Exploiting Hollywood 1980

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At the filming site of "Silence of the Lambs", on the lawn of the FBI Academy, Jonathan Demme had just finished shooting a panorama. The training ground here is where the agent trainee played by Jodie Foster sweats every day.

This long shot could have been shot by a second-team director, but Jonathan Demme is a director who knows how to use lenses to tell stories. No shot was shot just because it looks good or to show off his skills.

For example, in this distant view, the buildings on the left and right are boring brick wall boxes, and a group of students wearing the same black and white training uniforms are running very neatly. Jodie Foster's stand-in, also wearing the same training uniform, ran against the direction of the office with them.

This kind of shot arrangement can convey the strict hierarchy of the FBI as a disciplinary agency without dialogue.

"Hi, Ronald, have you met Judy?" Jonathan Demi climbed down from the top floor of the college and said when he saw Ronald.

"Yes, she picked me up at the airport. Is there no problem?"

Ronald looked at Demi as if he was confident. It seemed that he was not worried about Jodie Foster's current state.

"No problem, I'll show you some samples tonight..."

…

"Agent Starling, with your expensive bags and cheap shoes, do you know what you look like to me? You look like a country bumpkin...a clean, busy, and ambitious country bumpkin..."

The on-screen dailies include scenes where Agent Starling, played by Jodie Foster, meets Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal for the first time.

Anthony Hopkins's voice is full of gentleness and calmness, full of confidence and no emotion. Ronald only felt that his words were like a poisonous snake spitting out messages, making people have goosebumps all over their bodies.

"How did he do it?" Ronald reached for his black tea thermos, trying to neutralize this chilling feeling.

"Anthony Hopkins read a lot of information about serial killers in the FBI files, and he also watched the trial videos of several serial killers." Jonathan Demi said with a smile, this time the two male and female protagonists Performances have a kind of magic that allows the audience to enter the atmosphere rendered by the movie for a second.

After all, no one has actually dealt with a serial murderer, but thanks to the television media, many famous criminals have appeared on television. One thing they have in common in the interviews or court hearings is that they are very calm and cold-blooded.

Many serial murderers speak in a "gentle and calm" manner, and Anthony Hopkins captures this characteristic very well.

"That's not the case. Just the way he talks makes people want to stay away from them. It will never lead to the thought that a poisonous snake is wrapped around his hand."

Ronald took a sip of black tea, but still felt that he could not dispel the psychological shadow. This is still a sample film without sound synthesis and post-production soundtrack. When the real audience sees these shots, they will still be restless and may be frightened to stand up.

"Wait a minute, let me guess..."

Seeing Jonathan Demi smiling and wanting to explain to Ronald, Ronald also smiled and asked him to pause. He waved to the staff behind him and asked him to play it again.

"Huh? Is this okay? I saw that Anthony Hopkins didn't even blink in this close-up shot?"

Ronald suddenly discovered why he felt psychologically uncomfortable when he saw Hopkins' performance. Because in the close-up shot that lasted for tens of seconds, Anthony Hopkins did not blink once.

He was like a ghost, staring straight at the audience in front of the screen with his two big eyes, and then spoke in a smooth voice without any emotion. It was this feeling that gave the audience an illusion, like Anthony ·The Hannibal Lecter played by Hopkins has no temperature, which is why the feeling of a poisonous snake crawling on the skin is so strong.

"He said that it was a friend of his in Britain who usually didn't blink when he spoke, so he would feel uncomfortable, so he used this technique." Jonathan Demi smiled and nodded, Ronald's The understanding is amazing. This kind of using a certain special technique to stimulate the audience's memory of other senses besides vision is an advanced technique.

The audience in the cinema can only receive information through vision and hearing, but this unblinking technique successfully evokes the audience's memory of touch, temperature, and emotional memory of being scared in life.

"This friend of his can't be Michael Caine, right?" Ronald laughed and guessed that Michael Caine recently released his acting class video, which talked about how when filming a movie, especially close-ups, Without blinking, you can better convey your feelings to the audience.

However, Anthony Hopkins did not just rely on his unblinking eyes. Ronald also saw a lot of things. When he was shooting, he added a top light to make the huge head look even bigger. The camera captured His face was completely placed in the middle of the screen, giving people a sense of oppression that was self-evident. It has the aura of a monster from European folklore.

