Unboxing, Director!

Chapter 44: Reward
The three of them then discussed the new script.

Situ Zhaodun examined the script word by word and asked questions, while Jiang Wen supplemented his answers.

Lu Jiang played the role of a student and explained everything one by one.

Needless to say, the overall theme of the script is a metaphor for the cycle of history.

The protagonist is an ordinary person at the beginning, representing the common people at the bottom.

The box where the goddess is met is very harmonious, representing a stable stage of society. The goddess represents the love of ordinary people and also represents the things cherished by the grassroots people.

The second box reveals deep-seated social problems and truths such as wealth, poverty, and class.

In the context of a cyclical scenario, it also represents that when society develops to a certain level, problems such as corruption begin to arise.

The goddess becomes a plaything, which can be a metaphor that beautiful things have two sides, we must look at things objectively, and love cannot be blind.

It can also represent that when a harmonious society develops to a certain stage, the gap between the rich and the poor widens, resource distribution enters a stage of extreme imbalance, and the things cherished by the lower-class people begin to be deprived.

The third box was bigger than the second one and had more beauties, representing a higher level of extravagance for the vested interests, but it was soon replaced by violence by the new force represented by the men in black.

The protagonist stood in the right position during the revolutionary stage, and thus became the new powerful class in the second cycle.

Faced with the new goddess and the young man, the protagonist is as indifferent as the powerful people in the first cycle. He enjoys the vested interests, regards the lower class as nothing, and has no memory of the fact that he was once at the bottom of the society.

Then he became even more extravagant, moving to a larger box and treating more "goddesses" as playthings.

As expected, the result triggered a revolution by the new forces, the new regime fell, and the protagonist returned to the corridor and became back to the bottom.

In the third cycle, the protagonist personally experienced the cyclical shackles of the old era's history and began to awaken.

Rejecting the goddess's call meant refusing to enter a new reincarnation. Instead, he resolutely led his brothers and friends through the forbidden road, experienced the winding road, and successfully walked out of the building.

There is no need to say who this paragraph is paying tribute to.

After walking out of the building, all the pedestrians outside were once people in the building, but with different identities, which means that the protagonist has jumped out of the feudal and backward old historical cycle and entered a new ideal world.

In the end, the protagonist's friend got on the wrong bus, which means that the new cycle is still continuing, just in a different form. Whether he can stop it or break out of the cycle again remains a suspense.

At this point, things on the script side are basically straightened out.

In the words of Situ Zhaodun: It is better than the original.

Jiang Wen's comment was: The title "Not Drunk" is very appropriate.

But the script only accounts for less than 30% of the production task.

The remaining 70% depends on implementation.

indeed.

No matter what kind of script it is, the most important thing is whether it can be implemented and presented effectively.

Lu Jiang's film is shot in one shot.

Apart from anything else, the difficulty of scheduling after the adaptation is much greater than the original version.

Originally, the five rooms were independent of each other, so the actors didn't have to run around. They could just follow the protagonist's perspective and shoot like a diary. It was actually not difficult.

Although there are fewer rooms in the new script, the main actors' roles have been greatly increased.

Because it was shot in one take, the actors had very limited time to change costumes and transition between scenes.

The key is that the scene change happens not just once, but multiple times, which greatly increases the difficulty!
If you make a mistake, you have to start over.

From this perspective, Lu Jiang is just young in the eyes of Situ Zhaodun and Jiang Wen. He was too careless when writing the script, and he must regret it when filming really starts.

But also admit it.

Only when this film reaches such a level of difficulty does it truly have the value to win awards.

So the three of them then focused on discussing how to schedule and how to design gaps to facilitate the actors' transitions.

The easiest way is to make full use of the scene where the protagonist is in the corridor.

For example, when coming out of the first box, the camera is pointed in the opposite direction of the set to facilitate the actors behind to change scenes and change costumes.

Here, Jiang Wen offered a suggestion for revision: "It would be better to add a few shots here to explain clearly how the group of men in black came into being."

So every time the protagonist returns to the corridor, there are waiters, customers coming and going, or people who are directly kicked out of certain private rooms.

At the same time, there were many more shots in the corridor of people looking at the boxes in surprise, fear, and anger. After seeing the scene in the box, most of these people left quietly and continued to do their own things. A small number of them put on black clothes, or joined the black team, or pulled others to join the team.

For example, the protagonist will always be the target of solicitation, which may be in the form of asking the protagonist where the toilet is, or asking if he has a lighter, or even selling something, etc.

