Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 68 Differences in Performance Styles

The moonlight was like water. After eating and drinking, everyone in the crew returned to their own rooms.

I still have work to do tomorrow, so of course I should rest early if possible.

Of course Wang Hao also returned to his room, but not long after he returned, a knock on the door interrupted his review of today's work.

"at this time?!"

Wang Hao's heart moved, and he looked through the peephole, and saw the young Tong Liya standing outside his house.

What is this girl doing here in the middle of the night?
With some inexplicable guess in his mind, Wang Hao opened the door.

"Director Wang, you're still awake?"

"Not yet, little boy, is there anything wrong?" Wang Hao did not open the door completely, but only opened a crack, revealing half of his head.

Tong Liya's face was a little tanned because she was filming at the beach recently, but it still couldn't hide her beautiful face.

In addition, her somewhat shy face added a touch of charm.

"Director, I still don't quite understand the performance method you mentioned during the day. Can you give me some guidance?"

Tong Liya held the script in her arms, her head slightly lowered, her big black eyes looking at Wang Hao's face, looking pitiful.

In this situation, if Wang Hao still doesn’t understand what is going on, then he would have read so many “entertainment” novels in vain in his previous life.

However, when he opened the door completely, he did not let Tong Liya in immediately. Instead, he smiled and said to her:

"Guidance on acting? No problem. I'd like to trouble you to make another trip and call Wang Zhi over. I'll give you two some guidance on acting."

The smile on Tong Liya's face froze, but under Wang Hao's gaze, she couldn't say anything. She could only run back to her room awkwardly and call Wang Zhi.

When the two of them entered Wang Hao's room together, Li Kui, Zhang Yang and Li Qian were already sitting in the room.

This situation... three men and three women in one room...

Nothing can happen at all!
Wang Hao sat casually on the bed, looked at them and said:

"Xiao Tong said earlier that he still had some doubts about the acting, so I called everyone here and took this opportunity to talk about the acting style of this movie."

"Wang Zhi, you are the lead actor and you are a professional actor. Let me ask you, after filming these few days, do you think the performances in our movie are different from what you usually learn in class?"

Wang Zhi didn't expect Wang Hao to be the first to ask. He was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly answered:

"Performing in a play, ah, how to say it?

It's about letting us relax and use more body language to accompany the performance, which feels... simpler than what we learned in school."

Wang Zhi gave an answer hesitantly, and Wang Hao did not refute her but nodded instead.

"That's right, in this movie, I didn't have very strict requirements on your acting skills, nor did I hone your acting skills shot by shot.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that I don’t take you seriously, it’s just the standard performance style of commercial movies.”

"What is the acting style of commercial films?" Li Qian, who also studied directing, was the first to ask.

"Yes."

Wang Hao nodded. "I don't know if you have noticed that in Hollywood movies, the actors all act so realistically. Even the young actors act very naturally, and it seems like their acting skills are so good.

But Hollywood movies are shot so quickly, there is no such thing as the situation in our country where a shot has to be NGed many times just to hone the acting skills.

So how do they solve the problem of actors' acting skills being good enough?"

"How did you solve it?" Li Kui asked with great interest.
"Because what you see and feel is an illusion!"

Wang Hao spread his hands, looked at them and smiled.

“The truth is, many young actors in Hollywood don’t have very good acting skills.

It's just that you don't understand English, so you can't hear the problems in the other party's lines. You are also somewhat face-blind to foreigners' faces, so you can't tell the flaws in their expressions. So it's naturally difficult for you to judge whether the acting skills of those foreign actors are satisfactory.

In addition, performance is not just a change of facial expression, it also includes body movements, emotions, skills, temperament, and even special effects and props. It is a collection of many elements.

This has become a common thing in Hollywood, where commercial films are very developed.

So the actors' acting skills are not good enough? Then wouldn't it be better to reduce the proportion of acting skills in the performance?

When your facial expressions are not so detailed and your emotions are not so accurate, your body language can make up for the shortcomings of your performance, the external lighting can make up for the shortcomings of your performance, the soundtrack can make up for the shortcomings of your performance, and the grand special effects scene can also make up for the shortcomings of your performance...

Anyway, under this concept, an actor's acting skills are no longer a necessary factor affecting the performance, so it is naturally much easier to make them qualified.

"So that's how it is. When I was watching films, I found that the actors in those Hollywood commercial films always liked to dance and walk around. It turns out that they were enriching the content of their performances." Zhang Yang said with some surprise.

Wang Hao nodded.

“That’s right, and in the stereotype of Chinese people, foreigners are flamboyant, unrestrained and enthusiastic.

So even if their movements are a bit rich, it’s normal and we don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, which naturally makes people think that Hollywood actors generally have better acting skills.”

Li Qian, who was sitting on the sofa nearby, said thoughtfully:

"Director Wang, I think I've heard of this performance style you mentioned before. It's called something like Ge-something-ski..."

"You are talking about the Grotowski performance system." Wang Hao reacted quickly and immediately took over the conversation.

"That performance is somewhat different from what I described, but it also has the same effect."

He explained:

"Glotowski was a Polish director, dramatist and one of the greatest theatre masters of the 20th century.

He believes that anyone, as long as they have a decent IQ, has the potential to be a good actor.

Therefore, he makes extensive use of body techniques to stimulate the potential of actors, using sports skills such as tumbling and jumping, as well as the use of sound, body shaping, and control of rhythm and rhyme to improve actors' acting skills from the outside to the inside.

Feng Yuanzheng, a teacher at the People’s Art Theatre, is the only inheritor of this school in China.”

"Yes, it was Mr. Feng. I attended his lecture at school. He talked about this topic."

Li Qian nodded in agreement.

"Aren't the two similar?"

(End of this chapter)