"Why would Judy complain that she and Anthony were shot separately?" After watching these samples, Ronald's evaluation of the movie was raised a notch in his mind. It is said that Jodie Foster is a top student at Yale. She also has a deep understanding of acting. She should be happy to meet such a co-star. Why would she complain to herself?

"Look at some of the samples she shot..." Jonathan Demme waved his hand back, and the projectionist began to show Jodie Foster's footage of the same plot.

"Do you know what your expensive bag and cheap shoes look like to me? Like a country bumpkin, a clean, busy, and ambitious country bumpkin..."

This is the same plot as what Ronald just watched, but the shot here is a close-up of Agent Starling played by Jodie Foster.

"What does it mean that your well-educated, well-educated accent doesn't demonstrate the vowels in a West Virginia accent? You come from a poor, lower-class, white-trash family.

What does your father do? miner? Is that lamp in his hat full of stink. Did all your high school male classmates want to fuck you in the back seat of a car?

You want to get out of that place, all the way up, all the way to the FBI..."

The dialogue scene with Anthony Hopkins just now did not include this section. This is included in Jodie Foster's reaction shot here.

Ronald discovered that in the close-up, Jodie Foster's lips were trembling slightly, and her neck was very stiff, as if she was trying her best to maintain her unafraid appearance and suppress the fearful shiver in her heart.

"Isn't this part impromptu?" Ronald saw the problem.

"Yes, after this episode, Judy came to me and laughed at his country accent and family background. It was all Anthony's improvisation. This made Judy very surprised and very scared. Her own background was similar to Starling's. Little similarities..."

"Um……"

Ronald thought to himself, Anthony Hopkins is really great, but he is really disrespectful to his partner when he improvises like this... The effect is really good.

"Are you testing me? Agent Starling, the last person who wanted to test me was a census taker. I ate his liver with chickpeas, hiss, hiss, hiss..."

The shot below of Anthony Hopkins shows him suddenly getting angry. The sound of sucking his tongue to simulate eating frightened Jodie Foster so much that she trembled all over.

"Ouch..." Not to mention Jodie Foster, who was standing behind the camera and supporting the scene, Ronald had goosebumps all over his body.

"He often uses this trick to intimidate the staff and ask them to get him delicious food..." Jonathan Demi explained to Ronald with a smile. This move was a killer move that Anthony Hopkins had practiced for a long time. Once used on Jodie Foster, the effect was very good.

"Judy's side..." After watching the sample film, Ronald felt a little tricky about this matter. Jodie Foster is an Oscar-winning actress. Anthony Hopkins used this method to deal with her. It is said to be a very orthodox drama actor's acting method, but this is a bit disrespectful to the talented Hollywood woman Jodie.

"Sometimes, actors don't need to know all the truth. Our goal is to let them give their best performance, no matter what method is used..." Jonathan Demme explained to Ronald.

This movie is a psychological thriller, and this method is essential if it is to be a hit. It is impossible for Hollywood to allow you to shoot thrilling and frightening scenes without a bottom line. Only by stimulating the audience's horrific memories through various means can you succeed at the box office.

In other words, this movie is actually a primer in many places. The audience reminds themselves of the scariest things and scares themselves.

"But their relationship seems to be very bad, what should you do?" Ronald pondered for a moment and asked Demi.

Jodie Foster made it very clear to herself that it would be best to replace Anthony Hopkins. If that doesn't work, then ask him to change his ways. You must know that there are very few Oscar-winning actresses, so you can't use this to deal with rookies. Actors treat themselves the way they should.

"Actually, I thought that their relationship would be bad, so I thought that the next shots of the two of them would be direct close-ups of their faces, not over-the-shoulder shots..."

Jonathan Demme then showed a few sample clips. The dialogue scene above is no longer in the corner of the screen, with half of the talking partner's back and shoulders. Instead, it completely abandons such traditional Hollywood techniques and directly captures the speaker's face. Close-up.

"In fact, thrillers need to bring the audience into Starling's perspective. Over-the-shoulder shots are too objective. This subjective perspective is also a good way."

Jonathan Demi's approach is considered retro. Before Hollywood invented the over-the-shoulder lens to explain the spatial relationship between the two parties in a conversation, a close-up of such a person on the screen showed that he was speaking.

