Huayu: From charlatan to great entertainer

Chapter 195 Shocking the Set
October 2003, 10, Grouse Mountain, a suburb of Vancouver, Canada.

The cast and crew needed for the early stage filming of "Foreign Land" gathered together and came to the location for the early scenes.

Lu Kuan was listening to the reports from photographer Cao Yu and photography assistant Wu Ershan on the scene when assistant director Emil suddenly came over and interrupted them.

"Lu, the local people are protesting the crew's filming. What should we do?"

Boss Lu was puzzled: "Why are you protesting?"

Canada is a common filming location for North American films and a country that offers tax refunds for special effects production.

From residents of small towns in the countryside to white-collar workers in the city center, everyone is accustomed to the filming of film crews around them, and some may even have the leisure to participate in the filming as an extra.

"It might be because of the SARS virus in your country last year."

Lu Kuan was stunned for a few seconds, then smiled bitterly and arranged for him to take some souvenirs from the crew and Leonardo's autograph to visit the small town as a courtesy visit.

Last year, the domestic boiling point was raging. Canada is a major country for Chinese immigrants, especially in cities such as Vancouver and Toronto.

At that time, because the Canadian government and residents were not prepared enough, the influx of a large number of infected Chinese people caused great panic, and the death toll was even higher than that in some cities in China.

The small town residents who are now protesting and complaining are just seeing things in the shadows. Seeing so many Chinese faces coming in all of a sudden, they are a little afraid that the same thing will happen again.

Liu Yifei and her daughter got out of the RV.

Liu Xiaoli smiled and said, "Xiaolu, your car is really nice. Can we buy imported cars in China?"

She was talking about the Ford Chinook that Emil bought for Boss Lu at his request. It is now a mid-range A-class car that can meet the basic needs of star directors.

Hollywood still leads the world in luxury spending in this area.

Liu Yifei nodded. She had just borrowed a motorhome with a wide road to change clothes in the car, which was quite convenient.

"I'll ask for you later. It shouldn't be a problem. This car is quite ordinary. There are many better ones out there. You can consider it."

Liu Yifei wore the crew's uniform white T-shirt today, a pair of slim washed jeans, and sneakers, looking like a lively girl.

After careful guidance, Boss Lu took Mei out for a trip again yesterday. She was completely immersed in the joy of joining the new crew.

Even though she was just Zhang Ziyi's stand-in.

Or maybe the little girl is just easy to coax. According to the hobby of Concubine Liu Yi in later generations, when she grows up and gets angry, won’t she buy a supercar to vent her anger?

The little girl pointed at the talisman pattern behind her and asked in confusion, "Lu Kuan, what does this ghostly painted talisman mean?"

Hollywood crews generally have the habit of making crew uniforms, mainly to facilitate management, and secondly to enhance team honor and cohesion.

However, the patterns and texts printed on the clothes are not fixed. Directors with big imaginations like Quentin even draw naked women on the clothes.

The producer asked him why, and Quentin said that it would make the cast and crew happier and facilitate the smooth progress of work.

Most of them are fictional crew names, like Nolan's crew for "The Dark Knight" was called "Roy's First Kiss."

When filming "Inception", it was called "Oliver's Arrow", which used the names of his children.

Lu Kuan ingeniously designed a "luck-enhancing amulet" for the crew's uniforms. Not only did the American people in the crew not understand it, even the Chinese cast and crew were confused.

"This is a Taoist talisman, used to ward off evil, suppress disasters, and enhance luck and protect oneself."

Concubine Liu Yi excitedly said, "Wow! Really?"

Cao Yu, who came over to report on his work, smiled and said, "This is Director Lu's little trick. Foreigners are quite superstitious about these strange things, and they will avoid religious symbols that they don't understand. This helps the crew clear obstacles and film with peace of mind."

The little girl's curiosity was slightly reduced, but Liu Xiaoli didn't think so.

She decided to keep hers well, maybe it might contain some magical power infused by the little god?

At eight o'clock in the morning, all the actors participating in the filming arrived on time. The big names got off the RV, and the smaller ones were waiting in the waiting area of ​​the studio early.

