Chapter 203

November 1, 2003, following the support from North American top-tier stars and film merchants such as Leonardo, Tom Cruise, Lionsgate, and Miramax.

The Inquiry Realm homepage of the domestic blog network issued an announcement, thanking Ms. Zhang Ziyi for her early contribution, but due to force majeure, the two sides officially terminated the contract, and Ms. Liu Yifei, who also performed well in the audition, took the role of the heroine.

Many of the scenes filmed in the early stage were originally performed by Liu Yifei as a stunt double, so there is no need to change them, just supplement some front-facing shots.

Compared to Zhang Ziyi, Liu Yifei's advantages are in English and martial arts scenes, which can be considered a slight balance.

Because for North American audiences, they only have three points to watch when they walk into the cinema because of this *Alien Realm*.

Leonardo, sci-fi special effects, and Chinese kung fu.

Liu Yifei's studio also took the opportunity to release the second blog post after its establishment. The first one was a statement to withdraw from Red Star Dock.

The blog post expresses gratitude and attitude for being able to participate in the film, and will definitely use the most excellent performance to give back to the crew and director, and dedicate a good film to the audience.

This news stirred up wind and rain in the domestic entertainment industry again, and those who watched it had different thoughts.

Whether it is Liu Zeyu who has been silent for a long time, the big and small Wangs who are temporarily truce, or Fan Bingbing who has just appeared on the cover of the October issue of *Harper's Bazaar*.

Lu Kuan returned to the set. Today is the first filming after Little Liu usurped the throne.

Liu Xiaoli's preparation work was very sufficient. She distributed the small snacks and Chinese-style pastries brought from the country to the crew's cast and staff. The core purpose was to hope that everyone could give Xixi more tolerance.

After all, with the filming experience of *The Story of a Noble Family*, she was also worried that her daughter would be excluded by everyone because of poor performance on the spot.

But this time she thought too much.

First, Liu Yifei participated in the filming as a stunt double before, and the professionalism she showed at a young age had already been recognized by everyone.

Secondly, on the Hollywood set, excluding the completion guarantee company, the producer is the boss, and the director is the second.

But the producer of *Alien Realm* is now a puppet, which means the boss and the second are both Old Lu.

Coupled with the fact that he established his prestige on the first day of filming, now there is no cast or staff who dare to neglect the actress he clearly wants to promote.

Perhaps the only one who scolds her at every turn is Lu Kuan himself at work.

Now filming is a conflict scene. Liu Yifei and Leonardo have a quarrel about whether to deal with the monster first or take away the body of their companion Travolta.

Conflict is a dramatic element that empowers the scene, but in some scenes, conflict is a sudden state.

This tests the director's lens design, focusing the audience's attention on the continuous story and main characters.

Lu Kuan explained his lens plan for this scene to Lin Yibin, Wu Ershan, and Emil behind the monitor.

"Making the layout of the actors' positions reasonable, the best way is to focus on the farthest character, and other characters can be completely blurred."

"Just like the current Liu Yifei and Leonardo, I asked Cao Yu to use a telephoto lens, which can achieve a relatively shallow depth of field and capture the reaction of the monster in the distance."

Lin Yibin first raised a question: "Director, the standing relationship between them, including the distance and the contrast of character height, is also carefully designed by you, right?"

Boss Lu secretly praised in his heart. As expected of the designated director of the series of cool films *Fast & Furious*, this commercial film technique and vision are already relatively mature.

But he still needs to explain to the other two.

"The smaller the conflict, the more delicate the lens should be. For example, if I want to neglect Leonardo's character below, a simple standing layout can be achieved."

Book friends who have seen *Lost in Translation* may remember a scene where three characters stand in a triangle. The distance between them is almost equal, but why can it reflect imbalance?

Because two of them are husband and wife, in the true sense of balance, the distance between them should be slightly narrower.

The same is true for the two-person structure in *Alien Realm* now. In order to show Liu Yifei's special status in this conflict, the next shot will place her directly in the center of the screen.

Under the telephoto lens, the cheeks of the remaining monsters or the male supporting actors who died in the protagonist group gradually only have outlines, framing Liu Yifei, the heroine, in the middle of the screen.

