ucLa's film school sits on the northeast edge of the campus, with two small three-story yellow buildings that don't match the weight it represents.

The Digital and Special Effects Lab is on the second floor of the building on the left, and the head of the lab, Thomas Moore, is a middle-aged man with a rather elegant temperament. He saw Zhang Ran, and his face was full of smiles: "Robin, our hero, welcome to you." ”

"Hello, Mr. Moore!" Zhang Ran smiled and shook the other party's hand.

"It was a great day, but unfortunately I couldn't be there. Did you come to the lab for something?" asked Thomas Moore with a smile.

"yes, I was going to make a movie recently, and there were a couple of special effects shots in it. The cost of the film was only more than 100,000 US dollars, and I couldn't afford to hire a special effects company, so I had to do it myself, so I wanted some material for special effects. Zhang Ran explained.

"No problem. ”

ucLa Film School pays great attention to the nurturing of students. Even the director of the film school, Terry Schwartz, goes to the Sundance and Terry Road film festivals every year, and even signs cooperation agreements with the film festivals to pave the way for students' works to meet more audiences. Even for a student like Lin Yibin who has graduated for a few years, the school will make every effort to recommend the film festival. So, providing a little bit of material isn't a big deal at all.

Thomas Moore asked, "Just don't know what materials you need?"

"The footage for the lightning effect, the footage for the green screen effect for the crash, and the footage for the car landing. Zhang Ran briefly talked about it, then turned on the computer, showed Thomas Moore the storyboard of the three special effects shots he had conceived, and elaborated on his design.

"It's a great design, especially with the cool footage of this flying car!" laughs Thomas Moore.

"Thank you. ”

"I know what you want, it's very simple, I'll copy it to you. Thomas Moore turned on his computer and began to look for the corresponding material.

In the afternoon, Zhang Ran drove to the outskirts of Los Angeles to meet his acting teacher, Mary Hill. Although he had only been in class for a month, Zhang Ran had encountered a lot of problems, and he came to ask his teacher for advice.

Fresh air, old-fashioned buildings, a few old people walking on the grassy path, a few children running by with laughter, the environment is quite good.

Zhang Ran came to the door of Mary Hill's house, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell.

The door opened, and an old man of more than sixty years appeared in front of him, it was Mary Hill's husband Schmitz. He is a stage actor, and his gray hair has fallen out a lot, making him look sparse. But the whole person is very spiritual, a pair of eyes are very sharp, and they can see people's hearts.

"Robin, long time no see, come in!" Schmitz greeted Zhang Ran with a smile.

Walking into the living room, Zhang Ran saw Mary Hill sitting on the sofa, wearing reading glasses and a long white shirt, watching the old movie "Comet Beauty".

Mary Hill has a large scar on the left side of her face, resulting in a fierce face. In fact, she was born in a family of acting, she was very beautiful when she was young, and her acting skills were also very good, she was nominated for an Emmy Award, and she had the opportunity to become a big star. But at the age of 25, she was in a serious car accident that left a visible scar on her face, and since then she has lost the opportunity to show her face in front of the camera, and she can't even play the starring role in a stage play.

Although Mary Hill looks fierce, she is actually a very gentle person, at least Zhang Ran thinks so.

Zhang Ran looked at the old lady and thought that he hadn't seen him for more than half a year, and the teacher was older. He walked over and shouted, "Professor!"

Seeing Zhang Ran, the old lady smiled and said kindly: "Robin, you are finally here, come and sit!"

Zhang Ran walked to the old lady and sat down, took out the small gift he had prepared and gave it to the old lady and Walter, and then chatted with the old lady.

When talking about the students in his class, Zhang Ran saw that the old lady seemed very interested, so he said: "There are 30 students in our class, 15 boys, and 15 girls!

The old lady nodded, "I was just trying to see what little Robin's students were like!"

Zhang Ran saved a lot of photos of students' military training and Mid-Autumn Festival party in his computer, so he turned on the computer and clicked on the photos to show the old lady. While watching, he introduced: "This boy's name is Cao Bingkun, the male class president of our class, a very serious student, who has been an extras for a year, and has also worked as a cook......;

After Zhang Ran finished his introduction, the old lady looked at him and smiled: "When I see these students, I think of what you were like at the beginning." Time flies, little Robin is a teacher now!"

Hearing the teacher say this, Zhang Ran scratched the back of his head like a child, and smiled embarrassedly: "Yes, but they are not as smart as me, and it is not easy to see students as smart as me!"

"You're the most gifted student I've ever met, alas, alas!" said the old lady with a deep sigh. She knew why Zhang Ran changed careers to become a director, but she didn't dissuade her, she just felt a pity.

