Chapter 543: Shoot first and talk later
"Elephant" is finished.
Everything happened so fast, it seemed like I had just entered the crew yesterday to prepare for shooting, and when I turned around, I heard the director announcing that all filming of the movie was over -
This feeling is correct.
In fact, the shooting cycle of "Elephant" was only five days; even if Anson and Gus' time for personal experience and school inspections were added in, the entire production cycle was less than ten days.
Quick victory.
Five days.
On the "Spider-Man" crew, it was simply unimaginable that there might be no time to set up a single scene, while "Elephant" was already finished.
Although I have known for a long time that independent films are concise and concise, and the entire working model is completely different, but after experiencing it personally, I still can't help but be amazed.
Without a doubt, this is Anson’s fastest shot so far.
Moreover, the film itself is special enough. Gus tried to record those ordinary daily lives. There seems to be no difference between filming work and real life. The short five days are almost the same as the previous campus life. The days of filming and the days without filming Very different.
Even when Gus announced the completion of filming, there was no sense of reality at all.
"It's over."
"It's all over, kids."
Gus announced with a speakerphone so the entire campus could hear.
The last scene and the last shot are still typical Gus——
Harris carries the camera and quietly cruises and sneaks through the school corridors, like a deep-water submarine, along the corridors, classrooms, and activity rooms. Move forward.
No close-ups. No close shots. There was no stopping.
Scroll silently throughout the space.
Of course, it is not a random space, but a space that has been massacred, with no survivors, and with corpses and blood everywhere.
There are no close-ups, that's because Gus doesn't intend to highlight any protagonist, and all students are treated equally.
Watching the whole process, this is a panoramic display, showing completely different pictures from the same calm perspective. You can feel the gap without using words.
Two-thirds of the entire movie was full of vitality, but at this time it fell into deathly silence. Everything came to an abrupt end without warning. Simply and rudely pressing the pause button, the image The theme couldn't be clearer -
The impact happens naturally.
However, Gus himself has not yet confirmed whether he plans to end the movie with this long shot.
From the perspective of echoes from beginning to end, such a scene ends the movie just right, and those criticisms and accusations can be expressed without words; but this is where Gus hesitates:
He really Should criticism and accusation be displayed so directly?
Does this seem superfluous? Or maybe everything is said too directly and it shows timidity, lest the audience cannot understand the message conveyed by the whole movie, so the ending needs to be emphasized again with a long shot?
Just like Gus's performance evaluation of Anson -
Correct, indeed correct, from any angle; but this returns to the traditional Hollywood narrative routine, even if it is not a genre It is not a film routine, but the unique routine of Sundance independent film makers. Is it going too far and destroying my original natural idea?
Perhaps, the movie should have a cleaner ending, without the director using camera language to repeat what has been said throughout the movie.
Gus needs to calm down and think.
But thinking is one thing, shooting is another.
They can shoot it now and wait for post-editing before deciding whether to use it; after all, after shooting, they can freely decide whether to use it, but if there is no raw material, it will be too late to reshoot by then.
So.
The entire crew was mobilized, and all the people who had participated in the filming of the movie in the past five days were mobilized to complete the most magnificent scene in the entire movie.
Students "fallen" in a pool of blood one by one according to the plot. The entire campus fell into silence, and the vitality was eaten away by the haze. The long shots from one shot to the end reveal the desolation of death and spread of desolation, which is more powerful than any language, soundtrack or performance.
But at the same time, the filming is not difficult at all, because the actors do not need to perform and are completely controlled by the director. This is the shot that shows the director's ability, which means that the actors can relax Get into shooting.
That was until Gus finished filming and announced that the movie was finished.
The students sat upright from the pool of blood, with different expressions -
Some were excited and confused, some were excited and some were disappointed, some were excited and some were reluctant.
No one is an exception, exchanging questions while looking at each other.
Obviously, from any point of view, shooting a movie should not be like this. It is so different from the imagined scene that the end of the shooting is still uncertain:
We, Did you actually shoot a movie?
This scene made Anson's smile rise slightly, and he couldn't help but turn his head to look at Gus——
Anson was a survivor. He left the school at Eric's reminder and escaped. In the end A scene naturally has nothing to do with him.
"Director, how about it, do you feel it now?"
Gus shook his head slightly, "No, still not sure."
About whether the last scene Gus was still a little hesitant until the last minute when it came time to shoot, and it was no secret among the crew about this.
Gus paused, turned to look at Anson, and a thought came to him, "What do you think?"
Anson did not hide his surprise, "Me? Director, are you sure?"
Gus laughed dumbly, "No, I'm not sure, but I still decided to listen."
The independent crew is small and sophisticated. The advantage is that it runs smoothly, is agile and light, but the disadvantage is that everything needs to rely on grid. Si, when Gus fell into a creative bottleneck, he had no one to discuss with and had to think on his own.
As Gus said, he was not sure that discussing it with Anson was the right choice. As an actor, Anson showed his outstanding ability in just five days of shooting; but film artistic creation is not just about acting. , director and actor are two completely different positions, Gus still does not trust Anson enough to start such a discourse——
However, he has nothing to lose, right?
Anson looked at Gus's smile, covered his chest and let out a cry, as if he was hurt; but then, Anson continued with the topic.
"I don't think this paragraph is necessary."
Gus is waiting for the next one.
However, no more.
Gus looked at Anson with astonishment on his face.
Anson spread his hands, "I'm just expressing an opinion, an intuition and an inspiration. This is my opinion."
It took a moment for Gus to understand, Anson This is revenge.
But, revenge?
Gus was stunned for a moment, and before he realized it, a smile had already crept onto his lips:
This should be the difference between Anson and River Phoenix.
I don’t see such confidence and publicity in Ruifan. Behind the fragility and sadness is a touch of tenacity and stubbornness, which is a good thing; what’s more, Anson’s publicity is not annoying at all. .
Then, Anson continued without pausing.
“Director, the name of this movie is ‘Elephant’, why is it called this?”
A special entry point brings different thinking.
(End of this chapter)