Lin Yibin and others didn't say a word when they heard it, and diligently sought these director techniques produced in practice.

"Cut! Little Liu, the eyes are wrong."

The last shot of this scene will give Liu Yifei a ten-second eye contact with the lens, which is very difficult.

"I require your gaze to give enough mystery. What you convey is playfulness and banter. That's not called mystery."

Leonardo smiled and gave her an encouragement, and continued filming.

"Cut!"

"Cut!"

"Cut!"

Lu Kuan seemed very patient, because he had anticipated these possible situations from the moment he chose Liu Yifei.

The interpretation of such dramatic conflict, including the static performance similar to "Kubrick Stare" towards the lens, is very testing of the actor's eye acting.

If she can pass this level, it will undoubtedly be another milestone progress for the improvement of acting skills.

Lu Kuan called her to the side of the monitor.

"This segment is your verbal conflict with the male lead, and then Leonardo begins to suspect, forcing you to ask what is strange about the Xima Farm."

"Tell me, what emotion should your eye contact with the lens give?"

Liu Yifei thought for a while: "The heroine wants to convey a sense of mystery, the crisis hidden in Xima Farm."

"She knows the truth, but can't say it clearly now, so she can only use such eye hints and warnings to Leonardo, please believe me, do as I ask."

Lu Kuan nodded: "The understanding is very in place, but the interpretation is not strong enough."

"How about this, to interpret this eye acting well, you must understand a basic concept, which is also a professional knowledge blind spot caused by your lack of university courses."

Liu Yifei smiled awkwardly, listening to him continue to talk about the play.

"The eye acting in front of the lens I just asked you to do is called 'Kubrick Stare', which is a direct communication between characters and the audience, breaking the fourth wall in the film."

This term sounds fresh, but film buffs often see it.

It refers to a medium-close shot where the actor faces the camera and performs eye acting for a long time without moving.

For example, Zhang Zifeng in *Detective Chinatown*, Joker in *Batman*, Schindler in *Schindler's List*, Hopkins in *The Silence of the Lambs*.

This involves a basic film shooting concept called 【Fourth Wall】.

This wall is not a wall in the physical sense, but a spatial concept under the film lens.

The world we live in is three-dimensional, like being in a square box. No matter how you turn your direction, only 5 faces will ever appear in your field of vision.

Namely top, bottom, front, left, and right.

As long as a person is not a large dragonfly with compound eyes, he will never see his back, and in the film, this back is the so-called fourth wall.

"Because in a single lens, no matter where the camera is facing, it can only shoot three walls. So who is the fourth wall I just let you look at?"

"It's the camera, it's the audience, it's outside the screen."

Lu Kuan let her face the camera closely: "You looked at the lens from here, and you had eye contact with the audience, and your eyes had direct communication with the audience."

"So you need to reflect not only the impatience and resistance to the male lead's untimely and bottom-of-the-pot questioning, but also the mystery and scientific boundary of the secrets hidden in the farm."

He pulled the little girl about ten meters away from the lens again.

"At this distance, there will be a safe distance between you and the audience, with this fourth wall."

"But as the lens starts to approach from the medium-close shot and pushes to your face, making you have eye dialogue with the lens directly, this kind of performance is an interpretation of another dimension."

Liu Yifei suddenly woke up and said: "That is to say, I not only have to talk to the male lead, but also to the audience. I am both a character and a narrator?"

"Finally not too stupid, go try it again, find the feeling of telling a story with your eyes."

"First scene, third shot, fifth take, start!"

Very easy one take.

Leonardo was extremely surprised. In his eyes, the ignorant girl who could only be considered a beginner in acting, how did she master such acting skills in ten minutes?

He became more interested in this young director. It is not too surprising to be able to give good scripts and master top special effects technology.

But it is not easy to transform an actor from scratch, from scratch to fine, to improve the actor's lower limit and raise the actor's upper limit.

Filming officially ended at 6:30 in the afternoon, and Boss Lu gradually got used to this daily routine of going to work and getting off work.

But if he could use the 996 filming progress like in the country, it would be great.

At least he could save the cost of eating, drinking, and shitting for ten or twenty days, and he didn't have to pay overtime pay.

"Little Liu, tell your mother, let's go eat together tonight."

