Chapter 195

October 1, 2003, Grouse Mountain, suburbs of Vancouver, Canada.

The actors and staff needed for the early filming of the 'Alien Realm' crew gathered and came to the location for the early scenes.

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

"Lu, the local masses are protesting the crew's filming, how to deal with it?"

Boss Lu was puzzled: "Why protest?"

Canada is a common location for North American films and a country for special effects production tax rebates.

From small town residents in the countryside to urban white-collar workers in the city center, they are accustomed to filming crews around them, and even have the leisure to be extras to participate in filming.

"Maybe it's 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 crew souvenirs and Leonardo's autograph to the town to do guest relations.

Last year, the boiling point raged in the country, and Canada is a major country for Chinese immigrants, especially cities like Vancouver and Toronto.

At that time, because the Canadian government and residents were not prepared for this, a large number of Chinese infected people entered the country, causing great panic, and the number of deaths was even higher than in some cities in the country.

Now these protesting and complaining town residents are like birds of prey, and they are a little afraid that the old things will repeat themselves when they see so many foreign Chinese faces at once.

Liu Xiaoli and her daughter walked down from the RV.

Liu Xiaoli smiled: "Little Lu, your car is really good, can you buy imported cars in the country?"

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

Hollywood is still ahead of the world in this kind of luxury spending.

Liu Yifei nodded. She borrowed Lu Kuan's RV to change clothes just now, which was quite convenient.

"I'll ask for you later, it shouldn't be a problem, this car is very ordinary, there are many good ones, you can consider it."

Liu Yifei was wearing a white t-shirt unified by the crew today, a pair of slim-fit washed jeans on the lower body, wearing sneakers, looking like a spirited girl.

After careful guidance, and Boss Lu took the beauty to travel together yesterday, she was completely immersed in the joy of entering the new crew.

Even if she was just Zhang Ziyi's substitute actor.

Why say little girls are easy to coax? According to the hobbies of Liu Yifei in later generations, if she gets angry again when she grows up, doesn't she have to buy a supercar to vent her anger?

The little girl pointed to the talisman pattern behind her and asked suspiciously: "Lu Kuan, what does this ghost-drawn talisman mean?"

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

But the patterns and text printed on the clothes are not fixed. Directors with big brains like Tarantino even draw naked women on the clothes.

When the producer asked him why, Tarantino called it that this could make the actors and staff more happy, which is conducive to the smooth development of work.

Most of them write fictional crew names, like Nolan's crew name when filming 'The Dark Knight' was 'Roy's First Kiss'.

When filming 'Inception', it was called 'Oliver's Arrow', both using his children's names.

Lu Kuan designed a "fortune-increasing amulet" on the crew uniform, which not only the Americans in the crew couldn't understand, but even the Chinese actors and staff didn't know why.

"This is a Daoist talisman, to avoid evil and suppress disasters, and to increase luck and protect the body."

Liu Yifei said excitedly: "Wow! Really?"

Cao Yu, who came over to report work, smiled: "This is a little trick of Director Lu. Foreigners are relatively superstitious about these strange powers and chaotic gods. They will avoid religious symbols they don't understand, which is conducive to the crew clearing obstacles and filming with peace of mind."

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

She decided to keep her piece well, maybe it has some magic power infused by a little god?

At 8:00 sharp in the morning, the actors participating in the filming today arrived on time. The big names got off the RV, and the small ones waited early in the waiting area of the studio.

Leonardo patted the young director on the shoulder: "Lu, are there any more of these clothes? I want to take a few for my girlfriend."

"You don't know, after your introduction, I felt very at ease when I slept wearing it last night!"

Liu Yifei giggled on the side, thinking that these foreigners are really simple.

Boss Lu exaggerated: "Take a few for your girlfriends? Doesn't that add up to more than a hundred? Leo, you also know that the crew's budget is insufficient, you have to pay!"

Leonardo smiled and hammered him, and then spread his hands helplessly, without any attempt to explain.

Boss Lu was very jealous, handsome guys are so unscrupulous.

The little girl looked at them "colluding" with contempt on the side, secretly saying that they were all the same.

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

Travolta and Boss Lu were also quite familiar.

Before the press conference in the inquiry realm, Lu Kuan came to the United States to determine the final cast. He and Tarantino invited Boss Lu to drink flower wine, which was beautiful.

Everything was ready, and the crew officially started.

They were all famous actors and skilled workers, the scene was orderly, and Boss Lu became the most idle role.

Hollywood directors, the crew they put together themselves will be very busy, running around to guide lighting and photography;

But if it is a tool director invited by a producer, it is basically enough to delegate power to the photography DP and the props and lighting boss, and sit behind the monitor all day without moving.

According to the process of positioning, lighting, preview, fine-tuning and official filming, actors should make up, walk, and the scene layout, shooting track laying, and lighting equipment debugging on the scene are also carried out in an orderly manner.

