After leaving the small theater, Teacher Long invited two students to have lunch at noon. During the meal, they mentioned that she had an acting class for her freshman year to attend in the afternoon, so she simply asked Wen Liang to be her teaching assistant. Naturally, I was very happy to return to campus and experience the warmth and coolness of life, so I immediately agreed.
When it came to teaching assistants, He Tianran asked Teacher Long on a whim if he could come over this time and serve as a performance director on the crew of "Into the Wild".
The performance director in the crew initially completes part of the work on behalf of the director. For example, the crew is about to begin closed training. The performance director will conduct specific rehearsals based on the script and organize script readings to help the actors get into the role faster. Serve the performance effect desired by the director.
This kind of large-scale performance guidance is generally very common in large productions, but what we call performance guidance now tends to be more of an individual training for actors, which is equivalent to a personal trainer in a gym, especially for some popular celebrities. In the current fast pace of film and television production and the low professionalism of some actors, there is almost no need to discuss the rationality of the existence of a professional acting director.
However, it happens that the two leading actors Sui Chulang and Gu Qiaoman this time, as well as Wen Liang who is now around, were once students of Teacher Long.
I thought that Teacher Long would be interested in cooperating with his disciples this time and getting extra income, but Wen Liang frowned and calmly shook his head at He Tianran, but when the latter noticed At this time, the performance teacher's face had darkened...
"Gu Ling told me about this last year. She wanted to find a performance coach to accompany her into the group and guide her personally."
Teacher Long put down the chopsticks in his hand and said seriously:
"I thought to myself at the time, you Gu Ling and Sui Chulang were both taught by me. How Wen Liang learned it was how they learned it. I have never been partial in this regard. Now I am just improvising, that is, when I was in school. Lazy, knowing that I am not professional enough, I have to sharpen my skills before the battle.
I don’t understand, since when in the actor’s profession can we hire others to do the preparatory work such as studying scripts and designing characters?
I didn’t study when I was in school, and now I’m here to make up lessons. Sorry, Xiao He, I can’t do this job. I don’t know what they are thinking, but they have already graduated and asked me to teach them how to perform on site. My face is not bright. , just assume that I didn’t teach them well. "
He Tianran finally understood that his student had been disgraced professionally, and his face as a teacher would definitely be disgraceful. It had nothing to do with whether you were popular or not, and whether you had money or not.
From this point of view, Teacher Long is also a temperamental person, no wonder he likes Wen Liang and always talks about her.
He Tianran quickly added a few words, and added that the crew had a closed training time this time. It was not the kind of personal guidance, but mainly to help complete his performance, so that the other party gradually relaxed.
"Teacher Long, look at how much I stretched my hips when I was learning acting. Fortunately, I am not a major in this field, otherwise I would have been scolded to death by you. The lockdown before this filming lasted for two months, so I wanted to ask you to come out. Help me check it. Anyway, you can just take a day or two on the weekend to come and have a look. It will be the same as organizing the students to rehearse, and it will not delay the usual classes."
He Tianran first laughed at himself and lowered his status, and then talked about the situation of the crew. It was very rare to get training time before shooting this time, because now too many crews have arrived to start shooting, and the main actors cannot be decided. The protagonist Often after a day or two after receiving the script, they start acting in front of the camera without memorizing the words. Therefore, the acting skills of this new generation of actors are currently being criticized by the audience. This is not just their own problem, but also the entire film and television industry today. , all have become somewhat deformed in the fast pace urged by capital.
Not sure if it was to give He Tianran face or something else, Teacher Long said doubtfully:
"Xiao He, I think you have a good acting talent. You have no problem communicating with actors. I wouldn't be surprised if you want to direct and act in the future. It's not as bad as you said."
Teacher Long was not surprised, but these words surprised He Tianran:
"Ah? Then you scolded me the most harshly at that time..."
Wen Liang joked on the side: "Oh, Sister Long is like this. If you are really bad, she will just ignore you and won't even bother to say anything about you..."
Well, He Tianran overturned Yu Hui's conclusion that he was not good at the last audition, and felt a little complacent in his heart.