Liu Yifei was still immersed in the joy of the one take just now. She felt that she seemed to have mastered a "peerless divine skill" called "Kubrick Stare" again.

In fact, the Great Dao leads to all methods. The accumulation of these small techniques of interpretation is certainly important, but this is only "technique" after all.

The content of "Dao" that Lu Kuan explained to her just now is the most fundamental technique.

As a professional actor, understanding the lens logic, and then adding the speculation of character psychology and grasping the action chain, can truly give a reasonable performance.

On top of this reasonableness, adding the control and interpretation of personal details, and adding some personal play that is obtained by chance, can be called an excellent actor.

If an excellent actor is lucky enough to meet a good director and a good script, and shapes a classic role of a type or several different types, the film also enters the international vision.

Then there is a good hope of winning a best actor or best actress at the three major film festivals and the Oscars.

Only then can it be considered to have truly reached the top of this industry.

"Little Liu?"

Liu Yifei seemed not to hear, as if she had entered a state of acting obsession.

Lu Kuan looked at her still reviewing the performance just now, dancing and dancing regardless of anyone, quite dumbfounded.

He patted Liu Yifei's arm lightly: "Get off work, don't act, the boss doesn't pay overtime."

"Ah? What did you just say?"

"Teacher Tian accompanied Li Laoshi Xuejian today, tell Aunt Liu, let's go eat together tonight."

Liu Yifei's eyes lit up. She had been looking forward to Li Xuejian joining the crew for a long time!

Lu Kuan's trivial matters were too many, and he could only talk about the play on the spot during filming and guide some professional content.

But Li Laoshi Xuejian is different!

He is a performance consultant specially hired by the crew. His job is to provide help to actors in character shaping, and it is just right to ask him for advice.

A-Fei drove the three of them to the Century City Shopping Center in Westfield, Los Angeles. This is a gathering place for Chinese-funded catering, and the welcome banquet in the evening was arranged here.

Pushing the door and entering, Tian Zhuangzhuang and Li Xuejian sat drinking tea.

Lu Kuan smiled and reached out first: "Li Laoshi, I have long admired you!"

Li Xuejian had just finished the radiotherapy course in the country. People recovered a little spirit, but the description was inevitably a bit withered.

Except for the stubble being cleaned up, the thin figure was a bit like his image in *Jiao Yulu*.

"Director Lu, I am the one who has long admired your name. Winning an award at the film festival is winning glory for our country!"

Li Xuejian had just landed after a long-distance flight, and his body was a bit trembling when standing. Lu Kuan hurriedly helped him sit down.

"Li Laoshi, you should also be clear about the relationship between me and Teacher Tian, so don't be so polite, just call me Little Lu."

Liu Xiaoli and her daughter watched from the side. It was the first time they saw Lu Kuan respect an actor so much.

"Let me introduce."

"This is Ms. Liu Xiaoli, this is her daughter Liu Yifei, who is the heroine of the crew now."

Liu Xiaoli looked at Lu Kuan's style, and she didn't dare to be big, so she hurriedly stepped forward to hold Li Xuejian's hand.

"Hello Li Laoshi, please give more guidance to Liu Yifei's performance in the future, she is still very immature."

Liu Yifei also added tea to Li Xuejian and Tian Zhuangzhuang cleverly.

"Do it yourself, do it yourself!"

Li Xuejian is an artist with both virtue and art. He has always shown himself with a very low posture. Seeing the little girl pouring tea for himself cleverly, he hurriedly blocked it with his hand.

Boss Lu smiled: "Li Laoshi, don't be polite. She is a student, you are a teacher. If you really feel sorry, you can give her some small stoves when you are free."

Liu Yifei nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes!"

Lu Kuan acts thoroughly. Tian Zhuangzhuang is also relieved to hand over his cousin's medical treatment and work here to him.

"Xuejian, this Ms. Liu has already found a hospital for you in the US, so you can stay in the crew with peace of mind and go to the hospital twice a week."

Li Xuejian said gratefully: "Because of my business, I troubled everyone, I really feel sorry."

Lu Kuan didn't want him to bear too much psychological pressure: "Li Laoshi, don't think too much."