Leonardo patted the young director on the shoulder and said, "Lu, do you still have this dress? I want to buy a few for my girlfriend."

"You have no idea, after your introduction, I felt so safe when I wore it to bed last night!"

Concubine Liu Yi chuckled on the side, thinking that these foreigners were really naive.

Boss Lu exaggerated, "How many pieces are you buying for your girlfriends? That would add up to over a hundred pieces, wouldn't it? Leo, you know the crew's budget is low, you have to pay!"

Leonardo laughed and hit him, then spread his hands helplessly without any attempt to explain.

Boss Lu was very jealous. Handsome guys are just so unscrupulous.

The little girl looked at them with contempt as they "worked together", thinking that they were all the same kind of people.

Zhang Ziyi and Travolta also arrived at the scene and greeted everyone.

Travolta and Boss Lu are also quite familiar with each other.

Before the "Ask the World" press conference, Lu Kuan came to the United States to confirm the final cast. He and Quentin treated Boss Lu to a dinner of fancy wine, which was wonderful.

Everything is ready and the crew officially starts.

They are all famous actors and skilled workers, the scene is orderly, and Boss Lu has become the most idle character.

Hollywood directors, with their own crews, will be very busy, running around directing lighting and photography;

But if the director is a tool hired by the producer, he basically delegates the power to the photography DP, props, and lighting bosses, and sits behind the monitor all day without doing anything.

Following the process of positioning, lighting, rehearsal, fine-tuning and formal shooting, the actors put on makeup and moved as needed, and the on-site setting, shooting track layout and lighting equipment debugging were also carried out in an orderly manner.

Liu Xiaoli was still waiting for her daughter in the waiting area as usual. This time, because Liu Yifei did not have many filming tasks, Yang Siwei did not come over from China.

Lu Kuan asked someone to place a director's chair next to the monitor and called the little girl over.

"There are no action scenes these days, and Director Yuan won't arrive until the day after tomorrow. You can just sit next to me and watch the monitor together."

"You've almost finished studying the script. For each scene, whether it's Zhang Ziyi's or Leonardo's, you should first pre-plan the performance process in your mind."

"If this role were you, how would you design the movements, grasp the emotions of the lines, and grasp the chain of actions? Do you understand what I mean?"

Liu Yifei knew Lu Kuan’s serious attitude in his official work and nodded expectantly.

After Boss Lu's patient guidance, she realized that this was indeed a rare opportunity, and even put aside the need to improve and observe her acting skills.

If I want to develop in Hollywood in the future, at least this time I can go through the entire process of Hollywood filming and accumulate good experience.

After giving instructions to Liu Yifei, Lu Kuan left the monitor and went to the scene to check the lighting and camera track.

He was used to doing things himself. The crew were all professionals hired from the union, but who knew if they were not working hard or not.

On the first day of filming, it was time to establish my authority.

Lu Kuan walked up to a female lighting technician named Phoebe.

"Leonardo's key light doesn't require too much of a set. You put the silk highlight light on top and turn on the area light to shine on the ceiling to create a relatively neutral light to balance the tone of the environment for me."

Phoebe didn't seem very willing to pay attention to him.

She had seen the director's resume when she applied for the role. He had the reputation of one of Europe's three major film companies, but what about his Hollywood experience? None.

As for the North American box office performance of movies? Only "The Drummer," the one that Harvey introduced, did well, and the numbers were also very dismal.

Sorry, this is Hollywood. You, a rookie director from China, please don't interfere with my work!
This was of course her inner monologue, and she still had a professional white fake smile on her face: "Mr. Lu, please sit down in the director's chair, we will take care of these professional tasks for you!"

Looking at the other lighting technicians and track technicians sneering and making faces at each other, it was obvious that everyone thought so.

Everyone thinks that this overly young Chinese director is just a tool hired by producer Tom Cruise.

You're just a tool, so just stay put. Don't act pretentiously and give orders, which will only waste time and affect everyone else's get off work.

From a distance, Concubine Liu Yi asked Cao Yu quietly, "Why are they all so arrogant? Isn't the director the most authoritative person on the crew?"

