"No, I'm not going to use a toplight." Lance looked out the car window at the bustling streets, the streets of Los Angeles looked no different, as if they were just an ordinary big city, but lacking some character, without the cold of Chicago, without the humidity of New York, and without the petty bourgeoisie of San Francisco. "There aren't too many high-rise buildings here, and the whole atmosphere is very laid-back and casual, and you can feel the warm sunshine all year round, as if the whole world is surrounded by golden light, which is the opposite of the tone of the movie."

Hayden looked out the window at the receding palm trees and chuckled, "You can go to New York to shoot if you need to, although things will get troublesome." ”

In the United States, different states have different policies, for example, because of different taxes and fees, some crews go to Pennsylvania to shoot in order to save money, or even to Canada. There are also many crews who choose to shoot in New York, but it is not suitable for the crew of "borrowing a knife to kill", but it is easy to increase the cost, and second, it is more troublesome to block the streets of New York, and the requirements for the filming time are very strict - the filming time of "borrowing a knife to kill" is already very tight, and if it is filmed in New York, the time arrangement will pose a severe challenge.

Of course, the most important thing is that Lance doesn't see the urban differences between New York and Los Angeles as a fundamental problem.

"No, that's not what I meant." Lance thought for a moment and reorganized his words, "Remember the kind of effect I wanted you to shoot with a panorama when you were shooting 'City of God'?" It's that the whole shot seems to be boundless, and I deeply feel the size of the world, but the characters are fleeing in all directions in the camera, as if no matter how much they collide, they can't find an exit. ”

Hayden turned his head and looked intently at Lance, "You want to replicate this effect?" He was a little surprised, he thought that there was a difference between the shooting techniques of "City of God" and "Killing with a Knife".

"No, I'm trying to use the wide streets of Los Angeles to create a noisy and lively scene, but the characters are confined to a very small space. It's like...... Well. Just like this society, we all know that the world is big, but the place given to us in society is very limited, and the pressure of life compresses our living space little by little. ”

Lance turned to look at Hayden. Finding that Hayden was still at a loss, he couldn't help but stop, thought about it seriously, and reorganized the language, "Let's put it this way." When I was in high school. We used to think we had the whole world, as if we could easily change the world......"

"It's like a quarterback on a football team." Hayden joined the discussion.

"yes, that's it." Lance nodded, "But after entering the university, we gradually felt the pressure, the world is indeed very big, we can see more and more people, and we can see more and more possibilities, but at the same time, we also gradually feel the difficulty of finding a place in society." Hayden followed Lance's words into deep thought, "And then we got to work." At the beginning of the work, we still had dreams and ambitions, but as time progressed, we gradually realized that this society is not so simple, our world began to be compressed little by little, and finally gradually trapped in an office cubicle, burdened with mortgages, card debts and family debts, and became a non-active member of the whole society. ”

Hayden's brow tightened into a knot. "I know what you mean, so you're saying that the streets of Los Angeles are the whole world, and we can even use some overhead perspectives to show the majesty of the city. hinting at the breadth of society...... "Thinking of this, Hayden nodded himself, so that shooting in Los Angeles was indeed the right choice, and not so many high-rise buildings would be conducive to showing this background," but taxis driving on the street. But it's like a cramped workspace, binding Max's life to its place. ”

"It's not just Max, it's everyone in the whole story." Lance corrected Hayden's words.

Hayden's brow not only did not loosen, but tightened, "So, you're saying that we need to create a sense of restraint and oppression in this spacious space, whether it's indoors or outdoors." After receiving Lance's affirmation, Hayden groaned meaningfully, he had begun to understand Lance's intentions - which complemented the tone of the "kill by knife" script. "In this way, we need to use the camera switching, the camera position, and the change of lighting to achieve this. Oh! So, you just want to ...... today" Hayden suddenly realized, no wonder Lance brought up the lights as soon as he came up just now.

