Hollywood filmmaking is like an assembly line, rigorous and lacking in artistry.

Every high-budget film is a difficult task, requiring multi-faceted scrutiny, and there is no room for error.

As for the artistic vibe, what is that?

Most of Hollywood's film companies and distribution companies don't know what artistic atmosphere is.

So is Ryan, and so is Helen.

Generally speaking, the two most important positions in Hollywood film shooting: producer and director.

"Blair the Witch" has a pitiful low investment, so naturally there will be no digital producers, directors, and assistant directors, so the producers and directors are all held by Ryan himself, and by the way, a screenwriter position will be added.

Helen acted as the casting director and location manager, while Heidi acted as her assistant, plus a part-time handyman for logistics.

It can be said that the entire crew, except for some necessary positions, is almost all concurrently held by employees of Star Brokerage.

There is no way to do this, firstly, it can be kept secret, and secondly, the entire crew only has a budget of $40,000, and it is necessary to save expenses.

In addition to daily expenses, the combined salaries of the three protagonists are less than $3,000, and the most expensive part of the entire crew is a senior makeup artist, with a weekly salary of $400, and it is for Helen's face.

By the way, this makeup artist is also the only official employee of the crew.

The rest of the photographers, gaffers, field staff, prop masters, etc., none of them.

Ryan had already calculated that the field and prop masters could let Helen and Heidi serve as concurrently, and the photographer and gaffer would be concurrently served by himself, anyway, how to save money.

In the previous life, "Blair the Witch" was filmed like this.

At the same time, Helen contacted a small rental and sales equipment company, and at a low price, rented audio tapes, Hi-8 cameras, 16mm cameras, etc., a few rudimentary pieces of shooting equipment.

In just a few days, the crew was prepared and ushered in the start of "Blair the Witch".

On March 1, 1994, Ryan came to the United States to start shooting a film for the first time in his life.

According to the customs of some Hong Kong directors in the previous life, the first thing to do when the film is started is to turn on the camera and worship God.

Fortunately, there was no kick-off ceremony in Hollywood, and the crew members together were less than ten people, and they quietly started filming in a small town around New York.

There were no press conferences, no fans, no cheers, everything seemed very quiet.

To be honest, such a crew, compared to some independent films, is much more rudimentary, and it looks ridiculous.

"Well, I'll admit it's worse than I thought. ”

"Wrong, it should be said that it is terrible, I have never seen such a bad crew. ”

"It's even worse than the script. ”

"Okay, you two be quiet, you're the main actors anyway. ”

"Hell starring, I don't even suspect that the film will not even have a chance to be screened. ”

"It's good to be able to distribute videotapes, and I'll definitely buy a few boxes and give them away. ”

The three leading actors in the film whispered a lot of talking.

With a negligible investment, a humble crew, a novice director, and three young actors with no acting skills, it looks like a garbage film that is about to be born.

Jessica Chastain is a little discouraged in the scene in front of her, and it is more of a farce than a crew.

But the three of them are not actors who are really scripture, or even small actors, they all act as some background cloths and dead bodies on weekdays, and with Helen's agent present, no one dares to say anything.

Otherwise, Ryan immediately replaced.

However, less than a minute after turning on the camera, Ryan ran into some minor trouble, and he directly put down the camera in his hand and walked in front of the three leading actors.

"I repeat, you're a university film student now, not an actor, not on set. ”

"Don't fiddle with your poor acting skills in front of me, remember that I want to be natural, a college film student who plays in his true colors. ”

The three leading actors immediately looked at each other, they don't need acting skills?

Hell, the film shot like this is sure you can watch it!

The most difficult and easiest part of "Blair the Witch" is that the three leading actors in the film do not need even a little acting skills, only in this way can they appear more real.

Let the media and fans feel that this is a real event, not a filmed film.

So Ryan doesn't need them to put on pathetic acting skills in front of the camera.

The success of "Blair the Witch" in the previous life, in addition to the viral publicity, is also the true colors of the three leading actors in the film.

Ahem, or no acting skills at all.

Resuming the shooting, it was barely a lot better than before, but Ryan stopped again.

"Helen, the props I need must be real, not fake, if you are not prepared, you can ask Heidi to buy them immediately. ”

"It all has to look natural. ”

Ryan glanced at the props prepared by the crew, and frowned slightly.

Since I want the media and fans to believe that this is a real event.

Then on the props, there must be no falsehood, and don't underestimate the observation of the media and fans.

"It's my fault. ”

Helen was slightly stunned, then took the initiative to admit her mistake and said, "I'll let Heidi prepare the props again." ”

Helen spoke, and Heidi could only reluctantly re-prepare the props.

The next filming went very smoothly, and the three leading actors all entered the roles, or they performed without any acting skills.

Anyway, Ryan doesn't need them to act very well, as long as there are no logical flaws in their demeanor, so the filming went quickly.

The filming budget of the entire crew is only 40,000 US dollars, except for daily expenses, rental equipment, props, actors' salaries, etc., there is almost nothing left, and there is simply not enough money to polish each shot repeatedly.

What's more, the camera in his hand is simply indescribable, and the effect of the film shot with the portable camera can be imagined.

During the break, Helen came over with a bottle of drink and handed it to Ryan, "You can take a proper break, if the budget is not enough, I can lend you some or use it as an investment." ”

Ryan's shooting plan was so full that there was hardly any time to rest.

Maybe the crew won't complain too much, but Helen can't sit idly by.

"I'm just hoping to catch the schedule and try to get the film out before May. ”

Ryan was a little unimpressed, in his previous life, when he was shooting, he often rotated the axis, shooting non-stop 24 hours a day, similar to the shooting just now, it was already very easy.

"As soon as the summer season comes in April, not to mention how many resources the distribution company will give to this film, it is not a good choice to compete with those big productions at the same time. ”

"On the contrary, March and April are the off-season for the entire North American film market, and there are few big productions released, which is very beneficial to the distribution of films. ”

He saw this very clearly, rather than competing with a lot of big productions in May, it was better to dominate March and April.

Helen nodded, agreeing with him, "Okay, I'll talk to the others, but you also need to relax properly." ”

Ryan nodded, and agreed.

In fact, this is also a mistake made by his shooting experience in his previous life, the Hollywood crew, not the online movie crew in the previous life, there is an obvious difference between the two, the pace is faster, there is nothing, but you need to leave enough time to rest.

That is, this crew can't be smaller, he is a producer, part-time director, screenwriter, plus investor, and the only agent of the crew is Helen, otherwise, he would have to make some trouble.

Subsequently, Ryan changed some of his shooting plans to try to make it as easy as possible.

At the end of the day, the crew's shooting plan was less than one-third of the original set, which made Ryan somewhat helpless.

In this way, it will take about a week for the whole film to be filmed.

It was more than half as slow as he had planned for three days.

Don't think that three days is too fast, if you follow the shooting speed of the previous directors in Hong Kong City, such a film will be slow in three days, and some directors can finish filming in one or two days at most.