The second volume is full of glory and splendor in the capital, and the spirit is full of vitality in the foggy city. Chapter 208: Long Shot (Part 2)
Subtitle of this chapter: For the sake of art, hold on!
"Although box office revenue has been rising steadily around the world since the beginning of the new century, and the film industry has entered a period of rapid development, we American filmmakers should be aware of a very unhealthy trend that has recently emerged in Hollywood.
Young actors known as "Fresh Meat" have become popular idols and movie stars simply by virtue of their beautiful faces, E-cup breasts, and eight-pack abs. They completely ignore the pursuit of film art and lack even the basic skills of dialogue.
Cutouts, stand-ins, and dubbing have become essential tools for them to shoot movies. These "actors" are simply an insult to the title of actor.
No wonder that in recent years we in Hollywood have been beaten badly by our Chinese counterparts across the ocean.
Let us remember the greatest actress in Hollywood history - Ms. Lillian Gish.
This film artist, who spanned the three eras of silent films, sound films and color films, always maintained the greatest passion for film art throughout her film career.
In order to film "Orphans of Famine", she went on an extremely strict diet, reducing her weight from over 100 pounds to over 60 pounds, and fainted on the set several times.
When Ms. Gish's "good friend" Mr. Neo Yuan, who is also the screenwriter of the film, saw this scene, he could not help but shed tears. He lodged a strong protest with the film's director, Mr. David Griffith, demanding that this cruel practice that harmed the actors' health be stopped.
However, Ms. Gish said to Mr. Yuan, "Dear, I can handle it. I value my art more than my body!"
—Excerpt from Variety magazine article
"Ah, I haven't eaten in a long, long time. I'm almost starving. Do you have anything to eat?"
Our Master Yuan took out a handkerchief and lovingly wiped the dust off the face of "the greatest actress in Hollywood history," saying, "Lillian, I don't have anything to eat. But..."
He then said in a firm tone: "For the sake of this movie and for the sake of film art, you must hold on!"
"Neo, why are you here?"
"David, I'm here to visit Lillian..."
Seeing the famous director coming over to greet her, Yuan Yan quickly threw the "lover" he had come to visit to the ground, stood up, shook hands with the famous director, and said, "By the way, I want to check on the filming progress of "Famine Orphan" so that we can arrange the next step of the distribution."
The "Father of Cinema" now had dark circles under his eyes, blisters forming around the corners of his mouth, and his weed-like hair had thinned considerably. He looked not only haggard but also a dozen years older. He sighed deeply, turned around, pointed at the village, and said with a wry smile, "Neo, I think you've noticed. We haven't even finished the first shot yet!"
As we all know, long shots and montage are the two major forms of film expression.
The montage school emerged in the mid-1920s, in the Soviet Union. Its most representative work is the Battleship Potemkin, also known as the "Odessa Steps."
According to Inchus, the long-take school came a full thirty years later, not until the 1950s, when the renowned French scholar André Bazin (1918-1996) proposed his "photographic ontology." He believed that only the long take could preserve the objective temporal and spatial continuity while also fully coordinating the internal organization of the shot.
This man is the famous founder of the "Cahiers du Cinema School", and is known as the "Father of the New Wave in Cinema", "Father of Spirituality", "Aristotle of Cinema"... However, this master of film theory never made a film in his life.
A big part of the reason for this is that compared to montage, long shots place much higher demands on directors, actors, photographers and behind-the-scenes technicians.
Montage can really be created as long as you know how to cut film.
Long shots not only require very high camera movement, but also strong on-site scheduling capabilities, which is why they have become the most common means of showing off for later film directors.
The difficulty of long shots of large scenes is even higher. If a director can shoot such long shots with dozens or even hundreds of people, then he will definitely leave his name in the hall of film art.
Griffith not only shot small scenes with dozens of people, he even shot large scenes with tens of thousands of people.
Remember when he filmed "The Incompatibility of the Indigenous" in 1916, he used 15,000 extras to realistically recreate the Persian army that destroyed Babylon?
But short shots are completely different from long shots. In a long shot, if even a tiny expression of an insignificant supporting character isn't right, the shot is wasted.
At this time, other actors and staff also gathered around.
Regardless of whether they knew Master Yuan or not, everyone greeted him warmly...
Some people who don't understand the market are still asking: "Hey man, who is this Chink?"
Upon hearing this question, the "guy" looked at him with disdain and said, "What Chink? He's the screenwriter and one of the investors of this movie, Neo Yuan!"
"Neo Yuan... Hey, buddy, is he the novelist the newspaper mentioned that even Einstein admired?"
"Of course it's him... Hi, where are you going?"
"Hey man, get his autograph!"
When a person meets a celebrity alone, he or she may be a little reserved, but when a group of people are together, the atmosphere becomes lively.
So our Master Yuan was caught in the sea of people. Fortunately, the great director David Griffith had a lot of prestige and he picked up a megaphone and shouted a few words, finally dispersing the crowd.
Of course, filming was temporarily suspended, and it was almost noon, so Griffith simply let everyone have lunch early...
"Miss Ava Chandler, well, you're now Miss Hunter, and you've lost weight..."
"You're so good..."
"Oh, you are Lillian's sister Dorothy..."
"You're so good..."
"Hello, Miss Mathew Dietrich..."
"You're so good..."
"Hello, Miss Pearl White..."
"You're so good..."
"Hello, Miss Louise Brusco..."
"You're so good..."
Yuan Yanshu finally met the main actresses of "Orphan of Famine." Aside from Miss Chandler, the younger sister of "Lord Justice," and Miss Chandler, the older sister of "Lord Strength," who were previously unknown, the others were all well-known stars, each a beautiful woman in her own way, though still, of course, a little beauty now...
However, Master Yuan, immersed in the crowd of beauties, was now as calm as a deep well, with no erotic thoughts. It wasn't that his level had suddenly improved and he had truly become a "master", nor was it that there was a slight problem with his hormone secretion and he had truly become a "eunuch".
It’s just that you can’t tell how beautiful these little beauties are, but you can tell how thin they are.
More importantly, they were too lazy to pay attention to this handsome Chinese gentleman, and were all happily chewing on a beautiful American apple...