Zhang Ran knew that the old lady was very sad to change to director, so he hurriedly changed the topic: "I came to you this time because I wanted to ask you some questions." ”

The old lady asked, "What's the problem?"

Zhang Ran said: "That's the case, a few days ago, when I was flipping through the materials, I accidentally saw a passage from Mr. So Zhi, a great Chinese actor, which made me doubt my teaching plan. He said that learning acting is not learning playwriting, I heard that students in the acting department do sketches, and more time is spent on making up sketches, how there are contradictions, there are **, the theme is good, and the two of them are speechless. The actual performance of the sketch only takes up one class hour per week. How this situation is true, is learning screenwriting. I think what he said is very reasonable, the students in our class will start to arrange sketches in the second half of the semester, I want to hear your opinion!"

The old lady did not answer: "What do you think of yourself?"

"I have looked through the sketch shows of all grades accumulated in our school for many years, and found that there are not many excellent sketches, and most of them are very bad! I think it will not be good for students to rehearse these sketches that are not very reasonable, the characters are not clear, the lines are not exciting, and even the logic is flawed. I have studied screenwriting, and I know that it is very important to write sketches, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it is okay to learn to do this, but it is a waste of time to train actors to do so. ”

"Then what is your opinion, give up the sketch and go directly to the fragment teaching?"

"I think we should teach the finished product, take the classics directly and rehearse them for the students, and even if we make a sketch, we should adapt them on the basis of mature novels that are recognized by the art world. With excellent novels as the foundation and adding students' self-creation, this should be better than the students' own sketches. ”

The old lady smiled and said: "Your idea is feasible, it is okay to train actors with classic works, the training of the Brecht system often does not arrange sketches, in addition to the basic skills training, they rehearse Shakespeare's classics at the beginning, and they can still train particularly good actors." However, even the actors of the Brecht system do not reject the experience, but they keep a distance from the characters when they perform. The sketch cannot be completely lost, and the student should still rehearse the sketch, at least the observation of life sketches and improvisational sketches cannot be lost, otherwise the students will lack sufficient life experience. ”

"I see!"

The old lady asked again: "How do you control the difficulty of the classic works?"

"That's what I think, let them choose modern Chinese film and television literature first. Zhang Ran originally wanted to give an example to the old lady, but when he thought about it, he said that the old lady Wang Shuo didn't know who it was, so he gave up, "This kind of work is a matter of our time, students have seen and heard it more or less, and it is easy to understand the characters." Then I'm going to let the actors play modern and ancient Chinese works, and finally I'm going to let them play foreign classics, like "Jane Eyre", "Carmen" and so on, these works are the furthest away from them, what do you think?"

The old lady looked at Zhang Ran, like a mother seeing her child come out, and said with relief: "Very good idea, Robin is now a great teacher!"

Zhang Ran scratched his head meaninglessly: "I'm just dreaming, I haven't tried it yet!"

The old lady looked at Zhang Ran and said with a smile: "I have a suggestion, since you are now a director and a teacher, then when the students enter the stage of clip teaching, you can let them rehearse your works in your crew! You are very familiar with your script, and it is easier to guide them, and at the same time, they can observe how mature actors perform, and you can also increase their experience!"

Zhang Ran nodded, the biggest problem for students is the lack of experience, the experience from childhood to adulthood is relatively simple, and the crew is a small society, and all kinds of people and things can be encountered in the crew, which can enrich the students' life experience: "This idea is really good, I will take them to the crew when it comes to the fragment teaching stage!"

"Wait a minute, I have some information for you!" the old lady smiled and stood up and walked into the room.

A few minutes later, the old lady came out with a pile of thick materials and put them in front of Zhang Ran: "This is the information I have compiled about the integration of Stani and Grotowski for more than ten years, and I have sent them to you, I hope it will be helpful to your teaching!"

Zhang Ran was stunned, and then couldn't help shaking his hand: "Then how can I do it, these are your hard work, how can I take them?"

The old lady sighed and said: "I will retire in two years, and my health is getting worse and worse, and I really can't bear it! ”

Zhang Ran knew that the old lady was sick, and teaching students to perform was very energy-consuming, and it was actually a good thing not to teach: "Teacher, I will work hard." If one day I succeed, I'll name it after you, and it's called the Mary Hill Method. ”

The old lady let out a light laugh: "You don't need to do this, your results should be in your name, but I really hope to live to see the day when the two factions merge, this is my greatest wish!"

Zhang Ran promised: "It will be, it will be!"

(Thanks to "Fengyun Fuchen, Yao'er's Cute Fruit, Ning Ge /- Reward", ask for collection, ask for recommendation!)