How can a director be a gigolo?

Chapter 25 Letting Go of One's Inner Self

Editing is a very troublesome and tedious task.

First, you need to go through all the footage, select the usable parts according to the scenes recorded by the script supervisor, and piece them together to form a rough cut.

Even after a rough cut, a movie might still be more than ten hours long.

The next step involves repeated fine-tuning, which eventually results in a finished film that takes less than two hours to make.

Wang Xiaohao had seen the original footage from his previous life, and he personally filmed all the materials.

So, if the director gives instructions, it actually saves the editor a lot of work.

Otherwise, the editor would have to put in a lot of effort to memorize all the footage.

With Wang Xiaohao's guidance, one would know which materials could be omitted.

The main issue is that Wang Xiaohao didn't actually follow the script during filming!

As mentioned earlier, at the beginning of filming, Wang Xiaohao was torn between shooting the original version or his own modified version.

Later, Wang Xiaohao finally made up his mind to film according to his own modified version.

This resulted in a lot of discarded materials.

Without this part of the messy, useless material, the total amount of material could be reduced by at least several hours!

Cheng Dawei shook his head but remained silent.

This happens to him all the time!

Almost every director has a moment when inspiration strikes while filming, resulting in the creation of content that wasn't in the script!

Art is often a living, breathing thing. If you try to fix it in a rigid way and follow a script exactly, it will inevitably lose its spirit.

However, most directors struggle to strike a balance between creative expression and adhering to a planned filming schedule, often letting their creativity run wild and causing them to lose control of the plot. Consequently, many of these projects end up failing miserably.

Not everyone is like Boss Jiang or Wong Kar-wai!

They can follow their instincts and revise the script as they film. In the end, they create artistic masterpieces and win major awards.

Ordinary directors don't have this kind of ability!

More and more changes were made, and the scale of the productions became increasingly inflated.

Ultimately, they lost control of the plot and didn't even know what they were trying to film!

The more inexperienced the director, the more likely they are to make this mistake.

I tried to express too much, and as a result, I crammed too much information into my writing, and ended up expressing nothing at all!

Fortunately, although Wang Xiaohao revised the original script, he didn't change it much.

Furthermore, it did not deviate from the main storyline!

That's not a big problem!

It won't cause the plot to get out of control.

It's simply a matter of discarding some of the materials.

After spending several days sorting out all the materials, the basic framework of the story was basically complete.

Next comes the fine-tuning!

When it came to the detailed editing, even someone like Wang Xiaohao who had seen the original footage was no match for him.

The arrangements for scene transitions, plot connections, and so on can only be handled by professional editors.

It has to be said that veteran editors like Cheng Dawei are not cut out for innovation or new styles.

But if you ask him to edit this kind of feature film, he's absolutely a perfect fit for the job!

These old guys from the old film studios are actually best at this style.

In the earliest days, the most important thing in making movies was telling stories and promoting them.

In addition, film was precious at that time, so who had the right to waste film?

You could be accused of wasting national resources in no time.

Older directors, when making films, would only give you one unit of film, and at most three units would be considered a great blessing.

In other words, any scene can only be filmed a maximum of three times.

If you take too many photos, you'll run out of film!

In extreme cases, it might even be possible to film only twice!

Back then, directors wouldn't dare to let loose.

They filmed everything strictly according to the script!

So it was the same in the past; all the directors from before the Five Dynasties were masters of storytelling.

The movies they make all have very strong storylines... they follow the script exactly when filming!

This is also why writers, playwrights, and screenwriters held a high status back then.

The script, the script, the foundation of a play!

The director must film according to the script!

By the fifth generation of directors, they had learned from the New Wave movement and placed greater emphasis on the director's self-creation and expression. Several great directors emerged and won major awards.

These renowned directors strictly adhere to tradition and follow the script in the early stages, adding only their own filming style at most.

Once they achieve success and fame, they all start to let themselves go!

What?

According to your script?

Just kidding, if I followed the script exactly, how would I demonstrate my skill?

Was the success of the film due to my directing, or to the script and the writer?

Then the director started filming off-script, and the screenwriter's status began to decline sharply.

Then suddenly, the audience realized that those big directors had lost their storytelling abilities...

Cheng Dawei came from that era!

His skill level wasn't outstanding, and he lacked his own style. He didn't follow in the footsteps of those big directors, cinematographers, and editors to achieve fame and win major awards.

However, by staying obediently within the system, they have inherited the original tradition.

His skills and experience in editing traditional feature films, including scene transitions and story connections, are truly masterful.

At first, Wang Xiaohao said he was learning from Cheng Dawei, but that was just polite talk! But later he really broadened his horizons and learned a lot.

Wang Xiaohao actually has to point out his disdain for "Charlotte" on this point. Is that movie any good?

Of course!

But that's because the play was good, not because the film was good.

It's basically like bringing a stage play to the big screen; there's not a single cinematic adaptation.

The transitions between scenes are extremely abrupt; every scene transition is a sudden blackout followed by a camera spin.

Furthermore, there is no transition between the character's personality changes in each scene; they are abruptly switched.

For example, how did Xia Luo become arrogant and conceited, how did Qiu Ya become a scheming woman, and how did Xia Luo's mother become the way she was later?

Not a single explanation...

These flaws were completely covered up with jokes!

A play is performed scene by scene on stage; it doesn't need to explain these things.

But movies have a linear narrative, so they have to explain these things.

Even with the rise of non-linear narratives, it merely disrupts the traditional timeline; the narrative itself remains linear.

What should a true non-linear narrative look like?

They scrambled all the shots and pieced them together haphazardly.

It's like tearing a piece of paper into pieces and then haphazardly putting the pieces together.

Of course, as Mahua FunAge's first film, "Charlotte" emerged out of nowhere in an environment teeming with terrible domestic films at the time. Its various flaws could be said to outweigh its merits!

However, the quality of Mahua FunAge films did not improve at all afterward!

They basically inherited all of Charlotte's flaws, but failed to develop her strengths in many ways, resulting in some terrible movies.

That was a truly devastating play!

Of course, things from Mahua FunAge movies are actually not easy to adapt...