The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 543: Shoot first and talk later
"Elephant" is finished.

Everything happened so fast, it seemed like I had just entered the crew yesterday to prepare for shooting. As soon as I turned around, I heard the director announcing that all filming of the movie had ended——

This feeling is correct.

In fact, the shooting cycle of "Elephant" was only five days; even if Anson and Gus' time were included in the early stage experience and school inspections, the entire production cycle was less than ten days.

Quick fight.

Five days.

On the "Spider-Man" crew, it was simply unimaginable that there might not even be time to set up a single scene, while "Elephant" would have been finished.

Although I have long known that independent films are concise and concise, and the entire working model is completely different, after experiencing it personally, I still can't help but be amazed.

Without a doubt, this was Anson's fastest shot to date.

Moreover, the film itself is special enough. Gus tried to record those ordinary daily lives. There seems to be no difference between filming work and real life. The short five days are almost the same as the previous campus life. The days of filming and the days without filming Very different.

So much so that when Gus announced the completion of filming, there was no sense of reality at all.

"ended."

"Kids, it's all over."

Gus announced with a loudspeaker so the entire campus could hear.

The last scene, the last shot, is still typical Gus——

Carrying the camera, Harris quietly cruised and sneaked through the school corridors, like a deep-water submarine, moving along the corridors, classrooms, and activity rooms.

No close-ups. No close shots. There was no stopping.

Patrol the entire space silently.

Of course, it is not a random space, but a space that has gone through a massacre, a space where there are no survivors and where corpses and blood are everywhere.

There are no close-ups, that's because Gus doesn't intend to highlight any protagonist, and all students are treated equally.

Touring the whole process, this is a panoramic display, showing completely different pictures from the same calm perspective. You can feel the gap without using words.

Two-thirds of the entire movie was full of vitality, but now it fell into deathly silence. Everything came to an abrupt end without warning. The pause button was pressed simply and rudely. The theme of the image could not be clearer - —

Shock happens naturally.

However, Gus himself has not yet confirmed whether he plans to end the movie with this long shot.

From the perspective of echoes from beginning to end, such a scene ends the movie just right, and those criticisms and accusations can be expressed without words; but this is where Gus hesitates:
Should he really display his criticism and accusation so bluntly?
Does this seem superfluous? Or maybe everything is said too directly and it shows timidity, lest the audience cannot understand the message conveyed by the whole movie, so the ending needs to be emphasized again with a long shot?
Just as Gus judged Anson's performance——

Correct, indeed correct, from any angle; but such a return to traditional Hollywood narrative routines, even if it is not a genre film routine but a Sundance-style independent film maker's unique routine, is it going too far and undermining its original creation? natural conception?

Perhaps, the movie should have a cleaner ending, without the director using camera language to repeat what has been said throughout the movie.

Gus needs to calm down and think.

But thinking is one thing, shooting is another.

They can shoot it now and wait for post-editing before deciding whether to use it; after all, after shooting, they can freely decide whether to use it, but if there is no raw material, it will be too late to reshoot by then.

then.

The entire crew was mobilized, and all the people who had participated in the filming of the movie in the past five days were mobilized to complete the most magnificent scene in the entire movie.

One by one, students "fallen" in a pool of blood according to the plot. The entire campus fell into silence, and the vitality was eroded and swallowed by the haze. The long shots from one shot to the end reveal the desolation of death and desolation, which is more powerful than any language, soundtrack or performance.

But at the same time, the filming is not difficult at all, because the actors do not need to perform and are completely controlled by the director. This is the shot that shows the director's ability, which means that the actors can relax and focus on filming.

Until Gus finished filming and announced that the movie was finished.

The students sat upright from the pool of blood, with different expressions——

There are excitement and confusion, excitement and loss, excitement and reluctance.

No one was an exception, and they exchanged questions while looking at each other.

Obviously, from any point of view, shooting a movie should not be like this. It is so different from the imagined scene that the end of the shooting is still uncertain:
Did we really shoot a movie?
This scene made Anson's smile rise slightly, and he couldn't help but turn his head to look at Gus——

Anson is a survivor. He left the school under Eric's reminder and escaped. The last scene naturally has nothing to do with him.

"Director, how are you? Do you feel it now?"

Gus shook his head slightly, "No, still not sure."

Regarding whether the last scene should be filmed, Gus was still hesitant until the last minute. This matter was not a secret among the crew.

Gus paused, turned to look at Anson, and an idea came to him, "What do you think?"

Anson did not hide his surprise, "Me? Director, are you sure?"

Gus chuckled, "No, I'm not sure, but I still decided to listen."

The independent crew is small but sophisticated. Its advantage is that it runs smoothly, is agile and light, but its disadvantage is that it relies on Gus for everything. When Gus falls into a creative bottleneck, he has no one to discuss with and must think for himself.

As Gus said, he was not sure that discussing it with Anson was the right choice. As an actor, Anson showed outstanding abilities in just five days of shooting; but film artistic creation is not just about acting. Directors and actors are completely different. In two different positions, Gus still didn't trust Anson enough to speak like this——

But he has nothing to lose, right?
Anson looked at Gus's smile, covered his chest and let out a cry, as if he was hurt; but then, Anson continued with the topic.

"I don't think this paragraph is necessary."

Gus is waiting.

However, no more.

Gus looked at Anson with astonishment on his face.

Anson spread his hands, "I'm just expressing an opinion, an intuition and an inspiration. This is my opinion."

After a moment's delay, Gus realized that Anson was seeking revenge.

But, revenge?
Gus was stunned for a moment, and before he realized it, a smile had already crept onto his lips:

This should be the difference between Anson and River Phoenix.

We don't see such confidence and publicity in Ruifan. Behind the fragility and sadness is a touch of tenacity and stubbornness, which is a good thing; what's more, Anson's publicity is not annoying at all.

Then, Anson continued without pausing.

"Director, the name of this movie, 'Elephant', why is it called this?"

A special entry point brings different thinking.

(End of this chapter)