Chapter 10: Production Complete

In the evening, the film crew had a dinner, which served as a wrap party. All the staff were present, and the actors who were still in Jingcheng had basically all come as well. Cao Yang was also quite happy and drank a little alcohol.

After the meal, the rooms the crew had rented at the hotel hadn't been checked out yet, and Cao Yang didn't want to return to school, so he stayed at the hotel.

Not long after he finished washing up, he heard a knock at the door.

Cao Yang opened the door; it was Li Xiaoran outside.

Before he could say anything, Li Xiaoran squeezed in quite naturally.

Seeing Cao Yang still standing blankly at the doorway, Li Xiaoran said somewhat nervously, "Close the door quickly. This is Jingcheng; don't let her find out."

"Hmm?"

Cao Yang was full of question marks. Was this still in character, bringing the movie into reality?

"Xiaoran, listen to me..."

"Don't speak. I can tell the difference. You are Cao Yang from the Film Academy... but you are also the Cao Yang I think about day and night."

Li Xiaoran grabbed Cao Yang in a hug, looking at him with a face full of tenderness.

"Cao Yang, during my time abroad, I thought of you every single day and night. Why didn't you come to find me? Are you a coward? So what if you were blacklisted? We could have lived very well in that small town, watching the sea together, strolling on the beach together, growing old together..."

After speaking, she opened her mouth and bit down hard on Cao Yang's shoulder, not letting go for over twenty seconds.

"I loved you so much, missed you so much, why didn't you come to find me? Do you know how difficult that time abroad was for me?"

Cao Yang let out a hiss as he was bitten, gasping in pain; he figured it was going to bleed.

But he didn't move. He just sighed, stretched out his hands, paused for a moment, slowly hugged Li Xiaoran back, and said softly, "It’s all my fault. I was too cowardly. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I’m just a person without the courage to face reality. I'm sorry."

Hearing Cao Yang's words, the suppressed emotions in Li Xiaoran's heart seemed to find an outlet, and she burst into tears.

"You jerk, you jerk, you're just a spineless coward, wuwuwu..."

Cao Yang gently patted Li Xiaoran's back. "Yes, I'm a jerk, I'm a coward. I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"Wuwuwu..."

Li Xiaoran held Cao Yang and cried like this for a long time, until her voice slowly weakened, until there was no more crying, only the occasional sob.

Cao Yang held her, continuing to pat her back gently, until he realized she had fallen asleep just like that.

He sighed softly. This damn method-acting experience was truly a fucking disaster; he must never use it again when someone is mentally fragile.

Cao Yang hesitated for a moment, then gently picked up Li Xiaoran, placed her on the bed, and covered her with the quilt.

Just as he was about to leave, Li Xiaoran frowned in her sleep and murmured softly, "Cao Yang, don't go, don't leave me..."

Damn this shitty system!

Cao Yang crouched by the bedside and said in a very, very soft voice, "I'm not going. Sleep, sleep well, I'm not going."

Day broke. Li Xiaoran opened her eyes and saw Cao Yang sleeping slumped over the bedside.

A look of confusion crossed her face for a moment, followed by a look of surprise, and then she frowned.

After hesitating for a moment, she gently nudged Cao Yang. When Cao Yang opened his eyes, Li Xiaoran said softly, "Thank you, Director Cao."

Before Cao Yang could answer, she continued, "I know I'm having a hard time getting out of character. I've been very suppressed inside, and I needed to vent... Thank you for last night." "It's all my fault, I didn't intend..." Cao Yang thought for a moment and said, "I remember there's a teacher at school who specializes in emotional guidance for method acting. I'll take you to see her later."

"No need. Just give me the contact information and I'll go myself. I can't see you for a while; I'm afraid I won't be able to control myself..."

Cao Yang nodded and added, "I'll have Old Tian take you. He has much more influence than I do; it's better if he handles it."

Returning to school, Cao Yang first went to Teacher Situ's office to tell him that the filming was complete. Teacher Situ was knowledgeable and experienced, and he asked him about the issue of getting into character.

Teacher Situ said that it is normal for actors to get into character, especially those who haven't studied acting or professional methods and started halfway; they are more prone to getting stuck in the role.

Emotions are hard to control, and there is no particularly good or fast way to get out of a role. One can only relax, move around more, try not to trigger memories, do happy things, and slowly recover.

Bidding farewell to Teacher Situ, Cao Yang went to the Qingying Studio. The school had promised to provide all assistance except for the film stock, so the post-production editing and scoring would be done at the Qingying Studio.

Because most of this movie was shot in sequence and didn't have many scenes, plus it had a large number of long takes, editing it was quite simple.

Especially with the blessing of Li Xiaoran, the "One-Take Li," there were very few retakes, and the film waste ratio was as low as 3:1, which could be considered quite economical.

A comparison makes it clear: industry veterans are usually around 4:1, most directors are around 6:1, Jiang Wen can basically reach 25:1 for every film, and Wang Jiawei can even make investors go bankrupt.

!

For the score, Cao Yang decided to use the second movement, Adagio, of Schubert's String Quintet in C Major, D. 956.

This version of the performance is relatively soothing. This treatment makes the Adagio of this string quintet very warm, the visuals look comfortable, and it can slightly alleviate the sense of oppression brought by the female lead in the play.

After booking the editing room, Cao Yang stationed himself there early in the morning, wanting to finish the edit quickly to see the effect.

He didn't look for an editor from the Qingying Studio; the school had forcefully inserted a few students from the directing department's editing major to help out, mainly to fulfill their teaching practice.

However, this made Cao Yang's work much easier.

Some directors like to first cut a four- or five-hour rough cut, then talk to the editor about their ideas and the content they want to express, and then let the editor do the fine cut.

Mainly because after the rough cut is done, the director can't bear to cut anything; they want to keep this shot, that shot is very meaningful, they want to keep that too...

Directors treat every shot like their own child; they feel that every shot has a special meaning, is good, and they don't want to cut any of it.

At this time, a trusted editor needs to step in, snip-snip-snip, and keep a final cut of about 100 minutes.

Then find professionals for dubbing, scoring, and color grading, and a movie is made.

Of course, the process is not always smooth; many editors spend their time arguing with directors.

The most important part of this is submitting it for review. If it doesn't pass, one has to consider what the problem is, then find the problem, cut it out, and perhaps find some footage from the outtakes to edit into the final film to ensure the plot is coherent.

Cao Yang didn't have these worries for the time being, mainly because the plot of "On the Beach at Night Alone" was too simple, with few characters, few scenes, and even fewer shots. When filming, he already knew what kind of shots he wanted, so the editing was exceptionally crisp and the efficiency was incredibly fast.

He didn't learn from other directors by making two versions, one for submission and one for film festivals.

As far as the movie Cao Yang shot was concerned, if one really had to find the most extreme shot, it would just be the female lead smoking; there were absolutely no other shots that would affect the review.

"Done. Next, let's give the school teachers a little shock."

(End of chapter)