When silent films were changed to talkies, the audience no longer understood the lines through subtitles and close-ups of actors. Such close-ups sometimes made the audience wonder, who is this guy on the screen talking to?

So by tilting it slightly and tapping one of the interlocutor's shoulders, this is a common practice in Hollywood.

But in these scenes, there is no third person besides Starling and Hannibal Lecter, so it is not that complicated for the audience to understand.

Moreover, in thrillers, close-ups of the scary person and the scared person's face appear on the screen, which is a very good way to let the audience enter the set situation unconsciously.

"Judy's face is smaller than Anthony's on the screen, and the position is more to one side. Did you design it intentionally?" Ronald saw some more details.

"Really? Her face is already small, but when you say it, it seems that I do it this way. This is indeed better. Starling's face is in one corner, and she is the one who is being bullied psychologically, no matter it is Being bullied by Hannibal or being bullied by her boss is the same psychological situation, so the audience can be put into her perspective."

Ronald kept nodding, Demi's level was very high. Thrillers are different from ordinary movies in that the audience is in the position of a voyeur watching the development of the story. Thrillers require you to take the perspective of the victim.

In this way, when Anthony Hopkins speaks, his big face also puts pressure on the audience. When it comes to the close-up of Jodie Foster, her feeling of shrinking to one side of the screen like a doormat can also be conveyed to the audience intuitively.

"Thanks, Ronald, that's great advice."

"Yes, this is your subconscious decision..."

Ronald is unwilling to take credit. The design of this lens language is indeed very good.

…

"Judy, Jonathan and I have been discussing for a long time. Putting aside Anthony Hopkins, what is Jonathan's attitude towards you? Does it make you uncomfortable?"

"No, he still respects me very much. Even if Anthony improvises sometimes, he doesn't stop him..." Jodie Foster said to Ronald who was coordinating in the trailer.

"That's good, if you believe in his professional ethics, or you believe in me, my suggestion is to completely trust Jonathan, he will lead you into the best performance..."

Jodie Foster suppressed the discomfort and nodded. Ronald was her last hope to change the crew's situation, and now even he says so.

"But you have to talk to Anthony carefully. I'm really stressed about such a rivalry scene..."

"You don't have to... your shooting time will be completely separate from now on. Today we will shoot your close-up dialogue, and tomorrow he will shoot his, so we take turns. There will be stuntmen to do the supporting scenes..."

Ronald told Jodie Foster that Jonathan Demme would use full-frontal close-ups in their future scenes opposite each other.

"Thank you, thank you...wuwu..."

Jodie Foster seemed to be under too much pressure on the set. She actually cried when she heard that she would no longer have to film face-to-face scenes with Anthony Hopkins.

"Oh, God, Judy, don't cry...you are a good girl, think about Starling...you are all good girls who are weak on the outside but strong on the inside."

Ronald quickly went up and hugged Jodie Foster who was crying hard, and poured her a cup of black tea from his thermos cup.

As the hot drink went down her throat, Jodie Foster burst into tears and laughed, "Starling is stronger than me. She faced the pressure from her boss, Hannibal Lecter, and the serial murderer, and finally stood strong and waited until she was rescued single-handedly." The victim, the chance to kill the murderer..."

"Don't think so. In a male-dominated hierarchical society like the FBI, Starling still had a very difficult opportunity to get a high position. She must have cried secretly in private..."

"Do you think so?" Jodie Foster raised her head and asked Ronald.

"Yes, I think so. Women have their own strength. If it's all about resisting pressure, then why should this role be played by a woman?"

"You're right. I want to tell Jonathan that adding a crying scene is the only way for women in the workplace to relieve stress..."

"Um, okay, go and tell Jonathan yourself, he will appreciate the importance of adding a crying scene... Toughness is shown against the backdrop of weakness."

Seeing that there were still tears in the corners of his eyes, he grabbed a pen and paper and quickly wrote down what Ronald said, fearing that he would forget Jodie Foster, who could not convince Jonathan Demme, and Ronald suddenly felt depressed. Why wasn't I the director of such a movie? I also don’t appreciate career-focused women like Jodie Foster, so I’d better go back home to Los Angeles as soon as possible.