Regarding the performance guidance matter, Teacher Long said that he still needed to think about it. After everyone had lunch, He Tianran had to go to the Academic Affairs Office to ask about the postponement of graduation. He also had classes in the afternoon, so he talked to Wen Liang and Long first. The teacher said goodbye. He has not come to school recently. Now that the crew is about to start filming again, there will be many things to deal with at school.
In fact, there are many film schools like him who dropped out of school due to work and even had to postpone their graduation, and their methods for dealing with this are relatively flexible. For example, in the past few years, a senior student in the directing department postponed her graduation for three years, and She studied acting and was a well-known actor herself. In the end, she had no choice but to regard a commercial film she was going to direct as her graduation project, and she successfully graduated.
Speaking of which, that movie did well at the box office that year, and this incident became a hot topic.
The three major subjects of the directing department, drama, performance, and audio-visual language, are not only required for undergraduates, but also for graduate students in directing. The courses are all similar. They are just more detailed, more theoretical and cutting-edge, but they are really applied in practice. There are not many opportunities. After all, movies are really expensive.
He Tianran only had two classes in the afternoon, which ended at four o'clock. After that, he went to see his instructor, Mr. Tian.
Mr. Tian is now 76 years old. Although his number of works is not that large compared to the fifth-generation directors of his generation, his status and reputation in the film and television industry are at the level of a godfather, not to mention that he teaches and educates people. So far, he has trained countless rising stars. However, as he has grown older in recent years, he has not admitted any more students for two consecutive years. If nothing else happens, He Tianran’s classmates will be the last ones he leads. A group of disciples.
Since he is a closed disciple, he naturally pays more attention to it than ordinary people.
After exchanging a few words about his physical condition with the disciple whom he had not seen for a while, Mr. Tian asked directly:
"Tranquility, are you still writing your script?"
The script he was talking about was something that He Tianran had written one after another in the past few years. It was a work that was really planned for the big screen in the future.
He Tianran smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"I've been writing a little bit sporadically in the past two years. Teacher, I just finished filming "A Thousand Knots of Hearts" last year, and now I'm about to start another drama. I really don't have the time to do all the work, and..."
"And what?"
"And...teacher, based on my life experience, I seem to have...no stories to tell the world."
He Tianran spoke frankly about the creative dilemma he is currently facing. From elementary school to high school, and then to changing his career direction after graduating from college, He Tianran embarked on the film and television industry. In the short twenty-five years of his life, He Tianran seems to have not had any problems. If you encounter any big troubles, you can't even talk about drawing any inspiration.
Not every story must start from the heart, but a story that can start from the heart must be a good story. He Tianran wants to make a good story, a good story that can project part of his soul into light and shadow. This is almost every story. The creator, every artist, is infinitely close to instinctive behavior when creating a work.
However, this should never be a forced affectation.
Mr. Tian nodded at the honesty shown by his protégé and said kindly:
"Naturally, knowing how to distinguish what it is to express sorrow for new words is also a manifestation of ability. In your condition, it is very good to know how to restrain yourself.
However, this is also the most contradictory thing about you, because you regard "expressing yourself" as very important, but your restraint constrains your thinking all the time.
This may be closely related to the environment in which you grew up. You have not experienced any ups and downs so far, let alone any life transformations. If you want to tell some of your own stories, naturally you feel a little bit worse. You don’t have to worry, whether it’s Nietzsche crying. , or Wang Yangming's Longchang Enlightenment, this all requires a process. As long as you live long enough, you will encounter everything. When that happens, you won't be able to finish everything you want to say. "
"Pfft~"
He Tianran was amused by his mentor's humor, and most of the pressure on his future was relieved.
"Besides, this does not stipulate that every director must be an auteur director. Otherwise, most of the screenwriters will be unemployed, and 80% of the commercial films in the global market will be wiped out."
"Teacher, you are right." He Tianran agreed.
The so-called auteur director, simply put, is a bigger concept than the stylization of the film. Just like Wong Kar-wai's film style is very obvious, there are many imitators, but these imitators are not Wong Kar-wai, because the auteur director apart from style In addition, there is often a lot of personal will and character in the works, and most of this personal will is free from the constraints of industrialization, and sometimes it goes against the entire market.