Liu Xiaoli still waited for her daughter in the waiting area as always. This time, because Liu Yifei didn't have too many filming tasks, Yang Siwei didn't come over in the country.

Lu Kuan asked people to put another 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, so you just sit next to me and watch the monitor together."

"You have studied the script almost enough. For every scene, whether it's Zhang Ziyi's or Leonardo's, you first preset the interpretation process in your heart."

"If this character is you? How would you design the action, grasp the emotional lines, and grasp the action chain? Understand what I mean?"

Liu Yifei knew Lu Kuan's serious attitude in formal work and nodded expectantly.

After Lu Boss's patient guidance, she also knew that this was indeed a rare opportunity, even throwing away the improvement and observation of acting skills themselves.

If she wants to develop in Hollywood in the future, at least this time she can go through the complete process of Hollywood crew filming and accumulate experience well.

After entrusting Liu Yifei, Lu Kuan left the monitor to check the lighting and photography tracks on the scene.

He was used to doing things himself. The crew were all professional talents hired from the union, but who knows if they were working without effort.

On the first day of filming, he still had to establish his authority.

Lu Kuan walked up to a lighting technician named Phoebe.

"Leonardo's main light doesn't need too much scenery. You put the strong light of silk on the top, and hit the surface light to the ceiling to create a relatively neutral light balance environment tone for me."

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

When applying for the crew, she had seen the resume of this director, with the honorary endorsement of the three major European festivals, but what about the Hollywood experience? None.

The North American box office of the film? Only 'The Drummer' introduced by Harvey, and the numbers were bleak.

Sorry, this is Hollywood, you rookie director from China, please don't point fingers at my work!

This was of course her inner monologue, and on the surface, she still had a professional white fake smile: "Mr. Lu, please sit comfortably in the director's chair, we will handle these professional work for you!"

Looking at the sneers and winks of other lighting technicians and track technicians around, it was obvious that everyone thought so.

Everyone felt that this Chinese director who was too young was just a tool man invited by producer Tom Cruise.

Tool man, you just stay honestly, pretending to point fingers, and delaying time to affect everyone's get off work.

Liu Yifei asked Cao Yu secretly not far away: "Why are they all so arrogant? Isn't the director the most authoritative person in the crew?"

The rules of the director-centered system in the country are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it was the first time the little girl saw so many staff members not urinating the director.

Cao Yu's expression was also a bit serious: "Director Lu held a meeting for us yesterday, and he had long expected that such a situation might occur."

"Many Hollywood directors are hired by producers, they are puppets and tool men. In the eyes of these crew members of the lighting technician, the director is no different from them."

"And these people are registered in the union. Without a legitimate reason, it is difficult for the crew to fire them directly, otherwise it will be very troublesome to get involved in a lawsuit."

If you write a story about a Chinese director breaking into Hollywood very realistically, how to establish authority in the crew and suppress these proud soldiers and fierce generals is probably the first important topic.

Just like when Yuan Heping took the martial arts team to Hollywood to film, the black people in the crew didn't want to pay attention to them, let alone white people.

Yuan Heping thought of a way. He deliberately arranged many wonderful moves that exceeded the crew's needs in the action scenes. After two high-difficulty moves were done, these foreigners who had been yearning for Chinese Kung Fu for a long time were immediately convinced.

Boss Lu was of course confident about this. In his previous life, he ran to the crew for part-time jobs and learning, and seeing these things was as habitual as drinking water.

"You are Phoebe, right? Okay, since you all think you are business elites, I will give you a topic."

"I am the director. For Leonardo's first appearance scene, I require you to give me a new main light position without light source basis in the picture, so as to achieve a soft top light and reasonable shadow density distribution effect."

Phoebe's sneering expression stopped abruptly. Not only her, but the lighting technicians around who were just doing their own duties also fell into thought.

The scene was silent. Not only the crew's filming staff, but even the leads like Zhang Ziyi and Leonardo were watching the fun on the side.

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

The Chinese actors and staff were one faction, and the American actors and staff were one faction.

There were also actors like Leonardo and Travolta who knew Lu Kuan's true strength watching the play neutrally.

Lu Kuan's expression changed from playful to serious, and he shouted: "Give me the answer within 3 minutes!"

"I tell you, this crew is invested by my money, you are all working for me, and now you can't even complete a very simple task of mine, I have every reason to fire you, and the union can't say anything!"

Hearing him threaten her, Phoebe also blushed and retorted: "You said an impossible task! Just like the Goldbach conjecture in mathematics!"

"Proposing an unsolvable problem, then forcing us to solve it, and using this as a threat to fire me, sir, you are very ungentlemanly!"

Boss Lu sneered: "Unsolvable? What a frog in the well."

He turned sideways and called over two slightly younger lighting technicians.

