director are inevitable. Sometimes the editor doesn’t understand what the director says, and the director doesn’t agree with what the editor says, so quarrels are inevitable.

For example, many directors like to say: "Your editing is not strong enough, you need to give me more..."

I'll give you some more hammers!

How the hell should I know what your "enough" is?
Yang Qian has also experienced many directors who speak in a very "subtle" way.

But this situation rarely happened with Cao Yang. Firstly, when he worked with Cao Yang, Cao Yang was already famous, and he was still a young Karami. He could only listen to Cao Yang and would cut his hair however Cao Yang asked him to.

And Cao Yang usually says it very clearly, "You cut scene, shot, and frame to..." Yang Qian just needs to do it directly, without having to guess the director's intention or feel at a loss.

Second, there are really few film shots of Cao Yang!
This will virtually reduce a lot of workload.

Not only do Cao Yang's films have few meaningless shots, but the repetition rate of each shot is also very low.

Most directors will shoot a short plot six or seven times or even seven or eight times, some even more, and let the actors perform it in different ways.

But Cao Yang is different.

Many of his shots were even shot only twice. It’s not that one take wouldn’t pass, but the second take was just to ensure the first one!

Commonly known as Yitiaoguo.

This is even more evident in "Black Swan".

Yang Qian found one thing that was different from other directors in "Black Swan", that is, there were more scenes and rivalry between actors, and most of them were done in one take.

In very rare cases, either the lighting is not set properly or an unexpected situation occurs, such as other people or objects appearing in the camera, which causes the scene to be exposed.

However, the rival scenes between actors with fewer roles, or between actors with more roles and actors with fewer roles, have to be shot many times.

This is really something that goes against common sense.

Most directors will repeatedly polish and shoot the rivalry between actors with more roles, striving to achieve the best, while for actors with fewer roles, it's fine as long as they're just okay.

In a movie, actors with more roles definitely have the most rivalry scenes with each other, which seems a bit like nonsense, otherwise they would not be called actors with more roles.

So, Yang Qian was greatly surprised when he saw many shots with only two lines in "Black Swan".

Of course, such a movie also limits the editor's "performance", you have no choice.

However, Yang Qian discovered through the edited footage that it was not that there was no choice for "Black Swan", but that there was no need to choose at all.

Because these shots look so natural when combined together, I feel like this is the best!
He had been shocked when he worked with Cao Yang before, but that was because the leading role was mostly shot in one take, with few repetitive shots, and it could also be attributed to the leading role's good acting skills.

What now?
In "Black Swan", except for Pan Hong who has excellent acting skills, most of the actors are young people, and there are many young actors who have never been heard of.

Has Director Cao's ability to coach actors evolved to this extent?
It's so scary!
"Black Swan" took Yang Qian 32 days to edit, while he was shocked, murmured and admired, and the post-production was almost completed.

The reason why I say it is almost the same is because the post-production such as editing and music soundtrack has been done.

But the shot that needs CG is when the heroine dances as a black swan at the end, and black feathers and wings slowly grow out as she dances. This part has not been completed yet.

Even though this shot was placed in the front row and was sent for CG after shooting, this simple thing took almost three months.

That means it may not be completed until late July.

Cao Yang could only cut in the shots that had not been made into CG. At least the plot of the movie was complete and it could be used as a graduation project.

(End of this chapter)