If we want to be more specific, it may be that the director will be deeply involved in the script. Not only must he participate, but he must also adhere to a "me-based" principle to convey personal emotions from the root.
This is actually a test of the director's personal skills. Some directors have a high self-esteem and claim to be an auteur director, interfering too much with script creation, resulting in the final film being neither commercially successful nor of much artistic value. …
There are too many examples of this kind of failure. The most famous one is director Chen, who is as famous as Lao Mouzi. Even the screenwriters who have worked with him told him not to touch the script, otherwise everything will be ruined. As soon as the incident broke out, netizens started making fun of him and it became a joke that he couldn't get around.
He Tianran is very self-aware of this. Even when he revised the script of "A Thousand Knots of Hearts", he already showed that he has this ability. But revising is one thing, starting from scratch is another. What's more, he also wants to extract an original blueprint from his own life. This level of difficulty cannot be easily accomplished by him just with talent and money.
"By the way, next year one of your senior brothers at CCTV will make a documentary about figures in Ming history. As the old saying goes, you can know the ups and downs by using history as a mirror, and you can know gains and losses by using people as a mirror. After filming, do you want to study with it for a while? I can introduce you to them."
Mr. Tian pointed out a path for his apprentice. Documentaries are a great exercise for a director's narrative skills and emotional transmission. Moreover, while filming, the director needs to truly understand the truth and objectivity in the footage, even if the filming is recorded in the text. history, we also need to focus on feeling what the characters were thinking at that time, so that we can express it through the lens.
Going to shoot a documentary will undoubtedly bring a lot of help to He Tianran's current creation. However, He Tianran still shook his head helplessly and declined the teacher's proposal. The company can't do without him now, and he doesn't have so much. Make time to do something pure.
"Don't be discouraged, let alone be anxious. Every master has the heart of an apprentice. It might be a good thing for you to be a student for a while longer."
Finally, Mr. Tian kindly brought the master-disciple dialogue to an end. He Tianran deeply believed in this sentence and kept it in mind.
After chatting with his tutor, he came out of the staff dormitory. It was already around 7:40 in the evening.
Thinking that Wen Liang and Teacher Long's get out of class had ended long ago, He Tianran took out his cell phone and looked at it. Wen Liang called twice an hour ago, but he didn't answer it in front of the instructor. Now he would have the same experience if he called back. It got to the point where no one answered.
"It's already at this point, she's probably gone back, right?"
He Tianran murmured in his mouth that although he and Wen Liang had made an appointment to go back to school together this time, there were teachers around during the period and they each had trivial matters to do, so the two did not have many opportunities to communicate alone.
"Hurry up, it's probably going to start soon."
"Oh, don't worry, this event is not on time..."
Just as some chaotic thoughts were running through his mind, two people rushed out from behind He Tianran. One of them accidentally bumped his arm. The man lowered his head slightly, expressed his apology and left in a hurry.
In the scene where the sunset completely dimmed, He Tianran seemed to see a butterfly pattern tattooed on the back of their unconsciously waving hands...
This is the third time He Tianran has seen this pattern today.
He didn't know what it meant.
However, looking at their backs as they walked away together, He Tianran, who was alone, suddenly wanted to make a phone call...
It’s not for anything, I just want to find someone to chat with.
Wen Liang couldn't be contacted for the time being, and Cao Aiqing was far away. He Tianran suddenly thought of Hu Yue. He seemed to live near the university town.
Almost as soon as the phone dialed, the other person picked up the phone.
"Hey scholar, are you in the university town..."
"Director He, look to your front right, at two o'clock."
He Tianran, who was about to initiate the invitation, was interrupted by a sudden reminder. After hearing this, he turned around and saw two people standing on the teeth of the campus green belt in front of the teaching building, which was almost a hundred meters away from him. Squatting next to the trash can and smoking...
The two people waved to themselves...
It's Hu Yue and Cai Jueming.