The director-centered system in China is deeply rooted in people's minds. It was the first time for the little girl to see so many staff members not peeing on the director.

Cao Yu's expression was also somewhat serious: "Director Lu held a meeting with a few of us yesterday. He had anticipated that a situation like this might occur."

"Many Hollywood directors are hired by producers and are puppets and tools. In the eyes of these lighting technicians, there is no difference between the director and them." "Furthermore, these people are registered with the union. It is difficult for the crew to directly fire them without legitimate reasons, otherwise it will cause lawsuits and very troublesome."

If we were to realistically write a story about a Chinese director venturing into Hollywood, the first important issue would probably be how to establish authority in the crew and suppress these arrogant and powerful generals.

Just like when Yuen Woo-ping brought his martial arts team to Hollywood to film, the black people in the crew didn't want to bother with them, let alone the white people.

Yuan Heping came up with an idea. He deliberately arranged many exciting moves in the action scenes that exceeded the requirements of the crew. As soon as two difficult moves were performed, these foreigners who had longed for Chinese Kung Fu were immediately convinced.

Boss Lu was certainly confident about this. In his previous life, he worked part-time and studied on film crews, so he was as accustomed to seeing these things as drinking water.

"Your name is Phoebe, right? Well, since you all think of yourselves as business elites, let me give you a question."

"I'm the director. For Leonardo's first scene, I ask you to give me a new key light position without any light source in the picture, so as to achieve a soft top light and a reasonable distribution of shadow density."

Phoebe's sneer suddenly stopped. Not only her, but also the lighting technicians around her who were just doing their jobs fell into deep thought.

The scene was silent. Not only the crew members, but also the leading actors like Zhang Ziyi and Leonardo DiCaprio were watching the excitement.

Liu Yifei, Cao Yu and Wu Ershan, who was brought by Boss Lu for internship, stood together, looking at the blushing female lighting technician with glee.

The Chinese cast and crew are one group, and the American cast and crew are another group.

There are also actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Travolta who know Lu Kuan's true strength and watch the show neutrally.

Lu Kuan's expression changed from playful to serious, and he said sternly, "Give me an answer within three minutes!"

"I'm telling you, I funded this crew, and you all are here to work for me. Now you can't even complete a very simple task. I have every reason to fire you, and the union can't say anything!"

Hearing his threat, Phoebe blushed and retorted, "You said an impossible task! It's like the Goldbach conjecture in mathematics!"

"Raising an unsolvable problem, forcing us to solve it, and using it as a threat to fire me, sir, that's very ungentlemanly!"

Boss Lu scoffed, "No solution? You're truly a frog in a well."

He sidestepped and called over two younger lighting technicians.

"Do as I say. Set up the fat guy's light, shift the blonde's light about ten centimeters to the left, and then place the diffuser at one-third of the metered position. Add some beef to the baby!"

"Cao Yu, place a reflector to the left of the camera and add some fill light. Pay attention to the balance of light and dark."

The two lighting technicians looked at the director with an unfriendly expression and did not dare to confront him directly, so they just did as he said.

Phoebe was also stunned. She hadn't yet realized the ingenuity of Boss Lu's lighting technique, which he copied from the later "Kingsman: The Golden Circle".

But these "fat lights" and "blonde" industry jargons clearly convey a message to everyone.

This Chinese director is far from being the producer puppet and Hollywood rookie that everyone imagines!
He even knows the jargon circulating in the Hollywood lighting technician industry!
After the lights were set up, Lu Kuan asked Leonardo to move around and let these arrogant soldiers see the final effect.

"this!"

"Oh my god, how did you do that?"

Seven or eight lighting technicians, including Phoebe, looked at the lighting scene with astonishment. How did he do it?
Confrontation is just a means. Boss Lu's goal is to convince these people. He smiled and began to teach and answer their questions.

“This problem can be solved in three steps.”

“First, consider the shadows created by metering.”

"Second, consider the contrast ratio between the illuminated and dark sides."

"You need to think outside the box and consider the position of metering based on the figure's form, taking into account the object's reflective characteristics."

