From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Finally, "The Butterfly Effect" officially started filming.

Generally speaking, the first scene of a film crew is often a simple and easy one, easily passed in one take, to bring good luck and symbolize a successful start.

This was also the case when Gus filmed "Elephant."

However.

The two rookie directors, Mackie and Eric, insisted on going against the grain, choosing an extremely difficult scene for the first one, and a crucial scene at that.

In the movie, Evan has always had short-term memory loss since he was a child. He often can't remember certain segments; he's there, but his memory is blank.

For example, Evan remembers when he was seven years old, Keller's father bought a video camera. He remembers him telling him and Keller to stand in front of the camera and take off their shirts, saying he wanted to shoot a video.

But he doesn't remember what happened after that.

Evan finds Keller, cautiously probing what happened that afternoon; but he never expected Keller to avoid the topic, fall into madness, lose control, burst into tears, and end her life after returning home.

This event deeply shocked Evan.

It was this turning point that led Evan to use his diary for the first time to return to the past, back to that afternoon when he was seven, to prevent Keller's father in his own way—

That afternoon, nothing happened.

Then.

When Evan wakes up again and returns to the current timeline, the butterfly effect takes effect.

Keller has no childhood trauma, she hasn't lost the ability to love and trust, and she and Evan get together, childhood sweethearts entering college hand in hand, starting a brand new happy life in an orderly manner.

Everything is as beautiful as a fairy tale.

Evan is confused and bewildered. He is not sure whether he should believe that all this is real, nor is he sure when happiness will slip through his fingers, nor is he sure whether he is in a dream.

But at the same time, even if it's just a dream, Evan wants to hold on tight, to be happy for a little longer, even if it's stolen happiness, he wants to greedily cherish it for a moment.

In fact, Evan's ominous premonition is correct—

Because Evan's intervention prevented Keller's father from hurting her, he vented all his anger on Keller's younger brother, Tommy, which made Tommy become paranoid and twisted.

After Evan changed the past and returned to the present timeline, experiencing the chaos of the morning, the collisions of the day, and the gradual exploration, when night falls, Evan finally finds some sense of reality:

He has happiness.

Keller is in his arms, visible, tangible, and felt; but at the same time, the feeling of gain and loss, of uncertainty, always lingers, so that he has to be as careful as walking a tightrope.

The first scene takes place on the bed, after the two people finish a 'stir-fry'.

To be precise, this scene is in the middle of the movie, neither here nor there. Anson has no idea why Eric and Mackie want to bring this scene forward and use it as the first scene of the entire movie—

The difficulty lies in Evan's state of mind, that kind of trepidation and tension of constantly worrying that everything in front of him is just a flower in a mirror and the moon in the water, which is obviously layered, not just worry or fear, but also a deeper level of caution and hesitation.

In his previous life, Ashton Kutcher simply treated this scene as an idol drama, the joy and happiness of a big boy finding his beloved toy again.

It's not that it's not possible, but on the one hand, it turns Keller into a simple trophy, which is not enough to interpret the meaning of happiness; on the other hand, it makes Evan's psychological arc superficial, unable to show the complexity of fate.

If Anson were to do it, Anson is not sure whether he can show a new look; but as the first scene of the filming, Anson is also not sure.

The difficulty also lies in the cooperation between Anson and Rachel, because this is a scene that requires both parties to be honest with each other, and a bed sheet is far from enough to offset the unfamiliarity and embarrassment between two strangers in an intimate scene.

However.

Mackie and Eric insisted.

They sat down with the two actors to discuss in depth and express their opinions:

They believe that the purpose of starting with this scene is to break the deadlock.

The emotional bond between Evan and Keller is undoubtedly the core of the entire movie. In essence, this is a pure love movie; but the point is that the movie does not have time to spend a lot of ink describing the emotional tug-of-war between the two people. The script and the movie do not leave space, and the director must rely on the chemical reaction of the actors.

Therefore, the first scene is to draw firewood from under the cauldron, putting the two actors in an extreme environment, breaking the deadlock, breaking the shackles, being honest with each other, and laying the foundation for the entire movie.

In this regard, Anson protested, saying that there are many ways to break the deadlock, and there is no need to use such means.

But Mackie disagreed. Obviously, he had rehearsed it countless times in his mind.

"I read an interview that when Wong Kar-wai was filming 'Happy Together', Tony Leung's first scene when he arrived in Argentina was an intimate scene with Leslie Cheung."

"Moreover, Tony Leung thought he was playing the role of someone going to a funeral."

"Even after that scene was filmed, he was still confused and couldn't react."

"That's the effect I want."

"Anson, you can do it."

It turns out that Mackie has been eager to imitate the master's filming method, but the point is that not everyone can imitate Wong Kar-wai.

I never expected that Gus did not imitate Wong Kar-wai when filming "Elephant", but Mackie and Eric took action to follow in Wong Kar-wai's footsteps when filming "The Butterfly Effect". Anson doesn't know if this is good or bad.

After all, imitation, if you are not careful, may fall into the terrible situation of drawing a tiger and failing to resemble it, and countless novice directors think they have learned from the masters, but they don't know that inferior imitation will only expose their shortcomings in all directions.

There are no less than eighty or one hundred directors who imitate Wong Kar-wai, but the results are particularly tragic, with almost no survivors. Whether Mackie and Eric's directing ability can bear such a scene is really worrying.

Moreover.

Anson knows Mackie's intention. He understands and can also try such a performance, "I can, but the point is…"

What about Rachel?

But I never expected Rachel to interrupt Anson, as if she had anticipated Anson's worries in advance, and preemptively said the moment she noticed Anson's gaze, "I have no problem."

After speaking, Rachel swallowed a mouthful of saliva, glanced at Anson quickly but immediately avoided it. It can be seen that she is nervous and uneasy; but she still straightens her back, trying to show confidence—

She is ready.