After being silent for about two seconds, Hayden couldn't help it after all, and cursed directly, "Hell God." Then he glared at Lance fiercely, "You're trying to drive me crazy." ”

Lance ignored Hayden's complaints, continued to drive quietly and peacefully, and after a while, said lightly, "So, do you have a plan?" ”

Hayden raised his middle finger at Lance, but finally put it down indignantly, and turned his head to look out the window in frustration, "You know, you're trying to break the genre convention, it's not just an innovation, it's an attempt to challenge Hollywood's authority." ”

Lance shrugged, "Otherwise, why do you think I'm willing to sacrifice a lot of interests just for the final editing rights." ”

The Hollywood film industry has fully matured, and every fifteen to twenty years, the visual style, editing logic and scene scheduling of commercial genre films will have a earth-shaking change, from the classic Hollywood-style continuous editing and complex scene scheduling, to the montage style influenced by the New Wave in the 60s, to the regular and calm front and back shots in the 70s and 80s, and then to the multi-camera, multi-angle and high-frequency camera switching in the 90s that was strongly influenced by the Hong Kong/Hong Kong film style.

Every qualitative change in style will bring about an all-round impact on genre films, even including the actors' performances and the perspective of script writing, and it is also a comprehensive innovation in the audience's perception.

For example, the front and back shots emphasize the confrontation and switching between the actors' opponents, and the most common front and back shots are "over the shoulder", crossing the shoulders of the person with their backs to the camera to shoot the front of the speaking opponent, so the dialogue of the script is very important, and the actor's performance needs to be delicate and accurate, but also needs a sense of interaction.

However, in the high-frequency camera switching, the emphasis is on the creation of the overall atmosphere, which tests the director's ability to control the main line and multiple branch lines at the same time, the script will reduce the dialogue and emphasize the sense of rhythm when writing, and the actors' performances also need more physical assistance, and the impact of expressions will be weakened.

The current genre film style is still a continuation of the system of the 90s, with panorama and close-up, fast and slow motion, fast switching between the chaser and the chased, blended into the large-scale scene scheduling, bringing out the tension and excitement of the film. Michael Mann's original "Kill with a Knife" also uses this style.

However, in Michael Mann's lens, he deliberately slows down the pace of the whole film, creating a sense of brilliant flow with a slow shot, which in turn creates an invisible tension. But on the whole, he still hasn't gotten rid of the mainstream style of genre films, including the setting of the camera, the switching of lenses, the use of lighting, and so on.

The direction that Lance is trying to do now is trying to break the indispensable association with "reality" in genre films, and use unique light shaping, far-reaching picture texture, and whimsical lens combinations to cut off the audience's connection with reality, from the core idea to the external form, so that the audience can break away from the framework of "this is a specific story that takes place in Los Angeles", and integrate into the pan-emotionalization of "this is a general form of society", and excavate the huge theme core of the script.

It's not just bold, it's even crazy.

In fact, Lance tried in "City of God", but due to the particularity of the story's theme, Lance had to retain the characteristics of Rio de Janeiro and show the connection between the slums and the social roots, so Lance did not really break the shackles. This time, the background of the story of "Killing with a Knife" is not directly related to Los Angeles, and the arrangement in a big city like Los Angeles is more to create a sense of the grandeur of the world, and Lance hopes to make a breakthrough with his head held high.

Hayden let out a long breath and could faintly feel the boiling in his blood, the more difficult it was, the greater the challenge. Hayden left the TV series crew and chose to become Lance's partner, not only because of their childhood friendship, but also because Hayden knew that Lance was not a conservative person, he would always constantly push his limits, and countless whimsical ideas were like a big gamble, either win one qiē or nothing.

Now, after the "City of God," the challenge is upon him again, and Hayden can't help but get excited, even if he doesn't have a clue at all. This is the career he wants.

"......Huh," Hayden took a deep breath, "sue me more, sue me more." So, what was your vision for the character? With no clue, Hayden needed to get to the bottom of Lance's idea and look forward to a spark.

Lance pondered for a while, what he needed to do was to strip away the footage of the original movie in his mind, get rid of Michael Mann's premise for the movie, and then reconstruct the picture according to his own conception and structure of the movie, starting with the characters......

So, a red taxi slowly appeared in Lance's mind, passing under a string of creamy lights, the bright lights were not ostentatious, but confined to a circle, which could barely support the weight of the night, so that the whole night slowly sank, and only a little light chain of lights flowed in the middle of the night, like a babbling stream. The taxi was moving silently in the night, like a floating island. (To be continued.) )

PS: Today's second update, I implore all book friends to support genuine subscriptions, thank you!