From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

"Cut!"

Filming, interrupted again.

"Sorry, Director, let's do it again."

It wasn't the director who messed up, but the actress, or rather, Kate Winslet.

In the beginning, when the filming went wrong, the actors would apologize to the crew, after all, every mistake meant the entire crew had to start over, affecting a wide range of people.

But once, twice, three, four, five times, after experiencing the fourteenth NG, apologies had lost their meaning. Rather than insincerely apologizing and then making mistakes again, it was better to devote oneself wholeheartedly to filming, to end this torment as soon as possible, and to improve filming efficiency, which was more effective than any apology.

What's more, look at the time, it's eleven o'clock at night, the second hand and minute hand are moving towards midnight —

Generally speaking, Hollywood, like ordinary office workers, has a nine-to-five, eight-hour workday, five days a week. This is the official regulation of the union.

Similarly, like ordinary office workers, regulations are regulations, and overtime beyond working hours is repeatedly prohibited but never stopped, and there are countless situations of working overtime.

However, temporarily putting aside overtime, the biggest difference between Hollywood and normal office workers is that the interval of working hours can be adjusted at any time.

Nine-to-five can be adjusted to evening hours, and if Friday falls on a holiday, it can also be adjusted to weekend filming. This is very flexible.

Right now, that's the case.

The entire crew patiently waited for darkness, preparing to use the natural environment of the night to complete filming, to avoid increasing post-production workload as much as possible, and to present a realistic environmental effect.

Originally, in the film industry, there was a professional term, "day for night," which means filming night scenes during the day; by analogy, filming winter scenes in summer, filming outdoor scenes in the studio, this is a side view of the film's dream-making.

But "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" tries to avoid such extra workload as much as possible, trying to present the real effect of the environment, which can not only help the actors enter the situation, but also bring a more realistic feeling to the audience.

So, now that it's close to midnight, these owls who reverse day and night are starting to feel tired, but the filming progress is still not satisfactory.

To be honest, the entire crew is huddled in a small apartment, with plenty of heating, steaming with heat. When fatigue and warmth meet at midnight in the severe winter, drowsiness naturally begins to arise, and eyelids begin to fight uncontrollably. One or two secretly pinch their thighs, trying to regain some clarity.

Thus.

The atmosphere on the set became lazy and lax. The actors and director could feel the invisible pressure quietly falling on their shoulders.

Kate, not hiding her annoyance, took a deep breath, turned around and went back to the kitchen, waiting for the director's signal.

"Action!"

Clementine flashed a smile, carrying two glasses of alcohol from the kitchen into the hall, "Two Blue Ruin."

She handed one glass to Joel, and kept the other for herself. Clementine stood in front of Joel, moved a little closer, and lowered her voice to whisper.

"Bottoms up, young man."

Clementine followed up without stopping, taking advantage of the situation to straddle Joel's lap, her free left hand around Joel's neck, staring deeply.

Intimate, ambiguous, with a bit of aggressiveness.

Seeing that the next second, something seemed about to happen —

Joel raised his eyes to look at Clementine, "Wrong?"

Clementine let out a long breath, and also shook her head, "Wrong."

The beautiful atmosphere suddenly vanished, and both of them broke away from their roles. Anson and Kate both turned to look at Michelle Gondry behind the camera.

"I think we need to do it again."

"This time the feeling is still not right."

Although the words were different, Anson and Kate both agreed, looking at Michelle behind the camera through the lens.

The director looked at the two actors, took a deep breath, helplessly exhaled lightly, rubbed his cheeks vigorously, as if he was about to tear off his face to reveal his true colors, and then looked at the two actors with a struggling expression.

"Can we... can't we try again?"

Anson shrugged lightly, "Yes, of course."

Kate also nodded, "No problem."

Anson, "But we can feel that something is wrong, you can also feel that something is wrong, the feeling of the whole scene is wrong, it's meaningless to continue to insist."

Kate took a deep breath, "I know everyone is tired, one or two can't even open their eyes. The best way now is for us to complete the filming of this scene as soon as possible, so that everyone can go back to rest as soon as possible."

Anson shook his head, "No, the best way now is to open the window and let some cold air in, otherwise the whole room will be filled with carbon dioxide."

Kate hesitated, she originally wanted to say that this kind of temperature was to create ambiguity, but after thinking about it carefully, Anson was right, so she closed her mouth.

At this time, looking at Michelle, who had a look of utter despair, finally gave up struggling, "Cut."

Anson could feel Michelle's frustration, not just the director, but also the on-site staff, one or two were also facing frustration, and he and Kate were no exception.

But, acting is like this, if the frequency and rhythm are wrong, they are wrong, and there is no way to fix it.

If they were willing to muddle through, then there would be no problem, things wouldn't be difficult, just cope with it; but the point is that Michelle is unwilling, and Kate and Anson are also unwilling —

Although Charlie Kaufman's script has an lingering and powerful force, they still hope to give the film more charm.

Originally, they thought that their analysis of the script and characters was in place, and the subsequent filming would be smooth and rapid; but obviously, acting is not like this, and film shooting is also not the same.

Even under the correct framework and context, there are still different challenges every day, and every scene may face different situations.

Kate took a deep breath, looked at Anson, re-examined this scene, trying to adjust some details, "I'll put my left hand on your chest first, if I use my palm to feel the muscle, will you be uncomfortable?"

"No, no."

Kate continued, "Then I'll use my right shoulder to touch your left shoulder, trying to get into your arms. Here, do we need to exchange glances?"

Anson, "Naturally. I think, here, Clementine's rhythm and Joel's rhythm are different, so there's no need to deliberately arrange it. Using the misalignment and awkwardness of the performance can present a better result."

Kate nodded, "Okay. I'll try to be more aggressive."

Then.

Kate looked at Michelle, "Director, let's do it again."