In short, the protagonist unconsciously rejected the ubiquitous solicitation of the men in black many times, which represents the insulation, blindness and vigilance of the "revolution" to the majority of ordinary people who have not awakened.

It also creates time for the actors to change scenes.

The problem of how to transition is solved.

Next is the issue of production.

Film cameras are too big and too heavy. Many imagined lens conversions look simple but are actually very difficult to do. How can this be solved? Are there any alternatives?

Lu Jiang took the opportunity to introduce to Jiang Wen some of his innovations in technology.

But this is not the end, the most important thing is the storyboard setting.

"New Undrunk" was shot entirely in one take, without storyboards, but storyboards are everywhere. The same script can produce different results when shot by directors of different calibers.

Are Hollywood movies good because of their good scripts?

Did "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" win an Oscar simply because the script caters to Western values?

Both are fighting against the Four Heavenly Kings, so why is there such a big difference between "Fengshen 2" and "Black Myth: Wukong"?
Film is the art of telling stories through camera.

How should I compose my shot? How should I set up the lighting? How should I portray the characters? Or how should I take a close-up? And so on.

These are the things that best demonstrate the director's skills.

Therefore, "New Not Drunk" can only truly compete for the grand prize if it can make good use of every second.

It’s just that this is the truth, but such a requirement is very difficult for Lu Jiang at the moment.

But Lu Jiang is fearless.

Now that it has come to this, can we still retreat?
He had already prepared himself mentally. Even if the final product turned out to be a piece of shit, it was still his work and there was nothing to be ashamed of.

At worst, I can just rely on the strongest talent cheat in the future and not make any changes.

Besides, even if the effect is really average, it is still much better than ordinary MVs. Who in the music industry can come up with something similar now?

So Lu Jiang was not afraid at all.

The three of them brainstormed for nearly two hours, and after that, only one most important question remained about "New Not Drunk".

"Can you act it out?"

Jiang Wen asked with a smile.

The film is shot in one shot, and all the plot unfolds from the protagonist's perspective within a period of ten to twenty minutes.

The protagonist's acting skills are of course the top priority.

Does Lu Jiang have acting skills?
Not much.

But after the upgrade of the Golden Finger, although it did not provide functions such as acting possession, it also provided acting guidance and simulated set training.

Then just learn and practice at the same time.

At the same time, Lu Jiang also knew what Jiang Wen meant by this.

Lu Jiang was still grateful to Jiang Wen for helping him make suggestions for revisions, but he certainly couldn't repay him by becoming the protagonist.

Take another ten thousand steps back.

Even if my acting skills are worse than those of popular stars, I won’t let you, Jiang Wen, get away with it.

Otherwise, who would own this movie?
So Lu Jiang didn't hesitate at all: "I have to act it out, don't worry, Director Jiang."

Jiang Wen felt a little regretful when he heard this, but that was all.

After all, thinking and doing are two different things.

He has a lot of things to do now, and he doesn't have time even if he is asked to act.

This concludes the discussion of the script.

Lu Jiang and Situ Zhaodun agreed to notify him when the filming was ready to start.

Lu Jiang then said goodbye to the two of them.

After Lu Jiang left, Situ Zhaodun asked Jiang Wen, "What do you think of this movie?"

Jiang Wen thought for a moment and said, "Maggie Cheung is a judge at the Venice Film Festival this year. She definitely has a vote."

"Am I that utilitarian?"

"No? I came to watch a movie with you, and you asked me for tea."

"Let's not talk about your film first, let's talk about Lu Jiang first. What do you think of this kid?"

"He's a good talent, Lao Zhao. Get him to Beijing Film Academy as soon as possible."

Situ Zhaodun just smiled and said nothing.

Jiang Wen was not curious about what he was thinking, and just talked about his own business: "Is there any progress in my matter?"

After sitting back in the car, Lu Jiang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He was a little excited.

Situ Zhaodun said in person that he would help send the film to the Venice Film Festival after it was finished.

No matter what the final result is, it is already good enough to be sent to the three major European film festivals. There are so many student works that want to go but cannot.

I just want to catch the deadline for submitting films to Venice this year, and time is a bit tight, only 40 days.

It was really difficult to shoot and complete "Not Drunk", a film with much higher production difficulty, within 40 days.

But the same thing goes, now that things have come to this, let’s just give it our all.

(End of this chapter)