"The essence of this method is to use one light to create two types of lighting, but the reflector must be placed outside the frame. If the 'camera position' is set to panoramic, but the reflected light is unable to reach the subject, we must add another light to help us deal with the shadow relationship."

"Clap clap clap!"

I don't know who was the first to applaud, but the experienced lighting technicians saw through it, and the other Chinese cast and crew members watched the excitement with joy.

Zhang Ziyi nodded secretly on the side. The comprehensive professional ability of the Golden Lion Award-winning director is indeed strong. At least she has never seen such a scene in Zhang Yimou's crew.

Phoebe bowed her head and apologized to the director, and Boss Lu of course chose to forgive her.

Back in front of the monitor, Liu Yifei excitedly asked him what he meant by the blonde beauty and adding beef to the baby.

"These are all Hollywood jargons. 'Baby' refers to the Fresnel light, and 'Beef' refers to the brightness. Together, they mean turning up the soft light."

When Wu Ershan, Cao Yu and others came over, Boss Lu also took this opportunity to give them some instructions.

"If you ever have the opportunity to make a movie in Hollywood, remember to be more arrogant than these arrogant soldiers."

"These foreigners are arrogant and conceited. They must be severely disciplined and their arrogance crushed to the ground! There is no room for humility."

Then he turned to Concubine Liu Yi and said, "And you, actors are much more vulnerable to bullying than other people."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Wu Ershan secretly complained in his heart, to defeat them, you need to have the strength of Director Lu like you!

I still have a lot to learn. If the difficulty of shooting commercials and MVs is 1, then the difficulty of shooting movies will probably fluctuate between 100-1000.

The amount of fluctuation depends entirely on the director's personal ability and the quality of the film.

There are many similar jargons on Hollywood sets, including fixed names for how to place different props.

For example, a flat-placed box is called Texas, a vertical-placed box is called New York, a side-placed box is called California, and so on.

The little girl looked at Lu Kuan who started directing the filming with bright eyes, as if she had forgotten what her main task was.

The dog who works hard is so handsome!

At 8:45, the first assistant director Emil came to report on his work.

"Director, the actors, lighting, camera, and sound are all in place. Please give your instructions."

Boss Lu said calmly, "Waiting for the actors to get ready."

The camera assistant walked up to the camera with a clapperboard in hand: "First scene, first take, first take of 'Alien Land'!"

Then he closed the clapperboard with a click, walked out of the camera, and started filming normally.

The assistant director, who was in charge of keeping the actors in good order, whispered beside the camera, "Is the leading actress ready?"

This is the last procedure before the formal shooting, because the actors need to build up their emotions for their first appearance on set, and the assistant director will give the actors enough preparation time depending on the situation.

Even if the film is already being consumed, we still have to wait until the actors reach a state of unity between themselves and the role.

Zhang Ziyi took a deep breath and made an OK gesture.

Lu Kuan heard the announcement on the intercom and gave the order to start.

The first scene to be filmed is the protagonist's appearance, which is the standard procedure for Hollywood scripts.

In this scene, Lan Yue, played by Zhang Ziyi, is on her way to the base on the first day of reporting. She is burdened with the secret instructions from her father, Lan Jiangshui:

Seek access to Ximai Farm, investigate its secrets, and if possible, close the entrance to the farm.

On the way to the Federal Secret Service, she encountered a robbery case and met the male protagonist Leonardo in the process of subduing the robber.

As mentioned earlier, the standard screenwriting rules for Hollywood movies are to complete the plot setup and basic structure construction in the first 10 minutes.

Like movies and novels, the beginning must be a winning start and provide the audience with the most eye-catching content.

It can be an action scene, a suspense setting, or a thriller.

In Lu Kuan's adapted script, he chose a car chase scene, which was not in the original novel.

It should be said that apart from the core science fiction concept setting, the entire movie does not have much content similar to the original.

After all, if it were filmed according to the original science fiction novel, he would probably jump off the building.

And car chase scenes are simply a standard feature of Hollywood blockbusters.

(End of this chapter)