"I pay, you contribute, and there is no such thing as taking care of anyone. The salary and treatment are all in accordance with the Hollywood union standards."

"By the way, I will ask the staff to take you to register for the union quota tomorrow."

Considering that Li Xuejian needs to rest, the dinner party did not last long.

Lu Kuan asked A-Fei to send him to the hotel room to rest, and he and Tian Zhuangzhuang smoked downstairs.

"Teacher Tian, the share reform of Xi'an Film Studio this time..."

Tian Zhuangzhuang raised his hand to signal him to stop.

"That is the strength of your own company, it has nothing to do with me, you don't need to thank me."

Lu Kuan pretended to be unhappy: "Look, I didn't want to thank you, I just wanted to say that this share reform is quite good, and there will be many opportunities for cooperation between the two families in the future."

Adults talk to the point, but Boss Lu inquired about the inside story through Dong Shuangqiang.

Except for Dong Shuangqiang secretly helping, Tian Zhuangzhuang's connections also played a key role.

This one belongs to the root-red-and-seed-red film second generation, film family. Father Tian Fang was the first director of the Beijing Film Studio, and later became the deputy director of the Film Bureau;

Mother Yu Lan shaped the classic role of "Sister Jiang" forever, was received by the Premier many times, and founded the Children's Film Studio at the age of 60, and worked until she was 80 before retiring.

Tian Zhuangzhuang smiled: "You don't need to thank me, but I have to thank you, Xuejian he..."

Lu Kuan also interrupted Tian Zhuangzhuang's gratitude like him: "*Drummer* is you helping to greet the Youth Film Studio, and the existence of this dark fascist teacher in it is also you helping to pass the review."

"I am very grateful to you for being able to lend a helping hand when a young director needs help most, so don't worry about Li Laoshi's business, this is what I should do."

To be fair, when Lu Kuan and Tian Zhuangzhuang first became friends, it was indeed for his background, qualifications, and resources.

But after two years of getting along, they became familiar with each other's character and temperament, and they were far from being friends for profit.

Tian Zhuangzhuang said suddenly and earnestly: "Little Lu, you are a young man with bright eyes and a bright heart. Some words we old men shouldn't have said much."

"But you also have to pay attention, especially in your personal life, don't always make big movements."

"With your talent and achievements, if you want to stay in school after graduation, or go to Xi'an Film Studio or Beijing Film Studio to mix in the system, it's not impossible, but first you have to be clean and self-disciplined."

Boss Lu smiled: "Teacher Tian, you don't need to persuade me about this. I don't like to be managed, and I will be suffocated if I go into the system."

Perhaps because they were in a foreign country, the fifth-generation director who had always been cautious opened his heart today and talked about everything.

"I'm not asking you to abandon business and enter politics."

"In the country, if you want to be a pure artist, it's very simple. As long as your thoughts are not reactionary, no one will care if you are dissolute or crazy."

"But you have actually reached out to the satellite TV station. There are quite a few people who are jealous of this thing."

Lu Kuan exhaled a puff of smoke silently. He knew what Tian Zhuangzhuang meant.

An innocent man is not guilty, but his treasure is his crime. He saw Dong Shuangqiang holding the shares of the satellite TV station and being coveted by Poly. What about himself?

Old Dong at least has the support of the Yin family and the leaders of the Ministry of Culture behind him. What about himself?

That is, Tian Zhuangzhuang doesn't know that Lu Kuan is the actual controller of the blog network, and now just let Zhuang Xu hold the shares on his behalf, otherwise he would definitely persuade him more strongly.

Persuade him to seek an identity in the system, even if it is a virtual position like a member of the CPPCC.

Without the protection of some kind of identity, earning 1 million might be your own, but earning 1 billion might attract a bunch of hungry wolves to tear you apart.

Tian Zhuangzhuang saw him fall into deep thought, knowing that with Lu Kuan's intelligence, it is impossible not to understand his meaning.

"You can think about it carefully. I think the most suitable thing is to stay in school and teach after graduation, and give you the name of a teacher in the directing department or acting department."

"When you are older, give you the title of deputy director of the directing department, just like Old Xie, who is now a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC."

"Or go to the Beijing Film Studio to hold a position, have a rank, and have a mother's family."

(End of chapter)