From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

No script.

Real-name performance.

Gus casually dropped a bombshell.

Just now, Gus was briefly stunned by the overwhelming amount of information from Anson; now, the roles are reversed, and Anson needs some time to process the overwhelming amount of information from Gus.

Now, Anson finally understands where the sense of reality in "Elephant" came from—

Because Gus presents his interpretation of the entire event in a recorded manner.

"Pseudo-documentary," only now does Anson have a real sense of it.

Thump, thump.

His heart raced.

Anson swallowed a mouthful of saliva, so, is he really ready to show his true self in front of the camera?

Taking a deep breath, Anson looked at Gus, "You mean I need to play myself on screen."

Gus nodded, "Yes."

After a pause, he added, "Not Anson the movie actor, nor Anson the Spider-Man, but Anson, an ordinary high school student."

"Your youth, your troubles, your困顿(kun dun, a feeling of being trapped or struggling)."

When filming "Catch Me If You Can," Anson awakened the memories of his past life, those memories that have remained in the past but deeply influence the present.

He doesn't intend to avoid or ignore them.

Because it is those hardships and setbacks that have shaped him into what he is now.

And now, even further?

Gus noticed Anson's contemplation, "What's wrong, do you have some concerns? If you want to quit the crew now, there's still time."

"Heh."

Anson chuckled, "No, I'm looking forward to it, in fact, I should say I'm very much looking forward to it.

You know, when everyone is trying to put the Spider-Man mask on me, the director is willing to give me a chance to take off the mask, even take off the coat of the actor, I think this is an interesting challenge."

Pause for a moment.

"Director, thank you for being willing to give me a chance."

Generously, Anson looked at Gus, his eyes so clear and so bright.

On the contrary, Gus was a little embarrassed.

This honest man scratched the back of his neck, "To be honest, until I realized I was meeting you, I was still a little hesitant."

Unexpectedly, he just… said it directly…

Anson was speechless, a smile appeared in his eyes, "Then I am very happy to be able to eliminate the last trace of hesitation in the director's mind."

Gus was stunned, and a smile crawled up the corner of his mouth—

He thought, he was starting to like this actor.

Anson continued to ask curiously, "Director, can you talk to me about this movie? I mean, there is no script, but it doesn't mean that there is no picture or framework in the director's mind, right?"

"Wait, or is the director in the same style as Wong Kar-wai?"

With works such as "In the Mood for Love" and "Happy Together," that director who always wears sunglasses has become a name of weight on a global scale.

At the same time, also famous all over the world are the dragging, casual, and unplanned nature of the Sunglasses King's filming.

Back then, when Tony Leung went to Buenos Aires to film "Happy Together," he thought he was playing a nephew who went to a funeral, but he didn't expect that the Sunglasses director completely overturned the entire script.

Without a script, he immediately asked the two protagonists to film an intense boat scene.

Just a few minutes ago, Gus was still full of burdens and worries, worrying about casting, worrying about Anson, worrying about the camera, worrying about everything; in a blink of an eye, Gus chatted with Anson all the way with a beaming face, gradually clarifying the pictures in his mind in the process of communication and dialogue.

Without a doubt, this is the smallest crew Anson has ever experienced—

One camera.

Yes, you read that right.

Other crews use six or seven cameras operating simultaneously in different positions, and there are even other small teams responsible for filming different scenes, tracks, booms, helicopters, tripods, etc., and the filming equipment alone may require three trucks.

But Gus only needs one camera.

One cameraman, one camera, and at most one sound engineer.

The crew doesn't even have a professional lighting engineer, Gus and the cameraman are responsible for adjusting the light.

If a reflector is needed, whoever is free will do it.

The entire crew, at most, is less than ten people.

Not to mention the huge filming team of more than 400 people like "Spider-Man", even compared with the daily filming of "Friends", it is completely out of the question.

In fact, this is the daily life of most of Hollywood.

After all, projects with investments of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars are still in the minority, and small crews with costs of less than ten million dollars are everywhere.

In the past few years, Brad Renfro has been active in such crews, either pursuing his dreams with enthusiasm or honestly going to work and clocking in and out like an old-timer.

In Anson's view, large crews have the advantages of large crews, and small crews also have the characteristics of small crews.

In those large crews, there are many personnel and clear division of labor, like a precise machine, each screw performs its duties, and many crew members will not even meet on the set until the movie is released—

Purely a working relationship.

But small crews are different.

Not only do they see each other often, but often one person has multiple roles.

They must be firmly united and work towards the same goal, and the small and complete team takes care of each other in the shared hardships of filming.

Such works, regardless of the success or failure of the movie, will inevitably leave a deep impression on the filming process, and even the memories of each day and each scene are vivid.

Just like now.

The fat old man with a white beard in front of him is just like Santa Claus walking out of a fairy tale story, carrying a camera and panting slightly, but his expression is very focused, completely ignoring the sweat on his forehead.

This is the cinematographer of "Elephant", Harris Savides.

Although he is not well-known, he is a blue-collar worker in the industry.

"Seven" is his work, and later he also collaborated with David Fincher on "Zodiac."

Last year, Harris and Gus collaborated on the experimental "Gerry", so this time Gus summoned Harris to cooperate again, and Harris agreed without hesitation.

Harris looked around.

"Anson, ah… Anson!"

"Just right, you're not in this scene, come over and help."

"Reflector…"

One second, Anson is still an actor; the next second, Anson becomes a photography assistant.

It was previously heard that the film department of New York University teaches this way, allowing students to rotate through every position in the film crew and get involved in the work.

First, let the students understand the operating principles of the crew, and at the same time understand the different responsibilities of different positions, so that they can be more clear and accurate when issuing instructions.

Second, let the students explore their own preferences, see where their interests lie and what they are really good at, and finally find their own positioning.

Of course, Anson is not from an academic background, so he naturally does not have such experience, but he did not expect that he would actually experience it when filming "Elephant".