"Do as I say, set up the fat light, shift the blonde girl about ten centimeters to the left, and lay the soft light cloth at one-third of the metering position, add some beef to the baby!"

"Cao Yu, put a reflector on the left side of the camera, add some auxiliary light, and pay attention to handling the contrast between light and dark."

The two lighting technicians looked at the director with bad faces and didn't dare to face him directly, doing everything as ordered.

Phoebe was also stunned. She hadn't realized the brilliance of this lighting technique that Lu Boss plagiarized from 'Kingsman' in later generations.

But these industry slangs like "fat light" and "blonde girl" clearly and accurately conveyed a message to everyone.

This Chinese director is far from the producer puppet and Hollywood rookie that everyone imagined!

People even know the slang circulating in the Hollywood lighting industry!

The lighting was set up, Lu Kuan greeted Leonardo to walk the position, and let these proud soldiers and fierce generals see the final effect.

"This!"

"My God, how is this done?"

Seven or eight lighting technicians, including Phoebe, looked at the lighting scene with significant effects in surprise. How did he do it?

Confrontation is just a means. Boss Lu's purpose is to make these people convinced, and he smiled and began to preach and solve puzzles.

"This problem can be divided into three steps."

"First point, consider the shadows produced by metering."

"Second, consider the contrast ratio between the light-receiving surface and the dark surface."

"You have to jump out of the original fixed thinking, consider the metering position from the character's form to hit the light, and fully consider the reflection characteristics of the object."

"The essence of this method is to use one light to make two types of brightness, but the reflector must be placed outside the picture. If the "camera position" is set to a panoramic view, but the reflected light is powerless to reach the position of the subject, an additional light must be added to assist us in handling the dark relationship."

"Clap clap clap!"

I don't know who was the first to applaud. The professional lighting technicians saw the doorway, and other Chinese actors and staff happily watched the fun.

Zhang Ziyi also nodded secretly on the side. The comprehensive business ability of the Golden Lion Award director is indeed strong, at least she didn't see this scene in Zhang Yimou's crew.

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

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

"They are all Hollywood film set slangs, and what else baby refers to is that Fresnel light, beef refers to brightness, and adding them together means adjusting the soft light."

Waiting for Wu Ershan and Cao Yu and others to walk over, Boss Lu also took this opportunity to give instructions.

"If you have the opportunity to film in Hollywood in the future, remember to be more arrogant than these proud soldiers and fierce generals."

"These foreigners are all things with eyes higher than the top, and they must be beaten down, and their arrogance must be stepped on the ground! You must not be humble."

Saying that, he turned to Liu Yifei: "And you, actors are much more bullied than others."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Wu Ershan secretly slandered in his heart, to beat them down, you must have the strength of Director Lu!

There is still a lot for him to learn. If the difficulty of filming commercials and MVs is 1, then filming movies can fluctuate between 100-1000.

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

There are many similar slangs in Hollywood film sets, including fixed names for how different props are placed.

Like the foot pad box placed flat is called Texas, vertical is called New York, side is called California, etc., not exhaustive.

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

The dog thing who works seriously is really handsome!

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

"Director, actors, lighting, photography, recording are all in place, please instruct."

Boss Lu's expression was indifferent: "Wait for the actors to prepare."

The photography assistant walked to the camera with the clapperboard: "Alien Realm, scene 1, shot 1, take 1!"

Then with a "click", he closed the clapperboard, walked out of the lens, and started normal filming.

The assistant director specifically responsible for actor order whispered next to the camera: "Is the heroine ready?"

This is the last procedure before official filming, because the first time an actor appears, they need to brew emotions. The assistant director will give the actor enough preparation time depending on the situation.

Even if the film is turning and consuming at this time, it must wait for the actor's state of being in the play to be reached.

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

Lu Kuan heard the report on the walkie-talkie and ordered to start.

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

In this scene, Lan Yue, played by Zhang Ziyi, is on her way to report to the base on the first day. She bears the secret entrustment of her father Lan Jiangshui:

Seek the opportunity to enter the Ximai farm, investigate the secret, and if possible, close the entrance to the farm.

On the way to the Federal Agent General Bureau, she encountered a robbery case. In the process of subduing the robbers, she and the male lead Leonardo didn't know each other.

As mentioned earlier, the standard screenwriting rules of Hollywood movies will complete the plot foreshadowing and the construction of the basic framework in the first 10 minutes.

Movies are the same as novels, opening with a win, throwing the most eye-catching content to the audience.

It can be action scenes, suspense settings, or thriller painting.

In Lu Kuan's adapted script, he chose a flying car scene, which is content not in the original book.

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

After all, if you film according to the original science fiction novel, it is estimated that you will jump off the building.

And flying car scenes are simply the standard configuration of Hollywood blockbusters.

(End of chapter)