Somehow, He Tianran was not very familiar with the two of them, but at this moment, he felt a strong sense of intimacy in his heart. He walked over without saying hello. Almost subconsciously, he squatted down without any concern for his image. In the middle of the two people, and then on both sides, one was passing the cigarette and the other was getting angry. The movements were very natural. The three of them looked at a school girl who had just walked out of the teaching building. She was wearing shorts that covered her buttocks, and she walked out of the school with two legs. Three people walked past...
Their eyes followed each other in tacit understanding for a while, during which no one spoke, until the girl walked out some distance away.
Cai Jueming, "My face is not good."
Hu Yue answered, "My legs are fine."
He Tianran puffed out a stream of smoke from his mouth and nose, "It's more spicy if it's warm."
The two people around him immediately looked at Director He in the middle, and then he laughed:
"Haha, objective evaluation, objective evaluation..."
After saying that, the trio squatting next to the trash can froze for a moment, and then suddenly laughed in unison as if they knew each other.
"I came to school to take classes. Hu Zhu, Cai She, and you have both graduated. What are you doing together? Are you going to visit your old place again?"
He Tianran asked casually after laughing.
"There are a lot of entertainment activities in the university town. If you have nothing to do, come and take a look. I can help others take some pictures. Hu Yue, this beast, wants to drag me back to the school to have a look. I originally said I wouldn't come or not. I've been attending the university for four years. , he said come on, come on, there is no time when I get tired of looking at beautiful women, so I was dragged here by him, I didn’t expect to meet Director He by such a coincidence."
"Cai Shengun, please stop unjustly accusing me! It's obviously you who said you were going to get married today and you must go back to school to collect news. Stop pretending to be innocent for me!"
Well, if He Tianran hadn't been caught in the middle, the two people would have quarreled. Seeing the Sony camera hanging on Cai Jueming's chest, He Tianran took the opportunity to change the topic:
"Cai She, what event are you shooting this time?"
Hu Yue on the side took the lead in explaining:
"Director He, you know there is a Livehouse called Yanjiao Lane over there on Universe Street, right?"
"It's the store opened by Alan Lu, right?"
"Hey, Director He, do you know Uncle Alan?"
He Tianran nodded: "Well, I just went to his main store on Zhengyang Street not long ago."
Hu Yueqi said: "Then don't you know? Recently, their family planned a pop-up music event called 'Underground Butterfly' in the university town. The bands were all student bands from nearby schools. Although they are not famous, this event It’s quite interesting, and it’s free for publicity…”
After that, he took out a few tattoo stickers from his pocket, which were exactly the butterfly patterns that He Tianran had seen before.
"This sticker was issued by Yanjiao Alley to confirm your identity, but it doesn't matter if you have it or not. At the beginning, they didn't even write down the venue, but announced a pattern and time, and then left the pattern all over the university town. We asked everyone to look for clues. I originally thought it would be difficult, but within two days it was deduced that the location of the pop-up was under the newly built subway station."
Hu Yue distributed the stickers in his hand to He Tianran and Cai Jueming. He took one and put it on the back of his hand, patted it and peeled it off. A butterfly came to life on the back of his hand.
He Tianran looked at the sticker in his hand and was lost in thought. Cai Jueming on the other side also posted the pattern and asked:
"Hey, scholar, I seem to have heard that Sister Liang designed this pattern herself, right?"
"Yes, she has always wanted to get a tattoo, but she is not a public figure, so I don't know what she thinks. This time, she can be considered as fulfilling her wish."
"Then will she sing this time?"
"I think so. Brother Alan has been making appointments with Xingzi. Maybe this time we can see all the members of INTERESTING reunited after the disbandment."
"Oh, this is really rare... Oh, Director He, have you ever participated in a flash mob like this before? Let me tell you, this is very interesting..."
Listening to the conversation between the two, He Tianran, who had been silent, stubbed out the cigarette butt and threw it into the trash can. Then he put the sticker into his trouser pocket and didn't rush to put it on his hand. He turned his head and muttered to the two of them. :
"Let's... let's go and talk while we walk."
(Thanks to the "No Hesitation" boss for joining the alliance, I am grateful!)
PS: I recently published a book "Starting from the Mysterious Heart". Friends who are interested in fairy tales can give it a try.
(End of chapter)
